Once again the LORD called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you have called me.” “My son, I did not call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.”Yahweh called yet again, “Samuel!” Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” He answered, “I didn’t call, my son. Lie down again.”And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.And Jehovah called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
3 sermons cite this verse
So what I see here in this passage, if we could bring it together for a moment, is a man who would go on to preach God's word to the entire nation. 1 Samuel 4.1, put it on the screen, says that Samuel's word in the fullness of time, 1 Samuel 4.1, came to all Israel. Look at that. In the fullness of time, Samuel's word came to all Israel. The entire nation heard his words. He spoke for God. He spoke of righteousness. He spoke of repentance. The entire nation heard his words. But before the nation could hear him, he had to learn to hear God. And there are some things in your life right now that before God can do externally what you want to see him do externally, there are some things that you have to learn internally so that you can hear God so that they can hear you, so that you can get it on the inside so that God can do it on the outside. There are some things that we are waiting for God to manifest, and God is waiting for us to mature, because the Bible says that he was just a boy. …
He was listening to God. Eli taught him how to listen to God. If you're going to listen to God, remember this, that listening is not a passive experience. Listening is an active experience. It's not that we're just going to sit and God's going to say it all. But listening is both not just passive, but it is actively experiencing God communicating with us. And to do that, there is an attitude involved. It's not just an attitude, but an attitude is involved. It's an attitude and an activity. So first of all, let's begin with the word expectantly. If I'm going to listen to God, I must come to Him expectantly. I must expect Him to speak to me, call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. All through this book, you and I have the promise that God will indeed speak to us. Secondly, I must come to him quietly. Be still and know that I am God. …
And you know, I do believe that God does work in people's hearts and speak to them in such a way that sometimes they don't even realize he's speaking. You and I could go through the Old Testament, for example, again. He called Gideon to go and deliver the people from the Philistines. We could go to the New Testament and find Jesus saying to the disciples as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Then you could go all the way to the book of Acts and find that here's Saul of Tarsus persecuting the Christians, throwing them in jail. and all of a sudden he is struck down on the Damascus Road, blinded. He hears a voice and God is calling him. Now, once in a while I'll hear somebody say, well, once when I was saved, I had a Damascus Road experience. Then I want to say, I'm grateful to God. He didn't have to knock me down and blind me to get me to listen to him. …