Listening to God

FINAL EDIT – Words #3 – Listening to God

I Samuel 3:7-18

Props: It starts when we are young with a nightlight, a blankie, being read a story, and checking the closet for monsters… TV, Fan, Clock, Phone, pillow…

We use sound machines, food, alcohol, pills, diffusors… why do we use this stuff? Because the silence screams the truth. The noise masks what creeps in the night outside our window, and inside our minds. In our story today the young boy Samuel hears God speak in the night. I’ve heard people say it seems as though I only hear God in the middle of the night, I would argue that maybe that’s the only time He can get our attention. But as you find your way to 1 Samuel chapter 3 let me set the scene for you a little bit…

The Story – Elkanah, Hannah(prayed as drunk), and Peninnah, Eli (sons sinning), Samuel

Barren, dedicated to the Lord, then 5 more…

Samuel working in the temple with Eli, bedtime… 2 times Samuel to Eli believing he had called him though the Lord was speaking, let’s pick up in vs 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” 11 The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. 14 Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” 15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” 17 He said, “What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the words that He spoke to you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

Hearing the voice of God

#1 reason we don’t hear from God is because we don’t listen. What’s it mean to listen? Undivided attention… me speaking for joe johnson and wayne knisley inner city, missions president cell phone rang on stage, fumbled for phone to get quit ringing, we’ve all been part of that, but then she answered the call and took it on stage! … do I have yours, cell phone, door opens, someone MOVES… We don’t seem to give our undivided attention to anything these days. Hearing the voice of God requires listening.

Go to the word…What if your decision making ran through the filter of what will expand the KOG? draw people to Christ? show love? takes the most faith?… Did you know that hearing from God takes place in prayer? I would argue that I’ve learned that praying should involve just as much listening as it does speaking. And in a book called too busy not to pray, it says that the #1 reason our prayers go unanswered is because of prayerlessness. We talk about prayer, pretend we pray, call our own thinking and wondering… prayer, but we don’t pray like we should, and if prayer involves listening to God we could deduct that we aren’t listening as we should either.

To hear God we have to…

De-clutter

Create Separation – slip away, Jesus example

Silence – shut out other voices, especially yours

Transition: But if I THINK I’m hearing God how do I know for sure that it’s Him? Let’s talk about…

Recognizing the voice of God

Is it God or is it satan? Are they His thoughts or my thoughts? Did you have a vision from God or was it the pizza and wings before bed? But seriously…

Did he confirm it in his word? What do you mean Jonathan, why confirm? Because of our kingdom (by that I mean your kingdom and my kingdom, our wants and desires) Our kingdom is still prevalent, what we want to do for God and what God wants to do with us is often a conflict, we saw it in the life of Paul. I’ve had it In my own personal life…in my own mind… Scriptures teach us that everyone does that which is right in her own mind… Sometimes there are decisions we can’t confirm in His Word. If I feel compelled to love my neighbor, or even my enemy, the Bible confirms that to be ok. But what about where I’m supposed to live, or what church I’m supposed to pastor. If we can’t confirm something directly from the Word, Proverbs tells us to seek a multitude of Godly counsel… Samuel didn’t now what was going on so He went to His local Spiritual Authority. You want to floor your pastor, call Him sometime to ask Him about Confirming a word from the Lord instead of just giving Him an update about what’s going wrong in the church. In my own life about 7 years ago a church came open, and I really believed I was hearing from God that I was the next pastor. The ministry couldn’t have made a more perfect scenario for my family… so I thought. But as I began to have conversations with spiritual mentors and leaders in my life, I recognized there were some blind spots in my considerations.

In other words, sometimes I’m wrong. I’m going to count to 3 and I want everyone to say that with me, and I’m serious you need to say it out loud because I’m not sure some of us believe it. On the count of 3 I want everyone to say, “sometimes I’m wrong”. Got it, here we go… 1, 2, 3… That’s good for you I promise. Listen, 7 years ago… I was a pastor, I had went to seminary, studied the word of God every day, and believe I had heard a word from God, but then I let a man tell me no? What’s that all about? Well you see what happens to us is we forget that His kingdom isn’t about me, it’s about a whole body of believers and they hear from God as well, and God has taught us to trust those in authority over us. So am I saying, He speaks to us all differently? Maybe not, but within ourselves, our own agendas and desires can become so strong… We can carnally seek spiritual leadership in our own lives, to the point where we hear God only through the filter of our flesh and selfish ambitions. (REPEAT) It takes a lot of maturity and strength to admit that. Because maybe there are times our kingdom is still a little to prominent to be overtaken by His… Church I believe this kind of preaching can be really healing this morning if you will let it.

Here's another one for you… If my friends and family who have always been my friends and family had not approved of Allison there is a good chance, I wouldn’t have married her... What you can know about that is that most of my friends and family like Allison way more than they like me, so I think I did ok. But if you’ve looked up to someone or trusted their judgment your whole life, if you know them to be a spiritual leader who is in tune with God, it might be worth hesitating when they are advising against something you are wanting to move forward with. I can’t imagine that many of us like to hear no. In fact, I think unhealthy churches are built on the backs of individuals who set up shop at a church where no one would tell them no. It’s good for your pride/humility status to have people in your life that can tell you no. How you react to the word NO N-O says a lot about your character. So if we have taken time and created space to listen to God how do we recognize that it is God.

We must know God – Verse 7 of our text said Samuel did not know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. (Sidenote, like Eli we must be sure to help people know God) His written word and the principles found therein are the best source of His voice, the more you are in scripture the less you will struggle to discern if a word is from the Lord. Think of it this way, one time I was teaching a small group and opened the floor to ask how different individuals recognized the voice of God. (Tony example) Like Allison calling, Recognize the voice of God through familiarity

Transition: As we transition to our last thought today, I’ll just let you know that I believe that listening for and recognizing God’s voice are actually super easy tasks. But very few of us are in a place where we can say with great certainty, we are fully obeying the voice of God. We need to quit focusing so much on new revelation when there’s still so much of it we haven’t done anything with.

Obeying the voice of God – Think of Samuel’s difficult situation that we just read right through. To obey God, He had to give Eli horrible news, and Eli was His very source of life… essentially His father. Obeying a new word from God usually means doing something different than the way we are currently doing it and many times we won’t obey because it is just flat out in opposition with what we want to do. God says go, you wanna stay, God says stays you wanna go, God says give, you wanna keep, God says quit, you don’t want to, God says start, it’s too inconvenient, God says trust, you say I can do it on my own…

Again, Confirm with spiritual authority, and this doesn’t mean go to your echo chambers. There’s a good chance that your parents, spouses, and best friends are going to take your side. Make sure you have people in your life that will speak hard truths into your life, and VALUE those relationships. Even in my confidence in hearing the voice of God I seek counsel in those who hold spiritual authority over me. Because the kingdom of God is bigger than me, and if it’s truly a word from God you should be able to confirm it with others who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Obeying God means… Responding though opposition, though you may not “like” it, though it creates an outcome of perceived difficulty, though it’s in opposition to your current situation.

Response: (Invite team) Listen, Recognize, Obey (REPEAT) Take time daily to hear the voice of God. It may occasionally be some big mission, but mostly small continual queues from the Holy Spirit about how to move next, how to love more, how to encourage with words, but you never know what next step of obedience might cause a breakthrough in the kingdom, a breakthrough in your own life, or the life of others. In our story today, the beginning of chapter 3 said Samuel was sleeping where the ark of God was. He was in the very place that they recognized as being filled with God’s presence. How horrible would it be today if we were in God’s presence and missed what He had because we failed to… Listen, Recognize, and Obey. REPEAT 3X