Summary: Part 3b of our real people real problems series

Real People – Real Problems

A study of 1 Samuel

Part 3b

“Samuel” hearing God

“Barriers to hearing”

Today we will continue in our study of 1 Samuel

In our Real People – Real problems series

With part 3b

Or part 2 of hearing God

I told you last week about the mules and horses at Bishop Mule days in the pack scramble

And the importance of those animals

Fist

Listening for

Then hearing

Then responding

To the sound of their masters voice

We saw how the wranglers at Bishop used many ways to call to their animals

Encouraging them to come out of the chaos

Come out of the confusion

Come out of the distraction

And continue with their purpose

And we learned how God speaks to us in many ways as well

And began to explore the importance of listening- hearing and responding

We studied how God speaks to us primarily in 5 ways

Through his Holy Spirit

Through his Word

Through his Church

Through his Creation

Through his Son Jesus

Today

I want to focus on what causes us to not hear- not listen or not respond

We will be back in 1 Samuel chapter 3 again this morning

Before we dig into to God’s word

Let me take you back just for a moment to Bishop

Imaging with me

The chaos in that arena

Following those shouts

Those Gun shots

The yelling crowd

The running animals

The dust

The excitement

The fear

Imagine yourself as one of those mules

This may be easier for some of you than others

Because you like me

May be just a few chromosomes away from being a mule

At least in mentality

But imagine with me

How hard it would be to hear your master’s voice in that madness

I really hate to tell you

But the world we live in has far more distractions

Far more mess

Far more chaos

Far more confusion

Than that arena could ever hold

So it should come as no surprise that sometimes we have trouble hearing the sound of God’s voice

Life

Satan

The world

The media

The politicians

Your job

Your own wants and desires

Cry out constantly for your attention and your time

And it is imperative as born again

Bona Fide believers

That we learn to listen for- hear and respond to our Masters voice

If you are not a believer

I can tell you it is even more important for you to learn to listen – hear and respond

Your eternal life depends on it

Not hearing God

Not listening to God

And not responding to God is a real problem in our lives

It has always been a problem

We see all though the bible

A failure to communicate with God

Take the nation of Israel for instance

God delivers them

Feeds them

Fights for them

Provides for them

And as soon as the dust settles

They get distracted and start listening to other voices

And the cycle starts again

Even Samuel

Our model in this study for hearing God

The high Priest

Israel’s last Judge

Did not always listen

Why?

Let’s get back into 1 Samuel to see

How he learned to listen

And how he overcame

And thrived

1 Samuel 3: 1-10

3 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the LORD by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the LORD were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle[a] near the Ark of God. 4 Suddenly the LORD called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

6 Then the LORD called out again, “Samuel!”

Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

7 Samuel did not yet know the LORD because he had never had a message from the LORD before. 8 So the LORD called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

Then Eli realized it was the LORD who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, LORD, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

10 And the LORD came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

One of the very first barriers to hearing God’s voice is

Inexperience

Verse 7

“Samuel did not yet know the LORD because he had never had a message from the LORD before.”

Samuel did not know it was God who was calling him

Because he had no experience with God

Let me remind you

He was serving in the temple

His life had been dedicated to God by his Mother Hannah

He was surrounded by the things of God

But he did not know God yet

If we look at this passage and apply it to our own lives

This explains

How someone could grow up in church

Be surrounded by the things of God

And then wake up one day and realize they were not saved

Listen

One of the first barriers to Hearing God

Is

Inexperiance

Lacking the experience to understand who is speaking to us

The Holy Spirit knocking on a person’s heart for salvation or even conviction of sins

Has been confused with a guilty conscience

A Jiminy the cricket whisper

Circumstance

A weird feeling

Even heart burn

God – the Holy Spirit

Speaks in a small still voice

But we often don’t hear because we have no experience with listening for God

Even once we have accepted salvation we have the same problems

We have no experience

You see

In order to hear God more

And respond more

We need to develop experience

How do we do that?

We seek it, ask God for it

Psalm 86:11

“Teach me your ways, O LORD,

that I may live according to your truth!”

And practice what he teaches

We need to get still and listen- spend quite time with God

We need to get quiet and read his word- develop a hunger to read God’s word

Develop a desire to communicate with him in prayer

As we do this we begin to recognize his word we begin to recognize how he speaks to us

And we begin to grow in relationship with him’

Desiring to please him and hear him

And we grow in wisdom

Which means we develop experience?

Which means it gets easier and easier to hear his voice

Let me mash just a little on those of you who have experience

It is our duty

To teach those who do not

Mentor them

Help them grow in their relationship

We should be challenging people to study and learn God’s word

Inviting them to church’ to bible studies

Sending them notes and texts and emails of encouragement

Making ourselves available to answered questions

Giving prayer support and Godly council

In order to hear God we must develop experience in communicating with God

The next barrier to hearing God’s voice is

Expectations

Or better yet

Lack of expectations

At first Samuel did not hear God’s voice

Or did not understand that it was God who was speaking

Because he had no experience

But

Also He was not expecting to hear from God

You see

Samuel was just a boy

Immature

He would have expected God to speak to Eli

Eli was a priest

Eli was a man of God- we know he had problems but he was still a priest

Eli was mature

Eli had experience

Samuel did not

He did not immediately recognize God’s voice

Or respond to God’s voice

Because he did not expect God to speak to him

Psalm 62:5 tells us about expectations

“Let all that I am wait quietly before God,

for my hope is in him.”

Hope is the expectations of things to come

And our hope comes from the Lord

In order to grow in God

We must expect to hear from God

Remember last week

I told you that God puts it in the hearts of men to know him

He speaks though his Sprit

His written word

His church

His creation

And his Son

He absolutely speaks to us today- personally

But in order to hear

We must expect communication

And we must act on our expectations

If we are expecting him to speak

And we know that in order to hear we must get still

Get quiet

Must seek to hear his voice

If we expect to hear his voice we should listen for his voice

But often we listen to everything but his voice

Let me show you just a few examples

God’s word- one of the ways he speaks to us

Gives us detailed instruction about marriage and divorce

Sexual relationships- in and out of marriage-Heterosexual and Homosexual

Honesty- Morality-Truthfulness

Respect-Integrity

Holiness

I could go on and on

But instead

We often seek advice on those topics and many more from our barber

The guys at work

Well meaning but misguided friends and family members

Even stupid TV shows and magazines

Why because often we have no expectations that God speaks to us personally

No expectations that what he says still applies to us

Or worse No idea about what God says about those subjects

We bought fire insurance but have no expectations that God desires o be a part of our lives

Maybe we don’t expect to hear from God because we have not sought to hear what he has to say? And we have no experience with hearing his voice

Or even worse

We choose not to hear

Because we don’t want to hear what he has to say

Inexperience is a barrier

Lack of expectations is a barrier

The next barrier to listening to- hearing and acting on God’ voice is

Unwillingness

Have you ever had a horse or mule?

Maybe a dog

A kid or a coworker

Maybe you were the one

That

Knew the right thing to do and just refused to do it

Your horse knows he gets fed in the third stall and won’t get anything to eat unless he comes in

And refuses

The dog

The kid

The coworker

Know the rules

But absolutely refuse to do what is needed

Required

Or is right

That is unwillingness

Matthew 13:15

Calls it hardness of heart

“For the hearts of these people are hardened,

and their ears cannot hear,

and they have closed their eyes—

so their eyes cannot see,

and their ears cannot hear,

and their hearts cannot understand,

and they cannot turn to me

and let me heal them.”

We call it

Stubbornness

Bull headedness

I’m sure each of you has your own ideas and words to describe this behavior as well

Unwillingness is a huge obstacle to hearing from God

We don’t desire his word or his advice

We don’t want his opinion

We don’t like his rules

So we ignore him

Tune him out

Surround ourselves with so much distraction

So much confusion

So much chaos

So much mess

That we don’t have to hear

We don’t have to listen

We don’t have to respond

Unwillingness is a bad thing

I can work with inexperience

I can work with low expectations

But unwillingness is hard

I can’t tell you the number of cow’s horses and mules that are sold on a daily basis for their unwillness to do what they are supposed to do

I can’t tell you the number of dogs that have found other homes because they refused to listen

The number of Families that have been torn apart by the unwillingness of one of more of the family’s unwieldiness to listen

The number of jobs that have been lost due to unwillingness to follow orders or do the job

Unwillingness in the context of hearing God

Plugs our ears tight to God and his voice

We don’t listen

Because we don’t want to hear

The last barrier for today is

Sin

Sin is not a popular word in today’s society

In today’s world

You can’t judge me many like to yell

Let me first off say

We are all sinners

Some are lost sinners

And some are saved sinners

But make no mistake

All sinners

I am not talking about accidental sin

I am not occasional sin

These can most definitely be a barrier to hearing God

On a short term basis

What I am talking about today

Is Blatant

Conscience sin

Knowing right and choosing wrong sin

This is a greater barrier to hearing from God than all the others combined

Blatant sin

Conscience sin

Sears our ears to hearing from God

It sears our hearts against the Holy Spirits prompting

Blatant sin

Builds a wall of separation between us and God

I need you to hear me

I am not judging anyone

But

If you are choosing to sin

And expecting God to be ok with it

Let me tell you a secret

His is not

He will forgive you

He will restore you

But he will never embrace your sin

He also will not look the other way

Or change his view

Listen

It is not my job to determine whether you are saved

That is between you and Jesus

But

I truly believe it is impossible to be saved

And sit and listen to Godly preaching

Read your bibles

Seek God in prayer

And choose to live in blatant sin and stay that way

Listen

The Holy spirit will convict sin’ that is part of his job

So believers who choose to sin do one of two things

They change

Repentance they call that

Quit it, I like to say

Or they run from God

They will quit showing up for church

Stop reading their bibles

Stop seeking God

In short

They will stop Listening

And more importantly they will stop responding

In short they will do as they please

And a wreck is on the horizon

Failure to hear God is a real problem in the world

To overcome that

We must seek to gain experience in God’s word and his ways

We must get up daily expecting God to show us his power and majesty

We must humble ourselves and submit ourselves willingly to his Lordship

And we must ask that he search our hearts

Convict us of our sins and cause us to go the other way

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 139:23-24

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offend you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

Are you listening?

Are you hearing?

Are you responding?

Close from the heart

Pray