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Does God Speak Today?

Does God Speak Today?. Deep Questions. Does God Exist? Does God Really Care? Was Jesus the Son of God? Does God Speak Today? “Where there is no prayer from the heart, there is no religion” Auguste Sabatier. God speaks, but do we listen?. SEEK : The Greatest Treasure hunt of all

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Does God Speak Today?

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  1. Does God Speak Today?

  2. Deep Questions • Does God Exist? • Does God Really Care? • Was Jesus the Son of God? • Does God Speak Today?“Where there is no prayer from the heart, there is no religion” Auguste Sabatier

  3. God speaks, but do we listen? • SEEK: The Greatest Treasure hunt of all • LISTEN: Tune into the right frequency… • FOLLOW: The WORD dwelling among us? • OBEY: Spiritual Tattoos on the body of the church… • TRUST: God’s Promises

  4. "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” Amos 8:11

  5. Seek… But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17

  6. ….and you will FIND "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew 4:4 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matt 5:5-7

  7. The Distracted Ear “Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.” Job 33:1

  8. The Reluctant Ear  Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."   At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Mark 10:21-22

  9. Do we really listen? “Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” Psalm 95:7-8 “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” Matt 7:26

  10. Is God’s Message Hidden? Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. Daniel 5:5-6

  11. How Does God Speak Today? • The voice of conscience • Directly to us: The Holy Spirit • The listening ear • Meditation, Prayer, and Praise • Wisdom through testing: the refiner’s fire • Through reading the Scriptures • The Law and the Prophets • The Life of Jesus • Through His Church • Tradition e.g. Wisdom, Liturgy, Creeds • Leaders: ‘on this rock…’ • Gifts of the Spirit: Teaching, Prophecy, Encouragement • Living Body: A testimony

  12. ‘Even the Stones would cry out’ • The voice of conscience • You cannot do wrong and feel right. It is impossible!Ezra Taft Benson “I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40 He has also set eternity in the hearts of men Eccles 3:11 “In every heart there is an emptiness that only God can fill with his son Jesus Christ.” Blaise Pascal

  13. Tablets of Stone? • The Old Covenant • The Law –Moses & The Ten Commandments • The Prophets • The Promise of the NEW Covenant "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Jer 39:33 “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Joel 2:28

  14. Living Words • Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 • “Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live” 2 Tim 3:16, CEV • “from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:15-17 

  15. The WORD made his dwelling among us….. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1 “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” Heb 1:2

  16. …and you will KNOW the FATHER No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Matt 11:27 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Matt 17:5

  17. Meditation & Solitude • But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:2 • Jesus • After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone Matt 14:23

  18. Prayer “This is how you should pray:    “Father, may your name be kept holy.    May your Kingdom come soon.    Give us each day the food we need,    and forgive us our sins,    as we forgive those who sin against us.   And don’t let us yield to temptation.” Luke 11:2-4

  19. The Church as God’s Word to the World “By their fruits you will recognise them” Matt 7:20 We are to God the AROMA of CHRIST among those who are saved and those who are perishing.. 1 Cor 2:15 • “The only hermenutic of the gospel is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it” Leslie Newbigin

  20. Spiritual Letters • PAUL“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 2 Cor 3:3

  21. The LOVE test • If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Cor 13:1 • Love in action Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa

  22. God can speak through us! Jesus on the Emmaus Road: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:32 Philip to the Ethiopian "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.  "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Acts 8:30-31 • God speaks through PEOPLE who love him and believe in him.

  23. A Promise to HOLD “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD Jer 29: 12-14 “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

  24. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 The Prodigal Son by Ruth Tietjen Councell

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