Feels like I have a um a lot of questions that I'm gonna be asking this morning. I'm not sure what arises when you think of your father's voice or your mind goes to, I don't know what emotions or get stirred up. When you think of my father's voice. Questions, I'm just gonna throw out a bunch of questions. Um, I'd like us to reflect a little bit upon our present relationship with our earthly father, and also maybe reflect a little bit on the past of our relationship with our earthly father. Then we also want to touch on our relationship with our children, and then also on our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Where does your mind go when you think of your father's voice? What emotions do you feel when you think of your father's voice? I'm just gonna ask a lot of questions here, just to stir our minds a little bit. Do you think of a kind and caring voice? Do you think of a voice that gave you affirmation? A voice that gave you confidence? Do you think of a voice that trusted you? Do you think of a voice that could be trusted? Do you think of a voice that is a lot of fun and cheer? Do you think of a voice that you look forward to hearing come home from work? Maybe you were young at home and wanted to play with your dad and just looking forward for him to come home from work? Or do you think of an angry voice, authoritative voice? Do you think of a critical voice? A voice where you couldn't do anything right. You could do nothing right. Did your father admit when he was wrong? Do you think of a voice of silence? A voice at home but not present? Do you think of a voice that meant I'm too busy for you? Do you think of a voice that you could understand? Do you think of a voice that could understand you? Or maybe your father isn't here, isn't with you anymore, and you would love to hear his voice again. Like Brent was saying this morning, it's a year. Just bless all of you that have lost your parents, one of your parents or both parents. But their voices are still speaking today. Their voices are still speaking today. We have two granddaughters, and the youngest one is just starting to crawl. She would just look at me, blank expression. I could barely hold her. She would cry. And but now we're getting to the point where she smiles. I can walk in the house the other evening. I came home from I think maybe work. And she was Monica was babysitting the two grandchildren, two daughters, granddaughters. And she was in the living room playing, and I came home and talked to her, and she got this big smile. Makes grandpa feel good. I could even pick her up, and she and we had fun with each other. She even lets me give her a bottle now. So she's starting to trust me, right? And um, so it makes me feel good. It brings joy to me when I see that, when she responds like that to me. Well, then Joey, her dad, came home. I was sitting on the recliner, she was playing over there, kind of in front of the stairway. She couldn't see Joey when he came in. But he started talking, so she heard his voice. So she started crying, crawling out around the stairway to look where Joey's at. Then he would come over toward her. He was still ten feet away from her, and he would talk to her. And she had a different response to him than she did to me. She actually was on her four all fours. She would rock back and forth. You could tell, and she was trying to talk to him. She can't talk yet. But she wanted to be held. She wanted him to pick her up. And so he did. Picked her up, gave her a kiss, and just had fun with her. And that's how it should be between a father and the child. I didn't ask Braxton if I'm allowed to have this story, but I'm gonna take the liberty of telling a story of the Little League team this last summer. A little league team, we had probably, I think they had about five coaches, and about half of them were coaches, not quite. But um, we had plenty of coaches, put it that way. And they won the first game, and then they couldn't win for a long time. And they just kept losing and losing, and finally the frustration was getting not just to the boys, well, probably more to the coaches than the boys almost, because some of the boys after the game were like, Did we win? You know, that type of thing. So they were just having fun, right? And um, so this one game playing a red Baltic, and um, I wasn't there to watch, but they had a really good first inning. I mean, they scored, I don't know, five, four or five runs. Well, then it started raining. So it was a rain delay game. So we had to make up for that game later on. So I was able to be there for that game. The sun was shining, and the game started. Now, this is the makeup game, so the score stays the same when you start. So it was I'm I'm just throwing out, I think it was 5-0 or something like that. So the game starts and it starts going like it normally did. The other team started scoring runs. The frustration was building a little bit, and the there were runners on on the base, on the bases. I forget how many outs there were. But in Little League, there's passed balls. I mean, the pitcher throws and the catcher doesn't always get them. That's not unusual. Anyway, our catcher um was playing, and our pitcher, I think there was a guy on first, third, and second, and there was a pass ball. And uh, of course, on a pass ball, if you have an aggressive runner, he wants to steal home from third, and that's what happened. And the pass ball, the catcher couldn't find the ball right away. He couldn't see the ball. And the coaches started yelling. Sorry, get a little bit emotional here. The coaches started yelling at this catcher. One was starting to lose it. A little lead game, but it was because of the frustration of the season. It wasn't because this game wasn't the cause of the emotions. If this team would have been winning, the response would have been different on this passball. But here we had a game, we were up 5-0 when we started, and we had a passball, and runners started scoring, and of course, the the one on second ran to third. So if this catcher doesn't find this ball, that runner can score to you. Well, the coaches were yelling, the one was losing it, and the catcher couldn't find the ball. So one of the coaches quick quickly ran behind the back to the back stop and said, Hey, the ball's over here. And he didn't yell, it was in a normal voice. It happens to be the catcher was Braxton and the coach was his dad. He recognized my voice. I I I yelled at first, too, but all at once, I understood my son. I saw what was happening. I ran behind the back stop and just said, Hey Braxton, Paul's over here. He grabbed it right away. The father understood the son, and the son recognized the voice. It can be a picture of you and God. The father understands each one of us, but do we recognize his voice? So that's the thrust of the message this morning, is understanding God's voice. What is the voice I want my children to hear? Getting back to the relationship on the between the earthly father and the heavenly uh and the our children. I have no doubt every dad in here wants the best for their children. Wants to hear, he wants, I have no doubt that every father in this room wants his children to hear a kind and loving voice that makes them happy and secure. But what is the voice that they are hearing? What should a father's voice be? It should be a source of love, encouragement, affirmation, building his children's confidence and self-worth. This means speaking life into them, telling them how valuable they are, and just yeah, just building them up. I'm just going to go through a few of these that we that I mentioned here. Affirming and encouragement, frequently, frequently telling your children you love them, you're proud of them, and you have belief in them for who they are, not just for what they accomplished. Speak life and value. Remind them of their worth, their unique beauty, and their great purpose in the world. Discipline with kindness, correct them with firmness, but avoid degrading or condemning language. Never intentionally embarrass your children in front of other people in public. Our words have a big impact. Your words should be a source of strength and refuge, and they can become a child's inner voice. You know what do what's in what children believe of themselves is what they hear out of others. Show respect. No matter what how old your children are, show respect to them. Listen to them, ask about their day, and acknowledge their thoughts and feelings. When you make mistakes, how do we respond? It's hard to apologize sometimes as a dad. I mean, I think probably all the time. I shouldn't say all the time, but it doesn't come easy for me. When you lose your temper or something, do something you regret. A genuine apology is very powerful. It shows your children that you also mess up and that you are not perfect. And it shows them you're not too proud to come to them and apologize. Model forgiveness. Show them what forgiveness looks like by extending grace to them and modeling it in your relationship with each other. For we're all not perfect. Extend forgiveness. Be their strong, be their anchor in their life. Pray with them and for them. Praying out loud shows them that God sees and hears them, and praying for them by name builds a deeper connection. Teach them the word. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9 says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall find them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Keep the word in front of your children. I had to think of even at home. Don't be afraid to hang up the verses on the walls or things about Christ on the wall. So that children see them every day. Be that steady presence, be their security. Let them see you handle tough times with resilience and faith, which helps them know they can come to you for strength. Our home should be a haven for our children where they can feel secure. And I can't stress it enough. Spend time with them. You can't buy the time. Spend time with them. Your relationship with your earthly father has a huge impact on your view that you have of your heavenly father. I'd like to talk about that just a little bit. There's a very positive impact that we can have on how our children look. And also, that has affected us at this point as adults. That has an effect on us today yet. Our relationship with our children goes way beyond. It goes with them for a very, maybe maybe the rest of their life, actually. A loving and supportive earthly father can make it easier to see God as a similar, loving, and supportive figure. While negative experiences like abuse or abandonment can make it difficult to trust, accept, or connect with a heavenly father who may be perceived as distant, critical, or absent. The positive impact that an earthly father can have is through being kind, patient, and be involved can serve as a positive model. It makes it easier to build for them to believe that God is also kind, patient, and involved in your life. The negative impact that we can have as fathers is when we get angry or unpredictable. An angry or unpredictable father can lead you to fear as a to lead you to fear God as somebody that just is is unpredictable. You just look at him as maybe unleash at any unexpected time. When we're critical or demanding, we come across as it brings God out as it can bring God out as like a taskmaster and who is never pleased. When we're at home, are we present? An absent and uninvolved father can make you feel that God is too busy for you and that you are unimportant to him. How are we with our children abusive or harsh? That can lead you to believe that you are worthless and that God is also full of condemnation. So we can, I'd like for us to think about how are we coming, how are we working with our children? But then I also want us to think about our past. What are some of the things I'm feeling? Where what is it causing me to? Why am I feeling the way I do? What's causing the emotions that I have? Where does it come from? My encouragement to us this morning is if we have, whether we have a positive or a negative memories or emotions that come up when we think of our earthly father, let's recognize and understand that your heavenly father is perfect. And fundamentally different from any earthly father who is imperfect and will fall short at times and make mistakes. We're all as fathers are we're not perfect. So let's also give our earthly fathers that we had, let's give them grace. They are not perfect. Seek a correct view. If your past experiences have distorted your view of God, know that God is the perfect and loving Father, and ask for His help to see the truth and to heal from the past. The God that we serve can help us heal. If you have hurts from the past, from your relationship with your Father, you can find healing from that through our Heavenly Father. If you have a relationship with your earthly father that's distant, look for godly examples, bring them into your life to seek out that can be kind of a father figure for you, so that you have somebody that you can go to and just confide with them as a father figure. Also, I encourage you to focus on God's character, intentionally focus on the biblical descriptions of God as a loving, merciful, and tender Father to renew your mind and reframe your expectations. So, how can we learn to understand our Heavenly Father's voice? If you want to turn with me to 1 Samuel 3, I'm gonna read the first 11, the first 14 verses here of Samuel. Well-known story. Samuel at a young age, Hannah was his mother, and she prayed for a son, and she promised she would give him back to God, and she did. I don't know exactly how old Samuel is here, but we know he was living with the priest, Eli. And he was trying to sleep one night. Children don't always fall asleep right away, do they? I think we can all identify with that. But here we have Samuel. I'm just going to start reading in verse 1. Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see, was lying down on his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel and he said, Here am I, and ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call, lie down again. So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call, my son, lie down. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel! And Samuel says, Speak, for your servant hears. Then the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned, atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. I'm sorry, we're actually going to read through verse 21. You talk about a heavy message for a young lad here. Samuel lay until morning, then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, and he said, Here I am. And Eli said, What was it that you told me? What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that you that he told you. So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him, and he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. So we see here this was a very unusual happening. The Lord had not revealed himself for a very long time. And here he reveals himself to Samuel. And we see here right at first, Samuel didn't know what he was hearing. He thought it was Eli. And so Samuel, we see he learned to listen to God's voice. So in the same way for us, is it takes some sometimes we we might not understand when God is talking to us. We might not recognize it as God's voice. So I feel it is important that we learn to hear God's voice. So we're just going to talk a little bit about that, on how are some ways that we might be able to help that might help us to recognize God's voice. On learning how to hear God's voice. And he wants us to be able to understand him very clearly and be sure when he speaks. I got some of these points from uh well, there was a pastor that I just found a good article from, um, was really blessed with this. I'm going to share some of his points here. His name is Kyle Bailey. I've never heard of him before, but was really blessed with uh what I found here. One thing we can be sure, there's two things, is knowing as we had talked, knowing God wants to communicate with you and guide your life. Just as you, as a loving parent, want to communicate with your child and desire to talk with your children, God desires to talk with you as his child. Jeremiah 33, 3. Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Number two, we can be intentional about listening. I think it's very important that we are intentional of listening to God. Mark 4 24 says, and he said to them, pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. Number three, God's voice always agrees with scripture. If you wanna, if you want something to compare with what you're hearing, if it aligns with scripture, there's a good chance it's God talking to you. If it does not align with scripture, that's a great indication that it is not God that is, it is not God's voice that you're hearing. God will never contradict his word. Scripture is your ultimate guide and the final authority on everything. Psalm 19, 119, 105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path. A very, a very simple scripture, but it is very true. We're going through a dark world, and we need that light to guide us. A lamp is a practical, clear, practical and clear and helpful. God's word is just like God's word guides us to step by step, showing exactly what direction to go. And we can definitely depend on God's word to guide us. Number four, God's word. God's voice brings peace. I experienced that this week. I was, you know, I've um how do I want to say beginning of the week? I just I finally told God, hey, I need to hear from you. I still didn't wasn't settled settled on what to preach this morning. And that's not a good feeling. Sometimes, you know, a couple weeks ahead of time you might already know kind of what you're gonna preach the next time. But I came to Monday morning, I still didn't wasn't settled on what I was preaching. And and there was another decision, more of a business decision, that was just not settled with. And those two came on the same day for me. And I had to think, it didn't come through music, it didn't come through um a podcast, it didn't come through the radio, but it came through silence. This week I really tried to drive, I do a lot of driving. Um this week I tried to not just very unless I was fighting sleep when I was drive, I just tried to drive in silence. And I very much encourage silence in your life. Um, that's when these two things were revealed to me is through silence. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts when when you When you need to make a decision or you want to hear from God, there's a few things that that brings. It brings peace. God is a God of peace. Satan wants chaos. God is never chaos. God is not anxiety. God is not confusion. God's voice will always give you clarity and a calm sense of assurance deep down inside. He might lead you into something challenging or stretching. So just because it's challenging or stretching doesn't say it's not God leading you through it. But his peace goes with you, even through those times. His peace goes with you, giving you confidence and courage to follow him. God never said it's going to be easy, but he does say he will go with us and God will give us peace. Peace is God's gift to believers. If a decision leaves you feeling troubled and anxious, it's probably not, or uneasy, you probably want to hit pause and pray again. God's voice doesn't push, rush, or panic you. It settles you, it strengthens you, and it clearly guides you. So that's one thing we can have confidence in when we're making decisions. If when we have peace of that, we can know that it was God's God's will or that God is with us. We touched on this a little bit before. God's voice is confirmed through trusted people. And I really encourage you to bring people in your lives that you can trust. And I know you have. Many of us have people that we can trust. Sometimes if we're trying to go through a decision that's tough, it just kind of affirms, brings affirmation to our decisions, whether we're making the right decisions or not. We weren't designed to discern everything on our own. God puts wise, spiritual, mature people in your life to help confirm his voice. Trying to make spiritual decisions alone can leave you vulnerable. Surround yourself with mature people who deeply know God. Let them speak into your life. Often you'll find that God uses these voices to confirm, clarify, or even correct. So embrace the power of wise counsel, godly counsel. Proverbs 11, 14 says, In the abundance of counselors there is safety. So it is wise to bring counsel into our lives. God's voice always produces good fruit. Matthew 7, 16. You will know them by their fruit. God's voice always produces spiritual fruit that reflects his holiness. God will always lead you toward humility, toward holiness, unity, maturity, and genuine spiritual growth. If what you're hearing consistently leads you towards pride, division, confusion, or negative behaviors, that should be a red flag to us. That maybe the voices that we're listening to are not from God. So let's ask ourselves honestly, what fruits are produced when I follow this voice? Does it honor Christ, deepen faith, and build others up spiritually? If yes, you're probably hearing God's God clearly. Number seven, quiet your heart to clearly hear God's voice. There is so much clutter that can enter into our minds. There is so much through mania right now. It's on the mental. Excuse me if I'm talking too much about mania here, but um the they're talking about our we're working on our mental state right now. So they're trying to declutter our minds. And there is so much information. They say we're obese with information and starving wisdom. And so I had to think of that when I saw this. Quiet your heart to clearly, to clearly hear God's voice. God typically speaks in a quiet whisper, not a shout. If your life is noisy and distracted, you're going to have trouble hearing him clearly. And that's so true. You know, if we are constantly listening to things, taking in more information. I'm not saying God can't talk through podcasts or something like that, but there are times when it's good to just simply declutter our mind and be silent so that God can speak in that quiet voice. Make it a daily habit to spend quiet, focus time with God. He always He's always speaking, but often we're simply not listening. Closely, simply not listening closely enough. When we pause and intentionally quiet ourselves, his voice becomes clearer than ever. So I'm just gonna go over just again these five things that we brought out here. Um, the last five here. It's God's voice always matches his word. God's voice brings supernatural peace, not anxiety or confusion. God's voice is consistently confirmed through trusted spiritual leaders. Or it doesn't have to be a leader in the church or whatever, it can be through a trusted friend. God's voice always produces clearer spiritual fruit. God's voice becomes clearer when you intentionally quiet your heart and mind. We can be confident God is clearly speaking to us, but we need to learn how to listen to his voice. He is not silent or distant. God speaks to us and it wants to be very clear to each one of us. So even when God speaks to each one of us, are we willing to act on it? It's so easy to, whether it's a podcast or a sermon or whatever, whatever it is, and especially when God speaks to us, are we actually willing to act on it? Am I willing to act on what I'm hearing from the Heavenly Father? In closing, here I'm just have a few questions here. Let's picture ourselves today having the opportunity of physically sitting down with Jesus. Wouldn't that be awesome? Just physically sitting down with him, just you and just one-on-one. As a counselor or as a friend or as a shepherd, whatever, whatever, however you want to look at it. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, what would you ask Jesus today? What are some questions that you ask him today? What would Jesus say to you? What would he tell you? Would you be willing to do what he says? Would you be willing to do what he says? Is Jesus happy or sad today how you are following him today? Had to think, does it make a difference in my life? If I could physically sit down with Jesus, ask him questions, and he would tell me what to do, I'd probably do it. Right? I probably would. So why is it harder for me to do it when I'm not, when I can't see him? When we know he's speaking to us. So my encouragement this morning is if you're having a hard time making decisions, or maybe you're feeling God is distant, maybe your prayer life, or you just your relationship with him is feels distant, or maybe you're struggling with your past. Um I want to be very careful how I say this because I had a good relationship with my dad. So but I've come to the conclusion for myself, like my dad was not perfect. There's things that I can think of that I wish would have been different. But if I'm old enough to recognize that now, I think I have a responsibility now to try to change that in my life and not just blame whoever it might be in your past for what you're going through. Extending forgiveness to them and depending on Jesus to lead you on from here. I think there's a power, it's very powerful when we can make that step of forgiving the past, whatever we, and how it's affecting us now, to being able to forgive those people. Unforgiveness can set people back, keep them, keeps a person from growing, from being, maybe even being effective in the Christian life because of what we can hold on to and not be willing to forgive those people. So my encouragement is let's forgive those that have hurt us so that we can fully hear, hear, hear, hear what Christ has, what Jesus is telling us. We'll just have a word of prayer and then I'm just gonna briefly open it up if anyone has anything to share. Not offended if you don't. Um, then Joel, after that, maybe ask you for a song and then just close the service. Let's bow for a word of prayer. God, we just want to thank you that you clearly speak to us, Father. Sometimes it is hard for us to understand what you're saying. But Lord, help us to be able to put the effort into wanting to know what you tell us, what you're saying to us, and being willing to act on it. Father, I just pray your blessing upon each one in this group. And as we go from here, that we could honor and glorify you with our lives. We just thank you so much for your word. And that you your word is a lamp into our feet and a light unto your our path. In Jesus' name. Amen.