Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So many times we see Jesus saying in the Gospels, "He who has ears, let him hear."
He's not talking about our natural ears primarily.
The people in the crowd -- they did hear His voice, they did have natural ears,
but what Jesus is mainly saying here is that we need to have spiritual ears that are attuned to God's voice.
And so we need to hear His voice, we need to heed His voice.
His whole name -- Yeshua -- means, "The LORD is salvation."
What Jesus is saying is, 'I've come to save you from your sins, I've come to redeem you, I'm your deliverer,'
'I'm your messiah, I'm the Son of God, and the Savior of the world!'
John the Baptist even attested, "Here comes the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sins of the world!"
Jesus has come to take away your sins and forgive you and bring you to newness of life!
So we need to have those ears that hear his voice.
In this illustration here we have this Mickey Mouse doll -- he doesn't have ears. He came broken, which was unfortunate.
He doesn't necessarily like being without ears and being whole.
The Lord wants to make us whole and give us those ears to hear.
What Jesus said, in John 5:24, was "He who hears my word and believes on Him who sent me,
has eternal life and will not enter into condemnation, for he has passed" (or crossed over) "from death to life."
Interesting.
So we need to have ears to hear.
James 1:22 states that we need to not just be "hearers" of the word but "doers of the word, not merely deceiving ourselves."
If we hear his voice but we don't obey him we deceive ourselves -- Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments" --
We need to follow suit and have those works following our faith.
What we have here is a dynamic where God has given us these gifts and abilities, our creativities, our spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4.
It could be something God has called you to specifically.
Sometimes we can measure this by seeing how God has gifted us,
what passions He has given us and then following suit and obeying Him,
multiplying those talents just like the faithful servants in Matthew 25,
Not burying it in the ground because you are afraid of God,
or what he might do, but being joyful in multiplying what he has given us because we love him.
He has given us these gifts, this little paintbrush here is an illustration of that.
Whatever it is, hospitality, service, mercy, evangelism...Maybe you are called to be a pastor, maybe a teacher.
Whatever it is, you need to follow God and hear His voice. Listen for Him and wait on Him and then obey.
So we need to ultimately have ears to hear, we need to be doers of the word and not just hearers,
and may we be found faithful by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Commit all things to Him, do all things to His glory, and be blessed. God bless you.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community