Latest / The Grove Church / How God Shapes Our Story

Transcript

How God Shapes Our Story · The Grove Church

• 0:01
  Charlie Loften: Hello, and welcome to The Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Loften, the lead pastor there, and we are so glad that you're joining us. Whether you are a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will do that, we'll listen to sermons first before they visit. I want you to know that we would love to meet you at any point.
• 0:25
  You can join us live in our services on Sunday, nine and 10:30 or our streaming service at 10:30. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, good morning. If you're new, I'm Charlie.
• 0:44
  I'm the lead pastor here. I'm really glad you're worshiping with us today. I want to jump in real quick with, it's kind of piggyback on what Jason said a few minutes ago. We got the men's retreat coming up in two weeks and I know guys sign up late, it's fine. It's really not fine, but you need to go ahead and sign up.
• 1:02
  But there's kind of a little sort of speech, pseudo speech that I give twice a year, once in the spring for the women's retreat, and there's, as you know, we just have a passion around here for really kind of connected relationships, and this is just a great event for that. Too many of us, especially guys, are just kind of living isolated lives that we really don't need to, and we grow best in community. We're healthiest when we're in community. And the men's retreat is always just a great place to build friendships. There have been lifelong friendships, I believe, that have been built from just signing up and coming to a men's retreat and just getting to know some guys.
• 1:41
  So sometimes we can feel this thing that we feel isolated. We can say, I wish that I knew more people. I wish that I had real camaraderie with other men, but something holds us back that keeps us from really just kind of taking the step to just sign up. I hate to call it a fear, but maybe there is just kind of some fear there that you have, you're like, just kind of like, oh, I don't know. And I don't want get into all the manhood talks that we're going talk about, but whatever that is, you got to get rid of that, and coming to mentorship helps with that.
• 2:12
  That little thing that we're like, that hesitancy that we have, we know it's the right thing, but it might be awkward, it might be weird, but don't but forget it. God does really cool things. It's a really beautiful place. We couple of, you know, a few of the guys from the church are going to give talks, just kind of what it means to be, how can we be better men in the world that God has put us in? And I just think it's a great time to meet other guys.
• 2:38
  We break up into little small groups and kind of do discussions. We have some free time. And again, it's a very beautiful place to be. It is a non threatening thing. Nothing we do is threatening.
• 2:48
  I mean, it's super chill, and it is a lot of fun. And again, I'll say this in the spring too, but I'll say it now, I think it's really important both at men's retreat and women's retreat that spouses give their husbands here and wives in the spring kind of the emotional permission to go. Sometimes, you know, weekend is like, oh, we're all here, and then we're so busy, I need this, and you need to do this, and you need do this, and it can be just real chaotic, and we don't give one another the permission to go and do this. And so I just encourage you, because I've noticed this with men's retreat and women's retreat, it's like you send your spouse off and you get a better spouse back. So I just encourage you to overcome your own obstacles, and then also to empower your spouse to feel the freedom to do it.
• 3:37
  And please go ahead and sign up, we've to make sure we know who's coming and we can have enough snacks. All right, we're starting a new series today. We'll be talking about the life of Samuel for the next several weeks, and it's a really cool thing. And as I was thinking about kind of his origin story here and getting ready for this message, I was reminded of a story when I was 15. When I was 15, it was the summer, and we went to church camp, which for us was a thing called centrifuge.
• 4:04
  And if you've any old school people, you may know what that is, may have been to a centrifuge or two. And it was this thing where you can, it was usually at a college campus, and you just kind of did church campy kinds of things. Usually I didn't get to go because baseball season for me was kind of extended into that part, this year I was able to go, and I can really just kind of see God's hand in it, kind of the circumstances that made it where I wasn't, what hadn't been able to go, but now I was. You can look back and see that God was really wanting me to be here at this thing, and a couple things I remember about it. First was when this guy came out with worship with a guitar.
• 4:42
  I didn't know you could do that. I just, I'd seen guitars before. I didn't know you could do that. It was like, okay, okay. But then he took Amazing Grace, and he kinda redid it to the tune of Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles.
• 5:01
  Now I know you can't do that, but it's still in my head. I mean, was really, really good. I can remember. I can just remember just kind of the really kind of experiencing worship in a way that I never really had in all the years going to church. And at the very last night, they did the thing they always do, they're asking people to make decisions, mostly they don't want to make a decision to follow Christ, but then they...
• 5:27
  That that I was getting this feeling that God was talking to me. And at 15, I I... It's kind of a new experience. And and I felt like what he was telling me was is like, I want you to go into ministry. And we had we a we had a title for this.
• 5:43
  It wasn't unheard of, right, to to get the call to ministry. It's kind of the way that our church kind of talked about it. And I felt this kind of stirring. And I mean, I'm 15, and I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not to make any commitments. I'm not trying to I'm not trying to make a spectacle of myself, but they just kind of kept...
• 6:00
  Then they started talking about it. It's like, we believe that there are some people here that God is calling into ministry. I'm like, how'd you know? And I'm getting nervous, and so finally when they asked, I stood up. I stood up.
• 6:12
  And then a couple of weeks later, back at church, we did a little thing. We had a little altar call every service. It was a Sunday night. The associate pastor was teaching. And you're supposed to come up if you've got a decision to make.
• 6:24
  And then he said, God's put it on my heart. There's somebody in here that He is calling into ministry. I'm like, how did He know? Like, honestly, I went and asked counselors that came with us. Did you tell him?
• 6:38
  He's like, no, we didn't tell him. I didn't tell him. And so then fine. I just felt like I must. And then I went down and didn't name.
• 6:48
  I came, shook my hand after the service. I was 15. Then I spent three years in high school, and I was a high schooler after that, and it was just like that really, that was in the back of my mind, and like, I would talk about it in the right circumstances, like with people from the church that if it would make me sound good, right? Oh, yes, of course, yes, I'm going to be a mission. But really, I was just living my life, and I was not going to do that.
• 7:12
  I certainly did not go to a school that was going to be conducive for it, and I certainly did not go I did not major in something in college that was conducive for it. In fact, I just really just began to slowly just kind of dismiss it as silly, and even still, when I think about it, I was like, what did that kid even know? That kid was responding to peer pressure. He didn't know what was going on. He just thought that was the next thing that you were supposed to do, and I wanted to be an elite youth group member in our church in our church denomination, and that's what you did.
• 7:40
  I make fun of him, and yet, here I am, right? I'm here. I was sophomore and junior year of college, I was at this kind of discipleship project for the summer, and I left all of that in the past from five years ago. God started up again. This is who I want you to be.
• 8:06
  This is what I want you to do. And so then after college, made the decision. Heidi and I, we got married and then came on staff with this college ministry, and I'm thinking this isn't a thing maybe you do for a few years. Then after two years into, I guess now I'm 24, I remember I was poolside at the same summer project, but now I was a staff person, and it was at the poolside at the Sandman Hotel in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. And we were a support raising ministry, so you got...
• 8:36
  You know, you had to raise your own support, your own salary, and I was not really great at it at this point. And the the the check that I got that that that month was barely income. I mean, it was almost nothing. And I remember thinking, well, I can't I can't do this. I can't survive like this.
• 8:58
  And I remember I I was I was talking to God, and we had a really interesting little back and forth. God, I'm becoming more and more convinced that this is not something that you are wanting me to do a little bit, but it's something you wanna make me a life of me doing. And if so, I'm holding the sheet of paper with the tally of what the income was going be. It's like, it can't be like this. And so we had a lot of back and forth about, well, like, is this really what he wants me to do and prayed a lot, cried a lot.
• 9:27
  You know? And now thirty plus years later, kinda here we are. And so I ask you, when was it decided what I was going to do with my life? When was the when was the decision made? Was it '24?
• 9:44
  Was was it was it '20? Was it '15? When when was it decided? And the reality is it was decided well before that. When I figured it out was a process, but what was decided about who I was going to be in the life that God wanted me to lead was was was decided long before that.
• 10:07
  This was something that that God decided. This was a path that he had laid out for me long before I had any idea about it, and I'm catching glimpses of it at different times in my life that had kind of really stuck out to me, but it was a process over a long period of time where God is unveiling and revealing to me who it is that he is calling me to be. And what we're gonna do today, really this week and next week, is we're gonna kinda look at Samuel's origin story. And this guy Samuel, you know, we find ourselves interesting in a really interesting historical time. We're kind of they're not a kingdom yet.
• 10:48
  Moses has already kind of delivered them out of Egypt. Joshua has kind of led them to kind of to live in the land that God had promised them to. And then they're not really being governed per se by any sort of governance that we would talk. Mean, it was kind of it was very loosely connected. God would raise up judges, that's the name of the book, judges that would kind of oversee certain parts of Israel and kind of decide difficult situations, but really, it was the closest thing to more like a theocracy.
• 11:18
  God was their King, and they kind of, you know, they followed what the priests were telling him to do, and he would raise up these kind of judges in different places to kind of help. And it's in the middle of that that Samuel is called, And he really is going to be this transition piece from this really chaotic time to the to the kingdom of Israel. And he plays this incredible role, and it's probably one of the most significant figures in the Old Testament. And the role that he plays and what God has called him to do is of incredible significance. And we're going to spend a couple of weeks looking at kind of what that call looked like, and then ultimately, we're going to see kind of how it plays out, all the ups and downs.
• 12:00
  It's not one of these things where you say yes to God and God calls you and then everything's great. He's he's... It's a very chaotic sort of story. I mean, there's a lot that happens in his life. And here's the here's the problem.
• 12:16
  I tell my story. I tell my story, and then I tell you about what we're gonna talk about with Samuel. So I'm a pastor. He's a prophet, probably the greatest prophet you'll see in the Old Testament, maybe second only to Moses, and you're gonna try to disengage from the story. You're gonna try to disengage because, oh, Charlie told his story.
• 12:38
  He he got called to be a pastor, but I'm a regular person. Samuel had all of these powerful calls on his life did these incredible things, but he's like he's like a he's like a prophet. Like, he's got... He's he's he's... They're special people.
• 12:52
  And I want you to resist the urge today, next week, and for the sev... And several weeks to come. I want you to break free from this idea, that the idea that God is laying out a path, that God is calling people, that God has a plan for... He has a design for the kind of man, the kind of woman that he wants you to be. I want you to resist this idea that somehow this is limited to professionals.
• 13:27
  Because I think as we follow his story, we learn about kind of how he got here and and the way that God leads him. I think there's all something there, because I genuinely believe, and I hope that after today, if not after today, after next week, and maybe not then, some points over the next several weeks, you'll have a real sense that you, God has a plan for you, a specific design, a specific path that He has laid out for you. And we're gonna be today in one Samuel chapter one. First Samuel chapter one, and kinda dive in here to Samuel's origin story. Start with verse one, it's kind of a long story.
• 14:08
  Verse one, Samuel one. There was a certain man from Ramapham, a Zophite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zeph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, one was called Hannah, and the other Penaniah. And Penaniah had children, but Hannah had none. K?
• 14:30
  Let me give you a little tip here. You ever find yourself in the awkward situation where you're having to read something like that out loud? You just make up your own pronunciation, and you just go for it with confidence, and everybody's gonna be like, man, I don't know you know how to pronounce I don't know how to pronounce it. I botched at least three of those. Anyways, verse three.
• 14:49
  So we we got this guy. He's got two wives. Verse three. Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Penanah, and to all her sons and daughters.
• 15:10
  But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband, Elkanah, would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping?
• 15:34
  Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than 10 sons? A few things to notice here and make sure we're kind of tracking with this story. Scott's got two wives, and they go up every year to kind of do their sacrifices, and he's got two wives, one who has a lot of kids and one who doesn't have any.
• 15:51
  And so here's another example of where there's polygamy in the Old Testament. Some people kind of get weirded out, like, why does the Bible never condemn polygamy? Well, there's a verse that you should never ever do this. You're right that there's not a verse, but I challenge you with this. Every time it happens, it goes terrible.
• 16:10
  It's bad. It never works out. It's always bad, and at some point you have to realize, okay, well, maybe the Bible maybe I need a little verse that says specifically don't do it, but if you read 10 stories and all 10 stories that happens bad, eventually they're trying to teach you something. So the Bible condemns this, but it condemns it in situations like this. Okay?
• 16:29
  That's that's that's one thing. I wanna make sure you understand. Two, I don't I don't want us to get overwhelmed by this idea that where it says that that God had closed her womb, because I've heard that kind of be used in ways that can just really feel just unnecessarily hurtful. Right? I know that there are some people here that have struggled with infertility, and it is, and and I don't want us to walk out here, God is directly causing this for everyone.
• 16:54
  You see this at different times throughout the Old Testament. It is always in kind of these special cases. And so I'm not we're not going to jump, we're not going to do it, we're going to put our foot in the predestination water a little bit later, but that's not what this is. And so I just don't want us to get overwhelmed and hurt by that idea. Lastly, this, Hannah, why are you weeping?
• 17:17
  Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than 10 sons? If that ever crosses your mind to say that, I promise you, please come to the men's retreat. I don't care what your wife is sad about.
• 17:30
  If you say to her any version of, why are you sad? You've got me. You just, that's just, don't. Good grief. This is not, he's not, he's not, he's not, not doing great here so far.
• 17:44
  Alright. Verse nine. Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.
• 17:59
  And she made a vow saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, how long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.
• 18:28
  Guys are not doing great here. This is this is not a very... This is... I mean, maybe this is. This is an ad for the men's retreat.
• 18:34
  Guys, you think stupid things, and sometimes you say them out loud. You should come and be around guys who can help you not do that. Verse 15, not so, my lord, Hannah replied. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer.
• 18:49
  I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered, go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you've asked of him. She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes.
• 19:06
  Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning, they arose and worshiped before the Lord, and they went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, because I asked the Lord for him.
• 19:30
  So this is a very popular Mother's Day sermon, because, again, the mom comes in strong here just as as a woman of prayer and love and devotion, and her desire is is very is very popular, and again, especially you get into chapter two, it's a very popular Mother's Day sermon, and if and if we were just kind of just working our way through the Bible in general, we probably would spend more time just kind of talking specifically about her. But really, we're kind of looking at this story from the angle of kind of what does all this imply for the life of Samuel. We're doing a character study in Samuel. Again, this is kind of where his story starts. So mostly, we're going to talk about what does this mean for Samuel, but I do not want us to gloss over something that I think is probably more the primary big idea of this passage, and I'm just gonna talk about it briefly, which is this, is that prayer moves the hand of God.
• 20:23
  She prays over the course of years. Years she's praying. I mean, it says year after year, and it says that her rival had multiple sons and daughters, and so year after year. So I mean, we don't really know, but I would say at least probably ten to twelve years of this, and her just constantly praying. And prayer, it moves, and I think sometimes we overthink prayer.
• 20:50
  I think we overthink it a lot. I think we pray for something, and the good thing happens, and we start thinking, well, probably would have happened anyway. Or we pray and it doesn't happen, and God doesn't listen, God doesn't care, or like something good happens, and you don't pray. It's like, don't need prayer. God, good things are happening anyway.
• 21:08
  You don't pray and something bad happens. You're shaking your fist at God. It's like God can't win no matter what happens. But here's the thing that you need to know and understand. When you pour out your heart to God in prayer, there are two things that will always happen.
• 21:24
  One, it will connect you better with the God of the universe. Relationally, you'll be better connected to him, and that is of incredible importance. Secondly, he begins to shape your heart. As you start to connect with him more and you pour out your heart and you and you experience his response, he starts to shape you, your heart, your values. Two incredible things will happen no matter what, and very often, the circumstance that you are asking to change will change, but at a minimum, you will change, and you will be closer to God.
• 22:04
  Prayer is a very powerful weapon. It is a very powerful spiritual development tool. It is a very powerful relational connector, and I do not want any of us to minimize it, overthink it. Just begin to pray. Tell God the things that are on your heart, things that you wish were different, and watch specifically the thing that you've asked, but he will do something, and it will be powerful.
• 22:33
  And in this case, after years of diligent prayer, God grants Hannah's request, and she conceives and has a son, names him Samuel, which is very sensitive, because I asked the Lord of him. It's kind of a it's the name Samuel sounds very much like the word of about talking to God. Right? Okay, so prayer moves the hand of God, but here's the thing that we need to understand about Samuel. In the same way that I was asking, when was it decided that I was going to be a professional minister or pastor?
• 23:08
  Well, when was it decided for Samuel? Say it this way, Samuel was called by God before he was even conceived. This was determined what his life was going to be long before he had any say in it, long before what we'll see next week when he has his first real kind of encounter with God, you know, long before he's doing the job of prophet, long before any of that, not when he was born, it wasn't decided when he was a kid and chose, wasn't decided when he was a baby, wasn't decided when he was in the womb, before he was even conceived. This path for him was laid out. Now, we are going to put our, again, we are putting our toes in predestination waters here, and the theology nerds are going be really paying attention really closely right now.
• 23:59
  And I'm telling you, if you're a theology nerd, no matter where you fall, you're going to get mad at me at some point today. Because I'm not gonna say any of it the way that you wish I was saying it, but I think there are a couple of things that are absolutely clear, and this is one of them. There was a path for Samuel's life that was laid out for him, and this path for his life was laid out long before he came into being. And Ephesians two ten says something very similar about what God is laid out for all of us. Ephesians two eight nine is a very popular verse, very popular passage.
• 24:38
  It talks about being saved by grace, not by works. It says, for it's by grace you've been saved. Through your faith, it's not something that you do. It's not a result of works. It's a gift so that no one can brag about it.
• 24:54
  And then verse 10 right after that says, for you are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he prepared in advance for you to do. And so there's this image of a path that I think is very important to me. It's very vital to the way that I think about life, and I think it should be for all of us. It says that there's a path of good works that God has laid out for you, a predetermined path, a predetermined path, and you need to walk in that path. He says you're not saved by your works.
• 25:27
  He says, you're God's handiwork. You're the result of God's work, and He's created you to do works, again, that He has laid out in advance for you to do. There's a predetermined path that God has for your life. There's an idea that he has in his mind of the man, the woman that he wants you to be, the kinds of things that he wants you to do. And again, this is very important to me.
• 25:51
  Don't know what my life's gonna be like ten years from now. Don't I know what my life's gonna be like twenty years from now. Have some guesses, have some hunches, have some wishes, have some prayers. God does. Here's what I know.
• 26:06
  I know where I am right now, and I know that he has a path, and there's... And he's always putting opportunities in front of me to do them. I wanna say this again. I said it a little bit earlier, and I I I wanna just say it again and emphasize it. Resist the urge to put this in a category that does not include you.
• 26:31
  The story of Samuel is a pastor prophet story. My story is a pastor story. Ephesians two ten was just written to people, followers of Jesus Christ. And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then just like our mission statement says, like, we've been we've we've been called to to help people know Jesus, to build real community, build authentic relationships with each other, and to share his hope with the world. And there is a particular way that God is wanting you to do those things, and he has laid that out for you.
• 27:05
  You don't have to come up with it. You don't have to stress about it. You certainly cannot sit around and think that it doesn't apply to you because it does. God has laid out a path, a path that he determined. And then at that point, if that's true, if we can get over ourselves, get over our hesitancy, the the...
• 27:24
  I think maybe a little bit of false humility, or I'm not I'm not... Get over that and believe that God has an idea, a goal, an objective, a path for you to become a certain man or woman, to fulfill the great commission where people can know who Jesus is and and and walk with him. If you believe that, then really there's just one simple thing that we have to do. Samuel was called by God before he was even conceived. And what we're gonna see over the next several weeks is this.
• 28:07
  He walked his path. He walked his path, and so must you. This is where we're not talking about predestination anymore. We talk about free will. I mean, Hannah Hannah Hannah can decide all this that she wants, and and we'll find out next week that she follows through and gives gives, you know, her son to be raised as a priest, and he gives, you know, he he he she hands him off.
• 28:33
  We'll see next week the voice of God coming to Samuel, but he has some choice in the matter too. He could have ignored it. He could have gone his own way. There are any number of points all throughout his life, and we're gonna see him all for for years over the next several weeks. He could have taken any number of off ramps as God is laying out not only this big picture path, but a moment by moment path, there's any number of off ramps that he could have chosen to take.
• 29:10
  And so we'll follow him. We'll follow him through the ups and downs of life. We'll see what it is like to celebrate when something is going really well, and we'll see what it is like when it is a struggle, when he fears for his life, when everybody's really happy to see him and nobody wants to see him. And we're going to see the faithfulness of Samuel in all sorts of different circumstances over the course of years. And what we'll see is a man who humbly continued to choose to do what God had called him to.
• 29:57
  Now you... Again, you may not know either kind of what your life is supposed to be. Like, who am I supposed to be? I mean, you're still trying to figure it out. Maybe you've just kind of got your head down, and I'm just trying to survive.
• 30:12
  But here's the thing that I want you to know. God has laid he's laid it out for you. And you may not know what a year from now holds, five years from now hold, but I guarantee there is something right now that the God of the universe is putting on your heart to help you become more the man, the woman that he's called you to be. There are people that he is putting in your life to love well. There's people he's putting in your life to help them know who Jesus is.
• 30:45
  In your work, in your neighborhood, in your family, at your school, God is revealing himself, and we have to walk in it. There've been lots of off ramps for me, lots of ways where this idea that I had pretty clearly over the course of several years, like this is what God has wanted me to do, plenty of off ramps. Getting fired is an off ramp. When not only do you get fired, but the guy tells you, you'll never be a good pastor, you should quit the profession. That's a pretty easy off ramp.
• 31:31
  COVID would have been a really easy off ramp. Not very I mean, a few people would have been sad, but would have been wouldn't Moe would have been, oh man, yeah, lots of things shut down in COVID. It would have been easy. And in times of discouragement, man, you just... You wanna take them.
• 31:56
  But what God is calling us to, Don't take the easy way out. Don't do what seems easy. Don't bail. Say yes to whatever the next thing is. You should join a small group.
• 32:14
  We'll go to the commercial. You should go to men's retreat. At a minimum, go eat lunch at Pickleman's and give some money back to the food pantry. You should probably volunteer and grow up kids. You should invite your friend to church.
• 32:30
  Why don't you get up a little bit earlier tomorrow and read the Bible before you before you go to work? There are a lot of simple, things that God is laying out for you because he has a vision for your life, has a dream for you, has a picture for you, and it may feel incomplete at this moment, but it will begin to develop as we just begin to take small steps of obedience to say yes to what God has called us to. We don't have to worry if we're heading on the wrong place, becoming the wrong kind of person as we're continually saying yes to the things that God is calling us to. But there's two things that are just going to have to happen. First of all, you're going to have to believe that Ephesians two ten and this kind of template here for Samuel, that it applies to you.
• 33:29
  But there is a great thing that can happen in your heart when you choose to believe. So again, it's true. You choose to believe that God sees me, has a plan for me. He doesn't just love us in general, He also loves me specifically, and sees me and has a plan for me. You believe that, break out of this idea that calling is something for the elite.
• 34:03
  It is something for all of us. And the second thing, just be faithful. Just continue to say yes to the next thing, and you're gonna end up in an incredible place. It says, we're going to follow the life of Samuel. He's going to be a great example for us, of a man who believed in the call that God had on his life and continued to say, faithfully say yes to what God had called him to.
• 34:34
  And I pray that either this week, next week, or somewhere along the way, that you'll you'll you'll be there too. I believe in the call that God has on my life, and I wanna faithfully walk in it. Let me pray. God, I thank you. I thank you for Samuel.
• 35:00
  I thank you for Hannah. God, thank you for her faithful prayers and her devotion to you. The God that she didn't take the she didn't take the she didn't take the exit ramp. She didn't let her grief overwhelm her, but she continued to pray. And then God that you blessed her, and you gave us, and you gave Israel, you gave them Samuel.
• 35:38
  And God, I pray like her and like Samuel, we would faithfully follow the path that you've laid out for us. We would not ignore it and would not falsely believe that you don't have one for us. By faith, we would choose to believe in the life and the path you have for us. And God, I pray that we would just continue to say yes. We would listen and say yes.
• 36:17
  And God, we are so thankful for your son Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection makes this life that we have with you even possible. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thanks again for joining us on our sermon podcast, and you can learn more about us at thegrovechurch.org. If you go to thegrovechurch.org/connect, there's a form you could fill out.
• 36:40
  Just let us know that you've been listening. And if you wanna dig deeper on some of these topics that we cover in our sermon podcast or just another issues of dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our cultivate podcast. It's on the same feed however you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie, the lead pastor at The Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.