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Join the men of Bellevue as we seek to learn how to be men of God in the world today.
All right, now you're probably wondering, what in the world does a game about random famous people's voices have to do with the Bible, right? Well, I got a question for you.
How many of you have ever wondered if you could hear the voice of God?
Anyone? You ever been there before? Okay, apparently y'all are all way closer to the Lord than I am because there have been many times in my journey with the Lord that I have wondered,
Am I hearing from God?
Am I hearing from myself?
Am I hearing from the burrito or nachos that I ate four hours ago? Maybe that's what I'm listening to. Has that ever been you before? Yeah, I've totally been there. You hear something, just like we were listening to right there, and you're like, what?
Whose voice is that?
And trying to figure that out. Now, I don't know if you journal, but I'm a big journaler, and my journal is littered with times of me asking...
What does God want me to do?
What am I supposed to do here?
What am I supposed to say? Who and why do I keep doing the wrong thing a hundred times?
Man.
I don't know if you journal or not, but I'm guessing you've probably asked yourself...
The same question before.
And that's all right.
Because we all have.
And that's a big part of what we want to accomplish this...
The semester is that we can be honest about those things.
We don't have to come in here and act like we got it all together as men.
Because, let's just go ahead and be honest with each other.
You don't?
I don't...
We all struggle in some ways.
You know, and whenever I'm filled with those questions, whenever I'm trying to figure out, is this God's voice that I'm hearing? I'm really confused right now. You know, those are times that I am completely ineffective for God's kingdom.
Because if I don't know how to hear God's voice, then I can't become...
God's voice to the people around me.
Because I don't know what I'm listening for. I'm not spending time with God. I'm confused. I'm worried. I'm fearful.
And so I'm not speaking with confidence God's truth to the people around us.
And so, if you will, this semester, we're gonna be looking at the life of Samuel.
But the very last verse...
In the book of Judges, the very last book of Judges, or the very last verse of Judges says, in those days, there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did whatever seemed right.
Děhem.
Now, it was in that culture...
that a baby named Samuel was born into. And this was a culture where people claimed God with their words,
But they totally lived opposite and denied him with their actions. They followed the trends of whatever was popular, not what was right.
And they sought God when things were difficult.
But when God intervened and helped out,
They quickly went back.
to their own ways.
I don't know about you,
That sounds kind of like our culture today, doesn't it?
And during that time, it looked like Israel was headed towards judgment.
but...
In God's grace and his mercy,
He called a young man named Samuel.
to be that voice for him to an unbelieving culture.
But Samuel first had to learn how to recognize God's voice.
Only then could he learn how to obey.
and trust that voice. And it's because of that transformation in Samuel's life that an entire nation was impacted.
and was drawn closer to the Lord.
Because he learned what God's voice sounds like, and he learned that he could trust it and obey it and follow it, and as a result, everyone around him was transformed. And so, our theme,
Our theme this semester, let me work through our slides here, is a voice...
For the Lord.
Because we're gonna look at all the events of Samuel's life this semester.
And we're gonna see how he learned
what God's voice sounded like, and then he could go out and obey it and call other people.
And be that voice for the Lord to make an impact all throughout the nation.
And here's our hope.
Here's our hope.
This semester?
Is that by the end, when we're in November?
Our hope is that you...
will have grown in your confidence.
and hearing the voice of the Lord.
that you will start each day going, I have heard from the Lord today.
And I know what I'm supposed to do.
And so that when you hear God's word and you hear His voice and you grow in confidence knowing that you have heard from Him, then...
You will become that voice of the Lord.
to the people around you.
And all of you men represent people that I will never meet.
or other people we'll never meet.
but you can become that voice of the Lord and call people to draw closer to Him.
I don't know about y'all, but that is what I desire for myself.
And I hope you will join us all throughout this semester as we do this. And this is what we're going to be talking about all semester long. And not only that, but we're also going to infuse into all of our lessons to help you know how to hear the voice of the Lord.
so that you can then go home and apply it yourself. And you're going to hear about that from Ben in just a second. And so this semester, you're going to hear from several different teachers throughout the semester. There's going to be four of us that come in here and teach throughout the semester. And so first of all, you're going to see Ben Taylor, Dr. Ben Taylor, who's going to come through, our missions pastor. And let me tell you something that I respect about Ben.
Ben is passionate and principled.
How many of y'all know that about Ben, right? You can be in one conversation with him, and he, when he is fully convinced of the Lord that something is right, he will pursue it.
until he is accomplished what the Lord has put before him. That is one thing I love about him that I think you guys will resonate as he teaches throughout this semester. Second, you're gonna hear from Nathan Stanfield, who is just up here, Nathan Stanfield, right back there. He's gonna be one of our teachers. Now, one of the things that I love about Nathan is this guy, you can trust him to get it done.
How many of y'all have someone in your life that when they say they're gonna do it, you know they're gonna move heaven and earth until it is done. Do y'all know anybody like that? Nathan is like that. He is that guy that if he tells you that it's gonna happen,
It's gonna happen. So I'm excited that you guys are gonna be able to hear from him all throughout the semester as well. Third of all, Josiah Gwinn, he is our young couples pastor. He is not here tonight because he just had their third baby.
They just had their third baby. He did not have it. And so, you know what? He is not here tonight, nor should he be, right? They just had their baby on Sunday. But what I love about Josiah that I think you'll see is that he is, he is endeavoring and working hard to minister to the people of our church, but he's got three kids under four now.
And that is a lot, right? But he is still seeking to minister to you men and to our young couples here, and so I think you guys will really enjoy hearing from him all throughout the semester as well. And then I will be our fourth speaker, and so I am looking forward to getting to spend time with you guys all throughout this semester as well. So at this point, discussion is going to be a part of this semester, okay? I know...
Men don't always like to talk. Now, we love to talk about sports. We love to talk about things that make no difference in the world, right?
But we don't always like to talk about things that can be life-changing.
But a part of what we're gonna do all throughout this semester...
is to talk with each other,
and learn how to be honest about where we're at and where we wanna go. So we're gonna start that right now, okay? So for the next couple of minutes,
I want you at your tables.
To answer this question, talk about this question right here. How have you heard?
from God this week.
How have you heard from God this week? Has it been through a circumstance that you've experienced? Has it been through his word? Has it been just through prayer and experience? Has it been through a conversation from someone else?
How have you heard from God this week?
And this will be your first challenge.
If you haven't...
Heard from God this week?
Be honest about that.
I guarantee you, you won't find a single guy at your table that would judge you for that, okay?
Because we've all been there.
All right, so you'll start?
For the next couple minutes, you'll have that conversation. How have you heard from God this week?