Hearing God, Week 5

Dr. Tim Rivers | September 29, 2024

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Can you put your hands together and give God praise for giving us access? Does anybody have access? I'm looking at about two or three people that'll testify that you have access. If you don't have access, you will. Before the service is over, all you need is the Holy Spirit. I had so much fun with that ATM, so many people asked me, where did you get that thing? Amazon didn't even know they made it, but I was like, God, I need an illustration. I'm so glad that you're here. This is your first time here with us at Embassy City. We want to say welcome, welcome, welcome. We're so glad that you're here, those that are joining us online, welcome to Embassy City Church. God is doing something special in and among us. Last week I want to celebrate a couple of wins Last week, so we've told y'all as we're doing this series, hearing God, we're doing it here on the weekends in the adult service, then our children's ministry is doing it as well.

All of our kids are going through it and then our groups are doing it as well. Well, last week and the kids' ministry in our elementary, Phil Hall, who's our elementary coordinator, was teaching and at the very end he did an invitation and 12 elementary children pray to receive Christ, come on, somebody to be making some noise. The best time for you to start is as you are a child. Isn't that amazing? That is so amazing. We believe that God doesn't just wait for you to go through hell to save you. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes the testimony is that he saved you from having to go through stuff. My God. Another big win from last week, we are passing out paper Bibles and last week we gave out 163 Bibles. Isn't that awesome? I just think that's so amazing. If you have your Bible with you, would you just stick it up in the air?

Come on now if you have a paper Bible, stick it up man. Look, see, I'm seeing all kinds of bibles that were handed out last week. That's what I'm talking about. I love that. And here's the thing, the reason why we're able to do this, I just want to highlight this, is because of your generosity. We believe as a church that God is a generous God and our culture here at embassy is that we practice generosity. We give as unto the Lord, not reluctantly or out of compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. When you practice generosity, you are taking part in changing somebody's life for eternity. This isn't a business, we're not not buying burgers When you invest in the kingdom of God, we as a church take it very seriously and the way we steward the finances of the church is we're always thinking God, how can we help people grow closer to you?

So thank you for all those who will practice generosity. Can you just give yourselves a hand? Thank you so much for that. Alright, so we've been in this series called Hearing God and this is our fifth week that we're in and I love talking about the word of God. We're going to move a little bit into some other topics, but I to, I can't overemphasize the importance of staying in the word of God. I just can't. I could spend 52 weeks out of the year talking about the word of God because the word of God would change your life. And the reason why we start with children is because we want to get the word into their hearts. You're never too young to start reading the word of God. I'll prove the point. Check out this picture right here. This is me in 1991.

That's little Timmy, by the way. This is me at four years old. I got my Bible, my boots, I got the preacher outfit going on, but this is the age in which my parents were like, here's you a Bible. I didn't know how to read at that point. I don't think I did, but I was very proud of my Bible, so make sure that if you have children, get a Bible in their hand right now I'm holding in my hand. I wanted to bring this one today, a Bible that was given to me on March the 28th, 1999 by my Sunday school teachers. This Bible, okay, hold on, I got it. This Bible is very special to me. I received it from my Sunday school teachers for reading, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John in the quarter. Remember we used to do quarters in the quarter.

I said, if you read the gospels, then you get a free Bible. And so they gave me this Bible, but I want to read to you what my teachers wrote to me. I says, dear Timmy, I pray you'll always love and serve God with all your heart. You are very special love Sister Dora Timmy, always love God and put him first and you will go far. Sister Debbie. Dear Timmy, I will always love and care about you. May God bless you richly sister Donna. This is back what we call people, brothers and sisters. Timmy, be strong in God and let him use you. Dig in his word. Love you, sister Steph. My Sunday school teachers gave this Bible to me. What they didn't know at the time was that this would be the Bible that I used for years traveling the United States all around the world, preaching the gospel as a full-time evangelist in this Bible.

Now I've had it rebound, which is really cool, but if you look through it, it's highlighted. It is got tear stains, probably blood stains in it as well. But you see what I'm talking about. I'm not just talking out of the side of my neck. Get into your word. It will change your life and somebody say amen. Amen. Speaking of Bible, turning your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 12, the book of Proverbs chapter 12. We're going to start at verse number 15. Proverbs 12, verse number 15. I love hearing Paige's turn. If you're there, say amen. If you're not there, say, wait a minute, some of y'all just got PTSD, oh Lord, no, we're going backwards.

Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. Amen. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you God for what you're going to do in and through us by your word. Help us God, to have ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand what you would say to us. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. We give your name, the praise, the glory and the honor because you are worthy of it in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. Amen.

We have been spending the last few weeks talking about the importance of the Bible and the word of God. And the reason we have is because we have established over the last several weeks that the word of God, the Bible is the word of God. It is the most guaranteed way to hear God. It is the primary way to hear God. According to two Timothy three 16, the Bible says that all scripture is breathed out by God. So we spent a couple of weeks talking about and emphasizing the need for us to engage in the physical word of God and to the Bible. And then last week we talked about how it is also important to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you as you are engaging the word of God. And what we've discovered through the scriptures is that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

He will remind you of everything that Jesus said and he will guide you into all truth. Does anybody this week have you engaged the Holy Spirit in the decision? Has the Holy Spirit clarified some things for you this week? Yes. Sometimes it's not that we didn't know, it's sometimes we just have to be reminded, oh yeah, I got the Holy Spirit. I don't have to rely on myself. And what I'm really glad about is that God didn't just give us the Bible and say, good luck. Figure it out. But God gave us the Bible and the Holy Spirit as a Paraclete, a counselor, a comforter, a guide, someone who comes alongside us to help us clarify what the scripture is saying. Now, when we talk about hearing God, we're talking about getting a word from God. Most of us, when we want to hear from God, we say, God, I need a word.

I need you to speak to me. God, I need a revelation. I need direction. I need a word from you. In order for us to understand what a word from God is, we have to understand the definition of the word word in the Bible. I want to break this down for you so that you have a little more understanding. When you're reading the scriptures and you see the word word, there are really two definitions that the Bible uses, especially in the Greek. There are two definitions for word, the first definition, and the Greek is called the Lagos, the Lagos, L-O-G-O-S. And the Lagos is the written word of God or what we call scripture or the Bible. Two Timothy chapter two, verse 15, Paul is writing in Timothy and he says, study to show yourself approved workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and he is talking about the logos, the written word of God. I think it's very funny when you have pastors or preachers who don't spend time learning how to rightly divide the word of truth. There is this overemphasis right now in culture, in church culture to preach sermons in a very short amount of time and spend the least amount of time preparing that's going to lead to folly, right? If your job is to teach the word of God, study the word of God. Does anybody want somebody to operate on you after practicing for like an hour?

I think this is where we cut. It is an estimated where the heart is, no, I need you to have a plaque on the wall that shows you've actually studied this, right? So Paul is telling Timothy, Hey, study the written word of God the scriptures. Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, talks about the word of God alive, right, sharp and alive, and it's also a reference to the logos can also be defined as the living word, which is Jesus. So John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. Verse 14 of John, chapter one says, the word was made flesh. So when you look at Jesus, you're looking at the very express personhood of the word of God, so you can trust everything that Jesus says. Why? Because he is literally the living word.

If you were going to make the word living, it would be Jesus. It is Jesus. So the first definition is the logos, the written word or the living word. And the second definition of the word word is another Greek word called ramma. Now, depending on how you grew up, if you grew up in a charismatic environment, you have probably heard this word ramma because really in the nineties and two thousands, late eighties, nineties, two thousands, Rama was a big thing, right? Everybody, I'm trying to get Rama. There were ministries called Rama. Rama was highlighted and everything good, everything starts off usually good, right? People wanted to get arama, and ramma means utterance or spoken word by the Holy Spirit that brings divine revelation of the Lagos. Or in other words, put it is the Lagos made personal. Have you ever read scripture and you've read it a thousand times and you didn't really think anything of it, and then one day you read it and it's like jumps off the page and becomes completely personal. That's called rama. That's when the Holy Spirit is quickening the word for personal application. That's when the Holy Spirit is moving on the scriptures to make it applicable to your life. So as a believer in Christ, you want to be familiar with the logos, the written word of God and the living word of God, but you also want to be familiar with the rma. And here's the thing, rma, the quickening happens through the scriptures.

You can't get rama without the Lagos. Rama is not you getting a word from somebody else and I'll get into what you get from someone else, but Rama is when the Holy Spirit is quickening it in you. Now, this is what can happen. I can teach you the logos and as you're hearing me, the Holy Spirit makes a personal application. That's why I love church. This is why for a second ofs of yourselves together. Why? Because when you come in community, there are a couple of hundred people in here, several hundred people in here. Everyone is getting a different view of the word. I'm preaching the exact word, but the RMA is coming alive to you based on what you need at this moment. For some of you, all you needed to hear is that you need wise counsel. For some of you, all you needed to see was that picture of me holding a Bible. It quickened something in you. That's the rma. Now let me say this. The logos is complete. The word of God is complete. It has been canonized, it is complete. No one's adding to it. No one can take away. The scriptures are complete. However, the Holy Spirit continues to illuminate the written word and make it applicable to our lives through the rma of revelation. This is why when you read the Bible, don't just read the Bible, read the Bible and say, holy Spirit, speak to me.

Somebody's life's about to be changed this week, but you got to stay in the book if you want Rema. Now, I want to read you real quickly some statistics because sometimes we think, oh man, of course the preacher would say that that's his job, but a place called the Center of Bible Engagement, what they do is they do studies every year on Bible engagement and they took a poll of 40,000 people concerning engagement of scripture and they found that these individuals, if they engage with the scripture one time a week, that either means that they read a scripture during the week or they heard a pastor or preacher give a scripture one time a week. There was no change in their life if they upped it to two times a week, still no change, no real effect in their life. If they did it three times a week, there was marginal change but not enough to change the trajectory of their life. Four times a week, something significant happened. There was a massive effect on the life of the individual who's engaging in scripture. And what they found is if you read the scriptures, if you engage in the word of God four or more times a week, this is what they found. Feeling lonely drops 30% anger issues drop 32% bitterness. This always funny. If you're living with somebody angry, just start reading the word of God out loud four times a week.

I'm giving people strategies right now, the bitterness in relationships drops 40%. Alcoholism drops 57% sex outside of marriage drops 68% feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%. Viewing pornography drops 61%. Sharing your faith jumps 200% and discipling others jumps 230%. It's not just hearsay, this is an actual study that has been done by the center of Bible engagement. You can look it up yourself. This is to us that the word of God not only has spiritual implication, it actually has natural implications in your life as well. It is a living word. So engage in the Bible, but again, we're talking the whole series is called Hearing God and really what we want to dive into, the question we have to ask is what is the purpose of hearing God?

Why do we want to hear from God? Why is it important for you as a Christian to desire to hear from God? In fact, why do you want to hear from God in the first place? You can go get advice from everybody, right? I mean YouTube is full of advisors. You just type in advisors in DFW and you're going to get pages and pages and pages of certified coaches and life people. Why are we talking about this? Why are we on the subject of hearing God? And I think it's this. I think it's within the heart of every humankind to want to hear from God because we are creating the image and likeness of God. And what we know about God is that God is a communicator. How do we know that God is a communicator? Because the scripture tells us our very introduction to God.

First of all, he's counseling with himself. He speaks within himself, he communes within himself. And then when he creates the world, how does he do it? He speaks it. He communicates the world into existence. And when he got ready to make mankind, he said, let us make man in our image. And then God created man, and God is a communicator. What does he do? When Adam and Eve are created? He communicates to them and what does he tell? Be fruitful, multiply, replace the earth of do it and have dominion and he blesses them. Two things that we want to hear from God are instructions and blessings because that's the very first thing that God did with humanity is he communicated instructions to them, be fruitful, multiply, replenish your earth, subdue it, and have dominion, and he communicated blessings to them. If you want to have a life that is fruitful as a Christian, there are two things that you need to hear from God.

Instructions and blessings, right? Because how many know that there are plenty of people in your life that are not going to bless you? Amen. This ain't even in my sermon, but on Friday we went on a little train ride with the kids through Trinity Trails. There's a little train, little baby train that you ride through. It's open and we're going through and it passes some of these streets where people have to stop. And as we're passing by, there's a guy sitting in his car obviously agitated that we are passing by a bunch of little kids in this train. And I look up and I'm wondering, he's not waving, but he kind of is there a particular finger that he's waving? And as we get closer, I realize this guy is shooting us the bird, and I'm sitting there like dumbfounded because how angry of a person you have to be to flip off children on a train. How many people know that people will curse you that don't even know you? That's why I got to hear God bless me. Let's pray for him. Man, I don't know what's going way he's going through in his life. He just needs to read the word. His anger will drop 30%. You what I'm saying?

The purpose of hearing God is to know the will of God. The reason why we're talking about hearing God is because it is God's desire for you to know His will. Now. Now in leading into wondering how we know the will of God, here's how you know the will of God. Number one is through the word of God. That's why we emphasize the Bible. You will know the will of God. The more you talk to God, the more you hear from God. If you want to know what the will of God is for your life, all you have to do is what Engage the will, the word of God. So number one is the word of God. Number two is the Holy Spirit. Remember what we just talked about. The Holy Spirit will teach you. He will bring things to remember and he will guide you.

And the third thing, this is what we're going to talk about today, is godly counsel. How do you know the will of God is through His word primarily is through the Holy Spirit and through godly counsel. Now, this is a sensitive subject and we're going to talk about it. Some of you have taken advice from people that you thought were godly. Turns out it was bad advice. And so what I believe is going to happen in this service today is number one, God's going to heal some people from the hurt that you received by listening to counsel that you thought was godly, that turned out to be betrayal. And two, I believe that God is going to reestablish a connection for you to get wise counsel, but I want to help you to identify voices that are trustworthy. So my title for today is Hearing God through trusted voices, hearing God through trusted voices.

Now, God has determined through His divine will to speak to us through his word, through his spirit and through his people, God has determined to speak to us through people. Now, when you hear through people, there are three primary ways, and I'm not going to dive particularly into these things, but there are three primary ways that we hear from God through people prophecy, a word of wisdom and word of knowledge, and I'll break those down in the coming weeks. But these three are the way that God uses people to speak to us. And you can find that in one Corinthians chapter 12 as a spiritual gift. But let's read this real quick. Proverbs chapter 15, verse number 22. Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed. I get very nervous when people come to me and say, God told me, and I say to them, okay, who have you talked to about this? No one.

So God told you to do this. You got all these people around that you can run this by and you didn't. You know how many times as a pastor I've heard that and it turns out they weren't even hearing from God at all. God told me to marry him. Do you know him? Well, we just met. Does he know your family? Well, no, but God told me, okay, let's talk in about six months. Right? The question that most of us want to know is who can I trust though, right? There's a lot of people out here offering advice for a nominal fee.

There's a lot of people that give you advice on stuff, but the question is, who can I trust? Who has a trusted voice in my life? Who has God provided in my circle who is able to speak into my life with biblical authority, with the ability to discern the will of God and communicate that to me? Because a lot of us, me included, have trusted people who we thought were trusted voices that turned out to just be their own voice manipulating me to do their bidding. Oh God. So I want to help you identify. So number one, voices to avoid voices to avoid. Number one is the voice of the enemy. Genesis chapter three, verse one. Let's look at this. This is the first ever example of the enemy talking to the humanity. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it. God didn't say that lest you die. He did say that, but serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. God did actually say, you surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

There are three things that happened that went wrong in this conversation that I think we can use as an example to identify the voice of the enemy. And this is the same pattern that you see happening with Jesus, right? So the devil ain't got no new tricks. Lemme just say that again. The devil that he has no new tricks. So if you think like, man, this guy is outwitting me. No, if you can identify this, you'll identify it every time. Number one, check out what he did. He said, did God actually say the number one strategy of the enemy is to get you to doubt what God actually say? Right? What's happening in the world right now in the church world right now is that there are a lot of people showing up going, did God actually say that this is a sin? Or is it just culturally relevance? Did God actually say that it is a sin to FortiGate? Did God actually say that adultery is wrong? Did God actually say that money is his number one competitor? Did God actually? And what ends up happening is if you start to question the validity and sufficiency of scripture, it invalidates the entirety of scripture.

What happens whenever the enemy starts planning doubt about what God actually says, then he can follow up with, well, he can interject things that God didn't actually say. And this is what Satan said. He says, Hey, did God say that you shall not eat of any tree? So not only does he get you to question the word of God, now he interjects another question. He tries to make us think that God is more strict than he actually is. Legalism is dangerous as much as being overly liberal with scripture because what ends up happening is the line God says is here. Satan would like you to think that it's actually way back here to make you think that God is unreasonable. I've got S, God would never restrict me from my passions.

Does the Bible actually say so number one, he's going to try to create doubt with a question mark. Second is he says, you will not surely die. Now, this is a straight up lie, so he starts with a question, but if you entertain the question, then he'll introduce a lie. God actually did say that they would die, and the day that you eat thereof, you will. Surely that's what God said. But when Satan gets us in a conversation of doubt first, then he leads with this proposition of a lie. He tries to remove the truth of God, and when you start removing the truth of God, you will interject into the word of God, whatever you would like. Eve thought that the fruit looked good to the eyes, that a desire to make one wise. And so she entertained the thought of, you know what? Maybe God isn't actually going to kill us. There's only one way to find out, and that's usually what we do is sin, right? Maybe this isn't going to affect my life. There's only one way to figure out. Maybe I will go sleep with this person.

Sometimes the effect is slow and gradual. It pop up 10 years, 15 years later. Whoa, why am I dealing with this? I've kept it buried for 20 years. This what else he said, for God knows. How did he all of a sudden become the expert on God? For God knows that your eyes will be open and you will be like God. He questioned their identity. Adam and evil are created in the what? Image and likeness of God. They were created perfectly like God. But Satan, the enemy will try to get you to number one, entertain doubt about the sufficiency of scripture, and if he can get you there, then he's going to interject his own truth. And if you go with that, then he's going to try to circumvent God with a straight up lie. And here's what happens throughout scripture. The essence of sin is to put human judgment above divine command. That's where we end up. If you entertain the enemy, so can the enemy enter into your mind? No, we don't see any biblical scripture or reference or principle that shows that the enemy can actually interject himself into your mind. But what he can do is project. He can use objects and projects so he can project things and he can use objects. In this case, he used the serpent that was more crafty than any beast of field, but why would feel comfortable talking to the serpent?

Most likely because, well, this is just Tim Rivers. Well, no, no. Lemme stop. I don't want to go viral about to clip me out and get me. Y'all ain't getting me. I almost got God. We'll go offline and I'll tell y'all, you got to watch your back around here, man. People will clip you out. Put you on TikTok quick. Here's the thing. We do know Eve felt comfortable talking to the serpent as if it was nothing. Sometimes the enemy will talk through things that seem very familiar to you. Number two, a voice that you'd like to avoid ungodly voices. Psalm chapter one verse number one, blessed is the man who walks out in the council of the wicked. I love the way the KJV says it. Bless this man who walks out in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners nor sin has a seat of the scorm for, but the delight is in the law of Lord and in his law, does he meditate both day and night? He shall be like a.

That came down. I memorized that from this Bible. It's amazing how many people will offer opinions about spiritual things and they're not spiritual, right? It's amazing how many people will show up in your life and say, well, you know what? I don't really walk with the Lord, but I think I can help you. What? That's ungodly counsel, right? The word ungodly literally means someone who is characterized by wickedness and godlessness. If they're not walking with the Lord, don't take their advice. Don't take advice on how to build a road from someone who's never built a road.

You'll end up with a path, right? Here's the truth. Worldly advice is ungodly counsel. And there are a lot of people just because they have degrees or they got a lot of followers, don't mean they give good advice. And right now that is a big one as well. They have a million followers. They got to be telling the truth. No check out their life because sometimes it's the person that has nobody following them. That may seem like a hermit, but they're walking with the Lord. That's the person you want to get advice from, right? Here's some worldly advice that's happening right now that I can tell you just worldly advice, don't listen to it. Just manifest and decree whatever you want.

That ain't biblical. You can just go out here and man, I manifested that card here. Here's why this is not wise. Because if you start manifesting and decreeing and I declare, and first of all it starts with I, that's the first indication that this is not godly. I decree I declare that by next year I will be a millionaire. You better get to work. That's how you decree. You decree by getting out here and working, selling some stuff. You can't just manifest things that's not biblical. Trusting the Lord with your heart and lean out to your own understanding. That's biblical. That's godly advice. Should you work hard? Absolutely right? Should you desire God to bless you? Absolutely. But you don't have the power to manifest and decree things to happen. You don't have creative power in your words. Only God does. So if you're going to decree anything, decree the word of God. God said, I am to be blessed. God said He wants to make me the head and not to tell God said he wants me to be the you get the point. Decree what God is saying, not what you are saying. I decree a husband right now, I manifest you.

Oh Lord, here, here's another ungodly advice that's creeping around your happiness is all that matters. Is it now? Because the other 7 billion people think that about themselves as well. That's not biblical. Here we go. In this world you will have trouble. That's what Jesus said. Jesus wasn't worried about your happiness. I mean, go ahead and be happy, right? Desire, happiness. There's nothing wrong. I desire to be happy but also live in the reality that as a human being, I'm going to go through some hard times and my happiness is not based on my conditions. God allowed Paul to go shipwreck and be beaten with Roz and in prison and all these things, and he wrote two thirds of the New Testament. Sometimes God will have you right in the pistols in prison. You think that Paul was happy.

That's why you need joy and not happiness, joy. That's based on what the joy of the, the Lord is my strength. It ain't your happiness. Stop playing happy people. Here's another ungodly counsel. Do unto others as they have done to you. Oh, we like that one. No, I'm not talking to 'em. They ain't talking to me. No, I'm not going to treat them right. They didn't treat me right. Come pastor, has anybody ever felt that way? And yet the Bible says if they ask you to go a mile, go two. If they ask for your shirt, give 'em your jacket too. What? That don't sound that don't sound like God. That's what Jesus said. And you know what he was making a reference to? This is a little Bible lesson when the Romans, of course the Romans were in charge at that time and Romans had the authority.

Roman soldiers had the authority to make people do anything that they'd like. For instance, a Roman soldier could come up to a Jewish person or a Gentile and they could say, I like that jacket. Give it to me. And you were required by law to give them whatever they asked for. They could say, Hey, I don't want to carry this water bucket. Carry this for me. And they were required by law to carry it for them. And Jesus says, when they say, give me a jacket, instead of you being reluctant about it, give them everything.

So if somebody asked to borrow 20, I give 'em 40. That's not, it's the principle, right? Here's another ungodly, ungodly advice. God only cares about the inside. What ends up happening is people will misunderstand the scripture. Remember, this is the reference to when God is speaking to Samuel Samuel's, looking at all these guys. He's avoiding David, and God says, Hey, man looks on the outside. God looks on the inside. Now, what he didn't say is don't look on the outside. I only look at the inside. He just said, man looks on the outside and I obviously see the outside, but I actually know what's inside. Why is that important? Because this is what the Bible says. You shall know them by there. Fruits. Fruits are obvious, roots are not.

So you have to avoid ungodly voices. Now, I can go throughout scripture and I can talk to you about Samson listening to Delilah. I can talk about Nehemiah and samba, AYA and geisha. I can go throughout scripture and show you how. You don't want to listen to ungodly voices. And the way to determine if somebody is godly or not is are they walking with the Lord? Are they walking with the Lord? Does their life exemplify someone I want to listen to? If they ain't living right, don't listen to their advice. It's just that simple, even if it's advice that you want to hear, because usually that's what we gravitate toward. We gravitate toward the people that want to tell us what we want to hear. But if it's ungodly, stay away from it. You can guard yourself from ungodly voices by knowing the word of God.

That's your barometer. That's your measuring stake. Do you line up with the word of God? Here's what you want to listen to. You want to listen to trusted voices. Yes, sir. Trusted voices. Examples are Moses and Jeff Row, Samuel and Eli, David and Nathan Naman and Elisha, the villagers in Israel and Deborah, Matthew chapter 16, verse 13. Let's look at this real quick because I want to teach you real quickly how to identify trusted voices. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Cicero Philippi, he asked the disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? I almost think it some unfair when Sarah beats me to my scripture like she's hearing from God and walking with the Lord. That's a trusted voice right there. Who do people say the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets, they were trying to give Jesus the celebrities of the day trying to make him feel good.

And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter Pebble and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. I always think it's funny when Jesus is like, Hey, you got revelation. Don't tell nobody.

Now, this is interesting, right? Because Peter hears this and he's like, my name just got changed from Simon to Peter. I am walking in the Holy Ghost. Jesus has officially declared me someone who has gotten revelation from the Father. If Jesus told you that you'd be on a whole different level, you're looking at the other disciples like scrubs, Elijah, really? John the Baptist? Come on man. He's the Christ. Verse number 21. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and he killed and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter, the one who was just given the keys, the man of God, and Peter took him aside. Hey, now that we have an understanding that I hear from the Father, come here, Jesus, come here. Lemme talk to you. Let me talk to you Christ, and begin to rebuke him. That means correct Him. Say, be it His voice probably changed, fa be it from you. Lord, this shall never happen to you. And he probably thought that Jesus is going to be like, man, you right Peter, you got it, man, you the second time, bro, you are on a roll, man. The father's really speaking to you, but this is what Jesus did. He turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

That would be enough just to make you go, all right, my bad. I got it wrong. You ain't got to call me Satan though. Just tell me I didn't do it right. Let me talk to you, Peter. You are a hindrance to me, but I just called you the Christ. You just told me I was certified. I got my life coaching certification from you just a minute ago. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man, how in the world must Peter have felt to be sitting there having a conversation with Jesus? On the one hand, he's blessed. He's hearing from the Father. The next minute he's talking like Satan. Would Jesus discerned the difference of what Peter a disciple was saying based on the criteria by which Peter was speaking to him? So I want you to look at this because there are times where somebody that you trust will give you bad advice and you as a believer have to have the ability to discern.

Just because you walk with God don't mean I need you to talk to me in this particular situation. There's another passage in Luke where the sons of thunder, James and John are coming to Jesus. There are some people that are tripping out and they come to Jesus and say, Jesus, would you like for us to call down fire on them like Elijah did. Remember when Elijah called down fire on the prophets of Bell and they're like, Hey, let's replicate what happened in the past to these people right here. And Jesus rebuked them and said Not what spirit you're of. So sometimes your good intentions for advising is bad advice because it wasn't motivated by the spirit.

I wish I had three hours to teach today. So how do I identify trusted voices? They start with God's word. They start with God's word. Peter did not speak from his own revelation. Jesus recognized that. He said, Hey, there's no way you could have come up with that, that was revealed to you by my father, which is in heaven. And guess what? The word of God already foretold that Jesus would be the Christ. It's just that Peter aligned himself with the word of God and declared, you are the Christ. You are the one. You are the Messiah. When the way to know if somebody is a trusted voice is they start with the word of God. If they are not in the word of God, they are not to be trusted. I'm not talking about changing your tire. You can get advice from anyone. Change the tire as long as they've changed the tire.

Number two, they love you enough to tell you the truth. Yes, Jesus declared flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. Peter was telling the truth as it was revealed to him by the Father. Lemme tell you, sometimes the truth will feel great. Sometimes the truth will hurt. But somebody who loves you will tell you the truth regardless. And just because they hurt your feelings, that's not what you wanted to hear. Doesn't mean they're not trustworthy. In fact, most of the times, people that you trust will, they will encourage you, but at some point they're going to hurt your feelings. If you really want to be told the truth, I'm not coming back. Is it because you're offended or because they were wrong?

Good question. Another thing is they see great things for your future. They see great things for your future. Peter's confession. We call this Peter's confession. When Peter confessed Jesus was to Christ, he also simultaneously confessed that Jesus was the Messiah based on what he knew from scripture or his Jewish Jewish upbringing. He understood that to confess that Jesus was the Christ was also to confess that Jesus was the Messiah, which means that he saw the future of Jesus as being the one to redeem his people back to God. Don't take advice and counsel from people who don't care about your future.

Here's the last part. They don't need anything from you. How can you trust the voice? They don't need anything from you. Listen, there are certain things that, yeah, I'll pay for it to get some advice, but there are some things. Anyone will give you advice for a dollar. Give me a hundred dollars. I'll give you some advice. It may not be great advice, but it's going to be something. Peter didn't want anything from Jesus. He just confessed it. He solidified who Jesus was and he wasn't asking for anything in return. And when that kind of advice comes, guess what Jesus did? Jesus blessed him anyways. Peter wasn't like, yo, if you bless me, I'll confess He confessed. And then Jesus blessed real quickly, how do I identify untrustworthy voices, which is the opposite. They avoid God's word. They stay clear from what the scriptures say.

When Peter said, this shall never happen, you know what he was doing? He was going against the word of God because the scripture actually said it would happen, right? Isaiah chapter 53 and three, Hosea six and two, this is when the prophets foretold. What would happen to Jesus that he would suffer, that he would be buried, that he would rise again on the third day, the prophets foretold us. So when Peter said, this shall never happen to you, he was going against the scriptures. And that's why Jesus said, I can't have none of that because if I listen to your advice, I am my own power will what? Push away the will of God. So he didn't even receive it. Second is they don't speak truth. They circumvent the truth. They rewrite the truth. They they're more caring about your feelings than the truth.

Third is they hinder your future. When Peter spoke to Jesus, he said, far be it from you, Lord, this will never happen. And if he would've done that, if Jesus would've listened to his advice, he would What hindered the future of us receiving redemption? Think about that. This is why it's very important that you listen to trustworthy voices. And lastly, they are selfish. How do you know as somebody is an untrustworthy voice or their motivation is for themselves? What am I getting out of this for Peter? This is just my interpretation, but for Peter, I believe that he didn't want Jesus to actually do what he said he was going to do because he wanted to hold on to Jesus, be my counselor, be my personal guide. Be far, be it from you, for you to die and suffer and go through these things. I like having you close to me.

And there are people that will come in your life who will give you bad advice because they want to keep you in the position that you're in to help them. There are some people who are codependents who want to keep you stuck in the same cycle of your life. They don't care about your future. They won't tell you the truth. Why? Because you are my little and God is loosening they grip on you. Lord, I'm telling you, if you use this barometer right here, it's going to change somebody's life. It's going to change somebody's life. Now, here's what I know that there are some of you who have been longing for trusted voices and you are looking for a mentor. You're looking for someone to speak into your life, and maybe you have this bright idea that it's going to be a pastor or some person of influence or a perceived influence, and maybe God is just going to send somebody that's in your group to be that trusted voice for you. Maybe the Lord's going to speak to your spouse who I hope is a trusted voice. If not, you need to go to counseling, figure it out. Figure out why you can't trust your spouse.

I am also aware that there are people in here that what brought you here to this church is that you need healing. You need healing from building a life for years on trusting a voice that ended up being untrustworthy. And some of you are in here and you're even like, man, can I trust you? I'm aware of that. I'm aware of that. Here's what I do my best to do to make sure that I'm a trusted voice. I stay in the Bible. I want to tell you the truth, even if it hurts. I want to see you win. I want to see your God wants to see your future, and I want nothing from you. If you notice, we didn't charge you to get in the building right freely. We have received freely we give, right? But there are some people here that you need healing in your life. I know that. So I want our prayer team to come up and this is what I want to do.

We're going to have a moment of sah, of just pausing and reflecting. And if you need healing in your soul like you've been hurt, you've taken advice, you've first of all, let me just say this, it's not on you. It's not on you, right? It's on whoever betrayed your trust. And I will say this as well. Your willingness to trust them is not wasted. It's not wasted. God has taken that obedience, that willingness to do and to trust, to put yourself out there and to be vulnerable. God takes that and he reserves it to bless your life. They're going to have to answer to God for how they handled it. But God's going to bless you for doing it, right? Well, I was there for 15 years and you can be angry and a lot of times angry at yourself for not seeing these signs. But God in his infinite wisdom, knew it.

God, why did you allow this to happen? Because teaching you something, maybe it was a parent, a parent that you trusted, that you thought, oh yeah, you're telling me the right thing. Then you find out, wait a minute, you were manipulating me. You were abusing me, you were missing. I couldn't trust you. God wants to heal that for you. And this is the second thing. God wants to replace that voice with a trusted voice. You got to be healed first in order to be open to hear. So if you would stand across this building, all across this building, just stand in your feet. This may not be for everybody. Some of you're going to walk off. You're like, all right, great. I'm good. I'm ready to get out here. Maybe you have trusted, I have trusted voices, but it took me some time because when I left the church of being there for 15 years, I thought, my God, 15 years, this is how it ends.

And it took me about eight months before I would talk to anybody with a little bit of vulnerability, just enough. I would still try to protect. But now I got some people I can share some stuff with because God's healed that and he's brought new voices into my life. And I want that for you as well. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to pray. And then if that's you and you need God to put some stuff together in your life to heal you, come up here and pray with somebody. But don't leave here hurt. Don't leave here confused. Don't leave here still under the shadow and cloud of mistrust and anguish. Come up here. Let somebody pray for you and pray with you so that you may be healed. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the voices that you have provided for us to receive good, godly counsel voices that we trust.

I pray for those that are in this place, God, that may have gone through a hurtful situation where they trusted someone and that trust was betrayed, where they listened to advice and advice was not godly. I pray, Lord, that their obedience would go up as sweet smelling saver, especially if they just didn't know and they trusted. Anyways, I pray that you would honor that obedience and they would come back to bless them in the next season. And I pray, God, that all those who broke trust God, who took advantage of people, that they would be held accountable. You said so that they will in your word, and we just release them, we forgive them, not for them, but for us, so that we can live in freedom, that we can live in vulnerability, that we can live open before you. And so if there are people here that need healing, I pray that you'd move upon them to come up and give prayer.

And I pray that in this moment of prayer that there would be healing, supernatural healing that happens. And then I pray that in turn, you would provide for them trusted voices that they don't even have to go out and seek and pay for people, blah, blah. You're just going to connect them in the house of God. You're going to connect them with people, just a conversation in the hallway, just a phone call. Just somebody that you're just connecting people. I thank you Lord for it. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. So if you need prayer, come up here. The worship people's going to sing. If not, then you're especially we see here next week. God bless you.