Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: The story of human history is God using people who surrender their lives to him, who experience him personally, and then are used by God for kingdom purposes.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University.

Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Heroes. Let’s listen as JP gives us part one of Samuel.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you open to 1 Samuel chapter 3? That's where we're picking up the story of Samuel this morning. Let me give you a little bit of the back story. Israel has been going through a time of spiritual renewal and spiritual defection, repentance and apostasy.

God has been bringing judges, human leaders who have come along and called the nation back to repentance, and for a time they've sought the Lord, and then they've kind of grown complacent and moved away from the Lord and fallen back into idolatry. And they're in a spiritual pattern and cycle. And there are peoples who live around the nation of Israel that are, from a military political perspective, oppressing them, primarily the Philistines and the Amalekites.

And so during this long period of time, Israel is experiencing this kind of up and down up and down up and down spiritual experience, and from a political, economic, military perspective, they're experiencing constant conflict and friction and oppression from their neighbors. And God in the midst of this brings different individuals who serve a purpose for a time in his kingdom program, which is what God always does.

In fact, the story of human history is God using people who surrender their lives to him, who experience him personally, and then are used by God for kingdom purposes. That's the way God wants to use us today. He wants to use this church for his kingdom purpose today. He wants to use me, he wants to use you, for his kingdom purpose today. And so we've been looking really at how God uses people in the past so we can learn for ourselves to have that same dynamic discipleship experience with Jesus Christ.

And Samuel was the last of a line of judges to be used by God. His mother, Hannah, came to the temple. She was without child, and she cried out to God to give her a child. In fact, she made a vow to the Lord that if God would give her a child, if God would give her a son, she would raise him and then dedicate him to the service of the Lord.

And God heard that prayer and gave Hannah a child, and the child was born, she named him Samuel. And after a time of weaning and raising him, she brought him to the temple. The high priest at the time was a man named Eli, and she committed Samuel to Eli's care. And so most of Samuel's childhood was in temple service learning from the high priest what it meant to serve God.

And one night, according to God's sovereign plan, God revealed to Samuel the plan, the kingdom plan that he had, and he spoke to him. And the first thing that I want us to pick up from Samuel's example is this: Samuel listened to God. It's not just that God spoke to him, it's that Samuel listened to what God had to say.

It says this in 1 Samuel chapter 3: "The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, 'Here I am.'"

In the intervening passages, this happens three times. Samuel hears God speak, he says, "Here I am," he thinks it's Eli calling. Samuel hears God speak, Samuel says, "Here I am," he thinks it's Eli. Samuel hears God speak, Samuel says, "Here I am," he thinks it's Eli. Eli says to him, "It's not me, it's the Lord, so you better listen to what he says."

Verse 10: "The Lord came and stood there, calling as at other times, 'Samuel, Samuel!' And then Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'" And the Lord said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears tingle." And God revealed the plan that he had for Israel and how Samuel was going to play a part in that plan.

Verse 19 says, "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word." There's several things going on here. One is that God is speaking, two is that Samuel is listening, and three, people began to observe that Samuel was a person who was getting words from God and it was changing his life, and his message was a message from God.

You see, God speaks. God is a revealer, and God speaks in many ways. The Bible records numerous ways that God reveals himself and makes himself known. In fact, the Bible says in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord.

And in Romans chapter one, the Apostle Paul says, "For since the creation of the universe, God's unique nature, his divine nature, his eternal power has been clearly seen through what has been made, so that men are without excuse because God has revealed himself to them and God has revealed himself in them." So creation is a means of God's communication with us.

But more personally, it says in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one, that in former days God spoke through the prophets in many portions and in many ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us in his son. Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God. And Paul says in Colossians chapter one that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

But how is it that we know about God? How is it that we know about Jesus? How is it that we know the specifics of God's plan? Well, it's because God has spoken, and what God has said has been written down for us, it's been inscripturated. That's why Jesus said in John chapter 17, in praying to the Father, "Father, sanctify them in truth; thy word is truth."

And the writer of the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter four says, "The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword; it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit and joint and marrow; it judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart."

And Paul, in writing to the church at Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians chapter two, says, "We thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe."

So God has various means of revealing himself and speaking. He spoke to Samuel audibly, and Samuel heard it and said, "I'm listening." God speaks. He continues to speak today. The Bible says God speaks through dreams and visions. He speaks through prophetic words.

In fact, we're warned in 1 Thessalonians chapter five not to neglect prophetic utterances, but we're to weigh them and listen to them and determine are they really prophetic, are they really from God. And so it says, "Abstain from what's evil, cling to what's good." 1 Thessalonians chapter five.

God speaks supernaturally. God speaks circumstantially. He closes some doors and he opens other doors. The Apostle Paul, on his missionary journey to Philippi, it says there in Acts chapter 16 that they tried to go in one direction and they got a closed door; they tried to go in another door, they got a closed door.

He had a dream where he saw a guy from Philippi saying, "Come over, come over and preach to us as well." And he woke up and it said he concluded the Holy Spirit spoke to him, and they went to Philippi. So God used a combination of circumstances, closed doors and open doors, and dreams to communicate, you see. And Paul was listening, and he heard the message.

God speaks, and God is not limited to what we might impose upon him to speak to us. We know God has spoken in his word. We know that is an authoritative, truthful revelation of God to us. So one issue is God speaking; the other issue is our listening. Samuel listened. That's what distinguished him. That's why from Dan to Beersheba, they knew he was a prophet, because he listened to God.

Are you listening to God? Are you hearing God's voice? Because God still speaks. He speaks through his word, he speaks through prayer, he speaks through circumstances, he speaks through creation, he can speak through dreams, he can speak through visions, he can speak through prophetic words. God speaks, but are you listening?

Listening is a function of our heart attitude, our spiritual growth and maturity. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 10, "Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the thoughts of God except God's Spirit which is in him.

Which thoughts God makes known to us by his Spirit because the Spirit reveals the things of God to us. The natural man does not know the things of the Spirit of God because they're foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned.

But he who is spiritual discerns all things even though he's not discerned by any man. Who's known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? We have the mind of Christ." Paul says the Holy Spirit reveals the things of God. Some people don't get it because they don't even have the Holy Spirit; they're natural. Other people, because they're responsive and they're seeking and they're teachable, they get it because God makes it known to them. They listen to it, and they have the mind of Christ, you see. It's a spiritual responsiveness to the Spirit's teaching.

Are you spiritually teachable? Are you spiritually open, or have you your mind's made up, "Don't confuse me with the facts"? Now, you can be the other way. You can have your mind so open that your brains falling out. I understand that. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about are you listening to God? Are you seeking after God? Are you reading his word? Are you listening when you come to church?

Are you praying and asking God to speak to you? Do you have a sensitivity that Paul talks about in Romans chapter eight, where he says our spirit bears witness with God's Spirit and we kind of say, "Abba, Father," and we have that sense that God is speaking to us?

You see, Samuel listened to what God had to say. Now, how do you know it's God and not something else? Well, I'll tell you. God teaches, rebukes, corrects, trains in righteousness, and equips with every good work, because that's what it says all scripture is profitable for. So if it's God's word, if God is the one speaking to you, he's going to teach you, he's going to rebuke you.

Time out. Doesn't rebuke mean point out sin in my life? Yeah. I thought worship was all just warm, fuzzy, wonderful, great, God giving me affirmation that I can do it, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Well, sometimes, and sometimes it's God saying, "You got sin in your life and you got to deal with it."

If we're never hearing the voice of rebuke, we may not be listening to God. God teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us. He doesn't just kind of leave us out there with that sense of guilt; no, he then shows us how to be forgiven, how to be restored, how to do something about the stuff that he's rebuking us for. And then trains us in righteousness, trains us to be more righteous, and then equips us for every good work.

So maybe that's the test that you ought to apply. It's a scriptural test, so it's not just maybe you should do that. So in your reading of God's word, in your prayer, in your listening to my sermons, in your weighing of wise counsel, in your trying to understand "Is this really the voice of God that I'm listening to?", put it to the 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 test, because that's where that comes from.

Is this teaching me the truth about God? Is this rebuking me of sin in my life? Is this correcting me in the way I should follow God? Is this training me in righteous living? Is this equipping me for good works? It's got to pass all five tests, because that's what God's message does.

Samuel heard, listened to God speaking, and as a result it says from Dan to Beersheba they knew he was a prophet. Let me ask you: do your friends, do your neighbors, do the people who know you, do they know that you're a follower of Jesus Christ? Do they know that you're a person who's seeking after God? Do they know you're a person who's listening to God?

See, that's what set Samuel apart. Because it says at Shiloh, God revealed himself to him, and God kept on speaking to him through his word. And from Dan, which is the very top northern part of Israel, to Beersheba, which is the southern part of Israel, everybody knew that Samuel was a prophet.

See, it was making a difference in his life, the fact that he was listening to God. He was being changed, he was being transformed. His life was different because he was a person who sought the Lord, found the Lord, and heard God speak to him. Is your life different because you're seeking after God, because you're hearing the voice of God? And do people see the difference in your life?

Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "Let your light shine before men, that others might see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven." Samuel was a guy who heard God, listened to God, because his heart was in tune with what God was saying. God wants us to be people who listen to him. That's the first observation.

Here's a second observation: Samuel sought the Lord for himself and for others. He sought the Lord for himself and for others. Over in 1 Samuel chapter 7, Samuel gathers all the people of Israel together because what's been happening is the Philistines have been conducting raiding parties into Israel. They're harassing the Israelites.

And Samuel said, "That's not just a military problem, it's a spiritual problem." And he said, "You got to get first things first. You got to get your life right with God. And I will pray for you and I will intercede for you that God will change you and then change the whole nation and protect us against our enemies."

And it says in 1 Samuel chapter 7, verse 3: "And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, 'If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods, the Ashtoreths, and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.'

So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, 'Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you.'" And when they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord.

And on that very day they fasted and there they confessed, "We've sinned against the Lord." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them.

And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines, and they said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines." Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And he cried out to the Lord on Israel's behalf, and the Lord answered him.

And while Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in a battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and they pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar. And then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. And he named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the Lord helped us."

So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. And throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. And the towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines.

And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel continued to judge over Israel all the days of his life. You know what? Just like the Israelites, we live in the land of the Philistines. We got enemies, spiritual enemies. We got pressures, we got giants, we got temptations, we got struggles.

And we need the Lord's help. These people, it was real. The spiritual battle was real to them because there were real Philistines who were really going to invade them and who were really going to waylay them. But the spiritual battle is just as real for us; it's just can't see it. You can see the symptoms of it, but it happens in the unseen realm, the Bible tells us, Ephesians chapter 6.

We need the Lord's help. Samuel prayed, fasted, confessed, sought the Lord, cried out to the Lord, sacrificed worship offerings unto the Lord. And it says the Lord heard, the Lord answered. And God did a miracle. The Philistines were coming down to invade them, and they didn't even have to fire a shot.

I mean, God caused a thunderstorm with lightning strikes to so confuse them and disrupt the troops of the Philistines, even though they had a superior fighting force. And we know historically they also had iron implements as weapons and they had much better armor.

So the Israelites were outmanned and outgunned, but God intervened for them, caused a great confusion to take place among the Philistines, and then the Israelites just came and wiped them out. Samuel was a guy he knew when to pray and he knew when to shoot. And God used him.

We need some Samuels in our life, godly people who will pray for us and intercede for us. We need to be Samuels in the life of other people. You're either one of those kind of persons right now, and maybe you're both at the same time. You're either a person who needs to be a Samuel for somebody else in your life, or you need a Samuel in your life because you got something going on in your life that's overpowering.

The Philistines are coming down on you. Or somebody you know is going through something that is overpowering them and the Philistines are coming down on them. What God did historically is he raised up Samuel to pray for Israel, to intercede for them, to seek the Lord for them, and God heard his prayers and he gave them help. That's why he erected what was known as his Ebenezer. Ebenezer is a Hebrew word that means "rock of help."

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5.

Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at CrosslineChurch.com.

We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series talking about heroes. And today we're talking about the man Samuel. He was a man that God raised up to lead Israel and to help people find a relationship with God. Do you know every one of us can be a hero?

We can be a person that God can use in our generation. We can be a person that God uses in our family. We can be a person that God uses with our friends and our neighbors to point them to Jesus Christ. Samuel was used by God primarily because he listened to God. That's what his name means: "he who listens to God."

The story of Samuel is a story of someone who heard God speak to him, listened to what God said, and then put it into practice. Every one of us can be like Samuel. Every one of us can be a person who listens to God, does what God says, and is an example to others.

In fact, the Bible says this: "Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, and once he's looked at himself and immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

But the person who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." That passage out of James tells us that we're to be both hearers and doers of God's word.

Samuel was that kind of a guy. God called him, God spoke to him, he heard it, he put it into practice, and then he spoke it throughout Israel. We need to be people who hear God's word on a daily basis, who study God's word, who put it into practice.

It says in 2 Timothy 2:15 that we're to study to show ourselves approved as workmen who don't need to be ashamed, but those who handle accurately the word of truth. Our primary goal as followers of Jesus Christ is to hear his word, to study his word, to put his word into practice, and follow hard after Jesus.

We can be heroes in our generation. We can be men, we can be women, who follow in the steps of Samuel when we hear God's word, when we put that word into practice, when we do what it says, and then when we proclaim it to others.

Paul, writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter four, says, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who's going to judge the living and the dead: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction."

God is pleased when we have hearts that are open to him, when we receive his word, when we hear what he says, when we do what his word says, and then when we give it away and we preach it to others.

Samuel was a hero in his generation because he heard God, he listened to God, he obeyed God, and he stood up for God. Every one of us can be heroes as we do the same thing. Let's pray; let's ask God to make us heroes in our generation.

Lord, I pray that you would make us like Samuel. You would make us people who hear your word, who obey your word, and who share your word with others. I pray for that in Jesus' name, amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250.

On the internet you will find us at CrosslineChurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to CrosslineChurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.