We live in a very loud culture. The sound of our day is filled with the voices of media, news, politics, music, movies, sports, social media, friends, teachers, spouses, and much more. We hear it all, but have we heard the voice of God? God doesn’t have a speaking problem. We have a listening problem. He is speaking and it’s critical to hear what He is saying.

Main Points:

1. I believe God is a speaking God. In fact, I know He is a speaking God. On many occasions, I have heard the voice of God. No, not in an audible voice, but in the quiet of my spirit. God has confirmed his voice many times. You can’t convince me that God does not speak today.

2. The struggle is not God speaking, I believe He is always speaking. The challenge is in listening. We struggle to get quiet before the Lord. We don’t always make time for Him and sometimes we haven’t been in the practice of listening for his voice.

3. When someone speaks in a whisper, you have to get very close to hear. In fact, you have to put your ear near the person’s mouth. We lean toward a whisper, and that’s what God wants. The goal of hearing your heavenly Father’s voice isn’t just hearing his voice; it’s intimacy with Him.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Revelation 2:7 - “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says…”

John 10:27 - “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

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Your spiritual gifts determine how God wants to use your life. Are you willing to allow God to use your life for His glory and to build the kingdom of God? Are you willing to say “yes” to God?

Main Points:

1. The Bible has a lot to say about spiritual gifts. There are at least 20 of them listed in the Bible. We don’t have time to define them all today, but you can read about them in these passages of Scripture: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4.

2. Peter contends that each of us has received at least one spiritual gift when he states, “As each one has received a gift.” These gifts of grace are to be distinguished from natural talents, skills, and abilities.

3. What this tells us is that God wants to use our lives in a unique way. He has gifted and enabled us to serve Him and others. God intends for your life to be a blessing to others. You have a particular role in the work of God, and by the Holy Spirit, God has given you a gift to make this happen.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

1 Peter 4:10-11 - “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”

Romans 12:6 – “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

1 Corinthians 7:7 – “But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.”

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Every believer needs a secret place. Where is your quiet place? Where can you regularly get alone with God in prayer? I believe the impact of our public testimony and ministry is a direct result of the time spent with God in secret.

Main Points:

1. If all we see is the public ministry of Jesus, we miss something very important. It’s not talked about much, but Jesus had a private, personal relationship with His Father. There was a vital connection between his private times of prayer and his public ministry.

2. It’s in the secret place that we can be alone with God. We remove ourselves from the distractions of daily life. There are no interruptions from family, work, school, smartphones, or social media. It’s in the quiet we draw closer to God and a new intimacy is gained. It’s here that we quiet the noise around us and within us. We open our spiritual ears to hear the voice of our Heavenly Father.

3. May you and I see the value of finding a secret place to spend time with God in prayer. In our busy, noisy world, we need this quiet place with God.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Matthew 6:1 - “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 6:5-6 - “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Psalm 46:10 - “Be still and know that I am God.”

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Out of all the prayers we pray, there is one prayer that is more difficult than all the others. It is the prayer of surrender. The prayer of submission to God is harder than all other prayers. It requires great trust in God. It demands a letting go of our control. It’s releasing the situation into God’s hands and trusting Him to meet the need as He sees best.

Main Points:

1. The reason this prayer is more difficult is that we like control, or at least the illusion of control. If I sincerely pray for God’s will to be done, I have to allow for God’s will to be done.

2. While the prayer of surrender is often the hardest prayer we pray, it is the most rewarding. God rewards those who submit to his will.

3. Let us pray along with our Savior, “Father, not my will, but your will be done.” Let’s be willing to pray this most difficult prayer of surrender, acknowledging that God knows what is best for us.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Matthew 6:10 - “…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 26:39 - “not my will but your will be done.”

Hebrews 5:7 - “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

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Here’s the good news. Jesus is our righteousness. By placing our faith in Jesus, and believing he is the perfect, sinless son of God who died and rose again as payment for our sins, we receive His righteousness.

Main Points:

1. No matter how many good things we do, no matter how consistent our moral behavior, we all come up short of God’s righteous standard. It’s important to see that our good works will never enable us to be righteous, as God defines it.

2. When Jesus died on the cross he carried all the sins of humanity. He became sin for us. As a result, everyone who believes in Him is made righteous with God.

3. Now, having become righteous in God’s eyes by placing our faith in Jesus, we pursue righteous living. This righteous lifestyle is not an attempt to earn salvation. It is the result of our salvation.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Romans 3:23 - “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Isaiah 64:6 - “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…”

Philippians 3:9 - “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 - “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

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Where is our confidence? It is not in ourselves, and it is not in our prayers. Our confidence is in God. This is where we place our faith. Our faith is not in ourselves, in our prayers, or even in our faith. Our faith and confidence is in God.

Main Points:

1. I want to encourage you today to pray with boldness. Not a brash boldness that orders God around. After all, we must remember that prayer is asking; it’s not telling God what to do.

2. The Scriptures teach us to pray with confidence and believe that God will not only hear our prayers but also answer them.

3. As we study God’s Word, as we grow in our faith, we begin to discover the will of God for our lives. The more we pray in alignment with His will, the more we can pray with confidence.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

1 John 5:14-15 - “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.”

Hebrews 4:16 - “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 10:35 - “So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!”

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Apart from a heart of gratitude, we begin to be self-focused, self-centered, and self-pleasing. But when you and I, as Christ-followers, decide to live with a daily heart of thankfulness, it changes us. A peaceful heart is the result.

Main Points:

1. Gratitude causes us to focus our hearts on God as the source of every blessing. Being thankful is a part of a lifestyle of worship. Gratitude keeps us humble.

2. Do you ever forget to be grateful? It’s so easy to do, isn’t it? We can easily take everyday blessings for granted. We can enjoy the blessings of God without considering how blessed we truly are.

3. Usually we express gratitude when something good happens, but in every situation, there is something for which we can thank the Lord. Even in the inconveniences, the cancellations, the restrictions, the interruptions, the disappointments, there is still a reason to give our thanks to God.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Romans 1:21 - “ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Colossians 3:15-17 - “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

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Maybe you have wondered why some do not respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have often thought, “If they could only see how wonderful Jesus is. If they could only see how amazing it is to know the Lord and to be forgiven of our sins.” But that’s just it; they cannot see. They are spiritually blind.

Main Points:

1. The God who spoke at creation and brought light into the darkness is the same God who can make his light shine in our hearts so that we can see Jesus.

2. When we receive word that there is a cure for our spiritual blindness, we too must act. We must step out in faith and trust Jesus Christ to be our savior and our Lord. I am convinced the work of the Holy Spirit is to deal with our hearts so that we can have our spiritual blindness cured. The Spirit reveals Christ to us.

3. If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your savior, I want you to know the joy that awaits you. You don’t have to live in the darkness of sin and this world. I pray you’ll experience Jesus, who is the light of the world.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

2 Corinthians 4:4 - “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

John 3:19 - “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

2 Corinthians 4:6 - “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

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