Hearing God's Voice: Part Two

Give Me a Sign, Lord

How can we recognise God’s voice and know when a “sign” is really from Him? Continuing our series on hearing God, Levi explores Gideon’s fleece in Judges 6 and offers a practical, honest look at discerning God’s will.

We’re encouraged to bring God a specific prayer, create space for Him to respond, and remember that hearing His voice isn’t a science or a rigid formula. It grows through relationship. Along the way, Levi shares personal stories of prayers, unexpected confirmations, doves in palm trees, and the lessons that come when we get it wrong.

What prayer is on your heart, and how might you make room to listen this week?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good afternoon, everybody. Grab a s come grab a seat. Also, for any parents who are wondering if you've got a space for the kids, if the if your kids are getting loud or just want to just run around, that well, there's the outside, but there's also a parents' room out the back. Um and we will be having food in about 20 minutes, so that's probably something that the kids and the adults can look forward to. Um last week we started, uh my name's Levi, by the way. If if you're new to church, welcome. Lovely to have you here. Um last week we started a series which we decided to do. I decided that we should do five weeks on this because I think that um it's something that I think God is wanting to speak to us about in church, and that's on hearing God's voice. Um a little while ago I had someone come up to me after the after the service and they're like, man, how do you hear God's voice? And I was like, Wow, that's such a good question, man. So then I've I kind of like bought a number of like a dozen books for a group that I'm spending some time with discipling, and the the book is called Hearing God, and there's there's so much literature out there, so much, you know, so much in the Bible, and I think it's one of those real mysterious positional shift from the sunshine. I think it's one of those things that's like um can be so um uh so crucial, but at the same time so difficult. Like, how do we? We read in the scriptures that God spoke all different kinds of ways. There's one time God spoke to a prophet through a donkey. Another time we read that, you know, God spoke to Moses through a burning bush. Um imagine if in my marriage we didn't, Nadia and I didn't communicate. Or if she was talking all the time, which you know would just be there, that's in my imagination. I could only imagine you talking all the time, you know. Um, and if I if I couldn't, if I didn't know how to hear or interpret what she was saying, or the other way around. Imagine if I was talking all the time and she couldn't interpret what I was saying, then the whole thing would just be a trick that we would have to try and figure out. So when this person came and spoke with me, I was so thoughtful. We had a conversation about it, and I spoke with a few other people, and I felt like it was something that was kind of simmering amongst our community, and then at the end of that service, or or maybe the following week, and this is about two months ago, I I was like, Everyone, why don't you close your eyes? And I said, if you want to hear God's voice more in your life, or maybe for the first time, why don't you lift up your hand? And about two-thirds of the the congregation immediately raised their hands, and so I was like, Okay, Lord, you want to there's a there's a a scratch there, Lord, that you want to that you wanna itch. An itch that you want to scratch. Oh, by the way, um my friend ProPresenter is gonna be phasing in and out during the sermon. Propresenter is a platform that we use to um show the lyrics and the slides for you know the sermons and the and the songs, but when you um you you have it like an annual subscription, and when your credit card has no money on it, it bounces you off and puts you back into trial mode. And so we're now in trial mode of Propresenter, and so we'll receive an offering for that um at the end of the service. And so last week we last week we set a foundation for hearing God's voice, and uh, and that was me kind of talking a little bit anecdotally and giving some verses, and that's available on um on all you know listening platforms, I think. Um but this week I want to do the second part, and the second part of the series is called Give Me a Sign, Lord. Give me a sign. I don't know if you've ever wanted a sign or ever asked God for a sign, or ever just like asked anybody for a sign. You know, like just give me, just give me, just give me something. Just give me a sign. There's this, there's that great, I don't know if you've seen Bruce Almighty. I just think Bruce Almighty is just such a great movie. And there's the scene where he's like driving along and he shouts out, give me a sign, God. And then there's all these um road signs, and they start saying, like danger, like this way, stop, turn around. And he's like, Lord, would you just give me a sign? And then this truck pulls in front of him, and the truck is then full of more road signs, and they're like flashing and all sorts, and there's like clear signs that he should follow, and then he ends up not following the signs and not seeing the signs. I think that throughout history, like we are interested in signs. Like every, you know, well, I I say every, um, certainly every people group that I've studied has a sense of prophecies or prophets or oracles or seers, uh, clairvoyance. We're like, you know, the fact that someone could come and maybe suggest to you that they might be able to see something that you can't see, something spiritual, something supernatural, something in the future. That someone might know something about your past. You know, like you get these street magicians, David Blaine, one of the greats, can do things inexplicable, and you're kind of like, wow, this is this is crazy. And in our faith, I believe that we too, not just in history like without the Lord, but with God, we too are trying to find from him signs. Like signs that he's real, or signs that he's speaking, or signs, usually when I talk with people, it's about signs of what it is that he wants us to do. Because I think that there's like lots of good people in the world, and lots of good people in our church, and we kind of like know that we have a desire to do things in our life, but we're trying to figure out, Lord, what's your desire for my life? Like, Lord, what's your desire for my kids? What's your desire for my career? What's your desire, you know, that I might devour in the shared chair afterwards? What's your because I know my desires, but what's, Lord, what's your desire? And we're trying to figure out what it is that God wants to say to us, and often we ask the question, Lord, like, is there a sign? Is there something that you might show us? And so today for a few minutes I want to talk about signs from the Lord. And the Bible says this in Judges 6 and verse number 36. It says, Ginea said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have promised, look, I will place a wool fleece. So you can just picture just like a sheepskin, um, because I think that's exactly what he's talking about. I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry around it, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand. As you said. So he's saying, if you if you're real, if you said this, if that's actually you that said it, I'm gonna put this fleece on the ground, and the fleece will be wet, and in the morning all the ground will be dry. So there'll be dew only on the fleece, but the ground will be dry. So it'll be a miracle. So I need a sign from you, Lord. And then I like this because he goes on to say, and that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day. He squeezed the fleece, and it was full of dew, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me. Well, I like this because this is what we do. Let me make just one more request of you, Lord. So he's asked God for a sign, God's given him a sign, and then, like all of us, he just wants another one. We New Zealanders, we just love that. We just want that clarity. This must have been a story from the Waikato. Gideon must be a Maori. We just, Lord, want one more, we just want one more sign. He then said to God, don't be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me this one thing. Uh, one more request with the fleece. But this time make the fleece dry and the ground wet, covered with dew. That night God did so, and only the fleece was dry, and all the ground was covered in dew. Father, we just pray, Lord, that you would speak to us today, that you'd be with us. Father, I'm I'm praying, Lord, that Lord, I've been praying that you would speak to our church. And I've been praying that this is the right series. And my prayer today is that you would answer that prayer. My prayer today is that there are those who are so keen, dead keen, to hear from you. They're so interested in knowing what it is that you have to say to them about their lives. All of us, myself included, we are desperate to know your will. We Lord want to surrender our will and walk in your will for many of us, like desperately. But we, Lord, are asking today, what is your will and how can we figure it out? And we're asking that you would show us that in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. A massive caveat to start the sermon. That's a legal term. And that that what I'm saying is that that term means that I'm saying all of this, but there's an asterisk at the start of the sermon. And the asterisk is this I do not know what I'm talking about. I am no expert. I am not coming to you as somebody who thinks that he has the whole propresenter figured out. I'm someone that is coming to you with 30 years of experience of being a human being just like you. Of trying to figure out our faith just like you. Of trying to figure out what God is saying to me just like you. And I've got some scriptures and I've got some stories that I think might help us today. The first thing is I kind of like um recite a couple of things from last week is this God wants to and is always speaking to us. God wants to and is always speaking to us. The Spirit of God Himself, the Bible says in Romans 8.16, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Isaiah 30, verse 21 says this, whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. I talked to someone before the service today. We're trying to figure out this whole hearing God's voice thing. And I said, What's really important as you start the journey is realizing that God loves you. He really likes you too, I think. And he's not distant or angry with you, he's really eager for you to know the answer to these questions. Because I could I could stand up here and say these things, like, here's some steps for you to know what God's saying in your life, but that's really cool. But if you view God as a scary thing, you might never engage in that process, eh? I've never seen a lion in real life. But imagine if we if we had a lion here. Um, and in fact, do you remember? Oh no, Johnny Knoxville? You know, Jackass? And they were, can I say that? I'm not sure, I just did. And they had a guy, one of the boys, I think it was Bam, he was covered in honey, and they let this live bear, and he was strapped up to this table, they let this live bear come in and was basically like starting to attack him, and they were cracking up looking at it from up there. Anyway, I was just thinking if we did a situation like that, where I bought in a lion or a bear or something scary, you know, an alligator. I think a shark would be freaky, but we're on land, so we're safe, you know. But and then I'll be like, hey guys, here's how we communicate with this scary thing. No matter what instructions I gave you, and no matter how much encouragement I gave you that it's gonna be okay, it would still be a scary thing, and we would be less likely to try and communicate with that thing. Like you can just pat it. No one's gonna come up and pat this line. I haven't built that trust with you yet. If you view God as a scary thing, there's no amount of instructions that we can give one another that will encourage us to communicate with God. If we view him as angry, um, really keen to see us fail, just wants to hit us every time we step out of line, doesn't like you, is very distant and aloof, is far away as is up in the sky and is big and brooding. If you see him as those things, there's no amount of encouragement that we can give one another that will encourage us to then go and see that great God. Um, Paulie mentioned genies, a genie before. Crazy talking about genies in church. Robin Williams did that movie, Aladdin, at no charge or maybe just enough to cover his own costs, like uh, you know, which now that I think it was $20,000, which is not bad, but I think that a man of his stature could have been paid millions for that role, but he did it as a gift to his kids. What I love about that role is that he's made this image of this genie so likable. He's like, and the and the flying carpet, the best parts of that movie. I want to encourage you to build the foundation of your relationship with God based on what we read in the scriptures, which is that he is that a God that he's a God that loves you so much that he sent his son to die on the cross to take all of your sin and wrongdoing and that you wouldn't be punished for it. I've got four kids in my house, that never happens. Not one of the kids wants to step in and take the punishment for another kid, it's the other way around. Oh, no, definitely it was her. You know what I mean? Like, and everyone just like Homer Simpsons back into a hedge. You know, that's that's human nature. God didn't do that. Jesus stepped in out of love for you and me. That's the foundation of the person that we're trying to hear from, from a loving God that God wants to and is always speaking to us. The second thing I say is this. This is just a recap from last week, real quick. Relationship is the foundation, but that is a long process. I'll move quick. God's voice is an impression rather than something audible. It's an inner witness, it's a breezed idea, it's a spark of knowledge, it's a penny drop. I'm not trying to stand here and say that my goal with that is that we would hear an audible voice of God as a church. In fact, I would love for that to be a prayer point, but I would need all of our faith to join together because I've personally never heard his voice audibly. But as an inner witness, as an impression, I believe I have heard his voice before, like a sparked idea, like a like a like a penny drop moment in my heart. Next thing I say is this is that it's an awareness of the will of God. Um, that's our whole prayer is that as we hear God's voice, as we're trying to find a sign, it's an awareness of his will for our life. Some people might say things like, Oh, God spoke to me. That the pastor's son, hey, would this next time just don't stomp out, just go out quietly, you know? Sick hydro mocks, bro. People say, God spoke to me, but I much prefer it when people might say something a little bit more gentle or subtle, they would say, I felt like God said this. You know, think if someone comes up to us in church or on the street and they're so certain, I felt God say this. I thought God said to me, we should get married. You know, ooh, wow, crazy, you know? But it's like, dang, I had this, I had this impression, and and and sort of felt like this, and that someone's cautious about holding the gravity of God's voice for me is always a great feeling of trust that I feel like I I can lean into that person because they're so nervous about sharing it. But when someone's overly confident, oh yeah, God definitely said this. It's like, did he? Really? How many witnesses do we have? How can we test it? It's a great way to win an argument, eh? Especially as a pastor, it's lovely. We want to do this, we're feeling this. What do you guys think? Crazy. Okay, so God said this. All right, we're doing it, you know. It's just not a great way to lead people, it's not a great way to lead a family, it's not a great way to use God, because then he's always on the side of the person who's the most confident. Oh, I don't see that in the scriptures that that's the way that God moved in the lives of people, that he was always on the side of the person most certain. There's a lot of uncertain people that God used in the scriptures. Moses, a wonderful example, his whole life making mistakes, unsure, very cagey, and God had to come in a powerful moment and lead him on a journey of 40 years so that he might do something powerful for his kingdom. Meek, humble, gentle, dare I say cautionary, I think are some of the characteristics that I'm looking for when someone feels like they've heard from God. I've only been supremely confident of God speaking to me a handful of times in my life, but I have been reasonably confident and prove right many, many more times. We grow into our relationship with God, we grow into hearing Him in our life. As we mature, I believe so does God's voice, the tone, the humor, um, the volume. I mentioned this last week, but when Nadia is sitting on the front row and I'm preaching, because we've known each other since we were young kids and high school sweethearts, we've known each other for so long that I could look and largely get a sense of how she thinks I'm going, or how she thinks it's going. But also at the same time, she's Nadia, and she's got her own life and her own brain, and might not be thinking about anything to do with me at all, which I think's bizarre. She might be thinking about the carpet at home, or the paint colors, or the things that need to be done in our garden. I know that because I know that's what she's thinking about right now. But as I look and as we walk through life together, the little winks and nudges and little facial expressions, the little micro, little, you know, body language, all of those things speak to me and me to her without words. And so with the Lord, I got saved when I was 12, to think that I might just immediately walk into a mature relationship with him, on my part, potentially foolish. But as I journey year after year after year and prove right and prove wrong, decade after decade, we can get to a point in our life where I believe that we can have a certain degree of confidence and have people around us that build a trustworthy environment where we can hear from the Lord. So give me a sign, Lord, is the name of the sermon, and I'll keep it nice and short for us today before we have some food. Mark Kewen, who preached a few weeks ago, is my he was my thesis supervisor. He's a um uh brilliant lecturer at Laidlaw Bible College. He said this to me the other day. He said, God is a God of few words. He said to me, He tends to just show us the next corner. He said, He's a God of few words, he tends to just show us the next corner. He said to me, Levi, he's in your head. God will reveal himself in your thoughts. He tells a story about how he was he came on staff in a church and it was like their first Sunday. They've been praying for it, they believed it was the right thing. And that first Sunday that they were on staff in this church, he felt like the Lord spoke to him in his thoughts and said, You won't be here for long. And within two years, they had gone into a whole new role. But the thing was that the whole there'd been a long build-up into that for them to take that to take that opportunity. But he just felt in his head, you won't be here for long. And it proved to be right. If those things happen to you in your life, and I believe for us they do, I think it's really important to go back and visit that moment when you felt like there was that thought that appeared in your head. What did the voice sound like? What did it feel like? Was it soft? Was it strong? I'll often have thoughts in my mind and I'll just be going, how does that voice make me feel? Because if the voice makes me feel confused or afraid, those historically have not been things that God has used to speak to me. But if it comes and I feel uh, if I feel a peace, like, oh, I feel good, or if I feel uh an unease that the Lord is maybe saying, don't do something, then I then I have learned over the course of my life to trust those things. We're interested in signs. The Bible's full of signs, history the same, Nostradama, seas, oracles, crystal balls, clairvoyance, palm readers, tarot cards. Um a friend of a friend said he wasn't a Christian, and he wasn't a believer in Christ, and he was like going through some challenges, and he was looking out at the sky, and he said, God, if you're alive, you'll make those two birds do like a double barrel roll right now. And the two birds did a double barrel roll immediately, and he's been a Christian ever since. I think that's awesome. And I think that maybe God did make those birds do a double barrel roll. But I don't think that's a good basis of theology for us to build our life on, to be looking for birds who are quite random to do things and expect that God might continue to speak. But maybe, and for him, the fruit of his life is that he now confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, that maybe in that moment that was the Lord. Interesting. We look for signs. Judges 6, verse 36 to 40. Gideon is looking for a sign. The book of Judges speaks of they're called judges, but they're basically prime ministers or presidents, they were leaders of the nation. So it's a whole book about leaders of a nation. And Gideon was a leader of Israel at that time, and he was looking for a sign. I say that to say Gideon isn't just in the scriptures, just a random guy. Um, there was a degree of responsibility and weight on his shoulders, I think. And so, as busy as we think we are, and as full on as we think our life is, even in the scriptures, the people with the most burden of responsibility still took time in their lives to look for signs. And he prayed to God for a sign and laid out a fleece, placed the fleece on the ground, and he asked that there be Jew only on the fleece, and then he wrung it dry, and then the ground would be dry. Then he waited one more night and he said, I've got another request. And he wanted the fleece to be dry, but the ground to be wet. These are my points today. Gideon has a prayer and is listening out for God. And Gideon then gives God an opportunity to respond to his prayer. And my question for us, and this is my first point today, my question for us is this. And this is kind of simple, and I um, but the question is, do you have a prayer? And I think it's like I think it's important, but I don't want to rip you off. So you've come here today to hear from God, and I'm asking you, do you have a prayer? And you're like, wait, I want to hear from God. Yeah, I I know you do, because I do too. But I think you have to start here with pro presenter. You have to start with a prayer. We can call this pro-presenter Sunday. We have to start with a prayer because I think that if you don't have one, how can you know in your own life and in your heart if God is speaking to you or not? If you don't have a prayer. If we're just walking through life, just doing our thing, hey, raising kids, school drop-offs, going to work, having dinner, whatever it is that we're doing, God, I believe, is speaking to you all the time and he's present in your life. I love what you were saying before about it about Isaac, like, I want to speak to Jesus every day. You know, it's like you can. You know, I love that. It's just like, yeah, man, let's go. He's just such a legend. Jesus and Isaac, both legends. That if we're if we're communicating with God, but if he's speaking to us all the time and we don't have a specific prayer to know if that's him or not, how are we ever known? And so, my first question for us today is to is to this week, start today, this week, conjure up in your life a prayer for yourself. What is it that you're looking for? What is it that you're wondering about? What lack is there in your life? What need do you have? What are you prayerful about? Straight away I start talking, and someone immediately is like, oh, gotcha, Levi, I got up thousands of those. Amazing. Don't need a thousand day. Just think about one. Maybe you're here and you're you're saying I don't have any prayers at all. Now's a good time to be prayerful about prayer. Gideon had a prayer and he fleeced God trying to figure out an answer to that prayer. What's on your heart? His eyes on the sparrow, the Bible says. Matthew 10, verse 29 and 31 say, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside. Your father's care and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. Psalm 56, verse 8 says, You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in a bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 139, verse 1 and 4 1 and 4 says this. You've searched me, O Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. Before a word is on my tongue, you knew it completely. And this is the first verse that I ever, ever memorized. 1 Peter 5, 7 says this cast your fears, or another translation says anxiety, cast your anxiety on him for what? Because he cares for you. Are you talking to God like you would talk to a person who's interested in you? That's my question for us. This week, today, I encourage you. Have a prayer. And number two, if you're taking notes, this is the next question I have for us. Do we have a prayer? But are we then giving God an opportunity to respond? Do we give him an opportunity to feed back to us? Are we listening? Are we looking for the signs? Nadia and I uh had just bought a house in Mongatu. We were so thrilled. Deeply, deeply, deeply grateful for God opening up the door. Um I won't go into a long, drawn-out explanation of the process to get the house, but there were probably five or six key moments where we felt like they were signs of confirmation that we were making the right step. The whole time though, because we're dealing with a mortgage and you're dealing with like even before you then make a decision, you're paying, you pay legal fees, so you're already like you're already sort of two or three thousand dollars in the journey, and you're just trying to you're trying to figure it out. So you're nervous, you know. I don't have two or three thousand dollars to spend, full stop, but I've already committed to that, so you're fearful, like, man, and like our family can't afford this, and so you you're going along the journey, but and and so I was definitely not at peace in my daily life. Every day I was like, oh man, this is because it's such a it's such a big thing, hey, buying a home. And but these little things began to happen because I was praying specifically for clear answers. I was fleecing the Lord. Lord, I'm putting a fleece out. We want a house, we know you know that. I think you want a house for us. I think a mortgage is the only good debt. And so, Lord, I'm I'm I'm really believing that you are gonna do this. And Father, I'm praying the next step I need is we need uh bank approval. Then, Lord, we we also need insurance, and I and I need to just know about this house and and and this. So then you just go about your diligence process. You get a builder look at the house. Yep, that's a tick there. Find the right insurance broker, yeah, that's a tick. If the bank comes through, that's a tick. But still I'm feeling like those that that's all good, Lord, but like I I just need I need more. I need more from you that I'm making the right decision. And then there's these little random things. When we came from um Canada, Nadia bought this vacuum cleaner that she bought. She spent 600 bucks on this vacuum cleaner, and it was a really nice one because of, well, clearly. But when we plugged it in because of the the the voltage difference, the amp difference in New Zealand, when we plugged it in, the vacuum cleaner blew up. And so a $600 vacuum cleaner then went to the tip, and so it's the worst. But when we went to the house to do an inspection on the home, that same vacuum cleaner was at the house, and it was the only chattel that the previous owner of the house had left at the house was this vacuum cleaner. Now, I'm not saying that you should build a theology like I'm doing right now on vacuum cleaners, or that the Lord might do something so silly as give you a sign like this. But of all of the reference points that I'd laid out and fleeced the Lord for, this was just a random little thing that got me and Nadia staring at each other, like maybe just maybe. But it's not enough on its own. I'm then waiting for another one. And as I'm going through all of these fleecing God moments, I'm not on that journey having anything that's deterring me. Like the door is totally shut. Yeah, boy. And so on the journey as we're hearing God, Gideon gives us a great opportunity where he puts out this fleece, it's a great strategy, and then he's then he goes back, and you know what he does? He goes to sleep, he goes to bed. Don't travail all night in fear and anxiety and prayer, trying to figure out the answer to if God is speaking to you or not. Just put something out, ask him a question, have a prayer, and give him a chance to answer. And the last thing I say is this before we um say grace and have some Kai is that hearing God's voice is not a science, it's a relationship. Let me give you two examples as to um as to why I think that this is an important point. I think if it was a science, I think that it would remove faith and relationship from the process because we would just have a simple structure about how we go about things and it's done. And I don't think that's how the Lord wants to work with us. Um when I was dating Nadia, we were like teenagers, I would have been 19, Nadia's three years younger than me, she would have been 16, and as we kind of started like you know, growing, you know, in our lives together, she left school. I was like, hey, we shouldn't date while you're in school, I'm out of school, we shouldn't date. And then when she left school, we started dating. And she left school a year early. She got NCA level two at the end of year 12. Um, clearly driven, but for academics or for romance? NCA level, what did I say? Level two, two and three. Oh, and three. Level two and three. Um you know, and and just clearly wanted me. You know, I guess probably that's my point, you know. Um and then I said to her, I was like, hey, let's start, let's start dating. She's like, Yeah, cool, we'll go on the journey. And then it gets to the point where it's like, we're now growing to a point where I've got to figure out, is she the one? And she needs to do the same thing. And so I was praying like Lord, is she the one? Now, for anyone here who's ever prayed a prayerful prayer about romance, knows that it's an impossible prayer to find an answer for. In fact, I think, dare I say this, that when it comes to romance, you should not pray. Because I think how on earth can you pray and then hear with clarity what you think God might be saying, which you're already, we've already acknowledged is very hard, with so much, you already have such a biased opinion, opinion, about what the answer that you want. Because I wanted the Lord to say, Yes, she's the one. And I was so convinced. So, what Lord, is she the one? Like, how on earth can I hear from him and know? And so I think, but I was praying anyway, and so I'm praying and praying and praying. Then I sat down with my pastor. I was like, I want to know is Nadie the one. And then you know what he said? He said to me, You'll know. And I was like, Well, I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. Turns out, you know, I certainly believe that she is the one, you know, was the one, has been the one, and will continue to be the one. But it's not a science. You can't just follow a formula and get a clear answer on everything that's in your life and put it up before the Lord and say, Lord, I've done these things, I'm expecting that you're going to speak. The most recent example for me of this was I told a story a few weeks ago, uh maybe months now, about on Ocean View Road, there's this abandoned house that had doves in the palm tree, and I was walking past praying, and I heard these doves, and I was like literally on a prayer walk praying for a house. I was doing everything but walking up to the houses and putting my hand on the on the foundation work. Like I was naming and claiming houses all over the place. And so I'm walking along praying, and I hear these doves in this palm tree, and I'm convinced that those doves in the palm tree are a sign that I've been praying for. They're an answer from God that that's the house for me. And so I'm like, yes, get home, tell Nards, hey, Ocean View Road, uh, whatever. Then I text a friend, hey, can you send me through the details of that? He's a real estate agent. He says, Yeah, the house has been owned by the same people since 1983. I was born in 1983. It's another sign. So then I'm like, I'm convinced this is the house. The people have been have owned the house. They bought the house. I won't tell you the number of the house, but the you know, the street. They bought that, they bought the house for like less than $100,000 in 1983. It's now worth three million dollars. But I'm convinced that the Lord has got a plan. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna offer them you like a dollar more than what they bought it for. And so I'm like, he's such a good God, you know. And then I get home, I tell Nads about it, Nads. I've got to tell you about the dove story, had these doves, it's a sign. And she's like, Yeah, I love it. Let's go. So we drive there, and there's a car in the driveway, but there never is a car in the driveway. There's a car in the driveway, and we get there, and she's like, I'm gonna go out and talk to him. And I was like, Don't do it, we haven't been given a green light from the Lord. But she does it anyway, classic. Gets out of the car, kicks the door open, and walks up the driveway and talks to the guy. And the Bible says, How beautiful are the feet that that bring good news because you know the quality of the news by the look on someone's face. I could tell the news was bad. So she comes down the driveway, gets in the car. I was like, So? She goes, Yeah, he wants three million dollars for it. I was like, No, this is not how the story is supposed to end. This is our house, Nadia, because there were doves in the palm tree. It's not a science, man. You know what? I actually think that the Lord put those doves in that palm tree for me. I actually think that he was a part of that whole process. Not that the house is mine, but I think he was just having a laugh with me. Because I think that that's how I work, and he knows that. Because he made me. It's not a science, man. It's relationship. There are some people here that you hear from God when you go to nature, when you disappear, when you go away for a weekend. Some people hear from God in a small group, some people hear from God when you read your read your Bible. Um, what's for sure is that no one's hearing from God with all of these kids making all this noise. You know what I mean? Um, but it's relationship. Let me close with this. I'll say this one more thing. Hearing God is the process, I believe, of discerning the will of God in our lives. It's not rigid, it's fluid. And let me just ask us this today, for this week, lay out a fleece. For this week, lay out a fleece. And ask the Lord to answer that prayer. Whatever the prayer is that you have in your heart, and and I was being facetious before, but also partly telling the truth about when it comes to romance. I think it's a really hard one, but for sure, lay out a fleece. If that's what's happening in your life, lay out a fleece. What the plan is for your kids, for your career, next steps in your life, lay out a fleece this week. And believe that God will create some space to answer that prayer. Can I pray for us and then we're gonna have some food? Thank you, Lord. Imagine if someone said no. No, keep preaching. Crazy. Thank you, Lord. That was my voice. Father, we just uh we're grateful, Lord, for your presence. We're grateful, Lord, for a growing church, man, full of kids getting dedicated and growing up in the house of God. We're thankful, Lord. We're thankful. And Father, we just pray, Lord, today that you would help us hear from you. We want to be people, people of the way. We want to be people that are um in your will as best as we can. I sense a great hunger and a desire and a posture that we would be people that are doing things in our lives that you would have us do, that you want for us. And Father, we're praying that we could take this one lesson from Gideon's life who just said, Lord, do this, show me this one sign. In fact, do me a favor, show me another one. That we will just look for these reference points, these moments where you're speaking, Lord, and that we would understand that there are as well times where there are doves and palm trees. And it's just us. But at the same time, there are birds doing double barrel rolls and people getting saved. That the whole thing is not rigid, it's fluid, Lord. We pray that you bless us, bless this food we're about to eat to our bodies, let it be a communion for the saints, and we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.