Sorry, verse 10, and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak for thy servant heareth. Well, friends, we're looking at this wonderful passage, a very familiar passage, I'm sure, to many of you of the Lord calling Samuel. And my subject is the Lord is calling, the Lord is calling. The God who made the world, friends, the world that we inhabit, the God who made the heavens and the earth, He has a voice. He's a speaking God. He's a God who communicates, a God who calls out to men and women everywhere to come to Him, to come to Him and He will give them life, eternal life. He's not like the idols that so many still worship, the statues that people bow down to. They have a mouth, but it never opens, never utters a word, never utters a syllable comes out of their mouth. They are dumb, dumb idols. They speak not, and yet people worship them, yet people pray to them, people bow down to them. not so the Lord our God. He has a mouth and they are filled with messages for men and women, messages of grace, messages of peace, messages telling us things that we do not know and can never know. We can never find out by our own searching how to be reconciled with God, how to find the Lord, how to be saved, how to be a believer, how to go to heaven. Oh, He speaks and He tells us these things. He's a speaking God. From the beginning of creation, friends, He has been speaking. Non-stop, we could say. He has been presenting to us His words, communicating to us, revealing Himself and the way of free forgiveness right from the very beginning, telling us how we may be saved, calling us again and again to come to Him. God is calling men and women through His people, through His Word. Imagine, friends, Imagine a world where God is dumb. Imagine a world with a silent God, a silent creator. If the Lord God, who made all things, refrained from speaking, held back, was numb and refused to speak to us, how awful that would be. How terrible that would be for us. How hopeless that would be for us. What hope would we have if God was silent and said nothing to us? We would be in the dark still. We would be ignorant still. We would be foolish still. It's only because he speaks that we are educated and we are delivered out of our ignorance and we are made wise unto salvation. If we were left to ourselves, And to our own words and man's words, we would all come up with our own way to heaven. We'd never be really sure as well that that is the right way. I think this, one person says, I think this is the way. Another one, oh friends, a silent God. It's a terrible judgment. It's an awful judgment to ever happen if you're a child. And perhaps one of your friends upsets you. Oh, that's it. I'm not speaking to you anymore. I'm never going to speak to you again. You've upset me. We say that sometimes. We've said that as children, isn't it, to others. God sometimes stops speaking to people. God sometimes stops communicating with people because they've ignored his voice. They've ignored his call. He's called out to them again, and again, and again, and they refuse again, and again, and again. And eventually, friends, he may, because it's up to him, he may stop speaking. I have no right on him. I cannot demand that he speaks to me. Who am I to say, you have to speak to me? I can't do that. It's of his own initiative that he must take. So how important it is for us, friends, when we hear the voice of God, and we've all heard it, surely, that we respond immediately, just like Samuel does in this case. Oh, friends, this is so precious to us. It was somewhat like this, you know, when God called Samuel the situation, the environment at the time. We read there in verse 1, the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. That is to say that the word precious there doesn't mean valuable, but it means rare. The word of the Lord was rare in those days. And because it was rare, It was precious. It was precious. Just like jewels are worth more because they're rare. And so here the word of the Lord was read. It wasn't as before. Before there were so many, God was communicating often to Israel. But now he has, as it were, withdrawn and only once in a while he is speaking to them. There was no one with open vision, no one really even who was seeking, very few who were seeking to hear from him. Heaven, and almost silent. Horrible thought, dreadful, no word from God, no word from him. Not entirely, thankfully, but still so very different from before. That's why when this message came to Samuel, it was to be much prized. When the Lord spoke to Samuel, oh friends, what a blessing that was, what a gracious thing. Dear friends, it's an immense privilege to hear the voice of the Lord. And when it comes to us in a personal way, when it comes to us as it came here to Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, the Lord said, is calling him by name. That's how the Lord works. That's how the Lord speaks. He doesn't speak en masse, gather everyone into a football stadium, and thousands, 60,000, and speak to them all like that. He gets you on your own. It's a voice that comes to you in a personal way, and a very gentle way at first. Samuel, Samuel. He's coming to you. You know His call. You know when He's speaking to you. You know it in your heart. You know it in your conscience. Oh friends, how we should respond immediately as this young boy Samuel did. Do you know he's only 9 or 10 years old? That's all he is. And as soon as he hears, the very first time he realizes it's the Lord speaking to him, not Eli. He says, Master, speak for your servant here. You're never too young to come to Christ. You're never too old, but you're never too young. Don't think, I must wait until I'm 20 or 30 and then I will become a Christian. Are you eight? Are you nine? Are you five? Are you 10? Are you a teenager? Here, the Lord is speaking to you. What's your name? He's calling you to come to him. Oh, this is so wonderful, friends. So here is this wonderful passage, and it's This event here with the Lord calling Samuel, it happened in the middle of the night or perhaps just before morning broke. And while Samuel is still fast asleep that the Lord called him for the first time, Samuel, Samuel. He thinks it's Eli on the first occurrence. And perhaps the voice sounded like Eli's voice, I don't know. But who else is going to call him? There's only one person on his mind that would ever call him, and who's called him before, and that was Eli, the old man, the old high priest. Well, the young boy thought, Eli was summoning him, so without hesitation and obedient as he was, he got up, he threw off his quilt or his cover, and he jumps out of his bed and he dashes to see what the old man needs. And he says, here am I, you called me. I didn't call you, son. Go back to sleep. And then the Lord called again, Samuel, Samuel. And again, he thinks it's Eli. Oh, Eli's calling me again. Again, he throws off his covers. Again, he rushes to the old man and says, you called me, didn't you? I didn't call you. Here I am, here I am. A third time, the same thing happens. The Lord calls again, Samuel, Samuel. Again, he returns. This time, Eli perceives it's the Lord who is calling him. It's the Lord who is speaking to him, and it gives him that instruction in verse 9, Eli said unto Samuel, go lie down, and it shall be, if he shall call thee, that thou shall say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord did call him the fourth time, and this time When the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel, then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. He knows it is the Lord who is calling him, and he responds as soon as he calls. Well, I'd like to say just a few things about this call for us this evening, and draw one or two lessons. There are many things, actually, one could say. But let me just mention a few. Firstly, this call of the Lord to Samuel, we can say it was a totally unexpected call and a very gracious call on the Lord's part. Samuel expected to hear Eli's voice. The last thing he expected probably was to hear from the Lord. He had probably heard Eli calling him on many nights. Perhaps every night he's calling him for some help. Perhaps he needed to use the restroom or something like that. And he's been calling him, but he never expected the Lord to call him. And it's the same for us, isn't it? Christ is calling us, calling us to come to him and to find rest in him, to find rest for our souls and forgiveness and eternal life. We never expected such a call. He took the initiative. He came to us. We were not looking for such a call. We were not asking him for such a call. We were not even desiring such a call before it came to us. It, as it were, invaded our space. He came to us and there was no wish in our hearts to hear from God even. We were just going along with our own life, doing our own thing, going about our career, planning the rest of our life, and making money, and trying to settle our families, and making sure we have a comfortable life together. That's all we thought life was about. We never even had that upward direction towards God. We never prayed, Lord, speak to me. He never first prayed that, and then he responds and says, here I am to us. He was the other way around. The Lord is the one who takes the initiative. He's the one who comes and he speaks first. And unless he did this, friends, I would never have turned to him. I would never have said anything to him. It's such an unexpected call. And it's such a gracious call, isn't it? So undeserved. I don't deserve that. You don't deserve to have the law call us. What is there that when he looks at us to say, this person is so worthy, I think I should call him and save him. There's nothing, no one like that whom the law can point to. No criminal. I don't think we have any criminals here. The criminal, well, he half expects when that doorbell rings, he half expects, I'm sure, half the time it to be a policeman knocking at the door. Because of the crimes he has committed, a tenant who has outstayed his welcome, who hasn't paid his rent, refuses to leave, refuses to pay anything towards his rent, just is very stubbornly occupying the property. Well, he can expect. He can expect. Bailiffs to come knocking at his door, isn't it? A sinner. Well, what can we expect from God? We can expect Him to love us, and He should love us. Well, no, we can't expect nothing, friends, from Him. We have grieved Him by a thousand falls. And if we are, we know in our consciences that we are sinners. We know that we have offended Him. We expect in our hearts, He's coming to judge us. He's coming to condemn us for our sins. And here's the amazing thing, when God speaks to us, He doesn't come with that condemning voice. He comes to us with messages of grace, with messages of forgiveness. Oh, friends, this is, He comes to us in a different garb. We're expecting Him to come as that judge and condemn us, but instead He comes and He speaks peaceably to us, desiring to reconcile with us. Oh yes, we can say regarding Samuel, he was a good boy. He was helpful to Eli. He was an obedient child, diligent in his work in the temple. But that wouldn't have been enough for him to merit a visit from the Lord. He knew he didn't deserve a visit from the Lord. He knew he didn't deserve the Lord even to call him. And neither do we, friends. There's nothing that we can do to merit God's favor and to gain his attention, it must be something that begins with him. He must take the initiative, and he does. I cannot say, I've done this and this and this, and so you must reward me. The opposite is true. My sins have so offended God, the holy God, that if he chose to have no dealings with me, He would be perfectly just in doing so. If he chose to have no contact with me, to cut me off from his friends list, well, friends, I could say that was entirely fair and just on his part. You know, if I speak evil of you, if I make fun of you, if I, in public, make a joke out of you, and I call you vile names, horrible things I say about you, when you're walking down the street. If I took a pen knife in my hand and decided to slash the tires on your car, well, I don't think I'm gonna get an invitation to your house for dinner. I don't think I'm gonna get a warm welcome if I knocked at your house after doing all those things to you, and I deserve no such things. Oh, friends, how badly we have treated God with contempt disregard, ignoring him, rebelling against him, disrespecting, abusing him, abusing his name, and yet still he calls us to come to him. We don't deserve it. Absolutely not. It's all of grace, friends. But then it's also a disturbing call, isn't it? Samuel was fast asleep when the Lord called him. And the call woke him up, and it disrupted his sleep. And as I said, he was probably used to that. He never complained about that. He just took it as his duty. But it's different for us. If our sleep is disturbed in this way, well, we get a little bit annoyed. Well, friends, again, the lesson here for us, we need to be wakened up spiritually. The Lord, when he speaks to us, he disturbs our rest. We are asleep, as it were, in this world, and the Lord comes and has to awaken us from this sleepy state that we're in because we are sleeping in a house that is on fire. And he wants us to escape. It's a purpose and a reason why he is disturbing us. Imagine a person sleeping in a house that is burning. He said, no, no, don't disturb me. Leave me to sleep. I just want to pull the covers off my head and turn over. He's going to die. He's going to perish. The Lord comes to awaken us, to awaken us when He speaks to us. It's disturbing us, it's disturbing our usual way of life, but it's all for a good purpose. He's disturbing our rest, but it's all in order to bring us to Him. We are far too comfortable in this life without God. We are far too comfortable and happy to live a life without Him. Oh, we have our problems, but we say to ourselves, I can manage the problems by myself. I don't need God. I'm able to manage it. I'm able to handle it myself. And so sometimes it's hard. And initially when the Lord speaks to us, he comes gently and gently, Samuel, Samuel, gentle voice. If we respond immediately, wonderful. But if we don't respond, well, if he carries on speaking to us, he may have to speak with a louder voice, a firmer voice, a stronger voice, because you need to hear. And you're not hearing. You need to be shaken. And we're not shaken. You know, there's a story in the Old Testament of Joab, who was the commander in David's army, and Absalom, the king's son. And Absalom wanted to speak to Joab, and Joab never responded. Again and again, Absalom sent his servants to Joab and said, I want to speak to you. I want to speak to you. And Joab never responded. Eventually, Absalom set Joab's field, which was next to his field, he set it on fire. And immediately Joab came down. What are you doing? What have you done? And God has to do that sometimes with us. He speaks to us again and again. You have to come to me. You have to listen to me. This is what I'm saying to you. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I ignore it. And so you have to send some great trouble into our life. in order to awaken us and say, I need the Lord. We come running then to Him. Different kinds of trouble, friends. Maybe it's a serious illness. Maybe it's a financial loss. Maybe I lose my work, I lose my job. Maybe people turn against me. Maybe even a friend, a good friend who I played with football or tennis or something in the park where we went to school, we walked to school together, and he dies at a young age. Something takes him away. And that shatters my view of life and everything. It brings me to think about God. But that is the Lord speaking to us. That's how he is trying to get our attention. It doesn't have to be that way if we respond straight away. But it's also not only a disturbing call, it's a repeated call, isn't it? Four times here the Lord called Samuel before he responded. He couldn't discern the Lord's voice initially. He thought Eli was speaking to him until Eli directed him, this is what you have to say, speak Lord for thy servant heareth. And how often it is for us as well, the Lord has to communicate to us and speak to us again and again before we realize it is him who is calling me. He speaks to us in our consciences. He speaks to us in creation. He speaks to us through our circumstances, even, that we are going through. And in them, he is calling us. But we don't recognize his voice. He speaks to us more directly in the Word, in the sermons that we sit under. You know it. You've all sat under sermons. Well, God is calling you. You know it. And sometimes we cannot recognize it. Sometimes there's a problem with our understanding of things. But sometimes we don't want to know these things. But only sometimes we look at the preacher and we're just saying, oh, it's just him. It's just his opinion. It's just his view on things. That's his advice he's giving to us. I don't need to listen to this. Well, listen, I'll just bear with it because I have to bear with it for some reason or another But as soon as I'm out of here, it's gone, it's forgotten. It's taken from that preacher and what he thinks about it. I've got my own view of life. I can sit in judgment upon what he has said. That's when we take it from man. When we take it as the word of God, this is when the Lord does bring it home to our hearts by his spirit, we begin to say, this is important. This is God speaking. I must hear him. I must hear him. I must listen to him. This is a message from heaven. I cannot ignore it. I dare not go out and forget about these things. I must keep them in my mind. I must ponder over them. I must respond to this message from my maker. And we're beginning to discern. When we respond in that way, friends, we're beginning to respond in the right way. which is, as we come to a close, this is how we should respond, or rather, how should we respond to the Lord's unexpected and undeserved call towards us, a call to life, a call as well to repentance, we should say, to give up our sins. Well, like Samuel, speak, Lord, for your servant here. Lord, I've not listened before. I ought to have done. There are many other times you have called me, I ought to have recognized your voice, or I've heard those messages from your servants, but I've found fault with your word, I've doubted it, I've ignored it, I've quibbled over it, I've sat in judgment over it, but no more, Lord. No more am I going to be in that kind of a way. Now, I really want to hear from you. It's so vital, I need to hear from you. I'm anxious, Lord, to hear from you. I'm anxious to respond. to your call. I'm willing, Lord, to sit at your feet. Teach me. Teach me, Lord. I'm ready to receive all that you say. No more am I going to argue with what you tell me to do. No more am I going to quibble over it. If you tell me I must come to you as a beggar, as a beggar I will come to you. If you tell me I need to repent of my sins, as you do, I'm going to repent of my sins and turn from them. If you tell me I need a new heart and I need to be converted and I need a new beginning in life, Lord, I cry to you to grant me these things. I want to be a Christian. I want to be a believer. I want to have faith in you. Speak, Lord. for your servant heareth. You see, the whole attitude has changed, isn't it? Our whole attitude now to the gospel and to Christ has to change. And now, when we come to the Lord in this position, with this attitude, he is able to bless you. He is able to grant to you that which you desire from him. Speak, Lord, for your servant heareth. A person who has truly heard the Lord's call will respond in such a way. Oh friends, the Lord is calling. Are you hearing? Follow me, he says. Follow me, we read it in that Matthew's reading where the Lord called Matthew and simply said those two words, follow me, and he got up and he followed the Lord. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Look to me and be saved, he says. This is what the Lord is calling to us, speaking to us. What's your response? How will you respond to this message? Again, will you say, don't trouble me with these things. I don't want to be disturbed. I have all my agenda for life before me, and I want to carry on in that way. Let me live comfortably here. Well, you can do that, but if the Lord has set his hand upon you, he won't leave you there. You know, these days, they have these video doorbells, isn't it? It's not very... It's good and it's not so good, because if you're actually inside the house, well, you can see who is there on your mobile phone, and if you don't like who is there, well, you don't have to answer the phone, answer the bell, and you don't have to open the door, as before, you know, there's the knock, and you have to, who is there, you don't know. If you know God is calling, perhaps you'll say, I don't have to answer. I can just leave it, I can just ignore it. Stop calling me, and maybe you'll do that. Oh, don't say that, friends. I never say to the Lord, stop calling me. But you may do that in life as well. You may not say it in words, but you may do that in life. If he does take you up on such a word, well, that would be awful for you, because there can be nothing worse than to be left to yourself and to your own sins. Not now, Lord, some people say, when I'm older and I'm retired and I have more time. Samuel, a young boy, master, speak. 10 years old, he responds immediately. Age is no barrier, I say once again. Give your youth to the Lord. It will be so well spent. It will be so much better than if you kept it for yourself. It will enable you to live a profitable life. Some of us have passed our youth. It's too late for us now. We wish we knew the Lord when we were a lot younger than we came to know him. He would have saved us from so many things, so many things. How much regret, I've told you before, isn't it, of a pastor and he got saved and he was 12 years old. And a lady said to him, wow, you got saved so young. How wonderful you got saved at such a young age. And he said, 12 years I wasted. 12 years I wasted. He wished he'd come to the Lord. Probably I joined a Baptist in the womb or something. I don't know. Your life will be well spent, best spent. if it's spent for the Lord. And like Samuel, oh, what a life he lived. Do you think he ever regretted living for the Lord all that time? I don't think so. He never once uttered such a word, and how God used him. What a blessing he turned out to be for Israel. What a tremendous man of God he was. What a difference. We're reading about him. We're speaking about him still today. This is the kind of person that we need to have friends. This is the kind of person, young man, young woman, you need to be. A man of God, a woman of God. Oh, hear the Lord's voice. Come now and respond to him. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, our gracious God, how we are so glad that you ever spoke to us and are even now today, this evening, speaking to us and calling us to yourself. Help us by your spirit to hear your voice. And Lord, we know there is no audible voice these days, but you speak to us through your word. And so we pray that we may hear in our innermost hearts and minds you calling out unto us, and we may, like Samuel, respond immediately and say, here, Lord, here is my heart. Take it and receive it, Lord, and bless me and save me. O Lord, hear our prayer, and may this blessing come to each and every one of us. For Jesus' sake, amen. Let's sing our final hymn. Number 432, I heard the voice of Jesus say, number 432.