Speak O Lord (1 Samuel 3)

Good morning everyone. Sure you guys are feeling a

little tired perhaps from sleeping one hour less.

Certainly the results, the effects of it was felt the first

service. We had one person who came to

the first service. It was a very interesting

sermon. I tried very hard not to look at

that one person. So I, I don't know I, I, I

looked at the wall. I'm glad there's enough places

where I can look. Hope you guys could stay awake

today. So I just today's, that's just

the second sermon in our series on King David and the first 3

sermons are actually not on King David, but it will be a good

introductory giving us a good background once we actually

start talking about David. So I follow this Christian

counselor on Instagram and she says in one of her posts that

parenting changes at age 13. Early parenting is mostly the

parent talking, right instruction, teaching values and

world views and whatnot. And then later on, as the child

gets older, parenting becomes more of listening, encouraging,

and really a process of letting go.

But one thing remains constant in every stage of parenting.

It's communication. Without communication, there is

no relationship. And that's exactly the situation

we find ourselves in First Samuel 3.

God's people were supposed to have a relationship with God,

but it says here that communication has stopped.

No communication, no relationship.

In First Samuel 3, it says the word of the Lord was rare.

The word of the Lord was rare in those days and at this time when

the word of the word of the Lord was rare and at this time is

when Samuel is raised and God chooses Samuel so the

relationship could be restored. And perhaps this is where you

find yourselves at with your relationship with God.

Perhaps the relationship is not there, perhaps the communication

is not quite there. And to be clear, the way God

speaks to us is through the Bible and the way we speak to

God is primarily through prayer, no communication, no

relationship. And God uses Samuel to restore

that relationship. So we will learn through Samuel

how we can start hearing the word the the word of God.

So that's the question we want to answer today.

How can we hear the Word of God? Number one, we must recognize

why the Word of God becomes rare.

We have to recognize why it becomes rare in our lives.

Let's turn. I'm just going to read one verse

in chapter 3 to start off, and then we'll read a little bit of

chapter 2 to give us a background in what's going on.

So first Samuel 3 verse one, the boy Samuel served the Lord in

Eli's presence. In those days the word of the

Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

If you guys remember from last week S sermon, Hannah gets

pregnant after her prayer of surrender and some years have

passed and she does really give up her child, her son to become

a priest and and Samuel is raised by Eli in the temple of

God. So in chapter 3 already several

years have passed. God speaking to his people,

having a relationship with his people was rare.

And really, that's a true sad, truly a sad statement.

It's like saying, oh, Pastor Tim and his two sons hung out.

Oh, that was really rare. That's a sad state of affairs.

It's his people, God and his people have no relationship.

But why was it rare? What's going on in the

Israelites life where that was rare?

We get a little glimpse of what was going on in chapter 2.

I'm going to be reading chapter 2, verse 12 to 17 and we're

going to be reading, oh, go back, go back, go back.

Yes, yes, part of 12 is underneath and we'll be reading

about Eli the priest and his sons were also priests.

And you could see kind of what what was going on that made God

not give His word to His people. Verse 12 to 17 Eli S sons were

wicked men. They did not respect the Lord or

the priest S share of the sacrifices from the people.

When anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest S servant would come

with a three pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling and

plunge it into the container, kettle, cauldron, or cooking

pot. The priest would claim for

himself whatever the meat fork brought up.

This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came there to

Shiloh next. Even before the fat was burned,

the priest's servant would come and say to the one who was

sacrificing, give the priest some meat to roast, because he

won't accept any boiled meat from you, only raw.

If that person said to him, the fast, the fat must be burned

first, then you could take whatever you want for yourself.

The servant will reply, no, I insist that you hand it over

right now. If you don't, I'll take it by

force. So the servant's sin was very

severe in the presence of the Lord because the man treated the

Lord's offering with contempt. Now, even if you don't know

anything about the the sacrificial system of the Old

Testament, some of this stuff just sounds off.

OK, Now, if you knew a little bit about the sacrificial

system, you would know that OK, the, the meat has to be burnt

first. The sacrifice has to be done.

And then from whatever is after the sacrifice, the priest gets a

small portion. But seems like Eli sons like

their meat raw. It does taste better, right?

It tastes better than boiled meat, right?

Who wants boiled meat? Yuck.

He's like, no, no, give it to me before you sacrifice so I I can

make a little nice steak. And then and then they say the

servant says, if you don't hand it over right now, I'll take it

by 4. OK, that just sounds wrong.

What's going on here? In essence, Eli's sons did not

take the Word of God seriously. There are very specific rules

and laws in the in scriptures of how the sacrifice should be done

and then which portion the priest takes.

It's very clear. But Eli sons disregarded the

laws. And so you know what?

I want to take whatever I want to take.

They made their own rules. They took as much as they

wanted. So what caused the word of the

Lord to be rare? Not taking the word of God

seriously. That's how it becomes rare in

our lives as well. If you don't take the Bible, the

Word of God, seriously in your life, the communication would be

rare. And you might be asking, OK,

Pastor Tim, how can you compare us to Eli's sons?

Clearly. They are literally like robbing

people who are just trying to worship God.

How can you compare us through these guys?

Well, maybe not exactly to this extent, but perhaps our

attitudes may be more similar than you think.

Perhaps what their attitude is is similar to our attitude.

Maybe our attitudes toward worship is too casual.

Maybe, like Eli sons, we do not emphasize the Word of God in our

lives. So let's take a moment to

examine if prep were too casual or we don't emphasize God's

words in our lives enough. Let's start with the preparation

of worship. Now, thankfully, in many ways,

we no longer need to bring animal sacrifices to worship.

Why? Because all that did, all the

animal sacrifices did, was to point to the ultimate sacrifice

that was coming, Jesus Christ. Now that Jesus Christ died on

the cross, no more sacrifice is needed.

He's the ultimate and the forever sacrifice.

But so while you are no longer required to bring an animal, you

are still required to bring a prepared heart.

That part never changed. Paul teaches us that we are to

offer our lives as a living sacrifice.

Paul teaches us that that is the proper and true worship.

Now our hearts, our lives is a living sacrifice.

So before during the Bible time, people had to they were forced

to prepare. You have to pick out an animal,

you have to pick out unblemished.

You have to pick up the right part.

But because those those demands are no longer here with us,

perhaps we just kind of show up. Modern day worship.

A lot of us just show up. And I, I want to compare our

attitudes to how my son Maddie prepares for his basketball

games. My son, his main sport is

baseball. And before a baseball game, I

don't want to go in through it, but it's an entire day process.

Actually, it starts from the day before, right?

He goes to sleep at like 9:00 PM if if he has a game next day

early. But when it comes to basketball,

he's very casual, Too casual. I think last week Tuesday, he

had a playoff game. OK, sure it was just a city

league, you know, but he had a playoff Game 2 hours before the

playoff game. He goes to baseball practice,

practice for an hour and a half. He he gets out of practice a

little early. He gets in my car, he's

changing, he's eating and we get to the Game 5 minutes before the

game starts. Now we're playing a team that

we've played before and the last time we played them we lost by

17. So you would think Matt would be

like, oh, it's going to be a tough team, you know, But no, 5

minutes before he shows up, he's he's the jersey is like, you

know, you got a one side is white, one side is dark.

He has the wrong side on. He's like eating and he's no

warm up, no warm up shots, no stretching.

He gets there and then he's playing.

I was like, after the game, I said, Manny, like, didn't you

want to like, do good? Like, why?

Why? Like, you just want to show up

and play. And he says, dad, I don't care

about basketball. I'm just here for my friends,

which is completely OK. Steady basketball.

Who cares? Yeah, I wish you the little

better, but who cares, right? But how do we prepare for

worship? We're not showing up here for

Parks and Rec. City of Torrance, Parks and Rec

here. We're showing up to worship the

one true God, the Almighty God, Creator of the universe.

And how do we prepare for worship?

A lot of us, we just show up. A lot of us, we come here

because our friends are here. We come here for the kids

program. We come here because that's what

Christians do. That's what good people do on a

Sunday morning. I wonder how many of us are here

because you want to listen to the word of God.

I want to know what God is speaking to me today.

I want to know how I could be changed by God's words today.

Sure, I could make this terminal vow.

You know what? Night before, sleep early.

You guys know that you're going to get one hour less sleep, so

you should have slept early and pray before worship and all of

that. Those are great things.

But the most important thing is, OK, prepare your heart for God's

Word. Prepare your heart.

All right #2 how can we listen to God's Word when God speaks?

We must listen and respond. We must listen and respond.

Now this is, we're getting finally to the the story.

This, it is a narrative and this is the story of chapter 3.

I want to summarize the first few verses and then I'll read

verses 8 through 10 and then yeah, eight through 10 for now.

So let me just summarize 2 to 7 because it's the same thing that

repeats 3 times after verse one, the word of the Lord was rare.

Verse two goes into the story and it starts off by God

calling, audibly calling Samuel boy.

The boy Samuel is sleeping in the temple and God calls him

Samuel. Samuel and Samuel wakes up.

He assumes that this had never happened before, so he assumes

his boss is calling him. So he goes to Eli.

Here I am, Eli says I did not call you, go back to sleep.

Samuel goes back to sleep and God calls him again, Samuel,

Samuel and same thing. Samuel wakes up, goes to Eli.

Here I am and Eli says, I didn't call, you go back to sleep.

And now let's pick up the story from verse 8.

Once again, for the third time, the Lord called Samuel.

He got up, went to Eli and said, here I am, you call me third

time this happens. Then Eli finally understood that

the Lord was calling the boy. He told Samuel, go and lie down.

If he calls you say speak Lord, for your servant is listening.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord came, stood there and called as before.

Samuel, Samuel, Samuel responded, speak for your

servant is listening. Let's stop there.

Eli finally realizes what's happening.

He says, oh, God is speaking to him and he he instructs Samuel

how what to say. And Samuel responds, speak for

your servant is listening. This response is one of the most

important verses, not just in this chapter and not just in

this book, but in the entire Bible.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

There's no debate, there's no resistance, there's no

negotiation. Samuel says speak.

I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to take it in.

It is humble listening. I'm not saying when you read

God's word you shouldn't question things.

You shouldn't try to look it up and study more.

Sometimes we don't understand it.

Sometimes you do understand it, but you don't understand why God

is commanding you do such things and it's OK to to pursue those

things. I'm not saying that, but I'm

saying listen to God's words with the humility saying Lord,

you are God, you are the Creator, I am your creation,

You're there, I'm here, so I'm listening because you are God

and I am not. That's humility.

And this is a stark contrast to Eli's sons.

I want to quickly read 2 verses from the previous chapter

because we didn't. We skipped chapter 2 and this

shows really the heart of what's going on in among the people.

If you could find back there chapter 2 verses 22 and 20.

Three, there we go. Now Eli was very old.

He heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel

and how they were sleeping with the woman who served at the

entrance of to the 10th of meeting.

He said to them, why are you doing these things?

I have heard about your evil actions from all of his people.

It's not that Samuel is doing good things and Eli's sons were

doing bad things. It's not just that it is really

has to do with everything has to do with their heart of how they

are accepting God's words. What Eli's sons are doing here.

They were sleeping with the woman who served at the entrance

to the 10th of meeting. It is actually.

They have adopted a certain, a very specific Canaanite Pagan

ritual. It's the fertility ritual.

Women who want to have a baby, they go to the temple and they

sleep with the priest. And Eli's son somehow adapted

that into their worship of God. For a lot of people in this

time, their faith is just a buffet of beliefs and values.

It's like they got a big plate and they're going through a

buffet and they're like, OK, I like this about this religion.

Oh, Canaanite Pagan religion. I like that.

It seems like Eli's sons are like, I like, I like the free

meat. I like, oh, but I want more of

that than what's allowed. Oh, I like that.

Looks like they're picking and choosing what they like from

other religions and their own. It's a buffet to them.

There is no you are creator, I'm creation.

I bowed out to our one true God and I accept what you taught.

No, it's like God is below him and oh, I like this.

Nah, I don't like that. It's the posture.

And I think many Christians approach God's words.

Maybe not several religions. I think that's, I don't think

that happens, but we do approach God's words like a buffet.

We take what we like and we leave what we don't.

Forgiveness. Yes, I'll take that.

Like that. Oh, loving one another.

God loves me and God accepts me. I like that.

I like that. Those are all good.

Anything to do with sex? No thanks.

It's outdated. Anything with money, usually

it's like, Nah, no thank you. We take what we like and we say

no thank you to the things that it seems for us, outdated.

It seems like we want God to comfort us and love us and

accept us, but we cannot let God contradict us.

We only let God be God in the areas that we let him.

We want God to agree with us. You can't imagine a God.

Many of us can't imagine a God that disagrees with you.

And I want to say our attitude, it should not be of a buffet,

but perhaps a omakase. You know what that is?

You go to Japanese restaurant and you just pay him a lot of

money and you don't get to order.

You eat what the chef gives you. Someone told me that it is

literally translated. I leave it up to you.

You give them money and you eat whatever the chef gives you.

I've been to Omaha a couple of times.

They don't ask for allergy. They don't, they don't ask for

anything. Well, that dude didn't even

speak English. He just just gave me money and

and I ate it and it was good. But it's that, it's that you

have this empty plate before God and you say, Lord, I eagerly

await what the next meal is. Lord, I want to enjoy the next

bite you give me of spiritual food.

Lord you are, Lord, I am. I am just a sinful human being.

You give me the word and I want to be fed.

Can we go back to three? One.

I'm sorry, not 31 the previous verses.

One more sorry. One more, one more sorry.

There you go. Speak shows that he is

available. Your servant shows that he has

humility and he says I am listening.

He's ready, he's available, he has humility, He's ready to

listen and act on God's words. You know what the crazy thing

is? It says the word of the Lord is

rare. It means that God didn't show up

much because no one's listening anyway.

But when Samuel, and God knows Samuel's heart, even before he

says anything out loud, when God sees Samuel, he sees his heart.

And you know what he does? It says the Lord came.

The Lord stood there and spoke to Samuel.

The Lord showed up. Samuel knew his presence.

I am listening. When you have the right heart

before God, when you have humility, you, you're available.

You're ready. Then when God speaks, it will

come to your heart. Spending time with God will be

delightful and listening to his words on a Sunday or a sermon

that you're listening throughout the week or when you do your

quiet times, when you hear or listen or read God's words, it

will be a treat. And what does God actually say

to Samuel? Right?

Your servant is listening and then God says things to him,

right? What does he say, Samuel,

Samuel, I love you Samuel, Samuel, you were raised without

a mom and I am your heavenly Father.

It was something like nice and kind.

Well, all this time God was silent, and he shows up to say

this verse 11 to 14. The Lord said to Samuel, I am

about to do something in Israel that will cause everyone who

hears about it to shudder. On that day, I will carry out

against Eli everything I said about his family from beginning

to end. I told him that I'm going to

judge his family forever because of the iniquity he knows about.

His sons are cursing God, and he has not stopped them.

Therefore, I have sworn to Eli's family.

The iniquity of Eli's family will never be wiped out by

either sacrifice or offering. You know what God's saying?

I will destroy Eli and his two sons.

And if you read on, that's exactly what happens.

They all die. Wow.

Like, really, God, you, you waited this long to say that

this is a boy Samuel. He's like, here I am, Lauren,

speak to me, and then I will destroy your boss and his two

sons. But that's the thing though.

God chose somebody who was humble enough to receive even

parts of Scripture. That is not so easy to hear.

Anybody could hear I love you or you are lonely.

I was there for you the entire time.

Anyone could hear that. Anyone could accept that.

But not everyone can necessarily hear about sin and the

consequences of sin. So I wanted to ask you, Are you

ready to listen? Are you ready to go to God and

say the words that we actually just saying about the last song,

speak, O Lord, that actually is from It's based on First Samuel

3 and the lyrics. Whether you remember or not,

you, you saying these words you said, speak, O Lord, to receive

the food of your holy word. Can we go to God and say, teach

us, Lord, full obedience, holy reverence, true humility.

Can you go to God with the heart of that song and say, speak, O

Lord, and renew our minds? Help us grasp the heights of

your plans for us. Teach us full obedience, holy

reverence, true humility. Is your heart ready for all of

those things? During the series, this series

on King David, I will be asking more than once, we'll be asking

who are you in the story? Who are we in this story in

chapter 3? Who are we?

Are we Samuel? Are we Eli?

Are Eli sons? Are we God?

We are actually the closest match is Eli sons.

We ignore God's words. We treat worship casually.

We pick and choose the parts of Scripture we want to follow.

At the same time, I want you to remember today's sermon is not

get yourself perfect before you come back next week.

You got to be perfect before you you could hear God's words.

That's not my sermon. Then how could if God did not

speak to Eli's sons, Eli and his sons, then why would God speak

to us? We're sinners.

I just said we're similar to Eli's sons.

See, in this time, God's people needed a mediator.

They couldn't just go to God. They needed a human mediator, so

God spoke to through the mediator and then the people

spoke back to God through the mediator.

And when that mediator was sinful, like Eli and the sons,

the communication will be stopped.

But in this story is actually a story of grace.

The communication stopped, but God, through a miraculous birth,

through Hannah, he chooses A righteous, holy mediator so the

relationship could be restored. Story of grace, actually.

And that's exactly what God does for us permanently.

Samuel didn't live forever. Jesus is our high priest.

Jesus is our forever mediator. And because Jesus, our high

priest, is forever holy, he's perfect.

We always have a relationship with God and God could speak to

us whenever. All we have to do is open up the

Word and read. All we have to do is come here

on Sunday and listen. God looks at Jesus perfection,

not our sins. Because of Jesus we are

forgiven, our hearts are renewed and we could approach God again.

So you don't have to be perfect. All you need is a heart that

says speak. O Lord, your servant is

listening. Main point.

We can hear God's word when we approach Him with humble

obedience. Let's take time to pray.