Deserts | Week 5 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Mar 25, 2024 · 45 min watch · 3 min read

Deserts | Week 5 | Sermon

Big Idea

Hearing God's voice is much more practical than mystical — God is always speaking through His Word, through frustration, and through the people around us.

Using the strange Old Testament account of Balaam and his talking donkey in Numbers 22, Pastor Daniel argues that God is always speaking to His people — primarily through Scripture — and that our inability to hear Him is rarely God's silence but rather our own rebellion, distraction, or willingness to rationalize compromise. When we walk in disobedience, God loves us enough to frustrate our path as a whisper calling us back. The path to hearing His voice again runs through humility, asking forgiveness of those we've hurt, and genuine repentance — turning around and aligning our will with His.

Key points

1
1The primary way God speaks to us is through His revealed Word — Scripture already contains the answers to most of what we think we need to pray about.
2
2God will never speak to you in a way that contradicts His Word; any perceived word from God must be checked against Scripture.
3
3Resisting temptation once does not end it — the enemy will return with a stronger, more enticing offer, and unresolved sin will rationalize us into compromise.
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4God's concession is not the same as God's blessing; taking His allowance as His approval is a fatal mistake.
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5Frustration is often God's whisper — when we walk in rebellion, God loves us enough to obstruct our path and get our attention.
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6Hearing God's voice again requires humility, seeking forgiveness from those we've hurt, and true repentance — turning around and going a different way.
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7Just as a singer cannot produce notes they can no longer hear, we cannot speak blessing and life over others if we have lost the ability to hear God's voice.

Application

Pastor Daniel calls every listener to honestly examine whether the frustration, turmoil, and relational blowups in their life might be God's loving whisper trying to get their attention. The practical steps he lays out are clear: stop praying for answers you already have in Scripture — read the Word and trust what it says. When you recognize you've been walking in rebellion, humble yourself before God, go to the people you've hurt and genuinely ask for forgiveness, and repent — actually turn around and go a different way. As your will begins to align with God's ways, your ability to hear His voice is restored. And as you learn to hear Him again, you'll find you have something real to speak into the lives of the people around you — blessing rather than cursing, life rather than hurt.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

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The story of Balaam doesn't open with a talking donkey — it opens with a man who already knew what God wanted and started looking for a way around it. King Balak sends messengers with a tempting offer, and Balaam does something that looks spiritual on the surface: he says, 'Let me pray about it.' But God had already spoken. The answer was no. What Balaam was really doing was giving himself another night to hope the answer might change. Pastor Daniel named this honestly — we do the same thing. We pray for direction on questions Scripture has already answered. We ask God again, hoping this time He'll bless what we already want to do. The remarkable thing is that God doesn't walk away in disgust. He keeps engaging. He keeps speaking. That patience isn't permission, though — and Balaam's story will show us how easy it is to confuse the two. Today is simply an invitation to sit with this opening scene and ask an honest question: Is there something in your life right now where you already know what God has said, but you're still hoping for a different answer? That's not a condemnation — it's just the beginning of an honest conversation with Him.

For reflection

Is there a decision or situation in your life right now where you sense you already know what God's Word says, but you've been asking Him to confirm a different answer?

Pray

Pray for the courage to hear what God has already said, and for honesty about where you may have been hoping He'd say something different.

Related passage

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Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message takes one of the strangest stories in the Bible — a donkey that talks back to its owner — and asks a surprisingly personal question: what if God has been speaking all along, and the problem is on our end?

Discussion questions

1
In Numbers 22, Balaam is a prophet who already knows God's voice, yet he still ends up walking a path God opposes. What does that tell us about how subtle the drift from obedience into rationalization can be?
2
Pastor Daniel made the point that God's concession — allowing Balaam to go — was not the same as God's blessing. How do people typically tell the difference between God's permission and God's approval, and where might that line get blurry?
3
Pastor Daniel said the primary way God speaks to us is through Scripture — and that most of what we think we need to pray about already has an answer there. What does it look like practically for a community of people to treat the Word that way, rather than treating it as one voice among many?
4
The message describes frustration, turmoil, and relational conflict as potentially being God's loving obstruction — a whisper meant to turn us around. What would change about the way people interpret hard seasons if they approached them with that possibility in mind?
5
Pastor Daniel described the path back to hearing God's voice as moving through humility, seeking forgiveness from people we've hurt, and genuine repentance — not just regret, but actually turning around. Why do you think he put those steps in that particular order?
6
In John 10:27, Jesus says His sheep hear His voice. Pastor Daniel drew a connection between hearing God and being able to speak blessing and life into the people around us — like a singer who can't reproduce notes she can no longer hear. How might that shape the way a group like ours thinks about growing in our ability to encourage and build up one another?

Pray together

Asking God for the humility to hear what He's already been saying — and the courage to turn around wherever we've drifted

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Deserts

Week 5 · 5 messages

Where these passages are preached

Numbers 22 John 10 Romans 8

Explore related topics

God's Word Hearing God's Voice Obedience Rebellion and Restoration Repentance

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