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We All have Need…So Ask
By Pastor Michael McPherson
Part 5 of an 8 Part Series
I.
Introduction: I like to begin each sermon with a reminder of the
importance of getting ready to receive the Word of God. As you read these
questions, realize the conditions that are required for the Word of God to
produce fruit in your life.
a.
Who believes they will hear the Word of God today?
b.
Who is ready to have the Holy Spirit teach them?
c.
Who has come to humbly receive God’s Word today?
d.
Who is ready to put the Word you hear today into practice?
e.
If you allow God to enable you and to help you to do these things,
His Word will produce much fruit in your life
II.
Before we begin today’s lesson, let us look at what we have learned
in parts one through four of this series.
a.
Without abiding in fellowship with Jesus we can do nothing
worthwhile.
b.
One way to help maintain this type of fellowship is by Asking,
Seeking, and Knocking (A.S.K.)
c.
We need to ask and keep on asking.
i.
We are indigent on our own and prayer needs to be the foundation of
everything we do.
d.
We need to seek and keep on seeking.
i.
We are not supposed to seek after things; we are supposed to keep
seeking to “See the King”.
ii.
In other words, we are supposed to keep seeking after God’s rule in
our lives.
1.
Remember there is a difference between submitting to God’s rules and
submitting to God’s rule.
2.
Submitting to God’s rules means trying to obey a bunch of external
laws.
3.
Submitting to God’s rule means personally listening to God in every
decision.
4.
Rules are external guides that may be helpful but cannot make us
fruitful.
5.
Submitting to God’s rule in every decision is what makes us fruitful.
6.
Even “spiritualized rules” are still rules and do not help us because
the laws are perfect and we are not.
7.
One of the hardest parts of seeking God’s rule is hearing His voice.
8.
We can seek God’s rule by hearing His voice through sign and wonders,
the Bible, circumstances, the Church and through prayer.
9.
God is speaking, are you listening?
III.
Communication is a delicate process.
a.
Take for example the following sentence: “I did not say he stole the
bike”.
b.
By using the same sentence and merely stressing different words
(intonation), we can communicate very different things.
i.
I did not say he stole the bike. - Meaning: I did not say he
illegally took the bike.
ii.
I did not say he stole the bike. - Meaning: Somebody may have
said he stole the bike, but it wasn’t me.
iii.
I did not say he stole the bike. - Meaning: I may have
indicated he stole the bike, but I never said it.
iv.
I did not say he stole the bike. - Meaning: I said he stole
something, but it wasn’t the bike.
v.
I did not say he stole the bike. - Meaning: I said somebody
stole the bike, but I did not say he did it.
c.
From one sentence, we could have several different meanings.
i.
If it is this hard to understand people we can see, how much harder
is it to understand a God we cannot see.
ii.
If it is this hard to understand people to whom we can relate, how
much harder is it to understand a God whose ways are not our ways.
d.
We see this type of misunderstanding what God has said throughout the
Bible.
i.
Whether it is Sarah thinking God’s promised child would come through
Hagar (Gen 16:1-4) or Peter thinking the Messiah should not have to suffer
(Mt 16:21-23); throughout Scripture we find people who heard from God but
completely missed what God was trying to say.
ii.
It is easy for people to hear from God and misunderstand what He is
really trying to say.
IV.
Communication problems are not the only thing that makes hearing from
God difficult; we also have to contend with the Great Deceiver.
a.
Satan is called the Father of Lies
b.
Lies are natural to him. (John 8:44)
c.
The truth of the matter is that Satan is a great liar that is capable
of deceiving Christians.
2 Cor 11:3
3 But [now] I am fearful, lest that even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his
cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and
sincere and pure devotion to Christ. AMP
d.
The word “beguiled” is a Greek word that literally means “all works”.
e.
The word implies trying anything to trick someone.
f.
Satan will do whatever he has to do to trick you.
g.
This includes acting like God.
i.
Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).
1.
Just because you do not see him visibly, does not mean that Satan is
not trying to imitate God in your life.
2.
He can look like God, sound like God, act like God.
a.
This is why we are told not to believe every spirit, but to test the
spirits (1 Jn 4:1)
3.
He will do whatever he has to do to fool you.
ii.
Scripture says he will perform sign and wonders in an attempt to
deceive Christians. (Mark 13:22)
1.
“Signs” is a Greek word that means a supernatural indication.
a.
Have you ever thought you heard from God because you saw a sign?
b.
Not all supernatural signs are from God.
c.
We should not listen to every “burning bush” we come across.
d.
You can open yourself to great deception by trying to determine if
you have heard from God by only looking for miraculous signs.
e.
It is possible Satan planted the lie in your mind and then created
the supernatural sign to hook you like a fish caught on a fishing lure.
2.
“Wonder” is a Greek word meaning omen (portent or sign of the
future).
a.
Satan can even try to fool you by predicting the future.
b.
Even if a word of prophecy seems to come true, does not necessarily
mean that it came from God.
i.
Remember the child in Acts 16 who had a spirit of divination?
ii.
The Bible warns us that many false prophets have gone into the world (1 Jn
4:1).
iii.
Satan can have strategies of prophecy that he uses to deceive.
V.
Misunderstanding God and Satan acting as an imposter are not the only
two obstacles we have in trying to seek God’s will.
a.
A third great obstacle we encounter is our own heart.
b.
Our very hearts have turned away from seeking God.
Ps 53:2-3
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are
any who understand, who seek God. 3 Every one of them has turned aside; They
have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, no, not one.
c.
In the natural, everyone has turned aside and does not seek God.
i.
Our fleshly nature lusts against the things of the Spirit of God.
(Gal 5:17)
ii.
Our own human nature has been corrupted by sin and does not seek to
submit to God.
iii.
By nature we seek only to serve ourselves.
d.
Is this true even of Christians? Yes!
i.
To the extent we have not allowed God to change us, we are still
selfish and corrupt.
1.
Christians can ask for things to be spent on selfish pleasures (James
4:3)
2.
Christians can still think using self-seeking, carnal wisdom (James
3:14-15)
e.
What makes our selfishness especially dangerous when trying to hear
from God is that we are good at deceiving ourselves.
Jer 17:9
9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can
know it?
i.
Our heart is naturally deceitful and on our own we cannot know it.
ii.
Because we do not know our own heart, and it is great at tricking us.
iii.
How many times have we knowingly or unknowingly deceived ourselves or
lied against the truth because our hearts twisted what God said.
iv.
Even before sin, man had a problem twisting what God said.
1.
Look at Eve in the garden.
2.
First, let us note what Eve thought God had said.
Gen 3:2-3
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of
the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest
you die.'"
v.
Here Eve twisted what God had really said.
1.
We find what God truly spoke in Gen 2.
Gen 2:16-17
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden
you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
vi.
Note in Genesis 3 Eve misquotes God by deleting the word “freely”.
1.
Often our hearts will omit parts of what God has said.
2.
It may seem like a small deal, but in Eve’s quotes she removes God’s
loving generosity.
3.
Our deceitful hearts can omit what we do not want to hear.
a.
Sometimes we don’t just delete words, we delete paragraphs.
b.
Have you ever had the Lord try to speak to you about an issue?
c.
Have you ever convinced yourself you weren’t really hearing from God?
d.
Have you ever ignored His whispers and made Him raise His voice?
i. I
have. And it hurt!
ii.
If God is speaking with you, do not let your heart convince you He is not.
iii.
If God is speaking with you, do let your heart mute Him.
vii.
Note in also in Gen 3:3 she adds the phrase “nor shall you touch it”.
1.
God never said anything about not touching the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.
2.
Often our hearts will add to what God has said.
3.
We “put words” in God’s mouth that He never said.
4.
Our deceitful hearts can add words to what God has said.
viii.
The other day I was praying for some friends who were going through
some trouble.
1.
Before I pray for someone, I usually spend some time trying to seek
how God wants me to pray.
2.
I felt an impression to pray for protection.
3.
As I started to pray for protection from the people who were causing
my friends trouble, the Lord stopped me and showed me to pray for the gift
of His goodness to be poured upon my friends’ lives.
a.
He brought the Scripture to mind that it was God’s goodness that
brings people to repentance.
4.
As I prayed the Lord showed me that even though I was trying to seek
His will, it was my love for my friends that moved me to pray for
protection.
a.
I was moved to pray for what my carnal mind thought was right.
b.
God was moved to do what was best for my friends.
i.
God did not want to protect my friends from these harassing attacks.
ii.
Instead He wanted His goodness to lead my friends to a repentance that would
release true grace and protection.
5.
I had good intentions, but my heart almost deceived me with my good
intentions.
6.
Do not let your own heart corrupt what God is trying to say to you.
VI.
We can misunderstand God, Satan can deceive us, and our own hearts
can twist what God is saying.
a.
If it is this difficult to hear from God, can we truly learn to hear
His voice?
b.
Absolutely! Remember, we are promised if we seek and keep on seeking
we will find! (Mt 7:11)
VII.
As there are obstacles to hearing from God, there are also keys to
hearing God.
a.
Remember, God may speak to us in many ways: signs and wonders, the
Bible, circumstances, the Church, and prayer.
b.
But there is only one way to get to the truth of what He is saying.
John 16:13
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears
He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
VIII.
Note the phrase “all truth”.
a.
This is not saying that you will know everything.
i.
The Bible tells us we see the spiritual as if through a dim mirror
and that we know in part. (1 Cor 13:12)
ii.
What this Scripture in John 16 is saying is that all of the truth
that we know, has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
iii.
You have no comprehension of the truth of God without the aid of the
Holy Spirit.
b.
The Holy Spirit is the only way to truly know what God is saying.
i.
He is the only one who can reveal the truth that God is trying to
communicate through signs and wonders.
ii.
He is the only one who can properly wield the Word of God to
correctly apply it to your situation.
iii.
He is the only one who can tell us what the heart of God is trying to
say to us through circumstances.
iv.
He is the only one who can enable and empower people in the Church to
prophecy or give a word of knowledge.
v.
He is the only one who can guide you into the truth through prayer.
c.
The Spirit is absolutely essential to guide you into all truth.
i.
You may not understand God, but the Holy Spirit has a complete
understanding of what God is saying.
ii.
Satan may be able to deceive you, but he cannot deceive the Spirit of
Truth.
iii.
Your heart may be able to lie to you, but your heart is an open book
to the Spirit of God.
d.
No matter how God is trying to speak to you, you need the Spirit to
guide you into the truth of what God is saying.
IX.
We must not only be guided into the knowledge of the truth, but we
must also be guided into the application of the truth.
Col 1:9-10
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray
for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing
in the knowledge of God;
a.
Note that Paul prayed that the knowledge of God’s will would be in
all wisdom and understanding.
i.
In other words, Paul did not just want them to know God’s will.
ii.
He wanted them to know God’s will in context of God’s wisdom and
spiritual understanding.
iii.
God not only wants you to know His will, He also wants you to know
how He wants you to apply His will to your life.
iv.
God wants you to have knowledge of His will WITH wisdom and
understanding.
b.
It is not always enough to know the simple truth.
i.
I can tell you that bacteria is spread on fomites (little tiny pieces
of debris)
ii.
This knowledge in and of itself is not necessarily helpful.
iii.
However if in addition to this truth I give you the wisdom and
understanding of how to apply the truth, this simple truth can be used to
improve your life.
1.
For example, since bacteria travels on fomites, if you wash your
hands and remove the dirt, you will also remove the bacteria.
2.
Research has shown that removing these fomites from your hands by
washing them can be the number one thing you can do to keep yourself from
getting sick.
3.
This is why we wash our hands to remove dirt.
4.
This is why God told the Children of Israel to wash their hands
thousands of years before modern medicine figured it out.
iv.
The truth about fomites in and of itself did you little good.
1.
But when I also give you the wisdom and understanding to apply it,
this truth can do a lot to keep you healthy.
2.
Similarly, knowledge of God’s will needs to be received in His wisdom
and understanding.
3.
Knowledge of God will is only helpful if you can apply the truth to
accomplish God’s will in God’s way.
c.
It is not enough to know that Harry is in captivity to pornography.
i.
You need to know what God wants you to do with the truth.
ii.
Did God reveal the truth to you so you can intercede, confront him,
withdraw fellowship or something else?
iii.
Your first instinct may not always be right.
1.
Passive people will want to intercede, aggressive people will tend to
confront, and judgmental people may lean toward withdrawing.
2.
Scripture can be used to back any of these decisions up.
iv.
It is up to you to seek to find God’s rule for this situation.
v.
It is up to you to use His knowledge in His wisdom and understanding.
X.
God may not tell you everything, but He will tell you what you need
to know.
a.
Remember don’t try to create more information than He has given you.
b.
Remember, don’t let your own mind add to or take away from what God
is trying to tell you.
c.
Don’t find a message in the static.
i.
In the old radios when you were tuning in-between two stations, all
you would hear were random hisses, pops, and whirs.
ii.
The static held no special message.
iii.
It was just the emptiness between being tuned into the correct
frequency.
iv.
In the emptiness between hearing from God, don’t try to make out a
message when there is none.
v.
Don’t let your own mind or Satan convince you that you heard
something when really it was nothing but static.
d.
Let God reveal to you whatever He wants to reveal and then walk in
that revelation with the wisdom and understanding that He gives you.
Lesson Summary:
- Hearing from God can be difficult.
- On our own, we tend to misunderstand what God is
saying.
- On our own, Satan tries to deceive us and can even
use signs and wonders.
- On our own, our selfish and deceitful hearts can
twist what God is saying.
- This is why we absolutely need the Holy Spirit to
guide us into the truth and application of what God is saying.
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