God Spoke To Me

Introduction

As has already been announced, but some of you may not have heard yet. My sermon tonight is entitled, God Spoke to Me. I thought this was appropriate. After talking in our class as we studied 1 Corinthians about miraculous spiritual gifts and prophecy and tongue speaking to talk about God speaking to me. Don’t you want to know what he said? I have a message. Y’all need to shape up. Now you know that I did not hear that tiny voice in my ear from heaven. So what is it that I’m talking about tonight? I’ve got to thank Gardner Hall for this. I was noticing a post on Facebook where somebody was talking about an experience and was asking questions about that, wondering what that might have been about.

And Gardner Hall recommended this book by Gary Gilly. And I said, I’ve got to get this book. First of all, Gardner Hall recommends it. It’s going to be good. And second of all, it was on this topic, and it is somewhat curious for me, this particular topic. And the book by Gary Gilley begins balance. Is anything more elusive? And I think that’s probably a good way to begin a book like this. What is so often lacking in so many realms is balance. And it can be a very elusive thing as he calls upon the people of God to exercise some balance. The book is that you, Lord. I’ll be quoting several statements in this book to sort of frame our material tonight. He said, God’s people tend to swing from one extreme to another with great regularity.

I like the matter of fact way he says that, but that is so true. Causing considerable tension within the body of Christ. Now, let me just stop right there and suggest that his understanding of the body of Christ and my understanding of the body of Christ may not match entirely. And one of the things that was intriguing to me about this work is that I’m not so sure that I would consider Gary Gilly a brother in the Lord. I don’t know much about his religious background, but I don’t believe he’s a preacher among the fellowship of people that I recognize. So that even attracted me to this book even more. But as we continue, one such tension has been and still is between the academic and the experiential.

That’s going to be explained further as we go along. Between those who place great emphasis on the theological and those who place the bulk of their emphasis on the subjective. Gilly talks about our communication age. And we don’t want to miss any messages from anyone. And so we have our phones nearby. Sometimes I don’t. People call me, he’s like, Tully, where are you? You know, you didn’t answer the phone. Are you there? It’s like, I am not tied to that phone. You know, there’s there’s not a leather strap between me and that phone where I’m always two feet away to know when it’s going off and wanting my attention. And I’m so glad we don’t have a landline anymore. And it’s not ringing continually. I get to phone messages and text messages when I can.

I’m actually doing other things sometimes. But we’re all in, and so we have our Bluetooth devices and all of this, certainly when we’re in our cars, so that we can get all of the messages and phone calls of people that are trying to get a hold of us. But what about what about our communication with God? And he mentions the old communication technique. I like that. The old communication technique, the Bible. And then he says, back when we were taught that prayer was us speaking to God, and Scripture was God speaking to us, I like that. Then came along new and improved methods of communication with God. We were told God had a specific will for each of our lives. And that’s really the phrase I want you to focus in on tonight.

Does God have a specific will for each of our lives? And more importantly, we had to find it. We were now on a celestial treasure hunt to discover the will of God. Complicating matters further was that the Bible provided no instructions to aid in this search. Now that ought to be a big red flag right there. He continues. Instead, we were told that the Lord was providing a sort of new and fresh revelation, completely apart from biblical revelation. It was the voice of God, but not audibly heard. The voice was an inner voice, most likely detected through hunches, feelings, promptings, and circumstances. And adding gravity to the situation was the warning that to miss the voice would doom us to living outside the will of God.

And he suggests that then there were a variety of books that were written in seminars, teaching us how to retrieve these messengers of God for our lives, that we could discover God’s specific will for our lives. And that involved, he said, a lot of guesswork, conjecture, and contradictions. But here’s why. And I think this is the thing that really draws me to this subject tonight, and think it’s an important subject, because he says people want a spirituality that works in the trenches of life. They want a faith that is relevant, provides answers, and draws them closer to God. People want to feel something and experience something. And I do think that some of the attraction of this God is speaking to me, or God is leading me in this direction, and yet sometimes people are doing whatever it is they want to do as God is leading them.

And it’s because people want to feel something. I think it’s one of the reasons why the literal indwelling of the Holy Spirit view is growing in popularity or has over the last couple of decades. I think that’s beginning to wane as preachers like myself are preaching on these subjects a little more frequently. But I think it’s this desire to have something that, an experience, something that we can feel. And we’re going to come back to this in the conclusion because I want to challenge you with something in that regard. Okay, so the question is not, has God spoken to men? We obviously know that he has. And he’s done so in divers manners, as the King James Version says. Oh, and the Brumpields aren’t here to hear me quote the King James.

In divers manners in Hebrews chapter 1, in various ways, God spoke through the ages. The question is not, did God speak to men? The question is when he did, how he did, and why he did.

1. What We Know For Sure

The debate revolves. Did that continue past the canon of the New Testament scripture? Alistair Begg in the late 1990s referenced a survey that one out of three Americans believed God speaks to them. That’s 33%. That was the late 1990s. I’m not sure that number has changed much. It’s probably about the same, I would guess. One out of three believes God speaks to them. And so he raises the question how does one know that one is hearing the voice of the Lord? Is it possible that the voice that they believe they are hearing is actually their own thoughts, imaginations, or desires, or perhaps something even more insidious? So I want to share a couple thoughts with you. Pretty simple, really. Number one, I want to talk about what we know for sure.

And that’s really where Gilly goes in his discussion of this subject about hearing these inner voices and being prompted and led by them. He directs people back to Scripture, where we know God spoke to man. What we know for sure, and it’s interesting, the final court of appeals determining the identity of the voice of God is Scripture itself. And Peter is saying in 2 Peter chapter 1, as we noticed recently in our sermon, Growing in the Grace and Knowledge of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we can have confidence in what he’s saying because he was moved by the Holy Spirit and he spoke from God. And what? No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. None of this is left up for Peter, even an apostle.

This isn’t left up to Peter to decide which direction are we going to go here in educating the Lord’s people in the right way. He said, We were moved by the Holy Spirit. We spoke from God, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words, we have the mind of Christ. They didn’t invent this. None of this originated with them. And that’s why I think this passage, and like 1 Corinthians 2, are so important to us. Gilly asserts that with the closure of Scripture, direct, infallible, authoritative revelation from God has ceased for this age. I agree with that affirmation. No one in Scripture, no one in Scripture was admonished to seek direct experiences with God, but they were continually urged to turn to the Word of God.

And let me give you, and several passages really came to me during this sermon as I was preparing it. I thought of Acts 8. Because here we have the miraculous involved. We have the eunuch, the nobleman, on his way in his chariot, and God miraculously providing a preacher. Philip. But when Philip arrives miraculously, what does he do? He turns to scripture, not to inner voices. He began from that scripture in Isaiah that the eunuch was reading, and it says, He preached Jesus to him. Paul’s words to Timothy that we studied last week. The holy scriptures that he studied from a youth that are able to make him wise unto salvation. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine for reproof. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 14 through 17.

He says, preach the word, be instant in season and out of season. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2. And even before the New Testament canon is completely finalized, as we’ve been discussing in our class in 1 Corinthians, even before it was completely finished, Paul is telling his audience in Corinth, what? Do not exceed what is written. 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 6. What is written, what was confirmed miraculously by the Holy Spirit, folks, that is objective. That is reliable. That is authoritative. And that’s an important point in this discussion. The normative method of meeting God throughout the ages, the normative method, the normal method, was through the scripture. As Gilead contends, all the information we have about God and our relationship to Him is found in the Bible.

Any encounter apart from Scripture must be verified by Scripture. And part of this being led by the inner voice clamoring of today, that God is speaking to me personally and telling me what to do and leading me and guiding me by such voices, divine nudges. One of the things that goes on in that kind of thinking is concluding in our minds that the scriptures are not sufficient to be guided in this life by God. Interesting too, as I thought about this. Galatians 1 and verse 8. If anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. And what does Paul say? Though we are an angel from heaven. Preach to you another gospel. Let him be accursed. One argued that these nudges that people experience encompass every decision as the indwelling Holy Spirit progressively reveals God’s life plan to the heart of the individual believer.

He always gives confirmation at the point of each decision. That’s what people are thinking. That the Holy Spirit is revealing your life plan, and he’s whispering that in your mind in some way, whether audible or inaudible, whether it’s just some nudge, you know, they feel, oh, I ought to go a certain way. Therefore, God is leading me that way. Even if that way isn’t consistent with what the scriptures teach. I feel good about what I’m doing religiously because I’ve had these divine nudges. These inner, this inner voice, which really is that God literally speaking to you? If so, how can that be verified? Which there’s all kinds of messages about verification in the realm of miraculous spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians. How can that be verified?

And are you sure that it is the voice of God that you’re hearing? Even down to the most minute things what foods to eat, shoes to wear, or route you take to work. You know, we do find ourselves, I think, at times, envious of those who had direct conversations with God. You know, Abraham had a number of direct conversations with God in the book of Genesis. And I think also of 1 Samuel chapter 3, when the young man Samuel, who’s ministering to Eli the priest, hears a voice from heaven. And he wasn’t sure what it was, and he run into runs into Eli and says, Eli, did you say something? He said it wasn’t me. Eli knew immediately that this was a voice from heaven. And he says, Go back in and lie down.

If you hear that voice again, you say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Now, the message that he ultimately gets is, I’m bringing judgment on Eli’s house. And when Eli inquires further about the voice that he heard from heaven, he has the unenviable task of having to tell Eli that what he’s heard isn’t going to sound wonderful in his ears. But he held not back one wit. Oh, another King James Version reference. He held not back one whit of all that God had told him, and that’s a marvelous example. Speak God’s word. He held not back one whit. But I said all of that to say, don’t overlook verse one. Even in those times where there was direct communication at times with his servants, 1 Samuel 3 and verse 1 says, and the word of God was rare in those days.

There wasn’t a lot of that. Even in the times of Samuel, what was happening was pretty rare in 1 Samuel chapter 3 in verse 1. It was not normative. And when people did hear directly from heaven, it was often very astounding and overwhelming. It’s unmistakable. When God speaks to Job, and this might have been earlier than Genesis. We’re not really sure when Job was written or when Job lived, but many people believe it was before Abraham. It says, God spoke out of the whirlwind. You know, you’re pretty sure you’re getting a message from God when there is a whirlwind. God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind. And then in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 15, when Jesus speaks and John hears it, what is it?

It’s like the sound of many waters. Something impressive and powerful, not this tiny, still little voice that may or may not have been a direct utterance from heaven. And again, Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1, divers manners in all of those different times. But in these last days, this is important. In these last days, he has spoke to us. He has spoken to us in his son. In his son he has spoken to us. And the Son talked about the Holy Spirit guiding the apostles into some of the truth.

That’s not what it says.

John 16 and verse 13. And so, the fact that there were unique occasions when God spoke directly to men in various ways. Don’t we all love the story when God speaks to Balaam through his donkey? I don’t have any expectation whatsoever that tomorrow my cat Tiberius is going to speak to me. Now, if he does, I’ll let you know. But I don’t have any expectation. If God wants to teach me a lesson, bring it on. It’d be interesting. I’ll videotape it so I’ll have some objective proof. I don’t think Tiberius is going to talk to me tomorrow. Or the fact that Peter walked on the water. Well, you ought to go ahead and give it a try. Go ahead. Out in the middle of a turbulent sea, give it a shot.

2. What We May Not Know For Sure

Or the fact that Elijah calls down fire from heaven, go ahead. Try it. These were unique occasions in Scripture. Not the norm. And so what we know for sure is what has been clearly revealed to us, not cleverly devised tales, but men who were moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But here’s the second point. What we may not know for sure. What about discerning God’s will? Regarding such things as where we are going to attend school, the choice of our vocation, or even more importantly, whom to marry. Or which local church should I choose? Can the will of God be ascertained through divine promptings? So should we do like Gideon did? Again, is this the way he wants us to find out his will?

Lay down the fleece before the battle. Let there be dew on it, let there not be due on it. And he asked for it twice. He asked for two signs, which I think it’s amazing that God did that twice, but he did. Gave it to him both ways. Okay, is that enough confirmation? So maybe we ought to throw down the fleece before we make these major decisions. Again, whatever it is that fleece involved, throw it out in your backyard, give it a shot tonight. I’m not liking your chances on that. Now, should we pray about such things? Absolutely. I remember praying as a young person about my future mate. And I prayed that I would find someone who would help me to go to heaven. And I also prayed it wouldn’t be too bad if she was pretty also.

And I got that.

We invoke God’s assistance, his guidance in the decisions that we make and the wisdom we need for such decisions. But who knows what God has in mind for all of us. And the ways that he intends to use us. Now, without question, God is working behind the scenes in the lives of his people, but how’s that going to play out in our circumstances? Are we going to get exactly what we hoped and prayed for? Joseph had some dreams about a pretty spectacular future. But I wonder what he thought about those dreams when he was in that pit. And about to be slowed, about to be sold to Ishmaelite traitors by his brothers. Wonder how he thought those dreams were working out. Did he ever have I don’t think he’s I don’t think he’s thinking at all?

You know what’s going to happen is I’m going to go down to Egypt. There are going to be a few rough spots on the road down there, but ultimately I’m going to be number two in Egypt. And my brothers are going to come down, I’m going to save my family’s life. That’s the way it’s going to work out. I don’t think he’s thinking that. I think he’s I think he’s thinking this pretty bad day. My brothers are wanting to kill me. Now it all works out as those dreams indicated that they would. And when the brothers think he’s going to get vengeance after Jacob dies, he said, I’m not in the place of God. I love those verses in Genesis chapter 50. Am I in the place of God?

You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Joseph can now look back and see the providential working of God, how he trumps the evil of his brothers and causes to happen what he wants to happen. But wow, what a road in getting there. Or Esther. All of the difficulty regarding Haman wanting to kill the Jews, and Mordecai says those famous words, who knows? Who knows? If you have attained royalty for such a time as this. So how’s it going to turn out for us? You pray for the perfect spouse to help you get to heaven. And then there’s Hosea. And he’s told to go and marry a harlot. Wow. And Gomer is not just misfaithful afterwards either. He has to go and marry her a second time after her harlotry.

Wow, that’s not really the life plan that Hosea had in mind, I’m pretty sure. But that’s the times that he lived in. He was a prophet of God, and God had a message about spiritual adultery that he wanted to send through Hosea, the prophet, to his people. And while on the subject of marriage, well, I wanted to go, I don’t have a passage on this. I’m coming back to that in a minute. 1 Corinthians 7. It’s interesting in all that text about marriage and who to marry, and Paul is saying in the present distress, it’s better not to marry, better for man to remain as he is. He leaves all of these decisions up to people. He doesn’t ask them to divine the will of God.

He doesn’t ask them to throw down the fleece if you’re thinking about getting married. He’s just saying, you can choose. If you have a right to marriage, if you’re unbound and you want to be bound, seek to be bound, fine. But if you marry, like he tells the widow in verses 39 and 40, if you marry, you’ve not sinned, he says, but marry only in the Lord. Appreciate the Lord’s instruction on the subject of marriage. Follow that instruction as you consider married. But whether you decide to marry or not, it’s completely up to you to decide.

Let’s select elders for the local church. And, hey, you want to be an elder? He says, if any man desires the office. That’s the first thing he begins with. And so it’s not like God’s going to choose you apart from your will to accept that position, even though you may be qualified. New Testament Christians did not always operate from a position of absolute certainty. As they lived in obedience to God’s will, they sought to make decisions that honored God and sought his glory. Then I thought about this. The sharp disagreement that came up between Paul and Barnabas about whether to take John Mark with them on this next journey.

Well, if that was ever going to happen, why not there? Let’s solve this. Let’s consult God. Let’s get an answer from Him. That’s not what they did. And here are men who have practiced miraculous gifts. Paul had all the gifts. And yet they made choices. Barnab says, I’m taking Mark. He goes one direction. Paul takes Silas, he goes another direction. And I have to think that’s the providence of God. That now we have two teams of two going in different directions, preaching the gospel. Professor Bruce Waltke, in this book by Gary Gilley, said that this business of trying to divine the will of God is actually a pagan practice. He says when we seek to find God’s will, we are attempting to discover hidden knowledge by supernatural activity.

3. What We Can Absolutely Trust

If we are going to find his will on one specific choice, we will have to penetrate the divine mind to get his decision. Finding in this sense is really a form of divination. The idea was common in pagan religions. And a matter of fact, it was the preoccupation of pagan kings. But that sort of pagan behavior is what Christ saved us out of. Again, these are people that are not in our fellowship who have reasoned through the scriptures to come to these conclusions that such things are dangerous. And I agree. So we’ve talked about what we know for sure, what we may not know for sure. And I want to talk to you in conclusion about what we can absolutely trust. You know, God says clearly what his will is.

In several places of Scripture, I find this very helpful. I don’t know about all of God’s future intentions for you and all of his plans for you and how you’re going to work affecting other people’s lives within the body of Christ or without. I don’t know all of that. You could be having some tremendous impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe not perhaps in this generation, but I’ve used this illustration before. Whatever good I’m able to do in the kingdom can ultimately be traced to a lot of good influences in my early life, a lot of Christians, including my parents, many of whom never preached in a pulpit. But the number of lives that I may be able to affect, the number of lives that are affected by spiritual posts on Facebook, or discussions with friends who may not obey the gospel for 10 years or longer.

And then the impact that has on generations. You know, does God see all of that? Oh, yes, he does. And I’ve always said if we could peel back the curtain of the universe and see all that God is doing in the lives of his people and all the people he’s trying to reach with the gospel through them. Those who are asking and seeking and knocking, that he has to get a messenger to.

Don’t ever start thinking, well, I’m not contributing much, I’m not influencing much. You may be doing a whole lot more in that master quilt that God is weaving than you think you are. And regardless of the impact you may or may not be having, again, I don’t know all of that for sure, point number two. But if you’re serving in the will of God, it’s important. Period. It doesn’t matter how big a splash you’re making, or how much recognition you receive, or how many pats on the back you get, or how public your service is. If you are serving in the will of God, it is important. God has composed the body that way that He gives more abundant honor to the member that lacks. I mean, the weaker members are necessary, he says.

That means everybody in the body is important. That’s what 1 Corinthians 12 is teaching. Right? You knew that was 1 Corinthians 12, those of you have been in my class. That’s what 1 Corinthians 12 is teaching. And so I’ll tell you this when the scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 4 says, this is the will of God. I know that for sure. The will of God for you. I don’t know what your marriage situation is going to be. Some of you have not been married. Some of you have been married before. Some of you will lose your spouses in one way or another. And it’ll be something that you never thought or dreamed was going to happen.

But regardless of what they are, here’s the will of God for you.

God isn’t going to guide us through every single decision that we make and flip a lever and say, do this, do that. How many times does Paul say, and we noted this in our class this morning? I have decided to spend the winter. We thought it best. I thought it necessary to send to you a paphroditus. It is, if it is fitting for me to go also. God sometimes led Paul in a certain direction or forbid him to go in a certain direction. But again, those were unique times. But not even in every case for him. He was making decisions on his own. He thought it was best. He didn’t always divine the will of God. Even though some things were specifically told him about what he should and should not do.

It was not in every circumstance. And if it wasn’t for him, it certainly won’t be for us in this time. And so you’re going to be left with choices. Do I marry this person or not? And I’ll just tell you, some brethren make a terrible choice. It was certainly not the best choice they could have made. And if God was going to tell them about the best choice, he would have said, No. Don’t marry that person. Okay, you make a bad decision. Or you go work in a place that’s not the best decision. Or you go to school in a place that’s not a best decision. And you’re confronted with some very difficult obstacles. Perhaps there are financial obstacles that result. All sorts of circumstances can unfold in our lives that are less than ideal.

So what do you do? Where do I go, Lord? Well, I know one thing you do. You look at these passages and say, This is the will of God. You do that. That’s God’s will, regardless of your circumstances. Maybe you’re left alone never to marry again. Your circumstances are such you cannot marry again to please God. You seek sanctification. You remember that you’re to be a vessel of honor for the Lord. You stay on his path. And I’ll just say, go back to Deuteronomy 29. Isn’t this a great text? Way back in the Old Testament scripture. The secret things belong to Jehovah, and they always have, and they always will. But the things that have been revealed, Moses says, belong to you and your sons forever.

You know, there’s a lot of things I don’t know, a lot of questions that I have. But this is what I know. The things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever. The secret things belong to Jehovah. And I would say, this is what we’re being told in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7. When he says, we have as our ambition, whether present in the body or absent, to be pleasing to the Lord. We walk by faith, not by sight. You see, this business of divining the will of God or trying to figure out which direction I ought to go and listening for a voice from God or God told me this or God told me that. You know what that really is?

That’s walking by sight. I need something tangible to help me make these decisions. I need something I can feel, see, touch, hear. No. We walk by faith. That’s what God wants from us. We make decisions to the best of our ability with the wisdom that we’re to be asking God for, James chapter 1 and verse 5. And then we just walk as a Christian. Whatever, wherever that leads us, whether the decisions were good or bad. Let’s take a poll of every person who’s been a Christian in here for 30 years. You ever make some bad decisions? Don’t raise your hand, because I know you have.

No matter what happens. Trust him, serve him. Yeah, but it says in Romans 8, that the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we’re the children of God. If we’re the sons of God, we’re led by the Spirit of God, it says. So what does that mean, Tony? Is the Holy Spirit leading me or not? That gets back to this personal indwelling view of the Holy Spirit. And again, I think the real danger of that position, the brethren that hold that position say, the Holy Spirit isn’t talking to us. It’s just a comforting thing to know that you have the Holy Spirit literally inside of you. But I don’t know that you get to that without going down the path, at least in some way, of this subjective leadership of God in our lives.

Ultimately, I think that doctrine has to go that direction. But, be that as it may, that’s a discussion for another time. What does that passage mean? The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we’re the children of God. That’s saying this. When the Holy Spirit, and I believe it’s metonymy, and it’s talking about that which the Holy Spirit revealed. When the Holy Spirit is in agreement with my spirit, my life, my thinking, my heart, my mind. When my life is in agreement with the Holy Spirit, I know that I’m saved. That’s what he’s saying. It’s the same as make your calling and election sure of 2 Peter chapter 1. You’re about the business of the things the Holy Spirit instructed you to do, and so you have made certain.

I’m one of the called. I’m one of the chosen. He has provided scriptural guidelines to enable us to know this. Walk by the perfect law of liberty. The man who is a doer of the word, then he shall be blessed in what he does. The question is, when God speaks, do you listen? English Puritan Thomas Watson said it well, they who leave the light of the word and follow the light within them, as some say, prefer the shining of the glowworm before the sun. While we dismiss the faulty view of revelation held by the charismatics, do we then turn around and adopt a similar approach for our life and service to God? Will we follow mystical, subjective, internal sensations, or the objective data of Scripture? Gary Gilly cautions in the conclusion of his work as we try to make decisions that honor God, we should freely examine circumstances, feelings, logic, etc.

But we can never conclude from such things that the Lord is definitely leading us in a particular way. The biblical picture is that of God’s people making wise decisions based upon the clear commands and principles from the Scriptures at the same time. They were ever ready to bow before the will of a sovereign God who might at any time change their direction. Such Christians are not concerned about missing God’s will because they are living in God’s revealed will, and they trust the Lord to make certain they are where He wants them to be. And I might add, where they ultimately will be.

Be not foolish or unwise. But understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 17. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Do not be led into dissipation. That’s what the will of God is for us. Or it’s the will of God that you give thanks. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18. Look at the passages that talk about what the will of God is. That’s what we know for sure. The goal is not a cosmic treasure hunt to find the will of God, but we are simply admonished to do the will of God in our circumstances. Now, we look back at our lives and we say, I think I can see the providence of God in that. You know how many times I’ve said that?

I think about my three-year experience in the Auburn of wilderness or the wilderness of Auburn. Either way. And that was a very painful time in my life. Still have some scars. Not as bad as when I first got here. But I look back. And I see that I’ve made some wonderful friends with some genuine people of God. And there were some good things that came out of the tough times that I lived through. And I think about did God lead me to Auburn? I don’t know. Maybe it was just my crazy decision to go.

Conclusion

But I learned something that helped me in my walk with God. And that can be true of all of our circumstances. We can learn something that will help us in our walk with God. And as long as we keep pursuing the will of God, well, there may have been a variety of choices that we could have made, but ultimately we will contribute to God’s plan and purposes in the world. And we will be with Him forever. And that’s really what matters. Don’t rely on the subjective. Rely on the objective. And so I don’t tell you tonight that I got a voice from heaven that says, you need to. This is the voice from heaven right here. Are you following it? Are you listening to it? Do you need to respond to it as we stand and sing?