Listening to God
Hi guys, we thought we should emphasize that sharing and
praying is really important before you guys read the rest of the lesson. So
please try to set aside 15-20 minutes for sharing and praying. It’s also highly
encouraged that the leaders and youth break up into smaller groups to share.
Okay so today’s lesson’s going to be on listening to God.
The main Bible passage is probably one that’s familiar to most of the youth and
today’s topic is also probably one that the youth might have come across before.
But just like the main verse (Matt 13:9) implies, hearing with our physical
ears is something that’s completely different from hearing with the ears of our
heart. So we hope that as you go through this lesson, and before you share this
lesson with your youth, we will all pray that God will open the eyes and ears
of our heart to see and hear what He has in stall for us, and that we will
learn to be still and listen to God. And it is our hope that as we listen to
Him, we shall respond to Him and we will experience our wonderful God for who
He is.
Key Verse
Matthew 13:9
“He who has ears, let him hear.”
Key takeaways
11)
We listen to God because we love Him and because
He knows what is best for us
22)
Distractions of this world can keep from
listening to God/tuning into Him. Thus it is important to be aware of these and
guard our hearts and minds against these.
33) Be ready to listen to God. Make a conscientious
stand that you want to listen to Him.
To start off, listening to God is something that all of us
are capable of experiencing if we are TRUE disciples of Christ. God’s voice may
not come as an audible sound to most or most of the time, but if we are His
sheep, we can all certainly tune in to Him. (& we can tune into Him only
because of God’s Grace :D)
He speaks through spontaneous thoughts, feelings or visions
too.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me.”
John 8:47
“Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why
you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Okay, so…
11)
Why do we want to/should we listen to God?
a)
Because we love God. Firstly, people generally
love to listen to someone that they love alot- parents, friends, someone
they’re interested in etc. If we truly love God, we’ll want to spend time at
His feet daily, listening to what He wants to say to us.
Luke 10:39
“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to
what he said.”
b)
Secondly, because then we can know what God
wants us to do. The plans and directions He has for our lives.
Psalm 139:16
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of
them came to be.”
God has our whole life planned out for each and every one of us even
before we were born. He wants to mold us into the best person that we can be;
and only He knows how, so lets listen to Him.
God
loves us and is the source of our lives. He wants only good things for us and
from us.
22)
What prevents us from listening to God?
Matthew 13:1-23
a)
Who does the farmer represent? What do the seeds
represent? What does the soil represent?
God; God’s Word, the truths that He is trying to show us; the state of
our hearts
b)
What are the differences between the four types
of soil?
They were different in their willingness to receive or hear the truth
that God was trying to give them.
c)
What is Jesus trying to communicate to His
hearers through this parable?
God
wants us to listen to Him. God wants us to be open to what He has to say to us
and obey Him, so that He can change our hearts.
The key to communicating with God
as shown in this parable is removing the things in our lives that prevent us
from hearing what He has to say.
Ask the youth to think about the things in their lives that are
preventing them from listening to God. (Time of sharing; leaders please
share too)
It is important to note that we may
not always be one of the types of soil listed, all the time. In different
phases or seasons of life, or in different situations, we may respond to God’s
word differently.
But at the end of the day, we hope
that we all will strive to be the good soil that responds to God’s teaching and
yields a bountiful crop, regardless of the season of life we’re in.
(On a side note, I think it helps
being honest with God to. True that God is omniscient, but for me, I realized
that when I wasn’t being honest with God about the state of my heart, I
couldn’t to listen to what He wanted to tell me- what He wanted me to change
with my life.)
33)
But how do we listen to God’s voice?
a)
Be open
to the fact that God’s voice can come as spontaneous flow of thoughts, feelings
or impressions in you, if not an audible sound. (Leaders have to exercise
great caution when explaining this part.) For example, you may have a sudden
prompting to pray for someone or speak to someone.
Tell your youth that this is possible. That God can speak to us
throughout the day, even when we’re busy. But we have to first of all be open
to this possibility.
Also, it’s important that we learn to recognize how to discern whether
such a thought or emotion is from God or not. How we can do this is by spending
time to get to know God, reading His Word. It’s the same with people, when you
get to know your best friend so well, you’ll be able to discern his or her
voice in a crowd of voices even without turning around.
Hebrews 4:12
“For the world of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart.”
And we know we have the Holy Spirit with us, to guide us at all times.
(Ref
John 16:13)
b) By stilling our hearts before God
True that God can speak to us even when our hearts are not still, but
when we’re still, we’ll find it a lot easier to hear His voice. If we’re not
still, we won’t be able to hear His voice. We’ll be hearing our own thoughts
most of the time.
By still, we mean the state of our hearts. Though it is possible to have
stilled hearts even in a noisy external environment, but it’s a lot easier to
still our hearts before God when we’re in a quiet environment. When it’s just
us and God and we can pour everything that’s on our heart out to Him and listen
to Him.
Luke 6:12
“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent
the night praying to God.”
Throughout the gospels, it records that Jesus often retired to a quiet
place, to pray, to talk to God and to listen to Him.
So encourage the youth to still their hearts before God. Maybe they can
do so at home, not rushing through QT, or on the bus or train on the way home.
Maybe then, they can plug in to a quiet worship song, and seek God, instead of
checking Facebook, twitter or Instagram. (which so many of us tend to do)
Habakkuk 2:1
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look
to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”
‘I will stand at my watch and station myself’ – implies that Habakkuk
readied himself to listen to God
c) By praying !
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your won
understanding; in all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE him, and he will make your paths
straight.”
When we pray and acknowledge God in our every endeavor, and every step of
the way God supernaturally causes us to be agreeable with Him.
Praying
is our communication with God! So when we pray and trust Him with our every
step, He does speak!
Also!
Believe that God is willing to lead us and wants to talk to us!
TIME FOR
SHARING!!
Done by: Cher, Lish, Noel
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