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We're going to be in Acts chapter 2, verse 14. It's a large chunk of scripture, so we didn't print it in the bulletin, but there's Bibles in the seats in front of you. And we'll have it on the screen. But Acts chapter 2, verse 14 to 36. Are you listening? You ever utter those words? Moms? Yeah. Or maybe a different way. Can you hear me? Or show me you're listening? Nice. I love kids. That's awesome. Show me your listening. You ever say that? Or do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? And no doubt there's been a time in your life where you've said something, maybe it was you felt really important, you said it to someone else, and it just you watched it go right in there, one ear and out the other. It's frustrating, isn't it? When someone doesn't listen to you? Not only frustrating, but at times hurtful, because it can reveal lack of respect, maybe selfishness, or lack of love. Well, God has spoken. He continues to speak. What does your response, what does my response show, show him? What do your thoughts, attitudes, behaviors reveal about how well you're listening to him? And how can we listen to him better? Because today we're going to look at Peter's sermon at Pentecost. So this is God has just poured out his Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. And the Holy Spirit is speaking through these people in different languages. They're proclaiming about the mighty works of Jesus, mighty works of God in their own in languages other people can understand. So they've heard them. But now God's going to speak through Peter. And as he does, we're going to look at how God speaks at just the right time. He also speaks through imperfect people like you, me, and Peter. He also speaks with boldness. And he speaks for his glory and our good. So God speaks, the question is, are you listening? So let's read. Hang with me, because this is a lot, but we're going to read a sermon. Starting in verse 14. But Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my flesh, nope, pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants. In those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that every one who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders, and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For God says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For God did not ascend into the heavens, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Join me in prayer as we commit this time to God. Lord, come before you, and I'm thankful for your word. I thank you that you've spoken to us and you continue to speak to us, and I pray that you would lead our time, that words that come out of my mouth would be pleasing to you and would be edifying to the people that hear them, and I pray that you would speak to each one of our hearts. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. So God speaks at the right time. So the audience here, again, a lot of people from a lot of different places. They're all here for Pentecost, and God is speaking through Peter. And God didn't just start speaking when Jesus showed up, he spoke from creation and then all through history. I was thinking about creation just yesterday. Um, Luke and I, we went to the library, we got a book on space, and I've had to kind of train myself when we get library books. Okay, just brace yourself for the thousand why questions. And so I was approaching this book with maybe uh hopefully a better attitude, and as I was looking at these pictures of Earth and the sun and how just huge our galaxy is amongst the billions of galaxies, I felt like God was speaking to me from this book. Where I was brought to God's word, Psalm 8. When I look at the he look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him? Basically, space is amazing. The universe is amazing. What am who am I that you would go to the cross for me? Think about how small we are compared to the universe, and yet Jesus loved us so much to do that. God speaks at the right time. He spoke through King David, as we Peter brings up, a thousand plus years before Jesus. He spoke through Joel, 800 years before Jesus. He's talking about how the Spirit of God would be poured out on all people that are in Christ. God speaks throughout history. But are we listening? Are we leaning forward for his voice, or are we filling up our ears with all other voices? And if you hear if you listen closely to Peter's sermon, he says a couple times, hear these words, give ear to my words. It's not for Peter's sake. Who's at the center of his sermon? Jesus. And he knows Jesus is who they need to hear about. In verse 23, Peter also speaking about time and God's timing with speaking. Verse 23 says, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. God knew what he was doing when Jesus came to this earth at just that time. When he died on the cross in just that way, and when he was raised again three days later. Jesus came at the right time. You and I have God's word. How much time do we give him? And when's the right time to listen to God? I was thinking about when am I most likely to listen to God, to lean forward and really seek his voice? It's usually when times are tough. When I can't figure everything out. I'm like, I got nothing, and I'm leaning on him. That was convicting to me. Like when things are good, I still need to lean on him, open my ears and listen to him. So how do we listen to God better? I know how we cannot listen to God, be really busy, fill our days with distractions, not spend time in his word. Can't that be easy to it's easy to do? Do you want to listen to God? The author of life, the creator of the universe. He wants to speak to you, but too often we choose these other voices instead of his. And I'm not looking down my nose at you guys, anything like that, because I realized this week, man, I am so quick to pull up a podcast or something when I'm driving, fill my ears with something which wholesome or you know, it's wholesome, but it's when's the last time you took like five, ten minutes and just were silent with God and just thought about who he is, what he's done. Eliminate distractions if that's getting in the way. Are we filling up our ears with other voices? Are you taking steps to listen better to the good shepherd? You may not be listening, but God he wants to speak to you. He's also speaking through imperfect people. We see here with Peter, he's not a perfect guy, and yet God chooses to speak through him. And we see that throughout God's word. God's speaking through people who have weaknesses, baggage, failures. I was looking at Hebrews 11, where it gives us this list of uh sometimes called the hall of faith, where it's like the you know, the people that God did amazing things through. I just want to list out some of them. It's kind of a majority of them. Think about their baggage: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab the prostitute, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel. They've all got baggage. They all did things they shouldn't have done. And we don't dwell on that. They move forward. God forgives them, they move forward, and God speaks through them. How about Peter, the guy delivering this sermon? Only disciple we know of that Jesus called Satan. Think about that. He said, Get behind me, Satan. That guy is giving a sermon to a bunch of people. At the transfiguration of Jesus, Peter gets to see Jesus talk with Elijah and Moses, if you remember that. And he just starts talking. Peter starts talking. He wants to build tabernacles, he wants to build tents, really equating Jesus with the prophets. God the Father scolds him, says, Listen to Jesus, listen to my son. Or how about Jesus' arrest? Peter slices off a guy's ear. Guy named Malchus, the high priest servant. I don't think he was that good with the sword. I think he was trying to kill him. Short time later, Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. That guy, God is speaking through. Can God speak through you? Absolutely. Jesus restored Peter. Jesus forgave Peter. Peter is not dwelling on his past failures. He's not making excuses, saying, God, let one of these other guys talk because I've done too much bad stuff. God's forgiven him. He's speaking through him. I think sometimes we don't want to be, we don't want to talk to other people about Jesus out of fear, and we make the excuse, well, I'm too, you know, imperfect. God speaks through imperfect people all throughout Scripture. That's not an excuse to just live however you want, but don't let the past define you. What's God speaking to you right now? And what's stopping you from going and sharing that with someone? In verse 32, again, Peter reminds his audience who's at the center of this sermon? This Jesus God raised up. The resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of what he's talking about. And he says, of that we all are witnesses. He's standing with the eleven. The eleven other imperfect people. It can be scary to talk to people about Jesus like Peter's doing. You don't have to do it alone. Now I probably can't go to work with you tomorrow and do that, but this is why you're here. I hope. We have each other. Strengthen each other in the Lord. He's standing with the 11 other witnesses to Jesus. But what is your life? What is my life? What does that testify to the world around us? Because we certainly don't want to become people that say one thing and do another. Right? Isn't that a common criticism of Christians? Ah, a bunch of hypocrites. If that's your attitude toward Christians, please hear that, yes, we're imperfect, saved by God's grace. Don't let that hold you back from what God's speaking to you right now or wants you to say to somebody. So we see God speaking through imperfect people, like Peter. He certainly can speak through you and me. And we see how God is speaking through Peter with a boldness. Think about his audience. He's talking to a group of people that had a part in crucifying Jesus. They very well could have killed him after he closed his mouth. And he's telling these people that Jesus, that same Jesus you had executed is actually Lord and Savior. And he's doing it with boldness. And I don't believe it's in his strength. And this is not certainly not for to look at Peter. Look at Peter how bold he is. Peter is boldly stating, hey, when Joel was talking 800 years ago, he's talking about right now. We're getting the Holy Spirit. When David's talking in Psalms 16 and 110, he's talking about Jesus. He's testifying to the risen, risen Lord Jesus. He's doing it with boldness. It can be really hard to listen to uh wishy-washy and I'm guilty of this. When you say something with fear, you're not sure. Hey, can I but uh please listen that timidity? Adam already read it, but 2 Timothy 1.7, it's a great reminder. I don't know if you need it, but I need it often. That God gave us a spirit not of fear. The spirit that he poured out on Peter and the other followers of Jesus, and he pours out on you if you're in Christ, that's not a spirit of fear or timidity. It's a spirit of power, love, and self-control. Are we living with that? Or are we prisoners to our fear? And again, this is not arrogant, this is not for, you know, look at me, but it's with a strength that comes from depending on God. Peter was not speaking to glorify himself. He's speaking here to glorify God and for the good of the audience. God speaks for his glory and your good, our good. What's your motive in speaking? Is it to bring glory to yourself? We can do that, can't we? Kate, I changed a dirty diaper yesterday. Look at me. She's like, yeah, do it all the time. What's our motive in interacting with each other? Is it to bring God glory and for the good of that person? Because again, everything Peter's sharing is coming back to Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus. It's not, look at us eleven, you know, me and the eleven, God chose us, not you, to be his disciples. That's not what he's doing. He's exalting and lifting up the name of Jesus. Does your life exalt Jesus? Why not? It can be really hard to exalt Jesus if you're not listening to him. Because I find that we we listen well to the people we love or respect. If you really want to bring God glory, let's listen to him. How do we listen to him? Spend consistent time in his word. And please don't do that. I used to do this as a kid. God speak to me. And you just land on a random page, and it's this one's about intermarriage and yet. It doesn't always work out great. Study a book of the Bible. Join one of the Bible studies that we have going on here. God's word is active, it's living. He's still speaking to us. Are you taking time away from your schedule for solitude with God? And again, this isn't solitude for the sake of solitude. Okay? Introverts, I know what I'm just saying. It's like, yeah, I get to be alone. That's not exactly. Go be alone with God so that you can then go be salt and light to the world. This isn't solitude for the sake of solitude. It's get quiet with God each day, listen to him, spend time with him, pour out your heart to him so that you can then go be a witness. In verse 33, Peter again is saying, Jesus is exalted at the right hand of God. Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. They're hearing very, it's happening right in front of them. God's Spirit is speaking through these imperfect people to them. And there were some that were mocking, saying, you know, they had too much to drink. Are you listening for God? And again, it's for our good. God knows what's at your best interest better than anybody. And when God speaks, it isn't always pleasant or easy. But it is in your best interest. I don't think it was pleasant for a lot of these listeners to hear the truth about Jesus. Those that were involved in having him crucified or celebrated the fact that he was being crucified, to now hear, yeah, that guy, that's God in the flesh. He's actually exalted at the right hand of God right now. That would be tough. How about Malchus, the high priest servant who Peter sliced his ear off? Do you think maybe it was a little hard at first to live? I don't know that he was there. Let's just pretend he was there. To listen to Peter, the guy who just sliced off your ear. Pretty ironic, right? Maybe he's touching his restored ear. The hope is that he was there and he remembered Jesus restored my ear. Maybe this Jesus is who he says he is. And Peter, God speaking through Peter makes it very clear, verse 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain, okay, not maybe, not kind of, for certain, that God has made him both Lord and Christ. So Lord and Savior. Jesus, whom you crucified. That's in your best interest, that was in their best interest, that's in my best interest to hear that and be reminded of that often. Jesus died, he rose again. He did that for your junk and my junk. Are you in Christ? Because their response, Pete's preaching on this next week, so I won't go too far. But it says they're cut to the heart, meaning they're convicted. What a great place to be, to be convicted by the truth of God's word. But we can so easily walk out of here with just conviction. What I love is that they ask, What do we do? What should we do? Because it can be so easy to feel convicted, go home, and then you start hearing other things, doing other things, and then it's just. They say, What do we do? And Peter puts it pretty simply, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. He's saying, Turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. Repent. Turn from you being Lord, turn from you having control of the steering wheel. Turn from your sin. Turn to Jesus. I need to hear that often. So often I'm listening to other voices and now I'm concentrating on things that really should not matter as much as I'm making them out to be. Right? Anyone worried about anything? Yeah? Anyone afraid of anything? Yeah. I need to hear that often. Listen to the Good Shepherd. This is a this is a there's a lot here. Please go home. Reread it. If you feel like it, let me know what you pulled out of it. But from the time God spoke the universe into existence, he's continued to speak. The hard part is those times where it feels like he's silent. Right? Where it's like, I'm listening, but I just don't hear him. Be patient. David is speaking a thousand years before Jesus. Joel's talking 800 years before Jesus. Doesn't always happen, maybe when you you don't always hear him when you want to hear him, but have your ears open. Be listening. Spend time with him. He speaks at the right time through imperfect people like you, me, and Peter. He speaks with boldness. And God speaks for his glory and for our good. And when you hear voices out there, or even in here, even from up here, please examine scripture. Does it match up? In John 10, I love how Jesus compares himself to a shepherd. And he says, the sheep hear his voice, hear Jesus' voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. You ever think about that? Jesus knows you by name. He knows you better than anyone else. If you're in Christ, he's calling you. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. The sheep know his voice. Do you know? Do you recognize the voice of the good shepherd, Jesus? Are you and I this week gonna let the busyness, the to-do lists, listen, I I'm with the best of them with to-do lists. I can write those things like nobody's business. Don't let that be all you hear this week. I gotta do this, I gotta do this. Or entertainment, worries, fears, or even your own voice, the things you're saying to yourself. The people listening to Peter that day, they heard God speaking through him. Many turn to Jesus. Are you listening to Jesus? Do you want to hear what he has to say, or are you plug in your ears, or maybe one ear, you know, pick and choose like a buffet? I don't like that, Jesus. Don't do that. Listen to what he's saying to you. And when you do hear him, will you follow him? He says the sheep hear his voice, they follow him. He's got your best interests at heart. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you continue to speak to us even when we're being foolish. God, please open our ears, open our hearts, open our minds to hear from you. Help us to actually put this into practice and to seek to listen to you above all the other voices that are out there. God, please give us the strength and courage and conviction to obey you when we do hear you. And I thank you that you love us. And I pray that all in Jesus' name, amen.