Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Song of Solomon 2 Jesus as the lover longing to see and hear his beloved, used to open the service
1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
2 As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love.
5 Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; For I am faint with love.
6 His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me.
7 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
11 For, behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.”
14 My dove in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding places of the mountainside, Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
15 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.
17 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
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Keep this verse
Philippians 4:6
don't worry about anything, pray about everything, and you will experience God's peace
6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
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Colossians 3:15
let the peace of Christ rule as umpire in your hearts
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
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Proverbs 25:2
it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of a king to search it out, used in context of prayer and fasting
2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
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Psalm 16:7
I will bless the Lord who guides me, even at night my heart instructs me, used in context of dreams and visions
7 I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
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Job 33:15-16
God speaks in dreams and visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed;
16 Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
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Proverbs 15:22
plans go wrong for lack of advice but many advisors bring success, used in context of godly counsel
22 Where there is no counsel, plans fail; but in a multitude of counselors they are established.
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Proverbs 24:6
don't go to war without wise guidance, victory depends on having many advisors
6 for by wise guidance you wage your war; and victory is in many advisors.
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Romans 13:1
there is no authority but that which God has established, used in context of delegated authority
1 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God.
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Isaiah 62
appointed as watchmen on the wall praying night and day over Jerusalem, used in context of prayer and fasting
1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name, which Yahweh‘s mouth will name.
3 You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh‘s hand, and a royal diadem in your God‘s hand.
4 You will not be called Forsaken any more; nor will your land be called Desolate any more: but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land will be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
7 and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored;
9 but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh; and those who have gathered it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
11 Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’”
12 They will call them The holy people, Yahweh’s redeemed. You will be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
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Psalm 62
holding God to his promises, not letting him rest until his promises are fulfilled
1 My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress— I will never be greatly shaken.
3 How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
4 They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
5 My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken.
7 With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.
9 Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
10 Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.
11 God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God.
12 Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was part of Tribe's ongoing series on hearing God's voice. Pastor Brian walked through a set of practical tools he called "hearing aids," drawn from scripture, that help believers tune in to what God is saying. The conversation was interactive, with members of the congregation sharing their own experiences alongside the teaching.
What was said
Before the main teaching began, a speaker opened from Song of Solomon chapter two, reading the young man's words to his beloved: "Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is pleasant and your face is lovely." Taken as an allegory, the point was that Jesus genuinely holds those affections toward every person in the room, and that the gap between how we feel about ourselves and that reality gets bridged through encounter and revelation, not just information.
Brian framed the series by explaining why he uses the word "skill" rather than "gift" when talking about hearing God. A gift, he said, can feel like something only certain people receive. A skill is something anyone can develop and keep improving. That framing set up the rest of the morning: what are the tools, and how do they work together?
The first two tools, God's word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, had been covered in previous weeks. Brian used a tennis racket to illustrate how they work together. Some people rely only on scripture without leaving room for the Spirit's personal direction. Others chase experience without grounding it in the word. He said you need both sets of strings, oriented vertically and horizontally, to have any chance of hitting the ball.
From there he introduced God's peace, drawing from Philippians 4 and Colossians 3:15. The Colossians passage uses a Greek word that carries the same concept as an umpire, and Brian stayed with that image for a while. An umpire does not have feelings about a pitch. It simply calls it. He said the peace of Christ is meant to function that way in a believer's heart, not as a feeling of comfort or certainty that all the questions are answered, but as something that either rests on a decision or does not. Members of the congregation filled that out with their own stories, including a decision about a move to Ohio made at the top of a Death Canyon hike, and a decision Brian and Lisa made about going to Mongolia that was settled not by resolving the practical objections but by a peace that came before they even started arguing.
Brian then moved through several more hearing aids in sequence: prayer and fasting, which he described not as a way to get God's attention but as a way to quiet the noise of the soul; a personal mission statement, which can eliminate whole categories of decisions before they even have to be prayed through; dreams and visions, which he grounded in Psalm 16:7 and Job 33:15-16 while being careful to say that God is never the author of fear or nightmares; godly counsel, citing Proverbs 15:22 and 24:6; delegated authority, including pastoral authority and the authority of a spouse; and finally circumstances, which he treated with the most caution, using Jonah and Paul as examples of men who could easily have mistaken difficult circumstances for a closed door.
He pulled all of it together with a funnel image. At the wide end is the full range of possibilities for how God might be leading. Each hearing aid narrows the opening further until what comes through the bottom is something specific and fine-tuned. He said that when he has genuinely employed all of those tools together, he has never failed to see God's best come through for his life, his family, or the church.
The congregation closed the teaching time with a story from a hike in Cascade Canyon that turned into a hailstorm. A family had felt a loss of peace on the trail, ignored it, felt it again, and this time turned around. The hailstorm came anyway, but once they were heading back they felt covered rather than afraid. Brian held it up as exactly the kind of low-stakes, everyday practice that builds the skill over time.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Write down the hearing aids Brian covered and note which ones you have actually used before, then pick one you have never tried and bring it to whatever decision is in front of you this week.
- Before you make a decision you have been sitting on, pause and honestly ask whether you have God's peace on it or just comfort and familiarity, because Brian drew a clear line between those two things.
- Take notes during your personal Bible reading this week the same way Brian asked you to take notes during the sermon, jotting down what stands out so you have something to return to later in the day.
- Identify one person in your life who qualifies as godly counsel and reach out to them this week to ask their thoughts on something you are wrestling with, giving them actual time to pray about it rather than expecting an instant answer.
- At some point this week, pray the question Brian suggested: not just what do I need, but what do you want me to know about you in this situation.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian opened with Song of Solomon chapter two, where Jesus is pictured longing to see our face and hear our voice because our voice is pleasant and our face is lovely. How big is the gap for you personally between how you feel about yourself and what that passage says? What has helped bridge that gap, or what do you think might?
- Brian described hearing God's voice as a skill to develop rather than a gift some people get and others don't. Does that framing change anything for you? Have there been seasons in your life when you felt that skill was stronger or weaker, and what made the difference?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
Brian comenzó compartiendo Cantares 2, donde el joven le dice a su amada que quiere ver su rostro y escuchar su voz porque es hermosa. Usó ese pasaje como imagen de lo que Jesús siente por cada uno de nosotros, y señaló que la brecha entre cómo nos sentimos y esa realidad solo se cierra a través del encuentro genuino con Dios. El punto de partida de toda la conversación fue ese: Dios quiere escucharnos y vernos, y nosotros necesitamos aprender a escucharle a él.
La mayor parte del tiempo Brian desarrolló lo que llamó "audífonos" para oír la voz de Dios, es decir, herramientas prácticas que se apoyan mutuamente. Habló de la Palabra de Dios, la guía del Espíritu Santo, la paz de Cristo como árbitro del corazón (usando la imagen de un árbitro de béisbol), la oración y el ayuno, los sueños y visiones, el consejo de personas piadosas, la autoridad delegada y las circunstancias. Usó la imagen de una raqueta de tenis para explicar que la Palabra y el Espíritu son como las cuerdas verticales y horizontales: necesitas ambas para golpear bien la pelota. Varios miembros de la congregación compartieron experiencias propias, incluyendo una familia que aprendió a discernir la paz del Señor durante una caminata en el cañón cuando se desató una tormenta de granizo.
Brian también actualizó a la congregación sobre el viaje de misiones a Wind River, donde el equipo de Tribe gastó cinco mil dólares en comida para llenar la despensa de una iglesia que atiende a la reservación arapaho del norte. Y anunció que la iglesia extenderá su temporada en el Virginian Saloon hasta el fin de semana del Día del Trabajo, mientras buscan dirección sobre dónde reunirse de forma permanente.
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Pasajes bíblicos mencionados
- Cantares 2 (el joven y su amada como imagen de Cristo y la iglesia)
- Filipenses 4:6 (no se preocupen por nada, oren por todo)
- Colosenses 3:15 (que la paz de Cristo sea el árbitro de sus corazones)
- Salmos 16:7 (el Señor me guía; aun de noche mi corazón me instruye)
- Job 33:15-16 (Dios habla en sueños y visiones)
- Proverbios 15:22 (los planes fracasan sin consejo; con muchos consejeros prosperan)
- Proverbios 24:6 (no vayas a la guerra sin buena dirección)
- Proverbios 25:2 (gloria de Dios es ocultar un asunto; gloria del rey es investigarlo)
- Romanos 13:1 (no hay autoridad sino la que Dios ha establecido)
- Isaías 62 (centinelas en el muro que oran de día y de noche)
Read the full transcript 11,371 words
While you're standing there, a quick verse that I'd like to share with you. This is from Song of Solomon chapter two. And if you haven't spent much time in the book of Song of Solomon, one of the cool things is is it's an allegory. So the allegory is the picture is that it's not just about the king Solomon and his the young woman. It's an allegory of Jesus and his actions and his attitudes towards us, his beloved.
And in Song of Solomon chapter two, the young man says, my dove is hiding behind the rocks, behind an outcropping on the cliff or a cleft or like a cave or a hole in the cliff. Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is pleasant and your face is lovely. So the young man is speaking to the young woman. Allegorically, we can translate accurately that to mean that Jesus is madly in love with us and that the deepest desire of his heart is to see our face Yes.
And to hear our voice. Yes. And then he gives reasons why. Because your voice is pleasant and your face is lovely. Now I don't know about you, but I feel like there's a big disconnect many times between not just how I look in the mirror, which my wife is madly But how do you feel, you know?
Do you feel like like your your life, your words in your face, do you feel like your life is lovely? There's usually a big I don't know about you, but for me, I feel like there's usually a big disconnect between how I feel and the reality of those words in that passage. So what connects? What bridges the gap? It's a thing called encounter and revelation.
Yeah. When we get a revelation of his word, and then it's followed by an experience that he really genuinely has those affections in his heart towards us, all everything changes. Far be it from us, the the setup team, the media team, the Kidman team, the team that's up here on stage, far be it from us to just put on a thing so that you could check the box. I went to church today, and as a novelty, it just happened to be in a saloon. Like, oh, I so I'm so, like, against checking the box.
But what we are so for is actual encounter. That you would encounter the real, living, ever present God because of remember that detail hiding in the cleft of the rock? The idea is that when Jesus hung on the cross, his side was pierced. There was a cleft made in his side. Blood and water flowed.
The church was born in that moment. And because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, God looks through Jesus' sacrifice to actually see you as beautiful and your voice is lovely. Yes. Metaphorically, turn your face together. Because of the finished work of the cross, he is madly in love with you.
And when you experience and encounter that, so Jesus, the lover of our soul, the fairest among 10,000, the rose of Sharon, the one who comes bounding. Who is this that comes bounding up and over the hills effortlessly like a gazelle? Who who comes into the very the very close intimate places of our heart and peers through the latticework and says, awake, my beautiful woman. Awake, my bride. Come away with me.
Jesus, would you whisper that to each and every human heart in this room and watching the livestream? Come away with me. Come away with me. Come away with me. Listen for his voice this morning because he longs to connect with you because it's that connection that changes our hearts, transforms our life.
Listen to the voice
Maybe it's then you need to go to somebody today and ask him for forgiveness. Maybe there's something that's keeping you from connecting that stood down in faith from a larger denomination several years ago. And we've been doing twenty four seven prayer for over two years now with our congregation, and we have at least one to three or more people praying around the God for the last two years. And then about four months ago, God broke out in in power in a different way, and we began to worship him twenty four seven in our in our church building. So we had a twenty four seven worship going on for four months, you know, day and night, twenty four hours a day.
So we have at least two people praising him day and night. And this is going on in different parts of the I just saw a picture, and it was a man. And we're worshiping, and he was in the, like, background. And there's this big, thick, heavy curtain, And he was, like, just peeking through the curtain just so curious what was going on in this room. And I'm not saying that's, like, like, gonna happen here under this curtain, but I think in the spirit, there's someone that's really, really, really, really wants to be that veil removed and really wants to be inside, but it's just taking a step and peeking through the curtain.
And I was like, woah. I wanna be in there. How do I get in there? You know, I just felt the voice of the Lord so struggling to say, I see you. Come on.
I see you, Peekay. Come on. And so I just pray right now that, Lord, whoever is curious Yes. But looks in and feels like, oh gosh, I don't know if I belong there. You, yourself, Lord, are saying to them, I see you.
Yes. I see you peeking. I see Come in. You are welcome in my house. You are welcome in my house.
I already know where you've been. I already know all the stuff and all the junk you can't hide from me. I see you peeking. Please come in. I just feel like the Lord just wants to wrap you up in his love today if that's you.
If you feel like you're peeking and he's just saying, come on in. Come on in and be loved by him today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be super cold.
The curtain open right Lord, you know you know us. You know who we are today, so we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, everybody said Amen. Amen. Well, there's more coffee back there.
Donuts, greet somebody. We have visitors today, which is wonderful. Welcome. Welcome to Tribe. We're so glad that you found us.
And then get out your bible. Amen.
Good morning. Well, how's everybody this morning? Okay. Alright. Some of you some of you are good.
Some of you are awake. It's so funny. Human nature. Like the one thing that I don't want y'all to do, and you're just totally doing it, sitting like as far back as possible. Now you don't have to move right now.
But that was what I was like, alright. When we do our when we do our trial run at the here at the Virginian Saloon, let's see if humans are gonna stay humans. Well, turns out you're human. So there were others that were, like, compelled, fallen told to, like, please sit sit closer for the pastor's fragile ego. We just went to Wind River, and if you don't know what Wind River is, it is a four hour drive down the road up over Togiti Pass.
And four hours down the road is economically the poorest county in the state of Wyoming. It borders or is close to, separated by a county or so, Teton County, which happens to be the wealthiest county in the nation. Take out where I don't know what county Laguna Beach is in or Manhattan right here. If you're traveling through, you're like, oh, that's why food and my hotel and my gas are so expensive. Welcome.
Some of us live here with that reality. But just down the road, the poorest county in all of Wyoming is right near the town of Riverton, Wyoming, and there is a a large Native American reservation there for the mostly for the Northern Arapaho tribe. And several years ago, tribes started a partnership with a church that is as a heavy outreach ministry, loving on the families and individuals and the and primarily, really, the children that are on that reservation. And we have been there four times within the last thirteen months or so. Mhmm.
We've we've helped them refurbish domestic violence shelter. They have a food pantry that's going they have a church. The name of the organization is called Foundations for Nations. You can Google them. If you've been a part of Tribe for any while, you know.
We've been talking about going on a on a mission trip there to do a VBS vacation bible school for the elementary students for some time. This past week, we were there and it was wonderful, almost 90 students a day. Colin Crippen is here today. He went on one of those mission trips and he was doing some really awful menial was it sweaty or was it freezing work on the building? It was freezing in the morning and then
two hours later it wet. Was sweaty.
Okay. Yeah. So yeah. Typical. And and God whispered to his heart and invited him to invited him to do the internship there.
And so he's been there and now he's living there full time. And it's just really cool to see the connections between our tribe family and this church. How many of you have been with us on a trip thus far either for like relief or VBS? A lot of our tribe family has, and there'll be more opportunities for you to go in the future. One quick highlight and Amanda will share a few pictures and anecdotes when it's her turn this morning.
But they they have 58 teams that come through throughout a year of doing various service projects or helping with different things. And of those 58 teams, Tribe is the only church that has said, hey, you need help with your food pantry, like, let's help you out. And if you remember, it was either last Sunday or the Sunday before last. Beyond the tithe, we received a special offering that was to go to help fill their food bank. And because of your generosity and your giving, Tribe was able to spend $5,000 to go to Walmart.
Our whole team was in there. We had like like hundreds of pounds of ground beef and like cans of soup galore and ramen noodles and vegetables, and potatoes, and peanut butter. Just all kinds of things that you would fill a food pantry with because their food pantry is dependent on, like, variety of trucks that come through to drop off surplus, and the pickings had been really slim. But because of your generosity, we spent over we spent about $5,000, bought out Walmart, came back, stopped their pantry, and they were so happy. So give the Lord a hand back.
And I wanna talk about just one more money thing really quickly. This is week four of being at the Virginia. And if you remember, for for two years now, we've been at the TMC, Tribe Ministry Center, which is small, like, live work unit that Tribe owns that we've been having our Sunday morning service and our Tuesday evening service in. And this opportunity came available and we said, hey, what if we just did like a little trial run-in a bar because that kind of fits with tribes vibe. Like, somebody's gotta be the black sheep of the family here in the valley.
First b was like, I don't want it. Presbyterian church was like, I don't want it. Fresh Life was like, well, maybe us, but then God moved them to be the black sheep right over the hill where we love Kevin Guido and all that God's doing over there. So we're like, wow. We'll be the black sheep.
We'll have church in a bar. Fits us really well. We've done this for four weeks and this was the end of our of what we told you would be our trial period. And we need to make a decision from here about about what to do. I would like to inform the board of trustees now, personally, for those of you who are current board members and former board members, that that among the pastor's council, which which would be like our group of elders, and among the staff were like, hey, let's let's link in the runway that we're here to see what God would do and to just be obedient with what we feel like he's calling us to do.
And so we had a quick conversation with Virginia, and we gotta like ink out a couple things. But what we've decided to do is extend our stay here at the Virginian Saloon until Labor Day weekend. And and so so here's what here's what that means. And I believe we have a comment from a board of trustees right now. Get the microphone.
Brian, without benefit of a formal meeting or a thorough review of the financial statements,
That's it. We could keep the card. As you may recall,
I was in favor of this
from being one. Yes. That is true. Thank you, Bob. Thank you so much.
So so our our next opportunity to reevaluate and reconsider will be Labor Day weekend. So right about that time, we'll let you know what we feel like the direction of the Lord is as we are leaning in to hear his voice, which ties into the conversation that we're gonna have. But one last money thing. It costs $6,800 for the first four weeks. God has been good with his financial provision.
It's going to cost $15,300 to get us to through these next nine weeks just for this rental space. That's not our total operating budget, but $15,300 is a significant portion of tribes little but mighty operating budget and and what we're doing here. And so I'm not asking you to give anything because if I were asking you or making an appeal to you, I'm gonna build you up in a second, but but but listen to what I'm gonna say. Chime is not in any way dependent on your finances nor would I ever want us or me for my salary to to be to be dependent on your financial giving. Like, Lord broke me at that a long time ago.
However, now to go to my you very well may be a conduit of the Lord's giving. The Lord is the sole financial provider for this church. Yep. It is up to him 1000%. And I'm so glad because, like, sometimes you're a little flaky.
Just like you. Right? But God, he is always faithful. And the Bible says that he who begun a good work will be faithful to see it to maturity and fullness and completion. So in some ways in some ways, you're completely off the hook for feeling any response, any financial responsibility to give.
But you very well may be on the hook to be a conduit for his giving. Does that make sense? Yes. Mhmm. And so praise the Lord.
Mhmm. Praise the Lord. It's not like, oh my gosh. How much is this pastor trying to preach or trying to ring out of me this week? I'm not trying to ring.
Ain't nothing out of you. But the Lord may choose to release his project, his financial provision through you. And all you have to do is say, here I am, Lord. Send me in whatever way that that he moves on your heart. Got it?
Got it. Got it. Praise the Lord. Okay. So we've been in a series of conversations called hearing God's voice.
And if you're new to try it, I really do want this to be a conversation. Instead of just a monologue, my preference is that it would be a dialogue. I want us to to to interact with one another as we interact with the material and God's word and the conversation that we're gonna have today. I love it when I get to hear from you, your comments, your questions, your connections. And what do I mean by connections?
I mean, like, I I might say something or somebody else might have a comment and that reminds you of like, oh, really cool. Like a hyperlink to another passage in the bible or a principle that you've learned. Oh, man. I would love to hear it. And so just like Lisa said earlier, there are mics scattered throughout the scattered throughout the room.
And just like the eyes of the Lord that roam to and fro, their eyes roam to and fro to and fro ready to hand you a mic so that you can make a a contribution or or ask a question. Because I really I don't want to lose the collaborative format that we've established at the TMC. Can you do that? Yes. Can you do that back row seaters?
Don't know.
I can come into the back row first.
Oh, yes. That that's why Gretchen is posed there. Ready. Ready. Just in case Sydney has a little comment there she would like to share.
So while we've been hearing we're trying to hear the voice and the leadership of the ward for tribe as we are are trying out the saloon here at the Virginian, we thought, why don't we have a series of conversations about the skill of hearing the Lord's voice? And the reason why I say skill and not a gift is because if it were a gift, in my mind, that might mean if I give Lanisha the gift, then that means that Chancey doesn't get the gift because you got it and you don't. Well, I guess she's like, she gets to hear God's voice and I just don't. Or the way that you hear some people talk, like, the Lord was just really good speaking to me and I feel like the Lord said, you know, these different things. And it could be really easy for you to be like, wow, I guess they could hear the voice of the Lord, but I can't.
The good news is even over the din of the of the slushy machine in the corner, hearing the voice of the Lord is a skill to develop. And the great thing about a skill is that we can always build and improve upon a skill. And so we thought as we are practicing the skill of hearing the voice of the Lord for a tribe, when it comes where we're meeting, why not we open up our journey and and turn hearing the voice of the Lord kinda like into a a laboratory so that we can all go on this journey together. And if you remember the last couple of weeks, we've talked about the different competing voices for our attention. We should include ice makers and slushy machines.
We've talked about the importance of hearing God's word. And we've also talked about listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. Would you hand me that right there, please? Okay. Thank you so much.
Object question. So this is a tennis racket for those of you listening on a podcast. I got a tennis racket in my hand. And when it comes to hearing God's voice, if you only ever take a swing at the ball that comes your way with the strings of God's word combined with the strings of the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna
be
alright. That's why strings of a tennis racket are made just for this analogy. That's why the strings of a tennis racket are are oriented vertically and horizontally. So that they make this framework and this grid. You know, there are there are some people that we could we could go off into both sides of the ditch.
Right? Where they they don't have a frame of reference in the context of their Christian walk that would allow for the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to them. And so it is only God's word. Only, only, only without the unique, specialized, personalized leadership of the Holy Spirit that's always based in and grounded and referenced in God's word. So they only have strings oriented vertically.
There are others that are so free tooty about experiential experiencing the voice of God that they lose their grounding in God's word and they've only got horizontal oriented strings. If you want to hit the sweet spot of the racket of whatever it is you're trying to engage with the lower arm, you gotta have vertically and horizontally oriented strings, and then you at least stand a better chance. But what I wanna talk about today is a a title that I'm calling hearing aids because I don't know about you, but when it comes to the voice of the Lord, yes, we have his word. Yes, we have the leadership of the Holy Spirit. But God has equipped us with additional tools or principles that are grounded in his word that we can utilize that aid in our ability to hear from the Lord.
Does that make sense? Mhmm. So that's where we're going today. And I would just like to check-in with you really quickly to see if there is any questions or connections or comments that you might have thus far. And that also gives me a chance to take a break and look at my notes.
We have his word. Oh, also let me tell you this. I don't know how you take notes, but I try to structure my outline, the words that come out of my mouth, and the keynote to set you best up for taking notes. I don't know about you, but my brain has a retention rate of about this tennis racket. Right?
Why was that such a strong amen? Was that Like my brain is very my brain is very leaky. But if I write it down, I'm way more likely to remember, retain, and it helps me to stay engaged. Many times you will hear me say, hey, you might not be able to turn there but write down the address and then get this key principle and then we keep going. I was on the drive here, I was thinking this this don't this is not a this is not a little spanking But I'll just state it clearly because I don't know if I've ever said it out of my mouth.
I have an expectation of you that you will take notes. I have I have spent hours every week, and I'm not saying that I feel disrespected if you don't take notes. That's not what I'm saying. But I spend hours every single week and for months out of the year trying to hear the voice of the Lord and asking the Lord, what is it that you would like me to impart to the heart of your people? I believe that what the Lord has to say, his words, my mouth, are so valuable and life giving to you.
I understand I'm, like, not the world's greatest preacher. That's okay. I may be the world's most handsomest preacher to my wife, But I but I understand that. But I do believe that there is such great value in what the Lord would have to share that if you jot these things down, it can also help prime the pump for your quiet time later during the week as you go back and review and consider and chew on. So I had an expectation that you would take notes.
Got it. Got it. So we have God's word as that first method and primary and and foundational method of hearing from the Lord. His word. His word is alive, living, active.
It's sharper than two any any two edged sword. We've talked about this several weeks ago. The second is the guidance from the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, it's better for you than I go. So that when I go, I can send him to you and he will lead you and guide you into all truth.
And the purpose of Jesus is to reveal excuse me. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Jesus to your heart. I just I just wanna get to know Jesus. Well, cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and you'll get to know Jesus really, really well. I would tell my elementary students when I was a children's pastor, the Holy Spirit is like mobile Jesus.
He can be everywhere. And unlike AT and T and Verizon, his coverage is ubiquitous worldwide. So God's word, the Holy Spirit. Now we're getting into some new territory now. Here is another method that I use to hear God's voice, and that is God's peace.
His peace is a a a big tool that I rely on for his leadership. You can jot down this verse and or turn there. It's Philippians four six. I know that some of you know it really well. It's also up on the screen.
Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all that he's done. And then you will experience God's peace. Oh, man.
How many of you who've walked with the Lord for any amount of time understand that principle of relying on the Lord's peace for leadership? Oh, yes. Good. Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. It's not like I've got some sort of, like, secret cheat code or something. God's peace is so important. God's peace can it can transcend all of the other circumstances. All of the other circumstances could be saying, this is foolish.
This is not a good idea. This is not sound. But if you have God's peace, oh my goodness. There's something amazing about it. In the midst of chaos and turmoil and and uncertainty, when you have God's peace, It's just it's I feel like it it what happens in my heart is like what Jesus did when he stood up in the boat and calmed the storm with just one word, peace.
It just just radiates. This is another incredible verse. I believe we have it on the screen. Colossians three fifteen. Let the peace that comes from Christ man, oh, there's so much to unpack there.
Like, that comes from Christ, not from any other source, but from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body, you're called to live in peace and always be thankful. Isn't it interesting that those two verses, the peace of the Lord, there is a connection to being thankful in prayer. More on that later. Do you see how I have the word rule underlined in your hearts?
It's a great word for you to go back and scratch around and dig around a little bit. If you look in the Greek, that word rule, it's the same word or concept that we get the word umpire from, like in a baseball game. Alright. I'm going out on a limb and I'm gonna expose my complete ignorance to, like, team sports, especially baseball. Somebody help me out.
But an umpire What? Foul balls. Oh, and foul balls. Awesome. Okay.
So umpire an umpire after every swing doesn't say, ah, that was a pretty good swing or that was a lousy swing or I like that swing or I have some emotional feelings about that swing. Imagine if there was no umpire but the pitcher got to decide if that was a ball or a strike. How how well would that game go? Not very well. How well would that game that same game go if the I almost said swinger, but batter.
If the swinger of the bat the batter got to make the call. So every time he missed like, that was a ball anyways. Right? It would just be like the game wouldn't go anywhere. That's why you have to have an umpire because the umpire arbitrates, adjudicates, and makes a determination on whether it's a ball or a strike or the ball or if it's a thou ball.
That is that word in the Greek. And let the peace that comes from Christ, let his peace be the umpire of your heart. So not the opportunity that could be coming through, not the opportunity that could be coming through, not what you feel about it, not what others may say, none of those are to be the umpire of our heart. But the Bible says, let the peace of Christ rule or be the umpire. So that the isn't that good?
So good. So that the so that the umpire of the Holy Spirit can say, let that opportunity go. But but but but but just just let it go. My peace is not on there. Or you should really swing at this.
Are you kidding me? I could that's there's no way I could ever connect with the ball at that ball. Here comes this opportunity. Swing and swing for the fences. Let me hear you share something about the peace of God being an umpire for your heart.
Thank you. So
on the fourth last year, so just in
a few days, I was doing Death Canyon, going up to the top, parked the car, and I was like, okay, Lord. You gotta tell me what I'm doing. Am I going to Ohio or am I staying here? Because at that time, I was not I was not about buying them. I was ready to leave.
Mhmm. So I did the 19, whatever, miles up to wherever the top is, the Camden Park, and praying. And all I felt and a truly was just to bring on her peace because I wanted to be upset. Like, my own heart wanted to be upset the whole time, but I just cannot free myself to be upset with the decision that the world was putting on my heart because I knew it was good. And, like, I was just it was honestly supernatural, not of this world.
Because I got down back in my car, and I just felt like, but the Lord is with me. But the Lord puts his hands on, it's gonna be
I was just gonna say, I know that I one thing I've learned about his peace is it doesn't mean that all the answers come. It just and sometimes when the answers aren't the questions aren't answered is sometimes the easiest way to feel his peace. It look. We for an example is we were praying about whether to go to Mongolia, and I was dead set that there were too many what ifs. There were too how would we get medical care for our kids if we were in the middle of nowhere?
How how how would this work out? And how will we quit our jobs? Like, how what? And then we sat at a, like, a sidewalk cafe, and we were ready to just battle it out over this table. And I was gonna stand for the no.
This isn't what's right for our family, and Brian was gonna pitch again how he felt like the Lord had spoken to him. And we sat down at the table, and we just we prayed before we even started to talk. And we just said, Lord, if this is of you, send your peace. And we didn't even have to hash anything out. His peace came.
We're like, alright. We're going. The what ifs are all still there, but his peace just came on the what ifs Mhmm. Which is how we knew because we were like, it's gotta be you. Because in my own strength, I still have all these questions, but
there's just a piece that literally surpassed all understanding. That's so good. So when an airplane flies in the sky, it does not have a device that makes gravity turn off that enables it to fly. It just operates at a higher level of physics. The law of aerodynamics transcends the law of gravity as long as the laws of aerodynamics are being followed.
And so the what ifs still might be there, but there's something about that peace of the Lord that transcends.
Sometimes I get skeptical of, like, other people that start claiming to have God's peace about something that doesn't seem to, in my interpretation, align with the word of God or so, like, they're almost like, oh, like, the Lord told me to to break up with you or whatever. Like, one of those situations, you know.
You know? Right. And I'm like, really?
Like, is that like, you got you got peace over that? And I guess I'm skeptical. And when I asked the Lord about it, I'm like, hey, Lord. Like, give me peace about their decision.
And I don't have it. So
I guess in those
situations, like, am I supposed to be like,
you're alive. You don't have
peace about that? Like, I wanted to become the judge.
Yeah. Yeah. So so that's good that he would say that to you because there's only one umpire, and that's the Holy Spirit. Now there can be there can definitely be times when there is authority in our life to help guide and nurture others, and we're gonna actually talk about delegated authority. But one of those is the role of a parent over a child.
And there comes a time there's a big season when we help our children calibrate that sensitivity to the holy spirit. When our kids were going to school, we would on our way to school, we would pray every morning, teach them. We would say, Lord, teach us to Listen. Listen to and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so there are times when when you get to kind of be like the guest umpire, you get to stand behind the umpire, but it's for our children and there are a few delegated authority situations.
But when it comes to peers, when the holy spirit's like, I don't have to tell you nothing, that's just because he doesn't have to tell you nothing. Well, what
Jay said is a perfect example of the tennis racket of God's peace of God's peace and the word. Like, he's not gonna give you peace about something that doesn't line up with this word. I just really have
a lot of peace about robbing this bank. Just feel the word's peace on it. Right? Like that that I mean, you can say that, but but that's not the word's peace. Did you have something?
I just have my study. I will be waiting for I got you to find Oh, yeah? Sure.
Need to at least without
the hours and We'll pass it back to Kat.
Perfect. I'll come see you next. I promise.
I was gonna say something that I learned about peace is peace isn't the same as comfort. I'm the queen of wanting things comfortable, but I think a lot of people mistake the Lord's peace for just being comfortable. They're like, oh, I'm nervous about it, so it must not be the Lord's peace, which that's not
always true.
Peace doesn't have comfort.
So are you are you saying that you can have the Lord's peace, but also still be really nervous?
Yeah. Lord's peace can still be nervous or still be uncomfortable.
Oh, man.
Comfort is synonymous with the Lord's peace.
Yes. Oh, I love that. What a word great practical thing.
No one would ever go on a mission trip with peace and comfort.
Yes. Yes. Right. Okay.
Control my life anymore. When you give your life. Because if you're the master of your life, God can also be the master of your life. I think you can only have this if you've really given that up. You've given up control of your life.
And
Oh, that's so good. You're you're on the track to where I'm going today. How many of you like to understand before you obey? The reason why is because we come from a long line of Greek thinking and philosophy and input that that that in order for us to to master it and obey it and build it into our life, we have in order for us to adopt it, we have to understand it, and then we can open it. How many of you know that that's not how God works?
This is where the kicking the dust in the umpire happens. Right? Like when a when a baseball player doesn't agree with the call that was made, he just gets so worked up and he's so mad. What am I gonna kick dust at the empire? God, if you make that call.
But the way that God works is that he asks us to obey and only after we obey, even if it's taking this previous step of obedience, after we make incline our hearts towards obedience, then understanding comes. Yeah? So we have God's word. We have guidance from the Holy Spirit. We have God's peace, which we just talked about.
Now I wanna introduce you to another hearing prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting. Wouldn't it be great if we could just get the answer lickety split? Oh, that would just be so great. Or or the provision, like, Lord, we're gonna step out and and go to the Virginia for four weeks and then just like all of a sudden we get a huge rebate check from the government or, you know, a sack of gold lands in our black blood.
But that's like, we were just like, oh, okay. That's really obvious. But there are times when God invites us into the wrestling with him to bring about his will in our life and on planet earth, if that if that makes sense. The Bible says in Proverbs twenty five two is for it's the glory of the God. It's the glory of God to conceal a matter, and it's for the glory of a king to search it out.
In that That's good. There is a process of prayer and fasting, not trying to get his attention, but but when we fast, we quiet the noise of our soul to be able to hear and receive from him. And a great prayer and and acceptable whatever comes out of your mouth is an okay prayer because he loves to see your voice. He loves to see your face and hear your voice. But a prayer of and and pour your heart out to him.
Why did that girl break up with me? Why didn't I get that job? You can ask why questions. You can ask when questions. You can ask where questions.
You can ask all of those questions. You can pour out your part to him. But a question of maturity is what do you want me to know about you in this situation? What is it that you want me to learn about you? Whatever I'm going through.
Because and I don't want to demean your human experience. I'm human also, and I've had all of those emotions and prayers and frustrations as well. But when we ask that question, it repositions our heart to be able to hear more clearly from him about what he wants to talk about. Because, I don't know if you know this or not, as as valid as your emotions and questions and things are that are on your heart that you talk to him about, whatever he wants to talk about is always way more important and way more relevant even if it seems irrelevant to you. Have you ever like brought something to the Lord and you've been praying about it?
Maybe you've even been fasting. You know, like, I wanna talk about this, I wanna talk about this, I need direction about this, I need to and God's like, and let's talk about this. And it seems as though it's completely unrelated. Well, that's because he's up to something. When we position our hearts as surrender, as you mentioned a moment ago, oh, it just opens up our heart.
Prayer and fasting unlock breakthroughs. When you shared just a moment about your church in Castle Rock, I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Whoever thought a preacher could come out of Boulder, Colorado, that makes me a little weird, but here he is. Isaiah 62 talks about, I've appointed you as watchmen on the wall, and night and day you will pray over Jerusalem. And there's this idea in Psalm 62 of holding God to the promises that he made.
I won't let God rest and I won't take rest until we see or grab a hold of all of God's promises and and to be context contextually accurate, it's talking about in connection to the future and destiny of Israel and Jerusalem, but it can also be for us. Prayer and God's word, guidance from the Holy Spirit, God's peace, prayer and fasting. This is not on the screen, but as a small sub point, I'd like to include your mission statement. For those of you how many of you have either started and and either sold or still operate your own business of some sort? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine going into business with yourself or with a partner without any idea of the product that you're going to make or sell or manufacture or the service that you're gonna provide or the goods that you are gonna bring to market or distribute like, it would be ludicrous.
Hey, you wanna start a business? Sure. And then you have no discussion of what are we gonna do with the business. In a similar way, so many people get married and not really know why or have a vector to their marriage. Yes.
You love each other. Great. Fantastic. But in the same way that you wouldn't start a business without a a a mission, a statement of purpose. Did you know that God also has in mind for you too a statement of purpose for your marriage?
And a secret? And a what? And for people who aren't married. Oh, yeah. And for people who aren't married.
He has a mission statement for your life. What's really cool is when two single people who have have through a process of like getting close to God and discovering discovering their purpose and their passion and their identity, when those two come together in marriage, you're like, well, that's your mission statement? Well, there's so many of that elements that are in my mission statement too and it dovetails together and they're like, woo hoo, off you go and you change the world. But a mission statement can help guide you in hearing the voice of the Lord. A mission statement can help guide you in hearing the voice of the Lord.
When Liz and I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was a part of our mission statement that we had developed years earlier. One of our core values in our mission statement is this is the word family. And we, as a family, define family, we interpreted that to mean that when we went to Oklahoma, Lisa was gonna stay home with our small kids and be a full time mom. That was her full time job, and I was going to work. And if you know our story, you know that many many months there was a lot of month left over at the end of our paycheck.
Mhmm. But because we had already pre prayed and decided that, it was just non negotiable. We didn't have to worry about like, well, should listen pick up a side job or, oh, should we do this and, like, should we hear the voice of the Lord? Because we had already heard about we had already heard the voice of the Lord earlier on. And so prayer and fasting and a mission statement can help guide you as a hearing aid to hearing the voice of the Lord.
God's word, guidance from the Holy Spirit, God's peace, prayer and fasting. Here's the next one. Dreams and visions. Dreams and visions can be a powerful way to hear the voice of the world. This is probably a good opportunity to say that if you were to take any one of these in isolation out from the context of the others, which is what you were talking about a moment ago, you can get yourself into a ditch real quick.
Right? But when this has a biblical holy spirit led framework, this can be a powerful way to hear God's voice. Mhmm. You can write these verses down. Psalm 16 verse seven.
I will bless the Lord who guides me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. That's cool. How many times have you gone to bed fussing and fussing and Fretten. Fretten over a vexation and then you wake up in the morning and you're like, oh my gosh.
I have new insight to that. And it might be specific specifically related to a dream you have. How for how many of you that's happened? Yes. Dreams and visions.
Look at this verse. Job chapter 33 verse fifteen and sixteen. I'll read the whole verse and then I'll explain one little messy part that you will quickly see in the verse. Job chapter 33. He speaks in dreams and visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.
Great. Wonderful. But I didn't want to remember verse 16. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings. Number one, I would say this.
Take another run at this verse from several different translations and it'll ease any nervousnesses that you might get from reading that verse as it is. Read a cup take a run, take a couple different runs from a few translations. Okay. That's right. Number two, God is not the author of bad dreams or scary dreams or nightmares.
In no way ever is he the author of any bedrooms. He would not take advantage of you in the vulnerability of your subconscious state to plant fear in your heart or in your mind. That is not him ever ever ever. That would be the equivalent of a of a dad going into his child's room and as they were sleeping peacefully just scaring the daylights out of him. Not cool.
And God would never do that. Now I will say that God can certainly speak warnings to our heart in a dream. Mhmm. You know, like old Ebenezer Scrooge. Okay.
God's word, guidance from the Holy Spirit, God's peace, prayer, and fasting, dreams, and visions. We're we're on a we're on a homestretch here. The next would be godly counsel. Godly counsel. Proverbs fifteen twenty two says this, plans go wrong for lack of advice, but many advisors bring success.
And not people that would say anything that your itching, tickling ears want to hear. Oh, I think you should. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, we all need people that would be cheerleaders for us, but we have to have discernment about what voices we allow to speak into our life. And that's what I mean by godly counsel. Invite godly counsel because he's he's not my papa, but he is a papa. I ask papa Burr right here all the time.
Hey, papa Burr, what do you think about this? What are your thoughts on that? And what I love about Papa Bear is he understands you don't have to call him Papa Bear. But Bear is his real first name. But you can ask Burr, hey Burr, I'd love to pick your brain about something.
And what I love about any time I come to Burr with a question or needing advice, he doesn't just shoot from the hip. There have been times where he said, you know, let me chew on it and get back to you. I would love an instant microwave response, but what I really appreciate about Bird and there are lots of other men and women in this room who I would seek godly counsel from, who genuinely take the time to hear from the Lord and say, here's what experience tells me. Here's what I feel like I could be hearing from the Lord about this situation. And or I know you, b, and and I'd say maybe modify or tweak it, or go for it, or that's a disastrous idea.
He has the courage to be able to say, hey, Pete, you may wanna pump the brakes on that. I love godly counsel. Proverbs twenty four six says this, don't go to war without wise guidance. Victory demands on having many advisor. It depends?
Victory depends. Thank you. Don't go to war without wise guidance. Victory depends on having many advisors. Now let me just say this to all the husbands in the room.
Maybe you know this, maybe you're newly married and you don't know this. I can't tell you how many times the voice of the Holy Spirit providing life saving counsel and direction for my life has come to me through the voice of my wife.
The
voice of the Lord for my life, the voice of the Holy Spirit has literally come out of the mouth of my wife. Now there's all kinds of things that come out of the mouth of my wife. All of them blessing and uplifting and lovely and beautiful. But as spouses, it's easy to be like like, oh, my wife, Lisa, is talking. But through wisdom and discernment, there are times when you're like, ugh.
And mostly, it's when you wanna kick dust at the umpire. But but the voice of the Holy Spirit often speak, and I'm speaking specifically husbands to wives. Of course, husbands can give wise advice and be the voice of the Lord for their wives. But a lot of times, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaks to me through the voice of my wife listening. Husbands, how many of you know how many of you are picking up what I'm putting down?
I don't care. You're wise men. Here's the next one. Delegated authority. Delegated authority can be a hearing aid just like like papa Burr as his delegated authority in my life.
He used to be. He served on a board of trustees. Now he is an elder and somebody that I have respect for, and so he has delegated authority in my life. As your pastor, from God, I am your delegated spiritual authority over your life. And there is a broad spectrum within this room of how well you understand and submit to God's delegated authority of my role in your life.
Delegated authority, a parent, a coach, a teacher, a judge, delegated authority. Romans thirteen thirteen one says, there's no authority but that which God has established. I love what Peter says. Remember before he even really knew Jesus, Jesus approaches him on the shore of the lake and says, hey, Peter. Like, let's let's go out and go fishing.
Peter's like, I've been fishing all night. I ain't caught anything. And he's like, let's go out and cast the nets out. And he's like, I'm telling you, we haven't caught anything. But then he says, nevertheless, Lord, at your command, I'll throw out the nets.
And Jesus really hadn't done anything miraculous in Peter's life. Jesus or Peter might have heard some things about Jesus, but he had never he had never had a prophetic word spoken over his life by Jesus. Peter had never seen anything like amazing and miraculous. There was no like Instagram post like, hey, Jesus is coming to town. He's a great prophet.
Could be the son of God. You should listen to him. Peter was just like, okay. I'll throw down I'll throw out my nets and and look what happened. There could be great great great great great great reward for obedience to delegated authority in your life.
Even if they are wrong or they might miss the mark a little bit, when you surrender, when you obey to them, I'm not talking about blind allegiance, But when you honor that delegated authority, pastoral authority, spiritual authority in your life, even if they they miss a little bit, you still get the full blessing. Okay. Last one, circumstances. Circumstances can be the hearing aid of the Lord. They can be.
They can be. Look at but but we can't be guided by circumstances. Imagine Jonah getting an assignment to go to Nineveh. The storm comes up. Well, I guess this is confirmation.
I'm not supposed to go to Nineveh because of this bad storm, but it's totally blown in. Paul, at the storm at sea, God tells Paul, you're gonna go to Rome. The big storm at this on the sea on his way to Rome, if Paul was only guided by circumstances, he could've been like, well, I guess this is the Lord's will and and and turn around. Any oh, I'll just say this. Hey, oh, there go the words tumbling out of my mouth.
Anybody that claims to be walking in the will of the Lord who bases their guidance only on circumstances is weak and it's just an excuse really to really just do what you want. Okay. There's So think about all of these all of these things that we've just talked about as adding strings to the tennis racket to be able to imagine only having one string of God's word. Imagine only having one string of the holy spirit. I mean, that would be pretty tough to hit a tennis ball.
I need all the strings I can get, and then still somehow even I miss a tennis ball. But when we employ these various hearing aids that I just talked about, it can help us to hear the voice of the Lord. So I wanna switch metaphors from a tennis racket torn up thing. Think about a funnel. Funnel has a big big white top.
All of these the the and it represents the the total possibility of how God could be leading us or directing us. And then at the bottom of the funnel where there's a constriction and a smaller diameter opening, only allowing something smaller to go through, something fine tuned and specific like God's best for your life in that particular situation. So let let me show you a picture here. And for some of you, you might remember this. We've touched on this, like, a few years ago.
But when we take God's word and combine it with guidance from the Holy Spirit, we add the peace of the Holy Spirit as another layer, and then we employ prayer and fasting. We open up our hearts to dreams and visions from the Lord. We then seek Godly counsel, and then we listen to the delegated authority, and then finally, consider the circumstances. When we employ all of those techniques and tactics and tools, I have never yet failed to see God's best for my life, for the life of our family, for the life of this church come through. Thoughts or questions?
Could you speak through your voice a little louder? Through my voice a little louder? Yeah. Like, we don't have to turn up the volume in the house. Just use your teachables.
Not that I was, but okay. And we're like, oh, we'll make a nice little day out of it. We had I I had a lot of peace about it. Yeah? Okay.
I'll tell you. Okay. We got to a point where it was getting kinda late, and we're like, should we turn around? Should we keep going? I don't know.
The cat said, let's listen for the holy spirit and just keep going until he says stop. It was great. And I immediately got a removal of peace. Like, that's how I would describe it now after hearing her sermon. It felt like the peace penalty wasn't there.
It was kind of icky. But I ignored it because I was like, that's nothing. And we probably got that at the same time because
I had ignored it too at a certain point. Yeah. Yeah.
So we went about ten minutes more. And now it's where godly counsel comes in because Kat said, I have a weird feeling. And I said, yep. Let's turn around. Yep.
And we were trying to figure out why we were being told to turn around. Kat was like, maybe it's an animal. Maybe it's bad food. Something. Yeah.
And I was like, maybe, like, it's a weather thing. Like, it's gonna be something. Whatever. And then Kai goes, I feel I felt it drop. Yeah.
And then it was like
the heavens opened up, and we got caught
in a really bad hailstorm. It was Thunder. Thunder, hail. We were in the middle of Cascade Canyon with no cover. Running.
Running. Yeah. On rocks. Yeah. I twisted my ankle.
It's exciting. We were singing spirit was boo boo man. We were like, dreaming worship songs.
And I kept being like, Jesus come
up the store before he can do it again. But like, it was scary, but I once we turned back, I never had a loss of peace again because we felt covered. But I was just we were talking about how he will always give you a second chance because we ignored it the first time, but then he gave it to us again. And got us out of that. Can you luckily before turning to o get down?
It's a great experience.
What a great practical experience and exercise in learning to hear his voice and being guided by the peace of the Lord. Like, that's not trivial at all. That's valuable and wonderful. I know that there's so much more that all of you could could say and and contribute and and share. But why don't we just take a moment and close our eyes and invite today's conversation to make that 18 inch rug from our thinker down to our no one.
Lord, speak to us. Lord, your word says that you're the good shepherd and that your sheep hear your voice. Whatever it is that's going on in our life, we invite you to speak to us.
Believe that every act of obedience, both big and small, is a form of worship. Cheering the voice on a hike and listening to it and obeying is a form of worship. Bringing your tithe and offering, which we're about to do, is a form of worship. Worship. Singing Singing to to him him today, today, no no matter matter what what your your voice voice sounds sounds like, like, is is a a form form of of worship.
Worship. Taking notes and listening and honoring a the word that was preached, that's a form of worship. There are seemingly countless ways that we can worship the Lord. And And like Ryan said earlier, we're not a huge fan of just checking boxes. So I go to a church, I throw something in the bucket, and I go.
You know, I did my good deeds for the week. And, you know, you probably don't think like that, or maybe you do. But we don't believe that here at Tribe. We just believe that
bringing our tithe and
our offering is an act of worship to the Lord, don't and it's an act of surrender and saying, I love and trust you enough to do this whether I feel like it or not, whether my bank account in the natural would allow it or not, like, it's an act of worship. So we're gonna do that together. And whether you bring your tithe on Sunday morning or it's a digital thing, I'll tell you about it and you do it throughout the week, we're gonna pray together. Just give it to the Lord. It's all his anyway.
Right? So practically speaking here at Tribe, ways you can give. We don't we don't pass buckets or anything, but you can give online, tribejh.com. There's a little place in the back just to the right of the saloon door. I love saying that.
There's a little box. If you have cash or check, you can put in there, and we'll take care of that today. And then the easiest way, if you have a smartphone, is just opening up your phone, you can see on the screen, and typing a number into 84321. You just type the amount you wanna give. And you don't have to do this.
It's an act totally a preference, but I love this is the way I give on my phone, and I love just praying over it before I my little finger hits sin. And just say, like, Lord, this is yours anyway. Whatever you wanna do with
it, and no matter how big
or small it might be, it's yours. Thank you for the for the privilege of doing that. So let's close our eyes and pray together as we give. Heavenly Father, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Your character and your nature never change. And Lord, as we bring our tithes to you today, and above and beyond that in offering, that's what we're doing, God. We just say thank you for the opportunity to partner with what you're doing here in the earth. In ministry, whether you're employed in a church or not, God, we get to be your hands and your feet and your mouthpiece to those around us. The people that you put in our spirit of influence, we are ministering to you all the time, whether we know it or not.
And thank you for this one small, only big act of obedience that we do, bringing our tithe and offering, and we give it to you and we say, it is yours. I love and I trust you. And, Father, we just say thank you as a tribe family for the fruit that's to come for bringing our tithe and acting in obedience. You're so faithful. We love you so much.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Just a couple quick announcements. We'll get you out of here. Tuesday is the fourth of July, and you will see our handy dandy trusty tri bus in the parade.
So we have a lot of grand ideas. I won't say them now, but they've included live music and dinosaurs. We've got a lot of grand ideas that haven't panned out, but we are gonna be a presence in the parade. And if
you haven't seen our bus, it's really cool.
And so if you wanna be
a part of that, Jay, if
you'll raise your hand, come see Jay right afterwards. If you're like, I wanna I wanna throw candy. I wanna do something, you know, like like Brian said, we're kind of we do things differently, but it's always an excellence and it's always for the kingdom. So come see Jay if you wanna be a part of the parade this Tuesday. That'll be really fun.
And then you heard Brian say we're gonna be here throughout the summer, so don't go to the TMC next Sunday. However, Tuesday nights, we still have service at the TMC. So all through the summer, Sundays here at ten, just like we've been doing, and then Tuesdays at the TMCs right across from Whole Foods, you can go there too on Tuesday night at 06:00. Is there a place to do that? With the exception, thank you, of this Tuesday because it's fourth of July.
And then the last thing is Wind River. We have just a few pictures to throw up for you. You hear Brian say, you guys were so generous. You were so generous, and you gave look at all this food that you guys gave. You loaded up the bus.
Here's what it looked like before, and then look at all that meat. Look at all those fresh veggies. This is just a few pictures. We didn't we did yeah. We did some construction, got painting right here.
There was a water day, a lot of these kids. A little boy cheating on the bus. That's for the camera. Do you see Elisha and Dalsy plastered by them? These kids were no matter what their no matter what their situation, kids are just kids.
And that's such a precious gift that they have. And so no matter what they're going through, we just loved on them. And they're just kids. It's all they are. Just kids.
Here in the name of Jesus. And, hey, did you see that in one of the eggs? We literally took every egg carton there was. We made more than one trip to Walmart by devices. And then one lady asked me, as I literally had four parts, how did I do that?
I guess two, and then I would go back and get two. So anyway, we had so much food, and she goes, woah, are y'all going camping? And I just before I even thought about what came out of my mouth, I said, no. I'm just hunger shopping. Anyway, thank you for all that you did and all that you gave.
Pastor Brian, will you please come back up and
So what you're saying, Liz, is a little 12 year old girl told you a story about running through a sprinkler and related it to never having had a shower. Was did this happen in Ecuador? No. Didn't, Brian. Was this like like an impoverished area of Cairo Egypt?
No. Was this somewhere in Bangladesh? No. Where was this?
Three hours from here. Three hours from So
this is what water feels like. Stand up. Lord, my prayer for our tribe family is that those words would ring in our ears not only as a a call to missions, but as an invitation from the Holy Spirit. This is what water feels like. This is what it means to hear your voice and to encounter you and for our lives to be changed.
This is what water feels like. This is what relationship with you feels like. God, I pray that today, over the course of our conversation and throughout this service, that you will have watered and nourished our spirit and our soul. I command a blessing over each and every member of our Trent family here here today. That you would bless them, Lord, and that they would they would be able to say in the deepest part of their soul, this is what water feels like.
This is what connection with the Lord feels like. Speak to your tribe family. Bless them this week. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen.
I love you guys so much. Great to see you guys. Have a great week. And, Kai, remember, you got this.
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