# Do You Hear from God

Key Passage: 1 Samuel 3
Date: June 7, 2024

Number 3, 1 Samuel chapter 3 in God’s Word this morning. I believe the Lord would have us focus on this subject: Do you hear from God? While you are turning there, I want to plant that in your mind. Do you hear from God? Do you? Does God speak to you? When is the last time you heard from the Lord? Just that question—do you hear from God? We are going to plant that in our hearts and our minds. We will be in 1st Samuel 3. We will read several verses and then we will preach for a while. You will think I forgot about this passage. For once in your life, you are wrong. Well, it is according to your man or lady. I am joking with you there.

We will go back to it, all right, so maybe put a marker there, your finger there. Do not leave your finger there. You will be like me missing fingers, you know. But mark it. I hate to have to tell you that was a joke, all right, now, I am friends, you know. But good deal. That was a beautiful song and a quiet song. It spoke to my heart. That is what I need, the Lord abiding in me. But maybe it just left you about half asleep. You got to wake up, amen.

The decorations should wake you up if nothing else. We have the control panel right here, you know. I mean, we are going to blast off here pretty soon, you know. But they did a great job of decorating. First Samuel, chapter three, if you are there, would you say amen? Good deal. All right. Would you please stand if you are able, out of respect to the word of God. And 1 Samuel chapter 3.

Focuses on this young man named Samuel. We do not know how old. The Bible calls him a child. There is a little debate about how old he was. I just listened to Jay Vernon McGee talk about it, and he said he thinks he is a little older here. There is a debate, and we are not sure how old, but he is a young person for sure. I was looking at this row over here by Josh and Beth, and John Maria, all these young people graduating from primary junior church into big church now. And praise the Lord, some of these young folk have been riding a bus to our church for years. We are glad to have them in big church. Several of them around here have been in here for a little bit. We are glad to have them in here, and that is awesome. Let us start reading, if you would please, in verse number 3, 1 Samuel chapter 3, verse number 3: “And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.”

“That the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I.” He ran into Eli—he was his mentor, if you will, a little bit, maybe the father figure to him, and the priest there. And he ran into Eli and said, “Here am I, for thou calledst me.” And he said, “I called not. Lie down again.” And he went and laid down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, “Here am I, for thou hast called me.” And he answered, “I called not, my son. Lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.

He arose and went to Eli and said, “Here am I, for thou hast called me.” And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. By the way, a lot of children need adults to perceive God’s working in the heart. That is what we will be looking for at Vacation Bible School this week, trying to perceive those in whom God is working in their hearts. Eli was wise enough to be aware of it. Verse number 9: “Therefore Eli said, ‘Go, lie down again; and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.” Then Samuel answered, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.”

“And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.’” I am not going to read all down what God is going to do, but I want you to notice God speaking to Samuel. Would you pray with me that God would create a desire in our hearts to hear from the Lord? Would you ask God to create that desire in your heart for you to hear from the Lord more often than you do? Would you do so as I pray the same? Lord, thank you for this great example. Lord, I sure need and want to hear from you more. Lord, you know everything. Someone said it this way one time, “Lord, you have an opinion about everything. Lord, you are always right.” Lord, you speak to us, and sometimes I do not listen. Forgive me, Lord. Father, would you create a desire in us today to hear from you more? It would be wonderful if we are spirit-controlled, guided Christians. Lord, give us a vision of that, give us a desire for that. And Lord, thank you for the grace that we can accomplish that. Bless this morning. We will thank you and praise you for what you do. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. Years ago, someone gave my family and me this plaque. We have it hung in our bedroom. I love it. It says several things here. Let me see if I can put it here where it will not fall. It is probably going to fall if I leave it there, but that will wake some of you up anyway when it falls, you know. But it says, “I still believe in amazing grace, that there is power in the blood, that he walks with me and talks with me.” I do not even know that song. You know that song? Let us just sing the very first part together. Here we go: “And he walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever…” Is that true for you? Does he talk?

“And he walks with me and he talks.” Does he talk with you? When is the last time? Maybe young people, have you ever heard the Lord speak to you? Or you know that is the Lord speaking to you? Have you ever—how long has it been where you just had a clear leading that you know God is speaking to you? Now, we just read about Samuel when he is learning to discern the voice of God. Some things have changed since then in our day and time. One big change is now: we have God’s divine revelation to mankind. Before that, he was more open, if you will, divinely speaking to someone, even audibly. If God were to speak to us audibly right now, you would still be running. You know what I am saying right there.

But he does speak to us. He has given us the divine revelation. It is called His Word. We have the Bible to hear from God. You can say amen right there. Someone said this morning when our guest, they said, “Man, we are glad to see the preacher carrying a Bible.” Amen. And they said, “We have been visiting around. You do not always find that nowadays.” And that is shame on America. If a guy is going to preach, he is supposed to preach the Word, amen. The Bible—God has given us a divine revelation from him to mankind. It is called His Word, the Bible. By the way, I am glad I have a King James Bible. I mean, I can trust it. I can rest in him. I am so thankful for that. Then also another change: before that, the Spirit of God would come upon a man, move and work. Many illustrations of that in the Old Testament.

But Jesus, when he ascended—you remember just a touch before he ascended, he breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” That is when there was a shift. When someone is saved, they become a child of God; the Holy Spirit began to indwell them. Amen. Remember Jesus told his apostles over there in John, John 14 and 16—both those chapters are great chapters about the Holy Spirit. But in chapter 14, verse number 17, he says, “even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” That is why Corinthians tells us our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And we have the Holy Spirit of God. By the way, he is to guide us into all truth, John 16 says—all truth. That is amazing. The Spirit of God, he is your guide. He can guide you into all truth. He knows everything. It does not matter what the subject, what is going on; he knows the answer. And he lives inside of you. So there have been some changes since the time that we read in 1st Samuel 3. But the question stands: When is the last time you heard from the voice of God?

When is the last time you knew that Almighty God spoke to you? When is the last time you have heard—not in your ears per se, but in your heart? When is the last time you have heard the voice of God? Just quickly, and we will go back to First Samuel here a little bit, but let me just mention a couple of things. He speaks through his Word. It is wonderful when God speaks through his Word. Have you been reading the Bible? Sometimes some people make light of reading the Bible. “Well, I do not understand everything I read.” And by the way, you are not going to understand everything you are reading in the Bible. But Jesus was for reading the Bible. Jesus, I said—seven times Jesus himself—we will not read him, we did it before in this pulpit—but seven times Jesus says this statement, all seven from Jesus, all seven, he is talking about the law, the Bible. He says this statement: “Have ye not read?” (Repeated nine times).

Jesus believed in reading the Bible. Now, friend, let me just mention a couple things. When you read the Bible, I am not against having a mark that I have read my Bible today. That helps me get into reading the Bible every day. Somebody said, “I need that little encouragement to read my Bible every year because it makes me get into the Bible.” I am not against that. You have to start somewhere, but do not stop there. When you go to read the Bible, by the way, do not bash that because someone is not going to the next level; it starts there for him. But look, when you go to read the Bible—I go to the Bible, and I am not there like I should be, but when I am there like I ought to be, I will say, “Now, Lord, Paul needs something today.” And, “Lord, I need—would you speak to me out of your Word?” I am not talking necessarily about what to preach on Sunday morning, Sunday, and all that. “My Lord, Paul, I need something today from you and from your Word.” It is amazing when that is genuine in my heart and my soul, “And Lord, would you speak to me from your Word?” It is amazing. God opens his Word. God reveals things to me in those days, and he feeds my soul. The Bible says, “The soul of the righteous shall not famish.” And he feeds you from his Word. And when you are hungry, “Lord, Paul needs something. I am weak. I am just down a little bit. My flesh is getting me today. Would you speak to me from your Word?” It is amazing how God can give you something. Do not go to the Bible with the intentions of, “Well, I am going to read this certain passage.” Now, that is a start. But go to the Bible and say, “I am going to read to get something out of it.” Go in wherever it may be and say, “Lord, would you give me something from the Bible? Would you speak to me today from your Word?” Maybe I have a journal, and you write down what God spoke to you that day about from his Word.

But it is more—more than just reading; you go to the Bible to get something out of it. “Lord, I want to hear from you today.” It is so important that you have that desire to get something out of the Bible. Sometimes I will read a passage and I am like you—my mind is here, there, yonder, or maybe I do not understand it. I will tell the Lord, “Lord, I am so simple-minded, and I am just an old country hillbilly,” you know. And I will ask the Holy Spirit, “What are you saying right there? What does that mean to me? What am I supposed to get out of that? What are you trying to speak to me today about from that passage I just read?” And it is amazing many times after I have already read it and using my prayer to them, “Lord, what was I supposed to get out of that? What was supposed to?” And that is often when God speaks. That is what I wanted you to get out of today. But God speaks through His Word. It is directly proportionate how much God can use you in work and what kind of relationship you have to His Scriptures. Get you one of those Baptist bread things off the back table that just has a Bible verse every day and a little paragraph or two. And start there, but just every single day, read a little bit from the Bible saying, “Lord, what are you trying to say to Gregory?” He is telling Gregory to give the pastor a $50 bill. That is what he said. Brother Gregory says, “Lord told him to tell Pastor to give him $50.” A preaching of the Bible.

Titus 1:3 says this: He says, “but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching.” Manifested means he just opens it up. I dare say most people that know much Bible doctrine, they learned it by listening to someone preaching the Bible. He manifested his Word through preaching. He opens it up. He reveals it to you through preaching. Here is the thing about preaching the Bible. Another place says, “Despise not prophesying.” It is like, do not get just, “Well, whatever. He is always yelling at us.” You know, he said, “Well, you do always yell at us.” Put hearing aids in, amen. I mean, turn them down a little bit. I will think you are listening real good. You have them in there, though, you know. Oh, but here is the thing: go listen to preaching. I want to get something out of it. It is good you are here. That is kind of like reading the Bible. You have got to be reading it first. You have got to be here. Praise the Lord, you are here. But can I challenge you to go to the next level? You say, “Lord, when I go to Sunday morning,” or when I know of a couple—they say the man said when he and his wife are together, every time they are in their church’s parking lot before they leave their car, they pray a little prayer: “Lord, would you speak to us while we are in church today? And listen to preaching. I want to get something out of it today.” My wife…

We pray together every night before we go to bed. But usually on a Saturday night, she will pray something like this. She will say, “Lord, help my husband not to snore a lot tonight.” She prays that every night, not just Saturday. But more often than not, she will pray this prayer on a Saturday night. She does not know I am listening. She thought I had already fallen asleep. She is like, “What is he going to say?” But usually she will pray, “Lord, let them come to church tomorrow hungry.” Amen. And that is key. You come hungry, even if the preacher is off. I am there sometimes, amen. But even if that were to happen, you know, God can speak to your heart if you are hungry. God promises it. Honestly, someone recently joined our church, and they said that they came on a Wednesday night and God spoke to their heart. And they said this, and it is interesting to me. They said, “Now, we came and you were preaching on such a subject, and this is what we heard.” And I thought in my mind of them, “Boy, how long ago was that if I said that exactly like that or not?” It is interesting when you are a preacher; you get accused of saying a lot of things. But they said, they said, “This is the way God spoke to our heart about it.” And they said, “I will be honest with it, I went and listened to it several times on YouTube, and that is not exactly what you said.” I thought, praise the Lord. I did not think I said that. But they said God was speaking to us, and God wanted us to hear it a certain way because that spoke to the hearts they need to get involved. It is amazing. I am simply saying it is amazing when you are hungry how God can speak to your heart through His Word and through the preaching of the Word. God’s plan: He has manifested His Word through preaching. Can I say this about the Bible? The Bible is not just for your information; it is for your transformation. Can I say it this way? It is not just for your head; it is for your heart. You know, we emphasize it, rightfully so, Bible knowledge. But can I say this? There are professors in universities that know the Bible and the facts and statistics very well, maybe better than us, and yet they are not even saved.

There are some preachers that know the Bible probably better than me and you. They know very well, but they are backslidden and out of the little God and not following God. They have a knowledge of the Bible, but the knowledge—excuse me—the Bible is not in them. They are not feeding on it. They are not getting their soul fed from it. The Lord is not speaking to them through the Bible. Would you look over in a very popular passage? Would you look over in Romans 10:17? Romans 10:17. I want you to see something here. It is a little technicality, but it is so vital, so important. I want you to see it, Romans 10, verse number 17. While you are turning, can I ask again: Do you hear from God? Has God spoken to you lately? When is the last time you have heard his voice in your heart?

Now I want you to notice something about this verse. Romans 10, look at verse number 17, if you would please. Many of you know it by heart. Tell you what, if you know it or if you are reading it, let us just read it out loud together, record it out loud together. Here we go, Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Now, can I mention what we often say about this verse? Faith comes from the Bible. Now, technically, that is not true. That is not what it said. If God wanted it to say that, he had said it said, “Faith comes from the Bible.” It does not say that. It said faith cometh by what? Hearing. Hearing comes from the Bible. You cannot leave the Bible out. But faith does not come necessarily from the Bible. Faith comes by hearing. Is that what it says or not? And to point that out, there is a difference. You see, I do not just go to the Bible and say, “Well, it is going to give me faith.” But if I go to the Bible and say, “Lord, speak to me. Would you give me something from your Word?” and I hear from God, and he points out a verse—man, that gives me faith.

Take this thing of our land over there a little over a year ago, or so—we were maybe almost two years ago—we were looking at buying that land, and man, that is—I will be honest going into it—I knew that is over a million dollars to buy it, and it is going to be millions to build it. I mean, somebody said, “Oh me,” you know, my faith was quivering. “What in the world are we going to do? I mean, we are not that big of a church.” But can I tell you what God did? I heard from God over Revelation 3. Would you look over there, please? A couple years ago, you remember I pointed this verse out many times. In fact, it was on our banners—key parts. Revelation chapter 3: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.” I like that. Boy, if God opens a door, and he wants to hold it open, nobody is going to shut it. The economy cannot shut it. The government cannot shut it. The city cannot shut it. Lack of finances cannot shut it. I want that. If God is opening the door, nobody is going to shut it; it will be all right. And then look at the next saying. This really encouraged me and gave me faith from the Bible because I heard from the Bible. I know that works.

“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” Woohoo! This encouraged me. I realized all we have to do is three things. I thought, well, we can do the three things. We cannot do all that over there. We can do three things, and God can do it over there. Here are the three things we have got to do: “For thou hast little strength.” Well, man, that is us. You can say amen right there. We are not big and huge. As far as I know, we do not have any billionaires in our church. I think maybe Brother Warren is, but he will not give us a dime of it. He is holding on to it, you know, so that does not count. We do not have much strength. We are not a big, huge church. We are not all that. I said, “Well, God, that is us.” Number one, we can do that. “Thou hast little strength.” By the way, part of that is just realizing you have got no strength. “Thou hast little strength.” Then he says, “and hast kept my word.” We are not perfect at it. But around Rutherford County Baptist Church, we try to keep the Bible. If we are doing something not according to the Bible, someone showed it to me, I try to change. I am far from where it ought to be, but I want to follow it. Lord knows that. Boy, I do not have much strength, but we have been trying to keep your Word for a long time around here. We are going to keep at it. And then the last thing he said there, “and hast not denied my name.” That is Jesus speaking. As long as we do not deny the name of Jesus, we just keep telling people about Jesus, keep trying to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Three things: little strength—we are there. Keep his Word—we are trying, he knows that. And do not deny his name. I will never forget years ago. We were going to go to…

…a fancy fundraiser, doctors and lawyers all over that room. And they said, “Would you pray at it?” I said, “Sure. But I want you to know that I am going to pray in the name of Jesus.” They never asked me to pray. Friend, I am going to pray in the name of Jesus if I pray. We are not going to deny his name. Boy, that built my faith because I heard from the Lord, from His Word. That is what Romans 10:17 is, and that is giving me the faith. There have been times my wife—and I am glad she thinks this, I am glad she does not know the truth—but she said, “You know, from the very beginning, you have had faith that God is going to let us buy that and build that and all that other stuff.” The Lord knows the truth. My faith is about like this right here. But God has spoken to me from His Word, and hearing from His Word gives faith. That is what I am saying. Friend, I am saying it is so valuable, so important that you hear from God. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Somebody reading the Bible and never hearing from God does not give anything, but they hear from God from the Word of God—that gives faith. What God is teaching: faith comes about hearing, hearing by the Word of God. When is the last time you heard, and God gave you a verse?

When is the last time you are reading, you are listening to preaching, and God said that verse is for you? Last night I was in a meeting with one of the men of our church, a good man, and he had the promise book. You know, it has all these different subjects, and it has Bible verses about the subject before we pray. He said, “Hey, does that thing have a chapter or whatever in there about prayer?” And he went to the table of contents, and he turned it over, and he said, “There it is.” And we read one page of it. I have never noticed this verse. I do not know; I have read the Bible many a time, but it is Isaiah 30:19. I am going to—I do not have it memorized yet, just seen it last night. But it says, “And he will be very gracious unto the voice of thy cry: when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” Man, that gave me faith. Him and I both said, “Woo-hoo!” We both got our pens out. We are like, “We are going to write that verse down.” The Lord spoke to us from that verse. That gets faith. When is the last time you are in the Bible and God—God spoke to you by the verse? That is how you get your faith. So faith, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now, just for a moment, let us talk about this: the Spirit of God. We hear from God from His Word, and we hear from God through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God.

You see, when you get saved—I already mentioned—the Holy Spirit moves inside, and you have an onboard GPS. How many use the GPS? How many use your car GPS? Not too many. How many use your phone GPS? More; the phones want out, you know. Either way, but you have the Holy Spirit of God. He lives inside of you. He will guide you every step of the way, but whatever path—he has been down the path. You say, “How is he going to speak to me?” He has got a million ways to speak to you. We see someone, “God spoke to them that way.” That is not how he was going to speak to me. My former pastor for years, Brother Howes, he was debating about moving to Hammond, and he was praying about it, and he was praying about it. He was praying about where to start a church at, so I rode down every interstate I could find and looked at the back of semis. It did not work like that for me. God has got a million ways to speak to you.

And God very clearly led us to the Nashville area through specific things. We would be here until 3 p.m. for me to tell you all those things. But then, what part of Nashville? We just took some trips down and were praying over them. And we drove on Murphysburg Road through LaVergne and Smyrna. And my wife and I both at the same time, we said, “This is it.” How did we know? I cannot even explain to you how we knew. We just know. As at church as before, the pastor would say, “Hey, I am here for life. God has called me here. I want to be here,” and so on and so on. And he wanted me to say that. I would always say, “Well, I know I am where God wants me to be now,” but I never felt home. Never felt really at home anywhere. But we both wrote in LaVergne and Smyrna. We just said, “We are home.” We cannot explain it. We are just home. Peace—and sometimes God uses peace, and sometimes circumstances, and sometimes he will shut doors. God has got a million ways, but he can speak to you for it. The Spirit of God, he is there to guide you into all truth. Can I tell you the key, really, to hearing the voice of God, the Spirit of God, and talking about specifically—listening?

He hath ears—spiritual ears—listening. How many have had a dad like this? My dad—I cannot do it, I have tried about a million times—but my dad could put his two pinkies in there and whistle. You can hear it about three miles away. How many had a dad like that? A couple of—not too many—a couple of them. And that was my thing, or I think, unfortunately, my dad’s thing. If I was three blocks over and my dad whistled, everybody knew, “You better get home.” And your ear was always kind of tuned into that because here is what I would do: my dad would whistle, we did not come home. And so when we did get home, my dad would meet us there. My dad had this belt about 25 feet long. And, well, it seemed like that. I am having flashbacks. You know, I am getting triggered a little bit there. You do not think about that belt. And I said, “Dad, I could not hear you.” And he would say, “Boy, next time you better be close enough so you can hear me.” I am telling you the truth. “Dad, I did not hear you.” This was this common thing you would say. “Boy, I got some medicine to help you hear better next time.” I did not like his medicine. There was always the same kind of medicine. But he had a way of getting my ear tuned in for that whistle. Boy, you get tuned in with the Spirit of God. You learn to hear his voice. So often he has been speaking a long time.

But you have to listen. You have to work at it. You have to have a hunger. Moms are amazing. Now come on, fellas, let us all be honest. When that baby cries in the middle of the night, you snored all the way through it. I would say, “How did you sleep last night, honey, while I was up with the babies for hours?” “Oh, really? Wow. Well, thank you. I never knew a thing about it.” That baby can be screaming out the top of its lungs, and it was like, you know. Moms though, man, they have a way. That baby just rolls over in the bed and whimpers, and they are up. “What is wrong with you? You are waking me up over there. Let me sleep.” But they are tuned in. They are just alert. They are attentive to that baby. And when you get attentive to the Spirit of God, he speaks. He knows everything. He will guide you into all. He knows just the right angle you need to speak to that person. He knows it all. I was not planning on telling the story. I am not always like I should be, but… A man in our church was wanting to divorce his wife years ago, years ago. I would not tell the story if he is here. He is not. But he was in our church for years, but not now. And he wanted to divorce his wife when we met for lunch, and he just kept telling me all the reasons why he needed to divorce his wife. And boy, I was younger then, and I had all this Bible college facts and, you know, all these psychologist answers and everything else in the world. And I want to say, in the Spirit of God, praise the Lord, I was listening to him that time. He kept saying, “Paul, just shut up. Just shut up.” But Lord… Yeah, but nothing. “Hush, Paul.” I do not know how long he talked. But finally, at the end, the Lord—all they would let me say is this: “It is this.” All I said was, “God hates divorce.” That is all I said. And they were married until that man died for years and years. And I am telling you, the Spirit of God knows exactly what you need to say. He has got all the answers, but we must—we must tune in and listen to the voice of God.

Now let us go back to 1st Samuel 3, if you would. You thought I forgot about it. Five things very, very quickly from 1st Samuel 3. If you are over there, would you look? 1 Samuel 3. Would you look in verse number 4? And I want you to see just very quickly what all happens. Verse number 4: “That the Lord called Samuel.” And he answered, “Here am I.” Would you look down in verse number 6? “And the Lord called yet again, Samuel,” and so on and so forth. Look at verse number 8: “And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.” Verse number 10, if you would please: “And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.” Now here is the thing I just want you [to see]. First truth very quickly here: It takes time to learn to discern the voice of God. You are not going to go from zero to 100. It is going to take some time. You have got to work at it. Samuel thought it was Eli. God spoke to Samuel four times before Samuel got the message. It is going to take some time. You have got to work at this thing. You have got to learn to discern the voice of your shepherd. It took work at it four times before Samuel got it. Truth number two.

Would you look in verse number 3? Verse number 3, the very first verse we read here, verse 3, 1 Samuel 3: “And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.” It was nighttime. It was quiet, peaceful. Samuel was in another room, as far as I know, by himself. He was about to go to sleep. It was just quiet. Sometimes for you to hear the voice of God, you are going to have to get away from everybody and everything. Leave your cell phone. Do not have it with you. Make sure the TV is off. As Matthew 6 says, close the closet door. As Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Sometimes for you to hear the voice of God, you need to get away from everybody and everything and just get far away from the hustle and bustle of this old world and get alone where it is quiet with just you and God.

Friday morning I woke up and all the electricity was out in our neighborhood. My wife looked at me and said, “Did you hear that big bang early in the morning?” “No, I was asleep. I did not hear a thing.” She said, “I think”—she said, “did a transformer?” She got up. She said, “The transformer blew.” I said, “I do not know. You did not hear that big bang?” “No, I was sleeping.” Man, I got up, and it was—it was. It seemed like the quietest that has been in my house, maybe forever. There was no air conditioning kicking on and off. There was no refrigerator coming on and off. There was no beeps of anything. In the distance, Interstate 24 is maybe a mile or farther from our house, and I could hear cars a little bit here and down there. That is all I could hear, just quiet. Now I am not there always, but that morning I just enjoyed it. Just so quiet. It seemed like the quietest has ever been in our house. That is a great time for God to speak to your heart. Samuel was lying in his bed at nighttime, probably lights out, and he was just away from everybody and everything, and that is when God spoke to him. Some of us are so busy. I worry sometimes about all of us, myself included, if we always have our cell phone on us, and I have one too. I am not saying it is a sin, but sometimes I think we never, ever get alone with God anymore. You can be in the middle of a cow pasture and not be alone because you have got that phone there with you. And I worry sometimes; we are never alone with God. John the Baptist was in the wilderness in the days of his ministry. Maybe that is why he walked so closely with Jesus. He said, “The greatest man among women,” referring to John, “has been alone. It is quiet. God speaks to us.”

Point number one, truth number one: It takes time to learn to discern the voice of God. Point number two: It was at nighttime when all was quiet. Point number three: Every time, every time Samuel heard—we do not read it—but every time Samuel heard the voice, he responded every single time. He might not have understood what was going on. The Bible says he even ran when he heard his voice, and I do not know about you, but I do not like to get out of bed. Anybody else like that here? We talk about sleep a lot. How many of you are going to go home and take a nap after this? As long as you are not taking a nap now, we are all right, you know. Maybe a couple of those. But every time he heard the voice, he hopped up and he ran. He responded every single time. God kept speaking. Now look, if you—every time God speaks to you, you respond—that is why God keeps speaking. It took him a while to discern what was going on, but he responded every time. If you want to just get cold and callous and never hear from God, just do not respond when he speaks to you. And after a while, he says, “Well, I do not want to waste my voice when someone is not listening.” If you are a born-again Christian, you ought to hear the voice of God speak to you every once in a while, even if you are backslidden. You never, ever hear something is not right, better take heed to your salvation. But, friend, every time God speaks to your heart, respond. I am not saying you have to come to an altar necessarily to respond, but honestly, when I sat in the pew, I come to the altar, it just seemed like all the time. You say, “That is the worst sinner in the world?” Well, I am. I will agree with that point, but I wanted to respond every time. I go to other places and hear preaching more often than not; man, I want to come to the altar because I do not get to it necessarily, and I like it just to respond. I want to respond. God is a wise investor, and when he invests his Spirit and his voice, and I do not respond, well, you have wasted that. Every single time Samuel responded, every time he ran to Eli.

It takes time to learn to discern the voice of God. It was at nighttime when all was quiet. Every time Samuel responded, God continued to speak. He spoke to him, I believe, about his salvation. Then number five, I want you to see that if we look at verse number 4. Verse number 4, 1st Samuel chapter 3: “That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.” Would you look at verse number 6? “And the Lord called yet again, Samuel,” which will give verse number 8: “And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.” Which will give verse number 10: “And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.” There is his last point. One more illustration. Go home. God knew Samuel’s name. He knew his name. He called him by name.

Another passage I am not even talking about: he knows your name. Friend, he calls you. He calls that voice, says, “Shirley, Shirley Gates.” God uses your name. Bill, Grady, Mark, Tammy—he calls your name. He calls your name. God spoke his name. God speaks your name. Now I want you, when you are trying to hear from the voice of God, to say, “Lord, would you speak to Frank? Would you speak to Melody? I need to hear.” God can speak your name. It is always different when he speaks to your name. God spoke to his name.

Here lately, I have been on Bell illustration. Bell is our little Yorkie. She is about this big. She is a little Yorkie. She is 14 years old. She is starting to lose her sight. I think her hearing a little bit too. She is getting old. If she tried to bite you, the worst thing would happen: all her teeth would fall out. You would not feel it at all. She is old. And Bell—literally, she is losing her sight and her hearing. I think her sight is worse than her hearing. She is still seeing, but not like she used to. But here is the thing: if I am eating, she is perked up. I mean, if I am eating this morning, my wife is so good. She says she is cursed that she married a guy that likes breakfast. She says amen to that right there. She has them all studied a little bit this morning, and she brought it—a sausage burrito, an egg burrito. Somebody say amen right there. Glory to God. She brought that out there to me, you know, and she is so good about it. And Bell was right there. I mean, her ears—boom! She is looking. I think she must see everything fuzzy because she cannot see any little bit of things right now. But man, she is paying attention to every movement, every sound. The other day she was across the room, and I had something I was eating. I do not know what it was. And I just took my fork and clicked it on the plate a little bit. Man, hurry—she woke up. She said, “Oh, Dad is eating.” It has nothing to do with me slipping food to her. It has nothing at all to do with that, you know. But she is attentive. If there is food around, whew, she is on high alert. Radar goes off. And literally she would do anything. I have many times, you know, said something like this: “Bella, is your dad smart?” And I will move that food up and down. Her head will go just like that, you know. “Does Mommy need to do it? Say what everything Daddy says to do.” And I will do it. Now, when she gets the food, it is totally opposite. But she is alert. And sometimes I will tell the Lord, “I wish I was like that with him.” Man, she is just in tune with everything I do. If I am like that with God, I guarantee I would hear his voice a lot. When is the last time you heard from God?

Original File: Do you hear from God - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 71121