19 Preaching/Teaching 1 Samuel 3
Notes
Transcript
THE KINGMAKER
THE KINGMAKER
THE KINGMAKER
What is the greatest thing you can do as a person?
Growing up, I would have had a superficial answer. I would have said to be a good person. I would not have been able to give a straight answer.
What is the greatest thing you can do as a Christian?
Teach the kids
Give money
Share Christ
Be a good spouse or parent
Work hard
Leave an eternal legacy
In us, we were to want to do great things. But the most significant thing we can do is know and pursue God. We were created for this very reason. Today, we are going to talk about a man who knew God. He did not just know him a little bit. He knew him, and the things that marked this man are the things God wants to mark our lives.
Before we jump into the passage today, let me share a little bit about our series:
Israel wanted to be like all the other nations. Instead of being happy that they were different and God was their king, they wanted a human King. We are going to see that God did have a king in mind, but this king would be different from the other kings. God would find his king, and ultimately, that king would be the lineage that leads to Jesus. This story that happened thousands of years ago will have some good characters; these are the characters who lived on the Road to Glory. This story had some characters who missed out on the glory road because they chose to live for other things rather than God; for some, they lived for themselves. For others, they lived for the world's esteem; they lived only for their own worldly flesh. But we will also see that some people who started on the right Road finished on the wrong Road, and others who started on the wrong Road would experience the grace of God and end up on the glorious Road. But choosing to live on God's Road will ultimately lead us to the ultimate King Jesus.
The most excellent way to live on God's Road is to be close in our relationship with him. The man we will look at today was used mightily in God's story. He is the man who found David and said this will be your king. There is much more he did, but God used him so mightily because he knew God.
Today, I want you to know God and pursue your relationship like never before.
We will look at three marks of his life, and I want you to ask a couple of questions.
Are these marks of your life? If they are not, what needs to change so they can be?
Today we are going to make being FAT cool
Faithful
Available
Teachable
The first mark of a life that knows God:
1.Being Faithful right where you are at(1-4).
1.Being Faithful right where you are at(1-4).
1 Samuel 3:1 (NASB95)
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.
I also want us to know that this translations say, BOY. A man who was the authority thinks he may have been as young as 12. Isn't this part of our vision as a church raising the next generation to serve the Lord? When we have our senior Sunday, does this not change things? I am looking at these young men and women as the people who will be the church's future.
But these young men and women are not just the future of our church, they are our church now. One of the parts of our vision is that we want to be a sending church. And if we will reach this generation when they grow up and graduate we will send them to college ready to walk with the Lord and impact those around them, we will send them into their work forces ready to be workers for the Lord.
(1) Right where this story picks up, he served the Lord by assisting ELI. We often want to do these great things for God, and right here, Samuel is doing a great thing for God by being faithful to the small stuff. We often want to do huge things for God.
How faithful are you in the small things right now?
What about in your daily devotions?
31 day challenge all the time-when is the last time you have spent regular time with God?
What about in serving those around you?
God wants to use you in great ways but it often starts with the small things.
1 Samuel 3:2 (NASB95)
It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well),
(2)-We are going to talk about Eli next week. But he is the high priest. Remember, Hannah gave Samuel over to the Lord last week, and he was living with Eli so he could be trained. In a sense Eli was acting as his spiritual father.
The lamp of God (v. 3) is an expression that refers to lampstand in the tabernacle that continued to give light through the night (cf. Exod. 27:20–21; 30:8; Lev. 24:2–4; 2 Chron. 13:11)
Eli represents the state of the nation of Israel at that time, they had not heard from God and they were far from him.
and 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,
Under Eli's watch, the light of Israel is dim and the Word of God = Rare.
But the fact that there is not hope shows that there is also hope.
In these less-than-ideal circumstances, God was preparing one of his critical characters for a central part of his story. What if God is preparing you for a part in his story right now?
It was in this circumstance that God was looking for someone who would be faithful in seeking him.
Maybe you are here today and it is less than ideal time to seek the Lord for you. God is not through with you.
Examples:
Think about all the characters of the Bible who had less than ideal circumstances:
God to Abraham and Sarah they were going to have a kid at 100-that is not an ideal circumstance-But Abraham was called a friend of God.
Moses was called to lead the people of God when he was in a wilderness while God revealed himself to him in a burning bush.
I could go on: but maybe the very circumstance that does not seem ideal is the exact place where God wants you to seek him.
God is looking for men and women who will be faithful regardless of the time that will say I am going to seek God right now.
Are you being FAITHFUL where you are at?
This is the first mark of a life that knows God is being faithful where you are at.
The next mark of a life that knows God:
2. Availability to the voice of God (4-7).
2. Availability to the voice of God (4-7).
Our best ability is our availability.
Maybe you are here today and you are saying I want to serve God. And you really do. But you just are not available to serve him.
Are you available to God?
Notice how Samuel is available to God
1 Samuel 3:4 (NASB95)
that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.”
Notice he does not say, I am going to be the greatest prophet you have ever seen.
He did not talk about his gifting and all he has to offer God he said a simple: here I am.
Here I am God. This is the same thing Isaiah said to God when he said here I am send me.
God I am available to you.
Observations:
We can be available because God initiates with us-Go through how he initiates with us.
Then he 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.
The Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he answered, “I did not call, my son, lie down again.”
Notice Samuel is confused, as a matter of fact he does not even know that God is the one who is calling to him.
But notice God calls again, and again.
Aren’t you glad that God calls you to salvation in the same way. It is not that we loved God but that he first loved us.
This has been the case in my life where God has relentlessly pursued me like the hound of heaven. Ill give you an example: My point guard in High School who grew up totally irreligious went to a christian basketball camp and it was there that he heard the good news of the gospel that Jesus loved him and wanted to have a relationship with him and that he died on the cross. My friend accepted Jesus at this camp, he really did not know much about anything related to Christianity. God pursued my friend. Well then my friend who at this point did not know much at all started to talk to me about this simple gospel message, that God loved me and that I could accept the gift of what Jesus did on the cross. I told him to just pass me the ball. Later when I got one scholarship offer to a christian school I went to talk to a volleyball coach because in my mind if I could just jump higher I would make the NBA. He tried to share the good news of how Jesus loved and died for me. Was God not pursuing me. And it was in college were I ran into a man who shared the good news of Christ with me and in a dorm room I began a relationship with Jesus. This is the God we serve. And just like he pursued Samuel, just like he pursued me, he is the hound of heaven who is pursuing you as well.
Knowing and Enjoying God = our greatest calling.
Knowing and Enjoying God = our greatest calling.
1 Samuel 3:7 (NASB95)
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.
Now some people say that this was when Samuel first began a relationship with God.
Other people say he already had one and this is where he started having intimacy with God.
The bigger picture is that God calls us to intimacy with him!
This is what we are made for. To know and to enjoy the God of the universe.
Our relationship with God has to have a starting point.
For me it was in a dorm room.
But I also want to see that it was connected to the word of the Lord.
Friends if we want to be intimate with God we have to be in the word of God.
Are you in the word of God?
God called him to intimacy- (7)
He had a specific call. God has a specific call on your life.
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
The last mark of a life that knows God:
3. Teachable to others and ultimately God (8-10).
3. Teachable to others and ultimately God (8-10).
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.
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.
Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”
How we are teachable to those over us reveals how teachable we are to God.
Samuel was teachable to Eli-Next week we are going to see some areas where Eli was not a great character, but he did teach Samuel and right here we see that he tells him that it was the Lord calling him. Eli's major flaw is that he was not able to push his kids toward God, but he did push Samuel towards God. Eli also knew that the word of the Lord was the ultimate.
If we are not teachable to our parents it is going to be hard for us to be teachable to God.
If we are not teachable to other believers it will be hard for us to be teachable to God.
Samuel will go onto do some incredible things for God
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