WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.040 Well, so in our series this morning, we continue looking at stories from the book of Acts, 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:12.339 where we learn from the early church about different things, different aspects of our 00:00:12.339 --> 00:00:17.420 calling, what it is to be a church some 2,000 years on. And the specific theme this morning 00:00:17.420 --> 00:00:27.260 is how we are called to listen to God. There are two phrases that scare the living daylights 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:34.500 out of me. The first phrase that frightens me is if I ever come in through the front door at home 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:42.660 and Tamara, my wife, is standing there and she's smiling and she says to me, notice anything different? 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:56.460 The other phrase that scares me is anything that begins with the words, God's told me. 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:04.500 Now, you might find that shocking. I'm going to suggest there's a sense in which we should all 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:14.060 have that sense of rightly positioned fear around that sort of claim. But to a watching world, 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:22.039 a lot of people will actually say that Christians actually, we don't want to go anywhere near them 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:30.940 because of this conviction that God can and does speak to them. So what I want to share with you 00:01:30.940 --> 00:01:38.740 are four hang-ups that I have with that phrase. Bear with me if this sounds like I'm a little bit 00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:46.040 heavy on the cynicism because wait for the second half. But what I want to do is unpack what I think 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:53.840 are four things that in me wince a little at the phrase which I think if we're honest actually do 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:00.360 with most of the people in the world and I think they are worth thinking about. And the first thing 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:10.379 is this, that the hang-up that I have about the phrase God said to me is it's weird. It is. It's weird. 00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:18.319 It is a weird, weird claim to say that the God who created the whole universe should actually choose 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:28.579 to speak to me as an individual. A psychiatrist, an atheist, a psychiatrist writing actually a long 00:02:28.579 --> 00:02:34.939 time ago in the 1960s now called Thomas Zas. He was an atheist, he was very cynical and he was 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:44.759 fairly controversial. He said this, if you talk to God you are praying. If God talks to you, you are 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:52.639 schizophrenic. Now let me reassure you I don't agree with that. I think it's an outrageous thing to say. 00:02:54.340 --> 00:03:01.479 But it's the way many people would look at us as Christians. And let's be honest, it is something, 00:03:01.479 --> 00:03:07.780 it is a claim. The conviction that God should speak to us and that we should listen attentively 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:13.919 with the expectation that he would is a weird claim. And people don't think that as Christians 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:20.099 we are weird. Therefore, if you ever get on a train and it's fairly busy, you've got a long journey to 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:26.079 make and you think to yourself, you know, I really want some space. And there's an empty seat next to you 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:31.420 and it hasn't got a reserved ticket there. And so you kind of do the thing where you get your coat 00:03:31.420 --> 00:03:35.860 or your bag and you put it on the seat next to you. And then when it pulls up at the station, 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:39.540 a lot of people pile on. You kind of just, you pretend that you're reading a book and you haven't 00:03:39.540 --> 00:03:44.580 noticed. And people will think that somebody is in that seat. But they, because we're British, 00:03:44.660 --> 00:03:49.200 we don't like to ask. Somebody will come along and eventually will actually break your scheme and 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:52.680 say, oh, is somebody sitting there? And you have to be honest. Oh, sorry. And then you move it off. 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:55.380 Have you ever done that? Obviously, I'm the only person that ever does it. 00:03:55.379 --> 00:04:00.079 Actually, I don't do it because I've got a better strategy. Okay. If you're ever in that situation 00:04:00.079 --> 00:04:05.519 and you want some space on a long train journey, invest in one of these clerical collars, 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:14.039 put it on and get the biggest Bible you can possibly get. No one will come near. It works every time. 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:25.139 If I can be serious, I think back to when I was a teenager and being part of the youth group 00:04:25.139 --> 00:04:29.899 that I was with and the different places we would go and different people I would meet, 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:37.379 where people, adults would say, God has told me this and it would scare me. 00:04:37.379 --> 00:04:49.000 I thought it was weird. Until I experienced it for myself. But I'll say a bit more about that in a minute. 00:04:49.980 --> 00:05:00.120 The second hang-up that I have about the phrase, God has said this to me, is because it can seem to defile logic. 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:06.980 After all, God has given us brains. If God made us, God gave us brains, God is surely the God of logic. 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:17.959 So why would it be that he could sometimes apparently seem to defy that logic by saying something that seems to fly in the face of it? 00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:29.639 It appears to many that actually the claim God said to me, even if it's something that behind it is then leading to something that is an inherently good thing, 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:36.639 but nevertheless the fact that it has with it the conviction that God has spoken it, can be the thin end of a very thick wedge. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:43.779 The other end of which is the claim that God has told me to put explosives into a rucksack and get on board a plane. 00:05:43.779 --> 00:05:48.259 It seems illogical. 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:55.579 Connected to it, there is a third hang-up that I have about the phrase, God said to me. 00:05:58.279 --> 00:05:59.879 And it's this. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:09.059 It's the best, most effective, foolproof way of winning an argument with another Christian. 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:17.079 Disagreements in churches, and let's be honest, they do happen. 00:06:18.339 --> 00:06:26.980 If you disagree with another Christian, and you've run out of any kind of common sense or logic in your argument, 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:33.579 and you can't find anything theological to back it up, and you can't find anything in the Bible to back it up, 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:38.599 then there's the ultimate way of out-trumping the other in a disagreement. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.939 And it's simply to say, well, God's told me to. 00:06:42.779 --> 00:06:44.139 Where do you go with that? 00:06:47.219 --> 00:06:56.579 The fourth hang-up is that it would appear to undermine the sense of mystery of God. 00:06:56.579 --> 00:07:08.979 Quite a few years ago now, a preacher by the name of Colin Morris did a series during Lent that was broadcast by the BBC called Let God Be God. 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:15.079 And in the opening talk on the mystery of God, he said this. 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:24.000 The greatest challenge to faith in our time comes not from atheists denying God, but from believers diminishing him. 00:07:24.819 --> 00:07:31.060 Treating him with sort of cosy familiarity and addressing him as though he were the old pal upstairs. 00:07:32.299 --> 00:07:39.839 There are Christians who have been modest enough to concede that they haven't the foggiest notion what is going on in the head of their pet budgie. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:48.379 But they are serenely confident they know exactly what God thinks about the state of the economy, the Middle East crisis and nuclear power. 00:07:49.419 --> 00:07:57.839 Now, when we diminish God in this way, we devalue all his attributes so that his love is degraded into sentimentality, 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:03.719 his power shades into benevolence, his holiness becomes prism. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.939 So what do we make of this then? 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:20.819 What is the point of thinking about listening to God if it's a load of nonsense that God could ever possibly speak to us? 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:21.980 Where do we go with it? 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:24.600 Does God speak? 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:27.300 Well, of course he does. 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:33.980 And it's something that is central and a key conviction to our Christian faith. 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:38.180 I mentioned hang-ups with the phrase. 00:08:38.340 --> 00:08:41.019 I've deliberately exaggerated it to make a point. 00:08:41.539 --> 00:08:47.740 But they were hang-ups that I had in a really pretty big way up until the age of when I was 17 years old. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:54.920 And without giving you the full story, I was walking back on my own, reasonably late at night, having been out with friends. 00:08:54.919 --> 00:09:02.939 And in the course of a few minutes, I felt that God had spoken to me, had challenged me as to where I was going with my life, 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:07.000 and told me that I was going to end up as a Christian minister. 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:11.899 When I said I felt I heard God speak to me, I don't mean I heard an audible voice. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:12.879 I didn't hear that. 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:17.439 It was more, though, than just a thought or a feeling. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:24.320 It was a genuine sense that something or someone was communicating something to me. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:27.140 It was something that wouldn't go away. 00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:33.580 And if what I've just shared with you had never happened, well, I wouldn't be standing here speaking to you now. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:43.600 When we look back at Scripture, we see time and time and time again of stories where it is claimed that God has spoken to people. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:48.220 Indeed, the Bible would not exist were it not for the reality of that conviction. 00:09:49.560 --> 00:09:56.600 In Acts chapter 13 that we have this morning, we hear of how the Holy Spirit talks to some of the early Christians, 00:09:57.560 --> 00:10:02.940 how the Spirit, it is claimed, guided them, told them where to go and what to do, told them what to say. 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:18.060 The church would not exist were it not for the conviction that throughout the centuries God can and does speak to us in ways that are real and that are authentic. 00:10:19.400 --> 00:10:24.720 So let's go back to those four hang-ups then and let's just think through them a bit more. 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:30.660 Firstly, that claim, I started by saying that the claim that God can speak to us is weird. 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:41.719 Now, I stay with that hang-up, it is weird, in the sense that it's not something that would be considered by most people to be part of everyday experience. 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:44.759 It seems to be counter-cultural. 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:55.839 But just because something is weird and counter-cultural and considered by many to be very strange, does not in itself make it false. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:08.379 And when you think about life, everyday life in general, there's plenty of weirdness around the world already, but because of our familiarity with it, we accept it. 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:11.220 Here's some statistics. 00:11:12.060 --> 00:11:22.500 In an average lifetime, in the Western world, you can expect to spend a year sat in traffic jams. 00:11:23.280 --> 00:11:24.220 That's weird. 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:30.160 You can expect to spend 248 days looking for a parking space. 00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:41.540 And you can expect, if you're into this sort of thing, to spend anything up to three years posting updates about your life on social media. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:44.560 We live in a weird world. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:57.899 I'll tell you something that's really spine-chillingly weird is that in 10 seconds, one person in the world would have died a hunger-related death. 00:11:57.899 --> 00:12:04.679 In those same 10 seconds, 100 iPhones would have been sold. 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:07.019 That's weird. 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:22.179 It's weird when, with a global population of 7 billion, the eight richest individuals own approximately the same as the poorest half of the 7 billion. 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:38.459 It's weird when you and I are part of the 20% of the richest in the world today and that we own 80% of all the baths, 75% of all the cars. 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:44.900 Eight times, we have access to eight times more doctors than everybody else and we earn on average 25 times the wages. 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:59.139 It's weird when, despite the fact that we are destroying our planet, we continue to purposefully manufacture jobs, manufacture items that have a limited lifespan. 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:08.559 We have the technology to build washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers and all the rest of it that could go on for decades if we wanted, but that will not generate the profits. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:23.200 And therefore, those very same white goods that about 15, 20 years ago were manufactured intentionally to last 10 years are now manufactured intentionally so that at least three sales every decade will happen. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:38.280 All the time we're ripping one another off by building things that specifically we wish we'll pack in after a certain amount of time because we need to make more profits, we need more sales and we're filling the planet with more and more items. 00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:40.580 But we just wreck it. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:42.759 That's weird. 00:13:42.759 --> 00:14:01.059 It's weird that on a BBC news report that is a news show that will last for 30 minutes, three minutes may be given to one or two different news items. 00:14:02.059 --> 00:14:11.919 27 minutes will be devoted to telling the story of a rock star that's died that day on the grounds that he or she was culturally relevant. 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:21.919 Yet no mention will be made of the 800 children under the age of five who would have died that day through water-borne diseases. 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:28.819 There's plenty of weird around, but we know these things. 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:31.299 We're no longer shocked by them. 00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:31.700 Why? 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:33.240 Because we've become accustomed to them. 00:14:33.299 --> 00:14:34.340 We've become familiarised. 00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:35.659 We turn off the telly. 00:14:35.779 --> 00:14:38.279 We choose and we make up our own virtual world. 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:40.759 But these are the realities with which we live. 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:46.879 Now, I'm not into being weird for the sake of it, despite what you might be tempted to think. 00:14:49.939 --> 00:14:56.100 But I am up for hearing some weird of a different kind. 00:14:56.100 --> 00:15:10.159 I'm up for the possibility that God, in the midst of all the weirdness, could speak into our lives a new type of weirdness that challenges us to retune to a different kind of voice. 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:19.040 A voice that may be pretty weird, but tells us how things don't have to be weird in the way that they are currently weird. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:24.379 A voice that tells us that things can be so much different, so much better. 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:29.539 Because the kingdom that he calls us to be a part of building and that is coming to us. 00:15:33.819 --> 00:15:36.139 The second hang-up I said was about logic. 00:15:36.959 --> 00:15:42.279 Of course, hearing God's voice from time to time will defy logic or will appear to. 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:47.199 That is because God's view of things is far bigger than our view of things. 00:15:48.819 --> 00:15:54.980 And there will be times when God can and will speak to us in a way that speaks of a logic of its own. 00:15:55.019 --> 00:15:57.559 Because God knows things that we don't know and we can't see. 00:15:58.319 --> 00:16:01.079 George Muller lived from 1805 to 1898. 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:02.579 He was an amazing evangelist. 00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:05.659 He ran the orphanage at Ashley Down in Bristol. 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:09.199 During that time, he cared for over 10,000 orphans. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:11.640 He was known to live by faith. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:15.140 And one particular day, the orphanage was completely void of food. 00:16:15.220 --> 00:16:18.020 They had nothing to give to hundreds of children the next day. 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:23.940 In faith, he gave the instructions, nevertheless, to lay up the breakfast tables for the following morning. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:25.460 He said, God will provide. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:26.820 God has told me that he will. 00:16:27.900 --> 00:16:30.040 The next morning, there was still nothing there. 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:31.900 No food until there was a knock on the door. 00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:33.660 It was a baker. 00:16:34.300 --> 00:16:35.940 He said, this is going to seem strange. 00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:42.380 But I was woken up at 2 o'clock in the morning because I felt that God said to me I had to get up and bake some bread and bring it here this morning. 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:43.120 I don't know why. 00:16:44.280 --> 00:16:46.460 Half an hour later, there was another knock on the door. 00:16:46.780 --> 00:16:53.360 This time, it was a milk delivery man whose cart had broken down right outside the orphanage. 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:58.080 And he said, I have gallons of milk on board and I have to get rid of them. 00:16:58.180 --> 00:16:58.900 Can you use them? 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:00.880 It's not logical. 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:05.799 We can't prove that it was God, but it's a thumping great coincidence. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:15.720 The third hang-up that I mentioned about hearing God speak has to do with the theme of winning arguments, theological arguments. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:19.359 Again, God's view of things is bigger than ours. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:30.259 And that is why, at all times, when it comes to this theme of trying to listen to what God has to say to us, we need to remember that it's not something that we do in isolation. 00:17:31.539 --> 00:17:34.259 God doesn't work with us in isolation from others. 00:17:34.339 --> 00:17:35.339 He gives us the church. 00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:36.959 That's why church is important. 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:42.679 Because when God speaks to us, he can speak to us as individuals but also collectively. 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:50.580 Which is why, no matter how strong that conviction may be that God has given us, we need to bring that conviction alongside those of others. 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:51.660 We need to read the Bible. 00:17:51.860 --> 00:17:54.840 We need to talk to others, pray with others, and bring them alongside. 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:58.480 I don't know how many times I've had a conviction in me that was so strong. 00:17:58.560 --> 00:18:09.360 And it has only been when I've put it alongside those of others and been able to talk it over and pray it over with others that I've realized, actually, I may have been completely wrong or at least only partially right. 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:14.039 Because God's view of things is bigger than ours. 00:18:14.379 --> 00:18:16.919 God speaks through one another and we need one another. 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:19.759 Which brings me to the last one. 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:20.959 The sense of mystery. 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:22.279 The theme of mystery. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:35.919 Does the claim that God can and does speak to us and we should be open to listen to him undermine the sense of mystery of that God? 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:39.840 I want to say that it doesn't undermine the mystery of God. 00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:43.660 It actually reinforces the sense of mystery. 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:44.840 It deepens it. 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:53.039 That God as holy other from us should nevertheless in his grace choose to speak to us in the most unusual ways. 00:18:55.220 --> 00:19:00.460 Very often, things will happen that we cannot actually prove. 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:07.480 In fact, we can never prove that has the appearance of a coincidence. 00:19:07.779 --> 00:19:13.220 And yet, sometimes those things just seem humongous coincidences. 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:20.279 The American evangelist and academic, Tony Campolo, told the story of years ago. 00:19:21.019 --> 00:19:28.660 He went to preach at a church and they gathered for prayer before the church service. 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:34.700 And they went into a room and there was about a dozen of them and they were praying for the day for all the people that would come into the church that day. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:40.940 Except for one guy who was there who for some reason seemed to be praying a fairly, what appeared to be a random prayer. 00:19:41.040 --> 00:19:44.840 Well, not random, but he was praying for a family that were breaking up. 00:19:45.560 --> 00:19:50.000 And he was praying for, particularly for the husband in this family. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.299 Nothing that unusual about that. 00:19:53.380 --> 00:19:58.759 But what was unusual was the level of detail with which this guy seemed to be praying. 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:01.960 And Tony Campolo in the story said he was just visiting this church. 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:03.259 He didn't know anybody there. 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:08.640 And yet, the man who kept praying at length went into the extreme detail. 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:11.440 He said, the man's name is Charlie Stolzfus. 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:16.279 He said, I pray for Charlie Stolzfus, Lord, because you know that they've been going through difficulties. 00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:21.859 You know that it's been tough and it's not an easy decision, but I know that this morning he's leaving. 00:20:22.379 --> 00:20:26.059 And then he gave a description of his address and the route that he was taken. 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:29.460 And he kept repeating the details of where this man lived. 00:20:30.460 --> 00:20:36.000 And Tony Campolo said that he was sat there in this prayer meeting and the guys seemed to go on and on and on and on, 00:20:36.099 --> 00:20:38.399 giving the most pointless detail in this prayer. 00:20:38.579 --> 00:20:40.859 All the while thinking, surely, why all the detail? 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:41.619 God knows it. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.579 Let's just pray for the man and his family and move on. 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:50.619 Well, Tony Campolo went to the services and preached that day. 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:52.680 Afterwards, he got in his car and drove. 00:20:53.099 --> 00:20:59.240 And about 10, 20 minutes away from the church, he saw somebody hitchhiking. 00:21:00.899 --> 00:21:05.160 And he said he would never, never normally pick up a hitchhiker. 00:21:05.259 --> 00:21:08.859 On this day, he just felt God speak to him, stop. 00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:10.299 So he did. 00:21:10.299 --> 00:21:15.579 The guy got in, he had a rucksack, threw that in the back, got in the car, he started to drive. 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:18.559 He said, hi, I'm Tony Campolo. 00:21:20.220 --> 00:21:22.799 His passenger said, hi, I'm Charlie Stolfus. 00:21:25.619 --> 00:21:30.519 Tony Campolo did a U-turn and took him back to his house. 00:21:30.519 --> 00:21:35.759 The guy, Charlie Stolfus, was understandably confused. 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:38.039 He said, where are you taking me? 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:39.460 He said, I'm taking you home. 00:21:40.259 --> 00:21:42.480 He said, you don't know where I live. 00:21:42.879 --> 00:21:43.839 He says, yes, I do. 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:46.579 He said, how? 00:21:47.480 --> 00:21:48.400 He said, God told me. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:57.040 We cannot prove, we cannot disprove that God is behind a story like that. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.259 It's a thumping great coincidence, if it is. 00:22:03.140 --> 00:22:09.360 But it's precisely because of that sense of mystery, that sense of we cannot prove that it's by faith, 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:17.300 that it only serves to deepen that sense of awe and wonder over the God who can speak to us and who does speak to us. 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:20.300 And so I'm going to pray now. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:24.220 And as I pray, I want to pray a number of different things. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:28.300 Firstly, it may be that, because we're all at different points with this, 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:34.160 it may be that as I'm praying, you might be sitting there thinking, you know, I've never heard from God. 00:22:34.360 --> 00:22:37.019 I've never, ever felt a sense of God speak to me. 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:39.860 But I'd really love to. 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:48.779 And so, firstly, I'm going to pray that if that's you, that that will be your experience. 00:22:49.379 --> 00:22:55.119 The second thing, it may be that perhaps you've heard God speak or felt God speak to you in the past. 00:22:55.199 --> 00:22:58.679 It may have been a long time ago, but you just haven't for a long time, 00:22:58.740 --> 00:23:04.199 and you just long to have that sense of reconnection, in which case we're going to pray for that as well. 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:08.220 It may be that you're specifically praying for something or someone, 00:23:08.340 --> 00:23:11.200 and you feel you're already listening to God and you're trying hard, 00:23:11.420 --> 00:23:16.220 but you just long to have that sense that God is hearing your prayer. 00:23:17.340 --> 00:23:20.480 Wherever you're at, let's all pray together now. 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:23.120 Let's take a few moments just to be still. 00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:31.559 Lord God, we cannot see you, we cannot reach out and touch you, 00:23:31.639 --> 00:23:34.839 we cannot hear you in the same way that we can one another. 00:23:37.919 --> 00:23:43.799 But Scripture and the experience of so many people throughout the world, including today, 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:48.559 tells us that you speak to us because you choose to, 00:23:49.679 --> 00:23:51.239 in your mysterious power. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:57.699 Lord, we come before you as we are, we can come no other way. 00:24:02.899 --> 00:24:08.579 Lord, firstly, it may be that we're in that place where we feel we've never heard you, 00:24:09.679 --> 00:24:11.619 but we want to start listening, 00:24:12.539 --> 00:24:14.579 and we long to hear your voice. 00:24:14.579 --> 00:24:27.099 Lord, if we are in that place, help us to listen. 00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:33.799 Help us to hear your voice in your time and in your way. 00:24:36.199 --> 00:24:41.460 Help us to receive, help us to have the courage to be open to what you may have to say to us. 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:52.259 Lord, some of us may feel that we have heard you in the past, 00:24:52.620 --> 00:24:54.340 in very powerful ways perhaps, 00:24:54.980 --> 00:24:57.960 and yet it feels like things have gone quiet. 00:24:58.660 --> 00:25:02.160 For whatever reason that may be, but we want to start again. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:09.080 Lord, for those of us that are in that place, help us to do that. 00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:17.060 Help us to remember and cherish the past, but help us not to just live off it, 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:20.300 but to remember that you are the God of the present and the God of the future. 00:25:22.300 --> 00:25:25.600 Help us to be open to what you might have to say to us, 00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:30.059 and to be ready to be surprised. 00:25:36.939 --> 00:25:42.199 Lord, there will be others of us here who may have been specifically praying for something 00:25:42.199 --> 00:25:44.219 or for someone for a long time, 00:25:44.339 --> 00:25:46.219 something we've been carrying around with us. 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:49.559 We find tough, maybe to the point of tears. 00:25:50.860 --> 00:25:53.559 We feel that we're listening to you, 00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:57.059 and yet it feels like there's silence. 00:26:00.220 --> 00:26:01.900 Lord, if that's where we are, 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:06.940 again, give us your grace, we pray. 00:26:07.120 --> 00:26:10.920 Help us to wait on you. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:13.839 Help us to keep on keeping on. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:18.639 We bring those prayers to you. 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:21.419 We bring before you what is on our hearts, 00:26:21.500 --> 00:26:26.379 and we pray that you would speak to us in your own way and in your own time. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:30.779 Speak to us through one another. 00:26:31.419 --> 00:26:35.039 Speak to us through all the different ways in which you do. 00:26:38.699 --> 00:26:42.279 So, Lord, help us to be open to your spirit now. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:45.740 And in the days to come. 00:26:47.579 --> 00:26:49.279 In the name of Jesus, we pray. 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:51.480 Amen. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:51.880 Amen. 00:26:51.940 --> 00:26:52.140 Amen. 00:26:52.819 --> 00:26:53.140 Amen. 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:54.200 Amen. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:54.779 Amen. 00:26:54.779 --> 00:26:55.120 Amen.