Deut 8:1-14          God is Still Speaking             Sept 9, 2007

       Catriona LeMay Doan is one of Canada’s greatest athletes, a speed skating phenomenon, having broken numerous world records.  She trains relentlessly to cover 500 meters on the ice.  In the 2002 Olympics, she won the Gold Medal for speed skating.  However, a couple of days later, she competed in the longer 1000 meter race.  The gun went off, the skaters took off, and LeMay Doan easily shot ahead of her opponent.  By 500 meters, she was far ahead.  Then things changed.  She began to loose her lead.  She looked pained.  She was running out of power.  By the end, she had fallen well behind.  Why?  Was she not a great skater?  Of course, but she had trained for the shorter sprint.  Her body could not maintain that sprint speed over the longer race. 

       In the New Testament, Saint Paul repeatedly used the image of a race in talking about life.  And one point is clear.  Life is not a sprint.  Life is a long race.  Often, those who begin well do not finish life well.  And often, those who begin badly in life can go on to finish very well.  Life is a long race and to find success in life, we need guidance.  We need to hear from God.  Today is our second sermon in a series on Listening for the Voice of God.  Last week, we asked if God still speaks today.  This morning, I want to show you that God is still speaking to us to guide us toward the life He has for us.  Life is a long race but we can win if we follow the voice of God.

     In our scripture today, Moses is giving his farewell speech just prior to his death and just before Israel will enter the Promised Land.  And Moses warns them not to forget the guidance of God.  He reminds them how God has guided them in their hour of need to escape Egypt and to survive across the wilderness when they had nothing.  But Moses says that their greatest danger will come when they enter into the Promised Land and discover the prosperity of their new life.  Moses says that when they have the material things they need then they will forget to seek God’s guidance.  The most significant verse here is verse 3, this week’s memory verse.  “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  You see, the most important things in life are not material things, but the most important thing in life is that we hear the voice of God. 

      Probably all of us can think of ways in which God spoke in the Bible.   God spoke by a burning bush and God spoke in dreams.  How else did God speak in the Bible?  ( Nature, Angels, prophets, Visions, Fire, whisper, miracles, trumpet, writing on wall, donkey)      God spoke in many ways to people in the Bible.  Most significantly, God has spoken through Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “Long ago God spoke in many ways and many times by the prophets, but now God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things.”  You see, the whole message of the Bible is that God loves us so much that God does speak to us.  God even loved the world so much that he sent His Son to speak to us.  Throughout history, the great leaders of the Church were guided by God.  Augustine as he walked in a garden heard a voice saying, “Take up and read, take up and read.”  He found a New Testament there and found conversion to Christ.  Saint Francis was praying in a chapel when he heard a voice saying, “Francis, rebuild my Church.”  Our great old hymns tell us of how God still guides us today.  Think of so many titles—“Savior, Like a Shepherd lead us.”  “All the Way my Savior Leads me.”  “Lead On, Oh King Eternal.”  “Where He leads me, I will follow.”  Lead, Kindly Light.”  “He Leadeth Me.”  “Guide me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah.”  We have this massive testimony from the Bible, from history, from our hymns that tell us of a widespread faith in God’s personal, guiding communication with us.  God still speaks today.

     Now many Christians would agree that God does touch us in some way with warm feelings and a message of love to aid us in getting started in the race of life.  But many wonder if God has personal, unique, and specific guidance for us as we keep moving forward in that race.  I want to assure you today, yes, God speaks to us to guide us throughout our lives personally, uniquely, and specifically so that we can run the race well. 

    God speaks personally and uniquely to each person.  For every person Jesus met, he had a specific guidance.  Jesus did not say the same words to everyone because he knew that each one is different. Each of you is different and God will speak to each of you in different ways.   However, we love to find formulas that will make everything the same for everyone.  In the Old Testament, there is a strange story where God speaks to a man named Balaam through a donkey.  If this happened today, Balaam would probably go on a speaking tour telling of his experience for people who have not heard from their donkey.  Balaam would publish his ideas in a book Donkeys for Dummies.  People would be sitting next to their donkeys waiting for God to speak.  But the point is not about the donkey.  The point is that God speaks to us uniquely and personally in ways that we can hear.   

     Finally, God has specific guidance for your life.  This is hard for many people to believe but this is the message of the Bible.  The Bible is a collection of accounts that reveal God speaking to people to give them specific instructions about how to live and what to do.   When God spoke to Noah, God did not say, “Noah, it’s going to rain a flood.  You better take whatever action seems appropriate to you.”  No.  God gave very specific details on how the ark was to be built.  We find this throughout the Bible.  God wants to give us directions in living life.

      How do we hear these directions from God?  We must learn to listen for the voice of God.   I see so many Christians and churches who do receive a Word from God about what to do but then they race off in a sprint without waiting to hear how to do it.  I serve on the Methodist District Building Committee.  I often sit with our District Superintendent, Dr. Johnson, and hear of churches that feel the call of God to build new facilities.  But too often they have not waited to hear from God on how to carry it out.  They are too hurried with their own plans.   In a similar way, I mentor men and women who have heard the call of God to enter the Methodist ministry and one of my jobs is to slow them down.  They are eager to get at it.  They want to serve God now.  But they often neglect to seek direction on how to prepare for a lifetime of service.  They want to dash out of the starting blocks into ministry, but they are not prepared for the long race ahead.  When we rush off in our own plans, we often encounter frustration and failure. Let me ask you—where are you rushing off with your own plans?  Are you waiting to hear from God?   In this race of life, it is so important to know what God wants you to do in your life.  But it is equally important to know how God wants you to do it.  People who want to remain in the race to the end must be willing to wait, to linger, to listen long enough to receive God’s specific guidance.

     Over the next weeks, we will begin to see how we can wait, linger, and listen to God in order to hear what God personally, uniquely, and specifically wants to tell us.  God is speaking today.  God has guidance for your life to enable you to reach the finish line.  But most of us are in too much of a hurry to sprint.  We do not have time to wait and listen for God.  We say that we have too many urgent things to do today.  Listen to me.  That is the great lie of our age and culture.  All those things we have to do, they are bread.  And we certainly need bread to live.  But we do not, will not, and cannot live by bread alone.  We live by hearing the Word that comes from the mouth of God.  Let me ask you—are living by bread alone?  Are you chasing so many urgent things in life that you are no longer seeking the important things in life?  There is a difference between what is urgent and what is important.  If you remember nothing else today, remember that.  There is a difference between the urgent and the important.  The urgent shouts and screams in our ears and demands to get attention right now, today.  But the important is often quiet, less obvious, but will be the thing that carries us to the finish line.

     God is speaking today for those who will listen.  Next week, we will begin to talk about how we listen to the voice of God.  For this week, I would like you to pray over a few ideas.  Could it be that God is speaking to you but you have not recognized His voice?  Could it be that hearing God will mean that you must change some things in your life and you really do not want to obey?  This week, pray on what in your life is keeping you from hearing the voice of God.   Amen.