{"id":35499,"date":"2023-09-15T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-who-listens-and-god-who-speaks\/"},"modified":"2023-09-15T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T10:52:00","slug":"god-who-listens-and-god-who-speaks","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-who-listens-and-god-who-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"A God Who Listens and a God Who Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his autobiographical novel, <em>Everything Sad is Untrue, <\/em>Daniel Nayeri describes fleeing from Iran as a boy to escape persecution for his Christian faith. At one point, he asks the reader a question:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Would you rather have a God who listens or a god who speaks? Be careful of the answer &hellip; There are gods all over the world who just want you to express yourself. At their worst, the people who want a god who listens are self-centered. They just want to live in the land of &ldquo;do as you please.&rdquo; And the ones who want a god who speaks are cruel. They just want law and justice to crush everything &hellip;. Love is empty without justice. Justice is cruel without love. Oh, and in case it wasn&rsquo;t obvious the answer is both. God should be both.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Time and again, Jesus proves to be a God who listens. People seek him out by the thousands&mdash;but he never refuses a conversation. The only time Jesus ever silences anyone, saying, quite literally, &ldquo;Be quiet!&rdquo; it&rsquo;s a demon (Luke 4:35). Other than that, he&rsquo;s willing to give anyone the time of day. Blind Bartimaeus shouts to him on a crowded road. While others scold him to keep quiet, Jesus beckons him over and gives Bartimaeus the floor. &ldquo;What do you want me to do for you?&rdquo; he asks &hellip;. Whatever the blind man had to say, Jesus was all ears.<\/p>\n\n<p>He&rsquo;s not just a sounding board, though. Jesus has something to say. Words are the very tools Jesus uses to bring forth his plans &hellip;. When his friend is dead and lying in his tomb and Jesus says, &ldquo;Lazarus, come out!&rdquo; and the dead man comes out &hellip;. In other words, when Jesus speaks things happen.<\/p>\n\n<p>Jesus is a God who listens and a God who speaks, a God who simply enjoys talking with people. He doesn&rsquo;t mind being inconvenienced. He&rsquo;s willing to seek out those who differ with him &hellip;. because he is a God who knows, a God to whom all hearts are open and no secrets hid.<\/p>\n\n<p>The fact that Jesus is the kind of God who wants to be in a personal relationship with us is remarkable compared to the false gods who either speak from on high or listen to us with blank stares .&hellip; The Christian faith reveals that we have more than just words, but the Word made flesh.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3419,3455,3665,3969,3983,3984,4130,4132,4380,4679,4682,4793,4903,5196],"tax_ctp_topics":[388,404],"class_list":["post-35499","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-answered-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-attributes-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-confidence","tax_ctp_tags-fatherhood-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship-with-christ","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship-with-god","tax_ctp_tags-hear","tax_ctp_tags-hearing-gods-voice","tax_ctp_tags-listening","tax_ctp_tags-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-prayer-to-god","tax_ctp_tags-relationship-with-god","tax_ctp_tags-security-in-god","tax_ctp_tags-trusting-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A God Who Listens and a God Who Speaks - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-who-listens-and-god-who-speaks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A God Who Listens and a God Who Speaks - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his autobiographical novel, Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri describes fleeing from Iran as a boy to escape persecution for his Christian faith. 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