How to Hear God Without Freaking Out | 1 Samuel 3:1–10

Show Notes

Episode 776: 
In this episode, we dive into the concept of God calling us to action and how we respond to that call. We explore the biblical story of God calling Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-10. We discuss how Samuel initially does not recognize God's voice and the implications of being called to do something we may not want to do. This leads to a deeper conversation about obedience and the challenges we face when God nudges us toward actions that may be uncomfortable or difficult.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well, hey, everybody, happy Monday. Yeah, and today me and Wesley are the Bible Guys together. Yes, and that's because Jeff is around the world doing great things like Marco Polo. Yes, he is doing a lot of traveling. Yeah. Yeah, so Wesley, this is what is commonly now known as the Platinum Edition thanks to your nickname. I actually had someone come up to me and say Platinum Edition. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You just kind of came up the cuff for that, you did. So that's really fun. So so hey, this week we are the Bible Guys, and we are in the middle of a series, actually in the third week of series called Dangerous Prayers, and these this week has a theme and this whole week is our prayers of calling. Well easy for me to say, I can't talk yet today, prayers of calling in other words like God calling us out, yeah, and and calling our voice and and so when we feel like God calls us to something, that's that's the vein that these are all in today. Right, Yeah, this is going to be good. Yeah, so before we jump into that, we have a great segment today. Jeff would always say, we scour the internet for all the best sources of news. High quality only, high quality, only. For our people. But the reality is is that actually it's really just the segments of the Babylon Beach. Yes, this is a satire news source. And so anyway, we gave this to Wesley to read because Wesley has a sickness with this with this topic. Yeah, this is very near and dear to my heart. I love the waffle house. If you know me, I love waffles. I mean, actually I'm a waffle snob. Are you really? You got to get the ingredients right, you gotta have the right mix, you gotta do all of that. I even looked at buying a waffle house iron. Wow, And when I saw the price of it and what you had to do to hook it up in your house, I quickly changed my Okay, they are expensive, are they really? Like? Yeah, a brand new one is like over a thousand wow. Yeah for a brand new waffle iron, Yeah, it could be like twelve hundred bucks. Wow. So I'm like, you know what I think the twenty dollars Black and Decker is okay. And by the way, you and I share that in common because I lived in Atlanta for ten years and I was birthplace the birthplace, and I was and still am a waffle House huge, huge fan, Yeah, huge fan. In fact, every time we go to Youngstown, Ohio, there's one in Youngstown. Yeah, and I have to go there, yeah, because there are none in Michigan, right. Yeah. I have frequently gone to Toledo or Perrysburg, Ohio, to the waffle House. That's hilarious. All right, So this is the title. Waffle House unveils successful brand strategy of just keeping everything the same forever. That is the best title ever. That is the best I ever. Yeah, and again this is from the Babylon b It says. Following the public relations disaster Craacker Barrel experienced this week after it introduced its new logo, popular restaurant chain, waffle House unveiled a successful strategy of just keeping everything the same forever. The twenty four hour breakfast chain sought to avoid the same backlash Cracker Barrel suffered by simply not ever changing any of its branding, products or decor, and instead maintaining everything exactly as it has been since nineteen fifty five, and if you've never been to the waffle House, it's exactly that way. Yes, we're never going to be different, said waffle House CEO Joe Rodgers. The third. Other restaurants may feel pressure to change the way they look, come up with new logos, or occasionally wipe crumbs and grease off the tables, but at waffle House, we pledge that our customers will never have to deal with that type of jarring change. While many popular brands have fallen to the temptation to update their looks and products to keep peace with the modern world, waffle House expresss expressed its commitment to providing the same environment in services that its customers have always known. There's no reason to try to reinvent the will here, rogers continue. We know what we are, Our customers know what we are. When you want to eat a stack of pancakes, a pile of bacon, and some grits at two am while watching a live fight between some transients who wandered over from the truck stop, waffle House has been and always will be the place to go. At publishing time, waffle House had issued a follow up statement promising that even the oil used in the fryers of its locations would never ever be changed. Ever ever lyric that's really good ever ever. Yeah, and that places the class. I'll bet you they keep that promise. Yeah. Yeah, yes, they are amazing. So when I go into waffle House, one of the things I do, and I know not many people do it, yeah, which is why I do it. Yeah. But there's no music in waffle house oh yeah yeah, so at least the ones in Ohio. So, uh, it's just silent. And they basically it's almost like they punish people and they force you to spend the money at the jukebox. Yeah. So there's a big jukebox there and uh. And so the first thing we do is we get in there and I make sure I have to have dollar bills or a five or at least you know, I usually throw a five in there because I stay for a while and then I just have fun taking place. So it's part of the experience for us now. And so my son and I have been going to waffle House gosh since he was three years old, two years old together, sort of our thing. And one of the things we always do is go up there and say, okay, son, let's go. Yeah. And anyway, there's a there's a song on every waffle House playlist that is called the waffle House Thank You Song. Oh I don't know that one. Yeah. Yeah, so it's actually it's actually it's actually by waffle House. Yeah, and it's and it's like waffle Houses, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, And it's and they're thanking you for coming to ye. And I'm like, I'm like, you know everyone, so, I mean not not recently, but like when we were kids, when he was a kid, we always would play the. Thing, so thank you. So that is hilarious, larious, And I'm going to have to do that the next time I go to Ohio for sure. For sure. Yeah. And then and then you'll be sitting there eating your offles, going really this is what they did, Like I paid for this, yeah yeah, yeah, but it's great. Yeah. So, but there's a lot of pressure, by the way, when you choose the music because there's a diverse crowd in there. It's like you have like your you know, sort of like your cowboy country kind of folks, right, you know, kind of like hey, walking a waffle house. Yeah, you kind of have that crowd, which, by the way, that's that's true, whether they had accents or not, and everybody knows what I'm saying, right, And then you sort of have your urban crowd, and then you have like people like super lame people like me who want to hear like you know, uh, you know. Free bird things like that. Right, It's like it's like you have you know, so you have to like, like, what are you going to do? So honestly, I feel pressure to pick songs that nobody can argue with, yeah, because you know, some people are just like, oh, I'm gonna do top forty hits or whatever, you know, Rick D's or you know, Casey Jason, whatever it is. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm going to try to pick like literally like living on a prayer or you know, or you know, things like that stop believing, because I don't think the world can much argue with it, regardless of who you like. Yeah, you know what I mean. So that's what I do. I try to pick super big classes. Chris has a strategy. So that's the waffle House strategy right there. Yeah, I want everybody to go, oh, thank you sir, you know, thank you for doing that. As opposed to right. You know, have you ever done that? Have you ever been in a place where somebody plays their genre you're like, let me leave right now. Or it's like the song that has been played over and over and over again, yeah, and you're like just stop. It right right? Well okay, well, hey, that was a very fun segment and and honestly it it caught me by surprise. Yeah, you can never go wrong with the waffle house. Yeah. Hey, by the way, you know what else was the surprise? What was that? God call him Samuel? That was a good transition. That was good and it's terrible. I've made it up because that's sent wasn't a surprise, yes, but anyway, yeah, that's what we're talking about today. So in First Samuel, chapter three, verses one through ten, Yeah, so are you to read? I can read? Yeah, yeah, sorry, we never covered that. Yeah, was Jeff's the reader? I will be reading? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. So again First Samuel, chapter three, verses one through ten, it says, meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now, in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. Verse two, one night, Eli who was almost blind by now had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out Samuel. Yes, Samuel replied, what is it. He got up and ran to Eli here, I am, did you call me? I didn't call you. Eli replied, Go back to bed, so he did. Then the Lord called out again Samuel. Again. Samuel got up and went to Eli here, I am, did you call me? I didn't call you, my son, Eli said, go back to bed. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli here, I am, did you call me? Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy, so he said to Samuel go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So Samuel went back to bed, and the Lord came and called as before Samuel Samuel, and Samuel replied, speak, your servant is listening. That's it. We're stopping there. Huh, yeah, it's not right there. That's pretty good. Well, yeah, I mean, I guess the dangerous prayer is saying, Okay, God, I'm going to listen to whatever you're saying. Yeah, So God calls and do we dare to say, okay, God, what do you have to say? Yeah? That can be a very tough thing, Chris, especially when it's something that you don't want to do. Right. So that's a little different from the context here in this scripture, But it's easy when it's something you want to do. It's kind of like if God said, Chris, preach on this this coming Sunday. Well, you normally speak, that's something you can do. It's not a hard thing. But what if God says, go forgive that uncle who did something to you? Ain't nobody got time for that and nobody lots to do that. So that's the question. Will you be obedient when it's something that you don't want to do? And I even pose that to the listeners, What is the thing right now that God is calling you to do that you know you should be doing that you're just not doing because you don't want to do it. What is that thing? Yeah? Are you willing to have the response of Samuel and the story, which is, you know, God calls and he's clearly calling you to do something. And in this case, again we've not yet gotten to the story, at least in our reading, we've not yet gotten to you know, what God wants Samuel to do. But that does that part doesn't matter. So the application, though, is the same. If God says, hey, I want you to do this, Hey, I want you to do this, and you're like, I don't want to recognize God's voice, there has to be a moment where you're like, Okay, I'm gonna acknowledge God speaking right, because isn't it true? There are times where we'll go to like, let's just say like church for instance. We could do this almost anywhere, but church is a good example. You walk into church, you hear a sermon, and you feel convicted. You feel like God is nudging you or encouraging you or challenging you something very specific, and it's like you feel like, oh, I really need to do that, whether it is forgiving somebody or giving your money to something or or giving of your time or you know, or just you know, whatever it is, or changing a bad habit or you know, ending a bad relationship. And if we say to ourselves I'm going to ignore that, and then and then God just nudges us again and you're like, nope, I'm going to ignore that. But it's funny how we ignore things that are holy, right, you know what I mean. It's not like we're ignoring bad things. We're who else is going to tell you to do something that is good or that is helpful and that is holy, you know what I mean. We want to ignore those things because we don't want to do it. But that's it. It's very much like a parent, isn't it. It's like I'm going to ask you to do something you don't want to do, but it's for your betterment, it's for you, it's for the good of everybody. Trust me, you'll thank me in the end, right. It's it's one of those things, you know, especially when it's delayed gratification. You know, hey, put money in your savings account. I don't want to. It's like you'll thank me one. Day, Yes, you'll thank me in about twenty years. Yeah, And so it's it's one of those things where you know, when God speaks, we have to learn not to ignore it. Now in this particular case, for those of you who know the story. The thing that God asked Samuel to do was actually quite bad. It was something Samuel, I'm sure did not want to do. Samuel was a young man, and what he was basically saying is he was basically saying, Hey, I'm going to bring out all my threats, all my threats that I've given to Eli, who, by the way, you're working for the old man you're supposed to respect. He's the high priest that's assigned to the temple. He's your authority. I'm just going to let you know, Samuel, as a young man, that I'm carrying out my threats against him because of all the different, you know, wicked things that he's done. And that's a whole other topic altogether. But Eli was not obeying the Lord at the time, and even though that he was the high priest in the temple, and so Samuel was hearing news that he did not want to hear. And then he had to go back and Eli said, Okay, what did he say? And can you imagine this young man right, like, you know, it's like what young man would have the courage to say, Well, actually, Eli, it was about you, right, even though I'm like, you know, a young teenager, maybe not even a teenager yet, even maybe like twelve years old or whatever. However Samuel was and he's speaking to this very old man who's respected in the community and is in charge and has been in charge for decades, and he has to tell him, actually, it's it's God's carrying out negative things against you. Yeah. But anyway, all that to say, I just think that you know that there are times in our lives where this is a really great parallel because you and I we may know what got us to say, whether it's good or bad, and we're just like God, I'm just going to pretend like I didn't hear it. I wanna pretend like I wasn't inspired, I wasn't moved emotionally, I wasn't convicted. And if I just ignored long enough, I can go back to doing what I want to do and not doing what I don't want to do. As if God's going to stop, well, because you don't want to do it. You know, we kind of think if we ignore God long enough, maybe he'll forget right. And I'll share a personal story. And I think I've shared this on the Bible guys before, when I was in college and I was saving up money for a car, and it saved up almost one thousand dollars. I don't know why I had the money on me at that time, but I went to a Friday night church service. I will never forget. It wasn't my church. It was a church in Detroit, on the west side of Detroit, not far from Grand River, a really big church. So I go there. I'm sitting in service, and I get this feeling to put all of the money in the offering plate. And I said to myself, and. Back then, a thousand bucks might as well have been five thousands. Yeah, And I said to myself, no, I am not putting my hard earned car money in this offering plate. Then it came to me again, put the money in the offering plate, and. The implications of losing that money are he. Now, just I want the audience to think about this because I want to set the stage. I'm in college. You know how long it takes to save up almost one thousand dollars on a minimum wage job, and minimum wage back then, like when I was in college, minimum wage might have been I don't know what it was, it like seven, yeah, like it was like seven. I think something when I was so, I saved up all of this money, and now God is telling me the thing that I loved so much, the thing that I didn't want to release or relinquish. God is saying, Okay, give me that, and I said, no, I am not giving that. I don't want to. But eventually, after I'm sitting in my seat arguing with myself for a while, I decided, you know what, God, if this is, it keeps coming to me to put it in there. So I put the money in the offering plate. Wow did the sky open up? No? Was there an earthquake or anything like that. Nope, but something did happen though. Within thirty days, my boss came to me and said, hey, Wesley, you're traveling back and forth at the time I was going to Eastern Michigan. You're traveling back and forth to east eastern Michigan. You're doing this crazy catch a cap from the Renaissance to DTW the airport, and then you're going from the airport via shut It was a crazy commute I had. He said, why don't we just give you a free company car. You just have to put gas in it and you can use that to go back and forth to school. Wow, why do I believe I got the vehicle because I was obedient to God with the money. God didn't need my money. God's not poor, right, But me doing that was an act of obedience, and God blessed me as a result of that active obedience. And God used you to do what God was going to do anyway, Yes, right, and so, but but you get to be the one to be a part of it. So he used your thousand dollars for whatever that church was trying to accomplish. Yeah, yeah, and so and so yeah, and then you then you got to witness God in action. Yeah, So you get to see a side of God that you know that you that you perhaps would have missed out on. Right. So here we are, how many years later, you're still telling the story. You know, it's so great about it. You said it minute ago as if God's going to stop, because there are some things where God will not stop prodding us and nudging us. But in that case, God would have stopped because you would have missed out of that opportunity because that opportunity was limited, right, It was a it was a limited window. Yeah. The offering period was only. So long, right, Yeah, there's only a few minutes and so and so. So in that case, God would have stopped because because it's like, hey, Wesley, here's an opportunity to experience me in a richer way, to develop your faith, to grow in faith, to you know, just have a better relationship with me, to understand my dependability, my promises, you know everything else, here's a chance to be a blessing and receive blessings. And and it's this window. Yeah, you have five minutes, yes, or lets and go right. I mean from the time you probably thought about it to the time you gave was probably like a couple of minutes, right. So yeah, there there are things where you know, when God asks, we have to understand that it is a limited window of opportunity to either miss out on or experience God's blessings. Now, Chris, I gotta throw this in because I know someone is listening and they're thinking all of this sounds nice and the story Wesley shared that that was good. Yeah, but how does God speak? I'm going to pose that question. How does God speak to us? How does he communicate to us? Is it is it going to be via a dream? Is it going to be a gentle nudge. Will it be a voice? Will it? How practice? Make this super practical for people in terms of exactly how God will communicate with him to do what he wants to do. Yeah, and you know, this is such a great question for you know, this. Is probably a bigger question that we have time for. But yeah, but that's okay. But I think there is a quick, andalong answer. Yeah. So the quick answer I think, which is not super quick, is honestly, I think that it is a feeling more than an audible voice. So in other words, like, but it has clarity to it, right, So an audible voice is clear most of the time, right, an audible voice and that's pretty clear. Yeah, sometimes feelings are unclear. So what I'm saying is I think God's voice is a combination of really really powerful feelings with crystal clarity. And I think that one of the sure ways to understand that it's from God is when it comes out of the blue and it has nothing to do with anything you would have ever thought of by yourself. So, for instance, you could be reading the Bible, you could be praying, you could be talking with another believer, you could be sitting in meditation by yourself. Honestly, you could be doing just about anything and then the power of the Holy Spirit speaks to us. And when it speaks to us, now sometimes sometimes it could feel like an audible voice, right. And some people would even say they've heard audible voices. And some people would say that God speaks through dreams, and I believe that is true. By the way, I believe God can use dreams to speak. Although interpreting dreams is a tricky little thing, which is why it's so important to seek godly counsel. We don't just take, you know, obscure things like dreams and say I know exactly what that means, right, you know, we have to we have to line it up with the Bible. God is never not I think that's the key. It must align with the Bible. You're receiving something that you think you're receiving, and is that God? If it's against the Bible, No, it's not God. Because people can justify anything. Y. Yeah, I know, God wants me to divorcer. You know. It's like it's like it's like, well, wait a minute, let's talk about this, because I'm not I think you're just trying to you know, so God wants me to be happy, doesn't he. Okay, let's talk about this, right, So you could you could actually, you know, go down that road pretty quickly. But if you actually seek godly counsel and you line it up with God's word, that's the best way to understand that God's never going to give you advice that goes against himself or his or his will or his ways. And so anyway, the bottom of mine is is I think that through the power of the Holy Spirit, there's an impression, and sometimes it comes out of the blue. It's like wow, what a random thing. And and and then the longer you become or the longer you are a Christian, then the more you learn to recognize what is from God and what is not. Yeah, right, when you agree with. That, yeah, I agree. This just happened to my wife and I. We were downtown at a new restaurant right off a grashet and we were sitting there, We're eating and minding our own business, and just as we're about to pay, I just felt that we should pay for the older lady who was eating by herself, like one table away from us, just to pay for it. And it was out of the blue Like. It wasn't like my wife and I were like, should we pay for that lady's food? It was literally like, huh, ma'am, can we can we pay for her food over there? Yeah? So it wasn't even a thought I was thinking of y yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah yeah. And did she end up knowing that it was you? Here is the funny part about that, in how God works. The other table, there was a group on the other side they said the same thing. Wow, So they got to her first. They said, we felt led to pay for her food too. So I just thought that was very interesting how everyone just was kind of like, you know what, I'm gonna pay, No, I'm gonna pay. Yeah. Just was a cool little thing. Yeah, that's all. Yeah, that's very very cool. Well, hey, so let's summarize by just saying that in this particular case, Samuel does not recognize the voices from God. God's clearly calling Samuel to do something, yes, and then Samuel in essence ignores the fact that God is calling because he doesn't quite understand, so he's doing it out of ignorance. Right, So, for the believers out there who are learning to recognize God's voice a very appropriate discussion, right, Yeah, let's learn to lean in God's voice, listen for it, and then say God speak your servants listening. And then for the Christians who know God's speaking and want to ignore God's voice, that is another direct application to this. And so we need to learn to stop brushing off God's leading and finally to sigh and release and just say, God speak for your servants listening. And he will always speak to you through his word. That's right. So if there's ever a lack of clarity, he will always speak through his word to us. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, hey, that's a great place to end, and that's our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,