[Steve Myers] How is your hearing? It's pretty good? I heard the story about an older man was getting concerned about his wife. He was worried she was kind of losing her hearing a little bit, so he thought, "I'm going to do an experiment." So one night, he came up to the kitchen and she was getting dinner ready. And so, he stood at the door, she didn't notice he was there and he said to her, "What's for dinner?" No response. So he came up a little bit closer behind her, and she didn't know he was there, so he said a little bit louder, he said, "What's for dinner?" No response. So he came up right behind her and he said, "What's for dinner?" And she said, for the third time, "Spaghetti."

So how is your hearing? Hearing is such an important attribute, to listen when we're spoken to. Now you won't find it in 1 Corinthians 12. Our A.B.C. students know 1 Corinthians 12 is what chapter? The spiritual gifts chapter. It's not a spiritual gift. Listening is something that we've all been given, something we all can do. It's kind of an ability or a skill that God has given everyone and yet, one, that we have to improve. And one you might not think of as being particularly spiritual but the connections to spirituality are undeniable.

Now when I was very young, I learned for the first time when my mother was our den mother, back in Cub Scouts. She used to do this thing that, you know how boys can be pretty rowdy when they're seven, eight years old, to get our attention. You know what she would do? In fact, if you've ever been to camp, the tradition continues. Leader would put up their hand and then everybody would start putting up their hand when they noticed the leader has their hand up. And why did they do? That they do that at camp, right? Shake your head. Yes, they do, they do. Well, why aren't your hands up? Okay, everybody's quiet now. Because it means listen up. Listen up, something important is coming. And so, the hand goes up, the mouth goes shut, and you pay attention.

And there's many times throughout Scripture that God does that very thing. In fact, He in a way, metaphorically, puts up His hand and says, "Listen up," in fact, I think He adds to it, He says, "Listen up and live." Listen up and live. We heard about the parables a little bit earlier, and it's interesting if you looked through those parables, whether you look in Matthew, Mark or Luke as well, it's interesting how many times a parable begins with, "Hear the story of," or concludes with the words, "He who has an ear, let him hear." I have to take some time maybe later today on the Sabbath to notice how many times Christ actually says that. In fact, if you see that connection to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, guess what is also said to those churches, to us by extension as well, it says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Same type of thing. In a way, God raises His hand and says, "Listen up and live," because listening is something that is critical for all of us as God's people. He wants us to hear and listen.

And if we don't, how can we do the things that God wants us to do? I mean, is it fair to say, I can't be an encourager if I don't listen? How can I support someone if I really don't hear them out? Can I grow if I'm not willing to listen? What kind of husband am I, or what kind of wife are you if you're a lousy listener? Kind of make things pretty challenging if that's the case, that we're not a good listener. In fact, when it comes to being a disciple, can I truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ without the ability to listen? You see, I think it is such a critical thing. In order to fulfill the calling that God has given us, there is an intricate connection between listening and being a disciple, between listening and the Kingdom of God. Listening and, I think you can say, salvation. It is critical to all of these things. Even though it may not seem like it's that big a deal, the connection is undeniable.

And so, I thought it might be helpful to take some time this afternoon to recognize that connection between listening and truly being the kind of a disciple that God really wants us to be. And think about it for a moment. Can you break a connection between listening and, first of all, spiritual growth? Is there any connection between those two things? If I'm going to grow spiritually, if I'm going to bear fruit, do I have to be a good listener? You already guess the answer? The answer is yes. Yes, you do. In fact, one of the parables focuses on this. Maybe we haven't really read it before, it's a very familiar parable, we heard about the “Parable of the Sower.” If you'll turn, not to Matthew but turn over to Luke this time, Luke 8:4, discusses a very familiar parable. It's about the farmer who sows the seed, the one who is throwing out the seed to grow, we're familiar with this.

But what I'd like you to notice is something that may have escaped us a little bit when it came to this particular lesson that Christ was teaching. So if you go over to Luke 8, notice verse 4. Luke 8:4, Christ begins teaching this parable about the sower and we're familiar with it. Verse 5, he goes out to sow, to plant the seed and we know it went on all kinds of various places. So verse 6, "some fell on the rock but it withered away." "Some fell on thorns," verse 7, "and it sprang up in the weeds, the thorns choked it." Verse 8, "Some fell on good ground." And what happened to the stuff on the good ground? That seed? Well, it grew and it “yielded a crop” it says, "a hundredfold."

And then, what does Christ say? The end of verse 8, He says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Now I don't know if the sower was planting corn and Christ was using a little pun about ears to hear or not, probably not. Probably not. But it's interesting to see this connection because what's the difference between these? We might say, "Well, the difference is you got weeds and thorns and you got good soil and bad soil. Well, that's the obvious difference.” Well, if we fast-forward just a little bit to Christ's explanation, look at verse 15 when He talks about the ones on the good ground. He says, "But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." So what we begin to see here, a direct connection between spiritual growth, bearing fruit and listening to God, hearing His Word, hearing it sometimes with patience, as He said here, and then putting it into practice.

In fact, it's kind of interesting when you compare the record of the different parables in the different Gospels, if we see the same parable over in the gospel of Luke, let's go now to Matthew. Go over to Matthew, we compare these two versions because Matthew has a little bit of information that Luke doesn't include for some reason. So if we go over to Matthew 13, notice something interesting that is recorded here that isn't over there in the book of Luke. So if we look at Matthew 13, notice verse 9. Matthew 13:9, here we have the parable begin and, as we see the story, He says, "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear!” The disciples are wondering, "Well, why do you speak in parables?" Christ begins to explain that. Not the point of the sermon today, but it's interesting, in that explanation, He says, in verse 13, Matthew 13:13, "I speak in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." And then, to add to this, He quotes the book of Isaiah. He quotes Isaiah 6:9, where He says… verse 14, "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. And their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they've 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."

And so we can't help but ask the question, "Are my eyes really open? Are my ears really hearing? Not just to perceive sounds but so that I can understand." I mean, Christ says to His followers, "Blessed are your eyes, they see, and your ears, they hear." And so, He begins to draw this connection, in this parable and the lesson, that it's not just about hearing because there's a vast difference between hearing and understanding. Or hearing and, sometimes the way the Word is used for listening, listening. Now it's kind of interesting when you see this word for hearing, some hear and they hear and others hear and they don't hear. It's referring to the understanding, but the same Greek word is used here but definitely different meanings. The meaning is different because when you hear, what kind of effort does it take to hear? Well you just do. You just do, it just happens, right? Hearing just simply happens.

So you might be around the house and you can hear the vacuum going or you can hear the dishwasher running. But if the television is on, that may take a little bit more. It takes a little bit more effort to listen or hear the T.V., especially if I'm going to grasp what's going on. You see what you do different in those things? Well, some might just listen, it's just there. When it comes to the hearing that Christ related to understanding, that's something you consciously have to decide to do. You consciously make a decision, I'm choosing to hear and understand and listen to those words. So what does it take? It takes concentration, it takes effort, it takes attention to do those very things, so that your brain then, instead of just saying, "Oh yeah that's the vacuum," it processes the meaning of the words and the sentences. And so we begin to understand and we see the intent of these things.

And so Christ once again, after quoting Isaiah, says a similar thing recorded here in Matthew. If you look down to verse 23, "He who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it,” they put their brain in gear, allow God to work in them and through them and they get it, they understand and it goes to work in their lives. And so, what happens, it says, "it indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." And so, Christ draws this tremendous difference between just hearing something and then having a depth of understanding. And that understanding is critical. If we're going to grow spiritually, if we're going to produce, it's not good enough just, "Oh, yeah, I know that passage," but if it doesn't speak to you, we hear the voice of truth that speaks to us, if it doesn't impact our thinking, if our brain isn't engaged to say, "You know, that's something I have to do. I need to change. I can't keep doing that. I have to have that perception and attention to what the words and what the story is really all about, so that it impacts my life and I change and I change and I grow.” And fruit, spiritual fruit, is born from the perception and the understanding of what God gives us through His Word. And so God says, "Listen up and see how that word should impact your life," because it is intricately connected to spiritual growth.

All too often, we hear it but we may fall into the category of some of those that weren’t listening to Christ. Yeah, they hear it but they're not really getting it. They're not really getting it. In fact, I was reminded of a story, I read it in a commentary on the book of James by Vernon McGee. And he tells the story about the famous Greek philosopher Socrates and how so many people wanted to learn from this great philosopher. And so, he tells the story in this commentary about a young man who came to Socrates and he wanted him to be his teacher, he wanted to be a student. And so, this young man came to Socrates and just was going on and on about how great Socrates was and what a great teacher he would be and how much he wanted to be his student. And he kept talking and talking and talking and going on, so Socrates couldn't even get a word in edgewise. Until finally Socrates put his hand over his mouth to make him be quiet and he said, "I'll be your teacher but it's going to cost you twice as much."

The young man went, "Well, what do you mean it's going to cost me twice as much as everybody else?" He said, "Why would that be?" Socrates said, "Because I've got at least two things to teach you." He said, "First, you need to learn how to hold your tongue and listen. Then you need to learn to use your tongue correctly." And the point being, yeah, the Greeks loved eloquent speech. They used to love to hear the debates, they loved to hear the latest, they loved the speakers, the teachings and all those. But the point was you can't teach until you can listen, until you learn to listen you really don't have much to say. He was just going on and on and on and on and not saying a word. You ever find yourself maybe doing that? Sometimes we talk, we talk, talk, talk and chirp, chirp, chirp. Was that from The Music Man I think? But not much to say. And so, God certainly wants us to see this connection from listening to spiritual growth. And so, in a way, yes, God raises His hand and says, "Listen up and live."

It's also interesting to see this connection to understanding. Not only growth and bearing fruit but spiritual understanding is intricately connected to listening to God, listening to His Word and applying it in our lives. There's an interesting passage over in Colossians 1, that speaks to this second aspect of why we need to listen so intently to what God has for us in our life. Colossians 1:5, here Paul is speaking to God's people in Colossae. And it's interesting as he points out something that is so important as he speaks the truth of God's Word, speaking the gospel and the hope for mankind, God's plan, and how he connects it for the people to really give them a visual of the importance of spiritual understanding. Notice Colossians 1:5, we'll kind of jump in the middle of the thought here. He says, "because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you."

So, okay, yeah, I've heard the gospel, I know what the plan is, I know what God's purpose is. I know these things. But he also says this message “has gone out in all the world," and as a result, he says, in verse 6, "it is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth." Because what is he pointing out here? What he's saying, "Colossians, there was a time you recognized the fact you didn't understand God, you didn't know His way, you had little depth of spiritual understanding. But since you have heard, God has opened your mind to the truth, you let it impact your thinking, you basically admitted you didn't know anything." I mean, he really is saying listening starts this process of us admitting we don't know everything we should know. And, in fact, maybe taking you a step farther, it also admits there's a lot we don't know that we don't know. Does that make sense? There's a lot we don't know and we don't even know that we don't know it.

And he's telling the Colossians here, this is such a critical thing, Hearing the Word of truth and allowing it to work in your life through God's Holy Spirit, we can gain a depth of understanding. But the understanding alone isn't the purpose, just to have understanding. Yes, it's something that vital, something that is absolutely necessary, something that we need to ask God for that spiritual understanding. So we should do that even before we read the Bible. Can we ask God and petition Him, "God, help me as I'm studying Your Word, help me to grasp what You're telling me. Let me hear Your voice, speak to me so I can understand more effectively." And hopefully, you did that before you came to church today, that you prayed for understanding before services so that God's Word can impact your life, something that King David often prayed about, that God's Word would impact his thinking, that he could listen in a way that something he hadn't noticed before, something he hadn't thought about that applied to his life would jump out at him and impact his thinking, so he would change.

In fact, in the longest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119, it's recorded for us that very thought. If you want to turn over to Psalm 119, let's notice verse 34. Notice this connection between listening and spiritual understanding, praying to God and asking for Him to impact our thinking through His voice, through His Word, through His plan. Psalm 119, somewhere right there near the very middle of your Bible. We noticed verse 34, notice the connection here, Psalm 119:34, it says, "Give me understanding," so we can see praying for that understanding. And as a result, "I shall keep your law. Yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart." And I think it's important. “Well, does that mean I pray to God and ask for understanding and now I see it, I figured this out, I know now?" See, what's a little off with those statements? Is it that I now have this great perception that I understand these things and I can grasp it? Now I know... No.

You see, what we recognize here when we asked God for understanding and we pray about that, like Psalm 119 here, "Give me understanding," we're recognizing something so important, that God is the source of understanding. We're praying and asking Him to remove the wrong ideas out of our minds, to get ourselves out of the way. It's not that I know, it's not that anyone else can grant us spiritual understanding. So it's not my Sabbath school teacher, if you had your lessons today, it's not a deacon or an elder or even the pastor or the ministry. No. God certainly can use them to help us understand but we got to go to the source. We've got to go to the source. The ability to understand God's Word and His way and His will is something that God grants to us. God opens our mind to His truth. And so, we can pray and ask God to help us with the understanding that we need to recognize so we do get it, so that we do see, so we have those eyes to see and ears to hear. Because if we think we already know, we're not really getting it.

And I think those of us who have been parents, you understand this, right? I mean you've got kids or you've had kids, maybe they're grown up now. Has this ever happened to you? "All right, this is what I want you to do," and you just start telling them and they start running off to do it. It's like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Listen to all the instructions first before you run off and try to do the wrong thing." Because that's what happens. And I think, in a way, God wants us to recognize we're His kids, we're His children, we're God's children, we shouldn't want to miss out. If we think we already know, "Oh, I know that, I know, I know, I know, I know," and then we go and we do the wrong thing. And we're like our little kids that they thought they got it, they thought they listened well enough but then they missed the point. You see, and I think if we see ourselves as God's children, we're going to be looking to God, we're going to be understanding we need His direction, we need His insight, we need God's spiritual understanding given to us, so that we can draw the right concepts from His word, so we can understand these things then and see how they fit in our life.

In fact, He kind of builds on that a little bit later in this psalm, if you turn over a page or so to verse 144. Psalm 119:144. We see the impact of truly listening as a child of God. He says, "The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding, and I will live." Give me understanding. He couldn't work it up on his own. No, that wasn't going to happen. Through God's will, through His testimonies and He opens our mind, we can live. We can live, we can understand. And so, God does say then, "Little children, listen up. Listen up, this is critical, this is important. This is important." Because what it begins to open up, I think, is a third aspect that is so critical as well. When we recognize this, how can I live? How can I have eternal life? How can I be a part of God's family? I have to have a relationship with Him, I have to know Him. God has to be my Father, Christ has to be my elder Brother. I have to know them intimately. And listening develops relationships.

Listening develops relationship. How do you get to know anybody? How do you get to know anybody? I mean, through listening, conversation, we gain an understanding. We understand each other. And so, we learn information about them, we hear their experiences, we know, you know, how old they are, what their family is like. We understand about each other. And the challenge is, especially for us in this world that we live in, oftentimes, we don't do this. We don't really develop the relationships that we should. And it's a detriment in the congregation of God, it's detriment to all of us when we don't really know each other. We don't take the time because we live in this Facebook world, this Twitter limited number of characters kind of a world, or a soundbite kind of world, that's how we live. And so, "Give it to me in a nutshell and that's good enough. Let's go on."

But that's not what God wants. God isn't into this Facebook kind of world in that sense. Right? In fact, I read an interesting article that Facebook is destroying the world. And it was basically pointing that very fact out, that it's a bigger detriment to relationships than anything else. Because we think we can summarize a life in a picture, "Look at my beautiful picture." "Boy, they must have everything together. Look at how beautiful they are, they're happy, they're smiling." And yet, underlying is all these problems and difficulties. But I can put a pretty face on it and stamp it with the smiley face and everything's great. But that's not the case and God doesn't want us to just put a smiley face on things.

And the challenge then is how do we develop relationships in this world that we live in where true listening is really declining? Because when you listen, you're supposed to concentrate, you're supposed to focus, you're not supposed to be thinking of other things or looking at my phone and flipping through the next notification. Not thinking about “What's happening at volleyball tonight and who's our first team that we play and what's going on with that?” And, "Wow, what's on my to-do list? And after Sabbath, I got to get this done." No, we can't do that. God doesn't want… how are we going to develop a relationship with God and focus on what His Word says and speaks to us if that's where we're at? Not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

Or sometimes we may fall into another problem. How many of us have selective hearing? Yeah, we have selective hearing. Yeah, I've been accused of that, my wife complains that I never listen to her or something like that she says. I'm not exactly sure. Or she insists that I have this selective hearing. It's kind of a running joke in the house, if she really wants to get my attention, she starts with something about, "Well, the Green Bay Packers did this," it's like, "What did you say? What was that?" And I begin to start paying more attention to that if she wants a reply out of me. Or sometimes it's like, "Didn't you hear anything that I've said?" And I'll think, "That's a strange way to start a conversation. Why would you begin that way?"

Now the challenge is, are we that way when it comes to our spiritual relationship with God? It's like, "God, why are you starting there for? What was that all about?" You know, I think it reflects that we have this deep need that we need to be heard. And when we recognize the fact that we need to hear God, we can begin to recognize, "Boy, when somebody's not listening to us," you're trying to have a conversation with someone and they're like, "Well, I don't know. Let's see, is there anybody else I can talk to?" How do you feel when that happens?
Oh, I feel loved. I feel like they really care about me when they're looking at their watch and can't wait to get on to the next story.” No, you don't feel people care. And it's interesting when you consider it, "All right, developing relationships that sounds kind of mm-hmm. Guys especially sounds more feminine. I don't know if I'm into that kind of thing." But wait a second. When you really get down to it, being listened to is really a lot like being loved because it's showing somebody cares about you. When you listen and you show that concern, you show that compassion, you show that care, you're showing love. You're showing love.

And, of course, the fact is God always listens to us. God is always ready and willing and able to show us love and care and concern. And there are so many passages we could turn to to show that God is reaching out, striving to develop that relationship with us and sometimes we're like, "Yeah, I know, God, but, you know, I'm kind of in a hurry and I got this going and it’s so busy. You know how life is," and we end up in that frame of mind. And sometimes you just feel like nobody's listening. Is God really listening? Absolutely. Absolutely.

I was reminded of this, I was reading an interesting story, it was in a book called 40 Days of Encouragement. It was written by an author named Terry Slachter. And he was writing about Franklin Roosevelt, F.D.R., and all these welcoming parties, all these banquets that he would have to have and go through, all these various lines of meeting, dignitaries and people and senators and all this sort of thing. And I'm not sure if the story is true or not but he tells the story as though it's a true thing, that F.D.R. basically got to the point, he felt nobody in those lines have paid a bit of attention to what he said because they were always telling him how great he was and what he was doing and all those kinds of things.

And so, one day after going through this feeling like nobody really cared, he decided to have a little experiment. So there was this big welcoming line that everybody wanted to meet him at the White House and so he decided he'd try something totally different. So, as he was introduced to someone, the very first person, he decided, "I'm going to say the same thing to everybody and see what happens." So he met the first person and he mentioned kind of quietly, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." They said, "Well, it's good to meet you. I'm really glad. I've looked forward to the time that I could come and see you." And then, he said it to the next person, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." "Marvelous. Keep up the good work. We're so proud of what you're doing." "I murdered my grandmother this morning." "Bless you, sir. You are such an honor to meet and it's so wonderful I finally got this… I've always wanted to meet…" And this went on and on and on and on till he finally gets to the end of the line and supposedly there was the ambassador from Bolivia. And he says to him, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." And the Bolivian ambassador kind of looked at him kind of funny and said, "I'll bet she deserved it."

Now it sounds kind of like a phony story but he tells it as though it's true. And I think, if nothing else, it certainly tells us when we feel somebody's just, you know, patting us on the head and say, "Oh, it's nice to see you. I hope things are great. You know, how are things?" "They're terrible." "Well, good. I'm glad it's going well." You know, it does reflect whether we care or not about people. And so, when we recognize that, listening means we're paying attention to that person. And it's building trust, it builds trust. Listening develops relationships by building trust. Now can we trust God? I mean, does God give us full attention or not? You see, I think it's no different that when we focus on someone, you know, if I'm going to have a conversation with my wife, I better shut my laptop, I better turn off the TV, put down the phone face down and focus. Right? And focus because it shows I'm not interjecting, "Oh, well, wait." No, it's not the time for my opinions or my judgment or my advice. It's time to… I can't finish her sentences, I'm not supposed to do that. No, that's not good. I'm showing I care and that I trust, she can trust me. She's got a confidence that I have her best interests at heart. And that's exactly what God does. We can trust God no matter what. No matter what.

In fact, there's an amazing example as Paul wrote to Timothy, and you think about that relationship, that's kind of an interesting one. We have the elder statesman, the elder apostle Paul and this young minister Timothy, a young man that he met when he was just a little teenager. Paul kind of took him under his wing and they built this amazing relationship. And over in 2 Timothy 1, this relationship that they have is even built on I think a stronger foundation, in a sense, as Paul is relating to Timothy some of the challenges that he's had. And even though you look at the situation that Paul was going through and the difficulties, he's explaining to Timothy that there's such a foundation of trust between God and Paul, that Paul wasn't worried about it. It didn't impact Paul to lose his faith. And so, he's telling Timothy about this, I think, to help build up Timothy as well.

So in 2 Timothy 1, notice verse 12. I'm going to read this out of the New Living, it might be just a little different than your version, but New Living, 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul says, "For this reason, I also suffer these things," because being imprisoned that was a terrible thing. And yet, Paul says, "I'm not ashamed." Why? He says, "For I know whom I have believed." In other words, “I'm not just acquainted with God,” it's not just like, "Yeah, I kind of know Him sort of. I mean He's a Facebook friend but He's not really that close.” “No, it's not that I'm just acquainted, I know Him. I know whom I believe and I'm convinced, there's no doubt, there's no concern in my mind, there is no doubt, I am convinced that He's able to guard what I've entrusted to Him until that day." And, of course, Paul entrusted his whole life, his whole being, not only his ministry but everything, everything about him he trusted God. He entrusted himself to God. So he had that absolute confidence, it was unshakable confidence and trust that he had in God.

And he's telling Timothy that the relationship between God and Paul was built on trust. Not so much that God could trust Paul, but it was undoubted that Paul could trust God. And kind of reminiscent of Psalm 25:3, where we're told, "No one that hopes in You God will ever be put to shame." You see, we have a great God who is on our side, who we can trust. And, of course, when you think of the word trust, maybe a more spiritual word comes to mind. When you think of confidence and having an assurance, what we can count on. Is there a word that maybe comes to mind? You know, maybe the word faith. Because I think God raises His hand, in a way, and says, "Listen up. Live, build your faith, increase your faith." And listening builds faith. It increases confidence, it can increase and I think expound commitment and dedication as well.

When you think about faith, maybe there's a chapter in the Bible that comes to mind. Well, before we go there, let's go a couple of pages before that, in Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, right at the very beginning of that section of Hebrews, notice this connection between growing in faith and truly listening to God, truly listening. Hebrews 2:1, says, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed” what is earnest heed? I've really got to pay attention to this, give the earnest, really listen up. Therefore, "give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away." If we're going to listen up and live, we better really focus, really recognize, or we could end up somewhere else. Verse 2, he says, "For if the word spoken through angels prove steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience receives a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

So there's an undeniable connection between listening, paying the earnest heed, hearing the word that's spoken and whether or not we're going to neglect our salvation, whether we're going to drift away from the truth, whether we're going to do the things that aren't appropriate for us as disciples of Christ. He says, "These things were first spoken by the Lord, that was confirmed to us by those who heard him." And so, we see this connection between listening and hearing and understanding and application as well. And so it starts with that, "Can I count on who spoke these things? Can I have confidence in that? Is this something that I can certainly, absolutely, undeniably reflect on and have this confidence and faith that it's true?" Who backs it up? Well, God does. And it's, yes, absolutely. If you go over to Hebrews 11 then, we're reminded of this faith and this connection to listening and where that faith is really founded in that sense.

So when we see what Hebrews reminds us of in Hebrews 11, right at the very beginning of that chapter, it says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And it goes on and discusses these things. “By faith we understand” well, when we recognize these things, we have a confidence. We have an absolute conviction they're true, that it is going to happen, so we have substance, we have evidence. And where is that based? Not that I work this up, not that it's dependent only on me, I recognize if God said it, God promised it, God's going to bring. I have faith and confidence in Him. I believe Him. He spoke this Word, it's recorded for me and I give the earnest heed to that Word and I can trust God. And He can increase my faith because, first and foremost, God is faithful. God is faithful. And so, because God is faithful, I can have faith in Him. Because God is faithful, I can have confidence in the things I can't see. "I can't see it. But you know, God, I trust You and I know You. And You promised this. And even though I can't see it, I know it's real. I know it's real. And so, I can have the trust in You. I can have that trust in You."

Because I think it's just a page or two later here in chapter 13. Chapter 13, verse 5, he points out something, I think, that becomes critical then. What can I have faith in? Well, at the end of verse 5, it says, "He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' So we may boldly say.” in faith, in confidence, in assurance, in commitment, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear." What can my boss do to me? “What can man do to me?” What can anyone do to me? Because I trust, I have faith, I have a relationship with God and He can increase my confidence in Him because He's not going anywhere. He’s telling me, "I'm not going to let you down. I'm never going to walk off and leave you. Not going to happen. I'll always be there." I think if you look that up in The Message, He actually says something like that, "I'll never let you down and I'm not going anywhere. Not walking off and leaving you."

And so, we can have an increase of faith recognizing we have a faithful God who is there, who speaks to us, and speaks words of life in this dead world. He speaks life to us. In fact, God does speak. We sing that song, don't we? “God speaks to us.” Are we listening? Are we listening? Because it should have an impact more than just the hearing. Certainly, Paul said the similar thing to the Romans, Romans 10. Romans 10 reminds us of where it begins, Romans 10, let's see where should we begin. How about verse 14? Romans 10:14, a familiar passage, as we're reminded, "How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?" Well, if you don't believe it, you don't believe it. It says, "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they're sent?" So we see this connection with listening, with listening. Verse 16, "No, not everyone obeys the gospel," and a quote from Isaiah again, "Lord, who has believed our report?" But what's the factor that really makes all the difference? Well, verse 17, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

And so, it's not just the audible sounds, not just reading the Word but it's what effect that Word has on us so that we have true understanding so that it builds our faith, it builds that dedication that we have for God. Yes, it says, "Have they not heard? Yes, indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’" The gospel is going out, yes, but, all too often, people hear but they're not hearing. But for us, it should have that impact in our life that it changes who we are and we increase our faith. Because God does, in a way, raise up His hand and say, "Listen up. Listen up and live," because this should motivate us to action. Listening should impact us to godly action and that's really the goal that God has in mind for us. It's not just the fact that we understand or we know things, it's not just the fact that we have great faith. But that faith has to be put into action. We have to act on that faith, we have to live that faith. Because when you consider those types of things, we better do the Word. Right? We have to be doers. We have to be doers.

You might see why I was reading James' commentary. James 1 talks about that, doesn't it? James 1, look at verse 19. If we allow God to work in our life and we're really hearing to understand, listening leads to godly action. Listening leads to godly action, James certainly bears that point out. James 1:19, right at the very beginning of this general letter that James writes, he says, "My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." You see, when we're ready to listen, the result is godly actually. If we're not ready to listen, likelihood of something going wrong after that is going to definitely increase. He says, "If we're not, we might be quick to wrath," and what does he say? "The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." And so, listening to the Word of God, and the application of that Word of God says we will have the help we need, verse 21, "to lay aside filthiness, the overflow of wickedness."

And that Word then by listening and seeking to understand how it applies to us, it says, it's implanted, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” And this connection to eternal life that it impacts our life not just that we know, not just that we understand, but that we begin to live that way. And so he says, verse 22, "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only," because, otherwise, we're deceived. “If you're a hearer of the word and not a doer,” well, you're like this guy that looks in the mirror, sees his face, “goes away and forgets what kind of man he was. But” verse 25, "he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it," yeah, that ongoing action, godly actions that are ongoing, "continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer" not a selective hearer. Not that they say, "Well, that doesn't apply to me. Boy, that was an interesting sermon but I hope they got it." They're not that kind of hearer “but a doer of the work,” it says, "this one will be blessed in what he does.” So it needs to turn into action in our lives where we're looking into these things. That's what we're to be doing, be doers of the Word.

"Look perfectly," it says, "look into the perfect law of liberty." And that's kind of a listening kind of thing as well. If you look up the Greek word here, I was reminded of my grandfather. Grandfather was hard of hearing and so you know what he would do when he wanted to hear something? He leaned over and say, What?" You put your hand to your ear like grandpa used to do. Well, "Looks into," really carries that kind of a meaning, "I'm bending over trying to understand." Which points to us. Is that the kind of hearer that we are? That we are so intent on what God has in mind for us in our life that we're bending over and we want to get every word, we want to understand it, we want to apply it in our life. That's the kind of hearer we're supposed to be, one that's looking into God's Word, and then continuing in and not forgetting about it, not taking it lightly but looking intently into that Word, examining that Word to see the intent for me. Because if I'm just have a casual listener, "It doesn't matter that much, I guess that applies to somebody else," you know, we see that instead of seeing how it applies to us.

And so, certainly, we can't be that way. And maybe that's what we need to do. We need to stoop over, just a little bit and look at our own life, "Is there evidence of the fact that I am a forgetful hearer in my life?" And that can show itself in so many different ways. It can show itself in attitudes. It can show in ourselves, "What just came to my mind? What am I thinking? Have I really put that Word in an implanted way? Is that Word truly implanted in my mind, in my heart, so that's what comes out of me? Are the relationships in my life built on that kind of hearing and listening?" You see, those are the types of questions that I think we really need to ask ourselves. Because I think what James is telling us here, there's this intricate connection between listening and truly choosing to listen and then acting upon what we've heard. Or maybe to say it a little bit differently, listening is a choice that requires action. Listening is a choice that requires action.

It's nice to come here today and feel good about life and “I heard the Word.” But if we don't do anything, it doesn't impact us in that way, well, what's happened? Well, nothing, nothing's happened. And so, we certainly have to make sure that we're choosing to listen and that we're then having the required action. So what do we have to do? Well, we've got to… well, it's like shutting down the computer, turning off the T.V., turning over the phone. I have to intentionally turn away from every distraction that would cause me to slip up or trip, and I've got to turn toward God and His Word and His way and show Him that I am choosing to pay attention to Him. God has got His hand up for me and He's saying, "Listen up, listen up, because if you want to grow spiritually, you've got to hear Me out. You want deeper spiritual understanding? Listen to understand. If we're going to grow in our relationship, I'm reaching out to you but you're turning your back on Me, you're not listening. I want a relationship with you.” That's what God wants. But what is our reaction? Do we have the Facebook, Twitter response to God? He says, "No, don't do that. I want to build your faith, you need to increase your faith. I'm a faithful God who is reaching out to you."

And, of course, when we respond, it turns into action in our life. And so perhaps, as we think about these things this week, something we can certainly pray about. We can certainly pray and ask God, "Open my ears, open my spiritual… not just these ears, but my spiritual ears to help me to really listen to You. Help me to hear Your voice. Help me to hear Your voice as You speak to me through Your Word, help me hear Your voice as I talk with others, as I recognize You and Your guidance from other people. Help me with Your insights, help me with Your strengths, let me see Your values in my life. Help me to see the words that You speak with an understanding that I've never had before, so that, ultimately, it helps me to do, it helps me put those things into action."

Because God... Well, doesn't Christ stand at the door and knock? Are we going to open and truly listen? Well, if we're going to, we've got to get that door open and listen with our hearts and our minds and then allow that to be put into action. Maybe thinking about it just a little bit differently as we conclude. John 14:15 says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." "If you love Me, keep My commandments." And maybe if we put that into other words, in a way, it's saying, "Listen to what I say and prove that you heard it by doing what I requested." Isn't that really what Christ is saying here? "If you love Me, keep My… Listen to what I say and prove that you actually heard it and understood it by doing what I ask." Or maybe just a little bit differently, "Listen up and live."