Every time we come into the Christmas season, you can tell that feelings intensify, especially spiritual feelings. It's the Christmas music that you hear, it's the greater focus on things of God, and it's the scriptures that you see on signposts and television. However, what I look for around Christmas, more than for anything else, is for a whisper - a whisper from God.

Jesus said in John 10:27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." What differentiates biblical Christianity from almost every other major religion in the world is that there is a voice available to the followers of Jesus Christ. Certainly there's first a Book, the revealed word of God, the Bible that we all study and live by. But there's also a voice, and often it comes in the form of a whisper or an impression. It's God's way of guiding us. Sometimes it's his way of reproving us. Sometimes it's his way of encouraging us. But Jesus said it; we all believe it. His sheep, if they listen, can hear his voice and if they hear it, they should heed it and follow him.

I became aware of this phenomenon when I was in 2nd grade, believe it or not. I had the opportunity to go to a little Dutch Christian school in Kalamazoo, Michigan. One day I was sitting at the edge of my seat, ready to go out for recess. As was the occasion in that little Christian school, before recess, the teacher would read a little bible story, make a few comments on it, and then release us to recess. It wasn't my favorite formality of the day, that little Bible story; recess actually was. I was poised and ready to go out to play ball when Miss Van Zolan read a little text from the Old Testament about a young boy named Samuel who heard a whisper in the night. He didn't know what to do with it so he went to an older prophet and he said, "Did you call me, Eli?"

And Eli said, "I didn't. Go lay down."

Samuel lies down and he hears the whisper again. He gets up and he said, "Now Eli, I know you whispered to me?"

Eli said, "I did not, go lie down." This happens three times. Finally, Eli thought that maybe this is a whisper from God to Samuel.

And so the next time you lay down and you hear a whisper, simply say, "Speak Lord. Your servant is listening." That's exactly what happened in the story. God whispered some information to little Samuel and he conveyed it. It was quite an important message that God had that young boy deliver to the older prophet.

Anyway, Miss Van Zolan read that little story, she made a few comments on it, she dismissed us for recess, and all my buddies went running out. Usually I was the ringleader of them, the first one out to organize the ball game, but I couldn't leave my seat. I was embarrassed that I couldn't leave my seat. I didn't know why I was hanging around, but I knew I had to stay there for a few moments. After the whole class had been dismissed, I timidly walked up to my teacher, something I'd never done before, and I said, "Miss Van Zolan, do you think God still whispers to little boys?"

She was said, "You were listening?" When I said yes, she asked, "Why do you want to know such a thing?"

I said, "Because, if God would whisper to little boys, that'd just be about the coolest thing I could imagine ever happening."

So she talked with me for a few moments. She actually took my question seriously, and she said, "I have something for you after school. You run out and play with your friends, but you come back after school and I'm going to give you something."

So I ran out, played ball, and finished the day as I normally would have, but then she gave me a little envelope as I went out the door. She said, "I'd like you to take a peek at this at home tonight."

I said, "Thank you, I will." Later that night, when I was saying my prayers before I was going to go to bed, I remembered that little envelope from Miss Van Zolan. I opened it up and it was a poem about Samuel. I read it, I read it again, and I read it again, and it really grabbed me.

The next morning at school, I run into Miss Van Zolan and she said, "I'll bet you didn't even read that little poem I gave you."

I said, "Oh no. I did."

She said, "Can you tell me at all what it was about?" She was testing me a little bit.

I said, "Well, as a matter of fact, I memorized it."

She said, "You did not."

I said, "No, really I did."

She said, "Well then, recite it to me."

I began, "Oh give me Samuel's ear, an open ear, oh Lord, alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word. Like him to answer to thy call and to obey thee first of all." I remember her looking down at me, and with her hands on my shoulders she said, "Billy, if you listen to whispers from God the rest of your life and if you heed them, God's favor will fall on your life and follow you for the rest of your life." I've never forgotten her words.

That day in the 2nd grade, I became aware of the power of a whisper. I became aware that we have a God who doesn't just stay sanitized and distant from us. He is a God who speaks to his children if they'll listen.

So, roll the clock of my life ahead a little bit. My father was a Christian, a cosmopolitan businessman, and he loved to give money away. He made a lot of money; I think he had the spiritual gift of giving. He loved to be generous, especially with Christian causes. So I remember growing up and going by his office and there would be pastors and people who ran other charities streaming in and out of his office, always wanting a gift from him, which he was normally quite willing to give. One day a guy comes in and says, "I want you to scholarship a couple kids to go to a Christian camp in Wisconsin."

My father was getting ready to write out a check when he hears a whisper from God. The whisper was, "Yes, give the man a check, but send your middle child along to that camp. Just send your middle child to camp." That would have been me. It was nearing summer and I was on a couple of baseball teams, very active athletically. But that evening at the dinner table, my father said, "Hey Billy, you're going to camp for a couple of weeks this summer."

I said, "Now wait a minute. I pitch on the baseball team. I've got my summer plans laid out."
But he said, "No, I gave a check to a guy to take some kids to camp and God whispered to me that you should go."

I said, "He didn't whisper to me, dad."

Dad said, "Well, he did to me and you're going."

So he packs me up and sends me off to this camp that I knew nothing about. It was a place I'd never been, and I was with 200 kids I didn't know, not even one. I was homesick the first couple days. There was nothing about this situation that I liked. But after a few days, I settled in and made some friends, and, who could have predicted, but I actually volunteered to go to that camp the next year and the next year, and a few years after that. I met Christ as my Savior at that camp.

I didn't meet Christ personally in the church where I grew up. I'm not saying God wasn't taught about there; I'm saying that's not where I met him. The kind of doctrinal preaching that went on in the church where I grew up didn't say much about a personal relationship with Christ. It was implied that if you knew some stuff about God, and if you lived according to the rules, you were probably going to be all right.

However, when I went to this Christian camp, they're saying that the essence of Christianity is not just knowledge about God, it's not a set of rules, it's not rituals that you practice or hoops that you jump through, it's a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and its real and its conversational and its close. I received Christ at that camp. I remember thinking that it was just within hours after I was reconciled to God that things really changed. I knew it when I met Christ. I really knew it. I remember thinking that I wound up at this camp because my father heard a whisper. I'm going to wind up in heaven forever because of my dad's responsiveness to whispers. Pretty powerful, isn't it?

So then run the clock of my life ahead a little bit. I had certainly planned to run my father's business. He had prepared it for me for 35 years. I was taking some college classes in economics and business administration, but I also took a theology class at another school. The professor of theology would finish his lectures early from time to time and would turn to Acts, chapter 2, in his Bible. He would say, "Students, there was once a community of people radically devoted to God. There was a community of people who, when God told them to do something, they would do it. When He told them not to do it, they would stop doing it. When he urged them all out on the limb of faith, they went. There was, at a point in history, such a group of people who trusted God that radically. In that same group of people, there was a love for each other that's difficult to describe. They became like family to each other. They actually called each other brothers and sisters. The rich among them sold property and possessions and gave to the poor and the poor were not diminished by the rich. Gender walls came down and socioeconomic walls came down. They took their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, which means they stopped pretending; they stopped playing church. They opened up their lives and became self-disclosing to each other and God knit their hearts together. They were so convinced of the power of God that they prayed bold prayers and God answered so that signs and wonders happened in their little fellowship. People were coming to faith regularly and people were worshipping with liberated spirits. That professor would go on and on, describing what life could be like in what he called a biblically functioning Holy-Spirit-led community. Then he would dismiss the class and I would walk off by myself and think, "I got my bell rung. I think I just heard about something that, if it could actually exist in today's world, it would be better than what I'm planning to do."

A few months after that, that same professor ended one of his vision-casting times about what a biblically functioning community should be like and he said, "Students, I want to ask you this question: If such a remarkable faith community existed in the first century, why couldn't it exist in the 20th century? Does God still have his power? Is the word of God still true? Do prayers still get answered? Can Jesus Christ still transform human lives?" He said, "I think some of you who have your plans and agendas for your future and your careers all figured out, I think some of you, maybe someone in this class, ought to cancel your career plan and you ought to go build a biblically functioning community. You ought to lay your life down and do that every day for the rest of your life."

Then he dismissed the class, I ran out of class that day. I ran down three flights of stairs, got in my car, put my head on the steering wheel, and fought the tears back. Then I heard a whisper: "Go build such a church. Build a church." It was just a whisper. I drove home and I told my wife, "I heard a whisper from God and it's about building an Acts 2 church in Chicago, in the '70s."

She's said, "Really? Have you told your father this yet?" When I said I hadn't, she said, "I suggest you do."

So I walked into my father's corner office, again he's prepared a company for me to run for 35 years. I said, "Dad, I heard a whisper from God and I think I need to walk out of this business and move to Chicago, gather some friends, and start a church."

He says, "You're making a big decision, son. And you're betting all of that on a whisper?"

I said, "Legitimate question. I guess, if you put it that way, I am."

He said, "Well, I hope you don't have your wires crossed. I hope it's from God."

I said, "Yeah, me too." So we signed off all of the agreements between the family business and me, taking myself out of all of that opportunity. I remember driving away all by myself in this car I had since high school toward Chicago and thinking, "I'm betting the farm on a whisper. Whew. Hope this works."

When we started Willow Creek, it was like the early days of the Crystal Cathedral, in a sense, that you're just a week away from extinction every week. We sold tomatoes door to door to make ends meet. We met in a rented movie theater and sometimes they'd show horror shows the night before and the janitors didn't always clean up. So, before we held our services the next day, my wife and I and some others would crawl on our hands and knees with buckets and sponges and clean up other people's vomit. We had to do that before we could hold church. On some of those days when it was not going particularly well, I remember saying, "Man, I'm doing all this because of a whisper. Whew."

Well then, as God's favor and blessing fell on our church, there came a time when the church seemed to resonate with a whole bunch of people and it grew. I mean it blew all of us away with what God did - and continues to do - at our church. But I have never forgotten that it all started with a whisper.

About 15 years into our church, a group of 20 or so pastors began calling, wanting to know what God was doing at Willow Creek, and how they could learn about it. I was very hesitant to set myself up as any kind of expert at anything. I was still in my early 30s. However, they said, "We'll gather if you'll just come and spend a day with us." And so, reluctantly, I did. We rented a little room in a nearby hotel and I went into that room with these guys, most of whom were twice my age. I felt uncomfortable trying to say that I had any more knowledge than anyone else did about this stuff. However, at the end of the day, they said, "This was a tremendous day. We learned a lot through you. Would you do it again some day?"

I said, "Well, probably not soon, but I hope this was of some value to you." I get in my car to drive back to Willow Creek Church and I hear another whisper. A two-word whisper: "Serve pastors." I remember thinking, "God I don't even know how to be one yet. I mean, I'm making all kinds of mistakes in my own church." Nevertheless, he just kept that whisper going: "No. just serve pastors. Just keep serving pastors. Whenever you get the opportunity, put a serving towel over your arm. You're no expert. I'm asking you to be a servant to pastors. Everyone that calls you, every time you can arrange it, serve them."

Some years after that, we started the Willow Creek Association, which is an organization that serves pastors and now 12 or 13,000 churches are in that network. We serve and train hundreds of thousands of church pastors all over the world. It all came down to a car ride and a two-word whisper: "Serve pastors."

How important are these whispers? How much of a trajectory change could occur in the life of a human being if they were open to and responsive to whispers from God?

I was going to take a sailing trip several years back when an African American staff member came running up to me just before I headed out the door. He had a book in his hand and he said, "You know, I was praying this morning and God whispered to me that you needed to read this book while you're on vacation."

I said, "Well, okay." I mean, how do you argue with that? So I took the book, put it in my briefcase and I remember thinking, "This isn't the kind of book I read on vacation, especially when I'm on a sailboat with my family."

On the second night of that vacation, we're at anchor and the family goes to bed early, I reach in my briefcase, I pull out a book that I think is a book on sailing, but instead it's the book this staff member gave me. The book was titled Divided by Faith. It was about systemic injustice, racial oppression, how racism got rooted in the early days of our country, how the church was complicit with it, and how there's ongoing systemic injustices due to racism still going on. I read it and I re-read it and God wrecked me through the reading of that book. It's the best way I can describe it.

About the third time through the book, the spirit of God whispered to me, "This is going to become a major theme that I want you to talk about the rest of your life - racial injustice." So I get home, I keep it to myself for a while, but the whisper never went away: "Bill you've got to start teaching on this, you have to lift up the banner of racial reconciliation in the name of Jesus Christ. You have to preach radical inclusivity. You have to go after any kind of racial prejudice wherever you see it, and be fearless about it."

And so I started teaching about it at Willow Creek. I started holding up that banner. Our diversity at Willow Creek has gone from 2% to over 20% in 7 years. Almost every single weekend you would see racial diversity in every area around Willow Creek. I think back that it all began with a whisper, a whisper to a staff member of mine that said, "Bill needs to read this." And a whisper after I read the book, with God saying, "You need to preach this."

There's power in these whispers. I'm just going to give you one more. I was bringing the garbage out one night in front of my house. It's one of the tasks I have to do. I've tried my best to get my wife to do it. She still won't. So one of my jobs is to bring the garbage out to the curb where the garbage guy picks it up. I was bringing the garbage out one night when I saw a person who appeared to be my brand new neighbor because the house next to ours had been vacant for quite awhile. I saw him bringing his garbage out. I hadn't put on a coat and it was January in Illinois, so I was really cold. I was in mid-turn, heading back toward the warmth of the house when I heard a whisper: "Walk across the cul-de-sac and meet your neighbor. That's all I'm asking you to do. Just walk that far and meet your neighbor."

So, I go across the cul-de-sac, reach out my hand, and asked, "Are you my new neighbor?"

He said, "Well, I just moved into this house, so if you live there, yep, I guess we're neighbors."

We exchanged names and found out we were both named Bill. I said, "Bill, I'm freezing. Can we, maybe, continue this conversation later?" He agreed.

A couple weeks later, I'm bringing the garbage out and he's bringing his out at the same time, and we start a conversation. We had lots of conversations at the garbage cans, strangely enough. One time he asked, "Bill, what do you do for a living?"

I said, "I'm the pastor of a church here in the area."

He said, "Not that one that gridlocks the traffic on Sunday mornings."

I said, "I'm not sure it's that one, but I am a pastor in the area."

He said, "Well, this is going to be very easy between us. I haven't gone to church in my adult life. I never intend on going. So, if you're thinking it's going to be awkward about you inviting me and all this kind of stuff, this is going to be real easy: I'm never going."

I said, "Bill, that makes it very easy. By the way, what do you do for a living?" When he said he owned a Chevrolet dealership, I said, "This is going to be very easy because I would never buy a Chevrolet. Under any circumstances."

He said, "Wow. I guess this is going to be easy."

So for the next several years, all we did is talk around the garbage cans. We found out that we both liked motorcycles, so we did a little Harley riding together. However, one year Easter was coming up and I thought I'd have a little fun with him and so I asked, "Where are you going to church on Easter?

He said, "Of course I never go to church on Easter."

I said, "You know, I don't think you're a red-blooded patriotic American unless you go to church on Easter." He said that nobody had ever challenged his patriotism before, and I said, "Well. I'm challenging it right here and right now." With that, he agreed to go to church that Easter. During the Easter service, I'm preaching the message, and I actually see him in the crowd, believe it or not. The following Tuesday night, I'm bringing out the garbage, and there he is. We chat and I said, "I saw you in church and you said you'd never go."

He said, "I have to tell you, church has changed a lot since I remember going as a tiny little kid. I loved everything about your church. I loved the music, I loved the way it was organized, and I loved the fact that people seemed normal and treated me courteously. And the thing I really liked most, I liked your sermon." Now I'm thinking he's setting me up, yanking my chain or something. But he continued, "I really loved your sermon. I understood it, and it got me to thinking about a lot of things."

After that great conversation, I just assumed that he would come the next week or the following, or the one after that, but he never did. Finally, Christmas was coming up, and people get sensitive about things of God around Christmastime. Don't ever underestimate how the Spirit of God works in people's hearts and lives around Christmas. So, I invited Bill to our Christmas Eve service. And he said, "Sure, I'll come with you to Christmas Eve."

I said, "That was easy. But Bill, if you liked our Easter service so much, and I think you actually said you loved my sermon, how come you didn't come back all these months?"

He said, "Bill, your sermon was so good it's lasted me all these months." Now you know why he sells so many Chevrolets.

Nevertheless, he came on Christmas, he loved our Christmas service, and, to make a long story short, for the next several years, he came every Easter and every Christmas. Then, a couple years ago at a Christmas Eve service, he met Christ. This car dealer guy, who swore he'd never go to church in his adult life, gave his life to Christ. If you could meet him today, you would see a transformed guy. So many miracles happen around Christmastime. But when he told me that he had finally come to trust Christ, I thought of that time when I was in mid turn on that cold January night, going back toward the warm house when the Spirit whispered, "Go meet your neighbor.

I ask you, again, "How important are whispers?" Some of you came to this church this morning because of a whisper. You did not intend to be here and then there was a whisper: "You need to come to the Crystal Cathedral today." Some of you are watching television right now and you're not even sure why you are. It might have been a whisper.

When God whispers, pay attention. When God whispers, discern it as carefully as you can, and do it. If God whispers for you to reconcile a broken relationship today, follow the whisper. If he encourages you to take a faith step today, take a faith step. If He encourages you to be generous toward someone in need, follow the whisper. If he asks you some time in this Christmas season to make the Christmas Child, the Savior of the world, to become your Savior, follow the whisper.

"Oh give me Samuel's ear, an open ear, oh Lord, alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word, like him to answer to thy call, and to obey thee first of all."