How Do I Listen to God’s Voice? 1 Samuel 3:1-18

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hello. Hello, well, it's so proper. We are

welcoming you to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris, this is Jeff,

and we are glad to be here.

I wish we had like a tea set here and

we were speaking tea and eating scones, little scones. Hello.

I ordered. There's a one of the oldest and most

prestigious tea companies in London is Fortenham and Mason, and

they had this incredible store near Piccadilly Square, And so

when I was there, I had a friend with me.

He goes, dude, you gotta have some of these cookies.

They have these cookies. They're like they're the inside is

like scones, but they completely cover them in thick chocolate,

which you know I love chocolate so much. Right. They

were so incredible and I bought two different kinds. They

were so incredible, And this store is huge, it's like

five stores, worries, it's all snacks and tea. It's incredible, right,

and very expensive. I loved them so much. I called

my wife I was going to try to bring them

home and I couldn't help myself ate them all right,

So on this trip I was on, so I told

my wife. I was like, oh, Bonnie, these are incredible.

They're just they're amazing. I've never had a cookie better

than this cookie. And you know, the tea was good

everything else. And so I got home and I ordered

two boxes of cookies. They have ten cookies in each one,

and I didn't even look at the price. And then

my wife was like, hey, how come we had a

fifty six dollars order from from a tea company in

London on the thing. So I paid fifty six dollars

for twenty cookies cookies.

That's great, it's pretty expensive.

They were so good though, so good, and I'm not

gonna lie they're gone, yeah of course, yeah, yeah, Well,

I mean that's what you do. So your your little

royal uh introduction there. I was just thinking. I was

just thinking if we had your little pinkies were up

and we were eating a little chocolate cookie.

You immediately started tasting cookies.

Absolutely absolutely, that's right.

Just from my greeting. Hey, we're gonna do a segment

that Desiree has put together. This is something I've never

seen before, and I got to be honest, I just

glanced they had a few seconds ago. I questions, and

I'm not certain we're going to repeat this.

I tried. I tried not to think too hard about

this one.

So okay, okay, ready, I'll let you go first. Okay,

take turn sharing what you would do in these scenarios.

I'll read the first one.

You're ready, Okay, What would you do?

This is what the segment is called, what would you do?

What would you do if you found out that you'd

been living in a reality TV show for years and

we're only now told what What would I do? Yeah?

What would you do?

Uh? Hire a lawyer and get royalties if that was

the star of a TV show. I just found out

about it because I haven't been getting paid.

That's actually a decent answer. Okay, that's interesting enough.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's what I would do?

All right?

What would you do? Well?

My first instinct was to say, because the Truman Show,

this is the plot of the Truman Show.

Oh, that's right, who was it? Jim Carry? Yeah, he

found out he was living in it.

He found out he was living in a reality show,

and he did his best to get out of that

reality show to live his life.

Look at you equating everything to a movie.

Well, you went to cookies.

Yeah, that's true priorities. Yeah, you think about movies all

the time. I think about chocolate cookies all the time.

That makes sense that. Yeah, so super sophisticated people here

on this show. That's only the most sophisticated.

Yeah, I just I don't have a great answer for that,

other than you get out of the situation.

All right, Well, then let me try number two. Number

two says what would you do if you were suddenly

followed everywhere by a troop of professional mimes who copied

your every move, professional mimes, your every movie.

This is why I can't figure out this segment. Okay, ready,

here's what I would do. I would do my best

to get away from such said mimes.

Yeah, I would have sworn. You're gonna say you jump

off a bridge?

Yeah?

No, So everything. If you don't know Chris, well, Chris

lives his life in hyperbole. Everything is the best, the biggest,

the most amazing, or it's the single worst thing I've

ever seen in my life, and it makes me want

to jump off a bridge. I mean I've heard that

phrase ten times.

Oh wait, more than ten times. I was gonna say

I've used that phrase one hundred times.

I'm telling you it's the single worst thing I've ever

seen in my life. It just makes me want to

go jump off a bridge. So I would think then,

having ten or having a bunch of mimes following you around,

that you would just jump off a bridge. Yeah, but

the game is called beause that would make them all

jump off the bridge.

Game is called what would you do? And I'm a

real follower on games, so I'm literally trying to answer

because I would not jump off a bridge, right, I

would like I would do my best to figure out

why the mimes are there and.

How cool they would have to jump off the bridge too?

Oh look at you see?

So if you had a parachute and they didn't.

But then they would all get parachutes.

Yeah, okay, Well if you could swim and they couldn't,

how would I know that? I don't know, but you

might get rid of some of us them. Yeah yeah,

you'd be like, you know, signing for that movie, like

can you swim?

No?

I don't know.

All right, that's a crazy one. Okay, okay in the

last one, Thank goodness. What would you do if every

time you entered a room you had to perform a

thirty second dance routine before you can start your day?

Well, I think probably what I would do is.

Perform the thirty second dance routine because it says you had.

To you have to. Yeah, but I mean, you want

to be creative and super impressive, and so I'd probably

go back and review the footage from the break dancing

lady from Australia oh wow, from the Olympics Wow, and

maybe work work on some cool.

Movies that the Olympics are done. I got to tell

you this, The only two people I'm gonna remember is

number one, that lady and then the second best shooter

from Turkey that's.

The silver medal guy hand in his podcast.

Yes, those are the only two people remember, you know what?

And Simon that's it.

I think three. I think this is the first time

I didn't watch a single event, not a single event.

So I saw the you know, my kids were watching

a video of that funny that lady dancing. Yeah, and

then I saw the picture of the guy that shooting.

I don't know, I just didn't get into it this year.

Oh yeah, it's weird.

Wow.

I've been really busy though too, so that was part

of it.

Is.

Yeah, you know, I'm driving down the road listening to

sports radio and they're telling you who won medals, and

so at that point I need to go watch the

replay of the metals.

Right. We live in a world of highlights. Yeah, so

you get the highlights.

Already, So that's pretty much it.

It's like the old Cliffs Notes, what would you do?

What would you do if you had to do a

thirty second dance before you walked into the room every

night before you start?

It says had to So, uh, what would I do?

I'd I guess I'd have to do the thirty second.

Dance for.

The end?

Are you a good dancer?

This is why I don't like this segment, Like, I

don't understand the questions what would I do? I guess

I'd do the dance.

Chris isn't feeling very fun today, In case you're wondering.

No, I actually I'm just trying to figure out how

to make this game work.

Okay, this segment, well, we took seven minutes to get

to that point, so we should probably move on.

Okay, Okay, well that's that is our time for games.

For need to move on. Okay, how about the Bible?

There you go. So we are in First Samuel. So

this is the second day of First Samuel. We're going

to jump to chapter three.

Did you say the second day?

Second day in First Samuel?

Oh, the second podcast day?

Yes.

I was like, there's been more than two days. Saman

was born already, he's a young lad.

So he is born. His mom takes him to the

tabernacle when he's five years old. Yeah, and then and

he begins to work for Eli, the high priest.

Yes.

And so in chapter three it says, meanwhile, the boy

Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now, in those day,

messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were

quite uncommon. One night, Eli, who was almost blind by now,

had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not

yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle

near the ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out Samuel. Yes,

Samuel replied, what is it? He got up and ran

to Eli. Here, I am, did you call me? I

didn't call you, Eli replied, go back to bed. So

he did. Then the Lord called it out again Samuel.

Then Samuel got up again and went to Eli. Here,

I am, did you call me? I didn't call you,

my son, Eli said, go back to bed. Samuel did

not yet know the Lord because he had never had

a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called

a third time, and once more Samuel got up and

went to Eli, here, I am, did you call me?

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling

the boy, so he said to Samuel, go and lie

down again, and if someone calls again, say speak Lord,

your servant is listening. So Samuel went back to bed,

and the Lord came and called us before Samuel Samuel

and Samuel replied, speak, your servant is listening. Then the

Lord said to Samuel, I'm about to do a shocking

thing in Israel. I'm going to carry out all my

threats against Eli and his family from beginning to end.

And I have warned him that judgment is coming upon

his family forever because his sons are blaspheming God and

he hasn't disciplined them. So I vowed that the sins

of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by

his sacrifices or offerings. So Samuel stayed in bed until morning,

then got up and opened the doors of the tabernacle

as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the

Lord had said to him, but Eli called out to him, Samuel,

my son, here I am. Samuel replied, what did the

Lord say to you? Tell me everything? And may God

strike you and even kill you if you hide anything

from me. So Samuel told Eli everything everything. He didn't

hold back anything. It is the Lord's will. Eli replied,

Let him do what he thinks best. Yeah, wow, Eli,

Samuel had a rough go there.

Yeah, he did. A young man who's put in a

really precarious situation here. Yes, right, so he's we're talking

about the high priest here, I'm talking about the the

soule authority in the temple, and and Samuel's like, what

like a look an intern, right.

And yeah, well probably more like a like a butler, right.

Yeah. Well, it just goes to show you that God's

God's favored doesn't go by title or authority. It goes

by your faith and your heart, doesn't it. It goes

by you know, Samuel loved the Lord. He had a

pure heart. Eli had been warned by God. And by

the way, those are the chapters that we skipped over,

chapter number two. If you go back there and you

go back and read all of chapter two, you'll find

out that his son's how do you say it? I

say Hoffney in Phineas? Is it Hafnai or.

Hafney either way?

Either way? So I used to say Hoftney in Phineas.

But but you know, it actually listed and told us

what they were doing. They were blaspheming God. They were

eating the meat that was being sacrificed at the temple.

So people would come, just so you'll know, and they

bring their sacrifices to God to be you know, given

to God as a sacrifice, and you know, these would

be animals and instead of you know, preparing the bull

or the sacrifice and burning it and giving it to God,

they would eat it. Can you imagine that's like stealing

out of the offering right right? I mean it's like

it's like we don't have another we don't have anything

equivalent today to compare it to as pastors. But that's

really what they're doing. And this was something given to

God right there, and they're eating it. And then it

says that they were having sex with women at the

temple gates. So they were using their influence or their

position and using it for that reason. And so God

warned Eli. He warned Eli, hey, take care of your family.

Eli didn't do it. So we get a sense, don't

we that Eli looks over at Samuel and says, don't

hold anything back. May God kill you if you're holding

the back for me, because Eland knows what it's He

knows that Samuel is going to be afraid to tell

him what the deal is, right, Like, he's thinking, I

know it's coming. Don't you dare hold anything back from me?

Because because Eli knows that God warned him already, and

so Samuel doesn't hold anything back, and he goes, well,

it is what Liz. He knows is coming, and he

knows he deserves it because he didn't obey anything that

God had asked him to do.

Yeah, but poor Samuel, first time he hears from God,

he's like, hey, I need to tell you something about

your boss. Right, that's a rough one. But you know,

God knows what you can handle. And God also knows

what he's developing and planning you, you know, planning for

you in the future. And so you have the promise

from God to Samuel is that God was going to

remove Eli and would make then Samuel be a leader

to the kings. There were no kings yet, right, and

so God was bringing Samuel into this place where he

was going to have to do a lot of hard things.

So you know, God was stretching him. God was challenging him.

God was giving him an opportunity to do a really

hard thing today because he has a whole series of

difficult things he's going to do standing against other blasphemers,

confronting kings, right, really really hard things that he winds

up doing. And so God's prepping him even as a

young man here. So I would say one big lesson

to learn here is don't shy away from hard things.

Do hard things. Yeah, I read a book one time

when I was I I did one time. One time.

I read about when I was in college, I had

a professor that I really looked up to, and I

had gone you know, in high school, in middle school,

high school, I read all the time. We didn't have

a television. Then I went to college and I didn't

read for pleasure at all. I just worked, right, So

I was working a lot of hours. I was tired

all the time. I was sleeping about four and a

half or five hours a night max. And so I

was tired. And so if I'd open a book, I

just fall asleep, right, So what would happen? So other

than studying, I wasn't reading. And then I had this

professor who talked about the wisest people he knew the

most some of the most successful people he knew didn't

just read for you know, to pass a test, but

would read for personal improvement. And I thought, I haven't

read any book for personal improvement forever, right, you know? Now,

in reality, I think when you're in college, you are improving,

you're trying to. I just didn't equate the two. So

I went to him and I asked him this. I said, hey,

what would you read? And he gave me this little book.

It wasn't very big, It's maybe like one hundred pages,

and I think it's out of print now. But it

just it said do hard Things. That was the title,

Do Hard Things. The whole premise was it was this

guy from he seems to be like a World War

two generation guy, you know, and they were just tough, sure,

and he might have been older than the World War

two generation, but it seemed like it was a book

that was written four young men during that time, his

successful business guy. And the whole thing was, whatever hard

thing you haven't done yet, if you're physically capable, go

do it. Go do the hard things. Do the hard things.

The hard things make you harder, they make you stronger.

And it's hard men who sees the world, not soft men. Right,

And so that was the idea, and there is something

to that that God made us a part of even

before the curse. God made us to work. Work is

not a curse. Work was a gift from God. It

gives purpose, and so he put them in a garden.

It's going to be physical work. It's the sweat of

your brow. It's the struggle of work. It's the I

put in all this work and hardly get any harvest

from it. Kind of thing is the curse, but the

work itself. God wanted humanity to be strong, to work hard,

to produce things. And then we tend to the more

successful we get, the less work we try to do.

We try to do softer work, softer and softer and softer,

and so you know, we as a culture, we try

to make things easier, and we try not to have

to say the hard thing. We try to learn not

how not even to we try not even to learn

how to say the hard thing. We try to avoid

the hard things, and instead I think that maybe, you know,

in this situation with Samuel, Samuel says, or God says

to Samuel, I'm going to tell you something that's going

to be hard. But God trusted him with it, and

then all he had to do is be faithful to

do that hard thing, and then God set him up

for an incredibly successful ministry for a very long period

of time in his life.

You know. One of the things I love about this story,

it's one of my favorites in the Old Testament actually,

because there's a lot of application to this. So you

think about Samuel, or think about Eli. Eli is a

person who should have known better. Here's Samuel. He's just

he's literally just one. You know, I want to say,

it's really a wall. It's a wall of some kind.

It's probably not a it's a it's a curtain, but

it's a very thick curtain, right, Yeah, But he's one

curtain away from the Holy of Holies. So the Ark

of the Covenant is right there, you know, Here's here's

you know, Samuel sleeping in a chamber. That's that's just

outside of there. And all of a sudden he hears

Samuel Samuel and Eli now did say that God hadn't

spoken in a long time, visions were rare. But at

the same time, Eli is an old man. He's so

old that his eyes could barely work. He's almost blind

by now. So Eli was old, he was wise, He

had all the wisdom and experience that a high preesch

should have. Eli should have known better. So if somebody

calls the first instinct that Eli should have had is well,

that must be God because it wasn't me, right, But

he doesn't. He says, no, we're the only two in here.

It wasn't me. You're hearing things go lay back down,

And then he doesn't even recognize it the second time.

You know what that means to me. It means that

Eli is so far removed from the ways and the

works of God he hasn't even recognized God's works anymore. Right,

we already know he's callous. We already know he's you know,

ignored God's warnings about disciplining his sons. He's allowing his

sons to run all over them to develop a bad reputation,

which reflects bad on him. So here's Eli. He's not

heard God's call in a very, very long time. And

so maybe that's you. Maybe you're listening to the podcast

and you're at home and you're like, man, it's been

a long time since I've really heard from God. I'm

around the things of God, I go to church, but

my personal relationship with God is not very strong. I

would just say, you know, you know, just be like Hannah, right,

fall to your knees, pray, pray earnestly. And then then

you have Samuel. Samuel is a guy who's hearing God's

call for the very first time, right, you know, he's

never heard God's call before. In fact, it even says

in verse number nine Samuel did not yet know the Lord.

So he's hearing God's call for the very first time.

So I would say, you know, you may be they're listening,

and that may be you, you know, to to hear

God's call, you know, for salvation, for a lationship with him.

And then you have Hopnei and Phineus in the story

who are turning a deaf ear to God's call. It

it's a it's the worst place to be. It's the blaspheming.

You know, you're so callous, you're so unbelievably hardened in

your heart that you turn a deaf ear to God's call.

And even even if it's painstakingly obvious that God is

trying to get your attention, you you're you're in a

blaspheming state where you do not care where You're like,

I'll just mock God, make fun of God, blasphem God

and not think twice about it. And that's the worst

place to be. That's the scary place to be. Right,

all of us should fear being at that place in

our lives.

Had I've had people say, Man, if God would just

say it to me, if you would just speak to

me right. A while ago, I had an optuny. I

spoke at an event, and a person that I look

up to from a distance, we haven't met at but

a pretty well known pastor communicator those things tuned in

and listened to He heard that I was speaking and

tuned in and then sent me a text. Wow. And

the text was like, Hey, I saw your message today.

I thought it was really good and thank you or whatever.

So I texted back and then we exchanged a couple

of texts back and forth, and I'm gonna next time

I'm in town, I'll probably connect with them. He didn't

call me. I didn't hear his audible voice, but getting

that text was like, Oh my gosh. One, he knows

my name. Two he reached out to me. How did

he find my phone number? That means he chased down

some the people who put together the event that I

spoke at, and he reached out to me that way.

But he wanted to assert himself into my life in

that moment because I had no idea he was even watching.

How would I have known he was watching. I didn't.

He wanted to inject himself into my life, and he

did it through a text. And so that's exactly what

God did for us. God doesn't I've never heard God

speak out loud, but I've got thirty thirty sei thousand

verses where he spoke to me. Right, we have the text,

knowing right we do. We have the text, and so

we have to just be honored by the fact that

He gave us his word. If God is being signed,

what Samuel or what Eli did not have was all

of this book, right. He probably had the books of Moses,

and that would have been it, right. But God gave

us this word to speak to us. As a matter

of fact, in both Peter and Paul have told us

that God gave us these words for our own example.

He tells us these stories about you know, half nin

in Phineas, about Eli, about Samuel, about Hannah for our example. Literally,

the idea of an example is you're supposed to learn

from that example, right, benefit from it. You learn what

to do or learn what not to do. And so

God did speak to us. He spoke to us by text,

and someday we're going to go see him. But between

here and there, applying what is said and engaging with

what God did say instead of being frustrated that he

didn't say something out loud to you, right, I've never

been frustrated that I've never heard God's voice out loud.

I've always been content with the fact that He's been

really clear with what and I'm not totally fulfilling everything

I know in this book yet, So I don't need

any more words to who much is given much as required.

Jesus said, I don't want more stuff. I'm going to

be held accountable for till I master this one. So

this is a lifetime of work to be able to master.

And I don't think you ever will till you get

to heaven, but master this book. And so rather being

frustrated than you're not hearing God's words out loud, spend

more time in the words God did give you in time.

The text, well, that is a great place to end

in a good word. So a great story, and so

we'll continue on. Hopefully we'll see you then next time.

I'm the Babba.

Guys,