Lakewood Bible Study | Lisa Osteen Comes & Paul Osteen, M.D.

Hello and welcome to Monday night Bible study. I am Pastor Jeremy. It is a privilege and honor to be with you again tonight. And uh we get the honor every single Monday night. We get to sit together as a family, as a community of believers. Uh whether you live in Houston and attend Lakewood regularly or you are part of our online community and family from afar, we want to just say thank you for being a part.

And uh we get to enjoy God's word. We get to um explore God's word further and then we get to be transformed. We're looking for transformation, not just for information. Um we want to see God transform our hearts to more and more and more like Jesus. So I just want to say thank you.

I'm here with Pastor Lisa Ostein Gomez and Dr. Paul Ostein. Uh it's a joy to be with you guys once again. Thank you. Um we want to kick off tonight um with prayer. We're going to take a moment to pray and then um we're going to get right into hearing the voice of God.

We've done the last three weeks hearing the voice of God and tonight we are going to do it one more time on hearing the voice of God and how we hear the voice of God practically in life. Uh we're going to hear a few different stories. Um but we want to talk about hearing the voice of God.

So I'm going to ask Dr. Paul if you would open us up in prayer for us. Yeah. Lord, thank you for this time we have together. Thank you for u just everyone that will tune in and listen to this. Lord, we just pray you'd prepare our hearts, Lord, and that we would be receptive and we would be obedient.

And Lord, we would hear exactly what you'd have us to hear. Be with my brothers and sisters that are that are maybe facing difficulties in life. Father, encourage those that are down, strengthen those that are weak, heal those that are sick. Father, whatever they need, Father, come alongside and be with them, and Father, just calm our minds, calm our hearts as we listen and receive your word tonight in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Uh if this is your first time tuning into Monday Night Bible Study, we want to say thank you number one. Number two, you're welcome to follow us uh Bible study, two words put together, Bible study to77377. You can text us from any cellular device um Bible study to 77377 or you can email us biblestudy lakewood.cc.

That's our email address. We'd love to hear from you and maybe even answer any of your questions that you may have. Um I want to start off tonight. We've been in this uh discussion collection of Monday nights for three weeks now. And then I want us to dive right back into where we left off last week.

Um but continue the conversation going forward. last week. Um, if you didn't have a chance to see it, we'd love for you to watch it on any of our platforms. Uh, you can watch it through Facebook, you can watch it on YouTube, you can go to lakewoodurch.com and view it there as well.

Um, but we talked about transition or change. How to hear the voice of God through transition or change. And where I want to pick up tonight is this is we talked a little bit last week about hearing the voice of God in a season of change where we move where God has us pick up and move.

So now let's talk about uh if you'd like to speak too. Let's talk about how God um we feel something happening. We we come against challenges. We come against something in our life that that doesn't is not comfortable. What if we're supposed to stay in that season and and continue to be faithful?

How do we do that when we feel like things are coming against us, challenges? How do we stay and be faithful in a season uh where we've been? Um I'd love to ask Pastor Lisa to start. Yeah, such a good question because there's all types of seasons that we go through.

I mean, just think about the life, the earth. You know there's planting season, harvest harvesting season, dormant seasons and and so you know it's the same in our life. Sometimes we go through sorrowful seasons, good seasons, joyful seasons, dark seasons, but sometimes we get to a season where we feel sort of stuck.

You know, maybe we've lost someone. Maybe you've gone through a divorce. uh maybe you're exactly in the will of God, but you just feel opposition and you feel maybe uh discouraged and you wonder, you know, am I in the will of God? And and we wrestle with things like this and um you know, we all the bottom line is we all want to get out of a challenging season.

And uh but the the fact is we probably don't get out as fast as we'd like to get out. That's just the that's just life. And that's the thing about seasons. You know, every season is not going to be a happy clappy season. But even though we're in the will of God and it's a challenging time, we can still be joyful.

We can still keep doing what God has called us to do because we know who's we are and we know that we're in the palm of God's hands. And we've got to remember that in these seasons that just because we face opposition doesn't mean we're out of the will of God.

That's good. And it doesn't mean that we can't enjoy that season either. Joy comes out of the heart. Joy comes from knowing Jesus. Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit. We have that spirit of joy within us. And so we can go through these seasons uh you know with joy with God's help and uh knowing that we're going to get through and they're just temporary.

That's one of the biggest things I remember is this is just going to be temporary. This season will change. And uh and I I'll just give you a couple short uh illustrations. But you know when I was in my early 20s I went through a very unwanted divorce.

And you know, all I wanted to was to get married, have kids, and be in the ministry. And to me, ministry meant probably being a pastor's wife like my mom and and just enjoying ministry. But here, I get married and then I find myself divorced and I feel devastated, discouraged, disappointed, and really disqualified from ministry.

Right? But and through all that, I learned and God showed me that no person or no thing can derail me from my destiny. And just because I had gone through that awful uh divorce didn't mean I couldn't get right back into the perfect will of God and uh God restored me and just brought such joy into my life.

Of course, I've been married to Kevin for u 30 years this year. And and so that was a hard season, but it didn't mean my life was over. It didn't didn't mean my purpose was over. It didn't mean that I was out of the will of God. I had to fight life through.

Good. And that's so important, I think, that we just realize that when we come to these seasons, know that our life is not over and it is a temporary season. Uh and and just I'll I'll throw out another example. The last six years, I don't I don't know what it is.

You know, sometimes it's hard to understand, but it's like for five years, I felt some kind of opposition, just some kind of heaviness. You said last time uh when we talked that God spoke to you and said, "There's going to be a day of evil." And the Bible talks about a day of evil.

But somehow in my life and ministry, I just felt this unseen opposition. And it was an it was an opposition like I could have given up or I could have quit ministering or you know it was just it was real. But in all of that because of what I'd been through in the past because I had experienced the faithfulness of God I just one day said God I know this is just a season.

I know it's going to come to an end. I feel the opposition but I'm not going to quit. And I know that this is going to be over soon. And then I just took my st my my stance. I'm going to dig my heels in. I'm going to keep doing what God wanted me to do.

Even though it didn't feel comfortable. It didn't feel great. I didn't always feel the anointing like I wanted to. I felt opposition at times. And so I just dug my heels in and I and I realized this is a season and I'm going to fight the enemy and I'm going to win this battle.

Okay. And so at the beginning of 2019, I'll never forget, it's just like something broke over my life. Whatever that was that was against me, it broke over my life and I knew it was over. The season was over. And just like Jesus being in the desert with, you know, the Satan for 40 uh 40 days and 40 nights, you know, that was a hard time for him, but it it came to an end.

And that season came to an end. In fact, I just think about that how the Bible says that Jesus led I'm sorry that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and when he got there, Satan showed up. Yeah. With opposition and temptation. And so Jesus had to show us how to fight the enemy and how to use the word of God and to resist every temptation.

And then when he was done, the Bible says that uh Satan left him for an opportune time. And so uh that season of temptation was over for Jesus. He won the battle, but again the enemy would come back. And sometimes that's the way it is for us. You know, the enemy will attack us in different ways or we just go through hardships of life.

You know, not everything is the enemy, but you know, just like the divorce I went through or the loss of a job or the loss of a child or death and and and of a loved one, these are hard times. Doesn't mean we're out of the will of God, but it is temporary and you've got to dig your heels and fight the good fight of faith and you will come out on the other end.

In fact, Paul, you talked about how many times these are just preparation times. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And why don't you speak on that? Well, you know, I think, you know, everything you said is so true and but there's certain times ultimately it boils down to hearing the voice of God.

Yeah. And if you're going through a difficult season and he hasn't told you to leave that season or to make a move, you just have to fight fight fight through it and you have to um you have to realize that a lot of times people will think that God's not speaking to them then.

Uh and and it sometimes it feels like that. But I love what TD Jake says. He said, "Can you endure the silence of walking out your faith before a God who does not always speak to your insecurities?" Sometimes God says nothing at moments that we're very insecure. And really, I think that's true because sometimes God wants to build our faith.

We walk by faith and not by sight. And sometimes the resistance that we feel, the hard things we go through, you can't build strength unless you use weights and it has resistance. So, I think, you know, it's a real fine line between, you know, feeling, well, God tells me to get out of this marriage because it's hard or God tells me to leave this job because it's difficult.

Well, really be careful and just make sure it's God. You know, first off, with divorce, that's a whole different thing. But with anything that's difficult, don't make sure you're not just just kind of a knee-jerk response to get away from it. Maybe that's what God has put you situation he's put you in to build your faith and help you grow stronger and to to prove that you're walking out your Christian life by faith and not by sight.

So good I think it's really important that and it's during those times too um Jeremy that God he'll give you little tests. You know Lisa mentioned it last time. Will you get bitter over this? Will you get angry over this? Will you have take vengeance in your own hands over this?

Yeah. Will you get discou discouraged and quit? Nothing wrong with getting discouraged, but will you quit? You know, God didn't call us to quit. He called us to to persevere. So, I think all the difficult times are times where God tests us and proves us uh so that he can make us stronger.

And the ultimate goal is so that we can go to the next level, you know, so that he can promote us. And you know, Joseph is a perfect example. I'll let you explain that. At every level he had opposition, but at the end what he did, God positioned him so that he could at that particular level he could he could save all of this family and eventually just the the Israelites as a whole.

So I mean God's behind all of this and the most important thing is just don't move unless you clear that he's told you to move. That's good because we don't know. I mean, like you just said, we we don't know what what's happening right now, how this will affect three years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now.

We don't necessarily know what God is using this for in this season. Just like you said with Joseph. I mean, he saved his entire family and the nation by being put into very unwanted servitude and slavery, being accused Yeah. by by the leader's wife. I mean, his whole this whole experience was his brother selling him, his being in a pit, being sold into slavery, going through being um you know, falsely accused.

If you've ever worked a job where you've been falsely accused, I mean, it's how do you go to work every day? I thought about David. You know, Saul was Saul had had demonic spirits that would spirits of heaviness and dark spirits that would come and visit him. And David was was in charge of going to the palace every day and playing his harp to diffuse that that stress and that evil spirit that would come on Saul.

Can you imagine? I mean, Saul throwing spears at David in the palace um and and and knowing that that's your job description. You're going to go to the palace and have spears thrown at you and then he's going to hunt you down in caves. And David's going, "This is what I signed up for."

Yeah. You know, I think those things are how do you how do I I say you how do I walk through a situation where I I know that God has called me to be faithful in this season, but I'm I'm facing sometimes bitter scrutiny or opposition or challenging things or even even um you know uh falsely being accused or my character is being diminished or things like that. you know, I mean, that's why I enjoyed you guys speaking to it.

Go ahead. Yeah. Well, you know, Joseph, he's so that's David is an amazing example for us to follow. And um Joseph, I just wrote some notes about him because I began to think about how uh you know, you don't read in Genesis 37 to Genesis 50 where God really spoke to Joseph.

He I don't remember him saying God said this during 13 years of being first he was in a pit then he was in as a slave and then he was in prison. You never hear Joseph complain. Other people in the Bible complain. You they're mentioned. You never hear that he got bitter.

And the proof of that is that he was able to forgive his brothers and receive them back. Uh you never hear anything negative about him. The only thing you hear is that he worked with excellence. And when we don't hear from God, you know, we're not hearing from God uh anything other than what we heard last.

Do what you know to do. When you don't know what to do, do what you know to do. And that is to obey the word, the voice of God through God's word. That's good. And so that's what he did. And he he kept the right attitude. Okay. So the Bible said he had favor in the prison and with Piper.

He had great kindness. He was kind. He had prosperity. He uh was blessed. And everyone recognized the hand of God upon his life. You don't say that when you see a bitter person. See, they recognize the hand of God upon his life. And then God blessed others because of Joseph's attitude. and uh Potterer the prison ward a warden both trusted him uh in all that that season that hard can't I can't imagine my 17-year-old son gone from home no family in an unknown country wow and he's keeping this great attitude he's being a person of excellence so during that season what what do you do when God is not speaking to you per se Joseph He was faithful to work hard.

He had an excellent spirit. He was kind to others. He was not angry. And he allowed God to use him wherever he was. He he allowed God to use him for a potterer. Even in the prison, who wants to be, you know, to be used in a prison and the whole prison was turned over to him and even though he'd lost his family.

And so I I wrote down this. When we see how God eventually took him out of the pit, out of prison, and placed him in the palace, we see that those were 13 years of training and preparation. Wow. For Joseph and uh it was a time of testing and uh God everything, you know, from the organization of um Potterer's home, how Pter just left everything to him.

He organized a a large household and business. Then he gets into prison. He organizes it, takes care of this. So what is God doing? He's preparing him to to organize during the famine a plan to save not only Egypt, but uh the people of God and his own family.

But he it was proving ground and and it was training. And I can look back in my life through that time of when I went through an unwanted divorce and other times and I think I mean I would have never guessed it at that time but now I know and understand.

I mean I'm I'm going through something right now I don't really like but I I have this attitude now. Okay, I'm going to learn a lot. I'm going to grow in this. I'm going to come out on the other side a much better person. And so when you start thinking of it that way that God is preparing you and planning you for the very thing he has for you, you begin to look at it in a different way.

That's good. You know, I think all the things we go through makes us much more compassionate to pe on people who are going through the same thing. I'm just telling you, you got to go through emotional pain to know what emotional pain's like so you can have compassion on emotional pain.

You have to go through grief or loss or betrayal. Yeah. All those things are part of the human existence and they are and yet in it you know God will protect us and help us and but he gives us compassion on people that have been betrayed or been gone through divorce or or you know gone through the life experiences that we have.

You know I was thinking Jeremy I'd never thought of this before but really Lisa the only time God spoke to Joseph according to the scriptures I think is in that dream. You think about that. Your brothers are going to bow down before you and then never again. And never again, right?

But you know what? You've mentioned this already. Not only did he get to live in a palace, that's not the redemptive story here. The redemptive story is that he saved his brothers and his family. That's right. So anyway, I I say all that to say sometimes God lets us go through things so that we can have compassion on other people.

Yeah. And you know what? Uh sometimes, you know, like after I went through that divorce or especially right afterwards, I had a lot of questions. Yeah. Like, you know, to God, God, why did I go through this? I've served you all my life. I I accepted you as a little kid.

Right. Right. Why would I go through this? Of course, then, you know, you grow up and you realize that, you know, Jesus said, "In this life, you're going to have tribulation." And we can't control everything people do. People mistreat us. They they do things that we don't like.

And so we can't control them, but we can control our attitude. And and they're not going to control our destiny. But my point is, I would ask all these questions like, "Why is this happening to me? Did I do something wrong? Was I a bad wife?" And you know, it never seemed like God answered any of those questions except one day he just impressed on me and said this, "Lisa, quit asking all these questions and recognize you have an enemy and he would like to destroy you through this trial."

Wow. And you must fight the real enemy. And when he said that to me, I realized, you know, I got to quit asking questions and start doing what the word of God said. I had to start resisting the lies that, you know, I wasn't a good wife. Resisting the lies that my life was over, that I'd never be in the ministry again.

I had to start doing that. And so God didn't answer my questions except by saying, "Hey, this is the battle. Take care of the battle with the weapons I've given you and do what I said in my word." In other words, grow up, Lisa. Yeah. And fight the fight of faith.

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I I I want to stay where where we just landed on compassion for other people. Uh I mentioned it last week. We wanted to talk about that. I I have a question about this. How do we know we're hearing the voice or hearing the voice of God for compassion for other people?

Um what does that mean? Do we hear the voice? I I my assumption is I'm I'm not always going to hear the voice just for me, the voice of God for me and leading my life and my direction. But um you know how does God lead us in guide us with his with speaking to us for other people and their life situation?

Yeah. Anybody want to speak to that Dr. Well, I just think that um you know we have the Holy Spirit inside of us to help us grow and it'll Holy Spirit will correct us. He he'll he'll convict us. He'll convict the world of sin. He'll lead us into righteousness.

But the Holy Spirit's in us, too, because the closest thing to the heart of Jesus are is hurting people. And I think the Holy Spirit leads us to hurting people. And he directs us to specific needs. You know, there can be a thousand needs around you every day, but all of a sudden, one person or one situation will all of a sudden come across your path.

And you'll know that God's you can feel his heart going out to that person or that situation. And um I think that's one of the main ways we don't want to camp so much on just direction. One of the main ways that God directs us is to help other people that are hurting.

And I think you look at Matthew 25. Matthew 25 is all about people that are naked or or needing hunger. They were thirsty. They were in prison. They were strangers in a strange land. And Jesus said, you know, as often as you've done that to these, the least of these, you've done it for me.

So the heart of Jesus is to is to help hurting people. And we have the Holy Spirit inside of us to direct us toward toward people. And you know, um there's so many examples we can give, but just, you know, not long ago, I think one of the things, Jeremy, that when we're thinking about compassion, we're always wanting to do something big.

Yeah. But, you know, we don't have to do something big. We can do something little, a smile, uh just a thank you at a restaurant or very often I'll go to the manager and I'll say, "I want to talk to the manager of the of the restaurant." And they'll all cringe because they know I'm going to complain.

Man, I'm got to listen. This guy Derek that waited on me, he's phenomenal. If he wasn't your employee, he'd be my employee. I love it. And people people, it just lifts them. Yeah. And not long ago, I was um going somewhere on an errand and um uh it was a rainstorm, bad rainstorm here in Houston, and I mean, it was really raining.

And so, I had to get gas and and getting gas in the rain was I was going to get wet. And so, I pulled into the gas station and I noticed that there was this young girl. I cry when I tell this. She was standing in the rain, standing in the rain, waiting on a bus.

And I thought she had a backpack on, looked like she was going to school. And I thought, man, it's it was pouring. And I thought, she needs an umbrella. I got an umbrella. Least I can do is give her my umbrella. So I got my umbrella out. It was a really nice umbrella.

Cost a lot of money. And uh and anyway, I got out and I said, "Excuse me." I said, "But I know you're getting wet. I want you to take my umbrella." And she goes, "No, I can't do that." So I thought, well, God, maybe I missed it. Maybe I wasn't supposed to.

So I pulled in to get gas and I had to pump my gas. And for some reason, my credit card wouldn't work. And so I had to after I paid for or before I paid for the gas, I had to go up to the counter to give my credit card information or give him a credit card.

And there she was again. Yeah. Finally, I just my heart was still going out to her and I said, "Listen," I said, "I have three daughters your age. If they're out in the sun in the rain, I would want someone to do what I want to do for you.

You got to take this umbrella." And I just gave it to her and walked off. And Jeremy, I can tell you that I filled up with gas. I paid for the gas. I drove away. And the last thing I remember with that girl, she was standing at the bus stop under my umbrella.

And I had the greatest joy and peace and satisfaction of just doing what God told me to do. I don't know the girl. I don't know if she knew that I was a believer. I don't know anything like that. Yeah. But I do know that I did what I felt like God told me to do.

And as I was leaving after this was all over, the man who was from a different country who was taking my credit card and working at the the the um counter there, he said, "God bless you for what you did." You never know how many other people are watching what you do.

That's right. So the point the point the whole point of this and I didn't mean to cry is that when you feel that divine flow of compassion going out to people that's God speaking to you. That's good. And let me just tell you something. If you can't obey with the little things like that, you know what?

It's going to be harder for you to hear and obey the big things. So I can just tell you one of the main ways that you can hear God's voice is listening to his voice directing you to hurting people. And as you do that, I think his voice will become clearer and clearer for you as as as you listen to him to direct your path.

That's good. I is that is that a clear reason as to why we want to hear the voice of God to be obedient to him? Otherwise, it's selfish. I think if we just want it from my four and no more, I think it's it's it's to be obedient.

Now, your answer is the only reason that we're listening to God's voice is to be obedient. But if the if it's just obedient for my needs or for my direction or for me, I think it's more than that. It's for other people. Yeah. Can can I if I can piggyback off what you said about Matthew 25?

There's an interesting exchange that Jesus has with his followers when he's talking in that passage and he he tells them that, you know, he said when you you've helped the least of these, you've helped me. you've done it unto me. Yeah. And they, you know, and and um he he said originally at the very top of the p passage, he said um when I was naked, you clothed me.

When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was a stranger, you took me in. And they said, when did we do that? I think that personally I think that's a picture of the grace of God because grace changes the human heart many times without us even realizing that's transformation is happening and I I realized that at 19 years old when I thought started following God I realized the way that I viewed and treated people almost immediately started to change in my heart absolutely and it and it progressed from there.

But that was a because the Bible says that the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to do righteous which is the the Greek word for there is justice in the world. Literally the word righteousness means to do justice in the world. So I think for me like seeing that where Jesus said I mean he's he's speaking to them about grace how that grace of God and I don't think that comes any other way but sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing the voice of God.

Yeah. Because I I know I know people hear the voice of God because I see the way that they treat others. Exactly. Um I I'll tell you a quick story of my own. Um Pastor Clayton Hurst who's a pastor on staff here. Um, we were at a previous church together and he was the children's pastor.

I was an intern. This is 2002 or 2003 and I was a young intern and it was the first Sunday he was going to have me speak in kids church. I was so excited, you know, I'd never given a message before and I'm thinking, okay, this is my opportunity um to to to because I just felt like I just love teaching.

So he said, I'm going to give you 10 minutes. So I said, okay. So, I got up early that morning and I was driving to the church and I was driving down a highway between Long View and Kilgore, Texas, two little towns, and there was a man carrying a stack of books, an elderly gentleman in a suit, and he was walking down the highway.

And I was about 10 minutes from the church, and I I was going to be on time, and God said, "Turn around and go pick him up." And I went, "Okay, God, you realize I'm teaching in kids church this morning. and he said, "Yeah, yeah, and you're going to go pick him up."

And I did. I turned around and went and picked him up. His car had broken down and he was the senior pastor of a small church about 5 minutes from ours. Wow. And his car had broken down. He was wearing a beautiful suit and had a stack of books and a Bible underneath his arm.

And I said, "Sir, can I give you a ride?" So, he introduced himself, got in, gave me his card, introduced himself. Um I drove him to the location where the church was, this little church um off the highway and um and uh he said, "Thank you for stopping and picking me up on a Sunday morning.

Thank you for helping." And uh he gave me his card and has information and and his favorite scripture in Romans. And and so um you know, in tears, he just said, "Thank you for taking care of me this morning." So I got to the church. Uh I was late, but Clayton still let me do the message.

And um and so the next week I was in the office and I wanted to to call and check on him and to see and I called and there was no connection. So I drove back to the to the loc because he had me drop him off at the driveway to their church.

So I didn't fully see the building. Um so I went back and couldn't find the building. Wow. Wow. There was no church. Angel's underwear. Oh my word. And I I remember telling telling um my parents, I said, I genuinely the only time in my life I genuinely believe it could have been an angel that God was testing me to see if I would be obedient to his voice on the first morning that I was going to get to preach a message because at the end of for me at the end of the day as a pastor that both of those are very important.

But if I'm not going to be obedient to God when nobody's watching, it doesn't matter what I say on stage. And so, you know, you want to speak to that or or Yeah. It's just so powerful. I mean, even I love what I do and preaching to crowds, you know, and you know, because you know, you feel like you can reach more people at one time, but there is nothing like one-on-one ministry, right?

And touching, you know, having the pulse of people and what they're going through. And, you know, the Bible says that we are all ambassadors for Christ. And that means we're on duty every day. And and I think if we can just start remembering that, God, today, what do you want me to do?

Is there anybody you want me to minister to? God will begin to show you. And the Bible says that we're all anointed. Jesus said we're anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, to bring deliverance to the captives, set set the captives free. And um so we are all anointed to do this work.

And it's not up just to the preacher or the, you know, the people on staff. It's up to the everyday believer and it's up to us too, you know. So, I I want to say that to say uh if you'll just be pay more attention, you know, when you go out and about, you can be in a crowd and yet somehow you zero in on one person.

You said, "How do you hear the voice of God? How do you know that compassion is working through you?" Because in a crowd, all of a sudden, you look at a person and you have compassion toward them. or you think there's a connection there. And that is God saying,"I want you to connect with that person.

That's good. I want to minister to them." You know, or do you ever just lock eyes with somebody and you know, all of a sudden you just have love for them. You don't even know this love uh and and you that's a sign that God is leading you.

Now, you know, what do you do? Well, just say, "God, what do I do?" It may be as easy like that happened to me in an airport in Nashville and in this crowd I just locked eyes with a a a young lady that was sitting. I was about 20 feet away and I knew something God wanted to do something.

And so I just decided, okay, God, I'm going to go sit by her. And so I went and sat by her and I said, "How are you doing today?" And she said, "Good. What are you here for?" Da da. And I told her that I was there to speak at a church.

And so that just opened up the door and she began to talk to me about all her troubles. Like she felt like I'm a minister. I'm going to I'm going to just tell her all my troubles. And she began to eventually I just looked at her and I said, "Have you ever accepted Jesus into your life?"

And she said, "No." She said, "My sister keeps trying to lead me to Jesus and I just have not done it." And I said, "Well, don't you think this is the day?" Wow. And she said, "Yes." And we just sat there. She cried. I said, "Go get your sister on the phone.

We're going to call her, tell her." And we did. But, you know, another time, this is another way. I was, this was years ago. I was at a counter. The person was not treating me right. She was taking forever to get this and I got a little impatient.

And I didn't really say much. It was just my attitude. Well, I'll come back another time. And I'm telling you, I tell the Holy Spirit would not let me get by with that. And so I went back and I tried to find her and I could not find her.

So I finally called and what is the name of the girl that works on this town? And I wrote her a letter and I just said, "I'm so sorry. I was not as kind as you as I should have been." But it's things like that, just following God on a day-to-day basis, you know, and and letting him use you, that's him speaking to you and working through you.

And as Paul said, if you will obey God on the day-to-day things, he'll begin to trust you with more. And uh you know, godly, let me let me just read this scripture. I wrote it down. It says that Psalms 32:8, it says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." And the the New Living Translation says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. So we can have this trust in God that he is guiding our total path.

That's good. He has the big picture. He is he is directing our steps. And so every day if we'll just be obedient, we can trust that God's got the big things. He's got you. He's got you on the way to the mission field. He's got you coming back to Lakewood.

He has me in the ministry. You know, he's got the big picture. If just every day we'll recognize he's directing our steps, God, what do you want me to do? Let me be a blessing. Yeah. I'm I'm listening to your voice and I'm going to obey your word.

That's good. Jeremy doesn't you can quote the scripture probably more accurately than I am but that one in I think it's James or or Timothy where where the writer says that if you say that the maybe it's first John you say you have the love of God in you and yet you see your brother in need and you do nothing you know how can you have the love of God in you so we are God's love representation here on this earth what would Jesus I know that's a colloquial phrase for for a you know what would Jesus do?

But here's the thing. What would Jesus do? What if what if I was Jesus today to the people that I met? It's very important. And Lisa said it there. But you want to hear God speak to you. Go to hurting people. He'll speak to you. And we're busy.

We're so busy today. This pandemic has changed things, right? But we're so busy today that if we're not careful, we'll we'll feel that compassion because I got too much to do. Yeah. I I I just can't do that. And that's where we miss it. And and you know, no condemnation, but start recognizing I can't do that anymore.

I I got to I'm on I'm on call. I'm an ambassador on call. Listen, if you take care of what God has you to take care of, he's going to take care of your schedule. That's good. Yeah. uh uh 1 John 3 I think it's 161 17 18 around there is when is John was is was saying that he said don't we don't love in word and in and in speech alone but in action and in deed because if you see a brother I mean how how can you say James says that how can you see a brother who's hungry or or and you say hey go be well and be fed but don't do anything how can you see them cold and not give them a coat or a blanket and say go be warm um That's beautiful.

I I sat with the pastor one time, told him the story that I just told you about picking up the the minister. And then and then I said I quoted that um where where Jesus said, "If if you can be trusted with the little things, then you can be trusted with the big things."

And this pastor, this is no joke. I was sitting in a staff meeting. The pastor looked at me and said, "Which one's the little?" And I went, "Okay." Yeah. And so, um, I I think that's you're right. hearing the voice of God for hurting and broken and and having compassion on humanity, especially with individual people.

Yeah. Um in everyday life. All right. So true. We're going to finish tonight. I want to I want to talk about one more thing before we go. How do we impart hearing the voice of God to the next generation? Let's say if we have people watching who have children and that or grandchildren and you're thinking, man, I want to I want to teach my kids how to hear the voice of God.

What do we do? What do we say to the next generation about hearing the voice of God? How do we demonstrate that? You you obviously had parents who pray. Yeah. You watch that and they model that for you. How do you hear the voice of God? You want to go first?

No, we can. Okay. I I think it's by example. It's it's just what our parents did for us. It's modeling. Uh but it's also talking. I mean, but think about the modeling. How many times did I see my parents just go slip some money in the hands of somebody that looked like they really needed it?

Or be at a restaurant and look at somebody and say, "I'm I'm gonna pay their check." Not not ever tell them. Or, you know, just go over to someone, my dad, just go over and say, "How are you doing?" You know, and uh you know, is there anything I can pray about?

And just, you know, just take the time for people. when we saw that, you know, that taught us what to do. And yeah, you know, and and just I I think about something that had to do with money. I remember this, but God spoke to my dad to give uh a missionary $5,000.

Well, that was back then was so much money. So, he brought us all together and he said, "Listen, kids, God spoke to me to do this and we're going to lay our hands on this check and we're gonna pray that God's going to bless it." Well, and he said, "But I just want you to watch and see what God's going to do."

And like as a kid, I was thinking, "What's he going to do?" You know, what does this mean? You know, so he gave the money and then not long after that, uh, a wellto-do lady called him, said, "Brother, I love your books. Uh, I have my own plane.

I'd like to fly down to Houston. Could you meet me at the airport?" And he said, "Yes." She said, "I just have something I want to give you." So he met her at the airport. Her name was Mary. She walked off the plane and said, "God spoke to me the other day and said to give you this check and it was $5,000."

Wow. Of course, he came back and showed us. But it's things like that, you know, and just and and talking to your your kids. I mean, I've talked to my kids when they were little. Pay attention to God is on the inside of you. Jesus is on the inside of you.

He will speak to you. And if you ever feel like you shouldn't do something, don't do it. Pay attention. And you know I one time I my little girl, she was probably Caroline was probably eight and she said I was with some kids and they were doing something I thought she said I started to do what they were going to do.

They were jumping off of a high place and she said mommy she said I heard don't do that. And I said that's the voice of Jesus. Wow. And I said did you do it? No mom I didn't do it. But just little things like that, talking to them about it and not being spiritual, just Jesus is is inside of you.

He will speak to you. The Holy Spirit will guide you. Pay attention and then model it to them. But you know, that's good. Oh, I'd say the same thing. More caught than taught. And I just, you know, I think for me, I just want my kids to see me desiring God, putting him first, being able to make being willing to make boldest.

You know, I I I tell my kids all the time, I will be remembered by that move from Little Rock to Houston. But it's for you guys to to step out in faith when God tells you to do something. That's good. But I'll tell you an interesting story.

One day, I was sitting in my easy chair at my house in Arkansas. I was It was early in the morning. I was in my easy chair in my robe drinking coffee, reading my Bible. And an easy chair is a recliner. Easy chair. Yeah. I just had to get Yeah, that's right. in my recliner, my leather boy or leatherman, whatever.

Lazy boy. Lazy boy. Anyway, I was in my recliner drinking coffee in my robe reading my Bible. And I decided I'm gonna call my dad and see what he's doing. So, it's about 8:30 on Saturday morning. I said, "What are you doing, daddy?" He said, "Well, you know, what are you doing?"

I said, "I want you to know what you're actually really physically doing now." He said, "Paul, you know," he said, "I'm in my recliner. I'm in my robe. I'm drinking coffee and I'm reading my Bible." And so, you know what? You know, and people tell me all the time that that you have an uncanny ability to connect with people because of your dad.

I think I just saw it. We saw him connect with people. And so, let them see you connect with people and try to do your part to be kind to people. Let them see you desiring God. Teach them that God can speak to them, but show them that God can speak can speak to you.

I think one of the biggest ways is when the Holy Spirit convicts you, when it has to do with something with your kids or your wife and not being embarrassed to go in front of them and say, "I need to repent or apologize or ask for forgiveness the way I treated you or treated your mom."

Those are huge things. Kids remember that. So, I think just modeling it. I got to tell one story because it just comes up out of my spirit because you talk about daddy. Uh about probably four or five years ago, I went on uh did an outreach with my friend uh in in an area that was uh you know more impoverished, you know, and we wanted to take uh bicycles in for Christmas and gifts and things like that for the kids and and so it was just amazing.

My kids went with me and we were handing out things and ministering to people. We took time to pray with them. And so this oh this large just tall guy when I say large tall tall tall guy came came up to me and said uh pastor Lisa you may not know me but he said I went to your church as a kid and he had like a three-year-old child in his hands and he said oh boy I loved your dad.

I loved your dad. I said well thank you so much. He said he said you know he would come out before the service and find me and hug me. He said, "Your dad was the father I never had." And he said, "I'll never forget him spending time with me and hugging me."

And he pulls up his thing, his his sleeve, and he says, "Look," and across here, he has Lakewood Church tattooed on him. Wow. And I just thought that's the impression that my dad made on this man. Instead of being so busy that he couldn't, you know, that he was going to preach, you couldn't go out there. he'd take time to go out before the service and look for the kids, look for anybody who he could love on and hug on because that's what ministry is all about.

And I think sometimes we forget that it's not about just the one-time service. It's about the everyday being a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. And doing the things that Jesus did. Jeremy, let me end with this. Jesus and the good Samaritan. You know, most people think the good Samaritan represents Jesus.

Listen to his words. When he took them to the inkeeper, he said, "Take care of them, and if it costs more, I'll return and I'll repay you for what you've done." One day in the big economy of things, when God repays us in heaven, obviously, you know, we're not never regret anything that we've done to help people in the economy of of God.

He's going to repay us. I don't know how he'll repay us, but he he I'm sure it'll be well. But we don't want to miss the opportunities while we're here because this is the only chance we have during this short period of time we have on on this earth to reach out to hurting people.

Yeah. But with the understanding not not only one it we represent Jesus, but number two, he'll repay us for what we've done and uh he'll reward us. Powerful. That's good. Yeah. Uh I think that's a wonderful place to stop tonight. Um, thank you for for sharing with us uh your experiences, your wisdom, uh the grace of God, the anointing on your lives, obviously to preach and teach the word of God.

Um, but I'm a firm believer that that is only there for two re well more than two reasons, but specifically for two reasons. One, because I know that you are close to the heart of God. You can't do the ministry that your family has done for 61 years now without being close to the heart of God because faithfulness alone takes being close to the heart of God.

And then number two, your compassion and even the tears. I mean, you can you can tell when you stand and teach on a Wednesday night or on a Monday night and you stop and you go, I just feel the Holy Spirit telling us we needed to go this direction.

Even if it's off your notes. if it's on your notes, watching you behind the scenes because here's the thing. I get an opportunity all the time to sit with them and talk with them off camera and this is exactly the conversations we have. This is not any different because the cameras are rolling.

This is the conversations we have all the time. And so, um, thank you. You know, I I I know that I know that we all know it's the spirit of God and the anointing on you and your family, but that's because you've been willing to sit at the feet of Jesus for decades and your your parents modeled it for you.

So, I just want to reiterate to everybody watching, if you have children or you are young enough that you don't have children yet, but you will, or if you have grandchildren or great-grandchildren, imparting hearing the voice of God is by modeling. One of the practical things you could try is pray with your family at home.

Pray specifically for something. Um, let God speak to you as a family and then when God comes through in that area, your children will will see that God is speaking to you as a family by fulfilling that. Um, modeling, praying in front of your children, taking them to church, taking them to church.

Yeah. Letting them hear the voice of God in others. Yeah. is so powerful. Um, but those practical ways, I don't think there's any better way than modeling it. I think that's Exodus 33. Moses would go into the tent and spend time face to face with God as a man does with his friend is what the scripture is saying.

And then Joshua, his successor, came along and actually would sneak into the tent after him to get the residue of God's presence in them. Wow. And I don't think it was any coincidence that Joshua followed Moses in leadership for Israel. And so it just one of the greatest ways is modeling.

Thank you for what you've done, Jeremy, putting this together. This was your idea and I think it you're to be compl commended on that. Thank you. I appreciate that. A great job. Any chance I get to sit down and hang out with you guys. Um but uh we're going to go ahead and end there.

And uh I just want to say if this is our fourth week and if you want to go back and watch, you're welcome to go back and watch the previous three weeks. We can you can uh find us on YouTube. uh Monday night Bible study. It is a playlist on the Lakewood Church uh YouTube channel.

So, you're welcome to go and look at it there. Monday night Bible study playlist on Lakewood Church YouTube channel or you can go to lakewoodurch.com and watch the playback there. Uh we just want to say thank you for being a part of our online community, our extended family from wherever you are in the world.

We love you. Um, we we we we pray that God uh speaks to you this week on what you're believing for and what you're looking into as far as your life, your season, your family, your career, your schooling, whatever that may be. And we pray that you feel the peace of God in whatever he's leading you to do.

Pastor Lisa, would you pray for us very quickly as we Thank you. Such a good word, Jeremy. Thank you, Father. Father, we just thank you for this time that we've had. And I pray for everyone listening and watching right now that you would encourage their hearts, that you would strengthen them.

Father, I thank you, Lord Jesus, that they're going to begin to hear your voice in a fresh and clear way. Father, I thank you that you're going to make those assignments uh known to them, the people around them that they need to minister to, encourage, smile, or or or pray with.

Father, I just pray that Lord Jesus, you'd begin to use them on a daily basis to be a blessing to other people. I thank you, Father, that they're going to be godly models to their children. And Father, their children's children will follow you all the days of their lives.

We bless them in the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We love you. We will see you next Monday night. Same time, same place.