"The Value of Listening"

1 Samuel 3:1-10

Dangerous Wonder Series; June 1, 2008

Introduction: Have you ever noticed that sometimes when people are talking to you, instead of really listening to them, you are actually thinking about what you want to say next? This, of course, is not good listening. To be a good listener, you have to be focused on what the other person is saying. But even more than that, you have to care about what they are talking about, because if you don’t care, then you won’t be concerned with their issues and statements to you.

As important as being a good listener to each other, we need to be good listeners to God. Unfortunately, by the time we are adults, most of us have lost our God hearing; we have decided that listening to God is less important than knowing about God. It’s like the story of the little girl who was heard whispering into her newborn baby brother’s ear: “Baby, tell me what God sounds like, I am starting to forget.” This morning, I want to talk about the value of really listening to God.

I. The Silence of God- (1 Kings 19:11-12; Jeremiah 20:9)

a. Close to you- In 1 Kings 19, there is a story of the prophet, Elijah.

Elijah was one who was able to listen to God. And because of this, he was able to overcome the prophets of Baal. But overwhelmed, he became depressed and went into hiding in the desert. When God confronted Elijah, Elijah was pouting. So god sent Elijah to Mount Horeb. At Mount Horeb, God told Elijah that He would speak to him. So Elijah went there, and in 1 Kings 19:11 we are told that God produced a “great and powerful wind which tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks.” But even though there was this great power, the voice of God was not in the wind. Then verse 12 tells us: “After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” So after the wind was an earthquake, and then a fire. But God’s voice was not in the powerful earthquake, or the powerful fire. But after the fire, God spoke in a gentle whisper.

What is profound here, is that even though God is mighty and powerful, even though God has created the world, even though God has toppled nations, He often speaks to us in a gentle whisper; a thin silence. In fact, more often than not, when God wants to speak an important message to His people, He does it in a quiet fashion. Which means, that because we are so busy, and because there is so much noise around us, we often fail to hear the voice of God.

Our faith today could actually be undermined by our busyness. We actually drown out the voice of God calling to us. That is another reason why we need to get back to being more kid-like; because then we might actually believe that God wants to speak to us. Instead of our trying to do more, maybe we should try to do less and pay attention to the presence of God.

STORY- In his book Stories Jesus Tells, author John Claypool relates the story of his daughter, Laura, who eventually died of leukemia. When she was four, John was attempting to put her to bed one night, but she was trying to avoid going to bed. She took 3 trips to the bathroom, asked for a drink of water, wanted another story told to her, asked her dad to put on the nightlight thinking that she had heard a sound. John finally took care of all of her needs and then went upstairs to write. He was deep into his writing when he had this feeling something wasn’t right. When he turned around there was his daughter Laura standing at the door, staring at him. He hadn’t heard her, but he just knew she was there. Frustrated, with a bit of anger, he said: “What do you want me to do, Laura?” She walked up to her father, and said: “Nothing, Daddy, I just want to be close to you.”

This is often true of God, we might not hear anything, but just know that God’s presence is there. We might even ask: “What do you want me to do, God?” To which He will often respond: “Nothing, I just want to be close to you!” And yet, because He whispers this to us, we often miss that He is speaking it to us.

b. Understanding the whisper- Often times it isn’t until we are forced

to listen, that we might actually hear God’s voice. I know that as I’ve talked to people who have gone on the Alpha retreat, or who were part of our Focused Living Retreat, that when I had them spend some quiet time with God, they started to hear God’s voice. And it is amazing what we might hear when we listen for this quiet whisper. Here is a sample of a woman who was at a retreat, and journaled a conversation between her and God:

Woman: I feel awkward God, because it’s been so long since I’ve been near you.

God: I’ve missed you too; I think about you every day.

Woman: But I’ve messed up; I’ve done a lot of things I regret.

God: It’s okay, child. I forgive you. Woman: I don’t understand. I turn away, I ignore you… God: I’m still here right beside you. Woman: I try to live without you even though I know deep inside that you’re still part of me.

God: You don’t have to make yourself lovable; I love you how you are.

And on and on the journal went. I find it fascinating that she journaled in this way. This conversation with God was available to her every day, but she didn’t take advantage of it. And this is true for us so often; we fail to listen to what God really wants to say to us.

In doing this, in many ways we deny God’s fingerprints on our soul. And the moment we deny this, we stop listening to our uniqueness, and our God hearing starts to deteriorate. Jeremiah found this out when he was angry with God because being a prophet wasn’t fun. We read Jeremiah’s words in Jeremiah 20:9, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah discovered that to deny the way he was made was to deny God’s word and voice to him.

II. God is Chasing Us- (Psalm 139:7)

a. Where can I go?- In Margaret Wise Brown’s classic children’s

Story, The Runaway Bunny, the bunny announces to his mother that he is running away. The mother responds: “If you run away, then I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.” The bunny runs everywhere, but the mother keeps running after him until finally, at the end of the book, the little bunny realizes his predicament. “Shucks,” he says, “I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.”/ The bunny wastes much time trying to run away from the pursuing love of his mother.

Running away from God is actually a learned response. As we get older our understanding of God is altered from a God who is present with us, chasing after us, to a God who is distant—a God who only shows up on Sunday mornings at church. Psalm 139:7 tells us that we don’t have to run after God/ as David says: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”/ God is present with us. God knows us. God lives inside of us!!

Even if we run away, God will find us; regardless of our situation; regardless of our condition. God is always present with us seeking to lure us back to Him. We may turn our backs on God, but God is always facing us.

b. Savoring- Truth should be obvious, but it isn’t always so. That

is because the older we get, the more we fail to see the truth of God. Even more, we stop listening. In fact, we are willing to do almost anything to keep ourselves from listening. We seek after new skills; new jobs; new friends; new fads; all so that we won’t have to listen.

But here is a new way to listen to God; SAVORING. Savoring is the lost art of cherishing and appreciating. When you and I stop and savor our life, we soak it in, and then we listen with ALL of our senses. We immerse ourselves in that which we are savoring.

Those of you who have children or grandchildren know something about savoring. I remember when Tyler and Tiffany first came home. I couldn’t take it all in. I would hold them, and kiss them, and videotape them (I took 6 hours of video of Tyler in his first six months!!). I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. And when I went to work, I couldn’t take my mind off of them. I noticed everything about them. The experience was wonderful and overwhelming.

Savoring takes our full attention. If we truly want to hear God, then we need to savor those quiet moments where God will whisper to us. If we immerse ourselves in the presence of God with all of our senses, we will be able to hear God’s voice.

III. Waiting on God- (1 Samuel 3:1-10)

a. God is faithful- One attribute of children that we do not leave

behind us when we get older is the inability to wait. Just like a child who constantly asks “Are we there yet?”, we too have those moments of impatience. And the real difficulty of this, is that God is not usually in a hurry. So we need to learn to wait if we are going to listen to God.

The other challenge of this, is that we live in a culture that doesn’t encourage waiting. When you go to a restaurant, you make a reservation so that when you get there, you can be seated right away. When you go to a fast food restaurant, you expect your food within a few minutes, or you start to get upset. Instead of taking time to cook our meals, we often just microwave them now, because this takes less time, and we don’t have to wait very long.

So, if we, as Christians, expect God to meet our needs and speak His words “now,” we will be very disappointed, and fail to experience God.

In our scripture reading this morning, in verse 1 we read: “The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.” The word of the Lord was rare. The people had waited a long time to hear from God, and in this waiting, had forgotten how to listen. So when God calls out to Samuel, Samuel doesn’t think it is God speaking to him, he thinks that it is Eli. So he runs to Eli to see what he wanted to say to him. This happens 3 times, until Eli finally realizes that it is God speaking. And then Samuel is able to say: “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Because God takes His time speaking to us, or answering us, we often fail to realize it when he does speak. If we understand this need to wait, then maybe we might be more willing to wait.

b. Willing to wait- We will hear the whispering of God if we are

willing to wait; if we are willing to abandon our need for the quick fix.

EX. In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia book The Horse and His Boy, the character Shasta is lost, frightened, and exhausted. Because of this he is feeling depressed and sorry for himself. Seated on his horse, whose name is Bree, he is wandering in the dark up a narrow mountain trail. Something startles him, and he has a new awareness. Let me read to you part of this story: “Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to notice his breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock. (The warm breath speaks and begins a very intense conversation). Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.”

Shasta realizes that this presence was there. And because of his predicament, he became aware, with all of his senses, that this presence was there. In this awareness, he hears a voice. Shasta doesn’t run away from the presence, he waits to see what the presence might do or say. And because of this, his fear goes away, and he realizes that this presence is there to help him.

Conclusion: We need to understand that God’s presence is there. It is not a presence that needs to be feared, but rather a presence that is there to help us. In this understanding we can gain a desire to listen. As we seek to listen, we must know that God is not a God who rushes anything. To listen to God, we must wait on God. To listen to God, we must want to hear what God has to say. To listen to God, open ourselves to God and savor Him with all of our senses.

There is great value in listening to God. It isn’t an easy task, but it is worthwhile. I hope that you would seek to listen to God this week, whether it be sitting quiet and waiting for God to speak to you through your thoughts, or whether it be journaling, or whether it be reading the Bible, and then quietly meditating on it. When you do this, you will marvel at what God has to say to you. And like Elijah, and Jeremiah, and David, and others, you will know what God has for you. Amen.