How To Hear From God | Clearest Way to Hear God's Voice | Drew Sherman

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♪ And it's right here ♪ ♪ There's nothing about performance perfection ♪ ♪ It's driving for acceptance ♪ ♪ Let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Yes ♪ ♪ It's never been about deserving ♪ ♪ Or hurting ♪ ♪ It's the gift we're free to give ♪ ♪ Let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Does anybody wanna be holy ♪ ♪ And righteous ♪ ♪ Your life is wireless ♪ ♪ Let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Does anybody wanna be worthy ♪ ♪ Forgive me ♪ ♪ Just if I really leave me ♪ ♪ Let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ I love you, yeah ♪ ♪ I love you, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it wasn't blood, yeah ♪ ♪ I live only by the blood ♪ ♪ I love you, yeah ♪ ♪ I love you, yeah ♪ ♪ I know it wasn't blood ♪ ♪ You live only by ♪ ♪ I live only by the blood ♪

♪ Could have only been alive ♪ ♪ So sing ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ Could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ Could have only been the blood ♪ (audience applauds) (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ You gave your life for mine ♪ ♪ Milled to the cross ♪ ♪ You crucified ♪ ♪ On my sin and shame ♪ ♪ It was lost by a mercy ♪ ♪ You are the treasure I find ♪ ♪ My reason for living ♪ ♪ To live my life ♪ ♪ Becoming offering ♪ ♪ To the one who is worthy ♪ ♪ Don't break to the Lord outside ♪ ♪ All praise to the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ All praise to Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ High King of heaven, my King forever ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ You stole the gates of my heart ♪ ♪ And then in the tweeze ♪

♪ Stored apart ♪ ♪ Now you hold the keys to the bread ♪ ♪ 'Cause you've arranged things to lie ♪ ♪ Two old stones away ♪ ♪ And all praise to the Lord outside ♪ ♪ All praise to the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ All praise to Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ High King of heaven, my King forever ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ And I lift my hands and lay my whole life down ♪ ♪ My whole life down before you ♪ ♪ I lift my hands and lay my whole life down ♪ ♪ My whole life down before you can see ♪ ♪ I lift my hands and lay my whole life down ♪ ♪ My whole life down before you ♪ ♪ And I lift my hands and lay my whole life down ♪ ♪ Your prayers to the Lord both sides ♪ ♪ Your prayers to the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ Oh, praise to Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I eat of heaven, my King forever ♪ ♪ Your prayers to the Lord both sides ♪ ♪ Oh, praise to the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ Oh, praise to Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I eat of heaven, my King forever ♪ Come on, let's give him our praise. (audience applauding) - Hey, we're gonna sing that line one more time together. I lift my hands up and lay my whole life down. And I just wanna ask today, if you're comfortable with it, would you just lift your hands up?

And this is just, we're doing this as a sign of surrender, sign of saying, God, I'm yours, my life, my heart, my dreams, all that I am with our hands lifted high. Let's sing those words together. I lift my hands up and I lift my hands up. ♪ Lay my whole life down, my whole life down for you ♪ ♪ I lift my hands up and lay my whole life down ♪ ♪ My whole life now is for you ♪ ♪ Come out once of every blessing ♪ ♪ To my heart to sing my praise ♪ ♪ The streams of mercy never ceasing ♪ ♪ Go for songs of love and praise ♪ ♪ Teach me some and Lord your Son ♪ ♪ Some by flaming tongues above ♪ ♪ Praise the mountain, fix upon you ♪ ♪ Mount of God to change you ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Here I raise my heaven, ease it ♪ ♪ Give her pride, I know I'm wrong ♪ ♪ And I hope I like the pleasure ♪ ♪ Safely to her, I know I'm wrong ♪ ♪ Jesus saw me with a stranger ♪ ♪ Wondering from the Lord of God ♪ ♪ He to rescue me from danger ♪ ♪ Into Moses' precious earth ♪ ♪ Take you deep ♪ ♪ Born to trace thou greater death ♪ ♪ Daily unconstrained to be ♪ ♪ Live thy grace now like a fad ♪ ♪ By my wandering heart to be ♪

♪ Born to wonder what I feel ♪ ♪ Born to leave the God I love ♪ ♪ He's my hero, taken to see them ♪ ♪ See live for thy court of love ♪ ♪ Born to wonder what I feel ♪ ♪ Born to leave the God I love ♪ ♪ He's my hero, taken to see them ♪ ♪ See live for thy court of love ♪ ♪ Here's my hero, taken to see them ♪ ♪ See live for thy court of love ♪ ♪ See live for thy world ♪ ♪ See live for thy court of love ♪ (gentle music) (gentle music) [MUSIC] Welcome to Compass. Our mission is navigating people to God. How you doing? 10 o'clock? You good? [APPLAUSE] Hey, and I want to welcome those of you that are watching online and also those of you that are in overflow today. And I just want to say this, man, we are so overwhelmed and grateful to all the people that are coming to church these days. And it's interesting, you know, this time of year, of course, you know, back into rhythms and back to school. And for some of you back to church from the summertime. And again, we're thankful and grateful for all of you. If your schedule would permit it, we would love for some of you to consider any other service, but 10 o'clock. [LAUGHTER] A couple of benefits. Thursday night is the same service as Sunday morning, and we serve free pizza. Can I get an amen? And then to 830, if you come to 830, you never have to worry about a parking spot. So think about the beauty of that. All right. So just consider that, pray about that, because we definitely want new people who are experiencing campus for the very first time to be able to have a seat. And so I think you understand that sentiment. And so thank you. I know you guys are going to be awesome because you always are. And it's so great to be back with you today. I want to thank our amazing teaching team this summer. Can you thank all of our pastors and leaders? Yeah, incredible. And I'm excited for the fall that we have planned here at Compass. I know the heat index is 109 today, but pumpkin spice lattes are already available in the coffee shop.

So amen to that. Let's go fall. Hey, today we're starting a brand new five week series called How to Hear from God. And I want to start with a simple question because I think this is something every honest person has wrestled with at some point. Do you ever find it difficult to hear God's voice? You ever find it hard to hear ever struggle to hear him? Like, like, maybe you're trying to know what he wanted you to do, but the answer was unclear. Could have been a relationship decision, a marriage issue, maybe a financial burden or a career move. Maybe you had a parenting question or you were just in that season where you're just God, I really need to hear from you and God fell radio silent. So I'm just curious by a show of hands. How many of you have ever struggled to hear from God? I mean, my hands up. Yeah, like, wouldn't it be amazing to know exactly what God wants from you? Like, imagine if you could ask God a question and you got a clear and direct answer like immediately. Like, imagine if God worked like, do you guys remember those magic eight balls? Yeah, I mean, I guess you have to be over 40 to remember him, but there were, they were amazing. You just ask a question, shake it up, and there was the answer, and I just, I was kicking myself for not having one of those. I don't suppose anybody here has a magic eight ball just by random choice. Matt, you have one. That's amazing. Look at that. Let's thank Matt. Incredible. Wow. Isn't God amazing? Well, like, wouldn't it be cool if, like, God worked like this? Like, you could just ask it. Like, Lord, will the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year? All signs point to yes. All right. All right. You heard it here first, man. Super Bowl champ. Them boys. Okay. Am I going to lose 20 pounds before Christmas? All signs point to no. That's a bummer. Am I going to get any more grandkids? Too close to call. Come on, landed in McKinsey. Let's go. Is there anyone here today that needs to sign up for baptism weekend next weekend? Yes, including many on the back row. Wow. I made that one up. But anyway, like, wouldn't it be cool if God worked in that fashion? It was that, like, matter of fact, that immediate, but I think we know it doesn't always work that way. And to be honest, I struggle with that at times. Like, but, but I would say this over the years, God has taught me so much about how he speaks and how I listen and how I can learn to recognize his voice. voice and so it's why I don't want you to miss God might be silent in your life, because I believe this with all my heart. I believe that God wants you to hear his voice even more than you desire to hear it. I believe God wants you to hear his voice. Now, God, I believe is always speaking, not occasionally, not randomly, not only to a few uber spiritual people who wake up at 4.30 in the morning in journal and calligraphy and drink three cups of coffee before, you know, 6 a.m. God is always speaking into your life, and he wants desperately for you to hear his voice. Now, when I say God's voice, I don't always mean an audible voice. In fact, I've actually never personally heard the audible voice of God. I know some people have experienced that, and I'm not questioning that at all.

I'm not putting that past God. I'm just saying I haven't heard his audible voice, but I've heard him in many other ways, and I'm going to cover all of them in this series. By the way, if God did speak audibly to me, I have to be honest, I would want him to sound like Morgan Freeman. That would be super awesome. But for most of us, hearing from God is not about hearing a booming voice from heaven. It's learning to recognize how God leads and how God prompts and how he corrects and how he comforts and how he directs us. So maybe you've never heard the audible voice of God, okay, that's okay, but did you know you could still hear from God? You can learn to recognize his direction. You can know what he wants you to do. You can figure out what his will is for your life. I will say this, God does not make his will impossible to find. It's not like some divine scavenger hunt for you to get to know him and to follow him. And Paul talks a little bit about this in Romans chapter 12. If you have your Bibles, maybe you can get there or you can get to you version and your app there on your phone. But Romans chapter 12, and he says this in verse two, I'm in the NLT, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good, pleasing and perfect. That's his will. Like, that's good news. But sometimes we tend to think, you know, well, God's will is probably that I become a monk or a nun and live in a commune and commit to poverty for the rest of my life. I don't think that's accurate. I think that he has a good, pleasing and perfect will in mind for you, which is good news. The bad news is we often struggle to hear from God.

And honestly, I think there's a number of reasons. But maybe the number one reason is we often allow the noise of the world to deafen the voice of God. Think about this. We allow the noise of this world, this noisy world we live in to deafen the voice of God. Some of us have lost our ability to hear God because we've let the noise of the world drown him out. The volume of the noise of the world is so unbelievably loud. There's a fascinating story from the 19th century about Dr. Alfred Tomatice. He was a French ear nose and throat specialist and he spent much of his life studying the connection between hearing and the human voice. And Tomatice grew up around music, his father, his own father was an opera singer and eventually many professional singers, many opera singers began coming to him when their voices would start failing them. And one of the most puzzling cases that he had was with a renowned opera singer who suddenly could no longer hit notes that he had been able to sing for years. At first, everyone assumed that the problem was in his throat. There was a throat problem. But that makes sense, right, that the singer can't hit a note. We immediately think that maybe the vocal cords are failing him. But what Tomatice discovered was remarkable that opera singers can produce a sound as high as 140 decibels. Now just per perspective, a jet engine is somewhere which holds somewhere between 120 and 150 decibels. So when you're singing at that level, especially at close range and inside your own head, the volume can be overwhelming. And over time, the very sound a singer produces can begin to damage their own ability to hear. And Tomatice discovered that some opera singers were becoming deaf from their own voices and the voices around them. And this was his breakthrough.

The voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear. That insight became known as the Tomatice effect. And whether you know the science behind it or not, the principle is just so powerful. If the noise around you is... it'll eventually affect what comes out of your life. And I'm wondering, could the same thing be happening to some of us spiritually? Maybe the issue isn't God not speaking. Maybe the issue is we've become deaf to his voice because of the noise in our own lives. I would argue there's more noise in our world today intent on drowning out the very voice of God than any time in human history. From Google to social media to AI to friends, family, bosses, clients, neighbors, influencers, podcasters, even in-laws, amen? Your phone is pretty noisy, isn't it? Constant distractions, notifications, text messages, spam calls, pop-up ads, all telling us what we should and shouldn't do, what we need and don't need. You ever met with somebody who's in business and understandably, they have two phones, right? One for business, one for personal, and they're just going back and can you imagine having that kind of life? But believe me, you have control over the volume more than you think. There's an on and off button to your phone, right? Because you control how much you consume from the world and how much you consume from God.

And if you allow the world to be your loudest voice, you'll always find yourself deafened to the voice of God. So the million dollar question that we have to ask is, is God's voice the loudest voice in my life? Is God's voice the loudest voice in my life? If not, friend, that's not a problem, it's the problem. It's the root issue of every issue you have in life. How are you supposed to do God's will if you can't hear his voice? And so over the next five weeks, we want to show you how to hear from God. And my prayer is that this will be transformative to you. Next week, we'll talk about the most practical way to hear from God. Week three, the most personal way to hear from God. Week four, the most exciting way to hear from God. And week five, the loudest way to hear from God. Now, along with this series, we're providing a resource page on our website. It's behind me. You can see various websites and books that we might be recommending to you. And you can use the QR code over here. You can shoot that QR code. If you want to get to the link, but QR codes are so 2024, just use the tap tag right in front of you, except for those of you that are on the first row, okay? And we really appreciate you, by the way, for sitting on the first row.

But if you're on the, you could always do this. But on the second row, there's a tap tag. You literally just point your phone to it. And the first, you can click on that first link and it will give you all the details about this resource page. But this week, we're starting with the clearest way to hear from God. You want to know what that is? The clearest way to hear from God is getting into God's word. That's the clearest way to hear from God. I love 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. It'll be the launch for today, as we kind of head into this idea of the clearest way to hear from God. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Paul is writing to Timothy and his young apprentice and he says to him, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong. It teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to repair and equip his people to do every good work. So Paul is discipling Timothy about how to hear from God and how to know what God wants him to do. And I think that he gives him, at least in these two verses,

three reasons why this is the clearest way to hear from God, the clearest way. The first reason is God's word is God breathed. God's word is God breathed. The English Standard Version says all scripture is breathed out by God. All scripture is breathed out by God. The word used here in scripture is literally, it means God's voice to you. That's what that means. God's voice to you. There's two Greek words that form that word, phio and nuestos, phio, nuestos, the peace silent, phio, nuestos, phio, God, nuestos, or numa, God's breath. Literally God's breath. The book is literally my breath, my actual inspired voice in your life. That scripture is not merely good advice or religious inspiration or ancient wisdom. It is God's voice speaking into our lives. And here's what I want you to understand. God's will never contradicts God's word. In other words, God will never lead you to do something that He's already clearly told you not to do. God's Spirit will never disagree with God's Scripture. So if I say, "Well, I feel like God's telling me this, but this requires me to ignore this," then that's not God's voice. That matters because sometimes you and I, we spiritualize what we really want. We say, "I prayed about it," or, "I had peace about it," or, "I just feel like God wants me to be happy," but peace is not the ultimate test.

Feelings are not the ultimate test. Circumstances are not the ultimate test. The ultimate test is, "Does this, what I'm about to do, does it line up with the Word of God? What does the voice of Scripture tell me?" And this is important because in today's world, we're told, "Hey, go with your feelings," right? I love this one. Your heart, just follow the heart. Well, I will tell you, sometimes your heart deceives you, which is probably not good to follow your heart all the time. Follow your heart is not in the Bible, okay? It sounds wonderful, right? If it feels good, do it, and maybe not, okay? Feelings betray us all the time. They are seldom consistent with God's voice, but listen, God is consistent. He's not going to whisper something privately that contradicts what He has already spoken clearly. He will not guide you around His Word. He will guide you through His Word. So before I trust an impression, before I follow a feeling, before I take someone's advice, I have to bring it under the authority of Scripture and ask, "Has God already spoken about this?" The second reason why I think the Word of God is the most clear way to hear from God, is useful, and it's our source for truth. People all over the world are searching for truth. Paul says, "Scripture is useful for teaching, correcting, exposing what is wrong, training us to live God's way." Look at that verse again, this is in the message, okay? Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another, showing us truth,

exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. And if we're honest, we need all four of those things constantly. I need them every day. For example, just such a simple little example, football starts next week, okay? Amen. And you'll be out there rooting on Friday nights for your favorite team. And you'll be happy to watch the quarterback of your team guide hopefully his team back and forth scoring lots of points. But imagine for a moment, let's just say the quarterback of your team, he hears a fan, some random dad up in the stands say, "Hey, you should run this play instead." Now I know this would never happen in Texas that a dad would try to tell a player to do something different than what the coach, that would never happen. Let's just play along hypothetically, okay? And let's say the quarterback gets a play call from the coach, but instead he's like, "No, no, I'm going to run that play random dad told me to run." That quarterback would find himself on the bench pretty quick, right? Why would we listen to the voices of the world when our coach has given us the playbook? Isaiah 55 talks about this, it kind of gives us the answer. Why would we listen to God? Well, here's what God says, "Well, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways." That's one of the greatest reasons we need scripture because the way we naturally think is often very different from the way God thinks. I'll put it this way. Our natural intuition rarely aligns with God's intention, okay? This shows up in every area of life, money, relationships, sexuality, power, forgiveness, marriage, parenting, leadership. If we simply listen to the world or even to ourselves, we will often be led in the wrong direction, okay? Our natural intuition rarely aligns with God's intention, what he wants for you, his

way for you, his will for you. Can I be honest, when Michelle and I get into quarrels and fights, it doesn't happen that often, honestly, my natural inclination is not to pause and say, "Lord, make me more like Jesus when I talk to my wife." My natural inclination is, "Lord, give me one good comeback for this woman," you know? Right? And if possible, let it sound spiritual. But how helpful is that? It's not helpful at all. Right? Men, you get into a fight with your wife and your natural inclination is, "I'm gonna blow up on that woman," right? That's not helpful. But Colossians 3 is husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. That's God's voice. But that's not always my natural inclination. That's definitely true in some of the most powerful aspects of life, money, sex, power. Those are areas where often our intuition is off from what God's word says. Let's talk about sex for a minute, okay? Have you ever had a season where you followed your natural intuition sexually that you now regret? We don't have to have a show of hands. Appreciate the guy in the balcony, but anyway, we live in a sex saturated, sex glamorized society, and we wonder why our world is falling apart when it comes to relationships. Many, I know many young people, Christian couples, they'll say, "Oh, I love my boyfriend. Oh, I love my girlfriend. I love my fiancee." You know God understands, besides we're going to get married eventually, and so we can be intimate because we love each other, but deep down, they need to understand that's not love. Love waits. That's not God's will or God's way, honestly it's their natural and honestly sinful inclination.

Even God is not a prude. God wants you to have an amazing, fulfilling sex life, but it only happens when you do it in the framework of His way. When it comes to pornography, there's a natural line of thinking, "I'm not hurting anyone with what I do in my private." Yes you are. Yes you are. You're hurting yourself and you're potentially creating unrealistic expectations for your current or future spouse. So when it comes to money, sex, power, and a thousand other topics, if you just listen to the world, the world will tell you the exact opposite, which means if God's word isn't the loudest voice in your life, then you'll be deaf to what God wants for you. That third reason is right there in verse 17, God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work. It shapes us and equips us for our future. All disclosure, as you grow older, you would think you would feel as though you're wiser and more equipped and ready to deal with the voices of the world. But honestly, our world is changing so fast. It's really hard. If you're a parent, you know this feeling. When your kids are little, you're exhausted, but at least you're in charge. You can buckle them in and tell them to go to bed and bribe them with goldfish crackers and stuff like that. And then they get to about 10 or 11 and you start thinking, "You know what? I think we got this. We're pretty good at this parenting thing. Maybe we should write a parenting book." And then two years later, their teenagers and you're like, "Oh, we do not have this." They start having opinions and attitudes and phones and friends and smells you can't identify. And I'll once you feel completely ill-equipped or take marriage.

Like marriage is wonderful, but marriage is not easy. I know that. I've been married to an amazing woman for 39 years. Michelle is incredible. I tease her that she doesn't like this, but I tease her. She's like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. But even when you're married to Mary Poppins, there are still moments when you think where you're like, "Oh my goodness, woman, what in the world?" You know? Like, and I'm sure she has moments where she looks at me and she's like, "Lord, sanctify Him quickly." Like, whatever this is, make it go away. Like, that's why I need God's Word. I need to, I need to shape me and correct me and teach me how to love her better and serve her better and be a little less selfish than I was yesterday. And this is the beauty of God's Word. There's a moment in the Psalms that's just incredible to me. The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, it has over a hundred verses. In fact, the verse I'm going to reference right now is verse 105. Psalm 119, 105, and David is writing and he says, "Your Word is a, say it with me. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." And some of you have been a Christian for a long, long time and you look at that and you're like, "That's right. But the Bible just illuminates our path." That's not exactly what he's saying, okay? This is interesting. Because when you and I think of a lamp, we think of like, you know, turn a lamp on in a dark room and it just lights the whole room. But David says, "Your Word is a lamp to my what? To my feet."

Well, if your room's illuminated, you can see way more than your feet, right? But this is the kind of lamp David was probably talking about, okay? If the camera guys can zoom in on this, this was the lamp that David would have, I mean, you know this, right? When David wrote this, there was no electricity, you know that, right? So this was the lamp. It's a little oil lamp. It's just a little piece of pottery. And if it was dark in here and we lit this little lamp, it would probably light my feet. That's about it. And I love this analogy, because just throw out any preconceived notions you had about this verse and just think about this. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. What David was saying is your word is so significant that I need to be in it every day so that it can guide my next step. My next step. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I need a reminder every day from your word so that it can light my next step. So that my next step is wise. So my next step follows your inclination and not my inclination. So the next step fulfills your intention and not my intention. So my next step helps me go your way and not my way. I love that. Your word is a lamp unto my feet. It's why you and I need to be in the word every day so we understand what our next steps are. Now here at Compass, we've had 2,000 baptisms in the last two years. Praise God. That's what gets me excited. What keeps me up at night is are these 2,000 new disciples? Are they taking steps? Because disciples do not stand still. That's not in the notes, but you might want to write it down. Disciples don't stand still. They move. Disciples take steps. They move forward. And so I just want to make sure that if you're a disciple and you're in this room, I love you all. But if the only step you ever take is a step to get to your car, to drive the 10 o'clock service, and that's it, that's not enough. Basically what you're saying is I don't need to light the lamp. You like the lamp. Drew, you like the lamp. You like the lamp for me. I'm good. No, no. You need to light the lamp. You need to take the next step. Here's a couple ideas. Starting point, I know you've not heard it all about it ever before. If you come here, we talk about it every week, and you're like, some people go, oh, we can't go to starting point. I'm like, why? Well, we go to 10 o'clock service. I'm like, I mean, you could change for one week, you know, or a couple of weeks. You could go to a different

service. So that's just a thought. Most of you must feel like that person because you're not laughing right now, and that's fine. Okay. So go to starting point, community groups. Some of you are like, some of you need to get into a community group, right? We're better together. And some of you are like, like, I don't like people. Well, maybe you should go to a group and get to know people before you say you don't like them. Okay, think about that. Rooted, it's a 10-week discipleship experience. That would be a bigger step of faith. I'm just telling you, most, almost everybody that goes to rooted when they're done with it, they're so glad that they went. I can't really explain to you what it is. Just trust us. It's an amazing, it starts next weekend. We'd love for you to take that step. But some of you, baptism is your next step. That's why we have baptism weekend, right? According to the eight ball, there's people on the back row. You guys need to be dunked apparently. But the reality is this, if you're a disciple, if you love the Lord, if you want to accept Jesus, your Lord and Savior, if you want to walk in faith, if you've never been immersed, if you've never had believers' baptism, you need to take that. That needs to be your next step. And so I just want to encourage you, like I'm going to, when we're done here, everybody's going to go out. We're going to go out those, I mean, you know, how it is here in Colleyville. You go out the main corridor there, and you're going to go in the lobby. There's going to be free root beer floats. There's going to be all kinds of ministry, you know, ideas for you and opportunities to connect with ministry. But the first one is going to be a table. It's just going to save baptism. I'm going to be there. I'll answer any question you have about baptism. I will be there. I will be there to answer any questions you have, because this is a very, very important next step. I love what David gives us this idea. Your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path. It just helps us with the next step. All right. So I'm going to give you, I want to give you a simple plan for getting into God's word so that you can hear his voice, okay? And so I have six minutes and 13 seconds to go. So here we go. Number one, choose a Bible translation you can understand, okay? Choose a Bible translation you can understand. I know some of you default to King James Version, because they have like a coffee table, you might have had a coffee table Bible laying around, or maybe it's an heirloom Bible from your family, or maybe you had a rough night at a Marriott one time, and you pulled the drawer open, and there was the Gideon's Bible, and praise God. Anyway, that's another sermon for another the Lord with the King James Bible. So that means a lot to you. We don't use it very often

around here and we don't really recommend it. I know some people say, hey, the King James version is the most accurate translation. It is not. I would encourage you to maybe look at the new international version, the English standard version, NIV and ESV, NLT would also be good. But the King James is written in old English and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful literature, but it's just not written in today's world. Like, for example, if a kid said to his mom, mother, I'm hungry, mother, I'm hungry. If he said it to him in the King James Bible, it would be Hensforth, let it be known unto the birthgiver that nine bellies emptyness. So they say the same thing, but one just a little easier to say than the other. So anyway, the best Bible translation is the one you will actually read. Okay? That's the best Bible translation, the one you'll actually read. Okay? Please don't send me notes about the King James version. Okay? If you send me a note that I should be preaching the King James version, I shall delete it. Look at me being all spicy up here today. All right. If you still like turning pages, I love the life application study Bible. I love this Bible. It's amazing. You can get it in the NLT now. It's also in the new American standard version, which is probably the most accurate translation, by the way. But it's really helpful. It provides notes to explain the meaning and the application of the text. So I love it. Number two, choose a consistent time and place. Consistency matters from a time and place where you can focus without distraction. For some, that's early morning. I'm sure for others, it might be during your lunch break or in the afternoon or maybe a bedtime. I don't know. The key is not specific time. The key is consistency. I do mine early in the morning. I love to hear from God early in the morning. In warmer months, I'll be out on the front porch when it's cool outside. I might do a fire, do a fire. But just early in the morning is when I hear best, but maybe you're different. And so just find a consistent time and place that works for you. Consider using a Bible reading plan. A plan helps you know what to read and keeps you on track versus guessing. There are over 10,000 plans on the U version Bible app. If you just go into the app store and just put in Bible, it'll take you to U version. You can download that. There are so many great plans. I'll give you three of my favorite. They're all connected to the Bible project, which gives you these amazing videos along with it. If you're brand new, you can go over here to just, there's one called introduction to the Christian faith. You just go into plans, find plans, and put

an introduction to the Christian faith. It's nine days, nine days, and it will help you get started and reading your Bible. And then I recommend this as a follow up. It's kind of an intermediate. It's a journey through the book of Luke and the book of Acts. So you get the story of Jesus and the story of the church. Awesome. And then if you're ready to really dive in, I'm doing this right now this year. I'm doing it in the English standard version, but it's called one story that leads to Jesus. And it's about four chapters in the Bible a day plus a devotional. It's about 25 minutes a day. So you don't want to get behind. It takes forever to catch up. It's 358 days out of the year. So you get seven days where you can be lazy. Amen. But it's an amazing journey. And you know, you're like 25 minutes. Holy cow. Well, a lot of times we'll spend over an hour. We don't realize that we'll spend an hour a day on our phones. And so you could cut that in half and still getting God's word in here from God. And then finally, this is so important, just pray and ask God to show you one thing to apply. Just one thing. Instead of trying to apply everything at once, ask God to show you one thing. One verse, one truth, one correction, one step of obedience. I think if you try to focus on everything, you'll probably end up focusing on nothing. But just just ask God. This morning, Lord, give me one thing, one verse today to focus on and apply to my life. And you know, of course, every once in a while, you'll have that lonely day in Leviticus, you know, or something where it's really hard to connect. But most of the times, you'll find something there that you can apply to your life and you can learn from and you can hear from God. Because the clearest way to hear from God is by getting into God's word. Can you imagine what would happen if each of us here today, a right here at Compass, just started doing this if we would choose a Bible. For some of you, we know that some of you are ready to be baptized. And so I'll be right there. Two weeks from today is baptism weekend, but I'll be ready to answer your questions, whatever questions you have, because we want to hear God's voice. We want God's voice to be the loudest voice in our life. Amen. Amen. Let me pray over you.

God, we love you. We're so grateful for you. We're thankful for you. And the Father, we pray you teach us these next five weeks how to hear your amazing voice. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, I love you guys. (applause)