The Voice of God

[00:00:11] Oh, good morning, Christ Church. It is a good Sunday, isn't it? Yeah. It's so lovely to see all of your faces and if you wouldn't mind bowing your heads with me, let's pray. [00:00:22] Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you humbly today to just serve you. God, how can we serve you today? We just witness some amazing people saying yes to you, to worship you, Lord. And I just hope that the rest of this Sunday is worshipped to you, God. I hope that people in this room, our ears and eyes and hearts are softened to this message that we may be receptive to you, Lord, that we may accept your voice in our lives and see the way that you can transform a life, God, that we desire and chase after a relationship with you. Lord, we love you and we thank you for the endless blessings you give us. Amen. [00:01:08] So, as Sarah had mentioned, my name is Emily. Nice to meet everyone. [00:01:14] I have grown up here at the church. I've been going here since I was about five years old and have had the opportunity to serve here at the church, which actually led me to being here on this stage, which is just mind blowing. So be patient. This is my first time up here. I'm a little sweaty, but I'm really excited. I'm really excited. [00:01:31] So a little bit about me. I just graduated in May from high school and I started. Thank you. I started college in August and I go to Grand Canyon University, which is located in Phoenix, Arizona. So about 2000 miles farther from home and like 30 degrees warmer. So that's a win. That's a big win for me. I love my school. I love what I'm learning and my classes and my friends. But the biggest thing that I love about Grand Canyon is our ability to serve there. They really encourage the students to do outreach programs to serve the community in any capacity. And I've just been so blessed that I've gotten to witness a bunch of ministries and be a part and serve in them. The most recent ministry that I was a part of was a Homeless ministry. I knew a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend who texted me and asked if I would be willing to come to this ministry that they had. And I said, yeah, I've never been before. I was really, really nervous. I didn't know what it would be like. But how they explained it is for 4 hours we cook food, we barbecue food in a park and we hand it out to those who don't have homes in Phoenix. And it was so beautiful and I was so glad I got to witness it. But I learned the biggest takeaway, the biggest piece of advice. It was on the way there, and I was freaking out, okay? They told me that I'd have to talk about Jesus with strangers. And it seems up here that would be really doable. But I was freaking out. I was like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know. Well, in the car right there, I was like, I'm just going to ask the kid next to me, he's done this before. I'll ask him for some advice. So I said, hey, how do I start the conversation? Like, what do I say? What if I say something wrong? Will I offend them? And his advice, he just said, emily, listen to him. [00:03:16] Listen to him. That was my big advice before I went in for 4 hours of service. Yeah. That's what I was equipped with. And I said, well, I don't think you understand my question. How do I lead the conversation? How do I take charge and lead it so that they're not offended, so that I can bring up God in the right manner, so that they're willing to accept him into his life, so that they experience him. Like, how do I do that? And he said, no, I understand what you're asking. [00:03:40] Just listen to him. [00:03:42] He said, emily, these people just want to be heard. [00:03:47] They have something that you need to hear. And he totally flipped it around because in my brain, I was going and thinking, oh, how can I change their lives? What can I say to change their lives? And his point was, just by being there, I'm changing their life now. How can they change my life? [00:04:02] What can they say that I need to hear? [00:04:05] And this was a piece of advice that I'm going to carry on with me for sure. This is a piece of advice that I needed to hear. I needed to hear someone say, hey, Emily, you can talk a little less and listen a little more, right? My family all just said, amen to that. Yeah, he told me, Emily, you just need to listen to him. And it opened my eyes because for 4 hours, I got to witness how the act of listening fostered beautiful relationships. These people were able to trust us and open up to us. I heard testimonies that I never would have imagined just by listening. [00:04:43] And I think we all can agree that sometimes we really stink at listening. We're really bad listeners, right? We're all like kindergartners who just secretly want to tell our story because our story is the best one. So when someone's talking, we're like, I have something better. [00:04:55] Come on, we all do it right. So that's how I was. But that ministry that day, I walked away different. [00:05:03] And I started to look at different avenues of how can I listen better? [00:05:09] How can I listen to the people around me better? How can I listen to my mom and my dad and my friends? And when I'm at church, how can I listen to the people around me better? [00:05:18] But that's not all who I have to listen to, right? Because that day I prioritize their voices. But you know whose voice I should be prioritizing the most? God's. Right? That was an easy answer. Yeah. [00:05:30] God's voice. He should be the priority. He should be the voice we give the most time to. I think we have so many voices in our lives that are distracting us. We have so many voices in our lives. They're all trying to get our attention. When our attention should really be on God's voice, we need to be prioritizing his voice because I promise you, he has something we need to hear. God is speaking into our lives, trying to get our attention. [00:05:56] Are we too scared? We don't know how to steer the conversation? Do we not know what he sounds like? And we don't know how to approach him. [00:06:04] Because I promise, if we take that advice of just sit and listen, our lives will be changed. [00:06:11] And today I want to look at a passage in Scripture. Because Scripture is just beautiful, the way it works, right? We get this outline of how God speaks in our lives all Throughout Scripture. [00:06:22] And I wanted to take us to first Samuel, chapter three. If you wouldn't mind flipping there. If you have your Bibles, you get a gold star flip there with me. If you have the Bible app, feel free to open. But you can also follow along up here. We're going to read first Samuel, chapter three. [00:06:35] And it's going to tell us a little bit of how God sounds in our lives. Because if you're like me at all, you might be thinking, Emily, I've never heard a big, booming voice in my life that sounded like God. So I don't know about this. I didn't hear God's voice for 18 years of my life. I didn't know he could speak. I promise you, he is speaking. I just didn't know that I didn't experience it. And I'm fortunate enough to have experienced it. And I want everyone to be able to experience his voice because his voice is life changing. Now, chapter three. Before we get into it, I want to take us back a little way and give us a set, give us a scene so first Samuel set in the time of the judges and this was a time best categorized by itself. In the Book of Judges it says that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. [00:07:23] All that means is that people were bad and they didn't listen to God. That's what it means. We have a whole book dedicated. The Book of Judges is just how one person after another was just a time and period that people fell away from God's voice. They stopped listening. [00:07:38] And we're really lucky because chapter two outlines this perfectly with two individuals. They're Eli's sons. Now, Eli, he was the high priest of a tabernacle in Shiloh. The Tabernacle was this tent where people could dwell with God's presence and worship him. It was their church that they got to worship him in. And the priest's sons are really important because they follow in the priestly line and they had some priestly duties. But this section tells us all about how they neglected their duties and they were wicked. My book, actually the Bible of my book, it says Eli's wicked son. So I think it like outline. We all know what they were doing. They were not good people. They were not listening to the voice of God. They were disobedient and disrespectful and people knew it. [00:08:19] And it sets us up for this image that God's people were living in wickedness. They no longer were hearing his voice. And verse one says that exactly for us. It says, the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. Now Samuel was this young boy, we think maybe about twelve years old, and he was working in this tabernacle under Eli. Eli was the high priest at the time. He was this mediator between God and his people. And he had some big responsibilities. [00:08:53] And Samuel got to be right under him and learn all about it. [00:08:58] And it tells us that the Lord's words were rare. There were not many visions. So we know in the Old Testament that God often spoke through visions, right? He often spoke through visions and miracles and science, and he can do all of those things today. But it distinctly descripts as he had not many visions at that point, that his word was rare. And it was because the people weren't willing to listen, they weren't hearing what he had to tell them. [00:09:26] Now verse two goes on to tell us one night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the Ark of God was. So Samuel and Eli, they're getting ready for bed. They're heading to their rooms. They have these rooms in the courtyards where the priest would stay. Heading off to bed. It's nighttime. That's just our picture. It then tells us that the Lord called Samuel. [00:09:58] Samuel answered, here I am. [00:10:00] Now, before I move on, I don't know about you guys, but if I'm heading off to bed and I hear someone call my name, I don't think my first response would be, here I am. But that was his response. And I think it shows us that Samuel was this eager kid. He just wanted to know more. He desired more, right? And Samuel's response was, here I am. And he ran to Eli. It says, he ran to him, if you wake me up in the middle of the night, I am not running. I am not running unless something's chasing me. I can tell you that. But he ran to Eli and he said, here I am. You called me that. Oh, sorry. I did not mean to do that. That is someone who's eager. That is someone who desires something more. He runs and says, here I am. You called me. [00:10:48] But Eli's response, he said, this, my son, I did not call you. Go back and lie down. Now. Samuel's like, what prank is this? So he's like, okay, so Samuel, this is a paraphrase, by the way. So Samuel, he goes and he lies down again. The Lord called Samuel. Samuel got up, and he went to Eli and said, here I am. You called me, my son. Eli said, I did not call. Go back and lie down now. At this point, Eli is like, what is this kid hearing? And Samuel's thinking, why is this old man tricking me? What is going on? But verse seven paints us this picture. It helps us out a little bit. It says this. Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. [00:11:38] Now, when the author says this, it's not saying that Samuel didn't know who God was. [00:11:43] He just hadn't experienced God. He hadn't experienced him in this relational way yet. He's about to. But that affects our relationship with someone, right? If we're not having a relationship with someone, that we can communicate with them, that relationship won't sustain. Our relationships in our lives are built on communication, right? And Samuel had not experienced it yet. [00:12:07] You see, God intended us to be relational beings. He created us in his image, in his likeness. And part of that is us being able to have a relationship with him. [00:12:17] And I think a lot of times our communication with him is our prayer, which is beautiful. That's a great thing. [00:12:25] But if you're like me at all, sometimes our prayers just turn into monologues. God, this happened to me today. I can't believe this happened. Did you hear what she said? Also, you need to help me with this. Got to get me out of the. It's a monologue, but a conversation between two people isn't a monologue. Right? It's a dialogue. We need to hear God's voice back in response. And I think a lot of times our prayers look a little something like this. God, help me. Answer me. I need to know that you're there and with me. Show me the way. And as soon as he has an opportunity to speak, we're already walking around into the noise of the outside world. We're letting the voices and noises of everything around us distract us from what could be a really life changing answer. [00:13:06] But God wasn't gonna stop. He doesn't stop now, and he doesn't stop then. Okay? And he keeps calling Samuel. I actually circled in verse six when it says again, the Lord called Samuel. I circled that because we're going to miss his voice sometimes. We're human. We're going to miss it, but he's going to keep calling. God persists in his calling in your life. Right? And verse eight picks up a third time. The Lord called Samuel. And Samuel got up and he went to Eli and said, dude, here I am. Right? Here I am. You called me. [00:13:36] Then Eli realized that it was the Lord calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, go lie down. If he calls you, say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. [00:13:52] Now, that's some good advice, right? His advice here is advice we could all take in our daily lives. It's advice that I needed to hear. Just sit in his presence and say, speak. I'm listening. [00:14:04] Part of having a relationship with God is us being able to prioritize his voice in a way that we can just sit in his presence, enjoy his presence and let him do the speaking. [00:14:19] So Samuel, he goes and he lies down in his place. The Lord came and stood there calling as the other times. Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, speak, for your servant is listening. [00:14:34] Now, when we ask, God responds. And we're about to find out a little bit more. I won't leave you on a cliffhanger. God does answer Samuel, and he gives him some advice. He gives him some news. Not the best news for Eli. The high priest, tHough, what he tells him is, hey, Eli and his sons, they are so wicked. The things that his sons were doing, right, they've stopped listening to me and there are going to be consequences for that. They will be judged. [00:14:57] But he goes on to give some uplifting things towards the end of the chapter. If you look at verse 19 with me, we see this. The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up. He let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. [00:15:14] God was speaking through Samuel. [00:15:19] When Samuel said, yes, here I am. I'm listening. God was able to speak through Samuel in a way that every single thing God said came true. Every single word God spoke through Samuel came true. It didn't fall to the ground. [00:15:33] This is showing us that we have a faithful God. Fortunately, because we are unfaithful people, right? We have a faithful God who, when he speaks to us, it's going to happen, it's going to come true. And we can stand by that. [00:15:45] We have a faithful God. But not only is he faithful to us, he is gracious to us because we're going to miss his voice. I missed his voice for so long. He had to make it so. I think he was screaming my name towards the end, right? I imagine this more as a whisper of Samuel. I think he was yelling, shouting my name to get my attention. Because we're going to miss his voice sometimes. But God has grace for a willing heart. [00:16:08] When you desire devotion with him, when you desire a relationship with him, he'll keep calling. He'll keep saying your name. Right? [00:16:17] God will persist in his calling when we persist in his presence. [00:16:24] And I also don't want to gloss over the fact that he's calling us by name because that means he knows us, he knows our past. But luckily, he also knows where we're going. He knows our future. [00:16:36] So let's go to the person that knows our future. Let's go to the person that knows what's coming next. And let's sit and let's listen. [00:16:48] And I want to ask what is keeping us from listening to his voice today? [00:16:55] What's making it so hard for us to just sit in his presence? It might be that we don't recognize his voice. We don't know what it sounds like. We don't know if it's his calling. [00:17:07] It might be that we're running from his voice. Maybe something he's trying to speak into our lives is something we might not want to do. [00:17:17] And maybe you've just never experienced it before. [00:17:21] But I promise you this. God desires relationships with us. He desires to have us talk to him and then sit and listen so he can talk back because it will change our lives. It changed the trajectory of Samuel's life. [00:17:36] He then was able to take over and become this mediator between the people. And God spoke through him so that everything that he promised Samuel came true. [00:17:47] We have a faithful and gracious and loving God who wants a relationship with us. [00:17:55] And I think it's difficult because we have chaotic and busy lives. Right? I'm sure if we all categorize, if we picked one word to describe this week, it would be busy, right? It's our favorite word. We're always busy people. And sometimes we're so busy doing things that we're missing the voice of God. [00:18:14] We're drowning out his whisper in our lives. [00:18:17] And when we pull all of the noise back and we sit in his presence and we enjoy the peace and stillness that it brings us, the whisper can come through. [00:18:27] And there are three ways that I really want to touch on how God speaks into our lives. [00:18:34] He speaks in multiple ways. Right? We hear, he speaks in visions and we read about dreams and miracles and signs and those all can happen still. Yes, and they do. But I want to focus on three big ones that this scripture points out and that I think we can apply in our lives. [00:18:50] The first one is the word. [00:18:53] The Word is the primary way that God will speak into our lives because we're really lucky that we have a book of how God moves. It's a book dedicated to show us who God is and who we can be through him. It's all about God's voice moving and everything in the Bible. I'm really sorry about this. You can tell I'm new at this. Everything in the Bible is truth. John 1717 tells us that the word is truth. So if we're going to want to rely on any voice, let's rely on one that's going to always be true. It'll never contradict itself. It'll affirm us in a calling and it'll always be true. [00:19:32] The second way that God speaks into our life is through the wise. [00:19:36] The wise are the people in our lives that have experienced God in their lives. [00:19:42] Eli was one of these people for Samuel. He was able to give him the best piece of advice he could ever hear that changed his life. Hey, sit and listen. [00:19:52] We need people in our lives who have experienced God, who are working and desiring relationship with God because they can give us wise counsel, then they can give us advice that says, hey, next time you hear this voice. That's God. Sit and listen. Hey, I think that's God moving in your life. Respond to that calling. We need people in our lives who can help us discern. God didn't intend us to do Christianity alone. This is why we're here as a church right now. Christianity is not meant to be done alone. We are meant to be in an environment, in a community where we can go and fellowship together, and we can work towards the love of God. We can spur each other towards love and good deeds and who God is. [00:20:35] And the third way that God speaks in our lives is the whisper. [00:20:41] It's this whisper that the Spirit can provide. See, we as a church were given the Holy Spirit in us, God dwelling within us, which is when you really sit and think about it. That's amazing, right? That is the best gift ever, right? That couldn't be a voice any closer, right? [00:20:59] But are we quiet enough to hear it? [00:21:02] See, this whisper requires us to draw back all the other noise of our life, requires us to silence ourselves and sit in his presence and listen to him. [00:21:16] And this whisper is a promise that we can always hear God. It's innate in us. We were created to hear God, but are we too distracted to hear him? [00:21:32] And we need to start prioritizing his voice in a way that we can be consistent and attentive with him, that we can be setting aside designated time to let him speak. Not just us speak, but him speak. Not designating time to check off a box. Yes, I did my prayer today, but designating time for God to move in your life and throughout your day. Stopping and asking, God, what are you trying to show me, God, speak. I'm listening. Because it's through the word and it's through the wise people in our lives. And it's through the whisper of the Spirit that God gets to speak with us. And if our communication with God is going to help us sustain that relationship, is going to be the foundation for relationship. We need to work on the listening of it. It's this muscle that we need to be exercising. [00:22:19] And what's really beautiful is this verse I found. That's John 1027. We'd all be pretty familiar with it, but it's this idea that Jesus paints a picture that we're his sheep, right? We've all been heard that before. We're Jesus'sheep. Right? He's our shepherd. But the way he says it is this. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. We are promised as his sheep to follow him. And he knows our voice. [00:22:48] God is calling you by your name in an individual, unique, relational way and trying to get your attention. [00:22:58] Are you letting the outside noise drown his whisper out, or are you persisting in his presence so that he can speak to you? [00:23:07] Because he knows you by name, and it's up to us to listen and to follow. [00:23:12] And the best piece of advice I can leave with us today is when God speaks into your life, when you're desiring something more for your relationship with him to say, speak, your servant is listening. [00:23:30] See, I went 18 years without hearing the voice of God. [00:23:34] I didn't know what he sounded like. I didn't know he could speak. I just thought it was meant for a certain kind of person. I honestly thought that the voice of God only happened on Sunday mornings when I'd be standing out in that hallway over there, peering over the balcony, watching big service, and Doc would get up here and he would start preaching. That was the voice of God. Sounded a little like something he would church. That was the voice of God to me. Yeah. Yes, that was the voice of God. [00:24:05] And it took me 18 years to realize God doesn't just speak on Sundays. God's speaking every day in our lives, constantly. [00:24:15] We need to be ready and prepared to listen to him, to prioritize him, so we can hear his whisper, because his voice can change our lives. [00:24:29] Let's pray. [00:24:32] God, I just thank you for bringing us here today. [00:24:36] I thank you for giving us a promise of a relationship with you. You desire us. [00:24:44] You want us to have this. Here I am, Lord. Yes, I'm listening attitude. You want us to be eager and desire a relationship with you. God, I just pray that as we move through our lives, the noise doesn't drown out the whisper that we will persist in your presence. [00:25:00] We will persist in the silence and peace that you can provide. And we can await your answer, God. Because when we ask, you, answer, Lord, I just pray that our hearts are open to this, that we will be willing to listen to you so we can experience the change that will happen. The change will happen in our lives and the people's lives around us. [00:25:21] God, just move through us today and whisper something. Because when you do, we will be saying, speak for your servant. Are listening, God, you love us and we love you. And I just can't wait to see the relationships formed with you. [00:25:39] Amen.