Sermon Text I Samuel 3: 1 10

Sermonon I Samuel 3 – Can You Hear Him Now? Good!

“The Lord called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Whether or not you’re a big fan of the commercials, you have to admit, they are pretty memorable. In a world where communication is so important, you want the assurance that when you talk people will be able to hear and listen and that you’ll be able to hear and listen to them. With an army of network engineers, they never stop working for you. Can you hear me now? Good.

The prophet Samuel was born during a time when things were not good in Israel. The last verse of the book of Judges tells us, “in those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” Unfortunately doing what they saw fit often meant going against God and His Word or neglecting God and His Word completely. Keep in mind this was the same nation that once stood at the foot of Mount Sinai as God gave them the Ten Commandments. The same nation that once echoed the sentiment of Joshua who said, “as for me and my household we will serve the Lord.”But over the course of time, God’s people became apathetic when it came to God’s Word in their lives.

It wasn’t regular. It wasn’t frequent. Eventually it came to the point where we’re told in our text, “in those days the word of the Lord was rare.”As one commentator writes, “no greater judgment can fall upon a nation than when it suffers the loss of God’s Word. When people do not appreciate the gospel, God often takes it from them. Are we aware that by our repeated neglect we can bring about such a famine of God’s Word?”Dear friends in Christ, Can You Hear Him Now? Good! I. When God Speaks… II. May We Listen!

At a time when many people weren’t listening, we can be thankful that at least one woman was. Her name was Hannah. A devout believer who came to church regularly and faithfully. A woman with one thing missing in her life, a child of her very own.It would often find her crying and unable to eat. Pouring out her heart in prayer one night, she asked God to give her a son, promising to devote him to the Lord’s service all the days of his life. At first Eli, who was the priest at the time, thought she was drunk, but when he realized this wasn’t the case, he told her to go in peace asking God to grant her request. She listened and she would soon receive the assurance that God was listening to her. God heard and answered her prayer by giving her a son. A son she named him Samuel, which in the Hebrew means, Heard of God, God Hears, God Listens.

How comforting to know that God listens to his children. That he promises to hear and answer our prayers according to his will for our good. Comforting because sometimes we wonder about that, maybeeven doubt that and that’s sinful. Sins that go along with our many other sins of failing to listen to Him. The Bibles in our homes, where God longs to speak to us through His Word, that often collect dust or get buried under other books, magazines, and newspapers competingfor our attention. Eyes that find it so easy to spend hours in front of the television or computer screen and so difficult to spend a few minutes reading God’s Word. And when we do listen to God’s Word, the selective hearing of our sinful flesh often kicks in. We like those parts about Jesus loving and forgiving us and we should. But our sinful nature doesn’t like to be told that being a Child of God also involves living and acting like one. Jesus tells us in the book of Luke, “blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.”We’d be foolish to think that God isn’t listening when we talk about people behind their backs. When we jump to conclusions instead of taking the words and actions of others in the kindest possible way. When we use language that isn’t befitting of a child of God. As Paul tells us in the book of Galatians, “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”God is always listening and when it comes to sin he also tells us, “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Can you hear him now? Good. When God speaks, may we listen!

When Samuel was born, his mother Hannah gave thanks to God for this precious gift. Another great example for us to follow when God answers our prayers. In her prayer she acknowledged, “that there is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” God had not only given Hannah a great faith, he had not only given her the gift of a son, he had also given her the kind of faith that made sure she passed her faith down to her son. When Samuel was only five or six years old, she took him and presented him to the Lord at the temple as promised. Mom and Dad said goodbye and Scripture tells us, “the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.” As a parent I can’t imagine how difficult that had to be, but it definitely says something powerful about their faith and trust in God.

Eli the priest had some sons of his own. God’s Word tells us that they were wicked men who had no fear, love, and respect for God and His Word. They didn’t listen to God, but thankfully young Samuel did. One night Samuel was lying down to sleep when he heard a voice calling, “Samuel.” Ever the faithful servant, he ran to Eli thinking it was him. But Eli told him that it wasn’t him and told him to go lie down. So he did, but again he heard a voice calling, “Samuel.” So once again he got up and ran to Eli only to experience the same thing. The third time it happened “Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel,‘Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.”

One commentator makes a neat point here when he writes, “isn’t it interesting that when the Lord looks for someone to speak for him, the very first qualification is that the person be willing to listen when God speaks. The secret of Samuel’s success as a prophet was not that he excelled in speaking but in listening!” The apostle James writes, “everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”Listen like Samuel. Listen like Mary as she sat at the feet of her Savior and feasted on every word that came from his mouth. That evening God shared words with Samuel that painted an unpleasant future for Eli and his wicked sons because they failed to listen, but “the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.”

What made Samuel so great is that he listened and then he shared. Not his own opinions on the way he thought things should be, but the very Word of God and the way things are. Samuel was called to lead God’s people. Samuel was called to share God’s Word. Samuel would be involved in God’s selection of King Saul and Samuel would be involved in God’s selection of King David. King David, as we know, was one of the great ancestors of the Savior. The Savior who listens to our cries for help and mercy. The Savior who came to earth to bring salvation full and free. The Savior who was always about His Father’s business and eagerly spent time in His Father’s houseeven as a twelve year old going on teenager. The Savior who continued to submit to His Heavenly Father’s will and plan for his life. The Savior who carried all of our sins to the cross where he suffered and died to forgive them once and for all. Can you hear him now? Listen as he cries out on Good Friday, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?…It is finished… Father into your hands I commit my Spirit.” Listen as the angels ask on Easter Sunday morning,“why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.”Listen as he himself tells you, “because I live, you also will live.”

Listen, because as Peter once testified, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Don’t let the word of the Lord become rare in your life. Be regular and faithful when it comes to things like Church, Bible Classes, Sunday School, Teen Class and the like. See the benefits that it not only has in your life, but in the lives of your children as well, just like Hannah and Samuel! See things like midweek services as extra opportunities to find yourself in the house of the Lord saying along with Samuel, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.” And if you notice that the Word of the Lord has become rare in the lives of others, be quick to listen and slow to speak, and when the opportunity to speak presents itself, speak the truth in love knowing that “whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” As you look at the world around you and see that the fields are ripe and the harvest is waiting, may your joy and enthusiasm echo the words of our hymn that we all are one in mission, we all are one in call. Like Samuel, our calling and mission in life is to grow in God’s Word and go with God’s Word because as we’re told in the book of John, “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Can You Hear Him Now? Good! When God Speaks…May We Listen!

Amen.