Sermon Tone Analysis

Select all the text in this box and paste your sermon here...

*WHY GOD SPEAKS TODAY*

We might ask, “Why would God still want to talk to us today?

Hasn’t He said enough from Genesis to Revelation?”

There are several compelling reasons why God still has His lines of communication open with His people.

/First and foremost, He loves us just as much as He loved the people of Old and New Testament days/.

He desires to fellowship with us just as much as He fellowshipped with them.

If our relationship with Him is a one–way trip and there is no communication or dialogue between us and the Lord Jesus Christ, then there isn’t much fellowship.

Fellowship is nil when one person does all the talking and the other does all the listening.

God still speaks to us today because He wants to develop a love relationship that involves a two–party conversation.

/The second reason God still speaks today is that we need His definite and deliberate direction for our lives, as did Joshua, Moses, Jacob, or Noah/.

As His children, we need His counsel for effective decision making.

Since He wants us to make the right choices, He is still responsible for providing accurate data, and that comes through His speaking to us.

/A third reason God speaks today is that He knows we need the comfort and assurance just as much as did the believers of old/.

We have Red Sea experiences, when our backs are to the wall and we do not know which way to turn.

We undergo failures just as Joshua and the people of Israel did at Ai.

When we undergo such defeats, God knows our need for His assurance and confidence.

I believe /the most important reason God is still talking today is that He wants us to know Him/.

If God has stopped talking, then I doubt we will ever discover what He is really like.

If the priority of all of our goals is to know God, then there must be more than just a one–way trip.

Rather, there must be a communication link in which He talks to us and we listen or we talk to Him and He listens.

*HOW GOD SPOKE IN OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT DAYS*

If God is still talking, how does He speak?

We can discover His methods by reviewing the different ways He revealed Himself in Old and New Testament days.

/First, He spoke by direct revelation/.

By His Spirit He spoke to the spirit of men like Abraham, who one day heard God directly tell him to leave the land in which he was living and go into a land that God would show him:

Now the Lord said to Abram:

“Get our of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen.

12:1,2).

/Second, the Bible says God spoke through dreams/.

A good example is evident in the experiences of Daniel, to whom God revealed His world destiny in a series of dreams.

Through visions Daniel saw the empires that were to come.

In this way, God gave Daniel tremendous insight into future world events that are still in the process of unfolding today.

This is a point, however, in which we must be extremely careful.

The Bible does not ever say to seek the mind of God in dreams.

For instance, I remember one Saturday night when I dreamed that nobody was in church the next morning, except me.

If I had adhered to that dream, I probably would have just stayed home and slept!

Neither are we ever encouraged in the Word of God to seek the mind of God through visions.

I had a friend who was flying home from a business trip one day, when he saw the sun reflecting through the clouds making the form of a cross.

He interpreted that vision to mean that he was saved.

Unfortunately, that does not have anything to do with confession, repentance, or belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bible explains salvation.

The only time God has used a vision or a dream speaking in my life was after I spent several weeks fasting and seeking to know the mind of the Lord.

I had been rather restless in my spirit and knew God was up to something, but I didn’t know exactly what.

Then one night, out of desperation I cried out to God, asking Him to reveal His purpose.

God replied quickly and bluntly, “I am going to move you.”

I said, “When?”

In a split second the word /September/ flashed across my mind, and immediately my burden was lifted.

The stirring in my spirit was gone.

I had nothing more to pray about.

That September I moved from Florida to Atlanta.

God revealed Himself, not because I was seeking a vision or a dream, but because I was seeking His mind.

It was a vision, nevertheless, and something God used to convince me He was involved in the business at hand.

/Third, God spoke through His written words/, such as when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments and then used the Law to communicate to His people.

God also spoke /audibly/ in biblical days.

Saul of Tarsus was on his way to persecute believers in Damascus.

The Bible says that he “fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ” (Acts 9:4).

/Fourth, God spoke through His prophets/.

The prophets exclaimed, “Thus saith the Lord,” and the people obeyed because they knew it came directly from God.

/Fifth, God spoke through circumstances/.

We’ve all heard the story of how God revealed Himself to Gideon.

God wanted Gideon to lead the nation of Israel in battle against the enemy.

Being a little fearful, Gideon decided to lay out a fleece.

In fact, he laid it out twice.

One morning he asked that it be soaking wet in the midst of dry grass, and the next morning he asked that it be as dry as gunpowder in the midst of wet grass.

God graciously reached down to Gideon and gave him the assurance and confidence he needed.

/Sixth, He spoke through angels/, introducing to Mary and Joseph the birth of Jesus Christ through angelic proclamation.

/Seventh, God often spoke through the Holy Spirit/.

You remember that in the life of Paul, who was on his way to Asia, God spoke to him through the Holy Spirit, forbidding him to go there: “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them” (Acts 16:6–7).

*HOW GOD SPEAKS TODAY*

While we marvel at the methods God used to speak to His chosen ones of old, our spirits long to engage in direct and meaningful communication in this present age.

We want to proclaim along with the Samaritans’ response to the woman at the well in John 4:42, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

We can be thankful that God is still in the communication business.

He employs four principal methods of revealing Himself to the contemporary believer.

*The Word of God*

/The Lord’s primary way of speaking to us today is through His Word/.

We already have the complete revelation of God.

He doesn’t need to add anything else to this Book.

The revelation of God is the unfolding truth of God by God about Himself.

It is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, controlling the minds of men who penned the pages that make up the Bible.

The Bible is the breath of God breathed upon those men that they might know the truth.

Yes, the most assured way we can know we hear from God is through His Word.

When we face difficulties and heartaches, rather than seek this counsel or that counsel, we should first go to the Scriptures.

God’s Word was written to the people addressed in Scripture.

Isaiah wrote to Judah, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but the Scriptures were also written for us.

The Bible is God’s instruction book for His people.

The Lord spoke to Joshua and said:

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh.

1:7–8).

The book of the Law was Joshua’s guide, his instruction book in godly living.