"Still Small Voice" By Bob Heirtzler January 31st,
2016
Good morning! You may be seated. I am so thankful to be here today. Our God truly is a great God to us. As I get situated here… I am thankful to be saved. I am thankful to know God as my personal
Savior, and I am also thankful to know that I can listen to the voice of God
speak to me daily. Daily, at different
times in my life; I’m going to share a couple of those moments today. But I remember the first time I
came to this church, there was such a strong anointing of God, and I didn’t
know what it was. I didn’t know what was
going on. And, I remember there was an
altar call, and I remember going to the altar, and the friends that I was with
stopped me, and said, “You know what?
You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.” And, I gave in, and I left. And I went back across the street, and I went
to the Helm Club and tried to drink what just happened away. And I remember, going to my first Scripture,
and I remember, back in December of 1978, praying that, “God if you’re real,
please let me know; there’s got to be more to life than getting married, having
kids and dying! I really need to
know.” Now, I had forgotten about that
prayer. Now, it’s October of ’79, ten
months later… 1 Kings 19:9-10 And he came thither
unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him,
and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been
very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with
the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
So God came to the cave, and said,
“Why are you here? Why are you
here?” And I’ll explain that in a few
seconds. 1 Kings 19:11-12 And he
said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD
passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces
the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind
an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD
was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And that’s the title of my message
today, is: “Still Small Voice.” I remember going back to the Helm Club, and I
kept drinking and drinking and drinking and drinking, so I went back to my
cave, thinking that was my comfort zone, “I’m safe here. I’ll be able to forget what happened in a few
minutes.” But God chose for me not to
get drunk that night. He said, “I am
answering the prayer that you prayed back in December of 1978.” First He said, “Bob, I am answering the
prayer that you prayed back in 1978."
As I looked around the room, I didn’t know where that voice came
from. And nobody in that room knew about
that prayer. So I knew God spoke to me
for the first time. I got up and left,
immediately, and one of my friends said, “Hey, where you going?” and I said,
“God just spoke to me, and I got to get out of here.” And I left.
And I never saw them ever again after that. I don’t even know where they went to, after
that. But I remember going back to the
church the next day; I was there five hours early, waiting for the Center to
open up. And I remember getting baptized
in Jesus’ name. I remember coming out of
that tank, and everything—all my sins were washed away. And now, I am seeking the voice of my
Heavenly Father. At the time, Christmas cards were
coming out, at the time, and I remember the first Christmas card I read was Isaiah
9:6. The part I’m talking about is, “…The
everlasting Father...” And some of you
know my testimony, my dad kicked me out of the house because I just got into a
lot of trouble; I’ll just keep it at that.
And my dad didn’t want me to come back, so now I’m seeking my Heavenly
Father’s voice and direction, because this is all new to me. If I get emotional, it’s because I love God
dearly; I just do. He’s my life, He’s my
all in all. And the voice, I was seeking
for the voice. Coming from a background
of farmers and we raised our own vegetables and stuff in our yard, and
understanding about sheep a little bit, I’m going to turn to John chapter ten, John 10:1 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. That right there tells me there’s
only one way to Heaven. There is no
other way; you have to go through the door.
Jesus is that door. John 10:2-3 But he that entereth
in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the
sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name… He didn’t say, “Y’all come on in!” No, He called me, He said, “Bob,” just like
He said, “Parrish,” just like He said, “Ken,” just like he said the rest of us
in this room; He called us by name. John 10:3-4 …and leadeth them
out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him: for they know his voice. So we have to know the voice of
God speaking to us, because there’s many voices in the world today that try to
impersonate the voice of God. But I
guarantee you, that when God speaks to you, it’s going to line up with the Word
of God. It’s going to; it just
does. You know? John 10:5 And a stranger will
they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of
strangers. Now, I remember back then—I don’t
know if it was a National Geographic show I saw—but I remember there was a
whole bunch of sheep-herders, shepherds, standing there, and they were calling
their sheep over, and the only ones that came over were the ones that the sheep
knew their master’s voice. Even though
they were all shepherds, only one, and I realized that I want to know my Father’s
voice. I want to share two short stories—and
I promise to keep them short—where I heard God speak to me: Some of you know that I lost parts
of my fingers (holding his right hand up, showing that he only has most of his
thumb and some of his index finger). I
got it pulled into a machine that takes big plastic sheets and turns them into
small plastic sheets. I know Arman
George worked there at the time. I
remember my hand being caught in the machine and I was starting to freak out.
Of course, natural reactions, right? And
God said, "Bob, just stay calm!!" So I was calm.
I was making decisions, how to get my hand out of the machine, and for
the next hour or so, I was at the hospital.
But God spoke to me and said, "Bob, just stay calm!!" He knows my full name is Robert James Heirtzler,
but he calls me Bob; it’s more personal to me.
You know? Another story was, I headed over
to the church real early in the morning because I had a huge fishing event happening. And I saw the Radar system, just the skies
were just filled with storms after storms after storms after storms coming our
way. And, I was on my way to pick up
Aaron George that day. I know Aaron
remembers this. I picked him up, and, as
he touched the door-handle of the truck I was driving, God said, “Just be
positive; God will bless this day.” As
the windshield wipers are going like this (motioning with his hand, waving back
and forth at a fairly brisk rate), you know?
So, he got in the truck, and I said, “You know what? God’s going to bless this day.” So, we drove from Cedar Street to Jackson and
Belvidere. We got out of the truck—remember
that, Aaron?—we saw a blue circle in the sky.
And we got all the bait from the Salmon Stop, there; got to the parking
lot of the church, and that blue sky was bigger. By the time we left, that morning, at eight
A.M., there was not a cloud in the sky.
But God told me, just spoke to me.
So I share, sometimes we have tragedies, and sometimes, as simple as the
weather, God can speak to us through everything. Does that make sense? Amen. Now, sometimes God speaks to us,
and speaks to me, because He wants to correct us. That happens, right? Even our own natural fathers will correct us
at times, or paddle our bottom, or send us to our room, or stand in the corner,
right? So let’s go to: Hebrews 12:5 And
ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him: So, sometimes God has to comb our
hair, or fry our bacon, take us to the tool shed, and correct us. Hebrews 12:6-8 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons. I don’t want to be a spiritual
bastard at all. I want God to correct
me. I want God to hug me. I want God to encourage me. I want God to speak to me. I want God to just constantly correct me when
needed. I don’t want to stand before
him, and have Him say, “Sorry, you’re not making it in.” I want to hear those words, “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant. Enter thou
into the joy of the Lord.” Those are the
words I want to hear. My last Scripture; God speaks to
us: 2 Peter 1:16 For
we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. So, we’re not following fables;
this is the real thing. God is real, and
God does speak to us. God wants us, God
desires us to seek Him on a daily basis and seek His voice in all our decisions,
from weather to our finances, what car to but, whatever the case may be, where
to live… God wants to help us. All we’ve got to do is say, “Jesus,” and He’s
there immediately. And, also, the second
part is, we are eye-witnesses of His majesty.
We’re all witnesses what God has done for our lives. We’re all witnesses what God has done for
each of our lives. You know? As we keep going, here: 2 Peter 1:17-18 For he received from God the Father honour and
glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And
this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy
mount. Even Peter heard the voice of God
speaking that day (Matthew 1:1-8). 2 Peter 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God speaks to us, through the Holy
Ghost, through our lives. It’s not a
figment; it’s the real thing. We need to
seek the voice of God every day, and love to hear the voice of God. Sometimes it will be correction, but we need
it. We want God to love us, right? Thank you. God bless you.
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