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1306--DiscipleshipPt1--HearingGodSeries_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: I'm Chris. I'm going to just share for a little while what I feel the Lord has put on my heart. And, um, as soon as I was asked to share the Lord, um, I believe I felt something straight away for him to speak to me on. And he put this these verses on my heart, um, from Matthew twenty eight, verse nineteen and twenty, and they go, uh, go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of age. And this is often called the Great Commission. It's a a very popular couple of Bible verses, and, uh, many churches even use them as their, their mottos. Um, however, I'd just like to put it out there and explore what Jesus actually meant by this and opposed to have we fully grasped what it means to be a disciple? And more importantly, for this reason have we grasped and how we're supposed to make disciples. And the reason I say this is just from my own experiences and observations as an early Christian. Um, I came to the world and young as a young man in a a big sort of Pentecostal type of church. And, um, there was definitely a move of God in this place. And I saw many people come to the Lord, many young people. And I was I was very young myself at the time, and I had a great first half experience of the Lord. But, um, along with a lot of the other people that, uh, came to the Lord with me and who I made lifetime friends with, um, we all fell away, uh, quite quickly and as quickly as people were coming in the front door, they were exiting just as fast out the back. And, um, you know, the church, they had good shepherds, they had good people. They had a wonderful sense of community, I believe. Um, but looking back on it now, I asked myself what? What happened? What? Was there something we could have done better as a church to disciple us and keep us not joined to a church as such, but keep us following Jesus. And you know, I look back and as soon as people gave their hearts to Jesus, they baptized them in water straight away, which is exactly what they did in the early church, which was great. Um, but they would send people off to, to Bible colleges for six months and they'd come back and be put right in front of a church as, as, as pastors. Um, that also would also do things like six week courses. And after the six week courses, we would be labeled leaders straight away. And, um, you know, at the time it it sounded good, it looked good. But looking back now, I thought, you know, um, have we missed, actually, what Jesus meant by making disciples? And the reason I say this is because if Jesus has asked us to make disciples, Surely enough, there must be a how. And just like any good student or learner, which is the definition of a disciple, we simply need to ask the teacher and he will point us in the right direction. And I believe he has given us direction in that too. Um, and that direction, I believe, is in the early church. And when I say the early church, I mean, I mean the first century church. Particular pointing, pointing to the book of acts and how they made disciples. And all I'm saying is this I have nothing against Bible studies. I have nothing against short courses or what have you groups as such. But all I'm saying is this is maybe we should just look at what the first century church did and how they made disciples, and to use that as a launching pad or as a foundation for how we do our courses. And looking back through the book of acts now, where I'm a little bit older, uh, a little bit wiser per se, though some people would argue the point. Um, I look, I look back and I feel the Lord really spoken to me about this. And I believe the early church is our blueprint. But I believe specifically, Paul's identified some patterns and prototypes in the early church, which we can follow here in the twenty first century. We just got to see it through their eyes. And there's one verse in particular that I'd like to look at at this, in this. And it's from Paul's first letter to Corinth in one Corinthians twelve, uh, verse twenty eight. And. And I'm only going to look at the first half of the verse. And I just want to say this. Now here, uh, okay. I read the verse. The verse is, uh, verse twenty eight of chapter twelve of First Corinthians is And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Now, what I'm saying is this is not to look at this verse after two thousand years of church history. My challenge to us is let's start to look at these verses and how the early church would have viewed this. And I think if we look at it how they viewed it, by identifying what these titles actually means, um, we can understand what Paul meant by saying this. And often it's been used that this is a reference to a form of hierarchy or giving us an order of status, or maybe giving us an importance of positions. But I think, no, not at all. I believe Paul here has given us a pattern and a prototype to look to. And the pattern or the prototype is in the book of acts. But first of all, we need to identify what these are by looking at how the first century church would have viewed them. And that's by identifying why he says apostles first, why he says prophets second, and why he says teachers third. And remember, the whole point of this is to see how how we should be making disciples. And so I'd just like to start off by saying this. So what is an apostle? And I'm just going to view it how the first century church would view it. The reason why he sees apostles. First, he simply means that apostles are first on the scene. An apostle, or the Greek word apostolos simply means a messenger or one who is sent. In this regard, one who sent with a message, particularly one who sent to preach the good news or the gospel. Um, I think Romans ten beautifully sums up what this word apostle means, and I'll just like to turn there and quickly read it to you. It comes from Romans ten, verse fourteen and fifteen. And it says this. How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will it? How will they preach unless they are sent just as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. Now, in the first century church, this is what the first messengers did. They would go up there and they would preach the gospel. And this, I believe, was the definition of the apostle in this context of the verse they sent out their first on the scene. They preach the good news. And when it says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So that's what I believe Paul is referring to. There is the messengers that were sent out to, first and foremost preach the good news. And once they receive the good news, then they are ready for the next step in the process and the next step in the process. I believe for any Christian who receives Jesus into their life is to simply help them hear the voice of God. That should be the next step in any Christian's early walk is to hear the voice of God. And thankfully for me, even though I fell away as an early Christian this time around, as I gave my heart to Jesus, I. I really got taught and shepherded and how to hear the voice of God for myself. And this brings me back to what Paul says that profit should be second. It's because who better to help us hear the voice of God than profits? I mean, by definition, a profit is someone who speaks in the name of the Lord. The role of the profit is to help us hear the voice of God. So, you know, naturally, they should be the next in the process of discipleship. You know, first is to preach the good news, which is the messenger. Secondly, we have to hear the voice of God for ourselves. Um, and who better to help us than prophets? Um, I also believe, according to the first century, church prophets are also full of encouragement. You know what more encouraging thing for us as Christians than to hear the voice of God? You know, it's an encouraging thing, even even when it's to correct us or reproach us or set us on the right path. Even for myself, when I've needed correcting, um, it's never been, um, demeaning. It's never been, um, you know, it's never put me down. It's always been like, oh, wow, now I know where I should be heading. And it's been encouraging for me. So, you know, prophets often, especially in the Old Testament, they're often given the job of delivering unpopular messages. Um, but I believe even unpopular messages should be encouraging for us as Christians because reproof leads to, um, you know, at least to knowledge and understanding. And I believe, um, in the first century church, Paul traveled with prophets. I believe particularly Barnabas was a prophet. That's what I believe. But I know for sure, and we know for sure that Silas was most definitely a prophet according to the scriptures. So he traveled with them, and Paul never traveled alone. And Paul recognized the importance of prophets traveling with him because he was a teacher. And he recognized why the why we needed to hear the voice of God for ourselves. Then thirdly, um, Paul says, thirdly, teachers. And now the role of a teacher is simply to help us understand the scriptures. But the reason it stood in the process. Because once we can hear the voice of God for ourselves, we have this guardrail called the Holy Spirit. I love what it says in John one John two twenty seven where it says, we have this anointing on our heart that teaches us about all things. So once we hear the voice of God for ourselves and we're being led through Scripture, it becomes more difficult for us to be led astray because we know the voice of God for ourselves. We have this anointing on our heart that teaches us all things. So it becomes like a guardrail for us and protects us from being led astray from silly doctrines and silly teachings. Because. Because we have an inner witness that helps us. So that's why I believe Paul says. Thirdly, we need teachers to come in this process of making disciples. And it's simply if we, you know, we don't have to be intellectual or we don't have to know everything to speak up and actually say, actually, I don't agree with that. We simply just have to to trust our inner witness, to trust the voice of God that we've been taught. And I love what Hebrews five said. It says solid food is for the mature and have their practice practices trained to discern or have their senses trained to discern good and evil. So it comes through practice comes through maturity. It comes through, you know, training those senses, training your spiritual senses just as well as we have natural senses, we have spiritual senses. And this brings me nearly to a conclusion. And it's and I just want to say this when it comes to prophets and teachers, it's never one or the other. It's always both. And often I've seen in different denominations of churches, they've always lent to one side. And I think just particularly for myself, from what I've observed and experienced, um, you have like a group like the Adventist churches, the seventh day Adventist churches, and I have an immense amount of respect for them because they love the Word of God. They love going through the scriptures, and they love learning about the scriptures. But however, there's missing the Holy Spirit's missing in their movement, I believe, and this is why they've gone so far on that side of the road. And they sort of swallow anything they're taught because they don't have this guardrail up to teach them, um, discernment, to teach them, to give them that anointing on their heart, their own inner witness. But however, there's the other side of the road, um, you often have these Pentecostal movements that are very spiritual, um, that definitely have a move of God on them, but they often get led astray because they don't they don't know the scriptures. They don't have this foundation on to build their faith. So all I'm saying is it's not one or the other. It's always both. And we need a combination, but we just need to recognize the process and the pattern that Paul is referring us to. And now I just want to give us an example of the outworking of this in the early church. And I want to show you an X11 verse nineteen and twenty six. And this pattern is, it's, it's it's viewed several times through the book of acts. I'll just show you this one instance, um, that I see it outworked. work. So acts eleven, verse nineteen, it says, so those who were scattered because of persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen, made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch speaking, speaking the word to no one except Jews alone. But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, also preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of Lord was the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Then when he arrived and witnessed witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began, began to encourage them all, and with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a considerable numbers were brought to the Lord, and he left for Tarsus to Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So can you see what I'm saying about the outworking of that pattern there? We see that, um, men were sent to Antioch, not by a particular person, not to plant a church, as most people have you believe today. But they went from persecution and they simply went and they preached the good news. Uh, especially the, um, uh, sorry, especially the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch. They spoke to the Greeks and to the Gentiles, preaching the Lord Jesus. And then the church in Jerusalem got whiff of this, and they decided to send Barnabas. And Barnabas was full of encouragement and the Holy Spirit. So then we see someone of encouragement coming, coming to them, coming to encourage them. But then Barnabas himself recognizes that actually, this isn't enough. This isn't enough to make disciples. They need to be taught. They need to be led through Scripture. So then he leaves for Tarsus to bring back Paul, who we clearly know was a teacher. Paul himself calls himself an apostle or a messenger, a preacher, and a teacher of the gospel. So, so, so Barnabas, I believe, recognizes, retrieved Paul and says he stayed there for a whole year teaching the disciples in Antioch. And they were first called Christians now. And Paul had a lot to do with Antioch. He would always come in, um, come to and fro from Antioch. Antioch was a thriving community of Christians, and all I want to say is this I see that's one instance of the pattern being outward. Uh, first messengers preaching the good news. Uh, second, uh, prophets, um, helping people hear the voice of God and encouraging and thirdly, teachers helping build a firm foundation for the Christians or the disciples. And just to sum up, um, just to sum up what I'm saying, my point is this I'm not against Bible colleges. I'm not against courses or Bible groups and churches. I'm just saying this. Let's start with the scriptures first as a foundation for those things. And all I want to say is this. Um, you know, a lot of churches have great ideas, but I myself have great ideas too. But I want revelation. I just don't want great ideas, I want revelation, and I think we need revelation. And I just want to finish up with this verse from Matthew seven twenty four. It says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And I just want to say that the scriptures is really the rock, the foundation that I believe we should be building our faith on as disciples. So that's my heart for tonight, and thank you for listening. I want to speak on hearing God and discipleship. Alright. So let's let's start with John chapter eight. Uh, John chapter eight, and it's a verse thirty one. Jesus has been speaking to the Jews, obviously, and a number of them have begun to trust him. Uh, I quite like sometimes taking the word belief and just putting the word trust in there instead. Because belief can sometimes sound too academic or too theoretical. Um. Uh, for example, years ago I heard this, and I've always loved it. Uh, I think it was Houdini, or one of the great, um, tightrope walkers was, um, uh, they put a rope across Niagara Falls, and he said to the assembled crowd, uh, do you believe I can walk across this, this tightrope? And they said, yes, you can do it. And he said, fine. Well, do you believe I can push this wheelbarrow across this tightrope to the other side? And they said, yes, we believe you can do that. So he said, who's going to get onto the to the wheelbarrow? And at that point, nobody was going to do it. And I've often thought that's a there's a good there's a there's a difference between believing and trusting. And that belief can be sometimes an, uh, an intellectual assent, an intellectual agreement where you say, yes, I believe that's true, but it's one it's another step to say, I'll trust that to be true, because trust means you commit yourself to it. You don't really believe. You don't really believe that this guy can push the wheelbarrow across the across the falls in the biblical sense, unless you get in the wheelbarrow. And, um, so I, uh, just to help myself get round some of these little words we use so easily or freely, and sometimes I think, then begin to, to misunderstand them. Uh, I'm saying this. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had trusted him so that they are people who they aren't enemies, they aren't opposed to him, but they are acknowledging his credibility. And then he said, this is what he says to them. If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And I love that because, uh, I want to be a true disciple. I don't want to be a half hearted disciple or a false disciple. I want to be a true disciple. I really want to be a disciple of Jesus. And of course, the word is Chris pointed out, disciple simply means a learner or a student. It's someone who is willing to keep learning. And uh, when Jesus said, if you continue in my word. He's saying, look, it's not just a one off thing. You don't kind of start at the beginning and go, yes, okay, I've got that. Thanks very much. Jesus, that's enough now I've got it. Uh, he said, no, you continue in it. You've got to keep in it. You've got to. In fact, the King James Bible uses the word abide. If you abide in my word, that means to make a home. And if you dwell, if you if you move in, if you live in my words, that's what makes us true disciples. Now here's the problem in the first century. Uh, he wasn't saying. You must therefore abide in the New Testament. Uh, because he's saying this about twenty eight twenty nine A.D. and, um, Paul, Paul's letters and hadn't been written wouldn't be written for another twenty or thirty years, uh, as the Gospels weren't either. So when we look at John's gospel, um, or if you look at Matthew's gospel, these have been written decades afterwards. So he wasn't offering them, uh, a book. He was offering them himself. And this is the thing. We've got to get a hold of that. Uh, and I'll come back to some of the points that Chris made about the scriptures, because, as you know, I love the scriptures. I think they're astonishing. But we need to remember that the first disciples didn't have the New Testament. All they had was the Old Testament. So in the first instance, the scriptures that Jesus referred to, that Paul referred to, that Peter refers to, it's always the scriptures, meaning the Old Testament texts. And of course, Peter later on says that Paul says and wrote some things that were hard to understand, uh, twenty years later. But he says, which the untaught and the and the unstable distort, as they do the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. So Peter acknowledges that that Peter's Paul's writings, sorry, are scriptures. Uh, but they didn't have them when Jesus was talking here. So at that point, they've got to be, uh, to become a disciple of Jesus in the first century. It wasn't a matter of going to a Bible. It wasn't a matter of going to a church. It was a matter of finding Jesus and sitting and listening to him. So the twelve initial disciples of the first, who later on became the twelve. Uh, we know of these men, it says of these twelve that they'd been with Jesus from the time of his baptism in the river Jordan, right through to the resurrection. We know that because, Paul, I'm sorry, Peter describes that next chapter one. He said, look, Judas has fallen away. So we need to replace him with somebody who's been with Jesus from the time of his baptism in the River Jordan, right through to the present day. So the first twelve who later became apostles and were sent out with the message, those first twelve had been with Jesus for three and a half years. So they really had sat at his feet and they really had listened to him. So he's saying, well, look, that's how you become a true disciple is you've got to be willing to sit at my feet and listen. Um, I've always loved that story. Uh, Incident described in John's gospel about Martha and Mary. Remember, um, he goes to their house and stays with them, and and, um, uh, Martha comes in and she's been really busy, and she said, Lord, don't you care that that Mary's left me to do all this housework and and hospitality? Uh, on my own? You know, come on, Mary, you're being lazy. And Jesus had to say to Martha, Martha, you're worried about so much stuff. But Mary has chosen the better portion because she's willing to sit and listen. And, um, I love that for so many reasons. I love that because, uh, it is the better portion. It's the better portion to to not just rush around doing stuff. And can I say that's often the way it is in the church. We're called to do good works. Of course we are. But the trouble is, we often make the same mistake as Martha, and we think it's all about the works that we do. It's all about the good things we're doing. And Jesus has to say to all of us, I think at various times, um, just remember, Mary is sitting at the at my feet. Mary has chosen the better portion. She's chosen a better way by sitting to listen. So in the first instance, then in the first century, they literally had to go and sit at Jesus feet, had to follow him around. That's how he became a disciple. Uh, but what do we do then? Because here we are two thousand years later. How do we do that? Well, this is where it gets a bit awkward for us today in the church we go, well, I can't. So our churches tend to become follow the leader. And by that we mean the pastor, the bishop, the vicar, the minister, whatever you like to call them. We simply follow the person up the front who's speaking. And, uh, as good as that is that we're willing to listen, it becomes a trap. Uh, so yeah, let's turn very quickly to keep your finger in John eight. We'll come back here. Let's just turn to acts chapter twenty for a minute. Uh, because here's where Paul is warning the Ephesian elders of what's going to go wrong for them. So acts chapter twenty, and, uh, we cover this a little bit, I think last time, um, we're in a previous time x2 x twenty. Sorry. Verse twenty eight. And it's where Paul is speaking to the elders of Ephesus that's described in verse seventeen. But in verse twenty eight he says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. So the Lord clearly established elders in the church of Ephesus, and they were to be, uh, working amongst the flock, And there would be overseers. They were to superintend or look out, look after them, and they would have. They would shepherd them. But then Paul says, and here's why. You have to look after yourselves as well as the flock, because verse twenty nine, it says, I know after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And look at verse thirty from among your own selves. Men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Now, uh, when I first came across that verse, it was during the nineteen seventies and there had been a major teaching that came into this country called the Discipleship Movement. And they had taken the idea of discipleship, which is a wonderful word. But what they'd begun doing was teaching perverse things. Now, let's be clear on perverse. Uh, we we today can think perverse means, well, perverted. That means grubby or sexually unclean. That's not what Paul is saying at all. Perverse simply means something that veers away from the truth. So if the truth came this way to speak of a verse truth, a perverse thing is simply to veer from the line. It doesn't matter whether you turn to the left or the right, but whatever you do, whether you move away from the true direction, you're supposed to be going, that's perverse. That's what it means. So some translations say, um, uh, what what you want to say, John, in that verse, in verse, um, thirty. Um, also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse. Perverse. Okay. Anyone got another word there? Verse stored, distorted. Arise and distort the truth or distort the truth. Okay. Anyone else? Verse thirty. Alright, well, don't don't worry. You get the idea. What Paul saying is though, that church leaders, some of these very church leaders that he's trusting these saints. The saints to he's trusting the whole church to these these men, these elders of the church in Ephesus. But he's saying you need to watch each other as well as watch the saints, because some of you are going to go wrong. And the way you're going to go wrong is you're going to start teaching some things that aren't right. But look what it's to do to draw away the disciples after them. And that, to me, is one of the great dangers of the church. Because and Paul was warning us way back then, two thousand years ago, uh, that it can become a trap to us, that instead of being disciples to Jesus, we now become disciples to the latest teacher. And as you know, I'm unashamedly a teacher. But God forbid, God forbid, you ever become my disciples, because that would destroy everything I'm trying to do that would be directly counter to anything I'm trying to do, because it's not for me to make you disciples, uh, following me. So, of course, I started off with it. Matthew twenty eight, verse nineteen twenty saying, go make disciples. And some have thought, oh, okay, that means I've got to make disciples who follow me. And the men who came around in the seventies, we even sang that. And they were saying, be imitators of me. And because Paul said that to Timothy and to the Corinthians, he said, be imitators of me. And I tried to point out to them, but it doesn't say just that. It says, be imitators of me as I imitate Jesus. So the way we're supposed to be imitators of Paul is only to the degree that he's following Jesus and living out the life of Jesus. But if he's ever not, you're not allowed to follow him. And these men were teaching that just do as you're told, because it doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong, because God will hold your church leader, right? He'll hold him accountable. Excuse me. So don't worry about trying to figure out whether it's right or wrong what they're saying. Just follow them. Just submit. So this discipleship teaching not only taught a bad idea of discipleship, it also taught a very foolish idea of submission because we're never just to submit to anything Jesus explicitly said. See to it that no one misleads you. He said, there'll be false teachers, there'll be false prophets, there'll be false messiahs. In this case, Paul saying, there'll be false shepherds or false elders. Of course there are. And the the only protection we have is Jesus himself. So our discipleship should never be to another man. It should always be to Jesus himself. So let's go back to John eight again. Uh, John eight, verse thirty one. If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And I'm saying that even today you and I are still are to be listening to the words of Jesus. Now, that means you and I need to take time sometimes to say, Lord Jesus, what are you saying to me? and it's not enough to go along to church and say, what's the preacher saying to me? We should be listening to the preacher saying, Lord, and what are you saying to me through this preacher? Or what are you saying to me, Lord, through this teacher, or this exhorter or this prophet or whatever the ministry is? And sometimes when you get home by yourself and you open your Bible and you're saying, Lord, what are you saying to me? And we do what Mary did. We learn how to just sit at the Lord's feet and listen to him. Now, uh, that's not easy. That's not easy. Sometimes the easy way out is simply to follow the leader. Uh, my friend Marcus, when I first became a believer, uh, I had the wonderful privilege. And within two years, I was in full time ministry with a man called Marcus who was a messianic Jew. And, um, Marcus had this wonderful ability to hear God. So, uh, walking, working with him, it was mostly easy because he just made the hard decisions, you know, shall we go to this town or that town? Shall we? What shall we do? And I just let him make the decisions. It was great. But sometimes I needed to make a decision regarding what I should be doing about some situation. So I'd say to him, um, Marcus, what do you think the Lord is saying to me? And he'd say, it's easy. It's in John chapter two. I said, oh, really? What's that? And he said, it's in the words of Mary to the servants at the at the wedding feast. And I said, oh, what did she say? So I got my Bible. I went off and read it in John chapter two. And what Mary said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. And that's it. That's all the advice you'd give me. Whatever he says to you, do it. And he could see that I was getting lazy in my spiritual life. I was looking to have him here, God, on my behalf all the time. And he was saying, look, I'm just not going to do this. I'm not going to play this silly game because it's not going to help you in the slightest. You need to hear the Lord for yourself. So his advice to me was always go and pray. Go and talk to the Lord and ask him what is he saying to you? And whatever he says to you, do that. That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and said for me to be a disciple of Marcus. So it is a wonderful point, isn't it? Uh, now, how do we do this? And that's that's the the goal. I want to that's my goal for the rest of the session is how do we learn to hear the Lord or how how do we hear his voice? Um, just turn over a bit further in John chapter ten, in verse twenty seven. And this is where Jesus is speaking as the good Shepherd. And, uh, you know, some people say, well, I can't hear the Lord. Uh, in fact, one of the, one of the elders of the church I was going to back in the seventies when this teaching first came out, I went to a man and I said, look, um, I think we're making a mistake. We're welcoming in this teaching and it will be destructive. And I think you need to look again at what these men are teaching. And he was a good man. His name was Ray. He was a really good man. But he said to me, Graham, you don't understand because you haven't been in church leadership. But he said, you need to understand that the people of God, they can't hear the voice of God. You've just got to tell them what to do. And now, I hadn't been a Christian very long, but I knew better than that. And I said to him, well, Ray, if the people can't hear the voice of God, surely that's the problem that should be addressed. If they can't hear the voice of God, you don't take the place of God in their lives and tell them what to do. You go back to square one and think, if they can't hear the voice of God, then let's go back and help them hear the voice of God, because that is the problem. And he said, oh no, no, it wouldn't work. It would never work, was his words. Now, sadly, um, the church bought into it And this wonderful charismatic Baptist church went from being full of people and with, I think were twelve house groups and there were five elders and. And it was just this wonderful, flourishing church. By the time the discipleship teaching had gone through, uh, they got down to two elders. Um, all of the House leaders had resigned. Uh, the the congregation had scattered in every direction. And, um, in the end, the minister, who had been a wonderful exhorter type preacher man, had been promoted to becoming an apostle and sent out as an apostle. Now because he'd gone up the hierarchy and then he cut his funding off. So he lost his ministry. So it was disastrous for everybody involved when they got suckered by this bad teaching. Uh, it was bad for the church. It was bad for the minister himself. It was bad for the eldership. It was bad for the people. And on every level we lost. And, um, actually, it was out of that train wreck that that we ended up planting a church, uh, called Eastern Suburbs Christian Fellowship in Wellington, uh, back in about nineteen eighty three, I think eighty two somewhere there. And, um, we began by saying, okay, we've got to demonstrate this. It's not enough just to talk about it. We've got to demonstrate it. And let's aim at trying to get people just to hear the voice of God. So for the next fifteen years, we had this wonderful time of fellowship and, uh, and the church down there where we simply encourage people to hear the voice of God for themselves. And the results were dramatic. And I will tell some stories later about some of that. Uh, but here we are in John ten and verse twenty seven, here's the words of Jesus my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. My sheep hear my voice. See, one of the hallmarks of us being sheep, the sheep of God, is that we hear his voice. That's what it says. My sheep hear my voice. Now Jesus isn't saying, oh, wouldn't it be good if they did Or are they hopeless? They can't hear it. So you guys have to go out there and just tell them what I'm saying all the time. Instead he says, no, that's not how it works. My sheep hear my voice. That's an absolute. There's no ifs, there's no buts, there's no conditions. There's no, uh, that's the standard, uh, New Testament, new covenant promise. My sheep hear my voice and they will not follow another. As it says a bit earlier in the parable, I know them, and they follow me, and they won't follow another. So my first point tonight is to say, uh, when people say, I can't hear God, I'm saying, actually, you can if you're if you are a disciple of Jesus, if you've committed your life to God, then it's never in question whether you can hear God. Of course you can. The only problem comes from are you recognizing it? And that's when I come to you tonight. Because, you know, we hear these voices in our heads all the time, don't we? There are so many voices. And? And Paul says this. And Romans, doesn't he? As we looked at another study, he says our conscience bears witness. Uh, but our thoughts defend or accuse us. So every time, um, we get involved in a situation or we do something wrong, our conscience starts talking to us and saying, look, you shouldn't have done that. And of course, your first thought is, well, what's wrong with that? It's okay. And we start justifying it, and then our other thoughts jump up and say, you shouldn't have done that because the next. So our own thought life is actually accusing us and defending us in a conscience is also in there as well. And by that then you start adding in all your other issues, such as your television and your radio and your music and your and your film, and they're all talking to you and, and the ideas you got from them are growing in your brain, and then you've got the supernatural coming into it. We've got God speaking to you, and I want to come to how we recognize his voice and the whole clutter. And of course, to make it even more confusing. Then you've got the devil speaking to you, and we've got temptation coming at us so we can have all these thoughts going on inside our brain, all these ideas and voices speaking in our heads. And what I want to cover tonight is to come back to what the Scripture says regarding how to recognize his voice, how to how to weed out the other voices, uh, how you can learn to, uh, sometimes deal with the conscience that's falsely accusing you. Because sometimes your conscience can be wrong. It's not always right. Uh, sometimes you're just feeling condemnation. And sometimes the devil is telling you you're doing terrible things and you haven't at all because you've been forgiven. You know, uh, so we need to recognize his voice. Now, I want to just give one more example From my own life. Um, when I first became a Christian, there was a guy called Mel, and, um, uh, Mel was a little bit older than me, a couple of years older than me. And, uh, he was a bit of a hero in the group I was going to in Christchurch, uh, because Mel had done this amazing thing. They'd gone down to Timaru. This group had gone down to just just before I became a Christian. And so this is the kind of aftermath of this adventure. They'd gone down to Timaru to preach the gospel to Timaru. So they'd got musical instruments, they'd sung on the streets, they'd set up a stage, they'd had a preacher come in and, and, um, but while they were going around inviting people to come down to listen, they went into a billiard parlor and there were a bunch of guys playing pool and billiards in this room. And as Mel walked in the door, the Lord said to him, uh, I want you to go and tell that young man over there who's playing that shot right now, that man there, tell him that he's to stop messing around with the occult and to sort his life out with God. So Mel thought. I think it's the Lord. So he walked up to this complete stranger and he said, look, excuse me. Um, but God's. I believe God's got a message for you. He's saying to you, you've got to stop messing around with the occult, and you need to sort your life out with God. And and, uh, instead of me going, oh, thanks very much. The man was so furious, he put down his billiard cue and punched Mel in the nose. And the Lord spoke to to Mel again and said to him, his parents are Christians and he's been a Christian, but he's fooling around and he's going back to the dark side. So Mel got up and said to him, um, the Lord tells me that your parents are Christians and you once were a Christian, but you've been you've backslid and now you mess around with with the wrong things and you've got to sort your life out. And with that, the guy hit it again, whack in the face. And Mel said, I got to hear this firsthand. So. So I said, so what did you do? And he said, well, he said, all I felt was this overwhelming love, the love of God for this young man. And he said, um, I kept thinking of that, um, story and crossing the Switchblade, where David Wilkerson went down to preach to the gang members in the streets of New York, and he was preaching about the love of God. And, um, and he kept saying, God loves you. And Nicky Cruz, who was just here in New Zealand a while ago. Nicky Cruz was the leader of the Mau Mau, which was a New York gang. And he pulled out a switchblade and he flicked the switchblade open and he held up the daywalkers throat and he said, if you tell me that one more time, I'm going to catch him for a thousand pieces. And Dave Wilkerson felt this incredible love for him, and he said, visit. If you cut me into a thousand pieces, every one of those pieces will still be same to you. God loves you. And Nicky Cruz was so shaken by this man's absolute fearlessness. So shaken because he was the boss. He scared everybody except this preacher, this weird preacher. Now, Mel had read this book. Really inspired by this. He's thinking, hey, what do I can do it, you know? So he just felt the love of God. So he said to this young man, look, I'm not telling you this because I'm trying to offend you. I'm just saying God loves you. And that's why he sent me to warn you. And with that, the guy hit him again. So at this stage, the guy's friends can't stand it any longer because he's punching this defenseless man. So his friends drag him off. Mel. So. So Mel gets up off the ground, and. And by this stage, he thinks, oh, look, I'm not getting anywhere. I might as well go now. So he heads towards the door and as he's heading towards the door, of course he's bleeding from his face and he can feel his front teeth are loose in his mouth, and he's thinking, well. And this wonderful love of God that he felt for the young man begins to wear off a little bit. And he's thinking, well, Lord, that was exciting, but I wish I wouldn't lose my front teeth. And he said, even as he shook them and prayed, the Lord healed him. So his teeth went from literally rattling in his jaw to suddenly they were hold again. So he never lost his teeth. It was great. But he, um, uh, afterwards, the day after they're down, I think it was over new year down in Peru. Uh, they go down to the to the sound shell there where they're preaching the gospel. And this young man comes up to Mel and he said, everything you said to me yesterday was true. He said, uh, and I've just come to put things right with you. He said, my parents are Christians. I've been a Christian and I've turned away. And he said, I've been messing around with occult stuff. And he said, when you came to me and you told me that, he said, I just laid my heart open right there before you. And he said, I just thought, I've got to stop this man talking. So he said, I'm really sorry that I punched you, but I was so I felt so wretched with what you were saying to me. I thought, I've just got to stop talking. So he just kept punching him in the face. So. So like I say, Mel was a very famous for his. His exploits, right? So I thought, this is great. I've got the chance to hear Mel's story. So I'm saying I can, I can. He's a he's a he's a friend. Now some say Mel. So teach me. How do you how do you hear the voice of God? So he said, oh, actually, let me tell you another story. He said one night I was lying in bed about eleven o'clock at night, and he said, I heard this voice and it said, uh, go down to the railway station. So he said, I'll lay in bed and I thought, was that me or was that God or was that the devil? So he prayed and he said, Lord, if that's you, help me. Is that is that you talking to me? And he said, so he laid there a bit longer. And then he said the thought was there, go down to the railway station. So he thought, oh, what have I got to lose? So he got up out of bed, got dressed, jumped in his car and drove down to the Christchurch railway station. Uh, and he kept thinking all the way down there praying and thinking, oh, this is really exciting. You know, God's leading me. So he thought, um, maybe there's a train coming in and I'll meet somebody for the train. But when he got to the railway station, the lights were all off and there's no trains. So he thought, oh, well, maybe there's somebody asleep in a doorway. So he gets a torch out of his car, and he walks around the station looking in all the all the doorways, and there's nobody there. So he thought, oh, what's that about? So he got in his car and drove home. So I said, well, well hang on, you're supposed to be teaching me how to hear the voice of God. So what's that about? And he said, well, that's how I learned what wasn't the voice of God. Well, now. That's the trick. You see, sometimes we've got to be willing to step out of the boat and try some stuff and to learn not only what is the voice of God, but what isn't the voice of God. And he said as he began lying in bed that night, thinking about it, he thought, so what was that voice like that I obeyed? And as he thought about it, he realized that voice actually had a bit of menace in it. And it was saying to him, you better do this or you'll be in trouble. So even when he got out of bed to go and do it, he was thinking, yeah, I better do this or I'll be in trouble. So there was a slight condemnation in it and it wouldn't clarify. So even as he's trying to dialogue with God, it was simply saying just do as you're told. And he learned to recognize that when you hear a voice like that, that somebody is saying, just do as you're told. Which sometimes, sometimes is what the church is saying to us. It's not the voice of God. That's not how God talks. So we're going to come in a few minutes in the next session and look at how God does speak. I just want to finish by just making this one point that for me, Mel got it spectacularly right in Timaru, in that billiard pool, in the pool room with that young man. He was right. But he learned to hear the voice of God by being willing to find out what wasn't the voice of God as well. He was willing to get out of bed at eleven o'clock at night and get dressed and go down to the railway station, just in case it was God. And it was that willingness that really inspired me. And then I began thinking, well, for goodness sake, he's just a man like me. And he didn't care about making mistakes. So what do I care? So he encouraged me hugely to not only try and get it right, but not be afraid to get it wrong either. Because, as Chris pointed out before, from Hebrews five twelve it says solid food. That's the real stuff that God wants to give us solid food. He wants to get us off the milk, onto onto meat and onto solid food. And it says solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Now again, I find that verse incredibly helpful. It's Hebrews five twelve. Solid food is for the mature who because of practice, this is how maturity comes. This is how we grow in the spiritual realm is because we're willing to practice. Now you don't get to sit down and play a concert on a piano without spending years and years of practicing, and we often go and say, oh, they can play so beautifully. I wish I could play like that. Well, you need to have a talent, of course, which I don't have. But they didn't get there either by having the talent. They didn't get there until they used the talent and practiced and practiced and practiced and practiced and practiced. And once they got the basic issues sorted out, then they could learn to do their variations on it. But they had to practice in the first place. And I think that's how it is with good and evil too. Learning what's good in the sight of God. Learning what's evil in the sight of God. Sometimes it comes by simply being willing to to to practice and get it wrong on occasion. All right, folks, now we we, um, the goal of this session is to, um, identify or work out how to recognize the voice of God. And my, uh, point from last session in John ten twenty seven where Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Oh, and I know them, and they follow me. Um, I made the point that it's an absolute. And can I say this that actually we actually taught that many places. I just think of the parable of the sower and the seed. Um, that when Jesus explains to the disciples what that's about, he says, um, that the man who's sowing it is the Son of Man speaking of himself. And the seed is the Word of God, and he's forever sowing seeds. And the problem is that the seeds, um, depend on the soil to grow. So he says, but there's different kinds of soil that receive the seed. But notice God doesn't stop sowing the seed. He doesn't go, oh, I only sent into good soil. So you either miss out. He's actually sowing it all the time to every human heart. So every human heart, every human is hearing the voice of God. The question is, what are they doing with that? Because, uh, sometimes what it's saying can be embarrassing. And sometimes we just don't want to go there so we can turn it away for all different reasons. Now, I won't go into that. What I want to look at right now, though, is a description of the voice of God from John chapter three. I'm sorry. James. Excuse me. James. The Epistle of James. James, chapter three. And James contrasts two kinds of wisdom. And when I first heard this, I absolutely loved it, because I suddenly realized that there are two kind of wisdoms that are going on inside my heart all the time. And I need to learn to recognize what's the wisdom from below. That's human wisdom, and sometimes my own wisdom. So James, chapter three and verse thirteen, we're going to start. But there's another wisdom that's from above, and that also is inside us. And it's the voice of God. And as we look at the characteristics of the two wisdoms, it will help us to understand what it is, help us to recognize his voice. Okay. So James, chapter three and verse thirteen, we're going to start from, uh, who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, and the gentleness of wisdom. Now, I love that because right there you learn some stuff about wisdom. Firstly, that wisdom is going to lead you into good behavior. It's not godly wisdom. It says go and commit adultery or steal that person's, um, bike or, uh, lie about something. It's not wisdom. It's telling you that it's not the wisdom from above. Uh, so it's always going to lead you into good behavior. But secondly, it's going to be, uh, you're going to do something that wisdom is not about sitting on a mountaintop and thinking or going out into the desert like the Desert Fathers and meditating, because God doesn't want people going out into the desert and doing nothing. He wants us involved in society, changing the planet. That's what we're here for. That's why he called us to change things. So yes, it'll be good, but we should be doing stuff as well. And wisdom will cause us to do things. but it'll also be done in a particular way from verse thirteen. His good deeds or his good behaviour, his deeds and the gentleness of wisdom. That with wisdom is a gentleness. And that's the thing my friend Mel was identifying in a story about the voice that spoke to her when he was lying in bed that night, was the voice that was saying to him, get up and go to the railway station. Uh, it wasn't gentle. There was a threat behind it, and it was the lack of gentleness later on that I think it was that he helped. It helped him identify, to recognize that voice. The lack of gentleness in that nagging. Alright, so. But then James goes on, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. So here's one of the problems is that we can have a bad attitude, and sometimes what's motivating us is actually bitter jealousy that we can see somebody getting, uh, a reputation or being accepted. And we think, But I'm not. And it can create a bitterness inside us because we're jealous of what they're doing. We're jealous of the of the recognition they're getting or whatever. And that's forever going on inside us. Um, sometimes we we talk about a catfight where people begin to really fight over something. And, you know, cats are pretty nasty and they yell a lot and they scratch each other and we can get into cat fights just as easily, often caused by bitter jealousy because of simply jealous of each other. And, uh, or we have selfish ambition, as it says in verse fourteen, selfish ambition is where you think, well, I should be the one doing it. I should be in charge, or I should be whatever it is. And we have an ambition, but it's not from God. It's a selfish, it's selfishness, it's speaking. And so James points out that this is what's going on inside of your human heart. But then he says, verse fifteen, this wisdom. So if you're thinking that way, this wisdom is not that which comes from, uh, comes down from above but is earthly, natural and demonic. So it's the normal human condition with an edge, because the devil loves to encourage us in the wrong thing. At the Last Supper, for example. It says, um, uh, Satan entered Jesus, Jesus, Judas to go and betray Jesus. But Judas had already been to the priests to talk about it. So, uh, Judas had his own natural ambition. Uh, I don't know whether he had, um, bit of jealousy, but he had his own ambition because he was going to be the man. So he was happy to betray Jesus. But it says Satan in his heart as well. So Satan confirmed him in his, uh, theft, stealing the money from the from the other disciples and the poor, uh, in betraying Jesus. So it was earthly, natural and demonic. And then it goes on to say, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing, so we need to deal with it, which is a whole subject in its own right. But I want to come to now verse seventeen, because here's verse seventeen, if you if you want to ever, uh, think about how does God sound? This is, to me is the perfect verse to meditate on. And do you know that meditation. Meditation is simply where you you think about something, but, you know, in, in eastern meditation, uh, it's normally about trying to empty your mind. Biblical meditation is the exact opposite. Um, it's not trying to empty your mind. Biblical meditation is where you try and take the truth, and you think about it, and you think about it, and you think about it, and you think about it, and it's it's actually, um, prefigured in the Old Testament, uh, by the clean animals, uh, because they had to chew the cud. So with the animals that graze, like the goats and the deer and the deer and the and the cows and the sheep, they go out and they chew the grass. they swallow the grass, but then they bring it up again and they chew it, and then the solid again, and they bring it up and chew it again. That's called chewing the cud or chewing the cud is a wonderful picture for you and I, because we are the animals now of how we should meditate. And it's great that you're hearing it's great that you're listening to what I'm saying. And because as a part of my ministry, as I'm supposed to be leading you to, to good grass to eat, you know, as the sheep of God, but part of your role as one of the sheep and for me, as one of the sheep, is that I'm going to be willing to chew the cud. I've got to bring it up and have a think about that and chew it over and think about it and chew it over and think about it. And, uh, that's what meditation means now. So for me, sometimes what I do to try and get the stuff into my brain and, and remember it, but also to get it into my heart is I write these verses out on a piece of paper, and I put them in my pocket, and then I go about my daily work. And when I've got a spare moment, I'm maybe sitting on a bus and I think, what should I do? Oh, well, I can have a think about that. So I bring the verse out and look at it again. Or I might be doing something that doesn't require my brain to be involved, like washing dishes or mowing the lawn or something. And I'm thinking, now, what was that verse again? And to me that's chewing the cud, that's bringing it up again. Now this verse is one I've chewed on a great deal, because I want to learn how to recognize the wisdom from above, as opposed to my wisdom, as opposed to the demonic wisdom. And here's the thing the wisdom from above is first pure. The first characteristic of the voice of God is purity. Now I love that. And now I don't know what the word purity means to you, but this is what it means to me. To me. Uh, I think of water, for example. Uh, when I want to have a glass of water, uh, I want pure water. Uh, I don't want to go and use a dirty cup, uh, to have a drink. I'll go and wash the cup and make sure it's clean so there's no tea leaves in it. There's no dirt or whatever in it. It's a nice clean glass and then I get water out of the tap. But if I am down in the in the garden and I turn on the garden tap, and what comes out first is a bit of rust because it often happens with garden taps. Um, I let the water run and let it run. Let it run until the water comes pure. So to me, pure is like with pure water. I'm looking for water that has no no impurities in it. It doesn't have rust. It doesn't have dirt. It doesn't have tea leaves. It doesn't have anything in it. It's just pure. Now, what does it mean then? In my mind, when I have a word that comes into my brain and I'm thinking, so is that the Lord? Well, to me, it's free from any taint of my selfishness. And I have to say, this is to me, I love this passage because to me, that's the first characteristic that I've recognized in the voice of God is that often the thought that comes to me from God is clean, it's pure. And that's what makes it different because I'm thinking, well, you know, my thoughts aren't that good. You know, they're not that pure. I'm tainted by selfishness. Um. Uh, when I first was practicing this, I was a young man, uh, twenty three years old, and, um, we'd go street witnessing. And it's funny how the young boys always wanted the witness to the young girls. And the young girls always wanted the young witness to the young boys. And I'd think, now, is that pure? Now, of course, they weren't flirting. They weren't doing anything wrong. But it wasn't exactly pure either, because you could see the hidden agendas and I could see it in my heart. So I had to think, okay, Lord, who do you want me to speak to? And those pretty girls over there, that's unlike you. You don't want me to speak to them, because that's what I want to do. So, Lord, what are you saying to me? You know what I'm saying here. And sometimes it's. Then the Lord would speak to me and give me a very clear word. But I had to, first of all, all, put aside my own desires or my own thoughts or my own pleasures, because it's nice to talk to a pretty girl, you know? That's how it works when you're a young man. So I won't go there with the story. First pure, first pure. Um. The wisdom from above is then peaceable. Now, what does peaceable mean? Well, to my mind, it's. It's peaceful. It's full of peace. And sometimes what I have in my heart is actually a raging battle. What I have in my mind is an argument where I'm busy telling myself off for some reason, or my conscience is telling me off for some reason, and my other thoughts are saying, no, he's not that bad because. And I'm I'm arguing inside myself. And sometimes it's into that kind of inner conflict that the thought comes in and it suddenly resolves. Everything suddenly brings peace and everything. Now to me, that's how it is with God sometimes. So I've learned to recognize his voice by that peaceful one that comes in, because it's not like my thoughts. My thoughts are often conflicting, you know. Um, and then we come to that. We're gentle again. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, gentle, gentle. I actually love the word gentleman. Uh, and I think it's a word that we need to regain in our culture again. Because when I was a young man growing up, um, our mothers taught us to be gentleman. Uh, when I walked down the street, for example, with my mother, as soon as I became, like, a teenager, uh, she would ask me to walk on the outside of the footpath. Because in English culture, gentleman always walk on the outside of the footpath. That's what gentlemen do. Uh, apparently goes back to the days when we had, um, mud roads. And as the carts came along, they'd splash through a puddle and the mud would go up on the footpath. So a gentleman would actually be in the way. So the woman wouldn't get mud on her dress, you know, which is quite nice when you think about it. But that's what a gentleman did. Now, of course I can say no, mum and I could be rude and not do it. But she was. And it came to a fight. I could beat her because I was a young man and she was a woman, you know. And young men are stronger. But strength is not what is at issue here. It's an attitude of what are you doing with your strength? And to my mind, a gentleman never is using his strength on a woman. So when I see these, some of these, um, signs up now, the billboards saying, you know, violence is not okay. I think, actually, we should be going back to these young men and saying, let's be clear on this. No real man ever hits a woman, because at that moment, you're actually not a man. You're a coward because it's easy to punch someone is smaller than yourself or weaker than yourself. That's cowardice. Us and we need to say, look, you need to use your strength to be gentle because gentle is not weak. Gentle is strength under control. And it's the control that's that's involved here. You see, when God speaks to us gently, it's not because he can't make us do anything. For goodness sake, he's God. He can make us do anything. But he's not. He's gentle. Uh, one one illustration of this that I heard years ago that I've always loved, uh, was a, um, a Russian soldier, and, um, uh, he'd become a vibrant Christian. And somebody said to him once, so you've come in an atheist society, uh, and you've become a Christian. What happened? And he said, oh, I heard a message from, uh, revelation three twenty. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears and opens, I'll come into him and dine with him. And he said, um. That's when I fell in love with the Lord. Load. And the person said to him, what? And he said, because in Russia, when the police come to get you, they come into your house at two o'clock in the morning and they smash the door down and they come into your house and they pick you up and they drag you off to prison. And in Russia, the state is violent and it's coercive, and there's nothing gentle about it. And he said, that's the state I grew up in. And they say atheism is good and the state is good. And he said that's how they behave. And he said, when I heard that verse, it said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. And he thought, that's what God is like. He just smashed the door down. He could take over anything he likes, but instead he stands the door and knocks. He's gentle. His strength is absolutely under control. Now, again, to me, that's a beautiful description of the wisdom from both the wisdom from above. Doesn't use coercion. I find this sometimes when I get into my debates with my non-Christian friends, That is easy sometimes to be so convinced of what I'm saying that I'm saying, look, just just stop talking because I need to tell you this, you know? Now, that's not unusual. That's coercive. And when I'm trying to get someone to shut up so I can tell them the truth now, even when I'm right, I'm wrong because it's not gentle. And can I say this, though, that I've actually found that once I start doing that kind of stuff and started working more gently, it's been far more fruitful because now I can say to somebody, in fact, sometimes I start conversations with my non-Christian friends by saying, so what's the problem? Why are you so anti-God? Why are you so into the church? And they will come up with a whole string of criticisms and at the end of it and say, yeah, you're right, because they are most criticisms of the church are church are right. I mean, the church is easy. It's easy meat, you know, because we're a bunch of dysfunctional people who came to Christ in the first place. And we're we're on a process of getting right now. So the church is easy pickings. So but once you've kind of let them have a good go at you and good go at me included. Um. And I go, yeah, you're right. Sometimes they're going, well, wait a minute. So how do you cope with that? And suddenly you have this incredible opportunity to now talk about the love of Jesus and the love of God, and how God loves sinners and how he loves people who are failures and make mistakes. And he cleans us up and sorts us out. So even the willingness to listen in the first place can be the very door that opens up the rest of the conversation. So the wisdom from above is gentle. Uh, the next part, next word. In my translation, it says reasonable. Uh. Or the alternative on the side margin is are willing to yield. The wisdom from above is reasonable or willing to yield. Let me deal with the willing to yield. Yield from it. Um, again, that's one of the things I notice about God is that when he speaks into my heart and I disagree with him, he'll go, okay. And he yields. He doesn't come on and say, you've got to do this. He just backs off. He's willing. God almighty, he's willing to yield. When I say no, I don't want to talk about that. He goes, okay, so when you hear a voice inside you, that's nag, nag, nag, nag nagging at you that's not willing to yield. Nagging is not yielding. Nagging is coercive. So those are the voices inside my head that nag me can actually be my own bad conscience. It can be my own, uh, accusing thoughts. It can be the devil speaking, but it isn't the voice of God. That's what I'm saying. Uh, the other other translation. Reasonable. I have to say to me, that's one of the most delightful things about God's nature that I know. Uh, and Isaiah one, the Lord says to Israel, uh, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Now, what does it tell you about God's nature, God's character, and the wisdom from above? He's willing to be reasonable. Uh, I remember just think put it back in context. What was I what was Isaiah rebuking Israel for? He was saying, your hands are covered in blood. So when he said, your sins are like scarlet, he wasn't joking. He's saying your sins are literally because you've committed bloodshed. And that can be for all kinds of reasons. And in Israel's case, but certainly it's true in our case today, we live in a society that's utterly committed to all kinds of bloodshed without even blinking. We in New Zealand, for example, we aborted sixteen thousand children last year. It's a society. We're covered in blood. And and I'm not trying to condemn anyone who's had an abortion because I believe God forgives murder. He forgives. That's what he that's how he does it. And his answer to it is, come, let us reason together. Even if you've done the ultimate sin against another human being by killing them and your hands are covered in blood, you shall be as white as snow. And all he's saying is, I just want to talk about it. That's how he works. I want to reason with you. I look at job. You know that famous verse of job's, um. They though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. I always love that verse. I thought what a great man job was. You know that. He's lost his children. He's lost his wealth. He's lost his health, he's lost everything. And he's still saying, even if God kills me, I'm still going to hope in him. I'm still going to trust in him because I don't understand. But I know God's good. But the next verse is just as good. Even though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. He says, nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him, because an unrighteous man can't come into his presence. And I read that verse, I thought, wow, that's great. So it's not saying just do stuff because you don't understand. The exact opposite is true. He's saying, first of all, do it because even if it's going to kill you, even if it's going to be the worst possible outcome, keep trusting in God. I mean, when those Christians went into the into the Coliseum or into the circuses, the Roman circuses, that's hard to understand. Why would God let a lion rip you apart, you know? Well, even though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, yet will I hope in his ways. You trust in the goodness of God, that somehow, some way, even a lion killing you is going to be okay. That's faith. But then Joe goes on, nevertheless, I will argue my ways. I'll reason with God because actually, that's a right that I have as a Christian. I'm allowed to go and say, God, what's that about? So why? Because the wisdom from above is reasonable. He's willing to be reasonable. And I have to say this, that sometimes when I've sinned, the last thing on earth I want to do is talk about it. And the first thing God wants to do is talk about it. And I've got to get over myself sometimes and go, okay, Lord, I know I've sinned and I've got to stop running away. I've got to stop hiding. I've got to stop pretending. Stop denying. Front up and go. Okay, God, here I am. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about that attitude of my heart. Let's talk about what I did or said or thought or whatever it was. And why? Because I can trust God. I can trust the wisdom from above to be reasonable. He will be reasonable. And when I hear these, some of these cult members saying stuff that is just abusive and I think it's, um, it's impure, uh, it's not peaceable, it's not gentle, it's unreasonable. Most cult leaders, most cult members, sorry if they read that and suddenly applied these first three or four lines at this point, they'd be like saying, there's something scary going here. In many cultures, it's considered unreasonable. I'm sorry. It's been considered unspiritual to question. Don't ask questions. And that's a mark of a church going wrong as well. When they say, don't ask questions because God says you ask questions. Fine. Seek and you'll find, he says. All right. Next one. Full of mercy and good fruits. How are we doing for time? A few minutes. Two. Three minutes. Be quick. Full of mercy and good fruits. Even when God's telling us off, as Chris made the point before. When God reproves us, it's full of mercy and good fruits. Sometimes when I've been told off by God, it's not easy, and it's been a hard thing to swallow. But I always feel better afterwards. It's full of good fruits, and the good fruits are obviously things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control. When God's talking to me, that will be the net artwork of whatever he's telling me. Even the hardest rebuke. Why? Because it's full of mercy and full of good fruits. His goal is always helpful. Uh. Last two. Unwavering. Unwavering simply means that he won't change his mind when he's talking to us. He won't whisper in your ear one minute, and then the following minute change his mind and goes something else. And then change your mind again and say something else. Uh, when God's speaking, one of the things you can count on is to be unwavering in Isaiah. Isaiah says, the Word of God abides, or the Word of God remains. And sometimes the only way you can know is this. The wisdom from above is to wait and see if it sticks around. Uh, you may remember that from Jeremiah twenty three when we looked at the at the the threshing and winnowing. Remember that process we talked about when you thresh and you winnow? Threshing was you break everything apart on the harvest. Winnowing is where you throw it up in the air and you see what comes back, because the chaff blows away over the wall, but the wheat comes back into the threshing floor and you can eat the wheat. weight. That's because the Word of God remains. It stays. It sticks around even when the wind blows through it. So sometimes when I hear prophecies, uh, and I don't know what to make of them, I sometimes go, Lord, is that from you or not? And I don't get a clear answer. I wait, and the following day I think, now go back to that prophecy. How does it feel now? Oh, it's silly and it's gone. Other times I go, how do I feel about the prophecy now? Mm. Still good. Okay. Wait another couple of days. Mm. Still seems good. Why? Because sometimes that time and that wind blowing through is what sorts out the wheat from the chaff. So the wisdom above is unwavering. And lastly, it's without hypocrisy. Uh, hypocrisy is a wonderful word. We often think of it as a bad word, but actually it's a wonderful word because it describes the phenomenon of human beings that all of us have, which is to put a mask on, uh, the hypocrites Cuts and Greek society were actually the actors. So you can put on here without acting. And the actors in the in the classical Greek used to put masks up in front of their faces. So to, to tell you that they were feeling sad, they put a sad mask up in front of their face, or they put a happy face up in front of their face, and you could tell what they were thinking by looking at the mask. Well, I love that because that's often the way it is with human beings that we often put a mask up and we, we, we say to people like, I'm really good. And actually our heart's breaking or vice versa, you know, and we often are living acting lives. We're not living with integrity because we've got a mask up. We've got a phony front up because we want people to think well of us. Well, with God, uh, his wisdom has no hypocrisy in it. It's it's clean. It's real. It has integrity. Uh. It's peaceable, it's gentle, it's reasonable. Uh, we didn't even get on to full of mercy. But that's a whole nother subject in itself, isn't it? Full of mercy that even when God's telling us off, it's never to condemn. It's always to redeem. It's always to redeem. When God's telling you off, it's always to bring you back. Uh, sometimes when the devil is saying horrible things to you, you can tell the devil's voice because he's trying to drive you into a corner and saying, there's no way out for you. You, uh. You said that because you are. You lied because you are a liar. You are hopeless. You're never going to be different. That's the devil's condemnation. When the Holy Spirit says the same thing to you, you lied. He then says to you, I want you to change. So go and put it right and then come on back and we'll sort things out. Why? Because he's full of mercy. That's how he works. He's always trying to redeem us. Alright, so let's stop on that. We could go through a lot more tonight. We could go on to verse eighteen, but we haven't got time. So let's stop here. God bless you for listening. Thanks for coming.