1 Samuel chapter 3, we're going to start verse number 1, go down to 21. It says, And 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. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou calledest me. And he said, I called not. Lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel, And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and laid down in his place. And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. And in that day I will perform against Eli all the things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice, nor offering forever. And Samuel lay unto the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing which the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he hath said unto thee. And Samuel told him every wit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what he seemeth him good. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. May we pray. Lord, thank you again for an opportunity to be gathered together. We thank you that at Gospel Baptist Church we still have Sunday night service. We thank you that you have stirred the hearts of your people. to be here, and we have not gathered in vain or gathered here because there was simply nothing to do, but I believe that we have gathered here in faith in your name, seeking to hear from you and to glorify your name in this hour. We ask that you reward those for their faithfulness and bless them for being here. We do ask that you would speak to our hearts in a special way, as you always do, in Christ's name, amen. What's behind me, I think the guys have a picture there. Now this is the title for the message is IYKYK. Now some of you automatically know what that means. Now that is an acronym. That is an acronym. Many of you, you may have kids or grandkids that may text you and they may text you things like this. It looks like a foreign language to you. It may look like hieroglyphics. You have no idea what it means. You may need to look it up. You think they just don't know how to spell. Well, the truth is they do know how to spell. This is just an abbreviation for several different words. And this is an acronym. Some of these that you might know, and I'll give you a few, but I'm gonna start with a real easy one, and I'm gonna see if you folks know. IDK. I don't know. I don't know, you got it. Okay, IDC. I don't care. I don't care. A little bit more difficult one, T-B-H. To be honest, okay, some of the younger people are getting that one. Alright, S-M-H. Shaking my head. That'd be like maybe in disappointment of some kind. Alright, N-G-L. Not gonna lie. Not gonna lie, I'm helping you communicate with your kids, your grandkids, this is what this is about. And then the last one, which is the easiest of all, is LOL. Laughing out loud, laugh out loud, yes. LOL, LOL. What's funny is, when Facebook had just came out, there was a girl in my high school whose grandma got a Facebook account. Now, mind you, this must be probably coming up on 18, 20 years, maybe 18 years. Facebook, I think something like that came out. It's been quite a long time. And so this girl in school, her grandma had a Facebook account and somebody put up on Facebook a post and said, you know, I'm going through a real hard time right now. My husband passed away. And so she, with good intentions, put under there in a comment, LOL. She thought LOL meant lots of love. And of course it didn't come across the way that she had expected. And she, you know, they made a phone call to grandma and got it sorted out. But abbreviations. Now this one behind me, I'm sure everybody probably under 40 knows what this is, and this is what? If you know, you know. If you know, you know. It's referring to something that has inside knowledge, that you have inside knowledge maybe with another person about something and you get it. It would be like us talking to other Floridians about Florida weather and we could say, if you know, you know. As we came to church today, when I was on my way here, it was pouring down rain. 10 minutes later, no rain. and beautiful outside. Now the northern folks, they don't really understand that. They don't get that, they don't see that, but if you know, you know. It's when you go to this one specific restaurant and they say, I'm sorry but the ice cream machine is broken. Now that is McDonald's and if you know, you know. You go up to the counter and you ask for it and typically the ice cream machine is always broken for some reason. If I held up a picture of the farmers market, and I'm not talking about the place where they sell produce and vegetables, but I'm talking about the restaurant. Pastor Bill and I would give each other a thumbs up because if you know, you know. It's the place to go if you want a really good home-cooked meal. And so the reason I chose this acronym for the title of my message is because this is often what I tell people When it comes to this topic, what we read in 1 Samuel 3, people will often come to me and they'll say, Chris, I just, I don't know what God's will is for my life. Or they may say, is this God's will for my life? They think, or they're not sure, they're not certain. And typically my response is something like this. If you know, you know. Because if God has called you to something, you know. You understand, you've been given inside knowledge from heaven that this is what you're supposed to be doing. Typically when God calls people, most of the time they don't doubt it, they don't flounder it, they know because God knows how to get our attention. And so if you know, you know. In this passage, 1 Samuel chapter 3, I want us to look at some observations about the will of God. There may be some in here that are unsure of what God's will is for their life. Maybe some are hiding. Others are actively fulfilling the will of God. But I think this will be a help to us. And not only a help to you, but maybe this is something that you can share with others. Those of you that are older, maybe you can share this with your children, your grandchildren. Those that are younger, high school, college age, possibly you can share this with somebody else of your age. That'll be of a blessing. to you. And so here are some observations about the will of God. First, be busy serving God. Verse number one, look at it again with me. Each one of these we're gonna be looking throughout the scripture. It says, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. Several weeks ago we had a young single lady who was going to New Zealand to be a help to several different works while she was there. Her name was Jessica Harris. Raise your hand if you remember Jessica Harris. Okay, great. Jessica Harris made a statement to me that as soon as I read through this verse, I immediately thought about what she said. And when she came up here and she gave her testimony, she said that after she had graduated from college, she didn't really necessarily know what she was supposed to be doing. And so she went back to her home church and began serving, still had no idea exactly what she was supposed to be doing with her life. She wasn't sure about what God's call for her life was. And so she made a statement, she said, My pastor or preacher in the past said this to me. Said that when you don't know what to do, do what you know. When you don't know what to do, do what you know. That is such a wise statement. It is such a wise statement. Samuel here was a young man. He was a child. Had not yet received word from God. Several verses later it talked that he had not yet heard from God himself. And so, what was he to do in the process? He should have been busy doing what he knew to do. And that's exactly what he was doing here. And the mistake so many people make when it comes to the will of God in trying to figure out what God wants them to do with their life is when they don't know, they just do nothing. When they don't know, they just don't do anything. Well, I'm just gonna stop, I'm gonna sit on my hands, and I'm just gonna wait until I hear from God. That's not a good option for you to do. If you are unsure about what God wants you to do with your life, get busy about the things you know are right. Get busy about following the commands of Scripture. That's just basic. Get busy in your local church. Get busy helping out in any way that you possibly can. Be busy ministering just like the child Samuel here was ministering. Keep doing what you know to do, and God will reveal it in time. God will reveal it in time. Don't worry about discovering. This may shock you, this statement, but I want you to get it. Don't worry about discovering God's will for your life. Some people are so frantic about it. They're so worried about it. They're so upset. They're just so consumed with, I have to know what God's big picture is for my life. Stop worrying about that and just do what you know to do is right. God has no problem telling you what he wants you to do. Everybody that has had a call from God, and that's not just preachers, that's not just evangelists, that's not just missionaries, that's not just pastors, it's people who are in the bus ministry have gotten a call. It's people who are faithful Sunday school teachers for 25, 30 years, they've gotten a call. It's our teachers here at school that are faithfully serving, they've got a call. Those people, God got their attention. And that's why they're doing what they're doing. And when God has something that He wants you to do, He's gonna let you know. He knows what He wants you to do, He just hasn't revealed it yet to Him. So don't stress and don't worry about it and don't be so consumed about it that you're waking up at night and just overly want to know all the details about it. God will tell you when you're ready. Be busy serving God. You say, well, I want to be in God's will and I just want to know. I just want to know. Well, if you want to be in God's will, keep doing what you're doing. Because at that moment in time, that's what God wants you to do. Keep doing what you're doing. Our verse says, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. Second observation of this is in verse three. God is the one who calls. God is the one who calls and the one who directs. It says in verse 3 and verse 4, And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel. I like this, that God called Samuel by name. God called Samuel by name. Specifically, the Lord called Samuel. God called him personally, and our God is a personal God. Please get this thought out of your mind that God only cares just about the masses and generalities. He doesn't. He cares about you personally. He wants a personal relationship with you that grows after salvation to where you and him, almost like your souls, become knit together in some way. Personally. God has a plan for you. You say, well, no, I know, I know, God's plan is just for me to fulfill the great commission, share the gospel, raise my family, and obey the Bible. Yes, but God has something specific for you. He has something special for you that is for you and you alone, that he has placed you here on the earth at this time for you to fulfill. And it's personal, just like it was personal for Samuel here. I remember June 15, 2011 is when I came to the Lord as my Savior. I was at a teen camp in Knoxville, Tennessee, right outside Knoxville, Tennessee. I got saved on June 15. It was a Wednesday night in a church service. The next day, I was certain that God had called me into the ministry. The next day, I was sitting in a group of people, probably maybe a little bit larger than this, of young people. Preaching was going on. I have no idea what the preacher was saying. Couldn't tell you. It was Scott Paulie, by the way, but I have no idea what he was preaching. And I remember as we were sitting in this open air facility, it was kind of a pavilion area, and all these young people are in there. I remember God specifically speaking to me. I'm not talking about in a spooky way where I heard a voice and anything like that. Believe me, that's not at all what I'm talking about. But those that have heard the voice of God and the moving of God in their life know exactly what I'm referring to. That I was pressed and pressured by God for something greater with my life than I was doing at the moment, at the time. And I remember as God pressed me, I didn't know all the details, but I remember specifically looking out, I could take you to the spot right now, looking out, and there was a bunch of mountains, and if you know Tennessee, the Smoky Mountains, there's a bunch of fog all the time up there, and I remember looking And as God pressed that upon me, I told God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do. Wherever you want me to go, I'll go. Now at that moment in time, I had no idea what God had planned for me, but in that great crowd of people, God was speaking to me personally. He wasn't speaking to the person next to him. Now maybe he was about something else, but he was speaking specifically to me. Folks, God will speak to you in that same way. and impress upon you what He wants you to do with your life. You say, well, I'm 60 years old. The next 10, 15 years can be the best years of your life if you let God have His way with you. Absolutely. You say, well, that's only for young people. It's not for young people. It's for you. You can make more difference in your life possibly now than you could have when you were 20 years old. But God speaks to us specifically and He has a specific plan with your name on it. What I'm encouraged about is God was calling people back then and God is still calling people today. He's still calling people today. What bothers me is why do we see less and less people being called into the ministry? I shouldn't say that. What I should say is, why do we see less and less people going into the ministry? Because I think God is still calling. How many of you raise your hand and say God is still calling? How many of you think God is still calling like He used to call? How many of you think it's probably we're just not listening or not obeying? That's I think what the problem is. Why is it all over these Bible colleges that millions of dollars have been invested in for young people to come and train and learn how to minister and preach and of course good local churches as well working alongside to make that possible and nurture these young men. Why are the preacher boys in decline? Call up any school you want to call. Anyone. What major is going down? It's the pastoral, it's the preacher, it's the youth, it's the missions, whatever you have, ministry-related. God is still calling today. He's still calling. I don't think it's a problem with preachers going into ministry. I don't think that's the issue. Here at Gospel Baptist Church, we've had several young men surrender to preach. Thomas Sweat grew up here, surrendered, called by God, grew up in this youth group with Pastor Marty Moon as his youth pastor, went off to college, came back and preaching. Wonderful. You got Johnny Boucher, Johnny IV, preaching faithfully, it's great. You got Trent Lytell, he's here somewhere, back there, called of God. Why don't we see that like we used to? Has our message here changed? Has our message changed? Absolutely not. Are we preaching the whole book and nothing but the book, so help us God? Absolutely. God is still calling today. Are you listening? Are you submitting? May we be. What I also see about this is God calls, but God also sometimes calls at inopportune times, does he not? What was Samuel doing when God was calling him? What was he doing? He was sleeping. Come on, of all times God could have got a hold of him, could have been when he was doing something up and at. No, God kept waking him up. Four times, four times he went and laid down to sleep and God woke him up, woke him up, woke him up, woke him up. Some people don't respond to the call of God because the call of God comes at inconvenient times. You'll be right in a new business adventure or a new career path of some kind. And God will get a hold of you and say, this is what I want you to do, but so many people don't respond because it's at an inconvenient time. Have the heart of Samuel, that if God speaks, I'm gonna say, here am I, here am I, here am I. Samuel at this point wasn't trained yet to understand and really hear the voice of God, but with the help of Eli, Eli guided him to be able to understand that, but his attitude was there the entire time. Here am I. I'm a willing servant. I'm a willing vessel that can be used. And that ought to be our attitude as well, even if God's will for us comes at inconvenient times. Thirdly, Verse 5, sometimes you are the only one that hears the call. Sometimes you are the only one that hears the call. It says, And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou calledest me. And he said, I called not. Lie down again. And he went, and he lay down. God will speak to you, and often only you, when he calls you. Who was woken up by the Lord? Samuel. Samuel was woken up by the Lord. Was Eli woken up by God's voice? No, absolutely not, because Eli didn't hear it. But Samuel heard it. God will often speak to you. When I got called to preach, God didn't speak to my pastor and then my pastor spoke to me about what I needed to do. God spoke to me. He spoke to me personally. It wasn't delivered to me by somebody else. It was personal. And often, if God has called you to something, God's gonna call you personally to it. And may not really let anybody else in on the details just yet. But you may say, well, God's called me to do that, and you may get some people that chuckle at you, and that laugh at you, and think that you're a fool. You know how crazy it was for me to come back from camp, growing up being a rebel? And I was like the worst one in the entire church by far. Coming back and saying, I got saved, the next week I got baptized, telling people that I'm going to Bible college and I'm gonna be a preacher. You know how many people believe that? Like this many. And there were times that I didn't know if I believed it all the way. But it was what God wanted me to do. And sometimes you're the only one that hears it, you're the only one that gets it, but if God's speaking to you, listen to what God is saying and not what everybody else is saying. Because God will tell you what He wants you to do. Your calling's gonna come from God and not man. Sometimes pastors and preachers and missions directors sometimes will have a habit of calling people into the ministry when God hasn't called those people into the ministry. It happens. Where they have good intentions. We heard today about Ireland. We saw a video presentation. Is there a great need in Ireland? Absolutely. Should people go to Ireland and serve? Absolutely. But you know what? I'm not gonna say you need to go to Ireland. God will tell you that. Do you understand where I'm getting at? Sadly, sometimes I think some preachers with good intentions, they see a great need that is out there in the world and they call people to preach and guilt trip people into preaching and giving their lives for the ministry or whatever it is when God hasn't called them to do it. That's not what we want to do. Now look, there's nothing wrong with a suggestion, a preacher saying, have you considered this? Have you considered that? I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I'm not gonna tell you this is what God's will is for you unless it's just something basic from the word of God. I'm fine with telling you God says don't lie. I'm fine with telling you God says don't cheat, don't steal, to stay married, to don't commit adultery. I'll tell you all that. But when it comes to the specifics of what God wants for your life, God will often tell you and he will tell you alone. I heard there was a young man that told me, well, so-and-so told me I need to go to Bible college. And this person had not been called to preach, not been called to preach, but someone told them, you need to go to Bible college. And so I told this person, I said, who cares what they think? That was my first response, and it kind of took them back. I said, has God told you to go to Bible college? If God has told you to go to Bible college, then go to Bible college. But if he hasn't, don't. And what is my encouragement? Go back to verse number one, and Samuel ministered unto Eli. Because be busy about what you know to do. I'm not the Pope. I'm not the bishop of the Methodist Church where I dictate and tell people go here, go there. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Eli did help guide Samuel and I think that's important and often pastors come in and spiritual leaders come in and give guidance when needed, when people have questions. Eli here was directed by Samuel and it helped him and I think that's important for pastors and preachers to do but I do think there is a fine line And God must be the one that calls. Because if God doesn't call you, you're not gonna make it. If God doesn't call you, you are not gonna make it. Our teachers here at Gospel Baptist Christian School, they're not gonna make it as a teacher if God doesn't call them. They're not going to make it. They may make it a year, or two years, or three years, but they're not going to make it for 18 years, like some of our teachers, and 14 years, like some of our teachers, and 22 years, like some of our teachers. They're not going to make it like a Miss Miley made it, but if they're called, they will. You want to find out what you are called to do, because if you're called to do it, you'll make it. When God calls, he keeps calling. This goes back to the idea of how do you know? Well, if you know, you know. God keeps calling. We're gonna scan through these verses. Look at verse four with me. It says that the Lord called Samuel. It says in verse six, and the Lord called yet Samuel again. It says in verse eight, and the Lord called Samuel again the third time. Verse 10, and the Lord came and stood and called Samuel as other times. Samuel, Samuel. What I'm trying to get at is you say, well, how do I know if I'm called? God's call is gonna be inescapable. He is gonna get ahold of you just like he did Samuel. You say, well, I don't know, I might've missed it. I don't think you're gonna miss it. God's pretty clear about getting through for you to know what he wants you to do. And by the way, he intensified it, did he not? He said, Samuel. Then next time, Samuel. Third time, Samuel. What did he do the fourth time? Samuel, Samuel. He's intensifying it. That's what God will do to you. It's like Jonah. Jonah knew full and well what God's will was for his life, that he was supposed to go to Nineveh and he did the opposite. And what did that do for Jonah? It caused God to chase after him. You say, well, I don't know if I'm called. God's gonna chase after you. I wholeheartedly believe that. God will chase after you for you to fulfill his will and for you to do his will. You say, well, how do I know? You'll know. We saw a great video tonight, and you may say, well, I think God might be calling me to Ireland. You know, if two weeks goes by and you haven't thought about this brother's ministry or Ireland, I'll tell you this, you're not called to go to Ireland. You're not. But if God wakes you up in the night, and he wakes you up in the night like he did Samuel here, and everywhere you turn and you look, all that's on your mind is Ireland. I can guess God probably wants you to do something with Ireland. Give, pray, go, something of those nature. But when God calls, He keeps calling. And it's inescapable. Fifthly, there's some indications that you know God's call and you're doing God's call. Verse 19. Look at it with me. It says, and Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. The first thing that happens during your life when you surrender to what God wants you to do is peace. I can't tell you that enough. The first thing that happens when you surrender to God's will is peace. The devil tells you don't do it, you're not gonna do it, you're not gonna be happy. Everything in life the devil throws, you gotta be happy. You're not gonna be happy if you do God's will. I'll tell you this, the moment I surrendered what God wanted me to do was one of the happiest moments I've ever had in my life. And if you wanna be happy in your life, live your life the way God intended you to live it. That's how you're gonna be the most happy. And Samuel here, he grew in the Lord and the Lord was with him. How are you gonna know that you're in God's will? You're gonna mature. There's young people that went to Bible college with me and they're, oh, God wants me to be a preacher. He wants me to be a pastor or do this or do that, but guess what happened? They never matured. They never grew. Now, either they were just rebellious to God, or God really didn't call them. They came there for some whatever reason, because they were expected to come. That's what they thought they should do. But I'm just going to say this. They never matured. They never grew. They bailed out. Some of them went four years, graduated, They're just on the workforce. By the way, there's nothing wrong with being on the workforce. Some of the greatest Christians I know are not those that stand behind the pulpit, but are those that are out in the workforce every day. There's nothing wrong with that. But we don't want to say, God called me to do this, and then it flops. God doesn't play games like that. God's not looking to just yank us around one way and another. I like this about this verse, the Lord was with him. That's just the greatest thing. The Lord was with him. How do you know? If you're in God's will, the Lord's gonna be with you. What does that mean? That means he's gonna bless you along the way. That doesn't necessarily mean he's going to give you a million dollars and a huge house to live in, but you're gonna know that God's blessing is upon your life. The pieces to the puzzle start falling together You have no solutions for the problems that you're facing, but God solves all the problems in your way. I've been there, I've lived it. And the Lord will be with you. And what's another indication, the last one, is God's call can be recognized by others. Verse 20, And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be the prophet of the Lord. They all knew. Now a few points ago I mentioned that when God calls often you're the one that hears it. That's absolutely true and that's usually the way it starts. But how do other people catch on that you're called of God for what you're doing? You start to grow. You start to mature. and they see that the Lord is with you in what you're doing. It's like when you take a seed, and you take a seed and it's basically nothing, and you plant it in the dirt, and you put some water on it, some dirt on it, let the sunlight get to it, and it looks like nothing, but as soon as it starts to grow, and it starts to shoot, starts to poke up through the soil, you start looking and say, that's going to turn into something. And when God's called you to do something, give it time, and I believe the people of God around you will be able to look and see, you know what, it wasn't a fluke. I hope by God's grace all those people that doubted, and I don't blame them one bit, doubted what God wanted for my life all those years back then, I hope that they said, well, you know, I think God might have been in it. I hope so. I just hope so. But all of Israel knew and understand. We have people that come by, present their works, and we get to partner with people. It's wonderful for us to collectively say, that's God's call for them. And that's what we're looking for. So how do you know the will of God for your life? How do you know? Some are looking for big, monstrous excitement, an exciting thing that happened in their life. That's not often how God speaks. God often speaks in a still, small voice like He did to Samuel. Samuel, Samuel. He often speaks in a still, small voice like He did to me in that big crowd of people. Chris, Chris, there's something more for your life than what you're doing right now. And that's the same way I believe He's gonna speak to you. And you're gonna know, and there's gonna be confirmation along the way. And God's not gonna let you escape it. and he'll keep revisiting you time and time and time again. And then you'll be able to say, well, if you know, you know. May we bow our heads for prayer. Lord, thank you again for your...