Learn to Listen – 3

Learn to Listen – 3

Subject – Be Still and Know

By Rick Welborne

1 Samuel 3:9-10 (NIV)
⁹  So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
¹⁰  The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." 

Psalm 46:1-2&10-11 (NLT2)
¹ God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
²  So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.
¹⁰  “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
¹¹  The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. 

--I was speaking to someone in the church the other day and they were talking about what a mess our world is in and I said I totally agree.

--Maybe you are the exception but it seems that everyone’s world is in chaos in so many different ways. No one seems to be exempt from the tests and trials all around us. 

--In Psalms 46 the sons of Korah speak of times of trouble, earthquakes, and mountains crumbling into the sea. There are hurricanes (California. Fires in Hawaii. Floods in Vermont.

Romans 8:22-23 (NLT2)
²²  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
²³  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. 

--Interesting…we believers also groan even though we have Holy Spirit and we long to be out of all of this mess. Everyone is dealing with life and life happens every day. Hurts!

--Your pastors are not exempt from the pains of this life. We too are dealing with the effects of sin that started way back when Adam and Eve chose to be disobedient.

--Pastor Joseph has been in a battle for the last several months with his health and, thank God, he has had Holy Spirit in him and people praying for him. Life is tough sometimes.

--I promise I am not whining but life has been tough for us. I was just recovering from full knee replacement and thank God for His healing and help during that time.

--Then, as Summer started it seemed like chaos. The well quit! Replaced. An a/c unit quit. Replaced. The other a/c unit messed up and flooded our ceiling in the kitchen. Replaced.

--We had already scheduled for our house to be painted before all this started. It got painted. Praying to win Publisher’s Clearing House $10,000 a week for life. Nope! Not yet!

--Then, people we love very much pass away. Hearts are broken. Trying to navigate all the emotions. Be careful when you say to your pastor, “It seems you have lost your passion.”

--Maybe like you, we are walking through unbelievable trials and chaos and it is not necessarily about revival as much as it is survival. Pray for us and shhhh!

--Shortly after that I feel a pain in my shoulder. Go get a shot. Pretty bad and after a few days I hear a loud pop. Definitely more pain. Three days later my bicep is totally unattached. 

--As I am sitting here doing this sermon, I am waiting for my primary care doctor to give me a referral to see the orthopedic surgeon. It popped on Wed. This is the next Wed. Called twice a day to the doctor. Nope.

--And we believers also groan. During this time my mother-in-law is put under Hospice care. Relationships are strained. Did I mention life can hurt sometimes?

2 Corinthians 7:5 (NKJV) ⁵ For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.

--So what do we do when we have conflicts on the outside and fears on the inside. We say, “Speak, Lord, for Your Servant is Listening.” How do we do that?

Psalm 46:1-2&10-11 (NLT2)
¹ God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
²  So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.
¹⁰  “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
¹¹  The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. 

--I believe what I am about to share with you is not only good advice, it is the Word of God and we need to hear what He has to say when life hurts. God often speaks the loudest when we’re the quietest. 

French Philosopher Blaise Pascal – The sole cause of a man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room. 

--It’s obvious in the day we are living, with all the noise around us, that we have a hearing problem. We need to learn to get quiet and say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

--Let’s break down this statement from the sons of Korah and see if we can quiet the storms inside of us and the conflicts all around us.

1. Be Still.

--Have you ever tried to quiet a room full of church people? Trying to yell over them is almost impossible. It’s more effective to shush a crowd with a shhh. That what God does with a whisper.

--His whisper, His till small voice quiets us, calms us, and stills us. Our problem, my problem is that we have not disciplined ourselves to be still. To be quiet.

--Let me make this statement…chronic non-stop noise may be the greatest impediment to our spiritual growth. If you can’t be still and hear God, how can you grow?

--Psychologist Arlene Bronzaft did a study of elementary-age students in Manhattan. 

--She found that students who were on the side of the building where the elevated train tracks were eleven months behind their counterparts on the quiet side of the building.

--When our lives get loud, with noise filling every frequency, we lose our sense of being. We turn into human doings instead of human beings. 

--When we can’t “be” who God created us to be and we can’t “Be still” to hear His voice, we begin to lose our sense of balance and our lives spiral out of control.

--Let me go out on a limb…Your life is too loud. Your schedule is too busy. That’s how and why we forget that God is God. You know this, it takes so little to distract us.

English Poet John Donne – I neglect God and His angels, for the noise of a fly.

--The solution. Stillness. Be still. Or more specifically hearing His still small voice.

2. Be Still and Know.

Philippians 3:10 (NIV) ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

--Silence (being still) is anything but passive waiting. It is proactive listening. 

--Henri Nouwen believed that silence was an act of war against the competing voices inside of us. This war is not easily won because it is a daily battle. 

--The goal of being still and being silent is to allow God’s voice to get louder and louder every day until His voice is all you can hear.

--The more you hear God’s voice, the more you want to hear His voice. The more we hear Him the more we know the plans He has for us to give us a hope and a future.

--If you want to hear the heart of God, silence (stillness) is the key. If you want Holy Spirit to fill you, be still. This is where we discover what Paul was talking about.

Acts 17:28 (NKJV) ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being…

--How will we ever find that until we “Be still and know?” You say you want a deeper relationship with God, get still, get quiet, learn to listen, be still and know. 

3. Be Still, and Know that I am God!

--The psalmist did not have quiet chambers or extra rooms in their houses to be converted into “war rooms” so they retreated to God. 

--They referred to God as their refuge, their fortress, and their ever present help in time of trouble. The spoke of the shelter of the most High and the shadow of the Almighty.

--One of my favorites, God is described as our “Hiding place.” I don’t know about you but there are times I want to find a place away from the noise and the chaos. From all the voices.

Psalm 32:7-8 (NLT2)
⁷  For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. 
⁸  The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. 

--When we go to Him and we are still, we will know He is singing songs of deliverance (victory) around us all the time. Our problem is we don’t hear them.

--When are still, when we know He is God, and we begin to hear those songs of deliverance, there is nothing that He can’t set us free from.

--Stop hiding from God behind all the noise and learn He is your hiding place!

--A pastor told me early in my ministry some of the best advice ever. Rick, if you talk to God every day, you will never have trouble talking to the people you minister to.