Listen Up!

A sermon preached by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack on January 29, 2012

at First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

“Listen Up!”

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Mark 1:21-28

To whom do we listen?

I remember years ago when mobile phone service was somewhat unpredictable.  All too often I’d be in the middle of a conversation when suddenly I couldn’t hear the person to whom I was talking.  I would move to higher ground and ask, “Can you hear me now?”  If that didn’t work I’d try any number of positions in order to get a clear signal, each time asking, “Can you hear me now?”

Picture a Kilgore High School football game with the bleachers filled to capacity and there’s a ton of noise and cheering for the Bulldogs.  Down in front two people are talking to each other when one of them says, “Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says…”  Everything stops and goes silent!  Everyone, even the coaches and players from both teams are listening to what this person is going to say.  “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”

To whom do you listen?

The Israelites listened to God through Moses as they wandered through the desert.  This passage in Deuteronomy is a part of Moses’ final words to the Israelites, most of them born in the wilderness.  It’s a refresher course: he’s reviewing what God expects of them through the Ten Commandments and other instructions as they prepare to begin a new chapter of their life together as a people: they are ready to enter the Promised Land.  It’s like the review sessions your teachers offered you in high school to help you prepare for the coming final exam.  You were reminded of what you learned in the beginning of the year: some of it forgotten and some of it lying dormant in your brain.  In this chapter, Moses warns the people that they will see a lot of stuff that is strictly off limits for them when they enter the land of Canaan, the Promised Land: black magic, abhorrent practices and the occult.  These distractions will compete for their attention; wanting the people to do their bidding; to buy their lottery tickets; to play at their casino; to indulge in luxury; to get hooked on their drugs; and more.

The Israelites must block out all these distractions for they must be completely loyal to God.  And God explains how he will speak to them.  God will raise up a prophet like Moses “from among your own people” and the people are to listen to this prophet.  God will hold them accountable and will deal with any false prophets that arise.  In the Jewish tradition, the prophet Moses proclaims was understood to be the Messiah.

Moses voices God’s concern about to whom God’s people will listen when Moses is gone.  To whom do you listen?

Listening is a lost art.  I very often hear people say, “I don’t feel like I’ve been heard.” Or “I can’t hear you!  What did you say?”  I think one of the downsides to all our technology designed to help us better communicate with one another is that we aren’t communicating very well or listening carefully to one another.  We’re rushing from one thing to the next, one activity to another, volunteering for this, that and the other thing; over-committing ourselves to the point of hysterical exhaustion, taking trips every time our kids get a day or week off from school, never saying no to a friend or family member in need.  We rush and rush and rush until life’s no fun, we’re in a hurry to get things done and nobody is listening. 

“The Father of the Field of Listening”, Dr. Ralph Nichols, once said, "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." 

But it’s hard to listen well.  Today more than ever we are bombarded with data from numerous sources.  We have the newspaper, the radio, the TV with 250 channels and nothing on, mobile phones that can do everything under the sun, the internet, with all its web sites and clouds and more.  In the World in 2012 issue of the Economist magazine, there is a statistic that reveals that a “tsunami of data” is coming; data is growing exponentially: the quantity of global digital data in 2012 is projected to hit 2,720 exabytes, in 2015, that figure grows to 7,910 exabytes.  A deluge of information is headed our way.  It’s coming at us like a 20 foot wave from a turbulent ocean as it is about to pounce upon the shoreline.  With so much coming at us, to what are we to give our attention?  To whom do we listen?

Growing up, I listened to my parents most of the time.  I also listened to other adults in positions of authority: teachers, scout leaders, coaches and pastors.  They guided and cared for me as I grew up from a child into an adult.  I also listened to my classmates, both the good and the bad.  Many times I believed the negative things they said when I was teased or they made fun of me.  There was the peer pressure to do any vast number of things that were either illegal or simply bad for me or both.  But I had friends who encouraged me, who built me up, who had my back in times of trouble. 

As an adult, I listen to various songwriters, the authors of books, newspapers and magazines and talking heads on TV.  There was M. Scott Peck with his book “The Road Less Traveled”.  There was first and foremost Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.  I read Robert Fulghum, Frederick Buechner, C.S. Lewis, Philip Yancey, George Friedman and countless other authors from my seminary coursework.  In print media, there was Mike Lupica, Thomas Friedman and David Brooks.  On TV, there was MTV and VH-1: I watched and listened to all kinds of stuff from both of these channels. 

But when I boil it all down to the bottom of the pot and peek in to see what’s left, what still remains, there’s a rock; a rock I can stand on, a rock I can depend on, a rock that knew me from the beginning of time, a rock that gives me abundant life, a rock that is God in Christ Jesus.  All the authors I read, the musicians I listen to, the TV personalities I watch are great in their own ways and they have great gifts and talents from God, but none of them can go twelve rounds in the ring with our God, our Savior, our Christ. 

To whom do you listen?

Unless I’ve missed my guess, we have all listened to any one of thousands of voices making a pitch for their ultimate “coping strategy” for living a full and abundant life.  Have acne?  Use this new medicine for the clear skin you’ve always wanted.  Overweight?  Get the latest exercise routine on DVD and watch the pounds just fall from your body.  These supposed “strategies” influence how we see ourselves, how we view ourselves.  Both examples I mentioned here pertain to issues mainly with our outward appearance.  The message is acne makes you ugly and unlovable.  People who are overweight are treated differently than those who are not in the world.  To be fat is bad, so you better lose weight.  Who do we see on the cover of magazines in the checkout line?  Who do we see when we walk by the Victoria Secret store at the mall?  Too many young women are listening to these messages and are starving themselves because the world tells them they have to be skinny in order to be important, popular and loved. 

The world also tells women they have to be it all; they have to do it all and do it well: have a successful career or business, be a super- mom to your children, and a loving, caring wife at home.  That’s a lot of balls to juggle all at once.  For those who don’t have any of these things, the thought process begins with, “What’s wrong with me?  Why doesn’t someone love me for me?”  The pressure from these societal expectations is incredible.  I don’t know how D’Anna does it.

The world tells men that our identity is based on our achievements.  A man is a failure if he hasn’t acquired vast amounts of material possessions, especially cars, trucks, 4-wheelers, TVs and video game systems.  The world also tells men that real men don’t show or express their feelings; real men don’t cry.  We are to be tough, aggressive, and competitive in all areas of life if we want to be seen as successful by society’s standards.

Our God is the voice of truth.  And the voice of truth tells us a completely different story in the Bible.  Throughout all of scripture, God tells us that he loves us no matter what.  His love is real, eternal and dependable.  God tells us in scripture that we are blessed, chosen, adopted, favored, redeemed and forgiven. 

Scripture helps us think differently.  Scripture helps us hear the voice of God through the prophets of the Old Testament and through Jesus, his disciples and Paul in the New Testament.  Scripture tells us if we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then our identity is in Christ.  It’s not in our career, not in our spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend, not in our kids, not in our wealth, not in who we know or what we know.  Our identity is in Christ Jesus.  The Bible says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20)  Let Christ shine through you.  Jesus also tells us that we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world, we are his beloved creation made in God’s image.

To whom do you listen?  Are you listening to God or listening to the world? 

Listen up!  When God talks, his people must listen!  Can you hear him now?  Good.