Sermon Tone Analysis

Growing up we owned go-carts.

We had a blue one that had a roll cage on it.

My dad took some fiberglass and made it look like an outlaw sprint car.

It was pretty cool.

I had the honor of driving it in a Christmas parade one time.

We had a lot of fun on them!

We had this land behind our house that my dad turned into a little circle dirt track that we went out and road the go-carts on.

So, we had this big blue one and then we had this smaller red one that sat low to the ground.

It was much quicker!

Since my brother and I are competitive, we turned everything into a race.

So, one day he was on the red, quicker one, and I was on the big blue one.

We decided to race and so my dad comes up to me before we started and said something similar to:

“now listen son (he said this a lot), he is on the quicker go-cart so I am going to put you on the inside of the track.

And you are on the bigger one so as you go into the corner, don’t be afraid to stick your nose in there.”

Like a good son, I listened to my dad.

We started off and of course, he got a bit of a head start - as we came up to turn one, I did what my dad said and “stuck my nose in there.”

Unfortunately, I took what he said a little literally and ran right over the top of my brother’s go-cart and tangled them up.

My dad came up to me and said “I told you to stick your nose in there, not run over the top of him.”

It was quite the time that we had on those things.

Communication is a funny thing, isn’t it?

What one person means to be figuratively, we sometimes take literally, or vise-versa.

Communication matters!

How we say things and what we say matters!

But, at the same time, listening matters just as much.

As I heard what my dad said to me, I didn’t understand exactly what he was saying.

It was important that I listened to what my dad was meaning as well as what he was saying.

Sometimes, our relationship with God is like this as well.

How many of us have a hard time listening to what God is saying?

How many of us have a hard time knowing when God is talking to us?

This morning, we are going to talk a bit out how God speaks to us.

Before we dive in to specifics, let’s look at what scripture has to say about listening to God.

So, as we can see, there is lots of scripture about listening to God!

I am thankful that our God is one that is active and wants to speak to us!

The disciples had followed Jesus for two years before the transfiguration.

Mark 9:2–10 (NIV)

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.

There he was transfigured before them.

3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.

Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.

Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

So, these are Jesus’ three inner-circle disciples who had been following Him for two years, and they still needed to be told to “listen to Him.”

But why?

Well, in verse 10 they were still trying to figure out what Jesus was talking about.

The disciples clearly didn’t know everything just because they were disciples.

They were still learning to listen to Jesus.

A bit later Jesus explains again to His disciples that He was going to leave them.

Here is the dialogue

John 16:5–13 (NIV)

5 but now I am going to him who sent me.

None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.

Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

So, Jesus tells them that it is a good thing that He was going to leave them because He would send His Spirit to speak to them.

He is saying to them that the Truth was now going to be inside of them.

They would no longer need to ask and gather information from beyond who would be inside of them!

The disciples were about to learn that they needed to shift from

Ask to Listen

shifting from asking to listening means shifting from an external voice to an internal voice.

It means that rather than trying to find out all the answers from someone else, that you learn to listen to God.

It means to shift from being taught to being led.

The authors write: “Even after we have walked with God a while, we still tend to get our answers more from without than from within.

Our problem is not that we seek counsel of wise friends, follow good leaders, or trust informed voices.

Its is more that we seek only these things and never learn to hear the voice of God within us.” - Steve DeNeff and David Drury

How many people remember the “what would Jesus do movement?”

We wore the cool WWJD bracelets.

The idea of the WWJD movement wasn’t bad at all.

In fact, it comes from the book “In His Steps” by Charles Sheldon.

It’s been a while since I have read it, but it’s a good book.

But, the concept of always asking WWJD has a good intention, but a fundamental flaw.

If we follow this principle, we are always asking the question and seemingly never coming up with the answer.

What if, instead of asking WWJD, we just knew what Jesus would do?

We could create some bracelets with KWJWD on them, and get rich!

This is the idea of shifting from asking to listening.

When we listen to God, we allow our passions, desires, and knowledge to become like God’s passions, desires, and knowledge.

When this happens, we stop asking God for specific answers to specific questions and ask for God to reveal who He is and His will to us.

Then, when this happens, we learn the answers before we even need to ask, because we know God and His passions, desires and knowledge!

This doesn’t mean that we no longer listen to others or seek advice from others, but it means that we listen for the voice of God first and we get to know God on an intimate level!

Here are some difference in asking and listening:

When we ask, we are always talking, so our minds are active and busy.

But when we listen, we are not talking, so our minds are passive and open to new directions.

When we ask, we want to know something, so our interests are confined to the things we want to know.

But when we listen, we want to know what God tells us.

We learn to ask according to the answer God gives us at the time.

That becomes our subject of interest.

When we ask, we expect an answer and want it to be clear and practical.

We grow impatient with prolonged waiting.

But when we listen, we are not in control of the One talking (God), so we are more patient and open to ambiguity.

When we ask, the relationship with the One speaking (God) is peripheral.

We value it only so far as it helps us to know God’s will.

But when we listen, our relationship with God is the reason we are talking to Him.