A Light Sleeper - Bro Philip Howell 7-31-2026

I appreciate being in the house of the Lord here tonight.

I appreciate with then the thing that's got sweat all

over this poolpit right now. Amen, he's put in some effort.

You don't get sweaty in a building that's seventy one

degrees by doing nothing.

Amen.

It takes a little bit of effort and work. I

appreciate the Lord here tonight. I'm thankful to my pastor

for opening his sacred, sacred poolpit to us. Thank you,

Brother Nathaniel, for the opportunity. If some of you have

me on your seconds, you've seen we have done a

little bit of work, me with another company getting some

of them gopher tortoises out of the way because we're

trying to build and in the state of Florida, if

you harm one of them or even mess with their burrow,

your big finds and more than likely gonna land you

a little bit of a prison sentence. So we tried

to do the right thing. It cost us a lot

of money. But one thing that stuck out to me

when thinking about that, the way a lot of people

have talked about being predictable, and you know, sister woot

and talking about us not having pretty much a copy

and paste service. We never we couldn't predict how far

each one of them turtles burrow went. They made us

work to get them. Some were probably twenty foot out

and ten foot down and then heavy now and then

you'd find one that was five foot down and ten

foot out and their burrow. Their burrows can go up

to forty foot out from where they actually enter in.

At the deepest one I would say was probably twelve

thirteen foot deep and a good thirty foot from where

we actually first started digging. It's real interesting to see

how they'd done it. They'd put a piece of PBC.

Pipe down in there. Now mind you, they don't sell

PVC and thirty foot sticks.

Put it down there in there as far as you could,

and then you'd scrape a layer down until you got

that PVC.

And the way them.

Turtles, the way their burrow is shaped, with it being round,

it wouldn't collapse, So then you would start there, they'd

chisel it out a little bit and get the PVC

down in there. And my point is, have we made

it hard for the devil to get to us? It

is your walk with God so deep that getting to

you is quite the nightmare, Joe. It was for job.

The devil had to ask God. He said, you got

a hedge around him?

Amen?

Are we deep in our walk with God?

In some of us, yes, yes, we're young, but we've

been in this thing long enough. It don't matter if

you're ten years old. We've been in this thing long

enough to have a deep walk with God. Amen, we'll

be in First Samuel, chapter number three.

I asked for a praying church. It's been a uh.

The nausea isn't as severe as it was in in

that chemo, but it's about the uh, just non stop.

So I asked for a pray in church here tonight

and ask the Lord to help us get through. This

will be a first Samuel chapter number three. Then we're

gonna jump to Jonah chapter number one, if you'd like

to go there. First Samuel three and verse one. And

the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and

the word of the Lord was precious in those days.

There was no open vision. And it came to pass

at that time when Eli was laid down in his

place and his eyes began to wax them that he

could not see and ere the lamp of God went

out in the temple of the Lord where the Ark

of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.

I know this is a scheduled revival service, but I couldn't.

I couldn't shake this thoughts.

I will be.

Somewhat along the lines of the along the lines that

the Lord had pastor take us down during that revival.

And then Jonah chapter.

Number one said in verse one, Now the word of

the Lord came unto Jonah the sun of Amati, saying, arise,

go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it,

for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah

rose up to flee unto Tarsius from the presence of

the Lord, and went down to Joppa. And he found

a ship going to Tarsius. So he paid the fare

thereof and went down into it to go with them

unto tarsh Tarshes from the presence of the Lord. But

the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,

and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so

that the ship was like to be broken. Then the

mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God,

and cast forth the wares that were in the ship.

Into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah

was gone down into the sides of the ship, and.

He lay and was fast asleep.

If the Lord had helped me just for a little while,

I uh, well, we'll probably have a little bit of

a we'll see how the Holy Ghost leads maybe a

serious part of this and then.

But I'm more.

So on a focus on on a on an uplifting

thing for those that do want to do right. I

want to preach just for a little while on a

light sleeper. Amen, how many of you know there are

different types of people, people that sleep did and people

that sleep light. Say, if the Lord help me, I

just for a little while, I want to preach on

a light sleeper. If you'd stretch your hands towards heaven,

Jesus God, would you help us God to preach your word. God,

would you help the anointing God to come straight out

of heaven. Lord, For if it does not rest upon us, God,

we will not do your scripture any justice.

God.

We ask for the anointing Lord upon your people. Give

us clarity of scripture and clarity of thought. God will

give you the praise, the honor, and the glory the

church said, Amen in thanking, the Lord began to deal

with me on this. I believe it was Wednesday night

of our and it just stuck with me. A light sleeper?

And who's a light sleeper in here? We got any

light sleepers? Sister Wallace Elizabeth, I knew Mama was.

Mama was one of the ones. You couldn't even come

down the stairs.

Her and Dad's bedroom could be closed, and she she

could hear you in there.

A light sleeper. I tend to be a very deep sleeper.

And I I wanna when you'll get the gist of

my message when we get into it. I want us

to pray and ask God, when we find ourselves sleeping,

help us to be a light sleeper. So here we

read of Jonah, and we read of in the Book

of Jonah, where God has told Jonah to go onto

Ninevah and to cry against it. The Bible says, to

cry against that great city. I've done a little bit

of research. I said, what what made Ninevah a great city?

When a lot of people say that it's just the

size of it, the population of it. They assumed that

the population of Ninevah was one hundred and twenty thousand people.

And so I said, what around me is that population?

Fort Myers was the closest I could find, at one

hundred and four thousand people. So God is is not asking,

but he is telling Jonah to go into a city

bigger than Fort Myers, with a bigger population, and to

cry against it. And yes, that that seems like an

easy task, but God wasn't just asking him to go

there and preach.

God was out.

God was telling him to go there and cry directly

against it.

Not only was Nineva.

A large, a great city due to his population, in

my mind, it was a great city of sin.

And I don't mean great in a good way.

I mean great as in just an abundant sin for people.

Just an absolute wicked people. Amen, Lujas.

So God tells Jonah to grow to go and to

cry against it. It says, for their wickednesses come up

before me. So God tells Jonah to go to none

of them and preach. But instead of doing what God

doing the will of God, Jonah goes in direct contradiction

to what God had told him to do.

God tells him to go and preach to.

These people, and he just gets it in his head

to do it his way, and he decides to go

down to Uh, go down to Japa, and he finds

the ship going to Tarsius, and he pays the fair.

He died.

I feel like Jonah did not care the price. I

don't feel that he cared what it was going to

cost him. He just paid the fair. The Bible says,

I don't think the price to him. I don't think

the how long the boat ride mattered to him. He

just wanted to get away from the presence of the Lord.

So Jolih gets.

On this boat and he's on this boat and God

sends a mighty storm, and you have some men that

are so troubled by the storm that they're throwing the

cargo and the things that they that they were taking.

You take cargo to sell and to try to be profitable,

but they were taking the cargo that they had taken

to try to feed their family, to try to feed

their kids. And it gets so bad that these men

begin just to throw the things that they were taking

with them overboard. The reason they were throwing things overboard

was they were trying to lie in the ship so

that they can make it out of the storm. Imagine

men that they were seamen, they had their sea legs.

Imagine with me that they said, we didn't expect this

storm to come up on us. They couldn't check the

forecast like we could. But they knew how to look

at the sky, they knew how, they knew how the

weather felt, and they just a storm just shows up

on them, and no doubt about it. It was the

worst storm of their life because there was a storm

that God had sent. It wasn't just a storm for

mother nature, which yes, God sends those storms too, But

God himself sent this storm to try to get Jonah's attention.

But Jonah, that we read it goes down into the

sides of the ship, the Bible says, and he lay

fast asleep. And I had already begun studying this out,

And I said, what does it mean to lay fast asleep?

To lay fast asleep means to be resting in a deep,

sound sleep, which a person is not easily awoken from.

I already had my title. I already had my title

a light sleeper.

And God could God was trying to take me and

to show us the two different the polar opposites of

these two men in the Bible. And we got one

that you'll see is a light sleeper. And then when

I studied this, it fit Juna to a tee. He

was fast asleep down in the belly of that ship.

Down he had gone down into the sides of it

and he lay fast asleep. How can you have.

One man.

Down in the belly.

Of the ship just sleeping like nothing's going on.

Meanwhile, you got men that were probably raised on the sea.

This was their job, and this was their out your patien.

And the storm gets so bad that they do everything

they can. They start throwing the they start throwing their

car door over all because they want to.

Live, to see another day.

So you got men that understand how bad the storm is,

and you got men that want to see their family,

and they do everything they can to survive another day

and to try to get out of the storm. But

in the same boat, you got a man that's just

sleeping like there's no care in the world. So Jonah,

how can he sleep with everybody on the upper deck

because it's just absolute chaos, and he's the reason for

the storm. But these men we'll get. Then the ship

master goes down to where Jonah's at. The ship master,

I don't I believe that somebody had told him, Hey,

there's a guy down there in the sides of.

The ship just sleeping.

Because the ship master, when he's in a storm that

big and all his crew and his men's life is threatened,

he's got bigger things to do than go down into

the hull of the ship and see who's asleep. But

he goes down into that ship, down into the belly

of it, and where those sleepers at. And when I

read of this ship master, it reminds me of our pastor.

He comes right down to where he's at. He gets

right down to where our life's hat Amen, and gets

right to the point and right to the problem. I

don't believe this ship master said it all real nice

to Jonah. I believe at the top of his lungs,

he screams, what mean if thou all sleeper? He wondered,

how in God's earth can all my men that have

done this for years, how can they be so worried

about what's going on?

And how at the same time can someone just be sleeping?

Hellylujah, John is just down there sleep in the day away.

The Bible said he lay fast asleep. He'd been rocked

asleep by the waves of that brute.

What tormented him, what should have tormented him.

He let rock him to sleep, and he let himself

get complacent, and we can get life down in our

walk with God, the things that should shake us to

our knees, after so long of it, we just treat

it like it's a normal.

Thing, Eliah.

So the shipmaster goes down there and says, what meanest, thou,

old sleeper, And that's what these services are for for

each and every one of us. When we hear a sermon,

or we hear a message, or hear an exhort exhortation,

it's just like that captain or the shipmaster that's trying

to shake Johonnah out of his sleep.

When I preach her. And when I say that, I

do not.

Mean that disrespectful and all I mean now when I'm

proud of it. I'm proud to say that's my preacher,

because I'm proud to have someone that can preach like that.

Amen.

So, and he begins to shake us, and he begins

to try to get us to wake up out of

our sleep, and to wake up out of our slumber,

and to get us to try to wake up out

of the complacency because he realizes that everyone else in

the church realizes that what God's doing is a serious thing, but.

Yet just a fuse sleep on.

So he shakes him to try to get him to

realize the situation, the danger and the trouble that everyone

on that ship is in, including himself. Imagine with me,

if that ship master wouldn't have cared about Jonah. Imagine

Joanah waking up and wherever he was out the water

level begin to rise. If that ship master wouldn't have

got his attention, and when ahead and threw him overboard,

the entire ship would have went down.

And God still would.

Have let Jonnah survive, I believe, because God still needed

to talk to him, and God had prepared a great

fish for him, and God was still gonna let Jonah

go through that test and that trial that he had

prepared for him, whether or not Jonah wrote to the Situationlujah.

Said, Jonah a.

Foolish man, just sleeping, sleeping away like it's nothing. And

then in the book of Samuel, we have a young

man that is the complete.

Opposite of Jonah.

And I ain't a great preacher, but this is where

I want to preach to those that won't to be

something for God and those that won't to be something

for your church.

And you can be that's not a desire that's out

of your reach.

That is a God saying to desire, Toronta, be something

for your pastor that is a healthy desire, Toronta, be

something for your church, said Jorn are just as sleep

in it a way like God's not speaking to him.

And then on the opposite hand, we got a little

man named Samuel whose entire life has been completely dedicated

to the Lord and serving God in the temple. Yes,

his daddy and mama had dedicated him and gave him

that opportunity, but he still could.

Have done a half shot job.

He's still Yes, they sent him to the temple to

be a servant unto God, but.

His parents weren't there on a daily.

Basis checking on him. And he could have just lived

his life.

He could have just rode it Outlujahlujah.

And when I go down through this story here, when

I read the account of his little Samuel, I come

to the conclusion that we are without excuse. Samuel did

not have good examples. He did not have someone that

he could pattern his.

Life after every one of us in.

Here have that that he didn't have. Amen, we have

good elders, we have a pastor.

With a burden.

We have dads and moms that care about us. You

have youth, a youth pastor. There's lay members that are

good examples. And Samuel did not have that. No matter

what we say.

Here's examples were full of hipocrisy.

His examples didn't walk like they should before God.

But he did not let that hold him back.

Yet all the distractions and all the hingdances, and all

the stumbling blocks that Eli's sons laid before him, yet

he still choose to minister unto the Lord. He could

have found an opportunity to use that silly thing. Oh

I'm bitter, Oh I see Eli son, what's their names?

Is slipping me haf don phineyofs thank you. He could

have used that off there. He could have used that

as an opportunity and said, well, haf nin Feney house

ain't done it like they should.

But instead he choose to stand soft for God. We

can not blame our.

Relationships or our examples that we've had in the past,

or our walk with God.

We cannot blame them on anyone but ourself. Amen.

Samuel could have used every excuse in the book of

how Eli wasn't who he was supposed to be, and

how his sons were just an absolute disgrace to God.

No doubt Samuel had seen it. He was a servant

pretty much to Eli. He's seen the way half nine

Infhinny has acted, He's seen the hypocrisy in their life,

yet he chose to be different than Themlujah, we can

use the silly excuse if you moved down here from

previous leadership. We can use the silly excuse of or

with the pastor's kids did in that ride, or all

that pastor really didn't care for me. I get that,

and I understand for a little while that maybe being

a small problem for you, But it sure wasn't for Samuel.

Samuel was raised in a place that was no doubt

as wicked as any church in America.

We know what haffnon Finny hastean, We know the story,

we know how violid was, and I want to tell you,

wherever you come from, I can stand here fly foot

and tell you.

I guarantee you that it wasn't as bad as what

Samuel saw. Yet Samuel said, I've gonna save God. Whether

the hypocrisy that I see in the house of e

eye the first time Gossip fixed to Samuel, he mistakes

it for the voice of Eli.

Don't tell me.

We can't give a mistake and we can't get distracted

by the devil. Samuel knew the voice of Eli's good

as loft non fiteus, buddy Stell must mistook it for

the voice of Eli.

We would think that he could have could have could

have heard the difference in their voice. But the Lord

calls him and he mistakes it for Eli. Helpless Jesus.

So Samuel makes his way into Eli, just for Eli

to tell him, So, I didn't call you. Samuel goes

Vick and lays back down. The second time the Lord

calls him, he.

Goes into Eli, and Eli tells him again, I didn't

call you.

So now he goes back the third time, and I'm

sure Samuel, just like some of us would do, he thought,

is about I know, I'm not just hearing things. He

thought for sure that Eli was calling him. He thought

for sure maybe Eli, as he had in times past,

wanted him to do Eli's job because Eli's eyes had

begun to watch them. And I'm sure there was time

and then this time the lamp of God went out.

But I'm sure there was times. And maybe this is

the why that the reason why Samuel was such a

light sleeper. Maybe he got you, say, Eli said, Samuel, Hey,

the lap of God's about to go out in here,

And maybe that's what he thought.

Eli needed for.

He thought Eli needed him to take care of one

of his minister minister tasks. One of his tasks that

a minister is to handle.

Hell Elujah.

So he goes the third time and lays down, and

the voice of God calls him and he runs viking

that a Eli, and Eli said, and this time he

says for that.

He goes in there says, for thou didst call me?

This time? He was saying, Eli, You're not gonna pull

this one off over my head?

Thou didst call me? But Eli, the only credit I

want to give him is that he didn't try to

hold Samuel back.

Here. He understands man God trying to get this young

man's attention. Eli could have talked. Eli could have just quickly.

Made something up when he realized God was trying to

call him, but instead Eli tells him that is.

God, hell Elujah.

Say Eli realizes that God is trying to speak to

Samuel and that he's not just hearing things. Say Eli

tells Samuel that if the Lord calls for him again,

to say, speak Lord, thy servant, heareth. And we've been

raised in church, we dides in marms that have raised

us to say, speak Lord, thy servant hereth.

We have no excuse for not knowing the voice of God.

My whole goal in this is to try to take

away the excuse from us young people that it is

okay to not understand or grasp.

Or get the lesson or the.

Point that our priest, sure our pastor is trying to

tell us from God.

Why do we think that is okay to miss it

the first time God speaks. We can't act like it.

We can't read this scripture and say, well, it took

Samuel four times. No, Samuel did not know here verse

number seven. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.

Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.

So we don't have the excuse of saying, well, took

Samuel four times to hear the voice of God.

Heluijahdluijah.

The Bible says that Samuel did not yet know the Lord, meaning.

The voice of the Lord.

We've been raised in church, and we understand and we

should understand the voice of God. And when God switched

to us, we ought to easily be shaken out of

our sleep. Jonah ran from the presence of God. Why

Samuel mistook the voice of God two complete different individuals?

Hely Lujah.

Most of us and if you have and this is

no slight, but most of us have been raised in

church our entire life or a good portion of it,

and most of us understand that the voice of God

generally speaks to us from a sermon or from an

exhortation from our pastor. In studying this, and if I'm wrong,

pastor can't correct me, But in studying this, I feel

like the church world has got messed up in every

single lay member believing that God just speaks to them

in an audible voice. I feel like that's why we

got so many churchhoppers, because everybody just feels like they

got a relationship with God.

No, God did not speak to Samuel for a while.

Any time Samuel got anything sad to say, because the

word of God has said, there was no open vision

sad to say anytime saying God something from God, it

was most likely from Eli. And when I begin to

write this down and study this out, I think that's

where a lot of lay people get in trouble. I'd

be lying if I stood here and told you I

hear the voice.

Of God every week. Very few men and very few

women hear.

God speak to them like that in life. And you say, well,

why are you saying that. You're saying we need to

hear the voice of God, And I'm not contradicting myself.

What I'm trying to say is when God's fixed to us,

ninety five percent of the time, it's gonna come from

your pastor I've said it. But that's where I feel

people get comfortable. He said, I feel like God wants

me to go here, or I feel like God wants

me to do this. Are you sure about that? Are

you sure God spoke to you directly in a notable voice,

telling you.

To do that?

Most of the time it is through his preacher, through

his prophet, and.

Through his Pastora sure After Eli tell Samuel to say,

speak Lord, for thy servant here the first time Samuel understood,

oh I mistook God's voice for Eli. The first time

he understood that is God's speaking to me. He got

a point, Eli tells him. Next time you hear that voice,

say speak Lord, for thy servant hear it. Yes, he

may have mistruck it for time, four time, for three times,

but on that full time when God spoke to him,

he and God God's point, and he understood that God

will shining us a week to him. The church world

and people in the church, we have God so comfortable.

And I don't understand why a feeling like there's a

second chance. And I understand thore is. I know, I'm young,

I've been in church twenty three years. I understand that

God does give second chances. But I think people have

God so comfortable in hearing all there's a second chance,

and hearing all these vows vout stories that they feel like,

Oh God will deal with me again.

Oh God will have the preacher preaches to me again.

Oh God, I'll give another message, another message in tongues.

We must not mistake and miss the point of getting

God's point the first time he speaks.

When you're in a church. This big.

If God fakes to you about an issue and you

don't catch it the first time he deals with it.

There's a lot of issues. And when I say that,

I don't meant him in a bad way. I mean

issues of people need encouragement, issues of people.

Need in healing. So how do you know if you

miss that time.

God speaks to you, how do you know that it's

not gonna be six months of God weighing encircling back

to you.

Because his Preacher's.

Got other people to deal live and his Preacher's got

other people to encourage. We must not find ourselves so

complacent and thinking that God just gonna.

Deal and God's gonna spect us service after service.

I wanna be a lot sleeper. If I'm asleep, I

wanna be when God speaks to me like Samuel, I

can be shaken out of it easy, hellylujah.

I know Pastor exhorted to us about this.

A while back when he was preaching on on uh,

when he exhorted us on maturing and and and stepping

up in in God, and our Pastor in first lay

at a young age, the age of a lot of us.

And yes, I wasn't there to see it, but I'm

there to witness it now. And if you have what

you have now, what they have now, you definitely have something.

Back then.

Sat the age of us, A lot of us they

had something with God. They had a relationship with God.

You hear the stories of our pastor when he's preaching

and he's between the age of let's say eighteen and

twenty five, and he goes to eat something and this

will convict me too.

And he goes to eat something. Buddy so in tune

with the voice of God.

And he's so in tune with the spirit of God God,

and he's so easily awoken that he's on a fast

and when he goes to break it, God just simply

deals with him. God just simply speaks one time and

they listen. Easier said than done.

Right.

As young people, they had a relationship and a connection

with God that most people, including ourselves, we'll spend their

entire life trying to achieve. And just like Samuel, they

didn't have the outstanding church we have. They didn't have

the outstanding pastor we have. They didn't have the outstanding examples,

exhortations or.

Move of God like we had. But they like to

listen up the voice of God. I've heard my entire life.

Our pastor has told us. Sometimes God speaks in short sentences,

and sometimes it is a small voice. And you best

be listening so carefully to hear.

The wisper of Godlujah.

As I've already said, Samuel had bad examples in the

Sons of Eli, I would dare to say Samuel have

the worst examples that anyone could ever even imagine.

He had worse examples.

Than any of us in previous churches, previous youth groups.

He had a worse pastor than you ever dared to have.

But he did not let that affect him. He understood.

Do you understand how easy Samuel's morals.

Could have been destroyed?

He's a young man. He's a young man in here.

He's a young man in here with Half nine Phinney

Haas and Eli.

He's young son.

Say at the oldest he was twelve or younger.

So at the age of twelve he understood that he

would not fall prey and become like.

Half nine phinehas. Who cares if every coworker you gots

a crackhead?

Who cares if every coworker you got is a rage

and horrormonger who cares if they're a Feiger care you

can still stand like Samuel did. Samuel testimony is just

as great as the testimony of Joseph.

He stood no doubt.

He was given me opportunities that Eli's boys were given.

He could have so easily been corrupted. He could have

so easily lost that connection that he had with God.

He could have so easily lost his love for being

a servant. Half don Vinnie has had. You don't love

God or the House of God doing the things that

they Didah, so as a young.

Man twelve.

And I know any youth service, So that's the agent,

not twelve, but I'm preaching our youth. At the age

of twelve, little boy Samuel gives every person an outstanding

example to be like at the age of twelve or younger.

He lives alife so perfect and so outstanding that God

would choose him over every other person that was in

that temple.

God used his little old twelve year old.

Samuel to tell him all the things that he wants

to do that he's going to do to Israel, and

all the things that he's going to do to Eli.

At the small age of twelve or under.

Why Because God knew if he'll heed my voice at

this young.

Of an age, he'll heed my voice through his entire ministry.

And you say, well, my decision and how quickly and

how swift I listen and be obedient to the voice

of God doesn't matter.

It really does.

If God understand, if God learns and he knows all things.

But if God learns and God realizes that you're someone

that is so often just to disregarding, why would he.

Deal with us later in life.

So it's our job while we're young to make sure

we pattern our lives after the people that we look

at and we say, yeah, they got a relationship with God.

Yes, it's easy for God to shake them.

Yes, it's easy for them to get In the annoting

there in the church, Samuel was like that.

He didn't have a pattern, but he chose to.

Live up right before God.

As I've said, we cannot use the excuse of well,

and I was growing up, I didn't have the example,

or I didn't have the environment that I needed to

grow like I should spiritually. Well, God's given it to

you now. So every last one of us, our pastors

taught us when we preach. We preached ourselves to.

Every last one of us, myself included.

When we stand on judgment day, do you understand we

are going to give.

A higher account. God's gonna hold us to a higher

standard than he even did the little man Samuel.

Because God has given us that example, and God hath

given us a great church to be in. We have

more than Samuel had. Sam You'll never heard an annoying

message come out of Elive's mouth, maybe in days gone

by before Eli lost sitting.

But we'll be held and we're given a count, yes,

for every.

Other word we spoke, but also every word that we

heard and every word that we did not heed. And

I think God is gonna hold us accountable for every

time we spoke, and it had to swek again. That's

why I feel the importance of being alive sleeper, someone

that when God speaks and when your preach are your

pastor preaches that you're easy to grab a hold of it. Hell,

we we must be like Samuel and do what God

says the first time. Amen, I want this generation to

be easy for our preacher to preach to. Wouldn't you

love it if he just knew? When I preach this

when I gotta say a one.

When he exhorts.

When he exhorts, he understands, Hey, this generation or youth,

he's gonna grab a hold of what I say the

first time. Don't you want to be someone that your preacher,

your pastor understand you're so easily shuck, not in your faith,

but you easily shuck to do what the saith God.

I want to raise a generation. I want to raise

a group of people that is seasing to preach to,

that understand their pardons of understanding and listening to the

voice of God the first time.

Hallelujah.

Thesiest way to be that generation and be that people

in to tune.

Our ear to the voice of God, learn to listen.

Dearing exhortations, and they're in your dear in the sermons

for what God speaking to.

You specifically, hallelujah. So you have one man, Jonah.

That's just acting like God's not trying to get his attention.

He's fast asleep there in the belly of that ship.

Why everybody else is internal and the sights of God

don't live internal when your ship begins to rock, but

they do understand that something's not quite right.

And completely got the roles reversed.

And sometimes you can feel in a service when it

feels like the roles get reversed those that should be

hearing and being obedient to the voice.

So God just acts like it's just another service. And

then those that have their ear tuned are like the

man that was on the up or deck of that boat.

They understand the danger and they understand the thermo that

the ship is in, said John, to completely God what

God was trying to do switched around. Then, on the

other hand, you have Samuel, a good young man dedicated

his entire life to trying to serve God. They had

a here tuned to God, no matter his circumstances. His

number one priority in life was to be a servant

of God, no matter the example, no matter the church.

If everyone, if everyone, if you're fellow youth, classmates, turn

their back on God, what would you do.

That's what Samuel kind of went through. And I'm sure

I'd have to study it our haf nine. I'd at

the study the ag a lion see if I could

find their aid.

I'm sure there was.

An age gap there. But those that Samuel had seen

grow up turned their back on God. Nevertheless, he pressed

to be a servant of God. You hear our pastor say,

house every almost everyone of their youth group didn't make it,

but yet they chose to hear the voice of God.

And they weren't in an environment that was so conducive

to hear the voice of God. So they like to

listen to God speak to them individually. So we got it,

all things considered a lot easier than they did. It's

easy to hear the voice of God in one of

our pastor's sermons. It's easy to hear the voice of

God when he feeds us through tongues and interpretation. It's easy,

and we've been raised at it. We understand it. There's

no mistaken that like Samuel did the first few times

Samuel laid on that bed, Imagine when me.

After he learned to hear.

The voice of God, how sweet it was.

And right now you can you can you can feel

like and say, well, when I hear the voice of God,

and when God.

Speak to me, it's in a chastising way. Well, if you'd.

Straighten that out and you'd learned to listen the first

time he speaks, the second time he's feaxed to you.

It be sweet.

You died to hear the voice of God.

I don't ever want to find myself in a place

when I win the voice of God's feaks, I dread it.

I want to look forward to it.

Amen, Brother Jesse, if you come around, let's all stand

here tonight.

I hope we got my point.

I'm not a great preacher. I ain't been preaching along.

But if I lost you men, tire sermon. The point

I hope you get a hold of is the difference

in Jonah and the difference in Samuel.

It's a lot easier.

And yes, Jonah's trial.

Is hard, but it's a lot easier to be a Jonah.

It's a lot easier just to flee from the presence

of God. Yes there will be trials, and yes there

will be consequences for disobeying the direct voice of God.

But what I want and who I really hope I

preached to and encouraged, what's those.

That while to be something for God?

If I amount to nothing in corporate America, if the

least I could become is someone that can hear and

someone that God can speak to easily. Our chiefest desire

over being someone wealthy should be.

God. Can I hear your voice?

God?

Can I understand? And can I pick up when the

preachers preaching? What part of that is you speaking directly

into my life? And that's what Samuel art to do.

I hope will choose and will pray tonight, say God,

I don't want to be asleep, but if I am,

help me be a like sleeper.

Help me be.

That one that you can deal with, Oh, my better night,

Help me be that one that you can deal with

in my Bible.

Reading before the preacher ever has to preach it. If

I have some young people.

That want to learn to hear the voice of God

when he speaks to you with your place, come around

thissaltar and say, oh God, help me.

Learn to hear your voice.

Hey man, it's it's the speak the word Lord out

to you what you don't me? Who will speak the

word Lord and your serve.

Clean go?

We will speak the word Lord. My ears long to