Were You Even Listening? | Sunday Message

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So today we are in our series, "The Holy Spirit and You." If you want to turn in your Bible, we're going to be in a couple of different passages today.

So be ready to turn around. I've got one of these fancy Bibles that has three ribbons. Yep, three ribbons, and you're going to need three ribbons today because we'll be in three passages. We're going to be in First Kings 19. That'll be the first one.

The next passage we'll be in is Acts chapter 17, and then the third, finally, we'll be in First Samuel chapter three. And as you turn there, you know sometimes when I come home from the office, long day at work, the first thing I like to do is go into my living room, turn on the TV, plop on the couch, and just go and scroll on my phone and decompress a little bit, or maybe a better way to put it is decompose a little bit. I don't know, and. I'm scrolling on my phone, and then my wife comes and says hello, and then she starts talking to me about her day, or starts talking to me about some plans that she has. And I'll be honest, a lot of times I'm kind of what I would call passively listening, right?

And I'm on my phone, and I'm trying to listen to her, and that's a dangerous place to be. That's a dangerous thing to do because you're trying to be in two places at the same time, right? You're trying to be in the room with your spouse, or wherever, maybe. Maybe you're not married. Maybe it's with your boss, and you are practicing this as well.

Or maybe it's you know with your kids. You do this, but you're practicing you know passive listening.

So you're you're there in person, but mentally you're checked out.

Some of you are probably checked out right now. But we've all been there, and so my wife she starts talking to me about something or telling me about some plans that she has, and I start going through my you know pre-prepared responses. Uh huh. Right. Oh my gosh.

Wow. Seriously. Wow. That's crazy. Wow.

That's crazy. Wow. That's crazy. That one ends up on repeat a lot of times. I don't know why.

But then something shocks me out of it. Usually, when she wraps up what she's saying, and so she asked me, "So, what do you think?" Oh shoot!

Now I've got a choice right there. I can either confess to her that I actually wasn't listening to you talk for the last five minutes, or I can say, "Yeah, I think that sounds okay. Just you know, let me know as we get closer to the date." That's a good little life hack for you right there. It may be bearing false witness. I am not sure, though.

But then you find out that the thing that you agreed to was for her to go out of town for two weeks on a trip to Europe with her girlfriend, and you have to take the kids to sports, to school, you know, to friends' houses, to a sports game, to a tournament, you know, out of the country. You have to take them to a wedding. You have to take them to a funeral. It's like, oh my gosh, wow, okay, what did I sign up for? That's the danger, right?

But seriously, why do we do that? We all do it, whether it's with our spouses, with our bosses, with our friends, our family members. We're scrolling, and we're actively, you know, inactively listening, passively listening. Why do we do that?

Now, it's not because I don't care about what my wife is saying.

Sometimes it is, but most of the time it's not because of that. It's not because I don't care about what she's saying. It's realistically, it's because I've allowed something of far less value to occupy my attention. That's the reality. I've given my attention to something of far less value than what my wife is saying, what my wife is sharing with me.

Here's my point: what captures your attention has the capacity to shape your life. What captures your attention has the capacity to shape your life. The things that occupy your headspace, the things that you glue your eyeballs to on the screen, on your television, on the newspaper, whatever. Because what gets your attention eventually shapes your affections. What gets your attention eventually shapes your affections, and the same is true in our relationship with God.

We can passively listen; we can passively listen. You see, we ask God for His intervention, we ask God to clarify His will, we ask God to meet this need or to give us some some guidance in this situation. And I wonder how many times God speaks to us, but we Aren't even listening? God would say to us, "Were you even listening? You asked me for a, you know, something.

You asked me a question, and I responded to you through my word, through that coworker, through the pastor on Sunday. You know, through that billboard on the side of the road. Did you even see it? Were you even paying attention? Were you even listening to me?" We ask God to do these things, but we need to make sure we are actively listening because there is a difference between hearing someone's voice with your ears and listening to what they're saying.

Does that make sense? There's a difference between listening and hearing. Right? All of you hear me right now.

Some of you may not be listening though. You're not tracking. Hearing is passive. Listening is intentional. We've been going through the series the last couple of months, the Holy Spirit and you.

And in our time together, we've learned about the Holy Spirit, the gifts that He gives us, the power that He has, the miracles that He can do, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We've asked Him to fill us, we've asked Him to heal us, we've invited Him into our daily lives to use us, and we've pledged to never resist Him or to quench Him. Right. But when he speaks, have we been prepared to listen to him? When he speaks, are we listening?

I believe that you can increase your sensitivity to the Spirit. I believe that. I believe that you can increase your sensitivity. You can optimize your daily decisions so that you can more clearly and acutely hear the word of God specifically for your life. Doesn't that sound amazing?

To know that God in heaven has a special word for you. A special thing that you need to go and do, a tugging of your heart to go share with that person the gospel, a decision that you need to make that was not made clear to you before is now made clear. I believe you can be sensitive. You can make yourself more sensitive, more aware of the Word of God, of this Holy Spirit in your life. We we believe obviously we see throughout the New Testament where the Holy Spirit speaks to His people right in radical and powerful ways, giving them incredible insight into different things.

And we here at Harvest we believe the Holy Spirit still does this today. We are not cessationists here. We believe that the Holy Spirit continues His work even today and in the same capacity. The only question is then. What were they doing then that maybe we're not doing today?

What were they doing then that maybe we're not today? And so, what we're going to do in our time together is look at some passages that I believe will show us how we can increase our sensitivity to the voice, prompting, and direction of God through the Holy Spirit, which indwells in each and every believer. Basically, in our time to summarize, I want us to learn how to become more attentive to the Holy Spirit's leading in our everyday lives. Does that sound good?

Okay, excellent.

So, my message title today is "Were You Even Listening? Were You Even Listening?" And we're going to read together in First Kings chapter 19, starting in verse nine. I'm reading from the New King James Version today. It says this, and there Elijah came into a cave and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And Elijah he has a little venting session with the Lord here.

He says. I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. And then he said, "Go out, stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and the great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, let's read this together: a still small voice. And so it was.

When Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Let's pause there. This is a really fascinating scene. Elijah, one of the amazing prophets in the Old Testament, an amazing man of God. And when you understand what happens right before the passage of Scripture, we have a little more insight.

Right before First Kings nineteen. Is First Kings eighteen? That's really good insight. You should write that down. No, just kidding.

But in First Kings eighteen, it's actually one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. It is absolutely sensational, sensational. It's crazy. Basically, what happens is it is the showdown on Mount Carmel. Again, it's one of my favorite in all of the Bible.

It is violent. It is triumphant. Fire coming down from heaven. Mocking false gods, being on toilets, four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal filleting themselves, trying to get their gods' attention to listen to them, and ultimately Elijah just sitting on the sidelines, laughing at them, mocking them as they're just gushing blood everywhere. He's telling them, "Maybe you need to try a little harder.

Your God's probably on a journey. Maybe he's on the toilet. I don't know. Keep going. This is clearly working so well.

It's definitely a story worth reading if you." You haven't done it on your own time yet, but. It's an incredible moment. It's a victorious moment. It's a triumphant moment. You had the false prophets of Baal, and you had Elijah, basically saying, "Okay, guys, there's been this rivalry in Israel for generations.

Now, who is the one true God? Who is the true powerful God? Is it Baal, or is it the Lord?" And so Elijah challenged them to a showdown, and they showed up, and they basically they set an animal, a dead animal, on the altar, and they wanted Baal. To come down and bring fire from heaven, and so they believed they could do that.

So they prayed and they yelled and they shouted and they cut themselves. They did crazy things, right? And guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing happened.

And then Elijah shows up and he says, "Okay, it's my turn." And he goes and he actually there was a drought. But he goes and he takes multiple buckets of water and dumps it on the offering, on the altar, in the trench, all around.

So water was just spilling everywhere, which was a valuable resource at the time. And so, just to make it so clear that this was no special magic trick or anything like that, and Elijah simply prayed, God. Show them that you are the one true God, and boom! Fire, lightning comes down from heaven, from the sky, and sucks up not just the offering that was on the mantle there, but it destroys and evaporates the rocks that were around it. All the water licks it all up, and it is very true, very clear that the Lord of Israel is the one true God.

So it's amazing. Everybody falls down on their faces and and worships the Lord. All the Israelites. Israelites there see that the Lord is the one true God, and then Elijah says, "Seize the four hundred four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and and put them to death. Let's execute them here, right on the spot." Again, one crazy story, and so this amazing moment, this amazing moment, where clearly Elijah is victorious.

The Lord is victorious. I mean, talk about an adrenaline dump, and so it's an amazing moment. But the queen Jezebel, who had been promoting the Baal worship, she is unfazed. She doesn't care that God actually showed up. She is ticked and she's angry at Elijah, and she sends this message to him.

She says, "By this time tomorrow, you're a dead man. This time tomorrow, Elijah, you're a dead man." And Elijah, he goes from the triumphant prophet on the mountaintop. To cowering in a cave, running for his life, even asking God to end his life, and God meets him there, and He shows up, and He says, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" And Elijah has that venting session with the Lord, and which is where we picked up. But notice what it says in verse twelve. After all of these sensational things—the earthquake and the fire and the wind.

But the Lord was not in those things. And after the fire, looked back at verse twelve: a still small voice. You should underline that. Elijah saw the power of God on Mount Carmel, but the Lord shows up in a different way at Horeb, and He speaks to Elijah with a still small voice—not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not with fire this time—but a still small voice. And that brings us to our first point.

How can we hear the Lord? How can we hear the Spirit's call more clearly? His voice in our lives. Number one, listening to God means turning down the noise. Listening to God means turning down the noise.

Now, Elijah, he wasn't distracted by his phone or the latest Netflix series, but there is something I want you to notice. The same God who answered with fire at Carmel spoke to Elijah in a still small voice at Horeb. This is the first step towards hearing and being more attentive to the Holy Spirit's leading in our everyday lives. Is to turn down the noise. Let me ask you a question.

Think about it for a moment. What is your morning routine? What is the thing that you do every morning?

Okay, you wake up, you open your eyes. What's the first thing you do? After you go to the bathroom, right? Usually, it's if we're honest. First thing we do is we wake up and we reach for our phones, right?

We reach for our phones, and then what do we do? We check our messages and then our emails, and then we check if we had any missed calls, our voicemails. We check the news, we check the weather, and then let's be honest, we go on social media and we start scrolling, and then we go on with our day. Before we even have our feet hit the ground, we've allowed a dozen voices to speak into our lives. And then what happens after you get up?

Right, you get ready for the day, you get in your car, you're driving the kids to school, you're driving. To work, and what do you do? You turn on talk radio, you turn on a podcast, and then you go to work, right? And you're at work, and you know whatever you have playing in the background, and then you come home, and then you turn on the TV, and then you sit on the couch and you scroll on your phone, and you ignore what your wife is saying, right? And on the day goes.

Now most of us aren't doing all of those things, and one day, hopefully not. But I think a majority here do have a morning routine that could probably use some improvement. You see, constant stimulation and acting like a digital tweaker is not going to help you spiritually or mentally. It's not good for your mental health to just be constantly glitching and jumping from one app to the other, chasing stimulation all day. This is not good.

Do you know somebody who's addicted to their phone? Do you know somebody that literally is always on their phone and can't even track with you? And their brain is just short circuiting. Literally, that's what's happening. Their brain is being constantly interrupted to go and chase a dopamine hit.

It is not a good thing. It is an epidemic, right? It's an epidemic for sure. And if it's not good for us mentally, you know, it is not good for you spiritually. It's not good for you spiritually.

We've made room for everybody else's voice, but have we made room? For God's, I wonder if the Lord could even ask some of us the very same question. My wife has asked me, "Were you even listening?" Were you even listening? You sit in church on Sunday and you say, "Yes, Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to fill me. I want to be used by you.

I want to know your voice. I want to walk with you." And then it's like, "Well, God is knocking on the door. God is speaking to you through His Word, or He's trying to get your attention, but you are so distracted by the noise." All the other noise is so loud that it's impossible for you to hear that still small voice. Before you fill your mind with everybody else's opinions and you get onto your morning routine of being on social media, whatever else, spend some time in God's Word. Spend some time in prayer.

Spend some time talking to God about what is happening in your life, and wait for Him to speak to you. King David made prayer a priority. He says in Psalm five, "My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up." And the Lord affirms the importance of this in Proverbs eight when He says, "I love those that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." I love that. Those that seek me early shall find me.

There is something really special about waking up before the rest of your family, before the world has its expectations on you. When you have a little time and just going and sitting at your coffee table, there, opening up the Bible and saying, "Here I am, Lord. I'm coming. I want to hear from you. Would you speak to me?" As I sit here with you, it is a special thing.

It is a special thing. Jesus Himself modeled this. In Mark one thirty five, we read now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed.

Now listen, I'm not saying you have to wake up at four in the morning to be a little more spiritual. I don't think it would hurt, though. Let's be honest. But some of you, you can't do that, right? Y'all, you've got a graveyard shift, or you have a different schedule, and it's just challenging to get up in the morning.

Oh, you've got a baby that's, you know, waking up. A man, you need your sleep, and whatever else.

Okay, I understand that staying up until two a.m. on your phone doom scrolling doesn't count as a reason why you can't wake up early.

Okay, you need to reset your priorities there. But I am saying that if your relationship with God is a priority, your schedule should reflect that. If your relationship with God is a priority, your schedule should reflect that. That means making time to read your Bible, making time to pray, and making time to be quiet before the Lord. That that can include journaling.

This is something that I've done over the years. It's not keeping a diary, dear diary. Today, no, no, this isn't like talking about my feelings and my emotions and whatever else. This is saying, you know, I prayed this today. I read this today.

Here is what this scripture said to me. Here is one of the Bible verses that I read today. That really stood out to me, and I write that, and I pray, and I spend time meditating about what I just read and talking to the Lord. I would encourage you to do those three things, and don't just ask God to speak. Be willing to listen to what the Spirit is saying, and most importantly, be willing to respond to it.

Right? Because it's one thing to hear what God is saying to you; it's another to obey it. I'll close my point with this: Listen. You cannot manufacture the voice of God by creating silence or waking up, you know, ten hours before you normally would, or having five different colored highlighter pens. Right?

You can't manufacture the voice of God, but you can create room in your life to listen, to set time aside to hear from and to talk to the Lord. For some, the most spiritual thing that you can do is to leave your phone plugged in for fifteen minutes in the morning as you go and open your Bible. We ask God to speak into our lives, but are we turning down the noise to hear what He is saying to us? Have we turned down the noise? Because sometimes our problem isn't that we're too distracted to hear.

Sometimes we know exactly what God wants us to do. We just don't want. To do it, which is a whole other issue, and that leads us to our second point today, number two: listening to God means submitting to His direction. Listening to God means submitting to His direction. Let's read together now in Acts chapter twenty.

We're reading about the apostle Paul here. Paul speaking in verse twenty-two, and see now, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing. The things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Now you can flip forward, flip forward one chapter to Acts twenty-one verse ten, where the story continues. And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, and when he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit: So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." Now, when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? I am not only ready, for I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased saying, "The will of the Lord be done." And after those days, we packed up and went to Jerusalem. Let's stop there.

This is a passage of scripture I've come to many times in my Christian life, and I am just blown away by. I'm just blown away by, and honestly, I find it so attractive. The type of relationship that the apostle Paul had the Holy Spirit—that he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what the Lord was leading him to. His obedience is amazing. That's a whole another conversation.

But just his sensitivity to know that the Lord was leading him back to Jerusalem, and how much I want that. To know that the Lord is leading me to that conversation, to that decision, and whatever that thing in my life, that big thing that is going on, that God would give me wisdom like that. I don't want to be enchained and imprisoned and beaten and scourged and everything else. I don't want that part, but the part that He is so clearly led—that's amazing. And as we we.

Know the rest of Paul's story. This here marks the end of Paul's life as a free man. He would go to Jerusalem, and he would be put in chains. He would be sent to Rome, ultimately as a prisoner to await trial. And Paul knew what was waiting for him, but he went anyways.

He went to Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him. He was bound in the spirit. He was ready. Suffering and imprisonment were ahead.

Now, interestingly, Paul had been taking up an offering for the believers in Jerusalem from all the churches across Asia to bless and support them. Not only that, he wanted to get to Jerusalem because there was a rumor about him that he was preaching a false doctrine. That he was saying things that he wasn't saying. He wanted to go and clear his record.

So he had other reasons he wanted to get back there. But put yourself in his shoes for a moment. You feel led to a place where you also know means you're going to get beaten to a pulp. You're going to be put in chains and imprisoned, and persecution awaits you, and ultimately death. I think we'd all say, "Hey, that offering that we took up for Jerusalem—can we Venmo that?

Can we just get their account number, get their username, and we'll just send it over to them?" As far as clearing my name, we'll write him a letter. That'll be sufficient, right? No, Paul felt led to go to Jerusalem. I think we would all just write the whole thing off to some indigestion. But Paul knew what was ahead of him.

He doesn't look around or. Search for another assignment. He doesn't say if it's going to be difficult. Maybe God isn't in it. Maybe this is God closing a door.

No, he continues towards Jerusalem because Paul understood the will of God isn't the path of least resistance.

Sometimes it's the path of most resistance. The question is, what are you willing to do when God reveals His will to you? This is the Apostle Paul. Is an amazing guy in Scripture. He wrote one third of the New Testament.

He traveled all over the ancient world, preaching the gospel, leading people to Jesus. Traveled all over the ancient world three times over. He raised people from the dead. He was used powerfully by God. Of all the apostles, he probably faced the most amount of suffering and persecution.

And why would Paul willingly go through all of that? Remember our second point: listening to God means submitting to His direction. Listening to God means submitting to His direction. I think we today have a tendency to evaluate God's will based on how much of a discomfort it's going to be, based on how much of an inconvenience or convenience it's going to be.

Well, Lord, you're revealing to me that I need to go and cut out this relationship. In my life, Lord, you know that I can't stop compromising, and I'm just having sex with my boyfriend. I'm having sex with my girlfriend. We try and stop, but then we can't. Lord, are you really telling me that I need to break up with that person?

Well, that's not very convenient for me right now, right? Wow. Okay.

Well, be careful. Be careful. I think we have a tendency to evaluate God's will for our lives based on how comfortable it makes us. But Paul didn't measure God's direction by how comfortable it made him. He says in verse twenty-four of Acts twenty, "My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for the finishing work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God." None of these things move me: imprisonment, persecution, slander, discomfort.

The apostle Paul even looked death in the eye and basically said, "Say." When right, I mean, this is a guy that was not moved; he was not intimidated. Why? Because Paul had already settled something in his heart. He was more committed to obeying God than he was to preserving his own comfort. He was more committed to obeying God than he was to preserving his own comfort.

So, let me ask you: What happens when God's Direction isn't what you want to hear, even when it means ending that relationship, even when it means offering forgiveness to somebody that you just. Your blood pressure spikes when they walk in a room, right? Yeah, you follow them, but you muted their stories and you muted their posts, so you didn't have to do the whole unfollow thing, and they'd have to have that awkward conversation. Yeah, some of you are laughing because you've done it. Me too.

That's all right. But what happens when God calls you to forgive that person? Right? You don't want to offer forgiveness.

Well, the Bible says, "Forgive as you have been forgiven." This is God's will for you. What happens when it means standing up for truth? When the girl in your office says, "Oh yeah, my boyfriend and I, I got pregnant, and I'm just going to go down and have an abortion," and everybody in the office is applauding her, good for you, women's rights, it's your right to choose. What are you going to say in that moment? Are you going to stay quiet?

Are you going to publicly rebuke her? I don't know if that's the right thing to do. Are you going to offer the truth in grace and love and point her maybe to some resources that you can help her with and have a conversation with her? Are you going to stand up and do the right thing? Are we still listening when obedience comes at a cost?

Are we still listening when obedience comes at a cost? A lot of times, we make our plans and then we ask God after the fact to just come and give us our stamp of approval.

Well, God, I've already made my plans. Here's my career. Who's or I'm going to marry? Here's where I'm going to live. Here's the car I'm going to buy.

Here's my plan for life. God, I'm just looking for your stamp of approval. I don't really need your input. Thank you very much. I know what I want.

Now listen. The best thing you can do is invite God into those decisions. Who you are going to marry? God, guide me. Bring me the right man.

Bring me the right woman, Lord, a woman after Your own heart, someone that's going to help me and challenge me in my relationship with You. God, help me to make the right decision on what kind of job to go and have. Yeah, I want to make money. Yeah, I want to provide for my family. But God, I want to honor You.

Help me find a workplace that is going to be sustainable to my relationship with you. That maybe I can even make an impact in my relationship with you in my workplace. Would you be willing to pray a prayer like that? I hope that you would. We need to invite God into our plans and not just ask him for his stamp of approval once we have already made them.

Listening to God isn't about convincing him to get on board with our plans. It's about being willing to get on board with his. And Paul knew this. Paul knew what following Jesus might cost him, but it didn't matter because Paul never forgot what Jesus did for him. He never forgot what Jesus did for him, and we need to do this.

We need to reflect on what Jesus has done for us. We need to remember what Jesus did for us when He came to us at our lowest point. The life that He brought us out of, and the life that He's given us today. When you have that perspective, you're more willing to have it in light of everything. Yes, Lord, I am willing to lay it down.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin was a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

So we need to do that. Have that perspective.

Now we've talked about turning down the noise. We've talked about submitting to God's direction even when it's difficult, but there's one final thing I want to leave you with, and that's number three: listening to God means expecting Him to speak. Listening to God means expecting Him to speak, and now we turn to First Samuel chapter three. Let's read together in verse one.

Now the boy Samuel. Ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation, and it came to pass at that time, while Eli was laying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he cannot see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down. That the Lord called Samuel, and he answered and said, "Here I am." And so he ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." And he said, "I did not call. Go lay down again, boy." And he went and he lay down.

And the Lord called yet again, Samuel.

So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." And he answered, "I did not call, my son. Lie down again." Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again a third time.

So he arose, went to Eli, and said, "Here I am." For you did call me; I'm positive. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy. Therefore, Eli said to Samuel, "Go lie down, and it shall be if he calls you, that you must say, 'Speak, Lord,' for your servant hears." So Samuel went down and lay in his place.

Now the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant hears." And the Lord said to Samuel, "Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle." Let's stop there.

Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Samuel, Samuel is one of the greatest prophets in all of the Bible. Primarily because he was the prophet during King David's time, the early part of his rule. He was an amazing man. He helped get Samuel into position. He helped get Saul out of position, and ultimately during King David's reign, it was the greatest time in all of Israel's history.

They were triumphant. They were victorious. They worshipped the Lord. It was beautiful, and so. Samuel was held in very high esteem, but before that, before he was the prophet of King David and the prophet of Israel, he was just a young boy who needed to learn how to recognize the Lord's voice.

I can relate to that right there. He was just a young boy who needed to learn how to recognize the Lord's voice. Three times the Lord calls out to Samuel, and he runs to Eli the priest. Finally, he says, "Hey, I don't think you're hearing things. I think the Lord is speaking to you." The next time you hear the Lord say that, you need to tell him, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." I love that.

I love that. And I think that that's the heart posture that we all need to have when we approach our quiet time, when we come to church on Sunday, throughout our day. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Have a heart of expectation, a heart that's attentive, a heart that's available, a heart that's ready to receive what the Lord has to say. And for us, you know that that that means it's not just simply checking a box.

Not just simply checking a box, not trying to just get through a chapter of the Bible so we can move on with our day, but genuinely approaching the Lord with expectation that He will speak through His Word, through His Spirit, through His people. And I want to challenge you to do something this week. You can choose to do it, or you can choose to not do it. It's up to you. But I am, as your pastor, encouraging you to take this challenge.

And you may do some version of this already. That's okay. You can do this too, or you can add this to what you already do. But I'm calling it the five-five-five challenge. The five-five-five challenge.

For the next seven days, I want you to set aside the first fifteen minutes each day. To spend with the Lord, and I want you to break down each five minutes this way. The first five minutes is spent reading God's word. Not going straight to your phone, not scrolling through your notifications. Open up your Bible and read.

If you have a physical copy of the Bible, it is best to use that rather than your phone or a device.

Okay, go get a Bible from the bookstore if you don't have one yet. The next five minutes, I want you to spend talking to God, reflecting on what you just read. You can pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your Bible in front of you. Lord, I was reading this morning.

Maybe I was reading Samuel or whatever, and I saw this. And what was that verse? And Samuel said this to you, God. I feel like Samuel. I feel like that's me.

God, help. You know, do what you did for Samuel. Do that for me.

So spend five minutes reading God's word. Five minutes talking to God. In prayer, that's a time where you thank Him, you express your gratitude, your thanksgiving to Him. You bring Him your concerns, you confess your sins, you ask Him for wisdom, direction, and to fill you with His Holy Spirit. And then the last five minutes, I want to encourage you to journal, to write down the things that you read, the things that spoke to you, the things that you prayed, the prayer requests that you offered.

So often we pray things to God, He answers them, and we forget all about it. We should come back to the Lord and thank Him. And journaling is a great way to keep a record of the things we are praying for. This isn't just for girls. Oh, I'm going to write in my diary and whatever else.

We have this kind of picture of like, I don't want to write a journal. I want to write a diary. It's a beautiful thing, and it's really helpful. I think if you read through the Psalms, we are basically seeing King David's journal entries, right? And we're so blessed by them.

So that is my challenge to you: is the five-five-five challenge. How many of you are willing to do that? Let me see. Come on, awesome! Five minutes reading your Bible, five minutes praying, five minutes journaling for the next seven days—fifteen minutes a day.

You think you can do that? I know for some of you, it's going to be a little bit challenging. Let's be honest; it's going to be hard. You're going to wake up. Your dopamine, you know, withdrawals are going to be screaming at you to go grab your phone.

There is an epidemic in America. We are addicted to our phones. You'll feel it when you don't go to it first thing.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing that you can do is just leave your phone plugged in in the morning. And go straight to God's word instead.

So, for the next seven days, do that and listen. There is nothing magical about fifteen minutes. You are not going to earn God's favor by completing a seven-day challenge, but you will have made an intentional decision to give the Lord your attention. The Lord says in the Book of Jeremiah, "Those that seek Me will find Me." That is a wonderful promise, right there. If you seek the Lord.

You will find him, and for some of you, it might be the beginning of an entirely new, beautiful habit. Remember what I said at the beginning of the message: what gets your attention eventually shapes your affections. What gets your attention eventually shapes your affections, and so that's my challenge. In the morning, when you wake up. First thing, when you open your eyes, say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." Because the question isn't simply whether God will speak; the question is, were you even listening?

Were you even listening? Listen for some of you today. God has already spoken to you in the most profound and important way possible, and that is through His Son Jesus Christ. Hebrews one tells us that God, in times past, spoke through the prophets and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son. And what has He said through His Son that He loves us?

That He sent His Son to die in our place because we. Committed great sin, enough sin to keep us out of heaven, enough sin to deserve judgment. But Jesus laid down His life and shed His holy, perfect, sinless blood.

So the we could be forgiven, and not only that, Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day, proving He is who He said He was, and He is coming again. That Jesus loves you. That Jesus died for you. That Jesus opens up the door, wants to open the door of your life, because He stands there knocking. All you have to do is invite Him in.

Would you like to do that today? Would you like to have the hope of heaven? Would you like to be forgiven of your sin to have that burden of guilt and shame removed? If so, respond to this invitation. Let's pray now, Father.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for your promise to us that those that seek you will find you, Lord. We hold on to that.

Sometimes we see people that talk about you like. You're their best friend, and they literally know you. Like you walk down the street holding their hand or something, and it just it blows our mind because some of us, Lord, we open up our Bibles and we read things, and yeah, there's good stuff, and and you know, there's good principles there, but we just don't feel it. We don't sense your presence, Lord. You said, "Those that seek me will find me." Those that rise early in the morning, I will meet them.

Lord, you give us these promises, and so we pray for those today that agreed to take this challenge of reading the Bible, praying, and journaling. Lord, that you would show up in a powerful way, in a special way that they've never experienced before. That you would meet them where they are at, just like you did for me. Just like you've done for so many today, meet them, Lord. We pray.

And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and we're praying together, I know that there are some that haven't yet made that decision, and you want to put your faith in Jesus Christ. If that's you, wherever you're watching, whatever campus you might be at, I'm going to invite you to just pray this prayer out loud after me. You're saying yes to God. I want Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Pray this out loud after me, dear God.

I know I'm a sinner. I know I've fallen short, and I've messed up. But God, you sent Jesus to pay for my sin and to take my punishment. And so today, I put my faith in Him, as my Savior and as my Lord. Father, would you fill me with Your Holy Spirit from this moment forward, and help me to walk with You, and know You, and to hear Your voice?

In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Hey everybody! Thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it.

Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.