April 19, 2024 • 24 mins
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Welcome to "Hope in Hymn Today" with Gary Miller, a comprehensive podcast that delves into faith's wonders and scripture's power. In this episode, we explore the Book of Mormon highlighting the Words of Mormon, verse 7. We discuss hearing God's whispers amidst worldly noise and the understanding that our knowledge is far from complete.
Join us as we uncover how being Spirit-led inculcates humility, submissiveness, and pliability within us. We delve into how our attitudes indicate whether we're walking in the flesh or the Spirit and highlights the life-changing inspiration that comes from reading scripture and fostering a relationship with God.
In addition, we emphasize the inherent humility in acknowledging that no matter the years spent in the Church, we don't know everything. This dependence on God leads us to his favor, blessing, and presence.
Visit hopenhimtoday.com to explore our entire catalog for free and learn how to support the show. If you're an Apple podcast listener, please leave us a five-star review. Share this enlightening content within your circles and help spread Jesus Christ's good news.
Embark on a profound introspective journey. Explore the significance of God's will, not as an elusive mystery, but a road map etched in scripture. Understand the practical application of God's word in our lives and the blessings of embracing the unknown. Let's strive together to live and apply God's will every day, grounding ourselves in the richness of faith.
Listen, learn, and let faith be your guiding light in life's journey. Embrace the unknown, lean on God's will, and make your life a testament to His abundant grace. This episode is a thought-provoking conclusion leaving you to reflect and contemplate in your sacred place.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the show. My name is Gary Miller.
This is Hope in Hymn Today. Good to have you here.
Head over to the words of Mormon, the words of Mormon, and kind of anchor yourself on verse seven.
While you're flipping, let's talk about it. We're doing an episode every day
for the rest of April. Have you enjoyed this cadence, episodes every day?
It's been great being back with you at this kind of frequency.
(00:23):
This kind of feels narrow gate-ish, right?
Back in the very beginning, not the narrow gate Baptist church,
though we did a lot of content there too, but like narrow gate,
ladder gate days, and we do like week long, you know, weeks worth of daily lessons,
man, it kind of feels like that. I'm digging it.
Loving this in the rest of April. So look, how do you support it?
Best number one way to do that, friends, just share it out to the world that knows you.
(00:46):
You know people that we don't know and we want to know your people. So share us out there.
Facebook, X, mention us on Instagram, like text it to a friend,
share it with them, help them get excited and fired up.
Maybe it's a little more Jesus, maybe in a little more style that they're not
normally running in that lane.
It might help them, might shake them, might get them fired up. And we love that.
(01:07):
Also, if you haven't gone over to hopenhimtoday.com, hopenhimtoday.com,
you can take in all of our entire catalog for free.
Of course, you can download as much or as little as you like.
Make sure you subscribe on whatever aggregator podcast machine you like to listen to.
If you are an Apple podcast person And if you haven't on this generation of
(01:28):
the show, left a five-star review, click five stars, write a couple sentences.
It helps us out huge. And we appreciate that. And a big thank you,
thank you, thank you again. I can't do this.
Can't jump in without saying thank you to everyone that's headed out to hopinghimtoday.com
and become a supporter of the show.
You can literally make a donation for a dollar or a whole lot more.
You get to decide. You can make it one time. You can make it monthly.
(01:50):
If you've done that, thank you so much. Really, from the bottom of my heart,
huge, huge thank you. You got a lot going on. We live in very expensive times.
For you to support, somebody shouting on a podcast, talking about Jesus means
the world to me. Thank you.
Words of Mormon, verse 7. Let's go through this. I got to give maybe a little tiny disclaimer.
(02:11):
This might be preaching time today. This might come in, pieces of this might
come in a little hotter than normal episodes.
And I'm not doing that to be different.
I'm not doing that to be sensational. Some things just, look,
there's some things we need to hear, sometimes in certain ways,
in certain seasons that will actually get our attention,
(02:33):
open our eyes, and help us to pivot a little bit, help us to get better, okay?
So if I'm doing that, that's my intention for me and for whoever I'm sharing it with.
I'm always preaching to the preacher first, and then everybody else who happens to be around.
So keep that in mind. We got some great truth here, and I really want us to dive in.
The world says, and I do this for a wise purpose, For thus it whispereth me
(02:58):
according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me.
And now I do not know all things, but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come.
Wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.
Let's start off at the top where it says, And I do this for a wise purpose,
for thus it whispereth me according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me.
(03:21):
Friends, what we know scripturally is that often in the noise of the world,
God speaks to us very quietly.
Now, it's not universal in the scripture. I think sometimes we overplay this
because there's plenty of times where we can point to scripture where God is anything but subtle.
(03:43):
I think about, you know, early Acts and Day of Pentecost.
That is not subtle, nor was it quiet.
Right. We we whether we're talking about the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
Right. Or we're circling around the city, making noise in battle,
like whatever it is. it's not always that God's only modality is quiet.
(04:07):
That's not what that means. We can't oversell that. We've got to be balanced
in our understanding of Scripture.
However, often, often, we have this evidence that God is going to come in a
much more subtle and quiet way to us in a world that is incredibly noisy.
So what does that mean by default, even before we really get it into this test.
(04:30):
What it means is that if in order for me to better hear what a still small voice
really sounds like, I'm going to have to kind of go in and manually turn down
the volume on other things in my life.
If I really want to hear from God, if you really want to hear from God,
you're going to have to turn the volume down on some things so that the volume
(04:54):
by proxy is going up and you can actually discern those whispers.
We have to be proactive about this, friends. It doesn't just happen because
you and I believe or we go to church or we read the Book of Mormon or whatever.
No, no, no. We have to be proactively going, wait a minute.
I need to turn down the noise of social media. I need to turn down the noise of the news.
I need to turn down the noise of the distraction box that's in my pocket, i.e. a cell phone.
(05:19):
I need to maybe turn down the noise literally and like physically in my environment.
Sometimes when Asher's losing his mind during the day, I'll come out of my office
because I work from home the majority of the time and there'll be a TV on and
he's got other things going.
And I will often say, hey, let's turn everything off and let's just let this
(05:39):
place build in some quiet so that we can settle down.
Sometimes we got to manually turn down these other things so we can hear from
God so that we can settle down. That's the first part of this.
But also keep in mind that, friends, as you and I are walking through our lives,
our worst behavior moments, our worst responses in email, in digital,
(06:02):
in text, in a comment thread, on a phone call, in a meeting,
in person, one-on-one, in a group, in a class,
our worst, most flesh-ridden and driven responses always tend to be louder.
Louder, not louder in volume, but louder in attitude, more brash,
(06:22):
more self-serving, and frankly, sometimes louder.
If you've gotten into a disagreement with your spouse, and if you're human and
you're alive and you're married, this has happened, and you find yourself raising
your voice, or they're raising their voice at you.
I promise, very rarely are we raising our voice to quote scripture.
(06:45):
We're not raising our voice to sing a hymn in that moment.
Normally, as our flesh and natural man urge rise, so does our volume, so does our brashness.
But conversely, when we're more led of the Spirit in the moment,
we tend to use less words.
We tend to be more humble, more submissive. We tend to be more pliable.
(07:09):
We tend to be more agreeable.
We tend to not speak as much so we can actually hear what the other person or people are saying.
We give room for the Spirit of God to work with us and advise us.
So if you're ever looking for an acid test of, okay, wait a minute.
But am I walking in my flesh in this response or am I walking in the spirit?
(07:34):
Well, let me look at my overall volume and not just sound volume in decibels,
but we're talking about the volume of my attitude.
Is it self-centered? Is it prideful? Is it ego? Is it anger? Is it frustration?
Is it impatience? Or is it the others? Because we'll be able to quickly discern
that and we can see it in others.
(07:54):
There's recently, I've had an opportunity just in the last few weeks to see
some people periodically behaving badly.
I mean, smart people, intelligent people just kind of lose the plot for a minute.
And by the way, no judgment here.
We've all done this many, many, many times.
But I've seen them lose the plot. And you know, if you kind of had a recording
(08:17):
of it and you played it back to a believer If we're talking about believers and we played it back,
we'd say now just listening to the tone and to the volume of your attitude is,
is this you walking in the flesh or are you walking in the spirit?
It's very easy. So this thing at the front here.
(08:38):
Whispers to us, it's a reminder that one of those premier or primary modalities
for the Lord to speak to us is a lot more subtle than we might often want or expect.
And so with that, we've got to manually turn down other things in our life so
we can turn up the volume of God in our lives.
But it's also reflective of our own personal behavior and practice.
(09:00):
Am I in the spirit right now or am I in the flesh?
Well, let me look at my volume. Now, sometimes it is decibels,
but other Other times it's not just decibels, it's where's my attitude on the
volume scale, if you will. It's not a perfect analogy, but I think you get the idea.
And when we think about that, it changes and inspires a change in our behavior.
(09:22):
Friends, I'm very convicted lately. I've mentioned this in other episodes.
I'm very convicted that this stuff we do should change us. This scripture we read should change us.
The sacrament should change us.
Prayer should change us. It should be inspiring and working change in us.
(09:42):
That happens over time, faster and slower than others at other times and other
people. Why does that happen? I don't know. I'm not signing up for that class.
All I know is it should produce change.
And so things like this remind us that there are some things that we can do
to fix and work on and better perfect our behavior.
Then it goes on and says, and now I do not know all things. Can we stop there?
(10:05):
Because there's a comma.
First of all, this is a reminder. You don't know it all. I don't know it all.
There's arrogance when people who are not of faith act like they know everything.
And then there's just a really unseemly arrogance when people who are believers
act like they have arrived and know everything. I mean, it's so off-putting. It's impressive.
(10:31):
Friends, you don't know everything. I don't know everything.
It doesn't matter how many highlights I have in this.
It doesn't matter how many times I've read it. And I've read it a bunch.
It doesn't matter how many sermons I've preached, how many meetings I've been to.
It doesn't matter the degrees of the thing or the stuff. Friends,
there is so much that you and I don't know.
(10:51):
That awareness, that understanding is the beginning of humility,
humility, and truly accepting that and understanding that is increasing your dependence on God.
Your dependence on God being increased is a portal to his favor,
his blessing, and his presence.
(11:11):
So we have to start here by going, I don't know everything. Well,
I've been in the church for 25 years, Gary. Great.
Congratulations. I'm so proud of you. Would you like us to do a plaque or maybe
a telethon to raise money, to build a statue for you? I mean, what do you want?
The way that we advertise our stuff, it's just so funny.
(11:34):
I'm horrible about this. The Lord convicted me of this a few weeks ago. though.
Often when I was talking to lifelong members of the church, I always felt like
I had to give my resume because I've often perceived that some segments inside
the church don't take converts as seriously.
The language gets kind of patronizing. Well, you know, it just gets weird.
(11:55):
I didn't say universally, don't email me. It's not everywhere.
It's not everybody, but it certainly does happen.
And it's funny. I felt like I had to keep giving my resume.
Resume you know well i i i've read the book of
mormon cover to cover for the last four and a half years and i've and with
that it's the whole triple doctor and covenants and pearl of great price and
i bible cover to cover every single year i listened to one to two conference
(12:18):
talks every single day i started it back in the 70s that have moved my way forward
in the app like i give all of this resume to try to either get the approval
or show that i know what i'm talking Or whatever else.
And in all of that, it doesn't mean anything because all of us,
there's so much that we don't know.
(12:38):
And it's off-putting when we do stuff where we're like, well,
you know, as someone who's been in the church for 30 years, I can tell you,
how many times have you told this story?
I was wondering if I can tell me that. I mean, good night. Who cares?
I didn't hear Jesus anywhere in there. So far, we're just reading the book of
you and you are the Messiah, right?
(13:00):
Like, let's not do that. There's so much we don't know. Imagine your life right now,
the radical change and blessings that could come if we would just maybe walk
into our marriage and with our kids and parenting and work with an attitude that said,
I do not know all things.
(13:21):
But I know the one who does, which is coming up after the semicolon.
Sorry, I said comma earlier.
But there's another thing I think this points out, much like the A section of
this verse above, this section tells us something else.
I don't know all things. I think so much of our suffering,
(13:41):
so much of our agony sometimes is because you and I think we're entitled to
know everything about everything if we decide that we want to know it. I should know.
I should know exactly what happens. I should know exactly what was said.
I should know. I mean, and we play this in certain areas in our lives, but not all, of course.
(14:04):
Well, I need to know exactly how the translation was done, because if I don't
know exactly how it was done, then how can I trust it? You know, I need to know.
Actually, no, you don't. No, you don't.
Well, I need to know exactly what the church does with these funds when I click
the donate button out on the website.
(14:25):
Actually, no, you don't. You don't. Do you apply this principle everywhere else?
So I'm looking out where I'm recording and on the other side of the house,
I see the bar area around the kitchen and I see paper towels.
Now, I don't look at that and go, you know what? I'm not using that paper towel
until I know exactly what was manufactured and who worked on it and what is
(14:46):
their faith persuasion and what did they do that day?
Because I don't want to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
I am not touching that paper towel until I know.
You'd say, listen, fool, you don't need to know all that stuff.
It just helps clean up the spill.
There was a spill on the kitchen table. You better wipe it up before it gets
on the books and gets on everything else.
We don't need to know everything. We need to know what matters.
(15:11):
I don't need to know how all the words were put together. I need to know what
they say so that I can practically apply it in my life so that I can And try
to be more like and more familiar with and more fellowshiped with Jesus.
I could give two rips about what the particulars were of this,
about how something came together.
(15:34):
I'm interested in what has come together and what it is doing for me.
So often we keep reading scripture like it's all past tense.
How was it put together and something that happened back then?
Friends, I got a spoiler alert for you.
Scripture, read the scripture like it's for you today and for your future.
It'll change the way you read the scripture.
It's awesome. We don't need to know everything.
(15:57):
We drive ourselves crazy wanting to know everything.
I've lost days, hours, weeks of my life worried about stuff because I didn't
know everything. I need to know everything that's going on.
Because what we all think is we all think we're God. We think we should be in control.
You say, Gary, I don't think that way. That's a little too far. Oh, sure we do.
(16:17):
I should know. I have a right to know.
Where's that written? written. Is that book of you, chapter one,
quoting you that you should have a right to know everything?
Friends, this is where we have to step out on faith.
I thought that was the assignment, calling those things that are not as though they are.
I've got to have hope for things that are not seen in my physical reality yet,
(16:43):
but I'm seeing them in the supernatural, and I want some of that supernatural
on my natural, and I want to believe until I see it.
That sounds like Like scripture, that sounds like Book of Mormon to me.
That sounds like Bible to me. We don't need to know everything.
So first be aware, I don't know everything. It drives humility up, which is good.
(17:05):
God can work incredible things to a person that is humble.
We will feel like we are on a desert island all by ourselves,
and our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling if we over-inflate our value,
our knowledge, and our stuff. God doesn't work with that.
I do not know all things, but the Lord knoweth all things. So I know who does.
(17:29):
He knows everything that is to come, friend. Nothing is surprising him.
So if he not only does he know all the things. So the person I'm connected with
has all the answers to the quiz and test of this life.
So I know the person that's got the answer key. I want to get close to the person
with the answer key because I want to try to ace this test.
(17:50):
Every day I get a new one put on my desk. I want to try to ace the day that is this test.
I know the one who's got the answers and the study key, the answer key.
He's got it all. And he will work it to doing me according to his what?
To his will. Now, don't ever let anybody over-spiritualize, over-coffee cup
(18:14):
verse, over-meme or gift the concept of the will of God.
Friend, I'm going to say this real mellow so it doesn't have any tone edge on it at all.
You do not have to guess about what God's will is for your life and the particulars inside of it.
I do not have to wonder what God's will is in my life. Why?
(18:40):
Because he's already told me what his will is on a variety of subjects all throughout
his word, all throughout these scriptures.
I already know what God's will is for healing.
I already know what God's will is for my finances.
I already know what God's will is for my health. I know what God's will is for
(19:01):
forgiveness and grace and mercy. see.
I already know what God's will is for the eternal security of the believer.
I already know what his will is for his own sovereignty.
I already know because the scripture tells me.
We make an amazing spiritual excuse when we go around and it buys us time and
we don't have to do anything and we don't have to change and we don't have to
(19:24):
risk and we don't have to step out on faith when we say things like,
well, you know, I'm just, I'm really,
I'm really praying for God's will in this situation. Really?
What's the situation? Well, it's my marriage. Well, I think God's already spoken
really clearly on his will for marriage. Have you ever read the book of Ephesians?
It's right there. That's one. I think he's spoken pretty clearly about it.
(19:46):
And that's not the only place, by the way, but I've got his will for marriage right there.
Are we following that part of his will? Well, yeah, I understand that, but no, no, no.
But also, his will is not
a mystery we don't have to walk around like well you
know as i discern the will and we start talking christianese and we sound super
(20:06):
spiritual but it it doesn't do anything to adorn the gospel he's like guys i've
already told you your will for for your for for how to work every day i've already
talked to you about how to work have you ever read the book of proverbs.
I've already talked to you about my will for prosperity and favor and abundance, right?
(20:29):
I've already said this.
Like, I mean, do you want me to say it again?
Like, it's right here. So we don't have to wonder what his will is.
Why do we study these scriptures every day? It's not to check off the plan.
It's so that I know more of his will.
So that as I encounter these things in life, I know what God has for me.
(20:49):
The ideal plan in marriage. I know what his ideal plan is for money.
I know what his ideal plan is for my relationships. Now, are you and I going
to make some mistakes and work that out? That's why every day is a test.
We get a new one. We got to figure out to hopefully get a better grade than the day before.
Of course, we're going to make mistakes. That's why we have repentance,
praise God. But we got to be striving under it. Striving under what?
(21:10):
Striving under to live and apply and plug into his will every single day.
So as I leave you here today, I want you to get in the secret place on this
one. So number one, let's review as we close the week.
Number one, listen, we've got to turn the volume down on other things.
So by proxy, we can turn the volume up on God's voice so we can hear from him.
I just don't hear from God anymore. I just don't hear. I'm not hearing from
(21:32):
God on this. Well, where do you need to turn the volume down in other areas?
Maybe you need to finish your prayer by just sitting there quietly so he can actually talk.
Maybe we should go on that walk in the morning and just turn the podcast feeds
off. Turn me off. Turn whatever music off. Just turn it off.
And listen, we got to turn this thing down so we can listen.
We also need to use it as a barometer, a gauge, a measure of our own behavior.
(21:58):
If I'm upping my volume, both attitude-wise and decibels, 9.99999 times out
of 10, I am absolutely in my flesh and I need to dial it back and get into the spirit, right?
And then three, we don't know everything. That's freedom, friends.
You You don't need to know everything.
Over the years in ministry, both as a pastor and now as just a follower of Jesus sitting on a pew,
(22:22):
I can tell you the people that I've encountered that know the most about Scripture
and I think are the closest to Jesus are the most comfortable using the phrase, I don't know.
People that are the furthest away from Jesus, have very weak testimonies,
have a spiritual depth about as deep as a puddle out on the sidewalk during
(22:45):
a rainstorm, are the ones who act like they know everything.
Oh, yes, I actually know that. You know, in 1981, President Hinckley said,
and they'll do that kind of stuff, and they always have an answer to everything.
Watch out. That person is further from God often than you would think.
(23:08):
But then, so we don't need to know all things. And that's a reminder that no,
we don't have some built-in right that we get to know everything about anything
that we want. We're not God.
We're not sovereign. We're not omniscient.
We've just got to roll through this thing and believe on faith.
And God will show us what things we need to know. We'll know what matters.
(23:28):
And what matters will get us home.
Finally, you don't have to wrestle with the will of God. It's right all over
the scriptures. It's all over, all over. You pick your topic. His will is there.
Sometimes we confuse understanding His will for us having to discern between
a choice, knowing the difference between right or wrong, up or down, hot or cold.
Wisdom is the ability, Proverbs 4, to discern difference, right?
(23:51):
Well, that's a very different thing. We don't need to, we don't have to wrestle
with what is the will of God? God.
I hope that I know the will of God. The will of God is right on these pages.
That's why we read them every single day.
Would you take this into the secret place and give it some thought,
my friend? I hope that you will.
I hope that you're enjoying the cadence and the pace of our messages.
(24:14):
As the music comes on here, probably in about 10 seconds or less,
I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for hitting play.
Thank you for sharing thank you for leaving reviews
thank you for supporting the show at hopinghimtoday.com and partnering with
us we so appreciate it we're excited for a new week of episodes and there's
(24:36):
a couple short devotionals dropping on the weekend too every day in april we
will see you next week we'll see in the next episode get into the secret place
jesus will have something great for you there.
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the show. My name is Gary Miller.
This is Hope in Hymn Today. Good to have you here.
Head over to the words of Mormon, the words of Mormon, and kind of anchor yourself on verse seven.
While you're flipping, let's talk about it. We're doing an episode every day
for the rest of April. Have you enjoyed this cadence, episodes every day?
It's been great being back with you at this kind of frequency.
(00:23):
This kind of feels narrow gate-ish, right?
Back in the very beginning, not the narrow gate Baptist church,
though we did a lot of content there too, but like narrow gate,
ladder gate days, and we do like week long, you know, weeks worth of daily lessons,
man, it kind of feels like that. I'm digging it.
Loving this in the rest of April. So look, how do you support it?
Best number one way to do that, friends, just share it out to the world that knows you.
(00:46):
You know people that we don't know and we want to know your people. So share us out there.
Facebook, X, mention us on Instagram, like text it to a friend,
share it with them, help them get excited and fired up.
Maybe it's a little more Jesus, maybe in a little more style that they're not
normally running in that lane.
It might help them, might shake them, might get them fired up. And we love that.
(01:07):
Also, if you haven't gone over to hopenhimtoday.com, hopenhimtoday.com,
you can take in all of our entire catalog for free.
Of course, you can download as much or as little as you like.
Make sure you subscribe on whatever aggregator podcast machine you like to listen to.
If you are an Apple podcast person And if you haven't on this generation of
(01:28):
the show, left a five-star review, click five stars, write a couple sentences.
It helps us out huge. And we appreciate that. And a big thank you,
thank you, thank you again. I can't do this.
Can't jump in without saying thank you to everyone that's headed out to hopinghimtoday.com
and become a supporter of the show.
You can literally make a donation for a dollar or a whole lot more.
You get to decide. You can make it one time. You can make it monthly.
(01:50):
If you've done that, thank you so much. Really, from the bottom of my heart,
huge, huge thank you. You got a lot going on. We live in very expensive times.
For you to support, somebody shouting on a podcast, talking about Jesus means
the world to me. Thank you.
Words of Mormon, verse 7. Let's go through this. I got to give maybe a little tiny disclaimer.
(02:11):
This might be preaching time today. This might come in, pieces of this might
come in a little hotter than normal episodes.
And I'm not doing that to be different.
I'm not doing that to be sensational. Some things just, look,
there's some things we need to hear, sometimes in certain ways,
in certain seasons that will actually get our attention,
(02:33):
open our eyes, and help us to pivot a little bit, help us to get better, okay?
So if I'm doing that, that's my intention for me and for whoever I'm sharing it with.
I'm always preaching to the preacher first, and then everybody else who happens to be around.
So keep that in mind. We got some great truth here, and I really want us to dive in.
The world says, and I do this for a wise purpose, For thus it whispereth me
(02:58):
according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me.
And now I do not know all things, but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come.
Wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.
Let's start off at the top where it says, And I do this for a wise purpose,
for thus it whispereth me according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me.
(03:21):
Friends, what we know scripturally is that often in the noise of the world,
God speaks to us very quietly.
Now, it's not universal in the scripture. I think sometimes we overplay this
because there's plenty of times where we can point to scripture where God is anything but subtle.
(03:43):
I think about, you know, early Acts and Day of Pentecost.
That is not subtle, nor was it quiet.
Right. We we whether we're talking about the sound of a mighty rushing wind.
Right. Or we're circling around the city, making noise in battle,
like whatever it is. it's not always that God's only modality is quiet.
(04:07):
That's not what that means. We can't oversell that. We've got to be balanced
in our understanding of Scripture.
However, often, often, we have this evidence that God is going to come in a
much more subtle and quiet way to us in a world that is incredibly noisy.
So what does that mean by default, even before we really get it into this test.
(04:30):
What it means is that if in order for me to better hear what a still small voice
really sounds like, I'm going to have to kind of go in and manually turn down
the volume on other things in my life.
If I really want to hear from God, if you really want to hear from God,
you're going to have to turn the volume down on some things so that the volume
(04:54):
by proxy is going up and you can actually discern those whispers.
We have to be proactive about this, friends. It doesn't just happen because
you and I believe or we go to church or we read the Book of Mormon or whatever.
No, no, no. We have to be proactively going, wait a minute.
I need to turn down the noise of social media. I need to turn down the noise of the news.
I need to turn down the noise of the distraction box that's in my pocket, i.e. a cell phone.
(05:19):
I need to maybe turn down the noise literally and like physically in my environment.
Sometimes when Asher's losing his mind during the day, I'll come out of my office
because I work from home the majority of the time and there'll be a TV on and
he's got other things going.
And I will often say, hey, let's turn everything off and let's just let this
(05:39):
place build in some quiet so that we can settle down.
Sometimes we got to manually turn down these other things so we can hear from
God so that we can settle down. That's the first part of this.
But also keep in mind that, friends, as you and I are walking through our lives,
our worst behavior moments, our worst responses in email, in digital,
(06:02):
in text, in a comment thread, on a phone call, in a meeting,
in person, one-on-one, in a group, in a class,
our worst, most flesh-ridden and driven responses always tend to be louder.
Louder, not louder in volume, but louder in attitude, more brash,
(06:22):
more self-serving, and frankly, sometimes louder.
If you've gotten into a disagreement with your spouse, and if you're human and
you're alive and you're married, this has happened, and you find yourself raising
your voice, or they're raising their voice at you.
I promise, very rarely are we raising our voice to quote scripture.
(06:45):
We're not raising our voice to sing a hymn in that moment.
Normally, as our flesh and natural man urge rise, so does our volume, so does our brashness.
But conversely, when we're more led of the Spirit in the moment,
we tend to use less words.
We tend to be more humble, more submissive. We tend to be more pliable.
(07:09):
We tend to be more agreeable.
We tend to not speak as much so we can actually hear what the other person or people are saying.
We give room for the Spirit of God to work with us and advise us.
So if you're ever looking for an acid test of, okay, wait a minute.
But am I walking in my flesh in this response or am I walking in the spirit?
(07:34):
Well, let me look at my overall volume and not just sound volume in decibels,
but we're talking about the volume of my attitude.
Is it self-centered? Is it prideful? Is it ego? Is it anger? Is it frustration?
Is it impatience? Or is it the others? Because we'll be able to quickly discern
that and we can see it in others.
(07:54):
There's recently, I've had an opportunity just in the last few weeks to see
some people periodically behaving badly.
I mean, smart people, intelligent people just kind of lose the plot for a minute.
And by the way, no judgment here.
We've all done this many, many, many times.
But I've seen them lose the plot. And you know, if you kind of had a recording
(08:17):
of it and you played it back to a believer If we're talking about believers and we played it back,
we'd say now just listening to the tone and to the volume of your attitude is,
is this you walking in the flesh or are you walking in the spirit?
It's very easy. So this thing at the front here.
(08:38):
Whispers to us, it's a reminder that one of those premier or primary modalities
for the Lord to speak to us is a lot more subtle than we might often want or expect.
And so with that, we've got to manually turn down other things in our life so
we can turn up the volume of God in our lives.
But it's also reflective of our own personal behavior and practice.
(09:00):
Am I in the spirit right now or am I in the flesh?
Well, let me look at my volume. Now, sometimes it is decibels,
but other Other times it's not just decibels, it's where's my attitude on the
volume scale, if you will. It's not a perfect analogy, but I think you get the idea.
And when we think about that, it changes and inspires a change in our behavior.
(09:22):
Friends, I'm very convicted lately. I've mentioned this in other episodes.
I'm very convicted that this stuff we do should change us. This scripture we read should change us.
The sacrament should change us.
Prayer should change us. It should be inspiring and working change in us.
(09:42):
That happens over time, faster and slower than others at other times and other
people. Why does that happen? I don't know. I'm not signing up for that class.
All I know is it should produce change.
And so things like this remind us that there are some things that we can do
to fix and work on and better perfect our behavior.
Then it goes on and says, and now I do not know all things. Can we stop there?
(10:05):
Because there's a comma.
First of all, this is a reminder. You don't know it all. I don't know it all.
There's arrogance when people who are not of faith act like they know everything.
And then there's just a really unseemly arrogance when people who are believers
act like they have arrived and know everything. I mean, it's so off-putting. It's impressive.
(10:31):
Friends, you don't know everything. I don't know everything.
It doesn't matter how many highlights I have in this.
It doesn't matter how many times I've read it. And I've read it a bunch.
It doesn't matter how many sermons I've preached, how many meetings I've been to.
It doesn't matter the degrees of the thing or the stuff. Friends,
there is so much that you and I don't know.
(10:51):
That awareness, that understanding is the beginning of humility,
humility, and truly accepting that and understanding that is increasing your dependence on God.
Your dependence on God being increased is a portal to his favor,
his blessing, and his presence.
(11:11):
So we have to start here by going, I don't know everything. Well,
I've been in the church for 25 years, Gary. Great.
Congratulations. I'm so proud of you. Would you like us to do a plaque or maybe
a telethon to raise money, to build a statue for you? I mean, what do you want?
The way that we advertise our stuff, it's just so funny.
(11:34):
I'm horrible about this. The Lord convicted me of this a few weeks ago. though.
Often when I was talking to lifelong members of the church, I always felt like
I had to give my resume because I've often perceived that some segments inside
the church don't take converts as seriously.
The language gets kind of patronizing. Well, you know, it just gets weird.
(11:55):
I didn't say universally, don't email me. It's not everywhere.
It's not everybody, but it certainly does happen.
And it's funny. I felt like I had to keep giving my resume.
Resume you know well i i i've read the book of
mormon cover to cover for the last four and a half years and i've and with
that it's the whole triple doctor and covenants and pearl of great price and
i bible cover to cover every single year i listened to one to two conference
(12:18):
talks every single day i started it back in the 70s that have moved my way forward
in the app like i give all of this resume to try to either get the approval
or show that i know what i'm talking Or whatever else.
And in all of that, it doesn't mean anything because all of us,
there's so much that we don't know.
(12:38):
And it's off-putting when we do stuff where we're like, well,
you know, as someone who's been in the church for 30 years, I can tell you,
how many times have you told this story?
I was wondering if I can tell me that. I mean, good night. Who cares?
I didn't hear Jesus anywhere in there. So far, we're just reading the book of
you and you are the Messiah, right?
(13:00):
Like, let's not do that. There's so much we don't know. Imagine your life right now,
the radical change and blessings that could come if we would just maybe walk
into our marriage and with our kids and parenting and work with an attitude that said,
I do not know all things.
(13:21):
But I know the one who does, which is coming up after the semicolon.
Sorry, I said comma earlier.
But there's another thing I think this points out, much like the A section of
this verse above, this section tells us something else.
I don't know all things. I think so much of our suffering,
(13:41):
so much of our agony sometimes is because you and I think we're entitled to
know everything about everything if we decide that we want to know it. I should know.
I should know exactly what happens. I should know exactly what was said.
I should know. I mean, and we play this in certain areas in our lives, but not all, of course.
(14:04):
Well, I need to know exactly how the translation was done, because if I don't
know exactly how it was done, then how can I trust it? You know, I need to know.
Actually, no, you don't. No, you don't.
Well, I need to know exactly what the church does with these funds when I click
the donate button out on the website.
(14:25):
Actually, no, you don't. You don't. Do you apply this principle everywhere else?
So I'm looking out where I'm recording and on the other side of the house,
I see the bar area around the kitchen and I see paper towels.
Now, I don't look at that and go, you know what? I'm not using that paper towel
until I know exactly what was manufactured and who worked on it and what is
(14:46):
their faith persuasion and what did they do that day?
Because I don't want to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
I am not touching that paper towel until I know.
You'd say, listen, fool, you don't need to know all that stuff.
It just helps clean up the spill.
There was a spill on the kitchen table. You better wipe it up before it gets
on the books and gets on everything else.
We don't need to know everything. We need to know what matters.
(15:11):
I don't need to know how all the words were put together. I need to know what
they say so that I can practically apply it in my life so that I can And try
to be more like and more familiar with and more fellowshiped with Jesus.
I could give two rips about what the particulars were of this,
about how something came together.
(15:34):
I'm interested in what has come together and what it is doing for me.
So often we keep reading scripture like it's all past tense.
How was it put together and something that happened back then?
Friends, I got a spoiler alert for you.
Scripture, read the scripture like it's for you today and for your future.
It'll change the way you read the scripture.
It's awesome. We don't need to know everything.
(15:57):
We drive ourselves crazy wanting to know everything.
I've lost days, hours, weeks of my life worried about stuff because I didn't
know everything. I need to know everything that's going on.
Because what we all think is we all think we're God. We think we should be in control.
You say, Gary, I don't think that way. That's a little too far. Oh, sure we do.
(16:17):
I should know. I have a right to know.
Where's that written? written. Is that book of you, chapter one,
quoting you that you should have a right to know everything?
Friends, this is where we have to step out on faith.
I thought that was the assignment, calling those things that are not as though they are.
I've got to have hope for things that are not seen in my physical reality yet,
(16:43):
but I'm seeing them in the supernatural, and I want some of that supernatural
on my natural, and I want to believe until I see it.
That sounds like Like scripture, that sounds like Book of Mormon to me.
That sounds like Bible to me. We don't need to know everything.
So first be aware, I don't know everything. It drives humility up, which is good.
(17:05):
God can work incredible things to a person that is humble.
We will feel like we are on a desert island all by ourselves,
and our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling if we over-inflate our value,
our knowledge, and our stuff. God doesn't work with that.
I do not know all things, but the Lord knoweth all things. So I know who does.
(17:29):
He knows everything that is to come, friend. Nothing is surprising him.
So if he not only does he know all the things. So the person I'm connected with
has all the answers to the quiz and test of this life.
So I know the person that's got the answer key. I want to get close to the person
with the answer key because I want to try to ace this test.
(17:50):
Every day I get a new one put on my desk. I want to try to ace the day that is this test.
I know the one who's got the answers and the study key, the answer key.
He's got it all. And he will work it to doing me according to his what?
To his will. Now, don't ever let anybody over-spiritualize, over-coffee cup
(18:14):
verse, over-meme or gift the concept of the will of God.
Friend, I'm going to say this real mellow so it doesn't have any tone edge on it at all.
You do not have to guess about what God's will is for your life and the particulars inside of it.
I do not have to wonder what God's will is in my life. Why?
(18:40):
Because he's already told me what his will is on a variety of subjects all throughout
his word, all throughout these scriptures.
I already know what God's will is for healing.
I already know what God's will is for my finances.
I already know what God's will is for my health. I know what God's will is for
(19:01):
forgiveness and grace and mercy. see.
I already know what God's will is for the eternal security of the believer.
I already know what his will is for his own sovereignty.
I already know because the scripture tells me.
We make an amazing spiritual excuse when we go around and it buys us time and
we don't have to do anything and we don't have to change and we don't have to
(19:24):
risk and we don't have to step out on faith when we say things like,
well, you know, I'm just, I'm really,
I'm really praying for God's will in this situation. Really?
What's the situation? Well, it's my marriage. Well, I think God's already spoken
really clearly on his will for marriage. Have you ever read the book of Ephesians?
It's right there. That's one. I think he's spoken pretty clearly about it.
(19:46):
And that's not the only place, by the way, but I've got his will for marriage right there.
Are we following that part of his will? Well, yeah, I understand that, but no, no, no.
But also, his will is not
a mystery we don't have to walk around like well you
know as i discern the will and we start talking christianese and we sound super
(20:06):
spiritual but it it doesn't do anything to adorn the gospel he's like guys i've
already told you your will for for your for for how to work every day i've already
talked to you about how to work have you ever read the book of proverbs.
I've already talked to you about my will for prosperity and favor and abundance, right?
(20:29):
I've already said this.
Like, I mean, do you want me to say it again?
Like, it's right here. So we don't have to wonder what his will is.
Why do we study these scriptures every day? It's not to check off the plan.
It's so that I know more of his will.
So that as I encounter these things in life, I know what God has for me.
(20:49):
The ideal plan in marriage. I know what his ideal plan is for money.
I know what his ideal plan is for my relationships. Now, are you and I going
to make some mistakes and work that out? That's why every day is a test.
We get a new one. We got to figure out to hopefully get a better grade than the day before.
Of course, we're going to make mistakes. That's why we have repentance,
praise God. But we got to be striving under it. Striving under what?
(21:10):
Striving under to live and apply and plug into his will every single day.
So as I leave you here today, I want you to get in the secret place on this
one. So number one, let's review as we close the week.
Number one, listen, we've got to turn the volume down on other things.
So by proxy, we can turn the volume up on God's voice so we can hear from him.
I just don't hear from God anymore. I just don't hear. I'm not hearing from
(21:32):
God on this. Well, where do you need to turn the volume down in other areas?
Maybe you need to finish your prayer by just sitting there quietly so he can actually talk.
Maybe we should go on that walk in the morning and just turn the podcast feeds
off. Turn me off. Turn whatever music off. Just turn it off.
And listen, we got to turn this thing down so we can listen.
We also need to use it as a barometer, a gauge, a measure of our own behavior.
(21:58):
If I'm upping my volume, both attitude-wise and decibels, 9.99999 times out
of 10, I am absolutely in my flesh and I need to dial it back and get into the spirit, right?
And then three, we don't know everything. That's freedom, friends.
You You don't need to know everything.
Over the years in ministry, both as a pastor and now as just a follower of Jesus sitting on a pew,
(22:22):
I can tell you the people that I've encountered that know the most about Scripture
and I think are the closest to Jesus are the most comfortable using the phrase, I don't know.
People that are the furthest away from Jesus, have very weak testimonies,
have a spiritual depth about as deep as a puddle out on the sidewalk during
(22:45):
a rainstorm, are the ones who act like they know everything.
Oh, yes, I actually know that. You know, in 1981, President Hinckley said,
and they'll do that kind of stuff, and they always have an answer to everything.
Watch out. That person is further from God often than you would think.
(23:08):
But then, so we don't need to know all things. And that's a reminder that no,
we don't have some built-in right that we get to know everything about anything
that we want. We're not God.
We're not sovereign. We're not omniscient.
We've just got to roll through this thing and believe on faith.
And God will show us what things we need to know. We'll know what matters.
(23:28):
And what matters will get us home.
Finally, you don't have to wrestle with the will of God. It's right all over
the scriptures. It's all over, all over. You pick your topic. His will is there.
Sometimes we confuse understanding His will for us having to discern between
a choice, knowing the difference between right or wrong, up or down, hot or cold.
Wisdom is the ability, Proverbs 4, to discern difference, right?
(23:51):
Well, that's a very different thing. We don't need to, we don't have to wrestle
with what is the will of God? God.
I hope that I know the will of God. The will of God is right on these pages.
That's why we read them every single day.
Would you take this into the secret place and give it some thought,
my friend? I hope that you will.
I hope that you're enjoying the cadence and the pace of our messages.
(24:14):
As the music comes on here, probably in about 10 seconds or less,
I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for hitting play.
Thank you for sharing thank you for leaving reviews
thank you for supporting the show at hopinghimtoday.com and partnering with
us we so appreciate it we're excited for a new week of episodes and there's
(24:36):
a couple short devotionals dropping on the weekend too every day in april we
will see you next week we'll see in the next episode get into the secret place
jesus will have something great for you there.
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