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Recognizing God's Voice: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast The First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  You can find more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood. Dot org.
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  Thanks for listening. As long as you listen to our
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  scripture this morning, which is from First Samuel chapter 3,
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  starting in verse one. The boy Samuel ministered before
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  the Lord under Eli. In those days, the word of the
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  Lord was rare. There were not many visions.
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  One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could
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  barely see, was lying down in his usual place.
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  The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down
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  in the House of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
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  Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, Here I am.
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  And he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, You called me.
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  But Eli said, I did not call, Go back and lie down.
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  So he went and lay down. Again.
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  The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up and went to Eli
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  and said, Here I am, you called me my son.
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  Eli said, I did not call you. Go back and lie down.
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  Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
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  The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him a third
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  time. The Lord called Samuel, and
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  Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, you called
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  me. Then Eli realized that the Lord
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  was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, go and lie
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  down, and if he calls you say, speak Lord, for your servant is
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  listening. So Samuel went and lay down in
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  his place. The Lord came and stood there
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  calling as at the other times, Samuel, Samuel.
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  Then Samuel said, Speak, for your servant is listening, and
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  the Lord said to Samuel, see, I'm about to do something in
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  Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it
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  tingle. At the time.
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  I will carry out against Eli everything.
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  I spoke against his family from beginning to end, for I told him
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  that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he
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  knew about. His sons blasphemed God, and he
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  failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the House
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  of Eli. The guilt of Eli's house will
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  never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.
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  This is the word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God, I don't know about you, but I can think of
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  very few things in life that we are just naturally able to do
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  right for the vast majority of things that we do.
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  There was a learning process involved at some point.
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  Just think about some of the things that you've had to learn
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  at some point. It could be riding a bike or
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  driving a car, learning how to read or write or even just to
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  speak. It could be computer programming
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  or knitting or a sport. It could even be something like
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  learning to live well in relationship to your spouse or
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  to process your own emotions and experiences in a healthy way.
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  These very disparate things that the common thread through all of
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  them is that these are all things we've had to learn how to
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  do right. We might have some natural
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  inclination towards certain activities, but we still face a
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  learning curve to become proficient in those different
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  things. And This is why I get surprised
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  when people think that just because they've become a
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  Christian, they should automatically be pros at hearing
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  the voice of God or knowing what God wants them to do.
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  And then they get discouraged. They get disappointed when they
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  feel like they're not hearing God or they don't know how to
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  hear God. But just like any other skill
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  that you've developed in life, there's a learning process
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  involved in recognizing the voice of God.
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  And I think this story that Jeremy just read for us about
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  Samuel, it has some things to teach us as we learn to
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  recognize God's voice, not just in Samuel's life, but in our own
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  lives. Now, if you don't know much
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  about Samuel's story, you should know that it begins with his
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  mom. Her name was Hannah.
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  And Hannah, like a number of other women in the Bible, she
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  wanted to have a baby, but she was unable to.
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  Every year she would go with her husband to worship at the
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  Tabernacle. This was before the temple was
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  built. So they'd go to the Tabernacle
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  and Hannah would pray for a child until one year she was
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  there. She was praying before the altar
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  of God. She was praying and weeping and
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  just a mess. And the priest, Eli came in and
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  he saw what was happening. Her lips were moving, she wasn't
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  speaking, all this stuff. He thought she was drunk,
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  thought she was drunk there in the Tabernacle of the Lord.
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  But in her prayer she was negotiating with God.
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  Anyone ever negotiate with God? I'm sure I wouldn't be the only
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  one to admit that I've negotiated with God a time or
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  two or 10. And what she, what Hannah
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  committed to in the midst of that prayer was that if God
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  would give her a son, she'd give that son back to God.
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  She would dedicate him to serve God his whole life.
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  And so sure enough, God blessed Hannah with a son.
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  And after he was old enough to be weaned, she dropped him off
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  to be raised by the priest. Eli, Can you imagine, by the
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  way, God finally gives you this child you've been praying for,
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  and after a couple years, 2-3, maybe you take him to the church
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  and drop him off to be raised by the priest.
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  This is not a program, by the way, that we will be starting
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  here, just to be clear about that.
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  But anyway, Samuel grew up not just going to the Tabernacle,
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  but in the Tabernacle. He lived there in the Tabernacle
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  with Eli and his family. Fast forward to First Samuel
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  chapter 3, and Samuel 3 tells us that in those days the Word of
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  God was rare. There weren't many visions.
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  This was a period of time in which not many people in Israel
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  were hearing a word from God. We're not given the reason as to
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  why this was the case, but if you were to read chapter 2,
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  you'd see that God's voice isn't completely absent.
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  It's just not one of those periods of time where people are
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  particularly responsive to what God was saying.
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  The word of God was rare. The people weren't hearing when
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  God was speaking. And so in the language of of
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  First Samuel, though God's presence was still among his
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  people, it says the the lamp of God had not yet gone out.
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  That lamp, it represented God's presence among his people.
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  So God was still there, but the people weren't hearing him very
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  well. So Samuel, he was just a boy and
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  he's living in the very presence of God, right?
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  Not just living in the House of God, but he, it says he was
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  sleeping in the room where the ark of the covenant stood.
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  Just imagine that for a minute. The the ark of the covenant, as
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  much as the lamp represented God's presence.
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  The Ark of the Covenant was was the symbol of God's covenant
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  presence of his power among his people.
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  And Samuel stretched out on a mat, sleeping in the same room
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  with him. And so one night, while Samuels
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  lying there in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, he
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  hears God calling him by name, right?
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  He thinks it's Eli, the old priest that he's serving under
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  who? Who would have by now become
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  like a father figure to Samuel. There are probably other nights
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  when Eli had called for Samuel to come and help him with
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  something. Maybe he needed a drink of
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  water, or he needed help getting up to do something.
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  But Samuel doesn't recognize that the voice that was calling
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  him was actually the voice of God.
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  So Samuel goes to Eli. He says, here I am.
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  You called me. But Eli hadn't called Samuel.
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  He tells him to go and lie down and go back to sleep.
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  And then it happens a second time.
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  And I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like
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  getting woken up in the middle of the night, let alone multiple
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  times, even though with kids it sometimes happens.
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  It's kind of part of the territory, but I still don't
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  like it, right? And so then we read in, in verse
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  7, it says that Samuel didn't yet know the Lord, right?
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  This was part of the problem. He was hearing God call, but he
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  didn't yet know the Lord. The word of God hadn't been
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  revealed to him yet. And what was happening?
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  It was a new experience for Samuel, one for which he didn't
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  have a framework to understand what was happening, to make
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  sense of it. But when it happened, 1/3 time,
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  Eli realized what might be happening, that God was calling
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  to Samuel, speaking to this boy who had grown up in his
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  presence. And so this time, Eli, instead
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  of just sending him back to go to sleep, he tells him to go
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  back and lie down and go to sleep.
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  But but if he hears that voice calling him again to say, speak,
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  Lord, your servant is listening. And that's exactly what happens,
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  right? And that's exactly what Samuel
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  does. And God gave Samuel a message
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  about Eli and his son and what was going to take place in the
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  future because of their choices and actions in the past.
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  So that's what happened there in the Story of First Samuel,
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  chapter three. And, and like I said earlier, I
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  think this story has some things to teach us about how we learn
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  to recognize that it is God speaking to us in the midst of
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  all the other voices that are speaking in our ears.
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  And so I want to share a few things that that kind of stood
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  out to me and I think could be helpful to you.
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  The first thing we learned is that even though Samuel didn't
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  recognize that it was God's voice speaking, that doesn't
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  mean that God wasn't speaking to him, right?
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  Just because Samuel didn't recognize it as the voice of God
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  doesn't mean God wasn't speaking.
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  I believe the same is true today.
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  God is speaking even when we're not listening because he is a
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  God who speaks. He's a God of relationship, a
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  God who wants to communicate with us and be known by us.
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  The issue is whether we'll learn to recognize that it's God who's
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  speaking to us, which means learning to recognize his voice
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  and distinguish it from all the other voices around us.
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  Because did you notice that God spoke to Samuel in such a way
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  that Samuel thought someone was just calling him from the other
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  room, right? He thought Eli was calling him.
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  It wasn't this big lights flashing, cloud rending voice
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  from heaven. It just seemed normal.
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  And I think sometimes we're looking for God to to write a
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  big message on a billboard that we're going to drive by, that
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  we're going to drive by when really he's whispering and he's
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  waiting to see if we'll slow down and quiet down enough to
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  hear. But God is speaking even when we
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  don't recognize God's voice. That's the first thing.
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  The second thing I see is that that Samuel, he needed help to
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  recognize God's voice as God's voice, right?
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  He needed someone to, to come alongside him and say, I think
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  what you are hearing, I think it might be God.
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  Let's try this. And sometimes, especially when
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  we're early on in our journey of walking with God, we, we need a
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  listening mentor, right? A spiritual parent, someone
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  who's further down the road who can say, well, this is how I
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  learned to listen. This is what God has sounded
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  like in my life, in my experience.
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  Here's here's how we discern God's voice and how we respond
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  to it. It's easier to learn a skill
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  when there's someone to teach us, someone who has already
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  learned how to do it and can share from their own experience.
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  Some of those mentors might be people we know and and can sit
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  down with, share with over a meal or over Bible study or
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  something. Others might mentor us from afar
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  right through a book that they wrote, a podcast they spoke on,
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  something like that. And listen, I'm not recommending
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  this for learning to hear God's voice, but what's the first
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  thing you do when you need to learn a new skill?
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  Chances are if you're under 40, the the answer is probably
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  YouTube it, right? You type in your question what
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  you're trying to learn. Up pops a video Tim and I did
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  just a couple weeks ago. We were trying, I was teaching
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  him how to change the windshield wipers.
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  We got around to the back of the van and that one was different.
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  I couldn't quite remember how to do it.
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  We just pulled it up on YouTube, showed us 30 seconds later we
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  had a, a new, well, not a windshield wiper, but a back
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  window wiper on the van. And you want to be a little more
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  discerning than YouTube, right? When it it comes to the mentors
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  that you're looking to for something like hearing God's
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  voice. But you get the idea.
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  It's helpful to have someone show us the way.
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  We all need help learning to recognize God's voice.
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  That's point #2 third thing, recognizing God's voice is
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  intimately related to knowing God.
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  Right now, it's, it's a little bit of a chicken or egg thing,
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  right? It, it's through hearing God's
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  voice that we get to know God better.
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  And it's as we get to know God better that we're more able to
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  recognize God's voice kind of works in a circle like that.
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  But the key thing is hearing and recognizing God's voice.
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  It's less about knowing what you're supposed to do in the
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  future and more about knowing God.
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  More about being invited into deeper relationship with God.
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  More about learning what it looks like to commune with God.
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  Will that result in in knowing what you should do in in a given
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  situation? Probably, but not always,
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  because you get a direct answer to that situation, right?
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  There will be times when you know what it you're supposed to
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  do, not because God tells you exactly what to do, but because
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  you've come to know God and what he would have you do.
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  So recognizing God's voice, it's, it's about walking in a
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  relationship with God where he's not just guiding you, but you're
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  getting to know him and he is getting more and more access to
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  your life. Fourth thing, and I think I have
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  5 points to make about this. In Samuel's story, God waited to
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  be recognized and acknowledged before he continued his message
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  to Samuel, right? God could have just started
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  speaking to Samuel, giving him the entirety of the message in a
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  kind of knowledge dump right on to him, but but that would miss
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  the point of the relationship that God wanted to have with
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  Samuel. God didn't really tell Samuel
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  anything all that different from what God had already told Eli
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  through another man of God back in chapter 2, and go back and
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  read that later. But but God wasn't just speaking
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  to Samuel. He was calling Samuel to
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  himself, drawing him close through this encounter.
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  Finally, I think it's important to recognize that in this
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  instance and in most instances, God wasn't just looking for a
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  one and done mouthpiece right where He gave Samuel a message
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  to declare to Eli. And that was the end of it.
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  God never spoke to him again, or was intending to.
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  This wasn't intended to be a one time event.
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  This was Samuel's initiation into a life of conversational
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  intimacy with God. An ongoing conversation that
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  both shaped and guided Samuel's life and ministry.
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  And if you continue reading through First Samuel, you see
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  this is exactly the kind of life that Samuel lived.
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  But it had to start somewhere, right?
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  Everything starts somewhere. Samuel's relationship with God
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  had to start somewhere. For Samuel, it was that one
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  random night where he laid down and instead of waking up in the
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  morning, he heard God call his name.
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  And you might be sitting there and say, well, Samuel's a pretty
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  important guy in the story of Scripture.
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  I'm no Samuel. Are you sure about that?
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  Samuel, who heard God calling his voice that night, wasn't yet
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  Samuel, who judged and LED Israel as one of its greatest
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  leaders. But that's where it started.
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  That's where the process started.
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  Samuel's yes that night opened the door to all that God would
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  do in and threw him over his life.
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  In the same way, God is looking for an ongoing relationship with
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  us. And and we don't know what he's
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  going to do in and through us when we say yes to him.
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  But he's looking for that kind of relationship with us where we
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  hear his voice and we recognize that it's God who's speaking to
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  us and we respond in faith and obedience.
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  We respond with yes, no matter the question, invitation, or
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  direction. So how do we start to recognize
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  God's voice? Well, you have to get to know
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  God's voice, right? And this this happens through
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  experience. The more you hear and recognize
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  God's voice in one instance, the easier it is to hear and
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  recognize God's voice in other instances.
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  When you begin to hear God in the small, simple things, it
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  becomes easier to hear God in the big things.
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  And that happens a lot of times through our engagement with
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  Scripture. As we read the Bible, as we
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  listen to it being read you, we begin to learn what God's voice
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  sounds like, the kind of things that God says.
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  The Bible is one of the primary ways the God has revealed
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  himself to us. And it's almost impossible to
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  learn to recognize God's voice without Scripture holding a key
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  place in our lives. It's the standard against which
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  we hold up every message we think we've heard from God, we
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  check it against Scripture. Does it directly contradict the
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  plain message of the Bible? And it's probably not God.
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  But even with all that, you might still need some help.
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  You might need someone who's further along to help you
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  identify God's voice, right? A mentor like we were talking
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  about, a spiritual parent, someone further down the road
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  who will listen with you and offer their discernment.
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  And, and finally, another way we learn to hear and recognize
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  God's voice. In Matthew 7, Jesus said that
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  you could know false teachers by the fruit of their lives, by the
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  fruit that's produced in them. Do they produce good fruit or
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  bad fruit? It was also a good test for
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  voices and messages, whether they're from God.
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  What is it that it stirs up and produces in you?
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  Is it the fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, patience,
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  kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
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  self-control? Is that what it stirs up in you,
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  or is it fear and anxiety or shame?
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  It's probably not from God, because God, even when he's
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  correcting us, he doesn't condemn us.
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  He convicts us, for sure. But conviction leads us to
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  repentance, not shame. So I've said a lot today,
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  hopefully not too much. If so, I'll hear about it later.
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  But if you don't hear anything else I've said throughout this
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  message, hear this. God is speaking, and He wants
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  you to recognize His voice speaking to you in whatever way
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  it comes to you, because He wants you to know Him and to
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  walk with Him in the relationship of conversational
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  intimacy, right? It doesn't just happen, though.
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  Just like any skill, we have to learn to recognize God's voice
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  among the various voices that are competing for our attention.
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  So here's the invitation this morning.
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  Would you respond to God's voice?
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  This morning, would you ask Him to give you ears to hear him
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  calling your name? Would you respond like Samuel?
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  Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening because he might not
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  be interested in answering the question you're asking, but I
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  can guarantee you He wants to speak into your life.
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  Would you pray with me, God? We are so grateful that you are
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  a God who speaks, that you know us and desire to be known by us.
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  You want to walk with us in a relationship where we hear and
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  recognize your voice so that you can do a work in US and you can
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  work through us. But God, we need, we need ears
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  to hear. We don't want to just be like a
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  radio tune to the wrong, wrong frequency or the radio waves are
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  going by, but they're missing what's really important.
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  So would you help us? Would you speak clearly to us?
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  Would you open our ears to receive your voice, to hear your
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  voice and teach us what it means to recognize your speaking?
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  So we give you ourselves this morning and God even now, would
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  you speak to us and give us courage to respond.
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  We love you and we pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.