Hearing Voices

John 10

In the old movie Field of Dreams Kevin Costner’s character heard voices.

“If you build it, he will come.”

All through the movie he is hearing the voice saying different things and it finally leads to the
answer at the end of the movie.

While he’s trying to discern what all of that means, he builds a baseball field in his cornfield. He
takes off for Boston to kidnap a famous writer. He ends up in Chisolm, MN. He hears the voice,
tries to figure out what it’s saying, and then works it out as best he can.

We all look for guidance. We look for signs or voices or direction as we try to navigate our way
through life.

In another old movie, Fools Rush In, the main character is trying to figure out his future. He
loves this girl in Las Vegas, but also loves the life he’s built in New York. At the end of the movie he
meets a street preacher in New York who says to him, “There are signs everywhere.” He then
begins to see “signs” leading him back to the girl in Las Vegas.

How do we navigate our way through life? What do we look to? How do we hear the voice of the
Lord?

There are so many voices in our lives! Which ones are right?

You’ve probably never had this happen to you…

You are trying to tell someone you love (spouse, kids, sibling, friend, etc.), what they need to
hear. It’s hard stuff, but you love them so you are trying to give them good advice.

They don’t listen. It’s like they are walking down the road, covering their ears and singing,
“Lalalalalala!”

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Then, one day, out of the blue, they call you up or sit you down and look you in the eye and say,
“I made the most amazing discovery about myself…” and then proceed to tell you exactly what
you’ve been trying to tell them for months!

You’re flabbergasted. “Where did you hear this?”

And they’ll say something like, “On TV,” or “I read it in a magazine,” or something like that.

Crazy. You’ve taken the care to speak words of life into them all this time… and Dr. Phil gets
the credit.

Surveys over the years have asked where teens turn to get their advice. One done a few years
ago had dads ranked at #25 and moms ranked at #11. The first place? Other teens or music.

A lot of people, including teens, now seek advice online. Social networks or they simply Google a
problem and read what comes up. A recent survey on teens showed that of those who turned to the
internet for advice, 53% felt more anxious about their situation after consulting the internet.

What voices do you listen to? Who helps you find guidance?

Jesus raises the stakes in the game in John 10. In John 9 the Jewish leadership has been
arguing with a healed blind man about the authority of Jesus. They’ve been arguing with Jesus
about authority. Jesus challenges their authority directly. He keeps it up in chapter 10.

In fact, he compares himself to them in the context of shepherding. It was something familiar
to their world.

He says he’s the good Shepherd. He cares for his sheep. The others are hired hands. First sign
of trouble? They are OUT!

He is the Shepherd who cares so deeply for his sheep that he lays his life down for them. He is
the One to follow. In him his sheep find abundant life. It’s life beyond belief.

Those who are his sheep are HIS. He makes sure they are not snatched out of his hand.

It begs the question, ”Why go anywhere else?”

But we do. We listen to all kinds of other voices. And we wander around like sheep lost in the
desert. We’re just like our friends who hear our wise advice… and then listen to something else.

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 This chapter raises a lot of great issues and questions. I want to focus on a few here today.

Spiritual Leadership

There is a role of spiritual leadership in our lives.

For Israel, the spiritual leadership had failed. Jesus demonstrates this over and over and it will
cost him his life. He knows it. But he needs Israel to hear him. He wants them to see true spiritual
leadership.

We all look for advice and influential voices. We need to make sure we are listening to good
voices. Look, there are going to be voices in your head! Cheer up!

The question just becomes, “Which voice will I listen to? Can I make sure I hear the voice of
the Good Shepherd?”

There are two directions I want to take this in regards to spiritual leadership. One is the
leadership we allow into our lives. The other is the leader we are.

You can say, “I’m no leader” all you want. Yet, people are looking to you whether you like it or
not.

Let’s get to the first one. What leader are you following?

This is tough for me. I have to evaluate this in my own life as one who is called to pastor. Am I
the shepherd Christ wants in his Church? This is a needed question because there are people who
need to know the voice of the Shepherd.

1. Good leaders turn people TO God.

They are pointing to Jesus. They live out what John the Baptist said: “Christ must increase. I
must decrease.”

Too often we find people in the church and in this world who are only leaders because of the
strokes it gives them, or the money that comes into their bank accounts. Jesus is tough on these
people. They are there to literally fleece the sheep.

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 There are also those who truly lead others to Christ. They know Christ and they simply turn
others to the Good Shepherd.

When you are looking for voices that help you hear the Good Shepherd, make sure they are
voices that are imitating what Christ is in Scriptures.

It’s a tough world. It’s like a desert at times. We can be like sheep that have lost our way and
we need to know how to get back. The voice of the Shepherd will call. We need to have true
spiritual leaders in our lives that help us hear that voice clearly.

One of the great questions we need to ask is “Does their work as a spiritual leader line up with
the work of Christ?”

How do I know the work of Christ? I spend time reading the Word so I know the work of
Christ!

If I am looking at a spiritual leader, does that leader demonstrate the leadership qualities of
Jesus? So, I’m not looking to car he drives or the house he lives in.

Is that someone who would lay down their life for those they lead? Is that someone serving the
Body of Christ? Or is this someone fleecing the sheep? Is this someone that would turn and run,
screaming like a scared little girl at the first sign of trouble?

We need discernment in our lives.

I played a clip in one of my classes the other day where the preacher was talking about how
Christianity really has nine gods. He’s popular. Big ministry. Big church. And people follow.

Why?

They lack discernment. They don’t know the Jesus of Scriptures, so they follow a voice they
like. Paul warns of it. There will be those who will gather teachers that simply “tickle their ears” (2
Tim. 4:3).

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For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit
their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what
their itching ears want to hear.

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Friends, I am thankful for a group of discerning believers in this church, but I want to keep
beating this drum! We need discernment in our lives! We need solid spiritual leadership around us
that will lead us to the Good Shepherd!

The second question is for you: “What kind of leader are you?”

You may not be called to pastor. You may not be called to preach. But your life is giving out a
sermon. Your life is demonstrating something to people.

It is key in our lives that we listen to good spiritual leadership, that we hear the voice of the
Good Shepherd in our own lives, and we walk in a way that reflects that wisdom. When we follow the
voice of the Good Shepherd we find abundance in our lives. We find our lives lived to the full. It’s
not about money. It’s about his presence. It’s about his provision. But we are living in a way where
we ARE hearing his voice, or striving to hear his voice!

Spiritual Abundance

Jesus has come to give us life… abundant life.

It is life that exceeds our expectations. It is life that goes past all sense of “normal” in that it
blows us away. It is life that is superior.

THAT is the life Jesus offers to his sheep. It’s not OUR measure of success. Those measures
are too small!

How is life abundant?

1. He is the Door.

No one is going to get to us except they go through him.

Charleton Heston was famous for saying they could have his gun when they pry it from his cold
dead hands. NOTHING was going to get him to surrender his right to bear arms until he had
breathed his last.

Jesus is saying, “No one is going to get to you. I stand here. They have to go through me to get
to you. I’ve already laid down my life. Nothing else can be taken away. They didn’t even get that!”

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 We often think of “abundance” as what we have. It’s also what we don’t have. When Christ
stands at the door, we are shielded from the fierce attacks of the enemy. He has our safety.
Nothing gets through without his protecting hand allowing it.

When we are in him and walking in his Kingdom and power, we don’t have a lot of the issues
plaguing the world today. Abundance is not just found in being able to count some possession. It’s
often what we don’t have to worry about, too!

When Christ is the Door, the enemy is held outside. We live in his safety. His word to us is that
when we are in him, nothing is going to snatch us out of his hands!

2. He is God with us.

We too often fail to get what that really means. He is the God with us in our storms as well as in
our calm. That means he knows our pain. He knows our suffering. He is with us in those times. We
can’t always get protected from that pain. Yet, he is the One who knows our pain and walks with us
in those valleys.

Abundance is knowing that he is the One who is with us no matter what. There is NOTHING
that can separate us from the love of God!

31
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be
against us? 32
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33
Who will bring any charge against
those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34
Who then can condemn? No one.
Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of
God and is also interceding for us. 35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36
As it is
written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
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No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38
For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present
nor the future, nor any powers, 39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. (Rom. 8:31-39, TNIV)

3. Abundance is his presence

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 We can know the fullness of the Spirit without having one possession in our lives that this world
would call “meaningful.”

In prayer, in the Word, through our time in worship and with other believers… in so many ways
we can have a sense of his presence. When we have those times when we sense his presence, we
know we are tapped into the power of the Kingdom of God.

My first week of sabbatical I spent at a monastery trying to maintain a vow of silence. About
the third day as I was praying and reading Scripture there was a such a sense of the presence of
God. I had pushed all other noise out as best as I could, and I was left with his voice. His Word. His
presence. And it was overwhelming. The rest of the day I was so aware of his goodness I would be
on the verge of tears all the time.

We don’t need a lot of the stuff of this life like we think we do. But we DO need his presence.

We need to understand abundant life. We need to push out the definitions this world tries to
bring on us. We need to know his presence is certainly enough. It’s beyond enough. It’s abundant.

Communion

We come to the table of the Lord. We come to the place of his presence. We come to his
abundance. At this table today, we ask that the Lord would teach us true abundance. We need his
presence!

As we come to the table today, I pray we come with an awareness that his presence is enough.
We live in amazing abundance as his sheep. Hear his voice today.

Today as we come I will serve the cup and the bread. Please feel free to spend some time
around the altar in worship as you take the cup and bread. You can partake at any time after you
have received.

Also, if you have a need, we will have a prayer team here to pray with you. After you partake of
the cup and bread, find a prayer partner here who will gladly anoint you with oil and pray.

It is also a time of worship. Pastor Grace will lead in worship. You can be around the altar in
prayer or in your seat, but we invite you to continue to worship the Lord. Enjoy his presence. His
presence brings abundance.

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 We come to this table and serve what we call an open communion. You don’t need to be a member
of Columbia Heights Assembly of God, but you do need to be a member of the Body of Christ. You
have surrendered your life to Christ. You acknowledge his work on the Cross, you have asked
forgiveness for your sins, and you are walking with him today. This table is for you.

The gifts of God are for the people of God.

In this time together we remember key things about the work of Christ. As we reflect on these
key truths, hear them again. Allow those words to breathe new life into you.

CHRIST HAS DIED.

CHRIST HAS RISEN.
CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN.

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took the bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, 'Take; eat; this is my body which is given
for you. This do in remembrance of me.' In the same way he also took the cup after the supper, and
when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, 'Drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New
Testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of me.'"

As we serve, I ask that the prayer partners for today would come first to be served. Then, as
you are ready, come to the table of the Lord. Enjoy the abundance of his presence!

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Hearing Voices Pastor Dan Thompson
Columbia Heights Assembly of God