How To Hear The Spirit

This is a challenging type of message. The title is how to hear the Spirit. How to hear the Spirit.

And one of the toughest challenges in the Christian walk, I think we can all agree, is discerning God's will. Do you ever wonder, Lord, is that you? Or is that me? Is that you leading me? Or is that something else leading me? I don't want to make the wrong decision. I want to hear your voice clearly.

And I'm going to just step into this with fear and trepidation, based on God's Word, because we're talking about how God speaks to us. And it's important. And it's one of the things most Christians, you know, they really struggle with.

One of the top prayer requests in the prayer room is, I need to know, is this God's will? Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? Like Tom, we prayed many times, what type of treatment for him? And Lord, what are you doing? And how are you leading us? And it's just listening and hearing that still small voice is so important. And I'm not getting through all of it. I tried at first service, and it was just impossible.

So I will do part two next Sunday. I want to give you a lot of tips so to get you going in the right direction. Don't want to keep you here too long, but it's very important.

And we're picking up in the book of Acts. We're going through, I'm going through, I don't know why I keep saying we're going through. I'm going through the book of Acts chapter 16.

We can put that up. And I'm going through systematically trying to go verse by verse, but sometimes certain topics really stand out. And remember Paul divided with another believer last week.

And we talked about healthy division in the church. What does that look like? The best recourse is often restoration, humility, but sometimes God, you know, if like, hey, I want to go this direction, but somebody says, I want to go this direction, they went their separate directions. And God will sometimes do that because He gives us different callings and passions, doesn't He? And I've seen it over the years.

Sometimes people get frustrated with other people because they don't share their passion. Like why isn't everybody in the church helping with the homeless ministry? And then somebody else says, why isn't everybody volunteering at Care Net? And then somebody else says, why isn't everybody getting involved in missions? And then somebody is like, well, that's your passion. That's your, we can't, we can't juggle everybody's passion.

I can't do every, everything we offer at the church. You know, sometimes they ask, why aren't you at the Tuesday night men's studies? Cause I got Wednesday, I got Sunday. I got five kids.

I got Friday. I got that. I can't do that.

Love to at some point. And same with you. Many times you're, you know, you're going to have to choose those battles carefully and don't wrongly judge others just because they don't share your same passion.

A lot of pastors don't share my same passion for awakening America and revival and things like that. They just, their thing is, you know, they, maybe they're on lots of missions trips, or maybe they're with the homeless outreach, or maybe, you know, they're just expositionally teaching and working on booklets and home groups and life, you know, groups and things like that. That that's where God's got them.

Thank God for different, different things in the body, right? That that's how we have the whole body is we're not all doing the same thing. We're all doing what God has called us to do. And so Paul separates, I believe it was Barnabas that separated.

They went their other directions. And when he came, when Paul came into Derby and Lystra, they're small towns in the area they're ministering in. There was a disciple there named Timothy.

Anybody heard of Timothy? You have if you've heard of first Timothy and second Timothy. That's who Paul finally meets in the book of Acts. He meets Timothy and he was the son of a Jewish woman who believed.

So his mom is messianic Jew is what you call them, believe in the Messiah and they're Jewish. But his father was a Greek and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. So Paul comes, he meets his brother, this probably a young man.

And they said, hey, this guy's solid. You got to, you have to meet him. And so Paul said, I'm going to take him with me to do ministry.

I'm going to have him go with me. And when he took him, he circumcised him because of the Jews who are in that region. Now, can you imagine Paul going to Timothy and say, hey, we got to, we got to do something real quick.

If you don't know what that is, ask your mom later. And Timothy's probably like, what? You know, he's a grown adult. There's no such thing as putting you out and waking you back up.

And, and, and so what makes this interesting is Paul decided to do this after the Jerusalem council that we just talked about, where they said, you don't have to get circumcised. You don't have to follow the law of Moses for salvation. So what is he doing here? Well, here's the thing from Bible Hub commentary.

Timothy's circumcision was therefore not a theological requirement, but it was a strategic choice to avoid unnecessary obstacles in ministry, potentially limiting access to synagogues and dialogue with Jewish leaders. So very, so basically what I put in the next verse, he became all things to all men and that verse in its entirety, you know, I didn't put the whole thing that Paul said to the Jew, I became a Jew to the Gentile. I became a Gentile to the free.

I became free, but to the bond servant, I became as a slave. I became all things to all people that I might win some to the gospel. And isn't that so important? People, they, they want, when you can't relate to somebody, you know, it's hard.

You, you have to, man, I can relate to your story and people that I cannot minister to others do. And people that they don't seem to reach, I can reach. And I hear that a lot.

Maybe some of you are here because, man, I can relate to your story. I, you know, you're not, and other people, they dress up in suit and tie and they reach the intellect of others, you know, where I, that's not my sweet spot, but that's what God's called them to do. You listen to Alistair Begg on the radio, man, talk about a good teacher.

But if you saw his crowd where he's at, it's a lot of intellectuals and you can hear him talking about that a lot. And so he reaches them where they're at. What about churches that victory outreach? You know, they, they're down in skid row and they minister to the homeless and it's a whole different outreach program.

What do you ever see people all tatted up ministry leaders on their neck and, and they're reaching, I wouldn't recommend it necessarily, but you know, if that's where God has you, I mean, don't do it just to do it, if that makes sense. But if that's where God has you and you're ministering to that group of people that they can relate to you on their level, they, they, they understand you. And that's why God has given us different ministries and, and different ways of relating to people.

And if you hear, um, you know, sermons that don't really, have you ever, somebody said, you've got to listen to this. And I'm like, what? That didn't do anything to me. That was boring.

But to them, they really ministered me and my wife do that with worship all the time. She'll send me a song. I'm like, yeah, it's okay.

It's like, what? I was crying. That was so good. And then I'll send her one.

And she's like, what? Right? Because different, different things hit us differently. And that's why he circumcised Timothy, because now they can walk in and they can minister. And that's what's really their ministry initially was to the Jews.

But Paul gets so frustrated later. He says, are you rejecting Christ? I'm going to the Gentiles. Uh, but that was, that was why they did it.

So I had nothing to do with, he had to do it for salvation or because of the law, but to basically fit in and to be able to minister. And then we get into acts. Now it's called the Macedonian.

I'm sorry, pronounce that for me. Somebody Macedonian. There he goes.

Once I heard, I knew I could say it after that dyslexia gets me sometimes the Macedonian call Macedonian call. They were actually forbidden by the Holy spirit to preach the word in Asia. So can you imagine this? The disciples are going to preach the word in Asia.

And well, if we had a map, like Asia minor, I know is above it's above Israel, probably 600, 700 miles. But they're, they're, they're going to preach the, the word to aid in Asia. And the Holy spirit said, no, like, wait a minute.

How can God's, why would he not want me to go preach the word in Asia? We'll always remember a good thing. Isn't always a God thing. He says, I don't want you to go there.

Cause I want you to go here. He wanted him to go to a different area. So if you're, if you're going out and God says, I don't want you to go there.

I'm closing that door and I'm redirecting you. And that's why we're talking this morning about how to hear the spirit. You ever hear the term out there, lead of the spirit.

This is where it comes from being led of the spirit, being pliable, being teachable, listening to the voice of God, hearing the voice of God. And so they were forbidden. The Holy spirit actually for bed forbade them to go to Asia and preach.

And so what, what did they do? They came to a few other cities and they tried to go into Bithynia, but the spirit did not permit them. So now they're trying to go to another place and the Holy spirit did not permit them. So passing by a different area and it was down by Troas.

What did they do? They're waiting there in Troas. And as Paul is there, he has a vision. Now, most will say that a vision is something you have with your eyes open.

You're not necessarily asleep. I don't know if that's happened to any of you before, but you just, it's so vivid. Like this, this, you can see, um, whatever, whatever God's trying to show you, you can see that in a vision.

You're awake where a dream is you're asleep. And, um, of course it comes up. Does God still do that today? Well, based on scripture, not opinion.

I don't know why he wouldn't. It's not like that. You're not gonna need that anymore.

You got the Bible. Well, yeah, I still need help though. I still need, for example, if they had the Bible, the whole Bible, they didn't have it by the way.

It wouldn't tell them to go to Macedonia. They they'd have no clue. So that's why sometimes God leads things that aren't crystal clear in scripture.

Scripture gives us principles to live by, but not often the exact direction of course to take sometimes. And that's why you have the Holy spirit comes along as a helper. As long as the word is primary, as long as the word is the foundation, all godliness and living is done through the word.

That that's the foundation. When you, when you don't have that foundation and you get caught up in dreams and visions, you get wonky. You get weird.

You don't need these things every week. You need the Bible. You don't need to go.

What are the prophets saying? What is Jesus Christ saying to you every day? Many of these prophetic voices are so far off. It's, it's, it's ludicrous. You've got to get grounded in God's word.

And so we had a vision and what happened, a man from Macedonia stood and he pleaded with Paul. So Paul sees this man and he says, come and help us. And so Paul says, obviously this is the Lord calling us to go and to preach to them.

Obviously it's God calling us to go and preach to them. And here's why we still believe this. Acts, I think it's on the next, next verse or next screen.

When the church was born, you know, the church had a birthday. The Holy spirit came upon 120 in the upper room and the Holy spirit came upon them. You're not, you're not something changes.

You like, well, I've got joy. I've got joy and speakable. I got love and I'm praising the Lord.

And they start speaking in tongues and prophesying and people say, Oh, they must, they must have pulled out the wine early. They got the strong stuff out early in the morning. And so what does Peter say? He says, this is that which is spoken before that he says, they are not drunk as you suppose, but this is that which the prophet Joel spoke of that in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

What does that mean? Well, here's what it means. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. What does that mean? Prophecy is a messenger.

They're speaking for somebody else. God will put his spirit upon them and out will come the boldness to preach the word of God, to confront, to convict, to encourage it's, it's speaking forth the mind and counsel of God, as long as it lines up with the scripture. And so he will pour out on them and your young men will see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams. And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit upon them in that day. So this is that we are still living in that time where God uses the, and to me, it's very healthy.

I love the supernatural gifts of the Holy spirit. I love dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of wisdom. It doesn't happen very much.

The word of God is my standard. The word of God is what I bury my face in. The word of God is what I live by.

It's a foundation of all sound doctrine and learning. It's what we use, but sometimes I need a little help. And that's where the gifts come in.

And it's like, Lord, I'm in your word every single day for an hour, but it's not going to, I'm not going to turn to Matthew six and says, go pastor a church. Right? You're like, I have this desire, Lord, is this you? I don't know if this is you. Can you, can you help me? Can you show me God? And then he'll bring people that into your life that that's happened.

I don't know if Yvette's here. Is she back there in the back? No, she's not there. Remember Nofo Ella Tise from Central Christian.

Some of you, my aunt Cheryl and a fourth person all in one week said, Hey, I don't know, but it's in my heart. Have you ever considered pastoring? I'm like, what? Let's see how God will use, even though I kind of could fill my spear. I'm like, I don't know, Lord, I need some help because there's no Bible passage that tells me what to do.

There's no Bible passage that tells you, should you move? Should you marry such and such? So you pray for confirmation. You pray and God knows our heart in the right way. Right? We can say that, Oh, God knows my heart and be in sin.

But you know, and he will use that's what it's for. And I can't tell you how many times we seen it where God will put something on somebody's heart in the prayer room. They're like, Hey, I don't know.

I've been praying for you all week. And they'll say something. And the person's just like, Oh my goodness.

I've been, I've been praying about confirmation all week. But see, it lines up with the scripture. It's something God's already doing.

It's not, it's not like, Oh, I never thought of that. I'm supposed to move to Alaska and divorce my spouse. Right? No, that's the wrong spirit.

That's a demonic spirit. So we don't see what I'm trying to get across with, with the gifts of the spirit is they are not the main meal. The word of God is, is the main meal, the relationship with Jesus Christ, obedience, humility, trusting Him, seeking Him.

That's, that's the meal. But then that's why he's called the helper. Hey God, I need a little help on this one.

I need a little help on this idea. I need, I don't know what to, I don't know what to do with this. And I, again, I hate sharing examples, but a lot of you are so new, but our church bought that radio station in 2019 is the last thing on my mind.

And I was driving and it was, I heard they were going out of business and I just had, it was clear as day. Like, why don't you buy it? I'm like, wow, that's, and it just kept gnawing and crying and seeking God, the council, talking to our elders. It's like, where can I turn in the Bible on that? Like you can turn to like, that's a good idea that will bless people.

Right? I mean, there's some principles there. And I finally told Morgan, I said, I'm not, I'm not praying about this anymore. I'm not a Christian radio station manager.

I don't know. I don't have any clue what I'm doing. And as God is my witness, like two days later, Susie emails me from the office and Phil listens sometimes.

He actually puts together those two minute clips and stuff. Susie goes, Hey, there's a guy here who watches your sermons from Minnesota. And he's a Christian, Christian radio station manager.

And I said, what? Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've never even met. Like, what, what are the chances of that? God knew I needed some help.

So I called him. I told him, he goes, oh, I can do it all remotely from Minnesota. You just check up the, you know, the, the Schuyler system that we use AMBOSS and they do it remotely.

And we have a guy, it's no problem. Like, wow. But see, I couldn't turn anywhere to that.

I was fighting it for a month or two. Like, Lord, what is it? I don't know what to do with this. I need some help.

See, that's what the gifts are for. It's not the main thing. We don't seek the gifts.

We seek the gift giver. And then he will lead you accordingly. It's a very beautiful thing, isn't it? But here's some words we've read recently, led by the spirit, heard from the spirit.

And weeks ago, maybe a couple of months ago now, the spirit told Philip. And now we're getting into the spirit forbid them. The spirit did not allow them.

It's like all these different way God guides. And I think I isolated it. This might be helpful.

Led, heard, and told are internal witnesses. I don't think the Holy Spirit is going, hey, Philip, this loud voice, you know, it's an internal witness. And many of you know, if you've had it, you know, when there's that conviction of the spirit, when God's really, it's like you can't, the Holy Spirit is a good nag.

You know what a nag is? Nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging, like your neighbor's dog barking. Or Proverbs says about a contentious woman, you know, dripping, dripping. Or men nag too.

He'll just keep on you until you listen. And I believe that's what led, heard, and told Philip. It was an internal witness.

But when he stops somebody or doesn't allow somebody, he closes the door. Absolutely closes the door. I've seen people where they're like, they've got the storage bin full or U-Haul full, escrow closes in seven days and they're ready to move.

And then the bank calls and says, we're not funding the loan. The buyer backed out or the seller doesn't want to sell. Closed door.

Okay, Lord, I think you got different plans. And now they're still here. They're still here years later because God closed that door.

Or I'm going to start this new work job on Monday. I can't wait tomorrow morning. Lord, this is so great.

I don't have to commute. And then you, you get the call tonight. Hey, we're going to have to actually downsize, but appreciate you filling out the application.

Hello. And they thank God because they got a better job. They found one that they really enjoy.

See, so that's, so God will do those things. We'll start, maybe we'll start a ministry and we'll want to like, okay. And then God, it just closes the door.

It's not going to happen. I want you to do this instead. One of the most frustrating things.

And I thought I heard from the Lord. This will help because right, you know, when you think and you're like, man, did I miss it? And I even had dreams. I still remember this dream.

I was at a, and I think it might, Kevin might make this help, help this happen in September, but I'm preaching to prisoners, right? And they're sitting on, on, I still remember like those, those stadium benches and there's a fence there and I'm preaching to them. Again, it could be me. I don't know, but this is not a bad dream.

Right? And so that week I get an email back from a California city detention facility and to fill out all their paperwork and to go and actually preach to the prisoners. Like, oh man, this is incredible. Myself, my pastor, Abram, we got, he got approved as well.

And we, we drove out there, we took a tour. And then the next time we're going to preach and then COVID hits. And it's like, oh wow.

And then we, we, we kept trying. And if many of you know, it closed down probably, I don't know, a year and a half, two years ago. But during that time, then we got a different, we heard from a different organization in prisons.

They said, Hey, have you ever heard of a Pando, a Pando app, the Pando ministry? And I'm like, no, what is it? So we talked to the rep. Basically churches can buy, churches can buy, what do they call those? iPads? Is that what they're still called? Tablet. Tablet.

Okay. And, and we, we put them in prisons for prisoners and there's certain apps that are allowed on it. And one is called Pando.

So we can upload our sermons 10 a month to the app. And for, and the prisoners can watch the sermons online and think, I'm like, oh my. And so God really answered a different kind of way.

So we shared some of the results. After one year, I get back the results and it's almost 500,000 views of the sermons in the prisons. It's like, what? I thought maybe five, 600, like, you know, but it just, it just went more tablets, went out more tablets, more people.

We get letters from prisoner because they can relate to my story as well. They, man, we need that hard hitting. We need that.

I need to read. I'm restoring my marriage. Most of the letters we get are from prisons all across the United States.

And that, so God would use that. But I thought the door was shut. I missed that one.

But see, he has a different way. Talk about reaching more people. And that's how these dreams and visions will work.

It's it's sometimes it's a confirmation. Cause I don't know about you, but sometimes you need a confirmation. Anybody ever need confirmation on things? That's what God does.

So that's probably what it means. Letter of the spirit, heard of the spirit told the spirit is internal. Cause you know that leading sometimes in the closer you are to the Lord, the more my sheep hear my voice, the stranger they will not follow.

Are you following the shepherd or are you following Tik TOK, Instagram, YouTube, and that's what's influencing you. Then that's how you'll be led astray more often than not is the wrong voice. I saw something I wanted to share from you, share with you that this is a little humorous and it's a good time to interject it.

But I saw on social media of all places, do I need the Holy spirit to go to heaven? And that are neat. They said, bro, I need the Holy spirit to go to Walmart. You guys get that like, yeah, amen.

And so the Holy spirit is so active in all of our lives. It's not an it, it's not a force. The Bible says that we have one God, we worship one God, but he reveals himself.

And this is all scripture. He reveals himself as father, son, and Holy spirit. So theologians call it one God, three persons of the God head, how that works.

Good luck. I spent 26 years trying to wrap my mind around and I can't. All I know is the Bible says, let us make man in our image.

And the Bible will use the word E L L, which is God in single singular. And then Ella, E L L A, I believe. And that's plural.

But then he often goes by Elohim. Ever heard that? What does that mean? Plural Elohim. Jesus was baptized.

The father spoke, the Holy spirit descended. Let's leave it at that. Three, three persons of one God here.

Oh, Israel, your Lord God is one. And it could be the Holy spirit is the, the helper, that aspect of God that helps us and comes alongside of that's what the word means. Come alongside of us.

And it's a Greek word. You can remember every time you drive by Paraclete high school, Paracletos, I think it is. It's a, it's a comforter that comes alongside an advocate and that's the role of the Holy spirit.

But let's, before we get into, I've got 10 steps that we're not going to get to. That's why we're going to come back next Sunday, right? Okay. But let me, I got to set the groundwork because this topic is so important.

I didn't want to rush through it. Number one, we must be careful of our own leadings. Do you know you have your own leadings? We want to do what's don't you want to do? It's comfortable.

I'm not moving. I'm just, just, just an example. But if I got a request like, Hey, would you come pastor in Maui or Nigeria, what would you choose? Maui, right? Cause that Maui or Vermont.

So that that's why our own leadings sometimes what we, cause we want what's comfortable, maybe what will promote you sooner. And we, we got it now, all that stuff. You got to be careful.

Lord, is this me leading you or you leading me? I'm glad I thought of this. It don't have, here's the slide. Can you guys see it? I just wrote it down this morning during morning worship, when it has to do with my leading or the Holy spirit's leading.

Here's the bottom line guys. I'm going to, this will, this will be really helpful. I heard from people at the first service about this, that they didn't realize it.

And they're so glad that they realize this because we think that being led of the Holy spirit is kind of like walking on clouds or ecstasy or it's, this is fun and being led of the spirit and life is easy. Life is joyful. And I have, you know, this is just great, man.

I love it. No being led of the spirit actually is hard. Why is it hard? Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

So you're basically doing what your flesh doesn't want you to do. Anybody have a hard time with that? Just try fasting tomorrow, eating nothing, just drinking water and see how, how much your flesh argues, right? And that's what walking in the spirit is. It's making choices that are hard, but right.

That's why it's challenging. So if we view it as, Hey, this is, this is difficult. This is challenging.

It will help you get through it a lot easier. So here's a couple of areas where it's harder. You must be the better person.

This is a tough one for me. And for many of you, right? You know, you didn't do anything wrong, but you have to be the better person. You have to reach out.

You have to focus on unity. You have to fix the issue. You have to apologize.

Even maybe though you didn't do anything being led of the spirit, that's hard, isn't it? Like, I don't want that's up to them. They need to come to me. I didn't do anything wrong.

So led of the spirit is very hard in relationships. What about lifestyle changes? Is the Holy spirit convicting anybody of lifestyle changes? Oh, wait. That's probably the number one thing to change this thing in our, in our life to, to make, to make a difference in our lifestyle.

And it's hard. We don't want to do that. We have certain, maybe addictions, cravings, and the Lord's convicting us, but it's hard to do that.

So being led of the spirit, here's what happens. It's hard, but the joy and peace follow. We want the joy and peace before we make the right decision, but the joy and peace will follow.

For example, getting out of a hard relationship. Anybody been there? Too many of you. Okay.

That's And so just to encourage you being led of the spirit doesn't often mean it's easy. It means you have to do hard things, really hard things. That's the Christian faith.

What about this one? He has already spoken. We just don't want to do it. Anybody been there? This will be for next Sunday, but I wrote it down yesterday.

Answers we don't like, we act like we didn't hear. You ever been there? You know that answer. Like, nope, I don't like that answer.

I don't like that answer. And here's what you do. You keep praying for confirmation about what you already know.

Lord, please show me. Give me some confirmations. Give me a sign.

And you already know what to do. You got to start there. It's to be led of God.

God doesn't play games. It's not this. This is not let's make a deal.

You guys remember let's make a deal on TV. God's not saying let's make a deal. He's saying this is the deal.

And it will hold you back. I've been held back before because I didn't want to listen. And we think, oh, I don't want to deal with that, Lord.

Let me get ahead in my journey. He says, no, go back and deal with that. Go back and deal with that first.

Because it's without dealing with that, it's called disobedience. And disobedience is as a sin of witchcraft. The Bible says that in the Old Testament.

I believe it's still for the new. Disobedience is like the sin of witchcraft. Saul was told to annihilate King Agag, I believe it was his name was.

And he didn't. Yeah, he didn't annihilate him. He kept a lot of the sheep and things.

And he didn't listen to God. And there's another time he went and he did sacrifice because he didn't want to wait for Samuel anymore. And Samuel said disobedience.

God does not hearken. King James, depending what you're reading. God does not hearken or accept sacrifice when there's disobedience.

He says that the sin of disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft. And if you get into what that is, it's a divination. It's not trusting God.

It's following familiar spirits and being led astray by a different influence. That's the same. Rebellion is as the same sin of witchcraft.

So if there's area, guys, I don't want to maximize this and blow you out of the water and have you leaving here depressed. But I just don't want to minimize the power of listening in a bang that still small voice. And there's so many things in this room.

We could stay here the rest of the morning. Some of you need to give up relationships that are hurting you. Some of you need to give up a computer that's hurting you or a phone or an addiction.

God's wanting you to give up something that you're having. It's got a control of you. And there's certain things that God's showing us.

And what might be for you might not be for me and vice versa. And as soon as you listen to that, there's freedom and there's peace and there's joy. And you feel like a release that's come up.

I mean, I've had people in there justify marijuana, alcohol, whiskey at night because they need to relax all kind. And I know God's convicted me about this and just and just even overeating. And their doctor says they're going to diabetes and this guy's to take control of your health again.

And I know, but it's and they're not listening to the still small voice of the Spirit. He leads us in all areas, not just spiritual things. I think God is letting him physical things just as much as spiritual things, because the physical and the spiritual are interwoven.

When I take care of things physically, I often feel better spiritually. And that discipline flows over into spiritual life. Have you noticed that before? That's the power of fasting too, as well.

It gives you that strength back to say no and feel empowered by the Spirit. So we must be careful of our own leadings. Jesus said to them, why are you reasoning in your own hearts? What that is, it's a deep inward debate.

You're questioning, you're arguing, you're harboring hostile doubts about what God's Word says. We automatically read into something and we hope for the best. This is why we must be careful of our own leadings, because when we want to do something, we want to make a decision.

We put our own feelings in there, do we not? Again, comfort. Here's what I want to do. Here's what I think.

And we'll read into things because of we hope for the best. And that's good to hope for the best, but also be open to what God wants to do. And I already said this before, but a good thing isn't always a God thing.

Be careful, just because it's a good thing, just because it's an open door doesn't mean God opened the door. Do you know that? I've seen a lot of people, especially men, when I came back to the Lord, I was still in construction and guys at church, and I was involved in men's ministry. All I did was travel and I spoke at men's conferences all over.

And how many guys really ruined their life temporarily, hopefully they got, because they took, let's say, a good paying job. Maybe they're gone a lot more now. They're away from home a couple of days a week, but they're making more money and it's a good thing.

God obviously opened the door. Well, no, not necessarily. The enemy wants to get you away from home too, by the way.

He wants to get you so busy that you can't focus on God anymore. I don't know if that's, you got to be careful on all these things. I'm not saying God didn't open the door either, but do you see what I'm saying here? We have to be careful just because it's an open door does not mean that God opened it.

You can't just throw a Well, Lord, if this happens, then I know it's you. I talked about this before, but it might be good to remind some of you. But I also was in real estate for a while before I planned the church.

It allowed me to do that. And this, I got really good. It was short sales and working with asset managers and things like that.

And then God called me to plant the church, but I'd see so many Christians. I mean, it'd be like, oh gosh, I don't know. We barely qualify.

Let's make an offer. And if they accept it, then that must be God. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

If you make an offer, they might accept it. That's just the way the world goes. Like live below your means, come way down to what's affordable.

And pretty much everybody regretted it later because the devil can open up that door. The seller can say, I'll take that offer. And that's not God.

So be careful. Oh Lord, if that light turns green, I know you want me to start, stop at Starbucks. All right.

I haven't spoken to them in three weeks. I believe you broke off that bad relationship. They just want to use me for my body.

And if, and if, but Lord, if they call me today, if they call me today, then I know maybe you're working in their heart. Maybe I should get back and guess who calls. They just want to go out and well, leave it at that.

But they just, hey, I missed you. Where have you been? Right? That's not God necessarily. So be careful of talking yourself into things, your own leadings.

I do it too, myself, not that one, but other things. Always, always, always be careful of the enemy's influence. Not only are you worried about yourself, you're also have the enemy's influence, if that wasn't bad enough.

Look at, this is interesting. And the devil, the devil put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. Wow.

Talk about a fiery dart. Talk about a fiery dart. So the enemy will influence you too.

I've seen guys over the years, I've seen some nasty, nasty divorces. They went here and how's it going? I don't know, our attorneys are talking. I'm going to go after him for everything he's got.

I'm like, well, okay, hold, is that, or he'll say that. It's like, well, hold on now. Cowboy, settle down.

Is that the right, who's planting those thots? Who's planting those thots? Because God might be saying, you know what, tell him whatever it needs. I want, I want to make this work. Whatever you want to do.

I blew it. I'll give you whatever you need. What, who's influencing you? Oh, I just want to, you know, be careful because the enemy will plant those thots too.

And then you go to your, the lady who does your hair and she'll confirm it. Girl, you need to take him for everything he's got. You take him.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Right.

Listening to the wrong voices. What's God saying to you? We must be careful, avoid the enemy because he'll usually plant thots that are not God, not, not godly, not good in something you don't want to do. I mean, something you do want to do, I should say.

The enemy will tell you, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. How many times in 16 years have people in the prayer room, we started right off from the beginning.

And I mean, there's one lady I saw at the first service, her husband. I mean, I see it all the time and they get back into, let's say alcoholism. It's been a year, six months, two years.

And so what happens then? Ah, just kept thinking, just one, just one to relax. Just one to relax. One won't hurt.

Well, one will turn into 12. But see, who's saying that? Who's telling you that? That's not God. No, if you have a problem, you have a problem.

You haven't been able to handle it for 32 years. You're not going to accomplish it this week and conquer. That's not God's voice.

Or they go back to marijuana. Or they go back to pills. Right? It's almost that I just had this, this gnawing, just like, ah, just this time will be different.

That's what the enemy whispers, doesn't he? This time, this time I can handle it. That's the wrong voice. We also must be very careful of the world's influence.

Did you know the, so now you got yourself, if that's not bad enough, you got the devil and the world, the world does influence you. Especially just ask young adults. Why do they, where, where does all this, this dressing, like where people dress, where does that come from? It comes from watching people on YouTube or when I was younger, watching them on TV.

And you have to, you know, you, Oh, I want to be like that guy. They influence you, how you want to dress, how you want to act. And it's, it's, it's a huge, the world will influence you.

That's why it says, be careful. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in them.

He said, well, how can we not love? Here's what this really the word, actually the world, they translate a world. They probably could have said the world's mindset because it comes from the word cosmos. And it's basically, you know, you think differently than the world.

If you don't, you might want to repent today and become a believer, but there's, there's a different influence. And so it says here, do not love the world. Do not love the world's thinking, the way you address and act.

And you look just like the world. You sound like the world. You're following the world.

The world's influencing you. The love of the father will not be in you. That influence is drawing you.

And that's why people get in so much trouble is they're led by their own impulse, fiery darts of the enemy and the influence of the world. We can look at the prodigal son. We can look at a lot of examples.

Many of you have here today. I'm here today. I can tell you that those three things took me down in my twenties.

Absolutely. And they're still after us today. All it's in the world.

And it goes on to say the less of the flesh, the less of the eye and the pride of life are the three things the world uses. What does that mean? The less of the flesh, what the flesh craves after. I gotta have that.

Or the eye. Oh, look at this influencer, this YouTuber. He's got 4 million followers, makes 100,000 a month.

That's what I want to do. Less of the eyes. I want that Lamborghini in the driveway.

Or the pride of heart. The pride. The pride.

Thinking that none of this applies to you, maybe. Not being teachable and humble. Remember the teachable and the humble are those who God directs.

So instead of going through all the points, I'm going to do that next. This is where I left off at the first service. There's 10 ways to hear more clearly, basically remove the earwax from our ears, spiritually speaking.

And as we end on conviction, there's a closing conviction. Okay, we've been talking about conviction, right? The conviction of the Holy Spirit, being convicted by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said in John 16, 8, that when the Holy Spirit comes, and He's here now, He will convict the world of what? Of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

That's why the world doesn't like the Bible. That's why the world doesn't like your message. That's why the world doesn't like... They're fine with everything else, aren't they? They don't go after anything else.

They don't care. They don't care about anything. But the Holy Spirit convicts them.

And that's why I try to tell people even, you know, this big sexual thing with the rainbow color and all these, even if everybody accepts that lifestyle, the Holy Spirit won't. You're still going to be convicted. You still won't be able to sleep, because it's a wrong relationship with God.

And God wants to restore that and fix that. That's why conviction is a beautiful thing. But look at this conviction.

Revelation 20, Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it. From His presence the earth and the sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the book according to what they had done. This is why there's conviction.

People know this internally. There's an internal clock that reminds them. And what happened? So God is sitting on this great throne, and even the sea gives up the dead.

Death and Hades, this place of holding of people until judgment, they gave up the dead. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. And then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death. And if anybody's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So I know the message was a lot of positives, encouragement, but this is this brings it home.

If there's that conviction you have in your heart that you don't know God, don't leave it there. Conviction is a gift. Conviction is a wonderful gift.

It's actually, it's probably the best way to be led of the Spirit, led of God, led to know that conviction says, I need to listen to that call of salvation.