Hearing the Voice of God and Obeying

SF.4.5.2013
Hearing the voice of God and obeying.

1 Samuel 3:8-18

This is a passage that we are all familiar with.
This is the first time that Samuel hears from the Lord.
When he was first called, he thought it was Eli calling him, for he never heard the voice of God previously.
After Eli realized it was the Lord calling Samuel he told Samuel to ask the Lord to speak and to listen to Him.
How much are we intent on hearing the voice of God, being sensitive to His voice, are we seeking to talk with Him and to follow what He is saying to us?
We say that we are talking with God.
We say we hear His voice.
There are those who do, but do you hear Him and do what He is telling you?
When the Lord speaks to you about the things in your heart are you choosing to do what you want and not doing things you do not want and saying you did not hear from Him?
Because it is not speaking as if someone were in front of us, if you say you heard from God or did not hear from Him, I cannot confirm or disagree with you.
It is only between you and God.
But there are many things that you think is the voice of God because of the desires of your heart.
Because you want something you say that God has granted it for you and you stubbornly go forth doing what you want.
There are also times when God has been clear to you, but because you think you will lose something, suffer, and because you do not want to do it, you say that you did not hear from God concerning the matter.
Where do you stand?
Are you on both sides?
When God speaks clearly to you, do you obey?
In my walk with God, usually my answers are not the ones I want to receive.
I do not normally get answers of blessings or things that God is going to do for me.
He will tell me to give someone something.
He will tell me to love someone.
He will tell me to forgive someone.
He will tell me to teach someone according to the Word.
He does not tell me to do what I want.
He does not tell me that I all I do is right.
These things are things I rarely have heard.
Where do we stand?
Do you choose only to hear what you want?
If you are a student and you pray to get into a good college and you do, then those who did pray and did not go to a good college, do they not hear God’s voice?
People who do not have a high position in work, do they not hear God’s voice?
If you do not have your requirements met then do you say that you did not hear God’s voice?
What path are you going?
The first time Samuel hear God speak, he was told that the house of Eli was disobedient to God and because Eli did not teach his children according to God’s commands they will be punished.
What about you?
You say you believe in Jesus, you come to church, you serve, you tithe, you witness.
But where is your heart as you do these things as you seek the blessings of God upon you?
Surely, God blesses us.
His blessings are indescribable.
But it is not the blessings that we are thinking about.
The blessings we want are for here on this earth.
We want it today.
For me it would be to be healthy, have no physical pain, there are other things that I want for myself and my children.
If these things happened we would describe it as having a successful ministry.
If someone is pastoring a large church we say that they have succeeded.
If someone is pastoring a small church we say that they have not achieved success.
Where are our standards?
It is those who are in church that go out and say these things.
We attend a small church so we are not successful.
We attend a large church so we are successful.
Let us say that the church is successful, it is not because of my attendance that makes it so.
But if we attend a large church and sit there for worship we think that we are a part of the success, that we have made it happen and so are blessed.
If we attend a small church we think it is our fault that nothing seems to happen, that we are unable to receive God’s love, we have failed to be blessed by God and we become weak.
Where do you stand?
When God speaks to you, you must truly see what it is that He is saying and hold onto it.
The more I come to know the Lord the more I do not understand Him.
I used to think in the past that I knew much about God.
I thought I knew more than anyone else.
I had a lot of knowledge.
But after meeting Him, and knowing Him and drawing closer to Him, I have said it before, He is impossible to know, and the more I read and study, the more I do not understand.
Honestly, there are many things in the Bible that I do not understand.
There are times I do not understand why God is giving me a certain passage in Scripture.
I have attained much knowledge of the Word.
But that is not what I am speaking of.
In the past, it was hard for me to find someone who knew more about the Bible than I.
But now, I have a hard time saying that I know a lot.
Why?
Because every time and situation is different when God uses His Word to explain what is happening.
When I am filled with the spirit, or when I am not.
When I am in sin, or not in sin.
The Word God uses to speak to me is different every time.
Though it is the same Bible verse it is revealed differently.
We think that with that which we know that we know the whole Bible, but I can only say that there is more I do not know.
This passage today, we have read it many times before and know it well.
We know it to be the time where Samuel first meets God.
Each of you has a time when you first met God.
The first time you loved God.
The first time you met Him.
The time you started to have a relationship with God.
But how much have you held onto that and come to this point in your life?
It is difficult to restore your relationship if you forget your first love.
When you date your love is hot but after you get married and time passes why do you divorce?
It is because you forgot your first love.
If you forget your first love, then at least you should live by faith and honor each other and live as husband and wives, but after the fire dies down, and we no longer have feelings we abandon them.
We betray the other but blame the other for betraying us.
Are you like this?
Those of you who are married, do you think that you have problems because of you or do you think it is your spouses fault?
We all point the finger at the other.
I used to live this way.
But when God spoke to me He let me know that it is not so.
Of course there are times that the other person is at fault.
I am not always 100 percent at fault.
But we see ourselves as 100 percent correct.
We blame the other 100 percent.
This is why we do not change.
It is because we do not know what we are doing wrong.
We think that the wrong we do is acceptable to that degree because we live here on earth.
We say “Can a person who believes in Jesus be perfect. We are only humans. There is no one who can live like the pastor preaches.” This is how we respond.
Then why did God give us His Word?
Why did He give us His Word unless we are to be different from the world?
If the world is wrong, then we are to believe Jesus the right way, and with the right faith, we are to go and change the world.
But rather than be different we live as part of the world because of the fear of being different and even though the world is headed to dark valleys and death we have no desire to change.
We think it is granted to be a part of the world for if we are not we cannot have a good job, advance in position or play with our friends.
It is foolishness.
God is sounding the warning trumpet to you as He did to Eli.
What will you do?
We see that God spoke to Eli.
Eli already knew and rather than trying to correct his children he only told them of the wrong that they did.
When you know you are in sin but do not change then God will bring His judgement upon you and that is what we see as his entire family was killed.
What will you do?
Do not raise your children according to your emotions.
Raise them according to the Word.
Rather than raise them according to the Word we raise our children by our emotions.
If we feel bad we scold our children.
If we feel good, no matter what bad they do we accept it and make excuses for their behavior and say that much is alright and blame the world for their behavior.
You say that you did the same things when you were younger.
You say it is alright for them to do it as well.
This is the way a parent approves in sending the child down the wrong path.
God does not do that in the Bible.
He tells us to teach our children.
He tells us to bind His Words to our arms and our foreheads and place them at the entry of our homes and teach our children His Word.
But parents today do not teach their children.
We think that if our children bring home good grades that our children are the best.
Then are those who do not study well are bad children?
As long as you have good grades it does not matter that the rest of your life is a mess and that is why the world is deteriorating.
Children who get good grades think that they are better than others.
Character and good grades are different.
I am not telling you not to study or do well in school.
Should you as parents and children, live your life in a manner that brings judgment on your house like Eli, or should you live your life according to the Gospel, to let it take root in your family and allow the glory of God to shine through you, and fulfill your purpose for which God sent you so that you will be commended by the Father when you stand before Him in the final day of judgement?
What path will you choose?
When I talk to you you say that you will.
You say you will obey.
But when I observe you there is no change.
Why do you write that you will but do not change your actions to follow?
God does not look only at what you have write down but He looks to see if you are doing what you say you will do.
You say you are committed but why do you not follow through with action?
Some do not make it a week, others two weeks.
If you have made a promise with me then you are to keep that promise but you do not.
Some of you do not do it for months.
You do all the things that you want to do.
Why do you not keep your promises.
Listen clearly to God’s voice.
Samuel from the time He heard God’s voice to the day he died, was a man of prayer, obedient to God, and lived according to His Word.
As the time of the prophets came to an end and foolishly raised kings in their stead, they no longer wanted to hear from God, but wanted to be ruled by a king and to this day Israel has had problems.
Should this country fall because of you?
Or should you be the reason that this country rises once again as a good country and once again lead other nations?
Should you make this country the nation it once was or will you be the reason, for your sins, that this country will fall far from where it once stood?
What will you do?
You are all citizens here.
You are told to pray for the place where you live.
Do you believe that this responsibility is in your hands?
At times I also forget.
Through one man Adam, sin was born into this world.
Through Jesus we have been given a path to life.
We know this but none of us think that we are like Adam.
We say that we did not commit those sins.
How many times are we like Adam and Eve in our everyday lives?
Wives who control their husbands and cause them to sin.
Husbands who do not lead their families as they should, that is even worse.
Men, husbands, you must be awake and lead your families the right way.
Wives have given a position of service.
You are too scared to speak up. You are tired of arguing. Time passes.
You think that eventually it will get better.
Your entire family will fall apart.
We women are more of a problem.
If we do not stand right in faith then our families will fall apart.
You say that you are not married, but you will soon be married and soon have children and have a family.
Unless your heart is changed in Jesus, unless you stand right in the Word, you plainly see where that family is headed.
You say that you will be good when you are married.
You will be good to your husband.
If you are not right now you will not be later.
You have not changed your heart.
Men are the same.
You say you do not have a family yet.
You will change when you have a wife.
Unless you live a disciplined life right now, unless you learn to live right according to the Word, do you think that later you will?
No you will not.
Truly you will not.
How was Samuel given life?
Hannah was unable to have a child.
He was born as a child of prayer and given to God.
He was not raised under his parents.
He was raised in God’s house under Eli.
He did not receive his parent’s love.
Do you think that the children of Eli would have treated Samuel well, when they did what they did with the things of God?
Would you?
You are in line to be the next priest but now there is this little child, what would you do?
He lived as a man of prayer giving his allegiance to God.
To live like Samuel and his faith.
What about you?
Do you blame you circumstance, your problems, your excuses, for why you are not living right before God?
We are all the same.
You say that he is different because he was raise in the temple.
The children of pastors have incredible hardships.
That is why I did not want to be a pastor.
I ran away because I did not want to marry a pastor.
I did not hate Jesus or hate God, but the ones who claimed to believe made life unbearable.
But in the end God called me to this place, and now I am so grateful and enjoy it so much.
There is much to give thanks for.
Individually as we live in faith, the words we speak, can hurt so many people, and scar them.
There was a testimony of a pastor’s child who hated the church so much that she ran away and became an anti-Christ.
Because of the people who had scarred them as children.
Because of the hypocrisy in the church where children can do wrong but the pastor’s children are not allowed to make mistakes.
They were judged.
I too experienced this.
If I was playing with other children and they would do something wrong the parents would come and blame me.
They would say that a pastor’s daughter should not behave that way.
I would say I did nothing wrong that it was their child, but they would say that they are only regular church goers, but that I am a pastor’s daughter and I was held to a different standard.
Do you behave this way?
There are many pastor’s children who are out in the world being shaken and rebelling.
They may have their own faults but have we also participated in making them fall away.
If we are true believers who hear His voice and follow Him, do you truly hear His voice and follow?
That is why I ran away to never be a wife of a pastor nor be pastor.
It was not because I did not want to be a wife of a pastor or be a pastor but I did not ever want to hear those things from those people at church.
I thought that I would die if I were ever in that position.
That is why I said I would never go.
But in the end God has put me here.
As pastor’s children, my children today may have it hard but it is much easier than when I was growing up.
I do not know if outside of the church they are facing persecution, but in the past they would say things to your face.
Our doors were always open.
Those scars are indescribable.
The Bible does not explain it but there probably is a reason why Eli’s children behaved that way.
But they stole from God, taking that which was given to God first for themselves.
Are we not doing the same today?
We demand to receive first.
We demand that God bless us first.
Then we will do God’s work after.
I will go and serve at the church, I will love others, I will have a heart of compassion, and for your sake I will believe in you.
Are you not believing in Him for His sake?
Are you not here just for the sake of coming out?
Are you not saying that it is your offering that allows this church to function and without it this church would not be?
Are you truly listening to the voice of God and following Him?
Are you living up to the purpose you have been called to?
When I hear God speak to me, He tells me to do for the good of his kingdom and His people that they may move as one body.
These are the requests He makes of me.
As I do His work I am blessed in return.
The more obedient I am the more He blesses me.
When I have little but God tells me to give to someone who is in much more need then He is always faithful and restores what I am lacking.
Do not think that after hearing this that you can just give away and expect God to give you more.
That is not the way.
When you do something expecting a return you will not be given.
But if you do it out of a humble and obedient heart, and do as He desires of you, He will not let you go hungry, and He will guide you everyday, as today.
What path will you choose?
I counsel many who say if only they hear His voice they will obey, but when they start hearing His voice there are not many who follow.
When the Lord asks will He find any with faith in the end it is an anguish that I feel.
There are very few who truly obey.
Truly not many obey.
Do not be found in that place.
Please go to the place of obedience.
There a too few who will enter into Heaven.
There are many who worship Jesus well with their lips.
But truly, truly, they do not believe in God the Father.
They see Him as valuable in a sense of being able to gain profit, to receive blessings, to receive health.
They see Him as a being who answers prayers.
Do you believe God to be a magical genie?
If that is how you believe God to be, then throw all those thoughts away immediately.
Go back to the beginning.
Like Samuel when he first heard God’s voice.
Forget all the times you have heard His voice.
Today, now seek the presence of the Lord and today, like Samuel, give your allegiance to Him until the end.
Do not be foolish.
Without going back to the truth, without returning back to our first love, and if we stay clothed in our filth and sin, how will we enter into Heaven when we can only do so if we are spotless?
If you are dressed in dirty clothes you will not enter into Heaven.
You cannot enter into Heaven with what you know about Jesus.
You must truly believe in God’s Word.
The Word of God must become yours.
The Words are for you.
It is not for someone who you think is disobedient, or for your spouse, or your children, your neighbor.
Do not do this.
The entirety of the Word is for me.
It has been given to me.
When we hear a sermon we think that the message if for that person.
This is a sermon for my mother-in-law.
Mother-in-laws think this is a sermon for my daughter-in-law, for our sons.
Let us not be this way.
Do these words pierce your heart?
Then change your ways so that it will no longer do so.
I need to change today.
I need to repent before God.
I need to hear God’s voice and humble myself before His presence.
It does not matter if the person next to me has heard His voice that has no bearing on my life.
A couple that shares the bed do not hear the voice of God because of the other.
Only the one who chooses to listen can hear His voice.
In the end the trumpets will sound.
It says only those who hear the trumpet sound will be raptured.
If you do not hear it you will not be able to go.
You cannot go because you hold onto someone who is going.
If I am not a believer but my husband is, and if I held onto him the moment he is raptured and I was also carried up that would be nice.
But nowhere in the Bible does it say that you will go to Heaven because someone close to you is a good believer.
Only the one who hears His voice.
The one who hears the sound will go.
If you act as though you believe.
It is possible that you can act like a good believer and fool people.
But God sees your heart to see if you truly believe or do not.
Do you truly believe, hear His voice and follow.
When Samuel heard the voice of God it was a time when hearing His voice was not usual.
Why did Samuel hear His voice and not Eli?
Are you not in a position like that of a priest?
But if you are in that position and are not able to hear His voice, then what use is it?
Eli heard the curse on his house through the child Samuel.
Would this not be a big problem if this was your home?
We must each be awake to God’s voice, His Word.
I must repent of my sins.
I must listen keenly for His gentle voice and be obedient children of God.
No one can do this for you.
Individually each must go forth to God.
I can preach to you.
But I cannot take you with me.
One Jesus Christ can lead you and take you.
But if you are not obedient to His voice He cannot take you.
No matter how many times He may call if you do not obey...
Unless you live in faith the right way you cannot go.
Your first love.
Have forgotten?
Restore your relationship.
Do you not hear God’s voice?
Repent.
Are you cold and hot in your thoughts?
Repent.
Be keen to the gentle voice of God, restore your relationship with Him, your first love, and live as eternal citizens of God’s kingdom, as His children, and as His bride as you follow Him.


Sermon by Pastor Joy Y.S. Lee
Translation by Miguel Park