1 SAMUEL 3 GOD REVEALS HIS HEART BY HIS WORD2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 3 God Reveals His Heart By His Word

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. And we're going to be here in 1 Samuel chapter 3 this evening, continuing our journey in the book of Samuel.

and continuing to look at the subject of pursuing God's heart. And so let's begin this evening by reading 1 Samuel 3, verses 1 through 8, and then we'll jump into what God has for us here in 1 Samuel 3. 1 Samuel 3, verse 1 says, Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation.

And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord, where the ark of God was, while Samuel was laying down, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here I am. So he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me.

And he said, I did not call, lie down again. And he went and lay down. Verse 6. Then the Lord called yet again, Samuel. So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. He answered, I did not call my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. Verse 8. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.

Here in 1 Samuel chapter 3, we're

Seeing Samuel as a young boy have his first real encounter with hearing from the Lord, and he's going to receive his first message from the Lord as he develops now to become a prophet to the nation of Israel. The mission of a prophet, the purpose of a prophet is to hear a word from God and then deliver it to the people that God sends him to. And so this is Samuel's introduction

introduction into that ministry as a prophet. He's going to hear from the Lord and then bring that to the nation. And you know, sometimes we look at the end result of ministries and we wonder like, wow, how could that ever happen? And so amazing, you know, you look at, you know, great ministries or great men of God, but

but it's all, there's always a beginning. And so here we kind of get to see the, the stumblings, not really stumblings, but you understand that, that he's, he doesn't know how to hear from the Lord yet. He hasn't learned. He hasn't discovered how to walk with God. He doesn't know what his purpose is. And, and so you kind of get to walk with him through this process of God revealing himself to him and showing him what he is called to do and,

as far as ministering to the nation of Israel. I've titled the message this evening, God Reveals His Heart by the Word. And it comes from verse 21, which tells us that the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And it's an important passage for me. It's one that I hold on to. In fact, in Israel, we had the opportunity to have

rings made in Hebrew, and I had mine made with that phrase, the Lord reveals himself by the word of the Lord. And I don't actually wear it that much because it kind of hurts my hand. They didn't finish it well. It's sharp, and so it kind of is like cutting a little bit. But I wore it tonight because I was like, you know, I gotta be reminded of these things and be mindful that

listen, we want people to know God. We want God to be revealed in our own lives, but also we want God to be revealed in the lives of the people around us. And it's such an important reminder that this is how God reveals himself, by the word of the Lord. And the word of the Lord is so essential for us for knowing God. And so as we talk about pursuing God's heart here in the book of Samuel,

You need to know that the way to understand and to know and to have the heart of God is going to be, well, through the word of the Lord. And so we need to know the Lord and we need to know his word, his written word, as well as the prophetic word. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute. Now it's interesting, and I didn't plan this. It wasn't intentional. In fact, it just kind of dawned on me halfway through preparing my notes for this evening. But

On Sunday, the message was comprehend the scriptures. So apparently the Lord wants to remind us of the importance of his word and make sure that we're established in it and spending time with him, discovering who he is and what he's like.

through his word. And so on Sunday, we talked about receiving spiritual discernment and studying the scriptures diligently and then sharing the truth dynamically and very similar to what we see demonstrated for us here in the life of Samuel. And so if you heard the message on Sunday and thought, well, I get the points. I understand the principles, but now how do I live it out? Well, you have an example here. Here you get to see Samuel kind of learn how to discern the

who's speaking? Is this the Lord speaking? And receive the word from the Lord and then share it with Eli the priest. And so you get to see it lived out in front of you as we look at this passage this evening. We ended last week in 1 Samuel chapter 2 with God rebuking Eli for not correcting his sons and not dealing with the issues there of the priesthood. And he was allowing great corruption to go on. And

As the Lord sent this man of God to him with the message, in 1 Samuel 2, verse 35, God explains, look, after I deal with your family and the corruption of the priesthood, he says, I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And so God was looking for a faithful priest who, well, would pursue his heart.

And that's partially fulfilled here in Samuel as he now is being raised up and he's going to be a faithful priest as well as a faithful prophet. But of course, ultimately we know that's fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But you see this desire of God. He's always looking for men and women who will pursue his heart.

Always looking for those who will know him and seek after him. And we've seen Hannah, a woman after God's own heart, a woman who pursued the heart of God. We saw the contrast between the family of Elkanah and Hannah and Eli and his sons and the corruption and wickedness that comes from not pursuing God's heart. But then the beauty and the profound truth that comes from seeking after God and really putting God first is

in our life. And so to be a man or a woman after God's own heart is about obedience to God, doing God's will.

And so the question I would ask continually to us is, are you a man or a woman after God's own heart? And that begins, we talked about, with surrender, with submission to the Lord. But it's also a process of being involved in the word of God because that's where God reveals his heart. That's how you can know the heart of God. He's revealed it for us. And so we need to get into the word of God.

Well, four points I'd like to walk you through this evening in 1 Samuel 3. The first one is found in verses 1-8, and that is learn to know God's voice. To hear God's word, you need to learn to discern God's voice. Verse 1 tells us, Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord. He says,

Samuel was a young boy. It calls him the boy Samuel. That word boy typically refers to like a teenager type age. So, you know, he's a young teenager at this time. Josephus, the historian, says that he was 12 at this time. And so as a very young man, he's getting introduced now to his prophetic ministry and the calling that God has for him.

Now it also tells us, giving us the context here in verse 1, that the word of the Lord was rare in those days. And we talked about that in setting up the context for the book of Samuel and the time of the judges and how everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And that is really the pattern that we would expect. When God's word is not known, when his voice is not heard, when

that everyone does what they want. Everyone does what they think is right. Everyone does what they think is best. And so there was no widespread revelation. There was no message from God to the nation as a whole. Of course, as we saw in Hannah, God was working with individuals. He always is doing that. But as a whole, as a nation, they were not seeking after God. And so they were not hearing God's voice.

It wasn't that, you know, God was hiding from them and then now all of a sudden he's just going to stop hiding. You have to understand and remember that God wants to reveal himself. He wants people to know him. If there is no widespread revelation, if there is no word from the Lord, it's a statement of their condition, not of God's condition, right? You remember that old saying, if you feel far from God,

guess who moved? It wasn't God, right? He's still in the same place, but sometimes we find ourselves far from God because we've moved and we're not seeking after and we're not pursuing the heart of God. David Guzik says, God will speak and guide when his people seek him and when his ministers seek to serve him diligently. And so I want to encourage you this evening to

As we talk about learning to know God's voice, it really begins with that decision to seek after God, to know God. If you feel like God doesn't speak to you, or God is far away, or that you haven't heard from God for a long time, there's no widespread revelation, or the word of the Lord is really rare in your life, understand that, well, it probably comes back to a need for you to seek him.

And to really invest some time and to invest some effort and to put some energy into knowing God. And as you lean in and walk with God and serve God, he will speak to you. He will reveal his heart through his word. And again, it's why it ties back into this theme of pursuing God's heart. The word of the Lord was rare in those days. That is the prophetic word.

They had some of the scriptures by this point. They had the writings of Moses and such, but when it talks about the word of the Lord, I'm kind of speaking of it in a dual purpose. It's the written word, the scriptures that we have, the Bible that we have, as well as the prophetic word. Now for us today, as we look at these things without getting into all the details, we hold on to the written word as the highest authority.

So this takes precedence over anything that someone might say or that you might think is a word from the Lord, that it must line up with the scripture. This is the highest priority for us as believers in Jesus, that this is the standard by which all other quote-unquote words from the Lord are measured. It's the, you know, for fact, for sure, guaranteed, clear, revealed word of God. But

not discounting the fact that God also brings forth prophetic words. And a prophetic word is a little bit different. The written word, I would say, is like the timeless scripture. It's the timeless word from the Lord. It's consistent. It's steadfast. It's standard. It doesn't change. But a prophetic word is more of a timely word. It's a timely message from God.

Now, of course, we always think about prophetic things as future things, but it's not necessarily about the future. But I would say this, it's a timely word for the present.

Whether it's about the future or about something else, it's a timely word for right now. When God brings forth a prophetic word, it is for the moment, for the present, for right now. He speaks to us right now what we need right now. And when he's talking about the future, it's because we need that right now. But many times he's also talking to us about right now because we need that right now. And so the prophetic word is not just

you know, some prophecy about, you know, some things that are going to happen and, you know, great, you know, well, when we get there, we'll deal with that. But when God brings forth a prophetic word, it's for right now. It's for us because we need to hear what he is saying. And so we have that today. We have the Holy Spirit at work and God continues to move and to bring forth words of prophecy.

To bring forth the word of God that is a message from him to us. Paul the apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 that every one of us should desire to be participating in this process. He says, pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. And so we are commanded in the scriptures to desire especially to prophesy.

that we would have a word from God for others. That is something that we are to desire, to crave, to pursue after, to beg God for. That's the way that Paul describes it there in 1 Corinthians 14. And I would encourage you to be obeying that command. Pursue love. Because you love people, desire to hear from God a message for them.

That is an important part of our pursuing the heart of God. Because again, what's most important on God's heart? It's people. That's the most important thing to God. And so loving people and to love them for real, to have a true love for them, it goes along with this desire for them to know God. That's what's best for them. If you really love them, that's what they need the most.

for you to be able to bring forth God's word to them, whether that be a written word or a prophetic word, a timely message that God puts upon your heart for people. Now, at that time, there was no widespread revelation because there was not a widespread seeking of God. There was not a widespread pursuing love and desiring spiritual gifts. There wasn't that.

And I would ask you to consider, you know, for your own life, is there a widespread pursuit of love and desiring spiritual gifts and so therefore a widespread revelation? Is God speaking to you? Is that happening regularly? Do you consistently and regularly have feelings

a word from the Lord for yourself or for others around you or for a group of people, you know, whether it be for individuals or a gathering? Do you have words from the Lord because you are hearing from God or is it rare in these days? In those days, it was rare, but now God's going to break through. He has Samuel, who is a man who is, well, he's a young boy who's pursuing the heart of God.

And so he is one that God can use to bring forth a pure message to the people. Verse 2, And it came to pass at that time while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down. So here he's giving us all kinds of context. Eli's old. His ministry is coming to an end. We'll see that take place next week in chapter 4.

Towards the end of his life, towards the end of his ministry, he's barely able to see. And so Samuel's having to help him more and more and more. So it'd probably be pretty normal for Eli to call out to Samuel, you know, in the middle of the night that, hey, I need help because I'm blind. I can hardly see. He gives us the time frame of when this happens. He says, before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord. That's describing the time of night. It was late at night, almost morning, almost before dawn, when the

light in the tabernacle was going to need to be tended to again. And so it's the middle of the night and Samuel's there laying down. Eli's there laying down. And now verse four, the Lord called Samuel and he answered, here I am. And so he ran to Eli and said, here I am for you called me. And he said, I did not call, lie down again. And he went and lay down. And here we have Samuel's first introduction to hearing from God.

and he totally missed it. The Lord says, Samuel, and he said, here I am, and then he runs to Eli. I'm sure you have experience with that, right? You're at one end of the house. Someone else is at the other end of the house. They call out to you, and you call back, I'm coming, you know, here I am, and you're making your way, and that's what Samuel does. He hears his name. He thinks it's Eli. He says, okay, okay, I'm coming, I'm coming, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli, and he runs to Eli,

He gets up, he puts on his Star Wars pajamas or whatever he's wearing and runs down to Eli's room and says, hey, you called me? What's up? What do you need? He's ready to serve. That's what Samuel's role is in his position there at the tabernacle right now. He's there serving Eli the priest and serving at the tabernacle. And so God calls him, but Samuel doesn't get it right away. Verse six, then the Lord called yet again, Samuel,

So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. He answered, I did not call my son, lie down again. Now verse seven, it says, now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. So picture this, there's no widespread revelation. Nobody's hearing words from the Lord. So of course, when Samuel hears someone call his name, he doesn't immediately think, oh, God's talking to me.

more natural, more normal from his experience. It's Eli calling him. And so here the author is pointing out Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Now that's not saying like he was an unbeliever, but he's just, he had no experience with hearing God's voice. He didn't know what the voice of God sounded like. He didn't know what it was like to interact with God. He'd never experienced a revelation from the Lord yet. And so he's learning. He's

You could say experimenting. He's trying to figure out what is this that's happening? What is this that's going on? He has no idea. Again, we talked about this on Sunday, but maybe it's good for us to see this on Wednesday, that hearing from the Lord and understanding

discerning, having spiritual discernment, it's not an automatic thing. It's not a thing that, you know, suddenly we just have it, you know. We just already know whenever God is working or when God is doing something, when God is saying something, and we catch on right away. We always know, you know. Sometimes it's not like that. In fact, especially in the beginning, you kind of have some, you know, bumping around to do, you know. You have some mistakes to make and some sorting out and

That's how it works. But I would ask you to consider, do you know the Lord? In the sense that we're talking about here, that is, do you know God's voice? Do you know when God's speaking to you? Do you know when he is calling out to you? Do you know when it's God putting something upon your heart? Do you know when it's God who is setting a path and opening a door in front of you? Do you know when it's God who's at work in your life and prompting your heart and speaking to you? Now, if

You're like, most of us, you go, well, I think I know. Maybe I know. I don't know. How can you tell? It seems here that Samuel experienced an audible voice because at least it was so real to him. He thought Eli was actually calling him. I think most of us would describe the voice of the Lord as more of an inner voice, which is pretty accurate, but it's also makes it a little bit challenging to try to describe. Well, how do you know when God is speaking to you? How do you know?

Pastor Dave Guzik says, hearing from God is an uncertain business. God is not the only source of thoughts or feelings coming into our hearts and heads. Thoughts or feelings, good or bad, can come from ourselves or they can also come from Satan. So we have these options, right? And that is a serious evaluation that we have to make as we're having thoughts and emotions. And is this from the Lord or

Is this just my flesh? Is this just, you know, me and my own thoughts, my own imagination? Or is this a work of the enemy? And we have to evaluate. And how do we do that? Well, we go back to the written word. Again, this is the authority. This is the standard by which everything else is measured and judged. And so we need to learn to discern the voice of the Lord. And it's a lot like any other kind of relationship.

Now, we don't experience it as much as we used to in the old days when you didn't have caller ID, you know, because that was like an extra four bucks a month to get caller ID on your phone. And so, you know, you had to discern, you had to learn to identify a person by their voice. And you would, right? And you remember those days. Someone would call, hey, you know, except for if you were young like me. So I was Samuel's age and people would call and I would answer the phone and they'd say, hi, Cheryl. Hi.

Because I had a, well, I still have a high voice. Anyways, but you learn to identify people by their voice, right? You learn to recognize, you learn to communicate. I know it's a strange thing, but a lot of times, you know, I'm back in the sound booth and I'm looking over the congregation and I think it's kind of fascinating that I can identify each of you from the back of your head.

You know, that's kind of strange, right? It's like, hey, I know that, yeah, okay, that shape, that hair, you know, like, that's Brent's, you know, for sure. I could see the beard poking out from the side, you know, from the back. You know, that we learn by being around each other, by spending time together, how to identify each other. We learn that. It's through the process of getting to know each other. And the same thing is true when it comes to learning how to

to hear from God or learning what God's voice is like. So when you have those thoughts, when you have that inner voice that's happening and you're trying to decide, is this from me or is this from God or is this, you know, someone else? What's happening here? It's a process of getting to know God and learning

trying things out and kind of experimenting a little bit and learning through the process of spending time with God and walking with God that you learn to identify this is his voice. But you know, even though you do that, there's gonna be that process of discovery over and over and over again because what we forget is one thing, but secondly, God will not be confined to a box. He doesn't do it the same way every time.

And so you think you got it nailed. Like, I know how to hear from God. And the next time he says, you know, I'm going to do something different. You know, and I experienced that even, you know, aside from just, you know, direction and just normal walking with God, but even just preparing messages, you know,

It's always changing. God sometimes gives me points one way. Sometimes he gives me insight another way. And sometimes he gives me points and every time I think, you know, okay, I got this process down, then he changes it up. And the old way doesn't work anymore. And he wants to do something new. And that's the way it is. It's a living, breathing relationship where God is moving. And so sometimes he's going to be speaking to you a lot.

They're putting thoughts, putting insights in your mind. And then other times he's going to be working in a different way and maybe using circumstances to speak to you. Other times he's going to be doing something different. And as you look through the book of Acts, you can see a huge variety in the ways that God spoke to his people.

And sometimes it was through an angel. Sometimes the spirit said, sometimes doors were closed. Sometimes it was the scripture that spoke and brought the clarity on what needed to happen and so on and so forth. There's huge variety in the way that God works. And so you can't just pin it down and say, okay, here's how to hear God's voice. Follow these three steps. The one certain thing that you have is the written word. And however God is speaking.

Whether it be through circumstances or through internal voice and the Holy Spirit's prompting you and leading you or burning or however you might want to describe it, it's going to be consistent with the Word of God. And so this is a huge part. The scriptures are a huge part in knowing who God is, His character, His nature, so that when you experience those things, you're

You can identify this is the voice of the Lord. And so if God, you know, speaks to you and puts it on your heart, hey, that person needs a friend. You should go talk to them. Maybe offer to pray for them. Well, you can know right away that's not a prompting of the enemy. The enemy is never going to prompt you to do that. It's probably not a prompting of your flesh. Well, unless you just, you know, like to

talk to people and you're conversant and stuff, that's fine for you perhaps. But, you know, if you're not normally, it's probably not your flesh. It's probably the Lord. If it's something contrary to what you would normally do, if it's consistent with the character and nature of God, it's probably God. I think many times we kind of just miss out on what God wants to do because we're in our own minds trying to, you know, negotiate or dismiss God.

Or decide whether or not we're hearing from God or not. The bottom line though is you have to get to know God. There's really no substitute for that process of time. There's no substitute for that developing the relationship. There's no substitute for that. There's no shortcuts to that. But you need to do it. There's not one quick and easy way for me to tell you, here's how to know God's voice. But at the same time, you need to know that. And I've said it before, but I'll keep on saying it. If you don't know how to hear God's voice...

I would say to you that that needs to be priority number one in your life. Like before you, you know, do anything leisurely or go into any, you know, fun activities or go, you know, do this or do that. Like you need to stop everything and spend some time with God and learn to hear his voice. It's crucial.

For you to be able to pursue God's heart because his heart is revealed by his word. Now, here's the good news. God's going to keep on calling out to you. So we're going to fumble around. We're going to mess up. We're going to miss it. But look at the example here. God calls to Samuel. He totally misses it. Runs to Eli. No problem. God calls him again. Misses it again. God calls him again. No problem. God wants to...

reveal himself to you. He wants you to know him. He wants you to know his will. And so he's going to keep calling out to you. You haven't missed out. You haven't lost that opportunity. You still have opportunity to know God and to hear his voice. Well, verse 8 says, So finally, it dawns on someone. It's not even Samuel yet.

He doesn't even realize it's the Lord calling him. It dawns on Eli, the corrupt priest, God's speaking to you. You know, sometimes that's how it is. Sometimes we're so like oblivious that it's someone else looking from the outside saying, oh, I get it. God's trying to tell you something. And that's a legitimate way for God to speak to us as well. But as we look at these examples, again, the point is learn to know God's voice. Do you know it? And I would say it this way. Do you know God's voice?

Or are you just religious? And I would encourage you to maybe meditate on that thought a little bit. Do you know God's voice? Or are you just religious? The idea of being religious, like you're going through the motions, you're following the rituals, you're doing these things, but there's no actual interaction with God. You're not hearing from God. If you're not hearing from God, something's missing. If God's not speaking into your life, and I don't mean necessarily every day you have a prophecy for the nation and you have to get on YouTube and record that. I'm just saying,

On a regular, ongoing basis, God should be speaking to you. As you're pursuing his heart, he will be speaking to you. He will be revealing himself. He will be giving you insight into his word. He will be giving you insight into his heart. He will be putting on your heart things to share with others. That's, well, that's the process or that's the normal relationship with God. It's part of what he desires for us.

Again, there's no shortcuts to a good relationship. It takes an investment of time and energy. But remember in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20, Jesus speaking to the church says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone, what does it say? Hears my voice. He's on the outside. The church is on the inside. They don't know his voice. He's on the outside knocking. They don't know his voice. But he says, if anyone hears, he's not even talking to the church as a whole. He's talking to the individuals now.

I'm on the outside of the church. I'm not even there because collectively as a whole, there's no widespread revelation. You're not inviting me in. But if you individually will hear my knock and hear my voice, if you'll learn to hear from me, Jesus says, I'll come in and dine with him and he with me. We need word, the words of the Lord, written word, the prophetic word for us as well as for others.

And so we need to learn to know God's voice. Moving on to verses 9 through 14, we have point number two, and that is invite God to speak to you. So here's a good way to begin to learn God's voice. Just open an invitation and say, God, will you speak to me? Verse 9.

It says, therefore, Eli said to Samuel, go lie down and it shall be if he calls you that you must say, speak Lord for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood and called us at other times. Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel answered, speak for your servant hears. And so Eli gives Samuel some really great advice. He finally gets it. It finally dawns on him. Hey, you're hearing from God. God's calling out to you. Okay, so here's what you need to do.

Go lay down again. And if the Lord talks to you again, here's what you say. Speak for your servant hears. Speak, Lord. I'm here. I'm ready to listen. And there's not just an invitation here, but it's an invitation with a commitment to obey. He says, speak, Lord, your servant hears. He's saying, look, I'm open. Whatever you want me to do, I'm your servant. You speak, Lord.

And I will do what you call me to do. Are you willing to invite God to speak so that you can obey? That's a key element to this. Sometimes we want God to speak to us, but not things we don't want to hear, right? Speak to me about the things that I like, the things that I want. Whisper sweet nothings in my ear, and I'm good with that. But the invitation needs to be a legitimate, speak your servant hears.

I'm ready to walk with you. I'm ready to obey you. I'm ready to do anything that you call me to do. Verse 11, then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. And so now God's going to give him the message. And I'm going to go through the rest of the verses pretty fast because, well, I want to give us opportunity to not just read about these things, but also to have a time of worship and just invite the Lord to speak to us.

But the message that God gives to Samuel is a message of judgment for the house of Eli, which we spent some time on last week. And so it's kind of a reiteration. He says in verse 12, in that day, I will perform against Eli all that I've spoken concerning his house from beginning to end.

And so here we have a reiteration of the prophetic word that we saw in 1 Samuel 2 by the man of God.

At first we saw Eli heard about his son's behavior. He knew it was wrong, but he was not pursuing the heart of God. He mildly rebuked his sons, but it wasn't even a real rebuke. He didn't put a stop to it. He did not obey. He did not pursue God's heart. And so later the man of God comes and delivers God's rebuke.

And he still didn't respond. He still didn't correct the situation. He still didn't obey. He still was not pursuing the heart of God. And so now God sends another messenger. This time it's Samuel and he delivers God's announcement. And again, we're going to see Eli does not obey. Remember that announcements of judgment are always opportunity for repentance, but Eli is not

pursuing the heart of God. And so he continues on. And so you have the contrast here between Eli, who's hearing from God, God's sending prophets, God's sending messengers, and he won't listen. Even though he gives Samuel good advice, speak Lord for your servant hears. Eli is not giving that same invitation to God because he knows what God wants. He knows what God says and he refuses to do it. He refuses to bring correction to his sons. And so he honors Samuel.

his kids more than God. That's what God told him last week in chapter two. And so we need to invite God to speak to us. That's how we begin to hear from God and learn God's voice. But it needs to be with a commitment, with a submission, with a willingness to do whatever God wants us to do. And sometimes that's going to be to deliver a difficult message. And so point number three is found in verses 15 through 18.

Point number three is deliver God's message faithfully. Verse 15 says, so Samuel lay down until morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. He answered, here I am. And he said, what is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all the things that he said to you.

Then Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Here now Samuel has to deliver this message. Seems that Eli had a sense. That's probably not a good message. Tell me, Samuel, don't hide anything from me. And so Samuel tells him. It's a difficult thing. Here is young Samuel having to deliver this very difficult message of judgment to Eli.

the high priest, this important and prominent role within the nation. But here's what you need to know. Anyone who pursues God's heart will be part of delivering God's message. Any of us, whoever pursues the heart of God, God's going to say, great, you're pursuing my heart. You want my heart? Awesome. You know what my heart is? My heart is for people. And he's going to enlist us

in the work of bringing forth his message to the people around us. Now, sometimes when God speaks and we hear his voice and he delivers a message to us, sometimes it's not necessarily a message to deliver, but instruction of something that he wants us to do. And so you could also rephrase this point, if it's more appropriate, obey God's instruction faithfully.

If it's a message, you need to deliver it and share the whole counsel, share all of what God says. If it's an instruction, you need to do it and be faithful to do what God says. That's part of the invitation for God to speak is a willingness to submit and participate in the work of God. But we see Samuel, you know, again, kind of like us, he's kind of learning as he goes in verse 15. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision.

Rightfully so. He's freaked out. Rightfully so. He's scared. Yes, that's normal. It's normal as we are walking with God and responding to what God says to us. It's normal. There's going to be fear. There's going to be timidity. There's going to be, you know, intimidation. There's going to be these kind of hurdles that we have to get over. But we have to walk by faith and not by sight and trust God and do what he tells us to do.

Whether we're comfortable in it or whether we like it or whether it's our favorite thing to do or not. Pastor Dave Guzik says it's the responsibility of God's messenger to bring everything God says, not just the easy words. And if it was an easy message, Samuel would have been running out to Eli. Here's what God said. You know, flowers and bubbles and rainbows and unicorns. It's awesome. But it wasn't that easy message. It was a difficult message.

And so he's hesitant. Eli senses that. He says, no, no, you better tell me, tell me everything. And so he has a little encouragement there, a little prompting. And sometimes we need that. We need that encouragement. Hey, let me remind you. Let me encourage you. Listen, I know it's hard. I know God calls you to take steps of faith and steps of faith are hard and they're scary, but you need to be faithful. If God's put a message on your heart, you need to share it and share the whole thing, not just the easy parts. Dave Guzik goes on to say, there's maybe a few that like to share those difficult things and

But they're like Jonah, who had a hard heart. He wanted people to be judged. That's not the right heart. If you like sharing those kinds of messages, you're probably not the one who's supposed to be sharing them. But you know the hard things that God calls you to do? You need to do them. You can do them. He's called you to do them because he's equipping you to do them. You need to do them. And so Samuel does it in verse 18. It says, Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. That is what God calls us to do.

to leave no stone unturned and do everything that God calls us to do, to obey God's instruction faithfully. If it's a message, deliver it. If it's an instruction, do it. And then finally, verse 19 through 21, the final point, repeat consistently. Verse 19 says, so Samuel grew.

Here, what we see happening is, okay, here's Samuel's first experience. It was rough. It was a little bit bumpy. He missed it quite a bit of times, but...

God worked it out. He got to hear from the Lord. It was difficult, but he did what God called him to do. And then now he's going to keep on doing that consistently, regularly. And so he grew. He grew physically as he was 12 and growing up, of course, but he's growing spiritually. He's growing with the Lord. He's learning how to walk with God. He's learning how to hear God's voice and respond to it. And he's interacting with God and developing relationships

into this role that God has prepared for him, so much so that verse 20 says, then all of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, that's the far north of Israel all the way down to the far south of Israel. It's like saying, you know, from Sacramento to San Diego, you know, for the state of California or whatever. That it's, you know, basically all the people knew and recognized he had been established as a prophet. And it wasn't because there was a big announcement, you know,

There was a press release sent out to Israel. Hey, Samuel is now the prophet. We've elected him as the prophet. And so he's the prophet. And so everybody knew that he was a prophet. Now, how did they know? Because Samuel, through his consistent, repeated, ongoing walk with God, was hearing from God, was delivering God's messages, was doing God's work, was

and the word spread. This is the way that it should be. We don't appoint a position and say, okay, now you're this position, and now you have to start doing all the duties of that position. But the way that it works in God's kingdom is you fulfill that role long before you have any kind of title or hold that position. It's you doing the work because that's the work that God's called you to do. And you fulfill the role of a prophet long before you're called the prophet.

And so the Lord revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord. Again, he reveals his heart by his word. And so I want to encourage you to hear God's voice. You need to know God's voice. And I'd like to close this evening by just giving us opportunity then to put that into practice. And let's extend to God an invitation. Lord, would you speak to us? We're your servants and we're here to obey. And if the Lord wants to give you a message,

Well, then you need to be ready and willing to bring forth that message. If the Lord wants to give you personal instruction, things for your own life, then you need to be ready and willing to put that into practice and live out the instruction that God is giving to you. But that's up to the Lord because he's the Lord and we're the servants. And so I want to encourage you, learn to know God's voice, invite him to speak to you and then put into practice whatever he says. And let's do that tonight.

And so we're going to have Lena's going to come up and lead us in a few songs. And as she does, let's just be calling out to the Lord and inviting him to speak. If God gives you something to share with somebody else, then you're welcome and free in this time of worship to go and share with somebody. Encourage them, build them up, share the word that God has put upon your heart for them. If it's something else that God puts upon your heart, well then live that out too. Put that into practice. But don't let that just be for tonight.

Then tomorrow, do the same thing. Invite God to speak and be willing to obey. And then the next day, do the same thing. But it's got to start somewhere. Let's stop putting it off. And let's just right now invite the Lord to speak to us. Lord, we pray that you would meet us here in this place. Your word tells us that where two or three are gathered, you're here. And Lord, you desire to speak. You desire to reveal yourself.

And Lord, if you feel far away, it's not because you are distant, but Lord, it's our hearts that need to be adjusted. And so I pray, God, that tonight you would do some adjustments as we worship you, as we seek you. God, help us to hear from you. Help us to turn our hearts that we would really desire to know you, to desire to honor you and obey you. And I pray, God, as we seek and submit ourselves to you, Lord, that you would speak to us. I pray that you would deliver us

to our hearts, important truths, important messages, important instruction, Lord, that we need for right now. And I pray, God, that you would help us to be faithful, to live it out. If it's a message for right now, Lord, that we would deliver it. If it's instruction, that we would keep it and do it. Lord, help us to learn to know your voice, that we might be a people who walk with you and are established as your people, not because we've announced it or proclaimed it,

but because it's been demonstrated by the life that we live. We hear from you and we do what you say. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.