Title: God’s Call
Text: 1 Samuel 3Introduction
Today we will be discussing how the Lord worked through the life of Samuel and how God called Samuel in the ministry. There are lots of Christians who is having a hard time to be involved in the church and recognized that there is a call of the Lord. Today, we will be talking about circumstances in Samuel’s life where he was able to know that God called him. We will be answering some questions about how God calls people, and how do people know that they were called.
Here are five things that we have to know in God’s calling:
1. There is a need (v.1-3) If we will read chapter two of the book of 1 Samuel we will be able to see there a picture of Israel. A picture of a “should be godly” country but was involved in idolatry. We can see here that even the sons of Eli have been corrupted. In fact, before the end of chapter 2 of 1 Samuel, the Lord talked to Eli and told him that he will punish the house of Eli including his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Take note here that Eli was a man of God. God did not condemned Eli but was warned by the Lord because of his failure to control his sons in doing evil things. As you can see here however, the Lord punishes the whole household of Eli, including his sons.
One of the punishments that God gave to them was that Eli’s household will no longer work in the temple of the Lord. Because of this, we can see here that there is a need of a worker in the Temple of the Lord. There is a need of someone to dedicate his life to work with the Lord. We must understand that every time God raises leader there is always a need. Like Moses, there is a need of leadership to free the Israelites. Joshua took over in the leadership because there is a need to lead the Israelites in conquering Canaan.
How about in our situation? Can you see a need of our church? Note that the people that I quoted earlier were called to be the main leaders of Israel. It does not mean however, that because we were not the main leader or the pastor of a church, we were not called. In the four gospels of the New Testaments, we can see there the story of each disciples and how they were called including the other 72 (Luke 10:1). They were not called to be the main pastor but as workers because there is a need to work on the different ministries.
How about us, do we believe that God is calling us right now to work with Him in building his household? Last week we talked about the question of the Lord to David, “Are you the one who will build me a house to dwell in?” We have lots of things to do. We need Bible study leaders, we need ushering committee, we need fund raising committee (perhaps, for our projects). How about a new pastor/s for our planned outreaches? As our Lord Jesus Christ said; “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Luke 10:2).”
Therefore if you are asking yourself how to know that there is a call, the first thing that you have to do is to learn to see the need. If you do not see a need of workers in our situation, there are only 3 possible things that are true to us; maybe we were blind, blinded, or acting as blinds.
2. There is a call (v.4-14) The Lord does not stand and wait for the need to pass away. The Lord sees those needs and he let his people see the need. Then he will do something that we may see that need. And this is the “Call” of the Lord to us. As I see here in the passage the Lord worked in Samuel’s life and that he personally called Samuel through a vision (v.15). Take note that it is the Lord who calls people to lead other people to know him. And that not only to leading these people to know Him but also teaching them to obey. Not only that they will teach them to obey the Lord, but also to teach them to continue and help in the work. And this is how the process of Christianity works.
This means that no one in this house who were called just to sit down and listen to God’s word the rest of his life. We have the so-called process in the leadership. As you can see here, Samuel was called in his childhood to obey the Lord and to continue the work of Eli. But he did not immediately take over Eli’s work. The Lord prepared Samuel through Eli and trained Samuel until the time he was ready. And this is exactly the same thing to what we were doing. Let me tell you this, your Christian life is process. It should be growing. We need to start asking ourselves especially if we were Christians for a long time, “did I already bear a fruit? Am I able to bring someone to Christ? Am I now leading a Bible Study or at least involved in the ministry.”
Brothers and sisters, God did not call us to sit and listen for the rest of our Christian life. We were called to grow and become teachers and leaders of gospel. And this sacred call is not only for pastors. The whole of Israelites were supposed to be called the real and true living examples of “God’s people”. And this is the same thing that we Christians were called.
We have learned that there is a need when God calls people. And because of that need, the Lord calls people to serve him. That call however will be useless if we do not recognize that call.
3. There is response (v.8) As we can see here, Eli sensed that it is the Lord who is calling Samuel. Samuel does not know that it was the Lord. Actually, we can see here that Samuel thought that it was Eli who was calling him. Samuel here is still very young but is already aware of doing what is right and what is wrong but he is was not able to recognize that it was the Lord. And it is Eli who taught him to recognize the call. In verse 9 he instructed Samuel to answer the call, “speak, for your servant is listening.”
In this passage, “response” and “recognition” are synonymous. The issue here is, if we talk about “calling” we must recognize that it is the Lord who called us and not men. Many people don’t understand this even in time of Moses. God called Moses and it is God who guides him. Yet, the Israelites complained against Moses and blaming him about the things that happed to them while they are on their way to Canaan.
We must understand that whenever God called someone to do something, we must not become a hindrance to that mission. If someone here is called to lead, let him lead. If someone who is called to give then let him give. God hates hindrances to his commands. Going back to the passage, Eli here did not become a hindrance but helped and taught Samuel to recognize the Lord. The call indeed, came from the Lord.
We can see here that Samuel listened to the call. He listened carefully to what the Lord is saying. Take note here that the Lord is talking to Samuel about what he is going to do with the family of Eli. As we have said Eli was a good man but his sons were evil. And for this, the Lord will punish Eli’s house. Note that the Lord did not tell Samuel to do something. But what we can see here is that Samuel told Eli the following morning that the Lord will be punishing his house. And from then on, he was recognized by all Israel from Dan to Beersheba that he was a prophet. The Lord carries his will through his anointed or called people.
4. There is a compliance (v.19) This is one of the hardest part to do. The Lord calls his people not only to listen and recognize him, but also to comply with that call. Compliance to the call is not a choice to choose to decline or to follow. It is a demand to be obeyed. It is a full obedience to do everything what the Lord has said. If he said, “be a Bible Study leader”, then you will be a Bible study leader. If he says, “share the gospel” you have to share the gospel. If he says, “lead my people to do this” then you have to lead God’s people to carry that out.
Let us try to imagine if Moses did not comply with God’s call to free the Israelites. What can God do? What if Samuel did not comply with the Lord’s call? What God would have done with Samuel? The Bible can give some examples of those people who were called but decline that call and did carry out the will of the Lord.
Let’s go with Moses first. Moses was a little disobedient with the Lord. The Lord told Moses to speak with the rock, but instead of talking to the rock, he struck it with his staff and God called it, “broke faith with him” (Numbers 20:1-3). Moses was not able to enter the land of promise because of that.
Jonah is a good example of those who were called and escaped from the will of the Lord. And because of this, Jonah suffered a lot. He almost had a ship wreck, swallowed by a big fish, suffered from thirst and hunger, and suffered from the scourging heat of the sun. We can cite some more examples. How about King Saul? He lost his kingdom by his disobedience. David had a broken family because of sins. What about Samson? He lost his strength and his life because of his disobedience to what the Lord is telling them to do.
Conclusion
Tell me now. Are you carrying out, what Lord is telling you to do? If not, I hope that you will not wait for the time that the Lord will take that away from you and let other people do it. I am only reminding you as God’s servant who called me to do so. If you think that I am forcing you to obey or anyone to work, I am not. If you think that I do this to let you have a conscience of not carrying it out, you are wrong. It is because I am warning you. Do not wait the Lord to deal with you with your disobedience. Comply now to the Lord’s call.
Another sermon manuscript of Ptr. Vince Olaer.
He is the Pastor of the Lighthouse Christian Ministry of Ormoc, Leyte, Philippines. Also
visit his other websites: www.freewebs.com/wsmuniversity ;
www.lighthouseresource.blogspot.com ; www.lcmstudentcenter.blogspot.com ; www.wsmuniversity.blogspot.com
He prepared a gift for his visitors in each of his websites that are downloadable and ready to be claimed. Aside from this, he is also a regular contributor to Ezine articles.
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