I like to title my messages, not because there's any significance about it, but I'm kind of a scatterbrained individual, and it kind of keeps me focused. And the title I put on this one is to be bilingual. For those who don't know what that means, it means to be able to speak in multiple languages. And I actually believe that God expects us to be bilingual, spiritually speaking. And I hope to shed some light on that this evening. I first want to start with saying that I'm kind of an awkward individual, just to put it plainly. I've done some research and study, and for those that want to put a word on it, it's called neurodivergent. You have what's called neurotypical and neurodivergent. It's different brain structures, and long story short, my brain structure and the way I think and act is a lot of those that kind of tend to be on the autistic spectrum, and I don't mean to be disingenuous to anyone like that. It's just trying to express that I don't pick up on social cues and things of that nature quite well. And I'm saying all that to say is that there's a language there, and my wife always tells me, you know, Hayden, you probably shouldn't have said that. And then she explains why. And some of the things that I've said by didn't saying, by not saying. You know, when there's communication and there's talking, it's not necessarily just the words that are coming out of your mouth. There's body language. There's, again, social settings. There's different forms to present your communication. And what is communication? Well, communication is taking a thought, an idea, or a concept and projecting it into a manner to another individual to understand said thought, concept, or idea. So, if I was to tell, or if I had in my mind that I'm going to drive three hours home after we break from this service, and I wanted Brad to understand, I could do it in multiple ways. I could say, hey, Brad, I'm gonna drive three hours home after this. Or I could time it and send him a video of the way, how long it took me to get home. Or I could send him a message saying start and stop. See, there's multiple ways to communicate something. It's not necessarily just by word or vocabulary necessarily, but as we grow older and we learn social cues and some greater than other, I'm saying all this and more so my personal story is that I've grown in infatuation almost. of communication. And what does it mean to communicate and things of that nature? But if we take that into a spiritual standpoint, God doesn't necessarily talk and communicate the same way that we do. For a lot of us, there is a language barrier there. There are things that maybe we need to understand or learn in our spiritual communication so that we can understand the things that God is trying to communicate to us in our everyday lives. Therefore, it's the language barrier and us needing to learn or be bilingual. So that's kind of the whole concept and idea here And you know and again to go back with awkwardness and things that degree if You know it it again with my Neurodivergent I guess if you want to call it if I told my wife This is this is one of my favorite ones. I told Cheyenne my wife That she looked very beautiful today. I said that one day and And the response that I got was, OK, so I'm not beautiful all the other days? I didn't even say that. Where did that come from? And it was lighthearted, and it was joking. But again, it's not about the words that are necessarily being said or presented. It's the message that is coming across by using the words in your body language and things like that. And I want to talk about how God communicates with us. So just for you guys to know and understand with communication, too, is you have to use it to retain it. Believe it or not, in high school, I took three years of Spanish. I know un poco, because I never use it. I know just a handful of words, and I do work in blue collar, and I work with a lot of Hispanic guys, and I try to talk to them sometimes in Spanish, and they just will laugh at me because I'll say some of the off-the-wall things, because I just don't know what I'm saying, to be quite honest. And that's the issue with using a language that you're not familiar with, and there's all things that are gonna go with our spiritual walk here, is if you don't use it, you don't retain it. And if you don't retain it, or you don't know what you're talking about, you can use it improperly, which then also gets the complete wrong message, which when we talk about our spiritual walk and things of that degree, that's called heresy. And we need to be careful with that. And so I'm gonna start, I'm gonna have my first reading, you know, in 1 Kings chapter 19. And, We're gonna do some hopping around. I don't necessarily have a chronological study here. It's more topical, so we're gonna kind of pick and choose from different places, and we're gonna hop around a little bit. So just bear with me. Just want the Lord to take over, and hopefully we can all walk away with something here. But we're gonna be in 1 Kings chapter 19, and we are gonna read, starting at verse nine, And for those who are maybe not familiar with the background of this portion of reading, this is actually after Elijah and the prophets of Baal. For those who don't know, he went up against the prophets of Baal and this is where they tried to build an altar and have their god consume it up with fire and then Elijah turned around and and just put a whole moat around it and completely submerge it in water and prayed unto God and, you know, fire came down and consumed the whole offering and he turned around and basically killed off those that were there against them and he went and hid. He went running. Went up on a mountain and hid. And this is where our reading starts. So chapter 19, verse 9, it says, 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 hear, 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. 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 break 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 it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering end of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, what doest thou hear, Elijah?" For those who grew up, this is a very common portion of scripture, I think, for some of us. And don't mean that negatively to anyone who maybe has never heard of this before. It's just trying to say that I'm not bringing you anything new here this evening But this is a perfect representation of how the Lord talks to us He doesn't he doesn't come in all grand and theatrical. It's not that You know, we're going to hear a mighty earthquake, or the mountains are going to tremble, and there's going to be a great wave, or a huge fire is going to come in. It says, know that He's going to communicate with you in a still, small voice. And I think that's something that, at least in my lifetime, has been missed a lot. I grew up in an atmosphere of a lot of people standing up and saying, you know, my heart's just getting ready to beat out of my chest. I've got to stand up and follow what the Lord's telling me this evening. And I don't think there's any ill will or ill intent in that, but I think one thing that the Lord has kind of shown me in this situation is that He doesn't want us to get to that point just for us to follow him you see it I think he comes to us in a still small voice and he leads and guides and directs us but yet our spiritual ears and and we're are and we're not necessarily in the position in our spiritual language and communication with God that we don't even understand when he's telling us to begin with and yet it gets so So, at a hand that we're so deaf to the things that he wants us to do in our spiritual walk with him, is that he literally has to make us feel that our heart is going to beat out of our chest just for us to get up and follow him. And I think that, again, I'm not trying to point anyone else out in here. This is something that I've seen that I have failed at in my own personal life. And and so I just I want to take this and do better so that my spiritual ears are open to him that I don't have to have my heart be out of my chest just to get up and testify or to get up and sing a song or or go to Belize and help out with a with a Revival effort. I want to be able to follow the Lord the instant that he tells me to do so That's just a desire of my heart and I can't do that if I can't understand him. So how do we understand him? When it comes to communication, there's a lot of back and forth when it comes to two separate parties. You talk and you also listen. You see, prayer, it's a wonderful thing. It's a powerful thing. And I am not trying to belittle prayer by any means. I think it's just as important as anything. But that's only half the communication. You see, when we pray, we're talking to God. We're presenting praise or requests, whatever it is that is on your heart and heavy. The Lord wants us to take it all to Him. But how often do we meditate? You see, when you talk to someone, you speak your thought and your idea or whatever is heavy on your heart, you present it to the other individual, and then typically in communication, the other individual receives that thought, that idea, and they present a new one back to you. But how often does Hayden Patterson go down in prayer and then turn around and try and listen for what the Lord wants me to do? You see, I think that's a lost art, at least it is in my life, is that I get so focused on prayer and so much of God, I need this, God, I need that, Lord, what would you have me to do? I just, I don't know what to do, just please help me. I don't wait on him. I'm not listening, I'm not meditating. And here's the thing about meditation, and I'm not trying to get too far off, is that the monks really have it figured out. Meditation is to block out everything in your life and fixate and focus on a specific thing or desire, which in our case would be God and his response. And they do breathing techniques. To to get their meditation because again with with my weird social brain, whatever you want to call it It's you know, I I hear a noise and my mind's over here and you know squirrel over here or spoons or whatever and and I it's hard to just grab my mind and Say, okay. Let's focus on God right now and so I literally tried this one time I sat down and And in my, I have a tri-level home, so not necessarily a basement, a lower level. Close my eyes and just breathe, because that's how the monks do it. You focus on your breathing. And with you focusing on your breathing, you start to block out all the noises around you. The four children, toddlers running around, screaming in your ears, that one's really hard. But you focus on your breathing, You breathe, you exhale, you time it. And then what you do is you kinda let go of the breathing and transition your focus on what you want. And in hopes in that practice that you can literally just sit down and focus exactly on what it is. My first attempt, I fell asleep, I'll be honest, fell asleep. Second attempt, kids, lights, distractions all over. I had a blanket over my head. Cheyenne, my wife, she came downstairs and said, what in the world are you doing? I was like, don't worry about it. Eventually, I got it. And it was nice to just commune with my savior and hear the spiritual wisdom and the things that he is wanting me to do. Now I can't say that I'm gonna stand up here, get down on my knees and be able to focus and meditate on him, but it's something that I learned that has been lacking here in my life lately. Is that I'm not properly communicating with my Savior. I'm just belting out things that I need and want and expecting him to just take care of it in the background. That's not communication. How do we communicate? I talked about prayer and meditation, but what we feel, it's the Holy Spirit. You see, as many of you know, at least I hope, when Christ gave up the Spirit, gave up his life, there was an earthquake and the veil on the temple was rent, representation that He opened up access for each and every one of us to be able to communicate with our God. One thing that I have noticed in my study is that the Holy Spirit, when it is referenced into communing or talking with someone in the Old Testament, it references as like a dove upon a shoulder. He's there with them. But yet, after that veil being rent, he dwells within us. And I believe those in the Old Testament were saved just the exact same way as those in the New Testament, but that form of communication and the Holy Spirit and its active duty in our lives was altered that day. You see, I can sit here and I can try and be studious, or I could be a very well speaker, most likely like your pastor, or even my pastor, Andrew Horton, those who have heard him. I could be the best of presenters, the best of speakers, or I could be the worst, but if the Holy Spirit is not here and pouring out into your hearts, and again, our hearts, when we hear it, have to be open to receive the Holy Spirit, we're not understanding the full message. You hear the words that are being said, but yet the communication of God needs to be in our lives. And that is only through and by the Holy Spirit. That is the reason why he is here. We talk, or I shouldn't say we talk about, I say all the time that my vocabulary cannot reach the message or the words or present how great God is within my life, and that is true. And that's actually why I love songs of praise and hymnal worship, because music puts an emotion, it puts the Holy Spirit in the message, so that what is being presented actually exceeds just the words that are being spoken. And it goes in the same way with our preaching, it goes with the same way in our communion with one another as brothers and sisters, is that it is almost like a sixth sense, having the Holy Spirit present in our lives, that the things that we cannot say can still be communicated through and by the Holy Spirit to one another. It's a wonderful gift that the Lord has given us, being able to have that. Flip over to Isaiah. Chapter 55. So again, there's different means of communication, the way we present each other, present thoughts and ideas, and it's not always the same as the words that are being spoken. But hopefully I've kind of presented, and you guys are starting to see the big picture here, is that God communicates in different ways. His primary one is through and by the Holy Spirit. The still small voice, it is, again, it's something that in practice, that when we commune with God, when we meditate and we fixate on the things that He wants us to be doing, it's something that you will get familiar with. Just like with speaking another language, and you'll get so familiar that you can hear Him before it cuts to that point of your heart beating out of your chest, and you can just get up and do what it is that He wants. Want to be in that place. I feel like I'm always in the place of God. Please don't let me mess this up Not necessarily God Here I am doing what you want me to do And and I think there's a big difference in that and and so there's different ways of the Lord communicating and it's something that we should be practicing it's it's like It's like using a muscle. And the more we use it, the more we'll get familiar. And it's something that, at least in my life, that I haven't been using enough as I should. And it seems something foreign. But just like weightlifting, just like working out, the more you work it, the more you'll get used to it, the more you'll learn how to interpret and understand and be spiritually bilingual. And so why do we need to be spiritually bilingual? Isaiah 55, starting with verse six. Again, just using very familiar verses of scripture here. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way. and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and do unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Another verse that I like to reference a lot is, fear in the Lord's beginning of wisdom, but knowledge and understanding is to keep it. There's a second half to that verse. A lot of us just cut off at the first half. That word understanding, to understand something is actually coupled with experience. It's wisdom gained through experience. So all because you experience something doesn't necessarily mean that you have understanding. But you cannot have understanding without experience. Hopefully I didn't lose you guys there. The reason why I like to emphasize on understanding and knowledge and wisdom is because it means you have to act on it. meaning you have to walk the walk to have understanding. I think that's why the Lord designed salvation in the way that he did. When I was a lost boy, I asked everyone, how do you know when you're saved? How do you know when you're saved? What's the response I always got? Oh, you'll know. Well, how will I know? What's it feel like? I can't really explain, you'll just know. It seems so foreign, it seems weird. But of course, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't have understanding, because it wasn't something that I experienced. It wasn't until the Lord saved my soul that I had that experience. And then as I grew and read more in the Word, I got that understanding of what it truly meant that He did to me that day as an eight-year-old boy. And so I'm saying all this to say is that with understanding coupled with experience, our sanctification and our walk is a growth of understanding of spiritual wisdom. And as we listen to God in our everyday life, in our sanctified walk, as we grow our spiritual language that we can commune with him and listen to him in each and every day, we become stronger children of God. Our sanctification is something that God expects us to do every day of our life. It's an effort, it's a growth. So once we learn to hear our God, and then we find understanding on what he's communicating with us, by listening and following out, spiritual wisdom and growth is gained. And in a world right now that really seems like the end of times, our sanctification and our discipleship to our younger members and in our own lives and growth, I feel like is something that is more critical than ever. We need strong churches. And it doesn't just come from the pastor, it doesn't come from the preaching, it comes in our everyday sanctification and walk with God. So that's my burden tonight, is to hope shed some light, maybe inspire some individuals that, hey, maybe we're not listening to God quite near in the capacity that he wants us to. And maybe, just maybe, if I put forth some effort, and I don't mean that disingenuous to anyone here, I know in my life I could try a little harder, but maybe if we put forth some effort in listening to God and not just waiting for our hearts to beat out of our chest just to follow Him, maybe there could be some understanding and some maturity and growth in our spiritual walk with God. And when each and every one of us as lay members do that united, we actually grow in a united front and become strong churches. Because I can tell you right now, there's probably, I think there's seven or eight churches in the state of Indiana without an undershepherd right now. That's scary, to me at least. And maybe that isn't really close to home here, but I think it's closer than we all realize. So I wanna end with just an example tonight of how the Lord can communicate with us through all these things that I've tried to present to you all this evening. Brother Brad brought forth a Psalm earlier, and I thought what better example than Psalm 22. I'll try not to waste your guys' time. This is one of my favorite Psalms, Brother Brad. For those that may be unfamiliar with the background, the king appointed David as the chief musician because he would have night terrors, or I believe as the scripture says, demons that would confront him. And the songs and spiritual insight that David would sing and hymnals that he would present would actually ease the heart of the king. There are spiritual power in the songs. But the message of the songs have so much wisdom, and I think this is a prime example of that. So I'm going to read it real quick, and then I'll just kind of hopefully show you what I believe the Lord is showing in this chapter here. It says, to the chief musician of Paul and Ageless Shehar, a psalm of David. Verse one, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach of man and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him. seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God. from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have come past me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and now has brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have come past me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. And I'll just stop there, but it goes on for a little while. But hopefully you guys are seeing that this is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Now David lived roughly 1,000 years prior to Jesus' life. So there's one thing that the Lord's saying. And then if you go in, that the night season, during Christ's crucifixion, it became dark. In verse six, it talks about how he was despised. In 16, they pierced my hands and my feet. 22, it says, declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. And 24, it says, but when he cried unto him, he heard my praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The mink shall eat and be satisfied. And end of verse 26, it says, the heart shall live forever. 27, shall worship before thee. 28, and none can keep alive his own soul. And 30, it says, that shall be born that he hath done this. It's talking about Christ and how he was mocked the nighttime, the piercing of his hands and feet, his deliverance, and what his purpose was there. All from just a song that David sang to the king a thousand years prior. But there's more than just that that God is talking about. If you look at that, it says, to the chief musician. That is a musical notation of ageless Shehar. That translation of ageless Shehar is the morning run of the doe. For anyone who is deer hunter here, you know that you go before sunrise to hunt deer. You get in position in the darkness and you wait. And guess what? Just before the rising of the sun. the deer come out. So even at the time of day that David sings this song, it is yet another representation of Christ. It talks about his death, it talks about how he is there to deliver us, but yet it is all being sung in the time of day just before the sun rises. And then you go on and, you know, You can take this, and there's a word for it called hermeneutics, and I don't really wanna get into that, but the scripture in the Bible is considered a living word, it is a living truth. You can read something countless times, but yet there's always something new, or something that maybe you, not necessarily new, but maybe something that you never perceived or were aware of at the time, but yet the Lord can always give insight. And without us listening to God and understanding how to communicate or talk to him or meditate and listen and have that spiritual language with him, it's something that we will never be able to grow. And without understanding the things that I know and read in other times, I never would have known that Ageless Shehar was about. the rising of the sun, or even just that surface value, I don't see Jesus's name anywhere. Spiritual growth, communion and communication with God is a necessity in our sanctified walk. My prayer request is that I just do a little better than what I have been doing. And I can only be better by being aware of my failures. I want to talk to Him. I want to meditate. I want to study on the things. And more so than anything, I want to carry out the things that He's presented so that I can find understanding of what it means that He's done for me. I think that will really help my servitude to my Savior. Worthy is the Lamb. He deserves it all. He deserves more than I give. He deserves more than I can express. And I just, even fighting a failing fight, that's the weird thing. It seems contradictive, does it not? A perfect standard, but yet an imperfect body is held to the standard of a perfect standard. Seems contradictive. But whether I can achieve it or not, it's still something that I desire. I just want to do better this evening. And again, I want to thank you all for the opportunity. But that's all I got, brother.