Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: 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: There is a passage of scripture that has always fascinated me,
Speaker 2: and I knew it was the one to start this
Speaker 2: series with because most of my sermon ideas come from
Speaker 2: a text, usually a text in the Bible. But this
Speaker 2: whole series came to me through a text on my
Speaker 2: phone and somebody texted me, but I didn't have their
Speaker 2: number in my contacts, but they had texted me before
Speaker 2: and their name was in the text. So you know,
Speaker 2: Steve Jobs is so smart, even from beyond the grave.
Speaker 2: He made a suggestion on my iPhone and he said maybe,
Speaker 2: and then it said it could be this person. And
Speaker 2: when I saw it on my phone, I realized that
Speaker 2: that would make an amazing way to spend several weeks
Speaker 2: in the Word of God talking about those times where
Speaker 2: we don't know if it's God or not, and so
Speaker 2: we're trying to lead our families some of us, or
Speaker 2: we're trying to get our education, or we're trying to
Speaker 2: decide about jobs or dates, or trying to decide about
Speaker 2: moving to a new house or new apartment, or just
Speaker 2: trying to figure out what it is that we were
Speaker 2: put here on earth for. But the series is called
Speaker 2: Maybe God, Maybe God. We worship a God who can
Speaker 2: be best explained as mystery, and yet we live in
Speaker 2: a culture that worships certainty. And so I want to
Speaker 2: talk about that for several weeks with you. And I'm
Speaker 2: so glad you're here. Touch somebody and say he's so
Speaker 2: happy you're here. That preacher, That preacher is happy you're here.
Speaker 1: That's true. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2: And what I need you to do right now is
Speaker 2: give you attention just to this text in First Samuel,
Speaker 2: chapter three, where we will encounter a young man who's
Speaker 2: encountering God. And I pray that we will encounter God
Speaker 2: in the process today. First Samuel three, verse one. The
Speaker 2: boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days,
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord was rare. There were not
Speaker 2: many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so
Speaker 2: weak that he could barely see was lying down in
Speaker 2: his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet
Speaker 2: gone out touch somebody say, there's still time, There's still time.
Speaker 2: I know you might have got off track in your life,
Speaker 2: but there's still time. I know there might be some
Speaker 2: things out of order in your house, but there's still time.
Speaker 2: I know you might have wasted some years chasing your
Speaker 2: own ways, but God brought you here because there's still time.
Speaker 2: God left you here because there's still time. If you're
Speaker 2: still breathing, there's still time. I got a friend named
Speaker 2: Perry Noble. His favorite quote is, if you're not dead,
Speaker 2: God's not done.
Speaker 1: And I just believe that. I believe it.
Speaker 2: So the light had not yet gone out out, and
Speaker 2: Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord,
Speaker 2: where the ark of God, which symbolized the presence of
Speaker 2: God was, And then the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered,
Speaker 2: here I am. And he ran to Eli and said,
Speaker 2: here I am. You called me, but Eli said I
Speaker 2: didn't call go back to sleep, man, wake me up
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night. I didn't call you.
Speaker 2: Go back and lie down. So he went and lay
Speaker 2: down again. The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up
Speaker 2: and went to Eli and said, here, I am. This
Speaker 2: is really strange, right like, because you expect when God
Speaker 2: calls it'll sound so deep. So baritone Samuel apparently it sounded.
Speaker 2: It sounded so much like what he was used to
Speaker 2: being that he ran to the place where he normally
Speaker 2: went and he was like, here, I am, you called me,
Speaker 2: my son. Eli said, I did not call, go back.
Speaker 1: And lie down, but you need an ambient, a weighted.
Speaker 2: Blanket, some milk, a cookie.
Speaker 1: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed
Speaker 2: to him. A third time, the Lord called Samuel, and
Speaker 2: Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here,
Speaker 2: I am, you call me. I know you're messing with me.
Speaker 2: Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.
Speaker 2: So Eli told Samuel go and lie down. If he calls,
Speaker 2: you say speak Lord, for your servant is listening. The
Speaker 2: title of this message is something that I have heard
Speaker 2: people say to me of all ages, of all ethnicities,
Speaker 2: of all econom status positions. And I want you to
Speaker 2: look at the screen for the title of my message.
Speaker 2: It goes like this, I'm confused about my calling. I'm
Speaker 2: confused about my calling. I love God and I love
Speaker 2: my family and I want to make a difference. But
Speaker 2: look at somebody next to you and say you look confused.
Speaker 2: Tell them I am, I'm confused about my call. Lord
Speaker 2: have your way, speak your word. We're listening in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 2: Now be seated. You are forgiven. If when I say
Speaker 2: calling you roll your eyes a little bit. It is
Speaker 2: one of these terms that is so popular in culture
Speaker 2: that it almost means nothing anymore, and it can be
Speaker 2: frustrating the older you get when people talk about lofty
Speaker 2: ideals like finding your calling. You need to find your calling,
Speaker 2: and you know, well, for most of us, that's way
Speaker 2: outside of the realm of our everyday life where we're
Speaker 2: trying to pay bills. It's like, you know, you need
Speaker 2: to find your calling, and you're like, well, I'm doing
Speaker 2: good to find my keys in the morning, and you
Speaker 2: want to talk about finding your calling. And as much
Speaker 2: as I understand that, I also understand that there's a
Speaker 2: reason that the majority of questions that I have been
Speaker 2: asked as a pastor in these thirteen years going on
Speaker 2: fourteen years, the reason for it is that there is
Speaker 2: something inside of you that wants to find the thing
Speaker 2: that you were made to do, and you will never
Speaker 2: be satisfied with anything else. And no matter how much
Speaker 2: sex you have, money you make, friends you meet, no
Speaker 2: matter how big the house is that you build, no
Speaker 2: matter how many cars you park in the driveway, there
Speaker 2: will always be something unsatisfied in you until you find
Speaker 2: that thing that we call a calling.
Speaker 1: And yet, and yet, so much damage.
Speaker 2: Has been done in popular culture by the concept of
Speaker 2: calling that it actually makes us discontent with our lives
Speaker 2: because rather than understand the real nature of a calling,
Speaker 2: we have a concept of a calling, and often we
Speaker 2: spend our lives wishing that we were doing something that
Speaker 2: God did not tell us to do.
Speaker 1: So to break this first sermon down.
Speaker 2: Today, and there will be several in this series, I'm
Speaker 2: praying that you come.
Speaker 1: To all of them.
Speaker 2: And I'm praying if you can't come to all of them,
Speaker 2: you'll watch them all because they're all online for free.
Speaker 2: And I can't figure out a reason in the world
Speaker 2: why you couldn't spend forty minutes with me on YouTube
Speaker 2: each week, even if you have to do it while
Speaker 2: you're walking the dog, even if you have to do
Speaker 2: it while you're falling.
Speaker 1: Asleep, I'll put you to sleep. I don't mind whatever
Speaker 1: I can get.
Speaker 2: I'll help you run on the treadmill, whatever you have
Speaker 2: to do to get these messages. The Bible says in
Speaker 2: verse one that in those days, while Samuel, the twelve
Speaker 2: year old who was apprenticing in the tabernacle because his
Speaker 2: mother Hannah, prayed that she could have a son, and
Speaker 2: she had trouble conceiving. And when she finally had the son,
Speaker 2: she dedicated him to the Lord, and she dropped him
Speaker 2: off at age four and only saw him once a year,
Speaker 2: and she put him under Eli, who wasn't doing a
Speaker 2: very good job. He was letting his sons run around
Speaker 2: in the tabernacle and have sex with women at the
Speaker 2: entrance to the tabernacle, and he knew about it, but
Speaker 2: he wouldn't do anything about it. And he was letting
Speaker 2: his sons beat people up who had brought their sacrifice
Speaker 2: to the temple, and they brought their sacrifice to God,
Speaker 2: but the priests took it for themselves. Hofney and phineas
Speaker 2: Eli's sons, would send their messenger out to the tent
Speaker 2: and say, hey, Hoffney said, you got to give him
Speaker 2: the fat portion, And the people who came would be like, well,
Speaker 2: that's for the Lord. They can get the portion after
Speaker 2: it burns off, that's the priest portion. But they had
Speaker 2: gotten confused about what it meant to honor God, and
Speaker 2: they had started honoring themselves and their opinions and their desires,
Speaker 2: and they started treating God as common. And so the
Speaker 2: Bible says something interesting in verse one. It says, in
Speaker 2: those days, with all of that going on, the word
Speaker 2: of the Lord was rare because they treated the Lord
Speaker 2: as common.
Speaker 1: The word of the Lord was rare.
Speaker 2: Because we live in a day where it is so
Speaker 2: easy to get information but so difficult to get truth.
Speaker 2: I figured this verse would apply to us. Would you
Speaker 2: agree with me that we are drowning in information, drowning
Speaker 2: in opinion, drowning in agenda, drowning in projections, but starving
Speaker 2: for truth.
Speaker 1: You know I'm right about it.
Speaker 2: It's such a crazy time. You don't know who to
Speaker 2: trust anymore. You don't know if it's real, know if
Speaker 2: it's fake. You don't know if it's inflated. You don't
Speaker 2: know if it's a statistic. And let me give you
Speaker 2: a statistic. Eighty three percent of statistics are made up.
Speaker 2: That's a statistic. I made it up. It's a time
Speaker 2: where truth is hard to find. And it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that there wasn't access to the Bible. God knows we
Speaker 2: have access to the Word of God. You could pull
Speaker 2: out your phone right now and a British person will
Speaker 2: read you the Bible on the Bible at That made
Speaker 2: me think of something real funny. One time, Graham asked
Speaker 2: me do British people find American accents soothing?
Speaker 1: Probably not.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing about it. It's not access to
Speaker 2: the Word of God. It's our attitude to the Word
Speaker 2: of God.
Speaker 1: It's our attitude.
Speaker 2: It's why some people can come into church and look
Speaker 2: narcoleptic in church. That's why some people can come into
Speaker 2: church and leave during the invitation. God forbid it takes
Speaker 2: you seven minutes to get the cracker barrel. It's why
Speaker 2: some people can click around to different sermons and be like, Ah,
Speaker 2: I don't know Fredi's not on today.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go over here to this one and that one.
Speaker 2: And that's what See, when the Word of God becomes
Speaker 2: common to us, we will have access to the Word
Speaker 2: of God, but it will not have impact on our life.
Speaker 2: And so the first thing I wanted to mention is
Speaker 2: the culture. The culture in Eli's time was a culture
Speaker 2: of neglect, a culture where the value of who God
Speaker 2: was and what he.
Speaker 1: Said was negotiable.
Speaker 2: Therefore there was an absence of that special presence of God.
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord was rare because the Lord
Speaker 2: of the Word had become common. And I just want
Speaker 2: to say to you today that many of our cultural
Speaker 2: concepts of calling are really just self help, individualistic, ambition
Speaker 2: oriented delusions dressed up in Christian cliches. And because you
Speaker 2: got a trophy when you were seven does not mean
Speaker 2: you get to play Major League Baseball. And the culture
Speaker 2: of our day is kind of like, instead of worshiping God,
Speaker 2: we worship our idea of God's will, And rather than
Speaker 2: being in relationship with God, we want God to be
Speaker 2: a resource.
Speaker 1: Who is more like Siri than he is like a savior.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you come back next week the
Speaker 2: way I'm starting to sermon, but we need to get
Speaker 2: something straight right off the bat that until I treasure
Speaker 2: the voice of God, tell you the voice of God,
Speaker 2: hearken to the voice of God, make time for the
Speaker 2: voice of God, consecrate myself, I can't get it by skimming.
Speaker 2: I can't get it by just you know, running around
Speaker 2: to this person and that person.
Speaker 1: It is the revealed will of God that we're after.
Speaker 1: It is the revealed will of God.
Speaker 2: Now, when I was in my twenties, I did all
Speaker 2: this teaching and preaching. And now you know, now that
Speaker 2: I'm wiser, I turned forty next year, you'll better start
Speaker 2: working on my gift now, because it's a big one.
Speaker 2: It's kind of cringey for me to look back on
Speaker 2: the way I spoke about calling in my twenties that
Speaker 2: probably left people feeling at the very least confused, at
Speaker 2: worse frustrated, and maybe even full of resentment because the
Speaker 2: way it happened in my life is different for all
Speaker 2: of us. Here's Samuel, who is receiving a revelation of God,
Speaker 2: And in my life, I never heard anything audible that
Speaker 2: God said to me. I never, you know, the Lord
Speaker 2: never said Fardich Steve, what God called you by your
Speaker 2: last name for someone don't know, but he said. He
Speaker 2: never said, you know, preach to me out loud. There
Speaker 2: were desires, there were opportunities. I noticed some effectiveness. It's
Speaker 2: the weirdest thing. When I first got up to pray
Speaker 2: for Pastor Mickey, who asked me to pray at a
Speaker 2: Lions Club meeting. I noticed that people seem to be
Speaker 2: blessed as I prayed, and they connected him. And it
Speaker 2: took Pastor Mickey to explain to me that that was
Speaker 2: the hand of God.
Speaker 1: All my life I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: If he hadn't been there to guide me, I would
Speaker 2: have maybe thought I was just a charismatic speaker. He
Speaker 2: helped me to see that there was something supernatural involved.
Speaker 2: And I was sixteen years old, and I had someone
Speaker 2: who had been around long enough to see some things
Speaker 2: to tell me it was special. Otherwise I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: known him. Now here's what I did with that knowledge.
Speaker 2: I preached in my twenties that just like God called
Speaker 2: me to preach, God has called each Christian.
Speaker 1: To do something.
Speaker 2: You agree with that, But here's the part that I
Speaker 2: think was incomplete. While I'd be up there saying to people,
Speaker 2: you need to find your calling. You need to find
Speaker 2: your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
Speaker 2: to find your calling. You need to find your calling.
Speaker 2: You find your calling. You need to find your calling.
Speaker 2: You need to find your calling. You need to find
Speaker 2: your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
Speaker 2: to find a calling, because he gets annoying after a while. Right,
Speaker 2: It's like I'm just trying to like I need a job, man,
Speaker 2: I don't know about a calling.
Speaker 1: I've need a raise right now.
Speaker 2: Is that it makes it sound as if it's something
Speaker 2: that you can just get and just know. And yet
Speaker 2: did you notice in the passage that even Samuel, who
Speaker 2: was the link between the period of the Judges and
Speaker 2: the monarchy of Israel a thousand years before Jesus, that
Speaker 2: even Samuel, who none of his words fell to the ground,
Speaker 2: even Samuel didn't get it right the first time. I
Speaker 2: don't know why, but that encourages me just reading this
Speaker 2: little story, to know that there's someone that God used
Speaker 2: to do something great.
Speaker 1: And he called him and he chose him.
Speaker 2: But even this great prophet didn't get it right the
Speaker 2: first time. I want to set you free today from
Speaker 2: the feeling that you have to find your calling. That's
Speaker 2: a cultural concept, it's not a biblical one. You don't
Speaker 2: have to find your calling. In fact, if the tech
Speaker 2: this correct, if Samuel is an illustration, then I don't
Speaker 2: have to find my calling, because if I will serve
Speaker 2: the purpose of the season that I'm in in my
Speaker 2: life right now, watch this, get ready to shout.
Speaker 1: My calling will find.
Speaker 2: Me in that good news, Christian soldiers, aren't you glad
Speaker 2: to know that?
Speaker 1: When Samuel heard a voice and he didn't even know
Speaker 1: whose voice it was.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing about it, I want to talk
Speaker 2: about the culture, and then I want to talk about
Speaker 2: the contact, the contact, because when he first heard the voice,
Speaker 2: it sounded like something he had heard before. Have you
Speaker 2: ever noticed is hard to know the difference between when
Speaker 2: you're speaking to you and when God is speaking to you.
Speaker 1: And watch out for the Christians.
Speaker 2: Who are running around so sure that it's God speaking
Speaker 2: to them. Those are the weird ones. These are the
Speaker 2: crazy ones. I mean, I'm serious. You gotta watch out
Speaker 2: for him. And they're here at Elevation, just like they're
Speaker 2: at every church. And they'll find you in the bathroom
Speaker 2: and they'll have a word from the Lord for you,
Speaker 2: and they don't even know you. And it's weird because
Speaker 2: it's the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Can I wash my hands?
Speaker 2: If God spoke to you, he'll do it in the lobby.
Speaker 1: Now, let me finish using the bathroom.
Speaker 2: I'm serious, because I'm a preacher and people always think
Speaker 2: I want to be spiritual, and people will stop me
Speaker 2: in the bathroom sometimes at a restaurant and give me
Speaker 2: a word from the Lord. But if it was really
Speaker 2: the Lord, he would have told you it's weird to
Speaker 2: talk to people in the bathroom and wait till a
Speaker 2: man gets outside, because there is such a thing as germs,
Speaker 2: and God doesn't cancel out germs. I don't want your
Speaker 2: pphetic word. Well, I'm trying to so, but because he
Speaker 2: gets weird, because he gets weird, we still have to
Speaker 2: realize that the only way that the will of God,
Speaker 2: or the word of God or the voice of God
Speaker 2: can be recognized. That's what the Bible said that Eli
Speaker 2: who was old, who couldn't see fys. I've been on
Speaker 2: this thing lightly that we really need people in our
Speaker 2: life who are older than us, who have been along
Speaker 2: the journey and to respect the price that they paid,
Speaker 2: and to not just think that because they don't go
Speaker 2: on SoundCloud or because they don't have a lot of
Speaker 2: Instagram followers, that they have nothing to teach us. I'm
Speaker 2: really seeing the value and people who they may not
Speaker 2: have the physical vision that they used to have, but
Speaker 2: they can discern spiritual things. And Eli wasn't even a
Speaker 2: perfect priest. In fact, God was in the process of
Speaker 2: moving him out of the way. And even in that transition,
Speaker 2: because the whole passage is about transition. It's Samuel transitioning
Speaker 2: from a boy to a man, from boys to men.
Speaker 2: I was just thinking, you know, it's hard to say goodbye.
Speaker 2: But when Eli is transitioning out, and when Samuel is
Speaker 2: transitioning up and he's ultimately stepping into the thing God
Speaker 2: created him for. God deals with Samuel, but he does
Speaker 2: it through Eli. And whatever God is going to speak
Speaker 2: in your life is going to come in the context
Speaker 2: of relationships. And I chose the word contact to describe
Speaker 2: it because whoever you put around you the most will
Speaker 2: start to affect the voice inside.
Speaker 1: Of you that speaks to you. And have you ever.
Speaker 2: Noticed that God's voice sometimes in your life sounds like
Speaker 2: your wife. Sometimes for me, it sounds like my kids.
Speaker 2: Sometimes in my life I've noticed that if I am
Speaker 2: not selective about my contacts, I will start hearing I
Speaker 2: don't mean like out loud voices. I don't want you
Speaker 2: to send me off after I've preached today or anything
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I mean the voice in my mind a lot of times.
Speaker 2: When I was going through a counseling session to try
Speaker 2: to understand myself better. The one thing that the therapist
Speaker 2: would keep saying, is whose voice is that? You know
Speaker 2: these things you say to yourself, You go like, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm so stupid and you never get anything right,
Speaker 2: and well, of course you screwed it up, you screw
Speaker 2: everything up, you know all that.
Speaker 1: And she keeps saying, whose voice is that? Whose voice
Speaker 1: is that?
Speaker 2: And I didn't know if she was just trying to
Speaker 2: get me to say, you know, it was my dad.
Speaker 1: You know. Oh, like the point of all therapy. My
Speaker 1: diapers were too tight. I dit it.
Speaker 2: But what I realized is that most of us who
Speaker 2: are not clinically insane don't actually hear voices. We process thoughts, right,
Speaker 2: so we say the voice of God? How does the
Speaker 2: voice of God come into your life?
Speaker 1: Through thoughts? Through thoughts?
Speaker 2: And that's why Samuel was confused, right because he heard something,
Speaker 2: so he went where he knew to go. And I
Speaker 2: want to point out something about this. He did the
Speaker 2: right thing, He did the right thing. He ran. I
Speaker 2: noticed the Bible said that when he heard his name
Speaker 2: called Samuel first of all. It didn't sound it didn't
Speaker 2: sound strange to him. It sounded like what he was
Speaker 2: used to. So he ran because that's what he did,
Speaker 2: because he had the right passion.
Speaker 1: But he ran to the wrong person.
Speaker 2: Some of you right now, you had the right passion,
Speaker 2: but you're running to the wrong person or the wrong place.
Speaker 2: Now this is not only true in the case of Samuel.
Speaker 2: It was true of Moses. God called him to deliver
Speaker 2: his people from the Egyptians. Moses had the right passion,
Speaker 2: but where he messed up. Listen to this, U see
Speaker 2: when he killed the Egyptian. It was the right passion,
Speaker 2: but it was misplaced. He tried to do it his way.
Speaker 2: He didn't get it right the first time. And some
Speaker 2: of the things that you've gotten wrong in your life,
Speaker 2: some of the mistakes that you've made, it was God's
Speaker 2: stirley you up. But it was Eli that you ran to.
Speaker 2: You ran to the thing that God was trying to
Speaker 2: remove out of your life because that's what you were
Speaker 2: used to. You ran to the thing that you were
Speaker 2: familiar with because it's all your mind could understand. And
Speaker 2: so God gave you a gift, but you used that
Speaker 2: gift for you for a little while.
Speaker 1: Until you found out.
Speaker 2: Unless I offer the gift back to the giver, it's
Speaker 2: going to come back empty. But God brought you here
Speaker 2: today to let you know. That was my voice calling you.
Speaker 2: That was me that gave you that talent. That was
Speaker 2: me that made you good at that. That was me
Speaker 2: that opened the door for you. That was me that
Speaker 2: gave you that responsibility. That was me that gave you health.
Speaker 2: That was me that gave you strength. That was Me
Speaker 2: that gave you that connection. It was him the whole time.
Speaker 2: It was It was the Lord that called Samuel, but
Speaker 2: it was Eli that Samuel ran to.
Speaker 1: What are you running to? If you're run if you're.
Speaker 2: Running to something that is not your purpose, you feel it.
Speaker 2: You feel it in several ways. But one of the
Speaker 2: things I want to mention is I'm trying to surround
Speaker 2: myself in this stage.
Speaker 1: Of my life with people who bring out the God
Speaker 1: in me. And that's just me.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't mean I'm going to be mean to people
Speaker 1: who don't know the Lord, or I'm going to go
Speaker 1: out and.
Speaker 2: Live in a monastery or something like that.
Speaker 1: 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. I don't need people who are
Speaker 2: laying back on the last thing God did in this
Speaker 2: season of my life.
Speaker 1: I need people to push me forward. Yes I do, Yes,
Speaker 1: 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 1: 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.
Speaker 2: He runs to Eli, but Eli tells him is God
Speaker 2: you need to speak to and the right contact in
Speaker 2: your life will always point you back to the only
Speaker 2: one who has real power.
Speaker 1: Thank you God for this word. I feel your spirit
Speaker 1: on this one.
Speaker 2: This is gonna help you because one the concept of
Speaker 2: calling that most of us have is that you're going
Speaker 2: to go on a forty day fast in the Holy Land,
Speaker 2: and God's gonna speak to you when you walk where
Speaker 2: Jesus walked and the Sea of Galilee. But the Lord
Speaker 2: is not going to speak to you on the Sea
Speaker 2: of Galilee from a voice on the water.
Speaker 1: He's gonna speak to you.
Speaker 2: And I know you don't want to hear it because
Speaker 2: it's sexy to thing that someday there's going to be
Speaker 2: a voice that speaks from heaven. It's not going to
Speaker 2: be like that. It's gonna sound like Eli. It's gonna
Speaker 2: sound like Eli. And it is through Eli that God
Speaker 2: calls Samuel Eli. This isn't Billy Graham. This is the
Speaker 2: dude who blew it. And this is how bad he
Speaker 2: blew it. Watch what ultimately happens when Samuel laughter three times?
Speaker 2: Everybody say three times? How many times do I have
Speaker 2: to tell you? One time, Holly, she loses her temper
Speaker 2: with our kids a lot. Y'all pray for her. It's kiddy.
Speaker 2: It's a very patient mom. But one time she was
Speaker 2: so mad at Elijah. He was only about four.
Speaker 1: She said, how many times do I have to tell you? You?
Speaker 2: Got this real fear look in his eyes? He goes
Speaker 2: three times. Look at the verse eight again a third time.
Speaker 2: How many are glad that God has called, waiting that
Speaker 2: God will call you again? Ask Jonah. Jonah wasn't even
Speaker 2: a talented preacher. He didn't have funny stories, he didn't
Speaker 2: have good charisma, he didn't even like people. But God
Speaker 2: used him because when God calls you, he will call back.
Speaker 2: You know how there are some people when you call them,
Speaker 2: you have to call them, and so you're secretly hoping
Speaker 2: you get their voicemail because you really don't want to
Speaker 2: talk to them anyway. Some of you think God is
Speaker 2: like that, like he really wants someone else and he's
Speaker 2: really glad that he doesn't have to deal with you.
Speaker 2: But God wants you. God wants you. God shows you.
Speaker 2: God put the genetics in you, the DNA in you,
Speaker 2: the passion in you, the opportunity is for you. What
Speaker 2: God has for you, it is for you. That's why
Speaker 2: you don't have to be jealous, insecure, bitter, resentful.
Speaker 1: That's why you don't 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 1: 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. Now what Samuel did next,
Speaker 2: What a beautiful little story right to show us that
Speaker 2: God repeats things.
Speaker 1: Way I know he's speaking.
Speaker 2: You ever notice 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 see, 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 hear 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 discernment to know. This
Speaker 2: is the Lord calling the boy. So he said, when
Speaker 2: it happens again, and this is the word of the
Speaker 2: Lord for you when it happens again. When it happens again,
Speaker 2: if it happens again, just say speak Lord.
Speaker 1: Your servant is listening, and I want to show you
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: You better run out and catch him before he leaves. Well,
Speaker 1: if God spoke to you, better chase him now. No.
Speaker 2: If it was God's speaking, he'll come back. All you
Speaker 2: got to do is be in position for it. That's
Speaker 2: all you've got to do. You don't have to find it,
Speaker 2: it'll find you, trust me. God is not playing hide
Speaker 2: and seek in the Tabernacle. God is not running around
Speaker 2: the tent.
Speaker 1: Haha.
Speaker 2: If I hide behind this table of chowbred, Samuel will
Speaker 2: never find me back here. God's not hiding behind the
Speaker 2: labor you know, He's not hiding. And even though God
Speaker 2: is always moving, he's never hiding. That's what the Tabernacle
Speaker 2: was was a portable structure, and they set it up
Speaker 2: in the wilderness because they never knew when God was
Speaker 2: going to say stop and when God was going to
Speaker 2: stay go. Why Because God does not want you to
Speaker 2: depend on his will. He wants you to depend on him.
Speaker 2: There's a difference. One is God, just show.
Speaker 1: Me what to do. That way I won't need you.
Speaker 2: The other one is God, I want you wherever you
Speaker 2: lead me, wherever you take me, whatever it means, whatever
Speaker 2: it costs, and whatever it looks like. But here's the conflict.
Speaker 2: Because Samuel goes in and he lays down Bible says
Speaker 2: he didn't know the Lord yet he knew. He knew
Speaker 2: how to bake the bread in the tabernacle, that was
Speaker 2: his job. He knew how to open the doors so
Speaker 2: people could come worship. He knew how to follow Eli
Speaker 2: around and get me this and get me that. But
Speaker 2: there's a big difference between the rituals of religion and
Speaker 2: a relationship with God. And if you're going through the motions,
Speaker 2: like you know, singing songs, not really thinking about the words,
Speaker 2: just kind of singing them, or just kind of like
Speaker 2: hearing little forgettable things that I say in my sermon,
Speaker 2: you know, you won't even remember what it was about
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes after I'm done. It's possible that you don't
Speaker 2: know the Lord yet. I don't mean you're not a Christian,
Speaker 2: not necessarily. I don't mean you don't believe in God.
Speaker 2: Don't mean not necessarily. But to know him is to
Speaker 2: know his voice. And when you know him like that,
Speaker 2: you can hear things that are hard to hear. But
Speaker 2: you can know that even when he says things that
Speaker 2: are hard for you to hear, he says them from
Speaker 2: a spirit of love, grace purpose. One of my friends
Speaker 2: is a real overtext. I can't keep up with him
Speaker 2: and I love him, but my thumb's hurt and I
Speaker 2: can't do it. And I don't voice text because it's
Speaker 2: annoying because it corrects the wrong words the wrong way,
Speaker 2: and you can get in trouble that way and say
Speaker 2: something you didn't mean to say, end up firing somebody
Speaker 2: you meant to hire. But it changes. It doesn't know
Speaker 2: because your voice anyway. One time he texted me, he said,
Speaker 2: how come our conversation is all gray on iPhone when
Speaker 2: they text you, it's gray when you text back blue.
Speaker 2: When he said that, I wondered if sometimes my relationship
Speaker 2: with God is all gray to where he is speaking
Speaker 2: and he is prompting and he is provoking. But God
Speaker 2: can speak, speak speak. Three times he did it. God
Speaker 2: didn't say anything different the third time except this when
Speaker 2: he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening, and he
Speaker 2: laid down in his place.
Speaker 1: I got to hit that real quick. I know we're
Speaker 1: running out.
Speaker 2: Of time, but it says Samuel went and laid down
Speaker 2: 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. But I learned something with my friend. It
Speaker 2: was it was not just the conflict of the calling.
Speaker 2: It was the color. It was all gray. But the
Speaker 2: breakthrough 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.
Speaker 1: The meat that 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.
Speaker 1: So here I am. I'll go. Moses stood at a bush.
Speaker 2: He turned aside, took off his shoes and said, God,
Speaker 2: I'm slow of speech, I'm not eloquent, and you saw
Speaker 2: the things I did that put me in this predicament.
Speaker 2: But if it's you calling here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah said, I'm too young for this, and your people
Speaker 2: are stubborn and you know they're not gonna listen. But
Speaker 2: if this's you 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 felt like God called you to
Speaker 2: do something, put you somewhere. I mean, maybe it wasn't
Speaker 2: something big spectacular. Maybe you're not gonna do a halftime
Speaker 2: show at the super Bowl with it, but God called
Speaker 2: you to do something. I just saw your Patriots gear
Speaker 2: made me think of the super Bowl. God bless you man.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on that. I hope you're happy. Now.
Speaker 1: How many is a it gonna take for you guys to.
Speaker 2: Shut up about it? But there's a there's a blessing
Speaker 2: in it. There's a blessing in it, even if it's
Speaker 2: a small thing. And you say, okay, God called me
Speaker 2: to do this. But then what happens is, look, I
Speaker 2: was called to preach, right, so I start preaching. I
Speaker 2: start going on preaching. I'm preaching everywhere, preaching everywhere. They
Speaker 2: asked me to come preaching. I'm preaching at the lock
Speaker 2: in I appreach. So I preached some one time, so
Speaker 2: late at the night. It was three am, and I
Speaker 2: had this sermon illustration where I would take a mirror
Speaker 2: and I'd break the mirror, and I preach Genesis one
Speaker 2: twenty six about the image of God. And Holly can
Speaker 2: tell you we knew where the mirrors were in every
Speaker 2: walmart in the state of South Carolina, because every time
Speaker 2: we get to a new little town to preach the
Speaker 2: fifteen kids, I'd go in and get a mirror and
Speaker 2: then I'd break it with a hammer, and I say,
Speaker 2: this is what send us to you, you know, put
Speaker 2: 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 God and I got a.
Speaker 2: Ministry, and if you assume me, God's going to curse
Speaker 2: you and make you. But I didn't say that, But
Speaker 2: I was running around preaching right but then I married Holly,
Speaker 2: and I realized I'm called to be her husband too.
Speaker 2: Come on, it's the conflict of calling. It's complicated. You
Speaker 2: can make it sound sump. We find your calling which one?
Speaker 2: Because then I was called to be a preacher and
Speaker 2: a husband, and sometimes they needed different techniques. What if
Speaker 2: I walked home, I said, Holly, give him a seal
Speaker 2: of praise. It's different callings. That's three people, just I guess,
Speaker 2: just does. And then by the time I'm getting these callings,
Speaker 2: you know, I got how many? You got at least
Speaker 2: two callings in your life, at least two things that
Speaker 2: you're responsible for, and they're in conflict. Sometimes Here she
Speaker 2: comes pregnant four years into marriage.
Speaker 1: Here she turns up pregnant. Now I'm called to be
Speaker 1: a parent. 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. I read that
Speaker 2: in that Sitser book, The Will of God is a
Speaker 2: way of life. He said, I felt like I didn't
Speaker 2: just have different hats. I had different heads. And this
Speaker 2: is the conflict of calling. But the answer is always availability, presence, access.
Speaker 1: When he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening.
Speaker 2: It created access not only for God's word to come
Speaker 2: to him, but for God's work to come through him.
Speaker 2: And what God said was difficult. He said, I'm transitioning.
Speaker 2: Not only am I transitioning you from an apprentice to
Speaker 2: a priest, from a priest to a prophet, but I'm
Speaker 2: transitioning Eli and his Son's out of the earth so
Speaker 2: that my purpose can be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: I'm transitioning.
Speaker 2: I'm transitioning, and you're going to have to go through
Speaker 2: a difficult transition right now. But by the time we
Speaker 2: get to First Samuel four, verse one, the Bible says
Speaker 2: that Samuelil's word came to all Israel. I was curious
Speaker 2: why I didn't say God's word through Samuel. But by
Speaker 2: this point in First Samuel four, because Samuel said, here
Speaker 2: I am speak Lord, we have now gone from the
Speaker 2: word of the Lord was rare. To the word of
Speaker 2: Samuel came to all Israel because he had gotten to
Speaker 2: a point where he heard God's voice on the level
Speaker 2: that when he spoke, what he spoke came directly from
Speaker 2: the throne of God. God wants to get us to
Speaker 2: the place where we are not running around all the
Speaker 2: time talking about what we're gonna do one day. Some
Speaker 2: of you are using the concept of a calling as
Speaker 2: a crutch to not fully embrace the season of life
Speaker 2: that you're in, and that is not the will of
Speaker 2: God for you. And you may be called to be
Speaker 2: a mom one day, but if you're not a mom
Speaker 2: right now, 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 ever wanted from you
Speaker 2: was all of you. The only thing that God has
Speaker 2: ever asked of you is here I am. It's what
Speaker 2: Jeremiah said, It's what 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 find tune in our lives
Speaker 2: over the next few weeks. This is what God wants
Speaker 2: to do in your heart over the next few weeks,
Speaker 2: because honestly, some of you are still running to Eli
Speaker 2: when it's really God. Some of you are running trying
Speaker 2: to find 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. And
Speaker 2: maybe that's the problem with us, Maybe that we've made
Speaker 2: this thing about calling and what God has for my life.
Speaker 2: What if what God has called you to first and
Speaker 2: foremost is himself.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that set you free?
Speaker 2: That the will of God is not which job, The
Speaker 2: will of God is not which school you.
Speaker 1: Put your kids in. 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 got.
Speaker 1: Sent to the Christian school. But listen to me. We've
Speaker 1: made the will of God a resource. It's not a resource.
Speaker 1: 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 1: I got this new thing. It may be God. I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Only way for me to find out. The only way
Speaker 2: I can experience the breakthrough is in the blue.
Speaker 1: So speak, Lord. I'm listening.
Speaker 2: Say that to your life, say that to your pain,
Speaker 2: Say that to what you think was your mistake. You
Speaker 2: know what your mistake may be, God, he may, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna show you that next week. That's my sermon.
Speaker 1: Next week.
Speaker 2: I am gonna show you next week how your mistakes
Speaker 2: are miracles in disguise. In disguise, the presence of the
Speaker 2: Lord is in this place. Would you lift your hands
Speaker 2: God is here.
Speaker 1: Father. I thank you for the word that came forth today.
Speaker 1: We receive it. Somebody, say see that.
Speaker 2: Quit sitting there with your lips just puckered up, just
Speaker 2: stressed out, open your mouth and say, I receive it.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 2: Everything that you're doing in my life, everything that you're
Speaker 2: calling me to be, all the things that you're doing
Speaker 2: that aren't really about me. Lord, I don't want to
Speaker 2: be self centered and just self consumed. I thank you
Speaker 2: that the wind of your spirit is blowing, so I
Speaker 2: set my sales on this new series. God, I'm not
Speaker 2: asking you just to speak to me. I'm asking you
Speaker 2: to open my eyes, to see you in my ears,
Speaker 2: to hear you. Open the eyes of my heart, open
Speaker 2: my understanding, open my will to your will, and your
Speaker 2: will be done in my life. Thank you for your presence,
Speaker 2: Thank you for your purpose, Thank you for your provision.
Speaker 1: Lift your hands high as you can say, speak Lord,
Speaker 1: say it out loud, to speak Lord.
Speaker 2: I'm listening. I'm gonna listen to my life this week.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna listen to I'm gonna listen to the still
Speaker 2: small voice this week. Too much noise, too much noise.
Speaker 2: Word of the Lord is rare when the Lord of
Speaker 2: the word becomes common. I'm gonna look for you this week.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna find you. I'm gonna seek you, seeking you fine.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.