Oct 31, 2021 Sunday Morning Service

Route to Clayton.

It is good to be here. I'm going to thank you all for the welcome that you have given to myself my wife and of course mom who all of you I assume know pretty well.

However, stimulating. That's a. I thought the word to live up to your right there. But I will say this, when brother Doug said, I could take all the time. I wanted. I did kind of remind him as a preacher. He knew that was a challenge. And I don't think I'm going to take him up on that.

If you want to turn your Bibles to the book of 1st Samuel. And I know before I even begin, you're thinking what on Earth is. Somebody's going to be talking about evangelism and Mission work have to do with Samuel. But believe me I have a point there. There is a method to this madness.

When you come into the book of 1st Samuel, just beginning and verse 1 and introduces us to his parents. Of course. Elkanah and the fact that Elkin, although we we understand him to be a devout, Israelite. The problem was that elkonin? Not unlike a lot of other Israelite men. Had two wives. One of those named penina and the other one named Hannah. Well, then we come to the issue that Pnina had children, and Hannah did not and within the household. This is really where the problem lay because penina and her children would ridicule Hannah because of her being barren. I've settled that really the kind of help you understand that, what we when we were reading this, not only are we reading about real people, with real problems. We see some similarities with even something that was Millennia ago. And modern-day, India. You see, when I first went over to India and of course, got married. That was not my original intent, but I got over there and wheat Sonia and I had been married about a year-and-a-half and Sony went to attend. A lady Bible or prayer. Meeting. Ladies Bible class. I guess you would call it. And after it was over one of the ladies there came up to her and said, I want you to know that I'm praying for you and sunny was kind of confused and she asked why she hadn't asked for prayers. There was no problem that we knew of and that might have prompted, such a statement and the woman just said, so that you'll have children.

In India, if you are married more than a year and have no kids. There's a problem. It's a problem in the community is a problem in the family. And without fail, they put the blame on the woman.

What that lady did not understand. Is that one? Sony and I first got married. I told her straight up. I said listen, I'm not having kids for 7 years.

Now, we didn't wait that long, but it was. To an almost 3 years 2 and 1/2 to 3 years before we had any kids. And so we see then you know, that we read a lot about this in the Bible and there are similarities that we can see in the modern world. But as we go through just continuing to read about Hannah and we see that, you know, she was distressed. She went to the temple as it's called. Now. This was not the Temple of Solomon. This is where the Ark of God was. She went to the temple to pray. And there comes Eli. Eli sees her. He sees her mouth moving but here is no sound and he begins then just to scold her. That's a good. Indian word. We, we use quite a bit over in India. He scolds her, he, accuses, her of being drunk and then Hannah has to explain the whole problem. She has to tell for the whole issue to Eli. I'm not drunk. This is what the problem is. I just want a child. And if God will grant me that child, I will dedicate him back to the service of God.

Eli was not a prophet in the sense that he was going to speak for God. He just assured her that the Lord heard her prayer, which we would assume that would be just an understood thing. Time passes. We don't know how long And the Lord remembers Hannah? He sees her in her condition being Barren. No children, and yet, that's all she want. But he remembers Hannah and he decides, it's time to let her have the child if she wants. So she conceives she gives birth to the child that we now know a Samuel. And again, time passes, she is raising him, she refuses to take him back to Jerusalem for the feast, because she knew eventually she was going to have to let him go forever.

And so, she kept him at home for a while. Once she finally does take him to Jerusalem. She presents him to Eli. We don't know how old he is. And yet he is going to be raised as Eli's assistant. Can you come to chapter 3? This is really where our lesson is going to be today. We're going to look at the first 10 verses very slowly. That's not the challenge. I'm just going to take it verse by verse and talk about everything and verse one. It says now, the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli and the word of the Lord was rare. In those days. There was no frequent Vision, tells us three, very important. Things number 1, Samuel will still call The Boy. Again. We don't know how old he was. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about Indian culture when you have a young man. He might be 35 years old, if he is not married. He still called a youth.

We don't know how old Samuel was.

But he was still working in the presence of Eli. So Eli still alive. This I think is a very important part in the whole chapter says, in the word of the Lord was rare. In those days. When we think about that. Maybe you don't think about this, the way I did, when I really started getting into this chapter. My opinion, was that it only almost always seem like, God had a profit for the people of Israel. And I think many of us might be guilty of that assumption. But yeah, we can read the Old Testament. We know that that's not always the case, it just kind of gets in our head. It seemed like there was always a profit there. Wasn't there was no frequent vision. Another words for a time before Samuel comes on the scene. God had been relatively quiet. But all that was about to change. When we come to verse to, it does at that time Eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see was lying down in his own place. Now again, we're talkin about

The priests were talking about him. Most likely being as close to the Ark of the Covenant as possible. And yet he was lying down in his own place, but let's go back to the beginning. We know he was old. We know he was blind and we know he was sleeping. Again, three more things that just one little verse tells us.

We understand he was old but now we come to the Blind part and I'm going to ask you very quickly. You don't have to raise your hands if you don't want but just think have, have you ever known. I mean, really known somebody who was blind.

I have been fortunate enough to have two men in my life that were blind. I mean, we've known the others in various places, we've lived and I was growing up, we've known several who are blind, but two in particular, one of those is my brother's father-in-law. Now he passed away, just this past year. 95 years old. Not covid. But his name was Tom Bowen and Tom was a very I want to say he was an incredible kind of man. I didn't know him really well, but I heard so much about him because I have such a relationship with my sister-in-law but a lot of her family and just all the things I had heard over over the years about Tom, Tom. Lost His sight when he was in his twenties, so he was blind from a 70 years. And this was a man that did not like to be taken care of. He didn't want anybody to have to treat him any differently. My brother. Jeff even told me one time that Tom was was the probably willing to change a ceiling fan by himself.

And I'm thinking, oh goodness. No.

But that was just the way he was. Now of course, the family would post pictures of him from time to time on Facebook and he would pick his own clothes. It did get kind of funny.

But Tom had a great sense of humor. Again, didn't like to be babied didn't want anybody to have to just fawn over him. He was his own man.

The other man that I have in my life who was blind with Sony's father. He's been dead now about 15 years. He died about. I think he was about 75 years old. No one knows really for sure. How old he was. That's just India. Don't ask. But he had lost his sight of about 7 years. Before he passed away. He had suffered a massive stroke right after our oldest daughter was born at left him practically bedridden. He was unable to take care of himself. Now his his name is Bibi Emmanuel Emmanuel had been a great preacher, a great translator. He had grown up morning to a Hindu family, converted to a denominational group and then eventually came into the church, but he had come from a position of pretty high rank in this denomination. Before he left everything to join, the Lord's Church to come into the Lourdes Church. He had spent most of the rest of his life going back to denominational congregations, trying to continue to convert them, over to the Lord's church, and was very successful with the to a great extent.

But I'll after he lost his sight because of the stroke, because he had heart issues and everything else. Like I said, he was bedridden. we fine now, a man who is used to taking care of himself, and now unable to And so, what we saw from from Emmanuel was I'm not going to say fear necessarily, but he never like to be left alone.

If he was ever in the room and in the bed and he thought no one was in the room with him. He starts calling out until somebody would come to him. He would always tell us he was ready to go back out on campaign. He wanted to continue preaching. He was still mentally sharp. He just couldn't take care of himself.

And a lot of that sadly did translate kind of into frustration. It was very difficult for him to live the last few years of his life.

Until we see two totally different sets of circumstances, one who lost his sight earlier in life, one, who lost his sight later in life and how that affected both of them. And I understand when reading this Eli had lost his sight, probably at an older age was not able to take care of himself. And so that is why when we think about what's about to happen and when we should know the story about how God called Samuel that night. But we were thinking about how Samuel continue to go to Eliza. Just give me saying you called me. That was probably a common occurrence. Remember Samuel was his assistant. He was his eyes. He was his hand. He was the one who helped Eli, do everything. And there was probably more than once that Samuel was called by Eli in the middle of the night.

so, when we come to verse 3, Does 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. So again, it's not the Tabernacle, but the lamp was there. And Samuel was sleeping, wherever the ark was.

Think about this for just a minute because this is going to make a very important point in just a few moment. If Samuel was Eli's assistant and helping him, take care of things, like the lamp and all the other articles of that should be in the Tabernacle that were they were wherever the ark was. He knew about God.

Think about that for just a moment. He knew about God, he knew about the worship. He knew about sacrifices, he knew about what it took to take care of the items that were there in this this Temple. He knew about God. And so that is all going to be very important. But now he's asleep. So we understand it's late at night. Most Scholars say is probably about midnight because it says the lamp had not yet gone out.

Running boards for here is where the action really begins the Lord called Samuel and he gets up. He says here I am and then it says in verse 5, he goes to Eli. He says here I am for you called me. No, I'm saying, here. I am. He was not being disrespectful.

He's not saying what do you want? He is letting honestly a blind man. Know I am here. I've heard a call. What is it? You need?

And what did he lie say? It wasn't me.

How many do you have children? I want you to raise your hands on this. How many of you have children? How many of you remember when they were infants and just being born? The first few months, of course, they wake up in the middle of the night. Have to be clean, have to be fed. Usually, just go right back to sleep as they get a little bit older things change and they can sleep through the night. And

I'm going to just say Eli was a lot more patient than I was. My children knew that when they were old enough to understand that, they did not wake daddy up in the middle of the night, because daddy would not be happy.

I'm so,

Samuel goes and lies down again at the end of the first five or six. The Lord called Samuel. Again. Samuel went to Eli's as here. I am for you called me. And this is where I would have absolutely just lost it. Because at this point, my night would have been over. Sony will tell you last night, I tossed and turned forever. I got woken up by something about 3 this morning. And I think it was probably around 5:30 maybe 6 before I was able to go back to sleep when I get woken up. I'm up. But here's Samuel has gone to Eli the second time in the night is as here. I am for you called me and Eli was really nice about it. And said, I did not call you my son. Go lie down again.

But now we come to verse 7. And this is why I pointed out about Samuel and his work in the the temple and verse 7 is says now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. He knew about God, he knew about the worship, he knew about all the items that were necessary for that worship, but he did not know God. He didn't know the Lord, the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And so we find this is a very changing moment in the life of Samuel.

And then the Lord called Samuel, again, the third time. Now, if you have a King James version of the Bible, the King James really is my favorite version. When it comes to reading, just this one verse. Because I tried to see Samuel calls him a boy. I'm saying probably in his teenage years. Maybe we don't know. But the King James says he went to Eli and he says, here I am for you, did call me.

It gives the idea that listen old man. There's nobody else here. It has to be you.

But then, Eli has that V8 moment where he smacks himself on the forehead. And he says, now I get it there for, there's only one other option. Because when you think about Eli's position and especially with Samuel, nobody would come and call Samuel if they needed the priest in the middle of the night. They're calling Eli.

So, it's not somebody else. Ensign, Samuel was the assistant. Eli would have called him possibly Samuel. Like, I've already said, may have gone to him many times in the night to help him to do whatever needed to be done. But here, no one else was calling. It had to be Eli. That was no way Samuels mindset was. Here, I am for you. Did call me.

And then, he'll I perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel go lie down and if he calls you you still say Speak Lord for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lie down in his place. Set all of that. I just asked a simple question again. You don't have to answer if you don't want to how many of you have ever been called by God.

None of you. Really?

I asked that question in India. You would know you would not believe how many times hands go up.

Of course, having been in India for so many years. I've come across many other foreigners people. Like me, don't belong in India, under normal circumstances and of course of many denominational groups, and we just getting visiting talking about, you know, what types of work we do and, and almost without fail. It seems like they just feel compelled to tell me how they got their call. I had one man told me he was sitting at his desk and and studying, and preparing lessons and, and praying. And he had this whisper in his ear, is that I want you to go to India.

Another man told me he was driving down the highway and the Lord appeared to him in a vision.

Think about that for just a moment.

the Lord appeared to him in a vision and said, I want you to go to India.

And then without fail, they always have to ask me Brother. Kyle. How did you get your call last night? I never got one.

And they're just dumbfounded. They can't believe why on Earth would any man in his right mind being India? Unless God had told him to go and do they ask me. Why are you here? My dad asked me to go.

And this takes some explaining. You see a 1981?

I made my first trip to India. I was 11 years old. We were planning as a family. The children, probably a lot less willing than the parents to stay in India for 5 years. That was the plan. We got there, we ended up only able to stay for 5 months. We came back to the States. My, my father went back into local work for a few years, and 1985 the West End Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Agreed to take my dad on, as, as there's his sponsor, so that he could be back in India, work full-time. And ever, since we moved to Birmingham during the, I was then a sophomore in high school and my dad would then be asking me during summer holidays. Kyle. Would you like to go to India for the summer?

Not interested.

I graduated from high school in 1988 and then went into just local Community College. I went for three years including Summers. I changed my major. During that time, one class remained and I dropped out. But during all that. My dad never was like me. Do you want to go to any of her this summer? We just kind of dropped it. After I dropped out of college, I went to work for a while, but I believe or not, I have some issues with my back and I got laid off from a labor-intensive job. And so in August of 1993, the beginning of the month. My dad asked me again. Kyle. Would you like to go to India? Why don't you just come in here? And I said, fine. I'll go. But I have three conditions. Number one. I'm only going to stay for two months. Not a day longer. Number to, I'm not going to preach. So don't ask number 3, don't try getting me. Married off to a young Indian girl.

We see how well that worked.

Mom and I my dad went ahead to India. I had to get, I think I had to get a new passport and a Visa. So Mom, and I travel together later on, we arrived on August 28th. I know this because that was the day of Mom and Dad's anniversary the next morning on August 29th. We have been invited to a worship service at does in the area done, Laguna Inn in Hyderabad and the word have been spread to a bunch of the congregations there in the city brother. Ron is going to be here and his son is coming and he's not married roughly translated, bring your daughters.

And that is where I met Sony. Now, her brother and sister actually were already working in my parents office and had been for several years before I went there. I met the Kamari and Jay, Paul that first day, I met her parents that first day. I'm at the youngest sister Aquila that first day. But there were two girls Indira and Sony, I didn't meet on the 28th. They all came to that worship service on the 29th, and then I got to meet her then. And everything changed.

But what am I called? No. Everything just sort of worked out that way.

But then, when we think about it. Was I called? Yes, I've been called just like everybody else right there in the word of God. We have all been called. We have all been called to do the same things. We've all been called to do things. The same way. We have all been call, of course, to to study to learn about Jesus Christ. We have been called to believe in Jesus Christ. We have been called to obey him. We've been called to repent of our sins to confess our faith in Christ to be baptized to live Faithfully, knowing that's not the end of it. But we have been called. We have been called to go into all the world and spread the gospel. To make disciples of all Nations.

Notice what Jesus didn't say when he gave the Great Commission. He didn't say that. Thomas had to go to one place and Peter had to go somewhere else. He said go. That was it. Go into all the world.

I'm pretty, pretty sure it's safe to say that. Now, there's more than three people in this room have ever been to India. I'm going to be really surprised. Okay. My world is different than your world. For the last 28 years, India for the most part has been my world. I come back to the States. I'm usually in Indy about 10 months out of the year. And then when the children had summer their summer holidays, we would come back to the state and so much believe it or not, and just a ten month. So much changes here. I was having to relearn landmarks. I have to relearn, how to drive because you guys do it on the wrong side of the road.

But that was my world.

When Jesus calls you. Go and make disciples of all Nations. Where is your nation? Go and preach the gospel. In all the world. Where is your world? It might be right here. You may never leave Gore. But this is your world and we are supposed to go into our world. We have been called to be missionaries. Every single one of us to be full-time missionaries. What is going to school if your student going to work? And I know it's a difficult thing to do because somebody can complain. You can lose a job. I get it. It's a very difficult thing for us to do in today's world. But that does not remove from us the responsibility.

We are called to work. We are called to care for others. To pray for others. We are called to care for the sick. And if covid has taught us anything, there are plenty of opportunities for us to care for others.

We're supposed to serve and to help others. We are to be missionaries.

Since we're talking about missionaries being missionaries for just a moment. I'm going to talk a little bit about the work. If you have your hand out. I'm not going to spend forever. Dogs going to be disappointed.

And I know you're familiar with the work, but it did never hurts to have just a little bit of re-familiarize ation with it. So, if you look at the inside of the hand out very quickly, just below the list of states, this, of course, is where most of the changes have taken place in our work in the past few years. Actually. We have had two of our men over the past three years. Resign and then, of course, my father passing away earlier this year. My father made his first trip to India in 1979 that this was not something he just thought of it, the spur of the moment. He had been having a correspondence with a man in the in the city of Colonel name of Baton Rouge on. And for those of you who might be a little bit younger or actually like Star Wars, I can tell you exactly what bandrew John looks like.

Yoda. Just without the pointy ears. Okay, that was Ben Drew John. He had the bad teeth. The hair coming out of his ears. Really wrinkled forehead scratchy voice. The only difference is he was Brown.

Vendor John that had gotten his hands on something. My father had written long long before 1979, and he starts writing letters asking My Dead Brother. Please come to India. My father was interested. He wanted to go this. He had heard the stories. His father had told him when he was stationed there in the end of Burma. Chinese Theater in World War II, he wanted to go. It just took a long time to get there. Until 1979 in the month of January. My dad left from Phoenix. Arizona went to India on a actually, a three-country trip. He was going to go. He went to Greece. I think maybe a week in each of those places. He was in India for just a few weeks. Work with a man by the name of Dean Crutchfield. He went then. I don't remember if it was later in 79 or early in 80. He made his second trip. And then on his third trip, I believe that's when my mom went with hurt with him on her first trip. And that was, when they came up with this idea. The whole family is going to go. So in September 1981, we all packed up. We went to ndi, we came back in February of 82. And then in 1985, as I've already said we moved to Birmingham. Although he's not on the list in 1986. I believe it was Dad and Vera's Bullard for Manassas, Virginia. They got together and although we don't exactly work together. We work with a lot of the same Indian Brethren. And so it's kind of a loose connection that we have with Jared's Bullard and then he has continued up until the last couple years to continue his work in India. Unfortunately, his health is starting to deteriorate and right now we're not certain if he's going to be able to return or not.

As I said already, I went to India, 1993. And continued to work there. Robert Hall made his first trip to India 1997. Now, he was when we first met him. He was preaching at Columbiana, Alabama at the church, their dad and Robert first met her when he had gone there to talk about the India working and I guess an early or late 85 and, and he and Robert hit it off real. Well, my dad was just Robert. Please come to India. You would love that. You would just, you would enjoy it so much. I would be so blipping. He was not interested.

He moved around to several other places in the country in before he moved back to Alabama. And he is now preaching or was until recently preaching at the the church in Tanner, Alabama. And he finally agreed to go and loved it so much that in 2001. He stepped down from his job. As the preacher at the church of Tanner to join us. Full-time down 2013 because of health issues. He's had to step back. Since my father passed away earlier this year. He immediately resigned. When I say he stepped back. What happened was he actually went back to preaching at Tanner? He was with his one of the elders there, but when my father passed away, he resigned as the preacher again. And has rejoined, the team full-time. In 2004. We were joined by Ben renegar. Now he is from Fayetteville, Tennessee. No, I said earlier. We had lost a couple of other workers, but we have gained two other workers besides Robert this year. These are not new people to India brother. Joe Evans. I met him my first time in that short time. My first day in India in 1993. It was not his first trip to India. Now. He's out of Hot Springs, Arkansas. And over the past 10 years. Joe and I his wife Diane and and Sony of course, we have all just gotten to know each other really. Well. I have been begging him over the years to join our work so we can just pull our forces and and finally, he's agreed to do that. Now, what Joe does in India, he took over a three-month intensive. Preacher training school.

That involved in a sense. It was no longer really designed for preachers, but it was designed in to teach and train men to become Elders in the church. Very successful program but sadly. He lost a couple of his his teachers and so it's had to evolve some more. And so is what he calls, his Titus project training men to be a vandal. Not just local preachers, but to be evangelist. And so, Joe and Diane. We're so glad to have them on board with us. But then also, we have Steve Snyder now, Steve is from Barefoot, West Virginia. Again. I met him in India, 1993, and that was not his first trip either, but Steve has used to make like every other year. He would come to India. It's been about a month. He was the preacher of the barrackville church became one of their elders. But eight years ago, Steve got to India and his son, Aaron died. Very unexpectedly here in the states. Steve came back and he had to go through a lot of just issues at home. And, and so, he pulled back from India for a while. But he had the taking a job working in a pharmaceutical company in. Fairmont West Virginia. They knew they were going to close their doors and he was just waiting for them to do so so he would get his full pension or or Severance whatever. And he said, once that, once that happens, I'm coming back to India. My dad, and Steve have been talkin about this in 2018. I think it was, he was ready to leave everything to join the work, but he just wanted to. He said, we're just going to wait for a little bit longer. And sadly, of course, my father passed away before Steve could join us.

But that is, that's those are the major changes of really taken place in our work. If you go then to the front side of the hand out and I I know Sonia is passed around some, some photo albums just to give you some idea of things have been going on especially since covid. But the works that we've been involved in the first of those is Evangelistic efforts. This makes sense. We're missionaries. That's what we're supposed to do. We are supposed to be teaching. And the gospel meetings that we hold, these are usually one evening. One place. When were in the cities. It's a slower effort, but we go into the villages. And we can teach all day long and classes. We can go out to nearby Villages at night. There was a lot of work that can be done. When we look at more down the list of Carl across from Memorial Institute of biblical studies the kcmb eyes. Can't keep Memorial Bible. Institute has them for Ford Memorial preachers lectureships. All of these are designed to just better teach and train men for preachers. That's the whole point. We want them to be able to do this work. I'm not saying that they can do all the evangelism without us because they can't. India is a very wealthy Nation, but it's one of these situations where most of the wealth is concentrated on a very small percentage of the people. Most of the Indians cannot afford to be able to go out on a regular basis and travel to to preach. And so we do continue to need to help them next on the list of denominational preacher seminar. This is one of our greatest works that we might be able to, of course, convert denominational preachers. We've been very successful with this, but when we are able to convert one denominational preacher, their thing is not only then. Do we have access to a congregation? We have access to colleagues and so the domination of preacher seminars are where we can help to teach these colleagues and help. It just weed out the errors of the denomination, bring them back to the Bible. And and of course that will also give us access to more and more congregation. But you can look through the rest of the list and, and make sure you understand the types of work that we do. But when you come below that list and you see the results.

Since 1979 understanding this is not the work of just a few Americans. This is not the work of a handful of Indians. We estimate that we work with. That's the last estimate was around 53,000. Although we have no true number of how many we work with. We have had reported to us over 5 million gospel meetings. Over 10 million conversions. And the question comes up, how many of those people remain faithful? We estimate about 75%. Of course, we lose some to death. We do lose some to denominational groups, but it happens. Very, very rarely.

but when we think about the work that we're doing,

we think about what I've already said this morning about being called. There was no voice in the middle of the night. There was no whisper. There was no vision. But we know good and well, that we were called to India.

It all started with a letter. And so much has happened because of it. But when we think about all the work that has been done, keeping in mind, India's population is coming close to 1.4 billion right now. What we have been able to do in that country is still just a drop in the bucket. There is no end in sight. They will always need us at least, probably long after I'm dead, but there is so much to do. We are called to work. We are called to go into all nations and make disciples.

I want you to go back. The first Samuel chapter 3.

In verse 10. Says, the Lord came and stood.

Calling as another X Samuel, Samuel.

And Samuel said speak for your servant hears. Or some translations. Say speak for your servant is listening. This was just the beginning. When we look throughout the rest of Samuel's life. Now, I know the books 1st and 2nd Samuel. Samuel did not survive, the writing of both of those books, but we know that through the rest of his life. It was a life of listening. God telling Samuel what to do and Samuel listening to him.

And doing what the Lord commanded him to do. He said when we look at Samuels career, not just as a prophet. He was also called a Judge. This was the leader of the people of Israel. And yet wherever God told Samuel to go. He went. Whatever God told Samuel to do, he did even on those cases where it was going to be something either. They brought great rejoicing to the people of Israel or something and brought disappointment to the people. They're worse. I'm I'm sure a few things. Samuel didn't want to do we know good. And well, that Samuel when the people argued and then requested a King. Samuel wasn't happy about it. But what did he do? He went to God and he said, they rejected me. What did God say? No Samuel. They rejected me. The people that rejected God is their true king. They wanted to be like all the other nations. Samuel wasn't happy with that. And yet, God told him. Go ahead, you anoint, the king, the people, of course, we were very happy with this but then it wasn't very long later. God was having to tell Samuel again. You go. Tell that same King Saul. I rejected him because of his disobedience.

I don't think Samuel wanted to do that either. And yet, he did it. All throughout his life. He was called the sphere. He was called the man of God. Isn't that what we're supposed to be? Men and women of God.

When we go out into the world, does the world know? That we are God's people. Are we doing the work that God has called us to do. Are we going out to make disciples? Not just in India, but right here and Gore.

We have been called.

We need to look at the example of Samuel. And see when God called him. What was his response? He did, what the Lord commanded him to do, what the Lord have called him to do. We need to respond in the same way. The advice that Eli gave Samuel when he calls you, this is what you say Speak. Lord for your servant hears and the attitude that Samuel had was that he was listening in order that he could do it. And that needs to be the way we listen. We need to listen with the attitude that we will do, what the Lord has commanded us to do. This morning. You may not have come to Christ. You may not have put him on in, baptism to become part of this family to become part of his body. An opportunity is put before us today. Just like any other day of the year and we can come to him that we can put him on in baptism. We may not have been as faithful as we should have been. We are called to come back to him. We are called to ask, for forgiveness, to ask for prayers, and for strength, and we are called to pray for our brothers and sisters. Whatever the need might be faster to make it known come forward as we stand in sink.