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  HE THAT HAS EARS LET HIM HEAR
  by Duane Troyer
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of listening and truly
hearing God's voice, drawing parallels between physical hearing and
spiritual discernment. It explores how our ability to hear impacts our
reactions and decisions, urging us to be attentive to God's word and not
drift away. The message highlights the significance of being discerning
hearers, distinguishing between the voice of the shepherd and the
counterfeit messages of the enemy, and the need to be tuned to God's
truth amidst the noise of the world.

Topics: "Listening to God's Voice", "Spiritual Discernment"
Scripture References: Proverbs 20:12, Luke 8:18, Hebrews 2:1, John 10:27, Luke 19:48, Psalm 139:23, Proverbs 15:31, Proverbs 18:15, Proverbs 1:5, James 1:19

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of listening and truly hearing
God's voice, drawing parallels between physical hearing and spiritual
discernment. It explores how our ability to hear impacts our reactions
and decisions, urging us to be attentive to God's word and not drift
away. The message highlights the significance of being discerning
hearers, distinguishing between the voice of the shepherd and the
counterfeit messages of the enemy, and the need to be tuned to God's
truth amidst the noise of the world.

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CONTENT
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For the opening this morning, I just wanted to talk about one of the
phrases that Jesus used really, really often. If there's a certain
phrase that we would connect to him as his phrase, it would probably be
this one. Sometimes he used it in the beginning, before he started
saying some things, sometimes he concluded with this saying, sometimes
it seems like he paused in the middle of a thought.

What was it? Not quite. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. He that
has ears to hear, let him hear.

Thank God for ears. Thank God for the ability to hear. We could hardly
imagine a world without sound.

Sound catches our attention, it affects our emotions, it does so many
things to us. And I would say that sound is crucial to our survival,
though it's true that people who are deaf and can't hear can get by and
live life. But still, I think for sure in the natural world, in the
animal kingdom, in the world of survival for the fittest, when an animal
goes deaf and can't hear, he doesn't last long.

It's an extreme handicap, it cripples him, he'll be one of the first
ones to be taken out. Animals always, maybe not always, but usually have
their ears pricked, their ears tuned, they hear sounds, and then they
try to decide if this sound is something they can eat or something that
will eat them. And depending on what they decide about that sound has a
lot to do with their action, their reaction to the sound.

What is sound anyway? So scientifically, sound is the energy that is
produced when something vibrates. For instance, if someone beats a drum,
the skin on that drum vibrates. It's so fast you can't see it vibrate,
but there's a vibration there, and what that vibration does is it makes
the air around it vibrate.

And then this vibration of air goes out in all directions, it vibrates
the air, and eventually once it hits, once it comes to your ear, the air
inside your ear vibrates. And that vibration, you then hear the sound of
the drum. And so it is with every sound.

It would be similar, maybe you children can grasp it better, it's pretty
similar to if you would drop a rock in the water. And that rock hits the
water and all of a sudden it sends waves out in every direction. And
eventually the waves die out to nothing.

But if before they die out to nothing, they hit an object, it creates a
little splash. And that would be like the sound that hits your ears.
It's similar, not exactly the same, but very similar.

Our ears are so amazing that as I'm speaking right now, my tongue and my
lips are making different sounds, and it's sending out different
frequencies, and therefore by the time this – what I'm speaking is
sending little vibrations of air out there, and by the time it's hitting
your ears, there's a different frequency, it's different wavelength, and
you can distinguish between one word, one sound that I'm making and
another. Your ears are so amazing that they distinguish that difference.
They detect and they analyze the different characteristics of the
wavelength.

I mean isn't that amazing, aren't we fearfully and wonderfully made? So
all day long, all day long as we go about our days, there's all kinds of
vibrations going on in the air, all kinds of vibrations fill our ears,
and we decipher the sound. What is it? What's the meaning? I had this
thought to try something, kind of for the boys. It would maybe be a
little more interesting if it was warm enough and all the doors and
windows were open, but let's try for about a minute maybe to just all be
really, really, really quiet.

Nobody move, nobody make a sound, and then I'll ask some of you boys
what you heard. Okay, so if possible, let's just be really quiet for a
little bit. Okay, half a minute's enough.

A minute gets awfully long. Anybody want to volunteer? What did you
hear? Dito, you hear anything? Okay, somebody heard a coffee pot, just a
little gurgling sound. What about you, Sasha, you hear anything? A hot
water heater.

What about you, Titus? A baby was crying. You heard a baby? They weren't
quiet? What's going on? Levi, how about you? A chair creak. A chair
creak.

Somebody moved. Uh-oh. Micah, how about you? I heard the rat started
rattling.

The what rattle? The garage door. The garage door rattled. Probably a
little wind hit it or something.

See that? There's all kinds of sounds out there, and all those sounds,
however quiet they were, they were all sending a little vibration out
there. And if you really tuned your ears, you picked them up. Some of
these sounds we never notice, even though they're there.

And sometimes, sometimes you can be right beside someone, and we know
that the same air frequencies, the same sound waves are going through
the air, but one person hears something and another person doesn't. If
you've ever spent time with a bird watcher or a bird lover, you'll
notice that. You'll be, if you're not too interested, you kind of hear
the birds, but all of a sudden he says, hey, that was an Oriole, or
something.

He heard something that you were totally, it just didn't register with
you. I once read this story how there was this, a Native American went
to the town or the city or whatever where there was this hustle and
bustle and rattle and all kinds of noise going on, and he was walking
with a few white men, and he said, I hear a cricket. And the white men
said, what, in all this rumble and noise, you heard a cricket? And he
said, yeah.

And he went over to a little place where there was maybe a flower pot or
something, and sure enough, there was a cricket there. And they said,
wow, you have such wonderful ears. And he said, no, my ears are just
tuned to this.

Watch this. And the Indian takes a pocket full of coins and drops them
on the ground, and everybody looks like, yeah, we hear what our ears are
tuned for. Walter Jr. is here.

When we start up an automobile, I have this idea that I hear one thing,
and Walter Jr. probably hears something else. And depending, sometimes
at least, my ears just aren't tuned to catch these little things that
might be wrong on it. And then it affects my actions.

I might start up a vehicle, and for me, I might sit in the seat, put it
in the drive, and head forward, and a mechanic might go for his wrenches
and screwdrivers to fine-tune something, because he hears a problem. And
so we start realizing that hearing is not just a physical activity. It's
a reaction in our mind to the audibles that are set before us.

Now, when Jesus says, he that has ears to hear, he's not just talking to
all you people who have a physical hearing and can audibly hear the
sound waves that come from my mouth. He's saying something like, he that
has a soul that understands the meaning of what I'm saying, let him have
a proper reaction to it. He says some more interesting things about
hearing.

In Luke, chapter 8, verse 18, he says, So take care how you listen, for
whoever has, to him more shall be given. And whoever does not have, even
what he thinks he has, shall be taken away from him. I think maybe the
King James says, take heed how you hear.

Be careful how you listen, because here's how it works. To him who hears
and has and reacts properly, more will be given. But to him who doesn't
do that, the one who doesn't react properly, even what he thinks he
hears will be taken away.

It'll become duller and duller and finally he can't hear anymore at all.
Carol's grandpa, he doesn't live anymore, but he lost his physical
hearing. Not totally, but he became real hard of hearing in his old
years.

And it was pretty hard to have a conversation with him. You kind of
could one-on-one, but I remember a few of the last family gatherings
when he was still alive, he just zoned out. He could hear a little bit,
but everything was just a rumble, just kind of an undistinguishable
clamor.

I thought this, but Carol didn't remember this this morning when I asked
her. Maybe this pertains to someone else, but I think that's pretty
common for people. Once they kind of lose their hearing, everything is
just kind of this undistinguished clamor.

I don't know if it was him or not, but someone used to just put earplugs
in their ears because they could hear this rumble, but they couldn't
make anything out, so it was better just to plug the ears and not hear.
But anyway, in a lot of those family meetings, he just laid down and
slept. He fell asleep.

There was just not enough. He just couldn't get it. And that's physical.

I don't know that that's anything he could help. But that's exactly what
happens spiritually when people don't take heed how they listen, when
they're not careful about how they hear, and all of a sudden as time
goes on, what you thought you even heard becomes undistinguishable
clamor, and finally it's like, let's just plug the ears and people fall
asleep, spiritually. The Hebrew writer says in chapter 2, verse 1, he
says, For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have
heard, so that we do not drift away from it.

Jesus said, My sheep know my voice. And he said, A stranger's voice they
don't know. They are tuned.

They hear his voice, and a stranger's voice they don't hear. Again, they
hear these sound waves come into their ears and vibrate there, but it's
an undistinguished sound. They don't follow it.

It creates a different reaction in them than when they hear the
shepherd's voice. We need to be discerning hearers. There's many spirits
out there that seek for our soul, but don't believe all of them.

We need to be discerning like those animals who hear and then decide
whether the sound they heard is something to eat or something that will
eat them. When we hear a spirit or a voice that is speaking to our soul,
we need to decide, is this something to chew on, or is this something
that will chew on us? And the difference should create a different
reaction in us. Back in my days when I hunted, I used to try to mimic
sounds.

I used a call or even just my mouth or something to try to mimic a sound
that would maybe make a fox or a coyote come looking for a meal. And if
that fox or coyote couldn't discern the subtle difference between the
sound I was making and the actual critter that would make the sound, he
ended up becoming the meal instead of finding a meal. Except I don't
care much for eating fox and coyotes, but I did skin them and sell the
furs.

We need to be tuned. We need to be careful how we hear. Just a few more
verses here.

In John, in John chapter 12, verse 28 and 29. So Jesus had been speaking
and he ended up saying, Father, glorify your name. And then this is what
it says in verse 28.

Then a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will
glorify it again. And then verse 29 says, so the crowd of people who
stood by heard it were saying that it thundered and others were saying
an angel has spoken to him.

And so here was this sound and we all know the same sound waves went
out, right? The same vibration hit people's ears, but to some people it
sounded like an angel's voice and others were like just this
undistinguishable thunder. In closing, I wanted to look at a verse here
in Luke 19. I thought this one was real precious.

The very last two verses. So here's Jesus, verse 47 it says, and he was
teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and
the leading men among the people were trying to destroy him.

So Jesus is in the temple daily preaching, teaching. And the chief
priests and the people who were against him and against what was going
on and against this movement were there trying to find a way to stop
this movement. Trying to find a way to get rid of this man and to stop
this movement.

And then look at verse 48. It says, and they could not find anything
that they might do for all the people were hanging on to every word he
said. The King James says, for all the people were very attentive to
hear him.

The enemies of God who would like to destroy everything that's from God,
righteousness, preaching, the word, they lose their ability when we very
attentively hang on to every word of the Lord. God bless you all. He
that has ears to hear, let him hear.

You can open it up for comments and corrections and thoughts. Thanks,
Dwayne. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 12 says, the hearing ear and the
seeing eye, Jehovah, has made even both of them.

And it kind of, it occurred to me how that like it, it sort of seems
like, I mean here you got all these like just like powerful deep wisdom,
powerful deep wisdom and then God made eyes and ears. And then it just
goes on like it could seem like not that big of a, like out of place
maybe. Recently I was praying, somewhat recently.

And then I got, when I was done praying, I like looked up and saw the
stars or I saw the sky and I don't know if I was quite convicted or just
like kind of got me thinking like, like a little bit convicted about how
I had just finished talking to God. Like I looked up at the stars and I
was like, oh, you made the stars. Like, who was I just talking to? Who
did I think I was like, sometimes I try to imagine myself like before
His throne.

But I was like, wow, who was I talking to? Like, He made the heavens, He
made the stars. And then I just had this thought like, what? And that
statement there, He made the seeing eye. He made the hearing ear and the
seeing eye.

Like that's, it's just, it'd be arguable. Like what's more magnificent,
the heavens and the stars or the seeing eye that can perceive and
appreciate them? Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry, that was something I wanted
to say.

Oh, I, in the past I've had this thought, maybe others have had this
thought too when I considered blindness or deafness. I don't know how,
why the human mind does this, but I was like, which, if I had to choose
between blindness or deafness, which would I choose? And I always
thought, oh, well, of course, of course I'd rather be deaf than blind.
Like blind just seems like the worst, like you can't see anything.

And then when you were talking about family gatherings, I kind of
thought like, oh, like how that, in a very overly simplified way, you
could say like, well, seeing is very personal. If you're all alone, you
can't, walking through a path, walking down the street, trying to do
things like you, you could be all alone and nearly not really need your,
your sense of sound. I mean, there would be exceptions obviously, but
like I would think to myself, how would I get along if I couldn't see?
But then I could see how, well, I could, and you said this, seeing is
very like personal and whereas hearing is very, like we're in this room
and everybody could close their eyes and I can just, we're still
communicating, like it's this wonderful ability.

I can imagine a family gathering, like wouldn't matter, you could just
close your eyes and listen to everybody talk and interact in a
conversation and share wisdom, whereas you'd be so handicapped doing
that. If you could, anyway, just this thought like the different, the
difference in those. And then maybe some of you would know about this,
but one time I had, my car was making a funny noise and you lift up the
hood and there's belts and wheels and little motors and all these things
going.

And of course there's the big engine and how do you, and they're all
making noises and they're all making sort of similar sounding noises.
And it was like, what's the problem? Anyway, I went to a mechanic shop
and I pulled out, I was like, could you guys just tell me what's making
this funny noise in my car? If it's something I should worry about. And
somebody, they all said right away, it's a bearing.

But there's like, you know, just this multitude of bearings down in
there. How can you tell which one? And one of the guys that had some
wisdom, he said, hang on a second. And anybody know what he went and
got? A great big long screwdriver.

And he came and he took that screwdriver and he touched it down to
something that had a bearing and started listening to the screwdriver.
No, put it on there. And you could hear it when he touched it to the
bearing that was out or whatever the little motor was that had the
bearing that was out.

You could hear it get kind of louder. You could hear that screwdriver.
Anybody ever listen to a screwdriver? If you touch them to the right
thing, you can hear them.

Anyway, yeah, so that was pretty neat. We could tell which, he said,
yep, it's that one right there. And you could, I think one of the other
guys maybe was even like, what? And he said, yeah, try it.

And he was like, well, how about that? You could hear that screwdriver.
I just thought, oh, people have kind of mocked sometimes different
versions of the, they make these different crude versions of the Bible.
Like I saw one that was like a version of the Bible for street kids and
it had all these, had Jesus talking all these cool slangs, cool slang
talk.

Anyway, I thought if there was a crude, a crude auto mechanic version of
the Bible, Jesus would have said, those of you who brought your long
screwdrivers, put it, instead of who has ears to hear, whoever has their
screwdriver, put it here. Listen, this is what you should be listening
to. Thanks, Brother Duane.

That was a blessing. I went coyote hunting once when I was a teenager.
And some relatives of ours brought all the gear and it was a giant red
light that is supposed to be indiscernible, I guess, to the coyotes, but
we can use it for pointing and aiming a rifle.

And then a distressed rabbit call. And we went out and picked out the
spot. They were sure, seemed like they were pretty confident it was
going to work.

And we sat up on this hill with chairs and it was a nice, peaceful night
and it was quiet. And then we sent out this horrible shriek of a
squealing rabbit. Did that for about a minute or so and then shined out
our big red light and the forest around this clearing was full of eyes,
all looking at us, but no coyote eyes.

We turned off the light, more rabbits squealing, and then we turned the
light back on and there were less eyes out in the forest. Then we turned
it off, more rabbits squealing, turned it back on and there were just a
few eyes out in the forest. And then tried it one more time and finally
it was dark in the forest and there were no eyes reflecting our lights
anymore and it didn't take long until coyote hunting was over.

And I just wish, like, I wish it was that simple with the enemy that we
could just easily tell it's a counterfeit and a fake, but unfortunately
I think he's a master huntsman and so he's really good at mingling
kernels of truth with his false message and it's more like a siren song
and something sometimes that we have to fight really hard against. And
only in knowing the truth that we have left in the scriptures can we
fight it and really hear the real voice of the shepherd. Anyway, I was
blessed by that.

I really appreciated that message. What it made me think about was
losing any one capability from the human body. It doesn't seem like it
would be such a significant thing to lose your hearing, but it, I don't
know if anybody's ever experienced it, but if they ever had, like, a
plugged ear, it kind of can almost, like, throw your movement off, like
walking.

It, like, not just losing eyesight, clearly you wouldn't be able to move
very well unless you trained yourself, but it seems like when any one
part of your body is not functioning as it should, you just, all the
rest of you just feels like out of tune, out of whack, like nothing
seems, like, quite the same, especially for the, well, I guess the most
handicapping one is probably having your back go out. You're really,
you're losing the main support of your body aside from your legs. So
it's scary to think about losing those things.

And then Micah talking about cutting his finger this last week. That
sounds terrible, like to lose a finger. So I can't remember, isn't
there, there's a passage about something about the body parts mourning
the loss of a body part.

Does anybody remember something about that? One part of the body
separates the whole body. Right, right, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Anyways, I appreciate it. Thank you, Brother Dwayne.

Sounds of silence, sometimes the sounds of silence can drive people, you
know, wild. They need the noise, they need the radio on, the TV on. They
don't want to listen to their heartbeats or the blood rush through their
veins.

They need noise. And it's sad. I appreciate your comments, buddy, and
Max.

And Robert. Brother Dwayne said, we're fearfully and wonderfully made.
And, you know, the ear, it sends an impulse to the brain, and the brain,
and like the eyes.

And man has developed radar. You can pick up sound telescope for the
eyes and things. And Julius Caesar, I had some matches a few days ago.

First thing that Mark Anthony said. He didn't come to praise Caesar, he
came to bury him. But how does it start off? Friends, Romans,
countrymen, lend me your ears.

And Jesus said on the Mount of Transfiguration, this is my beloved son.
Hear ye him. And one of my sins is, as you brothers know me, and you
love me, but one of my sins sometimes is my tongue.

We only have one mouth, but we have two ears. So should we listen more
than we speak, and think before we speak. And I love you, brethren, the
Lord be magnified.

I remember Paul talks about one gift of the interpretation of tongues.
And I feel like that is, one day I was in Arkansas at work. We went to
eat, and around the table it was, they were talking about weed eating.

It was like, oh yeah, that weed eating, it's dangerous, man. You really
got to wear safety glasses when you're going weed eating. I just feel
like, well the interpretation was, when you're going to your brother and
trying to pluck out weed from him, wear your safety glasses so you don't
get a beam in your eye.

Or I was sitting with Dijon one day, and we were eating. And Dijon said,
can you digest things? Dijon said, can you digest things well? And like,
it's just, oh, like, yeah, given in the right context, we should be able
to digest that food. Just the diversity of the Lord, it's just amazing.

My days of praise shall ne'er be past While life and thought and being
last For immortality endures Why should I make a man my trust Princes
must die and turn to dust Pain is the help of flesh and blood Let earth
give birth, spare pomp and power Let thoughts all vanish in an hour Nor
can they make their promise through Happy the men whose hopes rely on
Israel's body May the sky and earth and seas with all their train Build
truth forever, said Savior He saves the oppressed, he feeds the poor And
none shall find his promised land The Lord has eyes to heal the blind
The Lord supports the seeking mind He sends the laboring conscience
peace He helps the stranger in distress The widow and the fatherless And
grants the prisoner sweet release He loves his saints, he knows them
well But turns the wicked down to hell Thy God, O Zion, ever reigns Let
every tongue, let every age In this exalted work engage Praise him in
everlasting strains I'll praise him while he lends me breath And when my
voice is lost in death Praise shall employ my nobler powers My days of
praise shall ne'er be past While life and thought and being last For
immortality endures For love to be a prize, for love to be Hear thou the
praises of benedict Blessed by mercy, more love, O Christ, to thee More
love to thee, more love to thee Once earthly joy I prayed, sought peace
and rest Now the alone I see, give what is best This, O my prayer, shall
be More love, O Christ, to thee More love to thee, more love to thee
Lest sorrow do us part, sad grief and pain See our dying messengers, see
their refrain When they come, sing with me More love, O Christ, to thee
More love to thee, more love to thee Then shall my nature's breath
whisper thy praise This being a parting cry, my heart shall raise This,
O my prayer, shall be More love, O Christ, to thee More love to thee,
more love to thee Of noneness so fair is virtue Christians, glory and
renown For the youth, by pride adorning For the age, the noble crown As
for praise, there's no attraction Nor by welcomes, nor reaction Riches
cannot be its worth Though the strength is great on earth See the
humbleness of Jesus How he saw no lofty place He was friendly, kind, and
loving In God's scriptures this we trace In his life there's no occasion
That he show self-elevation He then says to you and me Come and learn
humility He who walks by his pathway only Is beloved by every man He who
seeks not worldly honor God will honor by his plan Of hopeless to God's
own treasure To all others, to all pleasure Who will follow God's
commands And who in Christ's love now stands In this humble gift so
noble True faith shall its fruit impart Thus all who would delight Jesus
Still must seek him from the heart Where faith finds origination Where
true meekness has foundation Faithful God and humble mess From God's
Spirit brings new bliss I would also grow in meekness For it makes the
heart so pure It will guide me in my fondness In my hour it shall endure
Of boldness to those befriended To my enemies extended For my God I'm
humbled in Cross and storm face my destiny

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/rIQwGWjZmWU.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/duane-troyer/he-that-has-ears-let-him-hear/
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