Learn to Listen – 4

Learn to Listen – 4

Subject – Let There Be Light – His Voice

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." 

Genesis 1:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
²  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
³  Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 

--Think about the power of God’s voice. With just four words He speaks the universe into existence. God said, “Let there be light.” These are God’s first recorded words. His first recorded miracle.

--Again, try to wrap your mind around His words. Light is the source of vision; without it we can’t see anything. Light is the source of technology; we can talk to people halfway around the world.

--Light is the first link in the food chain; no photosynthesis equals no food. Light is the basis of health; the absence of light causes everything from Vitamin D deficiency to depression. 

--Light is the origin of energy; in Einstein’s equation E=MC2, energy (E) is defined as mass (M) times the speed of Light (C) squared. The speed of light is the constant.

--Light is the alpha and omega of everything, and that includes you. The very first revelation of God was as creator. So how did God create? With His voice!

--The universe is God’s way of saying, “Look what I can do with four words.” This same voice parted the Red Sea, made the sun stand still, healed a withered hand, made a tree barren.

--God’s voice can turn water into wine, can heal a blind man’s eyes, and it can resurrect a man after he has been dead for four days. 

--There is nothing God’s voice cannot say, cannot do. And, frankly, He can do it however He pleases. He can speak thru burning bushes, Balaam’s donkey, or Bethlehem’s star.

--His voice can write on palace walls or shut the mouths of lions. His voice can quench the flames of a fiery furnace or calm the storm on the Sea of Galilee. 

--His voice is all-powerful but that’s only half the story. His voice is also all-loving. We need to listen.

1. God’s Voice is Sweetness.

--I have heard people say that they are afraid to hear God’s voice because they are afraid of what He will say to them. That’s so sad because they don’t understand His heart.

Song of Songs 5:16 (NIV) ¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. 

--According to rabbinic tradition, when God spoke to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, they were so scared that they felt as though their souls left their bodies. That was God using His outside voice.

--According to their tradition, what did God do? He softened His words and their souls returned to them.

--According to the Word of God, when God wants us to repent or to return to Him, He uses the sweetness of His voice to woo us back. Listen carefully and you will hear His love.

Romans 2:4 (NIV)
⁴  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? 

--I know that many people have a hard time believing God is loving, and it’s often because someone represented Him in a way that misrepresented Him.

--When I was at SW University in Texas I walked in on a conversation with one of these wild-eyed crazy people. He had a captive audience and was teaching them deep theology about Holy Spirit.

--He said, “Don’t believe that Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He has knocked me across the room to get my attention.” I had only been a Christian for two years and knew better.

--Being shy like I am, I walked up and interrupted the conversation and told his audience he was crazy and to walk away before he said something else crazy. The crowd dispersed. 

--I believe God is speaking over His children the same thing He spoke over Jesus at His baptism:

Matthew 3:17 (NKJV)
¹⁷  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

--For you who are insecure; Pastor, God was pleased with Jesus because He was perfect and righteous. Yes, but we have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. He loves you!

--God has a voice you want to hear. When you are in love with someone, you can’t hear their sweet voice enough. You can spend hours talking to them. So sweet!

--When you are in love with someone, you love the sound of his or her voice. And you long to hear it often. A real relationship with God is no different.

2. God’s Voice is Singing Over You.

Leonard Bernstein – I believe the best translation of the Hebrew in Genesis 1 was not ‘and God said’ but ‘and God sang.’ Creation is God’s symphony and science provides plenty of corroborating evidence.

--Wow! Creation is God’s symphony. Did you know that the electron shell of the carbon atom produces the same harmonic scale as the Gregorian chant? Makes you go hmmm!

--According to the science of bioacoustics, millions of songs are being sung all the time. Those songs are infrasonic and ultrasonic so we can’t hear them.

Physician and Researcher Lewis Thomas – If we had better hearing and could discern the descants of sea birds, the rhythmic timpani of schools of mollusks, or even the distant harmonics of midges hanging over meadows in the sun, the combined sound might lift us off our feet.”

--Pastor, that is just a little crazy and farfetched. You make it sound like singing is going on all the time.

Revelation 5:13-14 (NLT2)
¹³  And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”
¹⁴  And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. 

--I just wonder all those times that we were totally convinced that we could hear music coming from somewhere, could it have been God letting us hear his voice or creation’s voices?

--We need to learn to hear and to discern God’s voice because I truly believe He is speaking and singing to us all day long. Every day. Why? Because he loves us.

Zephaniah 3:16-17 (NLT2)
¹⁶  On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, Zion! Don’t be afraid!
¹⁷  For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” 

3. His Voice Compared to Our Voice.

--The human voice is pretty much good for one thing—verbal communication. So we tend to think of God’s voice the same way. 

--God’s voice is so much more than audible words communicated in human language. God uses His voice to speak, but He also uses His voice to heal, reveal, convict, create, guide, and to show grace. 

--Does God speak to us audibly? Absolutely! But that is just a small part of His way of communicating with us. His ability to speak is way beyond our ability to hear audibly.

--There are people who say that they have never seen a miracle and there are people who argue that they have never heard God speak. I would argue with that thought process.

--That may be true of God’s audible voice within our small range of hearing, but everything we see on this earth was formed by His creative voice. “Let there be light.”

--What we see today, He once said. His voice is around us all the time. His creation shouts to us:

Romans 1:20-22 (NLT2)
²⁰  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
²¹  Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
²²  Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 

--Never think God is not speaking. His creation is shouting at you every day how awesome God is and how He wants you to know Him in a greater way. He loves you.

--How do you know that He loves me, Pastor? Everyone look up at the cross hanging in this church. Think about Jesus hanging on the cross. Listen to His voice.

1 Corinthians 1:17-18 (NIV)
¹⁷  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
¹⁸  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 

--Maybe you don’t hear anything audibly but the cross is definitely speaking to you and if you listen carefully, you can hear Jesus say, I love you this much!