Deuteronomy 6: A People Who Listen to God Together

Introduction

At CEP Lugano, October is the month of listening. This message opens the series "Listening to God," of which it is the first of four themes. The preacher starts from a desire everyone knows: "Lord, I want to hear you, I want to understand your voice, I want to see where you are leading me."

Yet he points out a risk: approaching this subject in an extremely individualistic way. "What is your word for me? What is your plan for me? Where do you want to lead me?" These questions are not wrong in themselves. God is a personal God who calls Samuel and the prophets, and who appears to Paul on the road to Damascus. But "personal does not automatically mean individualistic."

Across the great arc of biblical history, God calls people one by one, but he always does so to build a people. He speaks to the individual without leaving them alone: he places them in a plan, a family, a body. Hence the question this message raises: "Lord, what do you want to say to us?"

Outline of the message

1. Consuming the church or belonging to it

We live in a very individualistic, "multi-option" society. Being able to choose is not bad: if a store drops in quality or raises its prices, there is another chain next door.
The risk is carrying that logic into the church and turning it into a supermarket: here I like the worship, there that preacher, somewhere else something that excites me more.
The preacher does not say you can never change churches: there are situations where that is the right thing to do. But we need to ask whether our relationship to the church is one of consumption or of belonging.
In a family, there are joys and challenges you face together, responsibilities toward others, people close to you and others very different from you. "My brother is totally different, he has other ideas." We are united, but often different.
What matters in a family is belonging: being there, carrying burdens, contributing, supporting, forgiving, growing together, persevering.

2. God builds a people, not isolated believers

Deuteronomy 6:4 is one of the most important texts of the Old Testament: "Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one." God does not say "listen, Moses" or "listen, lone Israelite." He speaks to a people.
At Sinai, God had already linked listening and identity: "if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples [...] you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-6). He does not give each person a private instruction: he creates a community that listens to his voice together.
The same pattern runs through the Old Testament. In Joshua 8, at the entrance to the promised land, Joshua gathers all the people, men, women, children and foreigners, to hear God's law again.
In 2 Kings 23, after the book of the law is discovered in the temple, Josiah gathers the people, publicly reads the book of the covenant, and the people renew their commitment to God.
In Nehemiah 8, after the exile, "all the people gathered themselves together as one man." Ezra reads the Word, the people understand, are moved and respond to God.
God calls, gathers, speaks, and his people listen and then respond. The church is therefore not a place where "120 or 130 people" come at the same time to each have their own private spiritual experience for an hour and a half.

3. Members of one body

Realizing this changes the way we come to worship. We can arrive hoping for the song we love or a theme that touches us. That is not wrong in itself, but we can also say: "Lord, today I am gathering with your people. I do not want to listen only for myself. What do you want to say to us, as a body, as a church?"
This faith does not erase individuality. God knows your story, your wounds, your past, your name, but he does not leave you alone: he unites you to a body.
"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:27). An eye alone is not a body, nor is a hand alone. Every member counts, but together they form a new identity.
Biblical faith is not "Jesus and me, and everything else is optional." The Holy Spirit grafts us into the body and unites us to one another.
"Individualism in the church contradicts what God is doing in history." Abraham is called alone to become a great nation. Israel is freed from Egypt as a people. Jesus calls his disciples one by one but unites them into a group. At Pentecost, the Spirit creates the church. In Revelation, we see a multitude, a bride, a united people.
Belonging, faithfulness, relationships, service and burdens carried for one another are therefore part of the DNA of our faith.

4. The Spirit speaks to the church

In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe. One might conclude that everything becomes individual, each person having a direct line to God. Yet at Pentecost, the result is a community.
"They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayers" (Acts 2:42). The Spirit produces a people who live, pray, listen and share together.
In Antioch, a church that had teachers and prophets: "As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them'" (Acts 13:2).
Barnabas does not get up one morning and say, "God told me to leave, goodbye." Barnabas and Saul surely have their own personal calling, but it is recognized and confirmed within the community, which prays, fasts, lays on hands and sends.
God can speak to one person for the good of all, and speak to the whole body to confirm what is happening in one person.

5. Discerning together protects personal listening

When it is only "God and me," we can be mistaken. We can confuse God's voice with our own desire, get excited about something because we like it, or be afraid and call that fear "spiritual caution." We can have a sincere impression and misinterpret it.
That is why the New Testament also speaks of discernment: "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others discern" (1 Corinthians 14:29). It is not "God spoke to me, everyone be quiet": when God speaks, a conversation opens.
"I believe God is showing me this": together, we can weigh it in the light of Scripture, pray, listen to one another, look for confirmation. This does not diminish personal listening, "on the contrary, it protects it."
In Acts 15, the church faces a question that could have divided it: what must those who come to Christ without a Jewish background observe? No one arrives saying "God spoke to me, here is what we do." The elders meet, Peter, Paul and Barnabas tell what they have seen on the ground, James builds on Scripture.
The conclusion is powerful: "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us" (Acts 15:28). Scripture, testimony, prayer and spiritual wisdom converge to give a direction.
The question becomes communal: "Lord, what are you doing among us? What are you putting on this church's heart? What needs are you showing us? What gifts are emerging? What do you keep repeating to us?" Sometimes God does not speak in a single sermon, but over weeks and months shapes a shared sensitivity, with themes that keep coming back.

6. Listening to God through others

We sometimes ask God to speak when he is already speaking to us through a brother or sister: a testimony, someone who corrects us or points something out to us.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another" (Colossians 3:16). The Word does not remain a matter between God and me.
"If I listen to God only individually and do not hear others, I am probably hearing God in a very one-sided way." Listening to others takes humility: we would prefer a direct word from heaven, a voice that wakes us in the night, when God may want to speak to us clearly on a Sunday morning through a message or a verse.
The consumer takes what pleases them and finds the rest bothersome. Someone who knows they are a member of a body knows they need what others bring: "I need the whole package."
Hence the importance of spaces where we listen to God together: the church's evening of edification, less formal than Sunday, with worship, prayer, and the sharing of a verse, an impression or a testimony; and small groups, created to multiply relationships.
"If I want to carry the other person's burden, I have to know the other person." You cannot sit next to someone on Sunday and know nothing about them. To let yourself be corrected, helped or supported, you need a space where you can open up. That means believing in it and investing time in it.

7. A church that listens is a church that responds

Listening is not limited to acoustics. Biblical listening always leads to action and obedience. At Sinai, "All the people answered together, and said, 'All that Yahweh has spoken we will do'" (Exodus 19:8).
In Nehemiah 8, the people listen to the Word and then change the way they live in the rebuilt city. In Acts 13, the church listens to the Spirit and then sends Saul and Barnabas. In Acts 15, it makes a concrete decision and writes letters to the churches. God's voice always sets his people in motion.
The question is not only "did I receive something for me?" but "what are we going to do, together and over time, with what God has told us?" If he shows us a need, who makes themselves available? If he calls us in a direction, who says "here I am"? If he corrects us, what can we change in the culture of our church?
"You can listen to a thousand sermons and stay the same." God says, carry this person's burden, and we answer that we cannot manage. He calls us to serve, and it is not the right time in life. He calls us to forgive, and it seems easier to keep our distance. He says "stay faithful," and we think there is something more interesting elsewhere.
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). The "one another" is only possible if there is presence, belonging, faithfulness. To belong is to be a family in good times and in hard ones: rejoicing together, carrying the burden of the one who suffers, lifting up the one who falls, discerning together when God speaks to one, sending together the one God calls.
In Revelation, Jesus addresses the seven churches with the same repeated phrase: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies" (Revelation 2:7). The preacher longs for a church that has those ears and asks: "Lord, you have spoken, what can we do? How can we respond to you together?"

Key takeaways

God calls each person individually, but always to build a people. Personal does not mean individualistic.
"Hear, Israel": from Genesis to Revelation, God forms a people who listen to his voice together.
Our relationship to the church can slide from belonging to consumption. In a family, what matters is being there and carrying burdens.
Discerning together, in the light of Scripture and in prayer, protects personal listening from our desires and our fears.
Biblical listening always leads to obedience: a church that listens is a church that responds.

Personal application

When you ask God to speak to you, do you also think of asking him what he wants to say to your church?
Does your relationship to the church look more like that of a consumer or that of a family member?
To whom could you submit an impression or a direction you believe comes from God, so as to discern it with others?
Has God ever spoken to you through a brother or sister who corrected you? How did you receive it?
What relational space (small group, evening of sharing, prayer time) could you join to get to know and carry others?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does God say "Hear, Israel" rather than speaking to just one person?

In Deuteronomy 6:4, God does not say "listen, Moses" or "listen, lone Israelite." He addresses an entire people. For the preacher, listening to God's voice is not only a private experience: it is a communal calling, that of a people learning to live together under God's word.

What is the difference between a personal faith and an individualistic faith?

God calls people by name: he knows your story, your wounds and your past. But personal does not mean individualistic. God calls each person to build a people. He does not leave you alone: he places you in a body, a family, a story far bigger than you alone.

Why discern together what God is saying?

We can confuse God's voice with our own desire, or call our fear "spiritual caution." That is why 1 Corinthians 14:29 asks that the others discern. Discerning together, in the light of Scripture and in prayer, does not diminish personal listening: it protects it, as in Acts 15 where the church concludes "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us."