Is It God Or Indigestion?!

We're starting a new series today. Anyone hear about the series we're starting today? All right, Hey, here's what I want you to do there. I don't know if the slide is in the sermon graphics, but there is a slide with a QR code on it.

If y'all could find that slide and toss it up there, What that will do y'all are quick.

Good job today. So we're in a new series called Ask Anything. I think I was looking at chat GBT, and at the bottom of where you type in your stuff, it says ask anything, And so I was like we should do that in the church. So we're doing this ask anything series and that QR code will take you to a form- or, yeah, a form- where you can fill out up to three questions, but you can jump in there again and fill out more than three questions.

Some of you have participated in that.

I'm grateful. Ask, say it with me- Anything. There's a Scripture verse where it says "Ask anything". Anyway, I'm not going to go there today.

Ask anything, Like.

There's nothing under the sun that you can't ask, I might not preach on it, but you can ask it and we're gonna do our best. So here's what that's going to look like This week. I'm just going to do a brief intro to the series based on, one of the first questions that came in. That actually is embodied in many of the questions we've received thus far.

And then we're going to do baptisms at the end of service.

So if you are here and you're going to be baptized-, yeah, hey, anytime someone starts clapping, you know you get me going. At the end of service I'm going to do a moment, where people can trust in Jesus, And that'll be the moment where, if you already know you're going to get baptized, you can walk right out of these doors-, go right out here, and I'll meet you during that final song in the lobby so that we can talk through a few things before we do baptism. And just as a reminder, baptism is not, your moment of salvation, And baptism is the moment where you take your first step after salvation, where you're professing out loud, externally, publicly, that you have trusted in Jesus and you've committed to follow him for your life. It is not the moment of salvation, It is a marker that we remember, in order to you know, just start walking in our faith.

I always say that's the first step, making your faith public.

But in future weeks, during this series, here's what we're going to do. I'm really excited about it. We're going to go through a question that I think is embodied in many of the questions And then we're going to have a little bit of a moment where Maggie or somebody else, they're going to bring up a list of questions- Maybe you submitted them during service, Maybe you submitted them online, but I haven't gone through and written a sermon on them yet- And she's going to bring up a few questions and we're going to take a few moments at the end of each sermon to answer questions on the spot. I think it would be fun.

Sometimes I'm just trying to live on adrenaline.

You know, it's not like jumping out of an airplane, but standing in front of a couple hundred people and answering questions you haven't read beforehand. That's fun. Yeah, it's going to be fun. I think it's going to.

I'll say I don't know if I don't know, but it's going to be a fun little challenge for me.

It's not hopefully it's for you, but it's for me too. I'm excited about it And we're going to do that over the next several weeks And I think it can be really helpful for you. Everyone's got questions, and if you don't ask them, the Bible says you do not have. Because you do not ask.

And when you ask, you ask with ill intent, but many of the times we're just not even asking.

We got these questions that hit our brains once in a while when we're having a bad day. We don't ask them, And then later on it happens again and we don't have the answer. But all we had to do was ask. This is your opportunity, So use that QR code, Let's ask some questions.

All right, Does that make sense?

Thumbs up. Hey, the first two rows y'all did it. I can't see the rest of you. Well, and the way we're going to do every week is: I'm going to begin with a Scripture text that I think really answers the question effectively.

It.

I could give you 50 Scripture texts that answer most of your questions, but I'm going to focus on one, because you really need to do good historical critical analysis of biblical texts when you're preaching on them, And if I gave you 10 of them, you can't really trust that I've done good historical critical analysis of it. I'm going to give you one text that I think embodies the answer or solution to whatever question you might be asking, And today's question. I'm going to read the text and I'll give you the question. All right, We're going to be in 1 John, chapter 4, and we're going to start in verse one.

I'll give you a second to get there.

If you have your phone Bible, I'll be in the NIV version. And this is, we believe, John the Apostle who's writing to a community that he's been leading several year, many years, after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And he's writing to them really to quell some potential heresies and bad theologies that are cropping up in this second generation church. And here's what he says.

He says: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are, because many false prophets have gone out into the world".

This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. He makes it so easy. This is how. Look at your neighbor Say: "This is how, This is how".

Sometimes the Scripture doesn't make it easy.

I got to do a full like exugesus for you in order to convince you that the text says this. But John helps us here. He says: "This is how" And here's what he says: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Today I want to talk to you about this question and then I'll give you my sermon title. The question that was asked pretty regularly in this first week was: how do I know if what I'm hearing is from God? Another variation of this question was: "How do I know, whether, it's me or God". Another one would say: "How do I know that God is the one speaking".

Like, I got all of those questions And it really connected with me, because there's something I say up here and this will be my sermon title today.

When I'm talking to God, I ask him: I, I'm, I'm, I'm like, "Help me, prove that this is you and not me". And what I do publicly in front of all of you is: I say: I don't know if this is God or indigestion. And so, is it God or indigestion? Is my sermon title for today.

I hope it, hope it's good clickbait, I but.

But how many of you know? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference? None of y'all. Y'all don't y'all want to sound super spiritual.

Today, I'm going to be the only honest person in this place with my little Diamondbacks jersey within three losses at home, I'm still wearing it, I'm proud of them And it is my goal today to make as many jokes about Shur Sanders as I can.

So, anyways, but let's be real. There are a lot of people- you- you want to hear from God and you're struggling to know whether it's him or not. And then there are a lot of people they're walking around like God told me this, And sometimes I- I wish they'd take a step back for a second- ask themselves the question: is that really from God? But at the most fundamental level, if you want to connect with God, you've got to know what his voice is, And so I think I can give you some real practical feedback today about what it looks like to hear from God.

The Bible says in John, chapter 10, he says: "My sheep know my voice".

Right, How do you apprehend, or even like, understand or know whether it is the voice of God? And I use this text 1 John 4:1-3, - because the main impetus of this message is to help you test whether or not, what you're hearing or feeling or thinking is from God or from something else, whether it's from God or even yourself, And I'm- I'm going to break it down in a couple different layers, But the first thing I want to break down for you is simply what the text says. John says to this group of people who are second generation believers- most of them, like almost all of them, they were born after Jesus died, So they don't know him. They've heard from John, They've heard from some of the other apostles and the disciples and their followers.

They have some good traditions.

We can tell by some of the things that are said that there are some good creeds within the church already at this point, And John is writing to them, A lot of scholars would say, because there's a new form of heresy called dosatism that has come into the mi, into the midst of the congregation that John is writing to. We're not sure of this, but what we know is that John is trying to help this congregation understand what comes from God versus what comes from something else, And he says this: test the spirits to see if they are from God. Now it gives us some clarity that I'll break down later. But this, this phrase, test the spirits.

The word test there is from the Greek word dokimaso.

You don't need to know all of that, but some people like it when I say the Greek word out loud and don't mispronounce it. So there you go, Dokimaso. But what that means, if you break it down, is it means to make a critical examination of something, to determine its genuiness, to put it to the test or to prove. Dokamaso means to test, verify, examine or prove, And I'm going to break this down a little bit further later.

But when I was looking into the Old Testament, if you didn't know this, the Old Testament was written in a couple different languages.

The two main ones are Hebrew and then there's another language. It was written into Greek. There's a Greek Old Testament that's called the LXX or the Greek Septagent, And it was written about 150 to 200 years at at the latest before Jesus came to Earth. And in that one sometimes I'll look at the Greek septagent just to understand how people were understanding language about God in the Old Testament.

And when I'm looking at the Greek word dokimaso, there, what we see is that that word is utilized regularly to talk about God shaping us similar to metal urgy.

You know what metal urgy is It's you know the process of refining metal to where it gets. You ever heard the phrase refined as through fire? That's kind of the word here for Dokamaso. It's like it's refining, it's proving, it's testing, it's examining and getting information or your habits into the best place possible.

And when it comes into the New Testament, there's this idea that you are to test and examine until you find a valid level of evidence or proof of what you believe.

So when John comes in and he says, "Test the spirits to see if they were are from God", that should spit in the face of anyone who told you not to question things when you were growing up. Here at this church, I want to give us permission to ask questions Now. I want us to ask questions out of curiosity, out of genuiness and authenticity, not out of just trying to critique or be frustrated or to prove somebody wrong. But it is important for us as believers to ask questions.

It's just another reminder.

Feel free to ask some questions during this series. And in Romans, chapter 12, yeah, Romans chapter No. Oh, a better one, I got a better one for you. Ephesians, chapter 5, .

Here's what Paul actually says about this word?

He says: "Find out, test, examine, do what pleases the Lord". Now, what does this mean for you and me? It means that our entire God is finding out, exploring, examining, trying to comprehend and understand more about his character, who he is, As we see him in Jesus, as we see him in his word, as we find him in biblical community. We are finding out, testing, examining dokimaso, about God.

That's what it looks like to test the spirits.

Now there are a couple things that I want to break down for you right now. I'm breaking down everything today. I guess- And I want to give you this point- The first thing you need to do when you're testing the spirits to see if they're from God, this is the easy one. Look at your neighbor- just the one you didn't talk to earlier- and say: "Hey, this is the easy one, This is the easy one" First thing you got to do is- you got to say it with me: Rule out.

Say "Rule out", Rule out.

You got to rule out the obvious and the opposite. This is the easy part of the message. I don't want to spend too much time here, but I feel like I need to, just cuz I know some of you guys. Just I'm kidding, a I'm kind of kidding, I'm not not fully kidding- And I'm going to give you a list of questions that you can ask yourself.

You should totally write these down or just go on to YouTube later and just steal the transcript.

That's easier. I don't know Whatever you're going to utilize later. I've given you a litmus test, a set of questions that you can utilize to initially test the spirits to see if they're from God, by ruling out the opposite and the obvious, Because there are obvious things in faith that you're asking questions about. That.

Just to be frank.

I mean my name's Matt, but just to be frank with you, you don't need to be asking this question. I've been in the church long enough. How old are I'm? 20?

27, Hannah, 37. Almost 40.

Y'all need to quit that I'm. I'm 37 years old. I've been a pastor since I was 22, 23 years old. So I've been in the church as a pastor for a little while And there are some questions that we really need to explore at Dokima Masa.

We need to test it to see if it's from God, And then there's some that fit within this litmus test that really aren't that difficult.

You're just trying to find a way out of what God wants for your life. So I'm going to- I'm going to walk through a couple of these easy ones. The first one: it's right in the text: Does it acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh? Now you might think that's not very practical.

I think it's extremely practical.

What if you lived your life and asked yourself this question before you made decisions? Does it acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh? Because if we acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, what we're saying is that God robed himself in flesh, dwelt among men, His perfection was like he was covered in the imperfection of humanity and then he died on a cross, really like in flesh, Not like these dissetics would say, And he never really came in the flesh, No, in flesh, died on a cross and then, in flesh, rose from the grave and now is seated at the right hand of the father. If we walk ourselves through that initial question when we're making big picture decisions, it would change the trajectory of a lot of your decisions.

Let me.

Let me break it down for you. You might think: h how should I interact with my boss right now? I don't know why I always bring up the boss. I just feel like you guys are real rude to your bosses or something like that.

I just I know how it is.

You know you got a calling on your life and your boss doesn't see it yet, and so you treat him in a certain way. Or you just call him up and say, "I can't be there today" And it's like five minutes to work another. Anyways, I'm not going to bring all this stuff up. What if, when you're about to make a decision to do something like that, you'd say, "Well, but Jesus Christ came in the flesh".

Am I acknowledging that Jesus Christ came in the flesh?

Because if Jesus Christ came in the flesh, that means he died on the cross for your sins And that means you've repented of your sin. If you trust in Jesus And when you repent of your sin, you're on a new trajectory in life. You're pressing onward, upward to the calling of God in Christ Jesus, And your calling entails that you live as an example for other people, That you live in such a way that you are attracting- Paul says, the fragrant aroma of Christ Jesus. And if you go and you call it last minute, when you're not really sick, what kind?

What are you smelling like?

It don't smell good. I'm just saying, if you acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh with every decision you make, it'll make it way easier for you to make the right decision. The problem is, many of us aren't even thinking about Jesus. Whether it came in the flesh or not is just an aside.

It's like I ain't thinking about God, I'm thinking about me And I'm not judging you for that.

We all fall into that category. Christian, non-Christian. We all struggle with this innate narcissism, especially as Americans. I don't know how the other ones live, but I know how we live.

We naturally struggle with this narcissism.

But when you begin reflecting on Jesus in every aspect of your life, everything will shift. When it comes to your marriage, You're thinking: "They weren't the person I'm marrying". We Let's affirm first that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He came in the flesh to drop or to break down the dividing wall of hostility between you and God, in order to fully enact and consummate this covenant between you and God.

That wasn't rooted in your work.

It was rooted in his work on the cross, And he loves you so much that you had to do nothing other than receive his love. And so when you look at your spouse, that ain't the person I married. You're thinking not about any longer what they're doing. You're thinking about how am I called to operate?

My job is not to receive love from them, It's to do what Christ did for me, Because when I'm thinking about Christ coming in the flesh, he's the head of the church, He is the bride.

We are the bride of Christ, right, Like I'm just thinking about the Scriptures, I'm thinking about Jesus in the flesh, And it changes every aspect of my life. Number two: does it align, You want to say, with Scripture? Does it align with Scripture? Now, let me let me pause here, because I know a lot of us don't know Scripture very well, and that is totally fine.

If you didn't grow up memorizing Scripture, I'm not mad at you.

I didn't grow up memorizing Scripture. I was 15 when I, and then I started like reading it, and I'm not good at memorizing. I don't sit there and say, Paul, a bond servant of Christ, Jesus, called to be an apostle set apart to the Gospel of God, which was called, which is called beforehand prophets and holy Scriptures. I don't know.

I tried to memorize Romans, chapter 1, and it didn't work.

I stopped at verse three. That's not how I did it. I just saturated my life with it And so I just start saying like I'm going to read this, I'm gonna read this, I'm gonna read this, And some of it sticks, Some of it doesn't, Some of it falls off And God's probably frustrated at me about it. But guess what?

I got some, and the some that I know enables me to align my life to his life.

But I have to ask myself the question: does it align? That's right. Does it align? Some of the questions we've been asking, They don't align with Scripture.

I'll say- I say it this way quite often, I like to say it more than once so that you guys can hear it and then maybe memorize it- God won't call you to do what he already called you not to do in his work.

Come on, God won't call you to not do what he called. I'm not going to finish that, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. Think It's my distractability here. Does it align with Scripture?

Because God doesn't contradict himself, And if he said it in his word, then it's still true today And we're asking a bunch of questions sometimes about our lives.

Well, maybe God wants this for my life And they'll come up to me and I could think of it. I already used the boss illustration, I used the divorce illustration. Let's talk about the kid illustration, And this is one many of us deal with. How should I parent my kids?

Well, the Bible says, here's one: Don't let any unh wholesome word come out of your mouth, except that which is useful for teaching and edification.

Right, That's not a child verse. It's a verse that I utilize because u because half the words I've been using with my kid, when I let them get me, when I allow them to get me, emotionally unstable, I start griping at them like I'm a 5-year-old and they're a 5-year-old and I start talking: mess. Hold on, If I just align it with Scripture for about two seconds, that word that I just said probably wouldn't be a word that was wholesome enough to come out of my mouth. When I'm trying to train my kid, Bible says: "Train up your child in the way that should they should go, And when they're old, they won't depart from it".

Am I talking too fast?

Do I need to slow down a little bit? Hannah, I'm going to slow down. The Bible says: "Train up your child in the way that he should go, And when he's old, he won't depart from it". It doesn't say: let your child do whatever he wants, because he's got feelings and I need to- Hey, how do you feel about?

You should totally, You should totally develop their emotional intelligence.

Don't hear me the wrong way. At the same time, don't let them run the rouch, because the Bible tells us that we're to train them up. And even when they're mad at me, even when they're griping at me, even when they're all sad and my heart's broken cuz they didn't get that toy that they wanted, that was too expensive, and I got them a toy yesterday- Even when I can pause and say: "I'm gonna train him up", And when he's old, I'm not gonna be dealing with this, But right now I'm gonna pause and remain emotionally regulated because he's a 5-year-old or an eight-year-old. That's what I'm gonna do.

Does it align with Scripture?

And here's another thing: We're asking God questions And I wonder if God likes to repeat himself. I, I, I don't I mean God's- willing to repeat himself. He does it over and over in Scripture, but sometimes I wonder if God's looking at us, asking him a question, that that we want him to deposit into our brains and in our spirit in our prayer time, when we haven't opened his word. We just want us.

God, give me this.

God, help me understand you. God, help me in this specific area. Sometimes I wonder if God's like yo. I could, but I already did and I don't really want to repeat myself right now.

Like it's in his word, Some of this stuff's in his word, some of the questions that you're asking, they're right there in his word.

You don't have to, you don't have to wonder too hard about some of these things culture is waring with, because the Bible's pretty clear And I know there's innate complexity in some of the passages, but a lot of the times the things we think are complex are actually very simple. But because we feel a certain way, we want them to be more complex than they are. And when you look at Scripture and you start with your feelings, you're going to come at odds with alignment with God. Does it align with Scripture?

Gosh, I got, I got to.

This need to be my main point. Number three: does it produce fruit? Another way to ask that question is: what fruit does it produce? Does the thing you're wanting to do produce fruit?

Does the way that you're living life produce fruit?

We're asking for God to give us more and more of whatever thing. It might be a resource, It might be a friend group, It might be a promotion, It might be more kids, It might be a spouse, It could be any number of things that you're asking God for. Or you're asking him to develop something in you, Or you're asking him simply to speak to you, Or you're waiting for a specific way that God would speak to you. You're asking all these questions of God, But one question you should ask is: is what I'm doing, or asking, producing fruit?

You could, you could look at your lifestyle right now.

I want be careful because I don't know you that well. Some of you, but you might say: "What does God think about? I don't know, a substance, Certain type of substance" Could be one you guys think's okay, Could be one you guys think's not okay. What does God think about substance?

Well, what fruit does it produce?

Because you might, it might be obvious, with methamphetamines- Y'all all know, you know what I'm saying. You go, you go past that normal, normal, like ADHD level medication. Methamphetamine is, it's not producing something real good in you, but then the other stuff is like: well, what does social drinking produce for you? I'm not saying, I'm not saying mor.

I'm asking you to ask the question: what does it produce?

What does my choice of activities produce in my life? And you? Let's go deeper. Because some of us are doing things that are perfectly okay and could be in some ways in line with Scripture.

Let's take something super simple, like scrolling Instagram, Tik Tok or watching TV.

Right, Let's take it really simple. What is in my life? Does it? Does it produce peace?

Does it produce anxiety?

What's it producing? Because the fruit it produces will tell you whether it's you or God, whether it's Satan or God, whether it's culture or God. What fruit is it producing? I found in my life, that when I do the things that God desires, I feel a certain way.

I'm spending some time in prayer.

This morning, It was one of those amazing ones. I've had 10 prayer times that were like borderline unproductive, but this morning's was amazing for me. And I'm sitting there and I'm doing something super basic, just typing out my prayer to God, And all of a sudden, there was this overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort. And I'm not a crier.

Am I a crier, Hannah?

Tell them out loud, please. I need them to know. No, but to tears. It was weird And I've learned over the years that when something like that happens, that that very likely it's the spirit of God doing something within me.

Not every time, but I've learned to test over the years based on what it produces.

The Bible says: you know a tree by its fruit, and me. Sometimes we want to go out and act like we've got the moral high ground, but the fruit we're producing isn't edible. Think about what fruit you're producing, Oh gosh. The next one: Does biblical community confirm it?

Does biblical community confirm it?

Many of us have this theology about ourselves that I don't need to go to church because I can just read the Bible and have my own personal connection with God. And, stepping aside from the fact that that really is a post enlightenment mentality that did not exist before the 1500s, by the way, it is like it's true that you can ascend to more knowledge of who God is, that you can trust in Jesus and start following him without a local church, but that's just not the way God designed it to work: You in isolation, following Jesus. He designed it to be within the confines of a biblical community. This is how the church started together, not neglecting gathering, as was the habit of some, but to come together in unity, worshiping, singing hymns together, hearing the word of God together and testing the spirits together to see if they are from God.

Your biblical community, whether it's a small group or this community, can actually help you test the spirits to see if they're from God.

I, I think of a real basic example. You know, like Shadur Sanders got a prank call yesterday. Y'all see that. Y'all see that prank call.

Everybody else knew but he couldn't tell- And I'm looking at a lot of Christians kind of the same way- Like sometimes you're dealing with stuff- that if you were to simply spend some time in biblical community, it would take about two seconds of iron, sharpening iron- for us to help you figure out that you can shift a couple habits here and your life would be radically different.

I'm just being honest with you. It's like if you go to a personal trainer, he's going to see the things really quickly that you're doing when it comes to how you work out, how you diet. He'll see it real quickly And because of the community involved, you're going to be that much closer to your goals because you surrounded yourself with a community that helps you produce in that category? Does biblical community confirm it?

I know we struggle out over here in the western church because we got a church down every street corner, especially in the south.

But even over here there are a lot of different churches and we're connected through relationship but we're not connected through like necessarily theology, right, And so there are a lot of differences. But the truth still remains that your biblical community can help you confirm or disavow some lifestyle choices. Now it's it's tough to be open to it, but if you have something that you want to do that you're not sure what the Bible says about and you're not sure if it's the right direction, or if you're not sure that it's from God, go ask your biblical community, And you might ask more than one person, cuz I know some of you- I'm just kidding, I'm being savage today, But it's true. Like together actually helps us defend against the lies of the enemy, Biblical community is crucial.

So the older I get, the less I'm like you can go read your Bible and trust in Jesus and be fine When I mean.

Goodness gracious, God called us into biblical community. Here's the final one and I'm going to give you the real good stuff. Here's your final question in that limus test: Am I reaching? This is a motivation question: Am I reaching?

When you're asking God a question, when you're trying to gauge whether you're hearing from God or yourself or your indigestion, upset, stomach, some random person or culture, when you're trying to gauge what voice you're hearing, whether it's something Satan oriented, demonic, whether it's just you and your flesh or whether it's from God, ask yourself this motivation question: Am I reaching or is this clear?

Am I reaching or is this clear? You might find most of the questions we ask about our own morality, many of them we're reaching because we want to do the thing that we think the Bible might say no to. Am I reaching? If you're reaching, that's a.

That's just a good question, Because if you're reaching, I can ask you the fruit question, the Scripture question, the Jesus came in.

The flesh question- and you're still going to keep reaching can be like Adam and Eve in the garden, who God made it super clear what tree not to eat from, But ah, it was so attractive and they were lured in and they did the thing that got us all in a bad position right now because they were reaching. Don't reach or twist the word of God. Ask authentically, with curiosity and test those spirits to see if they're from God. All right, So there's your litmus test.

You got to rule out the obvious and the opposite, because there are a lot of things you don't need to ask me or anyone else a question about.

Bible's clear and, honestly, your conscience is clear about what you should do. You're trying to find a way into whatever you want to do rather than listen to the words of God. But if we get past to that point, or past that point and into the place where I find myself a lot of times- which isn't like waring against whether it's sin or not, asking theological questions that I've learned about up to this point- No, my question now becomes: it's not about right or wrong, It's not about obvious and opposite. It's about like these are good options.

I could do this, I could do this, I could take this job or I could remain here.

I need to discern now whether it's God and which direction God would want me to go. This is the place that I want us to be able to live in, And here's what I put here: The word for testing, and discerning- I used the word earlier. Examining All of those terms brought me to something that I learned when I was in? U high school, or maybe junior high, I don't remember.

But y'all know the scientific method.

Yeah, The scientific method, The process whereby you experiment so you can determine whether something is a theory or a fact, or you know whatever the other, I don't. That's all I know. That's, that's all I remember. But I remember the scientific method.

It was experimentation.

And when you get to this point, it's not about sin or not sin- morals are not moral- It is about experimenting, testing, examining the spirits to see if they're coming directly from the Lord or if it's you, or if it's a good option but not God's option: Experiment. So I- I wrote this here- Experiment with the good stuff, Think like a scientist, And when it aligns with the character of God. After you've tested the first way, you then have freedom to actually experiment, And I want to give you kind of a little bit of gauge on what that looks like. Like, what you're doing in this situation is you're testing or examining the flow of information and delineating between yourself and God, And this is where it gets difficult.

Man, I, It's tough, because for me, I, I, I don't, I don't.

My brain's the same size as yours, but my brain I don't know if it moves, like firing, in every which direction. Right, I don't know if you're like me, but my brain's always firing. And when I'm in prayer time, sometimes it's difficult to delineate. Is that you, Lord, or or is that me?

Like conjuring up what I think might be the voice of God, Like this is.

This is high level stuff, And that's the question I'm asking And determining how to delineate. That has been really the process of working out my salvation, with fear and trembling, knowing that God's working in me, but also my flesh is working on me still, And I'm trying. We're at war against one another And so we're trying to figure this out, And I learned from a friend, a long time ago. He, he said: "Dude, just guess, That's all".

Isn't that what the scientific method is, An educated guess, And when you're at this point, there are things you don't have to guess about.

Again, this isn't sin, This isn't immorality, This isn't the big picture stuff. This is the stuff that you could go this way. You could go this way And you're trying to delineate which pathway God wants you on, because either would be fine- Guess what this guy would do And I thought he was crazy- Still think he's crazy a little bit. He'd walk around, he'd feel something.

He thought it was a spirit, Didn't know if it was indigestion or upset stomach, And he, he got a name on his brain.

He's like I'm thinking of this name, Kate, Kate, Kate. And he'd walk around, Kate, Kate, Kate. And I'm like you look stupid bro, What in the world is that? And then he runs into a Kate And I'm like okay.

And then other times he hears a name like Jude- I'm just thinking of names, I don't know- And he walks around, doesn't find a Jude, I don't know.

He was guessing. I'm not saying you should walk around and guess at that level. You might make us look a little crazy. But at the same time, when God places something in you, it is your job to test it to see if it's from him or from you.

And if it's from you, you might look dumb sometimes.

But if it's from the Holy Spirit of God, he's going to prove himself over and over and over and over. And because you guessed or test the spirit, you're going to find God, do something miraculous, Whereas if you stayed back and were like "I don't know, I'm scared to guess", You wouldn't get there. And I just I think if you could remove that social inhibitor that says "I'm scared to do what God calls me to do", You might see him do something. Test them.

Test them.

One time I was praying over somebody who was supposed to get like they. They came to an event and I asked them how I could pray for them and they said, "Well, I just need housing". And I'm like, "I'm feel I'm going to test the Lord in this. I'm going to put it on his plate".

I said, 'Well, I'm going to pray that you get housing and if the Lord gives you housing tonight, I want you to consider a relationship with Jesus.

Testing, I was testing. And then then we go through this presentation and someone hops up there and they offer free housing. And I go up to this guy and I look at him and I'm like, "Bro, look what God did". He's like, "Yeah, but I'm not ready, man".

I tested and I saw God do something We have got to test here.

Here's an illustration. You know what this is? Antenna. I should put it here because this is you.

What's so cool about these that we don't utilize anymore, but our TVs utilize them in some form or fashion.

I don't even know, Maybe it's all digital. At this point Don't quote me on all that stuff, but I know they used to use these back when I was a kid- I'm just trying to old age, all you old people in here- - and what would happen is we were 100% confident that a signal was broadcasting from somewhere, Correct. But if we weren't getting it on our TV, that meant not that the signal was off, the antenna was bad. And so what do you do?

You start off like this: You don't know where to go, You don't know where that tower is.

Half the time It's like you with your. It's like you with your cell phone. Like I got Verizon recently and I'm walking around, I'm like in my house, cuz the tower's not near it, And then I'm talking to somebody and then the phone drops and I'm like I think I can go here, I know here. And then I find this place.

There's one spot in my whole house where Verizon works.

It's right there on my table, And if, if I lose a call, I go right there. I sit down and I don't move. I put the phone right here, put my ear pods in and I just start. I stay there for my conversations.

The problem is not with the signal, because God is always speaking.

That's what it says. Right, Seek him where he can be found and he will. He will be found by you. The problem is with the antenna.

The problem is with our alignment.

The problem was with our own understanding and inhibitors that are preventing our ears from tuning to the wisdom of God. The problem is not with God. In fact, it's so simple: Just adjust your position, adjust your tuning, your posture, and you'll get to this place where you know where to go to hear from God. And, in fact, when you're in a different position, you're not going to get the signal and you'll know when it's off.

You'll know the difference between the source and the static.

And I want to give you one last thing, because I know I'm going long. I can't help it, Sorry, Caress I. I went to this ball game last night- and it's a good game, and it was Saturday night, though, and I got church the next morning, and so we get to the seventh inning and I look at my wife and my kids- and I ruined their evening- got to the seventh inning and I was like sweetie, we got to go and the seventh inning they were losing. And then we start walking out and they were losing more and I was like this is good, made a good.

And then we get into the car and we turn on the radio, cuz we heard them screaming when we were walking to the car.

And it turns out that right after we left, they tied up, and it's against the Braves last night, by the way. They tied up and, the way that they tied up was because was it Suarez, Suarez, Anyone? No, Okay, Suarez hit a fourth home run in that game. Fourth home run in that you know how many people have hit four home runs in a baseball game until last night?

18 or 19.

That's more than per. That. That's less than perfect games in baseball. And it was right after I walked out and then they went into an extra inning and then they lost so long, then they lost.

So it's fine.

But I remember thinking, as I was prepping this, finishing my final prep on this message, I remember thinking I didn't add this as a final point, but I'm adding it now. In the end, you can adjust your position and you can ask yourself these litmus test questions that I gave you, But one thing that will remain true and help you so much in hearing from God is if you're willing to just stay a little bit longer in your time with God, Stay a little bit longer than you intended to be at church, Stay a little bit longer when you open that Bible, Stay a little bit longer when you're listening to that worship music. Spend a little bit more time in that position where you're receiving readily the signal from God, and then you'll know it, You won't be questioning it, And so I guess I give you my. My final point here is: God is speaking.

Stay in, adjust until you hear him, And I'm going to give you an opportunity, because there's some of you who have listened to this entire message and you're like, "That's cool, I don't care about my relationship with God".

And- and I'm not offended by that at all- I actually think that puts you in a really great position that you haven't like heard about God maybe your entire life. You haven't been in church maybe your entire life, And right now is a day where you can actually start learning Aresh about the character of God and start hearing his signal for the first time. And so, if that's you, I actually want to give you an opportunity to be bold in this place and test it out. Test out what happens when you trust in Jesus.

Test out what happens when you align your thoughts to God's thoughts.

Test out what happens when you start putting Jesus at the center of your life. My belief, based on tons of testing and proving and guessing, is that that God would radically shift the trajectory of your life and get you to the place where you have peace that you didn't have. Says we have to do in order to get on that trajectory is to confess with our mouth: this is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. That's it.

That's all we have to do.

It is that simple, And so I want to give you that opportunity, And the way that we do that here is: we bow our heads, close our eyes and we pray that prayer all together, out loud, for the benefit of those praying it for the first time. So repeat after me: God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Jesus Christ is the son of. I believe he died on the cross.

I believe he died and rose from the grave.

Frog me of my sin, Make me new. Make me new, And I will follow you for the rest of my life. God, I thank you so much for the people who just now made that decision and said yes to you for the first time. I also thank you for those who are coming back into a relationship with you after a long hiatus, And I'm believing right now that those very people are going to start taking steps of faith toward you.

I pray these things, believing that you've already done them in Jesus's name, And all God's people said "Amen".

Yeah, let's celebrate those.