Episode 1641: Knowing that Voice

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,641 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Ryan Franklin: Hey there, I'm Ryan Franklin and I challenge you to invest in developing yourself and your influence with others so that you can truly serve and invest in others so that you can fully impact the world with your time, your talent.

Your treasures to live out your God-given calling in one tremendous way that you can move towards growing yourself and others is simply by listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Of others to what they need us to do and for what they need to share with us. And through all of that listening, we begin to recognize and feel the [00:01:00] word of Christ. We begin to reach that sanctification we need. To become a little closer to Christ each and every day. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 10 verses one through 10. I talk about how we need to listen to follow Christ, and I also share how like all things listening and following isn't passive but active for the Christian. [00:02:00] John chapter 10 verses one through 10 says, very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep fold by the gate, but climbs in by another way, is a thief and a bandit.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again, Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to still and kill and destroy. I came that they may [00:03:00] have life and have it abundantly. That last passage I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. It is one of those great verses that you often see crocheted on pillows and put on various displays. It, it's a great one and one of my favorites, but in this case, you also have to think about what does it mean and how do we get it?

What do we need to do to experience this abundant life that Christ is talking about? If you read the rest of the passage, it. It seems to be implying or saying that we need to learn to listen, but it's not as simple as that. That's not the whole story. That's only part of the task. We need to not only listen, but we also need to follow.

We need to not only listen, but we need to trust. We need to not only listen, but we need to hope. We need to not only listen well, you get the [00:04:00] idea, but right now. Let's focus for a minute on learning and needing to listen. Following Jesus seems to be saying in this passage is a product of listening. He will lead, but only after we've come out at the sound of his voice.

He will lead if we choose to follow, and the only way we can follow is if we know that voice, if we can recognize the sound of it, the call of it. That calls for discernment. That calls for being able to recognize that voice. He says, there's other voices, but those are voices we need to run from. These are voices that don't have our welfare and our safety in mind.

These are voices that don't want us to prosper and grow and to know the joys of that abundant life. So how do we recognize it? How do we know one from the other? How do we figure out which voice is his and which voice is the one that wishes us [00:05:00] harm? And John doesn't necessarily explain a lot in these verses.

John Wesley talks about this being a lifetime process called sanctification. The lifetime process of moving a little bit closer to Christ, a little bit more like him. But John does hint at a few things in these verses. First, he points out that the shepherd knows our name. In other words, the call that we have on our hearts comes from Christ, and that means it should recognize us and resonate with the deepest essence of our being.

Christ calls for us to be who we really are, not who we think we want to be, not who the world tells us to be, not who others tell us to be. Not what feels good, but who we truly are. It's a response to the deepest longings of our soul. And [00:06:00] the more we follow, the more we become truly ourselves and our own.

Christ also talks in this passage about how he is the way whoever enters by me will be saved. But then the text says, we will come in and go out and find pasture. We will come in and go out and find pasture. There's movement in this passage. There's movement in the Christian life. It's not about just sitting there.

It's not about finding a safe place and curling up in the corner. It's not about sitting back and waiting to be fed. No. Instead we find our sustenance in coming and going in study and in service and spending time with the word and going out and sharing it. We are called to be coming and going and active throughout our lives.

We feel like we're getting pulled in too many directions. Then we need to come back. We need to come back to the community of faith. We need to [00:07:00] study together, worship together. Read together, laugh together, find life together. When our faith begins to stop feeling real and begin to just feel like theoretical head knowledge, then we need to go out.

We need to go out and serve. We need to go out and help. We need to volunteer. Find members of the community, help them with our hands, our voice, our teaching. We need to help and we need to heal. We need to go out and serve the world. Throughout it all, we are called to listen through the coming and the going.

We are called to learn to listen, and honestly, that's the feedback that lets us begin to hear more clearly the word of Christ because we don't only listen to the word, we also listen to the needs of others, to the hope and the voice of others to what they need us to do and for what they need to share with us.

[00:08:00] And through all of that listening, we begin to recognize and feel the word of Christ. We begin to reach that sanctification. We need to become a little closer to Christ each and every day. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired.

Stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you [00:09:00] to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures.

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