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
