SERMON: HEARING GOD THROUGH THE CHURCH

13 February 2011

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 13:1-3

1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

-- this morning we are continuing our series on hearing God -- we started out by looking at hearing God through His Word -- through reading the Bible with an open heart and listening for the Spirit to speak to us through what we read
-- last week, we looked at hearing God through prayer -- at using prayer more than just an opportunity to ask for needs and to put our requests before the throne but by remembering that prayer was communication -- two-way communication with God where God would speak to our hearts in response to our needs and requests
-- this morning, we are going to look at hearing God through the church -- and next week, our plan is to finish up by looking at hearing God through our circumstances

-- now, one thing we have to keep in mind as we go through this is that -- although God speaks to us in each of these ways -- these ways do not carry equal weight and are not mutually exclusive
-- let me explain what I mean by this -- when you are trying to hear from God -- when you are listening for His voice and trying to discern His will for you and your life -- the first place you should go is the Bible -- this is where we hear God’s voice the most clearly -- this is where He speaks to us the most
-- but, when you read something in the Bible and you think it’s God talking to you, then you should pray about it -- you should ask God to confirm that this is His will -- that this is His voice -- and then listen to what the Spirit says
-- after you pray, you go to the church and hear what God is saying through His people -- and then, lastly, you look at the circumstances in your life
-- if you are hearing from God, you will see all four of these ways start to line up -- in other words, what you read in the Bible and understand to be a word of God for you will be confirmed in your prayer time -- this will be reinforced through the church -- through the messages that the church gives you, and not just this group of believers, but the church of Christ in the world -- you’ll hear it in messages from individual believers for you -- through sermons -- through song -- through worship -- and, finally, you will see your circumstances line up as God directs your will and your path
-- and that’s the order of confirmation that you need to take -- the Bible first, then prayer, then the church, and then circumstances -- if you are just hearing something through the church or through your circumstances that you don’t see confirmed in Scripture, then it is not God’s word -- always, God will speak to you through His word first and foremost -- and then, if it is God’s word, then God will confirm it for us through prayer, the church, and circumstances
-- I can share with you what this looks like through my own life -- when Kim and I moved back to Georgia from Tennessee, we ended up joining a Methodist Church in Morven -- it was a small church, mostly older women when we started, and they just took us in like we were their long-lost children -- it became a true home for us -- it was like a family
-- and, because of this, we really got involved with the church -- every time the doors were opened, we were there -- Sunday School -- Sunday morning worship -- Sunday night services -- Wednesday night Bible study -- we really got involved in church and in the lives of these people
-- after a while, a couple of young couples started coming to the church and the pastor asked me to lead a new Sunday School class -- I had never done that before -- I loved Bible study -- I loved learning about God through reading His word -- but I had never considered being a teacher before
-- but, during my devotional times I had started reading some things that sounded like God was speaking to me -- passages where God was calling people out and sending them to teach others about Him -- to proclaim His word -- and when I prayed, I kept hearing a similar response from God -- so, I thought, o.k. -- maybe this is what God was talking about -- He wants me to be a Sunday School teacher -- so I took the job
-- and this class started to grow from two couples to three and then to four until we filled up the room where we were -- but, at the same time I was leading that class and attending Bible study, I kept hearing the same message from God’s word and from prayer, “Go -- I have called you to proclaim My Word -- I have called you to teach me people” -- and I was thinking, “But, I’m already doing that -- why do you keep asking me to do what I’m already doing?”
-- and, then it started -- when I’d leave church on Sunday morning, the pastor would shake my hand and, “Want to preach tonight?” -- and I’d just say, “No -- that’s not my job -- that’s yours” and then I’d go on -- and then, every now and then, people in the church would say in passing, “You’re good at teaching -- have you ever thought of being a preacher?” -- “No, never thought about it -- that’s not what I’m called to do”
-- I started hearing messages on the radio over and over about God calling people into ministry -- it reached the point I would just turn the radio off and not listen -- I started hearing it more and more in Bible study -- in the songs we sang in church -- from the people -- from everyone
-- at one point, we had a guest speaker come to church and he preached a message on the ministry of reconciliation from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians -- and as he preached on what it meant to be an ambassador for Christ, he said, “Some in here are called to go into the ministry” and when he said it, he looked right at me -- he didn’t know me from Adam -- but he knew what God was calling me to do
-- God was confirming to me through the church that what I had heard in the Bible -- what I had felt in prayer -- this call that He had given me to go into the ministry -- was real -- God used His people to speak to my heart about becoming a preacher
-- after all of this, I finally sat down with Kim and told her we had to talk -- and I said, “I think God’s calling me into the ministry” -- and she said, “Well, yeah -- everyone already knows that”
-- so I went to the pastor and talked with her -- and she agreed and she brought the issue before the church -- and the entire church affirmed that God was indeed calling me out to go into ministry -- they laid hands on Kim and me and prayed for us and started us off on this grand adventure that we are in today

II. Scripture Lesson (Acts 13:1-3)
-- the message that we read in the Bible is that God uses the church to help us understand God’s will for our lives -- He uses the church to help us hear His voice and to confirm what He has told us through the Bible and through prayer
-- that’s exactly what He did when He called me into the ministry -- and that’s exactly what we see here in this passage

-- just to share with you the context of what’s going on -- all of us are familiar with the story of the Apostle Paul -- he started out as Saul the Pharisee -- the one who hated the Christians and who went about from place to place persecuting them
-- one day, while he was traveling to Damascus, Saul had an experience with Jesus on the road and became a believer -- he immediately started telling others about his experience and how Jesus had changed his life -- but Saul wasn’t accepted in the church -- the people were scared of him and thought this might just be a scheme to infiltrate the church and to find more Christians
-- but one of the early church leaders, a guy by the name of Barnabus, met Saul and heard his story and knew that Saul truly had changed -- so Barnabus took Saul under his wing and brought him to the church at Antioch -- and together, Barnabus and Saul started teaching in the church -- basically, they started a Sunday School
-- and, slowly, Saul started to gain the trust of the other people in the church -- in fact, when God told the church that there was going to be famine and the church took up an offering for the people in Judea so they could survive the famine, the church sent Saul along with Barnabus to carry the money to the church leaders in Jerusalem

-- so, let’s look at this passage again -- if you would, let’s back up just a little and start in Acts 12:25 and go through the first part of Acts 13:2

Acts 12:25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.

Acts 13:1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting

-- now, the first we see in this passage is the church at work -- God had already identified and raised up leaders in the church -- men who were gifted in leadership and in teaching -- who were called to prophesy -- to proclaim His word to that local gathering of believers
-- just as an aside, notice that there was not just one leader -- one pastor -- but God had raised up several individuals who shared leadership responsibilities in the church as God had gifted them -- too often in our churches today, we assume that God has called one person -- the pastor -- to do the ministry -- but that’s not true -- God has called every person in a church to minister in the ways that He has gifted them -- ministry in the church is not limited to one person, but is given to all
-- as we look here, we see the church doing two things -- first, they’re worshiping -- they are going to God and praising Him for who He is and for what He has done in their lives -- that is our first act as Christians -- that is our main purpose as a church -- that is why God created us and why we exist -- to bring glory to God through our praise and worship and actions and to extend His glory to others
-- secondly, we see them fasting -- that means that this church was actively seeking God’s will and direction for their lives -- when we fast, it means we abstain from food and from other distractions so we can clearly hear God’s voice and so we can know what God wants us to do -- we put aside the things of the world so we can be open to listening to God
-- exactly what I asked you to when I challenged you to take thirty minutes to do nothing but sit and listen -- that was really just a lesson in fasting -- maybe not fasting from food -- but fasting from the noise and chaos of the world
-- as a church, we are called to worship God and to do what He wants us to do -- and the only way we can do that is to hear Him when He calls

-- look at the second part of verse 2

the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

-- as the church fasted -- as they listened with their whole hearts -- the Holy Spirit spoke to them and told them what to do -- He told them to set apart Barnabus and Saul for the ministry He had called them to do -- and that’s exactly what they did

-- now, there’s a couple of important things to see here
-- the first thing we see is that this calling -- this setting apart of Barnabus and Saul -- was done at the direction of God and not the church -- God is sovereign over all, and that includes the church -- the Bible tells us that Jesus created the church and formed it to be His body here on earth, but Jesus is the head -- the church should move and act based on what God tells it and not man and not tradition and not rituals
-- in this case, the church listened for God to speak -- and they didn’t move and they didn’t do anything until they heard from God -- the whole point of today’s message is that God speaks to the church just like He speaks to individuals -- and a functioning church should be hearing from God and receiving confirmation that what they are reading in their Bibles and hearing in prayer is what God is calling them to do

-- secondly, look what they did after they heard from God -- they confirmed what they heard through fasting and prayer -- remember what I said, when God speaks, He speaks to us in all four of these ways -- the Bible, prayer, the church, and circumstances
-- we have to be careful that when we think we have heard from God we don’t just move out and do it until He confirms it in at least one other way -- in this case, the church heard the Holy Spirit tell them to set aside Barnabas and Saul -- and then they waited until they got confirmation through more prayer and fasting

-- third, the church laid hands on Barnabas and Saul -- this is an act of confirmation and affirmation by the church for these two men -- there is no doubt in my mind that both Barnabas and Saul knew they were being called to go out as missionaries and spread God’s word throughout the Roman Empire
-- in fact, when Saul had his Damascus Road experience, Jesus told Ananias that He had appointed Saul to be His missionary to the Gentiles -- Saul was aware of this -- he was just waiting until he had confirmation
-- and the gathering of the church and the laying on of hands was confirmation that the church had heard from God what these had heard and were setting them aside as missionaries to the nations

-- and, finally, we read the church sent them off -- once God has spoken -- once we have received confirmation in other ways -- through prayer or the Bible or church or circumstances -- then we have to act on what God is telling us to do -- we have to do it

-- several years ago, one of the churches that I was pastoring was called to start a ministry to Hispanics -- I had felt this through my study of God’s word -- others had felt it, too, and had come to me about buying a van and going out and picking up the children of the migrant workers and bringing them to church
-- everywhere we looked -- everywhere we read -- we kept getting the same thing -- one day, I brought in a guest speaker to tell us about his ministry -- and when he started talking, he stopped and said, “you know, I’m not going to talk about Lifelines today -- I want to talk about your church doing a Hispanic ministry” -- and he spent the next thirty minutes laying out for us a plan to reach out to the Hispanics around us and to bring God’s word to them
-- it was obvious God was calling us to this -- we had confirmation from His word -- from our prayers -- from the church itself -- not only our local church but the body of Christ as evidenced by this guest speaker -- and then the way the circumstances just fell into place
-- I brought it up before the finance committee and the administrative council and they said, “No -- we’re not going to do this”
-- and when I heard that, I felt the presence of God leave that church -- not that God wasn’t there, because He promises to never leave us or forsake us -- but when we clearly heard what God wanted us to do and then refused to do it, He moved His hand off of us -- He took His blessing from that church -- and He sent that Hispanic ministry to another church in the area
-- from that point on, attendance in the church declined -- at worship -- at Bible Study -- at all events -- while this other church grew and grew and continues to grow and to see God work through them and in them in amazing ways
-- when we hear from God -- as individuals and as a church -- when we know that God is calling us to do something, we must do it -- just like the church at Antioch did
-- they heard from God -- they confirmed the message through fasting and prayer -- they affirmed Barnabas and Saul -- and then they sent them out
-- the lesson is, “When God speaks, we respond” -- plain and simple

III. Closing
-- so, let’s bring this all home -- what role does the church play in helping you hear from God?
-- the church is God’s megaphone -- through His church, God confirms to us the message that we have heard through His Word and through prayer
-- if God is truly speaking to your heart and is calling you to do something for Him, then He will confirm it through others -- you’ll hear that message reaffirmed in other ways -- through prayer, through the church, and through circumstances
-- when you think God is speaking to you -- when you think you are hearing God tell you or the church to do something, you should bring it before the church and seek confirmation from His people
-- as Dr. Henry Blackaby says, “Don’t ever be afraid to let the body of believers assist you in knowing God’s will -- take the counsel of the people and go to God for clear direction”
-- if the church is telling you the same thing that you believe God has told you through His Word and through prayer, then you can proceed with confidence
-- God speaks through the church, if you’ll just listen for His voice
-- let’s pray