Hearing God's Voice: Part Four

The Voices in My Head

With so many voices competing for our attention, how can we recognise the voice of God? In the fourth message of our Hearing God series, Levi explores Jesus’ words in John 10: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

Through Scripture, Levi explains that discernment begins by knowing God’s character. His voice reflects purity, peace, mercy, kindness, and the fruit of the Spirit. We are encouraged to reduce unnecessary noise, become familiar with who God is, and practise silence, stillness, and attentive prayer.

God is speaking. Are we creating enough space to listen, recognise His voice, and respond?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I want to talk to you today. The sermon's called The Voices in My Head. The Voices in My Head. And John 10, this is uh there's one verse in here I want to pull out, but I want to give us a little bit of context. I'll read five or six verses. John 10 in 24 to 29 says this. The Jews who are there gathered around him, saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name, they testify about me. But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. And this is our key verse today. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I'll say it one more time, then I'll keep reading. My sheep, and I what I would love you to do as we read this, is just think about the two people involved in what he's saying. So there's Jesus talking, that's one person, and then it's this sheep, that's us. So just notice who does what. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the Father are one. Father, we just pray. Um we're praying that you would speak to us, but my prayer today is probably more that we would listen to you. I I just do believe that you're speaking right now and often, and I'm praying that today we would posture ourselves to to really hear and listen what you have to what you have to say. We want to give you time to move. We want to give you some space, Lord. Uh, to your space. We just offer it back to you. And our prayer today is to take all the voices in our head and to try and discern which one is you. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Uh, while we were in worship, I was just um thought I might as well ask the Lord to um start the sermon by maybe leading us in a moment where and then Nadia jumped up, and that was just a word that was just right on point. Uh, might might give us an opportunity and lead us in a chance where he might speak to us before we start to preach. So I was praying for the last 30 minutes that he would speak to me. And um, I've just got a few very simple words for people that are in the room, very simple. So it's not gonna be, I'm not gonna um sometimes people when they give you uh uh like if there's a thought or a picture in your mind that that we believe is from the Lord, sometimes we can fill the space with what we think about it. So let's say I don't have a word for Joabi yet, but let's say if I did, and if I said to him something that I feel like the Lord is saying to him, I might then try and say a lot more than what God said to me. But I do believe that in this hypothetical, it's Joabi's, you know, it's his role or his responsibility or it's his honor, it's his privilege, or it's his opportunity, it's his invitation to discern that word that I've offered to him. And so I just I just have a couple of little things that I want to share. It's Matt and Rach, hey. I just felt like the Lord said, you will find what you're looking for. And again, I'm not gonna add too much, that's just what I heard, so I'll leave that with you. Lisa, I really felt like the Lord just said that. He's really proud of you. And I felt that word proud quite clearly, just really proud. Yeah. Um I was thinking about um Dan. There's this line in um in uh Nacho Libre where he says, and beneath the claws lies the man. And then it says, Beneath the man is the nucleus. And uh, yeah, yeah. And I just felt like the Lord, and that's what I felt. And then I got this picture of this um, you know, Jurassic Park has those amp, you know, with the mosquitoes covered in like tree gum. And I just felt like there was this amazing, just this wonderful thing on the inside of you, um, beneath all the external things. And um, and the Lord put it there. And he's excited with um the journey of bringing it out. Amen. Um, Wayne, you know, I love you so much when Kay asked if someone would come and pray, it was you. But I felt like the Lord was saying to me today about you that he wants to reinforce your role in our community. And so, Wayne, if you ever feel from me, but I think broader than that, eh, from us, if you ever feel that there's something you want to share, prophesy, speak out, um, that from me you're safe. And that's probably more of a word from for our congregation, but um, but feel free at any time. Yeah, amen. Uh, and we'll just see what the Lord does, hey? That's what I that's what I I had um thus far. Many moons ago, there's a couple of stories to to give us some context that I'm gonna share that I've already shared in the series, but uh many moons ago, Naj and I were on holiday and they were all these kids, and one of the kids in the next room um started crying, and all the men didn't know what to do, and all the mums just kind of like were pretty relaxed about the whole the whole thing. And one of the mums immediately after just a couple of minutes could tell whose child that it was and it was hers. And the mum's like, oh, you know, uh it'll be fine, but I would I'll just go and check. And then the mum came back, and there were about half a dozen parents there, and you know, half a dozen mums and half a dozen fathers, and and one of the mums came back, and that's just as I thought it was mine, and all the mums are like, Yeah, we get it, you know, and then it was not a you know, it was a stub toe, no big dramas, everything's okay. And then everyone went back to what they were doing, but I was really taken aback by that, and I I ended up talking with Nadia later that night, and I said, Hey, like, that was pretty magic, you know, like you guys are you guys know stuff that the men clearly didn't know or didn't care about, you know. And I just want to know how you did that. And and I remember Nad's, you know, we were just falling asleep together, bit of pillow talk, talking about hearing the kids, you know, and she goes, Oh, you know, I don't know what you mean. I said, No, but it seemed to me, Nads, that there was something that all of the women had, that the men clearly didn't have about hearing these kids in the other room. And she said, Oh, um, and I remember she was very gracious to me. She said, Levi, you're a very involved father. So you you you're all you you know, you love the kids, you're with the kids, you know, you care about the kids. But she says, no matter how much you care about the kids or you're involved in their lives, she's like, I for nine months carried these babies in my womb. Then the breastfeeding, then the intimacy, and the and the Matt leave staying home while I went back to work, um, and been in Canada for a few years, the men had um could have to could have up to 12 months paternity leave. I think in New Zealand, I'm not sure if we get any, you know. It's partly why we stayed there for so long, you know, we wanted more kids. And uh, that was a having kids joke. And so I remember going back to work, you know, and then Nards just being involved in the kids, and she did that four times. Four times. And she said, during that process, I just have become this maternal instinct, this discernment, and that should be a key word for us today, this discernment of just knowing. The mums, she's like, babe, we wouldn't even listen. But you just hear the sonic frequencies of your child because I've been listening to that baby for years. And not only the sonic frequencies, I know the the volume determines pain. And it just we just knew that it was, she said, babe, I knew it wasn't our kid, and I knew the baby was fine. And and when the mum went and figured it out, and I just said, I and I remember she went to sleep, and I just remember staring at the ceiling, and I said this prayer, I said, Lord, I want that power, Lord. I said, Lord, I do want to, I do want to know my kids to a greater level. But Lord, my prayer tonight is that I would hear your voice with that same clarity. Lord, that I would hear your voice with that same ease. That these mums in this room with this maternal instinct just would there wasn't even a they it was just so natural. I want to naturally be able to discern what the Lord is saying in my life. At the start of this series, we're in our fourth week now, we'll do our final week next week. I have been as clear as I can be that I'm not coming to you as an expert on this issue, on hearing God's voice. In fact, today's sermon should prove that there are voices in my mind, just like there are voices in yours. And our goal, I think, is to discern and to minimize the amount of voices that we have. I don't come as an expert, but as a believer who for 30 years has been on the journey to try and figure out what you are saying and when, Lord, are you saying it. I I trying to hear God's voice is, we prayed this earlier today, it's about it's an awareness of God's will, isn't it? Because if God has a voice and a plan and a will, and we are sometimes outside of it, I believe that his voice is usually trying to get us back in line with what he wants for our lives. His voice is like an inner witness, a breezed idea, a spark of knowledge. It's a it's a penny drop. My great mentor Mark Hewitt says he is a God of few words. He tends to just show us to the next corner. He's in your head, he told me one day. He reveals himself to us in our thoughts. In John 10, 27, Jesus speaks to a group of Jews, and they've gathered together, and they're saying in the early context, they say, the Jews have gathered around him, and they're saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? How long will you keep us in suspense? Are you the Messiah? And Jesus responds, and he basically says, I've been saying, I've been I've been saying this. We've been talking and I've been answering this question a lot, but you haven't been listening. And I think what they want is not for Jesus to clarify his answer to that question. I just think they want him to say it louder. How many times have you prayed for volume? Just like, just God, don't be sneaky. I'm over it. I'm over the humble sneaky stuff, Lord. I need, you know, I want a sign, Lord. And we want volume. And Jesus responds and he says this. He says, My sheep, this is so crucial to us today. He says, My sheep listen to my voice. He says, I know them and they follow me. Here's four four early thoughts for us today in our sermon. The first one is that he's the one speaking. Did you know that the number one, usually, I think on like probably some kind of annual survey, the number one fear of mankind is public speaking. So most people would rather be in the casket than do the eulogy. That the one of the greatest fears is that we would speak in public. And so the Lord has already given us that opportunity and taken away from us. He says, I'll do the speaking. So he's speaking. So he's speaking. I think he's always speaking. My sheep, they listen to my voice. So what do we do? We're the sheep, we listen. So he speaks, we listen. Now I know some of us are better listeners than others, but our goal in our faith is to increase the quality of our listening when it comes to our walk with Jesus. He's talking, we're listening. And this is the next thing I notice, and I quite like this. The Bible says this. He says, I know them. So he's speaking, I'm listening, and he says this, I know them. I quite like that because if it said he's speaking, we're listening, and we must know him, wouldn't that make the bar so high and maybe a bit of a challenge for us to reach? That I have to know Jesus. Wow. A guy this morning, well, it was like overnight, he broke the record for the highest vertical leap. Who knows the stuff? I do. 53 inches. That's so high. I can probably jump seven, you know what I mean? You have it would be such a difficult barrier to attain to know Jesus in order to be able to walk with him. I think the goal is that we would know Jesus, but in the early stages, he just says all we need to do is listen. He knows us. Oh, that's amazing. So you're talking, Lord. I'm listening and you know me. Just understand before we move on that you are known by the Lord. He knows you. Every hair on your head, the psalmist writes. It says that he collects every tear in a bottle, that all of your prayers are written down in a book. That anytime you've cried out to God, he heard it and wrote it down. That he cares about each of us. So he's talking, I'm listening, he knows me, and then what? We follow him. Oh, that was the other thing, Ruth. I felt like um God was just saying, yeah, keep going. Just felt like this. There's just a path in front of you, and I just felt like you should just keep walking it. So he talks, we listen, he's the one that has the onus of knowledge of us. He wants intimacy, but he already knows us, and we follow him. In a word, today is about discernment. It's about discerning his voice. And I've just got a couple of synonyms for that word discernment to just keep our brains um uh nimble this afternoon. To discern is to recognize. Like think about these mums and these dads. It was the mums who recognized, they distinguished, they perceived, they differentiated, they grasped. That discernment is about recognizing or grasping or distinguishing his voice. I think one thing I might say, and this is a message for all of us, but I think particularly for those who are maybe under the age of 25, one of the best ways to distinguish or determine or differentiate or discern his voice is actually just to eliminate the amount of voices that you hear in your life. There are many voices buying for our attention, the news. I I'm not a big news guy, but you know when you so so if there's a spectrum of news eaters, you know, I'm like a two or a three. I'm I'm I'm headlines of headlines guy. And if it's interesting, I'll dive in, have a read. I might do a little research, try and find some grounded news and get a sense of, you know, I'm a bit of a centrist and just get a vibe and move on with my day. There are other people, remember Jim? You go to his house and the news is always on 24 hours a day. Man, if you want to live an anxious life, raise your hand if that's you. Watch the news 24 hours a day. I remember growing up and the news was at 6 o'clock. Everything else was not news, everything else was Dragon Ball Z and The Simpsons and Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon and and you know, like um appliances, and the guy with the ladder infomercials, man, and the guy with the sticky tape on the you know, the leaking seals and stuff like that, you know? Wham! You know that guy? And then at six o'clock, you would you would finish dinner, or maybe some families at dinner time, you would watch the news. And then at seven o'clock, you know what happened? The news finished, and then it was Shawland Street, or maybe you turn over TV one, Coro Street. These days there is news coming at you all the time on TV, and then someone decided how good is this, and and I'm the greatest hypocrite of us all, that we put the most advanced information tool that anyone on the planet in history has ever been given. You you you there is more news on the front page of the New York Times than someone in Shakespearean times would have read or consumed in their whole life. And we put it in our pocket. Everything you need to addict yourself to whatever you want to addict yourself to is right here. Have you ever been walking down the street and you get a phantom um you know, buzz? What are they called? Is it a shake? Is it what buzz is buzz? What's that? It vibrates. You get a phantom vibrate? Have you ever had that? It didn't actually vibrate, but you thought it did. And then you pull out your phone and you're disappointed you get no boost of serotonin because there's no there's no notification. And then you go, lame. And then you put it back. And then two minutes later, it has got control of our life because of our attention, it's got control of our life because we just have, we're trying to take all of it's like a funnel that is just pointed right into our lives. And the Lord says, I don't find anywhere in the scriptures, and I'm not trying to preach to us today that we should abandon smartphones, hence the hypocrisy. But if we are going to discern his voice amidst all the other voices, I think one of the things we could do to start is by eliminating the voices that we don't need in our lives. To discern, to recognize, to distinguish, to perceive, to grasp. I think that I have four main voices in my head. I'm 42 years old, it's taking me that long to minimize it down to four. And I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but these are the voices that I think are in my head. I've got God's voice in my head, thankfully, saving grace. Thank you, Jesus. I've got the devil's voice in my head, he's the enemy of my soul. Disney did this great when they had the good angel and the bad angel on the shoulders, and many people call it conscience, and that's great. Um, and I think it probably is, although that's a whole different thing for us to dive into. God and the devil, I've got Nadia's voice in my head, and I have my own. Bottom of the list. I hope. And my job during the day, as I make decisions, as I plan, as I have interactions with people as I go about my life, is to try and figure out which voice it is that's speaking to me, and then which one I want to listen to. With I hope and I pray with as many decisions as I possibly can. So I mentioned this a few weeks ago, I was down Gervin Road Dairy on the way to school. We just moved houses and we had no food. I don't know if you know what that's like. But at your house, there's no food in the cupboards, no food in the fridge, and there's definitely nothing for kids' lunches. Because you can't just give the kids a carrot, you know, like I would. If there was only carrots in the fridge, I'd be quite happy. But you can't have the kids turn up to school with a carrot, you know. And if it is, you've got to peel it, you've got to cut it nice, it's got to have a little tupperware, it's got to have chumus, you know what I mean? You've got to make it seem like you have to make it seem like you're not poor. But at that time, I was, you know, and had no food. And so all I had was enough money to drive past Gervin Road Dairy and get those snack packs. There's two types there's $3.50 and then there's $4.50. Um, but the only rule with our family is that you have to take out the sugary drink. Take out that sugary drink. Unless it's a little fruit one, which doesn't look sugary, in which case that's okay. But you take out the sugary drink, and then the kids love it. Then they always barter with one another. I'll give you the Sam's is the name of the chips. I'll give you these and I'll take this and all that kind of stuff. And I was there, and then there was this houseless individual sitting outside Maurifala, and I walked through, I said, Church brother, he goes, More than a brother, he goes, Have you got any money? And I said, No, I don't have any money, but would you like a pie? He said, That'd be great. Dairy free, please. I thought that was interesting. For a few reasons. I've never heard of someone describe a pie as dairy-free, but I get it, because there's a lot of cheese in pies, and also two, you know, like you know, you can just take the pie. You know what I mean? So there's that was there's so those are those were the thoughts in my head. Those were the thoughts in my head, which is the whole point of the sermon. I went inside, grabbed a pie, dairy-free, came out, and I and then I tossed him the pie. Cheer, brother, have a good day. He goes, Thank you so much, bro. I appreciate it. Got in the car, Hugo and drove you like, who was that? And I said, I don't know. And they said, What do you mean? I said, Well, I can't be clearer than that. I don't know who this man is. But I said, he looked to me like he didn't have anywhere to live, and probably was hungry, and he asked me for money. I said, I don't like to give houseless individuals money because I'm never sure where it will go, but I assume they're always hungry, so I think food's a good option. And they're like, Whoa, you know, that's I think this this interaction really was shaping them. I think maybe for them to know the old man was generous, which is like a crazy concept, you know, which I was like really hurt by, you know. Go back the next day, moved into the new house, still have no food, go back to Governor Dairy to buy the lunch packs. He's there. What in him, brother? Got any money? I don't, bro, but hey, dairy-free pie? He goes, sure, that'd be mean. Go and sausage roll this time. Uh you know, I think that's nice, eh? It's like not a downgrade. Some people think it's an upgrade. And so, here, my brother, enjoy. Get back in the car. Kids are like, yo, there's that guy again. In interactions like that, and I'm a hypocrite, this is like the first time I've done it. Nah, like you know. Ish. When you have an encounter like that, I would love for us as a community to consider the voices in your head. And at the end of the day, I don't think the devil wants to feed this man. So scratch him off the list. At the end of the day, I would prefer to have this money in my pocket than in his pocket. So I'd I'm I would I would just rather move on with my life, get my kids to school, and go get a flat white. Scratch me off. So those are two bad people in my head. Then Nadia, so here's another voice. She would not hesitate. She wouldn't hesitate. So I go, okay. Oh, we get it, Nads. You're awesome. And then I just go, Jesus, what would you like? And I don't know about you, but in a situation like that, he tends to say yes, and he tends to um associate his voice, I find, in my head, with Nards, more often than with my own. It might just be me. And I think Nadia is perfect, but also I know that she's flawed. However, I think I'm more flawed. And so it usually tends to be that the, and I'll get to these scriptures in a second, the most pure answer is from Jesus. The second one, close, but you know, it's like a distant second, is Nard's. Then me, and then the enemy of my soul, who, based on the scriptures, I know that he wants to kill, to steal, and destroy, and doesn't want us to be generous to anybody, especially the poor. But when I read the scriptures, then I so what about another scenario? How should what should I preach this Sunday? How should I approach this meeting? How should I respond to my kids' misbehaving? How do I react to that interaction that I had? How do I approach my week this week? In every decision that we make to try and discern his voice because he's always speaking, I just like to just limit the voices and then I rank them. They said to Jesus, they said, You've always if you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. And Jesus had told them repeatedly, time after time after time, the issue for us and for the Jews was not a lack of information, but the issue was unbelief. Sometimes we want God to speak louder. But Jesus suggests that the bigger issue might not be God's volume, but our willingness to believe in what He has already said. For our prayer team that pray at 2 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, I always bring my Ui boom and I play it. But I always play the same playlist. No one's complained about it. So that probably now that I've said it. No one ever complains. There's only six songs on the playlist. But each of those songs is meaningful to me in a prayerful way, and when I hear it, I feel intimacy with the Lord because that song has always been there for me on my journey with Jesus. And so I go back to those moments, those times, that thing that he said to me or that moment I had with him to then regenerate new moments or refresh myself and experience new moments with Jesus. Everything about Jesus' life points to who he is. His character should confirm his voice. The Greek word listen in this passage means more than hearing sounds. The neighbors came over today because we were cutting trees down with Paul How's Chainsaw, and it's like, well, it's an annoying noise if you whatever. But if you're the neighbor and your neighbor is cutting trees down, you want to come over. So Sam's like, he's Sam, my mate Sam starts talking to the he's there, he's he's cutting, he starts talking to these people, and he goes, bro, I think it's the neighbors. And I was like, Oh shoot, you know, like, because you know that might be negative. I might have cut down the tree that saves them from the westerly, who knows, you know? And I come up and I'm like, hey, how are you guys going? And they're like, this looks amazing. I was like, yeah, so good. A two-stroke chainsaw, 61cc. Just a noisy beast. The whole Mongatapu valley would have been going. Who on earth is out there destroying these invasive trees? The Greek word listen here is not about hearing sounds, but it means to hear attentively, to receive, and to respond. Biblically, hearing is linked with obedience. John 14, 21 says, Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Let's go back to my houseless individual story. If I quickly, because it's quicker, you get out of the car, you walk in, you see someone who you know wants something, and you try and ignore them. Happens all the time at New World on tweet down the bottom, a lot of like charities and stuff. Those guys are sharp. I've only given one time because the islanders were huge, you know what I mean? And I was like quite scared. But when you get out of your car and you walk, you have six steps to decide. Should I ignore or should I do something about it? And in that time, the Lord is very gentle and He'll speak. And as we walk, and and if I respond in the way that I think Jesus is asking me to, what's really cool about that is that John 14, 21 says that I love Jesus because of my obedience. If I quickly go, the devil, no, Levi, no, Nadia, yes, God dang it, you know, and then get a pie, and then give him a pie. I believe that obedience is a sacrifice and an offering of love to the Lord. And he receives it that way. Jesus assumes that his followers can learn to recognize his voice, and the goal isn't hearing, but recognizing, discerning. So this is the big pivot for our our time today. If our goal is recognizing his voice, then what I would love to guide us in this afternoon is the big question, which I think is how. If discerning his voice is our goal, then Levi, how? And I think our answer is very clear. By understanding his character. The test for God's voice is to ask questions like this: Is that thought pure? Does it produce peace? Is it merciful? Does it reflect Jesus? I heard this quote last week from Jim Hearn who said this if there's unrest in your spirit, don't move. Because unrest is that lack of peace. And God, I think, won't use unrest as much as he'll use providing us peace as a guide. And if there's unrest, then stay. There's two things I want to talk about very briefly, then I want to give us a chance to hear from Jesus. The first one is that we find his character from the Bible, our great guide. Everything that we need to know about God, I believe, is found in the Bible. I believe he's still speaking to us for sure, but everything we need to know about him is in there. Everything you need to know about God. Everything you need to know about his character, everything you need to know about what you think he might think about a scenario, everything you need to know to make up your mind and paint this image of God is found in here. The first verse I ever memorized was 1 Peter 5 7. Says this. This is for someone with anxiety. It says, Cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you. How good's that word cast? I don't have any fishing rods, so I'm gonna buy some. But my mate reckons I need at the bottom, at the foot of our property, into the moana, he reckons I need surf casting. Which, as far as I can tell, means that you throw it. Because you're not in deep water, right? So you got it. So another word could be um surf hurling, eh? Surf chucking, surf throwing, surf hoping that it gets a long way away from the shoreline. I think that's the concept of a thing I've never done. So when I read, cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you, I'm not thinking I present them. I'm thinking he's keen ass. I'm thinking he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, take that nonsense and cast it onto Jesus. Hurl it, throw it, chuck it. Get rid of it. So then I go, cool, character of God. The character of God doesn't want me to hold these things in my life and wants to receive them from me. The Bible will teach me everything I need to know about God. Here's a couple of key verses, then we'll move on. James 3, verse 17. I think this is important. And if you're taking notes, I think you should write this one down. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all, these are key for us. Pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. If you've got a thought in your head that's not pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, then it might not be from heaven. How many times do you say, um, I probably shouldn't say this? And then you say it? So when you say, I probably shouldn't say this, just quickly go through that list. Is what I'm about to say. Pure, peace, loving, considerate. There it is. No. Might not be from heaven. And it's sometimes a you know, spiritual insurance. It's better to lean on the side of heaven than not, you know. It might not be from heaven. Ah, you know, like don't do that. Galatians 5 22, this is it, this is another list for us to use. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I probably shouldn't say this, go through the list. The Christian life isn't about hearing more voices. We run on on Friday mornings, me and the boys, and often we'll talk about how's your week? Yeah, good, whatever. One of the questions we ask these days, I think, in our in our time, is it used to be what are you reading? These days is what are you listening to? What podcasts? Got any fresh pods? And often, you know, they'll attest to this. I'll be like, nah. And then you, oh, yeah, this and this, and then we'll leave, and then I'll be like, I hear some thoughts. But I think that the Christian life is not about adding more voices necessarily, hey. Adding more pods or adding more YouTube channels or adding more influences into your life, but it's about becoming so familiar with God's character that we recognize his voice. The great Dallas Willard, he put it this way: he said, we don't hear God accurately because we hear a voice, we hear him accurately because we know the kind of person that he is. And then what happens is the second main way we hear from God after the Bible is through our testimony. The testimony of our life, or corporate testimony, or the testimony of others. When we have someone who has gone through something and come out the other side and they have a testimony, as our as our siblings in Christ, we can claim that for ourselves. God's voice is often quiet. That's why silence and solitude and stillness they they matter. If our goal is recognizing his voice, then our job should be to understand his character. Therefore, then the environment that we create to achieve that is significant. I think that silence, solitude, and stillness came in vogue in our Christian faith about five years ago, and then they became like this throwaway, you know, kind of like um worship, like spiritual um uh rhythms and routines. It's like, oh yeah, I practice silence, stillness, solitude, sabbath, all these S's. And then they kind of the power of them gets lost in this, you know, like in the alliteration, maybe it gets lost and that they just kind of we just, yeah, yeah, yeah, solitude. Ah, very powerful. You were you're just such a Christian. But let's just let let me say these words and let's let them sink. Silence, solitude, stillness, silent listening prayer uses silence as a way of consciously making space for God to posture ourselves, to be attentive to what he has to say, to still the inner chatter of our souls, to silence the voices in our head. Mother Teresa said this in an interview with Dan Rather, CBS Anchor. He he he asked Mother Teresa what she did during her prayers, and she said, I listen. He then asked, Well, then what does God say? And Mother Teresa smiled with confidence and answered, He listens. For an instant the anchor didn't know what to say. And she said, If you don't understand that, I can't explain it to you. Pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, which is long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the markers for us to discern his voice in our life. Oh, that's right, yeah. Nick and and Greg, um, keep listening. Keep listening. That's sorry, I for I forgot. Keep listening. And so I purposely asked Rose to come up a bit earlier and have have wrapped up my part of today's um service sort of five or ten minutes earlier than usual because I just want to give us a chance to put it in action. So this is what we'll do. The irony is that I'm gonna ask Rose in a second to stop playing so we can have some silence. But it's nice, eh? But we have to stay true to the task. We're gonna have silence for about three minutes, and I'll time it. And I would love for you just to sit. And I would love for you, I would love for you not to think of a thing or an activity or a decision. I would love for you today, all of us, to picture a person, and probably that first person that came to mind as soon as I said the word person. I would love for you just to imagine that person. I'd love for you to be thoughtful of that person, and I'd love for you to pray for that person. And I would love for you to pray the things that are conjured up in your heart about that person. So if you think about someone and you hate them, then based on the sermon, I would love for you to take a moment and wait for the peace-loving, the joyful, the considerate, the submissive, the kind thing. And in your heart, not out loud, this is a silent exercise. I want you to pray that thing. And then once the three minutes is up, we're gonna just take a moment with our neighbor or with someone that we trust, just to share, not the intimacy of who the person was, but I would love for you to share what it was that you prayed. And I would love for us as a community to start to observe with one another, and iron sharpens iron, hey. So that means that if Nard says, Hey, I I thought about my mum and I prayed healing on her physical body. She's going through the ringer at the moment, then I might observe and not share, but I might observe, yeah, that kind of is in line with the scriptures, and that's in line with the character of God. Amen. And we provide a witness, eh? So three minutes of silence in church, crazy. Let's go.