How To Hear From God | Most Exciting Way to Hear From God | Landon Sherman

We'll see you in our feed worship, we'll see you in our feed worship this morning. The treasures of faith are never enough. Then you came along and you put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied here in your heart. Oh, there's nothing better than you or there's nothing better than you or there's nothing. Nothing is better than you or we believe that I'm not afraid to show you my weakness. My failure is a force for you to see the moment you still call me with. 'Cause the color of a mountain is the color of a valley. And there's not a place your mercy and grace will find me again. Oh, there's nothing better than you or there's nothing better than you or there's nothing. Nothing is better than you or we believe that I'm not afraid to show you my weakness. Nothing is better than you or there's nothing better than you or there's nothing. Nothing is better than you or there's nothing better than you or there's nothing better than you. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can we believe. You turn more need to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can and to be greater. You turn crazy into violence. You turn bones into arms. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you or there's nothing better than you or there's nothing better than you. Oh, you're the only one who can. Oh, you're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. Oh, you're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. # There is no one # # Only you Jesus # # Who else is worthy # # Who else is worthy # # There is no one # # Only you Jesus # # You are the enemy # # God of the end # # And it shows to me # # My life is endless #

# You heal my brokenness # # Show me your own # # So I have so long to face # # Not even make you say # # Who else is worthy # # Who else is worthy # # There is no one # # Only you Jesus # # Who else is worthy # # Who else is worthy # # There is no one # # Only you Jesus # ♪ There's no else that's worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one ♪ ♪ Holy Jesus ♪ ♪ Think of what's true ♪ ♪ The lion up to the horses ♪ ♪ Who the hell I'm saying ♪ ♪ There is no one ♪ ♪ Holy Jesus ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I've never known a God like Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ He's the hell I've got ♪ ♪ My Lord said one ♪ ♪ Who was it is ♪ ♪ It is to come ♪ ♪ See it on and on above ♪ ♪ We saw it, I want it ♪

♪ Right, it's just one can share it ♪ ♪ But to prove to us ♪ ♪ The father's dirt ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ You want it ♪ ♪ I want it ♪ ♪ I want it ♪ ♪ I want it ♪ ♪ I want it ♪ ♪ I know it's you ♪ ♪ Who was it is ♪ ♪ It is to come ♪ ♪ See it on and on above ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ ♪ Action for the shed ♪ ♪ It's love ♪ ♪ To prove to us ♪ ♪ The father's dirt ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ Christ be living alone ♪ ♪ See the world is worthy ♪ ♪ In the world ♪ ♪ There is no love ♪ ♪ Only you'll be lost ♪ ♪ Because if one he was lost ♪ ♪ No more is lost ♪ ♪ Glory in Jesus ♪ ♪ There is a strong heart ♪ ♪ Glory in Jesus ♪

♪ There is a strong heart ♪ ♪ Glory in Jesus ♪ ♪ Come on church, give me blessing ♪ ♪ It's worthy ♪ ♪ Come on ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There is only one worthy ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ We lift his name today ♪ ♪ Sing this out together ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I could sing ♪ ♪ Your name ♪ ♪ For all my life ♪ ♪ And still find more ♪ ♪ To love each time ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name ever on my lips ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Sweeter every time that I call along ♪ ♪ There's just something 'bout your name ♪ ♪ There's just something 'bout your name ♪ ♪ There's just something 'bout your name ♪ ♪ That makes me cry only ♪ ♪ There is no other name ♪ ♪ There is no other name ♪ I won't forget your faithfulness Jesus be the name of our lives It's me to every time that I call on There's just something about your name There's just something about your name There's just something about your name That makes me cry over me There is no other name, there is no other name There's no other name, Jesus you're one of me You have been the one of me

You see this together, Jesus your name is like the Lord in life The one in the darkness can't deny The resurrection and the light, Jesus Jesus your name can save your name, your name can make the stormy still You never fail, you never will Jesus Jesus the bread of life Broken for us, the wounded and the worthy one The first and last and still to go Jesus Jesus, Jesus the King the Lord will forever reign The name of our love remains, Jesus Jesus Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name The King's song of glory, Jesus be the name Jesus be the name The King's song of glory, there is no other name, there is no other name There is no other name, Jesus you're one of me, there is no other name There is no other name, Jesus you're one Jesus Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name Jesus be the name that gets all the glory, there is no other name, there is no other name There is no other name, Jesus you're one, you're one Yeah, come on let's give Jesus some praise, thank you, man, it never gets old seeing people respond to the call of God in their life and faith, I was on the second road jumping up and down alongside most of you, hey all glory and honor goes to King Jesus but hey can we celebrate some of our friends and family in this room that made the bold courageous decision to respond to the call of God and be baptized, we're grateful for you guys, thank you and man I'm so glad to be a part of a church where God is moving right, the Spirit of God is here and if you're new to Compass we are continuing a series called How to Hear from God, my name is Landon and I have the chance to be on the teaching team here and if you're in the room with me right now in Colleyville, can you guys help me, will you welcome the guys watching at the Aldred unit right now, everybody watching online, love y'all so 181 baptisms and this is a perfect time to not speed pass what God is doing and learn from this right because we're talking and at minimum, right, 181 people, they made a decision that changed their life forever. Why? Because they heard from God. And then they responded, right?

Because they believed that like Jesus is God, that he's worth pledging their life and hinging eternity too. And for some of them, like men, they may have heard from God a while ago, and so they signed up and planned for this. And so their family showed up, and they had this amazing celebration, aha moment together. And then there were other people, and some of you are in this room right now, who you just planned for church to be like normal church, you were just gonna go hear the message and get to Chipotle, you know? And God got a hold of your life, and something happened, and you heard from the Lord, and you made that miraculous decision. And so here's where I wanna go today, okay? And maybe you've thought this, I know I have. When that thought, or that feeling, or that prompting, and it may be about baptism, maybe something else, comes across your heart and mind. How do you know it's God? You ever thought that? Like sometimes it's in decision making, like God, I just wish you would tell me what you want me to do, you've been there, right? Should I send my kid to private school, should I send my kid to public school, or, you know, I'm a parent of a teenager,

I don't know if I want my kid to hang out with those people, I'm not sure if they have, you know, good influence, but do we wanna overstep, or should I invest in this company, or this stock, or, you know, your business leader, do we keep this person? You know, can they go to the next level with us? Do we fire this employee? You know, should we root for A&M and football? You know, we wanna know, right? Okay, it wasn't pretty, but we got it, all right? So, or you keep your Saturday stress free, and you root for somebody else, you know? And I think for me, it's this voice and this decision, like, how do you know when it's God, and how do you know when it's you, right? Is it just the moment, right? Is it just something that I want? Like, maybe I'm putting spiritual language around something? You know, and so I wanna talk about something. Actually, you know what? I wanna talk about someone that has been the subject of more arguments and more scholastic and theological thought than almost anything else in Christian doctrine. And it's a big piece of how we hear from God. And it's none of them, the Holy Spirit. And when people talk about the Holy Spirit, you know, the conversation usually goes straight into like spiritual gifts. And especially what we would call like the miraculous gifts of like, you know, speaking in tongues and prophesying

and healing and things that can even feel like strange or exciting and confusing in some ways. And look, I wanna say this clearly, okay? I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are alive and active today that they didn't stop with the apostles. They're very much a part of the body of Christ. But I've got 35 minutes to preach this message. And I wanna stay true to what we're really praying that God would do, which is you leaving, knowing and understanding how to hear from God. And I wanna answer that question, when that thought, when that prompting, when that thing comes across your mind and into your heart, how do you know when it's God and how do you know when it's you, right? So because when it comes to the Holy Spirit, we tend to fall into one of two extremes. Like on one side, everything is God. You're a man, people like that? Every feeling, every thought, every coincidence. God parts the Red Sea of the school drop-off line. And you roll straight up, no stress, no traffic, right? Thank you, Lord, favor ain't fair, right? How about this? Has anybody ever said to you like, hey, you know what? God told me, anybody ever use that phrase for you? And it could be whatever they want after that, right? And you at minimum have to listen, because what if he did? Or they're nuts, right? And it's usually something ominous,

like a prediction about your life, like, and just one time, I want someone to tell me that God told them that we need to go on a vacation to Italy, okay, right? And I think there's probably some people in this room where you've been on the wrong end of someone saying, hey, God told me, and it turns out it wasn't actually God. And that may put you in the second category, where nothing is God, right? That God spoke 2,000 years ago, he gave us the Bible, that he went silent, God doesn't speak anymore, so do your best and give God the rest. And look, that's not bad advice, but, you know, is it all on me or is he just gonna show up and intervene every once in a while? And I don't think either one of those categories really gives us, like, the biblical picture. So if you have your Bibles, or you're taking notes, I want you to open to John chapter 10, all right? I'm gonna be in the book of John for most of today. Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit. But for right now, I want you to camp in John chapter 10 and in particular, I want to look at verse 27. Jesus is talking to some Pharisees. Jesus talked to the Pharisees a lot in the gospels. They're these religious leaders of the Jewish faith. They're like the academics and they did not like Jesus because Jesus constantly shattered their categories of what they thought, what or who they thought God was, right? Jesus claimed to be the Messiah

and he launches this metaphor about sheep and a shepherd where Jesus is the good shepherd and we, his followers are sheep. And here's what it says, verse 27. "My sheep," what? Listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. So my sheep listen to my voice, right? So Jesus assumes something that's really important that his people, us, can learn to recognize the voice of the shepherd in their life, right? That God can actually speak to us that we can hear from God and then act in obedience afterwards, right? And if that sounds a little crazy to you, like Linda, do you really believe that God's can speak to you, can hear the voice of God? Listen, you're not alone because if you look in the context of this text, Jesus says this to the Pharisees and as he's teaching this, even a few verses before, they call him crazy and even suggest that he might be demon possessed. So we've had issues with God kind of breaking our categories and hearing from God certainly does. Think about this, the God who created me, the God who created you, the God who spoke the Himalayan mountains into order, the God who created the chicken and waffle sandwich from Chick-fil-A, right? Like that God, we can hear from him.

And so I want to make sure you know what I believe at the very beginning of this message. And if you grew with me, I just want you to say a minute, listen, I believe that God still speaks, okay? I believe that God still speaks to me, to you, right? To anybody who's put their faith in Christ, to the guy that lives underneath a bridge in downtown Dallas or to the billionaire, right? Now, whether he speaks, if you read what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit, really isn't the question. Here's the question. Am I willing to recognize his voice? Are you willing to recognize his voice? And you know, we've talked about in this series, like how God speaks. And we talked about a few weeks ago that God speaks through the scripture, you know, through the Bible. And in this particular case today, I want to focus on God, the Spirit speaking. And so before we talk about how the Spirit speaks, I want to answer this question. Who is the Holy Spirit, all right? Who is the Holy Spirit? And I want to look at another scripture in the book of John. And I want you to imagine, is John chapter 16 verse seven. And I just want you to imagine for me that you're one of the disciples, you're one of the people that has closely followed Jesus

that you've given everything in your life for him. You maybe even left your home, you left your family, you left your day job. You've seen this guy open the eyes of the blind. You've seen him heal people that could not walk. And now they're walking. He's fed 5,000 people with a little voice, lunch. I mean, he's someone different. And you believe that he's going to take you guys like to the top. And then he says something that I would just imagine sounded absolutely insane, John 16 seven. But very truly, I tell you, it is four year what? That I'm going away. Can you imagine the first time they heard that? Like, well, I thought you came so we could follow you. And now we don't have to worry anymore about like the Roman Empire or any oppression because you're our ticket to the top. He says, unless I go away, the advocate, which we'll talk about the word in a minute, will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send him to you. They had Jesus standing physically in front of him. Can you imagine that? And Jesus says, it's going to be better when I'm gone. That sounds crazy to me today. Can you imagine how crazy it sounded to them? Why? Because he was going to send the advocate, the helper,

the Holy Spirit. And this is where I want to make sure that everybody's on the same page, okay? And we understand like what Christians say when, what mean, let me say the Holy Spirit, okay? Because culturally, we have all kinds of language for like spiritual stuff, right? And I just want to be clear. Listen, the Holy Spirit is not an energy. The Holy Spirit is not vibes. He's not your horoscope. He's not karma. He's not manifestation. He's not the universe sending you a sign. Okay? The universe isn't sending you anything. That's creation. We're talking about the Creator. He's also not your intuition. He's also not your conscience. Right he's definitely not the little voice in your head that's telling you everything You know exactly what you want to hear listen. The Holy Spirit is not a force The Holy Spirit is a person and more importantly the Holy Spirit is God Okay, so Christians believe Christians believe one God eternally that that exists in three persons right father, son and holy spirit Not three gods one God three persons and throughout scripture The Holy Spirit does things that an impersonal force like can't do that word Advocate is a greek word paraclitos and depending on what kind of translation of the bible that you're reading It translates to advocate helper or counselor. So if you want to know what God is like Jesus called the Holy Spirit these things An advocate a helper a counselor, right and it says in john chapter 16 when he the spirit of what

Truth comes he will guide you into all the truth notice that it doesn't say when it comes it says when he comes And so throughout scripture right the holy spirit convicts and comforts and reminds and guides and teaches and glorifies Jesus and empowers obedience and here's where this gets incredible Jesus wasn't promising that the holy spirit would show up When the worship man sings your favorite worship song And you leave and you go oh my gosh worship was so good today. I just thought god, right And then there's other Sundays where they don't sing your favorite song. You're like I just didn't feel god today, right? Listen, that's not what the holy spirit is Listen, if you know Jesus and just define that It means you've given your life to him You've made a profession of faith and you follow him with all of your days If Jesus is your lord listen to me the holy spirit of god dwells with you Which means That whether the worship music is good or not so good Whether the preaching is compelling or boring Whether you're in this room or you're in office or school or sports team if you know Jesus god is with you And there is nothing Nothing That can overcome the power of god in a spirit filled christian I want you to listen to what he says a couple chapters earlier john 14 16 17 And I will ask the father And he will give you another advocate to help you talking about the holy spirit and be with you forever And what does he call him the spirit of what? Truth the world can't accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him But you know him and if he lives with you and will be in You listen if you're a follower of jesus christianity is not simply hey god's really good He created the earth but he's up here and we're down here and it's really hard down here So hold on tight till you get to heaven and it'll all be better

Guys it's so much more than that This is god in his manifestation dwells within the people of god And through the word of god the holy spirit of god speaks and reminds and corrects Which means and here's the tough part the christian life is not supposed to be lived in your own strength The spirit of living god dwells in us and if that's true and jesus said it was Do you really think he's going to remain silent? Listen jesus beside you Would be incredible wouldn't like if you ever just wish that jesus would just show up I mean Can you imagine today if you were at your house after this and jesus just knocked on your front door I mean it'd probably freak you out right but it'd be pretty cool or if you just walk through the back of the auditorium That would be amazing And one day he will It's for the book of revelation tell us and I just I can't wait till revelation 21 is a reality Where the king of kings wipes away every tear from our eyes and he heals and he restores And what eden was supposed to be is what will be again jesus beside you would be incredible But the holy spirit within you is indispensable And that can happen right now Guiding teaching correcting helping empowering right but do you recognize it listen? And one of the things that I was really compelled by because I was like preaching this message is yes Like the holy spirit dwells within christians There's a manifestation of god's presence and everyone who calls upon the name of the lord but listen Long before we were searching for god and I think there's probably some people in here right now They're trying to figure this whole god thing out takes residence, only dwells within those believe. However, the Spirit of God draws us to Him. And for some of us, He's been working on us longer than before we even realized it. Let me show you what I mean. John 16, 8 says, "When He comes, He will convict the world concerning

sin and righteous injustice." And in judgment, notice the language. He says, "The world." So not just Christians, right before the Spirit of God is dwelling in you, He can be working on you, convicting, awakening, drawing you towards Jesus. So I want to talk to the person who's maybe skeptical or unsure about some of this stuff. And again, remember, when Jesus taught this back in the first century, there were people who were like, "I don't know if this doesn't make any sense to me. I don't have any categories for this. So if that's you, I completely understand it." But even if you're in that space, and part of you are in that space because somebody who claimed to have the Holy Spirit was a spiritual person, was a jerk to you. And so now you've got, you know, who you can believe, who you can trust. But like, trying to figure out what you believe about God, and inevitably this question comes up. I'm not sure, but what if there really is a God? And sometimes it happens like when you look at a mountain and you see a beautiful landscape and you think, "I just don't know how any of this could be on accident, but I'm not sure who's really responsible for it, or maybe you hold the baby for the first time." And you start to feel something you've never felt before. What if the Spirit has been working in your life in ways that you don't even have language for? And by the way, I'm not suggesting that every thought that comes to somebody's mind is the Holy Spirit, but don't underestimate the Holy Spirit's ability to awaken questions in you that you've spent years trying to suppress. And so what if curiosity is actually conviction? And what feels like restlessness is actually God drawing you toward himself. John chapter 6, 44, listen to this, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me does what?" draws him. Well, long before we were searching for God, he was searching for us. Last week, 181 salvation stories had a few more this morning. Here's what's true in every single one of those. God made the first move. He comes to us. And if the Spirit of God can draw people in who don't yet know Jesus, imagine how he wants to lead and live within someone that he dwells within. And you know, one of the ideas the Scripture uses over and over again is that the Holy Spirit actually prompts us. Right again, guides teaches correction. So what is a prompting? When I talk about the Holy Spirit prompting you, I'm not necessarily talking about like an audible voice from God and maybe you will, maybe you'll experience that. Okay, I'm talking about a thought, a nudge, you know, a name that keeps coming to mind, a conviction, a sense that you need to do something, you know, call them, apologize, forgive, pray for them, go and do that. Right, the Spirit prompts, and that language is all over Scripture. Okay, I'm going to give you a few, listen to these.

In the book of Luke, it says the sinion was moved by the Spirit. The Spirit tells Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. The Spirit tells Peter, get up and go downstairs. Paul says that he's compelled by the Spirit. Do you see, see the, like the language in there, move, go, get up, compelled? There's a pattern that the Holy Spirit doesn't just inform us and give us understanding. It actually leads us. Now, these people lived, don't miss this, with an understanding that God had permission to interrupt their plants. And, and I just want you to think about your day. And I'm a planner, right? Does God have permission, if the Spirit speaks, to change what you thought that day was going to look like? And that's where it gets from, fun, but that creates an obvious problem, because if I tell you, pay attention to the promptings and the nudges in you feel, some of you are going to make terrible decisions this week and then blame it on me. Okay? So, just because we feel something doesn't necessarily mean that God said it, and just because I want something doesn't mean that God is leading me towards it. So, how do we discern a prompting? And I want to give you four tests, okay? If you're taking notes, these are really helpful things to write down. Test number one, does it agree with Scripture? We talked about this a few weeks ago, right? God speaks through the Scripture. So, test one, does it agree with Scripture? John 17 17 says, your word is truth. Listen, the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word he inspired. Never. He has already told you not to do. To go further. You don't need to pray about whether or not God wants you to lie, cheat or steal. Okay, well, I just feel like God wants me to be happy. No, that's not God, that's you. And we can stop putting his name on it now. Okay, so you test the whisper against the word. You test the whisper against the word. If the whisper contradicts scripture, it's not God. Test number two, does it look like Jesus? Does it look like Jesus?

Philippians, you know, Paul tells us to have the attitude of Christ Jesus, and here's what it looks like. Do nothing of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather than humility value others above yourself. So does it look like Jesus, or is it selfish? And then it talks about Galatians 5, 16. Walk by the spirit and you'll not gratify the desires of the faith. So is this feeding my flesh or is this forming Christ in me? Is this all about my recognition, my comfort, my success, my desires, right? When I go speak to like high school kids or young adults, a lot of well-meaning young men will say things like, you know man, I just really feel like God told me I'm supposed to marry her. And you know what my response always is? It's like, that is so awesome, bro. Did he tell her that? It's like, she looks pretty good without you, man. Like, I don't know, I don't know what to tell you. Like, listen, I think God can bring people together. And look, I do believe that God wants you to give you the desires of your heart, okay? And by the way, God does, like, happiness is a byproduct of walking by the spirit of God in your life, okay? But sometimes we take things that we want and slap God told me on top of it, don't do that. Instead, ask this question, is this making me more Christ-like? Because the Holy Spirit will never lead you away from the character of Jesus.

You know what Jesus did? A lot of things, but in particular, he sacrificed. Test number three, it'd cost me something. Over and over and over again, spirit of God prompted people towards something that cost them something, okay? Time, money, convenience, comfort, control. And sometimes when we get a prompting from God and it's gonna require us to do something hard, we start to doubt whether or not it is God. And here's why, because we don't want to do it. How many of you have ever had something from God and you're thinking, "Hey, how about no?" You know? Let me give you an example from my life. You saw in the video earlier that we've got some people around here that lead this ministry called Healing Prayer. And you sit down with two or three trained people and ask God to reveal what he wants to deal with in your life. And so I did this one time and I will tell you, I was pretty skeptical about it. I didn't know what to think. It's just like a group therapy thing where you all just sit around and talk about our feelings, you know? And so I get in this room, and even though I had my own doubts and I walk in and I'm thinking, "All right, God, I want everything you've got from me and everything you possibly can do.

So I'm gonna just gonna do this." So I sit down in this room and the people that are leading this tell me to ask this question. You know, "God, is there anything in my life unconfessed sin that's holding me back?" You know, and then, you know, I listen and I hear something. And if you're thinking, you know, just God really talk like that way. Here's all I can tell you. Here's my experience. I asked the question, heard something, said it. They turned their pieces of paper around and had written down what I said before I said it. So you call that whatever you want, I call it the Spirit of God speaking. And for me, it was a sin from 15 years ago. And I'd hurt somebody and I'd carried guilt with it for 15 years. And so I confessed it to God and there was forgiveness. And that's wonderful and a miracle. But then I started feeling a prompting again that I didn't want to do. I apologize to that person, two problems. One, I didn't want to, and two, I hadn't seen them in 15 years. So Saturday morning, I'm praying in this room. Sunday morning, I'm standing right here preaching. Hadn't seen them in 15 years, I'd go out in the lobby, guess who's standing in the hallway.

And I tried everything I could to pretend I didn't see them. But the Holy Spirit gave me confidence to walk up to them, tell them, "I'm sorry." And I messed up and I was wrong. And they looked to me and said, "It's okay, I forgive you." What can we learn from that? Was that comfortable? No. Did it cost me pride? All of it. The Spirit of God doesn't always lead you to what's comfortable. He leads you to what is crazy. require faith? I don't mean reckless. I don't mean making irresponsible decisions and blaming God afterwards. I mean, does obedience require me to trust God with something I can't see yet? Acts chapter 8, Philip is traveling and the Spirit tells him, go to that chariot and stay near it. Okay. Anything else? Nope. Just go to the chariot and stay near it. And if you know the story, he shows up and there's a man next to the chariot reading a scroll from Isaiah. He doesn't understand it. Philip explains it to him. The man accepts Christ and is baptized. Philip couldn't see the conversation. The man's faith or the baptism when the Spirit said, go to the chariot. All he could see was the next step of obedience. We want the entire plan. I want the entire plan. God says, take the next step. We want the destination. God gives us direction. We want certainty. God asks for faith. Church, you have no idea what hangs in the balance of one act of obedience. You think about last weekend, 181 people except in Christ. Do you know how many of those journeys started with one of you obeying a prompting that said, go talk to that person. Invite them to church. Tell them about your faith. And what happened? God did what he does. Somebody accepts Christ, gets in the water, gives their whole life to Jesus. Why? Because God still speaks. And I don't want to miss it, but why do we miss it? Why do we miss God's voice? I'm going to give you a couple ways. Number one, fear. Oh, that's a big one, isn't it? What will people think? I don't want to be the crazy Christian person. Right? Comfort. I can't get a good thing

going on. I don't know if I want to take that risk. Pride. I don't want this to come. I already know what I want. Distraction. This is a big one. My life is so loud I don't have room to listen. And so we ask all the time, God, why aren't you speaking? What if the better question is, well, what have I allowed in my life to become louder than God? Look, those are four practical things. But listen, I want to make sure that I say this too. Part of the reason why we don't hear God in our life is because Scripture says there's another influence that's competing for our attention. And he wants to do everything he can to misconstrue the voice of God in your life. Okay, Satan, the enemy of your soul and my soul, I want you to listen to what Jesus says about him. John chapter 844, this is what Jesus says about Satan. He calls him a liar and the father of what? Lies. Do you remember what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit? It was the spirit of he calls Satan the father of life. Do you see the battle? Truth and lies. Right? And I just listen. I am so tired of Satan. And I know, you know, what a courageous theological position for a pastor, you know, pastor comes out tired of Satan. It's like, oh, right. But seriously, man, I'm so sick of watching marriages get destroyed. And I'm just tired and weary of watching addiction take another lap around some of my friends' lives. And I'm so tired of my life where, like, my own shame convinces, like, me to hide the very thing that Jesus died for. You're been there, right? Like, I'm sick of watching people who believe, like, the lies that Satan wants to spit, you know, that he convinces them of. And maybe more than anything, like, I'm just kind of tired of watching people who have the spirit of God living inside of them act like Satan has all the power. And we walk around, you know, and guys, listen, I'm saying this to me, not just to you. It kind of is victims. You know, I hope this works out. I hope it survives. Did you know that if the spirit of God dwells in you, you have the power through the Holy Spirit to crush Satan underneath your feet? Romans 1620, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under whose feet your feet. Now, the power belongs to God. But where does Paul say the enemy gets crushed? Under your feet, church, if you belong to Jesus, listen to me as an encouragement. You're not powerless. And at the name of Jesus, demons flee and darkness crumbles, and you have that power. Now, that does it mean that all the bad things in your life will just go away and be fixed. But that does mean that the bad thing in your life is not the end of your life. Listen, church, it's time to stop being defensive and go on offense. And you bring life where there's death and truth where there's lives and going on offense looks like obedience to Christ and you lead your family. And as for me in my house,

And for some of you, like the Spirit of God today, it's not just, hey man, encourage them and invite them and be with them, it's break the lie. Do you believe for way too long? Is fight for purity, break the pattern, confess the sin, tell somebody what's really happening and you take back the ground that you've surrendered because you can, for the power and the blood of Jesus in your life and the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within you? You know, I don't want the end of this message to sound like we just got to leave for a thing and you know, I just got to make the right move, you're right, I enjoy the power of God in me. But I just got to go out here and not screw up anymore. No, listen, it's not it. And I want to close with this illustration, a story that I've heard. I think the first time I heard it was in a Billy Graham message from like 1955. There's this painting that hung in the Louvre for a long time and it's an old work of art called the chess players. And in this painting, there's a young man playing chess against the devil and you can see exactly what's going on in this painting, right? He's only got just one last line of defense and he looks defeated, the devil looks victorious, the young man's kind of tired. And over time, as it hung in the Louvre,

people started to give this painting a nickname, they called it Checkmate, right? And there's a story that there was this chess master, brilliant chess player from the 19th century, his name was Paul Morphe. And one day he was on a tour of the Louvre. And so they're looking at all the different paintings and so Paul stops and looks at this painting. And the rest of the tour group kind of moves on, starts looking at other stuff and Paul's just fixated on this painting and he's studying the position of the players on the board. And he just keeps staring at it. And so his tour group leaves and they're like, hey, you know, come on, bro, let's go. And he keeps looking at this painting. And ultimately he says, this painting's wrong. And if I was there, like, bro, it's in the Louvre. But he's a chess mastermind, he knows strategy. It became known as Checkmate because the devil looked like he was going to win. And Paul says this painting is wrong. Why? He looked back at the painting and said, the king still has one more move. Some of you in this room, you came here today thinking, Checkmate, my marriage is done, my kid is gone, addiction is one, my past disqualifies me, it's over, but there's something I want you to remember.

The king of kings and the lord of lords still has one more move in your life. Okay, listen, the enemy would love nothing more than for you to look at the board of your life and think Checkmate, but I want you to remember the king still has one more move in your life. And the all this ain't a story, this ain't a story about a painting, it's a story about the gospel. Friday, Jesus is hanging on the cross. Death wins, hell wins, Sunday morning comes, what happens? Love wins, Jesus wins, eternity wins, forgiveness wins. Y'all believe me, you know what I'm talking about? Come on, listen, the king still got one more move in your life. And in a garden with his closest friends and followers, Jesus says, I'm gonna leave. That looked like defeat to them. And then he says, unless I go, the holy spirit won't come to you. I got one more move. And it's gonna be better than you could ever imagine. Anybody else in here grateful that the spirit of God is still living and active today? Come on. I want you to, every bit, every head in this room, I want you to bow your head and close your eyes from day for just a moment. And I just want to have a moment with God. We talked about how to hear from God, right?

And I want to take a moment and practice that. And here I'm together. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Lord, we come to you with humble hearts. God, we're so grateful that you're not a God. Stay silent, right? You speak to us, you guide us, you prompt us. Thank you for the holy spirit. Helper, advocate. And Lord, today I pray for two things. First, if there are people in this room who maybe last week they were here and they saw those people start to walk down and they had that thought in their head, is this God or is this God? 'cause they just weren't sure. But maybe today, God, you've made it clear to them that you want 'em to come home. Lord, we said this, that you draw all people to you, all people to you. And if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, you know what, it is time for me. It is time for me to be baptized. It is time for me to accept Jesus, the Lord of my life. I want the Holy Spirit. If that's you, there's a team of people I guess gathering. And we'd love to talk to you. You can sign up for baptism, you can have a conversation. I just wanna encourage you, don't let another weekend pass before you act on that.

And the second thing is this, Lord, I just pray this week that everyone in this room would have a fresh experience with God, the Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would help us, you'd correct us. You'd comfort us. You'd fill us with your spirit, especially in moments, God, if we're scared, or this pride, we don't know what to do. And God, we love you, and we trust you, and we thank you. And your heavenly name, we pray. Amen.