“Listening to God or Garbage?”
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19
Raise your hand if you sometimes have a hard time hearing God or discerning God’s voice.
Interruptions define our lives, do they not?
Our days and nights are full of gadgets that ping, buzz and beep their way into our attention, taking us away from whatever we are doing.
Our brains focus quickly on one topic, then switch to another and another.
It really is bizarre!!!
It’s like we are constantly on overload.
Neuroscientists say that there are fundamental biological limits to what our brains can pay attentions to, and I believe it—how about you?
But it’s hard to resist a blinking inbox or a buzzing phone…kinda like a dog can’t resist a squirrel.
One study has found that a typical college student can’t go for more than 2 minutes without becoming distracted by social media—whether it be Twitter, Tik-Tok, SnapChat, texts, Instagram or just the plain old web.
It’s hard to concentrate when you can’t focus on one thing for more than 2 minutes.
And it’s not just younger people: people everywhere seem to be experiencing an epidemic of overwhelm.
According to studies, the average business person receives and sends out about 109 emails a day, and that rate is growing each year by 7 percent.
And texting is bombarding everyone.
According to a book called “Driven to Distraction” all this stuff is a huge problem.
“There are in-patient centers now for people with technology addiction.
Marriages even break up.”
The surge of texts and social media notifications in recent years is giving many of us terminal distraction and always-on availability.
Michael Salem, co-founder and CEO of Vorex, says he gets 1,000 messages a day.
“I’m overwhelmed,” he admits.
“Responding is a daily thing, 24 hours a day.”
He barely sleeps, taking calls from global users of his product from his bed.
The idea that we are supposed to be able to monitor and troll through all this stuff and keep a handle on what God is up to at the same time seems absurd.
Some people say things such as: “My life is lived on the internet.”’
Which means it’s not lived in the real world.
With all these interruptions and distractions how in the world are people supposed to be able to listen for and hear the voice of God?
In our Scripture Lesson for this morning, it says “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”
What I think the writer of 1 Samuel is trying to tell us is that “people weren’t listening!!!”
God was talking, nudging people all the time.
It wasn’t that God wasn’t sending out visions or His Word; it’s that people weren’t hearing Him.
And, in a lot of ways, isn’t that what is going on today?
God is always speaking, calling, nudging.
Do we hear Him?
Or does it sometimes feel like, “the Word of the Lord is rare; there aren’t many visions”?
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive the amount of mass shootings in the United States this year just about equal to the number of days.
As of September 8th, which was the 251st day of the year there had been 248 mass shootings in the U.S.
Does it sometimes feel like the Word of the Lord is rare?
It sure can seem that way!
It’s like everyone is going nuts!!!
What voices are we hearing?
Or listening too?
Are we just listening to a bunch of good-for-nothing garbage???
Our world has been in a Covid tornado since March of 2020.
There are a lot of snake-oil salespeople racking up lots of minutes on the air-waves and in our ear drums.
It’s hard to know what is true and what is false.
Some people may just throw up their hands and say: “Where is God in all this?
It can become extremely difficult to listen for God.
But isn’t that exactly what we need to do?
Is anger and fear all there is to this life, to this world?
Or is there a higher purpose?
Are gated communities, ridiculously expensive cars, embarrassingly expensive clothing—all that stuff that is just “blowing in the wind” what this great world and life are about—why God created us?
Is it what brings us happiness and fulfillment?
Are we meant to be self-centered and miserly or is there another way?
Is there any hope or is this life just a cruel joke?
Is it all meaninglessness or is there meaning?
Is there a purpose?
Is there a reason to live?
(pause)
Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was at the end of her rope.
She was not able to have children and she very much wanted to be a mother.
So, she took a chance.
She promised God that if she could have a son she would dedicate him to God’s service.
She became pregnant and had a son and she named him Samuel which means “God Heard.”
She kept her promise to God and Samuel grew up in the Temple from a very young age.
He lived in the Temple, slept in the Temple, and helped the high priest Eli take care of the Temple.
He was a full-time altar boy, shall we say?
The Bible says Samuel slept in the same room as the Ark of God…the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant was where the power of God was most present.
Samuel was about 12 years old at the time.
When God first called to Samuel, Samuel thought it was Eli who was calling.
He wasn’t expecting God to speak.
He hadn’t been listening for God.
It just wasn’t something people did.
Finally, “Eli realized it was the Lord Who was calling the boy.”
Then Samuel went back and laid down and waited and listened carefully for God’s voice.
Sometimes Christian friends, mentors, Sunday school teachers, Youth Leaders and even Pastors can point us to God’s voice.
Other times, it may be a homeless person or someone who is hungry.
Or an act of kindness.
Or a door we open to God…a commitment on our part to do the right thing—and before we know it—God’s Voice is booming in our hearts and minds!
In any event, when Eli told Samuel that God was calling him Samuel became expectant.
He was ready to hear.
I remember having a pastor who was sure I was being called to the ministry.
When he told me this as a young kid, I started listening and I started hearing.
It took a long time, but when I was about 28 years old, I finally heeded God’s call.
What events in your life or people in your life has God used in order for you to better be able to hear God’s Voice?
Perhaps you haven’t heard anything yet…and I’m not talking about an audible voice…
Or maybe you haven’t heard anything in a long time.
How can you become ready to hear?
What distractions do you need to move out of the way in order to be prepared to hear God’s call?
In verse 10 we are told that “The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel!’”—
--notice the words, “calling as at the other times.”
Not in some new way…
…but in the way God had been calling all along.
And God is always calling us as well.
This time when God called “Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’”
Isn’t that awesome?
But how many of us really want to hear God’s voice?
Let’s be honest.
It can be risky to ask God to speak.
It changes our lives if we listen and act on it.
Because no matter the details of the call; God always calls us away from self and selfishness into a new life lived for God and neighbor.
If we heed the call of God we will never be the same again.
But isn’t that what life is all about?
Do you want to know the will of God for your life, your every moment life?
Do you want to love God and other people?
Do you want to live life the way God intends for you to live?
Do you want to do the good that God has prepared in advance for you to do?
Do you want to be free to do that?
It’s hard to do if we are in a “what’s in it for me, or how will it benefit me?” mindset.
God isn’t a commodity.
Neither are people.
Studies show that listening doesn’t come naturally for most of us.
And it can be a real problem.
Ever been ready to refute what someone is saying without really listening to what they are saying?
I have.
We aren’t always good listeners.
And it’s a problem we have in the relationships we have with other people, so just imagine what a problem it is when it comes to having a relationship with God!
In 1 Samuel 3:15 it doesn’t say Samuel went to sleep after God spoke to him, but it seems to imply he lay in his bed and thought about, even wrestled with what God had told him.
He meditated on God’s Word, and when the time came Samuel spoke God’s Word to Eli, and later to all of Israel.
He took time to digest what God had told him and then proved the truth of God’s Word by putting it into practice.
And Verse 19 says, “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.”
Clearly the emphasis of 1 Samuel Chapter 3 is on listening.
What are you listening to?
Who are you listening to?
There is a lot of noise in our world—a lot of distractions.
And it would appear that a lot of us have no interest in really, really hearing God.
And so, it may seem as if…
…in the year 2021 that “the Word of the Lord” is “rare.”
But it’s not.
The Lord’s Word is everywhere all the time.
God is continually speaking to each of us.
And when we listen to what God is saying, when we act on what we hear from God…
…not only do our lives change, but our world changes around us!!!
So, I challenge myself to listen for God’s continual prompting, calling and leading.
I pray that I will hear.
I challenge myself to allow God to be in control and get Ken out of the way.
I challenge myself, to get rid of all the distractions and garbage that hold me back in my ministry and my walk with Jesus.
Will you join me in this challenge?
When the Word of God speaks to us and then through us, whether it be in actions only or if we have to use words—it never fails—it never falls to the ground.
May it be said by us-- Red Bank United Methodist Church--that God is always speaking and many, many visions are happening.
That lives are being changed.
And may this city and this world become a better place because we have decided to listen to God rather than garbage.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake!
Amen.
