Dr. Roger Parrott, Belhaven University

Listening for God is our last in this series of listening for God.

It's been helpful to me, I hope it's been helpful to you, to study these scriptures and to understand how we hear from God and the various challenges and complexities of life.

And today talking about confusion.

So, you know, listening for God is not a one and done thing.

It's a lifelong process and there will be times you'll need to listen for God when you face some of these challenges and, and you know, obviously you won't be able to say, well, I remember, yeah, I would do this.

This, you won't.

So go back to some of these messages in the years ahead.

They're on Spotify, they're on Amazon.

I assume they'll be there forever.

And as God opens opportunities and needs for you, those resources are available.

So I encourage you to take advantage of them.

But today we want to talk about listening for God in confusion when we're confused.

How do we know what to do when we say, God, I got this choice and I don't know what to do.

God, I got this decision about a job and I'm going to graduate in a few weeks and I don't even know what I'm doing.

God, I've got this relationship and is this the one?

Is this not the one?

Whatever the deal is, Lord, if you just write it in the sky, I will do whatever you say.

I promise.

And that's what we think.

God's not going to write it in the sky.

That's not how he works.

He's not going to tell you.

Open your Bible and do this and point to a verse and that's going to be your answer.

It doesn't work that way.

How do we listen for God in confusion?

Well, the good news is this.

This is one of the easiest questions we've asked this semester.

The answer is really simple and I'm going to give you a really simple outline to understand how we listen for God and in confusion.

Here's the thing.

When we are confused, God has the answer, but we too often are ignoring it.

So how do we hear his answer during times of confusion?

I want to give you three signposts that will point you in the right direction to hear God during confusion.

And it all comes out of this scripture that really outlines for us in Matthew.

But the first signpost is the invitation to trust God that He wants the best for our lives.

Trust that God wants the best for our lives.

God created you.

You're not here on accident.

God created you on purpose in His Image.

God sent his son to die for you on a cross, to be a sacrifice for your sins and mine, and to raise from the dead and to conquer death.

God did that for us.

God loves you so much.

You're His.

He invites you into the family.

If he loves you that much, why in the world would God ever want less than the best for you?

God always wants the best for you, just like any parent wants the very best for their kids.

And we are part of God's family and God's children.

But here's the problem.

We settle for less than what God wants because we're going after what we want instead.

If we can get what we want out of the way, we will always find God's very best for us, which is the best path for our life.

Look at the invitation he makes to us during times of confusion.

Let me give you a couple of scriptures.

First one is this from James, chapter one.

If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it.

He's always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking.

I love especially that last part of it.

You know, people say, well, I want to ask a question, but it's a dumb question, I shouldn't ask, or I don't want to.

Take your time with this question.

No, God says, ask me if you need wisdom.

If you're not sure, ask me.

Ask me.

You'll never say you're wrong for asking, however many times it takes.

So we start with this invitation because God wants the very best for us.

And then look at this scripture, which is really important from 1 Corinthians, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

God brings clarity in confusion.

Now, this is an interesting scripture from first Corinthians, because if you put it in context of ancient times, people believed in many gods.

Before Jesus came, they believed in many gods, and so those gods would often create confusion.

If you've studied Greek literature, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, you know the battles of the gods to create the confusion, to battle with each other, to battle with people, to keep people afraid.

They want the confusion because then they become the center of the tension in the lore of the gods of ancient times, where the scripture says God is not a God of confusion, totally different.

He is a God of clarity and he will bring peace.

Trust that God wants the best for you even when you're confused.

And when are you confused, it's easy to think, God's forgotten me.

No, he hasn't.

He hadn't forgotten you at all.

Even in those times, know that God wants the best for you.

Couple more scriptures that I think are helpful From Proverbs, chapter 3.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Do not depend on your own understanding.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

We have to know to trust in God even when we don't feel like it.

And often in confusion, we don't feel like it because there's a lot of anxiety about confusion.

There's a lot of emotion and confusion.

And in those times that emotion can dominate us so much.

We've got to get back to that understanding.

Even though I don't feel like I can trust God, I know I can trust God.

That's a fact, and I can count on it.

It's a bedrock.

And here's something I'll suggest to you.

When you're making big decisions and there's a lot of emotion around it, get the emotion out before you make your choices.

It's amazing how much better the decisions will always be when you get the emotion out.

I got a letter about six, seven weeks ago from somebody, pretty critical letter.

And they were upset about this or that.

And I didn't answer it.

I let it sit.

And a couple weeks ago, my wife said, did you answer that letter yet?

I said, no, I can't get the emotion out yet.

And that's my benchmark that I use on big decisions.

If I can't get the emotion out, I'm not going forward until I can get the emotion out.

I can't make a good decision.

And so often in confusion, the.

The emotion dictates our decision and it's usually a bad choice.

So get the emotion out of it and instead just trust in the Lord.

That's a fact.

That's an absolute.

You can count on it even when you don't feel like it.

Our confusion doesn't mean he doesn't know the best path.

No, God knows the best path.

Look at this scripture.

I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

It's a promise.

God can see the path ahead.

You know, we can't always see the path ahead.

The path ahead for us is twists and turns and it's ups and downs and it's around lots of things that we don't know what's coming and we can't see that.

God's got a bird's eye view and he can see the whole path, the parts we can't see.

He can see the whole path and knows which path is best for us.

We have to have start with this trust that God wants the best for our lives.

He really does.

And in confusion, it can feel exhausting.

And you may not feel like God wants that, but you've got to build on this foundation absolute that God wants that take the anxiety out of the equation by trusting God.

So that's the first benchmark.

Second benchmark is this.

Find your direction based on what you know for sure.

What you know for sure.

God's not going to write the answer in the sky.

He's not going to point you to one verse that all of a sudden everything's going to get clear.

And that's the answer.

He says, study my scripture, study my word, study my teachings.

And if you study the things you know for sure, it's amazing how much the rest of it becomes clear.

And that's what Matthew 6 is about.

It's about showing us the priorities for our life so that the rest of it will become clear when we do the basic things first.

And so Jesus asked us really two questions here in Matthew, chapter 6, 18 verses.

He said, essentially, are you seeking to honor God rather than attract attention?

So that's the first question.

Are we seeking to honor God rather than attract attention?

Now, this is kind of a decision tree.

If you say, I'm seeking to honor God, great, you can go on to the next question.

If not, you got to do some correction there till you get things on track, because you're not going to get to the right solution.

If first of all, you're seeking attention rather than honoring God.

And you may say, well, I'm honoring God.

Yeah, I really honor God, and that's what I really want to do.

Well, God give.

I mean, Jesus gives us some pretty clear benchmarks for that.

He doesn't just say, let's not talk about it in theory, folks.

Let's talk about it in real time.

Let's talk about giving, let's talk about prayer, and let's talk about fasting.

Those are the three benchmarks he gives.

In other words, helping others, the people he loves.

Secondly, developing our relationship with God.

And thirdly, growing in our understanding and our depth of relationship with God.

Giving prayer and fasting.

And Jesus starts this part of the Sermon on the Mount with some very, I think, pretty aggressive words.

He starts by saying this, watch out, watch out.

Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

He starts right there.

See, the Sermon on the Mount is not just, you know, Jesus got up on the Mountain one day and said all this stuff, and the disciples were there and they were writing it down as fast as they could go.

Now, he told these things over and over and over and over again.

And that's why the disciples could recount these stories, because they'd heard it so many times, they knew them, they probably almost get up and say it for them.

Except on the Sermon on the Mount, we have it all together in one place.

And so he starts with this warning to watch out.

Are you doing it to honor God?

Are you doing what you do to get attention?

Because it's going to be one or the other.

And so he gives these benchmarks.

First of all, when you give to someone in need, don't do as a hypocrites, blowing the trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity.

Now, if you put yourself back in ancient times, can you just imagine some wealthy person that's got all kinds of attendance and entourage with them is going to go to the synagogue and they're going to make a gift.

And so they bring everybody with, and they bring the trumpets and they blow the trumpets, and everybody says, ooh and ah.

Aren't they a great person?

And Jesus says, well, that's all the reward you're getting right there.

Because you're not doing that to honor God.

You're doing that for your attention.

And when we give, whether that be money or whether it be time or whether that be our emotional energy, whatever we give to those around us, we do that to honor God, not just to get their attention.

And sometimes it takes some work to do that.

A lot of you live in the University Village.

University Village is named after Dudley and Robbie Hughes.

But that name didn't come easy because Robbie gave that gift, gave us $4 million to build that building.

We borrowed about six in order to build this $10 million building.

And she gave that gift.

And when she gave that gift to me, she said, I don't want anybody to know about this.

Nobody.

You're the only one who's going to know.

I want it totally secret.

I said, robby, why?

She said, because this is to honor God.

This is not about me.

That's pretty strong.

I said, really?

She said, yeah.

I listened to who God says to give to.

She said, God's given me some money.

And so I listen and I pray for who I should give to.

And God tells me who to give to me, and that's who I give.

But I don't want the honor at all.

I want all the Glory to go to him.

And so after a lot of discussions, after many, many weeks, I said, you know, Robby, if we could put your name on the building, it would encourage others to give, which it has since then.

And that's a positive thing because that would honor God because they see your spirit.

She said, I'll let you put my name on the building only if you promise every time you talk about it to say, I only gave it to honor God.

I don't want any of the attention.

And she's given us a lot of money since then.

That was a small gift compared to what she's given since then.

And her name's not on anything else on this campus because she doesn't want that as a one time thing.

And it's also because of her husband who had died.

She wanted to honor him, which was nice.

Giving should be to honor God.

So that's the first benchmark.

Do you give of yourself?

Do you give of your energy?

Do you give of your time to honor God?

Second benchmark, he says, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly in the street corners and in the synagogues where everyone will see them.

I tell you the truth, that's all the reward they will ever get.

Well again.

Imagine ancient times, a busy street and busy market and people, you know, trying to make life work.

And there are people standing on the corners and they're praying.

And in the Jewish tradition, they would do this kind of rocking motion back and forth, and they would do that in order to get attention, that they are more somehow spiritual than everybody else.

He said, that's all the reward you're going to get.

He said, don't pray like that.

Pray is about worship and pray is about listening to God.

And it's not simply bringing a list of stuff you want.

So he gives us a model, he gives us the Lord's Prayer.

And he goes through that, you know, our Father in heaven, we.

Which is about worship and reverence, isn't it?

Our Father in heaven, we understand the relationship with God.

And then it says, thy will be done, which is about surrender.

I want your will.

I don't want my will done.

It's about surrender.

And then he says, give us this day our daily bread.

That's the next portion, which is dependence on God.

Our daily bread.

Don't give me everything I want.

Dear Lord, please give me that.

No, he says, our daily bread, that's all you're going to get.

You got to trust God all the time.

And the prayer goes on, forgive us as we forgive others.

In other words, if you don't forgive, you're a sinful person, you haven't given up your sinful nature, and you've got to forgive others or you won't be forgiven because the sinful nature is in you.

I can't forgive you.

So forgiveness.

And then the last part of the prayer is, deliver us from evil, the protection.

Asking God to protect us from.

From the evil one, not protect us from the circumstances we don't like.

Not protect us from.

I wish I had a whole lot more money.

Not this and that.

No, protect us from the evil one.

The eternal values that matter.

Do your prayer life reflect that?

Or does your prayer life reflect just kind of a list of stuff you need?

And that's okay, you can have the list of stuff you need.

God says, tell me what you need, that's fine.

But prayer needs to be so much more.

In other words, he's saying, are you seeking to honor God by really developing your prayer life in worship to him, or is it really just about getting what you need and attracting attention?

And then he gives a third benchmark.

The third benchmark is when you fast.

Don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled.

So people admire them for their fasting.

I tell you the truth, this is the only reward they will ever get.

Well, fasting is to give up your meals in order to honor, to draw into a deeper relationship with God.

If you don't eat something you need all the time and you feel hungry, when you feel hungry and you're fasting, that pushes you to say, I need to take that time and focus on God and focus on that relationship.

And that's why people fast when they're making it decision.

In the Bible, we see that often we're fasting to make a decision because it brings us into a deeper relationship with God.

Well, you know, I got an interesting little theory that fasting doesn't work very well in American culture, and people don't do it much anymore.

And part of it is our American diet has gotten us so addicted to carbohydrates and sugars.

Fasting doesn't feel the same as it would have for the ancient people.

And that was the only thing they could give up.

They didn't have a lot of the luxuries we have and stuff we have, but that was the thing they thought about all the time.

Where's my next meal coming from?

Well, if I give up My next meal, I'm going to focus on God, I'm going to draw closer to Him.

And that's why fasting was encouraged.

So what's the modern day equivalent?

I suggest to you this.

Give up social media for an hour, for a day, for a week, when you're trying to make a decision.

And every time you start to reach to that phone, instead talk to the Lord.

Every time you start to reach for it, to flip something, instead talk to the Lord, if you will, fast in that kind of way, or you can do food, whatever you want to give up, it drills us into a deeper relationship with God.

So that's the third benchmark he gives.

Do it for sin, not self promotion, but do it in order to honor God.

So that's the first question.

Are you seeking to honor God rather than get attention?

Matthew chapter six takes us through.

Then the second part of the chapter takes us through this second question.

Are your priorities immediate or eternal?

And that starts in verse 19 and goes down through verse 24.

So are your priorities what you're trying to get right now?

I got to take care of this and this circumstance and this challenge and this and this.

And that stuff does consume our life.

But is that what we're really driven for?

Are we driven for things that are eternal and things that last?

And again here, Jesus is very, very direct in his wording.

If you put this in ancient language, it's probably even more direct than it comes across.

In the translation.

He says, don't store up your treasures on earth.

Store up your treasures in heaven.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Are we just after stuff?

If we're just after stuff in life, this is a fool's errand.

Because I'll tell you right now, there's never enough stuff.

I don't care how much stuff you get, it's never enough stuff.

It's a fool's errand.

So he says, where desires of your heart will be also.

He talk about the heart.

What's the heart?

That's motivation.

The desires, what are the things that motivate you?

What pushes you?

What do you desire more than anything?

Is it eternal values or is it immediate stuff?

He says, make that distinction.

Figure that out.

Because if it'll be eternal, then clarity comes even more in this time of confusion.

So that's the first one.

And then he uses another example about the I.

And he says, your eye is like the lamp that provides light to the body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

But when your Eye is unhealthy.

Your whole body is filled with darkness.

Well, the heart's motivation, desires.

The eye is your focus, your priorities.

What do you spend your time on?

What do you spend your energy?

What are you willing to give up something for in order to get it?

Where are those priorities?

That's what your eye is.

And he says, if your focus and your priorities are not on eternal things, then there's darkness in your life.

And then he sums it up with this next phrase, says either you can't have both.

You got to pick one or the other.

No one can serve two masters, for you hate one and love the other, or you be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved, slave to money.

You can't have both.

Pick it.

It doesn't mean God's going to make you, put you in poverty necessarily, but you can't have both.

What are your motivations?

What are your priorities?

What are your desires?

What's your focus?

That's what he's talking about here.

Are they things that are immediate or things that are eternal?

And when we're in confusion, if we honor God, first question, instead of getting the accolades of others, and second question, our priorities are eternal, not immediate, then we start to get clarity about what the choices are.

Because a whole lot of options just went off the table when it's not about your attention getting attention.

And when it's not about the immediate, a lot of options just went off the table and clarity starts to come.

And so find that direction based on what you know for sure.

These things we know for sure in confusion, these things don't change.

They're the same, so we know those.

Instead of seeking God's answer out there, focus on what you know for sure.

And most of the time, the answer starts to become clear at that point.

But then Jesus goes on to give us a little bit more instruction, even if it's not clear at that point.

And that's the third benchmark.

He says, don't be anxious while waiting for God's timing.

Essentially.

In other words, stage three is this.

Jesus says, God's got this.

You don't have to worry about it.

You don't have to sweat it.

God's got this.

Don't worry, he says, about what we'll eat or drink or wear.

God knows your needs.

He says, look at the birds, look at the lilies of the field.

How much more does God care for you than he cares for them?

You see the bottom line of all this?

He sums up when he says this, your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

When we get to that point, when we get to that understanding, then we start to get clarity on those things where we are confused.

Because now we've got our priorities straight.

Now we've got our objectives straight.

Now we've got our goals for life straight.

When those are straight, then the other things start to become very clear.

But there still may be some waiting.

And he talks more about that in the last of the chapter, and you can go read it sometime.

But he says, essentially, learn to wait.

Don't.

Don't be overwhelmed.

Don't be anxious about tomorrow.

Tomorrow's going to have another set of problems.

Just let God take care of these things.

Learn to wait.

When confused.

Here's the bottom line.

Truth.

God's timing is never, ever wrong.

It's always on time.

A lot of times I wish it was sooner, I really do.

But it's never wrong.

It's always on time.

And when we're waiting and we don't have that clarity and we don't have that decision and we're still up in the air, God is either protecting or he's preparing, one of the two.

He's either protecting you for something.

Maybe you've got a job you really want and they're not answering.

You can't figure out why because you're perfect for it.

Well, he may be protecting you from a mess down the road, or God's preparing you for something else, one of the two.

And when we are waiting and we are anxious, he said, don't worry, I've got you and you don't have to worry, because he does know the path.

Now, one last thing.

Sometimes you get through all this.

You got God's priorities.

You got eternal values that are driving you.

You get to the point and you still get to confusion because you got some.

You don't have clarity on that final decision.

Maybe you got two really good options.

Last week I interviewed a faculty member, potential faculty member we'd really like to hire.

And he's got two good options.

A really good guy.

I hope we get him.

But he's kind of young.

He got another offer from a Christian college.

We gave him an offer.

He said, how do I know which one?

I said, oh, you'll know.

I said, picture yourself in each setting.

What would that be like in that location with your family living that out, serving in their core values and who they are and the Kind of people you're with, serving.

Think through all that and then take Belhaven.

Do the exact same thing.

Picture yourself in this situation, what it's like and the whole thing.

And as you do, God will make it very clear.

And you will get what I call a deep, settled peace in your soul.

And you will know it's right.

And if you wait, that clarity will always come.

So when you get to that point where you've gone through the rest of the signposts and you're still unsure because you got two good choices or three, wait for that deep, settled peace in your soul.

And God will give you clarity in that.

And you know it's right.

You know that's God's choice.

Because I told this guy, I said, you're not going to make a bad choice.

Both these schools are good schools.

You're going to be fine either way.

It's not like one's bad, one's good.

If that was that would be an easy decision.

They're both good.

But that's okay.

God's got the right place for you.

You can't be in two places.

Wait for the deep, settled peace.

And when that comes, you'll have the assurance this is right, this is where I need to be.

And I'm in the center of what's best for me.

Either one could be in God's will, but this is what's best for me in my place of service.

And that's what our benediction promises.

It promised it all semester.

And I hope you say it with me one last time as we finish the semester.

No eye is seen, no ear is heard.

No mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Thanks for listening this semester.

I hope the end of the semester goes well, and I'll see some of you at graduation.

Rest of you, I'll see you next fall.