Why Listening Is Important | Listen to Love Better

TRANSCRIPT

As Pastor Kev said this morning, I'm going to share about listening that loves. Now, I struggled at the start when I was preparing this message because I thought, I'm actually don't think I'm a very great listener, and I was chatting to a few friends about that and they said, I don't know if anyone thinks they're a good listener.

I feel like I have a lot to say and my kids would agree that I do a lot of talking. I said to them, I'm speaking, I'm listening. They're like, what? All you do is talk. Does every kid think that about their parent though? That they, that you talk a lot? Well, today, I was trying to think to start. I wonder if anyone can identify with any of these stories.

Not long ago I was sitting at the table and my family was chatting. And my kids were telling me about their day, and I was listening, but I was distracted, like my phone beat. I was checking a message that came in, so I wasn't really listening. Maybe I was halfheartedly pretending. I wonder if you've done that.

The other thing I thought about that I do fairly regularly is when I'm talking to someone, they're talking and I think, yeah, I've got something to say about that, and I'm, in my mind, I'm actually just planning what I'm going to say back now that. Could be an anxious thing where I'm thinking, oh, I hope I don't sound silly, and I better think about what I'm going to say.

But in doing that, I think sometimes we can be planning our reply and not actually really taking in what they're saying. Instead, we can be self-focused instead of focused on them. Another one. Is when someone's talking to me about their day, uh, this has happened a few times in the kitchen. At the end of the day, we're washing out lunch boxes.

We're emptying our lunch bags. Anne was talking to me the other week and she was recounting what was happening in her day. And wanna talk about the morning, what are we doing, the cars, where are we going? What different directions? And I was like, mm-hmm. Uhhuh. Mm. Oh, I don't even think I heard anything that she said.

Not really listening. Uh, or a car ride when you're driving along, you're heading somewhere. The person next to you is sharing a deeper, meaningful story and you get 10 minutes into the ride and you think, I have no idea what that person has said, because my mind is preoccupied. I don't know if it's just me.

Maybe you can relate to one or all of those. When you are not really listening, you are actually just. There in body, but your mind is elsewhere and you may be just pretending. I think maybe at one point we've all done it, right? Had that moment where we think, I have no idea what they have just said. Was I actually listening?

And our mind is a million miles away. I wanna say today, and it's harsh and I'm speaking to myself as much as I'm speaking to all of you. When we do that kind of listening, we are actually just saying to the other person, you are not really worth my attention. I. Which is hard to hear. Um, if love is going to spill out from our lives, one of the simplest but hardest ways for that to happen is for us to actually start listening.

So if love is going to be the spillover of who we are in Christ, then listening is at the beginning of what we need to be doing. Pastor Kev talked last week about the three jugs and what is filling our jug. So if we want. What is spilling out over into the lives of others around us. To be pure, it needs to come from what God is filling us up with and not from the brokenness.

So the, the coke or the duck juice representing the brokenness. So if, if we are spilling out this. It's not helpful to the people around us, and it doesn't actually show love. If we are spilling out what God has filled us up with, then we can actually start to show who Jesus is through us. It's hard in our world because we are in a fast-paced, noisy world.

Full of quick comments, reactions, interruptions, social media, rewards, speed, and not depth Social media. Encourages us to answer on the fly, to not think very clearly about what we're gonna say to keyboard Warrior, um, to express our feelings maybe, uh, in that space. Our phones buzz, we carry them around. We have watches that buzz that say they need our attention and the result of that fast-paced world that we are living in day to day and often need those tools to survive our jobs, to do our job.

Um, but we can actually be distracted. To the point where the people in our lives who are right in front of us can often feel dismissed or uncared for, because we're not engaging in real listening with them. I wondered if we could try something for a moment, and it's uncomfortable to sit quietly, but we're going to do it just for a minute.

Uh, I want you to sit and just listen. You might wanna close your eyes so you can focus, but listen to the noises in the room.

I wonder if you heard at the start, just the quiet and then the sounds of nature. I wonder if you could identify the different noises you heard, the birds, the wind, the sound of the trees rustling. I wonder in that moment when you were still enough to open your ears and listen if you felt a shift. And I wanted to do that little exercise today, and it was literally 20 seconds of intentional listening.

But it reminds us that when we quiet the chatter and the noise and the speaking, and we just open our ears and listen, that it actually helps us to be present in the moment and pay attention to what's going on. I wonder if what would happen if we offered that kind of attention and focus to every person that we have a conversation with.

At our church, one of our values is love and generosity. And I was thinking about this value. It's not only showing that love and the love of Jesus to people and being generous with our time, our energy, uh, the way that we serve, the way that we give our finances, but it's also about showing generosity of heart when we open our ears and.

Our our, and listen and pay attention to the person who's in front of us, because today we just wanna highlight that listening equals love in action. So we see this in the scriptures, in the Bible where God listens to us. In Psalm 34, verse 15, it says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.

God doesn't half listen. He's not scrolling on his Instagram. Uh, he's not distracted or rushing along. His ears are open to us and he hears our cry. He actually designed us and my, uh, family used to say this, and Kev also says it, maybe it's something his dad said to him. But we are designed with two ears and one mouth.

And we tend to do a lot more speaking than we do listening, but maybe that's a sign that we should be doing twice as much listening as we do talking. James one verse 19 says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. That's the core verse, uh, for today, and it highlights what happens when we listen.

That we can slow down and that we can actually put a cap on our anger or the big emotions we might feel when we slow our mind and heart enough to listen to people. Listening is more than just a good habit. It's actually a spirit formed way of life, and that was something I wanted to land. In your heart today that listening, when we cultivate the art of listening well to people, it actually is forming in us good character and the ability to hear from the heart of God.

When we listen, we can become that vessel where the Holy Spirit speaks to us and we can then, uh, speak to the person in front of us and give them. What they need, uh, to hear for the day. So Kev always says when he's sharing with someone, he's got one ear listening to the Holy Spirit and one ear listening to what the person is saying.

That is, um, building into us a spirit. A spirit form way of life and a spirit formed way of listening. But the Bible just doesn't tell us that God listens to us. It also gives us some great examples from the life of Jesus about what Jesus did throughout his life in listening to others. And this morning I wanted to take us on a journey through three stories, uh, from the gospels.

And the first one is the Book of Mark verse, uh, chapter 10, verse 46 to 52. And it's a story of. Blind Bartimaeus and we've got a picture up here. Um, I love coloring in storybook kid type photos, so this just shows an image of Jesus and Blind Ma Bartimaeus on the road where he is. So imagine a noisy, busy street people shouting sandals, scuffing against the dirt on the road, and the crowd is pressing in around Jesus as he walks through Jerusalem.

He's walking towards Jerusalem. On the edge of the road, sits blind Bartimaeus. He's a beggar. He's used to being ignored and stepped over and told to be quiet, but today he hears that Jesus is passing by. And when you read the story in scripture, you actually imagine that there are hundreds and hundreds of people on the street, and Bartimaeus is not near to Jesus.

He's actually sitting quite a way away. But he starts crying out because he hears that Jesus is in town and he thinks, oh, maybe Jesus can do something for me. He's heard the story, so he calls out Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, and he doesn't call. Once he keeps calling out to get Jesus attention, the crowd tells him to shut up.

Be quiet. You're too loud, you're too inconvenient. We're sick of you. You sit here all day long begging. They try and quiet him, but Jesus, in the midst of all of the noise, hears his cry. He hears Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, and he says, bring him to me. He doesn't walk past. He stops and he listens.

He says, let him come. He calls Bartimaeus forward and then he asks Bar MAs a stunning question. He says, what do you want me to do for you? Now think about that. Jesus already knows that Bartimaeus is blind and he doesn't assume that Bartimaeus wants healing for his sight. He gives Bartimaeus the dignity of allowing him to voice his deepest need.

He asks the question, what do you want me to do for you? Listening in that moment, slowed things down and gave Bartimaeus value. And it opened the door for healing. It allowed bar maeu to say, but Jesus, I wanna hear, I wanna be able to, I wanna be able to see. So Jesus in pausing and listening to him gave Bartimaeus a dignity to share his deepest need.

We learn in this story that real love doesn't rush past the things in the world that we find inconvenient, but real love. True love stops to listen. Another story in the Gospel of John is a Samaritan woman. This is another moment that captures Jesus listening. So picture the midday sun beating down and there's a Samaritan woman and she is walking to the well to get the water that she needs for the day.

Normally, the women would go in the cool of the morning because it was far too hot to carry such a big jug, uh, in the middle of the day. But she didn't wanna be seen. She had a history. She was carrying shame from her past. She did not want to be, uh, mixing with the other women in the town. She expected silence and avoidance socially and culturally.

She was an outcast. She was the wrong gender, the wrong ethnicity, and she was from a broken world. I actually did a deep dive into the Samaritan woman and why she would not be allowed to, uh, mix with Jews. So there's a whole teaching in that, and I don't have time to share more today, but this is a fascinating story and it actually says a lot about.

What Jesus is doing here in culture. When you look back at the history behind why, uh, Jewish people wouldn't, um, interact with Samaritans, and it actually reminded me when Kev was sharing earlier about the state of the world that we're in. I was fascinated because I thought. The state of the world has always been the state of the world.

We're actually in a flux about what's happening right now. But if you read about what was happening then and why the Samaritans and the Jews were not allowed to interact, it's not that different to what's happening in today's world. Um, sin is sin. It happened then. It's happening now. And God was still in the midst of all of that.

But when she comes to the, well on this day, she finds a Jewish man sitting there. And he speaks. He asks lots of questions about her life. He listens to her story. He listens to her pain, her longings and her doubts, and in that simple act of listening, she feels seen for the first time in a long time. He doesn't rush to deliver her a sermon or.

Challenge her about her shame. He just listens. He lets her share her story. And through listening, he creates space for her to feel seen. And that moment of being heard opened her heart and her mind to hear about the truth of the living water that he had to offer her. And he shared in that story, uh, just about the fact that she longs for something that only Jesus can or only God can give to her.

In fact, that story ends with her becoming the first missionary to her town, and that was a result of the fact that Jesus listened. She ran back to her town and she said, come and see a man who's told me everything I ever did. And she went on to share about all the amazing things that Jesus had done for her in that moment at the well.

So with the Samaritan woman, we learned that listening gives dignity to the person who was dismissed. She was dismissed by her culture, her community, and Jesus asked questions and just listened, and that gave her, uh, dignity. In that moment. The third story I wanna share is one of my favorites, and it's about Mary and Martha.

And one moment, uh, Jesus is visiting in Mary and Martha's home, and Martha is bustling around. Who's a Martha in the room? You sort of know you're the bustling one, the busy one. Gotta get things done. I'm a Martha. Yeah. It's not always the better thing we learn in this. Story, it's always a challenge. So Martha is bustling around, she's cooking, cleaning, she's making everything right, and she's pretty frustrated that Mary isn't helping.

Mary has sat right at Jesus' feet. Martha sees this as lazy. She's just being lazy. I'm doing all of the work and Mary's just sitting there. Um, but Jesus says in the scripture, Mary has actually chosen what is better. He reminds us that listening to him isn't a waste of time. It's actually the most life-giving thing we can do.

So from Mary, we can learn that listening is productive to all the Marthas in the room. You don't have to feel guilty when you sit down and you just listen to what God is saying to you. It can be the most productive thing you can do. So in those three stories, Jesus stopped for Bartimaeus. He engaged with the Samaritan woman at the well, and he affirmed Mary in her choice to sit and listen.

And each moment, uh, in those three stories, he shows us that love begins with listening. So if God himself, the creator of the universe, can bend his ear to listen to the billions of prayers that we offer up every day, how much more should we as his children following after him, listen to the people in our own world.

So listening is not just biblical, it's actually powerful in everyday life. I wanted this morning for you to hear from someone in our church community who practices listening every day in her job and probably also in her personal life. I'm gonna invite Liz up to join me, so come on up, Liz, come and be nervous with me on the stage.

Let me just check. I've turned your microphone on. Yes. All right. So Liz works on the wellbeing team in a local school, and I wanted to talk to Liz today because most of what you do is listening, I think. So tell us a little bit about, uh, your role. What you do in the wellbeing team?

Speaker 3: Um, yeah, it's a bit daunting up here.

Hey, give us kids's, give us kids anytime, but adults. Adults. Uh, um, yeah. So I work as part of the wellbeing, um, team at a local school. And a lot of my, my role is proactive and then a lot of it is also very reactive. So, um, I work in the social emotional, um, wellbeing space, creating social emotional learning programs, um, you know, organizing events and, you know, bullying away day.

Are you okay day? All those things to, you know, support our, our kids working with the teachers as well in terms of, um, supporting their kids in their class. And then, like I said, I work with our wellbeing officers at school and our counselors in that reactive space. And that's, I think, where they're listening.

Comes in when you know you're listening to see, to see how you can support people. Yeah. No, that's so good.

Speaker: I think that would be exhausting you, well deserved holiday. So you spend a lot of time listening to staff and students. How have you seen listening itself, um, before giving advice make a difference in someone's life?

Speaker 3: Yeah, that's been a real, a real journey 'cause. You know, I love a good chat, those of you who know me, and I love to fix things, so I was, I used to always listen to respond, listen to fix. So, like you were saying earlier, okay, I need, I've got an answer for that one. Okay. I'm gonna suggest that. Um, and what I've learned is.

We need to listen to understand. And often when you listen and you get to the bottom of things, the things often is not the thing. Um, you know, so something's happened and you, you unpacking what's happened and you listening. And as you, you there for that person, you show empathy for them, you connect with them.

Taking that time, just letting them speak. You're not giving them the solutions. Um, in that space, you often then unpack really what's going on and how you can support that. You know, that person and that family through that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Good. So it's not always what it seems when you head into it. O often not.

Yeah, often not. No. There's, you know, we very complex beings as humans and, um, I, emotions and we respond in different ways, but it's often, you know, there's often deeper stuff that, that you can really only get to once you've got that connection with someone once they're. You know, and you listen to them.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Um, and then they feel, they feel connected enough to share with

Speaker: you. Hmm. That's so good. So you've also been studying counseling alongside your role. What have you been learning about the power of listening through your counseling course and how has that shaped the way that you see people? Hmm.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

It's really, really interesting. Um. And, you know, God's been speaking a lot to me in that space. And like you were saying earlier, with the busyness of the world and you know, everyone's looking down and, you know, on their phones all so busy and that they don't have that time. The message I've really been getting is, is just be still look up and, and reach out because, um.

You know, often we so busy and we miss things and we just hear the words people say, and we are not, we miss the, the body language, the emotions we miss what's really going on. Um, and I think, you know, what my, my counseling stuff has taught me is those skills to really reach deep into somebody's heart.

And, um, there's a Zulu word, Sal Borna. Obviously I'm South African, and that is, is like a greeting in Zulu. But what it really means is I see you. I see the whole of you, you know, your, your, your strengths, your weaknesses, your struggles, your celebrations. And I think that's really what it is, is, is being there to really see people for, you know, for who they are.

And, um. And for all of us to just take that time to, to be there for other people and to, you know, sometimes we think, oh, I don't wanna reach out to that person. 'cause I, you know, they're going through something so big. I, I dunno, I don't wanna say the wrong thing or I dunno how to be there to support them.

But just being there like Jesus did with Mary Thewell and just sitting and listening and validating. And there's a beautiful video, um, I dunno if some of you have seen it by Brene Brown on empathy. And she talks there about how just sitting with people and sometimes we don't even have to say anything.

Sometimes it's case of I, I don't know what to say right now, but thank you so much for sharing that with me. And that then fuels that connection. And I think that's what we are missing in the world now with, you know, AI and, um. We are losing that human connection. Everyone's got their headphones on and looking at their phone and, and I think that's, that's where we've gotta be brave and bold and reach out and be there for people.

And that's where we can, like you said, love through listening and, and show God's love to others.

Speaker: Yeah, I love that. And the word vulnerability is what comes up. Because I think when we choose just to sit with someone and we feel like we don't have the answers, oh, I'm not equipped to deal with that. Mm.

It's a level of vulnerability we have to be willing to step into. Absolutely. To be used by God in that space. Space. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And

Speaker 3: it's often very uncomfortable.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. Yes. You know?

Speaker 3: Um, but, but just being, being there and being like you say, vulnerable with that person, that's often, sometimes all they need.

And that validation that yes, this is hard.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 3: You know? Um.

Speaker: Yeah. I love that, um, story when Jesus says, what do you need from me to blind? Barda? Maeu? So I was thinking often that's all we need to ask for someone in that situation. Absolutely. And they may answer, I don't know. Yeah. But then, um, we can always offer prayer or just Yeah.

That comfort. Yeah. So good. Um, so tell us, for people who don't work in schools or directly. People facing, how can the skill of listening still be important for everyday relationships where everyone is at? So everyone's in different walks of life, maybe different types of jobs. How do you think listening, you know, is important in all spaces?

Speaker 3: Yeah. At the end of the day, I think all of us just want to be seen and valued and, um. I feel like we, we are contributing and in any relationships, whether it's, you know, home work, like you say, just even in the shops, um, just, you know, really seeing people and um, you know, checking in on them. And then if, you know, they do wanna talk, being there and, and listening.

Um, having the time actually putting, you know, I've got so much to do, but I'm gonna put that aside because this person really needs me right now.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Um, that's, you know, that's how we can, yeah.

Speaker: Excellent. Awesome. Um, and for, oh no, that was, yeah, I was thinking, did I skip a question? No, I didn't. Um, I was thinking that in terms of also at the end of the day being available and you just set it then putting aside what I need to do and saying, Lord, who do you need me to connect with today?

And I always think, I guess because it's on the desk in our office, Ruth has a. A card on her desk that says, father, what is on your list today to do today? I think Pia drew it beautifully for her in a, like a painting type deal, and it's so good. Yeah. Because it reminds you to recenter your thoughts around what is on God's agenda for me to do today.

And I'm sure that every day when we're interacting with people, there's someone to listen to. Yeah. So, yeah,

Speaker 3: absolutely. And listening to, I mean, yes, we've got our ears, but. We need to notice as well and be aware, you know, often people aren't gonna reach out for help 'cause that takes courage too. And you know, they're just gonna battle on their own.

But if we can notice, pick up on body language and emotions and people, you know, maybe just being a bit, acting a bit different and then checking in with them, that's, we can listen as well with what we see.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Um, and what we are aware of. So good. Thank

Speaker: you for sharing today, Liz. Thank you. You're awesome.

Give Liz a hand if you wanna talk about social emotional learning. Chat to Liz. It's an awesome. Um, conversation and space that she gets to work in there. So James one verse 19 says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Love starts with listening. That is, uh, where we're at. So today, this week, I wonder how we can take what we've talked about this morning and put it into practice, uh, why listening matters.

And Liz shared it just then. Is it. Builds trust. It deepens, uh, sorry. It diffuses anger, which is what that scripture points to, and it opens hearts for the gospel. So when we choose to listen and, uh, focus on someone's needs and ask, what do you mean from me? It actually does give us opportunity to engage in sharing the gospel with them.

And this can be done with someone you've known a long time. Or maybe even someone that you've never met. Uh, I've been in shopping centers where I've connected with people who clearly need help with their screaming child and their trolley full of groceries or things like that. Um, and although as a mum you never want to go and say, do you need help with?

In other words, you are not handling that very well and I should come and help you. There's always that thought of, oh no, if I go and ask them if they need help, they're gonna think, I think she's doing a terrible job. Don't overthink it. Just offer kindness and step in there and say what? Could I do to help you?

I wonder if this week our challenge could be to commit to one conversation where we practice spirit-led listening, whether it be in our workplace or in our family, uh, in our. Everyday goings about maybe at the shops or the park or where we're going to be, where we actually put the phone away and we put away the distraction of what we're doing and we enter into that space.

Uh, asking good questions, reflecting on. Back on what we hear and resisting. This is a big one for me. Resisting, fixing or hijacking that conversation. And I did some self-reflection on this thinking, why do I actually do that? Sometimes I do it because I'm anxious to use the word that's popular or worried about.

That I'm not gonna have the right thing to say or that I'm not enough, or that what are they going to share with me that I can't, uh, fix? Sometimes I'm going to worry that I don't have the answer, so I overtalk because I'm worried. But God wants to still that in us and just. Be comfortable with the pause and asking the question and being able to reflect on what do they actually need.

And something that I've personally found is just reflecting back and saying, I'm really sorry you're going through that. That's really hard. Um, I don't know what I can do to help you, but thank you for sharing. And could I pray with you? Like, sometimes it's as simple as that when I don't have the actual, practical answers to fix it.

And I think that, um, maybe for the men in the room where you are wired to fix things like you are, you are the head of your home, you are wired with your children to fix up. The, they hurt themselves. I'm fixing it up. They broke the trampoline. I'm fixing it up. That is a hard space to get out of where we are always fixing, but God wants us to step back and, and just listen to what is the need and meet that need.

Um, be the, be the vessel that meets the need. Uh, and listen with the Holy Spirit is listening to what the Holy Spirit's saying. So we, when we look at what is the spillover of what is filling us up, in order to be that active listener, that person that can plug in and listen to what the other person is saying, we have to fill ourselves.

What's the word of God saying? What is the truth so that we can spill that over into the lives of people that we interact with. Because love starts with listening. Jesus listens to us, and out of that overflow, we can then offer that listening to others. I wonder if today you are feeling like the stress of the world and the busyness of whatever you are going through, maybe is having you feel a little bit like this just with lots of junk.

Um, in the movie hook, he says he's been junk fired, like it's filled up his life with. Just all of the junk of the world and the things that are a distraction. I wonder if today you wanna just ask God to clear that. Well and fill it with fresh living water that can then spill out into others. I wonder if there's been a situation that you can think of where you thought, I really didn't listen in that circumstance.

I brushed that person off, and you wanna make that right. You wanna reach out to them. You wanna send a message and say, I'm so sorry I didn't actually listen and own that part. You can say why you didn't listen, but sometimes, sorry, without an excuse is a more powerful, sorry. Actually it is a better, sorry, just, I'm sorry I messed up.

No reason. No, I was nervous and I overtalked or I, no, you. They don't need a reason. Just, I'm sorry. And it stops there. And then we can go from there to repair that situation and just share with them. So this isn't new. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve didn't listen, did they? In the garden. What started the whole spiral is they didn't listen to not eat the fruit from the forbidden tree.

They did their own thing and then the Israelites didn't listen. They kept going astray until God said this is enough. So listening has always mattered through the, throughout the years and the seasons and the times. If we look back on scripture, if we think back on our own lives, listening really does matter.

So today, if you take anything from today, I want you to grasp onto the idea that love starts with listening. That one of the greatest gifts we can give another person is our listening ear and a ear that says, I'm here with you. I value your story, and you matter. So may the ability to listen spill over into every conversation that we have, every person that he brings across our path.

And may we have discernment? That's a key word too, because the reality is we all have jobs to do and things we have to get done throughout the day. So let's have a discernment about who we listen to and who God has on our path today to make a difference. I am gonna pray for us this morning and then we are just gonna sing to allow God to fill us.

Kev, did you wanna share something? I felt like you were on the edge of your seat. Yeah. And to tie in there,

Speaker 2: I was just thinking about that. Listening to understand. Um, I mean, we all have a responsibility to, to share our faith with people. That's, that's what we should do. 'cause that's what should spill out our, the love of God and us should spill out.

But we have to be very, very careful when we are sharing. Because when Jesus talked about people coming into faith with Christ, he talked about a, a terminology called being born again. That's interesting. He used being born now in the natural. That's a process. The seed gets planted, then there's a period of time, and then the child is born.

If the child is birthed to premi. It struggles to survive, has all sorts of issues, sometimes doesn't. And I felt like I needed just to say, 'cause I had an experience this week where God told me to slow down. You know, you gotta understand people are on their journey and we can get really excited because someone shows a little bit of interest.

In Christ, in an area of their life. And then we want to, we want to jump straight to the birthing process. And if you are not careful and you don't listen, you could birth a spiritual baby and some of you would know. People that were birthed spiritually premature, that didn't survive in their walk. So we have to be careful with this.

I have one this week because particularly with what's going on in the world, uh, this person was completely and utterly terrified that the world was gonna end. Jesus was going to return. And, uh, so therefore, I have to give my life to Christ right now. And the Lord just said, just listen and don't let them.

And keep talking. And so we kept talking and we kept interacting, and I kept peeling back the layers of fear and the stuff that is coming out of the American church, which is nonsense and hurting people. And I peeled it back and I peeled it back, and I peeled it back until all the fear dissipated. Once the fear had dissipated, and I'd showed them.

God does not want to drive you into a relationship with him. Through fear. Jesus never leveraged fear as a way of getting people to correct connect with his heavenly Father. And once I reached that place, then the Lord said, take them now and show them the gospel. And we talked. I showed them the gospel. I said, there's the good news of the gospel of Jesus.

You are broken. You can't fix yourself, but if you surrender your life to Christ. He'll come into your life by his spirit, his power, the light and life of Christ will come in and then your well will go from brokenness to health and love. And I said, where are you? And they said, I'm broken. I'm trying to figure out how.

I said, where do you wanna be? Well, I really wanna be over here in God's perfect plan. Any reason why you wouldn't surrender your life to Christ? No. And they prayed. And they prayed honestly. And they prayed in love, but they received Christ in love and in hope not out of fear. And God shared something with me that's going on, and this is 'cause one of the key things was the gospel's been sent to all nations.

So the gospel's been sent to all nations. So Jesus is gonna return, and I dunno whether this is a prophetic thing from the Holy Spirit, say, please gimme a bit of grace on this. I. I just said, have you been watching What's going on in America? The gospel hasn't even got to America yet. They have a gospel that Paul denounce a false gospel and a toxic gospel that mixes the old with a new confuses.

Everybody creates violence and creates all sorts of things. The gospel hasn't even got there properly yet. So I said, Jesus still could come back anytime and I'm where he can, that could happen. But my gut feeling is there's a lot more work to do 'cause the pure gospel of Jesus and Jesus alone is what is needed.

Because if Jesus and Jesus alone was the gospel in the USA, you would not be witnessing the things that you are witnessing. So don't be deceived. All the information you're watching online, it's all, it's all being spun in different directions. You just make room in your heart for God. Listen to him and let his love, and as you come in touch with people that are in that state of panic and fear and things like that, help listen, help slow them down and peel it back so that they do connect with Christ, but they connect out of gratefulness and out of love, understanding that they're so broken.

That they can't fix themselves, but that's why Gods wants to get involved. That's why he came the way that he did. So I just felt like I needed to put that on the back end here because of what is going on in the world today. Because if you birth someone out of fear and out of judgment and out of all this kind of stuff, they won't last.

They can't last because it's not been burst in love. You have a false gospel there. But the temptation is, and here it is, the temptation is you see a little spark in them that you think, man, they're ready. They're ready. And then you leap straight to birthing them That doesn't serve them. Withdraw, and just say, you know what?

I'm gonna keep just asking. Just asking questions. Keep making sure that they understand the real gospel of Jesus Christ, and then help them to step in. And that would be a great way of us just helping them to make a great connection with God that will last a lifetime. So I just felt it was so strong. I felt it a few times there about jumping in and I said, Anna, I don't think I should.

And and just said, I think you need to just step up. So thank you for sharing and I'll let you pray and do whatever you want to do from here. But I just felt that was part of it, that learning, learning, listening to understand, not listening to respond. There I go.

Speaker: Cool. Thank you, father. God. I just thank you, Lord, that you give us opportunities every day to listen.

Lord, I pray that as we go about our week this week, Lord, that you would remind us of the truth in this message. That love begins with showing. Love begins with listening. And Lord, I pray that as you give us those opportunities, you would also give us ears to hear what your spirit is saying and discernment in the situations that we are in.

Lord, discernment to say the right words, the words that are from your heart. And Lord, I pray that in our listening, people would experience the love of God like they haven't before, Lord, that we would be able to point them to you. And Jesus that you would guide and lead us. Father, I pray that in the busyness of the world, in the busyness of our everyday lives, Lord, that we can slow ourselves down and remember the moment of listening to the sounds around us and just train our ear to be able to hear the still small voice that comes from the heart of God.

Father, we just thank you for the opportunities we have. Lord, I thank you for this space where we can gather together and learn. And Lord I pray that you would use us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.