INTRO (credit to www.stillspeaking.com)
This morning we’re going to talk about listening to God. We want to be careful listeners and not let other things get in the way.
Later, while you’re in Sunday school, I’m going to talk to the adults about a young person named Samuel. He had been sent to the temple to learn about being a priest. This was an honour, not a punishment.
Let’s see what good listeners you are. Each time I say the name "Samuel," you are to jump up and say, "Here I am!" and then lie back down again.
To begin, direct children to lie down and pretend they’re sleeping.
Samuel (pause while children jump up and down) was a young person who loved God and did what God asked. Samuel (pause) lived at the temple with Eli, the minister. One night while sleeping, Samuel (pause) heard a voice calling his name. He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am." Eli was very sleepy. He yawned and said, "I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep." Then Samuel (pause) heard a voice calling his name again. He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am." Eli was still very sleepy. He yawned and said, "I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep." For the third time, Samuel (pause) heard his name. He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am." This time Eli realized that God was trying to speak to Samuel (pause). Eli told him to say, "Speak, God, I am listening." One more time Samuel (pause) heard a voice calling his name and he said, "Speak, God, I am listening." And God told Samuel (pause) many important things. Samuel (pause) listened to the Lord that night and for the rest of his life.
ILL. - Ask for a volunteer. Give them the radio and ask them to turn it on. What can they hear? (This should be nothing more than a hiss.) Then ask your volunteer to turn the tuning dial. Stop them when a programme can be clearly heard.
God wants us to hear what he is saying, but it is no use just sitting and listening out for something. We won’t hear any great booming voice from the clouds. Like the radio needs to be tuned in, we need to be tuned in to God to hear what he is saying to us. We can do this through careful study of the Bible, through regular prayer, and through listening to other Christians. When God talks to us, we’ll hear clearly what it is that he is asking us to do, rather than just a hiss.
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Reading: 1 Samuel 2v12 – 18, 2v22 – 4v1
Main Talk
ILL- It has been said that on average we think four or five times faster than we talk. This means that if I speak at 120 words a minute, you will be thinking at 500 words a minute!
I guess either I’ll need to talk faster, or you’ll need to listen slower this morning.
ILL- Now God gave us two ears and only one mouth.
Was this because He wants us to spend twice as much time listening as talking? Or is it because He knew that we would find listening twice as hard?
Listening to God’s voice should be one of the most important parts of our life. Listening is the only way to know Him and His will and purpose for your life.
ILL- A music teacher once asked her class what is the difference between listening and hearing. At first there was no response. Finally a hand went up at the back of the class and one of the young people offered this wise definition: “Listening is wanting to hear!”
Do you want to hear God, do you want to listen?
God is always speaking to his people; the key is that we must want to listen.
Eli’s sons refused to listen to God
Eli’s sons Hophni [ HAHF-nai ] and Phinehas [ FEHN-ee-uhs ] were priests of the Lord at Shiloh [ SHAI-lo ], Shiloh was were the Lord’s temple and the Ark of the Covenant were.
Because of their high positions within the priesthood they would have been aware of how they should have conducted themselves and their duties in God’s house.
However we are told that they chose to ignore God’s guidelines, they took the best parts of the sacrifices for themselves and were sleeping with the women who worked at the temple.
They also chose not to listen to God’s word of rebuke spoken to them through their father, Eli – Eli was the high priest and a judge.
v23-25a
So (Eli) said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the Lord’s people. If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke.
Their failure to be obedient to God was to have fatal consequences for them.
v34
And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you - they will both die on the same day.
We all have done wrong, have sinned, and continue to sin – in that respect we are no better than Hophni and Phinehas.
Eli’s sons ignored God speaking to them – are you choosing to ignore what God is telling you to do (or stop doing)?
“The first duty of love is to listen” – Paul Tillich
Do you love God enough to listen to him?
Eli was only half-hearted in listening to God
As already mentioned Eli was the high priest, he is presented to us as a man, who though his eyes were failing him, was able to recognise when God was speaking, in v8 of ch3 it says “Then Eli realised that the Lord was calling the boy”.
Eli was even prepared to listen to God’s voice and to submit to it when it speaks of disaster for him and his family
Ch3v17-18
“What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
However, there seems to be an implication that the disaster which would (and did) come upon him and his family was due in part to his failure. He did not go far enough in practical obedience to God’s word in disciplining his sons. He rebuked them, but did nothing further when they did not listen. I guess you could say he turned a blind eye (or a deaf ear)
God wants no other obedience other than that which is wholehearted.
Eli was half-hearted in his response to God’s voice, he heard but didn’t really listen.
Are you half-hearted when it comes to listening to God? – God wants you to give him your whole heart.
Admittedly we all have trouble listening.
ILL- Maybe we are watching our favourite TV programme, and our husband or wife is talking to us about something that is important to them.
As they talk, we may mumble, “Hmm”, “Yeah”, and “Uh Huh”.
Until they finally give up, saying with annoyance in their voice, “You are not listening to a word I’m saying.”
When God speaks to us, do we listen? Or do we just mumble our reply “Hmm, Uh Huh”, and keep doing what we were doing.
Samuel heard God’s voice and listened
Samuel provides us with a positive example of listening to God and about being obedient to Him.
This is implicit in his growth and development under Eli’s guidance
Ch2v26
the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favour with the Lord and with men.
Ch3v1
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.
His example is also explicit in the account of his listening to God’s voice speaking to him.
Ch3v10
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
The result of Samuel’s listening and obedience to God was the recognition among the people of Israel that he was a man through whom God spoke.
Ch3v19-ch4v1
The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
When we first read about Samuel, it appears that he is a passive sort of person who seems that he would be content staying in the background. But by the end of our reading, Samuel is recognised as an important figure in Israel. How does Samuel move from shadows of mundane work in the temple into the spotlight? He does it by listening to God and obeying Him. This boy, who was probably no more than twelve years old, became God’s spokesperson in the days when “the word of the Lord was rare”.
Are you recognisable as someone who God speaks through? Do you listen to God and obey like Samuel did in his life?
Why should we listen to God?
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” and “I have come that they (that’s you and me) may have life, and have it to the full.”
Proverbs ch4v20-22 says,
“My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”
Jeremiah ch29v11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
If you want to know the best way through life, if you want to know the truth about the life you live and you want the full life that Jesus promised, then we need to listen to His voice. If we do what the Lord says he promises to give us a hope and a future, we will prosper.
Is God still speaking?
In our reading it said “In those days the word of the Lord was rare.”
Do we feel that this is true today? Is the word of the Lord rare today?
God has always spoken, he spoke in the beginning, “And God said, ‘Let there be light…’.”
He has spoken throughout the ages, he spoke to Job, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Gideon and David to name just a few.
When the time was just right he sent Jesus into the world, John describes this as “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Is God is still speaking today? The answer is yes, but I suspect the real questions we should be asking are. Are we listening? Are you listening? Am I listening?
Quite sometime ago I spoke about being a WELL church, a Worshipping, Evangelising, Learning and Loving church. We cannot be any of these if we are not a listening church first.
ILL- Someone once said, “Talk and you say what you already know, but listen and you will learn something new.”
Just like the radio we need to keep ourselves tuned in to God to hear what he is saying to us, this is done this through careful study of his Word, the Bible, through teaching and hopefully through talks like this, and through regular prayer. If we do this when God speaks to us, we will know his voice and be able to say, as Samuel did, “Speak Lord your servant is listening.”
MASTER, SPEAK! THY SERVANT HEARETH, Longing for Thy gracious word, Longing for Thy voice that cheereth; Master, let it now be heard.
I am listening, Lord, for Thee; what hast Thou to say to me?
Master, speak! And make me ready, When Thy voice is truly heard,
With obedience glad and steady still to follow every word.
I am listening, Lord, for Thee; Master, speak! O speak to me!
