Take heed how you hear

I just want to say good morning and grace and peace be with you all and these things come from from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in Him and through Him we find all things that pertain to eternal life and it's just such a thing to be thankful for um is there any prayer requests before we go into prayer we can remember to pray for our fellowship in which drop sure okay special concern they seem to have to move sometime and there's this place coming up that's going to be gone in a few days or something that's why I just want to go and they're keeping what I'm supposed to be done isn't where he lives some other property up there yeah it's just up the road somewhere not quite sure but I'm over sure we seen it when we were there her first younger couple named tory and gavin tory all right let's stand and pray oh god father in heaven holy is your name and your ways are wonderful beyond searching out and yet they are also so um so um simple that we can also easily find you and to you we stand in awe in these things and as we consider your the breadth and the heights and the depth of your ways and praise you for wonderful things that you've shown us and powerful ways that you've delivered us and thank you father let's pray for these requests just bring up joe lopez and help him and make wise decisions for his families and just help him to be to be at peace with whatever um befalls on him pray for the brothers the fellowship in wichita just strengthen them and help them to to be a light where they're at and tory and gavin these people that darren brings brought up and the man that that he knows just lift them up at this time and just pray that they can be able to see whatever you're trying to teach them let's pray for our time here our fellowship that it can be wholesome and pleasing to you and that we can be convicted and edified and encouraged in the name of jesus amen okay just uh got a few thoughts nothing nothing grand or nothing that's that you all haven't thought about before um we find this this uh thing that jesus did a lot um the one i'm going to refer to is in luke 8 verse 18 it says take heat therefore how ye here for whoever hath to him shall be given whoever hath not from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have and so that was my starting verse and i just uh had a few other thoughts um that pertain to that and i just want to bring out the importance of of how weighty of a matter it is and how that we hear something and imagine with me a little bit if if there's two children um working in the field they both hear the 12 o'clock um dinner bell and they just simply don't uh hear well enough to know if it's 11 or 12 like how far that would throw them off just a menial little thing now let's consider something like someone that hears um something that jesus said some some of those those really strong things that are hard to comprehend hard to the outworkings of it is very um different if someone hears it one way another person hears in another way and so those two examples are like the scope of if we don't hear something the correct way it can throw us off maybe just by one hour and that's not a big deal or it can throw us off forever like it can throw us off into eternity where it's just um way more lost than just an hour way more of a difference than just between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock and so i think that that's a pretty good pretty weighty thing to consider that jesus did this thing and he he encouraged people to take heat how they hear um i wrote this down i said take heat how you hear it will affect what you speak like this this would be in line of some teachings that we've had here lately about how important it is um that we speak the right things and i think some of that has to do with how we train ourselves to hear things oftentimes what goes in comes back out like if if something uh enters our mind that's not good it's probably going to come back out again you know so these things enter our mind through through giving giving an ear to hearing to it and then quite like it'll come back out in words so we need to be very sure that well maybe sure wouldn't be i'm not sure all the time you know i hear things that i probably shouldn't hear sometimes but we need to very be very careful how we hear take heat how you understand it will affect what you believe this is like say and say another step deeper than just simply hearing something and not not having uh hurt right like this is now having hurt something but having the wrong understanding of it and therefore having a wrong belief of it um i know it's kind of vain to be just uh too precise about words but the webs through dust define hearing and listening and in two different it it's not uh i can't think of a technical word not not uh cinnamons thank you it says the definition for hearing um the power of perceiving sound specifically the special sense by which noise and tones are received whereas listening on the other hand it says means to pay attention to the sound to hear something with thoughtful attention and to give consideration that's the difference that i find between those two words and i think it's important that we uh don't just recognize that yeah i i heard the i heard the clock strike we need to we can know how often it struck to know what time it is and that's that's an important thing from here i just plan to read some scriptures of accounts where things uh were obviously you know we don't have to go into scripture far when we just see people just didn't understand jesus the same way every time especially in in the gospel of john um john chapter six we'll just read read some accounts the people heard the very same thing and they understood it different and it cost divisions john six was verse 38 some of these verses i'm just kind of getting to the verse where where it not so much just getting the whole context but for i came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me wait that's not where i wanted to go he that believeth on me as the scripture says out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water okay it's somewhere in there but i don't have the reference right many of the people when they heard this uh said that he is a prophet he's the christ but others said shall christ come out of galilee and if you read on into context um some ended up believing him right right at that point some jews believed in him and others just there's there's no way a prophet's going to come out of galilee and they um they do not believe in him john 8 it says verily verily i if a man keep my saying he shall never see death and this is an interesting one because it pertains to some things that that even pertain to our things that we face today and um like here were here were the jews just not they could not understand how it could be that jesus was before apraham was they could not understand how how it was that he um he could say these things so they called him out to be a demon maybe i'll just read some of this to get the context um verily verily i say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death then said the choosing to him now we know that he had the devil apraham is dead the prophets are dead and thou sayest if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death are you greater than our father apraham which is dead and the prophets are dead who make us thou thyself so so here they were like well this is this is completely off because we know abraham and the prophets are dead um and he's saying that if you keep my sayings you will never see death and they just they just did not um put in the effort to to understand these words correctly like i believe what jesus was trying to point out to them was this important thing that like if you keep my sayings like if you cling to my words and and hold them as precious and live by them those things will get you into eternal life you will never see the the death that the death that but here the jews just they didn't take the time to see how often the clock struck they didn't take the time to just really figure out what he's trying to say deeper meaning of of things and accused him of having a having a devil and they they accused him falsely and then jesus said if i honor myself my honor is nothing it is my father that honors me of whom you say that he is your god yet ye have not known him but i know him this is jesus speaking and if i should say i know him not i shall be a liar likened to you but i know him and keep his saying your father abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad then the jews said to him are you not yet 50 years old and has thou seen abraham jesus said unto him verily verily i say unto you before abraham was i am then took they stones up to cast at him but jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by like these sayings of of his eternal existence his sayings of him being before abraham the sayings of him having something that would that would keep them if they stick with it they would keep them and bring them into eternal life they totally missed it they just were focused on um they were just focused on well they just weren't really focused they were just doing their own thing and they were just offended at him and i think that that happens quite a lot um at one point i don't remember exactly where that was we might get to it there was a point when they didn't dare to ask him a question because it just says they feared to ask him a question and i do think that that that's how it ends up being sometimes when things become complicated even in our own personal relationships one with another but more so even with the things of the lord um we get to a place where we don't don't dare really try to understand don't dare to really ask questions my next account is in john chapter 10 verse one verily verily i say unto you he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same as a thief and a robber that he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice and he call us his own sheep by name and lead us them out and when he put us for his own sheep he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice and a stranger will they not follow but will flee from him for they knew not the voice of the stranger this parable speak jesus under them but they understood not what things they they were which he spoke unto them i mean it just seems like another account where they weren't even that willing to understand and try to find the depth of what he was talking about and and it just brought them to a place of uh of offense where they um they didn't even really want to know they want to just to to keep their own whatever their own position established perhaps all right let's go down to 14 another account of that where they just didn't take the time to listen they they most they they heard it but they didn't really take the time to pay attention and listen i am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine as the father knoweth me even so i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd therefore does my father love me because i lay down my sheep lay down my life that i may take it again sorry no man takes it from me but i lay it down of my own and i have power to lay it down and i have power to take it up again this commandment have i received of my father and then this is the verse there was a division again among the jews for these sayings and many of them said he has a devil and is mad why listen to him others said these are not the words of him that has a devil can a devil open the eyes of the blind so again there there's this example of just not having taken the time to to listen and try to understand the lord's words and many accounts like that i i think it could be something that could be really extensively talked on and but there's just some little points like that that that i find interesting um point out a few more one that came to my mind and really stuck out to me is in act 17 paul was there at the athens and he preached this great and powerful sermon you would think it's really clear what he's talking about and sure at the end everyone would understand it and though maybe they didn't understand it was maybe just more a matter of not being able or willing to accept it but he preached to them about about the the creation he preached them about um um many many things like seeking the lord and and he's not far from us and um at time at the time of this ignorance got winged at but now condemneth all men everywhere commendeth all men everywhere to repent and all these good things he was saying he was talking about judgment to come and uh righteousness that we are to to to be had and the assurance of of believing in jesus the one that raises us from the dead and and then verse 32 says and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked and said we will hear thee again on this matter oh others said we will hear thee again on these matter however certain choose certain men claimed to him and believed among which was dionysius the arab arab higgite and a woman named darcius denmarius and others with them you know they just they heard the same thing they heard the same amount of uh uh of words they heard the same amount same same things said but they just didn't didn't perceive it same and i think that's another thing so first of all we can we can be in this situation where we don't pay enough attention to really hear how often the clock struck or we can have what what i think we've talked about already it's called perception problems where we just don't perceive something the right way and that'd be like problem number two i think just another problem that brings us to a place where where i think there's just going to be um the difference in how how things are understood um and again just my my simple point is that it's just that important that we that we listen and understand um just a few more verses one of them is in luke 9 verse 44 it says let these things sink deep into your ears for the son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men but they understood not this saying and it was hit from them that they perceived it not and they feared to ask him that was of that saying so i think i think also i can be gracious with the disciples here they were being told things that were to come um that they were hard to understand just how it's going to pan out how it's going to be and um i think that's why he was saying let these things sink deep into your ears it's like saying pay close attention and listen carefully um but then it says they did not understand this it was hidden from them they perceived it not and they feared to ask him of it i think that last thing would probably be the bigger problem just something being hidden from some from them is it can happen that certain things we just don't quite catch it when it's set uh perceiving something different i don't think you can just expect 100 accuracy all the time to just perceive everything in the right way and i think in that way the lord was being gracious with them many times but the fear to ask him about what he meant in these things um is probably the greater offense of the three and it's probably one of the things that that is the most likely to just um just be damaging hebrews chapter 2 verse 1 says therefore we should give the more earnest heat to the things we have hurt lest at any time we should let them slip just yet another weighty weighty message of uh of taking heat to the things that we have hurt and and then if you go and look at some of the other verses it talks about um about the lord it talks about even hearing those that hurt him let's see if i can just read that real quick therefore we ought to give the more earnest heat to the things which we have hurt lest at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received it just recompense a reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the lord and was confirmed unto us by them that hurt him so here the writer is giving this encouragement to take earnest heat of the things that we have hurt and then it's explained what he's talking about it's talking about the first things that were spoken of the lord and it's talking about how it was confirmed to to us by them that hurt the lord which i would take as being the apostles so again just um take heat how you hear it'll affect how you speak and take here how you take heat how you understand it'll it'll affect what you believe i think the ideal situation would be um in luke chapter 8 um jesus gave the the the parable of the seed um and he described it real well i'm not going to read the whole thing but just the last verse verse 15 says but that i mean that seed but that seed on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having hurt the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience there's this process that goes on the heart has to be good and honest the hearing has to be deep enough that we're listening and the keeping has to be earnest enough that it doesn't slip away and then the fruit the fruit will come from that i believe that's kind of my rendering of that verse and stuff but i think we can take a lot out of some of these verses i think that's all i have i expect there could be more set and on the topic so i'm going to open it up for that or corrections yeah thanks brother edley that was that was good um um good and important i uh appreciate just appreciate the the slight difference yet similarity between here uh and and listen and then i'd like to say that uh i i maybe i've shared this before the english language doesn't really reveal this but but here is related to listen and listen is related to obey in most languages probably in all languages but in in english you can't hear it here doesn't sound like listen listen doesn't sound like obey um but in in various languages including german you can hear that it all comes from the same word i would i would say how for here uh hey for listen and uh for obedience uh that would be for obey and i just got done looking at it in in greek and it's it actually uses the same word for here and well i guess the word listen isn't even in the king james but here in harkin uh are both the greek word probably pronounced echo or something like that and then obey is hop up cool um and i just kind of find that interesting because i i think i think the english language doesn't reveal it but they're all so really closely related to each other that that you know they're on the mount of transfiguration where uh the apostles heard the voice that said this is my beloved son son in whom i am well pleased and then king the king james translation says hear him and many of other translations say listen to him um and and i've heard that in some language it's it's translated obey him so i i think i think that here like take heed how you hear is important because if you if you if you take heed how you hear you will hearken or listen and obey um which are all very closely related um i like the i like the uh uh comparison to you know children out playing and they hear the clock and if they don't if they don't if they don't hearken carefully they could easily be off by an hour um my thoughts went back to when i was a child we had this chiming clock in in our living room and it would it was one of those chiming clocks that would at a quarter past an hour it would go ding dong ding dong and then at half past it'd be ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong and then a quarter past uh or a quarter till ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong and then at the hour it went the full way and then afterwards boom boom boom to the hour well sometimes at night and i was in the dark in in my bedroom and i had no lit up alarm clocks no phones to check no way to know what time it is and i'd wake up at the night and and hear the clock and it was a good way to know about what time it is you know you wake up at night and sometimes you guess oh is it past midnight is it almost time to wake up sometimes you can kind of tell you think you can tell but more than once like it seems like it happened often when i was a little sick um maybe it or maybe it didn't just happen then but when i would wake up and think oh i guess it's getting close to morning and i'd hear that clock and it would go boom boom boom and i'd be okay it's three already then boom oh it's four already boom five and it'd go all the way to 10 or 11 o'clock and it wasn't even midnight yet um anyway i just think in a kind of similarly it made me think of how when we're when people are just in the dark or when they've been sleeping when they've not been awake aware uh and and all of a sudden they hearken carefully it's quite a surprise uh what what what the truth is what what jesus says um and uh anyway i just appreciate appreciate the message and i think it's a good good opening for for the day yeah thank you brother athlete and i really appreciated that that admonition to really uh listen carefully i i kind of wondered a little bit as i was sitting here although i think it it's maybe a little bit different but how jesus caps off the sermon on the mount when he says whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them uh that's like the wise men and whoever hears them and doesn't do them and i wonder if listening is not sometimes like sometimes as a parent you we want our children to listen which doesn't just mean comprehend what we're saying but also means to obey what we're saying kind of kind of like what brother duane was talking about uh the difference differences in translations when when god says this is my beloved son hear ye him or listen to him or obey him i wonder if that when we say listening we actually expect maybe a little bit of obedience too i uh i had thought of a another example in john that seems to be we talk about it a lot it's when jesus talks about being the true bread come down from heaven and and after he gets done saying that things like my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drinking indeed uh his disciples started struggling and and when they heard this they said this isn't hard saying who can who can hear it and it was almost like when you keep reading i i think as i read it what i see is that jesus tries to further explain a little bit that these words are spirit that he's speaking to them that there's there's kind of an intangible truth to these things that he's talking about it's not all just literal but the people had already made up their minds and they even though he still had an audience they had ceased to listen uh it says when jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it he said unto them doth this offend you what and if he shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh prophet is nothing the words that i speak unto you they are spirit and they are life but there are some of you that believe not for jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him and he said therefore said i unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him it was like his audience was there but in spite of his further words they had already made a decision and left and then i guess my thoughts went to earlier this week i had listened to a teaching from a channel that i've it was on youtube that i've checked from time to time and and there's some pretty radical teachings on there and anyway i i saw one they're just real short they're like five minutes long or six minutes long and there was one there on it was a teaching on the the parable of the good samaritan backing up to where it talks about that the man said what shall i do to inherit eternal life and then jesus gave one of the commands jesus gave him was to love his neighbor as himself and then then he goes on to explain to the man with the parable the conclusion of the teacher was that since since what it's speaking about is inheriting eternal life really the only thing that matters is this loving your neighbor as yourself and therefore people outside of the scope it's like it was like a form of christian universalism like the people outside of the scope of of jesus christ or even anybody who's living any kind of a life whether they're practicing morality or they're devoid of morality as long as they're doing that thing that that they will inherit eternal life and they'll be with us and i was like man how did how do you arrive at that conclusion it it sounds if all you hear is this little blurb out of the scriptures that would almost be a solid conclusion however to do that is that the exclusion of all the rest of the teachings of jesus and throughout the epistles all the things that point to righteous living salvation through christ alone all of those things are thrown out the window to to take this dogmatic stance on who's going to be who's going to be in the kingdom of heaven and inherit eternal life anyway my point in that is that sometimes and it's a thought i've been having lately we to more fully understand the things that jesus said we need to take them and not just in the context of even their passage but but in the broader context of all of jesus's teachings anyway i was i was blessed by that brother atlee uh thank you for that um it just reminds i i just think that what what you were teaching there is important um in the in the um in the tense in the sense that you were teaching it but i also uh i think i'm reminded um and convicted about uh things that you pay attention to to the converse uh as well because i think that uh that that also rings true with what you said oh god i sing to you to thee we sing to thee we sing and praises bring to thee we sing to thee we sing and praises bring to thee lord jesus sing we hymns and praise and gratitude we bring oh to be one. To Thee we sing, praises bring. To Thee we sing, praises bring. To Thee, Lord Jesus, sing we hymns and praise and gratitude we bring. O God, dear Thee, I lift my joyful voice. Lord Jesus, dwells my heart and hands. O cleanse me from all sin and self-blight, that in Thy presence I may stand. To Thee we sing. To Thee we sing. To Thee, Lord Jesus, sing we hymns and praise and gratitude we bring. O God, dear Thee, I lift my joyful voice. To Thee, my visions of worship bring. O take my life and voice forever. May I, I praise forever sing. To Thee we sing. To Thee we sing. To Thee, Lord Jesus, sing we hymns and praise and gratitude we bring. There are many today who have wandered away. They are out in the fields of sin. Once they've walked in the light, now they've roamed through the night. O Lord, give us to recapture the vision again. Give us men who are true and loyal through and through. O Lord, give us faithful men. Give us men who are strong and the battle is long. Give us men with the will to win. Men courageous and true, though they're numberly few. O Lord, give us faithful men, faithful men, faithful men, to recapture the vision again. Give us men who are true and loyal through and through. O Lord, give us faithful men. There's no time for delay when our need of today man persists and then to the end. Men whose feet are secure on the rock at its shore. O Lord, give us faithful men, faithful men, faithful men, to recapture the vision again. Give us men who are true and loyal through and through. O Lord, give us faithful men. O right eye, wondrous love, divine love, come now, tables of my heart, that I may keep thy statues lore and gather from thy waiting heart. O may I learn the law of truth, whose seasons change by day and night, be light and life and strength to me, my foundation, my delight. O right eye, law of holiness, in living characters of grace, that by the light of your mercy I may be worthy of thy name. O may thy perfect law of truth, whose seasons change by day and night, be light and life and strength to me, my foundation, my delight. O right eye, law of tenderness and of compassion in my breast, fill heart and voice and then reach out to help the weary and distressed. O may thy perfect law of truth, whose seasons change by day and night, be light and life and strength to me, my foundation, my delight. O right eye, law of love, within me till my soul shall be white as the star that ever breaks, united to thy flock and being. O may thy perfect law of truth, whose seasons change by day and night, be light and life and strength to me, my foundation, my delight.