Hearing the Voice of God Pastor Ed Glover April 21-22, 2018 Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 [TITLE SLIDE] Hearing the Voice of God This morning we re going to be looking at Samuel and specifically looking at a time when he was a young boy and discerned the voice of God. How many of you in this room have a hard time knowing if you ve heard from God or not? I think all of us have struggled with that. So let s prepare our hearts to learn from Samuel how to hear God s voice. Let s pray. Back when the telegraph was the fastest way to communicate long distance, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office to apply. When he got there, he entered a large busy office filled with noise and clatter including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were called to enter the inner office. The young man filled out his form and sat down to wait with the other applicants in the waiting room. After a few minutes the young man stood up and walked right in to the inner office. The other applicants wondered what was going on. They hadn t heard any one call. Within a few minutes, the employer walked out of his office with the young man and said, Gentlemen, thank you for coming, the job has just been filled. The other applicants began to grumble and one spoke up, Wait a minute, I don t understand. He was the last one to come in and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. That s not fair! The employer said, I m sorry but all the time you ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours. None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his. We live in a world full of busyness and noise, like that office, which can make it difficult to hear God s voice. So this morning we are going to be talking about listening for the voice of God. 1
In our passage, I Samuel 3:1, it says, [SLIDE 1] The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. [1 Samuel 3:1a] Many scholars believe that Samuel is between 8 and 12 years old. So, how did this boy Samuel become a minister alongside Eli, the High Priest? Because Hannah, Samuel s mother, was at the end of her rope. She was unable to have children, she was barren, which made her culturally less than women who had children, and she really wanted to be a mother. So, she promised God that if she could have a son, she would dedicate him to God s service. She became pregnant and had a son. She named him Samuel, which means, God heard or asked of God. As soon as Hannah weaned Samuel, she fulfilled her promise and placed Samuel in the care of Eli, the aging and almost blind high priest of Israel. Eli was responsible for Samuel s welfare and education. He mentored Samuel in spiritual things and prepared him for a lifetime of service to God. Samuel ended up being one of the greatest prophets and judges in the history of Israel. Samuel became so prominent that two Old Testament books are named after him. So that is Samuel. The reason he is considered one of the great men of God is because at an early age he learned to listen for God s voice. Which brings us back to our passage. In verse 1 it continues, [SLIDE 2] In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. [1 Samuel 3:1b] The word rare means infrequent or scarce. So why is God not speaking? Is God ignoring His people? No. Let me explain. Samuel was born and was serving at the temple at a time known as the era of the judges. During his time, Israel was stuck in a cycle of rebellion against God, which resulted in God allowing them to be oppressed by their enemies. Followed by a famine. Which caused the people to cry out to God, so God would provide a judge to help deliver them from their enemies. And usually for the lifetime of the judge, things would go well. But once the judge died, the people would grow comfortable and take their blessings for granted. They would forget God and rebel against Him, and so the cycle would begin again. 2
And this would go on year after year after year. In other words, they did not learn from their past sin, they just repeated their history. At the time when Samuel was serving in the temple, Israel was in the cycle of peace but living in rebellion towards God. For example, Eli s sons were sinful priests who were stealing from the people and taking sexual advantage of the women who were serving at the temple. So, when it says that in those days the word of the Lord was rare, it wasn t because God wasn t speaking, they just weren t listening. So while the whole nation of Israel hasn t heard from God in a long time, why does God speak to Samuel? First of all, it was because he was faithful. He was a servant of the Lord. He was not living a life of rebellion. Secondly, Samuel put himself in a place to listen to God. Let s now look to our passage. Verse 4 tells us, [SLIDE 3] Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, Here I am. And he ran to Eli and said, Here I am; you called me. But Eli said, I did not call; go back and lie down. So he went and lay down. [1 Samuel 3:4-5] This happens three times. During the third time, Eli realizes that the Lord was calling the boy. In verse 9 it says, [SLIDE 4] 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. [1 Samuel 3:9] Verse 10 says, [SLIDE 5] The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, Samuel! Samuel! Then Samuel said, Speak, for your servant is listening. [1 Samuel 3:10] Why did Samuel hear the voice of God? Samuel put himself in a place to listen to God. Have you ever been on a cell phone call with someone and the call just drops? Just this past week I was on my cell phone standing in my kitchen and having a very important conversation with someone who was driving in a car. And the call dropped three times. Finally, the person pulled the car over, got to a place where we could hear one another and we finished our conversation. And together made a significant decision. In our passage, in verse 10 it says, 3
[SLIDE 6] The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times. [1 Samuel 3:10a] In other words, God spoke to Samuel three times, but the call was dropped. But finally, Samuel had put himself in a place where he could be quiet and finally Samuel heard the Lord speaking. Where do you go to hear from God? Do you have a place where you can stop all the noise around you and unplug? What I m referring to is a quiet time? A time where you open-up the Word of God, where you pray, where you go consistently to spend time alone with God? If you don t have that place, then I am confident that you re having a very difficult time hearing when the Lord speaks. Why do I say this? Because we live in a world with a lot of distractions. Our days and nights are full of gadgets that ping, buzz, and beep to get our attention. One study I found said that the typical college student can t go more than 2 minutes without becoming distracted by social media. But it s not just the young people. According to the book Driven to Distraction, the newest addiction is to technology. The book says that there are inpatient centers now for people of all ages with technology addiction. So if you re going to hear from God, you must eliminate the distractions and find a place where you are intentionally making the time to tune into the voice of God. So my question to you is where and when do you do that? Is it in the morning? In the evening? Is it at the kitchen table? In your recliner? You have to set the time and the place. God is not going to make that decision for you. He always is looking to meet with you and He is always looking to speak to you. There are two other reasons why we don t hear from God. First, you don t know Him. In John 8:47 it says, [SLIDE 7] Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. [John 8:47] What does it mean to belong to God? It means you have repented of your sin, accepted his free gift of salvation, and made a decision to know and to follow Jesus Christ. Finally, you do not hear from God because you re just not listening. Because God is speaking to you. One of the reasons we don t listen is because we re too busy for God. I ve been there, 4
believe me and hear this. Beware of the bareness of a busy life. It s just a matter of time that you will reap the consequences of being too busy for God. Remember this, the definition of busy is being under Satan s yolk. Make the time, sit down, be quiet, open-up the Word, pray so that you can hear from God. And when you hear from God, be obedient to Him. Well how do we hear the voice of God? God speaks to us in a number of ways. God speaks to us through: 1. His Word 2. The Five-Fold Ministry 3. The Holy Spirit 4. Prayer 5. Miracles 6. Circumstances Today I don t have enough time to deal with all of these in depth. To be honest, I d have to do a 6-week series. But I want to focus on the most common and frequent way in which God speaks, and that is through His Word. But before I do this, let me just make a couple comments. First, the five-fold ministry is found in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 12. It says, [SLIDE 8] So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up [Ephesians 4:11-12] So what this means is when you come on Sunday morning and someone is teaching or preaching the Word, you can be confident that God is going to speak to you through His vessel and His Word. Let me say one more thing about the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon people. That s why they heard God s voice audibly. But today, when someone asks Jesus Christ to be their Savior, the Bible says they are born again of the spirit. Which means the Holy Spirit comes and lives within the believer. So when God speaks, He doesn t have to go through your ears, He can use your mind. I am not saying God never speaks audibly today, but it is rare. However, we can be confident that God speaks to us through His Word. God speaks to us through the Word of God. Why? Because it is the Word of God. It is God s way of communicating to us. It is His message to you. 5
Also, remember this. God s Word is eternal. The earth and universe are not eternal, but God s Word is eternal. So God s Word is never going to pass away. You ve heard people say, if it s new, it s not true. What are they saying? They are saying, if it is true, it has been around forever, we just discover it. And the Word of God will not pass away because it is true. And truth never passes away or changes. Let me say that again, truth never passes away or changes. Let me ask you a question, would you go out and buy a science book that is out of date? Would you purchase a computer book that is out of date? No. Why? Because it is out of date. Remember, the Word of God is never out of date because it is the truth and it never changes. So when God asks you to do something in His Word, He will never contradict it and He will never tell you to ignore or disobey the Word of God. So when you get a thought that contradicts the Word of God, that is not God. But when you get a Word from the Lord or a thought that agrees with the Word of God, be obedient to it. Why does God want us to know and hear the Word of God? Because He wants to confirm to us that we are part of His family and, literally, keep us from making mistakes. Let me give you an example out of my own life, how important it is to spend time with God, spend time in His Word, and be obedient to Him. There s a time that my wife and I, we were first married, and we needed two end tables for our living room. There was a furniture store that was going out of business. So we walked into the store and there was this really nice salesman who greeted us. We told him what we were looking for and he showed us two end tables, each for $100. And that was right inside our budget. But then he began to show us other pieces of furniture throughout the store. And he took us around like sheep ready to be slaughtered. The salesman introduced us to this beautiful credenza. He said, look at this this was $10,000 but today you can have it for $3,500. And it was spectacular. He began to convince us that this would not only be a great piece of furniture in our home, but it would be a great investment that we could pass on to our children. So I asked Tammy if we had the money and she said, yes, we have $3,500 in the bank. So we agreed, went over to sign the papers with the salesman, and all of the sudden I thought, Have we prayed about this? Have we got God s perspective on this? I stopped and looked at the salesman and said, Wait a minute, we re going to take a few minutes and think about this. I m going to take my wife and go to lunch. 6
Well, he didn t like that conversation but we still left and went to lunch. Once we were alone, we began to pray. As we were having lunch together, we both decided not to get the credenza, but to buy the two end tables. In other words, we decided to keep the main thing the main thing. We were going in to buy two end tables, so that s what we were going to do because we didn t want to drain our whole bank account for a credenza. Once we walked into the store, it was like the whole sales team and management team was waiting for us. It was a very intense time of fellowship, but we did walk out with two end tables. That was in February. But as pastors, we re self-employed, this means we have to pay our own taxes. Tax season came and went, and sure enough I didn t get a refund check back. I owed $3,500. Could you imagine? I would have had a beautiful credenza sitting in my living room and would have had to take out a loan to pay my taxes. Why is it important to listen and hear from God? Learn from me, to keep from making mistakes. God is still speaking today, He speaks through His Word to us. But what we must do is we need to make a decision to spend time in His Word, to eliminate the distractions and find a place where can tune in and hear from Him. Remember, you are the one who has to decide to do this. God always is looking to meet with you and He is always looking to speak to you. 7