Hey friends,

Today’s sermon was super short because we had a parent presentation after service.

So today I want to talk to you about the call to listen.

Ooh, they're being rude outside.

The call to listen, right?

We have to listen.

So let me give you some scriptures on listening, right?

Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21 says, whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way to walk, walk in it.

Mark chapter 9, verse 2.

After six days, well this is the transfiguration in Mark 9 too, and then after Jesus transfigured and was glowing, the Father from heaven said, this is my son who I am well pleased, listen to him.

Matthew 11, 15, whoever has ears, let him hear.

Revelations 2, 7, anyone with ears to hear must listen

to the Spirit and understand what he's saying to the churches, right?

And one of the early church fathers, St.

John Cassian said, the ear of the heart must be left open to the Holy Spirit.

It is closed by the passions of sin, right?

And so sometimes sin blocks our ability to hear what God is saying to us.

Listening is the divine directive, spanning from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

And to truly follow Christ, we must actively listen to Him in all ways.

So we know there's a difference, right?

Everybody's, like, learning this stuff at work.

There's a difference between hearing and listening.

Hearing is passive, while listening requires intention and focus.

It enriches our relationships with each other and with Christ.

And we are called not just to hear, but actively listen.

I love in the book of Daniel he prayed five times and there was this pastor I used to listen to named Ed Morales and he said he had to pray a lot because he was always on the clock, always under pressure to interpret dreams, to come up with revelation, to lead astrologers and different people while living under oppression and living under like

under the thumb of the oppressor, trying to change his name, trying to change his language, trying to change his customs and tradition.

He had to maintain that connection with Yahweh Elohim in the midst of all the idolatry around him.

And so he treated prayer as not only charging his spirit but listening to the throne room of heaven.

And I want to challenge you, brothers and sisters,

To make prayer a lifestyle, to pick up the mantle of prayer, to actively listen to the Holy Spirit, to read God's Word with an understanding of the themes of the Bible, understanding of the eternal purpose, understanding of the Gospel, stuff I teach all the time, that you begin to filter your devotional reading with a framework that understands the themes of God's Word.

So we're called to listen to Christ, right?

And we know that when we listen to Christ, it begins to change our life.

We begin to be more like him.

When you read the red and pray for the power, you begin to hear God's voice.

You know, you ever had like a hero, right?

Say like in corporate America, there's a lot of young ladies who listen to Brene Brown.

Right, they listen to Brene Brown's podcast, they read Brene Brown's book, they watch Brene Brown's Netflix special, they watch YouTube's or her Give Me Talk at TEDx and Google, they watch so much Brene Brown, they listen to so much, they read so much Brene Brown that they could kind of like anticipate what she's going to say.

They can have almost an imaginary conversation with Brene herself and kind of lead themselves through that.

And how much better is it to have that kind of parasocial relationship with our Lord and Savior, right?

To read the red and pray for the power that you can begin to hear the voice behind the voice and be attuned to the Spirit of God.

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We have to listen to God's prophets, people, and wisdom of counsel, right?

The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 20, 20, believe in the Lord your God and you'll be able to stand firm.

Believe in his prophets and you will succeed.

Right?

I'm not saying I'm a prophet, but sometimes I speak prophetically and we have to learn to

When God's anointed me in a certain way to speak that you feel like is directly for you, you feel like I was in your business, I'm reading your text or whatever it is, you have to pay attention to that.

You have to pay attention to that.

and gatherings, let us be attentive to the anointing, to tune our ears to prophetic words and wisdom of godly counsel, to recognize God's voice in the midst of God's people.

This is why we do like discipleship talk.

This is why I practically beg you guys to stand up and give a word of warning, to give a word of encouragement, to stir up, cheer up, and build up the church.

I'm sorry, there's not all the pastors doing that.

I'm sorry, I say that humbly.

There's all the pastors like begging the people of God, the partners to stand up and cheer because I know the word that Margaret shares could change someone's life.

I know the word of encouragement that Stacey gives is to Anna, Chopper, Pete, Natalie, Malik, Avis.

You know, I know when Jimmy, when people get up and

Repent means to change the direction

You know, the Lord will be able to do great things in our life.

He'll help us stand firm.

But if you want hacks, if you want shortcuts, if you want workarounds, it often comes through your leadership and God's people.

His wisdom and counsel.

In a world filled with noise and distraction, we are called to be intentional listeners.

God is constantly speaking, but are we tuning in?

Right?

So let's pray.

Let's pray that we will have ears to listen to gospel and that we will begin to make time to journal.

This is your homework today, right?

Write down, you know, make 50 dots and write down times God spoke to you.

Maybe you were at a camp and you got a word of prophecy and you felt good about it.

You felt like that was God, that was a remote word.

Write it down.

Maybe God's called you to prosper.

Maybe God's called you to serve.

Like me, God told me, I'm going to call you to work hard.

And I'm like, all right.

And I don't complain.

Let's do this.

This is my calling.

Maybe I'll work hard so my kids don't have to.

I don't know.

Right?

But we have to listen to what God is telling us and to be able to, instead of asking for a new word, take care of the old word.

Instead of asking for new directions, fulfill your old directions.

I remember going for a raise and helping people go for a raise, and the first thing I do is say, take your job description.

And what do you do

Do you do your job description with excellence?

And what do you do outside?

Because so many people are asking for a raise for stuff they're supposed to do, right?

And so a lot of times we want a new word, but we're not taking care of the old word.

We want a new promise.

We're not walking in the old promise.

And we have to learn to endure the process.

We have to learn to listen.

You know, even like in your relationships, you have to learn to even listen to your body.

Brothers and sisters, you have to listen to your body.

Listen to your doctors.

Listen to your therapist.

We have to learn to listen.

Listen to our family.

Right?

Whether they're right or wrong, maybe you listen to them and you'll be like, oh, no, you interpret that the wrong way.

I must have communicated that the wrong way.

Oh, no, that's not what happened.

What happened was this.

And a lot of times we could only have those corrective, loving conversations when we learn not just to hear and wait for our turn to speak, but to listen.

And then at work,

and your relationships.

You learn to listen and you can learn to hear the unexpressed needs and wants of the people around you.

Yes, Malik, we have to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to get angry.

And then, Marlon, I think, what was the hotel?

This is a fancy hotel.

I think Four Seasons says that we kind of anticipate the needs, the unexpressed needs.

What happened?

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Who We Could Feed Baby is a low-wage co-worker.

Baby is a low-wage worker that we pass all the time in our coffee shop or our supermarket.

I pray that we be in tune with the arena of heaven to fight this battle here on this plane of existence.

Teach us to be in tune to the needs of our families, to their needs, to their wants, to their hopes, to their dreams, to their nightmares.

So we can be vessels of healing, hope, and help.

Teach us to hear, like the Prophet Daniel, to take five one-minute prayer breaks at work, so we can recenter ourselves to know who we are, whose we are, our identity, our inheritance, our gifts, our power, so we can meet the needs, our obligations, our duties, and the unexpressed needs, so we can walk in that favor.

Teach us, like Daniel, to let the cream of rice to the top.

Daniel sat under three kings and two kingdoms.

I pray for that spirit of excellence in everyone listening.

Father, I pray, Lord God, that you, Lord, will just teach us to hear your voice behind the sermons, to hear your voice behind your word, and to never get bored studying your word.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

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