How Does God Speak to Us?
Sermon Notes
“How Does God Speak to Us??”
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Psalms, and it’s a series that can give us melodies of encouragement for everyday life. The psalm we’re studying today is about how God speaks to us. It’s about how God is always speaking to us, but the problem is we aren’t always pausing to listen...I read a story this past week about a Cherokee Indian visiting his friend in New York. They were walking in Time Square and it was very noisy with all the people, sirens, taxis honking and yelling at each other. But as they were walking the Cherokee man suddenly stopped saying “I hear a cricket.” He paused, he listened, and found a cricket in the dirt of a potted plant. His friend said, “That’s incredible! How’d you hear a cricket with all this noise?” The Cherokee man said, “It all depends on what you’re listening for...” He then grabbed the coins in his pocket, dropped them on the ground, and several people stopped to see if they dropped their money. He said, “See, it all depends on what you’re listening for. I’m listening for the sounds of nature, but city people are listening for the sounds of their money...”
What about you, what are you listening for?...As you’re walking through daily life, what are you listening for?...As you’re walking through daily life, are you’re missing God speaking to you, because you aren’t pausing to listen for him?...There’s a scientist in the 15th century named Francis Bacon, and he’s credited for developing the scientific method. He once said God speaks to us through 2 books, it’s the book of creation and the book of scripture. Bacon states,“There are two books to study to prevent falling into error. First the volume of Scripture which reveals the will of God. Then the volume of creation which expresses his power.” Today’s psalm talks about these same 2 books, hundreds of years before Bacon develops the scientific method and mentions these books. It talks about how God speaks to us through creation and scripture. God’s willing to speak to us every day through creation and scripture, if we’re willing to pause to listen, and this is what we’re talking about today. So let’s turn to Psalm 19 and get into it. You’ll find Psalms in the middle of the bible, and we’ll be in Psalm 19:1-14. The title of today’s message is How Does God Speak To Us? The big idea of the message is that God is always speaking, but we aren’t always pausing to listen...God is always speaking, but we aren’t always pausing to listen...
Here’s your context. The book of Psalms is an Old Testament biblical hymnbook that contains various songs and prayers to encourage us. They’re written by Old Testament historical leaders who are expressing real, raw honest emotions we can all relate with. Psalm 13 is written by King David, and it’s considered a wisdom psalm since he’s teaching two primary ways God speaks to us. He’s teaching God speaks to us through creation and scripture, so let’s check it out.
Psalm 19:1-14 states, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.” David says the heavens are declaring God’s glory, meaning the sun, the moon, the stars, the entire universe is all declaring God’s glory. He says it’s happening 24/7 day after day, night after night. The entire universe is constantly declaring, speaking, communicating God’s glory and the creative work of his hands. Astronomers estimate that the sun is orbiting around the Milky Way galaxy at a speed of 500,000 mph. But even at that incredible speed, our galaxy is so big, that it takes the sun over 230 million yrs to complete just one orbit around our galaxy. But as big as our galaxy is, the entire universe contains over one trillion other galaxies. The book of creation is way bigger, way more complex than we could ever imagine. In the several thousand years of our human existence, we haven’t even made it out of the intro when it comes to studying the book of creation. It’s way bigger, way more complex than we could ever imagine, and it’s all constantly declaring that God’s way bigger, way more magnificent than we could ever imagine.
A few weeks ago I read an article written by a guy named Kevin Hartnett who worked at NASA for 40 yrs. Hisfocus at NASA was on developing satellite control centers, and directing scientific missions including the Hubble Space Telescope program. He wrote an article in April titled “The Cosmos Keeps Preaching,” and Hartnett states, “Many glorious attributes of God are now loudly and profoundly declared to us nightly, from diverse space telescopes and ground observatories around the world. Among the qualities proclaimed are his intellectual genius, his endless creativity, his eternal power, and his exquisite, beautiful, purposeful craftsmanship and divine nature. Equally marvelous is the undeniable case, that the deeper you look and the more you listen, God’s genius, creativity, power, and beauty only become clearer...Indeed the heavens are declaring at this very moment, that our God is magnificent beyond comprehension.” Both King David and Hartnett are saying the entire universe is constantly declaring, God is magnificent.
Again vs. 2, “Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. 3 There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. 4 Their message has gone to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” David’s saying when God speaks through creation it’s visible, not verbal. It’s visible communication, not verbal communication. He’s saying creation is visibly declaring that God exists to the whole earth. The theological term for this is called God’s general revelation, which is God revealing his existence to all humanity generally through his creation. It’s what the Apostle Paul refers to when he says in Romans 1:20, “For God’s invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Paul’s saying people denying God’s existence are without excuse, because God’s constantly declaring his existence through creation. I mean if a building declares there’s a builder...If a watch declares there’s a watchmaker...If a painting declares there’s a painter...Then the logical conclusion is creation declares there’s a Creator...The builder, the watchmaker, the painter doesn’t have to use any verbal communication to prove their existence, because their existence is already being declared by the visible communication of the objects they created. In a similar way God doesn’t have to use any verbal communication to prove his existence, because his existence is already being declared by the visible communication of the objects he’s created. All of creation is constantly, visibly, declaring God exists, to everyone in the whole earth.
Again vs. 4, “There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. 4 Their message has gone to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming from his home; it rejoices like an athlete running a course. 6 It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to their other end; nothing is hidden from its heat.” In other words there’s nothing on earth that isn’t in some way affected by the sun’s heat. Even though the sun is over 93 million miles away from earth, we can still feel it’s warmth and enjoy its radiance. The implication is it doesn’t matter where we live in the world, we can still feel God’s warmth and enjoy his radiance through creation. So what we’re learning in vs 1-6 is God speaks to us through creation. We’re learning all creation is constantly declaring, speaking, communicating God’s glorious existence, power, beauty, intelligence, and so much more. John Piper states, “Open your eyes! Do you see it? Do you hear it? He shouts through the billowing clouds. He shouts through the endless blue summer sky. He shouts with gold on the horizon in the morning, and through the breathtaking expanse of galaxies and stars at night. Don’t you see it? Don’t you love it? In all these things he’s shouting ‘I am glorious!’”
Now the problem for skeptics is they sometimes study and enjoy creation, but they don’t ever listen to creation shouting about their Creator. The problem for believers is we’ve come to realize creation is shouting about our Creator, but we rarely take time to listen and enjoy creation with our Creator. Both skeptics and believers are often so busy rushing through daily life, that we rarely pause to listen and enjoy creation. Paul Tripp states, “God created an awesome world. He intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the pounding of ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, tastes, and touches. God designed all of it to be awesome, and he intended you to be daily amazed.” But we’re so busy rushing through daily life that we often ignore all the amazing things in creation, like we ignore the pictures on the walls in our homes. We’re rushing through daily life ignoring the beautiful sights of a sunset, ignoring the musical sounds of a bird singing, ignoring all kinds of amazing sights, sounds, tastes, touches in creation that God’s given us to enjoy with him. God’s given us his creation as an incredible gift that he uses to speak to us and minister to us. It’s a gift he’s given to speak to us about his existence, but also to minister to us so we’ll be refreshed by the beach, the mountain view, the stars in the sky. We have access every day to this incredible gift of God speaking and ministering to us through creation. But the question is, are you pausing every day to listen?
Vs. 7, “The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.” The instruction and testimony of the Lord is a reference to scripture. David’s saying God speaks to us through creation, but he also speaks to us through scripture. Creation is God’s visible communication to us, but scripture is God’s verbal communication to us. Scripture is another incredible gift God’s given us that can speak and minister to us, if we’re willing to read it and pause to listen to it. David explains there are several benefits to reading scripture. In vs 7 he says that scripture is perfect and can renew our imperfect lives. He also says scripture is trustworthyand can make us wise, meaning it always tells the truth about life, and it can always give us the best wisdom for how to live our lives.
Vs. 8, “The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad; the command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up.” He says scripture is right and can make our hearts glad, so we don’t keep turning to wrong things that’ll never make our hearts glad. He also says scripture is radiant and can make our eyes light up, meaning it illuminates our eyes to see the difference between walking in the righteous ways of the Lord over walking in the darkness of sin. The point is scripture isn’t a handcuff to our joy, it’s the key to unlocking our greatest joy.
Vs. 9, “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are reliable and righteous. 10 They are more desirable than gold—than an abundance of pure gold; and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.” The rich and sweet truths in scripture are pure and reliable. Just like honey is sweet to the tongue, scripture is sweet to the soul. Honey can satisfy the tongue temporarily, but scripture points to the God who can satisfy our soul in eternity.
Vs. 11, “In addition, your servant is warned by them, and in keeping them there is an abundant reward. 12 Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant from willful sins; don’t let them rule me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed from blatant rebellion.” Scripture also helps warn us, it helps us see things we can’t see in ourselves. One of our codes at City Awakening is we’ll read the bible and let the bible read us, because reading the bible is like getting an MRI done on our soul. It scans our soul for any sinful cancers we can’t see growing in our lives. It helps us see things we can’t see in ourselves.
Vs. 14, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you Lord, my rock and Redeemer.” There are so many benefits to reading scripture that David wants to meditate on it. He wants his heart filled with scripture as he goes through daily life. So in vs 1-6 we learn God speaks to us through creation, but here in vs 7-14 we learn God speaks to us through scripture. This is important because creation can logically tell you God exists, but it can’t personally tell you what God is like. You need God’s verbal communication in scripture to know what God is like. For example, most of us would say God is loving, but how do you know that?...How do you know that God is loving?...Where did you get that idea from?...It can’t come from looking at creation by itself, because there’s a lot in creation that’s violent, vicious, and unloving. I mean as beautiful as creation is, there’s also an ugly side to creation full of disease, decay, death, people hurting and killing each other. If you watch National Geographic you’ll see animals violently attacking their prey, and eating them while they’re still alive. Creation can be very violent, vicious, and unloving. So the idea that God is loving can’t come from looking at creation by itself, it has to come from looking at God’s verbal communication in scripture.
This means you need to read scripture to know what God is like. You need to read what scripture is declaring about God when it says things like 1st John 4:8, “God is love!” or John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but shall have eternal life.” Without having verbal communication like this, you can’t know God is loving. You can’t know he’s so loving, that Jesus was willing to give up his life on the cross for your sins, so you can enjoy eternal life in heaven with him. The idea that God is loving doesn’t come from creation, it comes from scripture. It comes from the bible, and God’s love is most visibly and verbally declared through the life of Jesus. It’s because Jesus is our God incarnate who loved us enough to enter his creation, be crucified by his creation, for the sins and restoration of his creation. So you can know God’s existence logically through creation, but you can’t know his love personally without scripture telling you, and Jesus going to the cross for you.
The big idea of the message is that God is always speaking, but we aren’t always pausing to listen...David teaches us that God is always speaking through creation and through scripture, but we need to be willing to pause to listen. When you wake up in the morning you can read scripture, then pause to listen to what God’s speaking to you through that scripture. When you step outside to face the day you can enjoy the sights and sounds of creation, then pause to listen to what God’s speaking to you about his existence through that creation. When you’re getting stressed out during the day, you can calm your heart by relying on the scripture you read in the morning, and destress your life by stepping outside for a few minutes to enjoy God’s creation.
Jesus wants us to know him, which is why he reveals himself to us through creation and scripture. The more we pause to listen to him speaking through creation, the more we’ll be in awe over his glory, power, the magnificent work of his hands. The more we pause to listen to him speaking through scripture, the more we’ll be in awe over his wisdom, guidance, sacrificial love for us. He wants us to know his love, which is why he goes to the cross for us. He wants us to know him, and for our daily lives to be shaped by him. But our lives can’t fully thrive the way he created them to thrive, if we aren’t relying on him to shape our daily lives. They can’t fully thrive, if we’re to busy rushing through daily life without him. We have access every day to the incredible gift of Jesus speaking to us, ministering us, shaping us through creation and scripture. So the question isn’t is he speaking, it’s are you pausing every day to listen?...Let’s pray...