Knowing His Voice Series

Scriptures – John 10: 1-5

Genesis 3 : 8-10

1 Samuel 3: 4-10

Acts 9 : 5, 10

“Whose Voice Do You Hear?”

Those who had their name called out by God :

Abraham, Samuel, Jacob, Elijah, Mary, Daniel, Moses, Saul (Paul)

Eve listened to the voice of Satan instead of God, lost her opportunity to live in the Garden of Eden for eternity

King Saul listened to the voice of the people and disobeyed God’s command, and lost his kingdom

Aaron listened to the voice of the people and made a golden calf for the people to worship and caused the death of several of the children of Israel.

The following story may help explain what I am, trying to say:

"Two men were walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of the men remarked, "Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket," But the other man could not hear the sound.

He asked his friend how he could hear the sound of a cricket amid the roar of the traffic and the sound of the people. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature.

He did not explain to his friend in words how he could hear the sound of the cricket, but instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a half-dollar coin, dropped it onto the sidewalk, and watched intently as a dozen people began to look for the coin as they heard it clanking around amid the sounds of the traffic and the sounds of the city. He turned to his friend and said, "We hear what we listen for."

There is a story that has been passed down concerning President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Apparently President Roosevelt got tired of smiling the expected presidential smile and saying the usual expected things at a myriad of White House receptions.

So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was really listening to what he was saying.

As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said, I murdered my grandmother this morning.

People would automatically respond with comments like How lovely! or It is nice to meet you mister President.

Nobody listened to what he was actually saying, except for one foreign diplomat. When the president said, I murdered my grandmother this morning, the diplomat responded softly, "I’m sure she had it coming." (Pause)

There is a story about a man was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it.

One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him.

Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response.

Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?" Still no reply; quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer.

Finally, he moved right in behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me now?"

To his surprise and chagrin, she responded with irritation in her voice, "For the fourth time, yes!" (Pause)

The hearing problem is not with God. It is with us!

Tonight I want to start off with a little brain teaser. If you have heard this before, please don’t ruin it for everyone else and just keep your thoughts to yourself. I’ll read the question and then you guys can have a minute or two to think.

Once you have gotten the answer right, again, please don’t ruin it for everyone else and blurt out how you got to your answer. All I want to hear is your answer to the problem when I call on you and then I will let you know if you are right or not. So, here is the question:

You are driving a bus. You go east 12 miles, and turn south and go 2 miles and take on 9 passengers, and then you turn west and go 3 miles and let off 4 passengers. How old is the bus driver?