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| Photo Credit America's Keswick Retreat Center |
This is the manuscript for the third sermon in a thirteen-sermon series "The Doctrine of God".
Listen to an audio recording of the sermon by clicking on the YouTube link at the end of the manuscript.
You can watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/jOmK_cRp9fI
Scripture Reading:
1 Samuel 3:1-14 NIV The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” 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.” And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’ ”
Text:
1 Samuel 3:10 NIV The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Introduction
Awakened from sleep, Samuel heard someone calling his name. Thinking that the aged priest Eli had called, Samuel ran quickly to his bedside, but Eli had not called. After the third time this happened, Eli realized that the voice must be the voice of God. He told Samuel to listen well and, if the voice came again, to say,“Speak, for your servant is listening.”
When the voice came the fourth time, Samuel, said what Eli told him to say. The message he received from God was not a pleasant one. Eli’s blasphemous sons were about to be punished, and so was Eli because he had not stopped them.
God still calls and speaks to people. God calls us even now. Let's consider several pointed questions.
When does God call?
Why does God call?
Who does God call?
Where does God call?
What answer does God get when He calls?
I. When does God call?
A. God calls when our hearts are impressionable and, easily influenced.
This is true in the time of childhood, especially so when a child has been nurtured in the things of God. This was true of the boy Samuel, who had been nurtured by the High Priest Eli. God calls in a time of sickness, which teaches us our weaknesses and our dependence on Him. God calls in a time of sorrow or grief. God calls in a time of disappointment and defeat.
B. God calls when we realize that have reached the end of our rope.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
God’s plans for you are to take away the pain of the past, revise the purpose in the present, and give you confidence about your future. With this renewed confidence you can start to live the life that God has planned for you, the life He has called you to.
C. God calls when we seek his face.
We know that it was God—not us—who took the initiative to bring about our salvation.
Romans 5:10 NIV For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Yes God did take the initiative yet the Bible encourages us to approach God, to call on his name, to seek his face.
Psalm 27:8 AMPC You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word].
Joel 2:32 NIV And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Acts 2:21 NIV And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Those who seek God’s face will hear God’s call to them.
II. Why does God call?
A. God calls to offer us salvation.
Christians are referred to in the New Testament as “the called”.
We are “called to belong Jesus Christ”
Romans 1:6 NIV And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
We are "called according to his purpose”
Romans 8:28 NIV And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
We are “called to be His holy people”.
1 Corinthians 1:2 NIV To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
The meaning of all this is that God took the initiative in our salvation.
John 3:16-17 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
1 John 4:10 NIV This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
We are to call on the name of the Lord because he first called us and guess what happens when we call on the name of the Lord
Romans 10:13 NIV for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
B. God calls to judge and discipline us.
God’s call often comes as his response to human wickedness and sin, to announce his discipline and judgment. When God called Samuel in the night, he gave him a message of judgment on Eli and all his house.
1 Samuel 3:12-13 NIV At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them.
Do we think God will be soft and sentimental about our sins, and fail to judge and discipline us because of our sins? No!
He judges and disciplines us because He loves us.
Hebrews 12:4-6 NIV In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
C. God calls to humble us, and to remind us of his sovereignty.
Whether you want to believe it or not God's sovereignty is a fact. The nature of this universe does not change to suit our whims. God is in charge whether we realize it or not.
Remember something that I said last week; God supports what is right and opposes what is wrong. Although it looks like it sometimes, the world is not in a moral chaos where any kind of conduct is indiscriminately accepted. The God who governs the world examines, weighs, and judges the motives and actions of mankind, is not swayed by wealth, prestige, or position.
Deuteronomy 10:17 NIV For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
Romans 2:10-11 NIV but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
D. God calls to enlist us in service and to assign us tasks.
We’ve talked about and had sermons on spiritual gifts, and the fact that every single believer has at least one. We aren’t going to spend a lot of time today but I do want us to go to one of the scriptures about spiritual gifts which tells us why God gives them.
Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
That’s not all the spiritual gifts of course (you can find more complete lists in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and 28-30, and 1 Peter 4:11) the purpose of the gifts is to enable and equip the church to execute on the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:16-20 NIV Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
God’s call to does not come only on apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He also calls ordinary people like you and me into his service to do ordinary tasks—and sometimes extraordinary tasks. If God has called you to serve him, and He has, if God has assigned you some task, and He has, that job may get done without you, but your failure to do what was assigned to you will spoil his plan for you, because nobody else can do what God had intended for you to do.
God put you on this world for a reason, because it’s a better place with you in it.
III. Who does God call?
A. God calls nations and leaders of nations.
There is no more striking illustration of the fact of God’s sovereign rule in history than in the references to Cyrus, king of Persia. In Isaiah 44–45, Israel is in captivity, but their captors, the Babylonians, have fallen before Cyrus and the Persian Empire. It is God’s purpose, we learn in these chapters, to use Cyrus as an instrument to restore the Jews to their own land. He even referred to Cyrus as “my anointed.”
Isaiah 45:1 NIV “This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
God had previously used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Isreal.
Jeremiah 27:6-7 NIV Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.
The point is that God is sovereign and can call and use anyone He chooses.
B. God calls churches to do his will.
Acts 13:1-2 NIV Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
This call came to a church.
He calls churches today to do His will. He called Christ Church in 1979 to lead a prayer march. He has called Christ Church to a ministry to the homeless of this neighborhood, and to support ministries throughout the world.
C. God calls individuals to do his will.
God’s point of contact is the individual. Nations, institutions, and churches are all made up of individuals. When he has something he wants done, he calls on an individual.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
IV. Where does God call?
A. God calls us right where we are.
God called Paul on the road to Damascus.
Acts 9:3-6 NIV As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
He called Isaiah in the temple as he wondered about what would happen in Judah after King Uzziah’s death.
Isaiah 6:1, 8 NIV In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
B. God calls us in the course of our daily work or activities.
He called Amos from following the flock as a shepherd and being a gardener .
Amos 7:14-15 NIV Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
He called Elisha from behind a plow.
1 Kings 19:19-21 NIV So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.
Every Christian, no matter who they are or what they do, are called to minister to others.
2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
You could be a nurse, teacher, a business owner, an entertainer, a dog groomer, an athlete, retired, or some crazy combination of these, and you would still have the call by God to serve those around you and tell others about Jesus.
C. God calls us even when we are trying to run away.
Elijah, after a great victory, got scared and tried to run away, but God found him in a cave
1 Kings 19:9 NIV There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God called Jonah, who ran from his call, but God’s voice found him and brought him back to his task. We all know the story of Jonah who ended up in the belly of a whale, or large fish, and when he realized the consequence of his running he did what God called him to do.
Jonah 3:1-5 NIV Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
We may try to hide from God, but we cannot escape him. You can run but you can’t hide.
V. What responses does God receive when he calls?
Every person must answer for himself or herself.
A. We may ignore his call.
Through our conscience, God’s call is constantly breaking in, calling us to follow him, to serve him, to honor him, to worship him; and so often we ignore him.
B. We may stubbornly and deliberately reject his call.
The result of rejecting God’s call is often similar to the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, considered his terms of discipleship and rejected them. Here’s what we read
Mark 10:17-22 NIV As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
The Revised Standard Version says he went away sorrowful
Mark 10:22 RSV At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
So rejecting God’s call on your life can and often will result in pain and sorrow. I can attest to that from my own life. I deliberately rejected God's gifts and call on my life for a long time and there were times when my life and the life of my family was not a pretty picture.
C. We can ignore or reject God’s call or we can accept it.
We can say like Isaiah “Here I am; send me”
Conclusion
Let me make this matter very personal for everybody here today and those watching and or listening on Facebook or YouTube.
To my Christian friends, those of you who are believers, God is calling you as an individual. What will you do about it? What will your response be?
Unsaved friend, God is calling you. He is calling now. Don’t turn him away. Instead, hear his voice and respond to him and do now.
Sermon Audio
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