THE LOST VOICE OF GOD
1 Sam 3:1-11
1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
2 And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;
3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;
4 That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.
6 And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.
8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.
9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.
11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
Ps 28:1-2
Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
The first role of successful merchandising is to give consumers what they want. If they want bigger burgers, make their burgers bigger. Designer bottle water in six fruit flavors? Done. You got it! Minivans with DVD players & TV’s, headphone hookups and 10 personal cup holders? You want 10, make it 20. The rage of the age is KEEP THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED. You’ve got to modify your product and your message to meet their needs if you want to build a market and get ahead of the competition.
Today this same consumer mindset has invaded Christianity. The church service is too long, you say? We’ll shorten it (one pastor guarantees his sermons will never last more than seven minutes!). Dress code to formal? Wear your sweat suit. Too boring? Wait till you hear our rocking’ church band!
And if the message is too confrontational, or too judgmental, or too exclusive, scary, unbelievable, hard to understand, or too much anything else for your taste, churches everywhere are eager to adjust that message to make you feel more comfortable. This new version of Christianity makes you a partner on the team, a design consultant on church life, and does away with old-fashioned authority, accountability, and moral absolutes.
Billy Graham has said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have”
Martin Luther, “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
At the close of life, the question will not be,
"How much have you gotten?" but "How much have you given?"
Not "How much have you won?" but "How much have you done?"
Not "How much have you saved?" but "How much have you sacrificed?"
It will be "How much have you loved and served," not "How much were you honored?"
I: We have a lot of voices competing for our attention in lives:
A. There is the “Voice of the World,”
a. We call it peer pressure:
1. It’s that voice that wants us to fit in:
1a. It’s this voice that says, unless I become like others I won’t be
accepted:
2a. This voice says, “If you don’t they won’t love you:”
2. This voice is heard at shopping malls to car lots, it’s heard from Wal-mart to Bass Pro:
1a. Telling us, we need to buy more so we can have more, more makes
you happy:
3. The voice of the world keeps telling me, God’s not real, and if He is, I have plenty of time to do what I want:
B. Second voice is, “Voice of my Adversary:”
a. This voice convinces some that there is no recompense for sin:
1. That man is his own god, and has a right to make his own decisions:
2. This voice tells me, God’s Word is irrelevant to my life, and I don’t need it:
1b. It’s this voice that tells the prodigal that he doesn’t need the
fathers house:
That the boundaries in the fathers house are holding us back:
2b. And when the music starts playing and the songs start singing, this
voice interrupts that I might not hear:
It’s this voice that starts speaking when the ministry of God’s Word starts to drown out what thus saith the Word of God:
3. This voice promises me abundant life, joy and happiness:
Voices from our past: We have studied this quit often here at church. One of our greatest down falls as Christians is that we listen to, hang around, and be best friends with the people from our past. The voices from your past will always contradict the voice of God. They will say, it’s ok to still do this, wear that, say that, smoke that, drink that, watch that, listen to that, fight that, sleep with that. You cannot be best friends with the people who hate the church, and who is always finding fault with it and the man of God, and people in the church. If you do, it will cause a spirit to get on you, and them kind of spirits have to be prayed off and prayed through, because they affect your perspective and your thoughts, and your emotions, and your feelings.
C. Then there is the “Voice of God:”
a. David said, “Oh Lord, be not silent to me,”
1. There is a fear in David’s life, that the voice of God would be Lost in his life:
1c. David states, that if God’s voice is lost in his life, then he would
become like those who go down into the pit:
Pit means, “prison or dungeon:”
N> The pit is a place of bondage:
• David knew that God’s voice, kept him from the pit:
II: Pharaoh did not have the “Voice of God,” in his life:”
A. And Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go,:”
a. Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
1. When you do not have the voice of God in your life, you do not obey the voice of God, because you do not recognize when God is speaking and man is speaking:
N> Because the Voice of God was not in Egypt, all of Egypt would suffer
by the plagues:
B. Many times Israel “Lost the Voice of God,” in their life:
a. The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and said, “Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord.
Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon: Jer 29:19-20
1. God was telling Israel, your bondage is because My “Voice is Lost,” in your life:
b. Jesus tells the parable of the sower: Matt 13:9
1. At the of the parable Jesus said, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
N> He’s not speaking of physical ears, but spiritual ears that can hear
the voice of God and understand:
1b. Disciples asked, “why do you speak to them in parables:”
Jesus said, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”
Jesus only reveals the mysteries of the kingdom, to those that will “Hear His Voice in their life:”
2. Jesus went on to say, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
N> Once you lose the “Voice of God,” you lose the ability to understand or
perceive the things of God:
c. Because America has Lost the Voice of God:
1b. We have presidents that proclaim to be Christians, but believe it’s
ok to kill unborn babies:
And believe it’s ok for same sex marriages:
1. Because we have lost the Voice of God in America:
1b. We kill our babies, and save our tree’s and whales:
2b. We teach our kids, they came from an ape:
3b. We teach our kids, it’s ok to be a homosexual or lesbian:
4b. it’s ok to have sex outside of marriage, as long as you have safe sex:
N> Because the Voice of God has been lost in America, we call evil good
and good evil:
• Our media degrades and stifles all that stand for righteousness:
• Christians are portrayed as bigots and racist because they stand against the immorality of America:
2. The church in America needs the find the Voice of God:
1b. We have preachers that are homosexuals:
And proclaim that homosexuals are a gift from God:
3b. The American church, desires the world more than God:
N> Jesus said, “Israel has ears, but cannot hear:”
• “ For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing,…”
N> Jesus was saying, “The reason some cannot hear, is because their heart
has become calloused, and their ears are dull of hearing:”
• dull ears, means, “I’ve heard it so long, it no longer moves me:”
N> Because Israel had lost the Voice of God, they would crucify their
only salvation:
C. God’s voice is heard in several ways:
a. Moses told God, “Israel will not believe me:” Ex 4:8 {Moses}
1. God gave Moses two signs, the withered hand, and the staff turning to a serpent:
“The Signs became the “Voice of God:”
1c. God said, “it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign:
2. God told Israel, if you don’t keep my commandments:
1c. “there will be no rain:” Dt. 28
This would destroy Israel’s economy:
Pestilence and disease would cleave unto them:
God said, “I’ll send a sword among you:”
N> God said, I want bless your kids nor family, and everything they put their
hand to he will not bless:
N> God is saying, all these are signs and speak as my voice:
• When your economy is bad, make sure you haven’t lost Gods voice in your life:
• When I’m losing battles, make sure I haven’t lost Gods voice in my life:
• When my family is not blessed, make sure I haven’t lost God’s voice in my life,
N> If I’m not careful, I’ll become like Israel, and ignore the Voice of the sign,
which is Gods voice trying to get me to hear:
b. God speaks through the voice of man:
1. Through the prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelist and apostles:
1c. Noah’s generation would not hear the voice of God as Noah
preached:
2c. Abraham spoke to the rich man and said, “if they will not hear the
words of Moses, they will not believe though one rise from the
dead:”
N> If I cannot hear God’s Voice through the man of God, I will not believe
the sign:
2. The reason many refuse to hear the man is:
1c. They reason it’s just a man, and forget, God speaks through
man to man:
When God called out to Samuel, historians say that Samuel was probably at the age of 12 to 13, they had done laid down for the evening, and God called out to Samuel, he jumps up and runs to Eli the priest, he does this 3 times, and finally Eli understands that it’s God calling out to Samuel and he said when he calls again say Here I am Lord.
Samuel was raised by Eli in the tabernacle; he knew the voice of Eli, my God he jumps up 3 times, and runs to the man who was raising him.
I can come to this conclusion, the voice of God and the voice of Eli sounded alike.
The devil has snuck in to our churches across America and done took control away from the leaders and true men of God and put it in the hands of bitter and hateful people.
People don’t want a Pastor telling them how to live anymore, they want to come to church whenever they want and they don’t want to be bothered with all this church business and following a Man of God as he follows Christ, they want to be satisfied in their conscious to do their precious duty on Sunday morning and nothing else through the week. God forbid that their Pastor would call and ask why they missed church on Sunday or midweek.
I think I can say we are living in a wilderness in this world.
He told the prophet to simply start speaking. When the man of God started speaking in that Valley of dry bones, there was a noise that started across that valley or that wilderness. The bones that were very dry, began to come together, bone to his bone, it didn’t go find another bone across the valley and say I didn’t like my former body can I join you, he didn’t wiggle over to another body and say my head wasn’t screwed on right last time I don’t want to take another chance, NO he went right where he was supposed to be and there wasn’t any arguing.
Can I stop right there? If we are supposed to be the body of Christ, then why in the world are we consumed with hatred, bitterness and being even prejudice toward one another. Its times like this is when I don’t need Doc. Phil to draw up an opinion on my mental state of mind. Its times like these, where I don’t need Oprah to tell me another book to read to make me realize how messed up I really am.
What do I need? I need a Man Of God to Speak into my wilderness!!!
Us preacher’s are the mouth piece of God. I have Pastored people in times past, that every time you turn around God was speaking or revealing something to them about what was wrong with the church, or what was wrong with the youth or what was wrong in the church government, and God was never speaking to them about what sin they had in their own lives.
God will never speak to you as saints to reveal sin in other people lives.
That is not the voice of God. God WILL NEVER speak to you and tell you to go and correct someone when it comes to spiritual matters in their lives.
God does speak to me, but Abraham was the friend of God, and he went years without hearing the voice of God, and yet he kept on looking for that city.
There has been such an attack on the voice of God in people’s lives to discredit the ministry and try and tear down and destroy the men of God that carry’s the voice of God.
God spoke to Nathan about David:
Nathan spoke to David and said, “thou art the man:”
Jesus spoke to Ananias about Paul, Ananias spoke to Paul
about Jesus:
God spoke through John the Baptist to Herod:
1c. Herod didn’t want to behead John the Baptist, but the moment to please and the voice of Herodias was louder than the voice of God:
When Herod had John beheaded, he didn’t know, but he had cut of the voice of God in his life, and he was left without a voice of conviction:
I must be careful, not to turn a deaf ear to what the messenger is saying,
just because I don’t like the message or the messenger:
God doesn’t tell you one thing one day and change it the next. God is consistent. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Here are some examples.
God is never going to tell you to lie. God is never going to tell you to steal. God is never going to tell you to murder someone. He is never going to tell you to commit adultery. God is just not going to do it. We always get in trouble when we disobey God’s Word.
Most of God’s will for your life is found right here in the Bible. He tells us not to lie, cheat or steal. He tells us to treat others as we would want to be treated. He tells us to pray for those we don’t like. He tells us to be honest and to obey His Word. Anything the advise we receive goes against God’s Word is not from Him. That is the first and most important test of all. Are the voices I hear consistent with God’s word?
On a side note. I know I have had several minister’s here working under me, and under this leadership. God will never speak to any of them, to come to you privately and try to stir up church trouble, to cause you to doubt the voice of God in your life. God will not speak to them and tell them to come ask you things like, what do you think about the tithes going to the ministry, or what do you think about who he gets to sing, or what do you think about the Sunday school teacher. If any of them do that, you can say they are working not under the voice of God, but of their own agenda’s, and the spirit of Satan.
I had a preacher tell me one time, he Said this” God told me I was going to Pastor such and such church, that God was fixing to remove the current Pastor and put me in there. Well that spirit, that he started betraying to the people to them privately, and getting their own little in house prayer groups and Bible studies Started causing chaos, and confusion, and they had to shut the church down, and sold the building.
God DOES NOT operate like that.
c. God speaks, through His Word:
1. It was Jeremiah that prophesied that Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and take Israel captive:
1c. And when the king of Judah read the prophecy, he burned the word
of the Lord in the fire:
Yet, Babylon came, and destroyed the temple, and Jerusalem and burned the kings house and all of Judah became captives:
N> It’s dangerous when you read God’s Word, and willfully ignore and
disobey:
• Could it be, I have ‘Lost the Voice of God,’ in my life that now I cannot hear Him when He speaks to me:
d. God speaks through His Spirit:
1. That still small voice, that is so easily drowned out, by the voice f the world, and the voice of my enemy:
1c. An American Indian was visiting a friend in a large city:
While walking down the sidewalk, the American Indian heard a cricket:
Telling his friend he heard a cricket, his friend laughed and said, there is no way:
The noise of the people, and cars are too loud:
Yet the American Indian began to search and after a time found a cricket in a small bush:
2c. The city friend said, that’s amazing, how did you hear the cricket:
The American Indian took some coins out of his pocket and through them on the sidewalk, and everyone stop and looked:
He said, “It’s all in what you have trained your ear to hear:”
N> What voice have you trained your ear to hear in today’s world:
Most of God’s will for your life is found right here in the Bible. He tells us not to lie, cheat or steal. He tells us to treat others as we would want to be treated. He tells us to pray for those we don’t like. He tells us to be honest and to obey His Word. Anything the advise we receive goes against God’s Word is not from Him. That is the first and most important test of all. Are the voices I hear consistent with God’s word?
John 10:27-28
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Rev 3:20 NIV
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
