Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): God is speaking, but are you listening? Here’s Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: I believe that God does want to speak and guide you. I believe that God is leading and guiding today. And I believe he will speak and guide when his people are humbly seeking him, where we’re listening, where our ears are in tune. I think of the word of Jesus all the way back in Revelation over and over, seven times: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.” He who has an ear. And I don’t believe he’s referring to the physical ear here, for sure. He’s referring to the spiritual ear.

Guest (Male): If you take a good hard look at the state of our nation, you could easily be left discouraged. But as we’ll see today, it’s not unlike the nation Samuel grew up in. The word of God was rare in those days due to the rebellion and unbelief of the people. In the midst of it all, Samuel received God’s call for his life and experienced a fruitful ministry. The same can be said of us if we’re willing. Today on Abounding Grace, we bring you the call of Samuel found in 1 Samuel chapter three. Here’s Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, would you please open them to 1 Samuel chapter three? 1 Samuel chapter three. And we are just beginning the book of Samuel. We’re in our fifth Bible study in the book of Samuel, and let’s see what God has for us.

Those that have been studying with us, you know that the time of Samuel is one of great spiritual decline, moral depravity. We learned that and saw a picture of that with Eli and Hophni and Phinehas, his sons, where the Bible said that they were spiritual leaders but they didn’t know the Lord. They were placed in a place of spiritual leadership by birth, by blood, but they had no relationship with God and they did great damage. It’s a very sad time. How is it even possible to do things for the Lord, for God, say things for God, even respond in a moral way for God and yet not know him?

Well, the reality is true. It’s not just true in Eli and Hophni and Phinehas’s life, but Jesus speaks of a group of people himself that will stand before him at the ultimate time of judgment, and they’re going to talk about the great things that they’ve done for him and in his name. They’re going to have a pedigree, if you will, of things that they were participating in. They’ll have in their mind somehow that they’re going to be arguing or trying to argue a case with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

They’re so convinced that they’re going to attempt to convince Jesus of their great exploits and their relationship with him, of someone they don’t know. And the response will be, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew you. Never had a connection with you.” How is that even possible? I’m not sure. I don’t know of that which the Bible teaches. I believe and I see in my own life a true relationship with Jesus. I’ve talked to people that have been in various stages of deceit and self-deception, but myself I haven’t experienced it personally.

But I can tell you this. I asked you to open up to 1 Samuel. Before we even get there, would you turn over to Ezekiel? Just so you know, you think, what if I have a spiritual leader in my life that doesn’t know the Lord? What if I go to a church where the leadership doesn’t know the Lord? What if I am somehow connected? I just want you to see from Ezekiel, through the prophet Ezekiel, God’s heart. God’s heart, that God has got your back, that he is fully prepared and aware of the situation and he’s prepared to protect you and me, to guard us, should that ever happen.

And may it never happen, but should that ever happen, notice with me in chapter 34 in Ezekiel. It says, “The word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat, clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you’ve not strengthened, you haven’t healed those that were sick, you haven’t bound up the broken, you haven’t brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you’ve ruled them.’”

“So,” verse five, “they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; yes, my flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth and no one was seeking or searching for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd, nor did my shepherd search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock, therefore, oh shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.’”

Verse 10: “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hand. I will cause them to cease feeding the flock and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more, for I will deliver my flock from their mouth that they may no longer be food for them.’” Woe to you shepherds! Jesus would say that later in Matthew chapter 24. You’re not taking care of the flock. You’re taking advantage of them. You’re taking what belongs to them. You’re misrepresenting me. They’re scattered, they’re wandering around. They have no hope, no help. Listen, shepherds, he says, I’m against you.

And verse 11: “For thus says the Lord God, ‘Indeed, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they’re scattered on a cloudy and a dark day. And I will bring them out of the peoples. I will gather them from the countries.’ What a prophecy! ‘I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.’”

“‘I will feed my flock and I will make them lie down,’ says the Lord God. ‘I will seek that which was lost and bring back that was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick, and I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment.’” He talks about the protection God does of his sheep and of his flock, even when and especially when they’ve been mistreated by the shepherds. In another place in the Scriptures, God will say, I believe it’s through the prophet Jeremiah, he will say, “I myself will provide a shepherd.”

In other places in the Scriptures, we find that God is actually looking for a man. And I believe in extension, for a woman, a person that’s totally devoted, completely committed, someone that he can use, someone that he can pour himself into, someone that can be a tool on the earth. Because God, his methodology is very much the same as it has been from the Garden of Eden. God uses people—he’s chosen to do this—uses people to reach people.

The tool is the word of God and the empowerment is the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so in 2 Chronicles, you’ll hear God say this, and by way of application, I think not only the application of Ezekiel but also what he tells us in the Chronicles: “The eyes of the Lord are running to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.” And in this case, this was also a statement of judgment upon a king who was not loyal, was not serving.

So you’ve got Hophni and Phinehas and Eli, and they’re in a place of position, they’re in a place of spiritual leadership and you just shake your head. I mean, Eli doesn’t get it, although I think a little bit he sort of does get it, as the heart of Hannah is a rebuke to him when he misrepresented her or misunderstood her and treated her wrong. And yet when Hophni and Phinehas has got all this sin going on and they’re stealing from people and they’re having sex with women right in the gates of the temple there, I mean, they’re just so far. Things that you would think amongst spiritual leaders, it’s a scandal. It’s just scandalous what they’re involved in.

And you look at it so far, if you’ve read ahead in 1 Samuel, you’re like, “Well, God, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?” Well, remember, remember, God is giving us contrast in the beginning of 1 Samuel. He really does, lest you forget the Judges, and many of you may or may not have been with us when we studied through the Judges, but lest you forget how bad it was during the time of Judges, we have Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas as the backdrop of this baby, this miracle kid who we know is Samuel.

This miracle kid. God is searching for a man and he’s found one, and he has found Samuel through Hannah’s difficulty. Through the pain and the sorrow, the barrenness, the shame, her embarrassment, her disgrace, God allowed Hannah to be barren for a reason, for a season. Because you wouldn’t be able to tell, unless God revealed it to us, that he was looking for a man. We focus in on Hannah, as we do sometimes on our own situation, and we’re just like, “I don’t get it. I don’t see the puzzle piece.”

You know, some of you love to do puzzles and some of you are very adventurous and you get the puzzles where the pieces are so small you can’t even see them, but you get the magnifying glass and you just want to put... and if I was to give you, for you puzzle lovers, if I was to give you just one piece of the puzzle, you would have a hard time trying to figure out what it was. You most likely couldn’t figure it out. I give you just a puzzle piece, it’s a piece of puzzle that has blue on it. And immediately your first thought is, “Sky. It’s part of the sky. That’s what it is. It’s the sky.”

But it’s actually not the sky. It’s something else. And then I tell you, “Well, it’s a part of a car.” “Okay, okay, a car. Okay, okay, this kind of car.” And you’re trying to figure it out and you don’t know it, but by piece and by piece and by piece... I mean, you know how you do puzzles, you need the box. The box really helps. If you want to mess with someone and their puzzle, here’s two things. Just between you and me, don’t tell anybody I told you this. One, just go ahead and be adventurous, take the box, just the lid, and say, “I’ve got the box if you want it. Pay me a ransom.”

Another thing to do when people are doing puzzles: let them have the box, take a couple pieces. I know the Bible says to be innocent in evil. I’m sorry. But with the pieces of the puzzle, it’s very, very hard. That’s life. Our life, day by day, are pieces of the puzzle. Our circumstances, other pieces of the puzzle, some more prominent than others. And if we were just to focus on that’s all we got was Hannah’s story, and Hannah’s true story just brought us up to, well, let’s just say the birth of Samuel, that’s all we got, we would leave pretty happy. “All right, Hannah, you got it. All right, all right, all right. I know you were misunderstood and I know it’s tough with spiritual leaders, but you know, Hannah, you can just go off into the sunset. You got your kid. You got your kid.”

But that wasn’t what God was doing. God certainly was ready to bless Hannah and give her a child, but that child, even remember we learned with Hannah, all the length of time was to pull from her this heart of dedication. Not just to say with the lips, “I give you my son,” but to really mean it. “I’m dropping my son off at the temple. I am devoting his life to the work of God, despite what I see. I see Eli. He mishandled me. I know the reputation of Hophni and Phinehas, but my heart,” Hannah could say, “is so in tune. I have felt the pain of life so deeply and the anguish that God, he has led me to the place where if you ever give me a son, God, you’re not giving him to me. He’s yours.”

And we see now from a larger picture that God was looking for a man. And he found him in a baby. You know, by the time that young Mary was with child, the spiritual leaders in the nation of Israel were looking for a man. They still are today. Many are still waiting for Messiah. And what offended them is that the man came as a baby. Just couldn’t be. Just couldn’t be. Prophesied that it would be, but just couldn’t be. It’s just too much.

And thus led in the Gospels, the story of Samuel is much greater even than God finding a man. It’s a story like every page of the Scripture pointing to the coming man, Jesus Christ. Imagine what your life and mine and whatever we’re going through, good or bad, truly has an eternal impact that I know right now you just got the piece and it’s so frustrating. You just don’t know where the piece fits. You just don’t see the big picture. You may not see it this side of eternity, but we might read about it one day and go, “Oh man, look what God has done.”

And here’s this Samuel back in 1 Samuel as we see him grow up and we see the faithfulness of God. Look at with me, please, at verse one of chapter three, because you just don’t know how God’s going to use that situation in your life. You just don’t know. It’s frustrating and it’s difficult waiting, but just wait on the Lord, your strength will be renewed. “Then the boy Samuel,” verse one, “ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.”

We met Samuel through these many contrasts in the first few chapters. He’s in contrast to the polygamy or the bigamy of his father, to the sorrow and barrenness of his mother, to the deadness of the priest, through the unbelief and the disgrace of the sons. We’re now introduced to Samuel with another contrast, and that is this: we have this young boy Samuel in contrast to the silence of God. There hasn’t been anyone in tune with the voice of God. It’s been so quiet. He hasn’t spoken. Nobody’s listening, he hasn’t spoken.

As Samuel faithfully served, the word of the Lord was rare. So far, the only word of God that we’ve read so far was a word of judgment. A word of judgment brought to the man by the man to Eli. This hardness of heart combined with spiritual corruption, the rank compromise in Eli’s life and in the spiritual leadership broke relationship with God. And I believe that God does want to speak and guide you. I believe that God is leading and guiding today. And I believe he will speak and guide when his people are humbly seeking him, where we’re listening, where our ears are in tune.

I think of the word of Jesus all the way back in Revelation over and over, seven times: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.” He who has an ear. And I don’t believe he’s referring to the physical ear here, for sure. He’s referring to the spiritual ear. Jot this down, in Isaiah chapter 55, in verse six it says, “Seek the Lord and while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God he will abundantly pardon.”

Forsake his way, the wicked. Turn on it, call upon him while he’s near. There is no question that God speaks today. No question. There’s no question that God has a word today. The real question is this: are you tuning in? That’s the real question. Not does God still speak today, of course he does. The real question is, are you tuned in? Are we ready and in a position to receive and understand?

We’re just like in this room right now. In this room there is a relative sense of quietness as a Bible study takes place. And if we just pause for a few seconds, sounds pretty quiet to me. Sound quiet to you? And yet in the quietness, there are so many voices in this room right now, in this room. So many voices. There are people talking in this room right now. There are people yelling in this room right now.

Do you know that right now while we’re talking, while we’re in this room, while we’re paying attention to one another and we’re attentive to the word of God, that there are all sorts of competing musical instruments being played right now, right here, right next to you? Right in the empty chair next to you, up and through the room, down into the children’s ministry. There is reggae music being played right now. There is very ungodly, anti-Christ music being played right now.

There are visual images in this room right now. Visual images that were you to see them, they would greatly offend you. They would discourage you. They would be tempting to you. And you go, “What in the world are you talking about?” Well, I’m talking about radio waves. Right now, through this room, filled with radio waves. I’m talking about television, both over the air—you know, if you just pull up an antenna there are images right now flowing through this room of all sorts of things—I’m talking about satellite television.

The kind that’s bouncing off satellites right now and bouncing back and forth, back and forth. They’re all in this room right now, the things you pay for, the things you don’t pay for, they all coming in right now here among us. The fact that we don’t hear them and the fact that we don’t see them has everything to do with our decision not to tune them in. Because if we wanted to tune them in, it wouldn’t take much, would it? Bring a radio in here, turn it on, flip through the dial, you’d hear it right away.

Bring a satellite dish, put it up onto the building. We don’t have one here, but if we did, put it up on the building, tune it in, put a little receiver here, right here up on the screen, boom, we could put it on. You see, the voice of the Lord is very similar. It goes out to and fro throughout the whole earth: the direction of the Lord, the guidance of the Lord. The question is, are you tuned in to receive it? Are you ready to receive?

Because when we’re ready to receive radio, we tune it in. Very precise. In the days, you used to have the radio with the numbers across and you would have to really fine-tune. Now it’s all digital, so you just put in the number and it’s right then and there, nice crystal clear. You got all kinds of mediums now to get those things. Not just in the airwaves but also on the internet. You can tune in and you do tune in.

When you go onto YouTube, many of you, you’re looking for something. When you find it, you click it. When you click it, you watch it. It was there all along, but you needed to find it. There’s not just a sense of receiving it. Now with what internet technology and with the World Wide Web, you and I, we go looking for things. We are wanting to tune into something that we heard or click something that we watched that somebody told us, “Hey, they posted it.” Click, I want this. The people that are putting these videos on, they’re tapping into something that’s in all of us: the desire for knowledge and understanding. Now the question is, are we just as desirous in the spiritual realm and are we just as discriminating in the spiritual realm to listen to the right thing, to exclude the wrong thing?

Guest (Male): Well, thanks for studying the word with us here at Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing the study from 1 Samuel again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or 1place.com. And another way to listen to Pastor Ed’s teachings is through the Calvary Church app.

You know, there’s a tragic and growing crisis facing the church concerning the ministry of counseling. An increasing number of churches and church leaders are forsaking God’s way of counseling and turning to man’s ways. *How to Counsel God’s Way* by Bob Hoekstra calls God’s people to return to Jesus as our Wonderful Counselor. Whether you’re in a position to give counseling or wanting to receive it, this book can be very helpful and a valuable addition to your library. When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you’re invited to request a copy of *How to Counsel God’s Way*. Give us a call: 877-30-GRACE. That’s 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store.

You can also make a donation to the ministry online at aboundinggraceradio.com. And thank you in advance for helping us reach people with the love and truth of Jesus Christ here on the radio and online. Pastor Ed, in this age of social media, we tend to be pretty quick to leave a comment or hit a like button, and that can be helpful feedback to content creators. But in the land of radio, it’s not always so easy to know how things are going. So would you speak for a moment about how a simple email or phone call can go a long way to encourage the team here at Abounding Grace and it lets us know what the Lord is up to?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, I wanted you to know, I’m glad that you asked this question. I want the audience to know that I read every email that comes in. I receive every voicemail. It gets forwarded to me. I tend to answer most of them, although sometimes I can’t, but I do read them, I do pray over them, I do appreciate them. I do take the constructive feedback to be, I want to be a better pastor, better man.

But it would be really good because I know every time I get one, I know another 100 people are ministered to. And so email us. Email us. You can email me directly, just go to my website edtaylor.org, edtaylor.org, or if you just remember our radio broadcast aboundinggracemedia.com, aboundinggracemedia.com or aboundinggraceradio.com. We’ve got a lot of ways you can connect with us because we love to communicate. So aboundinggraceradio.com or edtaylor.org. Email me, tell me what’s going on, tell me how the Lord’s using his word, especially this particular broadcast. I’d love to read it. And I do read them. They come to me and I do read them. Thank you very much for that, they encourage me.

Guest (Male): If you’d like to email us, please do so through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com. Then click "Contact Us." Please let us know the station you’re listening to and how the Lord is using Abounding Grace in your life. Glad you’ve taken time out for our study in 1 Samuel. Join Pastor Ed each day as we continue to learn how to live by God’s abounding grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado, here in Aurora.