Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-11; Psalm 29
Theme: One on One With God
Title: The Danger of Talking to God
This sermon is about having a One on One Conversation with God. It looks at what that means to several people in the Scriptures - Adam, Cain, Abraham, Moses and Samuel in particular. It also reveals how gloriously dangerous and life transformative it will be.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father, Jesus Our Savior and the Holy Spirit Our Comforter and Guide!
I want to talk to you this morning about having a one on one conversation with God.
When the Holy Spirit first impressed that idea on my heart and mind I was both intrigued and curious. To tell you the truth I was all pumped up and ready to open the Bible and study all the different encounters that involved a one on one conversation between God and us humans. I thought what a great message to bring before a group of people who I dearly love and a group of people who I believe want to live a life of progressive holiness - a life in which they grow each day closer and closer to the our Savior and LORD - Jesus Christ.
I mean who doesn't want to hear from the LORD? Right? Who doesn't want to spend some quality one on one time with God? Who in their right mind doesn't want to spend a day listening to the LORD God Almighty? Who doesn't want to spend time receiving wisdom, insight and knowledge from the most Powerful Being that exists - The I AM That I AM? Who doesn't want to hear what God has to say to them about their life and their future?
Those where the thoughts I had circling around my mind as I started looking at the hundreds of passages in the Bible that shares God's conversation with mankind. But the more I looked the more cautious I became and in the middle of it I actually began to ponder - Why in the world would anyone want God to speak to them? I mean, do you know what happened to so many in the Bible when God spoke to them and what it did to their lives?
I actually got to the point where I thought perhaps I need to share some ways in which we can make sure we do not hear God. Ways that make sure we never have a one on one conversation with the Great I AM. I thought there for a flitting moment to tell everyone - "Just go on with your life as you are and don't worry about God speaking to you. You will be better off if He doesn't."
Oh, I get it. Your making that face. That one that cannot believe what I just said. That face that says that I have lost it and you can't believe that someone just said those words in church, much less behind the pulpit.
What do you mean you thought about telling us how not to hear God? That is the very opposite of what we expect to hear from a minister; especially one in our tribe/tradition. You are suppose to tell us how to hear God better, share with us some ways that we can cut down the noise of our world and help us be able to hear God more clearly than we ever have in our lives.
Well, you are right. I am suppose to help all of us in our spiritual walk with the LORD. I am suppose to deliver to you God's Word - as crystal clear as humanly possible. And I am suppose to help us find ways in which God's Presence is more transparent in our lives.
But I have to tell you, it can be a mine field. We can find ourselves walking right to the very edge of a high cliff. Holding a conversation with God can be a very dangerous thing to do in this life. In fact, I can tell you that the most dangerous thing you will ever do in your life is having a one on one conversation with God. I can tell you that if that (having a conversation with God) is your heart's desire then you better buckle up for the ride of your life.
Why do I say that? Well let me share with you what I experienced as I started looking at passage after passage where God and humans have meaningful one on one conversations:
+Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve loved to walk and talk with God in the Garden. We sense that they had these enjoyable times of conversation and fellowship. But after they rebelled/sinned all of that changed. Genesis 3:8-11 shares that they were terrified to talk to God. All they wanted to do was to go away somewhere and hide.
God still wanted to talk to them but they didn't want to talk to God. They didn't want to acknowledge their sin and their pride. They didn't want to admit that they had chosen the words of Satan over God's words. They actually thought that God wanted to kill them.
And while it is true that their sin did bring about some major consequences it is also true that God wanted to talk to them. He did not want to condemn them but He wanted to set in motion the very means by which they could once again have fellowship and conversation.
+Scripture tells us that Cain had a rough time talking to God. He doesn't know why God has to be so picky about his inferior sacrifices. He believes that God should just be happy with anything even if it is not the best or given with a pure heart.
Later on we see that there is no way he wants to explain to God what happened to his brother Abel. Cain doesn't want to confess nor does he believe that he should confess and repent. His whole demeanor is full of anger, arrogance and selfishness. All Cain wanted for God to do was to accept him no matter what he said or what he did even if that included murder.
Scripture reveals that the most difficult conversations between humans and God happen when humans decide that they do not want to respond to God appropriately. Many times when we are in sin we really don't want to hear from God. Especially, when we are not in the mood to repent or confess our sins. Having a one on one conversation with the LORD is the furthest thing from our minds.
It is at those times that the Bible tells us that if we are not careful that the LORD will allow us to so darken our hearts and minds that we will no longer be able to hear from the LORD. That is what Paul shares his friends in Romans chapter one. This is what we can glean from Genesis 6:3 where the LORD says that His spirit will not always connect with mankind.
The Bible tells us that there can come a time when we exhaust God so much that He no longer seeks to communicate with us. This is what happened in the days of Noah and later on in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. In both instances the people had so closed their hearts, their minds and their ears that no matter what God said they had decided to no longer listen. And as we know in each case it not only meant the loss of their physical lives but their spiritual lives as well. They missed out on the New Heaven and New Earth.
Like I said - having a conversation with God has all the power of dynamite. The Bible tells us that talking to the LORD can be the best thing in our lives but it also tell us that if we are not careful and we decide not to hear and obey God then it can be the worst thing that ever happens to us.
But what about people who did want to talk to God? Surely things went as smooth as glass. Well ....
+ The Bible tells us that Abraham enjoyed many One on One conversations with God. However, let's take a moment to remember what happened to Abraham after he and God started talking to one another.
First of all, God turned Abraham's life upside down. Abraham's family at the time were living in a place called Ur of the Chaldees. It was located about 120 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf not very far from where the Euphrates River and the Tigris River separate.
Ur was a beautiful city with a population around 100,000 people. It was a beautiful city graced with towers, palaces, temples, law courts, large market places, gardens, shrines and monuments. Its streets were divided into rectangular blocks lined with one and two story houses. It had its own seaport and a man-made canal giving it access to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The people of Ur enjoyed trade with people from Africa, India, Malaysia and the Arabian peninsula. It was an ancient marvel and a great place to live and raise a family.
Then one day the LORD spoke to Abraham. And while I am sure that Abraham was so glad to hear from the LORD, what the LORD said to him was rather unsettling. "Abraham, I want you to leave you home, your family and travel some 600 miles to Haran and then another 600 or more so miles to the Land that I want to give you."
Now, before we allow ourselves to get all excited for Abraham let's put all of this into some perspective. God says - "I want you to hear me and listen to me. This is what I want you to do:"
- I want you to pick up and begin traveling some 1,200 miles north east towards a land that I will call the Promise Land - I will give it to you but it will not be yours or your descendants for at least another 480 to 500 years.
- I want you to leave your home - your house - your very established two story house and trade it all in for a tent - a tent that will have to be repaired and replaced time and time again. A tent that will have to endure dust, drought and famine.
-I want you to leave your job - the one that you have had for over 50 years and take your entire company - all your servants, all your cattle, sheep and anything else you own and get ready to leave forever. Never again will you see the people you have been doing business with these past 50 years.
-I want you to leave your family - your grandparents, your great-grandparents and others that are still alive as far back as Shem the son of Noah.
-I want your wife Sarah to leave her family - a family that she had lived around for 60+ years - her mother, her grandmother etc... and all the other people she had made connections with in her life.
-I want you to leave these people who speak your language and whose culture you understand. Bible scholars tell us that most likely Abraham had to learn how to speak Aramaic and Hebrew. The native language of the people of Ur of the Chaldees was Acadian. So that is one more thing that Abraham has to do as he listens to God.
-Oh, and Abraham, you don't know this yet. That promise son I will talk to you later about - one day I am going to ask you to put him on an altar on stones for a living sacrifice to me. But we will talk about that later.
It is easy to read Genesis chapter 12 and get all caught up in the excitement of God speaking to Abraham. It is easy to get all caught up in reading about how his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and inheriting the Promise Land. It is easy to get caught up in all the romance of the adventure of moving 1,200 miles away and starting fresh.
However, we also must keep in mind when God and Abraham started having One on One conversations it meant upsetting all Abraham's well made plans and projects. For Abraham it meant trading well paved streets for sand and dirt. It meant beginning a journey that challenged Abraham's sanity, his marriage, his life and even the life of his chosen son.
Like I said - Listening, hearing and obeying God is not for the weak of heart.
+Remember when the LORD came and spoke to Moses what it did to Moses?
Moses was finished with Egypt. He was finished with Pharaoh and even his own Hebrew people. He had been finished for 40 years. He was enjoying a new life. He had a new wife and a couple of children. He was living the life of a shepherd tending a few sheep on the backside of the desert. It was a poor life but it was an honest and good life. It was a life that I believe Moses hoped he would live out the rest of his days.
But then the Bible tells us in Exodus chapter three that God started talking to him and Moses started listening. And the more Moses listened the more he obeyed. And the more he obeyed the more his life was changed.
God told him to get himself back to Egypt. I am not sure that was what Moses wanted to hear God say. Forty years had passed since Moses days as being a prince of Egypt. After killing that Egyptian overlord Moses had been exiled as a fugitive and murder. There wasn't a lot of people he figured wanted to welcome him back home. He had also abandoned for the most part both his Egyptian and Hebrew families. And now after God the LORD wanted him to go back.
Not only to go back, but to go back and face the man Moses grew up with who had become Pharaoh. God wanted Moses to go and stand before him dressed in shepherd's clothes, holding a shepherd's staff and demand that Pharaoh let go his free labor force. Pharaoh was suppose to do all of this because the Good God of Creation demanded it, Whew!
Listening to God took Moses not only back to Egypt but he had to watch the Egypt that he had been raised in be torn apart because of Pharaoh's pride and disobedience. Moses had to watch thousands of livestock die, thousands of acres of land be destroyed and the eldest sons of families he had been raised with die because Pharaoh nor them would listen to the God who had spoken to him. Moses had to look at his adopted brother and stare him down and tell him that unless he listened and obeyed God that everything he knew, everything he owned and everything around him would end up in ruins. Moses had to watch his adopted brother's life slowly fall apart. On a human level none of this had to be easy for Moses. No one want to be the harbinger of destruction.
Again, it is easy to get caught up in the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, the manna coming down and the water shooting out of the rock. Those are grand and glorious times listening and obeying the LORD. Those are the things that we put in our pamphlets when we want to brag on God, when we want to promote listening to the LORD.
But the truth of the matter is it is dangerous to listen to God. It can be quite a roller coaster ride to start listening and obeying God. There is nothing safe about spending some time with the LORD GOD of all Creation.
We could spend the rest of the day looking at story after story after story of what it means to hear from the LORD and obey the LORD.
+For Gideon it meant going into a fight with an army of 300 men against an army of 135,000. Not an easy task but one that was successful.
+For David it meant having to fight a giant. Again not an easy task but yet again one that was successful.
+For the prophet Nathan it meant he had to go and tell King David that God knew and now the people will know that David had raped Bathsheba and had murdered her husband.
You don't think that Nathan was uneasy when he heard that from the Lord? Who in their right mind would want to go before any king and accuse them of rape and murder? And yet that is what the LORD told him to do and that is what he did.
+For Solomon it meant spending billions of dollars building a temple rather than using in on infrastructure or on some of his own pet projects.
+For Isaiah it meant coming to understand his own personal unholiness, getting his tongue singed and accepting a mission that is spelled out this way:
"Go, and say to this people:
Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep in seeing, but do not perceive, make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:9 - 10)
Wow! Now, who doesn't want to sign up to do that mission. Isaiah 6 provides for us this wonderful picture of seeing God on His throne. Even the whole burning of the tongue thing is rather interesting. But what is not so great is God telling you to go and share with a group of people who God Himself says will not listen, will not see or will not obey. To go and share with people that destined to be under a time of judgment.
+For the Three Hebrew Children it meant being pushed into a fiery furnace.
We could go on and on but I think by now you get the picture. Listening to God can be dangerous.
Oh, let's not forget our passage this morning in 1 Samuel. It seems like such a nice story. God is doing his best to speak to young Samuel. It is a time of great spiritual darkness. It is a time of great spiritual weakness. God's Word was rare and any revelation was even more scarce. As a signpost even Eli the priest's vision was bad and just to add a little more color to our story the lamp of the LORD was almost out.
But lo and behold. God speaks to young Samuel and we all get excited. God is talking again, humans are listening. But did you get what God said?
"Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle." ( 1 Samuel 3:11)
Now, that is some good stuff. That sound fantastic. But let's go on ...
"On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever." (1 Samuel 3:12 - 14).
Now, how excited would you have been to be able to share such "wonderful" news with Eli the next morning. "Hey, Pastor Eli, you were right; it was God that was trying to get my attention. Boy, did God have a lot to say. However, it was mostly about you and your family. Uh ... what did God say? You really want to know? Well ... God said your doomed. God said you are toast. God said that your two sons are goners and there is nothing anyone can do. God has already signed all of your death warrants."
Now, I would rather just read to verse 11 and stop. I would rather read Isaiah 6:1 - 8 and stop. I would rather read the first portions of what God told John the Revelator to write to the Churches and leave out the part that talks about God coming to take away their candlestick and close their churches unless they repent and allow God to transform them.
To tell you the truth the more I looked at passage after passage I began to think and pray - Holy Spirit let's by pass this message. Or let's at least put a little spiritual chocolate icing on it. Let's talk about just a couple of hard passages and more about those that include Isaac who God brings great comfort and peace. Or those that surround Jacob in which God says that He will be with Jacob whether he is in the Promise Land or out of the Promise Land.
Let's deal with those passages that speak of nice things and avoid all the difficult passages. After all, that is what we all want to read and hear.
But then the Holy Spirit corrected me. When God speaks there is a reason. At times His Words are Comforting and at other times they are Calling us to Repent. Sometimes God's words are to bring anointing and favor and at other times to tell us about a coming judgment.
All I know is this - before, during and at the end of my studying, praying and thinking I realized this:
No matter what God has to say to me I still want to hear it.
I chose years ago to no longer be in control of my life. When I accepted Jesus as My Savior I also accepted Jesus as My Lord. I didn't make a contract with the LORD - I came into a covenant.
Jesus the Messiah forgave me of all my sins. In an instant all the sins I had ever committed were washed away. I was born again through the power and presence of His Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit infilled my heart and has been my constant Comforter, Companion and Friend.
I bowed the knee of my heart to the LORD. I got up off the throne of my life and I invited the LORD Himself to by my Savior and My King. I don't want to run my own life. I know better than anyone the limitations of my heart, mind and soul. I know better than anyone what sin can do to one's life. I would rather allow God to possess me, lead me and guide me than to be on my own.
And so, even though I know it is dangerous. Even though I know I cannot control what God will say to me or to anyone else I still down deep in my soul want to hear from Him. I want to be like Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of those who choose to hear from God, receive His messages and allow God to move, pull, push or do whatever He feels necessary to do in our lives.
I want to live my life hearing from Him and following His Lead. I will take a life that upsets the apple cart over one that doesn't hear from God. I will take all the twists and turns God wants to led me through rather than living a safe life that does not have His favor, His anointing or His blessing.
I would rather hear words of reproach and words of judgment rather than silence. I would rather hear words of correction and adjustment than listen to any other voice than His. I would rather have my ears tuned to His Voice than that of any one else.
I know it is not safe. I know it is not safe for any of us to hear from God. I know it may mean that we have to make some adjustments, that we have to repent or that we have to open our hearts to receive and enjoy new blessings. I know it can mean all kinds of things - dangerously wonderful and glorious.
But this morning, that is the line I want to be in. I want to be in the line that is ready to hear the word of the LORD. I want to have One on One conversations with God.
I want to obey the words that Eli shared with young Samuel -
Go back to the Tabernacle
Go find a place to lie down and be quiet
Go back and open your ears, your heart and your mind
Go back and focus on being able to be receptive to God's Voice and His Will
Go back and listen - listen and tell God before He even speaks to you that you will obey. Whatever He says to do respond with Hallelujah and Amen. Tell God upfront that you will listen, trust and obey.
It is easy for us to get distracted and forget that we need One on One time with God today. Jesus had to take Peter, James and John on a hiking trip up a 9, 200+ foot tall mountain so that they could get away from all the distraction and hear God.
Remember what God told them - what Our Heavenly Father said -
"This is my beloved Son, listen to him".
That's it. Listen to Jesus. Listen to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. Listen and obey. Listen and receive. Listen and act on what God says.
Yes, it is dangerous to listen to God. It's dangerous to go one on one with God. We don't always know what God is going to say. We don't know what surprises, challenges or gifts He wants to share.
But that is okay. He is God. He created us. And if He speaks to us we need to welcome His words, receive His words and obey His words.
After all - Who else is wiser? Who else is more powerful? Who else has come to earth to die for us? Who else has promised us everlasting life? Who else wants the best for us? Who else wants to give us Abundant Life?
While it is dangerous this morning to hear God's Voice - it is also exciting, wonderful, glorious and fulfilling.
Hebrews chapter 11 lets us in on the secret that even if all these saints had the chance to do it all over again they would not change anything - at least not listening and obeying the LORD. I believe they would bypass some mistakes, listen better and not fall into Satan's traps but they would all have their ears open, their minds receptive and the hearts ready to receive all of God's Word each and every day of their lives.
This morning, Our Savior and LORD invites all of us to allow Him the privilege to talk to us. He invites all of us to be open to the leading of His Spirit and His Word. He invites all of us to come to His Table to receive the symbols of His grace, mercy and love.
Let's be determined to go to those places that God leads us to talk to Him - our safe spots, our sacred spots and our quiet spots. Let's take the time to be still and quieten our hearts and lives so that we can hear. And then let's invite God to speak to us not what we want to hear but anything God wants to share with us. I promise you that when all is said and done it will bring about more blessings and favor than you can ever imagine.
As we close this morning, let's prepare our hearts right now to receive His grace as we partake of His Holy Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist. Let us begin by all
+Reciting the Apostle's Creed
+Pray a prayer of confession and thanksgiving
+Receive the Elements of Communion
The Lord's Supper/Prayer/Sending Forth - Benediction
