If you follow the news at all then you have probably heard of the tragic murderer of a Waco basketball player named Patrick Dannihee. For several months the police have hunted down suspects and leads and finally this past week, they found a body and arrested a teammate of Dannihee's who has admitted to the murder. When they asked this murdered why he killed his own friend, he responded that "voices were talking to him" and that the voices that were talking to him told him to do it. Part of his defense, a temporary insanity plea, will be that his actions were a result of the voices that he was listening to.

When I read the news report and listened to the words of this deranged killer, I looked down from my computer to where several weeks earlier in prayer and study I had felt God impress to me our text. In I Corinthians 14, Paul is teaching on spiritual gifts and the proper order of the church service and, right in the middle of the chapter, he makes what is somewhat an offhand remark.

The word for voices here literally implies an address or a voice spoken to someone. Another way to put this verse is that "there are many voices calling to you, and all of them can be clearly heard."

There a lot of voices in this world speaking to you and all of our actions are a result of listening to one of the voices. You may not be some loony psycho murderer, but whether you realize it or not, there are many voices that you listen to or tune out every day of your life. The voice of God is but one voice among many that are crying out for you to listen to and to obey. And your actions tomorrow WILL be based upon which voices that you tune into today. Some of those voices, if you listen with a carnal mind, make perfect sense in what they are telling you to do. They may not be telling you to kill someone else, but they may be encouraging you to commit spiritual suicide by living against the Word of God! The voices that seem to have the greatest effect on people are the voices of other people! How many people choose their life's path because of the voice of a friend? How many people are in jail because they followed their "friend's voice?" More to the point, how many people walk away from God or are not sold out to the things of God as they should be simply because they listened to a family members or a friend's voice!? When I was growing up, my best friend was often what my mother called "a bad influence." Part of the challenge of my youth was learning to influence him while guarding myself to listening to his voice. Most of the trouble that I got into as a young boy usually resulted from listening and following him. When I think back, it was his idea to sneak up to the park and throw rocks into the old people's fishing pond. It was his idea to build the fourteen foot diving board in the trees and then turn out the lights of the pool and dive head first into the pool while Dad was off at a conference from which he returned way too early much to our surprise and dismay! It was listening to the voice of my friend that caused two 9 year old boys to "borrow" the boat at our neighbor's summer camp and occasionally "take it for a spin" on the lake! It was his voice that caused us to take his dad's expensive insecticide concentrate and attack all of hornet's nest around the lake. Now that I think about it, the majority of the trouble that I got in WAS due to listening to his voice: maybe he was a bad influence!

These things are funny now, but as we got older I had to stop following his voice. I loved him and he was my best buddy, but his voice was choosing a path that the ramifications would be much more serious than just having a park ranger pick us up! Ultimately he backslid, and I lived for God. And because I stood strong and refused to follow where his voice was leading us, he came back to talk to me and got back in church and is serving God today. I could have listened to his voice and we would both be lost today, but I weighed man's voice against the voice of God in my life! The scripture says:

When you listen to a voice, you must determine the end result of obeying it! There are many voices that seem right but in the end lead to heartache and destruction! And sometimes friends and family members may mean well in their influence, but I'm here to tell you that no matter how much you love them and no matter how good a friend you are, you better weigh the effect of their voice against the voice of God very carefully! There is a voice that "seemeth right unto a man." But you had better check the end result of man's advice and live accordingly to the end that you want for your life! And I can tell you, that listening to any man's voice without giving consideration for the will of God in your life will lead to destruction! You aren't smart enough to figure it all out yourself! The scriptures emphatically declare the need to hear the voice of God: Jesus said "my sheep hear and know my voice and the voice of another they will not follow!" The Psalmist wrote "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean NOT to thine own understanding!" Even your own voice can mislead you and convince you of things that are not true and are not necessarily the correct path. That's why we must take time to tune into the voice of God! When my actions are not following the plan of God it's because I'm listening too closely to some other voice! Why do most people that lose out with God do so? Because they began to listen to the wrong voice! They tuned out the voice of God or only gave it a brief attention! I'm here to tell you and proclaim to you that God is not a distant God. He is not someone to just talk to on Sunday about religious things. But He wants to be "Lord of ALL!" That means that He wants to be Lord of your business, Lord of your family, Lord of your recreation, Lord of your children, Lord of your dreams, Lord of your habits! And if He is not Lord OF all, then He is not Lord AT all in your life! Hear the voice of God through a preacher today: your lifestyle will be a result of what voices that you are listening to! And your destination will be a result of your lifestyle! There is a way that seemeth right unto man but the end thereof is destruction! You better make sure that the voice of God is the guiding voice in your life!

Somebody said: "but how do I hear the voice of God?" Most of what you need to hear from Him, He spoke and wrote down for you! Realize that this written Word of God is the very voice of God in our lives! Realize that God sent a preacher to preach the Word to you with anointing and boldness and clarity! Don't get mad at the messenger this morning if I read a scripture that urges you to change something because I didn't write it and I'm not preaching to you my ideology or my insight for living, I'm preaching to you the very Word of God: it's the voice of God to you! And you can live it if you are willing to give it as much attention as some of the other voices that are crying out to you!

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You must also constantly remind yourself of what the voice of God has said, because if it is written in this Book, then it will not change, no matter what new circumstance may come our way! Remember the lesson of Adam and Eve: God commanded to the man one time that he could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and yet Adam tuned out what the voice of God had said and listened to the voice of his wife who had listened to the voice of the serpent. Listen to what God said when He passed judgment upon Adam and cast him from the garden:

The reason that the curse came and Adam was cast from God's presence was because he did not listen to the voice of God and listened instead to the voice of justification of sin! He listened to a voice that reasoned away the commandments of God and said "God didn't really mean that..." The voice of justifying a sinful lifestyle is still crying out today and it wants you to listen to it!

I want you to think about something. Today people can hear the Word of God preached time and time again and even have a written copy so that they see exactly what it says, and yet listen to the voice of justifying sin and say "well, I don't think I really need to change that right now, because ...." And yet Adam heard the commandment of God ONE time, never saw it written down, and because he gave into the voice of justifying his sin, was cast away from the presence of God, never to return! Thank God that we live in the time of Grace where God is merciful and the God of a second chance and a third chance, but that doesn't mean that we should continue to live in open sin! Paul said it like this:

We cannot continue to do the things that we know are absolutely against God's Word, and yet so many people ignore the voice of the Word of God and the commandments of God and continue to live their lives tuning into the voice of "well, a loving God doesn't really mind if I do this," or "well that was for back then, but today it's a modern society and we are more educated today."

God is a loving God and a merciful God but His Word is forever established! The voice of justifying sin is growing stronger and they are urging you to listen to it! You listen to this preacher well: It will NEVER be the will of God for homosexual marriages to be sanctioned by the government or anybody else! God said it is an abomination to Him! God says in Deuteronomy 22:5, that He even hates for a man to look like a woman and a woman to look like a man! But it is happening in our society because for years America and even may churches have been listening to the voice of sin that is crying for a blending of the sexes. What is happening in our world is the end result of a slow process of going against the very principles of God's Word and listening to the wrong voice! For years Hollywood and the fashion industry have been teaching us that it was fashionable for women to shave their hair short and for men to grow their hair long even though in I Corinthians 11 God stated the exact opposite! Today the women wear the pants and the men wear frilly and feminine fabrics and clothing. I'm not trying to offend you today, but just tell you that our society is listening to the wrong voice! And the end result is now almost every primetime "family" show this fall will feature a same sex marriage or couple in it! The end result will be that one day I will be able to be arrested for preaching the Word of God as I am today. But I'm here to tell you, call the cops, and drag me away and put me in jail because of my lack of political correctness, but the true church of the Living God will NEVER label homosexuality and the blending of the sexes as right or okay. It is sin and just like any other sin, they need to turn from their lifestyle of sin, Repent and ask God to forgive them, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Ghost to change their life into something that God wants them to be!

48% of Americans say that same sex marriages are okay. Over 60% of Americans say that sexual activity outside of marriage is okay and even expected. Over ten million Americans are alcoholics and use illegal drugs. The divorce rate in America is well over 50%! I'm not condemning anyone and I want you to know that God wants you to live according to His Word and He will love you and this church will love you, but I'm here to tell you, our society is listening to the wrong voices! "In God we trust" may be the slogan upon our dollar, but it is not the voice that controls our actions! The voice of sin is very adamant and very in your face and they don't care what you think, but let a preacher proclaim the truth and everybody gets offended! I'm preaching to us today, that silence is consent when it comes to sin and it's time the church stand up and say we will NOT be swayed by the voice of sin and we will not hearken unto the voice of man that seems right because everybody else is doing it, and we will not listen to the voice of a society that is on a fast track to hell, but we WILL lean upon the voice of God and we will hearken to the voice of Jesus which is calling:

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Another voice that is crying out to you everyday and that gets many people to ignore the voice of God is the voice of tradition! It was the voice of tradition that caused the Jews to crucify Jesus Christ. They literally crucified Him because His teachings and kingdom went not against scripture but against the way their families had always worshipped! Tradition can be a good thing, but it can also be the destructive voice that causes you to kill Jesus in your life. Listen to the following scripture in the 23rd chapter of Luke:

Pilate, the Roman consul, had to make a decision that spring morning that every one of us have to face in our life. He knew that Jesus was innocent and that His voice was truth. We read in our text where he talked with Jesus and realized that the charges that Jesus was coming to force an earthly kingdom upon the Roman rule was false! Jesus said, I came for one reason, and it is so "I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. " Pilate heard the voice of Jesus very clearly. He knew that His voice was the right one. He even had the voice of his wife telling him that she had dreamed that this man was innocent. The legal mind inside his head was telling him that Jesus was innocent. His own heart was telling him that Jesus should be let go, but the strong voice of tradition was outside his door screaming at him to crucify Jesus! They were insistent: "crucify Him, crucify Him!" There were many voices for Pilate to listen to and yet in the end he gave into the voice of tradition and sent the man who had never sinned to a cruel death upon a cross!

What is it about tradition that causes men to become so adamantly against the truth of the Word of God? Maybe it's because everyone wants to feel as if they are right. Maybe it's because we are creatures of habit and we tend to resist change. I will always stand in awe at the power of tradition to bind people to the untruth. It seems that many people would rather hearken to the voice of tradition than the voice of the Spirit of God.

My mother and father had just received the Holy Ghost. God had changed my father from an alcoholic to a preacher of His Word. They met my mother's parents eager to share with them the changes that God had made in their life. But in the small town, word had already gotten around that Bobby and Relda had gone to the Pentecostal church and received the Holy Ghost, and so when they arrived for the Sunday dinner, the Christ Church denominational minister was already there with my grand parents waiting to give them a good lashing. My dad began to share what a difference that the Holy Ghost had made in his life and how it had freed him from the things that had bound him for all of his life. My mother began to explain how that the emptiness that she had felt in Sunday School when she had asked about the Holy Ghost and was told "we don't believe in that here" had been filled by receiving this awesome experience. The preacher cut in and interrupted. He didn't care that the Holy Ghost had changed what years of tradition could not. He didn't care that my mother and father's relationship that had been on the rocks was beginning to heal. He didn't care that they had found a much closer relationship with Jesus Christ and wanted to share it. His voice rising and his face red, he rebuked them for becoming "Holy rollers" and proclaimed that speaking in tongues and outward worship was of the devil, and furthermore if my mother's parents were to continue to be considered a part of his church they were to denounce and disown my mother until she "repented" of her wrongdoing. She had found an Apostolic church, and she had found what she had been looking for all of her life and with tears she tried to show them scripture and explain what an awesome thing that God had done in her life, but, his voice rising and his own face red with anger, my grandfather pushed the Bible from her hands and said "your new experience goes against this family's tradition and until you repent you are no longer a part of this family." And for over two years, my mother was not allowed at Christmas or Thanksgiving. No birthday celebrations for her. When she would pull up at the gas station or post office and her own flesh and blood mother and father would see her, they would quickly get back in their car and refused to get out until she had left. Tradition is a very powerful voice, even louder to some than the voice of God!

Time did change things. It took two of the other marriages of my mother's sisters falling apart. It took the tragic death of another sister. It took pain and suffering through the actions of some of my cousins to cause my grandparents to grudgingly allow us back into the family. Because while they listened to the voice of tradition, my mother and father kept listening to the voice of God. While their lives fell apart, God healed my parents' marriage. While they bickered with each other and fought, my parents began to teach Bible Studies and win others to God. While my cousins were living the life of sin and all of it's vices, my brother and I were receiving the Holy Ghost and being baptized in Jesus' name. And so slowly they accepted us back as family. But they never did accept the voice of truth in their life because the voice of tradition was so strong! My grandfather died, a broken man, a good man, but eternally lost because of the voice of tradition that was calling to him.

Pilate, what are you going to do? Your heart is crying out to you and is telling you that there is something more than what you've got. You've heard the voice of Jesus drawing you closer to Him! And yet the voice of tradition is outside insistent and calling "away with Him!" No, washing your hands of the whole matter will not help. Doing nothing is the same as rejecting Him. Don't crucify Jesus afresh, listen to the voice of truth over the voice of tradition! It doesn't matter what momma and daddy believed. It doesn't matter what any religious institution says. What does the voice of God, His precious Word say? Don't make the same mistake as Pilate!

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Abraham received a promise from God that he would have a son. When the promise didn't come in his timetable, he took his wife's servant, Hagar, and married her and had a son by her. His name was Ishmael, and he represented a cheap substitute for what God had for Abraham. I don't know why Abraham did not wait upon God. No doubt the voice of reality was screaming at him: you are in your 90s, and it looks like you are running out of time. The voice of Sarah was speaking to him: maybe we need to help God a little. The voice of ridicule at having to introduce himself by his new name, Abraham" the father of a multitude, and yet he has no son. Whatever the reason, Abraham tuned out the voice of God in his life and listened to the voice of compromise. And for 13 years, God did not speak to Him! Oh, he had a son like God had said he would through Sarah and named him Isaac. But yet the voice of God was silent. It was not until he stopped listening to the voice of compromise and got Ishmael out of the house and out of the will that God spoke again to him: 13 years later!

I'm preaching to someone here today: You are still listening to the voice of your past mistakes and you are wondering why you are unable to hear the voice of God. But I'm here to tell you the remedy to hearing clearly the voice of God: get the voice of compromise far from you! Cast it out as far it can go! Get the attitude that I will not allow the voice of friends, family, sin, tradition, or anything else stand between me listening to the voice of God. Get compromise out of your mind and out of your life, but you've got to do it. God will not remove it from you. When you remove the spirit of compromise, then you will hear the voice of God again clearly and the blessings will begin to flow again! And the relationship will grow again and the sun will shine again! But you must get Ishmael out of the camp!

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I close with this:

Before Jesus Christ came to earth, He sent a preacher. John the Baptist is called "the voice crying in the wilderness, make strait the way of the Lord!" His preaching got people focused to hear the voice of the Lord. Then Jesus Christ came and they could either listen to His voice or reject it. The same principle still applies today. I am not your enemy or your chastiser but I am just a man who felt the voice of God directing me to preach the Word to you straight and bold. There are a lot of voices in this world and what voice you listen to will affect your life: don't listen to the wrong voice. God has sent a preacher crying to you to prepare yourself to receive the voice of God. Now hear what Jesus is saying to you:

I am just the forerunner and my speech has just served the purpose to cause you to tune out the other voices and find Jesus' voice! Now I'm finished and His voice is calling to you. You must do more than just hear His voice, but you must open the door of your heart and allow Him to come in and change some things. Tune the other voices out today, and let the voice of Jesus reign supreme!