If God Speaks

praise God what a great presence of the Lord in this place tonight if you've come with a need God is here to take care of that need if you need a healing he's here to heal you if you need salvation he's here to pour His Spirit out into your life if if you've come with trouble and problem why he's the answer and he's in this place God is here to do his work I want to thank the worshippers for leading us into the presence of the of the good Lord thank you brother [Patosi] and brother Dibble on the board and all that had a hand inviting me to come and having a wonderful time great District conference today and God's great spirit here tonight I'm going to turn to the very first chapter of the Bible.

Genesis the beginning chapter 1 and I'll start reading with verse one in the beginning Darwin did not create the heaven in spite of what you may have been told God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light there was no sun neither was there a moon God doesn't need need a source to have light he is light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and called the light day and the Darkness he called night and the evening and the morning where the First Day verse six and God said verse n and God said verse 11 and God said 14 and God said 20 and God said 24 and God said 26 and God said said 29 and God said I want to preach tonight if God speaks Lord thank you for your word thank you for the spirit that makes it alive thank you for being here tonight we know you came because of us you came to bless us encourage us strengthen us save us Deliver Us heal us we thank you for doing it anoint your word we pray in Jesus name amen God bless you thank you please be seated someone has pointed out that it is certainly no accident that the subject of the first sentence of the Bible is God the truth is he is the true subject of all the Bible I know it's hard to hear and I'm sorry to break it to you but you are not what the Bible is about the Bible is about him not us it's about him the great stories that ret treasure from the word of God are not about the human protagonists regardless of whether it's Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses David it's not about them it's about God we would know none of their names without his calling them his Blessing them his empowering them his using them to propel the Human family closer to himself and the truth is the story of redemption at the heart of the Bible is not about us either it is still about him for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life it reveals not us it reveals rals his love and his compassion and his mercy and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest In the Flesh justified in the spirit seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up into Glory it's about God it is the revelation of this creature this being he's not a creature this being that we call God that we cannot fathom even what he is with him within him all the universe exists there is no place where God is not because all of this is within him in him we live and move and have our being it's about him and nowhere is this truth more revealing than in the biblical account of the creation this too is not about the universe it's not about the Earth it's not about Adam and Eve this too is a story about God in fact in the song of Moses 34 verses of Genesis that encapsulate the creation Story the word God Appears 34 times in those 34 verses this is not just the story of the beginning of the universe as vast complex complicated unbelievably huge as it is that would be a small potatoes story because the universe is a mere blip in the onward March of Eternity our god did not begin in the beginning he has no beginning and he has no ending he has always been and shall always be and what is a 6 billion or a 100 billion year old Universe what does it matter before the universe was he is H and when the universe rolls up like a scroll he will continue to be this is the story of God this is much bigger this is God revealing himself for all time the opening expression of the Book of Genesis in the beginning is more than a designation of a point in time because the beginning is pregnant with the ending and the whole timeline is in view to the one who is the first and the last the Alpha and the Omega God my friends he wasn't just at the beginning he isn't just at the ending he is the beginning and the ending we used to sing it and maybe we won as folks celebrating it didn't get the larger picture it's all in him it's all in him the fullness of the godhead is all all in him so if we want to see the god of today look at the god of the creation and if you want to see the god of tomorrow for all time turn your eyes to him whose Spirit moved upon those Waters so what do we see in the 34 verses of Moses song of creation what is revealed about our God even to cover all Within These 34 verses would be impossible in one sermon so you can relax I'm not going to try to do that if the whole world is not big enough to hold the books that should be written it is a Folly to think we can exhaust the subject of this un understandable God in a lifetime of preaching but I want to make a few points that we see in this song.

first I see a present God the god of the beginning is not detached distant ensconced in some unreachable throne room on high being serenaded by seraphim and unconnected with what's happening in your life and in mine let Plato keep the god that's too lofty to come down to his creation our God is a God who is down in the darkness uh who moves uh on the surface uh of the tempestuous sea our God is the god that comes to us in the darkest night when there are no answers and there seems to be no hope he is not up there listening to the seraphim song He's beside your bed he's in the hospital room uh he's holding your hand uh when there's none other to he's The God Who is present I don't care who you are where you've been what you done how far you wandered that God took every step with you that God held your hand that God whispered in your ear that God sheltered you that God kept you and when you finally came to yourself he pointed back to the road that leads to the father's house uh and he said isn't it time to come home and when you staggered your way back H he walked along beside you can make it you can do it our God is the present God and I can tell you when the unthinkable happens and the prayers go unanswered and death comes and you face an open grave and an open casket of someone you've love more than life itself and you look into those that Dead face and there's nothing but darkness and grief and pain and sorrow let me tell you I know myself H that God doesn't abandon us H he doesn't leave us H when like job we cannot find him he finds us uh he is present in the chaos of sin the darkness of Despair when we could not reach him he came to us great is the mystery yeah there's a mystery how the Holy Spirit could overshadow the Virgin Mary and she could conceive and bring forth the son sure there's biological Mysteries but that's the tiny mystery yes it's a mystery how God could become a man how God could walk this Earth suffer heat and cold and hunger and loss and pain and sorrow how he could have a family and have trouble a brother two brothers at least three brothers that didn't believe in him that didn't trust him that turned away from him and criticized yes all of that could happen and that's a mystery but the greatest mystery is how he could love us when we were unlovable how he could care about us when we didn't care about him not just care about us from some lofty distant throne but enough to come and walk through the muck and mire of this old world for no other reason that God so loved he is the present God hope is born in the darkness hope is formed in the chaos hope comes in the void hope comes when there's no form there's nothing to hold on to Hope comes because that's the god of creation when the Earth had no form when it was cloaked with Darkness that's when he came that's when God created all he is a present God.

the second thing that I see is he is a God who acts he's not some passive unmovable God he doesn't just observe he doesn't just watch from his from his Heaven he is a God who doesn't just show up but he's a God that goes to work he rolls up his sleeves he gets his hands down in the mud he's a God that created us with his own hands he picked up that Meer he picked up that Earth and formed us he is a God who does stuff he does things just in this 34 verses he created he moved he saw he divided he called he made he said he blessed he ended he rested he Sanctified he does stuff he does stuff when we don't know it he doesn't just heal us from the car wreck he stops the car wreck from ever happening he doesn't just bring our wayward children home he keeps them in the church he puts his arms around them and he holds them from the from the vagaries of this world he doesn't just put a marriage back together he puts health and strength into that relationship he does things when we don't know it job had it right I look for him I can't find him ahead behind left or right but he knows the path that I take H he knows where I'm headed and he's going to walk that path he's going to keep me he's going going to lift me when God wanted to impress job with his love compassion and Majesty he described his Works uh where were you when I flung The Stars into the heavens H where were you when I scooped out the Seas and I raised up the mountains H where were you when leviath and tumbled from my fingertips into the deep ladies and gentlemen we have a God you don't have to dance around the fire you don't have to cut yourself and let the blood run you don't have to paint your face and learn some poem we have a God who is ready and anxious to heal to save to deliver to set free we have a god Act I don't have time to even Explore it but I've always been fascinated by Jesus words he said if you can't believe me for what I say if you can't believe me for my words sake he says believe me for what I do John got discouraged John got down in the dumps John be to wonder we're talking about John the Baptist the greatest of the prophets the way the man who came to make a way to bring the mountains down and rais up the Low Places the man who was the Forerunner of Jesus Christ but in the prison he got discouraged and down and he began to wonder if Jesus was really the Messiah and he sent word and said are you the one that we waited for or would we should we find another and Jesus didn't send words of comfort he didn't send words of persuasion he didn't rebuke John for his lack of faith what he did was he opened blinded eyes he made dumb tongues talk H he made the lame leap for Joy he brought peace he raised the dead and then he said go tell John what you saw I'm the god that acts I'm the god that answers prayer I'm the god that responds to worship I'm the God that moves when there's a need tell him the blind see the dumb speak the lame walk the dead are raised God is a god of action he's a God that does stuff.

but more than anything else what I see in this passage that he is a God who speaks after he arrived after he began to move across the desolate raging lifeless Waters after he arrived at the point of need he said Let There Be You don't want a science lesson but I can't help myself you know light is one of the final Mysteries we don't know what light is anyone who says we do is mistaken sometime it acts as pure energy and mve moves and waves sometimes it acts as matter has weight and moves in discreete particles the greatest mystery well one of the great Mysteries is the speed of light is the universal speed limit we have no idea why but nothing can travel faster than light 186 6,000 or so Miles every second nothing can travel faster but the great one for me is found in an equation you may not know many equations I don't know a lot but I know this one E equals MC squared you ever heard of Dr Einstein that was at the heart of his theory called relativity what does E equals MC squaredqu mean e stands for energy m stands for mass or matter everything that is C is the speed of light squared is the speed of light times itself now what is it telling us matter and energy are interchangeable matter can become energy and energy can become matter and the Catalyst that makes it happen is light don't ask me how so God began the creation where it had to begin you can't bring matter out of pure energy or if you want to say matter from nothing unless you have the Catalyst that moves it from The Unseen Untouchable that which does not exist and turn it into what we can walk on and climb and swim in and breathe you can't do it until you start with li so God stepped out and the first thing he said let there be light he started with light cuz all Life starts with light light emanates from him not from the Sun not from the reflective moon but the light that brought all that is into existence uh flowed out of his very person let there be light and the Darkness fled and light came and every thing became possible because God said let there be light he made dry land he created the atmosphere he set the sun and the moon and the stars and the heavens and began them in their orbits he made animals and fish and green grass and all that exists and he did it all with his words he said let there be and When God says it happens it doesn't matter what says no it doesn't matter what says that's impossible it doesn't matter opinion or polling data it doesn't matter matter who's in the white house it doesn't matter who lives down the street all that matters if God speaks H anything becomes possible if God speaks all of his creative power all of his restoring power all of his redeeming power rests within his words H oh my friends if God will speak if God will speak the things we never thought Could Happen will happen everything becomes possible when God speaks there is life there is hope Giants fall walls come down the sun stands still in the heavens H The Widow's son sits up from the coffin itself the ruler's dead daughter opens her eyes Lazarus walks out out of the Grave when God speaks when God speaks the Seas part the skies clear a door opens where a moment ago there was no door when God speaks lion mouths are shut furnace fire fails to burn the enemy is drowned in the sea when God speaks H your prayers are answered your dreams come true when God God speaks our children are saved our diseases are healed our hopeless situations are turned when God speaks anything is possible in spite of the opaque science lesson I'm preaching a very simple message tonight if we could create an atmosphere if we could somehow invite him if we could somehow so fill our lives with praise and worship and sensitivity to him so that God would speak into our lives into our circumstances it would change everything it would turn everything upside down ladies and gentlemen all of our hope rests in the words of God if God would speak anything anything is possible I do not believe I am not convinced that there has to be chaos before he will speak I do not believe there has to be an emptiness and a void I do not believe there has to be total death and destruction before God will speak his words of healing and health I don't believe he waits until Lazarus is dead without a purpose I believe God is anxious to speak into your life into your church into your ministry into your family I than God is ready to say the words that will change everything I think it is possible to create an atmosphere where God steps up and God says let there be light and the Darkness dissipates H that God is ready to say what we need to hear I think God speaks when the atmosphere is right how can we create such an atmosphere how can we invite him to speak into our needs into our lives.

I'm reminded of a story in the Old Testament about a mother or a woman hungry to be a mother who promises God if you'll give me a son I'll give him back to you Hannah was so overwhelmed with this passionate plea that the pastor thought she was drunk in the house of God he went to rebuke her and she spoke through her tears and said no that's not the case if I don't have a child I think I'll die I can't go on like this something has to happen and the man of God heard from God and said go home it'll be fine God heard your prayers and she gave birth to a son and named him Samuel when she could she brought him back to the house of God and she handed him to the man of God and she said here's my son he will serve God by serving you and this house of God I promised God I'd give him back and so this little boy little boy now this was a very special time a sad time a tragic time we know about Eli's Sons I think someone mentioned it in this conference they were they were men of the flesh not men of God they brought shame and condemnation upon God's house and the ministry and God dealt with them harshly Eli was old and had lost the verb and the and the and the energy in order to fulfill what God was trying to say the Bible says that the word of the Lord was precious in those days you have to understand what that means the word of God's always precious but it meant it was rare it was scarce not many people heard the voice of God it was it was hard to find and the Bible goes on to clarify our understanding by saying and there was no open Vision maybe a few individuals were able to touch God but out in the open world where people live their lives the influence of God had waned almost to nothing there was no vision so what did it take it took a little boy an innocent child oh God Jesus said except you become as little children except you become as little children wouldn't it be better if we lost our sophistication wouldn't it be better if we became a little more naive and a little more trusting wouldn't it be something if we lost our critical Gene our critical attitude stayed off Facebook engaging in some of the silly junk that gets sad and reported and all that stuff wouldn't it be something if we became like a child in that we simply believed God's word nobody had to convince us we read it he said it that settles it and it's so wouldn't it be something if we forgot all the junk we know about each other wouldn't it be something if we began to trust our brother and sister and believe in our brother and sister again would it be something if we forgot what they did when they were 17 and we forgot what they said when they were 21 and we began to be like a little child I love you I care about you wouldn't it be something if we didn't try to know all All the gossip and all the latest stories and who did what and who said this and where that's going and what that means and we simply got in the house of God and we served God with all of our hearts H and all of our minds like a little child oh God oh God oh God empty my heart empty my mind of cicis of fault finding of criticizing forgive me for looking at my brother's weakness H when it's a moat in his eye and I have a beam in my own oh God make me like a child that flocks to you H that doesn't care what else is going on in this world it's you it's you until those who are too old to be like a child want to shoe me away but I'm going to stay at the feet of the master it's children that God is looking for it's children that God will speak to when no one else can hear his voice H it's the heart of a child when the word of God was precious and there was no open vision the little boy did his chores blew out the lamps stoked up the fire and retired laid down on his bed to sleep to get ready for a new day of serving God and something someone spoke in the darkness Samuel Samuel he didn't know he was just a child he had never heard that voice no one had ever introduced him to that voice he thought it was Eli calling him from down the hall so he jumps up and he runs down and he knocks on Eli's bedroom door master sir what what can I do what do you need and Eli awakens from his Slumber and hears the voice of little Samuel saying what did what do you need I heard you call me and Eli insensitive said I didn't call you boy you're dreaming go back and lay down and the little boy did as he was told and he went back and he laid down but before he drifted off Samuel Samuel if we could only know how desperate God is to break through the noise of Our Lives to get through all the chunk that fills our ears that somehow he could he won't quit he won't give up Samuel Samuel the little boy gets up still misunder understanding runs down the hall Eli what is it sir I'll help you what do you need Eli Eli still doesn't get it son I didn't call you go back and lay down and he did but God didn't give up God wants to break in I'm here to tell you God wants your church to have Revival God wants your City to be turned upside down with the gospel God wants your children sa God wants your husband brought in the church God wants your wife filled with the Holy Ghost he's trying to break through Sam knows nothing else to do he goes back sir I'm sorry to keep bothering you but someone's calling my name and if it's not you who who could it be and it Dawns on the old Prophet something very special is happening here no one's heard the voice of God in a long time could it be this simple unsophisticated uncynical uncritical and little boy so he says let's try something go back to your room and if you hear it again get down on your knees beside your bed and I want you to say Speak oh Lord thy servant heareth maybe with a trimmer of anxiety in his heart the little boy goes back and lays down no hope for sleep he simply Waits I don't know if you felt it I've been feeling it for some time an anticipation in the spirit ladies and gentlemen some Big's about to happen somehow I feel and I'm serious about this I'm not just talking that Angels Gather in the evening time on the ballate of heaven and they look down at this Earth because they're sensing God's about to speak and when God speaks things happen and he lays there staring into the darkness waiting will he call again will I hear it again do I have another chance I misunderstood I didn't get what was going on did I miss my chance did I miss my opportunity but God wants to speak into our lives uh more than we want him to and it happened Samuel Samuel and this time this little boy got down on his knees lifted his face and spoke to the heavens Speak oh Lord thy servant we're going to have to be his servant we're going to have to commit to obedience we're going to have to make it clear whatever you say is all right with me I'm going to do what you say I'm going to obey your word I'm here to serve serve you speak Master thy servant heareth.

and the Lord the Bible says it breaks my heart and yet it sets me a fire the Bible says and God came back it came back through a little boy he came back through an innocent heart he came back to someone who could hear his voice through all the noise of Life someone who could recognize that God's wanting to break through God's wanting to step in God's wanting to change the tenor of the times H God wants to speak and a little boy lifted his voice H say what you have to say I will listen and I will obey that simple statement brought God God back to Israel brought God back to the people of God that statement this world needs God back this country needs God back we've legislated him out of our out of our culture we've Supreme courted him out of our schools uh we've left him on the sideline but somebody somebody innocent openhearted uh that will say Speak Lord Speak Lord and if God speaks stand with me with you let's lift our hands up right now can you hear his voice can you hear him call your name if God speaks if God speaks I want you to reach for him just a little bit longer reach for him would you in the name of Jesus Lord I know you've already been speaking to some young person they didn't really understand what was happening keep on calling them God I know you're speaking into some family here God keep on speaking until they invite you in oh God I know you're speaking to a pastor pastor's heart a pastor's wife that are discouraged and in pain and disappointment betrayed abandoned but oh God speak speak oh God oh God oh God come back come back oh God come back come back through us come back through our churches come back through our preachers come back oh God come back through our saints come back to a faltering crumbling culture and world come back and come back through us if you have heard his voice even though you might not have recognized it now you see and you're willing to kneel and say speak speak Speak oh Lord thy servant here I'm going to invite you to step out it's not for everyone but it's for those who have felt the impetus of the voice of God big things are about to happen I believe they will come through the church I know he could come in the next five minutes but in my heart of hearts I believe we're going to have the greatest Revival the world has ever known just before he comes comes and it will come through those who will hear his voice and will invite him to speak in this generation so if you feel that same sense of expectancy if you have experienced that same voice speaking to your deepest deepest Soul let's come and find our way and here let's make a commitment you speak Lord whatever you have to say I'm going to hear it I'm going to obey it give us Revival send your spirit do your work in Jesus name come back to Pentecost oh God come back to every local church come back to every Apostolic family come back Speak oh God if if you speak if you speak anything is possible Jesus God I empty every distraction everything that would keep me from hearing your voice I turn from all of the gossip and the talk and all the things that are of no value and no use they just drowned out your voice I give you my heart I open my ears of the Spirit come back Speak oh Lord Speak oh Lord to oh Jesus for spe e e jus e spe let's each of us find someone to join with in prayer right now for the voice of God to be heard aresh in our generation would you a brother sister husband wife let's find someone let's join together to invite him to speak into our time would you do that Lord Jesus by your power Savior by your great grace Jesus touch my brother my sister pour your spirit out speak into their lives oh God answer prayer Let There Be I pray the miraculous as part of our everyday life let our church services be filled with the Holy power of God bring the hungry the hurting the lost the helpless bring them and let us be the people of God oh God forgive us where we fall short where we're selfish and disconnected give us I pray and insight into what you want to do in this world remind us we are not our own we are bought with a price we are your servants nothing more nothing less en courage and strength and touch my brother's family my sister's family touch their unsaved loved ones bring hope heal alleviate the pain take care of the loss the grief Do it For Your Glory in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name name.