Ears To Hear

All right, well, I’m excited to get in the Word this morning. Anybody else excited to open the Word? Amen. His Word is life. And so if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark chapter 4 this morning — Mark chapter 4 and Matthew 13.

I’ve been spending some time praying over the last week for you guys, for the church, and I was really impressed. I was like, “Lord, what are You doing? What are You saying? What is it that You want to emphasize?” Because how many of you know we don’t just get up here and follow a curriculum, right? We want to know what the Lord is saying and how the Lord is leading us in this time.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have all the answers, right? I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know how to navigate this life perfectly. Things get messy. There’s all sorts of distraction and confusion out there, and we need to be people who are tapped in to the voice of the Lord, who are hearing the Lord speak to them and being led by His Spirit.

And so I wanted to just bring to us — and I felt the Lord was leading us to — talking about having ears to hear. Ears to hear. Everybody say, “Ears to hear.” You know, this is something we’ve talked about before, but this is so, so important, because as was just shared, there’s a lot of confusion out there. And here’s the thing: evil is actually even being masked with niceties. It is being disguised, and so there is more confusion today than ever. So we need to know: What has God said? What is God saying? And what does that mean for me?

If anyone has ears to hear

And so I want to read Mark chapter 4, verse 23, and I’m super excited because this verse is short enough that I believe we will be able to have this memorized in the next 10 seconds. Can we do that? So let’s read this out loud — Mark chapter 4, verse 23. If you have your Bibles, great. If you don’t, you can follow along on screen. But let’s read this out loud together. Ready, go: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Let’s read it again: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Let’s say it again: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” One more time: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

All right, let’s take it off the screen. Let’s take it off the screen; we’ll clear that out. There we go. Let’s say it now: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Okay, congratulations. Tap the person on the shoulder next to you: “You did it. You got it.” We got it down.

All right, so this is Jesus talking. Jesus is speaking to the multitudes, and He’s saying, “Listen, if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” You know, Jesus wasn’t saying, “If anyone has ears, let him hear.” Everyone there had ears. But Jesus was saying something specific, something distinctive: if anyone has ears to what? To hear. You see, there’s a difference between just having ears, or just kind of being in the room, or just being present, and actually hearing what God is saying. We need to be people who can hear what the Lord is saying.

Some husbands might know what this is like when they’re trying to watch a football game. I’m a big football fan, and when I’m watching a football game, I’m all zoned in, right? I am watching one thing. And we kind of have more of an open space in our home, and sometimes I’ll be watching the game and my wife will start talking to me. And I’ll try to kind of be present — I’m trying to be the good husband — where I’m like, “Right, yeah.” And then she says, “What do you think?” I’m like, “Wait, what?” I can’t actually listen and watch the game at the same time, right? I have two ears, but I only have one brain, and it’s tuned into one thing.

And so oftentimes we can get so distracted by all the noise, all the other things that are around us, that we can’t actually hear the voice that matters most in that moment. There are a lot of “truths” out there. There’s a lot of confusion out there, and we need to be tapped into what the Lord is saying so that we can do the things that He’s asked us to do. And so Jesus says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him” what? Hear. Let him hear.

God wants to speak to you

Let me tell you something today, and this is so important. I want every person to hear this: God wants to speak to you. God wants you to hear His voice. This isn’t just for the spiritually elite. This isn’t just for pastors of a church. This is for every single person that has been saved by Jesus, that has received life in Him. God wants to speak to you. In fact, He’s already speaking. The question is: Do we have ears to hear?

Because if we don’t have ears to hear, then we don’t know what God is thinking. If we don’t have ears to hear, then we don’t know what to actually be doing. We’ll just do what everybody else is doing. Amen? If we don’t know what God is speaking, then we won’t know His direction. So we must know what God is saying. And so Jesus says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

You know, I realize that there are a lot of different opinions out there about how the world works, about how God works, about the afterlife, about spiritual things. If you haven’t noticed, people are all over the place with what they believe, right? If you actually start talking to somebody in your life about what they believe, and what happens after this life, and what are the ways God speaks, you’re going to get a wide array of answers. There are people all over the place about what they believe and why.

But let me tell you, we know that there’s only one opinion that counts above all else, and that’s God’s opinion. Listen, there is only one opinion that matters. There is really only one voice that matters, and that’s the voice of God. What has God said? Because what God has said is true. Amen. It’s the truth that we can stand upon.

Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 12, verse 48. Jesus says, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him” — notice — “the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” How many know people need to understand this? People are not going to be judged by what they believe. People are not going to be judged by what they think — “I believe in this god or that god, and so that’s what I’m going to be judged according to.” What does Jesus say? “The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” How many of you know that no matter what your opinion is, every one of us will be judged according to His Word? Every one of us.

I saw a video recently — and I would only recommend this if you want a healthy fear of the Lord — and it was about the day of judgment and what the Lord showed him about what was happening in the picture, in the environment, and the things that were taking place. And I will tell you this: it was sobering. It was a time of, “I need to repent to the Lord right now. I need to get right with God.” Because there is a day that is coming where everyone will stand face to face with Him and they will be judged, and it will either be “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or it will be “Depart from Me.”

How many of you know that is unnecessary? Because He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” He loves us so much. He loves everyone. God’s Word says it is His will that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. How many of you know God does not want any single person, at the end of this life, to be apart from Him? He wants every single person to receive salvation through Jesus.

I tell my kids often — because they ask a very common and a very good question, you know: “What if other people say, ‘Well, I believe in this god,’ or ‘I believe in that god’? How does that make it any different?” And I have to tell them, “Listen, there is really only one way.” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And I think sometimes the world can get so caught up in complaining and saying, “Well, I don’t like that way. I don’t want to do it that way. I don’t want to give my life to Jesus. I don’t want to give my life to Him. I want to do what I want to do. I want to believe what I believe.” But how many of you are thankful that God made a way, that we have a way? Because we were dead in our trespasses. How many of you know there was no shot? There was no hope at all for us to be with Him, for us to have life with Him forever. But because He loved us so much, He sent His Son Jesus to die for us, that whoever believes should not perish but have life with Him forever.

And so here’s the answer. You want to know your eternal security? The question is: Have you yielded your life to Jesus? Because He’s the only way. Our eternal security is found in Him and Him alone. Amen.

And so Jesus is saying, “Listen, the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” You’re not going to be judged according to “Well, I did some good things, I did some bad things.” You’re not going to be judged according to what you think is right or what you think is true. You’re going to be judged according to what God has said, according to His Word. Amen. And so what matters most is: Is it true?

Listen, we need to recognize that we’ve been given an advantage, because how many of you know we don’t have to wait until the last day to find out what the judgment is? He’s already given us His Word. He’s already given us the Book. He’s given us His Scripture, the Gospels, the good news. We have God’s Word right here, and He’s told us exactly what the final exam is going to look like.

And so we need to be tapped in more than ever before, because many people will be led astray. The Bible talks about this. There will be many people who believe that will be led astray. Why? Because they don’t hear His voice, because they’re not tuned in to what God is speaking. They’re getting so caught up in the “truth” of the world, or “be your own truth,” or — I don’t even know, right? There’s all sorts of complexity and dissatisfaction and confusion out there. But Jesus is saying, “The word that I have spoken is what will judge him in the last day.”

Listen, there are no surprises here. There is no secret. But many people continue to think that it’s their own thinking, their own belief, that they will be held to. Some people will say, “Oh, I’m just going to be judged based on what I think or what I believe.” But that’s not true. We will all be judged according to what God has said.

In fact, how many remember Proverbs 14:12, where it says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death”? Meaning there is a way that seems right to us, that sounds good, that feels good, but in the end it leads to destruction. It doesn’t really matter if it seems right. It doesn’t matter if it really feels right. The only thing that matters is: Is it the truth? Is it what God is saying?

Humility hears; pride doesn’t

I don’t know about you, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve changed my beliefs over time, right? There are things that I used to think I knew that I didn’t really know. When you’re young and you get married, you’re like, “Oh, I’m going to be the best husband ever,” right? And you go through your marriage, and you thought you knew some things about marriage, and it turns out you didn’t know anything about marriage. There’s a whole lot that you didn’t know; there’s a whole lot you didn’t understand. Or maybe before you had kids, you were the expert on “how I’m going to raise my kids,” and then all of a sudden you had some and everything changes, right? Things will change over time.

But how many of you know God knows everything? He knows everything. And humility admits that God knows more than I do. In fact, I’ll tell you this: the key to hearing the Lord is humility. It’s a humble heart. It’s the heart that actually will take time out of your day, that will close the door, that will get on your knees and look to the Lord and say, “God, I can’t do this without You. God, I can’t do the things that You’ve asked me to do without hearing Your voice, without receiving from You.”

I mean, write it down, take it to the bank: you want to be able to hear the Lord? It requires a humble heart — a heart that says, “I don’t know everything,” a heart that says, “I don’t have it all together.” It starts with humility. You see, humility admits that God knows more than I do. Pride does the opposite.

Listen to what Proverbs 16:18 says about pride. It says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” You see, pride will say, “I’m right; God’s not.” Pride says, “I can do it my way. I don’t have to do it God’s way.” Pride says, “I can mostly do what God’s asked me to do, but these other things aren’t so bad, and I’m just going to do it the way I want to do it.” You see, pride is what gets in the way of a heart that hears the Lord.

Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces, none will go unpunished.” I love that part: “though they join forces.” We’re seeing that happen all over the place. Many people think that there’s power in numbers. They think, “If everybody else is doing it, then I’m okay doing it. If everybody else is okay saying it, then I’m okay saying it. Whatever the social media trend is right now, I can do that, because there’s power in numbers. If it’s good for everybody, then it must be true.” But what we end up doing is we put our trust in popular belief rather than what God has already said. Are you guys with me?

But notice what it’s saying here: the majority does not win. “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces, none will go unpunished.” Let me tell you, if everyone on earth were to go against what God has said, every single person would be judged for that. Think about that. “Lord, everybody got it wrong.” “Yeah, but what did I say?” “Lord, everybody was doing it.” “Yeah, but what have I said?”

I think we need to start living as though we actually have a God that has something to say, that has plans for our lives. And how many of you know they’re good plans? Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future.” Listen, God loves you, and He has good plans for your life, and they’re far better than anything that we can come up with on our own. Oh, if we would humble ourselves and begin to do it God’s way. If we would humble ourselves and begin to seek Him.

At least in my life — and this isn’t always true — but every time in my life where I’m not hearing Him well, it’s usually because I think I’m doing okay. “I got this. Things are going good. If I just keep doing this and I keep doing that, I’ll put systems in place in my life.” And how many of you know systems and routines can be good? But I get so caught up in my systems and my routines that I put more trust in what I can do than I actually put in the Lord. And I get off track, and I stop hearing, and then all of a sudden I’m like, “Why aren’t things working? God, didn’t You say…?” And it’s like, “Yeah, I said, but you haven’t been following Me.” We must have a humble heart that continually comes to the Lord, that continually seeks Him.

You see, we need to understand that God is not trying to make life difficult for us. God’s not trying to make it difficult for you. God is trying to make life great for you. And the reason He speaks His Word, the reason He speaks things and says, “This is how I want you to live; this is what I have for you; these are My promises; yes, stay away from those things” — why has God given us rules, and why is He telling us to stay away from things? Because He knows how it really works. And God’s goal for your life isn’t just to control you. God’s goal for your life is for you to become someone — to become who He’s called you to be. He’s not trying to make life difficult; He’s trying to make life great for you. But we must be hearing what He’s saying.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to destruction.” Listen to James 4:10. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” You see, humility listens to God. Amen.

My sheep hear My voice

As I was praying, I was reminded of John 10:27, where Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” I don’t know about you, but I want to be one of His sheep. Notice what Jesus says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

You know, I’ve heard people say, “I’m afraid of people that say they hear God speak to them.” And then I always respond, “I’m afraid of people that don’t hear God speak to them.” Because Jesus says, “My sheep” do what? They hear. They have ears to hear.

And I love that next part: “and I know them.” Man, I don’t know about you, but there’s something so comforting in that statement — to be known by Him. He knows every thought. He knows every intent. He knows where I’m at. He knows my struggle. He knows my strengths. He knows every part of me. And even in all my weakness, He still says, “I want you. I’ve chosen you. I’ve called you.” “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they” what? “Follow Me.”

You see, you can’t follow Him if you can’t hear Him. You can’t follow Him if you can’t hear Him. What a difference it makes to be able to hear God.

Spiritual deafness

But today we have a big problem with something called spiritual deafness. There’s spiritual deafness, and it’s prevalent in the church. People can’t hear God because they have so much other noise coming in. I mean, I don’t know about you, but there are more distractions at the ready than ever before, right? And it mostly comes through your phone. Let’s just be straight honest, right? There is so much noise out there, so many other voices saying, “This is true.” “No, this is true.” “This is the way it should be.” “That’s the way it should be.” There is so much noise — from friends and from family and social media.

Can you imagine what our lives would look like if we treated our Bible the way we treat our phones? I mean, people would look at you funny, because everywhere you go you would have your Bible, right? And you would take it out every 10 minutes, or five minutes, depending, and you would be checking in: “Oh, what does it say here? Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah.” You put it away; a couple minutes later, you check it again, right? “What did God say now?” You’d be looking like that, right? Or if you leave home and you’re driving to work and all of a sudden you slam the brakes: “I forgot my Bible! I’ve got to go home and get my Bible, because I can’t live without my Bible.” What would happen if we treated our Bible the way we treat our phone? How different would it be?

Because here’s the thing: there is something that I like to call spiritual deafness that is prevalent in the church, and it’s because there are so many other voices. There is so much other noise — static, if you will. It’s like trying to tune in a radio and you can’t quite get it — those old analog radios where you’ve got to get that dial, and you can kind of hear, but you can’t fully hear it because you’re not quite tuned. That’s the way a lot of the church is right now: “Oh, I think I heard…” No, no. Because there’s so much noise.

And we think we’re going to find our answers from all these other sources. We think we’re going to find what we need from all these other places — from Google, from Facebook, or from our friends, or from our families. And we allow all this intake, all this music, all this noise, and the Lord is saying, “Will you tune into Me? Will you tune into My voice?” And because of all the static, we have a hard time discerning the still, small voice of the Lord.

Listen to what Jesus said about spiritual deafness in Matthew 13 — and I had you turn there. Matthew 13, verse 15 says, “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”

Notice what happens when we hear. What does the Lord do? He heals us. Listen, whatever obstacle you face, whatever problem is in front of you, it gets resolved when we start hearing the right voice. When we hear the voice of God, it brings healing to our lives. And so I don’t know what you’re facing. I don’t know what things are in front of you. But I will tell you this: God has the answer for you. God knows what the answer is. He knows all things. And so if we can begin to hear His voice, and have hearts that begin to seek Him and begin to ask of Him, He will begin to speak to us.

Adjustments, not a genie

And oftentimes the things that He speaks are adjustments. And therein lies the problem: “Wait, God’s not just going to answer my prayers? I actually have to do something?” How many of you know most of the time He’s going to tell you, “You need to make these adjustments”? And so oftentimes we’ll come to God and say, “God, can you just do this for me? God, I need this,” or “I’m facing this difficulty — can you just make it happen?” But how many of you know most of the time God will say something like, “I want you to be there. I want you to start doing this.” “Well, God, I just kind of want You to help out here. I don’t really want to do things.”

I was having a conversation with a young man the other day, and he was like, “Hey, I want you to preach a sermon to our team” — to a baseball team — “on Sunday.” And I go, “Why?” And he goes, “I don’t know. I just think it’d be kind of cool.” And so I was like, “Well, where are you?” And he goes, “Well, I believe in God.” And I said, “Well, that’s only a part of it. Have you made Him the Lord of your life?” Because the word “Lord” means master and decision maker. It means when He speaks, you follow. And so, have you made Him the Lord?

How many of you know oftentimes we treat God like a genie in the bottle, but we don’t actually want Him to be the Lord of our life? Because when you start praying — honestly, this is me, okay — when I pray and I say, “Lord, I need answers on these things,” I almost never get the direct answer on those things. I get, “Do this. Do that.” And out of that I find what the Lord has; I find the answer. You guys with me on that?

You see, when you spend time with the Lord and you begin to come to Him with a humble heart that says, “God, I need You,” He’ll start to show you the things that you actually need to be doing — ways to increase your hearing, ways to remove the noise, adjustments in your life that are going to bring life, that are going to bring healing. You see, this is a key that a lot of people don’t realize.

And so when we become spiritually deaf, that’s when we can’t make the right adjustments. When we become spiritually deaf, we just kind of keep doing what we were doing. We keep doing the status quo. We keep doing the things that we think will work, but we’re not seeing the results that we thought we would see. We’re not seeing things happen. And even though God wants to help us so much — He wants to deliver you, He wants to promote you, He wants you to have a good marriage, He wants you to have children that follow Him — He can’t do it, because oftentimes we’re just not in a position to receive, because we don’t really want to do it His way. We just want Him to intervene — because of spiritual deafness.

And I declare over every person here — and I’m receiving this too — spiritual deafness is falling off people today in Jesus’ name, that we would be people that have ears to hear, that we would be people that are humble in heart, that would call to Him and seek Him. If we would just have a heart that would come before Him and really just let the Lord love you the way He already wants to — oh, He will start speaking to you, and your life is going to take off, because He has so much for you.

Seek Me with all your heart

I referenced it earlier: Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” But let’s keep going. Verse 12 says, “Then you will call upon Me” — what will you do? You will call upon Me — “and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

You know that song, “O Lord, You’re Beautiful”? That has been the chorus that the Lord has been speaking over me, that I keep hearing, that I keep praying over myself, over our church, over my family. How many of you know that is a prayer that we can bring to the Lord and that He will gladly answer? “Lord, would You cause me to burn free?”

Maybe some of you gave your life to the Lord and you were the Jesus freak. Everybody would look at you and be like, “Man, you need to tone it down.” How many of you know many believers get talked out of their passion for the Lord, and sometimes it’s by other people in the church? “Hey, you can love Jesus, but you shouldn’t really love Jesus that much, because, I mean, I don’t.” But that we would be people that have such a pure hunger and a pure desire for the Lord: “Lord, would You light the fire in me again?” A fire that lays all things aside, that would come to You with a humble heart and say, “Lord, whatever You want to say, whatever You want to do, I’m right here.”

And just spend time in that moment. If we could learn to do that, you guys — if we could learn to actually turn off the phone. Maybe replace your phone with the Bible. I love the Bible app, I really do; I use it. But maybe just put all that aside, take out all the noise, and just sit alone with the Lord and just begin to listen to that still, small voice. Begin to listen to the things that He’s speaking.

And you’re going to hear things, some things you may not believe: “I love you.” Some people have a hard time with that. “I have a plan for your life.” Some people have a hard time with it. “I have great promises for you.” And we begin to allow that to become our reality, rather than all the other voices that would demean, confuse, lie. “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” How many of you know that’s what it means to have ears to hear? That’s it.

And notice what the Lord says in verse 14: “I will be found by you.” You do this — you spend time with Me, you humble yourself, and you come before Me with a humble, pure, sincere heart — I will speak to you.

Listen, this is for every believer, but if you are here today, I believe God placed you here, because we have been praying that the Lord would send people in that need to hear this: God wants to speak to you. And if you will humble yourself and seek Him, He will. Amen.

I don’t know about you, but I need God to lead me through life. There are things that I miss — not even bad intentions; I just miss it. But God’s going to show me the things that I need to see. And I believe that God’s going to begin to show you the things that you need to see. He’s going to speak to you the things that you need to hear. And I’m telling you, when you have ears to hear, it makes all the difference.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Notice: God wants to answer. God wants to speak. Amen. But we must have ears to hear. Because when God looks at your life, He sees potential. When God looks at your life, He looks at you with loving eyes, with adoration. He wants to speak. He knows who you are. He knows who He’s called you to be. And there are things that He actually has to say about your life. So let us have a humble heart. Amen.

Give us ears to hear

Can we just respond to the Lord? Let’s stand together. We’re going to close our time, but I want us to stand, and I want us to do that right now. I want us to humble ourselves. Let’s open our hearts, and just right now, with your eyes closed and your heads bowed, just begin to talk to Him and say, “God, I need You more than I even realize.” Just begin to tell Him that right now. Come on.

God, I need You more than I realize. I want to hear Your voice. Give me ears to hear, so that I can know You, so that I can know what You have, so that I can be the person You’ve called me to be. And Jesus said, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Jesus, give us ears to hear. Lord, I break the spiritual deafness that has been over each one of us. Lord, all the noise, the things that we’ve even given place to, the things that we’ve come into agreement with — Lord, we break the assignment of the adversary to keep us from hearing the things that You are speaking. And Lord, I pray in Jesus’ name that every ear would be open, that we would be people who are fine-tuned to hear Your voice. And Lord, that when we come to You and we call out to You, Lord, we can be confident that we will hear You speak — because You said so, because that is Your heart, that is what You want to do. And so, Lord, give us a humble heart. Let us burn for You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.