“Here I Am” - Samuel’s Obedience (transcript)

Come on, get going. Well good morning everybody. Hello. Can you hear me alright? Happy Mother’s Day.

My name is Amanda Lack. I am on TRIBE here at Staff and as you can see Brian and Lissa are What did I say? Guys, guys, let me spin around in the chair. Okay, I rewinded it. Hello everyone, my name is Amanda Lack and I am on staff here at Tribe.

And as you can see Brian and Lissa are out of town and they’re at a wedding. They conduct Brian conducted the wedding and Lissa sang for dear friends in North Carolina. One of their dear friends’ children got married and it was so beautiful. So they’re there. They’ll be back next weekend.

But aren’t you glad that we go to a church, and I hope this is true for you, where you aren’t so wrapped up in just the one person that you’re familiar with preaching that you can still come and receive? Because guess what? It’s not Brian. It’s the bible. It’s the word.

And anybody who the Holy Spirit invites or can come, you know, this is what we’re here for. So I know that I know that here at Tribe we don’t really get stuck in that as much. But man, I’ve been at churches where it’s like, ugh, like, it’s not the normal worship leader. Ugh. Guess what baby boo, it’s not about you, right?

I mean, like, you go not we don’t want to be a consumer mentality. I don’t I’m gonna stop because I’m, like, preaching a different sermon. We don’t want to come and have a consumer mentality. Long are the gone are the days where we come and we’re like the church needs to be about us. It’s actually about serving and being obedient to the Holy Spirit and today we are talking about obedience.

But before we get started, I want to say happy Mother’s Day to all of our mamas, all of our grandmas, all of our aunties, all of our nannies, of our mother figures. If you have a mom, happy Mother’s Day. I also acknowledge that it can be a tricky, emotional time for people, so I just want to acknowledge that as well. But happy Mother’s Day if you are a mom I hope you are treated the way you deserve today, which is having everything in the world. Right back at you.

If you haven’t been to Tribe or haven’t been in a while the way that we sort of roll here is conversation style. So if you have something to say during the message that is pertinent or relevant or you’re making a connection or I might ask you a question at a certain point, feel free to raise your hand and we have a microphone that River’s running around. We’re in a living room, it’s not that we can’t hear you We have friends on our livestream who are tuning in and they can’t hear you in the room so we have a mic for that very reason. But just raise your hand and feel free to do that. Here we go.

Today we are talking about Samuel and the name of the title the title of our message today is Here I Am. Are you raise your hand if you’re familiar with Samuel, the prophet in the bible, at least a little bit. Heard of him? Yeah. Well, I think for what?

First Samuel. First. First Samuel. We’re gonna be in first Samuel chapter three, but here I am is what something that he said and I think context is important. Before we just jump right into chapter three of first Samuel, let’s look at context.

So this is the time in biblical history where the Israelites have come out of slavery in Egypt. Moses was in charge. He died. Remember who was in charge next? Joshua.

Yes. And he and so he’s died. And so now we’re in this era of is it echoing? Sam, Sam, Sam. Tribes, tribes, tribes.

So we’re in this era where Moses has died, Joshua has died, and then there we we have not established monarchies yet and kings of Israel. So we’re in this era called Judges. And in fact, the book right before is called Judges. And it’s this period of time where there were some good ones, there were some corrupt ones, because humanity, right? And it’s just a tricky time.

And Israel’s obedience to the Lord is in this downward trajectory. They’re not doing so great on the obedience scale. Some people are, like always, but as a whole, where they’re not doing so good. It was a pretty dark time. In fact, there’s a scripture in Judges did I read oh, yeah.

In ’23, it says about this time, there was no king of Israel, and every man did right by his own eyes. When has that ever, ever worked? Maybe for a season, but then it never, like a 100% unsuccessful rate. Right? We just do what’s right by our flesh.

We just do whatever we want. It’s not really how it works. So that’s that’s the era we’re in. And then leading up we don’t have there’s some, but there’s not too many people in the Bible where we get to see their actual, like from birth on. Sometimes we just, they pop into scripture and they’re grown.

And Samuel is one of those who we get to see. And so speaking of Mother’s Day and good mamas, do you remember who Samuel’s mom is? Hannah. The story of Hannah. It’s actually in First Samuel chapter one.

It’s a beautiful story. In fact, when Brian asked me to teach, which is a great honor, and I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity, I never just want to come give a Christian TED talk. Right? And so, I was like, Lord, not literally, but almost like, tell me when to stop, Holy Spirit. Okay, we’re going learn in Zephaniah.

I want to be so obedient to the Holy Spirit, because who cares who’s up here? We are coming to hear the word of God, and I want the Holy Spirit to speak through who, I don’t care if you remember me or anything, I just want the Holy Spirit today to speak, and we’re gonna pray before we read this word. But contextually speaking, we’re here with Hannah. She was barren, meaning she cannot have kids, and she was made, you can read it in chapter one and two of first Samuel, and she was made fun of it for it. I mean like rough, she’s going through some rough emotional time.

And all she wanted was kids and she couldn’t have them. And so every year as was tradition, families would come to Shiloh, is that where you you named your baby boo from this first? I love that. They would come to Shiloh which was like 20 ish miles north of Jerusalem, it’s where the ark of the covenant was being kept, a very holy place, so people would come to bring sacrifices every year to Shiloh and this is where we find ourselves before Samuel’s born, his mom Hannah comes to the temple and she is, scripture says, bitterly weeping. That’s a different There’s a difference between bitterly weeping and crying, and you don’t have to raise your hand, but if you have ever been in such anxiety and grief and turmoil that you’re weeping bitterly, it’s really hard.

And so this is where she finds herself this year in Shiloh coming up to the temple to offer sacrifices to God with the high priest Eli and she’s on the steps bitterly weeping and she’s praying and she’s not praying out loud, we’ve we’ve all done this like you talk, it’s probably people in Smith’s probably think the same thing with us, like your mouth is moving but nothing is coming out because you’re just praying like, you know, you’re just praying silently. Eli, the high priest comes over to her, she’s on the stairs bitterly weeping, Hannah and he says, you’re drunk, like move along lady, you know, and she said, no, no, no, I’m not like, my heart is grieved and all I want is a son and so she in her silent prayer there on the stairs, she was praying, Lord, and this is a very bold prayer, when you make a promise to God, that’s a very like, be very careful. She says, if you give me a son, this was her petition, I will bring him back so he can serve you. Not for the comfort of my home where I’m raising him, but I will bring him once he’s weaned back to you to this temple to serve.

If you give me a son, that’s all I want. She was barren, biologically could not have kids, but amen, we serve a God of absolute miracles, he does the impossible. And so when she told that to Eli, the high priest who said, you’re drunk, move along lady, once he understood he said, well, may the Lord honor your petition today. And then went home, it doesn’t exactly give us a timeline but sometime after she was able to have she got pregnant and who was she pregnant with? So this is where we find our story.

This is the same Samuel, now let’s go in the future and we’re in his preteen, I have three boys and they’ve all gone through preteenness and it’s lovely. So Samuel in chapter three is a preteen. Historians believe he’s about 12 years old. Of course, it might be a little earlier, might be a little later, but we’re gonna use about 12 or 13 for our context today, but this is where we find ourselves, but this is the Samuel who goes on to anoint King Saul to be the king of Israel and then King David. Have you guys seen the wonderful show House of David?

I do. That your cousin produced? Yes. It is a phenomenal show. This is the Samuel from that, the Gandalf looking character.

This is the same Samuel. So we’ve seen where he’s come from, his faithful mama prayed for him. We see where he’s going, he’s kind of this linchpin in an era from Judges and then it’s Samuel and then he starts the monarchy where there’s kings of Israel. So this is where we find ourselves today, right? And I think context is important, sorry it was a little long, but this is where we are, where he meets the call of the Lord so he can go on and do those things.

So as you turn to first Samuel chapter three, let me pray. Heavenly Father, we’re so delighted to just have the freedom to open your word today and just to study and to learn and to wrestle and to hear from you. Father, I just pray as we get into your word today that our hearts would just be like soft soil where these where your words are planted like seeds and may they water and grow in your perfect timing and way as we do our part, our natural part of reading and learning and wrestling and studying and you doing your supernatural part which is changing our hearts and our lives from the inside out. We just give you all the glory. Holy Spirit, today I just pray that you will speak your words through my mouth.

Whatever I’ve planned or studied, I just submit it all to you and I say have your way today, in Jesus’ name, amen. Okay. So we are here in chapter three and we are gonna look at the the whole chapter today. Oh, I’m in Zephaniah where I pretended to turn. Here we go.

First Samuel chapter three. There’s only 21 verses and it’s pretty short, but we are gonna read it. River has the mic. If you wouldn’t mind, let’s just read it in two or three sections, you know, read a few verses and we’ll pass it on. Who would like to start with verse one?

Awesome. Thanks, Chris. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now, in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. One night, Eli who 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, 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 out again, Samuel. Again, Samuel got up and he went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me?

I didn’t call you my son. Go back to bed. Samuel did not yet 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 again, say, speak Lord, your servant is listening. So Samuel went back to bed. Awesome.

Verse 10. Thanks, Chris. And the Lord came and stood calling as woah. Calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, speak for your servant hears.

Then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I’m about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day, I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. Samuel lay until morning, then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.

But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he said, here I am. And Eli said, what was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him and he said, it is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him. And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. All And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord and the Lord appeared again at Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Mhmm. Amen.

So there’s a lot of gold, well, in every page of scripture, but my goal today is for us to sort of look at, not word by word because we don’t have that kind of time, but just kind of break down this entire chapter in chunks and like we have a little pan mining for gold, we’re gonna shake it and see what gold comes out for us today. So as we read through that, like our title says, Here I Am, and even further what Chris read, here I am, your servant is listening. That is such an important phrase and it’s kind of the main thing I want us to get from today. I want that phrase, here I am Lord, your servant is listening. I want that to enter into our lexicon, the things that we normally say.

We don’t have to say it to friends, we can, you know, but Nancy, I’m listening, you know, it’s a little weird, but when you’re in prayer, gosh, it’s a heart posture. And some versions say hears, like Ella, your version said hears, the root word is the same as listening, but on a So it’s semantics, but in a What I want us to see is hearing and listening are very different. You can hear your mom call you to dinner while you’re playing video games, but are you listening to her? You can hear your teacher talking, but you’re daydreaming about when the bell will ring, you’re not listening. There’s a big difference between hearing, which is comprehending words, and listening, which is where your heart is attuned and your posture is aligned correctly.

So, speak Lord, your servant is listening, is what I want us to do. We don’t have time to turn to all these, so don’t worry about it, but the bible, that’s one of the bible’s most important expressions of availability and of obedience. Speak Lord, your servant is listening was said by Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, and Ananias, that guy from Acts. So it’s a very common phrase and you see in all of those stories that it was a heart posture change. Let’s look at verse let’s just do one through four.

We’re gonna be referencing our bibles a lot, so whether you have a paper bible or it’s digital, take a look at verse one through four. Tell me if you would, what is something that stands out to you in verse one through four? Yeah, Adam. Or you make a connection about. For me, was now in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon.

Why? Why were those things that way? Mhmm. Disobedience. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s really great. And and you know, no words are wasted in the bible, so it seems like it could be like a throwaway sentence like, oh, it was rare, but no, you’re right. It’s like it’s very important to understand contextually that words were very rare, it wasn’t just being passed out like Gandy. And there was, yeah, a long period of time where Do you think the Lord wanted to speak in this era?

Yeah, I think so. What is he looking for? Why wasn’t he speaking? Kind of looking for willing and obedient hearts, right? So, mean, enter Samuel, which is he’s changing everything, but I mean, Eli was the high priest.

It’s not that Eli hadn’t heard from the Lord, and then we saw this, you know, he still is sensitive to God’s voice when he was like, are why do you Samuel, why do you keep coming to my room? And then he was like, it’s the Lord. You know, so it wasn’t just all lost, but look at what’s in verse? To your point, okay, Eli was lying down. Oh, look at verse three, and it says, before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle where the ark of the covenant was and while Samuel was still lying down, he heard, here I am.

So this speaks not just of literally the lamp was out, it was the priest’s job to keep the menorah lit between dusk and dawn, that was their job, but I think it also speaks metaphorically of this era that the Israelites are in. It was dim, but not dark. The light wasn’t completely out. There was a teeny tiny flame and God will use that, and so here comes Samuel before the light goes completely out. Yeah, the priesthood was corrupt.

We don’t need to talk about it today, but Eli’s two sons so Eli was the high priest, and then his two sons were priests. They were awful. Like rated R awful. Like I mean absolutely just rebellious to the point of no like they they were bad. And have you have you ever read this and been like, Eli, why why don’t you just handle it?

Why didn’t you handle that? Know and that’s we don’t go into that today but that’s wonderful. Thank you. Verse one through four, anything else kinda pop out at you? How old did we say Samuel was?

12. So his mama had given into the temple as she kept her promise and when he was weaned in those days, I don’t know, anywhere between age two and six, it’s different times. He didn’t know the Lord yet. Yeah, do you wanna talk about that? He didn’t know the Lord.

I don’t think it’s because of course, this is before Jesus came, and so it’s not that he hadn’t, in Sunday school, said the prayer and asked Jesus in his heart, I think it’s the revelation. He didn’t have the revelation knowledge. He for sure knew who God was. In fact, scripture in chapter two Oh, of course, Hannah shared. And just as a mom of all boys too, just this is so cute to me.

It says in scripture that she would make him a new robe every year and bring it to him when she would come. And so anywhere in little ephod, you know, that the priest would wear like with the little jewels. Oh, so I picture him looking like Grogu or something like with his little robe, baby Yoda. And his mom would like sew him a new one every week and so he slept, Samuel slept as a child physically next to the Ark of the Covenant, and he served in the temple. For sure he knows who God is, but I think this is speaking of just like the revelation, like his calling hadn’t been unlocked.

But it’s But it’s coming, yeah. Absolutely. Do you think here I am was an audible voice? The scripture’s not super clear or an inward. I do.

I kinda do too, think it was audible. So when you heard something. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah, interesting.

Let’s jump to the next chunk. Let’s look at chapter, excuse me, verses five through nine. There’s a lot there, but just kinda pan around. Yeah, let’s use the mic. Just been talking about Yeah.

Yeah. Been talking about how was it an audible voice? You know, when you’re praying sometimes just in our life, and I’m like, Lord, I just need to hear from you. Mhmm. And I’ve never heard the audible voice.

I mean, I think what we hear sometimes is a tugging on our heart or just dropped into our spirit. Mhmm. But how would we react if we heard that audible voice, you know? Mhmm. Right.

And we have the gift of the The Holy spirit of death, okay. Yeah. Well, you should be it should be reverent fear and holy holy fear. I I tend to think, you know, we have the Holy Spirit living with us now post cross, post what Jesus did, post who he sent, and at these times, especially because Israel’s being disobedient, know, like Adam called out, know, there wasn’t much happening as far as prophecy or anything in the land, I kinda think it had to be an audible voice, like wake up. Like, I am speaking.

But yeah, naturally, because he hadn’t been the revelation hadn’t come to him yet, so naturally he goes to Eli. Who else would he go to? But three times, which is significant. What do you guys see in verse five through nine? What gold are you mining out, Hux?

God didn’t God didn’t stop. He was persistent in pursuing him. Mhmm. Don’t you think God calling him more than once speaks of his patience and his kindness and his love and his training? Does he not do that with us?

When God speaks, he will often confirm his word. He does that now, he did it in scripture. Think about Moses and the burning bush or from scripture, Gideon’s fleece. These are all times God confirmed his word. The biggest one of all, the resurrection, fulfilling years and years of prophecy.

With us now today, sometimes he’ll confirm his word through a friend or a spouse. Sometimes with us today through the reading of a passage like when it just hits different, you’ve read it a 100 times and you’re like, why is it leaping off the page? Sometimes with us today, he’ll confirm his word through repetition or just hearing the same thing from multiple sources, that’s often how I feel like so dense, I feel dense like Samuel because the Lord will speak to me in repetition. Whatever the thing is, a friend will talk about it, I’m like, oh, a book I was reading will mention it. Oh, it’s spoken on Sunday.

I’m like, okay. Now I’ll say, speak Lord, your servant is listening. That’s okay though. He’s he’s a gentleman, he doesn’t force. Definitely, definitely now today with after the cross, he confirms his word through the speaking of his holy spirit, that inward voice that we have.

Samuel wasn’t familiar with God’s voice yet, like you said, Nancy, and we too will miss it when God speaks to us if we’re not familiar with his voice. John ten twenty seven, you know this, says, my sheep Jesus is talking, my sheep know my voice and I know them and they follow me. We should know our shepherd’s voice. Well, how? How do we learn it?

Time spent. Right? Time spent. Let’s look at how God called Samuel three different times. There’s sometimes numbers mean something, sometimes they don’t.

Think biblical numerology I mean, three is like the trinity, it’s a number of perfection. I don’t know if that’s relevant here or not. But Samuel was young and inexperienced. Prophetic revelations were very rare at that time. And like we just talked about, it displayed God’s patient persistence to have this be a teachable moment for both Samuel and Eli.

Mhmm. Let’s head talk on the mic. Let’s just clip a mic onto Nancy and she can have her own. Yes. The other one will pass.

Well, Renee is chiming in with us too. Yes. And she says, I call the situation when God speaks to us the three times, the repetition that you talk about an asterisk from God. Mhmm. That’s a good way to see it.

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Oh, wait. And he’s saying more.

He’s saying stop. Pay attention. I’m telling you something. After we recognize his voice, he only needs to repeat it once. Oh, that’s sort of like our parents.

Mhmm. That’s good, Renee. Yeah, that’s good. Jacob has something there in the back. In our house growing up, a phrase we told our kids was, I obey right away.

Delayed obedience is disobedience. Yeah, Jacob. What I find interesting about this whole interaction is that, it took God doesn’t force the message on anybody. He’s he’s saying, he’s calling out to Samuel each time. Mhmm.

But it took Samuel recognizing that it was God first, then saying, here I am, then then getting the rest of the message. Mhmm. And I think a lot of times in our life, we hear God say, he calls out to us and says, hey, I’m calling to you. And we go, oh, I heard from the Lord. And then we go about our business.

Mhmm. We don’t seek the rest of the message that he’s saying. And I think that’s very important is one acknowledging that God’s speaking to us, and then continuing on going, Lord, here I am. What do you wanna say to me? Right.

And I think that’s an important lesson from this whole interaction. Absolutely. And then the final boss of that is obeying, having the courage to obey and carry out what it is, Lord. Have you ever I’ll just confess, but you don’t have to raise your hand. Have you ever actually heard from the Lord, but have a nudge from the Holy Spirit, and then you’re like, you say no?

Not in not in just rebellious defiance, but just like, how Lord? Like, I can’t do that. I have, I never had to repent, I have, how? Apologize to somebody. Yeah, were you, yeah.

Were you known to be referred? Yeah. We know a guy from a long time ago, Joy, you would know him too, but he he was a public speaker and anyway, he Behind the scenes, he had this tension with his dad. There was conflict and it was unresolved. And the Lord gave him time and time and time again, in the privacy of their home or when he’s out with his dad or whatever to repent, ask for forgiveness, again and again and again.

Guess what? Well, he was public speaking one evening and his dad was there and the Lord’s like, now it’s time because you’ve been disobedient. So in front of hundreds of people, he just broke down because the fear of the Lord came over him from being so disobedient and saying no. He he repented to his dad, it had nothing to do with the evening. So although that’s incredibly uncomfortable and he actually listened and obeyed that time, incredibly uncomfortable, the Lord is gracious and he is merciful for a time until he wants us to obey.

And do you know that let me see if I wrote it down, if not I’ll just try to remember it. There’s a scripture in Psalm one zero three, maybe 17, let me look. But it says, the Lord is merciful, his love and mercy endures forever. Have you heard that? We sing it.

His love and mercy endures forever. Oh, that’s so nice, but did you that’s not there’s not a period after that. It says, to those who fear him. His love and mercy endures forever for those who fear him. Why were Eli’s two sons so incredibly naughty, but then they kind of got a sentence, a judgment, an irrevocable seal.

Their hearts weren’t they didn’t fear the Lord in a holy reverent fear. Okay. Let’s see. Let’s break down what Eli told him to do. So Eli told him, he said, go lay go lay back down in the scripture when Samuel kept coming to him again and again.

Go lay down. He’s making himself open and available for God to speak. And then Eli said, if he calls you. So he wasn’t being presumptuous about God speaking. Right?

Also, don’t use don’t over I’m saying this to our to our society. Don’t overuse the God card. What I mean by that is, yes, the Lord speaks and yes, we should share it and encourage each other again and again, but be just so very careful to not say, God told me, and then fill in the blank. Just be so careful with that. And when he does, share on, but just be so careful.

I think it’s very easy, sometimes even without a rebellious heart, it’s just easy to be in the habit of being like, well God told me, no, no, no. Just be really a side note, be really careful. If they say that and it matches this, that’s okay, you can believe it. But if it doesn’t, just it might be a word from the Lord, it might not, but ask, ask. Alright, so if the Lord is not presumptuous, and when he says speak Lord, he’s responding to the voice willingly and allowing permission, right?

When you say speak Lord, your servant is listening, kind of an unspoken subtitle is like it’s okay if you don’t but I’m here if you want to. You know, it’s giving him that permission, it’s not a demand. We can hear, oh my gosh, a lot a lot of speaking today from many different sources and it can be fine and even helpful but we must know as believers the voice of our shepherd, the voice of our heavenly father to have that discernment. Stuff of this world is gonna pass away, carnal stuff, well, albeit good, there’s a lot of good stuff in the world, right? But if it’s not eternal, just pay attention.

Make sure you’re not putting all of your listening ears on for the world only. You’re listening, you’re true, that’s such a teacher thing to say, put on your listening ears, I have them in my pocket, I’m passing them out, right? Okay, baby, just feet. But make sure your listening ears are not just for things of the world, they have their time, they have their place, but when you say speak Lord, your servant is listening, make sure that is your heavenly father speaking. C.

S. Lewis, help me joy if I don’t get it right, C. S. Lewis said, all that is not eternal is eternally worthless. And that just reigns so true anyway, so as we speak.

Okay, okay, let’s oh, you know what? God’s character is the last thing I wanted you to see. I forgot I wrote that down. So God is working as a little boy. This is a little preteen, he probably had acne, he probably was not feeling comfortable in his body, right, like just preteen middle school glory, and God is using this sweet little boy who’s going to be a significant prophet for the days ahead.

And God is patient and he’s willing to give him time to understand. Let’s look at verse 10. Okay, did this blow anybody’s mind? Look at verse 10. Now the Lord came and stood and called as the other times.

Samuel, Samuel, what was different about this fourth time? Yes. Good, he said it twice. Samuel, Samuel. That’s noteworthy for urgency.

Other places in scripture we see that is Abraham, Abraham, right before he’s going to sacrifice Isaac. Moses, Moses at the burning bush. Martha, Martha, Jesus said twice when she was in the kitchen working and should have been with her sister at Jesus’ feet. Saul, Saul, on the road to Emmaus, why are you persecuting me? Was this the pre incarnate Christ?

Probably. Probably. I’d like to think so. Jesus physically standing in his room and calling him, and it says in scripture, he lay there all night. It doesn’t say if he slept or not, but I’m gonna say not.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you see anything else in that in 1011, kind of this area? 101112? Yeah.

In in the beginning of that too, the Lord came and stood. It doesn’t specify that he, like, before all the first three times, he’s just calling. Mhmm. And so I think there’s a bit of, I don’t know, like a graciousness there of like, okay. I know I know he’s trying, so I’m gonna make it a little more obvious, and I’m not just gonna talk to him, I’m actually gonna show up.

Yeah. And rather than it just being like him looking around, because like, if he had stood there the first time and he had said like, here I am, like, there’s a person standing there. He’s That’s obviously the person talking to me. Yeah. And so I think that’s like, again, to speaking to God’s patience.

He’s like, okay, I’ll go an extra step further because you’re not getting it and I wanna help you get it because I want you in on this. And he’s not above helping us with little baby steps. Absolutely. Yeah. His character and nature, he always meets us where we’re at.

He expects us to go, as Paul said in the New Testament, from milk to meat, but he meets us wherever we are in that journey. Yeah, I love that and I just when you were speaking, I just thought of this, but what if what if the Lord was also kind of waiting for Eli’s obedience? What if he was kind of waiting for Eli to like, oh, that must be the Lord, like rather than just telling Samuel, go back to bed. I wonder if he was waiting for that just speaking of the community piece. Yeah.

Yeah, he stood there, that’s really beautiful. Samuel, this is a throwback to his faithful mama Hannah, but the name Samuel means heard of God. She named him that because the Lord heard her prayer and gave her him. Oh and by the way, neither here nor there, but Hannah had five more kids after Samuel that she got to raise. I just thought that was.

Yeah. Watch what you ask Who gave me all these kids? Do you remember at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, the dad goes, who? Let us have all these kids right now, it’s really funny and cute. Yeah, he was mad.

Who gave us all these kids? But yeah, I think, yeah, be careful what you pray for but also just as a mom and knowing the heart wrenching, even if you’re being obedient to the Lord, to give up your son to serve in the temple, you know, it’d be like us taking our kid to Cheyenne, Wyoming It’d be like, you see him once a year, you make him his little clothes, but that’s definitely not the same as raising him in your home and the Lord was so gracious, not that Samuel would ever ever be a child would be replaceable, never never, but just the joy and the so she had kids growing up in the home, I just think that speaks of God’s love and just parental brilliance. Well, notice, alright, Hux, let’s go to hearing verse listening, how it’s a heart posture. We’ve already talked about how we too will miss it if we’re not familiar with his voice, and then I want you to notice something here. Notice that God didn’t lay out the plan until, like we said, Samuel responded with, speak Lord, your servant is listening.

Think about that in your own life, like we’ve already kind of covered this, but just to hone it back in, be a little bit more poignant, the Lord just doesn’t lay out his plan and hope that you grab onto it in the midst of all your other chaos, right? He waits until our heart posture is right, he waits until we say literally or just metaphorically, speak Lord, your servant is listening, and he’s like, ah, now that your heart is attuned to mine and now that I have your attention, now I’ll speak. He’s a gentleman. He’s not gonna compete with these other loud voices. Hux, this is lowered down, but will you go to second Timothy?

If you wanna turn there in your bible, second Timothy four three. Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. Yes, please.

Hi. Yesterday, was reading Isaiah 30. And thirty eighteen is blessings for the Lord’s people. So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God, blessed are those who wait for his help.

That’s a great connection. Where is that? Isaiah? Isaiah thirty eighteen. Cool.

Yeah, absolutely. Look at this in starting in verse 11, tingling ears, when Ella was reading it, she was like, oh, say more or less. What is tingling ears? But there are two other places in scripture, we won’t turn there, but in second Kings and in Jeremiah, where it speaks of tingling ears and they are both judgment. It is is no bueno.

And I mean, it might be like, you know, it’s like such a shocking reverberation that your ears are tingling, but I’m just kind of stretching my own, I’m stretching the text there, but it’s just, it speaks of judgment, tingling ears speaks of judgment. No bueno. And Eli had been given we didn’t read it because it’s not in chapter three, but the priest, the high priest Eli had been given a prophetic word, it’s back in chapter two, think starting at verse 27. Really bad news from his rebellious disobedience. Basically, the house of Eli is coming down because your sons are out of control.

So a man had given that word in chapter two to Eli, so it was no surprise. And God was confirming his word to Eli even though it was judgment, he was confirming that through this sweet little preteen boy named Samuel. And I want you to see this is on here too, Hux, you if wanna put it up. God used a willing child to speak to Eli because he is looking for hearts that are attuned to his, obedient and willing hearts to carry out his will. And he still is looking for that.

Let’s look at second Timothy four three where I told you just to turn a minute ago. This is a contrast, itching ears. Tingling ears, itching ears from scripture, both are not great. Look at what this scripture says, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Do we do that as a as a people? Not us in this room, of course. As a people. Yeah. How human is it to just cherry pick what you want from anything, but particularly scripture, to just make us feel good.

Is there anything wrong with feeling good? No. But if it’s all you do when it’s concerning the things of God, yes, it’s wrong because it’s unbalanced. Yeah, Joy. I was also noticing in verse 11 where it talks about he’s gonna the Lord tells Samuel, I’m gonna give my judgment from beginning to end, and kind of that idea of cherry picking with only hearing what you wanna hear.

Like, I wonder at what point Eli or in Eli’s life, how many times he was cherry picking what he wanted to hear, and then thinking like, oh, my kids did it again. And then looks around like, oh, no judgment. I guess I got away with it, you know, and then keeps on letting it, shoving it under the rug or whatever. Yeah. And and then Samuel has to tell him, like, beginning to end, like, we didn’t I didn’t pass over any part of this being God.

Yeah. And that you and I just imagine Samuel’s heart and stomach sinking, like, I didn’t get away with any of that. How Yes, that’s good. How humbling for Eli to have the word spoken again now for the second time, and from his non biological son. I mean, Eli was Samuel’s boss and he was raising him, was his father figure.

So how humbling for Eli and then how brave of Samuel. Samuel, in that moment, I you’re onto a very pinpoint piece of Samuel’s obedience which changed the trajectory of Israel’s history, and that is, he could have just said, well, there wasn’t really any great parts in it, but he could have just been like, Papa, God loves you. He spoke to me last night. Isn’t that great? But that’s not what God said, he was confirming the judgment.

And this is just a little rabbit trail just to kind of contemplate, but this judgment is like the point of no return, and this makes us uncomfortable. This makes us uncomfortable to read something and God would be like, I gave you chance and chance and chance, and it’s done, because we wanna only sing, His mercy endures forever, period. And does, you’re not wrong, you’re just not complete. And so should we be yeah, now that song will be in your head. Should we be nervous, like as believers walking around nervous, like, well my gosh, what what is when will I cross a point of no return?

You know, that could be feel kinda scary. And two things to kind of assure you, number one, it’s not just, oh, you did 36 things, you’re fine. 37 sins, you’re not fine. You know, it’s not quantifiable, it is a heart posture. These boys were living in intentional rebellion towards God.

They chose rebellion towards God, they didn’t just make one too many mistakes. So we don’t have to worry about our salvation if we are following hard after God, we are gonna mess up. Be quick to repent. Be quick to repent and keep moving. So these boys were not in the same boat, they were choosing to be rebellious towards God, it was very intentional.

But I do wonder, the rabbit trail is I do wonder, do you remember King Ahab a few, whatever, a few pages back? He was the worst. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, like the actual worst. I don’t even wanna read it because it’s awful, and we don’t have time, but the worst. And there was a moment, did I write it down because it’s so good, where the Lord says something and it’s quite shocking.

Let me look at it. You don’t have to turn there if you don’t want to, but this is in this is in first Kings. And so looking at thinking about the character and the nature and the heart of God and passing this point of no return. So in first Kings 21, they’re just talking about how he’s gonna be murdered and the dogs are gonna lick up his blood, okay? Because he is that bad, and so that’s kind of where we’re at.

And then it says there was no, in in verse 25, there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in following idols according to all that the Amorites had done and whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So it was when Ahab heard these words, okay, this is what I want you to hear. So he’s being condemned right now, he’s getting judgment, the dogs are gonna lick your blood. His wife fell out of a window and died and the dogs ate her like, this is all in the Bible, this is all in the Bible.

She had like the bible talks about how she had like mascara smeared across her face, it’s just bizarre. It reads like a like a novel. So here’s the here’s the piece, Ahab is the absolute worst and when he hears that, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, that was typical for mourning in those days, and he fasted and lay in the sackcloth and went about mourning, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, listen to this, see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring this calamity in his days, but in the days of his son. And there’s a lot to dig there.

He didn’t take it away, he delayed it, it’s another sermon, but Ahab was the worst, and he fell in humility before the Lord, and God didn’t do what he said, and that came later to his sons, but it wasn’t in his house. Isn’t that interesting? It feels like Ahab should have been at the point of no return, he was, but what was the difference? His heart posture changed. He fell in humility before God Almighty, like, just had a moment of clarity, like, what in the world?

And so I think there’s something to that, but could Eli’s sons have also done that? They definitely didn’t, and that’s why they got this judgment, but it was something I was thinking about. Let’s go to let’s move move right along. Let’s look at verses 11. We’re we’re in 11.

Let’s scooch down to maybe 15 towards the end. So here we are, Samuel has this very hard prophetic word to give his papa. He does in obedience, and remember Eli was like, Don’t you dare leave anything out. And I think that was one, because he just, he was like, oh, just give it to me straight. But two, I think it was an act of obedience for Eli.

It was a teachable moment for Eli to be like, when the Lord speaks, don’t leave stuff out. And maybe, just maybe, this is Amanda’s thoughts, it’s not from text, but maybe, just maybe, he was saying like, don’t be like me, like learn from what I didn’t do right. When you hear a word, speak it all, come what may. And that next morning, we, you know, we don’t think Eli slept at all, I mean Samuel slept at all, how could he? But in the morning, sweet little Bubba Boo, he just wakes up and says he opened the doors of the tabernacle, he’s probably doing his chores, sweeping away, and probably trying to avoid Eli because he didn’t wanna give the word.

But here he is, Eli finds him and he says, give it to me straight, son. And real prophets of the Lord are not allowed to only pick the nice parts, they’ve gotta say everything, and he did. And in that moment, I believe God was like, there it is. This this little boy is gonna is gonna change everything. I’m looking for obedient hearts, God’s patient.

Another four hundred years could have gone by, God’s patient, but Samuel said yes to his call and God used him mightily down the road. Hux, let’s go to well, actually, just pause for one sec. Look at the very end of chapter three, nineteen, twenty, and twenty one. So Samuel grew in the Lord and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. Samuel’s obedience shifted the culture to lay down this new foundation and he was known it says from, where was it, Dan which is in the Far North to Beersheba which is in the Far South.

Like from New York to LA, like everything he said came to pass, Samuel, as he grew. Everything. He had 100% accuracy because he spoke the truth. Now scripture doesn’t say anything about it being easy for him. Obedience is quite often not easy, true obedience, and that’s okay.

And I think when we feel isolated in that or like, oh, this is crushing or overwhelming, I think that’s where community comes in as well, people that we trust and love. Samuel chose obedience to God and was raised up to be great. He’s bridging the gap between that time of judges that we talked about when everyone did what was right in their own eyes and then here we are going to the kingdoms and the monarchies with King Saul and King David, and again, that’s not perfection either, but people’s hearts, you know, this was the bottom, this was the bottom of the barrel, and then Samuel’s obedience, and then Israel, you know, and the lineup of obedience looks like this always, It’s never just a 100%, you know, we fail, we mess up, quick to repent, get back up. We’re gonna fail, mess up, quick to repent, get back up. Let’s look at God’s call to obedience.

Hux, we can go to God’s call. I want you to see, you can write them down or just not but there’s seven things that at least I saw here when God calls us to do something. Now this could be like a call on your life, know, what are you called for? That’s a whole other message or it could just be a call to obedience. When God speaks to us and we say, here I am Lord, your servant is listening.

And some of these are familiar when Connor preached a couple weeks ago speaking of your dreams, there’s some similarities but number one, when God calls you to obedience, it’s inconvenient to the flesh. Samuel was called in his sleep. His comfort was interrupted. He’s nice and cozy in his little jammies, his little Gro Goo jammies. Inconvenient to the flesh to be awoken in the middle of the night.

Number two, God’s call of obedience. It needs a heart that’s eager to serve. Notice in this in the text, Samuel ran to Eli. The bible was made sure to say that, that he ran to him. Yes, papa, what do you need?

Are you thirsty? Are you you old? Yes. I think maybe in chapter four or something, I think it tells us Eli was 98 at that time. He was going blind, he was old, what do you need?

He was quick to serve. Number three, it comes with merciful confirmation. Eli was Samuel’s community, and he gave counsel when Samuel couldn’t see it in this learning learning phase. Number four, when God calls us to be obedient, God’s call is known to a submissive spirit. Right?

Eli’s sons were not submissive in their heart. They did not hear the word of the Lord. I’m sure they heard but didn’t listen. They were priests. They were of the tribe of Levi.

Priests. But they did not have a submissive spirit, Samuel did. And I was thinking, I don’t want you to just be satisfied. Like I want you to have a submissive spirit just like when you’re home reading your own your own bible or doing your own devotion. I don’t want you to just read your bible and then check it off your list even though that’s good.

I want you to not just hear the words of this page, want you to say, here I am, speak Lord, your servant is listening, and really dive in and dig in and be prepared to obey. I guess don’t say that if you’re not prepared to obey, may perhaps we should say, but if you are, be prepared to obey, dig into God’s word, don’t just check it off your list, but just go where he wants you to go in his word. Don’t spend so much time trying to figure out the mysteries of the ages so you can debate with someone and let that be your only Christian walk. That’s a little bit of like a false Christian Christian? Is that okay to say?

Nah. Probably not a false Christian, but a false obedience, false obedience. Deuteronomy twenty nine twenty nine says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow all the words of this law. Mhmm. Number five, the call to obedience comes with a cost.

Verse 12 that we read today talks about the sins of Eli the priest’s sons and his sin, and Samuel had to come face to face with his father figure to speak horrific judgment. Verse 14 says that he left nothing out. He obeyed the Lord over sparing feelings. That’s hard to do. Number six, God’s call should always keep us humble.

Remember, the very next morning, he got up, swept, opened the doors, people were coming to worship, he got got the house ready. He could have said he could have opened the doors like in a Disney movie and been like, everyone, everyone, the Lord spoke to me audibly and guess what? He appeared in the flesh, so whatever you have going on is not as important as me. And that would be a very middle school thing to do, wouldn’t it, Hugs? But he just opened the doors and went about his chores.

He’s really wrestling, but he was humble. Samuel did not brag because his heart was in the right spot. Number seven, final. It’ll be recognized by others. I think this is important.

This is when I kind of said don’t overuse the God card. I wanna be very careful how and I wanna be very careful with that. I don’t wanna stifle anything the Lord is saying or doing or how he’s working, but I don’t want us to be a people who over spiritualize everything and everything that comes out of my mouth starts with God told me, God told me, God told me. Over time, like the boy who cried wolf thing, it’s like when God does speak or move, you’re like guess what, and then there’s like, oh she always says that. Right, we don’t wanna be that.

In verse 19 it said that Samuel’s prophecies all came to pass. None of his words fell to the ground in verse 19. It’s amazing. Recognized by others from Dan to Beersheba, from New York to LA, all his words all came to pass. Others definitely recognized it.

So as we are landing the plane, my final thoughts are that, are there any little Samuels in our life now, proverbial Samuels running around with their cute little robes that we don’t quite recognize yet but are there and are trying to be obedient? Are there any little Samuels who are running around this generation that one to come might be like Samuel, might be pleasing to the Lord? I can tell you what, there are a lot of false prophets running around at every age. There’s a lot of false prophets on the internet, there’s a lot of false prophets on the podcast, there’s a lot of false prophets in books, not scripture, but books. But are there any true Samuels, and it doesn’t have to be like necessarily just a prophet of the Lord, but are there any Samuels running around now in this generation?

Let’s as a people pray for that, that the Samuels of this generation rise up in obedience, not hindered by the world’s yuck, and fulfill the call of God on their life. Mamas, we can pray that over our children, speaking of Mother’s Day, that our little yeah, whether our little boys are prophets or not, I kinda think there’s some to hucks, but you can talk to me off camera. Let’s pray that our children would remain in God’s will and be the light in this generation that draws people to him. The students, whether you work with kids or not at any age, the students of Jackson Hole High School, let’s pray that over them. The students at the classical, the students at the preschool, let’s pray for the kids of this generation that they would rise up and be a light.

And let’s be a people who maintain a lifestyle of obedience and openness to what God is speaking and like I said, not if, but when we mess up, quickly repent. There’s probably gonna be consequences, like you don’t Repenting doesn’t mean sweeping it under the rug. Repenting means your heart posture changes, you deal with what you gotta deal with, and you move on. This is up on the screen. It seems important.

Before Samuel is ever called to a public ministry, he is marked by private obedience. Let that be us. Let that be us being obedient in our quiet time. You know, like the the poster on the dentist wall is like integrity with an eagle flying, doing what’s right when no one’s looking, but it’s true, let’s be a people of integrity and do what’s right when no one’s looking. I don’t know about you, God just has to be like this with me, but sometimes I’ll feel a conviction on something that is non salvific, like it’s not it doesn’t have to do with life or death, like, for example, and I hope you resonate, I’m just being vulnerable, but I hope it resonates.

Sometimes, like when I’m done with a cart at Smith’s parking lot, I’m like, oh, it’s pretty close, and I leave it and God’s like, ding ding ding, put the cart away. Like, oh, but I’m running late. Put the cart away. Like, then when you’re not in a hurry and when you’re looking at you’re like, why would I not just do that? Why does God or the Holy Spirit on the inside, why does he have to tap me and be like, ding dong, please?

And so, those are the, I mean, that’s the most tiniest non life or death situation, but be faithful in obeying what scripture calls the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Because of that And obviously, he spoke that to me, that’s where I was at, my obedience walk. Why don’t you practice obedience because the Lord is so gracious in what he asks us to do in these tiny, tiny things so that like scripture says, when we’re faithful with little, we’ll be faithful with a lot. Think of our friend who had to do who had to confess and cry bitterly in front of everyone about his dad. He he had a lot of opportunity to be in to do it in private.

So here we are, Samuel’s called to public ministry later after he was marked by private obedience. Okay, who is our Samuel is just a type and shadow. Who is our final and faithful prophet, priest, judge and king? Jesus. Jesus.

And then I want you to see this, God still speaks This is the last thing I wanna say. God still speaks even when human leadership is failing Within the home all the way to global. God still speaks when human leadership is failing. His light remains even in seasons of darkness. The correct response to him is obedience in humility and servanthood, saying to God, here I am, Lord.

Your servant is listening. Let’s pray. Oh, Lord, we give you just all the glory and the honor. Thank you so much for who you are and how you move. Ugh, you’re still speaking to us always, but you’re gentlemen, you don’t push or shove your way in.

You’re waiting for our heart posture to change, to be open to you truly to say, here I am, Lord. Your servant is listening. Speak to me, Abba, heavenly father. And, Lord, I pray that we will just be a light in this generation. Whatever age we are, we’re still living in this generation.

Let us be a light for those around us. Let us have private obedience that you decide what fruit comes from that, not us. We just want our hearts to be aligned and attuned with who you are, how you are moving, what you’re doing. And we just say thank you for these examples in the Bible of scripture. Thank you for what you’re doing in and our lives now.

And, Lord, if we feel today that we’re far from you, Lord, draw us back to who you are, to the heart of who you are. Because your ways and methods change over the over time, but your character and your nature never change. You’re always faithful. We just love you so much. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Connor, Connor, As we transition to our last form of worship, I’m just I’m struck when we’re talking about private obedience, and tithe and offering with the story in the gospels of Jesus, seeing all of the all the priests and all the all the who’s who dumping all their money into the offering boxes and making a huge show of it and putting lots and lots of money in there. And then the poor old lady just comes and drops two small coins in there, and he tells his disciples as they’re watching from afar, she has given way more than they have. And that, especially in a town where money is perpetually tight for most of us, that it’s just such a such a powerful reminder that it has nothing to do with the dollar amount that we give or how many zeros or how many commas are in that. It is just a heart posture of giving. And that when we when we say yes, when we surrender, we say here I am and just lay whatever small amount we have at his feet is enough.

I got to talk with a good friend, this past week about things they’re doing with their kids right now, and they’re they’re having them tithe part of their little weekly allowance, and their weekly allowance is $5. 10% of $5 is two quarters. Like, it’s it’s it’s 50¢. It’s almost nothing. But that is such a they’re already training that heart posture because it’s so important and what a blessing it is that God just knows us so well that if we He knows that if we just give him just even that much, it can be the thing that’s gonna open our heart to the rest of what he has for us so that we can hear from him.

So bow your heads and pray with me as I pray over the tithe and the offering. Father God, all that we have is yours. We we have done nothing. We can do nothing of our own accord that is at all meaningful without you, God. And all the all the money, all the blessings, as you’ve said in your word, God, every good and perfect gift is from above.

And what a gift it is to to have money regardless of how much we have. And so we just we take that. We take all that we have, we just lay it at your feet, God. And whether that’s just the 10%, God, or whether you would have us give something more, we open our hearts to listen to you, not just to hear you, but to listen to what you would have to say, To what you would have us lay down, God, for your kingdom and your glory. To make your name famous here in this valley, God.

I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Everybody said, amen. Couple ways to give. You guys know the drill. Lockbox at the back of the room, black lockbox on the door outside for cash or check.

You can give online at tribejh.com, or you can send a text through your phone to (833) 369-7847. Make sure you type give the dollar sign and then however much you’re gonna give. And if it’s your first time, you’ll just put in a little bit of info, and then it just becomes as easy as texting a friend. Just like any good family, all the important announcements are on the board. Biggest highlight I wanna hit on is the we have a men’s study that goes on here, Monday nights, 6PM.

We just started last week. Heard it was awesome. I was out of town. I am so excited to get to go tomorrow, and we would love to see all you gentlemen there. You can come and talk to me afterwards, or you can shoot a text to Brian.

His number’s on there and on the fridge as well. You wanna come pray us out? Great. Alright. Well, why don’t you guys all stand up?

I’m gonna pray for you guys. We’ll get on out of here. Father God, thank you so much for another day. Thank you for the chance to gather here together to be in community with each other and to get to hear from your word today, God. We pray that your spirit fills us, God, and that you keep you keep churning up whatever you had on each of our hearts today as we heard from your word, God.

And that it wouldn’t just stay here in this building, but that it would go with us into our weeks, God, into our friend groups, our families, our jobs, the places that we recreate, God, so that we could change lives for your kingdom. We thank you that you are a faithful God who will always, always, always show up when we ask you to. We pray this all in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Have a great week everybody.

Thank you for being here. And remember, as Brian always says, you’ve got this.