"Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'He will have no one to sit on the throne of David...because they have not listened.'" - Jeremiah 36:30-31
Listening is critical in every relationship, but listening is most critical in our relationship with God.
It works like this.
To listen is for one party to receive a word or words from another party. So to listen is to receive a word.
In the beginning of the Gospel of John, chapter 1, if we listen, God tells us that His Word is His Son. Jesus is the Living Word of God.
So, to listen to God, to receive God's Word, is to receive Jesus Christ.
Listening to God and therefore receiving Christ is critical because through Christ alone can we have a right relationship with God. Through Christ alone can we have peace with God. This is true because Christ alone took on human flesh and had no sin. NONE! So Christ's death on the cross was not for his sin, but his death was for our sin.
So when we listen to God, we are listening to God's Word. When we listen to God's Word, we are listening to Christ. When we listen to Christ, we are receiving Christ into our being. When we receive Christ, we are receiving all of Christ, including his work. When we receive Christ's work, it includes his saving work on the cross, where he pays the penalty for our sin because he himself had no sin to pay for.
In sum, to listen to God is to receive and be filled with God's Word, who is Jesus Christ. You are filled with both the person of Jesus and also the saving work of Jesus. God fills us with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. A Spirit-filled life is a life filled with Jesus, who in turn pours the person and power of the Holy Spirit into us!
This also explains why you feel empty when you don't listen to God's word by not worshiping God and not spending time with God in the reading and study of His word and not living with God by not living according to His word.
It all fits together.
And this is very simply why, in today's verse, God says what God says. When you listen to God, you receive His Son, Jesus Christ, and all his benefits. When you don't listen to God...well, you don't receive His Son, Jesus Christ, so it's impossible to receive his benefits, like forgiveness, peace, courage, wisdom, and everlasting life. God's trying to give his word and its benefits to everyone, but tragically, not everyone is receiving them because not everyone is listening.
This is why some people are so passionate about telling God's Word to others. In sum, lives are at stake. And because lives are at stake, some people are so passionate about telling God's Word to others that they're willing to lose a lot, maybe even everything, for telling it.
Please, please, please...receive God by listening to God's Word; worship God; live in God. And encourage others to do the same.
We will be blessed in listening, so may God be praised for speaking His Word of Life!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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