Hearing God’s Voice

We're in a series called Immeasurably More, where we're believing God for more in our own lives, more of God that we can experience in our families and in our finances and even in our church. And as we believe for immeasurably more, we're holding onto this promise in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20. Now to him, talking about our Jesus, who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that's at work within us. And that's what we want. We want God's power at work within us in our lives. And so today I'm gonna help you on this journey towards more. And I'm gonna give you a challenging message. I think it's hopefully very practical to your life on a subject that is very complicated that will help make simple today. And I wanna talk to you about hearing God's voice. As we pursue the more that God has for us, we need to know how to decipher what is God's voice and what is not God's voice. How do we lean in to God's voice in our life? We've asked you to pray, even about your generosity in this series. And many people are going, I'm praying, but how do I hear God's voice? Hearing God's voice is the game changer for the Christian life, for your family,

for your business, even for overcoming the addictions and the issues in your life. And life is filled with so many decisions. And God has not left us to ourselves, but he gives us tools to know his will and be guided into all that he has and the purpose that he has for our lives. You gotta understand this and think about this, that we get to go to the God of the universe who knows all things and receive direction and receive instruction from him. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 33, three, that we can call to God and he will answer you. This is such a profound truth, that God that created the universe, that knows you by name is waiting for you to call out to him and he will answer you and he will tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know. So if you're in a place in life and you're conflicted about what to do, I wanna challenge you to lean in to hearing God's voice as God has a word for your season. The fact is, is that God is speaking more than we are listening. And God has something to say about your current season, about your current issue, but I don't know if we're listening to him. It's like my children, they have this thing called selective hearing.

Y'all know what I'm talking about? Selective hearing. If I ask them to clean their room, they did not hear that. But if I ask them, hey, do y'all wanna run with me to Chick-fil-A? They all of a sudden hear that clearly. Many times with God, it's the same way. We hear the things we want to hear, but we avoid the instruction we really need to hear in our lives. So we're gonna lean in to hearing God's voice. Jesus tells us, he says, my sheep, listen to my voice. As followers of Jesus, we are called to listen to his voice. I know them and they follow me. And the result of following Jesus is that he says that I give them eternal life. They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. This is a promise from Jesus that when you listen to his voice, he will lead you into the purposes and the plans that he has for us. The problem with it is many of us don't know how to hear the voice of God. So we're gonna play a game together today across all of our locations, thousands of people, 11 locations. Let's do this together. When you hear this audio clip, if you know who says it,

I want you to shout the name out loud, okay? So we're gonna do this all together. Listen, there's no wrong answers except for all of them, except for the right answer, okay? So you ready for this? Ready, so one, two, three. I have a dream. Martin Luther King. Number one. Okay, we got it, we got it. Did you hear that one? All right, let's all say the name out loud. One, two, three. Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King, okay, very good, very good. It's very easy. You've heard that word. You know what it, you've heard that phrase before. You've heard that voice. You can distinguish it. Okay, let's try another one. And this one's gonna be a little harder, but I want you to see if you know the voice. Okay, one, two, three. Some of these people are clearly not well. Okay, that's it. Some of y'all have no clue who it is right there. Every woman in this audience is like, no clue who that is, okay. That is Joe Rogan, very good, okay?

So the number one podcaster in the world, all right. You know it because you can hear the voice. It's distinguished based on the voice. Okay, this is gonna be even a harder one. Less people will get it, but there's a certain demographic that'll 100% get this one, okay. So are we ready? We're all gonna lean into it together. Ready, one, two, three. All right, now, some of y'all go, I've never heard that before. Welcome to parenting in 2025. That is, on the count of three, one, two, three. That's bluey, okay? And every parent will not be able to get that out of their mind for the next 12 hours. We know it, why? We know it because we've heard it over and over and over. And we've heard it over and over and over. We've heard it over and over and over again. Many of you don't know the voice of God because you're not familiar yourself with Jesus. And I wanna let you lean in in this message to help you familiarize yourself with the voice of God. It's not as hard as we're making it out to be. Sometimes it's very obvious. You'll go to God and you'll hear his voice with clarity. And he'll tell you to forgive that person. You go, well, I don't wanna forgive that person.

Well, you don't have that choice. When God speaks, you obey. And when we obey, we're able to walk in the plan of God for our lives. Sometimes it's not as obvious and we have a hard time hearing. And we have to understand, why do we have a hard time hearing? The greatest issue I have found in hearing the voice of God is that many times when we're trying to listen to the voice of God, we're not getting anywhere. And we're trying to pray, and we're trying to say God, and we're trying to say his name, but then when we're trying to pray, no. Y'all with me? Y'all with me? That sounds like a lot of your prayer times right there. Because you're going, God, I need you to speak to me. But you have a lot of other noise in your life that's keeping you from hearing clearly what God wants to speak to you. And we've got a lot of noise online, and we've got a lot of opinions from our friends, and we've got a lot of things streaming in front of us, but we're missing the voice of God. And hear me out. To better hear the voice of God, you must intentionally turn down the noise of the world.

And as you turn down the noise of the world, you'll see God's voice gets clearer and clearer, and you'll be able to distinguish his voice, and then eventually obey his voice so that you can walk into the more that God has for your life. Can I hear a better amen today, church? So how do we familiarize ourself with the voice of God to know Jesus's voice clearly to be able to walk into his plan? I'm gonna give you five things today. I think they will help you immensely. Number one, how do we hear the voice of God? We read his voice. This is through the Bible. We read his voice, which is through the Bible. This is the scriptures, the logos, the written word of God. People tell me often, I need a word from God. I have good news for you. He has given us 727,969 words for your life. It's for your life. God's word is not vague and disconnected and abstract. It is written clearly in black and white for you to read every single day to find direction and insight for your life. If you want to know the will of God for your life, you have to get into the word of God for your life. That's why the Bible tells us that all scripture is God-breathed, meaning God instructed it to the writers.

And here's the word I want you to lean into. We're all gonna shout it out loud when I say it. Ready? And it is useful. Oh, I want you to say, it is what? Useful. Everything you read in God's word is useful for your life. Sometimes you just have to pause before you even get in the scriptures in the morning and go, God, I know you have a useful word for my current season, for my current relationship, for my job. It's useful, and it's useful for what? For teaching and rebuking and correcting and training. Don't we all need all of that in righteousness? So we want to be more righteous like Christ, mean right before the eyes of God. How do we do that? We get into the words of God so that here we are as the servant of God, we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Every issue you have in your life can be found a solution for in the word of God. When I'm struggling in my life, I find solutions in God's word. When I open God's word, he speaks to me. So if I need direction, I open God's word because Psalm 119 says God's word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. He guides me by his word.

Psalm 37, 23 says the steps of the righteous man are ordered by the Lord. So I go to God's word and I realize he orders my step. When I meet a mean person, which there's a lot of them, I go to Romans chapter 12, verses 21. Do not overcome evil by evil. but overcome evil with good." You see, God has instruction even for the mean people in your life. You got some bad news? That's okay. I look at Psalm 112, verse 7. They will have no fear of bad news. Their hearts are steadfast. We are trusting in the Lord. You see, God has a solution even for the bad news you're going through. You're trying to choose friends? Proverbs 13, verse 20. Walk with the wise, and you become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. If you're angry, that's okay. Proverbs 15, verse 1. A gentle answer turns away wrath. I'm not going to respond in anger. I'm going to respond gently. You see how God's word has a solution for every single situation that you're going through. You just don't know it because you haven't read it. You want to know God's will? You get into God's word, and someone who never hears from God is someone who isn't reading their Bible. That's good preaching right there. I'm going to let it sink in as you write it down in your Immeasurably More book. People are like, I just don't know what God wants me to do. It's not that difficult if you'll just open his word every day. He's got direction for your life. It's interesting to me, the amount of mornings where I'll wake up and I'll spend time with God, and what I read that day in my Bible reading plan for the year is the exact word I need for the current season I'm in right now. This word is alive, and it is active, and it is sharper than any two-edged sword. It is not an old, outdated book that's not relevant in 2025. It's more relevant than you can ever imagine for your life because it's God's word, and God's word does not change. Can I hear a better amen today, church? We read his voice. That's through the Bible. Here's the second one. We sense his voice, which is by the Spirit. God's Spirit leads our life. People ask us, why did Katie and I pick Tampa Bay? We were living in Pensacola, youth pastors. We had just had our first baby, and then we moved in faith to Tampa. People are like, what was it? I'm like, you know, I would love to say we had this moment where a burning bush happened and God wrote on the wall. It wasn't. It was just we sensed it, and we're like, I like

the beach. Do you like the beach? It's nice. The box, that's great. Let's do it. Lightning, we're good. It was just the sensing of the Spirit of God, and it was God. Sometimes God speaks to you. It's not audible, but it's louder than that. It's in your spirit. It's guiding you. I'm going to forgive that person. I'm going to give that money. I'm going to step out in faith. I'm going to join that team. I'm going to reach out to that loved one. I'm going to do something, and I don't know why I'm doing it. By the way, you know it's God because it's normally counterintuitive and countercultural. You don't think of it yourself. People ask the question all the time. They're like, how do I know if it's God or the devil? Do you really think the devil's telling you to forgive that person? Do you really think the devil's telling you to bake cookies for your neighbor and mend the relationship? Do you really think the devil's telling you to give money to the poor? Do you think the devil's doing that? No, I just don't know if it's in my own imagination. Just trust that God's leading your life. The Bible says in Romans 8.14, those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. We're trusting that if God's leading me to do this, I'm a child of God. He's directing my steps, and I'm going to go with what He's doing in my life, even if it doesn't make sense. So how do we know if it's God's will? Here's the clear way. It's that God's Spirit will never contradict God's Word. I don't care how you feel. I just feel that God's telling me that I should just live with my boyfriend. I don't care how you feel. I'll tell you what the Bible says. I don't feel like I should forgive that person. I just don't feel like I should be part of a local church. That's contrary to what the Word of God says. So if it goes with what you feel versus what God said in His Word, always go with what God said in His Word because His Spirit will never contradict His Word. By the way, we all get it wrong. Have you ever met someone who's like, I've never gotten it wrong. I hear God's voice with clarity 100% of the time. That person's called a liar because we all have got it wrong. So even in my own life, I thought God was telling me to do something. I was sensing, and maybe it was the flesh or my own ambition. So you have to always go back to God's Word. But here's another way you'll know it's God when He's leading you by His Spirit, because a Spirit-led life is a faith-filled life. So it's going to be big. It's going to be out of the box. It's going to be something that'll change the world. And so when you're in this life, and you're sitting there, and you're being challenged by God to do something greater than you can imagine, no, that's probably the Spirit

leading you because He knows what's best, and He's going to have you. in a faith-filled journey that's not gonna make sense all the time, but it's gonna make a difference in Jesus' name. Can I hear a good amen today, church? Number three, how do we hear God's voice? We confirm his voice, and this is through community. This is why God puts you in a local church, because not all of us get it right the first time, and we need the body of believers around us. Do you remember watching American Idol? I don't know, maybe the show's still going. I remember watching it in high school and college, and they would have these people on there that would make an absolute fool of themselves. Do you remember this? And they would go there and sing, and they're not singing in front of their friends. They're singing in front of the nation. And I always thought two very vital things when that person was singing. First of all, why are they not self-aware enough? You know what I mean? They lack self-awareness, but that didn't make me mad because there's a lot of people not self-aware. What made me mad is, where are their friends? Where's one person that'll pull them aside and say, Billy, let me tell you something, I love you. Sandy, let me say something, you're not good. It's not your gift.

God loves you, but nobody wants to hear you sing. And sometimes we gotta have the community of faith around us that'll sit there and go, you think God told you that? That's not God. The Bible tells us to test the spirits, to not just go along with every random idea, but to think and go, okay, God, how are you leading us? How are you guiding us in your life? This is why he put us in the church itself. The Bible says, so Christ gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and pastors and teachers, this is the body of Christ, this is the leadership of the church, to do what? To equip his people for the works of service. You don't have to figure out this stuff on your own. This is why we have each other in our lives, so that the body of Christ may be built up, and look what it's built up, in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. That's the goal. The goal is that you're in a body of believers that helps you become mature. It's fascinating to me, it's mind-blowing to me, the amount of people that make massive life decisions without the involvement of the community of faith around them. They take a job, they ask somebody on a date, they change their whole life, and I'm asking them, going, what wisdom did you get?

Well, I just feel like God's telling me, did you run this by anybody? This is like a major ordeal, and you don't have to make the decision in the vacuum. That's why God gave us the body of Christ, so that we can have leadership in our life, and we can have counsel in our life, so that we can become mature, and we can grow up, and we can make great decisions in our life. Can I just challenge you this way? Never make life-altering decisions without the wisdom and the counsel of Christian community. You need them in your life. You need people that will challenge the decision, that will speak into your life, that will pray with you about it. Now, let me just say this. I'm gonna add a word to this, and I don't normally do this, but as I was preparing for this, even this morning, I thought, you know what? I'm missing a word in this phrase. So if you're writing notes, you're taking notes, you're gonna add this word to it. Come on, all those at St. Pete, you're gonna add this to it, because this actually can be messed up if you don't do this well. So let me just say what the word is. The word that we're gonna add is the word mature. So never make life-altering decisions without the wisdom and counsel

of mature Christian community. All right, let me get all your attention across Tampa Bay, ready? Just because they have an orange wristband on does not mean they should have a voice in your life. An orange wristband does not equate to spiritual maturity. Anybody can put them on, and that doesn't mean they're a follower of Jesus or have some maturity to offer you in your life. So what you're looking for is you're looking for mature people in your life. Someone that's been around for a little bit of a season. Someone that's followed God more than a week, that'll speak into your life and go, hey, that ain't the way you should do it. Hey, I've seen this before. This is a bad decision. Hey. I just want you to know that the person's not a Christian, you shouldn't be dating them. They need a little bit of wisdom in your life. And to do that, you gotta have the community of faith. And I'm thankful, I'm so thankful that I haven't had to make all of the decisions that I think I heard from God on my own, but I run it by my pastors in my life. I've got five amazing pastors that mentor me, and I'll run decisions by them, I'll run ideas by them. And sometimes they, with all love, go, you know, Aaron, that's dumb.

I'll go, but I'm passionate about it. Well, you're passionate about something that's dumb. Thankful for my wife. I tell people all the time, the voice of the Holy Spirit many times for me sounds just like Katie Burke. I'm telling you, there's times that Katie and I will talk and she will challenge me on something or challenge the church on something, and I'll go, you're right, you're right in that. God speaks to us in community. This is why your radiant group is so vitally important. This is why you connected with the church and not just an attender that shows up once every couple of months, but someone that's really leaned into the body of Christ because you're gonna need some wisdom and you need some people in your life that you can go to that are mature, wise counsel. Can I hear a better amen today, church? All right, all right, let me just say this because there's a bunch of people who are going public with their faith today, and they are, it's actually a decision. It's not even the original decision to follow Christ. That's been done privately. This is their decision to go in front of their church family to say, I'm part of this church family. I'm part of what God's doing here, and I've gone from death to life,

and I wanna proclaim it to my church family. So those that are getting baptized today, you can stand to your feet. You can head out to the lobby, and we're gonna celebrate you, Radiant Church. Come on, let's celebrate all of those who are getting baptized. We love you so much. Huge deal, huge deal. All right, number four. Y'all still with me today, church? How do we hear God's voice? Number four is we see his voice, which is through circumstances. We see his voice through circumstances. One way that God speaks to you is through the circumstances you're going through in life. He opens a door, and it's obviously him that opened it, or he shuts the door, and it's God's way of saying, that thing is done, that's not my plan for you. The Bible tells us in the hearts of humans, we plan our course, but the Lord establishes our steps. So sometimes the most obvious way to hear the voice of God is to look at the current circumstance that you're in and go, oh, that's what God's doing in my life. That's what he said yes to, and that's what he said no to in my life. God speaks to us through circumstances. I remember a young guy in our church a few years back, he wanted to ask this girl out on a date.

So I said, well, you need to pray about it. So he prays about it for a few weeks. I come back to him, I go, what do you think? He goes, oh, man, not only have I prayed about it, I think she's my wife. I go, well, that's a big deal right there, dude. You better be careful about that. He goes, oh, no, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. So anyway, he goes and prays, he goes and he goes to pursue the girl. Well, I talked to him for a few months, so I'll see him in the lobby after a few months. I go, hey, how's it going? He goes, it ain't going good, Pastor. She won't respond to my text messages. I said, oh, that's really tough. And he goes, and then I found out she's dating somebody. I go, well, let's move on then. That's not the one for you. Well, I thought I heard that, I don't care what you thought you heard, the door's shut in Jesus' name. So let's move on. Circumstances spoke. So sometimes the circumstance makes it very clear. All right, here's your last one, and let's end with this, is how do we hear the voice of God? We feel his voice, and that's through peace. I'm so grateful that God is a God of peace. He is the prince of peace, and when his voice speaks,

it's a voice that'll call you to something crazy and huge, but it is always accompanied with peace. I love this about our God, that you can look for peace, and that'll show you God's will in your life. Even in chaotic seasons, you can experience supernatural peace, because where God is guiding you, he brings peace in your life. Isaiah 55, 12 says, you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. I have realized in my life, when God calls me to major faith steps, he always brings amazing amount of peace in those situations, even when it doesn't make sense. So I love what Colossians says. He says, let the peace of Christ, let it rule your heart. That word rule is a decision-making word right there. What do we pursue, what do we not pursue? You find out where's the peace of God, I'm gonna go there. And I've told people, when I look. Look at the crazy faith things that God's done in my life. I've always made decisions, but not is it overwhelming, not is it huge, not is it major, but is God's peace in it? And if God's peace is in it, then I'm gonna pursue that, because that's where God's at. And even in the craziest things that God's done through me and in me, I've realized it doesn't make sense, but I got God's peace in it.

I don't, I know it doesn't add up, but I've got God's peace in it. And I look at even what we're doing with Immeasurably More, I'm like, it looks overwhelming, but man, God's peace is in it. And that's what I want with your life. I want your life to be marked by the peace of God. Here's the last little point for you, ready? Is following God's voice, it always takes faith. It's gonna be something big, it's gonna be something bold, it's gonna be something scary, but it's also always accompanied by peace. So when God has you pursue that purity, it doesn't make sense, but God's peace is in it. When he tells you to start that job and that business, it doesn't make sense, but God's peace is in it. When he tells you to write that check, it might not make sense, but God's peace is in it. Go where God's peace is at and let the peace of God rule your hearts. We're gonna ask God in just a second for him to speak to your life, for God to speak to your current situation. We're gonna pause and we're gonna take a minute and we're gonna let God speak to us. But before we do that, let me just say one thing and again, if you're a guest, this is not for you. This is for our church family, as we dive into this season of giving God above and beyond

to see the vision of what God's doing in the Tampa Bay area. Next Sunday, we're gonna ask everybody to obey the voice of God and to make a pledge for the next two years. This is a big thing for us. We've never done this before, but the vision of what God's given us is so huge, we need everybody involved. So we asked you to pray and we're gonna ask you this week to pray. And you're gonna take that pledge card that you got on your way in today and you're gonna go home with it and you're gonna pray. And if you're a couple, you're gonna pray as a couple and you're gonna say, God, what would you want me to do? Now, there's three levels to this. Some of y'all are gonna start with, what can I afford? And that's normally the normal thing. You look at your bank and you go, what can I afford to do? Let me tell you, there's another level, which is like, what can I sacrifice? That's where you go, man, there's a sacrifice that God wants me to do. But the third one is the one I want you to pray about this week. It's where you pray and you ask for the voice of God to speak to you through his spirit or through his word. It's God, what can I believe that you're gonna do

through my life over this next two years? And let's be faith people. Let's build God's church in faith because the vision is huge, but we need the people of God involved in it over the next two years. And we're gonna make a pledge to the Lord. And I know some of y'all are out of town next weekend. And if you're out of town next weekend, do your pledge card today. Fill it out, you can do it online. But let's change the world together through people who hear the voice of God and obey it. The Bible says, don't merely listen to the word or so deceive yourself, but do what it says. This is for every area of your life. I'll close with this one little story, which is pretty crazy. Last July, Katie and I were on a little vacation and we were praying together. And during this time, we got a word, like a clear word. Now, it wasn't audible, it was just like an idea that came to our mind and the word was order. It was, we gotta get stuff in order. We got five little kids at home and it's chaos. And we're like, okay, we gotta get our schedule in order. We gotta get our finances in order. We gotta get our weekly flow in order. And then we presented it to our staff. And I said, I believe the Lord is gonna do something big

in our church, but we gotta get this stuff in order. So it was last August, I presented this vision to the church of order. And I presented it to our staff and our systems and all the behind the scenes, let's do all the stuff nobody knows about. Let's work on those things and let God bless us with all the things that everybody can see. So we spent the last year doing this. If you were here in January, the first Sunday of January, I preached a message, get your life in order. It was the beginning of the year. And it was off of that word that God had given me. It was crazy as I was preparing for this message, thinking about how I heard God speak that a year ago, that it was almost a year to the date that we secured the contract for the new South Tampa building. Almost a year to the date. And it was God's way of showing me, if you'll just hear my voice, he'll direct your life to things that you can't even imagine. And I don't know what it is that you're believing for and hoping for, you don't have to figure it out yourself. You just gotta pause and posture yourself to hear the voice of God and watch how God will lead you and he'll direct you. Are we thankful for a God who still speaks to his people today, church? So just take, let's take about a minute right there

and just all of your, right there in your seat, just close your eyes and just say those words from Samuel where he said. Speak Lord your servant is listening Speak God Maybe it's in my spirit that God is gonna drop an idea in your mind a thought It's gonna be counterintuitive Countercultural Big faith God let us hear from you God Help us to pause Hear your voice with clarity Speak to us God Lord when we get into your word this week Lord let the words that you have inspired Let it leap off the page and direct our life Or when we're in Christian community help us To speak your words to each other Lord help us to be guided by the Spirit of God Thank you that you hear us that you speak to us in Jesus name we pray Every I closed every head bowed if you're here today, and you don't have a relationship with God you can God loves you so much If you're here today, and you go Aaron I've never given Jesus my life or maybe you made a commitment years ago, and you stopped you know following God This is your time to recommit to God and all those across all of our campuses you go Aaron today's my day I want to give Jesus my life on the count of three just throw that hand up and say pray for me I'm going all-in today one two three come on. That's you throw your hand up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. There's people all over this room. Thank you there in Pinellas County Thank you there in New Tampa all over Brandon. Thank you so much. Thank you You can put that hand right back down Let's all pray this prayer out loud together

And then we'll baptize a bunch of people in our services ready say it like this a dear Jesus Today, I give you my life Forgive my sins Thank you for dying for me. I Choose to live for you for the rest of my life be my Lord and be my Savior I'm gonna follow you in Jesus name. We pray and everybody that believes it says Amen amen come on. Let's celebrate those who just made the best decision ever Well, thank you so much for watching Radiant Church YouTube channel Don't forget if you haven't already done so subscribe to this channel right now You can click the button so you don't miss anything You can support the ministry by sharing this message with a friend or by clicking the give now button that you see on your screen So that we can continue to see lives changed for Jesus. Thanks for watching the best is yet to come