Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to our online audience. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor, glad you're joining us for what I think is going to be an incredibly impactful series for most of you. Based on what you're asking and church and what our conversations are leading us to, this is a timely series for many of us. Before I dive too far into that, you know last week the leaders at Madison Church and myself we went up to the Wisconsin Dells for a retreat and the purpose of this retreat was to hang out, to build some community connections within our leadership team, but it was to dream and envision and strategize what God might have for our church community over the next 12 and 18 months and overall I thought it was a really, really good time. If you weren't sold on volunteering yet, you want to because you want to be at these leadership retreats. They're fun, we joke a lot and we get just so much stuff accomplished and it's exciting, at least for me, to hear, not just like what do I envision for Madison Church? Last weekend, really, I wanted to hear from our leaders and hear what do I envision for Madison Church? Last weekend, really, I wanted to hear from our leaders and hear what do you envision for Madison Church I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 1:10

We were in the Wisconsin Dells and we're actually like maybe eight or 10 miles north of like kind of the city, the hub of the Dells there, and I arrived early that Friday to help set some things up. I was bringing the groceries. We got there and the first thing I wanted to do was because I almost got hit pulling in, because it's on a country road and out of nowhere it's like turn here. I don't know if your GPS ever does that, but it's coming up now but I was going 55 miles an hour. I really had to come to a quick stop. The car behind me wasn't paying attention, they pulled off into the gravel, and so the first thing I wanted to do is make sure that nobody else got into an almost car accident on the way to the leadership retreat. That's not the way I envisioned this weekend starting, and so I tried to send a text message, but it didn't go through. I got that horrible little red exclamation point with the circle that it wouldn't go through. So okay, so you know, if somebody's going to wreck their car, at least I tried. I can show them I did try. It's not my fault. If somebody's going to wreck their car. At least I tried. I can show them I did try. It's not my fault. And then I wanted to try to call my parents because they actually had my kids that weekend, and so I tried to call and it just says call failed. It never even went through. It was like, okay, that's really frustrating.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Now the thing is it's 2024, so you know as well as I do what the problem is. You know that it's not my phone. My phone's not really the problem. My phone worked the whole way up there. Nothing was added or taken away from my phone when we crossed into the driveway. It's not like I lost software. It's not like I lost hardware.

Speaker 1: 2:38

You and I know what happened was I was out of service, I was out of range, even though I'm a part of that largest carrier in the US. We somehow found the one dead zone in the Wisconsin Dells and it got me thinking about this series and what we're talking about. And without a network connection, my $1,000 phone and many of your phones are now just that's just the price, right? Your $1,000 phone with all of its software, all of its hardware, without a network connection, this thing is an expensive piece of trash, isn't it? Can it do anything without the connection? Now, with the connection, how great is this device right With the connection, this thing can do so many awesome things, and here's how I think it connects to our series and what we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 3:25

With regards to hearing from God, you and I are just like your smartphone. You're just like that device that's in your pocket right now. When it comes to hearing from God, you are created with everything you need already inside of you. You have the software, you have the hardware, but we still need to have the connection, we still need to be in network to hear from God. You see, there might not be actually anything wrong with you this morning, and when we can't hear from God, I think the natural inclination is to say there must be something wrong with me, which is like me walking into the house last week and saying there must be something wrong with me, which is like me walking into the house last week and saying there must be something wrong with my phone, when the reality is nothing changed except that I was out of network. I was in a dead zone and perhaps this morning, spiritually, you feel distant from God. Your prayers feel like unsent text messages. You got that red circle with exclamation point and you keep clicking resend, resend, resend, resend and it keeps coming back and saying nope, nope, nope. You keep clicking call, call, call and the message keeps coming up call failed. And again we might feel like something's wrong with us, but perhaps the only thing is we're just not in a location to hear directly from God.

Speaker 1: 4:48

Perhaps this morning you are out of range, and so, as we dive into today's passage and this whole teaching series, I want to propose to you and really kind of present this idea that how hearing from God actually has mostly to do with how we are positioning ourselves, moment to moment, day to day, week to week. It's about positioning ourselves to receive what God would have to say to us. It's about reconnecting to the source for some of you. Some of you have gotten disconnected and you find yourself in that out of network range, disconnected, and you find yourself in that out-of-network range, and it's easy to do that in 2024, about to be 2025. I don't imagine it gets easier next year.

Speaker 1: 5:31

I imagine life gets more chaotic, busier, for most of us. There's noise, there's distractions and there's uncertainty. And in the midst of all of that and trying to figure out our lives, our careers, our families. We learn and we unlearn how to hear from God. How can we cut through the constant static all around us to find clarity and direction for our lives? So I know many of you who are following Jesus. You just want to know what am I supposed to do? What's the next step? God, what do you want? You're praying the most earnest types of prayers and you're waiting and you're not hearing from God. And so, in the next four weeks, we're talking, guided by God, finding clarity in chaos.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Now the disclaimer right before we get going here, there's a risk anytime anyone in my position, a pastor, a priest, whoever it might be that when you do a series about hearing from God or being guided from God, that I could come across as having the right way to hear from God. I've somehow decoded the Bible or I've somehow figured out the secret way. After thousands of years, I finally figured it out. Here's how you can hear from God. That's just not the case, though. I don't have a secret. Nobody offering a secret actually has a secret. You see, god already speaks your language. It's the language of your soul. God already is speaking to you. God desperately wants to speak to each and every single one of us, not just me, because I'm the pastor, not just those of you who have been Christians for 30 years or more, not just those of you who are like on fire for God. God wants to speak to everyone Again, not just me, not just the Pope. If I disappear this week, look at the Vatican. Okay, a little humor.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Together we're going to explore the lives of biblical figures from the Old Testament, and we're going to learn from those of biblical figures from the Old Testament, and we're going to learn from those who learned how to recognize God's voice, trust God's voice and follow in God's guidance, even when the path seemed like a dead end or the path was unclear in their circumstances. Okay, don't miss this part. Their circumstances seemed overwhelming to them and they just couldn't bear it anymore. Jesus tells his disciples in John 10, verse 27, my sheep listen to my voice. My sheep listen to my voice. So for followers of Jesus you're watching or listening online, you identify. You're like I'm a Christian. Recognizing God's voice is vital. It's absolutely critical. Jesus says hey, if you're following me, you will listen, you will recognize my voice, even when life feels chaotic.

Speaker 1: 8:16

And so let's have a deepening relationship with God over these next few weeks and we're going to begin by going to 1 Samuel, chapter 3. So if you want to follow along in your own Bibles, your smartphones, the words will be on the screen. We're going to 1 Samuel and we enter into a time we read that messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. You see, that's the scene here today and you might feel like that in your own life. In my life, visions and messages from the Lord are rare and quite uncommon. My prayers and getting answered are rare and quite uncommon.

Speaker 1: 8:58

It was at this point in history that God's people had once again reoffended. They drifted so far from God that the communication had faded, not because God abandoned them. If you read this passage and the context leading up to where we're at and you assume that all God is punishing them, you're reading it the wrong way. What had happened was the people drifted once again from God. They were no longer in a network zone. God was trying to communicate, as we're going to read in a moment, but they no longer could hear him. They were like the phone, stuck in a dead zone, still capable of hearing from God, but unable to connect. Israel's spiritual state was one of disconnection. People went through their spiritual and their religious routines, but they lost clarity and connection to God's voice.

Speaker 1: 9:58

And it's at this point we meet the two central figures in this story. Eli, who was an old priest, spent his whole life doing the Jesus thing, or the God thing, and following all the rules and helping other people do it. And we meet a young boy named Samuel, and we read in verse two one night, eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed, the lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the ark. There's actually a lot going on in just these two verses. When we're talking about going back to the original context, the original culture, the original Hebrew. What's going on?

Speaker 1: 10:37

The first thing is that mentioning that, on the one hand, eli is almost blind seems unnecessary because he's old. And well, that's what would have happened 2,000, 3,000 years ago. When you got old, you were going to lose your eyesight. Right, many of you, myself included, are going through that. The eyesight just keeps getting worse the older you get. However, the author connects this to a contrasting image the lamp of God, and it hasn't gone out yet. You see, eli might not be able to see what's going on, but the writer wants to ensure you that the lamp of God it's still burning and that's why I said a moment ago that when we it wasn't that God was punishing Israel, God still very much wanted to chat with them and talk and communicate with them. But Eli represents their spiritual state, almost blind, the lamp of God was still burning. Now we're also going to contrast that with Samuel. You see, eli was in his usual place sleeping. He's an old man. He probably had a great mattress. He was in bed in his normal bedroom doing his normal bedtime routine.

Speaker 1: 11:49

But the author wants us to know something about Samuel. He's positioned close to God's presence. He's lying in the tabernacle near the ark of God. This wasn't simply where Samuel happened to be sleeping that night. It also symbolizes Samuel's willingness and his desire to be as close to God as he could get, even while sleeping. He said I could sleep over here, but I could also sleep in the tabernacle and be close to God, eager for connection.

Speaker 1: 12:22

What we find out is that Samuel did not yet know God's voice. We read that in the passage that Samuel did not yet know God's voice and yet, even though he did it, know it, his heart was open and ready and close to receive. And so here's the key difference between these two men Eli had knowledge, but he lacked the connection, while Samuel, though inexperienced, he lacked the knowledge, he was fully receptive, his heart was open. It's the contrast of familiarity with expectation and between knowing God and actively listening to God. And we well, let's zoom through verses four through eight here, because it's a scene that repeats over and over again.

Speaker 1: 13:12

God calls Samuel, he says Samuel, and each time Samuel hears the voice and he assumes it's Eli. So he gets up and he runs to Eli. He says yes, master, what can I do for you? And Eli, as any old man does, when he keeps getting woken up in the middle of the night, it's a little annoyed. Like, no, I didn't call for you. Why do you keep waking me up? Go back to bed. Samuel's eagerly looking for this voice. Someone's calling me. Something needs to be done. I can do it, maybe. What needs to be done? Eli is in bed, he wants to sleep and him. The old priest, probably better than anyone else in Israel, should have known what was going on after the second time. Hmm, why does this young boy keep waking me up, thinking I'm calling for him. Maybe it's God, but it takes Eli a few times. And then finally Eli recognizes what happens. And I want to point this out Sometimes familiarity when you've been a Christian for a really long time, when you've read this book a few times, when you've heard a few sermons on 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 10, it can make us blind to God's voice.

Speaker 1: 14:28

We already know everything. We know how God works, we know what God wants and what he wants to do. We often talk about this in super spiritual terms. We call it conviction. I'm super convicted. I have a conviction. What I hear you saying is that you already know everything there is to know about God when it comes to this particular topic or subject, and you've spiritualized it. So I can't challenge you because it's your conviction. And that's Eli in the story. He had his convictions, he knew what was right, what was wrong. He already knew, and because of that he was almost blind, not physically but also spiritually, whereas this young man who probably didn't have very many convictions, except that he wanted to hear from God and it was ready to serve, he's there.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Eli tells him in verse nine go and lay down again and if someone calls again, what do you say to God? Speak, lord. Your servant is listening. And this instruction is timeless. It's not just for Samuel, it's not just for Israelites living 3,000 years ago, it is for you and it is for me in watching, listening online. It is for you today, when God initiates the conversation. It's not. Oh, now that I got you on the phone and I got your attention, here are the hundred things I need from you to do. Eli says slow down, your servant is here, I am listening.

Speaker 1: 16:01

You see, hearing God begins with a heart ready to listen, not a mind busy trying to dictate the conversation, not a mind busy trying to dictate the conversation. Is your heart willing to listen to what God has for you, or is your mind busy? Ah, I need this and I need that, god. And where have you been and why haven't you? Samuel responds to God in that way. He says speak, lord. Your servant is listening, and as such, samuel has this awesome rise and he becomes one of God's best mouthpieces.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Samuel's role is not to ask for control, but to simply be available to what God has to say. And so I'd ask you and myself do we approach God this way in our own prayer time. Are you fully receptive? Are you ready to hear whatever God has for you? Are you creating space for genuine connection? All of this is the difference between being in range to here and drifting outside of network and signal. So as we prayerfully reflect on this passage, it's not just in this moment, but as we go on this week and throughout this month in the series and hopefully beyond, as we try to align our lives to get in network with God.

Speaker 1: 17:28

The passage invites us to ask ourselves are we positioned to hear from God today, or have we let our routines and distractions keep us out of range? Have we gotten so comfortable being over here that we're not really ready to move? Are we actively listening, like Samuel, or have we drifted like Eli, perhaps knowing God's voice? We know God's voice. We've heard it before, but we're struggling to hear it anew. God is often calling each of us all of you, myself and he's waiting for us to respond to his voice in the way that Samuel did. Speak, lord, your servant is listening. This story today reminds us and challenges us. I think it's deeply challenging that we have to step back to tune in and position ourselves to hear, just as your smartphone needs that connection to function.

Speaker 1: 18:33

Our spiritual lives need intentional closeness to God, and so here are some questions we can ask ourselves as you're trying to discern all of this. Are you close to God's presence? Are we close to God's presence, hearing from God? See, samuel wasn't in a usual place, but he was near the ark. He was as close to God as he knew how to be. Are you positioning your life and your heart close to God? Do you set apart time and space to hear from God? Are we approaching God with fresh eyes?

Speaker 1: 19:12

Eli's sight had dimmed, but Samuel's eyes and heart, they were wide open and, like I said, sometimes spiritual familiarity can make us complacent. We feel like we're already doing all of the right things. We feel like we already know what God wants to say. We feel like we already know what God has to say, and that dulls our eyesight out. Are you willing to approach God expectantly and willing to hear new things from him, and maybe something that he told you a long time ago is different now? Are we ready to respond? Samuel's response to God's call was immediate. Here I am, even before he knew who was calling Samuel. Oh gosh, run to Eli. Eli, did you call me? No, go back to bed, okay, samuel was ready to serve even before he recognized God's voice. Are you willing to serve? As you look for God's voice, even if you don't fully understand, even if you don't fully agree with what he has to say. And as we position ourselves to hear from God, let's make room in our lives for his voice and let's approach God with a heart that says speak, lord, your servant is. Speak, lord, your servant is listening. Speak, lord, your servant is listening.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Samuel's story teaches us that hearing God's voice is not about spiritual maturity. Sometimes, I believe, spiritual maturity can work against you in hearing God's voice because you become so familiar. And in this story you have a priest, eli, an old man who has spent his whole life serving the Lord. And it is him in this story, the most spiritually mature person we read in this story, who cannot hear from God. And I know for some of you that's been true of your own spiritual journey. You find Jesus, you start following Jesus and every Sunday it's like God is talking just directly to you. It's like the pastor has access to your emails and he's just reading them all, or she's reading them all and tailoring every message. And the longer you become a Christian, you're going from Samuel to Eli and that's really resonating right and you feel like something's wrong or God has left you.

Speaker 1: 21:28

And the challenge for those of you like I, feel like I can push this morning. I feel like I can push because, if you are like Eli, I believe that you've been on this journey and that you do have a spiritual maturity, that it's okay to push and challenge this morning. And if you feel like it's overwhelming, perhaps this part of this isn't for you, but for those of you who are feeling a healthy challenge and a healthy conviction, perhaps today you need to say I recognize myself in Eli this morning and I need to take steps to be more like Samuel. And if that is you this morning, I do want to try to encourage you and to help you manage your expectations. It's not going to happen tonight or this week. It's not going to happen tonight or this week. It's not going to happen when we cross the finish line at the end of this series.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Spiritual maturity these changes now take a long time. This could actually be like a 2025 resolution. I want to get back in network with God and here are my three steps, my five steps. Here are all the things I'm going to do to make that happen. It will take a long time. I don't want you to beat yourself up if tomorrow morning you're like man. I thought I made all these changes in the last 24 hours. I still don't hear from God. Expectations here. Okay.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Although young and experienced, samuel was receptive to God's call. James, the brother of Jesus, gives us practical steps today for creating a posture in our lives, how to put us back in network with God. James writes understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. So get rid of all filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. So here's the advice Be quick to listen, create space for God's voice.

Speaker 1: 23:23

Just as Samuel was close to the ark of God, we too need to create intentional space in our own lives for God's presence. Samuel did not yet know God's voice, but he positioned himself in a place to hear from God and practically speaking for you today. If this isn't already established in your routine. It might mean, and it probably means, setting regular time aside to listen, to not speak but to listen. And maybe that's in the morning, or you pause before you get into bed, or even taking a walk free of distractions. And in these moments we say speak, lord, your servant is listening, period, and we listen.

Speaker 1: 24:06

We need to slow down our reactions and we need to approach with patience and openness. James calls us. He says be slow to speak, slow to anger. Think of Samuel's patient response. He didn't immediately go to interpret what God was saying to him. He didn't assume that he already knew or that he knew best. By us slowing down and quieting our minds, we make space to hear God without interruption. It's patience in these areas that allows us to wait on God's guidance rather than reacting impulsively or filling silence with our own agendas. Finally, we need to humbly accept what God is planting in us. James instructs us humbly accept the word that God has planted in your hearts. Samuel's response to God was here I am. A statement that reflects humility and a readiness, a readiness to serve, a readiness to follow, and this step reminds us to receive what God has for us, even when it's difficult, even when it's challenging and even when it requires us to change, god loves you enough to meet you where you are at and enough to not leave you there. He wants to take you on a journey. Humility makes us receptive to God's direction, allowing his words to take root in our lives.

Speaker 1: 25:32

What was interesting last week is and I was thinking about the message and there was a point in our retreat one of the sessions was to go outside and to pray and we prayed and I imagine all groups were pretty similar to ours. It was like God, what would you have for us, god, help us to hear you. It was like God, what would you have for us, god, help us to hear you. It was God, god, god. And I was wondering at some point during that day. I was like I wonder what would happen if Jason, who was leading these sessions, told us to go outside and for the next hour only say speak, lord, your servant is listening, and to not speak. That was it. If that was the instruction, I wonder if how many leaders would have wanted to leave or thought this was weird, or thought it was a waste of time, or went out and was like very skeptical that we were going to hear God say anything, but I think that that's what God is calling us to do. As I reflect on the retreat, I think God is calling us, yes, to come to him to pray. We're going to talk about that in weeks to come, but for today, we start with listening.

Speaker 1: 26:33

When we did finally drive home from the Wisconsin Dells any of you with a smartphone knows what happened At some point on my car ride home I got back in network and you know what happened, right? Missed call, missed call, missed call, missed call, text message, text message, text message and all of those things that I wasn't receiving over the weekend all came in at the same time. My phone was buzzing like crazy. You see, friends and family had been reaching out to me all weekend. They were trying to communicate with me. I was not in a position to receive what they were saying. Just because I wasn't getting the message doesn't mean they weren't sending the message. But once I got back in the network, I received their messages.

Speaker 1: 27:11

Then, in the same way, if we're not hearing from God, it doesn't mean he's not trying. It doesn't mean he's not sending the text, he's not sending the calls. It doesn't mean he's not trying to communicate to you. It means we're out of network, and our goal should be to get back in the network and to download those messages that God is sending to us. Like Samuel, we may initially struggle to recognize God's voice, and that is all right. But Jesus gives us an assurance my sheep recognize my voice. Jesus is always calling and he's always inviting us closer.

Speaker 1: 27:49

But to hear him clearly, some of us need to get back into range. For my phone last weekend it was a one-hour drive from the retreat house at some point back to Madison. It clicked on why? Because it was only an hour drive out there, so an hour drive back. I got it.

Speaker 1: 28:03

For some of us, if you have been out of zone for weeks, months or years, it is unreasonable to think that you can drive back. I got it. For some of us, if you have been out of zone for weeks, months or years, it is unreasonable to think that you can get back in hours or days. It may take weeks and months to get back into network, and that's okay. That's why you have the Madison Church community around you to love and support you while you take those steps. And so, as we enter into communion today, let's all consider where we are at spiritually, where is our spiritual location? Let's begin this journey of getting back into network, knowing that, as we draw near to God, god's voice will come through and maybe, perhaps, in ways that you don't expect it to, in ways that will surprise you the more we listen, the clearer God's voice becomes. So, like Samuel, let's position ourselves and say to God today speak, lord, your servant is listening.