Abiding in Christ – My Sheep Hear My Voice

 

Abiding in Christ – My Sheep Hear My Voice

This is Chuck Rapp with a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters. 

Jesus lived in an agrarian culture. Palestine in the first century was a land of small farms with crops and animals.  Many of his parables and teachings made reference to his environment. 

In my previous two messages I shared how Christ is the vine and we are the branches.  We must abide in Him if we are to produce fruit. 

In John 10:27, Jesus uses another agricultural analogy.  We read, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  In the Amplified version it states, “The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice…” (emphasis is in the original)

I find it interested that Jesus makes a distinction between “hearing” and “listening”.  As we abide in Christ, I would encourage us all to follow a simple 5-step process.  Those steps are Seek, Listen, Hear, Obey, Repeat.

• Seek – We seek the Lord in prayer, through the study of His Word, and as we endeavor to walk in the Holy Spirit.  Jeremiah 29:12-13 tells us, “then you will call on 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.”  We must seek the Lord with an intensity.  

• Listen – As we just read, God listens to us when we pray.  We must reciprocate and listen to Him; we do this through His instruction in the scriptures and as we tune in to the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

• Hear – On more than one occasion my wife has told me, “you listened to my words; you even repeated them to me, but did you hear my heart?”  I believe that’s what the editors of the Amplified Bible had in mind when they made the distinction between “listening” and “hearing”.  When Jesus said, “my sheep listen to my voice”, He was implying that the sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd.  There are actively tuned in and awaiting his call.  We need to do the same.  I’ll share more on this subject in my next message. 

• Obey – Having heard from the Lord, we must then obey his instruction.  The first half of James 1:22, once more in the Amplified version, admonishes us, “But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God’s precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning]”

• Repeat – Like an athlete in training, we must repeatedly execute this discipline.  As we do so, we develop good spiritual habits which tend to make the next cycle a bit easier. 

Seek, Listen, Hear, Obey.  Seek, Listen, Hear and Obey. 

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.