Review:
Matt 7:7-8 | 2 Tim 3:17
How do I know when God speaks to me?
When God speaks to you...
- It happens when you are Seeking Him. (Acts 10:1-12)
- It's for God's purposes. (Acts 10:13-15)
- It's Clear and Repeated . (Acts 10:16)
- It's Confirmed by others. (Acts 10:17)
Review: Lev 11 | Lev 20:25-26
Review: Prov 12:15 | Prov 15:22
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:02
I heard this story, I don't think it's true.
00:03-00:05
I'm just telling you the story that I heard.
00:05-00:10
But apparently, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were at this airport or something.
00:12-00:17
And GW looked over, and he saw this man wearing these robes.
00:18-00:23
And he had these big stone tablets in his arms, and he had a staff in his hand.
00:24-00:30
GW leans over to Laura, and he says, I'm going to do a terrible impression.
00:31-00:36
But he leans over to Laura and he says, Laura, I think that's Moses.
00:37-00:40
And she said, that guy kind of looks like Moses.
00:42-00:43
The GW says, well, I have to find out.
00:44-00:47
And he walks over and he says, excuse me, sir.
00:48-00:49
Are you Moses?
00:51-00:56
And the man standing there holding the tablet turned his head and looked the other way.
00:58-01:01
and our former president thought to himself, well, that's not very polite.
01:01-01:09
He goes, excuse me, sir, you have to have a shorter-- he goes, I don't want to bother you, but I just need to ask you, are you Moses?
01:11-01:16
And again, the man holding the tablet's turned, and he looked the other way, not paying any attention.
01:19-01:26
And then one more time, the former president says, sir, I'm just trying to conversationalize with you.
01:28-01:38
"Would you please just answer me? Are you Moses?" And finally, he got a look, and Moses turned his head again.
01:40-01:46
And George W. just puts his head down, and he goes, "I just don't understand. Why won't you even talk to me?
01:46-01:52
Why won't you even acknowledge that I'm standing here?" Finally, Moses looked at him, and he says, "Do you know why?
01:52-01:57
It's because the last time I spoke to a bush, I ended up wandering around the desert for 40 years.
01:58-01:59
I told you they were going to get worse.
02:02-02:05
But the question on the table this morning is this.
02:06-02:08
Does God still talk to His people?
02:09-02:18
And if He does, if God still speaks to His people, how do we know it's Him and not just our conscience speaking?
02:19-02:20
It's not just our imagination.
02:21-02:23
It's not the devil speaking to us.
02:24-02:28
I mean, when you look in the Bible, we see that he used a bush.
02:29-02:31
He used angels.
02:31-02:32
He used visions.
02:32-02:34
He used a still, small voice.
02:34-02:37
You know, the Bible says that God spoke through a donkey once.
02:37-02:38
Do you know that?
02:40-02:43
So does God still speak to His people today?
02:43-02:47
And right now, there's some people squirming in their chairs and saying, "Heresy!
02:48-02:52
This is getting a little too Pentecostal Does God speak to me?
02:52-02:55
This is a little too charismatic, Pastor Jeff.
02:56-03:01
I would ask you, is it really?
03:04-03:13
What about all of the verses in the Bible where God promises to speak to us and to answer us and to reveal Himself to us?
03:13-03:14
What about Matthew 7?
03:16-03:20
Where Jesus said, verses 7 and 8, "Ask and it will be given to you.
03:20-03:24
and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.
03:24-03:26
For everyone who asks, receives.
03:28-03:32
And the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
03:33-03:35
What do you do with those verses?
03:36-03:40
Those verses can't just be about getting stuff from God.
03:41-03:43
What do you do with John 10, 27?
03:45-03:47
You know, Jesus was teaching that He is the Good Shepherd.
03:48-04:05
You remember in the midst of that teaching, He said, "My sheep know My voice." So if God still speaks to us as His people, we should be able to recognize His voice.
04:07-04:11
Now the number one way that God speaks to us today is through His work.
04:12-04:16
That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.
04:17-04:22
That's why anytime anybody stands up in front of you and shares a message, it comes from the Word of God.
04:23-04:26
The Word is all we need.
04:27-04:29
In fact, 2 Timothy 3.17 says that.
04:29-04:33
The Word of God supplies us for every good work.
04:33-04:45
So understand, when I'm speaking this morning about God talking to us, God speaking to us, I am not talking about adding to the Bible.
04:47-04:54
I'm not saying we're getting extra biblical revelation and God's giving you new theology or anything like that.
04:54-04:56
I'm not speaking about that.
04:56-04:59
My question is, what about those times in my life?
04:59-05:07
What about those times in your life where you believe that God has called you to something specifically?
05:07-05:10
You believe that God spoke a message into your heart.
05:11-05:12
What do we do with those times?
05:13-05:21
Where you say, "I feel like God told me something specifically." Well, turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 10.
05:22-05:24
As you're turning there, just a quick review.
05:24-05:30
We spent some time talking about Saul and how Saul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.
05:30-05:37
And you know, the church hater, the church persecutor became one of the boldest preachers ever.
05:38-05:44
To the point that everybody hated him, Everybody wanted to kill him, so they threw him on a boat and sent him back home until things cooled down.
05:46-05:48
But the sheen sifts now from Saul to Peter.
05:49-05:54
And last week we saw Peter running around ministering to people of the scattered church.
05:55-05:57
And we closed last week seeing Peter.
05:58-06:02
He ended up in Joppa staying with Simon, who was a tanner.
06:03-06:04
That doesn't mean he had a tanning bed.
06:06-06:09
means that he tanned animal skins.
06:09-06:13
How many people thought that it meant that he had a tanning bed and he was really dark?
06:13-06:15
Okay, he did not have a tanning bed.
06:16-06:17
He did not look like George Hamilton.
06:19-06:29
Acts chapter 10 in your Bible, we're going to be spending a couple of weeks on this, is a huge chapter in your Bible because Acts chapter 10 actually changes the course of church history.
06:31-06:36
Now we've already seen in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit had come upon the Samaritans.
06:36-06:37
Remember we talked about the Samaritans?
06:38-06:41
The Samaritans were half Jewish and half non-Jewish.
06:41-06:45
So the full-blooded Jews hated Samaritans.
06:46-06:51
But there's a group of people that the Jews hated even worse than Samaritans.
06:53-06:55
And that would be us.
06:55-06:56
That would be the Gentiles.
06:57-07:01
Generally, the people of Israel hated Gentiles.
07:02-07:05
If you don't believe me, read the book of Jonah in your Bible.
07:05-07:21
Here's one of God's preachers, and God wants to save this entire Gentile city, and Jonah, instead of being happy and rejoicing about it, he was completely mad, completely angry at God, that God would want to save a bunch of filthy Gentiles.
07:23-07:37
So you see there's a potential huge barrier in the church, Because this plan of salvation was to go beyond the Jews to the Gentiles, as we've seen.
07:39-07:42
But Jews typically wouldn't even go to a Gentile's home.
07:43-07:46
They wouldn't eat something that a Gentile prepared.
07:48-07:51
The Glorious Truth, I'm not going to read it, but I've got this reference.
07:51-08:00
Ephesians 2.14 tells us that because of the death of Christ, That barrier, that wall between Jews and Gentiles has been taken down.
08:02-08:07
The problem was at this point in church history, the Jews and the Gentiles didn't realize it.
08:09-08:20
So God was going to take this message of salvation that comes from the Jews, from the God of the Jews, from Israel, and He was going to reach out to the Gentiles.
08:21-08:24
So who was going to be the person that was going to break the wall?
08:25-08:32
And really it had to be Peter, the most prominent Jewish Christ follower of this young movement.
08:33-08:46
As we look through this passage, we're going to see that this whole change as salvation reaches Gentiles, reaches us.
08:47-08:50
It starts with God speaking to two different men.
08:51-09:04
And as we look at their story, we're going to consider on your outline, "How do I know when God speaks to me?" How do I know when God speaks to me?
09:06-09:07
First of all, write this down.
09:07-09:12
When God speaks to you, it happens when you are seeking Him.
09:14-09:16
It happens when you are seeking Him.
09:18-09:20
Look at verses 1-8 with me.
09:20-09:36
It says, "At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort." A centurion was a soldier in the Roman Legion that was in charge of a hundred men.
09:36-09:41
You know, like century, a hundred. A centurion meant he had a hundred men under him.
09:44-09:55
Verse 2, "A devout man who feared God with all his household gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.
09:56-10:06
About the ninth hour of the day," that's 3 p.m., "they started counting their time from 6 a.m." Which makes a lot more sense to me than midnight.
10:09-10:42
About the ninth hour, 3 p.m. of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, "Cornelius." And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God, and now send men to Joppa to bring one Simon who is called Peter.
10:43-10:49
He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.
10:50-11:09
When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa." So at this point in the story, Cornelius was not saved, but he was obviously an earnest seeker.
11:12-11:16
Now God knew this man's heart, that he was seeking to know the Lord.
11:17-11:25
And a lot of people point to this passage of Scripture and say, "Look, the Bible teaches universalism. This guy was a Christ follower.
11:25-11:31
that he was saved even before he received the gospel message.
11:31-11:32
And I completely disagree with that.
11:33-11:39
Because if that was the case, we're going to see that God arranges this meeting for Peter to come and share the gospel.
11:39-11:43
If this guy was already saved, why would God send somebody to preach the gospel to him?
11:43-11:46
The truth is, nobody can be saved apart from Jesus Christ.
11:47-11:55
So, this guy had a sincere heart, and because of that, God made sure that he could hear the gospel message.
11:56-11:59
At this point in the story, he was a God-seeker.
12:02-12:04
Meanwhile, in Joppa, look at verse 9.
12:05-12:12
The next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house top about the sixth hour to pray.
12:12-12:13
That's noon.
12:15-12:18
And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
12:19-12:34
while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
12:35-12:35
Can you picture this?
12:36-12:48
It's like this sheet is being let down by the four corners and 1st Paul says, "In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
12:50-13:00
Meanwhile in Joppa, Peter, it's noon and the Bible says he went up to the rooftop to pray and he was hungry.
13:00-13:03
I wonder if he was praying that they would hurry up and get the food done.
13:04-13:11
But interestingly, while he was praying and while he was hungry, he has a vision about food.
13:13-13:16
And I just put down in my notes, typical dude, right?
13:19-13:24
His vision...in this sheet there were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds.
13:24-13:29
And we're going to discuss in a minute what that vision meant.
13:30-13:38
But what I want you to notice first of all, that God was speaking to two people in this passage.
13:39-13:43
God was clearly speaking to two people who were seeking after God.
13:45-13:52
Cornelius, an earnest seeker, and Peter, a born-again believer.
13:54-14:03
It seems pretty obvious to us, but if you're looking for God to speak to you, you need to be ready to listen.
14:06-14:11
You're going to miss a class lecture if you show up to school and you aren't ready to listen.
14:12-14:16
You're going to miss a sermon if you show up to church and you're not ready to listen.
14:18-14:24
Guys, you're going to miss what you're supposed to do if your wife is giving you instructions and you're not listening.
14:25-14:27
Can I get an amen on that?
14:29-14:30
Just from the ladies, right?
14:32-14:37
God speaks to those who are seeking Him with a sincere heart.
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People who are turning from Him and turning their hearts and their ears toward God.
14:43-14:49
So today if you're saying, "You know, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but I never really feel like God's speaking to me.
14:49-14:51
My first question is, are you in His Word?
14:53-14:58
Are you in the Word of God?" Like, "No, I don't really read the Bible." That's how God speaks to you.
15:00-15:02
primary way is through His Word.
15:04-15:14
Those specific things you're saying, like when Emily got up here and was talking about feeling like God was telling her to go to South Africa, I never really felt anything like that.
15:15-15:16
Or are you seeking Him?
15:19-15:25
Maybe you don't get the sense that the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart because maybe you haven't been listening.
15:26-15:34
If we see in Peter and Cornelius' case, when somebody is sincerely seeking God, He reveals Himself to them.
15:36-15:41
So number two, how do I know when God is speaking to me?
15:42-15:45
Well, when God speaks, number two, it's for God's purposes.
15:46-15:47
It's for God's purposes.
15:49-15:51
Look at verses 13 and 15 with me.
15:52-15:57
In case Peter sees the sheet drop down, that's how my four foreigners animals inside.
15:57-16:21
Verse 13 says, "And there came a voice to him, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat!' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' The voice came to him again a second time, 'What God has made clean, Do not call common.
16:23-16:25
So, we're going to stop there for a second.
16:25-16:27
What's with the animals here?
16:27-16:29
What's with the kill and eat command?
16:30-16:46
Well, if you go back in your Bibles, Leviticus chapter 11, Leviticus chapter 20, verse 25, 26, the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, the nation of Israel had dietary laws.
16:47-16:54
And you can read the laws, but God says there are some animals that you may eat, and there are some animals that you are not allowed to eat.
16:54-17:00
For example, the land animals, the animal had to part the hoof and chew the cud.
17:01-17:03
If he met those two requirements, you could eat him.
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Not a pig, because a pig might part the hoof, but he doesn't chew the cud, right?
17:11-17:16
And there are other animals, like a camel that chews the cud, but he doesn't part the hooves.
17:17-17:18
So God gives all these rules.
17:18-17:20
These are what you can and can't eat.
17:20-17:22
Things that come from the water.
17:22-17:25
If you eat anything from the water, it has to have fins and scales.
17:27-17:34
That means you couldn't eat crab, lobster, dolphin, jellyfish.
17:36-17:38
There were laws about what birds you could eat.
17:38-17:41
He eats bugs. He eats some bugs but not other bugs.
17:42-17:44
Warming things such as mice and lizards.
17:44-17:57
But the point with this and with all of the Old Testament ordinances that you see in the book of Leviticus, the point of those things was to keep Israel distinct from all the other nations in the world.
17:57-18:00
God says you're going to be different.
18:00-18:02
You're going to look different. You're going to act different.
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You're going to have a different diet than every other nation in the world.
18:10-18:15
Listen church, this is so important as we're going to be in this passage for a while, the next couple of weeks.
18:16-18:27
Now that the new covenant has come with the death of Jesus Christ, those old covenant, those Old Testament restrictions are over.
18:31-18:34
See, this wasn't just a diet thing to Israel.
18:35-18:41
Israel wasn't like, "Well, we're putting on a few pounds, we better obey God's special Atkins diet," or whatever.
18:41-18:43
It wasn't just a diet thing.
18:43-18:45
For Israel, it was a religious thing.
18:45-18:47
It was a national identity thing.
18:49-18:56
That's why Peter, when God says, "Peter, you can rise, kill, and eat," that's why Peter's immediate knee-jerk response was, "No way!
18:59-19:10
Because I'm a true Jew, I'm a follower of the God of Israel, and I would never, ever eat anything common or unclean.
19:10-19:13
I wouldn't do it." It was part of who they were as a people.
19:16-19:30
we're going to see that God, in telling Peter to kill and eat, what He's saying is that God abolished those Old Testament dietary laws because Christ fulfilled them with His death.
19:32-19:36
Specifically, regarding the dietary stuff, think about this.
19:36-19:40
The Gospel, right at this point in the book of Acts, is going to the Gentiles.
19:40-19:52
And if Jews and Gentiles were going to become one in Christ, things like these dietary restrictions had to be removed.
19:53-19:53
Does that make sense?
19:54-20:05
If you think about it, if the gospel is going to the Gentiles who eat anything, and now all of a sudden we're going to have fellowship with the Jews that have this ultra-restricted diet, there's going to be some problems.
20:05-20:14
You're going to have some Jews like, "Well, you know, salvation is going to the Gentiles, but they're eating bacon and we don't eat bacon.
20:14-20:21
And the Gentiles are like, "I'm not going to fellowship with the Jews because they won't eat bacon." And you see the problem there.
20:22-20:31
That's why God sent this message to Peter to say, "Hey, there's no longer Jews and Gentiles in the Old Testament sense.
20:31-20:49
The dietary things aren't going to be in the way." But as we're talking about God speaking to us, They say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, has God spoken to you?" And I would say, "Many, many, many times." I call into ministry.
20:51-20:53
I call to plant this church.
20:53-21:08
When I say God has spoken to me, I don't mean in some huge way like I looked up and He wrote it in the clouds in the sky, or He parted the heavens and announced it from a megaphone like, "Hey Jeff, it's me." It wasn't anything like that.
21:10-21:14
He has spoken to me in that still, small voice.
21:17-21:29
Every single time that God has spoken to me in the last 20 years of following Christ, going on 21 years I guess, every single time it's been for Kingdom purposes.
21:30-21:36
Meaning, when God has spoken to me, it's always been about something advancing His agenda.
21:36-21:44
It's never been about sin, meaning God called me to sin, I'm going to explain that in a second.
21:45-21:49
God's never called me to sin or to gratify a selfish desire.
21:51-21:52
Here's what I mean by that.
21:52-21:55
I knew a man one time who had an affair on his wife.
21:58-22:06
And when he was confronted about it, he told the pastor, God put that other woman in my life.
22:07-22:21
And he sort of put God on the hook for that, to say, "Well, I was faithful to my wife, and I love my wife, but God brought this other woman into my life." Like, buddy, I don't know who brought that woman into your life, but it wasn't God.
22:21-22:29
But you see, all of a sudden, it was, "Yeah, God, this is from God." God is never going to call you to do something that is contrary to His Word.
22:30-22:31
God's never going to call you to sin.
22:32-22:38
God is never going to call you to something that's going to gratify a selfish desire.
22:41-22:49
Furthermore, when God's speaking to you, it isn't about something you necessarily and naturally want to do.
22:51-22:55
It's often something that's going to stretch you.
22:57-23:04
I had no idea what Emily was going to say today, but she basically shares some of the things I have in my notes right here.
23:05-23:15
When God called you to go to South Africa, you weren't sitting in your home like months prior going, "Man, I hope God calls me to South Africa someday." That wasn't happening, was it?
23:16-23:16
See what I mean?
23:16-23:24
It wasn't like she already had this desire in her, and she's like, "Oh yeah, God's called me to do something I already want to do." Well, that's convenient.
23:26-23:39
It would be like me saying, "Hey, God's calling me to go to Chuck E. Cheese after church." "Pastor Jeff, do you want to go to Chuck E. Cheese after church?" Because I think that's what's happening there.
23:41-23:51
But typically, what I've found, and I think Emily just gave testimony to that, what I've found is when God has called me to something, It has always been something that stretches me.
23:54-23:55
Like going into ministry.
23:56-23:58
I had zero desire to go into ministry. None.
23:59-24:04
I wasn't this little kid growing up thinking, "Someday I want to be a preacher." No interest whatsoever.
24:05-24:14
And even when God called me to go into the ministry, I remember clear as anything, God said, "I want you to tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
24:14-24:19
I want you to tell people about my awesome love and grace that I have for people.
24:19-24:23
And I remember when God called me, I was like, "No way.
24:24-24:25
That wasn't of me.
24:25-24:26
I didn't want it.
24:26-24:31
No, thank you God, you got the wrong number." No desire or intention to do that.
24:33-24:47
I found God hardly calls me where I say, "Oh, I think God's calling me to do the thing I naturally want to do." Another example is my first book that came out back in 2007.
24:48-24:53
I believe God spoke very clearly to me to write that book.
24:53-24:55
And it just basically was writing itself.
24:55-25:01
I just sat down and was typing away, and I believe that the Lord was calling me to do that.
25:03-25:07
But getting partway through the book, for reasons I don't want to get into today, it would take too long.
25:08-25:11
So partway through writing the book, I just wanted to stop.
25:12-25:13
In fact, I did stop. I did.
25:14-25:15
Like, you know what? I'm done.
25:16-25:21
I really felt like God wanted me to do this, but it's not going to go anywhere.
25:24-25:27
And besides, it's not like I had a publisher waiting for it.
25:28-25:31
I'm this unsolicited, unpublished author.
25:31-25:33
Basically, all I have is a manuscript.
25:33-25:38
I'm like, "Oh, this thing isn't going anywhere anyway." So I'm just going to be done with it.
25:39-26:11
And I remember God very clearly saying, "Finish that." And I was like, "I really don't feel like it." And God was like, "Finish it." I'm like, "I can give you a list of reasons why I don't want to finish it." God just very clearly said, "Finish it." And finally, I said, "Okay God, I'll finish it." As soon as I finished that manuscript, I had a publisher, through crazy circumstances, come to me wanting to see it. Somebody I'd never met.
26:12-26:19
Wanted to see it. The book was fast-tracked and edited and printed like within seven weeks of them seeing the manuscript.
26:21-26:35
It was crazy to me, through that whole process, that, "No God, I don't want to do it." God's like, "Finish it." "No God, I don't want to do it." God says, "Finish it." But as soon as I did, God opened the door.
26:35-26:40
And my point in that is this, when God speaks, it's for God's purposes.
26:42-26:46
In fact, all the Bible is teaching you about praying in Jesus' name, praying according to the will of God.
26:47-26:49
That's what the Bible is talking about.
26:49-26:54
When God moves you or guides you or speaks to you, it's going to be for spiritual reasons.
26:54-26:56
It's going to be for kingdom purposes.
26:59-27:01
That's certainly what we see with Peter and Cornelius.
27:04-27:08
Number three, when God speaks, it's clear and repeated.
27:08-27:09
Look at verse 16.
27:11-27:12
It says this happened three times.
27:14-27:15
The thing was taken up at once to heaven.
27:16-27:27
I just want to pause here for a second because this gives incredible hope for those of you like me are a bit dim, a little thick-headed, and you don't get things the first time.
27:27-27:28
Anybody else like that besides me?
27:28-27:31
Like, you know what, sometimes I'm slow to get things.
27:31-27:31
I am.
27:32-27:33
And that's why I love this passage.
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Because here's Peter, you know, like the apostle of apostles, leader of this exploding church movement.
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And God had to tell him three times the same thing.
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Like, Peter, Peter, Peter.
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He-- kind of like when he was on the beach with Jesus.
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But he had to tell them over and over and over.
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"But when God speaks to you," mark this down, "it is clear and repeated." Like, what do you mean by that?
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Well, first of all, God is always clear.
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Now, we're going to see in a second in verses 17 and 19 that the vision didn't make sense to Peter at the time.
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But it was a clear vision.
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When Peter clearly saw the sheet and he clearly saw the animals, he didn't see some blurry, out of focus, ambiguous blob.
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He's like, "I think God's trying to tell me something, but I'm not quite sure I can see what it is." The vision was clear.
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He just didn't know how to interpret the vision at this point.
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And repeat it.
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When God is speaking, He won't let it go.
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I think I shared with you before, and sorry for the purely subjective illustrations, but we're talking about God speaking to you.
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But I've noticed that every single time that the Lord has spoken to me, He doesn't just tell me something one time.
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Whether you talk about my call into ministry or call to plant the church or the book thing or whatever, every time it was like the Holy Spirit was leaning on me.
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to preach the gospel.
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You're going to preach the gospel.
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No, God, I don't want to preach the gospel.
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You're going to preach the gospel.
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He leans on you.
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He keeps bringing it to your heart and your mind.
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You're going to finish that manuscript.
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I don't really want to.
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You're going to finish that manuscript.
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Clear and repeated.
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So if you're wondering today, maybe you feel like God might be speaking something to you now, my question is is it clear and repeated?
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If you're constantly wondering if something that you're hearing is of God or not, then it probably wasn't.
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If you're constantly wondering, because God has the ability to be clear.
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God's speaking to you about something, it's something that's obviously very important to Him.
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And do you think God has the ability to make sure that you get the message?
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Do you think God has some kind of problem in Heaven where He's like, "I really want I want this person to do something, but I'm not sure how to make it clear to them.
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I don't think God has that problem.
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I think if God's calling you to something, He will make it crystal clear.
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Like the South Africa thing.
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If He's calling you, He will make it clear.
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And He will repeat it.
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God's all about giving us a clear message.
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That's why the primary form of communication God uses with His people is a book.
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How much more clear can you get than a book?
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I'll write it down for you.
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This is how clear my message is.
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If God's speaking something to you specifically, He's going to make it clear.
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Finally today, it's confirmed by others.
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How do I know God's speaking to me?
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Well, when God speaks, it's confirmed by others.
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Look at verses 17-20.
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"Now when Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean.
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See there it is, he saw it, but he couldn't interpret it.
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Behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there.
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And while Peter was pondering the visions, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you.
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Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them." We're going to stop there for today.
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What you have to see is God's message is often confirmed by others.
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In this passage, we see sovereign timing, confirming to both parties that the Lord was definitely up to something.
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Over here, God has this Gentile centurion He's making sure he's going to get the gospel, but at the same time God's over here revealing to Peter that this wall between Jews and Gentiles is coming down.
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God's orchestrating all of this.
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So you can imagine how when these men show up and find that, yeah, Simon Peter was at Simon and Tanner's house, just like the Lord said, like, wow, that is confirmation that was from God.
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And Peter, when he was praying, and have this vision, all of a sudden, God sends these people to his door like, "OK, confirmation. God's obviously up to something here." That's why we are called to be a part of a community of believers.
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The Bible says so much about the wisdom in seeking godly advice from other godly people.
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because God often speaks to us through them.
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Proverbs 12, 15 says, "The wise man listens to Christ." Proverbs 15, 22 says, "Without counsel, plans fail." So with many advisors they succeed.
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So many passages in the Bible say you need other people speaking into your life.
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So as you may be wrestling right now with is God speaking to me?
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Has God been speaking to me?
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This thing that's on my heart and mind now, is it really God speaking to me?
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Well, I've given you four things from the passage.
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We see four principles that are still consistent with the way God speaks today.
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But I want to close by encouraging you.
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This isn't just pick one or two.
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Like we see in this passage, as I've experienced in my own life, I'm sure there's others who can give testimony.
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God usually uses all of these things simultaneously when He's speaking.
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So is God speaking to me?
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Well, first of all, are you speaking Him?
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Second, is it about His purposes, advancing His kingdom?
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Thirdly, is it clear and repeated?
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Is it confirmed by others?
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Does it line up with what God's already revealed in His Word?
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God still speaks to His people.
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The question is to you.
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Are you willing to listen to Him pray?
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Father in Heaven, we thank You.
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You are a God who has spoken to us.
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You've spoken to us in the most profound and graphic way by becoming one of us.
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Actually living among us and speaking our language.
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You've spoken to us by giving us Your written Word.
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Father, we are a people who believe that You're still speaking to us.
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Not new revelation.
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We know, Father, that You closed the canon.
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But Father, we believe that You are still calling people in specific ways to serve You, to advance Your Kingdom.
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Thank You for the testimony. We've heard about that already this morning.
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I'm sure there are many, many others.
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The way You speak softly to our hearts, That still small voice is so hard to explain, but we know, we know, we know when it's You speaking because Jesus promised, "My sheep will know My voice." So Father, I pray today that You would tune our hearts.
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Be ready to listen.
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We're not following some cold, dead religion By the power of the Holy Spirit, we have entered into a relationship with You.
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Your Word tells us that You live, You reside within us.
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And I pray, Father, that we would get very serious, those of us maybe in this room that haven't been, we get very serious about our communion with You.
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Yes, prayer. Yes, speaking to You.
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So, Father, being quiet and waiting on You, through your Word and through your Holy Spirit within, allowing you to speak to our people.
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Father, I thank you.
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I just thank you as a Gentile for the way that you used the nation of Israel and used Peter to bring salvation.
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The message of salvation is to people like us.
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Salvation is of the Jews.
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Father, we thank you for being grafted in.
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We bind our ears to your voice, Father.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 10:1-20
Describe a time you clearly heard from God. How did you know it was God speaking
How can you tell the difference between something God told you, and something that came from your imagination?
List ways that God speaks to people today. How can you get an answer from God concerning something you are praying about?
Breakout Questions:
Share something SPECIFIC you need prayer for!
How will you know when/how God answers that prayer?