From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: People desperately need to hear the whole counsel of God. They desperately need to hear that God is a God of love, but He is also a God of wrath. They need to hear the bad news because the bad news sets you up and prepares the way for the good news.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. Unfortunately, he has some very bad news for you today, followed by the fantastic great news that happens when you hear and then answer the call from God. Today, you're going to hear part two of the message, "Answering the Call." It's from Pastor Jeff's eight-lesson series, *Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel*. It will challenge every believer, and we should take it seriously to faithfully answer God's call and courageously speak the truth in love.

Now, if you miss any of this broadcast or part one from last time, we hope that you'll go to FromHisHeart.org and click the "listen" link to catch up. You can even download a free MP3 of any broadcast as well as the sermon notes from Pastor Jeff. Right now, settle back and open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 3, and we'll have part two of this message, "Answering the Call." Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: It says in verse eight, "So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, for you have called me.' Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, 'Go, lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening."'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood.

This is not a voice only. This is the Lord's person. This is a vision. The Lord stood before him and called as at other times, saying, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening." Lord, I am here. I am ready. What do You have to say to me? The Hebrew word there for listening is *Shema*. You've heard about the *Shema* from Deuteronomy chapter 6: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

The Jews would repeat that prayer every day, the *Shema*. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Well, he's saying, "Lord, I'm listening. Lord, I'm attentive. Lord, my ears are open. I want to listen to what You say and respond to it." And so then the Lord is going to give him a message. "I'm here, Lord. Speak. I am listening."

God's call only comes when the recipient is attentive. Think about it: Why would God give a wonderful message to somebody who's blowing Him off? Sometimes when we pray, we have to be careful about this. We pray and we ask, "God, show me what to do here, and I'll evaluate it." If you're going to hear from God, you say, "Lord, show me what to do, and I'll do it."

If you're going to evaluate what God tells you to do and you're going to think about it and consider it, then God says, "Forget it. I'm not going to tell you what to do because you're going to do whatever you want to do. It doesn't matter what I say to you." God's not going to waste His breath on somebody who is not going to be open and willing and ready to do His will. There's another thing here about the call of God.

If you are so busy and you are so distracted and you have so many things going on at one time, it's very difficult to hear from God. Why? Because the Lord speaks in a still, small voice, the sound of a gentle blowing, as we read in 1 Kings chapter 19. That's how the Lord came to Elijah, and that's how God will speak to you and to me. It's not a booming voice that's going to blow out our ears.

God doesn't speak on the outside; He speaks on the inside. With Samuel, it was a different story. God was obviously speaking to his ears, but I've never heard God speak to me in my ears. He always speaks on the inside, which makes sense because where does Jesus live by His Spirit? On the inside. If you live on the inside, you speak on the inside.

When my wife Debbie and I have a conversation, I never go outside and open the window and start yelling through the window, "Hey, I want to talk to you!" I just talk in the house. She's in the house, and I'm in the house. The Lord is inside if you're a believer. When God speaks to you, He'll take His word, He'll take something you heard, He can take a song or whatever, but He's going to impress that in your heart. You're going to hear from God, not with your physical ears, but with the ears and eyes of your heart, as the scripture says.

Insight number one: God's call often comes when the situation is bleak. Number two: God's call only comes when the recipient is attentive. And number three: God's call always demands our faithfulness. God doesn't say faithfulness is a good idea or a suggestion. Faithfulness is required. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, "Moreover it is required of stewards, of managers, that a man be found faithful."

Not creative, not winsome, not energetic—faithful. That's what God is looking for. At the end of it all, what do we want to hear Him say? "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things; I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master." What is the big deal? It's faithfulness—faithfulness to the Lord's call.

So here is the message: "Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening." The Lord said to Samuel in verse 11, "Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. They will vibrate. I'm getting ready to shake this place. In that day, I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end." You can read about that in chapter 2. He sent a prophet to Eli to tell him, "This is what's coming down the pipe."

"For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever."

So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, but Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." And he said, "Here I am." And he said, "What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all the words that He spoke to you."

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And Eli said, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him." God was bringing judgment on Eli and on his house. Two kinds of judgment were coming. Eli is a believer. Hophni and Phinehas are not believers. They're the sons, they're the priests, but they're not believers.

They have committed the unpardonable sin. No amount of sacrifice, no amount of blood will wash their sin away. They have sinned against the Lord so grievously and so repeatedly, and they have not responded to Him. Their hearts are so hard that they can't be saved at this point, and judgment is coming. They have committed the unpardonable sin.

Eli has committed the sin unto death. He knew what they were doing. These guys were just disgracing the ministry. They were taking offerings that belonged to God and they would take them for themselves in terms of the meat from the sacrifices. They were sleeping with the women at the door of the tent of meeting. Can you imagine that? It's one thing to commit adultery with a woman at some hotel somewhere, but to bring her to church and commit adultery? That's what they were doing.

They were just defiling and desecrating the house of God. If you do that stuff and you start messing in the things of God, judgment will come, and it will be severe. That's what they were experiencing. That's the message twelve-year-old Samuel gets. He's thinking to himself, "I hope Eli doesn't ask me about this because I don't want to tell him. This isn't good news."

What do we find from Samuel? He gets a test right off the bat. Now he knows the Lord. Now he has heard His voice, and he responded to Him in faithfulness. Eli says, "You tell me. Don't hold anything back. May God do to you what He said He was going to do to me if you hold anything back." And so he said, "Okay, I'll tell you."

Larry Nobles: A sobering thought, but one that is eternally important for all of us to consider and respond to by opening our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit as it seeks to penetrate the barriers that the world and our sin have erected, and allow the Spirit of God to come into our hearts. The Holy Spirit will bless you now and for eternity. That is a promise from God. Pastor Jeff will elaborate a bit more in just a moment in this final part of the lesson, "Answering the Call."

How do you respond when the Lord calls to you? God is still speaking today to those who have ears to hear and hearts to receive, and He's calling you and me—people—to listen and respond, just as young Samuel learned to hear and obey the Lord. We too can be attentive to His voice. This series we're in for the next couple of weeks will help you learn how to listen to God's still, small voice and be empowered for His glory all your days.

To get a copy of this message and the series, *Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel*, you can make a gift to From His Heart of any amount this month and get it in the format of your choice when you call 866-402-4253 or go online to FromHisHeart.org. You'll also be challenged to faithfully answer God's call and courageously speak the truth in love. We know that it will bless you in ways that you just can't imagine, but you can trust God's word to be true and faithful to you. Thank you for helping us reach the world each day with truth that changes hearts and homes. Now, let's conclude the lesson, "Answering the Call."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Far too many pastors don't tell people the bad news. They just want to tiptoe through the tulips. We have this word "nuance." We hear that a lot: "He's just very nuanced. You have to be so nuanced." I have a friend of mine that's just so nuanced it makes you want to throw up. Just tell people the truth!

People need to know the truth and say it in a way that they can understand, so they don't walk out of there scratching their head, walking out of the service wondering, "I don't know what the preacher thinks about the subject of hell or homosexuality or abortion or transgenderism. I'm not sure because he kind of talked out of both sides of his mouth."

That's just sickening. That is horrible. You're not doing your job as a herald for the king if people don't know where you stand on issues that the Bible is crystal clear on. So you need to be clear. People desperately need to hear the bad news, and they need to heed it while there is time.

The time had run out for Eli and his sons. As we read in chapter 4, they're all going to die the same day. Then a grandson is going to be born to Eli, and his daughter-in-law is going to die giving birth to this grandson. They name that boy Ichabod, which is an interesting name for a boy. Ichabod means "the glory has departed." The glory of the Lord has departed.

In chapter 4, the ark of the covenant is going to be taken by the Philistines. Hophni and Phinehas are going to be killed. When Eli hears that the ark of the covenant has been taken, he falls back out of his chair and falls on his neck and breaks his neck. The Bible says it was because he was heavy. He didn't have discipline for his sons; he didn't have discipline for himself. He died, and then his daughter-in-law is giving birth, and she dies giving birth, and they have this boy, Ichabod. The glory of the Lord has departed.

In chapter 2, Eli had been given a message from the prophet. He could have responded then, but he didn't. What was his sin? He honored his sons above God. He didn't rebuke his sons, and when he did, it was too little, too late. We need to tell people the truth so that they can respond in time.

You can make friends with people if you lie to them. But listen, if you lie to someone and say, "Love is love, that's right. You just go with whoever you want to be with because love is love and God is love and it doesn't matter," or, "You think you're a man trapped in a woman's body? We just affirm you in that," you're destroying that person. You're lying to that person.

Lying is not loving. We lovingly tell the truth. We speak the truth in love. Paul said, "Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" God's pastors and God's witnesses are called to take what God has done in our lives, take what God has said, and share that with the people.

We're heralds of the king. The king has a message. Just like in the olden times, how would they get the message out? They would have a herald, and he would come out and say, "Thus says the king!" and he'd give the message. What kind of a herald would you be if you looked at what you were supposed to read and thought, "I don't like that. The people aren't going to like that. The king is out of touch. Let me edit this message from the king."

You would be a dead herald, right? Because the king would find out about that and say, "What did you do? You don't have the authority to change my message." How many pastors do we have that think they're more loving than God, more gracious than God, more forgiving than God, and they want to change the message and massage the message?

I just say let it rip. Just tell people, "Thus says the Lord. If the shoe fits, wear it." I didn't write the Bible; I'm just telling you what it says. I want to be a faithful messenger of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is critical in today's world. People desperately need to hear the truth and heed the truth while there is time, and people desperately need to know who is telling the truth.

Not everybody talking about heaven is going there. Not everybody who opens the book and tells you about God is genuine and true. Not everyone is truly sent by God. Samuel tells Eli, and Eli said, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him." Then it says in verse 19, "Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail."

All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. All Israel from Dan, which is the northern part, to Beersheba, which is the very southern part—from top to bottom—they knew this guy is a prophet of the Lord. What he says comes true because he is speaking for God.

Listen, we need to be truth-tellers, and people need to know who's telling the truth. We dare not lie, and we dare not hold back from people. We speak the truth in love. If we talk about hell, we don't speak gleefully about that. We speak brokenheartedly about that. We don't want anyone to go there, but we have to tell people the truth.

As Paul said in Acts 17, "God is now declaring that all men everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

As I told you before, the ark—Noah's ark that he built by the direction of God—that ark is a picture of Jesus. The door to the ark was open for a long time, and there was room in the ark for people. But once the Lord put Noah and his family in there and closed the door behind them, that was it.

In our day and in our age, the door to the ark is still open. Jesus is still available to save. He still has His arms outstretched to you. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4 three times: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." If you keep hardening your heart, you hear the Lord's voice, you hear the Lord's call calling you to leave your life of sin and come to Him, and you hear it and you know it, and you fight and you resist and you say, "Later, I'll do it tomorrow," eventually you're not going to hear the voice anymore.

"I'll do business with the Lord tomorrow." Well, tomorrow may not come for you. As the man who built the bigger barns and said, "I have many goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, and be merry," the Lord said, "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and now who will have what you've left behind?" So is the man who's rich in this present world but is not rich toward God. Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart. Respond to Him. Listen. The message is clear: God is calling. Your Father is calling you. He's calling you to His Son. He's calling you to Himself. How will you respond to the call?

Larry Nobles: Are you willing to answer God's call to you personally today? We hope these have been moving insights for you, and if you'd like a copy of this message to listen to again or share with a friend, it's called "Answering the Call." You can go to FromHisHeart.org and download a free MP3 of this message. You can also download the free sermon notes and outlines from Pastor Jeff in PDF format.

For your gift this month to From His Heart of any amount, we'll send you the entire unedited eight-message series in the format of your choice. Call 866-402-4253 or go to FromHisHeart.org. We are broadcasting real truth and real love and real hope around the world each day through radio. Not every spiritual turning point happens in a church. Sometimes it happens in a living room, sometimes in a hospital bed, sometimes late at night when someone is searching for hope, and sometimes in a car just riding down the road, begging for truth to appear.

Because of your partnership, From His Heart continues to bring clear biblical preaching into homes across America and around the world. You can find out about the depth and breadth of our outreach and how it is growing in more detail when you click on our website at FromHisHeart.org. There, you can read our spring impact report. You'll be blessed to know what your partnership is doing in new hometowns around America. Again, go to FromHisHeart.org and click the newsletter link. Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, reminding you that From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, whose driving passion is to speak the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. He'll continue doing that tomorrow with the message, "When the Lion Roars." That's on Wednesday here on From His Heart.