Discerning the Voice of God (Humble and Hungry - Week 1)

Shawn introduces a new seven-week series titled "Humble and Hungry," focusing on making prayer practical. He emphasizes that prayer doesn't have to be poetic but should be consistently practiced, encouraging attendees to embrace the awkwardness of prayer. The sermon highlights the importance of listening to God in prayer, which is often neglected, and provides three practical ways to discern His voice: meditate on Scripture, seek the Holy Spirit's guidance, and listen to wise counsel. Ultimately, the series aims to enrich participants' prayer lives and foster a deeper relationship with God.

Transcript

Well, good morning everybody. Glad to. Morning. As like Quentin said, we are starting off this new seven week series called Humble and Hungry. And over these weeks we are going to get super practical about prayer.

Like, how do we pray? We're going to, we're going to pull this topic that oftentimes lives in the theoretical realm and pull it down into the practical realm of like, how do we pray? What do we say to God? Even like, how do we list to God speak. And so I'm excited about where we're gonna be going and I hope that you will join us for each of these weeks.

And each week in this series, we want to give you a card that you can take home and put what we're talking about in here kind of into practice. A card that will guide you through some aspect of prayer that we're going to be talking about during this series. And at the end of the seven weeks, you will have a card that for each of the week and kind of like a quick access guide when it comes how to pray. And so if you are sitting at the end of one of our pews, you may notice that there's a little basket there that's got some of these cards in it. It also has a little key ring and then a pin.

And so pass that down and everybody grab one of the cards, one of the key rings and one of the pins. And then each week you can add that card to that little key ring. And if you miss a week, we'll have a stack of these out in the lobby that you can go and you can grab it, but hang on to that. And we're actually gonna use these cards a little bit later on in our service today. So we're gonna give you some tools each week because like I said, we want this series on prayer to be practical.

And some of us when it comes to this topic of prayer. I remember when I, when I first became a follower of Jesus and I was 18 years old and I kind of, I've heard people pray. I kind of knew the mechanics and like, so fumble around with some prayer. Some of you maybe heard me share the story of my friend Nathan Davenport. When I was a freshman in college, he invited me, he said, hey, let's go on a prayer walk.

And I'm like, I didn't think that you could do those two things together. Like I thought a head bowed, eyes closed, how are we going to do that and walk? And Nathan was the first person that taught me, no, you can actually pray with your eyes open, looking around, thanking God, for the things that you see, he introduced me to this beautiful relationship in connection with the Father. And so you may be here today thinking, I don't know how to pray. I don't know what to say.

But here is my conviction for this series and for me and for you. Prayer doesn't have to be poetic. It just needs to be practiced. And prayer does not have to be poetic. It doesn't have to be the perfect words strung together fluently and beautifully.

It doesn't have to be this combination that's kind of like this magic potion that gets God to finally listen to you. Prayer is not about some formula. It is about a relationship that does not have to be poetic. It just has to be practiced. And connecting with God in prayer is one of the greatest gifts that he has given us.

But we have to put that gift to use. And so if you have ever struggled to pray, if you think, I don't know how to pray, or if you're like, I want to grow deeper in my prayer life, we hope that this series will help cultivate some of that and help you grow and transform your faith. Now with this series, I have some. Some good news for you Today. We are going to preach shorter sermons over the next seven weeks.

Yeah, I heard that some of you got really excited about that. Listen, as someone who writes sermons, I'm kind of excited about that as well. But before you get too excited, the reason why we are going to preach shorter sermons throughout this series is because we want to create space, space in our worship gatherings where we can put some of these things that we're talking about into practice. We want to put these tools that we're going to be giving you each week into practice. And so we're going to create some space where we can use these tools.

And I know, like Quentin said, it might be a little awkward at times, but one of my life mottos, and if you know me, you know I follow it well, is embrace the awkward. Like, let's embrace the awkward together. It's going to be all right. And our hope that is if we practice prayer in here, then we will practice prayer out there. So that's where we're going over the next six weeks, seven weeks, let's dive into our first practice.

And it's probably not where most of us would think that a series on prayer would begin. Most of us, when we think about prayer, the first thing that comes to mind is talking to God. Like, that's probably where we would start, is talking to God. But today, we're actually going to start on the other end of prayer, which is listening to God. Listening is an aspect of prayer that we oftentimes neglect.

Prayer is a conversation. There's a, there's a back and forthness to it. If you're like me, the talking part of prayer, that's easy. You can come up with all sorts of things to pray about, all sorts of concerns and health issues and desires and guidance and all of these things. We don't have any shortage of things that we can pray about.

And so we don't struggle with the talking part. It's the listening part that we oftentimes struggle with. And I think that there's a couple of reasons why we have a hard time listening in prayer. For starters, it's just kind of a weird concept, isn't it? Can we be honest about that?

Like talking to someone that we can't see feels strange enough, but, but there are special places for people who hear him talk back. We question that. And so this idea of hearing God's voice, it starts to tip Matt's weird meter for some of us. But it seems that this is an important part of prayer that our Heavenly Father wants us to understand because he desires this two way relationship with us. He desires to speak into our lives, to lead us.

I think another reason why we have a hard time listening in prayer is because it can oftentimes be difficult to quiet our hearts and our minds long enough to hear the still small voice of God. And that passage that Quentin read to start our service this morning. Just like it's hard to hear someone in a noisy restaurant, it can be, it can be hard to hear God with all of the noise in our life. And there's a lot of noise from, from activities, busy schedules, our calendars. There's noise coming at us from media, social media, news, television.

There's, there's all of this noise coming at us. Most of us have a difficult time quieting our hearts because of all that noise. God's voice just gets absorbed into the chaos and we, we miss it. But then let's say that we're able to push through the weirdness of it all. And there's this desire in us truly to hear God's voice.

And then we quiet our hearts enough to be able to get into the space where we can hear that still, small voice. We've done all of that. How do we know that it's God that we're hearing and not some, you know, undigested bit of beef like Scrooge says when he Sees his old friend Marley. There's a show on Netflix, maybe you've seen it, called Is it Cake? Is it Cake?

And the premise is expert bakers create hyper realistic cakes that look like everyday objects. And so there are things that they make that look like shoes. There are cakes that look like hamburgers. There's even a cake that looks like a roll of toilet paper. And then a panel of three celebrity ish judges are shown each cake alongside of real objects.

And they have to guess which one is real and which one is cake. Careful. And so we actually reached out to a local baker and asked them to bake a cake that looks like some of my favorite books. And it's pretty incredible. And in the show, Mikey Davis, who's the host, goes through all of these items and you don't know is it cake or is it the real thing?

Until he cuts it. I'm just kidding. It's books. But, like, our budget numbers are looking much better, but they're not that good. Like, we can't afford that kind of cake.

Thank you, my lovely assistants, for. She ate that for a cheesy illustration. But here's. Here's the point there. There are some of these cakes that do really look incredibly realistic.

It kind of messes with your perception. But here's the secret of the show. Like, yes, the bakers are. Are gifted, but. But so are the producers.

They keep the judges at a pretty far distance away from the cake, so they can't get close to it and inspect and see what is real and what is cake. The room is kind of dark, so they can't see them clearly. They use for tv, they use the wide shots and kind of quick little angles. They even turn the things to hide imperfections. And they do all of this because they know the closer you get, the clearer it becomes.

The closer you get to the items, the clearer it becomes if it is real or if it is cake. And that's what discernment means. As we talk about hearing the voice of God and discerning the voice of God, discernment is the ability to judge well. It's the ability to separate what is real from what is fake. A discerning person is able to cut through the noise and everything coming at them so that they can hear what they need to hear and move in the direction that they need to move.

And so when it comes to prayer, the discerning person knows the closer you get to the Lord, the clearer his voice is going to become. The closer you get to him, the easier it is to discern his voice. In John 10, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd. Jesus refers to himself as the. As the good Shepherd.

And oftentimes in this analogy, you know, we're given the label as sheep. And that's a little bit of a demeaning term. It's accurate in a lot of ways, but especially in our culture, people have kind of weaponized that word sheep to describe someone who just blindly follows and doesn't really have any agency, doesn't think on their own. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. Jesus is using this analogy to paint a picture of his tenderness towards us.

Calling himself the Good shepherd is him taking responsibility for our care, for our protection, taking responsibility for where we are going and what we are doing, our provision. And it's interesting that he uses this analogy because sheep are able to discern the voice of their shepherd. You can have a group of sheep from several different flocks, and a shepherd can go far away and even just whistle. And the sheep that belong to him will move towards him because they know his voice. They know even his whistle.

And if it's not him, they'll turn or they'll stay. They know the voice of their shepherd. They're able to discern what is true, what is theirs, and what is not. And Jesus puts it like this in verse 27. Listen to the relational language he uses here.

My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. They listen to his voice. They hear it, they're familiar with it. He says, I know them, I care for them.

He goes, they know them by name. There's an intimacy in their relationship. And they follow me. They move in my direction. And so everyone who is under the care and protection of Jesus is able to hear and discern his voice and follow him.

And so how do we do this? Go ahead and pull out that card for today. And I just want to quickly, again, short sermon. I want to quickly share three ways that you can hear God's voice and discern if it is actually him or if it's cake, like, if it's fake. So the first thing that you'll see on there is meditate on Scripture.

And this is really where it starts. God's Word is the primary way that he speaks to us. Which is why, I mean, I keep going back to that first sermon that Matt preached for us of 2025. It's why we have to be rooted in God's Word. It is the primary way in which God speaks to us.

And he speaks through His Word as we prayerfully go through it, as it, as we absorb it, as we're reading, we're praying, Lord, teach me, what do you want me to see here? And he speaks to us. He speaks into our life. Maybe there's a struggle that we're going through or direction that we're looking for. So often, not every time, but so often, God has spoken to me through His Word, illuminated something that I'm struggling with in my life as I spend time in His Word.

But he also reminds us of His Word when we pray. That's why we hide God's Word in our heart. Yes, so that we can follow Him. But then there are also times that maybe we're praying about something and God will just bring something up from His Word, a memory from His Word. I'll see something somewhere, and it's like the exact word that I needed for whatever it is that I'm going through or struggling through God.

God uses His Word to speak to us. And Scripture is the primary way that we hear God's voice, but it also helps us discern his voice. Like if God tells you something that is. That is not in here or maybe even contradicts something that is in here, I'm telling you, it's probably not the voice of God that you heard. Anything that God speaks to us today in prayer will always line up with what God has spoken before.

And so the discerning question for this is, does this align with what God has already said? If we hear God speak something to us and we're wondering, is this real? One of the great discerning question that I ask myself, you can ask is, does this align with what God has already said? Is it in line with God's word, or does it veer off from the guidance that he has already given us? All right, second thing, seek the Holy Spirit's guidance.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit lives in those who follow him, that. That he guides us to the truth. His word is truth. The Spirit will bring us a conviction of what we need to do. Or maybe if we make a decision, he gives us peace, that, yes, this is the right direction to go.

The Spirit will sometimes even make us feel a little restless. He'll stir us up into action and point us into the right direction. Maybe we'll be praying about something and we'll. And like Quinn had even said earlier, we'll say, man, something needs to be done about this. And the Spirit will prompt in our heart, yeah, something does need to be done about it.

Go do it. He'll move us into action. And the Holy Spirit helps us become more like Jesus in our attitude and in our actions. And so as we pray and we feel a prompt from the Holy Spirit to stop or to start or to see something through, the discerning question is, is this something Jesus would do? And if it is, then do it.

And if it doesn't seem like it, then maybe keep seeking guidance. A general rule of thumb is that if you're feeling prompted to do something that Jesus would do, you're not going to go wrong by doing it. Third point is listen to wise counsel.

So many times in my life, God has spoken through the wisdom of fellow believers. Sometimes it's because I've. I've asked them to, like, hey, can we go grab coffee? Can we get lunch? I'm trying to process something through and I'll explain it.

And they'll just kind of pause and say, have you ever thought about this? And sometimes someone will just send me a text out of the blue, like, hey, just kind of was thinking about you praying this over you today. And I'll look at it. I'm like, oh, wow, that's exactly what I needed. Thank you.

Or I'll look at it and be like, I don't know what that is. And then a couple of days later, oh, that's what it is. All right. God speaks through his people. And sometimes we seek that wisdom and sometimes, sometimes they say something and it connects the dots of something that we have already been praying about.

And so wise and godly friends help us hear God's voice, but. But they also help us discern God's voice. There have been times where I'm not sure which direction to go and I'll lay it out and a godly friend will help me figure out my next step. And so the discerning question is, do other godly people in my life affirm what I'm hearing? Do they sense the same thing?

Or do they have a little check in their spirit that maybe I need to pay attention to? And so these are three ways, and we just kind of blew right through them real quickly. I want to let you know, next Sunday during the 11 o'clock service, Matt Nussbaum is going to be doing a deeper dive into this topic. He's going to be starting these grow workshops, and we're going to see what the rhythm looks like. It might be once a month, but it's just kind of practical spirituality for ordinary people like us.

And this first workshop that he's going to do next Sunday again, during the 11 o'clock service in the fireside room. It's called Hear and Respond Learning how to have a Conversational Friendship with Jesus. And so if you want to go deeper into this topic, you don't want to miss that workshop. Okay, let's go ahead and put this into practice. Again, we are going to embrace the awkward together.

So everyone just go ahead and get comfortable. Put your feet on the floor, take a couple of deep breaths, relax your jaw a little bit. And you might be sitting there going, I ain't gonna do this. And that's fine. It's fair.

You don't have to. I know it's. It's a little weird. Maybe this isn't what you came to church for. But again, what we believe is that if we practice these prayers in here, we might be more likely to put them into practice out there.

So we want to create a moment to just sit in silence, sit in the quiet. Just listen. Listen to it. The Lord may be saying to us, listen for that, that still, small voice.

And so, Lord, in these quiet moments, would you speak to us?

We are listening sa quiet and let you speak through the silence. Here I am.

So what was that time like for you? Did the Lord use it to speak anything to you? Was it difficult to focus? Maybe some anxiety? You had a hard time relaxing?

Or maybe it was the most relaxing part of your week. Might be the Lord speaking to you. You need more of this in your life.

Did your mind go to a friend that you need to reach out to? Someone who hurt you in quiet moments? I know oftentimes my mind goes to the things that I regret I wish I could do over.

Maybe the Lord is putting those things on our heart because he wants to do something in us and motivated us to go out and do something because of it. Did your mind go to your to do list your laundry? These could be ways that God is like, hey, invite me into the everyday moments of your life. I want to meet you there. Not.

Not just in here, not just when things are quiet. I want to give you a rest even in the midst of the noise. You know, all throughout Scripture, we see that God is speaking. Speaking. He is speaking through his word.

He is speaking through his spirit. He is speaking through his people. The question about prayer is not, does God speak? The question is, are we listening? And maybe today he wants you to listen.

He is convicting you of something. He is guiding you somewhere. Or, or maybe he's just inviting you to draw closer to him. The best way that we can respond to his voice is very simple. Listen and obey.

Listen and follow. And maybe for you, that first step of following is surrendering your life to the God who loves you so much that he sent Jesus, the God who loves you so much. He wants a relationship with you that you experience, experience in prayer, that you experience in community, that you experience through His Holy Spirit living in you. We're going to have people around the room with lanyards that would love to talk to you about what it means to surrender your life to Jesus. We're going to have a baptism at the 11 o'clock service.

If you want to take that step, man, we invite you to do that today. We're also going to go now into a time of communion where we remember and reflect on the clearest message that God has ever spoken to us in. And it's through His Son, Jesus. Jesus who lived, who died and who is risen for us. His body was given, for us.

His blood was poured out. And through his sacrifice, he calls us into a life of grace and freedom and relationship with Him. And so, as we take communion today, let it be more than just a ritual. Let this be a quiet moment where you truly listen. You truly say, God, thank you for this gift.

What are you saying to me? Where are you leading me? Take this time to surrender for the first time, or maybe again to trust and to commit to following the voice of God. So God, thank you for the way that you talk to us, the way you meet us in our everyday lives. May we be open to hearing more of you.

In Jesus name, amen.