Today is the first Sunday of 2013.
Will this be a profitable year for you?
When I asked that question what was the first thought in your mind?
Money? Your job? Your relationships? Your family? Your spiritual life?
Where are you headed in 2013? Do you know? Do you have desires, goals, or will you just continue plodding along with no direction, no destiny, no One guiding you?
As Yogi Berra said, “You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.” And “If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”
Let’s take a look at a young man in the Bible, probably about 12 years old whose path had been directed for him since his birth.
This young boy was a gift from God to his mother who had not been able to bear a child for her husband. One year on a trip to the tabernacle in Shiloh she had prayed silently and fervently that God would give her a man child. Her prayer was so fervent and anguished that the prophet and priest of the Lord thought that she was drunk but she was not and the Lord answered her prayer.
Once the child was born and no longer dependant on his mother for nursing she took him to the tabernacle and after presenting offerings to the Lord she said to the prophet and priest, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.”
Now, most of you who know the Old Testament know that we will be talking about the story of Samuel this morning.
Samuel - meaning “God has heard”, what an awesome name describing the response of a loving God to the prayers of Hannah, a faithful and righteous woman. She prayed earnestly, God heard and answered and she completed her promise by giving Samuel back to the Lord.
And, so, Samuel lived at the tabernacle, the house of the LORD, serving as needed and “each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.”
So, we see that this young boy’s life had been directed from the day of his birth, but, a time was coming when he would need to make a decision; would he follow the evil practices of the day in which he lived or would he follow the Lord?
Let’s pick up the story found in 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 1,
“The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.
“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.
“Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
“But Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down.
“Again the LORD called, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
“‘My son,’ Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’
“Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
“The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’
“Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
“The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’
“Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for Your servant is listening.’”
Samuel, just like each one of us, was faced with a decision that would impact the rest of his life.
You see, Samuel lived in an evil culture. It is apparent from the first few chapters of 1 Samuel that Eli and his two sons were the only ones serving at the tabernacle for the entire nation of Israel!
When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land there were 48 towns reserved as the dwelling places of the Levites and their families. You can read about it in Numbers chapter 35. Forty-eight towns full of Levites and all that we see in the book of 1 Samuel are Eli and his two sons. There should have been many there to handle all of the sacrifices but there were only three who could do so and Eli’s two sons were carrying out the task for those few who still brought sacrifices. Eli’s two sons were evil and misusing the sacrifices brought to the LORD for their own gain.
Here in this Scripture we see the amazing event of God revealing Himself and His holy presence to Samuel.
This sermon was intended to be about setting spiritual goals for 2013 and even for the rest of our lives but as I read through the Scripture one thing jumped out at me; God spoke and Samuel listened and, if you read further on, he obeyed.
Is hearing and obeying the voice of God important in our lives?
I know that we would all agree that it is important, so, a better question would be, is hearing and obeying the voice of God given an important place in the makeup of your life? Is it given a place of utmost importance or a place of mediocrity?
Let’s take a look at how this event unfolded in Samuel’s young life.
The time of day was the early morning before sunrise.
Verse 3 of chapter 3 of 1 Samuel says,
“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.”
The inner sanctuary of the tabernacle or the tent of meeting was divided into two areas, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was.
Samuel was sleeping in the Holy place and “the lamp of God had not yet gone out.” The lamp of God would be lit each night at sundown and would burn throughout the night until after sunrise. Samuel may have been sleeping there in order to tend the lamp; I do not know and was not able to find out why he was sleeping there but the fact that the lamp of God had not yet gone out gives us an indication that it might have been very early morning.
Whatever the case was, Samuel was not yet involved with the busyness of the day. And his ears were attentive. He was ready to hear God’s voice and it was quiet, he almost had no choice.
But, you might say that you don’t have a life like that. You don’t have the luxury of sleeping in the Holy Place in the glow of the lamp of God.
There are times when the voice of God can be drowned out by the activities of our lives.
The voice of God can be drowned out when we are at work and focused on a project or the human interaction that goes with working in a group.
The voice of God can be drowned out when our phone rings.
The voice of God can be drowned out when our emotions become upset.
The voice of God can be drowned out when we are tempted to sin.
The voice of God can be drowned out when someone changes the melody of a song.
Or …
We can hear the voice of God in spite of whatever the world may throw at us.
The voice of God can be heard even when we are at work and focused on a project.
The voice of God can be heard even when our phone rings.
The voice of God can be heard even when our emotions become upset.
The voice of God can be heard even when we are tempted to sin.
The voice of God can be heard even when someone changes the melody of a song.
What makes the difference?
Have we made the decision and taken the actions so that we are attuned to the voice of God?
Have we taken the time to let God condition our hearts so that we are open to His voice?
Have we taken the time to hear His voice through His holy Word and allowed Him to speak to us through Scripture that day?
Have we set aside time to listen to Him before the day started?
Illustration re: listening …
Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.
The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They talked among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified.
Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.”
The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair!”
The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.”
The message in the telegraph office was clearly extending an invitation to enter the office and become a participant in the venture of that company. In the same way, the majority of people allow the busyness of this world, the noise and the clatter of life, to drown out the important message that will bring eternal life.
Now, as we’ve said before, Samuel seemed to have it easy given his placement at the time and given the silence of the moment.
But what about us? What about Jesus? You would think that God the Son who came in the form of a human would have a direct connection with God the Father and therefore have no need of prayer and hearing the Father’s voice.
But, Luke 5:16 says,
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
And Luke 6:12 says,
“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says that we should
“Pray continually.”
Pray continually is not to be used as a substitute for time devoted specifically to prayer and seeking to hear from God.
Here’s the difference:
Here is why in the middle of the same set of circumstances one person hears God and others do not.
It is because one person knows God’s voice and talks with Him on a regular basis and the other people do not know God’s voice and their only attempts at communication are when tragedy arises.
How much time do we as fast-paced, technology driven, American Christians put into our relationship with God?
Even as I was preparing this sermon I went to the google search engine and typed in “five minute devotions” and found many sites offering such devotions. Then, just for curiosity, I changed the search to “minute devotions” just to see what would come up and got results ranging from one site that offered 15 minute devotions to many, many sites offering one minute devotions. One minute for God!
One minute for God and for many people that would be an improvement.
If hearing the voice of God is a goal in our lives can we ever find such a place in this fast paced world?
You must examine your life as I must examine mine.
Am I willing to get up earlier so that I can spend time listening for the voice of God?
Am I willing to turn off the TV or the computer or the Ipad or the cell phone long enough to spend uninterrupted time with God?
Am I willing to cut my evenings short so that I can stay awake when I do get up early to meet with God?
Am I willing to read more of His Holy Word and books by Christian writers instead of novels?
Am I willing to forego voluntary overtime at work, which will cost me money, so that I can have more energy and time to nurture my relationship with Jesus which is priceless and eternal?
When we say that we are just soooooooo busy is that the reality of necessity or is it due to our choices?
Setting time aside for spiritual growth and growing our relationship with God also requires that we learn to recognize the voice of God.
Don’t you wonder what God’s voice sounded like the first three times He called Samuel’s name and Samuel thought it was Eli?
Did the voice of the Lord really sound similar to Eli’s voice or was it just that Samuel had never heard someone calling his name in the early hours before dawn beside Eli?
Either way, it took a while before Samuel recognized the voice of God and responded directly to Him.
In the same way, it may take some time for us to be able to discern the voice of God during our growth and maturity in the Lord.
I remember back years ago when teaching a college age SS class I would be asked, “How do I know if it’s God speaking to me or just some part of my own desires or my imagination.”
A preacher named Sandy Gregory gave this example of how we can grow into knowing the voice of God:
Imagine you are hired to open up an office in Anchorage, Alaska. Your new boss gives you a high-tech looking two-way radio, a policy and procedure manual, and tells you that you will receive instructions once you arrive, and off you go. Upon arrival you hear your boss's voice over the radio, saying, "I will communicate to you through this radio unit. But take note: our competitors, our enemies, also have access to this channel. They will try to impersonate my voice with false messages to thwart our purposes." "Oh no!" you panic, "Then how will I know if it is you or the enemy giving me instructions?"
Your boss's voice comes back over the radio: "Three ways. First, considering the situation, check every message supposedly from me against the policy and procedure manual. Since I wrote it, I'm not likely to ask you to violate it, right? Also, if I am not talking, don't focus in on the noise, pretending that I am. If I am not speaking, let the manual be your guide. Don't let any impersonating voice mislead you, or your own overactive imagination."
"Second, since the Manual does not cover every situation, you will have to get to know my voice. I know, this will take time, and so I am not likely to ask you to do anything radical until we both have some low-risk successes under our belts. Remember, I understand the situation perfectly well, so I'll go slow at first. A time will come when I will be able to tell you to do the wildest things, and you will know it is me. In the short-term, you must be trained through low-risk experience."
"Third, over time, my overall purpose for your work will begin to come into focus. You will begin to see the grand strategy in the policy and procedure manual, and the overall pattern of my true instructions. When this happens, you'll know instantly if what you hear through your unit is 'of me', just your imagination, or enemy misinformation. False instructions will begin to appear silly to you then. So take heart, and get to work."
Those are some great guidelines aren’t they?
1) Check every idea which you might think is from God against the Holy Scriptures - God will not contradict Himself.
2) As the familiarity with God’s Word grows and how it is synchronized with His voice you will get to naturally know His voice.
3) As you grow in understanding of God’s overall purpose (and you, yourself grow into God’s overall purpose) His instruction will make sense and “false instructions will begin to appear silly to you.”
(Optional example of unmarried couple who thought that God was speaking to them to live together.)
We know that it is possible to know the voice of God, because Jesus Himself says in John 10:27 says,
“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.”
We as members of a body of believers also have the additional benefit of being able to mentor with and pray with mature believers who have been following the voice of God for many years.
The voice of God is speaking plainly an invitation for you to become a child of God and to join in the exciting adventure of participating in His kingdom on earth.
God IS speaking. Are YOU listening?
Do you want your life in 2013 to amount to something in the kingdom of God?
Do you want 2013 to be like no other year in your life?
Follow Jesus with all of your heart!
If this is your desire, then learn to hear His voice and follow Him!
You must be warned, however, that it may be the wildest ride you’ll ever go on, but, it will be worth it!
At the time of Christ there had been no prophecies for over 400 years. No one had heard the voice of God but the Father had set a goal in ancient history that His Word, His Son would come to earth to reconcile God to mankind and make a way so that we could commune with God. And, that goal was accomplished when Jesus was bruised for our transgressions and He gave His body for our salvation. And, that goal was accomplished when Jesus shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and to seal the new covenant between God and man.
Because Jesus did this we can have fellowship with Him and we can know His voice. He paid the price. He is calling you. Will you respond.
Time of prayer for repentance.
Time of prayer for commitment.
Time of prayer for thanksgiving.
Communion
