"Hearing God's Call"
3:1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
3:2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room;
3:3 the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
3:4 Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!"
3:5 and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down.
3:6 The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."
3:7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
3:8 The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy.
3:9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
3:10 Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
3:11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.
3:12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.
3:13 For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
3:14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."
3:15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
3:16 But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am."
3:17 Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you."
3:18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."
3:19 As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
3:20 And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.
Griffin has been doing this thing lately where he acts like he didn’t hear what I said but he does and 99% of the time he can repeat it when asked. For example, I will ask him to put his shoes on and he will say “huh?” or “what?” and then I give him the look and he goes and does it. I think this is extremely frustrating and kind of annoying but my wife says that he learned this behavior from somewhere... I am still trying to figure out where. In all honesty, I do this all the time to Cheyanne and only part of the time do I do it on purpose. I do it without thinking about, and I am sure this the case for Griffin too. But my question to all of you this morning, is how often do we do it when God is speaking to us? In our scripture for this morning, we have a story about Samuel who is being called by the Lord but thinks it is his teacher Eli who is speaking to him instead of God. I think that most of us attribute God talking to us to several different things instead of what it really is and that will be our focus this morning, hearing God’s call.
We have all sorts of extravagant images of what it is like when God talks to us. For me, the image of God sitting on a cloud with his hands extended down towards earth and a booming deep voice coming from the heavens is the image that comes to mind. If this were the case, knowing what God says would be pretty simple. Unfortunately, it is not at all that simple. We are given bits and pieces every now and again of God’s will and through patience, prayer and study we do our best to figure out what God is telling us. God can speak to us through many different avenues. For some, God’s voice comes through scripture, for others it is through prayer, for others it may be a good friend, still for others it may a child or stranger. God’s voice may be heard in a tree stand, on a lake, or in a tractor. If we are willing to listen, then God’s voice can come from anywhere while we are doing anything. And just like Samuel, sometimes we need help figuring out that it is God’s voice. Early in my relationship with God, I would attribute what God was trying to tell me to anything but God Himself. I would venture to say that this is the case for most of you as well. Like Samuel, we think the voice of God is something different than what it actually is.
Ok, so we have established that God most likely speaks to us more often than we give him credit for but if that is the case, then we have to work on hearing Him better. How do we establish what God is saying vs everything else we hear? Here are some helpful hints: First, God’s love is intended for all so any thought or action that goes against this is not from God; Second, God’s grace is intended for every single person on this planet, past, present and future so any thought or action that contradicts this is not from God. Third, God cares deeply about you, but He does so in a way where He gives you the choice whether or not to accept His love and grace so any thought or action that contradicts this is not from God. If you follow those guidelines, then it will help you figure out when God is speaking to you. Again, God speaks to us more often than we give Him credit for. We often search out God the most when we are in times of need or when we have a big decision to make and when we are really trying to find Him it seems like those are the most difficult times to see or hear God.
You may be sitting in your pew this morning wondering what the heck I am talking about because you have tried many times to “hear” God but to no avail. It may have even caused you to doubt God’s existence at times. You may wonder to yourself, “Why doesn’t God answer me?” But my question to you may be a difficult one but one that you should answer, “Have you answered God?” When I was a freshman in college, I could speak pretty good spanish because that was my fifth year of learning it but that is about 11 years ago and I haven’t used it at all since. Therefore, my ability to speak Spanish is not nearly as good as it once was. If we ignore God for long enough, it can be difficult for us to hear Him again. It’s not that He stops speaking to us, it is that we stop listening. I didn’t unlearn the Spanish I once knew I just fell out of practice with it. See, God doesn’t ever stop speaking to us. God still speaks to those who claim He doesn’t exist they just attribute His words to some other source. But the struggle that we all have is that God does not always give us the answers we are looking for. And in all honesty, this is probably the reason that we quit listening for God’s voice in the first place. Our mistake was quitting the search, it was withdrawing ourselves from a group of believers who could help us. I often revert to the example of doubting Thomas. Thomas’ downfall was not that he doubted the resurrected Jesus when Thomas finally saw Jesus face to face. Thomas was frustrated and angry and separated himself from the rest of the disciples so he was not there when the resurrected Jesus appeared to the whole group. Thomas doubted like most of us would but it was his separation from a group of believers that led him to almost miss the greatest miracle this world has ever known. The lesson of Thomas is an important one: don’t give up and don’t separate yourself from those who can possibly help.
In our scripture for this morning, Samuel finally realizes that it is God who is speaking to him. And one of the first things God tells Samuel is that things do not look good for Eli. Talk about a difficult situation, but Samuel did it because he answered God’s call. We may think it to be strange that this scripture talks so plainly about God speaking to Samuel but it happens to you more than you think. I can say that with confidence because of the reasons I outlined earlier: God’s love is for you, God’s grace is for you, and God cares deeply about you. In our darkest hour when we think God has completely left our side, He is the child He sent to give us a hug, He is the neighbor that came over, He is the friend who called to talk, He is the sunshine that shined through the window, He is in the laughable memory of a lost loved one, He is in that scripture you read, He is in that song you heard, He is still in your heart. I encourage you to do your best to find God in all that you do and in doing so, I promise you will hear Him that way you can stop saying “huh?” and “what?”. Amen.
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