Hear His Voice

Well, good morning, David. How many of you were with us last weekend? Let me see, show of hands. Well, then you know what we're in for here in the moments ahead, because we're so grateful to have Pastor Herman Hamilton, New Beginnings Community Church. Yeah, let's welcome him back. And, you know, we owe a debt of gratitude to his church, who's loaning him to us for three weekends in a row. And I know some of you are thinking, man, we'd like to loan you Mark to some church for at least three weekends, maybe more. But it really is such a gracious thing for their church to do, and we are benefiting from that. He's just a special guy, pastor's pastor, I have to say that. And the more I get to know him, the more I just love his heart and everything about him. And so, Twin Lakes Church, would you give a very warm welcome back to Pastor Herman? Thank you, man, bless you.

Good morning, good morning, everybody. And to those of you who are watching online, God bless you, good morning, we're delighted to be with you another weekend, let's pray. God, we give you thanks and praise, this is another day that you have made, and while it is not a day that makes our lives perfect, yet we are rejoicing and glad to be a part of it, because you're in it with us. God, I wanna pray for the world in which we live, particularly our country, it seems like violence is escalating over the last several days, shootings at high school, at graduations in Louisiana and Tennessee and Michigan. So God, would you just raise up a standard of peace across the land, would you empower us to be instruments of peace through your love? And then pour your spirit out afresh on this teaching, bless those who are listening near and far, and bless the one teaching and preaching. In Jesus' name I pray, everybody shout, amen! Amen, wonderful, wonderful.

It is a delight to be with you guys again for another week as we think together about my best life. Everybody shout, my best life. And can you say now? Would you be so kind to stand, and this is what we do at New Beginnings, we invite you to stand as we read this passage, which is kind of a theme passage, it's just our way of honoring the authority of Scripture, it's the highest and central authority in our lives. Let's read it together if you can see it. Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and let me teach you." Shout, amen! Please be seated.

On last week I told you that to live one's best life is not something that you should put off for the future because it has nothing to do at the end of the day with how much money you make, or how much political or cultural influence you might have, how popular you are. As a matter of fact, history is full of reminders of how one's best life has nothing to do ultimately with those things. For example, we remember Howard Hughes, who was a brilliant, eccentric, multi-millionaire, and yet history's reflection on his life would suggest he didn't get to live his best life. Our Marilyn Monroe, who was known for her beauty and certainly highly popular across the globe, and yet history commentary on hers that she didn't get to live her best life, that you can begin to live your best life because my definition of such life is simply this. It is a life that is defined by joy, deep joy, characterized by love and peace.

Here you shout joy. Joy, joy, that flows from within, and then characterized by love. There you should love the Lord, that God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, a healthy relationship with the Father. And then horizontally, you should love your neighbor as yourself, a remarkable and healthy relationship with family and friends and neighbors, that when you have that kind of love flowing in your life, then it is a life defined by joy and peace. Shout peace. Peace, peace, that inner peace. I'm thinking about the Hebrew word shalom that suggests this neat integration of life. One, you have peace when at the end of the day, your clarity about your eternal purpose actually well integrates itself into your daily schedule and itinerary, peace.

And to live your best life means that it is a life shaped by rhythm and pace and clarity of focus. And so it is Jesus who invites us to come and be his apprentice with these remarkable words, walk with me and work with me, and just watch how I do what Jesus says. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. You know, most of what we know about Jesus' life occurred within a period of three and a half years. And if you wanna learn how to manage your numbered days, we all have numbered days, then Jesus is ultimately the best teacher about living one's best life right now.

And last week we talked about this tool, this technique that we saw modeled in Jesus' life, beginning with the fact that he prioritized silence and being along with the Father. We simply refer to this as silence and solitude. Can you just say, let me say silence. Say solitude. Solitude, this notion of being along with the Father. And listen to how Luke describes how indispensable this was for Jesus as his popularity grew. Listen to what Luke writes. "Yet the news about Jesus spread all the more so that the crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness." But watch this. But Jesus, everybody shout this word, say often. Often, say it again, often. Often withdrew to lonely places, aromas, quiet places, and what? Prayed. Prayed. And prayed.

It was absolute, this was not just a nice religious ritual for Jesus. It was not just a nice thing so he would be seen or considered as somebody spiritual. It was indispensable to how Jesus lived his life. He needed it for his soul to be grounded and his focus to be clear. I can almost hear the single parent that's listening to me and thinking about this as well. Well, how much time would this take for me to practice this? You know, I'm suggesting that a good place to start is about 10 or 15 minutes every day that you schedule to be alone with God. And if you say, "I can't do that," well, you can at least do maybe three days a week where maybe it's between 15 and 30 minutes that you are scheduling to be alone with God.

I can almost hear the single parent say, "Well, I don't know where I'm going to find that time. I'm working, I've got kids, I got to manage the household affairs of the high school kid who says I'm trying to figure out I'm going to junior college or four-year college, trying to work on some employment. Where am I going to find this time? The CEO that's driving a high-powered business, the person that's watching me right now, you've got two jobs." And between that and all of your other responsibilities, you barely have time to sleep. And you say, "Where am I going to find this time?" And here is my basic point here. If it was indispensable for Jesus, who is the Savior of the world, who is fully God in our context, if it was indispensable for Jesus, what about you? And what about me? Find the time because out of that time, our lives and our days and our moments are maximized.

One of the things that I want to suggest to you is, we set aside a link on our website that we brought together some of the best resources to help you to really kind of dig deep and do a wonderful learning about how to actually do this. So I encourage you to take a picture of this link, check out this link on our website, tons of information, including apps and books. Now, what do we do when we gather in quiet time with God, when we silence the external? Well, first of all, we have to learn to distinguish the voice of God in the silence. We've got to figure out how to, how to parse, distinguish, separate God's voice from all those other voices that we're hearing.

I mentioned last week that one of the reasons why we like to hide in the noise is because when we silence life around us, we begin sometimes to hear torturous voices that we just don't know what to do with. I want to return to that point in just a few moments, but let me give you two characteristics today in this message that will help you distinguish the voice of God. The verse comes out of a fascinating story. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah confronts the king and queen in their abuse of power. He's on the run, he's found under a tree, he's just, you're so exhausted, he's so depressed. He essentially says, "Go ahead, God, why don't you just go ahead and just kill me now?" God dispatches an angel and the angel basically says, "Rest and sleep." He feeds him, he gives him water. And after he gets him together, then in a kind of a supernatural way, Elijah ends up at Mount Carmel. God says, "Listen, what you need right now in this state of mind is that you need to hear my voice. So come on out on the cliff of the mountain and I'm going to speak to you. My presence is going to come across over you and you're going to hear me speak."

And so here's where the text gets very interesting. In verse 11 it says, "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart." It was a thunderstorm, y'all. This mountain is cracking apart, shadows the rock before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, meaning his voice was not there. And then it says, "After that big thunderous storm, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake." And then it says, "And after the earthquake came, there was a fire that broke out and trees have fallen all over the place, lots of noise, for the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there came..." Say it with me, a gentle whisper. Say it again, "A." That's where he heard the voice of the Lord. Wow.

Let me first point out this notion of gentle. Everybody say gentle. And you read the text closely, you'll see a real contrast that takes place in the text because so often in the biblical text, when we encounter the judgment of God, it usually comes in the thunderstorms, it usually comes in the earthquakes, it usually comes in the fire, but in this particular context, the voice of God is not in any of those forms. That the voice of God comes as a gentle experience, a gentle whisper. That is to say to you, my dear friends, that most of the times when we hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us, it's not a harsh voice, never a harsh voice or judgment or a voice that screams at us, a voice that calls you names like stupid or worthless or loser, and it is never a voice that says to you or tempts you to harm yourself or to take your own life. Those voices are not the voice of God. Not the voice of God. No, no, no, no, no.

So let me give you a way of labeling those voices because the truth be told, we hear some of those voices, voices that are calling us names and telling us how bad we are and how much a loser we are. We hear some of these judgmental voices all of the time. That's why we try to stay kind of lost in the noise, but I want you to give those voices a different label. Just simply call them false voices and deceptive messages. Say it with me, say false voices. False voices. Shout, deceptive messages. Type that in the chat, false voices and deceptive messages when you hear them.

You know, I preached this message at New Beginnings quite some time ago and a young man came up to me two weeks after I preached the message. He says, "Pastor, I'm so glad that you gave me a way of labeling these false voices and deceptive messages." He says, you know, he is confined to a wheelchair. He lost his mom. All kinds of difficult circumstances was surrounding his life. He said he was on the streets of San Francisco on the sidewalk one day and he said, after he'd heard this message. And he said he heard a voice, he says, "Just roll your wheelchair out in front of the city bus." Just ended. He says, but immediately remembering the message, he just labeled it quickly. He says, "This is a false voice. It's a deceptive message. I will not listen to it."

And my dear friends, I wanna just encourage you that sometimes when you hear these voices, this is another reason why you wanna internalize and memorize the word of God. Even if you don't know it word for word, you can just pull the principle. Because when these voices begin to speak to you, you've gotta, don't get into an argument with them. Just turn towards heaven and just begin to claim the promises of scripture, the truths of scripture. When you hear a voice that says that you are a loser, no, that's the time when you need to declare, you need to say, "God, I thank you. I thank you that you have taught me in your word that I am more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves me." When you hear voices that say to you that you're not lovable or you're not worth it, you can just simply say, "God, I thank you. That you have taught me in your word of God, that there is nothing that can separate me from your love. That your love for me goes from everlasting to everlasting." When you hear those voices that tell you that you can't accomplish it, that you can't move out of a tough place in your life, you can declare, "Oh God, I thank you that your word declares that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Oh, counter those voices with the truth of God's word.

And now, there will be times for some of us, the pandemic has been so, so horrendous on our mental health, that it will be time for some of us that even with prayer and even with sounding off God's word, those voices will still get louder. It's in those moments that you need to break out of your isolation and reach out for help. You know, my wife is a physician, she's been a physician for almost 30 years. If she was here, she would tell you that doctors who take care of the body and doctors who take care of our mental health, that they are a part of God's healing team. And so, if you're relying on God and you're dealing with challenging mental health or physical health, listen, listen, listen, listen. Turning away from doctors in some instances, in many instances, you know what you're doing? You're turning away from God. The first thing it says, "I'm gonna wait on God." No, no, no, no, don't. God has given you members of His healing team, turned towards what God has provided for your help and your healing. Can somebody say amen?

Amen, amen, amen. So, the voice is gentle. But then, I like this notion, shout, whisper. Whisper, you know what you have to do in order to hear whisper? So we have to say to our lives, shh, shh. I love the Hebrew beneath the word whisper. If you were reading it in its literal translation, the Hebrew that we now translate whisper, our other version says, "A still, small voice." The literal reading is, "Silence that was so deeply silent until the silence spoke." Wow, I so love that. I think it's such an accurate understanding for those of us who've experienced God speaking into our lives, that most often it's not an audible voice per se. It is this notion of a silence that is so deeply silent until it speaks. It's something that is inaudible, yet it speaks and we hear. And it comes to us in so many different ways. For some of us, it is a conviction. It is a prompting to move in a certain way. The older people who raised me, they would say, "It's just something that I know. I know it deep down in my knower," they would say. "I know it in my knower." Can't think of me, it shows up.

And then sometimes it's just a soft word that just drops in your spirit. And you just know that this is a word from the Lord. And we describe it, we talk about it, it says, "Here's what I heard from the Lord." Now, these days, there's a lot of talk about what is your superpower, what is your superpower? We wanna know everybody, what's your superpower? College and high schoolers, oh, what's your superpower? Well, well, well, let me tell you, the best superpower on the planet is this. As early as you can in your life, listen, high schoolers, 14, 15 years old college students, listen, listen, as early as you can in your life. Learn to distinguish the gentle whisper of God Almighty. That's a real superpower.

Let me illustrate, let me illustrate. My wife, Rhonda, gave her life to Jesus around 14 years old. What she said in that ultimate commitment was, she said, she told the Lord, "Listen, I want you to be in charge of my entire destiny, that my rest of my days on the planet is to serve you. And if you, whatever you want me to do, whatever you communicate, tell me to do. As long as I'm sure it's you, I'm gonna do it." And she began to cultivate the ability at 15 years old to distinguish the gentle whisper. Then I think it was around 16 years old, God supernaturally moved in our life and clarified for her that the college she was to go to was Grammellin State University, historic African-American college. She was in San Francisco, this is in Louisiana. And if she was here, she would describe that holy and marvelous moment in these terms. She says she was watching TV, and the Grammellin State marching band in those days had a major commercial, Coca-Cola commercial. And so she was watching and she was there, and she said she saw all these fine African-American men. And the next thing she knew, she cried out, "Mommy, mommy, where's this school?" And she says, "That's Grammellin State University." She says, "Mommy, that's the school I'm going to."

A real holy moment, I'm telling you, I'm telling you. God used that, you know what? She only applied to one school for true, and it was Grammellin. But if she were here, she would also say to you that if she was on the flight in to Louisiana, coming to Grammellin, she heard that gentle whisper. And it said to her, "You will meet your husband on the first day." And sure enough, she was in this big auditorium where the freshmen were seated and being orientated, this and that, and I walked in the room, y'all. As part of the student government of those days, I was overseeing a huge portion of that, and now going by and shaking hands and so forth, and so on, came right to her and shook the person's hand and waved at her, we connected, and she would say if she was here, there was just something that was just kind of, that inextricably bound us together in a glance.

24 hours later, she's across the street and she sees me sitting under a tree. We called it the tree of knowledge because that's where folks sat when they weren't going to class. I was sitting on that tree, y'all, come on. And the reason why I was sitting on that tree is because my life had literally fallen apart. The girl that I thought was supposed to be my wife and I thought I was in love, all that stuff, man, had just taken me through. The ring and everything had fallen apart, by the way, parenthetically. Sometimes God will allow your life to fall completely apart so he can put it back together the way it should be. That's true.

So my life had fallen completely apart. I was sitting under the tree in Great Depression, and Rhonda says she saw me across, and the Lord said to her, "That's him. Go speak to him." And she was like, "I don't go initiate with nobody." She's a line of folk waiting to see her, come on now. And he said to her, "Just ask him one question." Somebody say one question. Just ask him one question. She said, "I could do that." So she walked across the street. Next thing I'm in my depression, I heard a voice say, "Excuse me, do you work for the Student Government Association?" Heard that question all day long. I had a clear path answer. It said it 100 times. I launched into my clear path answer, which was, "Yes, I work, and if you come between the hours of nine, and then the Holy Spirit just came upon me." I stopped mid-sentence. I got up from where I was. I walked to where she was. I took her by hands. I set her down on a seat that was right there, and I said, "Let me tell you about the Student Government Association." That turned into a two and a half hour tour and discussion, and 11 months later, we were married. That was 36 years ago.

You see, learning to hear the gentle whisper of God is the true superpower. It is that which totally directs the trajectory of your life. God is saying to somebody, "I've got so much more for you if you would just quiet your life. Learn to distinguish the voice." Well, there's more than just hearing the voice. There's also trusting it. Two years earlier, before that experience, I too, in eighth grade, I made a commitment to Jesus, essentially the same commitment that Rhonda made. I was in Louisiana, she was in San Francisco, Lord, I'm gonna trust you. I want you to be the Lord of my life. And I too began to cultivate the ability to hear the quiet whisper. Two years prior to that encounter with Rhonda under the tree, two years, we found, I was all going to another. So listen up college kids and high schoolers, another just romantic fiasco. Can somebody say fiasco? I was so upset with God, I was fussing with him. Isn't it good to have a God who you can have a relationship with where you can fuss with him? I wanna, so I was fussing with him and I was just sharing. And then the Lord, that gentle whisper came again. And the first thing I heard was, chill out.

My translation, what the Lord whispered, the one you seek, not only is she not on the campus, she's not even in the state, and will not be here for two years. So forget dating, focus on what I have in front of you. I'm looking around all these beautiful girls on this campus and he's talking about for two years. I said, that sure enough can't be the voice of God, y'all. And I went home and did my thing. And as a result of that, I accumulated unnecessary woundedness. And so when Rhonda finds me under the tree and we get married 11 months later, the first 10 years of that marriage had a lot to do with God and Rhonda trying to help me unwind through some of that unnecessary woundedness.

So my dear friends, what I'm trying to tell you is that it is incredibly important for you to discern and develop the ability to hear the gentle whisper, but it is equally important for you to discipline yourself to trust God, to trust that whisper, even when it does not line up with your personal agenda or make sense in your external world. Somebody shall trust. Trust, trust. And you might say, well, how do I develop that knowledge of hearing and recognize it? Well, I encourage you just in your quiet time, just start journaling, maybe in your phone or to set aside a notebook. And if you think you sense God moving you in a certain direction, directing your attention or speaking to you, just write, God, I think you're saying X, I think you're leading me to do Y. And then experiment with it, experiment with it. And the Lord will meet you in those experiments and He will teach you to distinguish His gentle whisper.

So characteristic number one, God's voice is a fine pie. Everybody shout a gentle whisper. Characteristic number two, oh, it comes to us through a beautiful passage. I referenced it last weekend in the message last weekend. Jesus goes down to the Jordan River, He is baptized. And here's what the passage says in Mark 1. It says this, and just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens splitting apart and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove, like a dove. And then it says, and a voice came from heaven. We often talk about this in a way that maybe everybody heard it. I'm not sure everybody heard it, but Jesus certainly heard this. Notice this incredible, what I call unconditional affirmation. It comes to Jesus, you are my one dear son in you. I take great delight. Wow.

Jesus has not worked one miracle before. He has yet to work His first miracle. He has yet to do His first teaching. He has yet to engage the enemy for the first time in the wilderness. This is an unconditional affirmation. This is the Father saying to the Son, this is what I think about you, and it has nothing to do with your performance. Wow. And one of the reasons why we ought to run into the quiet presence of God is because there's no one on earth who can affirm who you are like God.

You know, there's a lady by the name of, who kicked off this remarkable ministry called Love Never Fails, Vanessa Russell. And she tells the story that when she was going through school, she made straight A's, high school, college. And when she went into, got a job at Cisco, she rose to the top, was first African American to be the highest ranking African American executive at Cisco. And in her church, she was just, man, she led multiple ministries. She was just so highly engaged. She said, but it was at a point in reflection that she learned some time later that what she was really pursuing and all of that excellence was she wanted to be enough, to be enough to merit love. And she felt like if I can make this accomplishment, I can do this thing, that I will be worthy of love. And that's how she thought about God's love, that in some way she had to keep proving herself to God, that she was worthy of God's love, hence all these things.

She says it wasn't until she had her first child, he was about six months old, six months old baby, she said she was watching him. And suddenly she was just overwhelmed, those of you who are parents, you understand that she was just overwhelmed with the love for this little baby boy, six months old. He had not made one A, he had not generated one accomplishment, all he was gonna do was gonna goo goo and gaga and cry and poop in his diaper. And yet she said to him, oh my God, I love you so much that I can actually die for you. This is what the God who we know in Jesus Christ says to each and every one of us, as a matter of fact, he says this, I have loved you and I love you so much that in my son Jesus Christ, I actually came and I did die for you, I died for you. You bring me great, who you are, not your performance, not how well you get it together, I'm happy when you get it together right, but even when you mess up and you're in the valley of misery and what it feels like, a recurring failure, I still want you to know, you bring me great delight. And the place that you hear that is in the silence when you bring yourself before God.

And so here's the insight I want you to make a commitment with, here's the commitment I want you to make. You see, we seek primary, we seek affirmation from so many places, we want it for my kids and for my parents and for my pastors and for my bosses, we want to be told that you're wonderful and you're okay and that you're loving, you're fabulous. And listen, affirmation will come through those areas and it is important for affirmation to come, but when you get affirmation through those avenues, I just want you to discipline and learn how to celebrate it, how to enjoy it, how to bless God for it, thank, be grateful for it, but don't seek for it there. Where you go to seek for your ultimate primary affirmation should be in the presence of God. Let him be the source.

So here's the commitment I hope you make. Come on, read this with me and say, I will seek, read it with me, I will, my primary affirmation from, say it again, I will, my primary. Come on, give God a hand, praise. That's gonna orientate, that's why we rush to the quiet places with God. You know, it's in these quiet places that we are with God. It's where God begins and often when he speaks to us, I have found this to be true. He's just birthing moments of his word back into our hearts. It's in the quiet places with God as well. You'll hear God declare to you, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness, you are precious to me.

It's in the quiet places of God where you'll hear him declare, see, I have written your name. This is how much I love you, I've written your name on the palms of my hands. And I know that there's somebody here who said, what past? You're talking about all those wonderful Christian people. You just don't know who I am. You don't know what I did last night. You don't know what my last six months have been. You don't know how rich and broken people's heart. You don't know about my sin. But I want you to hear that God is declaring through me to you and he's saying to you, stop it, stop it, stop it. Don't you understand that it was for you that I sent my son to die on coverage cross who was wounded for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquity. And that by his punishment, oh, don't you know that peace can come to your life. Stop it, he says. He says, all you've got to do is confess your sins and I'm faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Stop it, he says, stop it, just come now and let us reason together. Although your sins are a scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. Just come to me. You are my delight.

You're my delight. You're my delight. You know, it is this God who reminds us. Here's how you're gonna get through life. Here's how you're gonna get through life. Not by might. Not by your might, not by your power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. This is not a message that is gonna promise you that life is gonna always be straight. This is not a message that has promised you that the closer you get to God, you know, life is gonna work out the way that you've always hoped for. Oh no, no, in this broken world, there will be tragedy. In this broken world, there will be trials, there will be difficult moments. As a matter of fact, there will be difficult seasons. But it is the God of creation who we know in Jesus who declares to you, here's how you're gonna get through it. Not by your might, not by your power, not by your tenacity, but as you settle yourself in my presence, by my spirit, says the Lord. By my affirmation that you are loved, and by the assurance that come from me, that says whatever your tragedy, whatever your trials, they will not have the last word. God will have the last word in your life. Celebrate that, celebrate that.

In your life. And so that's what I leave you with. You know, Zaphaniah, I often think about this. I wanna, this is the image I want you to have. We're in the presence of God. This is the image, the prophet says, he says, "For the Lord your God will take delight in you." Point at yourself, point at yourself. Yeah, in you. He'll take delight in you with gladness. It is with his love, he's gonna do this in your quiet time. He will calm all your fears. As a matter of fact, he will rejoice over you with joyful songs. You ever had a little baby in your hands? And you just suddenly start singing. You know, when I used to hold my daughter, Lauren, and she was a baby in my hands, I start singing, I think it was Miss Boom song, "You Light Up My Life." You light up my days and feel my nights with song. I just want you to know that the God that I'm talking about today, here's how he thinks about you. You light up God's days and you feel God's nights with a song. Can you say amen? Amen.

Now here's your homework and we're gonna end in a very special way. I wanna invite you to keep reading for 15 minutes each day in the gospel. This is printed on the back of your bulletin so you actually have it. Keep reading for 15 minutes in the gospel of John, set aside 15 minutes. This week, think about the question. The question is simply this, what does Jesus teach me about God's unconditional love for me? And then you don't have this reflection question, so take a picture of this reflection question. What are the false voices and deceptive messages that I often hear in the silence? Now for the next 30 or 60 seconds, I'm gonna ask that we just silence ourselves. For some of you, God is gonna drop something in your spirit. For others, you're gonna sense something that you can't put words to. And for others, it won't be anything. Other than knowing that you're sitting in the silence, of the one who made you and who loves you with an everlasting love. And what's happening in that moment, you may not sense it, but in that interaction between you and God, oh my Lord, is the affirmation of how precious you are. And then Elizabeth will lead us forward towards the ending part of our gathering. So let's sit before God inside us.