Hearing God, Week 1

DeSonte Cole | September 1, 2024

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Transcription

What's up, family? How we doing? Good. Can we make some noise on the ninth anniversary coming up? Well, we can do better than that. Can we make some noise? Nine years. There we go. I love it. I want to let you know this. It is going to be a booming Sunday next week as you see. So if you're used to leaving a little later, I implore you leave a little earlier. You never know what may happen. And we know this Dallas traffic may creep up on you even on it's a Sunday, but football season is starting, so you never know what may happen. So somebody said, come on. Bless God. All right, well go ahead and leave a little bit earlier. We have a very special element right at the top of service that you do not want to miss, okay? Make sure you're here.

And while we're here doing that, I want to do just a couple of things. Our online family, I want to say thank you for joining in with us, tuning in with us. And if you're a first time guest here in the room, we love you. Thank you for hanging out with us. Can we make some noise for both of them? Hallelujah. And while we're doing that, can we celebrate our leaders, pastor Tim, Janice, we love you. Zara, Zion, Zane. We love y'all. We love y'all. Love y'all, love y'all. And I'm going to stop cause I'm going to start crying, but we love y'all and it's good to have great leadership, so thank you that you are here and we're rested, but we're going to get into something that you see behind me. You heard the flow of the bumper. Got you. Jumping a little bit.

We're going to dive into hearing. God, I'm excited because we get to go into this series together as a family, so the children all the way up to groups. If you want to get plugged into community right after service, I implore you to do so, but we get to study the same content together for the next few weeks. Is that exciting? Anybody? Yeah. Alright. Turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, put your seatbelt on. Seatbelt on. We're going somewhere, going somewhere. Make sure they put it on. If they didn't, it's okay. Hopefully they'll put it on by the end of the service, but we going to ride together. Amen. I'm going to give us our anchor scripture for the series. The title of the message is God Speaks and the Anchor Scripture for it. We're going to start in John chapter number 10, verse 27.

I'll be reading out the NIV. It says, my sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. One more time. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. Sometime ago there was a man that we got to see in action. He walked around in cities and out of cities, in buildings and in the outskirts, sometimes in nature, and he was asking one question, five words as he was doing. So he was making a claim and a statement to all the people around him that he placed a high value on premium level communication. Not only that, he prioritized it and said that no matter what, I believe so much in what I'm doing, my communication is going to surpass yours. Now as he went from place to place, and even as you're thinking about who is this pastor talking about?

As I'm trying to correlate it in my mind, he had that five word phrase and it was everywhere. And ever since 22 years ago that commercial aired, everybody has the same impact. You ready for the words? He was in all black and he said, can you hear me now? Yeah. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now See somebody. Y'all thought we was talking about Jesus, but I'm talking about the Verizon man and to this day, I still don't know what his name is unless I Google it, but the impact of the company let me know that they placed a priority on communication. They placed a value on communication and connectivity. Now, if you've had great experience with Verizon, God bless you. I love you. So have I. No matter if you have a green bubble or a blue bubble, oh, I didn't mean to start this early, y'all.

We family. I'm sorry. Whether you have a green bubble or a blue bubble, connection matters. Can we agree with that? Yes. See, the claim was to differentiate themselves and they did it in an effective way and I'm so grateful that Verizon is amazing. Sometimes when I have to pay that bill, I look at it and say, what are y'all doing? But outside of that, I still have connection everywhere I go and Verizon is cool and all, but I'm glad that we serve a savior. We serve a God who wants to communicate with us. See, ever since the inception of time, when we see it in Genesis, the creation narrative before anything happens, he was communicating. He spoke, he said he called with blessings. These are the things that happened right before he created man. You would know some of these. Let there be light. That was the first thing, right?

There's some more that we go through in the creation narrative. I implore you to reread it again and see just how many times over a dozen more, namely 15 times that he speaks before he gets to the creation of man. That lets me know that he puts a premium on communication. Not only that, he still communicates. You mean the creator of the world? Uncreated holy still wants to communicate. Yes, he does. So what do we do with this? I'm so glad you asked. We're going to dive into this over the next couple of weeks in hearing God, and I want you to understand one thing, I'm grateful that he communicates and he gives us a promise by his word that his words won't return unto him. Empty. Scripture tells us that. And I'm so grateful that I can rely on his word that gives me promise and provision. His word gives me challenge and also gives me an opportunity to be in communion with him because he does so since the beginning of time and is still doing it now and I'm grateful that we get to experience him. Anybody grateful about that in the room? Amen. Alright, let's dive just a little bit deeper. Have you ever heard these phrase,

God spoke to me.

You may have even said it yourself. What do we do with that?

What you mean? God we talking about, I know this 11 ain't, we can talk, we talking about God.

Like God, God, he spoke to you. What's the first question we asked? Well, what did he say exactly? What did he say? We've heard this and we lay it out. But let me paint the picture again. The sovereign creator of the universe speaks and as he speaks, it is imperative for us to do one thing. Listen, somebody said it. I love it. Was y'all here for service?

I'm just kidding.

Listen, and as we listen, there's a couple different dynamics and we'll build onto that within the next couple of weeks altogether as a family. But the biggest thing we have to understand is he listens or he speaks and if we listen, we have to write this component down. If you're taking notes, write this down. If you're not taking notes, write this down. The better we know God, the better we can hear God. The better we know God, the better we can hear God. We already understand that He communicates and he loves us so and he spent time even in the garden, walking, connecting with his family, speaking to them, give them directives, walking in the cool of the garden. And even today since the creation of man, he's still speaking, our question then becomes what do we do with it? And can we go just a step deeper?

Yes. Are we listening?

See, he cares for us deeply in connection and communion with his people. And this is for the intended purpose for us to know that he wants to strengthen our relationship. He wants to develop our relationship. He wants to give us insight and access and encourage us and direct us and lead us. This is all the beginning of time goes through for us and it says we're able to listen and hear from him because he wants to develop something out of us. This is great news and we can shout and we can clap and we can get excited and we can even ask questions, but we can understand that there's also a pressure with that. There's a pressure with that. There's a weight with that because what am I doing with this? Then naturally we go into the how, why y'all know the questions, especially my teachers in the room. We ask these questions, but what do we do with it? I'll tell you what we do. We wrestle in the tension of it because we understand that he is saying something. Then it becomes what are we going to do with what he said? We got to walk this thing. And if you have those questions and you have that pressure and you're wrestling in that talking tension, it's okay, we're in good company. You want to know why? Let's talk about Abraham and Sarah.

The promise was still fulfilled even though there's a couple of detours and Sarah even laughed, but the promise was still fulfilled. Can we talk just a minute maybe about Moses? He was given a command. You going to go do this for me and it's going to work out and I got it for you on prayer phrasing and read it for yourself, study for yourself. But as we're walking this narrative, we understand that he still speaks. Not only did he speak, he gave him a command and told him, I'm going to send somebody with you to help you just in case you didn't remember that what I'm going to say is going to be accomplished in your life. Why? Because his word does not come to us and to himself empty. So then the question becomes, well, how can I lay in and lean in on that?

We lean in on his word. We lean in on concepts of understanding who he is in a relational aspect. Since he's highly relational and he loves us, the better we know God, the better we can hear him. So we have to place a premium on our relationship. See, we can even talk about Gideon who was hiding in the wine press, nah, this isn't for me. I'm the weakest one in my clan. He said, no, you are a mighty man of ow and I've called you to do something. What are you going to do with it? So it's okay if we're wrestling in the tension of questions and having these thoughts and having these answers, but God is still faithful enough to say, I love you, I'm communing with you and I'm willing to invest in my connection with you by speaking. See, listening and hearing. They're often used synonymously, but they're different in terms of their cognitive pathway from mind to movement. Let me walk this for you real slow or my parents make some noise in the room.

So y'all had that too, huh? Because when we were talking about hearing and listening, my mind automatically went to me asking my son, did you hear me? Then if they say, yeah, kind of or you see a blank look over their face, step two becomes the next level. Are you listening? Listening. So they're often used synonymously, but there's difference in this pathway because the pathway has to maneuver over half engaged ears and fully engaged activities. We have to go in between. I'm hearing you, but if I'm hearing you that can go in one ear and out the other while I'm playing with my dinosaurs. Don't worry. That's just in my house outside of the dinosaurs and then I have to ask, are you intently listening? Because if I'm listening, that means I'm focused in, I'm locked in. I'm hearing you at another level and I'm comprehending what you want to say or what you have to say at a full scope. There's a difference and one I love. Have y'all ever been walking with a friend and it may have been in an unfamiliar area and you're walking, you say, Hey, wait, did you hear that? Some of y'all, some of y'all that was last week. Girl, why you got me out here walking in these trails?

It does the same thing. We go from hearing, but then level two is wait, stop, listen now listen. Pastor told us a couple weeks ago, if you see him run, I'm running running. You don't have to ask me the question twice. I heard it the first time and I'm running. You can stay there and debate with whatever you hear. I'm going because I know that in listening I have to be engaged at another level. Right? Good. Let's go here and talk about insight on God knowing just how much he places a premium on communication. Genesis chapter three verses eight through 13 in the English standard version raises this and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God of among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave me uhoh. Wait a minute, the woman who you gave me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So now we have to wrestle in the tension of not only is the God of creation communicating, we now have to insert a cunning serpent. Just a few scriptures above we see that as God has given commands of what they're supposed to do, they always have the encapsulated bold, the Lord God.

Then when the serpent comes in, he asks, did God really say that? See, what happens is when you hear something verse when you're listening to something, you'll miss your covering and relational aspect as the enemy comes in and tries to pull things out of your narrative while you're questioning the attention of what he said, I can't walk around just saying God, if he gave me a command, Lord God, I've got to listen at all aspects, and I know you've heard this before and probably can finish this statement. If he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all, at all, so that means I have to listen intently and communion with him because he's Lord God. That's why I go back to the phrase, the better I know God, the better I can hear from him. I walk with him in intentionality. I talk with him in intentionality and I help us.

Holy Ghost. I know why the saints say and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me that I am his own. Why? Because that lets me know that I have a relational capacity with my savior. No matter what level I'm in, I can hear and I can listen to what he's saying and what he's calling me to do, and I can lean on his promise because his word will not come back to himself. Boy, that lets me know that God is not concerned with your comfort level. He is concerned if you're making cognitive pathways to listen and hear for what he's trying to do in your life. There's a difference between listening and hearing. Let me walk this last week, we played this game as a staff and you may have seen it. I told him yesterday, be careful you may end up in a sermon.

Our group leaders know this. We played this game as a staff, highly competitive. We're going to do it in just a minute. I know y'all laughing. Highly competitive. There's this game. You've probably seen it. There's a facilitator there. He gives a command, he'll say head, you touch your head, he'll say shoulders. You touch your shoulders, he'll say these, you touch your knees. Then he'll say cup, and you reach for this cup that's right in front of you and in the midst of other people around you and whoever has the cup, they keep going. They keep advancing, right? Everybody seen that game before? Have you played it? Yeah. Today you will stand up on your feet. Oh, here we go. Hearing and listening. Y'all thought we was just going to be real cute and sit down and work through church. It's going to be all right.

We going work this thing as a family today. Amen. So I'm going to be your facilitator, so when I give you the command, all you have to do is listen, right? Sound good? Yes. All right, here we go. Ready? Somebody say your I love that. I love it. Alright, here we go. Head, shoulders, knees, shoulders, knees, head cup. See y'all went to reach. Some of y'all went down. There is no cup. Congratulations. We all win. Hallelujah. Ain't that good. Take a seat, man. Whoever somebody really went down to get, I love it. I love it. That lets me know you're serious. Okay, serious. I love that Nick got real competitive. Let me tell you this. I'm telling you as a staff it got real competitive and yesterday we did it with our group leaders. It got competitive as well, but as we're walking through this, there's different levels of competition based on if you're locked in, and I'm a highly competitive person and I'm not going to tell you who won the game, but you may or may not be listening to him right now.

Pastor told us a couple weeks ago, if we going to do it, we do it to win, but as I was going through this transition from being an active participant in this game to watching our group leaders do it at our leaders rally, I started walking through layers. The first time I played it, it took me back because I had mild success as a athlete, emphasis on mild, but I spent time developing learning through drills, learning how to see what hand to ball, coordination to movement look like running from an adversary either being in terms of in pursuit of something or being pursued. These are the things that I went through as an athlete, so I spent time learning and developing those things and as I went to the first game with staff, I automatically locked back into that thing. My focus became different. I didn't care who was around me. I love y'all, but it's time to go. My focus and my intent became different because I've known what it's like to walk in connection and focus. Then I sat back and watched our group leaders play it

Hilarious.

Hey, shoulders, knees cut, everybody going, they laughing. We may or may not have had a broken nail. Maybe I ain't going to give y'all the S on that, but we're okay today. But what happened is as they were playing this game, I was looking at this in different levels and I said, well, I understand it in the natural sense, but what would this look like in the spirit

As I'm being connected to my mind automatically went from athlete preference and I said, I thank God that I have a father who can give me a command and can make sure that I'm listening intently that no matter what I'm doing, if I have to touch my head, maybe I have to check my head and see if my head is right in the line of what he's saying. If I have to touch my shoulders, maybe I have to touch my shoulders and see if I'm carrying too much weight that he never intended me to carry because he told me his low would be easy and his burden would be light. If I have to check my knees even though they hurt at 36, that means I got to stretch out and walk and do what I got to do, but it may not be about knees in the spirit.

Maybe it's the feet shout with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It's a spiritual thing because as I'm walking through this, not only am I checking my members, I'm seeing that things are around me in pursuit of what I'm trying to attain based on the command that the father gave me, and as I go in different levels, I look at football players and even now as they grow through different stages, I thank God that I can watch this in real time and they even have communication in the NFL y'all. What do you mean? You mean to tell me that the coach can stand on the sideline and communicate with the quarterback via inside of his helmet and what he does in the midst of 90,000 fans screaming aloud and we're praying for these cowboys yet and still this year I had to, I'm sorry.

What happens is even intently, the quarterback will even get to a place to where he has to cover his ears and intently listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, I mean the voice of his coach as he's going through life and to see as I'm navigating this field of play, there's an adversary that's trying to get what I have, but I'm trying to go somewhere. Paul would say it like this, I press toward the mark, okay, y'all read the Bible too, amen. I press toward the mark and as I'm going through this I have a father giving me commands. I'm understanding where I need to check in relation to where I'm going and I also have the Holy Spirit within me who's telling me if I got to go left, I can go left. If I got to go see I got a little bit left. If I got to go right, I can go right. If I got to spin and invade the enemy that's trying to confuse me hearing the voice of God in the first place, I can do so because his spirit is on the inside of me and I thank God because this gives me a relational capacity to know that the better I know God,

The better I can hear him. Can we go deeper? Let's talk about the real reason why there's tension in his talking. See, the real reason there's tension in his talking is you think you have a hearing problem but it's actually a hindrance problem. Let's talk about four things that hinder us from hearing the voice of God. Number one, noise and distractions. Number two, other voices being authoritative. Number three, cognitive dissonance. Lemme break that down. That is the feeling of shame or even guilt when the way you're believing doesn't align with the way you're walking.

Wrestling. Intention number four, enemy interference. We've just seen just these four in the creation narrative. We can search this all throughout scripture and see that there's always a distraction. There's always something pulling at you. There's always something to try to get you to second guess what the Lord has told you, but I'm here to encourage you today that the better we know God, the better we can hear God. As we walk through these series over the next few weeks, we're going to talk about how we get to hear him, how he speaks, but the first thing we have to make up in our mind with resolute attitude is that God speaks. We hear God through the person of Jesus. Let's go to John chapter one, verse one.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was Since the beginning of time the word has been going, the word has been speaking, the word has been developing and still continues to do so today, and what I love about the John narrative is that distinctive from the other synoptic gospels, John gives us the most accurate account of the description of the ministry of Jesus. Why? Because he was in close proximity to him. He picked up things in relational capacity that others did not see. That's what I love about the gospel of John. He's also the first one to let you know that in the word that word translates to Lagos, you guys have heard it and seen it's the way the word is revealed to humanity. That's the cool aspect about this. You mean to tell me that this whole time I got the living word walking with me, I got the living word living on the inside of me.

He's speaking and been speaking and will continue to speak and I have a piece of that sign me up, Jerry Jones, I need to get on the field or maybe it's signed me up in my neighborhood, I need to pray over some things. Maybe it's signed me up in this marriage. I need to speak life into this thing because God has given me something to speak over. Maybe it's signed me up with these kids. I know y'all always can I have, I won't Daddy, I need, how about this and it's a beautiful marriage, but I also can note that when he gives me the ability to encourage myself, I can speak life over them and tell them you are the head and not the tail you are above and not believe you are the lender and not the borrower. Daddy, I am the borrower. I need money.

We going to work there. He'll reveal it. What I also love about John is this gospel is the only gospel that gives us the 7:00 AM statements of Jesus and he gives us eight miracles that lets us know that Jesus is who he is. The young people say he was standing on business, he knew the assignment and never wavered from the assignment because he understood that I've got something to do and I'm not letting distractions. I'm not letting dissonance. I'm not letting enemy interference. I'm not letting nothing stop me and I'm going to walk through this process so that some people around me can understand when I go to accomplish this assignment they will be empowered to do the same.

He also lets us know that Jesus is revealed as the lamb of God and he gives us this tidbit that we just talked about, the inner ear in the helmet, the microphone letting us know how to communicate. He reveals to us the Holy Spirit. He names it. The para cleet translates to paracletus. Now, there's no real definition in terms of English's translation, but some of the words you can be found with this is comforter. Some of the words you may know him as is revealer some of the words you may know him as is advocate or helper or interpreter or witness. These are the words of the Holy Spirit that you have living on the inside of you, so the question doesn't become, can I hear God? The question is, am I listening to God? It doesn't navigate or mitigate any type of relational equity if I'm hearing him but not listening because the goal is to have communion, constant communion with him.

That means I have to walk with him. That means I have to talk with him. That means I have to spend time with him. That means I have to get with him in the quiet places. I see why David said he makes me lie down because sometimes I have to get still and understand that there's something for me to do, but I can only do that if I've eliminated all the distractions. I can only do that if I've gotten to a place where I'm truly listening to what God has for me. Let's go a little bit deeper, John verse one, verse 14, he hits us with a plot twist and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory, glory as the only son from the father full of grace and true so you mean to tell me He's speaking.

He was the word, he is the word, the living word, and he dwelt among us. He showed me the example of how to walk this thing outright. Yes, he did, and I'm so grateful that ever since the beginning he walked through, he put on this thing that we call flesh, walked through the scripture, showed us how to fulfill the assignment, what's the fulfillment of the law and said, yeah, I'm going to do something, but along the way I'm going to challenge somebody's authority and let them know that I place a value on communication and there's nothing that you can do that can stop me. Yes, you may try to trip me up was always Jesus was always trying to get tripped up by these people, but he couldn't and they couldn't trip him up. Why? Because he knew his assignment. He knew who he was and he could hear from his father and understand that I've got something to do.

There was nothing they could do in terms of dissonance and distraction that would knock him off his post because he knew I've got an assignment to fulfill and I am who I am who see you say sent me I am that I am meaning in every opportunity no matter what. As long as you're listening to the voice of God, I can understand, hear him and walk this thing outright. I am that I am. I know that as he's walking with me, he can empower me by his spirit because he walked all the way through, went to Calvary, understood that as he wrapped himself in flesh, he was fully human and fully divine and as he laid down his life because nobody could take it for you and for I, he let us know that I've got an assignment to do. Went down to death hell in the grave and said, yeah, I'll take these keys right from you, rose with all power on a Sunday and said, guess what?

I got something for you to do. Walk with the disciples and said In just a little while that helper will be here to help you walk this thing. The Holy Spirit came, he ascended and then they're standing in the offices of the first revival, I call it and asked and understanding, Hey, we heard the sound of a mighty Russian wind. Why? Because we were together. We were listening to the spirit connected and ready to do this thing and fulfill the mission that God has called us to. My question becomes, are you listening to that spirit? Are you intending to have that same power and realizing Jesus restored the brief communication between God and man? He made it possible for all of us to hear him and the only prerequisite is that we are his sheep. You mean to tell me I don't have to know all the spiritual depth of the scriptures?

Not yet. We'll grow in that together, but he just wants to know, are you my sheep? God speaks. Are we listening? We go down to John chapter 10, verse five. It says A stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. Y'all remember when you was a kid, your parents would tell you, Hey, don't talk to strangers. Still to this day, no matter how much they try to entice you with candy, I don't even know if they do that anymore. Help us nowadays. It might be a cell phone, right?

But a stranger's voice they will not follow. That means I have to be in close proximity not to be distracted. I know that he guides me, he leads me, he restores me. He provides the promise even through difficult situations at different levels, but I have to remind myself and ask myself continually, am I his sheep? We serve a good shepherd and I don't know about you, but if you've ever studied sheep, they're not the smartest animal. They're really not, but it takes guiding, directing and a good shepherd who says, not one will be lost. That's it. Doesn't matter how far you've gotten off path, doesn't matter how far you've been wrestling in this tension of hearing his voice and listening, not one will be lost and as he brings us into the fold or able to understand that we can hear, we can listen and we can obey. We'll walk through the mediums of what this looks like over the next few weeks, but the biggest encouragement I ask you is to know that God speaks. Are we listening? I would even scratch out that. Are we listening and say, God speaks so we need to listen.

I don't know about you, but we're in the most connected world that we've ever we've ever seen. Everything's fast, everything's instant. Everything's at my pace, my timeline. When was the last time we sat and asked the question, are we listening as we were approaching this and it still messes me up. Oh man. As we were approaching this study to get prepared to study this as a whole, the thing that sealed it for me was the Holy Spirit speaking through my daughter. Before school started, my family and I were sitting down getting ready to pray, and she looks up and she says, daddy, I heard God's voice and I start crying. I'm like, what do you mean? Tell me more. Unpack that for me. I can remember as a young man what hearing the voice of the Lord sounded like. She said, daddy, she said, he told me that third grade was going to be great, and so I'm weeping, Yoda's weeping. Kai's looking at us like we're crazy. Probably tried to shoot us with a spiderweb or something, I don't know, but two weeks later, no exaggeration, two weeks later, my son, five years old, we're getting ready to go through our routine and pray.

He says, daddy, I saw God, right? Oh my, my what? Unpack that for me. And he retracts that statement. He said, he said, actually, I heard God in my heart. Here comes a mind. Did it sound like this? I mighta chill. Let your brother have his moment right now. But he says, in my heart he told me that I could be good and he was with me and in that moment I said, I thank God that we are cultivating a place that they can learn to hear his voice, learn to listen, learn to grow and develop, and they could come to a place called home where they can hear the stories of our great shepherd. They can hear the stories of the creator of the universe talking to them and loving on them and guiding them through life. That way when they get older, they won't depart from it hopefully, and even if they do, we serve a shepherd that'll pull him right back on track. And my prayer for you today is that you understand that whatever situation you're dealing with, you can speak to it as God has empowered you and know this,

That what he speaks, he will perform, but it's up to us to hear it and to act on it, and we'll walk through this journey for the next few weeks learning the different mediums that he speaks through and ways, and what I love is we can anchor in as a family, whether it be in community, whether it be at your cubicle, whether it be at my favorite store, HEB, that's the Colorado in me coming out. I love that story, but we can walk and talk and do this thing together and we can rise up with boldness as the spirit of God gives us utterance to say, this is what the Lord said. Now test the Spirit by the spirit and it will align with scripture. We'll keep going through that, but we'll be able to understand that He does speak because he loves us and he's our shepherd, and in this moment I just want to have a reflective moment between you and God. I hear it speak to my heart. That's so good. It just for you to say, Hey, God, open my ears. Clean out my pathway of my half engaged activities, fully engaged activities and half engaged listening

To allow your spirit to speak to me, help me to receive it and to act on it.

Give that will bring new life words on the wings of the more my will fade away. Speak to my heart. Now are now speak to my heart. Holy Spirit, mehs of love to encourage me feeling my heart from despair, how you love me and care for me. Speak to my heart.

Speak to my heart. Give me your holy way. If I can care from you, then I'll know what to do. I won't go

alone.

I'll never go on my own. Just that your spirit guide me and let

Your word speak to my heart. If I can hear from you, I know what do I won't go. I'm never going my just to what?

As we stand to our feet, our altar teams will come down in a minute, but my encouragement to you is that you would pray that prayer this week as we get prepared to walk in hearing God together and as you walk out to literally do life with others in community, that that be your prayer. As you acknowledge and understand that he does speak and he intends to communicate with you, that we will shift our priorities to listen. Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for your word that does not return to you void. We thank you that you've empowered us with boldness and strength and that we have the capacity to hear from you in close relational equity, which is what you place a premium on. We thank you for already doing it, and we thank you for the victory that we already have as your sheep. Bless this people. Strengthen us all the more it is in the name of Jesus we pray and we say amen.