Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: God brought you here today to let you know. That
Speaker 2: was my voice calling you. That was me that gave
Speaker 2: you that talent. That was me that made you good
Speaker 2: at that. That was me that opened the door for you.
Speaker 2: That was me that gave you that responsibility. That was
Speaker 2: me that gave you health. That was me that gave
Speaker 2: you strength. That was Me that gave you that connection.
Speaker 2: It was him the whole time. It was It was
Speaker 2: the Lord that called Samuel, but it was Eli that
Speaker 2: Samuel ran to. What are you running to? You? If
Speaker 2: you're running to something that is not your purpose, you
Speaker 2: feel it.
Speaker 1: You feel it in several ways.
Speaker 2: But one of the things I want to mention is
Speaker 2: I'm trying to surround myself in this stage of.
Speaker 1: My life with people who bring out the God in me.
Speaker 3: And that's just me.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I don't mean I'm going to be mean to people
Speaker 2: who don't know the Lord, or I'm going to go
Speaker 2: and live in a monastery or something like that.
Speaker 3: But you know, there are some there are some texts.
Speaker 2: That I don't return in this stage of my life
Speaker 2: because I feel like I'm in a season where I'm
Speaker 2: trying to do important things and my calling is valuable,
Speaker 2: and so my contacts are very important because certain stuff
Speaker 2: is contagious, and I know there are certain people. When
Speaker 2: I get around them, I feel something rising me that
Speaker 2: lets me know I can overcome. And I need them
Speaker 2: around me. I need them to rub off on me.
Speaker 2: I need them to speak into my life. I need
Speaker 2: them to encourage me.
Speaker 3: I don't need.
Speaker 2: People who are laying back on the last thing God
Speaker 2: did in this season of my life. I need people
Speaker 2: to push me forward. Yes I do, Yes, I do.
Speaker 2: I gotta be careful reading the comments on my Instagram
Speaker 2: in this season because whatever I may contact with I
Speaker 2: catch and see.
Speaker 3: I need the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2: I need vision, I need hope, I need purpose, I
Speaker 2: need security.
Speaker 1: And so he runs to Eli, but Eli tells him
Speaker 1: is God you need to speak to and the right
Speaker 1: contact in your life will always point you back to
Speaker 1: the only one who has real power. Thank you God
Speaker 1: for this word. I feel your spirit on this one.
Speaker 2: This is not healthier because what the concept of calling
Speaker 2: that most of us have is that you're going to
Speaker 2: go on a forty day fast in the Holy Land
Speaker 2: and God's going to speak to you when you walk
Speaker 2: where Jesus walked and the Sea of Galilee. But the
Speaker 2: Lord is not going to speak to you on the
Speaker 2: Sea of Galilee from a voice on the water. He's
Speaker 2: gonna speak to you, and I know you don't want
Speaker 2: to hear it because it's sexy to thing that someday
Speaker 2: there's gonna be a voice that speaks from heaven. It's
Speaker 2: not gonna be like that. It's gonna sound like Eli.
Speaker 2: It's gonna sound like Eli. And it is through Eli
Speaker 2: that God calls Samuel Eli. This isn't Billy Graham. This
Speaker 2: is the dude who blew it. And this is how
Speaker 2: bad he blew it. WA's what ultimately happens when Samuel
Speaker 2: laughter three times? Everybody say three times? How many times
Speaker 2: do I have to tell you one time? Holly, she
Speaker 2: loses her temper with our kids a lot. Y'all pray
Speaker 2: for her.
Speaker 1: It's kidding. It's a very effacient mom.
Speaker 2: But one time she was so mad at Elijah he
Speaker 2: was only about four. She said, how many times do
Speaker 2: I have to tell you? You got this real fear?
Speaker 2: Look in his eyes? He goes three times? Look at
Speaker 2: the verse eight again a third time. How many are
Speaker 2: glad that God has called, waiting that God will call
Speaker 2: you again? Ask Jonah. Jonah wasn't even a talented preacher.
Speaker 2: He didn't have funny stories, he didn't have good charisma,
Speaker 2: he didn't even like people. But God used him because
Speaker 2: when God calls you, he will call back. You know
Speaker 2: how there are some people when you call them, you
Speaker 2: have to call them, and so you're secretly hoping you
Speaker 2: get their voicemail because you really don't want to talk
Speaker 2: to them anyway.
Speaker 1: Some of you think.
Speaker 2: God is like that, like he really wants someone else,
Speaker 2: and he's really glad that he doesn't have to deal
Speaker 2: with you. But God wants you. God wants you. God
Speaker 2: shows you. God put the genetics in you, the DNA
Speaker 2: in you, the passion in you. The opportunity is for you.
Speaker 2: What God has for you, it is for you. That's
Speaker 2: why you don't have to be jealous, insecure, bitter, resentful,
Speaker 2: That's why.
Speaker 3: You don't I'll have to get back.
Speaker 2: That's why you don't have to take revenge, because what
Speaker 2: God has for you is for you.
Speaker 3: Y'all awake, somebody shout here.
Speaker 2: I am And that was really the answer, because it's
Speaker 2: not only the culture that confuses us in our calling.
Speaker 2: It's not only our contacts sometimes, but it's the conflict
Speaker 2: of calling. The conflict of calling is great on an
Speaker 2: internal and an external level.
Speaker 1: Now what Samuel did next, what.
Speaker 2: A beautiful little story right to show us that God
Speaker 2: repeats things.
Speaker 1: That's one way I know he's speaking.
Speaker 2: You ever noticed this when God is trying to get
Speaker 2: your attention. It's kind of like when you're shopping for
Speaker 2: a certain car and you start seeing them everywhere. When
Speaker 2: God wants to get a message across to you, he'll
Speaker 2: he'll put you in the market for it. And you
Speaker 2: never even looked at anybody else's beats. But now you're like, well,
Speaker 2: what's that one? How's that one different than that one?
Speaker 2: And this one and the other one? Because I'm in
Speaker 2: the market for God. When you get in the market
Speaker 2: for God, you start noticing that He's He's been speaking
Speaker 2: all along, just like just like there was there was confirmation.
Speaker 2: I didn't have time to put this word in the sermon.
Speaker 2: It starts with the letter CE, so it could be
Speaker 2: a bonus point confirmation. God, God will speak something over here,
Speaker 2: over here, over here, and you'll start noticing it. You'll
Speaker 2: start noticing little things, and then it'll you hear it
Speaker 2: in the sermon, and then you hear it in a movie,
Speaker 2: and then you hear it in a song, and then
Speaker 2: you hear it you see it on somebody's the back
Speaker 2: of their window, and then you hear it through your husband,
Speaker 2: and then you hear it through and you just see
Speaker 2: it and just hear it, and you start seeing it
Speaker 2: and you start hearing it, and then you have to discern,
Speaker 2: which is to separate. That's what Eli did. He discerned
Speaker 2: the Hebrew word is being. He discerned, He separated, He
Speaker 2: made a distinction. He had a discern.
Speaker 1: Meant to know. This is the Lord calling the boy.
Speaker 2: So he said, when it happens again, and this is
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord for you when it happens again.
Speaker 2: When it happens again, if it happens again, just say
Speaker 2: speak Lord.
Speaker 1: Your servant is listening.
Speaker 2: And I want to show you something that the Lord
Speaker 2: just show me His greatest revelation happened in rest. Eli
Speaker 2: didn't say, Oh, that may be God, you better run
Speaker 2: out and catch him before he leaves. Well, if God
Speaker 2: spoke to you, better chase him down. No, if it
Speaker 2: was God's speaking, he'll come back. All you got to
Speaker 2: do is be in position for it. That's all you've
Speaker 2: got to do. You don't have to find it, it'll
Speaker 2: find you.
Speaker 1: Trust me.
Speaker 2: God is not playing hide and seek in the Tabernacle.
Speaker 2: God is not running around the tent. Haha. If I
Speaker 2: hide behind this table of chowbred, Samuel will never find
Speaker 2: me back here. God's not hiding behind the labor. You know,
Speaker 2: He's not hiding. And even though God is always moving,
Speaker 2: he's never hiding. That's what the Tabernacle was was a
Speaker 2: portable structure, and they set it up in the wilderness
Speaker 2: because they never knew when God was going to say
Speaker 2: stop and when God was going to stay go.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Because God does not want you to depend on his will.
Speaker 2: He wants you to depend on him. There's a difference.
Speaker 2: One is God, just show me what to do. That
Speaker 2: way I won't need you. The other one is God,
Speaker 2: I want you wherever you lead me wherever you take me,
Speaker 2: whatever it means, whatever.
Speaker 1: It costs, and whatever it looks like.
Speaker 2: But here's the conflict, because Samuel goes in and he
Speaker 2: lays down the Bible says he didn't know the Lord yet.
Speaker 2: He knew how to He knew how to be the
Speaker 2: bread in the tabernacle.
Speaker 1: That was his job. You know, how to open the
Speaker 1: doors so people could come worship.
Speaker 2: He knew how to follow Eli around and get me
Speaker 2: this and get me that. But there's a big difference
Speaker 2: between the rituals of religion and a relationship with God.
Speaker 2: And if you're going through the motions, like you know,
Speaker 2: singing songs, not really thinking about the words, just kind
Speaker 2: of singing them, or just kind of like hearing little
Speaker 2: forgettable things that I say in my sermon that you know,
Speaker 2: you won't even remember what it was about fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: after I'm done. It's possible that you don't know the
Speaker 2: Lord yet. I don't mean you're not a Christian, not necessarily.
Speaker 2: I don't mean you don't believe in God. I mean
Speaker 2: not necessarily. But to know him is to know his voice.
Speaker 2: And when you know him like that, I hear things
Speaker 2: that are hard to hear, but you can know that
Speaker 2: even when he says things that are hard for you
Speaker 2: to hear, he says them from a spirit of love,
Speaker 2: grace purpose. One of my friends is a real overtext.
Speaker 2: I can't keep up with him, and I love him,
Speaker 2: but my thumb's hurt and I can't do it. And
Speaker 2: I don't voice text because it's annoying because it corrects
Speaker 2: the wrong words the wrong way, and you can get
Speaker 2: in trouble that way and say something you didn't mean
Speaker 2: to say, end up firing somebody you meant to hire.
Speaker 2: But it changes. It doesn't know because your voice anyway.
Speaker 2: One time he texted me, he said, how come our
Speaker 2: conversation is all gray on iPhone? When they text you,
Speaker 2: it's gray, When you text back, it's blue. When he
Speaker 2: said that, I wondered if sometimes my relationship with God
Speaker 2: is all gray to where he is speaking and he
Speaker 2: is prompting and he is provoking. But God can speak,
Speaker 2: Speak speak. Three times he did it. God didn't say
Speaker 2: anything different the third time except this when he said, speak, Lord,
Speaker 2: your servant is listening, and he laid down in his place.
Speaker 1: I got to hit that real quick.
Speaker 2: I know we're running out of time but it says
Speaker 2: Samuel went and laid down in his place.
Speaker 1: That's first nine. Put it up.
Speaker 2: Samuel went and lay down in his place, in his place,
Speaker 2: in his place, you will realize God's purpose when you
Speaker 2: get in your place, touch somebody next to you and say,
Speaker 2: get in your place. Because if God is dropping off
Speaker 2: the mail but you're not home, you won't get it,
Speaker 2: and you'll think he didn't send it, and you'll think
Speaker 2: he didn't speak. But I learned something with my friend.
Speaker 2: It was not just the conflict of the calling. It
Speaker 2: was the color. It was all gray. But the breakthrough
Speaker 2: is in the blue. It's not just when God speaks.
Speaker 2: It's when you get in your place and say, God,
Speaker 2: here I am the real me, the honest me, the
Speaker 2: open me, the ready me, the humble me, the broken
Speaker 2: down me, the me that.
Speaker 1: Is ready to do your will.
Speaker 2: Because I've done my will and I saw how that
Speaker 2: worked out, and I'm ready to do your will. That's
Speaker 2: what Isaiah said. He said, I'm an unclean man with
Speaker 2: unclean lips. But if you'll take that coal and touch
Speaker 2: my lips, I'll speak for you. Because Holy, Holy, Holy
Speaker 2: is the Lord God Almighty. So here I am I'll go.
Speaker 2: Moses stood at a bush. He turned aside, took off
Speaker 2: his shoes, and said, God, I'm slow of speech. I'm
Speaker 2: not eloquent, and you saw the things I did that
Speaker 2: put me in this predicament. But if it's you calling here,
Speaker 2: I am somebody shout here, I am. Jeremiah said, I'm
Speaker 2: too young for this, and your people are stubborn, and
Speaker 2: you know they're not gonna listen. But if it's you
Speaker 2: calling me here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm confused about my calling is because
Speaker 2: I don't just have one. This is what I didn't
Speaker 2: know in my twenties, because I felt like God called
Speaker 2: me to preach you.
Speaker 3: Iver felt like God called you.
Speaker 1: To do something put you somewhere.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe it wasn't something big spectacular. Maybe you're
Speaker 2: not gonna do a halftime show at the super Bowl
Speaker 2: with it, but God called you to do something. I
Speaker 2: just saw your Patriots gear made me think of the
Speaker 2: super Bowl. God bless you man, congratulations on that. I
Speaker 2: hope you're happy.
Speaker 1: Now. How many is it gonna take for you guys
Speaker 1: to shut up about it?
Speaker 2: But there's a there's a blessing in it. There's a
Speaker 2: blessing in it, even if it's a small thing. And
Speaker 2: you say, okay, God called me to do this. But
Speaker 2: then what happens is, look, I was called to preach, right,
Speaker 2: so I start preaching.
Speaker 1: I start going around preaching.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching everywhere, preaching everywhere they asked me to come preaching.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching at the lock in. I AP preach. So
Speaker 2: I preached some one time, so late at the night,
Speaker 2: it was three am, and I had this sermon illustration
Speaker 2: where I would take a mirror and I'd break the mirror,
Speaker 2: and I AP preach Genesis one twenty six about the
Speaker 2: Image of God. And Holly can tell you we knew
Speaker 2: where the mirrors were in every walmart in the state
Speaker 2: of South Carolina, because every time we get to a
Speaker 2: new little town to preach the fifteen kids, I'd go
Speaker 2: in and get a.
Speaker 1: Mirror and then I'd break it with a hammer.
Speaker 2: And I say, this is what sends us to you,
Speaker 2: you know, put the condemnation on the young people.
Speaker 1: Just put it on them. Are breaking mirrors.
Speaker 2: And one boy went to the emergency room because the
Speaker 2: glass flew up and hit him in the eye. And
Speaker 2: I had to call his parents and tell him not
Speaker 2: to sue me.
Speaker 1: I'm a man of.
Speaker 2: God and I got a ministry, and if you assume me,
Speaker 2: God's going to curse you and make you.
Speaker 1: But I didn't say that. But I was running around preaching, right.
Speaker 2: But then I'm married Holly, and I realized I'm called
Speaker 2: to be her husband too. Come on, it's the conflict
Speaker 2: of calling. It's complicated. You can make it sound sup. Well,
Speaker 2: find your calling?
Speaker 3: Which one?
Speaker 2: Because then I was called to be a preacher and
Speaker 2: a husband, and sometimes they needed different techniques.
Speaker 1: What if I walked home and said, Holly, give him
Speaker 1: a seal of praise.
Speaker 2: It's different callings. That's three people. Because I this just does.
Speaker 2: And then by the time I'm getting these callings, you know,
Speaker 2: I got how many? You got at least two callings
Speaker 2: in your life, at least two things that you're responsible for,
Speaker 2: and they're in conflict. Sometimes Here she comes pregnant four
Speaker 2: years into marriage.
Speaker 3: Here she turns up pregnant. Now I'm called to be
Speaker 3: a parent.
Speaker 1: Now I'm called to.
Speaker 2: You feel like you're not just putting on different hats,
Speaker 2: but you actually have like different heads.
Speaker 1: I read that in that Sitser book. The will of
Speaker 1: God is a way of life.
Speaker 2: He said, I felt like I didn't just have different hats,
Speaker 2: I had different heads. And this is the conflict of calling.
Speaker 2: But the answer is always availability, presence, access. When he
Speaker 2: said speak Lord, your servant is listening, it created access
Speaker 2: not only for God's word to come to him, but
Speaker 2: for God's word to come through him. And what God
Speaker 2: said was difficult. He said, I'm transitioning. Not only am
Speaker 2: I transitioning you from an apprentice to a priest, from
Speaker 2: a priest to a prophet, but I'm transitioning Eli and
Speaker 2: his Son's out of the earth so that my purpose
Speaker 2: can be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: I'm transitioning. I'm transitioning, and.
Speaker 2: You're going to have to go through a difficult transition
Speaker 2: right now. But by the time we get to First
Speaker 2: Samuel four, verse one, the Bible says that Samuel's word
Speaker 2: came to all Israel. I was curious why I didn't
Speaker 2: say God's word through Samuel. But by this point in
Speaker 2: First Samuel four, because Samuel said, here I am speak Lord,
Speaker 2: we have now gone from the word of the Lord
Speaker 2: was rare to the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Speaker 2: Because he had gotten to a point where he heard
Speaker 2: God's voice on the level that when he spoke, what
Speaker 2: he spoke came directly from the Throne of God. God
Speaker 2: wants to get us to the place where we are
Speaker 2: not running around all the time talking about what we're
Speaker 2: going to do one day. Some of you are using
Speaker 2: the concept of a calling as a crutch to not
Speaker 2: fully embrace the season of life that you're in, and
Speaker 2: that is not the will of God for you. And
Speaker 2: you may be called to be a mom one day,
Speaker 2: but if you're not a mom right now.
Speaker 1: Can you say, here I am to this season.
Speaker 2: And you may be called to own your own business
Speaker 2: one day, but can I just say that in the meantime,
Speaker 2: the only thing that God has.
Speaker 1: Ever wanted from you was all of you.
Speaker 2: The only thing that God has ever asked of you
Speaker 2: is here I am. It's what Jeremiah said, it's what
Speaker 2: Moses said, it's what Isaiah.
Speaker 1: Said, it's what Samuel said.
Speaker 2: And when he made himself available, the word of God
Speaker 2: became abundant. I want you to stand to your feet
Speaker 2: because God has been speaking your whole life. He's been
Speaker 2: speaking through hard things, he's been speaking through painful things,
Speaker 2: he's been speaking through pleasure, passion. He's been speaking through rejection,
Speaker 2: He's been speaking through restlessness. It wasn't that God wasn't speaking,
Speaker 2: is that the people had lost their ability to listen.
Speaker 2: And so God said to Samuel, before you can speak
Speaker 2: for me, I need you to learn to listen. This
Speaker 2: is what God wants to fine tune in our lives
Speaker 2: over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: This is what God wants to do.
Speaker 2: In your heart over the next few weeks, because honestly,
Speaker 2: some of you are still running to Eli when it's
Speaker 2: really God. Some of you are running trying to find
Speaker 2: something out there when God is trying.
Speaker 1: To speak to you in your place.
Speaker 2: That's what got me this time, because I didn't preach
Speaker 2: that last night, But when I was speaking to you,
Speaker 2: God was speaking to me, and I try to listen,
Speaker 2: and he said, tell him stay in your place. Samuel
Speaker 2: didn't wake up that morning looking for a calling.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the problem with.
Speaker 2: Us, Maybe that we've made this thing about calling and
Speaker 2: what God has for my life. What if what God
Speaker 2: has called you to first and foremost is himself, wouldn't
Speaker 2: that set you free? That the will of God is
Speaker 2: not which job the will of God is not which
Speaker 2: school you put your kids in.
Speaker 1: My God.
Speaker 2: I was talking to Buck the other day. One thing
Speaker 2: I love about Monk's Corner better than Charlotte.
Speaker 1: There was two schools you could go to. There was
Speaker 1: just two.
Speaker 2: It was the public one and the one that everybody
Speaker 2: that smoked weed at the public one.
Speaker 1: Got sent to the Christian school. But listen to me.
Speaker 1: We've made the will of God a resource. It's not
Speaker 1: a resource, it's a relationship. It's a relationship. It's a relationship.
Speaker 2: So I want us to go through this next several
Speaker 2: weeks not looking for clarity, certainty, but confidence to know
Speaker 2: that if I will make myself available to this calling
Speaker 2: in this moment, his speak, he will speak. Question is
Speaker 2: will you respond. What I've learned to do now is
Speaker 2: not necessarily say this is God or this isn't God.
Speaker 2: I got this new thing. It may be God.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: The only way for me to find out. The only
Speaker 2: way I can experience the breakthrough is in the blue.
Speaker 2: So speak Lord, I'm listening.