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1307--DiscipleshipPt2--HearingGodSeries_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: Tonight we're looking at hearing God's voice again, and we began last time by looking at John chapter eight, verse thirty one thirty two, where Jesus said, if you abide in my words, if you dwell, if you live in my words, you're truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And I just made the comment that we often I certainly did in my non-Christian days, quote the truth will set you free, but we often forget where it comes from. And I have to admit that having been very anti Christian and yet quoting that verse, I was very embarrassed when I stumbled on it and found that it was Jesus who said it first. So for me, I love that verse, I love it, the truth will set us free. But but the truth is only for. And let's be clear on this, the truth that we need to know the truth about, about anything and everything we need to know in our own lives will only come from Jesus himself. So we disciples or learners or students to Jesus. But that implies, therefore, that we are hearing his voice because we're not talking about the historical Jesus, the one who lived and walked on the earth two thousand years ago. We're talking about the risen Jesus who said, lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. We're talking about Jesus who is present with us. And so the challenge for us then, is to learn more clearly how to hear his voice. And I made the comment last week from John chapter ten that Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. So one of the one of the definitions of discipleship, one of the definitions of belonging to God, is that we are a people who can hear the voice of God. Uh, the problem is we don't always recognize his voice when we hear it. So I want to particularly focus on how do we recognize the voice of God. So it's hearing God because, uh, we actually all do hear it according to Jesus. But the question, therefore is are we recognizing the voice of God when we hear it? So last week we looked at James chapter three, particularly at the wisdom from above and the and the characteristics of the voice of God. But tonight I want to look a bit more at the conditions as well, because I think every now and again, we need a reminder of how it is that we can be in a position to hear the voice of God. And, uh, I want to start by just looking at the conditions of discipleship from Luke chapter fourteen. So we can just turn to Luke chapter fourteen. And there's a, a, a passage here that I think is extraordinary. And it's where Jesus kind of sorts out, uh, the large crowds are from. His disciples. Or he sorts out his disciples from the large crowds. Because I think it's true in the church today too, there are there are large crowds who are going along with Jesus. This is Luke chapter fourteen, verse twenty five. It says, now large crowds were going along with him. And he turned and said to them, and then there's a a list of conditions that Jesus himself sets on what it means to be a disciple of his, which we're going to go and look at. And I'm going to. But I want to just start with that first thought that there were large crowds going along with him. And I think it's true that on a planet today, there are large crowds going along with Jesus at Luke fourteen verse twenty five. Uh, there are large crowds and large crowds. These are people who think they're like the sound of Jesus. They like him. They may think what a great teacher he is. We may. They may think, well, he said some marvelous things, and there are many people who are happy to go along with Jesus. But but then he says this verse twenty six, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So I want to just pick up on this point that, uh, here's, here's Jesus identifying what it means to be his disciple. And it means that we're willing to put him first, that we're not willing to let anybody else, uh, be in front of him. Now, he uses this very shocking expression, doesn't he? If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother. Now imagine how that sounded to a Jew who has been raised in a culture where they were to rise up before the grey headed, and if they even mocked their parents according to the law of Moses, they could be put to death. So the culture not only had a high value on it, it even was a death penalty offense if you didn't honor your parents. That's why Paul makes that kind of rye rye statement in Ephesians where he says, children, honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land. And we often read that and go, oh, isn't that isn't that great? Well, actually, what Paul was saying was that under the law of Moses, that if you didn't honor your father and mother, you'd be put to death. So if you want to live long in the land, you need to get your heart right towards your mom and dad. And, uh, I think this is a I don't want to trivialize it, but I do think this I think that in the Western society today that we that's something we need to hear again about the need to honor our parents. And I know with many cultures, Pacific cultures, Chinese, Japanese, etc. many cultures still highly value their mother and father in a way that we in the West, in our individualism, have often despised or often neglected. But so just think of this now. Not in our Western culture, where we can often neglect our mum and dads, or often, um, not give them due honour. Here's Jesus saying to these Jewish people who know it's a primary value of God. He says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate them, and he's using this very strong expression here again, the problem is we can hear this through our Western mindset. And the question is not what does it mean to us? The question is what did it mean to a Jew in the first century? And we actually can find that from Malachi, where the Lord says to Israel that he hated Esau, but he loved Jacob. And from that we can see that in the context. The passage is not saying that God suddenly thought, oh, I don't like Esau. I think I'll hate him. But Jacob, well, he's okay, I love him. It's actually talking about God's choice and what what Malachi is arguing to with the Jews who are being ungrateful towards God. He's saying, look, don't you understand that God chose Jacob? He chose our nation and gave us this promised land, and that's why we're in this land, is because God chose the descendants of Jacob to have this land. But when it says he hated Esau, he wasn't saying he didn't like Esau as an individual. He's saying, but he rejected the tribe or the nation that grew from Esau, which was Edom. And they had the land of of Jordan across across the river Jordan. Well, what we today call Jordan. So love and hate, actually, uh, just to put it more clearly in our daily context, it's saying, uh, hate means reject and love means to choose or accept. So here's the first condition that Jesus spells out for discipleship that if we want to come to Jesus, we've got to be willing to reject or disown or walk away from or not accept their counsel of father, our own father or mother. And that's what it requires that Jesus must be above our fathers and mothers. And that's not all. He then says, and wife and children. So to a married man, of course, he's left his father and mother, and he's begun to cleave to his wife and have children. And the Lord is saying, okay, now let's move on to the next relationship you're going to have. You grow up as a child, loving your mum and dad and putting them first, then you get married and then your wife is supposed to become first and your children, and you care for them above everybody else. And you say, well, I, I require of you that you're willing to reject them in order to accept me. Now, what does it actually mean? We'll look at in a minute when we come to the last part. But what I'm saying at this point is he looks at the closest relationships we have, and then he comes to and brothers and sisters. So again, we're talking to our closest personal relationships, our mothers and fathers, our wives and children. If we're married and our brothers and sisters, there are nobody, there's nobody closer on the planet than these relationships. And yet he's saying, if we don't hate them, we can't be his disciple. But to me, actually, the real point of it is the last line he says where he says yes and even his own life. Now, at this point, we begin to see what he's really getting at. He's saying that we've got to be willing to put his desires, his plans, his will against everything of our own. You have a desire and you come, you become aware that God's got another desire. Then you're willing to hate your own desire and choose his. If you come across a value and you think, well, I've got this great value, and then you find out in the scriptures from the Holy Spirit that God's got another value at that point, you go, in that case, I will choose his value and I reject my own. Uh, so it's I've got a plan for my life. I'm going to do this. Do that. And the Lord says, no, I want you to do this and that. It's quite different at that point. We've got a choice. Will I do my own plan for my life or will accept his plan for my life? And he says, well, it's up to you. But if you want to be a disciple, that's the condition. So, um, then he finishes with verse twenty seven, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So he is talking about the fact that it's about individuals having to make a conscious choice to put him first. And years ago I had an illustration. And this is only an illustration. It doesn't actually, uh, it's not what the text is saying, but to me, it's always wonderfully illustrated that I heard Derek Prince saying it. He said, if you want to know what the cross is that you've got to pick up daily, he says, wherever your will crosses God's will, that's the cross you've got to die on. Uh, that's a pun in English language. I hope it's not too vague for other languages, but wherever the will of God crosses our will, that's the cross we need to die on. And we say, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. And remember, Jesus is not speaking this out of, uh, a coldness or a, uh, an experience of what it's like. Because remember, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus himself had to come to this exact decision and remember he was facing the cross and he knew he was. So he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prayed, and he prayed. And he said, father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Speaking of the cup of the of the wrath of God that was about to be poured out on him, because he was going to accept our sinfulness and be judged as if he was us. And he was praying, saying, father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but yours. So that's a standard that Jesus isn't isn't imposing on everybody else. It's one that he himself embraced and worked through and then called us. Because, remember, he says, um, carry his own cross and come after me. So he's ahead of us on this walk. He's done it. He's done his yards. He's done his work through these attitudes in his own heart. And it always encourages me hugely that Jesus and the government Assembly didn't just pray this once. Uh, in other words, having come to that place of, of of surrender to God's will. It says he came back to the disciples. Found asleep. Woke them up and said, guys, can't you pray with me? And and they were a bit embarrassed. So he withdrew from them again. And he prayed again. And he prayed with the same prayer. Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but yours. And it says that he did it again. So three times, uh, our Lord had to work through the issues of his own heart to a point where he could say, not my will be done. Now, you can understand this in the natural. Obviously he's facing crucifixion. No one in their right minds would go happily to crucifixion. Uh, he's about to face flogging. And if anyone's in doubt, whether Jesus knew it, he wasn't. He wasn't the slightest doubt about this. He even prophesied it would happen, that he would be rejected and he would be crucified. And he knew from the prophecies of Isaiah fifty three, Psalm twenty two, uh, from Zechariah that that would include all the agonies of crucifixion and beating and whipping. But on top of that, he was facing the father himself, withdrawing his presence from him. So this is not something that Jesus took lightly. And he agonized over it himself. And it said, he sweat. He sweats. A fell from his brow like like like blood dropping. So he was in great agony to come to that place of surrender so happily. Uh, most of us never have to go through anything vaguely approaching the agony Jesus went through. Uh, for us, choosing to follow him can sometimes be that we become slightly uncomfortable for a while. In my own case, the worst persecution I've ever received was having tomatoes thrown at me on a street preaching in Christchurch. And, um, uh, as we were preaching, these people started throwing tomatoes from the back of the crowd. And I remember as I saw the tomato coming towards me, I was thinking, wow, this is great. We're finally being persecuted for following Jesus. Yeah. But that's the worst it's ever been for me. I mean, there have been some times when I've actually wanted things very, very badly in terms of my own will that I've had to lay down. Uh, yeah. The things I've really, really wanted. And Lord said, no, you can't have that. And that's been a hardship sometimes it's taken me two or three months to work through those disappointments, I think, in God, only to find out he had something better for me in the first place. So that's that's the sense of carrying the cross. Uh, now I want to come to verse twenty eight to thirty because he now gives an example and says, for which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when his later foundation and is not able to finish. All who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. So he's simply saying that, uh, before anybody makes a decision to follow Jesus, uh, they should actually count the cost or calculate the cost. And can I say that sometimes in our in our zeal as evangelists, we often downplay this, uh, because we want people to come to Jesus. And in fact, we often make it too easy. I think, um, I've been following Jesus for years now, so I've seen a lot of things, and I've done a lot of silly things myself. But one of the funniest and silliest ones, I think, and I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but, uh, I've been in churches where they try to make it so easy to follow Jesus. They'll say, right, everybody close your eyes. Um, now slip your hand up and and nobody's looking at you. Don't worry. Nobody's looking at you. Just slip your hand up. And then the preacher calls out, yes, I see that hand. And I used to think, well, that's sensitive, that's good. That helps people. But but really, because what it's saying is, well, uh, yes. Follow Jesus. But but at this stage, you don't want anybody to know this, do you? So everyone's got their eyes closed so you can sneakily let me know. And I think, well, hang on, how's that counting the cost? How's that, uh, fronting up? I mean, let's be clear. In the early first century, first century, they weren't being told. Everyone close your eyes and slip your hand up. They were saying, come on down to the water and get baptized publicly. That was how you became a Christian in the first century. So it was a public commitment. And you were going down to the water. And when you went down to the water, you were saying, I am a sinner, I deserve to die, and I'm being buried in this water, and I'm being raised in newness of life. So the call to baptism actually was how they became Christians. I mean, you see this in acts twenty eight, acts two thirty eight where they say, um, what must we do to be saved? And he says, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the normal way of conversion in the first century was not, uh, let's kind of ease you into this, and then we'll face the embarrassing things later on when you get stronger. It was right up front. Take the embarrassment. Just walk up here, get baptized. And so it was a. And now before anybody's willing to do that, automatically you start calculating the cost and you think, whoa, if I'm going to get up and go down and get baptized by John the Baptist in the first instance, or Jesus or his disciples later, what are my friends going to think of me? What are my family going to think of me? What are my wife going to think of me? What are my children going to think of me? What am I? Oh, and we can't. We have to calculate the cost at that point. And sometimes you think, well, uh, with a wife, for example, you may be thinking, well, what if my wife doesn't want to do this. What if my children don't want to do this? What if my mother or father don't want to do this? What if my brother and sister don't want to do this? And so we see that there is an individual choice that's absolutely essential at this point. We decide, what shall I do? Now just add to that, though. The Philippian jailer, when he was told, um, he asked the disciples, Paul and Silas, who were in jail, what must I do to be saved? They told him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he took them home that night, and they talked to his whole family at the same time in the middle of the night. And it says that he and his whole household were baptized. So the guy before he made it to the session actually went back and made sure his whole family heard the message. And I do think that's a marvelous thing to do, too, that we can include our families in our decision making. So it's not totally individualism. But if at the end of the day, the entire household says, no, we don't want to buy this at that point, you've got a choice. Do I do what Jesus said to do and do I therefore reject the counsel of my own father and mother, this wonderful people who raised me? My own wife and my own children, and my brothers and sisters, and even my own desires. What am I going to put first? So, uh, and Jesus said, look, if this is the foundation, let's be clear on this. This is the foundation. This is the beginning of things. This is how the tower. If you want to build a tower, you have to, um, lay a proper foundation and be willing to finish, be willing to follow through on what you've done now. He then uses one more illustration. And this is the one, uh, this is the one that I most love in this passage, and it's the one that has made meant the most to me personally over the last forty years. And I have to say, there have been times over the last forty years, this last illustration Jesus uses that has been absolutely a part of my Christian walk. And it's where he says this verse thirty one down to verse thirty three. Well what can, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether you're strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand, or else while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. Now let's just put that in context. What's it saying is it's saying you've got two great armies about to meet in battle. One King's got twenty thousand men. Uh, but the other king, the hero of the story, has only got ten thousand men. In other words, he's outnumbered two to one. And, uh, when I first read this, I hadn't long, uh, come across the story of Leonidas and the three hundred, uh, which has lately been, uh, remade as a film. But Leonidas was one of the Spartan kings, and, uh, he had only three hundred soldiers, and he had to try and slow down the entire Persian army which was coming across to wipe out the Greeks. And, um, Leonidas, uh, took strategy, he considered. How could he beat this king, who was wildly over overwhelming him in numbers? And what he did was he he made them walk through a very narrow path. The only way they could come was through this narrow path. And as a result, these thousands of men that were coming with the Persians simply couldn't get to these men. So a few could actually could actually withstand the entire might of this vast army by simply channeling them into this narrow, narrow canyon area. And, uh, so they they were managed to hold out for a long time. And, um, sadly, there was a Greek who betrayed them, and he actually led the Persians through a mountain pass and around behind them, and they were able to outflank them. And they were they were killed, massacred to a man by the Persians. But because of this wonderful last stand of Leonidas in the three hundred. The Spartans were able to gather their army together and hold out the Persians. So I always love the idea of of sitting down and taking counsel on how you can beat the other person, even though you're outnumbered. So it's it's wisdom right now. Uh, if, on the other hand, you realize you can't do it. Verse thirty two, or else while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and he asks for terms of peace. In other words, the king with ten thousand men thinks, I can't beat him, I can't strategize, I can't get him to a narrow, uh, entranceway. I can't, uh, lead him into a trap. Uh, so how can I be at peace with him? What are the terms of surrender? And, um, the reason why this made such a huge impression on me was I thought, what does this tell us about God and how he sees you and me? Because what this is saying is that God is the king with twenty thousand men And you and I. We are the king with ten thousand men. In other words, God is a king. But he also recognizes each one of us as kings. He recognizes and he respects our free will. He recognizes the fact that you and I, we have some strength. And why this meant such a lot to me was because when I first heard the gospel back in the beginning of nineteen seventy two, uh, I wasn't excited at all. I was horrified, and I heard these Christians saying, you've got to give your life to Jesus. And I'm going, no way. And I was saying, but if you do, it's wonderful. And I'm saying, yes, but what's the cost? And they said, well, uh, what you have to do is you commit your life to Jesus and you go put everything right. So if you stole anything, you've got to take it back. I was thinking, no way. No one in the right mind runs up on that kind of stuff. We hide. That's what we do. We steal stuff and we hide. And, um, it can be all kinds of stealing. Let's be clear on this. It can be shoplifting. Of course it can be open theft or fraud, but it can also be things that we take for granted, like perks of a job. And it was quite common on building sites for guys to take home some of the supplies or some of the tools. I worked in a hotel, and it was quite common for the barman to take home drinks or glasses or whatever they found. And, um, I won't go into stories on that, but I had to face some of these issues. Um, so to me, having to front up and acknowledge that I'd been a thief. No way. There's no way I'm going to do that. And then I said, well, and and if you've lied to people, you've got to go back and apologize to them. And I was thinking, no, come on, it's getting silly. Nobody. Nobody fronts up on lies. Nobody. You know, you lie and you get away with it. And if people catch you, you bluff your way out of it and you tell more lies to get out of it. No one fronts up. And these Christian friends were telling me, well, when I became a Christian, the Lord told me to go and get things right with my parents and I'm thinking, why would you do that? And I had to go back and apologize for the things I'd said and done and thinking, oh, no, no, this is way too hard. So for me, for me, when I first heard these questions, I was thinking, oh, they're nothing, and nobody lives that way. Nobody lives that way. We all, we all lie, cheat, steal. That's what we do. That's human race. Except for a few of these people. And, um, but that was the message I kept hearing. And I could see they had something. I could see they had this amazing piece. I was let me, let me be clear on this. I was brokenhearted, I was a wreck of a person. I had, uh, so much wrong with my understanding and mind and heart. I was brokenhearted, uh, I'd been deluded into all sorts of superstitious beliefs. Uh, I was an atheist. Um, I was, I was, uh. An evolutionist. Uh, I was, um, I even believed in von Daniken. Chariots of the gods. I was more happy to believe that we'd come from alien beings than from God. And it's quite funny when I hear some of these atheists today. Now they suddenly come up with this. Oh, I've got a bright idea. Life must have come from an alien. And I think. Well, yes, but where the alien come from, you know, they still don't answer the question. They just kind of put it off a bit further. But that's what I believed I was, that I was that silly. And for me, when I hear these things, this, this requirement that I've got to surrender, I'm thinking there's no way. But, but but I did consider if I could beat God. So when I talk to my Christian friends, I'll be saying, well, I really want what you guys have got. You've got this amazing peace. So how can I kind of just get the peace? Thanks. I just don't want God. I just want the peace that you've got. And, well, I didn't say it quite so bluntly, but I was angling all the way saying, oh, there's got to be a technique they're using. There's got to be some kind of. Maybe I can just kind of learn what they're doing. And that will, because I've been meditating and I've been using transcendental meditation and that worked for twenty minutes every morning and twenty minutes every night. It was great, but the rest of my life was torment. And I thought, well, maybe the Christians have got some better way of meditating that doesn't require me to know God. And, um, and they're they're so full of joy. I mean, I'm broken hearted and miserable. And look at them. They're they're walking around singing and playing guitars and hugging each other and and me and my atheistic friends and my liberal friends. We're all miserable as anything but look at them. So I was trying to find get hold of the happiness. I was trying to get hold of the peace. I was trying to get hold of all the good things they had. And, um, so I was I did exactly this. I considered where I was strong enough to try and get what they had without yielding. But then I came to this last part, verse thirty two. Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and he asks the terms for terms of peace, the terms of peace. In other words, how can I be at peace with you? How can we stop this war? How can we be at peace? And the answer is verse thirty three. So then In. None of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. And that's it. The only way to peace with God is to give up everything we have, everything we own, everything we think, everything we desire, everything we plan. It's total, unconditional surrender. And just to illustrate this point, uh, when the when the Japanese at the end of the Second World War were negotiating with the, um, with the Americans over surrendering, they tried to hold out for some conditions and they said, well, look, we'll surrender, provided you let us keep this. Let us keep that. And I think one of the things they wanted was to keep, um, Hirohito as the emperor. And the Americans said, sorry, it's unconditional surrender. You surrender without any conditions. And what's that saying? It's saying you've got to trust yourself to the kindness of the other person. Now, that's that's an astonishing thing to have to have to commit to the Japanese when they surrendered at the end of the Second World War, had to trust that if they surrendered unconditionally, they had to trust that the Americans would be good enough not to destroy them. And one thing the Americans did that was spectacular was they insisted that Hirohito renounces his renounced his own divinity because that was the basic issue of the of the Japanese was they they worshipped Hirohito as the incarnation of the sun god. And it was that emperor worship that informed and motivated their their kamikaze pilots, etc. And the Americans said to him he had to renounce his divinity. Now that was a marvelous thing they did and went right to the core of the Japanese issue. But, um, coming back to this more personally, in my own case, I prayed many, many times over that six to nine months when I'd heard first heard the gospel because people kept saying to me, you got to ask Jesus into your heart. And I used to because I thought, well, I want what they've got. So I would say, uh, all right, well, Jesus, come into my heart. And nothing happened. So sometimes I go back to my Christian friends and I say, well, I prayed the prayer. Nothing happened. And I'd say, then you haven't prayed it properly yet. And I said, well, how do you know? And I said, because if you prayed it properly, God would answer you. So I'd go away and I'd think about it some more and I'd think, oh, no, I don't want to do it then. And then I come to my senses a bit later on, think, well, actually, Jesus, I'm a mess and I need help. Please come into my heart. And nothing happened. So I go back to my Christian friends. And I said I did it again and nothing happened. And I'm saying then you haven't done it properly yet. And finally, after nine months, I finally came to the point of thinking, alright, I surrender. I've explained before, but I was sitting in a room full of friends who were lesbians and uh, at that moment I decided I'd give up all my ideas of right and wrong. I'd give up all my ideas of the future. I'd give up all my theories and principles. I would utterly, absolutely surrender to Jesus, and I would accept whatever he gave to me. And I remember thinking at the time, uh, I wonder if I'll end up in the kind of the, the Christian equivalent of the Foreign Legion. And what if God says, okay, thanks for you. Give me your life now I'm going to send you to Mongolia, or now I'm going to send you to Siberia or or Timbuktu, you know. Is that what? But then I thought, well, actually, I'm willing to go. I'm willing to do anything he says. I'll accept anything from his hand. I will surrender. And, you know, here's the amazing thing at the moment, I made that commitment and I said, I accept you unconditionally, whatever you want. This incredible peace filled my heart, just flooded my heart and it was so tangible. I was absolutely stunned. And I sat there looking at my Christian, my Christian, my lesbian friends. And I thought, if I tell him what just happened to me, they'll think I've lost my mind. And because we'd all been smoking dope and I'd been meditating and I'd been doing all these crazy things. And finally I get my life right with God. And I'm thinking, I can't even begin to explain to them because I've just they're going this way, and I've just headed off that way, and yet they're still my friends, and I don't want to lose them as friends, but I so I, I didn't say anything to them. I waited till I could get away. And I called my Christian friends and I said, Kevin, I've just given my heart to Jesus. He's just come into my life and I'm absolutely stunned. Uh, wow, this is amazing. How do I keep it? And, um, so he began to disciple me and help me get established in the faith. And he went and bought me a Bible. The first thing he did was buy me a Bible. So all I'm saying is this verse though I didn't become a disciple, I've been praying the sinner's prayer. Jesus come into my life and nothing happened. But from the time I was willing to give up all my own possessions at that moment, I became a disciple. At that moment, I was born again. At that moment, I began to hear his voice. At that moment, I began to feel his presence. And I think sometimes in our churches, we've we've tried to short circuit this because we're trying to keep the large crowds. And Jesus wasn't interested in large crowds. He didn't care how popular he was. It just didn't matter to him. All he cared about was that people got their hearts right with the living God. And that's all it ever matters, ultimately, is are we right with the living God? And of course, once I became a Christian, everything made sense. If there is a God, of course he'd require everything. Everything of mine. How could I think I could get away with anything less? So then it made sense. So, uh, just to conclude this session, I'm saying that Jesus spells out the conditions of discipleship, the conditions of us being able to hear his voice, to have that encounter with him, and where we have his peace, we are at peace with him. And these are the terms of peace as far as God is concerned. You want peace with God. It means you say, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is the terms of surrender. We are willing to pray that way and keep praying that way. Now, over the last forty years since then, there's been many times when I've had something that I wanted and I've had this great idea that God could get for me, or great idea I could do for God. And sometimes I've just run out of peace. And when I come to that place where I realize that I've lost my peace, at that point, I know for sure I've taken something back and I've had to go back and think, now what is it I've taken? Sometimes it's been because I wanted to be with a particular person. It's because I wanted a particular status. I wanted a particular income. I've wanted. And it's all sorts of reasons why I think I've got a better idea than God, and I've got to get back to him and say, I surrender. What do you want me to have? Who do you want me to be with? How do you want me to live? And it's only when I come back to that place of surrender again. I sense this peace again. And I sense his presence again. We're looking at hearing the voice of God. So far, we've been considering there's a state of heart we need to come to that makes it possible for us to hear God. And we've seen in Luke chapter fourteen that that condition is discipleship. Discipleship is where we come to a place where God will teach us himself. And to me, that's one of the most exciting places to be on the planet when God is teaching us Himself, and to me there's nothing like it. I have many times been taught. Of all kinds of areas of my life at school, and found it incredibly boring. Uh, and there were subjects I learned at school that I just had to agonize through. Uh, I hated history, for example. Uh, I enjoyed mathematics and English, but I wasn't a great student. I was one of those students who just did the bare minimum to get through. And, um, my teachers often rebuked me and said, you can do much, much better. And I'd say, yeah, but I don't need to. And so I just wasn't ambitious. I just didn't have that instinct to go for everything. So I just cruised. I was lazy and, um, and yet when I became a Christian, my life radically changed. And, uh, in fact, keep your finger in John's gospel. We'll come back there in a minute. Um, they tend to, um, Proverbs. Proverbs twenty four. Proverbs twenty four. There's this exquisite, Little passage. Um. I think this is one of Hezekiah's, um, proverbs. I'm not quite sure, but, uh, Proverbs twenty four and verse three, and it describes, um, how a house is built. Verse three, by wisdom a house is built, by understanding it is established, and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And, uh, I love this because it helps me understand the process. Because, you know, I think we're all keen to have a house full of precious and pleasant riches. But this passage tells us how to get there. And to me, there's a logical progression. So it says by wisdom a house is built by understanding its established and by knowledge the rooms are filled. So there are these three stages. And if I can just go back to the first part Heart. By wisdom a house is built and wisdom. Let's be clear on this. Wisdom is not that you know something. It's an attitude of heart. So it says, for example, in Proverbs it says, uh, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, that's not something, you know, that's something you have. That's an attitude of heart. Fear of the Lord is saying, I'll put God first, regardless what the issue is. I will trust him and fear there is not talking about an irrational fear. It's a perfectly reasonable fear. Fear of God is a wonderful thing. Uh, it says somewhere else. Uh, fear of God is to is to flee evil. So there's a there's a practical application to the fear of God. It's simply saying, if you truly fear God, if you truly recognize God's worth and, uh, you will turn away from evil. But, um, actually, maybe to illustrate this, It's not fear in the sense of dreading. It's not fear in the sense of fear of being destroyed. It's fear in the sense of giving due respect to. And, uh, if you if you can just think of a linesman, for example, on a power cable outside, uh, that some of the cables that are running through our streets have these cables that carry something like ten thousand volts and, uh, any, any linesman, uh, in his right mind will have a fear of that. Uh, in fact, I'm so fearful about it, I won't even climb a power, a power pole. Uh, but for these guys who have to climb up there to fix things, uh, they have to work with this fear that's wonderfully healthy. Uh, they show due respect. They won't go near that. Those lines with ten thousand volts. But they also carry all sorts of safety equipment to to make sure that they can do what they have to do without being damaged by this. But they go to work every day happily. They don't go to work with great dread, thinking, oh, no, today's the day I'm going to be destroyed. Uh, they go to work day by day thinking this is I'm going to end my my daily bread. But they if they ever lose the fear of that, that could be a horrific. So wisdom, uh, is first and foremost, it's an attitude of heart. That's the thing I'm trying to say. Wisdom is an attitude of heart. And if we just get the attitude right, that lays the foundation. So it's by wisdom. A house is built. It's by having that desire to put God first. It's having that respect for him, uh, which I think sometimes we're losing the churches today. I think sometimes our churches are getting so into the friendship with God that we're losing the fear of God. And as a result, we can become so familiar with God that we don't flee evil. And people will say, well, God won't mind if I do this wrong thing or do that wrong thing, because after all, we're friends. But if you've got a healthy respect for God, you go, no, he actually cares what I do, and he cares how I love and I need to actually start living his way instead of my way. So the fear of the Lord is is the beginning of wisdom. That's what it says. Uh, but look what it goes on to say. By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. So the next step is to get the house established. It's one thing to have a foundation. It's another thing to build the walls up and get the roof on. And as I see it, that's the next step. And we need to take that next step of getting to understand how God works, why he works, why he likes, what he likes, why he hates, what he likes, what he doesn't like. Sorry. Um, we need to understand. And to me, that's where apologetics comes into it. Apologetics can be where you begin to find the reasons for God's decisions. Uh. Just to illustrate one more thing on this, I have friends who I think, in hindsight, got this run the wrong way. Uh, I had a very, very dear friend who actually helped me come to faith back in nineteen seventy three. And, um, he, uh, he made a conscious decision to follow the Lord, but he immediately threw himself into apologetics. And, um, he read Francis Schaeffer, for example, um, who was a Presbyterian minister who had worked through the issues of the faith. He'd gone from being a liberal Presbyterian minister to becoming a world renowned theologian. And he wrote a book called um, He Is there, or The God Who Was There was the first one. Second one was called his. Uh, he is there and he is not silent. And Francis Schaeffer had these wonderful books that came out that described the philosophical, uh, reasonableness of our faith. And I've often thought about this, that, uh, my friend Kevin threw himself into these books. So he started out by committing himself to Christ. But then he tried to get understanding in such a way that he got all his philosophical reasons as to why he should believe, and he would give them books me and say, oh, you've got to read this. And I began to read these books and I'd think, look, I know they're true, and I know they're wonderfully helpful to you, but they just don't do anything for me. I just don't get it. I just I just don't see the need for them. I'm already convinced. I'm utterly convinced that God is real. I'm utterly convinced that God is real. It's a wedding is good. Excuse me? I'm utterly convinced that God is willing to speak to me because I'm dealing with him. So I don't need my these apologetics. Uh, and at the time, I thought, am I being rebellious? Am I misunderstanding something? Um, several years later, I came across those very same books and read them and absolutely loved them. And I remember thinking, oh, now I get what Kevin was talking about. Now I see the reason for this. And and but it was too soon for me because at the beginning, the one thing I needed to work on was my attitude, and it wasn't my understanding that needed to grow. It was my attitude that needed to change and to keep changing. And the very first, first that ever made sense to me. Somebody gave me this. Proverbs three and it says, trust the Lord with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. And as a non-believer, as an atheist and a evolutionist, my whole life was based around my understanding. It was based on how I could work out where things came from, how I could work out where things were going, how I could read clever books, and I could become clever. And it was all about my, my, my, my understanding. And the very first thing it made sense to me, having become a Christian was trusted with all your heart. And don't lean on your understanding. And that's, I think, a trap in Christian circles today is that we're we're leaning on our understanding. Uh. at risk of being controversial, but I think sometimes that's one of the problems of Bible colleges that we can go to Bible college and we can learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and lose our faith. And if you think about the great universities of the world, in the Western world, excuse me, uh, such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, you go to America and look at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, all of them began as Bible colleges and as they devoted themselves to learning, you think, well, that'd be great. Surely every single one of them became hotbeds of atheism. In fact, Cambridge University, I understand, was founded because they thought Oxford was becoming too liberal. So Oxford University, which began with a hiss and a roar, as being this great center of biblical learning. They used to call theology the the, the Queen of the sciences. They saw it as the number one subject to be studied theology. That was that was how the university saw it. Theology was the number one issue to be resolved. But of course, you can sit it out in the theology department at most universities. And that's well, that's where the idiots go. The smart people go to the sciences, they go and learn physics and maths and biology and and it's only the fools over there who's superstitious, who would dare study theology. Or when they get there, they find the theologians are actually atheists who are saying, well, actually there's nothing there to worship. Which always seemed odd to me because I think, how could a theologian, which is supposed to be the study of God, how could a theologian not believe in God's existence? To me, that's as silly as a botanist who doesn't believe plants are real, or a biologist who doesn't believe in biology, or or a scientist who doesn't believe there's anything out there to study. I mean, it's just it's silly. But that's the problem with learning. Uh, you know, Paul says. Knowledge puffs up, knowledge puffs up, it inflates us, and we become so full of ourselves and our own importance, and we get proud. And you know what the Scripture says about pride? It says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So the moment we start leaning on our understanding and we start piling up all our great intellectual understandings, and we start trusting our own understanding. At that point, as we get older and more and more prideful, at that point, God shuts down because it says God resists the proud. He only gives to the humble. So if I want to receive anything from God, I've got to be willing to humble myself. And that means at times, I've got to trust God with my whole heart, even against what my understanding is telling me. So faith starts by putting my trust in God first, my understanding second. So that's what I love about Proverbs. It says by wisdom my house is built. That's putting God first. That's saying, whatever God says, I'm willing to trust. Uh, but by understanding, it is established. Now, to me, therefore, understanding comes second. Understanding is the thing that gives us a good reason as to why we should stay there. And for the last, uh, probably thirty eight years, I've been able and allowed to, by God, to develop my understanding. So now when I come to the scriptures, I come with a much better understanding. I understand some tiny little amount of Greek or Hebrew. I don't speak those languages at all, but I read the scriptures and have done for forty years now. Uh, growing in my understanding of what the Bible teaches, understanding its context, understanding who was saying what and why. Uh, understanding some of the great doctrines of, of of predestination, election and foreknowledge, etc.. Uh, because they help me in my faith now they help me understand hard questions. But I didn't start with those, uh, those things established me my faith once I was already in the faith. And I think anybody who comes to faith only by their understanding, as soon as someone comes along who's clever, cleverer than them, they'll lose it and walk away again. Because if all your trust is in the wisdom of men or the ideas of your own heart, then you're you're vulnerable. But if you're trusting in God, well, there's no one bigger. So that's the order, as I see it by wisdom, a house built and by understanding its established. Now look at the next bit, verse four. And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And precious obviously speaks to value. Uh, the first thing I thought of was gold, silver, precious stones. But then it says pleasant riches, that it's not just about things that are precious, but it's about things that are pleasant as well. And of course, in Jewish thinking, that would be nice food, that would be, uh, wine, that would be, um, pomegranates, that would be fruits. And, uh, so as I see it, this natural illustration, though, illustrates a spiritual reality that if I'm willing to first of all, let God do with my heart keep my attitude right, then let him address my understanding. So he corrects my thinking and I learn from him, and I remain a pupil forever. I'm utterly committed to being a disciple forever. I only grow. I just want to keep growing in my understanding. I want to understand every mystery there is in the Bible. I understand every possible secret, every possible revelation. And so, as a result, uh, my rooms have begun to get filled with knowledge that I find so precious and so pleasant. Uh, but it's come secondary. And now, uh, now my whole life is radically changed. I mean, here I am, sixty, and I finally smart enough to think I need to learn. When I was seventeen, I thought, why should I learn anything? And, uh, yeah, it's funny the way it works. All right, let's go back now to John chapter seven. Uh, we're still trying to come back to this thought of how do we hear God? And I want to just draw your attention to a couple of verses, but one John chapter seven, verse twelve. There's much grumbling among the crowds concerning him. Some were saying he's a good man and others were saying no. On the contrary, he leads the people astray. And yet they were doing. No one was doing it openly, speaking openly of him for fear of the Jews. So they were afraid of what the leaders might say about it. So they were kind of muttering amongst themselves, what about him? But then verse fourteen, now when it was the midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, how has this man become learned, having never been educated? Now let's be clear on this. The Jewish idea of education was very different from ours, because there certainly were literate people. Uh, the children learn to read and write and, uh, Jesus, though when it's educated, they're not saying he's illiterate. They're saying he's been a carpenter. He hasn't been to the school for rabbis. So what's he doing? Teaching. And Jesus answered this, and I love the way he answers it. Verse sixteen, Jesus answered them and said, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. So he's saying, look, this is not my cleverness. This is not my education. I didn't get this from people. I got it from the one who sent me. I got this from God. This is revelation that he's speaking. Now look at this next bit, verse seventeen. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak for myself. And this verse is I want to draw attention to this verse, because this one, to me has been one of the most practical verses in my Christian walk. In other words, if I want to know whether what I'm hearing is from God or whether somebody's making up a bright idea, all I need to do is sort my heart out. Not my understanding, but my heart. Why? Because it says if anyone is willing to do his will, he will know. In other words, the essential issue we must have is willingness. That's it. We've just got to have the right attitude if we're willing to do his will. And it's not just willingness to do anybody's well, it's not willingness to do crazy things. It's being willing to do whatever God says. And if we can come to that point where we can honestly say, I'm willing to do the will of God, the promise of Jesus is you will know whether what you're hearing is from God or whether it's somebody else is making it up. Now, in my own life, I've applied this many times in looking for guidance from God. Um, as a young man, I was twenty three when I became a Christian with a broken heart, as I mentioned earlier. And, uh, so as a young man, uh, one of my questions was, well, am I called to be single or to be married? And I needed to know. God, what do you want of my life? And I felt the Lord said to me that I was to marry. So I thought, oh, good, because that's what I want. And, um. But of course, then I came across that verse in Proverbs. It says, he that finds a wife finds a good thing. And, uh, in the seven years I was in full time ministry, I many times came across a wonderful Christian woman. And I think there's one. She's a good thing. And, uh, actually, it wasn't all the time. It wasn't all the time. But there were two or three occasions when I met a woman that I thought were outstanding. And, um, uh, one was a Jewish woman, and, um, her name was Ross. And I, I met her very briefly. I was traveling through the country with Marcus, travelling and itinerating. And, uh, we stayed in this church for a while, and she came to this church. And, um, as I was talking to her, just one day after one of the meetings, I realized I was I was feeling very, very attracted to her. And as I got to know her, I heard a story. I thought, what an amazing woman. And the more I talk with her, thought about her, I thought, what this is. This girl's just great. So I thought, well, I wonder if she how she feels about me. But she was seemed to be very keen to talk to me, so I thought, I think it was mutual. And but then I thought, well, before I do anything further. Stop, stop, stop. I need to go out and seek God and find out what he thinks about this. Uh, so I walked out in this moonlit night and I began to pray. And I was saying, God, I, I really want to please you. And I really want to know what is your will regarding this woman? Is this the woman for me or is she not? And I prayed and prayed and prayed and listened carefully. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. And I, I became increasingly. Restless. And in the end, I thought, oh, look, I can't I can't just go home and pretend this hasn't happened. I need to get an answer. I've got to find an answer. And so I sat down on a bank in the moonlight. And I remember it so clearly. And I prayed and I said, God, I don't know, I don't know. Are you for this or against it? And I felt like he reminded me of this very verse. And it says, if you're willing to do the will of the father, you'll know. And I thought, oh, okay, what am I willing to do? Well, actually, I'm not willing to let go. I want to be with this woman. So that's my will. But what if the Lord is saying, no, I'm not willing. I don't want that. So I prayed, and I sat there and I thought about this for quite some time. And I finally came to this place of surrender again. And I said, okay, Lord, I'm willing, I'm willing. I want him to be with her if that's what you want. I want it to not be with you if that's what you want. And as I came to that point of surrender, I knew absolutely crystal clear in my heart that she wasn't the one. And I was able to accept it. And I thought, oh, I've heard, I've heard his voice, I've heard it. And I thought, well, since he's speaking to me, I'll ask him a couple of other questions. So I did. I asked him several things, and he spoke to me really, really clearly. I heard his voice and it wasn't an audible voice, but he asked him the question. I said, what about this? And the answer came back immediately. I thought, oh, that's great. And so I asked another question, and again, another answer came back really quickly. And, um, all I'm saying is this was a these were wonderful moments for me as a brand new Christian or quite, quite young Christian. I've been a Christian probably three or four years at this stage. But I'd heard Marcus speak on my friend Marcus speaking on this verse about, if you're willing to do his will, we will know of the teaching, whether it's from God or whether it's the preachers make up his own ideas. And I always loved it. And doctrinally, what I was discovering was it's true of anything that God is saying, but the willingness to do his will is the primary qualification. That's the primary qualification for discipleship. You want to be taught by God. You've got to surrender. You want to be taught by God. You've got to give him all your possessions. Now, if I can actually just go back to the finishing that for a minute, giving up all your possessions, that doesn't mean you give them all away. Remember we looked at Luke fourteen. If anyone wants to be his disciple, we've got to surrender all all our possessions. Uh, it's not saying we've got to give them all away. It is saying we have to surrender control of them to him. And that's the key that we, uh, look at our bank accounts, for example, and we say, God, uh, every dollar in here is yours. We look at our houses, we say, Lord, every room in this house is yours. We look at our cars and we go, Lord, this, this car is yours. We look at our clothing, we look at anything we say, Lord, everything we have is yours. Now, at that point, he's now therefore the master, because we've handed over ownership to him. And here's the lovely bit. Usually the Lord responses. Yes, and I'll let you stay in now. You're a steward now. So the ownership passes over to Jesus, but we remain in control of them as stewards. Now that doesn't mean therefore. Well, sorry. That means, therefore, that if we suddenly get a bright idea and just give away everything, as I've seen some Christians do and have ended up in disastrous circumstances because they just thought, well, I'm since I'm following Jesus, I'll give away everything they've read about the rich young ruler where Jesus said, go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and come follow me. And I go, oh, that's me, that's me. And and I've done some of the things and it's been disastrous. My friend Kevin was one of those. He gave all his possessions, literally his bank account. He cashed insurances in and he gave them to this group called The Children of God, which is a cult. And, um, he lost it all. Uh, he came out of two weeks later having realized he'd made a terrible blunder. And, um, he. Because he'd given them all his clothes. Um, we used to watch the the children of God walking around with his his shoes on, um, because they they had everything in common in the street, you know, and, um, he'd given them all his shoes and all his clothes. And so we watched his clothes walk around the street and someone else each day. Uh, but he he recovered from that, of course. But, um, I'm just saying that, um, giving all our possessions to Jesus does mean to Jesus. It doesn't mean to a church. And let's be really crystal clear on it. Sometimes the church is functioning under covetous covetousness. Uh, I've heard churches even saying, uh, sell your homes and give to the church. And I would just say, uh, I would remind them of the tenth commandment. You shall not covet your neighbor's home or his wife or his possessions. And sometimes when the church is saying to people, give us your possessions. It's quite simply covetousness and should be rebuked soundly. And the church has got to stop doing it. So, um, when I'm saying give up all your possessions, if you're a disciple of Jesus, you give everything to Jesus. Only you don't give it to anybody else. You give it to him. Now, if he tells you to give it to the church, that's fine. You're being obedient now. So I have no problem with people actually giving away literally everything they have. And on several occasions I've given away things that I thought were very important. Uh, and I've seen people wonderfully generous. I've seen people being given houses, being given cars, um, being given large amounts of money. And, um, I'm for generosity. I think generosity is a wonderful thing, but it's totally dangerous if it's not being led by God himself and directed by God himself. So yes, it's it's willingness to do whatever he wants. Alright. So let's, um, just press on a little bit further into John's gospel And this time I want to go to John sixteen. John sixteen and just let's be clear that the things I'm saying regarding wisdom, regarding hear the voice of God are one of the one of the problems is we can begin to think of wisdom as somehow becoming impersonal. And, um, let's be clear on this that the wisdom from above is not impersonal. The wisdom of God is from a person. And, um, uh, so this is John chapter sixteen, verse five. And the Lord, this is at the Last Supper. And Jesus says to his disciples, but now I'm going to him who sent me. That's the father. And none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him them to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness, because I go to the father, and you no longer see me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the father has are mine. Therefore I say that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you. Now I just want to focus on this passage to finish the session by just saying we can make a trap in discipleship thinking it's all about us. If I just get my heart right, rate if I just surrender, if I just practice this technique of meditation or that technique of surrender, uh, we can actually get into a mechanistic type of Christianity. But it was never, ever supposed to be mechanistic or mechanical. It was always intended to be personal. And, uh, being disciples of Jesus is not just saying, I'll take his words and be obedient to what I read in the Bible. It's saying I'll take his words however he speaks to me. If he speaks to me out of the Bible, wonderful. If he speaks to me from the Holy Spirit, wonderful. If he speaks to me through the preacher, wonderful if he speaks to me through my children, marvelous. If he speaks to me through a donkey, that's all that matters, is that whatever he, however he wants to speak, it's his voice I want to listen to. And he can use any means he wants to. But the most wonderful one is the indwelling Holy Spirit. And, uh, I want to just finish up on this point by looking at what kind of things does the Holy Spirit do if we allow him to come and to dwell in us? Uh, because Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will come and he will. Um, when he comes, he will convict the world. That means everybody. We're all included in this promise, and he'll convict the world, or he'll teach. He will convince. He'll persuade. He will help us grasp. He'll help us understand. You know, I love the word convict because it means to have convictions, to create convictions. And we need better. We need more than good ideas. We need more than just understanding. We need convictions. Convictions are in the core of our being, and the Holy Spirit is sent to create convictions inside us. Convictions? That's a certainty that something's true. Uh, it says in Hebrews, faith is a conviction of things unseen. Faith is a conviction that something's deeply held in your heart. It's not just a thing in your brain. It's a state of your heart that forms as the Holy Spirit works inside you. But look what he says. When the Holy Spirit comes, he'll convict the world concerning sin. This is verse eight. In other words, and this is where it gets a bit tricky. The first thing the Holy Spirit will speak to us about is sin. In other words, what we're doing wrong. And, uh, that's the tricky one, because none of us likes being told off. But if we aren't willing to be told off, then we actually are in danger of not hearing his voice. Because the very first thing he'll deal with is the things we're doing wrong. But he doesn't stop there. He will also convict, convict us of what's right as well. What we're doing. That's right. And there's times I've got many times in my life when I've been feeling wretched about something. And the Holy Spirit said to me, that's not me. That's your own guilty conscience. But I've dealt with that. And you need to trust me. You need to trust the fact that I love you and I've forgiven you. And you're clean. Uh, other times the Lord said to me, that's the wrong voice you're listening to. You listen to the voice of one who hates you. And of course, he's going to try and make you feel guilty and tie you up in knots. But you're actually righteous. You're actually clean. Don't worry. You're just relaxed. So here's the lovely thing about the Holy Spirit. He will tell us when we're getting it right, and he'll tell us when we're getting it wrong. And that's that's the that's the thing we need to understand. Um, just to finish this passage, verse twelve. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. You see, the Lord knows the timing. He knows what we can handle, what we can't. So sometimes, as I said, with my friend Kevin and the apologetics books, it just wasn't the time for me. I needed to sort my heart out and keep my heart right. And later on, I could get the understanding, and later on I could get these books that really helped me understand, but I couldn't bear them initially, so I used to cling to verse thirteen. When he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And can I just say this, that every single disciple. It is essential that we are individually taught by the Holy Spirit and but he will guide us. I love the word guide. Uh, if you want to go to the top of Mount Everest, for example, or any mountain, if you're smart, you go with a guide. Why? Because the guide knows how to get there. The guide's been there before. The guide knows the best path. The guide knows the best equipment. And here's the promise of God that he won't leave us alone. He won't abandon us, but he will guide us. Now that that guiding may take a long, long time. You don't get to the top of Mount Everest by simply saying, I'm going to go there and fly up next week. It may be years of practice before you have trained enough and learnt the equipment enough to even climb any mountain, let alone Mount Everest. And uh, and then to, uh, to get to all the truth, um, we have to trust that he won't tell us stuff until we need to hear it. So sometimes we're asking too much. We're saying, God, I don't understand all mysteries. And you're saying, slow down right now. You need to deal with your son. And, uh, or other times you're saying I need to worry about my son, and he's saying, no, no, no, right now you need to understand this mystery, but it's it's learning how to hear the voice of God. It's learning how to walk in his spirit and be guided. Um, the last part of that, verse fourteen, he will glorify me whatever the Holy Spirit is saying, he will always glorify Jesus. So if your revelations that you get or if the spirit that begins to talk to you, uh, fails to give Jesus his proper place, his proper glory. Then you know for sure it's not the Holy Spirit. I've heard some teachings in the church, and the people have been raving about what wonderful teaching it is. And I think, wait a minute. Who's being glorified in us? Because sometimes the person who's being glorified is actually the teacher. And and people are raving about the teacher. And that's the whole wrong handle on this. It's not about glorifying teachers. In fact, Paul had to rebuke the church in Corinth, didn't he, when he said to the Corinthians, um, when you say I'm a Paul, uh, you're deluded. You're children, and you're thinking, speaking about people who are following him. He was saying, you're not you're not here to follow me. You're not here to follow Peter or Apollos. Uh, you don't belong to us. You belong to God. And it's him you should be following. So now, just to just to wrap up the session, let's turn to Proverbs twelve one. And, uh, I want to just finish this session by reinforcing yet again the attitude of heart. Proverbs twelve one. Chapter twelve. Verse one. And this is to illustrate again the point about the Holy Spirit. When he comes, he will convict us regarding sin of what we're doing wrong. Um, if we want to hear the the voice of God telling us what we're doing wrong, again, we need to have the right attitude. So Proverbs chapter twelve, verse one, my translation says, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is stupid. Um, now I have to say this is one of my favorite verses. It's one of my favorite verses, because many times I've had to apply it in my own life and my own heart. And what it's saying is that, um, Uh, it's one thing to say, yes, I love knowledge, but it's another thing to be willing to be taught. And can I just say, as a teacher, that we teachers are usually the worst at learning because we're so busy trying to learn it for ourselves. We're so busy trying to often create our own ministries, or to be known as the one who knows stuff. We can become Noels. And as a consequence, we can actually not be loving instruction at all. And that means that if we don't want to be instructed, it means we don't actually love knowledge at all. We love ourselves too much. So to me, uh, if I truly love knowledge, then the way forward is I gotta be willing. I've got to love. I've got to actually embrace instruction from anybody. Um, my friend Marcus used to say, um. And I love this. He said, uh, a fool can't learn from a wise man, But a wise man can learn even from a fool. Now, I don't know where he found that proverb, but I love it because it's so right. Uh. That a fool. A fool is somebody who just doesn't want to be taught. So you can have the wisest man on the planet standing in front of you. But if you're foolish, you won't get it. And you think of Jesus. Here's Jesus. He's God incarnate, sitting down on the mountain, on the Mount of Olives, on the mount of, um, uh, what was the Beatitudes and teaching? And the people were there in their thousands and some were going, oh, this is fantastic! And others going, ah, it's horrible. And as we saw before, the crowds were grumbling. This man's a good man. You know, he's leading people astray. Why? Because they didn't get it. They couldn't hear what he was saying. And yet his words were perfect in every possible way. Perfect communication, perfectly anointed, perfect in every possible sense. But they just couldn't hear him. Well, I think it's because only those who. The ones who truly love knowledge, love being taught. And it's a hallmark of my own life that if I find myself in a state where I'm hearing somebody and I go, oh, I don't want to talk about this guy at that point, I can recognize the stupidity of my own position because I'm actually despising being taught. But look at the next verse, the next part of this verse. This is my favorite bit. Uh, he who hates reproof is stupid. Now, now, the Hebrew word there, um, bah, means brutish. Brutish. It means, um, like an animal. Uh, in other words, you're no longer an intelligent human being. You've become like a dumb beast or a dumb brute. Uh, one translation I think it's the modern language translation. It says he who hates reproof is a cow. Uh, I like that one, too. Uh, because, you know, cows, God bless them. They're wonderful for milk, but they're not very smart sometimes. And and the scriptures are saying that if we don't like being told off, that's us. We're stupid. Uh, can I just add in here, too? I don't mind when other people call me stupid. I really don't mind. Uh, in my Christian faith, I've many times been called stupid. In my non-Christian days, I called many Christians stupid. So I don't mind the insult and the sliders. I just don't mind it. But there's one person I never, ever want to hear that from. I never want to hear it from God. Because when God says you're stupid, it's not an insult. It's an accurate description. And so, uh, now and the reason I'm saying this is because this is when I've had to really, uh, learn hard for forty years. Uh, it was one of the great revelations I had very early on in my life from my friend Marcus. Uh, He just taught on it somewhere, and I really, really heard it to the core of my being. He who hates reproof. In other words, if you don't like being told off, you're stupid. And I thought, that's it. Okay, so from then on, when someone came to tell me off for whatever it was, it might be my mum and dad for being doing something foolish. It might be my friends. It might be my. Minister. It might be. It doesn't really matter who it is. But as soon as I get told off my first reaction, let me say my first reaction to being told off is I don't want this. I don't like this. That's my first reaction. Uh, and I don't know anybody who really likes being told off, but we don't have to stay there. We can make a conscious choice and say, this is the stupid state of heart. Shall I stay stupid according to God? Or shall I smarten up and be willing to be told off? And as for me, well, I want to be told off. Now there's a promise attached to it. I said that was the last one, but can I sneak in one more? Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter one. This is verse twenty. Proverbs chapter one, verse twenty. And it's it's saying how we can find wisdom, uh, and where we can find wisdom. Wisdom shouts on the street. She lifts her voice in the square at the head of the noisy street. She cries out at the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings. In other words, I used to think that the only place she found wisdom was by finding a quiet place, that you found wisdom by finding a mountain top and sitting on it, or you found wisdom by going to a retreat, uh, a silent retreat where nobody talks, you know? And of course, those things can be fine. But what the scriptures are saying is, if is, if we're really smart, if we really want to listen. Wisdom is always talking to us, even in the busiest places, in the streets, in the squares, in the head of the noisy streets, at the entrance of the gates. I mean, these are the busiest places in the city. These are the airports in our in our language. Uh, you know, now, when you go to an airport, there's thousands of people milling around, coming and going. And if we're smart, we can actually hear wisdom. So it doesn't matter if it's quiet. It doesn't matter where we are. But look what wisdom saying wisdom is telling people off. How long are naive ones will you love being simple minded and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge. Turn to my reproof. So the first thing wisdom does is she tells herself now when I said, there's a promise attached to it, though, look at the next bit. If we're willing to turn when when wisdom is telling us off, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. And I love that verse. Verse twenty three. That's the promise of God. It's the promise of wisdom that if I'm willing to be told off, it won't just always hurt. Yes, there may be the initial sting of being humbled. The initial issue of being corrected. But if I'm willing to accept it, the Lord's promises. Behold, I will pour out my spirit or the spirit of wisdom on you, and I will make my words known to you. It's the place of revelation. And that's what I want. I want to understand wisdom. I want to understand the knowledge of God. I want to understand the understanding of God. And that's what it takes. It takes being willing to be told off. So he that hates reproof is stupid. He that is willing to accept reproof qualifies to have the spirit of wisdom on them. And also to receive knowledge of the words of wisdom.