Returning God's Call

Returning God’s Call
1 Samuel 3: 1 – 21.


I. Introduction.

One of my former seminary professors—Chip Conyers—loved to tell a story about Murphy, NC—located in Cherokee County. I don't know if this is a true story, but since it was told by one of my theology professors...I am inclined to believe it.

The Baptist church in Murphy was growing and needed to relocate into a larger building with more land that allowed the church to expand its facilities. The church located the land they wanted to purchase and finally found a buyer for their current church property. Everything was going smoothly until it was time for the sale to go through. That is when the church made an important discovery.

The church was an old, established church with roots going back as far as the American Revolution. The deed for the church’s land was an ancient document—and evidently churches did business differently a few centuries ago. According to the deed, the church property was owned by “The Lord God Almighty.” Therefore, the church could not legally sell the property until The Lord God Almighty signed the contract.

The church leaders did not know what to do. They sought the counsel of a local judge. The church leaders were surprised to find that there was a very simple solution to their otherwise complex problem.

The judge recommended for the church to place an advertisement in the Public Notice section of the county newspaper. The ad had to run for two weeks and read “If The Lord God Almighty has any interest in the Murphy Baptist Church, he should appear at the courthouse on or before April 15.”

As you can imagine, The Lord God Almighty never appeared in the courthouse. So, the church had to place a second ad in the Public Notices. “After a thorough and diligent search, The Lord God Almighty cannot be found in Cherokee County, NC and no longer shows any interest in the Murphy Baptist Church. Therefore the property reverts to the deacons.”

Certainly this is an extreme example of a church searching for The Lord God Almighty. Surely the church knows where to find The Lord God Almighty. Surely Christian men and women know where to find The Lord God Almighty. What about you? Do you know where to find The Lord God Almighty?

As I thought about what to preach on the first Sunday of 2011, several ideas came to my mind. I thought about preaching on New Year’s Resolutions. After all, this is the time of the year when we make promises to ourselves that life will be better in the new year. I also thought about preaching about new beginnings. After all, the beginning of a new year brings us the promise that all things can be made new.

However, I think we can combine these two ideas into one. I can think of no better way to begin a new year than to say this will be the year that I listen to God. I can think of no better New Year’s Resolution than to promise ourselves that we will listen to God.



II. Listen.

Two of the most foundational questions about God are: How can I search for God? How can I know what God wants for my life?

For non-Christian men and women, these questions are the starting point for a life-long faith journey.

For the Christian man or woman, these questions lead us to discipleship and growth. We will never reach a point in our lives when we will have all the answers about God. AND we should never reach a point that we feel satisfied with our relationship with God. We should always have a desire to grow closer to God and to search for God.

There is an interesting thing about searching for God. There is no clear-cut formula or program for finding God. I can’t stand up here on a Sunday morning and give you all the answers about God. But I can tell you a couple of things with absolute certainty.

First, God is searching for you. If you are not a Christian, God is searching for you. If you have been a Christian for several years, God is searching for you. It doesn’t matter how close to God you might feel. You may be living in rebellion right now, running away from God…But God is searching for you. You may be at the highest point of your spiritual life…But God is searching for you.

Second, I can tell you with certainty, that if you are searching for God, God wants you to find him. AND, God will help you find him. If you search for God, God will find you.

When we read the Bible, we read the history of men and women who searched for God and found God. We read the history of God who searched for men and women and found them. And by reading these stories, we make a remarkable discovery about finding God. The men and women of the Bible found God with their ears. They listened…And they heard God.

Listening is so important to our relationship with God that it even shows up in the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” The Second Commandment says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

Here is an important lesson from the Old Testament…God has never revealed himself in images or idols. God has only revealed himself by his Word. God is not something to be seen and held and touched. God is a Person who longs for you to share in a relationship and speaks words that you can hear.

So, this is our starting point…If we want to search for God and to be found by God, then we must search with our ears. We must listen.

Read 1 Samuel 3: 1 – 21.

Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was desperate for a child. She promised God that if God would give her a child, she would give that child back to God to be used in his service. When Samuel was born, Hannah kept her promise by giving the young boy to Eli, the priest.

We don’t know much about Samuel’s childhood…We sort of lose track of him until he becomes a young man helping out in the sanctuary, being trained for a lifetime of service before the LORD.
In the story, we learn about one of Samuel’s jobs in the sanctuary. He had to stay close to the “Lamp of God” and make sure that the flame never went out, 24 hours a day. It was while Samuel was obediently tending to the “Lamp of God” that Samuel first heard God speak to him personally.

I can imagine what happened to Samuel was not that different than what happens to us when something wakes us up in the middle of a deep sleep. Samuel was jolted awake by the sound of a voice that shattered the silence. I imagine Samuel sat straight up in the bed…It took him a couple of seconds to process what he heard. When he realized it was someone calling his name, Samuel ran immediately into Eli’s room and said, “Here I am.”

Why do you think Samuel ran into Eli’s room? I think it’s because he heard a voice and Eli was the only other person in the house. Stop and think about how sad that statement is. Samuel and Eli were sleeping in the sanctuary—the House of the Lord…And Samuel thought Eli was the only other person there. It didn’t occur to him that God was there too!

At first, Samuel did not recognize this as God’s voice. Of course, we can’t really blame Samuel, because the Bible says that “in those days, the Word of the LORD was rare.” I’m not sure that anyone else would have recognized God’s voice either.

When Samuel finally discerned that this was indeed God’s voice, he listened and obeyed. He obeyed, even though he had the difficult responsibility of delivering a message of God’s judgment against the most powerful family in Israel…Eli, the Priest, and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas…

Eli and his sons were facing judgment because they were using the priesthood to commit sins against God and the people. They had sinned against God by abandoning the biblical guidelines for worship and sacrifice that God had given to Moses. They had sinned against the people by demanding that the people give them more than the priest’s rightful share of meat. In fact, they were keeping for themselves the choice cuts of meat that were intended for God. And God held Eli responsible for the sins of his sons, because he knew it was going on and refuse to stop it. The saddest part of the story is the way the Bible described Eli…He loved his sons more than he loved God.

But Samuel was a different kind of young man. On one hand, we witness the sinfulness of the priest and his sons. On the other hand, we witness the innocence of young Samuel. We see a contrast between the rebellion of Eli and the obedience of Samuel. While Eli and his sons ignored God’s voice, Samuel listened and obeyed.

If we want to be like Samuel and hear a message from God…Then we ought to search for God like Samuel searched for God…


III. Put Yourself in the Right Position to Hear God’s Voice.

Now I don’t mean that you need to sit in the Lotus Position, with your legs twisted together and your hands in the air in order to hear God…I mean that you need to be aware of where you are in life…Where you are affects how well you are able to hear (or not to hear) God’s voice…
Look at verses 2 and 3…Notice where Samuel was…He was in the Temple of the Lord, in the room where the Ark of God was…

There are two important lessons we can draw from this…

First…Samuel was in the presence of God…The Israelites believed that God rested on the kippur or the Mercy Seat on the top of the Ark of the Covenant…Therefore, we can see that Samuel was in the presence of God…In the NT, we don’t believe that God is contained in the Temple…We believe that through the Holy Spirit, God can be present anywhere…But remember Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 18…Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with you…I don’t care how much you like nature, fishing, hunting, your family, etc…You are more likely to hear a word from God when you are in church—gathered in the name of Jesus—than in a deer stand or fishing boat or golf course or in the bed or on the baseball / soccer field…

Second…We see Samuel performing his daily responsibility tending the Flame of God…God had commanded that the Flame never go out…Someone was responsible… Someone had to obey God and follow his plan… Samuel heard God when he was obedient…

It is important for us to remember that God has always spoken in a “still, small voice”…And God has never shouted, screamed, or otherwise raised his voice for us to hear…Notice that Eli did not hear God’s voice…That is because Eli was not in God’s will…When we are disobedient and outside of God’s will, it is virtually impossible to hear God’s “still, small voice”…


IV. Let God Do the Talking.

Look at verse 10…When Samuel finally recognized that God was talking to him, he answered, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

This is not what you and I normally say to God…We usually say something like, “Listen, Lord, for I have something important to say”…OR… “Listen, Lord, for I have something I need you to do for me.” When we do this, we actually make two mistakes…

First…We think we have something to say that is more important than anything God can say…This is the wrong attitude…Samuel approached God with humility…As a servant… Willing to do anything God wanted him to do…

Second…We talk so much that we miss what God is saying…Recently, I tried to give directions to a friend who would not stop talking and listen to what I was trying to say…I was the one who knew where she was going…I had driven the route before…If she had listened to the directions instead of talking, she wouldn’t have had to call us on her cell phone, five minutes down the road…

If prayer really is communication, then prayer involves two people engaging in two different activities…Speaking and Listening…In true prayer, God speaks and listens…In true prayer, we are supposed to speak and listen…

I think this is a common mistake for many of us when we read the Bible. We sometimes read the Bible to learn information. We can name the Ten Commandments, the 12 Disciples, the healing stories from the Gospels, the missionary destinations of Paul. But do we let God speak to our hearts and shape us spiritually.

There are basically two ways for us to think about the Bible: Sourcebook for Information…and…Source for Spiritual Nourishment.

Information is for your Brain…Nourishment is for your Life…

When was the last time you read a short verse or passage of Scripture, then prayed, “God, what are you saying to me through this Scripture?”

I want to challenge you today…Don’t try to read the entire book of Isaiah in your quiet time tomorrow…Take 10 minutes…Read a short Scripture, close your eyes, and pray, “God, what are you saying to me through this Scripture?” Then sit in silence for just 5 minutes and listen for God. I promise you that you will be surprised. It’s just that simple.


V. Pay Attention to What God Is Saying.

Look at verses 11 – 14…The Word of God that came to Samuel that night was not something that Samuel wanted to hear…God spoke a word of judgment against Eli and his sons…Samuel couldn’t make it up for himself and he couldn’t change the message…He had to take God’s Word as it is…As it came to him…The same thing goes for us today…

God has spoken to his people…God has given you a message that is meant just for you…You cannot make up God’s Word…You cannot change God’s Word…And the Bible is God’s Word…


VI. Conclusion.

God is speaking to you today…Are you listening? If you never open God’s Word and read the Bible…Then it will seem that God is silent…

Let's make 2011 the year we search for God. If we search for God, God will find us.