Are you paying attention to the thread? Are you paying
attention to the thread? The Lord is doing things if we will pay attention and
wake up. And you know, here's the thing, it's not only don't give if you're
not supposed to give, or give when you do give, but here's the thing, I
love the ability to be able to give and do it not just
generously, but cheerfully. I get to do it cheerfully because guess what?
It's not coming from me and my provision. It's coming from His provision.
Provision, and I generously get to sow in when He says, "Do this," right? And
so we want to be obedient in that. Guys, are you good this morning?
Is God good in your life this morning? Yeah? Are you glad to be here
today? I'm glad that you're here. If you're joining us on livestream, thanks for being
here, and like Katie said, you can still come on up here. We have a
seat for you. Guys, you're in for a treat this morning. I am so
grateful for the lady who's about to come and present to you.
I know that she has been wrestling with this Word. I know that she's been
soaking in this Word, and I know that the Lord has has something for us.
So if we'll prepare our hearts that they'll be pliable and soft for it, welcome
my sister from another mister, Vonda Coble. Come on
up here. That was great.
I love you. Oh well,
my stuff is over there and I thought somebody was going to bring it out,
so I'm just going to
Do a little dance until that time comes. It's fine.
How's everybody doing today? Good? Doing good? It's Saturday.
The Lord has pushed the rain. You know, I work with somebody who
would just simply say, "It's not gonna rain. It's not gonna rain." Even though the
forecast says it's gonna rain, "It's not gonna rain," and it doesn't rain. It's like,
"Okay. All right, Jesus." Pastor, thank you so
much. See? Where you want it at? Where's the seat? Right here.
This is good. This is good. Is my little clicker here? It's in my
pocket. Yes, it is. I thought you might need help. Thank you.
Thank you, Pastor Wayne. That was definitely an honor.
I met Pastor Wayne in 2002. But anyway,
we're gonna go ahead and get started, if that's okay with you guys.
Abide when he seems silent.
That's what we're gonna talk about this morning. If you would please stand
as we read the Word together.
We're gonna read John 15:5-8.
All right, here we go. I am the vine,
you are the branches. If you remain in
me and I in you, you will bear much
fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, You are like a
branch that is thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire,
and burned. If you remain in me and
my words remain in you, ask whatever
you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father's glory, that you bear
much fruit, showing yourselves "to be my
disciples." Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so very much
for your Word. Oh, for your Word has
power in it. Thank you so much for the Word that
was read this morning because there's power because it
came from you. God, I ask that you open up our
eyes to see what it is that you have for us today.
Open up our ears, dear Heavenly Father, so that we might be able
to hear what it is that you have to say. And
God, soften our our hearts so that we might be able
to surrender and move under your molded hand.
God, whatever is from Vonda Lynette Coble, let it slide
to the side so that your Holy Spirit can be heard
this morning. In Jesus' precious name,
amen. All right, let's have a seat. You guys are
going to have to forgive me, um, as Pastor Kevin said,
um, I have been in this word for a while,
and it's kind of overwhelming me. So if you would, please
forgive me. And then the worship this morning just kind of
totally overwhelmed me. So I'm gonna do my best. I
got my tissue here in my pocket. So if you'll just ride
with me, we'll ride together, okay? So this
word that we read this morning from John 15:5-8
is really about answered prayers. It's about
having our prayers answered. And I think it's interesting
because in the Word, in the New Testament,
you'll find about 10 places— I found 10, you
might find more— that it says, "Ask anything in my name,
and I'll give it to you. Ask anything in my name, and
I'll give it to you." And so, I thought it was interesting. I tried
to actually get away from that section, and the Lord said, "No."
That's where I want you to read. So, I said, "Okay, God." So,
as I'm reading, I want you to notice a couple things.
The word "if." The word "if." So, let me
do a little background information, and that is, I'm gonna pull
this up a little closer. So, forgive me, 'cause I'm not as strong
as I look.
But I am a schoolteacher, pretty much, is what I've been
for 18 years. I taught in the classroom. So, you're gonna
see a lot of things. I dumb things down.
You could say that, but I also try to make it as simple as possible,
because an educator, we have a difficult task, and
that is to teach something, and
people learn so many different ways. So you have to teach something, and then
you have to assess to see if what was learned was learned. And then if
you realize it wasn't learned, then you have to go back and reteach, or you
have to enhance. So I'm a teacher at heart. So everything that
I do is kind of simple as much as possible for
my level. Level anyway, because I'm trying to teach.
So if you look at the passage there, it has a word that keeps
popping out, and that's the word "if." If.
If. And "if" is a conjunction. Okay?
So a conjunction is a joining word. So that simply
means stuff has got to connect. Okay? So I
looked up the word "if," and it says, "If."
Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I went to— I went— yeah,
there it is. I'm so sorry. It's two things here. Forgive me. If.
And it is a conjunction. In the event that.
Allowing that. On the assumption that. On
the condition that. Right?
So, we have if. If you remain in me. If you
do not remain in me. If you remain in me. So, we've
got all of these conjunctions here, okay? And so, the
next thing is, if you remain "Remain in me, Jesus,
and my words remain in
you." So, we have something here where there's a
little connection that has to happen. So, my next question
is, "What is remain?" Remain
is exactly what it is. It's a verb. It's something we must do. And it
says, "To stay in the same place or with
the same person or group." So,
"If, if you remain in me and my words
remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will
be done for you." So then the question is,
does God speak to us?
Does God speak to us? Well, for
us, and I say us as believers, it's very
simple. The answer is in the Word. It's right
there. What I love about the
Lord is that any question that you
actually have, there's an answer to it. There truly is.
And for believers, for us, we can find it in the Word. So
I'm going to read to you. I'm gonna be doing a lot of reading, if
that's okay with you. I'm gonna read from Genesis 3:1-6.
So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there too. Genesis
3:1-6. 6.
Actually, it's not Genesis 3. I'm so sorry, that's another spot.
I need you to go to Genesis 1. That's it. Let me go back a
little further. Genesis 1, and we're gonna read 26 through
29. There we are. There we are.
It says, then God said, does
any "Or let us—" Push pause. So, sorry.
Let me rewind a little bit. I'm reading from the Amplified,
so it's going to be a little different, okay? So, please forgive
me. It's gonna be a little different. Unpause.
1:26, "Then God said, 'Let us,'" Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, "'make man in our own image, according
to our likeness.'" Not physical, but a spiritual
personality and moral likeness. And let them
have complete authority over the fish
of the sea, the birds of the air, the
cattle, and over the entire earth, and
over everything that creeps and crawls on
the earth. So God created man in his own
image. In the image and likeness of God he
created him, male and female. He
created them. And God blessed them,
granting them certain authority, and said to them, "Be
fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
and subjugate it, putting it under your
power. And rule over," dominate, "the
fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every
living thing that moves upon the earth." And
I looked up the word that I kind of messed up, and that's subject—
subjugate, and it means to control, to be under.
Okay. So interesting enough, right there we
see God is already speaking. How many times did we hear,
"And God said..." Talk to me, people. How
many times did we hear it? A lot. I know at
least 2. Okay. Also, just in case, you know, I also expect you to talk
to me like if we were in a classroom. And when you see me do
this, that means talk to me. Okay. So just so you know. So this is
what I want to know. What is God's image? What is God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit? What's the image?
What is that image? Talk to me. Love.
Holiness. Pure.
Righteousness. Kindness.
Who? Peace.
Sovereign. Nice. Sacrifice,
relationship. Okay. All right. If I had to, if
I had to, if I had to take all of those things you all
just said, would the word good work?
Okay. So we were created in the likeness
of good, right? Purity,
righteousness, holiness, peacefulness, pure
love, right? That was the image. It was not this. This
wonderful thing that's going to dirt. It's not
this. It was the image, right? The likeness of
what we were created in, right? So when
he created us, he created
us to hear
him. Would you agree?
So let's look at— because he's the one who created us,
let's look at Genesis
2:8-9, for just a second.
Genesis 2:8-9, "And the Lord God
planted a garden, an oasis in the east, in Eden,
delight, land of happiness. And he put the man
whom he had formed, created, there. And in the garden,
the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree
that is desirable and pleasing to the sight and good for food." and
good, suitable, pleasant for food. The tree of life
was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
knowledge, recognition of the difference between
good and evil. Then I want us
to go to 2:16, 2:16 and 17,
okay? And the Lord commanded— there he is speaking again—
the man, saying, 'You may freely,
unconditionally eat the fruit from every tree of the garden,
but only from the tree of knowledge, recognition of
good and evil, you shall not eat. Otherwise, on
that day you eat from it, you shall
most certainly die because
of your disobedience,' is what the Amplified says. Interesting.
So, Does God speak?
Yes! If we don't do anything
else this morning, can we please clarify
that? Does God speak?
I'd love to say all the time.
He definitely speaks. So, I'm gonna do a little
bit of history, if that's okay with you. From Genesis to
Malachi, there are 20— 39 books in the Old Testament,
right? And I have another Bible
that was my very, very first study Bible that I got years ago,
and it's falling apart, and so I'm a little embarrassed,
so I don't bring it in public. So I got this new Bible,
this Amplified Bible, so you all see that. But my first
study Bible, I I read, because
from Malachi to Matthew, it gives a little bit
of the history of just life in general, what
was happening with the Israelites. And I read something that I wanna
share with you that I thought was so interesting. It said this:
For more than 400 years, the heavens
seemed to close to the nation of Israel. They
heard nothing from God.
Now we know, we started from the beginning, we know that God speaks. We
know that. We've already clarified that. He speaks. So
the question is, what's happening?
Is it the speaking, or is it maybe
something else, right? Seems. The
word seems. That it means— it's
a verb— the impression of being.
Can we agree that that simply means it's not
necessarily true? There's an impression
of it, right? So it's not necessarily true.
Why does God seem silent?
Well, we already clarified
that he speaks. Yes, do we agree? He speaks.
So why does he seem silent? Well,
we also recognize with the word "seem" that is
not necessarily true.
So, I believe the Holy Spirit has helped me with 3 things,
3 points of why does God seem
silent, because it's not him. Who is it,
y'all?
As they used to say in the good old days, "Womp, there it is."
The problem is us. And so, I
titled this "Spiritual Static."
Spiritual static. We have
spiritual static in our life.
And with this spiritual static, I've broke it down, like I said, into
3 places that I believe that we struggle with.
And the first is we are deceived.
Can you say deceived? Deceived is to
cause to accept as true or valid
what is false or invalid.
So In Genesis 3:1-6,
here we go. Now, here's Genesis 3:1-6. I knew I had it.
Here it is. Genesis 3:1-6. I'm gonna read
this. Now, the serpent was more crafty,
skilled in deceit, than any
living creature of the field which the Lord God
had made. And the serpent, Satan, said to the woman,
can it really be that God 'God has said you
shall not eat from any tree of the garden.' And the
woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat
fruit from the trees of the garden, except the fruit from the tree which
is in the middle of the garden. God said
you shall not eat from it nor touch it, otherwise
you will die.' But the serpent said to the woman,
'You certainly will not die.' Now,
in my book, there's an exclamation mark. So I'mma do that
again. "But the serpent said to the woman, 'You certainly
will not die! For God knows that on
that day you—' or, 'On the day you eat from it,
your eyes will be opened.'" That is, you will
have greater awareness. Hmm. "And you will
be like God, knowing the difference between good
and evil." And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and it was
delightful to look at, and the tree to be
desired in order to make one wise and
insightful, she took some of its fruit
and ate it. And she also gave some to her
husband with her, and he ate it. Now,
y'all, That was a lot. That was a lot
right there. And so I'm not even gonna try to unpack it all, okay? But
I'm gonna tell you a couple of things. When I was reading
this, the Lord reminded me
at the beginning, what was the first thing that God said after he
made them in the image? Does anybody remember what he said?
Say it again. Well, he did say that. He said that a little later. It
was something that I was reading, actually, this morning. He said, "To be
fruitful and multiply." He actually said that second. Good job. You're with
me. He said he
was going to give them authority over
what? All the things.
Even the things that were crawling, that were creepy, right?
The fish. You all, Eve had
authority over
the serpent. Things that make you go, "Hmm."
Now, listen, I'm a teacher. I totally understand authority.
I teach people this high. I teach people this high.
Now, when I teach people this high, I don't have a problem with saying, "Sit
down." Just like that.
Now, when I teach people this high, I don't say it like that. I
say, "You know what? I think it would be wise for you, at this
moment, to have a seat." There's a difference.
Okay? Now, both ways I told them what to do.
But there's a difference. This serpent comes, all she had to say was,
"Pfft. Nope. Sit down.
Uh-uh." So, I said, "Lord, well—" That was the
first time I actually paid attention to that. She had
authority over.
So Satan tempted her
by getting her to doubt goodness. Now, looky
here. Now, let's go back. Let's go back. What are all the things that God
said could happen? You got authority. All of this stuff, you got authority over.
See that stuff up there? Authority. Stuff right there? Authority. Then
he said, be fruitful. Now, all the youth are gone, so I think I'm
good. Okay, we all know what be fruitful means.
Okay, that was fun. Not only are you
authority, authority, authority, go have some fun. He
blessed them. The Word says he blessed them. He gave
them everything. All of this is yours, right there,
yours, right there, that's yours, right in the back, yep,
yours. But listen, this thing right
here This— do not eat from
this, because on this day you will know something that
you haven't known. Now here's the key.
Evil— because remember we said the image was good. Evil was
already creeping around. Evil was
already there. The problem was they had never been
disobedient. We heard about
disobedience this morning already. The evil was
there, right? But they were all good, and they had
authority, and they had everything. Don't be
disobedient. But the enemy was able
to deceive. One of our
spiritual statics is we get
deceived. Okay, there was a time
in my life— I'm gonna tell you the last time I did a cartwheel. The
last time I did a cartwheel. I was at a party, okay? I was at
a kid party. I was dressed up as Barbie and feeling good, okay? It
was a costume party, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm doing this." And they were
like, "Do a cartwheel." "Sure!" Did a cartwheel. And then I— "Sure!"
Did a cartwheel. And my girlfriend— thank you,
Jesus— she said, "Vonda, do you think you're doing a cartwheel?" I
said, "Girl, yeah, I'm doing a cartwheel." And let me tell you why I thought
I was doing a cartwheel. I stood.
I went, both of my hands touched the ground. My
head felt that I was upside down.
And I landed. Isn't that a cartwheel? Well,
what she did was she videoed me.
I was very appreciative to the video. I saw the video, and
I saw that I was deceived.
That was not a cartwheel. That was the last time I did
a cartwheel. But it
felt like it was a cartwheel. It felt like it to
my body, my physical flesh. It felt like it to my
brain. I was upside down.
And my feet were off the ground.
But I was deceived.
We are deceived often.
And we do not even recognize that we're
deceived because the enemy has a way
to present it. You all, we are human beings.
The enemy deceived one-third of
angels. Angelic! I still— it still
blows my mind. What did he say to them?
Because it's not like he was trying to give them any power, because he was
trying to take it all for himself. He deceived them.
Who am I, a human being without
the Holy Spirit?
He's already told us I can do nothing without him.
We are also in places
of lack of surrenderance due to our desire
to be independent.
Eve was deceived because she had a
desire, because the enemy said,
"You'll be like God." Here's the thing, we
are created in his image, so we all want
to be 'Like the image, but we
are not God.' But he
deceived her, and she thought,
'I—' You know what? 'Yes, I
can be like God.' And
that is because the exact same thing
that was in the enemy, he deceives us
with, and that's called Independent,
every woman. You know, sorry, sorry, that's a song. I just
thought about it, you know. Independency. There was a
song that Whitney, and I am a Whitney fan, I will tell you.
Sad story, but beautiful voice. That whole song,
I'm every woman, it's
all in me. Lies! It
is not! I wasn't created to be
all in me. I know that is not
true. And so many times we take small little
things, we take them for truth, and then we start walking in them.
No, I was created
to be dependent.
Created to be dependent. I'm not
independent. In Matthew 16:24, I'm gonna read
this for you. It says, then Jesus said to
his disciples, if anyone wishes to follow me as
my disciples, he must deny himself,
set aside selfish interests, and take up
his cross, experiencing the willingness
to endure whatever may come and
follow me, believing in me,
conforming to my— conforming, excuse me, to my
example and living and if need be,
suffering or perhaps dying because
of faith in
me. The reason why
Jesus said this to the disciples is because the cross
actually meant something in the Roman time.
What the cross actually meant in Roman time was
Death. When you saw someone
carrying their cross, they were going
to die. Period.
It was a commitment.
We think carrying our cross is, "I got to carry the
burden." Now, that
can't be true because in a different place, It actually says
I'm not supposed to carry the burden. He actually says he'll carry the
burden. So there's confusion. That's why it's very
important to find out and read, my brothers and
sisters, because this is a
committed death.
If you're gonna follow Jesus, you are
committed to dying. What,
Vonda? What are we gonna die to?
Don't get me started. I gotta die to
my feelings. I gotta die to my flesh.
I gotta die to my opinion, even in
America. I gotta die to my pride. I gotta
die to my fear. I gotta die to my unforgiveness.
I gotta die to my— I gotta die to my
I got that to my— I got that to my— right, dot, dot,
dot. That means there's more to follow.
Me, it's a committed death,
but we have static because we don't
surrender, because we want to be
dependent. Now listen, I'm very big on—
I am a very black and white person. The Lord helps me with the gray.
I'm very black and white. And so to me, if I don't know how something
works, I need to go to its original purpose.
Because if you do not know the original purpose of something, you will
abuse it or it will abuse you inevitably.
So I was originally created
to be dependent. So every
time I try to be independent, I
will either abuse myself or someone else.
We already clarified that God
speaks. Yes? Yes. Let's
clarify. Let's today— let's today
let it be known and hold on to it.
God, help us. Help us today to
start with the reality The truth that we
were created to depend on you.
Help us, God, to get that settled in our spirit,
settled in our mind, settled on our
lips. In Jesus' name, amen.
We were created to depend
on God.
We have static because of
a lack of maturity in and with faith.
Now I gotta go here. We don't always like to go here, but I'm
going. James 1.
Oh, it's like I can't get away from it.
James 1:2-8.
Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of
your faith through experience produces endurance,
leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace.
And let endurance have its perfect result and
do a thorough work so that you may be
perfect and completely developed in your faith,
lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom
to guide him through a decision or
circumstance, he or she is to ask
of the beloved God, who gives to
everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and
it will be given to you. But he must ask
for wisdom in faith without doubting.
Huh. Or the one who doubts
is like a sea that is blown
about and tossed by the wind. For such a person
ought not think or expect that he will receive
anything from the Lord, being a double-minded
man, unstable and restless in all
his ways. Everything he thinks, feels, and
decides Let's break
that down. Consider.
Consider does not mean it has to be. It means think.
Think about it as pure
joy. When you are faced with many trials,
with various trials—
thank you, Lord, you didn't tell us to do it. You told us to think
about it. Just think of it as joy. Why, you ask?
Because there's a process that's happening. And the process
is that you are being tested. Your
faith is being tested. Push pause. I just wanna
fix something really quickly. The world has been saying that God
is like a teacher when he gives you a test, and he's silent.
That's not true. I've
heard pastors say that, and I'm a teacher. Now, Some
teachers do that. Some teachers are very quiet during a test.
But in my opinion, which I can give an opinion because I've been in education
for about over 2 decades, the best
teacher is the one that when a child has a question,
she asks or he asks another question to cause them to think.
See, I'm not trying to give the kid the answer,
but I want them to think. So for me to just
say, don't ask me nothing, be quiet, we're taking a test,
versus I can't give you an answer, baby doll, but I can tell
you this, or I can ask you this. Because sometimes the Lord will
ask you questions for you to think.
If you look in the New Testament, you will
see all kinds of question marks in red.
Jesus is wanting us to think. Think.
Unpause. So,
the testing of your faith happens for you to produce
endurance, patience. And then
endurance must finish its complete work
so that you can be mature.
Because it messes up our hearing.
So we know, does God speak?
Who has the problem? Okay, and
we have 3 that are just standing out here. We are deceived,
we won't surrender, and we're not
mature. Now I told you a while ago I'm a first grade
teacher, so I've got I got something to share.
And that is— oh, thank you, Lord— his Word.
It says, "I am the vine. You are the branches. If you
remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me you can do—" Say it, people. "Nothing." Say it
again. "Nothing." "If you do not remain in me, you
are like a branch that is blown away and withered.
Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.
In other words, they're not about nothing. If you
remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father's glory, that
you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be
disciples.
Active listening. When I was in first grade, I
taught this every year. Active listening. What does it mean
to active listening? Because remember, it's not that the Lord
doesn't speak. It's us. It's because we are not
listening. So what is active listening? What does active listening look like, sound
like, and feel like? I'm an educator, so I try to break everything down.
So here are a couple of things that I'd like to share with you. Active
listening looks like So
take all hearing out. What does it look
like? Reading the Holy Bible.
It's what it looks like. A person reading
if they want to. Active listening. Fellowship with
other Christ followers. It's what it looks like.
It looks like what's happening right now, us getting together.
It looks like avoiding places that do not honor the
Holy Spirit. I was talking to somebody. And
I was talking— we were talking about a show, and they said, "I can watch
that show. I didn't let the Holy Spirit see that."
I was like, "Okay, come on." There are places that you don't need to take
the Holy Spirit. Okay, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying. Can you go? Yes. My brother this morning
said, "There's a lot that I can do, but should I?"
There are places that you should not take the Holy Spirit.
Being silent, being still, thinking.
That's what it looks like. It looks like when
we're actively listening to God, that we're really slowing down in
life and we're taking time to listen.
It looks like tears, frustration,
joy. Praise, expression.
When you're listening to God, I just want you to know you're not gonna hear
everything you want to hear.
So it may look like, oh, oh God,
did you not hear what he said to me?
Did you not hear? And so my face is distraught,
because that's what it looks like sometimes when you're listening to the
Lord. Sometimes it looks like this
because you're overwhelmed. That's what it looks like
when you're listening to the Lord. It looks
expressive. It
looks like Fruit of the
Spirit. You can see kindness. You
can see patience. You can see
goodness. That's what it looks like. Active listening, what does it
sound like? So this is, you don't see anything. What do
you hear? What does active listening sound like when
you're listening to the Lord? Speaking God's word,
quoting his word out loud. I told
Jonathan this morning, "Jonathan, I enjoyed
reading all that last night." He said, "Yeah, I thought there would be a
couple." I said, "Do you know why?" Sorry, this is where I get
emotional. There is power,
real power in the
Word. Every time you
speak speak it, power comes into
the atmosphere. And so this is why people like
us, we need to stay away from sayings, you know,
"It's all good." No, it's not all good. But all things
do work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called
according to his purpose. Called according to his purpose, Vonda, check. Love the
Lord, check. It will work out for my good, but this whole "it's all
good," no, it ain't. Have y'all not seen the world?
It's not all good.
But there is power when I say, "All things
work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to
his purpose." There is power in here.
So, when things happen in your life, speak the
Word. If you haven't memorized it, get it and
say it out loud. Watch the atmosphere that you're
in change because there's power.
It should sound like you're speaking it. I'm sorry,
I told you I'm already overwhelmed for the things that the Lord
is saying to me, but there is power and I
have authority. I have power because
of who lives in me, so I can say greater is
he that lives in me than he that is of the world,
because there is power in
this, and I got it.
It sounds like discussing words
for a better understanding.
And I said discussing for a better understanding because
I'm not gonna argue about what God said.
I ain't got to argue with nobody about what the Lord said. I ain't got
time for that. I think it's interesting how people think you got time. Listen, I'm
a principal at a school, and I have to talk about people's dress
attire, right? And they'll say, "Well, Miss Copeland, she always gets on me." And I
think to myself, do you really think I get up in the morning and say,
"Ooh, I'm going to work today, and I'mma find 3 people out of dress
code"? Is that really what you think I
do? I want you to logically think of
that. I ain't got time for that. I got a lot of stuff I have
to do. I don't have time to explain and
argue what somebody else said.
But we can discuss it and unpack it. That's what we're doing right
now, y'all. That's all we're doing. That's what it should sound
like. Got time to be arguing with somebody about the Bible.
It sounds like silence.
People get very uncomfortable with silence,
but if you plan on listening to the Lord, you better shut your mouth.
Period. It sounds
like the fruit of the Spirit. We have
an interesting saying: "Is my name
safe in your mouth?"
It sounds like
the fruit of the Spirit. Not just what we see, but
now I should hear someone say, Oh, well,
that doesn't sound like Pastor Barbie to me. I've never known her to
slap somebody in the face. But that's what you say happened? Oh,
well, I've never known her to slap anybody.
Not— I'm sorry, what? She slapped who? Girl!
Sorry.
Sorry, I apologize. It
sounds like the fruit of the Spirit. Active
listening feels like— now before I show you any of these,
I'm using the word feel. I want you to pay attention
to what active listening feels like.
It feels purposeful.
It feels like I was created to
depend on this God-breathing
stars being,
and I'm not here for nothing,
that I'm on earth with a purpose,
and I don't have to do it by myself.
Because I wasn't created to do it by myself,
but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. It feels
purposeful. It
feels important
that it's not about me.
But it's about Him and the glory that He
gets. And He gave me an
opportunity to say
yes and to be used
in any way He chooses, because
He created me. I didn't create
Wanda. He did.
So it feels important.
It feels like I'm heard.
My brother said on his way home,
he said, I want you to get him a suit because
they need to know that I hear them.
God hears you.
He created you. He
hears you.
But what a glorious feeling to know that
God heard my cry,
that he hears me when I Call him,
that he sees me.
And even though I say, Lord, that hurt, that hurt,
he said that and that hurt.
And if I'm listening, I can hear him say,
Wanda, give me your heart, for I'm the
healer of the brokenhearted. Heart. For
I'm close to you, Wanda, because I'm close
to the brokenhearted. So
it feels like
I'm seen.
It feels like I'm loved.
That I'm cared for.
Guys, God speaks all the time.
Where is our hearing?
Please understand, I'm not saying
that life is the way I think it should be, and that's probably part
of the problem.
Because he has a purpose.
I get to choose to be obedient,
and there is satisfaction and pleasure
in obedience. Stand to
your feet.
When we abide in him, when we remain in him,
we can ask anything
that aligns with his will,
and he'll give it. He's not quiet.
Open up our ears, Lord. I know we're about to have worship
and we're gonna close in prayer, but I personally
repeat the prayer from the beginning. Open up our
eyes to see you. Open up our
ears to hear you. And
God, soften this desired
heart to be independent to be dependent, to settle
with the fact that you created us to be dependent upon
you. In Jesus' name.
So in response to that word, if you will just gather together
with 2 or 3 around you, uh, right now, go and find 2 or
3 around you. Move. That's a moving word.
2 or 3 around you and lock hands with them. And
this is what we're going to do. We're just going to take a few moments
here with the Holy Spirit,
and we're just going to ask the Lord to help us to surrender
our will to his and that he would give us
ears to hear when he is speaking to
us, that our voice would become quiet and his would become
much louder. So let's just take a few moments and pray.
Lord, we surrender our will to you.
Our voice, we surrender it. We silence ourselves and we ask,
Lord, that your voice would be louder than
all other voices and we would listen.