Sermon from July 13th

This is what I preached yesterday. I hope it proves of some use to my readers.

I. Intro:

1. Greeting

2. Recap

A. Last week we asked the question “What Is It Like To Be Called?”

B. We looked at Samuel’s call and what he had to do to be prepared for his call.

C. We looked at how he had to be training, willing, and listening.

3. Today, I want to pose the question: How do we turn to God?

A. Do we just turn around or even look up? Is it that simple?

B. What do you have to do?

4. We’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 7:2-6 and the question of “How do we turn to God?”

II. Scripture: 1Samuel 7:2-6.

III. Open In Prayer

IV. Point 1: Seeking

1. Text:

²It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord.

2. Context:

A. Last week we looked at what was the first real mention of Samuel and his ministry. Since he was called, a good twenty or so years passed and the curse came on Eli and his sons, and both died.

B. The ark got taken away by the Philistine army but the power of God was on it and He killed many of them so they ended up sending it back. It never did make it to the temple though and stayed in Kiriath Jearim.

C. Just like almost every other point in Israel’s history, they had slipped into idolatry and weren’t following the ways of God. They had lost their motivation because the Philistines had beaten them. The ark had been misplaced.

D. They had been distracted from God but somehow they knew they needed Him and began to seek Him.

3. Illustration:

A. How easy is it for us to get distracted and misplace the Lord in the priority of our lives. We don’t even have to turn completely away from him or be completely lost not knowing God at all. We don’t have to be an unbeliever to be turned from God.

B. Distractions come at us in many forms. For me, it’s my busy schedule! Some, like my dad, might laugh at that but I believe I’ve had a pretty busy schedule the last few weeks. I found out I’ve got to start getting things in order for my trip. I need to start packing. I started learning guitar and am striving to be capable of leading worship on it. I work 5 days a week from 9-6. And I even preach on Sundays! But the last few weeks, I’ve had close friends come back into the area and have been trying to spend time with them as well! I don’t know about you but I think that gets to be a pretty busy schedule!

C. We as believers even get distracted from God so easily.

4. Application

A. We are going to have many distractions come at us in our lives. We are going to turn from God if only in little ways.

B. We need to come to a point where we are constantly seeking Him. This is our fist step to turning to God. We need to seek Him.

V. Point 2: Committing

1. Text:

³And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

2. Context:

A. This text is the first that talks about any ministry done by Samuel since the day of his call that we looked at last week.

B. He calls out the Israelites in their seeking God and challenges them to do it fully and correctly.

C. Samuel challenges them to get rid of their distractions. For them their distractions were the pagan idols of Baal and Ashtoreth and many of them had several statues of each!

D. Only after they got rid of their idols, their distractions could they commit themselves to the Lord and serve Him only!

3. Illustration:

A. One thing I think of when I look at distractions is playing tug-of-war with a dog. You get them all excited and they’re totally focused and holding on with everything they have. They’re yanking when they think you’re not holding on tight and just keying in on what you’re doing. But the key to winning tug-of-war with a dog is breaking their focus, distracting them. You can poke them, or dangle another toy in front of them and they lose their focus and their grip and you’ve won.

B. It’s the same way with us. When we’re supposed to be fully focused on God setting everything else aside, all it takes is a little distraction for us to lose our grip. If you’re trying to read your Bible, all it needs to be is a quick glance at a picture to lose your focus. Or if you’re trying to pray, all it takes is a thought about what you have to do later. We have so many toys if you will dangling around us but none of them will give us the satisfaction of biting into God and really seeking Him above all else.

4. Application:

A. In order to really turn to God, we need to constantly be committing our attention to God above all other distractions. We can’t be coaxed away by all the pokes and prods or by the tempting but short-lived treats that are being dangled in front of us.

B. This is our next part of turning to God: We need to commit attention to Him.

VI. Point 3: Confessing

1. Text:

⁵Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” ⁶When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.

2. Context:

A. After Samuel challenged Israel to commit to the Lord, he instructed them to come together so he could intercede for them. He wanted the blessing of the Lord to come back on Israel once more.

B. They assembled and humbled themselves. They realized their faults and what they had done. They realized they had let their distractions become their focus and they confessed to God what they had done.

C. When you’ve been distracted and turned your attention from God, to really be able to completely turn and recommit your attention, you have to realize your distractions and confess them to God. You have to build that bridge back from that distraction so you can stay aware that it’s there!

3. Application:

A. True confessing can only stem from realizing where we’ve fallen short. Or just realizing when we’ve fallen! We need to be able to be seeking and committing enough to be able to see when we are starting to stray.

B. We are all going to stray because you can’t avoid distractions from being there, you can only fight off the distractions.

C. Realize that we will be distracted but constantly be watching for and confessing your distractions, admitting and acknowledging your struggles so that God can help you regain your focus and continue to be turning to Him.

4. Illustration:

A. I’ve had several opportunities to share this with people but I want to share this personal realization with you today. To the world, I can tend to look like a slacker. I tend to get distracted and forgetful pretty easily. I can get wrapped up in stuff pretty quick and tend to over commit pretty often. The problem isn’t that I’m a slacker and am forgetful but that there are always going to be distractions.

B. If I get wrapped up in one thing and then finally realize that it’s not healthy for me, it’s no problem to get rid of that thing. But, soon enough I will get wrapped up in something else. I believe it’s how people are when they’re not focused on God and constantly fighting through distraction after distraction to get to what they need to do!

C. The real problem comes with not being able to see and admit the distractions because only after that can you fight them off.

VII. Conclusion

To really be able to say we are turned to God, we need to:

1. Come to a point where we are constantly Seeking God,

2. Be constantly Committing our lives to God,

3. Be able to be realizing and Confessing our distractions to God.

Close in Prayer.

This was the sermon I preached this morning. Let me know what you think!

I. Intro:

1. Greeting

2. The Last 3 Weeks Theme of Examples

3. What is it like to be Called?

A. Is being called the same thing as your mom or dad calling you home for dinner when you were kids?

B. What is it like to be called?

i. What do you have to do? Do you have to do anything?

ii. Do you know what it would sound like?

iii. Do you know what you would say?

iv. What would you do?

4. Today we’ll be looking at 1Samuel 3:1-10 and the things that surrounded Samuel’s call to serve the Lord.

A. We’ll look at his Training

B. We’ll look at him Willing

C. And we’ll look at how he was Listening

II. Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

III. Open in Prayer

IV. Point 1: Training

1. Text:

¹The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. ²One night Eli whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. ³The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

2. Context:

A. Samuel had been given to the temple by his mother while he was very young.

B. Eli because of his sons was cursed by God along with all his sons.

C. Samuel was being trained up under Eli.

D. Clarification: You don’t have to believe to be getting trained in ministry!

E. This time in Israel’s history wasn’t one with many prophecies or miracles.

i. Just because you can’t see God working in major ways doesn’t mean He’s not at work. He works in everything.

F. You’re always training whether you are aware of it or not.

3. Illustration:

A. Everything in my life has been training for where I’m at and where I’ll be in the future. Everything I am doing now is training me for Macedonia, but for beyond Macedonia too! And everything I’ll do there will be training for whatever God has for me after that.

4. Application

A. God trained us our entire lives to be where we are now. The difference between us and unbelievers is that we are supposed to be active participants in our training!

V. Point 2: Willing

1. Text:

⁴Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” ⁵And 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. ⁶Again 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.” ⁷Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸The 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.

2. Context:

A. Samuel and Eli were sleeping when God first called Samuel’s name.

B. Samuel was completely willing to serve the one who was calling him. He even got up three times in the middle of the night to do it! He just thought it was Eli calling.

C. He had no idea it was God calling him.

D. It took three times for God to call Samuel before Eli even realized it was God calling Samuel.

3. Illustration:

A. As I mentioned earlier, in my personal life God has been continuously preparing me for where I’m at now. He’s trained me with the knowledge and wisdom to understand His word. He’s given me the desire to have a closer stronger relationship with Him.

B. He’s also been calling me over and over again into serving in Missions! He called me the first time in Junior High. I didn’t answer. Then, He called me again in my Junior year of high school. Then He called me to serve numerous times while I was at Bethany. Only now am I finally getting ready to leave for the field in August because I am finally ready and willing!

4. Application:

A. How many times in our lives have we done something or gone through something that only by looking back later could we see it was God working in and through us?

B. Samuel was blindly willing. He had been trained to serve God and all of Israel before he even knew God’s voice.

C. We need to be willing to answer God’s call but we don’t have to blind about what God is doing. If we are properly trained, we won’t just be indirectly willing to serve God but intentional about serving God.

VI. Point 3: Listening

1. Text:

⁹So 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. ¹⁰The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

2. `Context:

A. Eli had finally realized what was going on. He saw that the Lord was calling Samuel and told him how to act.

B. Eli instructed Samuel how to respond to God.

C. Finally Samuel got to hear the voice of God and learn who was really calling him.

3. Illustration:

A. How many of us have been able to have the blessing of a spiritual mentor?

B. I’ve been blessed to have several of them. The most significant two have been my father and David Sanchez. They have shown me and taught me how to listen for God’s direction just like Eli taught Samuel.

C. It’s important to learn what it means to really be listening to God. It doesn’t just mean listening and nodding your head every now and then with a few single word phrases to make it seem like you’re paying attention!

D. Listening to God means having your heart lined up with what God is doing. It’s not just hearing. Spiritual listening is really extreme paying attention.

4. Application:

A. We need to be listening. We should consciously make the decision to listen for God’s voice. If we are already believers, we can and should ask God to open our eyes and ears to see and hear what He’s doing so that we can actively participate.

VII. Conclusion:

Samuel at this point in his life wasn’t an intentional participant in what God was doing. He was participating by default. The difference we have is the option to be active and intentional participants in God’s work on earth.

1. Training: We need to be actively and intentionally training ourselves…

2. Willing: We need to be constantly willing to serve God…

3. Listening: We need to be aware of God’s directions and be carefully listening for his voice and direction…

VIII. Close in Prayer