Can You Hear Me Now?

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???

I SAM 2:13-17

Most all of us are familiar with the Verizon Phone ads with the catch phrase “can you hear me now?.”

They make it seem like all we have to do is have service with Verizon and our phones would never drop a call… Now, I used to have that service and I was always the one saying…can you hear me now…For a long time after we moved here I was convinced I was going to have to pull a Green Acres and go climb a pole to get a signal…I literally could only take calls in my office at home…anywhere else in the house and the coverage was not sufficient for people to hear me.

Sometimes I think God must get tired of saying…can you hear me now??? You see, unlike Verizon, with God the problem is never with the carrier…it’s always with the receiver…and the way some of us respond to God’s instructions He must say quite a lot…can you hear me now???

We don’t have to work at getting HIS attention…. but too often God has to work to get ours.

In Ezekiel, God stated that "these people have ears to hear but they never hear - eyes to see, but they never see" (12:2).

Why don’t they hear/see? The same reason we don’t…

1. Because we’re not paying attention.

ILLUS: I read recently that several states were thinking of making new restrictions on young drivers. It seems that having a teenager drive can be a scary thing. But they’ve found that when a teen has a friend in the car, the situation gets even worse. AND if that teen has several friends in the car… that was a recipe for disaster.

So someone has suggested that for the first year or so driving – no friends in the car.

Now, why would a teen be a danger because of his friends being in the car with him?

Because the teen would get distracted by his friends and not pay attention.

They have ears to hear… but they’d just not be listening to the things they need to listen to.

Now, as we come to I Samuel – we find that somebody hasn’t been paying attention.

Somebody has NOT been LISTENING to God.

You see, seldom is the problem not hearing God…the problem is not listening…

Guys, where have we heard that before…

In our text today God explains that’s been happening to Eli, the priest, and there is nothing more sad than a man of God who refuses to listen to his Master. (turn to I Samuel 2:13-17)

1 Samuel 2:12 - 17 (NKJV) 12Now the sons of Eli were corrupt;£ they did not know the LORD. 13And the priests’ custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the meat was boiling. 14Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.” 16And if the man said to him, “They should really burn the fat first; then you may take as much as your heart desires,” he would then answer him, “No, but you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.” 17Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.

“Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.

This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.”

Then in vs:22 we’re told

1 Samuel 2:22 - 25 (NKJV) 22Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, £and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 23So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the LORD’S people transgress. 25If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?” Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to kill them.

Not only are the boys stealing from God… they’re making the tabernacle a place of prostitution.