Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 83:1 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
Read the Entire Psalm
This is God’s world. We are not powerless in it but He holds it in His hands. When He acts it is out of goodness. When He keeps silent it is out of goodness. When He is still it is good. We ask for what we want and trust God to always act in line with His perfect goodness. Praise Him for being a God who listens to our requests. Praise Him because He is.
Scripture Reading
1 John 2:28-3:10 – New International Version
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanks to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for Amelia. Ask God to encourage her, guide her, and use her as she serves overseas.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
In the 19th century, astronomer Percival Lowell looked through his telescope that had unknowingly been adjusted so that it was acting like an ophthalmoscope, and he “saw” on a distant planet what was in fact his own inner eyeball. He saw “out there” what was in fact “in here.” Worldviews are not what we see, but what we see through. We all look at the same events, but we see them differently because of the different worldviews we are looking through. This explains how we can come to vastly different conclusions about very important things. The atheist views the vast night sky or the human body as a mindless, accidental “colocation of atoms.” The Christian sees a brilliant, involved, loving creator. What you look “through” determines what you see. We are to look through the lens of the gospel as we look at the events of our world and the details of our own lives personally. Do not “see” as the world “sees,” look through the lens of the gospel. Christ has come, Christ will return, and we see a world struggling between these two great events.