When God Calls
1 SAMUEL 3
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Good morning. We finished our Tough Questions series. And so if you've missed any of that, I really encourage you to go back, listen to the podcast, or watch it on YouTube. Next week, Pastor Chris is going to start a new four-week series that he is going to teach. So right now, we just kind of have an in-between, and I get to do whatever I want. No, just kidding. We are... Can't believe that's on the record now. No, we're just going to be dropping into an Old Testament moment, a scene, and I'm excited for that. This sermon actually came from a conversation with a youth volunteer who said, "Andre, you should preach." He picked this out, and he said, "You should preach on this." So I'm doing that today.
Let me tell you guys a story. When I was, I want to say seven, seven... couldn't have been older than like eight or nine. Going home in our routine after coming home from school, my mom was driving. We'd stop by the mailbox. I'd get out with the key, get the mail, and come back into the car. And one time, I just heard something. I heard... I don't know if it was the rumbling of my stomach or just like a loud thing, but I could tell by the way that no one else had heard it. My mom didn't have a reaction. And I just... I got back in the car and I said, "Mom, I think God just told me to be kind to my sister." And it was the only time that I've had this like, "I'm pretty sure God said something," but I was a seven-year-old kid. And my mom wisely just said, "Well, I think you should obey God. I think you should be kind to your sister."
The truth is, God's audible voice is not something that is common in my life. It may not be common for you. Even though we hear God in different ways, maybe through Scripture and through friends, we'll get into some of that, but hearing God's audible voice is not common. And even in Scripture, there are moments where God speaks, but those are standout, unforgettable, unbelievable at times moments in history. So you can think of moments like Moses in the burning bush, where there's something and he hears God's voice. And it's in a scene that he's like, "What is happening right now?" This is not common. This does not happen every day. Or later on in the Old Testament, when Israel is in the desert and God is giving them instruction, it says in Scripture that God's voice was like thunder. And it was too much for Israel. They were like, "God, can you please stop talking? I can't handle this. It's scary. It's loud. It's booming." Or even something in the New Testament like Jesus, when Paul on the road to Damascus, when he was Saul, hears God's voice, or Jesus speak to him. And it's a scene. And that is not... it happens, but it's not common, right? But it's a theme in Scripture that we see, that God speaks to his people. And though we may not experience those super memorable, out-of-the-world moments, we still need to recognize God's voice. We should be ready. And our desire should be to be able to recognize God's voice when he does speak to us.
John 10:4 says, "When he was brought out all on his own, he goes on ahead of them. And his sheep, this is Jesus, his sheep follow him because they know his voice." So if we are followers of Jesus, then we should recognize his voice when he speaks to us. And we should know how we'll respond if and when God speaks. And I think we can learn how to do that together this morning as we look at the story in the Old Testament of Samuel. So if you have your Bibles, if you want to turn in them to 1 Samuel 3, it'll be on the screen as well. But 1 Samuel 3 is the story of a boy named Samuel.
Now, in our passage today, we're in a time of Israel's history where Israel has been struggling as a nation to follow God. Theologians comment that Israel is in a state of profound spiritual and institutional collapse. There's a pattern that has developed in Israel's history, and this pattern is a generation arises that neither knows the Lord nor understands him, and they fall away worshiping other gods and abandoning Yahweh, the God who delivered them out of Egypt. And so this pattern that we see is Israel sins. God punishes them through oppression, says, "We're going to give you over to your sin. I'm going to punish you." The people repent and cry and say, "God, save us." God sends someone, a redeemer of some sort. And then the cycle starts all over again. They're with God for a time, but then they sin, and over and over and over again. And I got to say, as difficult as it can be to read Israel's story and sometimes hear of their incompetency to follow God, it can also hit me just how similar we are at times, right? We have a sin in our lives that just seems to be reoccurring over and over again. We face the natural consequences of our sin. And we call out to God to rescue us, saying, "God, please help me." He does. He gives us deliverance for a moment, maybe rescue. And then at some point in the future, we fall into that sin again. And the cycle in our lives is very similar to that of Israel's.
Now, in this moment for Israel, it's not just the people that are falling into sin. It's also the leaders, unfortunately. There is a head priest named Eli. And he and his sons have not been the best, especially his sons, who were also priests. And they were worthless men who did not know God. And this phrase in the Bible says, "do not know God," really is to emphasize nothing about their lives would let you know that they knew him, followed him, had a relationship with him. And even Eli himself, their dad, the high priest, he was weak and blind and unable to hear God's voice. So in a way, he himself embodied Israel as a nation: weak, blind to God, and unable to hear God's voice. And if you're reading through the Old Testament in the book and you come to 1 Samuel, you would really sense this decline in Israel. Things are getting bad. The relationship with God is strained, distant. Things are not going as they are supposed to, which usually means the time is ripe for God to intervene and to enter into the story.
So if you guys want to read along with me, it says, I'm going to read, kind of split this up into two. So the first few verses say, the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days, the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not gone out yet, and Samuel was lying. So he went and lay down. Again, the Lord called Samuel. Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time, the Lord called Samuel. And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me. Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, Go and lie down. And if he calls you, say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. We're just going to read through all of it, by the way. The Lord came and stood there calling at the other time, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, Speak, for your servant is listening. And the Lord said to Samuel, See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family, from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about. His sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering. Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, Samuel, my son. Samuel answered, Here I am. What was it he said to you? Eli asked, Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you. So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, He is the Lord. Let him do what is good in his eyes. The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. All right.
So this first part of this passage, I think the emphasis here is recognizing God's voice. I just want to go verse by verse and kind of break this down for us. We get this context in the first three verses. Minister, Samuel was just a boy under Eli. And this part in verse 1, the word of the Lord was rare. Not many visions. The people of God, in their decline, were not hearing from God. It's important to remember. And again, we come to Eli, who is so weak, barely see, was lying down in his usual place. And again, this is just more context for us to understand that the setting that Samuel's in is not a good one. And then Samuel, when we get to Samuel, there's a little bit of hope. And it highlights the proximity of Samuel to God. It says he was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was. So at this time, they're in the tabernacle. And the author is trying to tell us that Samuel is literally, by physical location, the closest one to God. Just where he's sleeping, he's closest to God. And this is important because this is the one that God has chosen to be the voice of the truth. So this is our context.
And then verses 4 through 9 is God calling to Samuel over and over again. We get this first call. And Samuel says, "Here I am," but goes to Eli. He doesn't understand. He doesn't know God. He doesn't understand that God is speaking to him. But this response that he gives, "Here I am," echoes some responses from previous people in the Bible that we would recognize as good people, like Abraham and Jacob and Moses, have all been called by God, and they all responded with, "Here I am." And so the author, again, is cluing us into, Samuel is someone who is going to be important and good. We get the second call in verses 6 through 7. Again, the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up, went to Eli. Eli tells him to go back. And then a third time in verse 8, Samuel goes, responds, says, "Here I am" to Eli. And Eli realizes now that it's God speaking to Samuel. Now, Eli's probably a little bit perturbed. He's like, "This is the third time you're waking me up. I'm not calling you. What is going on?" But I think he finally clicks that. He's like, "Oh, this is God." And we have to remember that Eli is not in good favor with God. And so I think this shows that it took three times. This just shows how dull he is. His senses are dulled to what God is doing. It took him a while for him to point Samuel to the Lord.
Now, have you ever been in maybe Eli's position? Not that your senses are dull, but have you ever been on the receiving end of someone saying, "Hey, something's going on in life, this keeps happening," and you can maybe clearly see like, "I think God's trying to get a hold of you, I think God is doing something," but they haven't put the pieces together yet? Or maybe they don't know God yet? Or maybe it's happened to you that God's been trying to get a hold of you and in that moment you didn't recognize God's voice. And something's happening, and then it happens again, or God's getting your attention. You're like, "Huh, something's up right now. I think, why is this happening?" And it just takes a little while for us to understand and connect that God is trying to get a hold of us, trying to get our attention. In this moment, this is where Samuel is learning God's voice. And I think this is a beautiful moment of someone yielding themselves to serve God, but coming into a beautiful relationship with him. Not just serving him, but a relationship. And I think that is the truth that we need to hear today too. That yes, we are called to obey and to serve God, but we also get a beautiful relationship with him. What an amazing thing to be called by God by name. It shows that God knows Samuel. Even though Samuel doesn't know him, it shows that God has a purpose for Samuel far beyond what Samuel could have imagined. And it shows us today that God's calling is not by accident. It's meant for each of us individually. And it shows that God wants us and desires us to be a part of his kingdom and his work. So that is the section where we hear and read about God's recognizing God's voice.
Now, in the second half of our passage, Samuel shows us how to respond to God's voice. In verses 10 through 14, we get Samuel's response to God. In verse 10, the Lord came and stood there. This is different now. God came and stood there. His presence was there in the tabernacle in a different way. Now, I don't know if that means that he's physically standing there. The Old Testament uses that language just to show and emphasize that God's presence was as closely as possible was there. And he calls out to Samuel, and Samuel responds, "Speak, for your servant is listening." And I love this verse in verse 11. "I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle." Now, if you read that and you thought, "Oh, that's exciting," that's what I also thought at first, because we say tingle today, like ears tingling. No, this is dread. This is doom. This is like really bad. God is saying, "I'm about to do something that is going to wake people up." So the Old Testament uses tingle in a way that we probably don't use tingle today. But just so you know. Okay. God is saying he's about to shake up things, get everyone's attention. And God gives Samuel his first word, this first prophecy, this first assignment. And it's a heavy one. It's punishment from God to Eli. And it's this message that also shows the shift that God is going to make from the priestly authority of the house of Eli to a different sort of authority to be embodied by the prophet Samuel. There's a lot happening here and Samuel's just a boy, but God is laying out his plan saying, "Look, this is what's going to happen to Eli," and while he's doing that he's taking care of Samuel saying, "I have plans for you."
In verses 15 through 18, Samuel holds this troubling news of judgment until morning. He's heard this punishment that's going to be given to the house of Eli. And I don't know if you've ever had that where you've had to be the bearer of bad news to someone. It's not a fun place to be. There's such a mix of emotions going on inside of us. We can want to be relieved of having to hold that bad news. So sometimes we're like, "Hey, if I just get this over with quickly, I'm just going to tell that person as quick as possible," mostly because we don't want to be holding this information. So I'm going to tell them. Other times it can be, it's someone who's important to us where we care about. And so we don't want to make them feel uncomfortable or we don't want to see them in pain. And so we contemplate, "Should I share this with them? I don't know. I think they're going to be upset." And so I think we can imagine what Samuel is feeling as he is holding this and he just heard from God. He hasn't talked to Eli yet and he's just laying in bed. "What am I going to do? What am I going to do with this terrible news for Eli's family?" We can sense the relational dynamics here. How close Samuel already is to God, and he's just a boy, and how distant Eli is, and he's the high priest of Israel. And it's this boy who's telling the high priest what it is that God said. That's very backwards. That's not how it should be, but that's the reality that Israel is in. That's where Eli is in, and that's how God is going to use Samuel. Samuel doesn't want to say it, but Eli knows he needs to hear it. And Eli puts the pressure on holding Samuel to his oath. And again, this is Samuel learning, right? When God has told you something, you can't withhold that. You need to share that. That is something, if I've given you a task, you have to obey God. And so Samuel learns just how serious this is and how important God's words are. And Samuel tells Eli everything. And the redeeming moment for Eli is how he takes it. With some honor and dignity, he says, "If that's what God has, then let it be so. Let him do what is good in his eyes."
And so from this moment, Samuel is established as a true prophet, just a boy, but he's established as a true prophet. And I love what it says that God did not allow any of Samuel's words to fall to the ground. I love that imagery, that picture that the author is trying to tell us that all of his words came to life or had meaning, they were purposeful, they were true. God did not allow any of Samuel's words to go awry, but fulfilled all of his prophet's predictions. And I didn't read it at first, but chapter 4, verse 1 says, "And Samuel's words came to all Israel." And so if we just juxtapose that, verse 1 of chapter 3 says, "The word of the Lord was so rare." And now, just one chapter later, the word of God is being heard all over Israel through Samuel. God is at work again. God's about to do work in Israel that hasn't been seen in quite some time. And God has found his guy. This Samuel that will speak for him, speak the truth to the people.
I'll talk about a tough first assignment for Samuel. He's got to tell his boss, this father-like figure in his life, that God is going to punish him severely. I already feel like that's hard. That's so difficult. And yet through it all, we see Samuel learning. We see Samuel learn God's voice, learn how to respond. And he learns that as a prophet of God, he needs to share the word that is given to him. Even if it means it's a tough pill to swallow for the listener. Through all of it, God will work and reach his people. Samuel responds in a way to make himself available to God. And we are to do the same. Like Samuel, like Paul in the New Testament, like Isaiah. Isaiah 6:8 says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, Here I am. Send me." This is the response. When God speaks, we answer and we say, "Here I am, Lord." And we take on a posture of willingness, of being ready, of yielding our will to his. We open our hands and we bow our heads and say, "What is it, Lord? I am ready." We accept the call. We give ourselves into his service with an eagerness that speaks to our love and faith for God. And how we respond matters to God. Samuel does a great job and is a model of how we should respond. But the Bible also gives us examples of how not to respond, things that we should not do. If you think of Adam and Eve after they have sinned, God calls out, says, "Where are you guys?" And they hide. They don't answer. They hide. That's what not to do. God doesn't like that. We should not hide when God calls. Maybe the most famous one is the story of Jonah. God calls, and what does he do? He literally runs the other way. He's running away from God and says, "Nope, I don't think so, God. Sorry, a little busy. I'm in a city across the Mediterranean." Don't do any of that. Don't hide from God. Don't run away from God. It sounds silly, but in our own way, we can do that at times. When maybe we know that God is trying to get a hold of us, and we just be like, "Huh, is that God? No, I don't think so. I'm going to ignore that one. I'm not going to pick up the phone right now. Don't want to hear from God." Maybe we know what he's going to call us to. We don't want to do it. Whatever the reason is, but don't be like Adam and Eve. Don't be like Jonah. We want to be like Samuel. We want to learn to recognize God's voice and learn to respond and say, "Here I am."
Now, you may be wondering, what if you've said, "I am here." I've said that to God. And now you're in the place of trying to discern what it is God is calling you to do. What is God's will for your life? You've said, "Pastor Andre, I have a posture. I'm eager. I'm ready. I said, 'Here I am.' And now I'm waiting for what God is telling me to do." Well, I want to ask some questions today. And if you're in a place of wondering what God is calling you to do, or if you're wondering why God is trying to get your attention, I have eight discerning questions to learn God's will. These are in no particular order, but I think these are just reflection questions that help us possibly understand what God is trying to tell us. So if you're a note taker, jot these down.
First one is to know God. Am I more concerned with knowing God's will for my life than I am knowing God? Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and we just want to know what to do. And we skip over the person who's telling us what to do. We skip over that relational part with God and we just say, "God, I just need to know the next step." Maybe we're task-oriented and we just want to get moving. And God is saying, "Hold up now, don't move too fast. We have a relationship. I want to talk with you. I want to speak with you." But maybe we're too caught up with what to do instead of knowing who is calling us. Secondly, is to know his word. Have I searched Scripture to find God's revealed will? For me, this is the most common way that God speaks. Because when I open up Scripture, and through his Spirit, he brings me to a place in Scripture or in reading. He uses Scripture to give me wisdom, to give me guidance. And so have you turned to Scripture and said, "Let me read, let me read his word, and better try to figure out what he's trying to tell me." Third one is prayer. Maybe the most obvious. Do I frequently ask God for guidance and to open my eyes to his will? Instead of us trying to figure it out, why don't we just ask him right? "God, what is it you're trying to tell me? What is it you want me to do?" So far, I think those three make a lot of sense.
Now we start to get into ones that maybe you're familiar with but you haven't done it in a while, and so just want to remind you of some other ways in which to discern God's will. The fourth one is counsel. Who are the wise and godly men and women from who you should be seeking counsel? People that you trust, people that know you, people that you've seen walk with God, you've seen walk the way of righteousness, live in God's will, and go to them and say, "Here's what I'm going through. What would you do? How would you follow God's will? How would you walk this situation?" That's why I love being a part of a church family is that that's what we are here for. And it's not that anyone is better than anyone else. We just like to get some perspective and say, "Hey, I've seen you do this. I've seen you." We encourage a mentorship in this church. Someone who's maybe in the next phase of life that can give you some perspective. And say, "Go grab coffee with them and just lay it out and say, this is what I'm facing right now. And I don't know. I'm not sure. What have you done? What's your experience told you?" The fifth one is life experiences. Why has God given me this particular set of life experiences? What could they reveal about what I should do with my life? Maybe you're in a situation to learn something. Maybe you're in something that is challenging, that is difficult. But maybe God is saying he's trying to reveal something to you. Oh wait, I'm so sorry, that's hold on. Life experiences now, maybe not your current life experiences. Look back at your past life experiences and look back at what you've gone through to see if it gives you instruction for what you're going through in the moment.
I got ahead of myself because the next one is circumstances. What do my circumstances reveal about God's prompting? Are any obvious needs or opportunities pointing me in a particular direction? Sometimes we just need to take a little bit of time and to gain some perspective of what we're going through and see that God is actually clearly leading us in this direction. But if we just have our heads down and just keep going day by day, we wouldn't take time to see that perspective and see the overall direction that God is leading us and see how our circumstances, as trying as they may be, may be God's way of leading us in a new way, new direction. So circumstances can play into it. Seventh is timing. Is the timing right for me to respond to a felt calling? Is God calling me to wait where I am or take a decisive step forward? This one is one of the hardest things for me. I am a slow mover, which sometimes is good to not move on impulse. And then sometimes I feel like God's been like, "I've been trying to tell you this for months. I've been giving you signs. I have been telling you that you are still not moving." And so timing is hard for me to understand what God is doing. But maybe God is saying, maybe it is a wait. Not yet. Wait here. I've given you some wisdom about what you're going to do next, but it's not yet. Or maybe you're praying and it's like, "God, is now the time? I've been sensing this call. I think that you're leading here." And we can just ask, "God, is the timing now? Is now the time where you want me to go do whatever it is?"
And the last one, and I do think that this one is important to be last. At least it shouldn't be first because it's too easy for it to be a slippery slope of selfishness. The last one is desire. What do I want? If I delight in the Lord, what would be the desire of my heart? How do I most want to serve God? Psalm 37:4 says, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." There is a time to tell God and to share with God, "God, I really want this. This in life brings me joy. Is there a way that I can experience more of this, that I could have whatever that is?" God gave us that emotion of joy. God gave us certain skills, interests, passions. That is God-given, some of those things that we have. And maybe there's a way that we want to serve. I think of those who are able to sing and they want to serve by singing and saying, "God, can you bring that opportunity around? I want to use this gift that I have for you." At Youth Group, tomorrow night, we're having a painting night. We're having a worship through paint. And there's people, by the way, we have a very skilled youth group. There's like an amazing painter. She's going to be the future Thomas Kincaid. She's amazing. And she just gets to use her skill that night and just paint and worship through painting. So there might be a desire that you have. "God, can I do this? I really want to do this for you." This ties in with how I'm going to use my skills for your kingdom, but there's a place where you can just lay that before God and ask him, "God, can you give that opportunity to me?" And so all in all, we have knowing God, knowing his word, prayer, counsel, life experiences, circumstances, timing, and desire. And through all of that, maybe we can better understand God's will for us, what he's calling us to do.
We've heard him call us. We've had the right response of saying, "Here I am, God." And then we can work through these questions to understand what he's calling us towards. So as we close today, I want you to bring out your programs. We've gotten to this new rhythm of exercising this muscle in our church together where we have an action step every Sunday that pertains to the sermon. Because we want what's happening here and what you're hearing on a Sunday morning to go home with you and to affect your lives. So we're trying to make that more applicable and easier to remember by suggesting something that might help your walk with God in your daily life. This week's action step is to do one or more of these eight things to discern God's will. And if you felt God calling, if you felt him nudging you in a direction, but you're just unsure, if you want to mark that, put your name on it, mark that, and drop that in the bucket in the back on your way out, we're going to join you in praying for you that God would make his will clear, make it known to you this week. And if he calls, our encouragement is to say, "Here I am, Lord, I'm ready. What is it you have for me, your servant?" We want to be like Samuel. We don't want to be like Jonah. We don't want to be like Adam and Eve. We don't want to hide and run away from God. We want to be there with hands open, hearts ready, to say, "Here I am, God." Would you guys pray with me?
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the story of Samuel that gives us this idea of learning your voice and learning how to respond. And I pray that for those in this room, maybe we've been walking with God for decades and we know your voice and we've responded to you. And maybe we're in the midst of discerning what your will is. I pray that you would help us this week in discerning your will. Maybe we're new to having faith with you, God, faith in you. And so I pray for those in the room that they would come to know your voice, learn your voice. And they would also have hearts that say, "God, here I am. I'm ready. What is it that you're calling me to do?" God, make us a people of quick and tender response to you, God. That understanding we may obey your every word and discerning may follow every suggestion of your instilling spirit. Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. Grant us, O God, to know which ought to be known, to love that which ought to be loved, to praise that which pleases you, to esteem that which is precious to you, and to blame that which is evil in your eyes. Give us wisdom and discernment to differentiate what is good and what only appears to be good. And above all, to be always seeking after your will and your good pleasure. Be with us today and this week, God. We praise you and we love you. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.