Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20250608 - How To Know When God Is Speaking - 1 Samuel 3:1-10,19

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#20250608 - How To Know When God Is Speaking - 1 Samuel 3:1-10,19 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Amen. Again, the title of the study,
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How to know when God is speaking for Samuel chapter 3.
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And I don't know if you find it difficult to hear God's voice in
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your life. Sometimes I have and sometimes I
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do need help in that. Maybe for you, it's a decision
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that you have to make. And so you pray about it and
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then you say, OK, God, I'm willing to do whatever it is
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that you want me to do. I'm I'm all in.
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And then a thought enters into your head and you're thinking,
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OK, Lord, was that you like I'm having a hard time?
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Or was that me? Was that my emotions?
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And what I want? Was that the Holy Spirit?
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How do I know that's not the enemy that's trying to distract
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me? Or how do I know that wasn't
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just the Mexican food I ate last night?
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Like I'm trying to figure this out.
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God, I keep hearing that you speak.
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I want to know if that's really, really you speaking to me.
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Have you guys been there before? Yeah, Well, Jesus says this, and
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I love this. This encourages me.
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John chapter 10, verse 27. He says my sheep hear my voice
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and I know them and they follow me.
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So Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd, and if you are his
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sheep, if you're a son or a daughter, then you can know and
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you can recognize his voice in your life.
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And the closer we get to him as we grow, the more familiar we
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become with him and the more familiar his voices to us when
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he speaks, where we'll be able to say, yeah, I, I know that
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that was the Lord. Now, there's many examples of
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Scripture of God speaking to his people.
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So this encourages us as well. Jeremiah would say this.
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The word of the Lord came to me. Same thing.
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The word of the Lord came to Elijah.
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He spoke to Abraham. He said to Abraham, Go to a land
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that I will show you. And Abraham heard and obeyed and
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went. He spoke to Moses in a flame of
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fire in a Bush. He spoke to Moses again at Mount
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Sinai. He speaks to Paul as Paul is on
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the road to Emmaus. And he speaks again to Paul
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while Paul is in a prison. And we're not always told how
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God speaks in all of these different situations.
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Sometimes I wonder, did God speak audibly to them?
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Is that how they heard? Or was it a vision that they
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saw? Or was it just an impression on
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their heart as God was speaking to them?
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But here's what we do know. And the Bible's clear on this.
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And we can say this with confidence, both in His word and
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for us today. Number one, God speaks #2 God
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speaks to you and #3 God wants you to hear from him.
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That's his desire. So if you want to hear God's
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voice, rest assured He wants you to hear His voice as well.
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And that's for every single person in this place.
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It's not for only those of us that feel that we're further
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along in our walk with the Lord. That's for everybody.
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A great book recommendation I want to just throw out to you
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guys if you want to do some further reading.
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This book has has been such a blessing to me.
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Charles Stanley, Pastor Charles Stanley wrote a book called How
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to Listen to God, How to Listen to God.
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It's a great book and it helps kind of parse some of these
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things out even more. And there are times when God
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speaks and there are times that when he's speaking, we just
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don't either hear him correctly or we're not listening to him.
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But you even see examples of that in Scripture too.
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The prophet Nathan tells King David to go build the temple,
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and then the Lord has to come back to King Nathan or the
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prophet Nathan and say to him, did I tell you to tell David to
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go build the temple? Go back and tell him he can't
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build it. So Can you imagine, Nathan, like
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coming back? OK, I'm sorry, I went before the
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Lord in this. Even he in that particular
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situation wasn't listening to the Lord.
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You've got Samuel, Of course, some of us are familiar with
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this story. He goes to anoint David's older
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brother as king because he thinks that's the one that God
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has chosen. And the Lord says to him, no,
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that that's not the one. And Samuel says, well, it seemed
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like he was the one. He looks like the one.
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And the Lord says, well, that's because man looks at the outward
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appearance, but God looks at the heart.
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And I'm thankful when I read those examples that God is so
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gracious and he works with us when he speaks to us, even when
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we don't always get it right. You know, my story of, of, of
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learning to kind of discern and hear the voice of the Lord
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started a number of years ago. This particular season, I should
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say, we were in Philadelphia and that's where my, my, my, my, my
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wife. We had our kids there, my
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ministry and the church there loved it.
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But we started a sense of stirring in our heart that God
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was had something different for us, something new for us, just
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that sense. And so we started praying.
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We started asking friends to pray.
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We started trying to determine, OK, Lord, what, what exactly is
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this? And so we're my wife, Becky and
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I are talking about what he's saying as we're reading in our
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devotionals and, and how God's confirming certain things.
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And then out of nowhere, I get a call that that the Lord had laid
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us on a particular pastor's heart to go join their team in
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California. And the one place my wife said
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she never would ever, never move would be California.
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So I immediately I was like, well, that's never going to
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happen because Becky is not going to not, she's not going to
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be down for that. And she wasn't until we prayed.
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And then as we began to pray, it was funny the way it worked.
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There be times when I'd be like, OK, I really think this is a
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Lord. And she's like, absolutely not.
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And then there's times when I'm thinking, OK, yeah, maybe that's
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not you, Lord. And she's like, no, I just.
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I think it is. I think it is a Lord.
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But we finally got on the same page.
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We, we talked to all four of our kids, Hey, we feel like the Lord
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might have this for us. Would you guys be on board with
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this? And we asked them to pray about
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it. And all four of them came back
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and say, yeah, we, we, we, we believe this is the Lord for us
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too, not just for mom and dad, but for us.
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So we took the step of faith. We moved out to California
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believing we heard the voice of the Lord.
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And then within a a month we found out that the church that
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we were joining was undergoing all this massive change and
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change in direction and change in the staff and, and all sorts
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of things. And then about six months after
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being out there, COVID hit. So here we are far away from our
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our church community of over 20 years and our families and our
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friends. And we're in California where we
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don't know many people. And there's all this change.
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And it just felt so out of control.
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And I remember for week upon week upon week, every single
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night, just saying, Lord, how did I miss?
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How did I miss this? I thought I heard your voice.
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I thought it was so clear because there were specific
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things, if I told the whole story, where you would say,
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yeah, that that sounds like the Lord.
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And I really wrestled with that. I remember even at one point
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crying out to the Lord and saying, God, if I can't hear
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your voice as a pastor, then how can I help other people to hear
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your voice? I felt like such a fool.
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I was so, so disheartened and so discouraged.
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Well, Fast forward and of course there's more to the story.
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About three years after being in California, the Lord had opened
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the door through my relationship with Pastor Ed to come join the
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team here in Colorado. And in July we will have been
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here for three years, which is such a blessing.
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But I can say this, well, thank you.
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I can say this, that now that I look back, even though I
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struggled to discern His voice along the way, I have no doubt
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in my mind because I can see how God was moving.
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The California was not only did God have something for us in
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California, but it was his way of getting us here to Colorado.
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I don't think we would have ended up here in Colorado if we
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hadn't first been in California. And, and we have no doubt that
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this is where God has us. So I'm just thankful to know God
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does speak even when we sometimes don't always know how
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to figure out how to hear his voice or if we heard it right or
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did I miss it? Lord, even Billy Graham, I love
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this. He was once asked, Billy, have
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you ever heard the Lord speak to you?
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And he said, well, I was up 1 morning walking the dogs.
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I was really troubled about something and talking to the
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Lord and all of a sudden he says I got this tremendous peace.
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And then he says, I think the Lord spoke to me that time and I
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love that they, even the great Billy Graham said, I think that
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that was the Lord. Like, I feel good about that.
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I'm not alone, right? That's part of this walking by
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faith. OK, Lord, with all the
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information I have, I believe that this is you.
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I believe that you're speaking to me.
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However, what some people will do, and I'm sure you've heard
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this, a lot of people will just drop that God told me and kind
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of use that as a trump card to do whatever they want to do
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because who's going to argue with somebody when they say God
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told me, right? So we'll hear this a lot as
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pastors. God told me it's OK to move in
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with my girlfriend because it's going to save money and we're
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going to get married eventually someday anyway.
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Or God told me it's OK to smoke weed because it's natural, like
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he made it so it's cool. Like I prayed about it.
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He said, yeah, it's OK, go ahead.
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Or how about this one? And then this happens a lot.
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By the way, God told me you're the one that's supposed to marry
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me, and if you don't now you're in disobedience to God.
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Can you imagine? I told my daughter, you can
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never hit a boy except if he said something like that to you,
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that'll be OK. There's actually a viral video.
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I felt so bad for this guy. He, he gets in front of a whole
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group of young adults, I don't know, some conference or
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something like that. And he gets up and he says, God
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spoke to me and said, my wife is somewhere here in this room.
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And he said, and I'm not going to get off the stage until you
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raise your hand. And God makes it clear to you
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that you're my wife. And he stood there and of
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course, nobody raised their hand.
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I'm just like, oh, Lord help this poor guy.
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This guy's single for a long time or I know a lot of you guys
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have heard this too, television preachers.
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God told me you're supposed to sow a seed in obedience to him
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of $1000 into my ministry. And if you want to be
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prosperous, you'll do this and then you'll receive a tenfold
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blessing if you do that and people thoughtful that well, if
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God told the preacher that, I guess that's God's telling me to
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do this too for others when we want to hear the voice of the
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Lord. Maybe you've done this too.
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You pray about something, you open your Bible and you do the
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the point and find method where you look at the verse and you're
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like, no, that doesn't look right.
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Let me let me try this again. Look one more time, God, please
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give me an answer. Please speak to me and you point
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again and you keep pointing until you find something that
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kind of makes sense, right. There's all sorts of ways we're
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trying to discern the voice of God.
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But how can we know when God is speaking?
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How can we? Well, we're going to see a time
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here when God spoke to young Samuel, and we're going to draw
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out some points for ourselves this morning.
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If that's a question perhaps that you have asked or maybe
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even this morning, by God's design, you're here because
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you're asking that question in this season of your life.
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Well, I think God wants to to help answer that today.
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So in First Samuel, 3 Samuel's a young boy here.
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The Jewish historian Josephus tells us he's 12 years old, 12
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years old. Samuel was raised around the
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Scripture. He was at the Tabernacle here in
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Shiloh. He was an assistant to the high
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priest Eli. We read earlier in chapter 2
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that he has a godly mother named Hannah.
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And Samuel is eventually going to become the great prophet to
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the nation of Israel and even play a key role in David's
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calling to, to to the kingship there.
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And at this particular time in first Samuel 3 in history, God
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begins to speak through prophets, through prophets.
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He had spoken previously to other men, but this is where he
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begins to speak to prophets to the nation of Israel.
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And Samuel is considered the first of these prophets that God
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is going to use to speak on his behalf to the nation.
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So if you're taking notes, we want to jump in here and look at
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five ways to know when God is speaking, five ways to know when
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God is speaking. And so #1 here's what we're
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going to take note of here in verse one.
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God speaks to a soft heart. God speaks to a soft heart.
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Verse one, the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before
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Eli the high priest, and the word of the Lord was notice this
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rare in those days. I like what the old King James
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Version says there. The word of the Lord was
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precious in those days, but it was precious because it was so
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little. It was rare.
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It says here and then it continues.
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There was no widespread revelation, so the word of the
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Lord was rare. There wasn't this widespread
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revelation of Him speaking to the nation like He had before.
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He had spoken to men previously like Abraham and previously like
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Moses. They were actually both referred
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to as prophets as well. But it had been a long time
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since God's people had heard a fresh word from the Lord.
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And the reason why, it's not because God didn't want to speak
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anymore, it tells us it's because the people weren't
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listening to Him, that they weren't paying attention to what
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he was saying, and they weren't walking in obedience to the
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things that He did say. As a matter of fact, the book of
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Judges right before First Samuel here, the book of Judges ends by
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telling us this. Every man did what was right in
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his own eyes, and that kind of speaks to the condition of the
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nation at the time. Even those in spiritual
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leadership were corrupt in these days, so you couldn't trust the
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spiritual leaders. There were many false prophets
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in this day, so how are you going to know who in fact is
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speaking on behalf of the Lord if you've got all these people
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out there that are calling themselves prophets saying thus
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says the Lord. It was a hard time, but again,
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it wasn't that God was speaking, it was that God's people had
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hardened their hearts. So it was rare.
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It says that they heard from him and this was part of this
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judgement that they were under and no longer hearing from the
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voice of the Lord. But he was still speaking to
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those whose hearts were soft enough to hear from him.
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In chapter 2, we even see that there's this nameless man just
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referred to there as a man of God who God spoke to and and he
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went to Eli to speak on behalf of God.
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So God still was speaking. Ezekiel the prophet would say
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this about those of us that are under now what's called the new
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covenant. In Ezekiel 36, he says this.
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I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within
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you. I will take the heart of stone.
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In other words, I'll take your hard heart out of your flesh.
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And he says, I will give you a heart of flesh, meaning a soft
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heart. I will put my spirit within you
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and cause you to walk in my statutes.
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A heart of flesh that we've been given as God's people now is a
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heart that is sensitive to hearing from him.
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And Ezekiel tells us that we've been given this soft heart and
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we've been given the Holy Spirit who is in US.
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And the Holy Spirit himself now speaks to us because in the Old
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Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon people, but then he
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would leave, and even David would pray, Don't take your Holy
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Spirit from me, but for us. The Holy Spirit lives in US, and
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he speaks to us, and he helps us and he guides us.
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And when we read the Scripture, it's not just this history book
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that we're reading. He illuminates it and helps at
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bring life to it so that it that he communicates to us through
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it. And so if you want to hear from
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God today, that's your heart. Start by asking this Holy
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Spirit, would you soften my heart that I might hear from
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you? Because God, I don't want your
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word to be rare in my life because I know that there are
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times my heart is hard towards you.
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I know that, and God, I'm asking that you would chip away at some
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of that in me because I do want to be sensitive.
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I do want to hear the voice of my shepherd speak to me.
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I want to know this. And by the way, that's God's
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desire too, that we would know Him and that we would hear His
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voice in our lives. So point number one, God speaks
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to a soft heart point #2 here God speaks through His word.
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God speaks through His word again here at the second-half of
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verse one it says, and the word of the Lord was rare in those
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days. There was no widespread
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revelation. So the difference between us
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here today and the people in this day is that we have in our
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hands His revelation. We've got it, He's given it to
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us. It's His written word.
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And it doesn't only tell us that everything that God wants to say
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to the world, but it is alive and it's powerful.
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And He speaks directly to each one of us through His Word.
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And so he says this like the rain that falls and waters the
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grass, so his word falls on our hearts and, and, and it
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accomplishes what he sends it forth to do.
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And then he tells us this, The word of God never returns void.
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It will accomplish what he wants it to accomplish.
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So even when you're reading it and you're not understanding at
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all intellectually, he promises that he is still doing a work in
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you Spiritually, He promises that he is speaking to you.
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See, the difference between this and a history book on the shelf
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is that he tells us this is alive.
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This is alive. It is God breathed, It's
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inspired. Literally, he breathes life into
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this so that it it, it, it is speaking to us as a book, His
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word that is alive. There's only two things in
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Scripture where it says God breathed life into something.
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We see that in Genesis when he breathed life into dust and he
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created a living being man that he called Adam, right?
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And secondly, it says he breathes life into his word
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because it is alive and he speaks to us through it.
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That's why you can read something that you've read 100
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times before, but it feels new and it feels fresh, and you're
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thinking that God is speaking direct.
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This is exactly what I needed to hear because God is speaking
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through His Word. Hebrews one, the author there
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tells us this God who had various times and in various
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ways spoken times past to the Father's by the prophets.
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He has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.
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In other words, God has said everything that He needed to say
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through Jesus. And then Peter would say this
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second. Peter 119 And so we have the
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prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light
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that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the
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morning star rises in your heart.
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So there is something that God has already spoken.
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And it's his word, the Bible, we call it the Bible just means
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books. Biblios, there's 66 books here.
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He's spoken to us. And this special revelation that
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he has given to us so we have the privilege of holding in our
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hands. This now becomes the measuring
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stick against every other voice that's out there, even your own
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intrusive thoughts. God, is that you or is that me?
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Well, we've got this to say. Well, let's line up whatever it
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is that you're hearing with this, and God will confirm if
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that's you or if that's him. So the question then becomes
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this, what is your relationship with the book?
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What does that look like for you?
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Are you reading it? You know, we can't just put it
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under our pillow and hope that by osmosis, God's word just
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somehow comes into our heart overnight.
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We have to read it, right? That's that's how it's designed.
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But then God uses it and speaks to us in a wonderful way.
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What Amos would say This the prophet Amos.
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Amos 811 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that
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I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor
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a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord
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Jesus would say the prophets not be careful what you hear, but
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how you hear because for us, there's not a famine of the word
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of God. Many of us probably have
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multiple Bibles in our home. We probably have one here with
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us and one at home sitting on the bed stand, right?
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Many of us can grab any translation we want on a Bible
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app right now. We've got Grace FM Bible
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teaching all day long. There's Christian podcasts out
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there. There's not a famine for us of
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the word of God. It's everywhere.
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You can, you can go buy one downstairs if you want to in the
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bookstore. But there is a famine of the
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hearing of the words of the Lord.
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And that's because the problem is always the condition of our
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heart. It's always the condition of the
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human heart. There are a lot of voices in our
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culture today. There's a lot of voices that can
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even keep us from hearing the voice of the Lord.
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So much of it comes from the smartphone that's in our pocket
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right now or in your purse right now.
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Always breaking news, always the latest of everything that's
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happening around the world. I took just a quick note just
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yesterday, in the span of like just a couple of hours, here's
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what came alerting me on my phone.
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Elon Musk and Trump are still feuding.
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The ICE raids in LA and now there's riots in the streets.
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Israel took out the Hamas leader and now they have his body.
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Oh, and the new Superman movie is getting rave reviews.
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Oh, and by the way, there's a UFC event happening tonight.
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Oh, and don't forget to renew your prescription.
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Oh, by the way, there were 900 flights delayed at DIA because
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Colorado's placed under a tornado watch and it's partly
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cloudy. There's a stray shower of
23:20
thunderstorms possible later today.
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Information overload like this is just within a short time.
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Alert, alert, alert, alert. There's constant, constant news
23:29
coming my way. And then there's social media,
23:32
and there's so many voices there, so much distraction, so
23:35
many different opinions out there.
23:37
How in the world are we, are we supposed to hear the voice of
23:41
God with all of these other voices constantly barraging us
23:45
with information that we can almost become desensitized if
23:49
we're not careful? And I'll add this too, just as a
23:53
pastor, even ministry, if we're not careful, can keep us from
23:57
hearing God speak. Because I can become so tied up
24:01
in ministry that I can neglect the voice of the Lord in my
24:06
life. Calvary Church can become an
24:10
idol if I'm not careful. You know, I can say, well, I'm a
24:14
pastor. Of course I'm hearing from the
24:16
voice of the Lord. That's what I do.
24:17
I'm up for hours every morning fasting and praying and hearing
24:21
God speak to me. We're like, we're best friends.
24:23
And that's of course that's what I do.
24:25
But the reality is when I actually slow down, there are
24:28
times I began to realize, you know what, I've been too busy
24:32
with ministry to be still before Him.
24:38
I've been, my schedule's been so full that I haven't opened His
24:42
word to wait upon Him. And where I'm lacking or where
24:47
I'm falling short in my life is quietness.
24:50
It's in quietness. And yet here's what's so
24:53
wonderful. When we do sit and we do turn
24:57
off all of those notifications, shut the phone off from all the
25:01
noise, and we just sit in front of His word, here's what's
25:06
beautiful. It is wonderful when he speaks
25:11
and sometimes it almost is as, as if it's a whisper, but we're
25:15
hearing his voice. And when he does speak, I know
25:18
many of you have had this experience where you're reading
25:21
and you're just filled with a sense of his presence with you
25:24
and, and there's something of eternity when God speaks.
25:27
There's something from another world because we are spiritual
25:32
beings and our hearts are made to hear from heaven.
25:36
Our hearts are made to hear from our heavenly Father.
25:40
And I love that. I love that.
25:42
So maybe the word for me is put your phone away a little bit
25:46
more and sit before the Lord in quietness.
25:49
But in this day, Samuel's day, the word of the Lord was rare.
25:53
May that not be true of us today.
25:58
And sometimes I think when we're talking about the voice of the
26:00
Lord too, we're waiting for some big way that God is going to
26:04
speak to us and answer whatever it is that we're asking him.
26:07
And you know, he's going to write it in the sky, or it's
26:10
going to come in some vision or it's going to come in some
26:13
dream. And by the way, God does speak
26:15
through visions and God does speak through dreams.
26:17
But I think of Elijah, when Elijah was told the voice of the
26:22
Lord isn't in the strong wind, or it isn't in the earthquake as
26:27
Elijah's watching an earthquake take place, or it wasn't in the
26:31
fire as he's seeing some of the trees on the mountain caught up
26:35
in fire. But it says God's voice was in
26:38
the still small voice. And that is the same voice that
26:43
speaks to you and to me. When we open His word.
26:46
It's in the daily of our lives. It's in the ordinary of our
26:51
lives. So don't let anything get in the
26:56
way of the priority of God's Word in your life.
26:59
So whether you start your day with God's Word or you end your
27:03
day with God's Word, know this. He wants to speak to you every
27:08
single time that you open it. Even if you're like you're
27:12
reading a narrative and you're thinking, I already know what
27:15
this says. I've read this 12 times before.
27:17
The question then is, but do you know what God is saying to you
27:21
through it today? What's He communicating to you?
27:26
And you know this, the the more you read the Bible and the more
27:30
you sit underneath the teaching of the Word of God, the more
27:33
you're training your spiritual ears to hear from Him.
27:38
You're growing in discerning His voice from the barrage of all
27:42
the other voices that are out there.
27:44
You're learning to discern His voice from your own thoughts.
27:48
You will know when it is God who speaks or when it's a lie from
27:52
the enemy. And God will never speak
27:56
something that will ever contradict or go against His
27:59
Word, because it becomes now the measure for us.
28:02
So church, don't neglect this because this is going to be the
28:07
primary way that God is going to speak to you in your life.
28:12
And He will. And He will give yourself to His
28:15
Word and watch and see how He speaks.
28:17
It's wonderful. So #2 God speaks through His
28:20
word #3 God speaks to those in close proximity to him.
28:27
God speaks to those in close proximity to him.
28:31
Notice this in verse 2. And it came to pass at that time
28:35
while Eli, again, the high priest was lying down.
28:39
Now Eli is around 98 at this point.
28:41
So there's a lot of lying down happening in his life.
28:43
At this season of his life. He's lying down in his place.
28:48
And when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not
28:51
see his eyesight is bad here, verse 3 says, and before the
28:55
lamp of God went out in the Tabernacle of the Lord, where
28:58
the ark of God was, so we're told here, the ark of the
29:01
covenant is here while Samuel was lying down.
29:06
The idea here is to sleep so very quickly.
29:09
The lamp of God mentioned here in verse 3, it's a lampstand and
29:14
we would call it today a menorah.
29:16
It had 7 candles that were burning on it.
29:20
And it would be the priest job to never let the lamp run out of
29:23
oil. So every morning and every
29:26
evening the olive oil was put in this menorah in this lamp.
29:30
And it was meant to burn continually as a as a sign of
29:35
God's presence among them. But here in First Samuel 3
29:39
three, nobody filled it with oil that day because it's about to
29:44
go out, it says, which just shows the backslidden state of
29:49
the nation at this time. The light was dimming physically
29:54
here in the Tabernacle, but the light was dimming spiritually
29:57
and morally in the nation, so much so that they couldn't hear
30:01
the voice of God anymore. But God didn't give up on his
30:05
people. He didn't let them loose.
30:08
As a matter of fact, it says when the word of the Lord was
30:11
rare, he was going to raise up this young boy Samuel, and he
30:16
was going to teach Samuel to hear the voice of the Lord.
30:22
And God is going to then use Samuel to rekindle the flame
30:25
that had gone out in Israel. Now take note of this.
30:29
Samuel is already involved in serving the Lord.
30:33
He is serving Eli the high priest.
30:35
He is living in the Tabernacle. Verse one tells us that he was
30:38
ministering not for the Lord, as if that was a title or a
30:42
position. He was ministering to the Lord.
30:45
I love that. And God meets him in his
30:47
ministry and he speaks to him. And I think, again, another
30:53
reason why a lot of people don't hear from the Lord is because
30:56
they are spiritually inactive. So you may be here this morning
31:01
and you may be frustrated because you don't remember the
31:04
last time you heard from God. Or maybe you've been seeking to
31:08
hear from God, but you're not hearing anything from him
31:11
lately. And if you were to come forward
31:14
and say that, my first question would be to you, let me ask you,
31:17
are you intentionally pursuing your relationship with him?
31:21
What does that look like? Are you in close proximity to
31:24
Him in your daily life like Samuel was here to hear from
31:28
them? How's your quiet time?
31:30
How's your devotional life? Are you serving him?
31:34
Are you regularly being around his people?
31:37
And are you involved in ministry to others?
31:39
Because perhaps that's what the Lord wants to start in your
31:44
heart today. This this desire to want to be
31:46
in a place in a proximity where you're able to hear from Him.
31:52
God may be saying to you, make yourself available to me and you
31:57
will hear from me. It's not that God's not
32:00
available to us. It's, it's so often we just
32:02
don't make ourselves available to him.
32:05
So God speaks to those who are in close proximity to him #4 God
32:10
speaks to those who are available to him.
32:14
God speaks to those who are available to him.
32:16
Again here in verse 3, while Samuel was lying down, verse 4
32:21
says the Lord called Samuel and he Samuel answered, Here I am.
32:30
So notice this. He ran to Eli and he said to
32:33
Eli, here I am for you called me.
32:37
And Eli, 98 year old Eli kind of wakes up.
32:39
I can just picture it like you were dreaming.
32:42
I did not call you. Lie down again.
32:45
And Samuel went and lay down again.
32:47
So again, Samuel here is likely 12 years old, grew up in the
32:51
Tabernacle, servant to the priest.
32:53
It tells us one of his roles is that he would help open the
32:56
doors of the Tabernacle in the morning and he hears someone
33:00
call his name and he thinks it's Eli that's calling him, but it's
33:04
the Lord that's calling him. And, and what what God is going
33:06
to do here is he's going to help teach Samuel how to discern the
33:10
voice of God and to know that it is God that's speaking.
33:14
And so Eli says here, Samuel, you're dreaming, go back to bed.
33:18
And, and I just love about Samuel how quick he was to
33:22
respond to the voice that he is hearing.
33:24
He thought it was Eli, but it was the Lord.
33:28
And I want to respond like this. When God speaks to me, when I
33:32
read His word and he's speaking, I want to be able to say, here I
33:35
am, Lord, I'm available to you. I want to hear what it is that
33:38
you have to say. And you would think here in
33:42
First Samuel, if God was going to speak, he would speak to Eli.
33:45
He would speak to the great high priest, a final word to this
33:49
great patriarch, 98 year old Eli, when in fact God wanted to
33:55
speak to the boy, to Samuel. Because God is always ready to
34:01
speak a fresh word and in a fresh way to the next
34:05
generation. Same message He's always spoken,
34:08
but to speak it now to the next generation because they need to
34:12
hear from the Lord themselves. Just as many of us have heard in
34:16
our generation for ourselves, just as our kids that we're
34:21
raising in the faith, their faith needs to become their own.
34:27
And just as I've heard the voice of the Lord in my life, I'm
34:30
praying that my kids hear it for themselves because God wants to
34:34
speak to them. God wants to speak to them.
34:37
And young Samuel, by the way, is in the same kind of culture that
34:39
our kids are in today. He is in an environment that is
34:43
vile, perverse, sexually. The influences around him were
34:48
negative, except for Eli and of course his mother Hannah.
34:52
And somehow in God's grace, young Samuel here is able to
34:55
withstand all the pressures of the culture and he's serving
35:00
here in the Tabernacle. And God is going to speak to
35:03
this young boy. And here's what's remarkable to
35:05
me, that God is going to begin to change the nation with a 12
35:11
year old boy, the 12 year old boy.
35:14
And it just makes me think to all the moms and the dads that
35:18
are here, who knows if you have a Samuel in your home that
35:23
you're going to tuck into bed tonight that God is raising up
35:27
or an Esther or a Deborah. And so here God is speaking to
35:32
Samuel. And I love that God calls him by
35:35
his name. He doesn't say, hey, kid, all
35:36
right. He says Samuel.
35:39
By the way, He does that when he speaks to us too.
35:43
Josh here. I want to speak to you.
35:47
And I believe that God spoke it here.
35:49
Tender enough and personal enough that Samuel kept getting
35:54
up and running to Eli. He wasn't afraid.
35:56
It wasn't the voice of Thunder that frightened him.
35:58
I'm sure that Eli, being 98 years old, would call to Samuel
36:02
from time to time. So Samuel's probably use used to
36:05
helping Eli out. But the voice that Samuel heard
36:08
was personal. It was tender to him as he's
36:11
lying down Samuel Samuel and Samuel was available wakes up
36:17
his little 12 year old eyes. Here I am here I am what a great
36:22
prayer to pray Lord here I am available to whatever it is that
36:26
you have to say to me. So verse 4, again the Lord
36:31
called Samuel and he answered, here I am.
36:35
So he Samuel, Randy, Eli and said, here I am, for you called
36:39
me. And Eli said I did not call, lie
36:42
down again. And he went and lay down.
36:45
Then verse 6 the Lord called yet again Samuel.
36:50
And I wonder if the Lord is smiling at this point if he
36:53
knows exactly what's going on, right Samuel?
36:57
And it says, So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am
37:01
for you called me. And Eli answers, I can just
37:04
picture him. Oy, they right like I did not
37:07
call you my son. Lie down again.
37:11
And it says in verse 7, Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor
37:14
was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.
37:17
What that's saying here is that Samuel had never personally
37:20
received a revelation or a direct word like this from God.
37:25
So Samuel didn't know him in that sense, in that sense.
37:28
And now he's going to learn that God, in fact, was speaking to
37:31
him. And he had to know the
37:34
difference between his mother's faith, Hannah, who was a woman
37:37
of God. He had to know the difference
37:39
between Eli's faith, who he was serving under, and he had to
37:43
know the voice of God in his own life.
37:47
And isn't it wonderful that God didn't stop speaking after the
37:51
first time he called Samuel, right?
37:53
Like, hey dude, I called you once, you should have known it
37:56
was me, so you missed out. I'm going to go to the next 12
37:59
year old person down the street, right?
38:01
No, what he does is he keeps speaking and he keeps calling.
38:05
And I appreciate that because if any of you here are like me and
38:08
you have a thick head and maybe you're a little bit slower to
38:11
hear his voice, I am thankful for his patience.
38:16
I'm thankful that he doesn't give up on speaking to me
38:20
because there are some people, people here in the church, some
38:22
of you that are so sensitive to the voice of the Lord that the
38:25
moment he calls, you immediately know it's him and you just step
38:28
right into what it is. How wonderful.
38:31
But then again, there's others like me where the Lord has to
38:34
speak multiple times for me to get it.
38:37
So maybe I'm sitting in church studying the book of Galatians
38:40
with Pastor Ed and the Lord gives me a word and I write that
38:42
down. Wonderful, right?
38:43
And I'm like, well, I think that was for me.
38:46
And then I go home and the next morning in my devotions, it's
38:48
the same message. I'm like, oh, this is like God,
38:51
you really are speaking to me. And then I'm in the car
38:53
listening to Grace FM and the same message comes up again.
38:56
I don't know if you guys have ever had that experience, but it
38:58
is God in a wonderful way confirming what it is that he is
39:02
speaking to me. It's confirming the impression
39:05
that the Lord is is laying on my heart and that's what he's doing
39:08
here with Samuel confirming. So verse 8 tells us the Lord
39:11
called Samuel again the third time.
39:16
So he arose and went to Eli, and he said, here I am, for you did
39:22
call me. And at this point it says Eli
39:26
perceived that the Lord had called the boy.
39:32
Therefore verse 9 Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down and it shall
39:37
be if he calls you that you must say speak Lord, for your servant
39:44
hears. So Samuel went and lay down in
39:48
his place. Very interesting.
39:51
It says there in verse 8 Eli perceived that the Lord had
39:56
called the boy. Eli confirmed to Samuel that
39:59
this was the voice of the Lord. And I think this is an important
40:03
principle because often times there are people that.
40:07
Are wrestling with how do I know this is the voice of the Lord
40:10
and sometimes people will that will say well God told me
40:13
they're just doing that in isolation.
40:15
God told me late one night that that this is what I'm supposed
40:18
to do and yet if you're needing help to discern God's voice
40:22
there is an Eli for you. The Bible encourages us to seek
40:27
wise counsel that there are men and women in this church that
40:32
are spiritually mature, that are a little bit further along in
40:36
their walk with the Lord than you are.
40:39
And there are pastors available. And there are those people in my
40:43
life as well that are able to help us say, yes, that that does
40:46
sound like that's the voice of the Lord.
40:48
I, I, I can agree with that and say Amen, because that lines up
40:52
with, with his character and his promises.
40:54
Or they can say, no, I don't, I don't think that is the voice of
40:57
the Lord. But let me tell you why.
40:59
And I and I want to help discern this.
41:02
And I'm thankful for the Eli's in my life that have helped me
41:06
to be able to discern his voice. Yes, you do need to hear and God
41:10
does want to speak to you. You need to hear yourself.
41:13
But God also gives us a community of believers that that
41:17
when we need that clarity, can help us to discern, particularly
41:21
if it's a big decision or if it's a call to someplace or
41:24
something that we're, we're just like I, I, I just need some
41:27
extra Amen or slow down from God's people.
41:32
And so Eli was that for Samuel. He'd perceived that the Lord had
41:35
called the boy. Samuel was ready.
41:38
He was available. He said, here I am.
41:41
God speaks to those who are available to him.
41:43
And then finally #5 God speaks to those who will respond.
41:49
God speaks to those who will respond.
41:51
He wasn't speaking to the nation at this point in time because
41:55
they were not responding. But he speaks to a 12 year old
41:58
boy because the 12 year old boy's heart was soft enough to
42:02
say, here I am. Now notice this in verse 10.
42:05
Very interesting. Now the Lord, and by the way,
42:09
this is Jehovah, Anytime you see capital L, capital O, capital R,
42:13
capital D, that's the name of Jehovah.
42:16
And so Jehovah God here came and stood, and the ancient rabbis
42:23
and some of the ancient Jewish writings say that he stood
42:25
before Samuel, that God somehow manifested himself.
42:29
He showed himself here to Samuel is the idea.
42:33
He stood before Samuel and he called as at other times Samuel.
42:40
Samuel calls him twice here, maybe because Samuel was asleep
42:45
at this point in time, but I still believe it was with the
42:48
tender voice that he had called the very first time.
42:52
And here 12 year old Samuel answers just as Eli had
42:57
instructed him. Speak for your servant hears.
43:02
Now, in Hebrew, that word hears is so good.
43:06
It means I am actively listening in order to obey, or I'm leaning
43:12
into here so that I can obey. I love that picture.
43:16
In other words, you tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it
43:21
because hearing God requires a response.
43:25
It requires A willingness, It requires obedience.
43:30
And for some of us, maybe the reason we're having a hard time
43:32
hearing from God is because we're having a hard time obeying
43:36
what God's already said. I've been there before too, God.
43:40
I'm not hearing your voice and God's saying, well, I've already
43:43
told you what to do, and I won't give you any further instruction
43:47
until you first obey what I've already said.
43:51
Because if I'm unwilling to obey what God speaks in His Word,
43:54
then all I'm really wanting is to hear God agree with me rather
44:00
than me saying yes and responding to what He wants for
44:03
me. You know, I've said this before
44:07
in my heart. I don't want to hear your voice
44:10
unless you tell me something I don't want to hear.
44:12
And then I'll tell you if I want to do it or not.
44:15
God, right? We've been there before.
44:18
But here God speaking to Samuel, He speaks three times, calls him
44:23
three times. But notice this, He doesn't
44:25
reveal His will to Samuel until Samuel says this.
44:29
Speak for your servant hears God.
44:34
I am willing to do what you want me to do.
44:37
God, I respond in obedience to whatever you say.
44:41
And this was the change in Samuel's calling at this time.
44:45
Here in the middle of this night, the nation of Israel, of
44:51
Israel was going to begin to move forward because of this 12
44:55
year old boy and their walk with the Lord.
44:56
I don't know if God has ever woken you up in the middle of
44:59
the night to speak to you. If you're walking with the Lord
45:02
long enough, you'll experience that.
45:05
There are times I kind of wake up and I sense the Lord
45:08
speaking, and then I roll back around and go, Lord, I don't
45:10
know if that's you or not, right?
45:11
But but there are other times when you know, it's the Lord and
45:15
how wonderful just to be able to get out of bed, perhaps get on
45:18
your knees at your bed and to be able to say, as Samuel says
45:21
here, here I am, Lord, speak to me.
45:26
I'm willing to do what it is that you want.
45:28
And, and many times for me, he'll wake me up because he
45:30
wants me to pray for you for the church or for a particular
45:34
person or for a family in the church.
45:36
And I just wake up and I can't fall asleep.
45:38
And, and then these people are in my heart and my mind.
45:40
So I just know God is saying, pray, pray for the people that
45:45
I'm laying on your heart right now.
45:47
God will sometimes wake us up. It's the quietest time, right?
45:50
It's where we're at our most still.
45:52
It makes sense that that would be a time when God would say,
45:54
OK, I'll, I'll multiply your sleep.
45:58
But here's the opportunity for me to, to, to get a hold of your
46:01
heart. So I encourage you when God
46:03
speaks, a great prayer to pray is speak Lord, for your servant
46:08
hears and God will always respond loudest and he'll speak
46:11
loudest to those who respond to him.
46:15
I'm listening in order to obey God.
46:17
So whether you say go or whether you say no, I'm all yours.
46:22
I'm all yours now in verses 11 through 18, we don't have time
46:26
to read it, but God speaks to Samuel, a very specific word
46:29
here about Eli and his sons and the nation.
46:33
It's not good news, by the way. It's it's, it's, it's a word of
46:37
judgement upon them. But then look at verse 19 here.
46:42
Samuel it says so Samuel grew and the Lord was with him.
46:47
Maybe nobody else in Israel was with him, but the Lord was with
46:50
him. And the Hebrew there, it's the
46:52
Lord was continually with him and I love this and let none of
46:56
his words fall to the ground. And when God speaks to you, none
47:02
of his words will fall to the grounds.
47:07
So again, how do we know when God is speaking?
47:10
Well, as the worship team comes on back up by way of review, we
47:14
see this. Number one, God speaks to a soft
47:16
heart. So this would be a good time
47:19
this morning just to take inventory between you and the
47:21
Lord as we worship and just say, Lord, there have been areas of
47:25
my heart that have been hardened.
47:27
I know it, I feel it. I haven't been sensitive.
47:30
Lord, would you soften my heart? Would you chip away, Lord, at
47:34
the hardness that's there so that I can hear from you #2 God
47:40
speaks through His Word. So when God speaks to you
47:44
personally, and that's what He wants to do, He wants to speak
47:46
to you personally, He will never say anything that will go
47:49
against His Word. He'll never say anything that
47:52
doesn't align with His character, your Heavenly Father
47:55
that loves you. He'll never say anything that
47:58
doesn't align with His promises. He will always agree with what
48:02
is written and that way you can have the confidence.
48:07
As Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they
48:11
follow me and that he calls you his sheep by name.
48:16
By name, just as he called Samuel #3 God speaks to those in
48:21
close proximity to him. So again, a good place to say to
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the Lord today. Lord, I've been distracted.
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I spend more time scrolling through my phone and watching
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the news, and then I do just in quietness.
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Before you got I, I admit that, Lord.
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Would you help me today to start a fresh, intentionally pursuing
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again, Lord, my relationship with you, going back to my first
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love. I want to hear your voice to me,
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Lord. I want to be close to you.
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Lord, it's been a while. It's been a while #4 God speaks
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to those who are available to him, just like Samuel.
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Lord, here I am, you speak, here I am, I'm available.
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Even as we prepare to worship in the next song, How wonderful,
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just as we're worshiping to just say with our hands lifted, here
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I am, here I am. And finally #5 God speaks to
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those who respond to him to be able to say to the Lord.
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Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.
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When he wakes you up in the middle of the night, speak Lord,
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for your servant hears. God, I'm willing to do whatever
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it is that you're going to say to me so I can say this this
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morning. God is speaking to you, and I
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know this. He wants to draw you close to
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himself this morning. That's what he wants.
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Not to church, not to play religious games, but to Jesus.
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To Jesus, the one who knows you best and the one who loves you
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the most. And maybe some of you have never
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heard the voice of God because you don't have a relationship
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with God. Well, here's what His word would
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say today, That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
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Lord, and you believe in your heart that God has raised him
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from the dead, you will be saved.
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For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the
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mouth confession is made unto salvation.
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If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved.
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He will forgive you of your sin. He'll cleanse you of all your
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unrighteousness. He'll make you new.
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And for some of us, maybe you just need to be brought back
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into a place today of posturing your heart back towards Him so
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that you can hear His voice. So as we transition now into
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communion, this is a great time to just remember all of this is
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made possible because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross,
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to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him so that He
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could speak to us, so that we could hear Him, so that we could
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speak to Him and He hears us. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study, delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer, call us at 87730
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Grace that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
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integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.