Jan. 18, 2026 1 Samuel 3:1:10 “There’s No Other Way!”

09 Jan Jan. 18, 2026 1 Samuel 3:1:10 “There’s No Other Way!”

Jan. 18, 2026   1 Samuel 3:1:10        “There’s No Other Way!”

I’m going to start a little differently today.  Today I’m not preaching on the lectionary today.  But the lectionary is important as Paul talks about sexual immorality.  The reason I’m not going to preach on this is that I talk about it a lot anyway.  I think it might be a little overboard to keep pressing on this topic.  But please remember that it is important.  All the various kinds of sexual immorality mention as being wrong in the Bible are still wrong today.  There are no exceptions!  Any time this is mentioned in the New Testament, it refers to the writings of the Old Testament.  Remember there was no New Testament when these writers wrote so they were always referring back to the Old Testament.  There is a good summary of these laws in Leviticus 18 and there are mentions in other places.  And for those people who mistakenly think they are not under the Law of the Old Testament, please read Matt. 5:17-19 and Luke 16:16-17.  Here Jesus tells us that we are still under the Law but not under the Law for salvation.  The Bible is really clear on these things.  Sexual immorality is wrong, no exceptions.  It is a sin.  But praise the Lord for sending us Jesus Christ so that we have a way to clear our sin debt no matter what it is.  All we have to do is be listening and that is what our Scripture is about today.  Let’s see if we can learn something from this young boy, Samuel.

Jeff Strite tells the story of a dad and a teenage daughter.  It seems that the young girl was always on the home phone.  This had to be in the days before cell phones.  It got to the point where she used it so much that no one else could use the phone.  I’m sure that there might be other ways so solve the problem but this particular dad decided that he would install another line for the daughter with her own number.  So, this happened and the dad came home about three days later to find that she was once again on the home phone and her own phone was sitting there silently.  “Why are you using the home phone?” the dad asked.  “Why aren’t you using your new phone?”  “I can’t,” she replied.  “I’m expecting a very important call on it so I have to stay off my line.”

This is a humorous story but it also shows a little about us.  I guess that what I mean to say is ‘how is it with your listening and, in the case of this young girl, your understanding.’  I would have to say that both this young girl and young Samuel have their youth in common.  Many times, we expect more from our youth than they can deliver because they just don’t know yet.  They are youths.  However, we can learn a little from the youth if we just look, especially at the story of Samuel.

This is really a pretty simple story but there are some things to notice.  Whenever I think of this story, I always conjure up a vision of this young boy having to live in a stone temple where everything is cold and hard.  I have a tough time imagining that people actually had living quarters there.  So, this is my first stumbling block.  It just seems like a cold hard place to raise a child.  However, it doesn’t tell us that the child was wanting in anything.  This is what they did in those days so I suppose it was ok.

Another thing I would like to point out is that this was a time when there weren’t many visions and the word of the Lord was rare.  I really don’t think that visions are ever numerous.  However, I do feel that the word of God comes to us all the time today.  Maybe visions do also.  I wouldn’t doubt that God has always been trying to get us to see these things and the reason they aren’t reported is one of the reasons for this passage we just read.  Maybe we have a listening problem.  Maybe we don’t hear God very well.  Maybe we are like the girl in the story that hears what Dad has to say but has her own agenda.  Now I think there are several ways to increase our ability to hear the voice of God.

Nate Barbour gives some ways we can be better listeners and he begins with tuning in.  One of my pet peeves about the modern generation is the ear buds or head phones that people use.  They may be fine and dandy as I use them myself at times.  However, if you are using these in a group of people, you find yourself tuned out to anything going on around you.  This can be very disheartening to other people who want to communicate with you.  The same thing is true in our walk with Jesus.  If you are spending every waking hour of your life in this world and all the problems that it presents, it’s no wonder you cannot hear the voice of the Lord.  You have to take time out and tune into God if you want to hear Him on a regular basis.

The way to help you tune in is by knowing and practicing methods to help you to tune in.  God speaks to us in His word.  When you read the Bible today, you will read it differently when you read it again next year.  If we all sat here and read a passage, we would all probably get a little different meaning because God is trying to communicate with us.  This is why it is so important to read His Word.  It is also important to hear His word on Sunday morning or any other time.  Remember the gifts that all people have as written about by Paul.  Some are apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.  I’m a pastor and teacher.  It is my job to give you the Word of God as it is presented and help you to know what it means or how God is talking to you.

God speaks all the time today through the voice of the Holy Spirit.  We have talked about this many times and I only want to remind you.  It is the Holy Spirit talking to you when you hear or feel that small voice in your mind telling you to do this or that.  If you are in tune with the Spirit, you will know His authoritative voice.  When you know that you should do something or not do something, then the clear voice of the Holy Spirit has spoken.

And of course, we also have to be in prayer all the time.  As a matter of fact, we have to be practicing all these things all the time.  When we take a break or are just too tired is when the other side starts in on us.  If you just pray once a week, start praying once a day.  If you pray once a day, then start to pray twice and day and so on until you are in the state of continuous prayer.

So, we have to be able to listen.  As we read this passage, we find that young Samuel doesn’t know the voice of the Lord yet.  This scene can be seen as a little bit humorous or we might have a lot of sympathy for Samuel, the child, who keeps getting called in the middle of the night.  Please notice that God calls Samuel 4 times before He gets His attention.

Samuel is a lot like us.  God calls and calls and we don’t answer or we don’t hear.  If you want to listen to a ball game on WDAY radio, you don’t tune into KFGO expecting to hear it.  It is the same way with us.  If you are totally tuned into work, you will not hear God when He calls on you.  If you are totally into your family, you won’t hear.  If you are so totally tuned into anything or a combination of things, you won’t hear. Now I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t be tuned into your work or family or whatever.  I’m saying that you need to be tuned to God at the same time.  This is the process of learning to pray continuously.  No matter what we do or where we are, we need to be anchored in Jesus Christ so that we can call on Him on a moment’s notice.

There is another thing to notice here that is also very important.  God has things for you to do.  He has things for you to do even if you don’t know Him yet.  The Scripture tells us that Samuel didn’t know God at this point.  He doesn’t know Him yet but God keeps coming to him 4 times.

Many times, we get caught up in the ‘them and us’ syndrome.  I know I do it all the time.  What I mean by this is that we have Christians against the world or maybe, better yet, it is the world against Christians.  We have a tendency to band together and that is what we are supposed to do.  But in this process of being together we sometimes think that God will use us and help us but He won’t use non-Christians.  However, we have many cases in the Bible where God uses people who don’t believe.  Today, we have the lad Samuel, who doesn’t know God yet, coming to God.  Soon he will carry the message of God to the people.  God has bypassed the prophet Eli in favor of this young child.  The story of David as a lad might be similar.

Now let’s take a quick at Eli and what has been happening.  Notice in the beginning of our passage that Eli’s eyes are so bad that he can barely see.  In those days you just had to live with bad eyesight.  There were no glasses or much of any way to help out eyesight.  So anyway, Eli is almost blind in more ways than one.  He also has not been such a good prophet because he has let his sons eat the sacrifices and abuse the sacrificial system.  God has already warned Eli about this.  He has told Eli that his 2 sons would die on the same day due to their disobedience.  Because Eli and his family had done such bad things against the will of God, they would be punished.  Early on in the Bible we read about the consequences of failure to follow God and this will continue right through the New Testament.

God is very persistent in all this.  He comes to Samuel 4 times.  God has a plan for Samuel and He will not be thwarted.  God had a plan for Moses and all the prophets He called.  He would settle for nothing less than these people to carry out His plan.  Moses thought that he had the option of turning down God and that didn’t work.

We also do not have the option of turning down God.  He will work through us if we are indeed His followers.  He will not take ‘no’ for an answer.  Sometimes we forget just who made this world.  Sometimes we think that we have more authority than what we actually have.  Sometimes we think we can say “no.”  Before I arrived at the two churches where we served, I was offered another church in the area.  Just to look at it, it would seem that this was God calling me in 2004.  But it didn’t feel right. Something was wrong.  When the call came in 2006 to come to the two churches, I knew it was the call from God.  And if the call in 2004 had been from God and I turned it down, then He got me 2 years later.  This time all seemed right and was from God.  God will get His way no matter what because it is the right way.  If you are ever called to do something for God, before you start arguing with Him remember this.  God is perfect.  If He is sending you some place or asking you do something, what could go wrong except that you get in your own way?  God has the perfect plan so don’t worry about anything.  Just place your life in the wonderful hands of Jesus Christ.  Trust in Jesus in all you do!

The last thing I want to point out in this wonderful passage is the gentleness of God.  All God does is say the name ‘Samuel’ 4 times.  He isn’t scolding.  He isn’t losing His patience.  He is just the God of all love and patience.  People who mistakenly think that there is a different God of the Old Testament as compared to the New Testament, need to pay attention to the kindness here.  So many people think that God in the Old Testament is only a God of justice.  However, He shows His love and kindness over and over and over again.  Just like those who think the God of the New Testament is all love and no justice.  He displays justice over and over and over again.

God is God and He never changes and we should praise the Lord for that.  Many people think that God has changed His mind over the centuries.  They think that they are so much smarter than God compared to the people 100 or 1000 years ago.  They will be in for a big surprise when the time comes and they find out they have been wrong and God is right.  Unfortunately, their surprise might be eternal.

God shows His love and patience along with persistence in these few verses.  It is up to us to grab onto this love and appreciate it for what it is.  We live in a world where there isn’t much structure anymore.  Our country plods on obliviously to chaos.  God has known us since the beginning of time and He knows that we need structure in our lives.  He has been giving us this since the beginning of time.  All we have to do to have this wonderful structure and love is confess our sins to Him and make Him Lord and Savior of our lives.  Then you can reap the benefits of this all powerful, all loving, all knowing God who has lots of time to love little old you.  That is a pretty good deal, the best deal you will ever get.

There was once a country lad who came to the city and was astounded by all the noise of the cars, trucks, sirens and whatever else makes a city.  His city friend was astounded when the country boy heard a cricket.  The city boy couldn’t hear anything.  The country boy walked over to a bush and sure enough there was a cricket.  The country lad could hear the cricket because he was used to listening for them in the country.

You are the same way.  You need to learn to listen for God’s still voice.  He is talking to you all the time if you just learn to listen.  I think we should change the old hymn to ‘Listen and Obey’ because there is really no other way.  God is always showing us the way to Him.  He is always trying to show you the tremendous love that He has for you.  This love is unchangeable as we see God is unchangeable.  Your life begins with your knowing Jesus because I guarantee that He knows you.  Let this be a comforting thought as you go about your life.  Jesus shows His love for you everywhere.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.