Learning to Listen — Talking to Jesus — Rich Wilkerson Jr.

all right proverbs chapter 3 i've got a message on my heart uh i want to read it this morning if i can uh from the message version proverb chapter 3 verse 5 it says this it says trust god from the bottom of your heart don't try to figure out everything on your own here we go listen for god's voice in everything you do [Music] everywhere you go he's the one who will keep you on track he's the one who will keep you on track we are in part four uh of a collection of talks entitled talking to jesus and uh it's day 14 of our 21 day prayer and fast journey let me just encourage everyone there's seven more days and it's not too late to participate it's not too late to join we want you to be a part of this of this prayer journey but we've been talking about this idea of prayer that that prayer is simply talking to jesus about anything and everything and we've been talking a whole lot about this idea of talking to god and speaking to god but how you know prayer prayer is a conversation and it's not just about me talking to god it's also about god talking to me i want to take part four today and if i can i want to lean into this idea of learning to listen learning to listen we all out there probably have that friend and maybe i won't make you raise your hand but anyone got that friend or know that person um who all they do is talk raise your hand if you're sitting next to him no i'm kidding i'm kidding we all know that person right that spends all their time talking that like they just talk your ear off they're not really interested in asking you any questions uh they're not really interested in really maybe getting to know you they just they just want to talk and what do they want to talk about they want to talk about themselves most of the times right and they don't really create any space to to hear your voice because they so love their own voice here's my question as we kind of get into our study today is when you pray whose voice do you love the most this is this is important that we we just stop today and ask ourselves this question when you pray whose voice do you love the most most is it your voice or is it god's voice because ultimately what i want us to understand today is that god wants to speak to you i hope you understand this but this is what separates us from almost all other religions in fact christianity isn't even a religion christianity is an opportunity to have a relationship with god god wants to have a relationship with you i said it week one in our collection but yo um a relationship without communication is just two people there is no relationship you can't have a relationship without communication and our god he wants to speak to you our god he wants to talk to you our god wants to meet you our god wants to encounter you in fact today growth track step one that's what it's all about it's about encountering god that it all begins with an encounter it all begins with a relationship this is why vu church exists we exist that people would know that they can have a relationship with god in fact we really exist for anybody who's not in the know that you might know that maybe you feel like you're far from god no god wants to be close to you but if we're being honest i think a lot of times when it comes to our prayer life most of us spend our time in prayer talking about me myself and i and we just sort of talk god's ear off i think sometimes we like hearing our voice more than we enjoy hearing his voice this is about a relationship this is about getting to know god write this down because this is true if you don't listen to someone you don't love them because love listens so when i go to god in prayer i'm not just talking to god i'm creating space for god to speak to me i'm waiting to hear his voice now i think it's important that we understand um that god is a speaking god he always has been he he's a god who's active in our life and maybe right there like i know i go to i've been to church my whole life and so people will oftentimes ask me like rich have you ever heard the audible voice of god i don't know what it is but we find that to be so like we all want that right like i just want him to say like what do you want god to say go no we all like long to hear his audible voice and the truth is i don't think i've ever heard god's audible voice but i think i would counter that question with why does god need to speak to me audibly when he can speak directly to my mind see you should know that not every thought that you have comes from you i'm surprised that there's still so many people that don't know this every thought that comes into your brain you did not create that thought in fact god he speaks to us many times and the way he speaks to us is right there in our mind he'll speak right to your thoughts in fact when you get a god thought we call that inspiration but we also have the devil who's speaking to our thoughts and that's called temptation so god he gives me thoughts inspiration the devil gives me thoughts that's called temptation and when you get your own thought most the time i just call that dumb right we've all been there we need to realize that not every thought that comes into our mind came from us that's why as believers we have to learn how to mind our mind because there's thoughts coming through and some are the voice of god some are the voice of the world and some are our thoughts that are coming from a different place here's a good analogy um you ever been to the beach before and you're hanging out on the stand doing life you know just just hanging out and all of a sudden one of those like those sea planes go by and they've got one of those big you know banner ads you've been there you know like you know tonight nikki beach you know dj reptile um [Applause] i don't know if nikki beach is still a thing i don't know if there's a dj reptile but you know what i'm talking about like they they come by and you know i'm i'm at the beach and how many know the banner comes by i noticed the banner but not for one second do i make any plans do i call any friends do i put it on my calendar that tonight i'm going to nikki beach to see dj reptile say rich why are you saying this i'm saying this because this is what happens when the wrong thoughts come through i notice it but i don't entertain it and we have to get good as believers that there are different voices that we're hearing different things there's different noises all around and what i'm listening to and who i'm listening to is determining the future that i'm that i'm stepping into i love what the apostle paul says second corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 he says the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds now what's a stronghold a stronghold is typically a mindset it's typically a tactic that the enemy has that will get us into an attitude a belief mechanism to believe his lies he says we demolish arguments in every pretense pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of god how do we do this watch this and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ so paul is just laying it down for everybody in this city he's saying the banner ads are gonna always come by i'm not enough the banner ads are gonna come by you're less than the banner ads are gonna come by you should get out of this marriage the banner ads are gonna come by you gotta steal that money the banner ads are gonna come by you gotta smoke that joint the banner ads are gonna come by people in the city don't like this preaching today i know it i notice it but i do not entertain it because i have made a decision that i'm going to listen effectively i'm never going to step in to my promised land listening to the wrong voice proverbs chapter 3 is so beautiful because it's truly saying that if you want to step into your future if you want to step into your destiny listen to the voice of god and if you love god you'll you'll listen to him you'll listen to him prayer is not just you talking to jesus it's you listening to jesus and i so want to help you today i want to help you learn to listen and i don't necessarily want to talk about what why or who you're listening to instead i want to lean into this thread and i want to take it from a different approach i want to lead into how you're listening we serve a relational god and it's important that we note that our god is in three persons the father the son and the holy spirit and many times when god speaks to us he comes to us in one of these persons the father the son the holy spirit god the father god the son jesus and god the holy spirit and i want to use that today i want to use the trinity if i can in the way in which what form do i need to take on what posture do i need to be in to listen efficiently and effectively to how god is speaking to me because i know god's speaking he might not speak audibly but he's going to come to me in my mind he's going to come to me in my heart he's going to come to me in an impression what is the posture i can take on that i can learn to listen so if you're taking notes i hope you're taking notes because it's really really important that i'm telling you what uh the old phrase is that the longest pencil is is is longer than the shortest memory and so as we write things down it helps us remember and come back to it so write this down number one i want you to learn to listen i want you to listen like a child listen like a child the first person of the trinity is god the father that we know that our god is a father in fact matthew chapter six is where jesus teaches his disciples how to pray i thought don cheri did an excellent job last week can we just take a moment can we thank god for the preaching of the word get a lot of questions that come in here all the time going man i really like that message but uh are we allowed to listen to a girl preach yes you are um and the truth of the matter is is that many of the texts that are written about females preaching are all about cultural context and the entire bible is to be read with context what you'll discover all throughout the scriptures is that most of jesus's ministry was funded by women jesus was sending out in fact the first evangelist in the bible is a woman her name is mary we discover all throughout the old testament and the new testament god using women so if you're new to our community we believe in women preaching the word if you know you know but i loved her message because she was teaching from matthew 6 and they actually come to jesus you'll teach us how to pray which is such like a powerful question because we're talking about this idea of prayer and you've been hearing me say this like throughout the entire time in this collection i want to keep saying it because i think in many ways it's such a foundational phrase prayer is more natural and normal than you could ever imagine like we were designed to communicate with our maker but all throughout history it seems like humanity has had this perpetual desire to have somebody else talk to god on their behalf i don't know what it is but it seems like we continue to complicate that which is simple i think many times the reason why it gets complicated is probably because of guys like me that we over complicated and so i'm fighting really hard throughout this collection not to try to give you more methods or models i'm really trying to get back to who you were designed to be which was a child of god who would simply communicate with their father because when jesus teaches how to pray like he actually answers the question he begins he says when you pray you should start out by saying our father who is in heaven meaning he doesn't have this formal he doesn't create this title you don't come to god with all of this extra speech you just come to him like a kid the other day i was in my house and those of you that know our story we have three children uh wyatt who's three wild bad name who is gonna be two in october i'm still wondering if we should have named him wild because he is truly living up to that name um he is a savage child he is not saved yet so pray for his soul i promise you i promise you he will get saved but he is not saved yet and then our baby girl her name is waylon and the other day i was in the house and my son wyatt was hanging out with me and he comes over and goes up pastor rich i said what'd you say he said you're pastor rich i said what what are you talking about he said that's your name daddy you're pastor rich i said no it's not my name to you is dad it will always be dad but what's happened he's heard somebody else address me as pastor rich and if his dad doesn't come back in and reinforce no no somebody else might call me pastor rich but boy i am one thing to you i am your father and that's how you are to address me so i don't know what some religion has taught you i don't know what some man has taught you but let me just tell our community in the city online right here in south miami you come to god as your father you come like a child we have to learn to listen like a kid now this is hard for a lot of us because right away when we talk about the idea that god the first person of the trinity is the father many of us even in the room become sensitive really really quick because many of us in this room we didn't have a good earthly father this in itself becomes a very deep and dense teaching because so many of us in fact we try to qualify it i actually believe that all of humanity carries a father wound say rich now my my dad was was great i don't i don't have any father ones i i i know what you're saying i'm not saying that we all carry a father wound because maybe our dad abused us or neglected us or wasn't there but the reality of it is is that god wasn't created in the image of your dad your dad was created in the image of the father and how many know the heavenly father is perfect and i don't care how good your dad is my dad is amazing i'm aiming and trying to be the best dad on earth but no matter how hard i try i will never measure up to the heavenly father so there's some of us in this room that for all sorts of different reasons maybe your dad left you maybe your dad betrayed you maybe your dad neglected you maybe your dad abused you maybe your dad died maybe your dad was present but he was never engaged so many of us we end up carrying this resentment and this pain and this hurt and what i want to encourage you is that for all of us no matter where you're at on the spectrum all of us have to go on the journey of forgiving our earthly father because it's only when we recognize that the need that we have the void that we have it could never be fulfilled by an earthly father it was always designed to be fulfilled by the heavenly father once i recognize that and get that revelation it allows me to forgive my earthly father for whatever sin for whatever transgression and when i forgive him i'm able to embrace the totality the fullness of the father's love so important so important but when we look to the father the heavenly father we quickly discover his tone his posture towards his son in fact matthew chapter 3 verse 16 this is the story of jesus being baptized it's amazing because at the baptism we see all three persons of god three and one the trinity the father the son and the holy spirit all show up for this moment and when jesus was baptized that's the son immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened up to him and he saw the spirit of god that's the holy spirit descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold here we go a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased now this text is important because it shows us the posture the heart and the tone of the heavenly father for the sun now the gospel simply means this that we put our faith and our trust in the sun and now when we're in the sun we know that every promise every affirmation every declaration that goes towards the son jesus now becomes our promise as well so quickly i want you to see a picture of the heavenly father the heavenly father what we discover quickly is that he is a god who is full of acknowledgement he stops and says this is my son there's people in this room that you carry pain because no one's ever acknowledged you you never had an earthly dad who called you out by name you never had someone in your life put identity on you and put put put life over you and say this is my boy this is this is my girl but it's not just this acknowledgement there's this affection this is my beloved son see a good dad loves his kids showers love upon i can't when i get around my boys i don't care what you say my kids are kissing me on the lip till they're 17. i don't know i don't know i don't know about that i don't know but i probably will be that weird dad like in the fifth grade like come here give me a kiss he's like no dad yeah get over here you know because i want to be affectionate with my children but notice he says this is my beloved son what does he say i am well pleased there's affirmation say rich why are you pointing this out i'm pointing this out because if you're going to respond to the father if you're gonna listen to the father if you're gonna listen like a child you should know that the father acknowledges you he shows affection towards you and maybe you haven't heard in a long time but he affirms you he speaks life over you come on somebody put your hands together if you believe it i want to listen like a child all throughout the new testament jesus is pointing out kids he's affirming kids luke chapter 18 i'm just giving you a lot of bible today luke chapter 18 but jesus called the children to him and said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of god belongs to such as these i tell you the truth anyone who will not receive the kingdom of god like a little child will never enter it so jesus truly uses kids as an example to say that if you really want to enter into the kingdom of god you have to have childlike faith so he says if you want to pray pray to god like he's your father but then listen like a child behave like a child have simple faith how many know there's big lessons we can learn from little kids i could i could give you a whole lot let me just give you a couple number one is that children are not in a hurry this this is important that you realize this if you're going to listen to the voice of god you can't be in a hurry you actually have to slow down like i firmly believe this the biggest thing preventing you from hearing the voice of god is not his speech it is your speed you're just on the go on the go on the go on the go on the go and god is saying i want to meet with you i am your father and i want to speak to you but you're in such a hurry god doesn't have a problem speaking our speed is too fast how many know like if you're gonna take an airplane over new york city you're gonna see something but you're gonna miss a lot about new york city how many you could get in a car in new york city and as you take the car across new york city you're going to see more than what you saw in the airplane but even in the car you'll see something but you're still going to miss a whole lot let me know though if you choose to get on these two feet that god gave you and start to walk through new york city what's gonna happen is you're gonna start to hear things and see things that otherwise you would have missed why because the details they require a certain speed and if you want to learn and if you want to grow in your relationship with god if you want to discover who the father is you have to slow down to capture the details of his presence slow down my kids yo it i feel like they have a master's degree in slowing me down like just getting to the car oh my gosh i'm like are you preventing my plans today these kids are smart bedtime yo they have got all sorts of ways and tactics dad three more minutes i'm like you don't know what three minutes means they think three minutes is an hour and a half they don't understand they're at their own pace going slow children aren't in a hurry but how many also know that the children they they take you at your word i could tell wyatt anything he will believe dad tell me a story tell me a story tell me a story his newest thing is he likes me to tell him the same story over and over and over again in the same city like tell it again i'm like why because he loves listening to his dad's voice and what his dad says is truth i want to encourage our church today that the father wants to speak to you and when he speaks to you he wants to give you truth and if you will listen to it and hear it with childlike faith i'm telling you what you're going to step into a future that you could only begin to see take place with god's help listen like a child first person of the trinity is god the father but but number two the second person of the trinity is is god the son and so i want to teach you today listen like a spouse maybe i should call the point listen like a spouse should listen but but listen like a spouse you say rich why are you living in this well the the second person the trinity is jesus christ the son of god and jesus of course came and paid our price for our sins went to a cross died so that we wouldn't have to die he is our big brother i said it already but in jesus every promise that was spoken over his life we can receive it by putting our belief and trust in him he is a good savior but one of the most beautiful analogies that we discover about jesus that's used over and over again is that jesus is the groom of the bride who is the bride the church today if you're new to our community maybe you're once again in the city or maybe you're here in south miami or watching online this is actually not an event this is actually not even a program this isn't a production we are the bride of christ we are a community we are the church this thing has been going on for thousands of years vue church you might be this might be the first church of adventure like oh this is super cool bro they're doing a new thing we're actually not doing a new thing we're actually doing a very old thing you know this is like a really really old old old old thing we are just modernizing it we're just in 2021 walking it out but what we believe is we believe the groom jesus who died for us is coming back for the bride so what we believe is we believe that we are waiting in eager anticipation for the day that jesus christ the groom will come back and rescue his bride anybody out there excited for the day that jesus comes and rescues us and all throughout the scriptures i mean go to the new testament ephesians chapter 5 husbands love your wives just as christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so ephesians 5 is a really interesting text because it's all about ground rules for the for the for your home and so it says things like wives submit to your husbands which girls are like oh my goodness now that's crazy it's archaic now well like i know submitting can be difficult but but the the greater and the higher command is to the husbands husbands love your wives like christ love the church do you know how christ loved the church he died for the church so the higher command is not submitting the higher command is dying that's why i would say to all the men out there that are complaining about a wife who's not submitting the question is are you bleeding yet because you shouldn't expect any woman to submit to you until you bled for them got one witness over here but the analogy is is is the church is the bride and in jesus of the groom ephesians chapter 5 verse 31 watch this is just really clear for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh this is this is them coming together a new creation this is a profound mystery but i am talking about christ and the church so the analogy that's given over and over again about when god wants to express his love towards humanity he uses a groom and a bride this is the analogy that he loves to choose because we serve a relational god and he's trying to break it down into our minds how he loves us how he speaks to us so each and every one of us we must learn to listen like a spouse because how many know this a spouse has intimacy this is very very important that we lean into this for a moment um right now there's there's airwaves coming through this room all sorts of airwaves and radio waves coming through here but how many know you can't hear those airwaves unless you get a radio and you tune in to the specific channel it's only when you tune in can you begin to hear what's being transmitted say rich why are you saying that i'm saying it's the same thing with god's voice is that proximity matters when it comes to listening to god we go god's not speaking no he is speaking you're just not tuned in you haven't positioned yourself you're not in proximity i'm telling you what proximity leads to listening it's where you begin to hear his voice we actually have to draw close to god the scripture says when i draw close to god he draws close to me and this is what a spouse does a spouse has intimacy and proximity with that person i've been married to don tree now for 15 years and i don't know if you know this but we live together let me just say something else may be shocking we sleep in the same bed together it's not a shock to you because you're like i know that's what you do you're married but because we're married we're fighting always for closeness we're fighting for proximity we're fighting to be near each other because when i'm near my wife i'm going to hear things that others will not hear and the spouse what we learn is a spouse has intimacy well you're saying well rich okay i want to draw close to god how do i actually do that there's so many ways you can do it but hopefully in 21 days of prayer and fasting hopefully you are you are tuning in to some new things that god is saying i mean like how about study his word everyone's like i want a fresh word from god i hope pastor rich has a fresh word from god okay cool yeah that's risky i would i would not risk your faith on me getting a fresh word for you for you if you want a fresh word from god just go buy a brand new bible get a brand new bible because this thing is potent this thing is alive and if you want a fresh word from god you just open it up and god will speak to you study his word read the bible but god has spoken a lot i need something new you don't even know what he said in the past you're not ready for something new you don't know what he said that's old how about how about hear his word it's like once again this is not an event this is not a program city i know it's cool you're in the design district and i just hope that we understand with all the cool windows and all the cool vibes and the brunch afterwards like we're going to brunch we're viewing and brunching i love it i love it i'm not i'm not hating you want a brunch and boo i love it [Applause] but i hope you understand that what you're doing today is you're obeying the biblical command that says do not forsake the gathering of saints because i actually believe as i get under the teaching of god's word i'm drawing close i'm drawing close this wednesday night is our last prayer meeting until january 7 30 a.m in the city or in south miami or 7 30 p.m in the city or south by me i know it's a sacrifice to go i know you have kids i know they have bedtimes i know you have a job i know all of that but if we're not careful we'll be too busy for the one that demands our attention will be too much in a hurry make it a priority hear his word studies word here's what how about this share his word this is this is why everyone should be in a vu crew this past week shout out almost 1500 people in vu crew this week come on cruiser come come make a little bit of noise i love it people in in crude doing life with other believers and they're they're sharing they're speaking the word it's on their tongue listen to me intimacy will not happen without proximity you have to have it dontre and i've been married 15 years we sleep in the same bed we're in the same house because because we're fighting to stay close here's what i want to say this is so important to hear this today dontre and i've been married for 15 years this next year it'll mark 20 years of us just being together hanging out one i want to say this very clearly um i don't always hear don cherie and i certainly don't always understand onshari a couple couple men said amen you know um i i did a wedding this week for for two people on our team and um oliver and carrie uh they're amazing people in our church and just doing an incredible job and i said oliver you know there's two things you must understand about women the only problem is nobody knows what those two things are okay so i don't always hear don cherie and i don't always understand don cherie i'm learning to listen to my wife but what i want to say to everybody is that as time goes on it gets easier and it gets better because how many know if don cherie calls my phone i can immediately pick up the phone and i don't need her to introduce herself to me i know her voice i know her voice and what i'm just trying to say is when you listen like a spouse you're fighting for intimacy you're checking your schedule i gotta prioritize my wife i can't be too busy for don cherie but what you must realize is that when it comes to god's voice you won't always hear it and you won't always understand it [Music] but you can learn to know his voice i i know god's voice i know it i've just i've been walking with him for a long time now i don't say this from an arrogant place but i know the voice of god and when it comes to god's voice the response is always obedience if you want to increase his voice in life you obey this past week i was i was flying home from houston and i don't know i said a check in my spirit i'm not supposed to leave houston i'm not supposed to leave houston i'm supposed to stay in houston i was like nah i think i stayed up too late and i think i ate some pizza i don't know no i i'm not supposed to leave houston i got on the airplane and on the airplane i ended up texting with a friend who was in houston and we just started discussing and right away as soon as i started discussing that he was in houston i said all right there's the holy spirit speaking again you got to go back to houston when i landed in miami i said what's the next flight to houston and i got on the next flight to houston and i flew right back to houston and what turned out is that my friend he he needed a friend he needed a person of faith i want to be i want to be intimate with god i want to be close to god i want when he speaks that i just obey that's my that's my response i want to listen like a child i want you to listen like a spouse and lastly as we close today you need to listen like a friend listen like a friend the third person of the trinity is the holy spirit so god is a relational god god wants relationship with you god wants a conversation with you he doesn't want you to sit and just talk and talk and talk and talk he wants you actually to love his voice more than you love your voice and so i realized that god comes to me in these three persons and so how should i respond i should respond to the father like a child i should respond to the savior like a spouse but i should respond to this spirit like a friend because jesus said in john chapter 14 he says the friend aka the holy spirit whom the father will send at my request will make everything plain to you it says he will remind you of all the things i have told you i am leaving you well and whole so when jesus left this earth he said i'm leaving you with a friend i'm leaving you with one who will walk with you and remind you of all that i've promised you all that i've said to you learn to listen to his voice and when i think about a friend how many know um the best friends great friends are those people um who say it best when they say nothing at all let me say it this way friends enjoy the silence it just haven't you ever experienced that like your best friends your dearest friends they can say everything by saying nothing you're best friends you're not trying to fill the space you're not entertaining you can just sit completely quiet their presence is louder than the silence the famous reporter dan rather one time had a sit-down interview with mother teresa looked at mother teresa and he said mother teresa um when you talk to god what do you say and she says nothing i just listen he's oh that's that's amazing he goes when god talks to you what does he say she said nothing he just listens he says well that doesn't make any sense he goes if this doesn't make sense to you i don't know how to explain it but deep calls to deep and there is a mystical relationship that our relationship is found in the listening of one another we're just listening many of us in this room are in a hurry we're too busy and we never get silent to listen to his voice [Music] i won't even just challenge you this week to get silent yes seven more days i don't know where you could do it you can pray anywhere the point is not the prayer the point is connecting with god and many of you you would hear god in a new way if you would just turn the radio off if you would just let go of the podcast if you would just sit for five minutes in silence because good friends can sit together in silence their presence speaks to one another but what's fascinating about this word silent is how we know it's six letters and those six letters are the same letters that spell the word listen [Applause] that if you're learning to listen stop and get silent don't think about what the next thing is you have to say pause take in the moment listen like a friend sometimes you're like i don't hear from god it's not because he's absent it's because he's a good friend he's letting you talk and he's got a new process and he's just listening other times god's saying would you would you listen to me i want to speak to you as we close i love what jesus said john chapter 10 verse 27 he said my sheep listen to my voice i know them and they follow me see you can know all about someone it doesn't mean that you know them my favorite actor greatest actor of our generation leonardo dicaprio we're not gonna have a debate online about this it's just the truth my favorite actor i i know all i know all sorts of weird stuff about leonardo dicaprio you might say well rich is is i might say you know well guys you know he's my friend you're like oh really dicaprio is your friend yeah he's my friend what makes him your friend i'm like why write to him all the time and then you might say well does he write you back and i would say well no he's never written me back why because he's not my friend i'm a fan we're not friends some people in 2021 are fans of god but not friends of god [Applause] to know all about this god but that's not the point it's not that you would know all about him it's not that you can quote every scripture it's that you would stop and recognize that this god loves you has a plan a purpose and a point to your life and you'll never discover it unless you stop and hear his voice so i listen like a child because he's my father and i listen like a spouse because he's coming back for the bride and i listen like a friend because this spirit he sticks close to me i don't know about you but i have been so wrecked the last couple of weeks as i've been watching the news of what's taking place in afghanistan i have been moved to tears i have felt helpless so many are going through so much pain so much adversity real modern day persecution persecution is not mean comments on instagram persecution is when they come and shoot you because you claim to follow jesus jesus is not looking for fans he's looking for friends who would follow him this past week the underground church many were slaughtered in afghanistan and there was a report that came out that even the kids told their parents we will not deny jesus [Music] why because they have tapped into something that i think many of us in the american church are missing out on is that they know god they don't know about god they know god and what they know about this friend is what jesus said in john chapter 15 greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends you are my friends if you do what i command i believe that god is raising up a church right here in miami in the city and in south miami and online that would say i'm not just going to be a fan of god but i have made a decision that i'm going to obey this god i'm going to follow him he's the god who laid down his life and need be i will lay my life down to follow him i've made a decision that his voice is directing my past i've learned to listen to him come on if that's you at every location lift your hands come on listen your voice come on

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 31,611

Rating: 4.9376297 out of 5

Keywords: vous, vous church, rich wilkerson, rich wilkerson jr, dawnchere wilkerson, miami, church, live stream, worship, church live, live stream church, sermon, miami fl, miami chuch, preaching, the gospel, good news, the message of jesus, jesus, what god wants, what does god want, sermons about god

Id: 4xaEtN72s_Y

Length: 43min 32sec (2612 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021