Hearing The Christ

1 Samuel 3 & John 3.5-8
5.14.06 DBC
Hearing The Christ

Here’s an amusing salute to motherhood I found somewhere online and then arranged it into a Letterman like top Ten:
Top 10- YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MOM WHEN
10. You count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal. 9. As you cling to the high moral ground on toy weapons; your child chews his toast into the shape of a gun.
8. You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "NOT in your good clothes!"
7. You hide in the bathroom to be alone.
6. You have time to shave only one leg at a time.
5. You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.
4. You hire a sitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, and then spend half the night checking on the kids.
3. You use your own saliva to clean your child's face.
2. You say at least once a day, "I'm not cut out for this job," but you know you wouldn't trade it for anything."
1. Your kid throws-up and you catch it.

Not sure that the previous (top ten) had anything to do with our text today; just wanted to share it with you on this Mother’s day. Our Text Today, however, focuses on Samuel hearing the voice of God. Last week we talked about seeing the Christ and today we consider what it’s like to hear the Christ. In both regards, seeing and hearing Christ, we ponder what it’s like for a natural person to develop a spiritual perception.

How can a Christian live the Christ-like life and become like Christ?
How do we sense and perceive God in this world?
How can one look at this world, its people and frustrations, through the eyes of God? How can one hear from God in a land of great distraction?

Samuel grew up to be a great man of God- because he heard from God and listened to and obeyed what he heard. The text says that he “he grew, and the Lord was with him and . . . none of his words [fell] to the ground.” (1 Sam 3.19) A curios thing came to me as I thought about this text this weekend, why did the young boy Samuel hear from God and not the old priest Eli?

Maybe Eli grew up hearing from God as a young boy and could offer Samuel advise so that Samuel could hear: “ . . . if [God] calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” (1 Sam 3.9) Maybe Eli did hear from God at one time in his life and remembered what is was like but somewhere along the way of his life he stopped being able to hear God’s voice, leading, and will for his life. We are left only to speculate about Eli’s life and past, for the scripture just doesn’t give much background on Eli. Let me suggest two possibilities of why the boy Samuel could hear God and not the old priest Eli.

Maybe Eli stopped hearing God because he no longer wanted to hear what God had to say to him. Really the only thing we know about Eli is that his two sons were corrupt and did not know God. Eli’s fault seems not just that his sons were corrupt, but he continued to let them serve in the place of God. Therefore, maybe Eli at some point in his life let his apathy and favor toward his own corrupt sons outweigh his devotion toward God; and every time God spoke to him about him or his sons, Eli choose ignorance and indifference instead of hearing and listening to God.

Frederick Buechner very aptly says that, *“We avoid listening for fear of what we might hear.”

Is it that Eli could not and would not hear what God was saying to him concerning his sons? Maybe we don’t hear from God because we don’t want to listen to what he would say to us concerning our lives. A word from God alive to us would hamper and affect our lives. Our natural person, our sinful inclinations, prevents us from hearing and listening to God.

So if one is to hear from God, then it must be done from a different posture than what we are normally use to. There must be a willingness to hear and obey what God says before God will entrust his Word to one. God will speak to one who will listen and obey; and so Samuel says to God, “Speak, for your servant hears.” (1 Sam 3.10) Or in other words: “God speak to me, I am willing to hear what you have to say and I am willing to listen to and follow what you say no matter what it will mean in my life.”

What is it that God might say to you today that you’ve not been willing to hear or listen to? Maybe its that person you’ve had a falling out with and you’ve refused to talk with for an extended length of time; Or maybe it’s that one place or thing that God is leading you toward, and it’s not desirable to you because it would turn you comfortable life upside down.

It is true that much of what God would say to listening ears today would perhaps not be comfortable to hear. Sometimes the places he would call us to go might not be comfortable places and the things he calls us to hear are sometimes are not easy things to hear. *When God does speak, however, we can rest assure that whatever he speaks to one who will listen will be words or loving warning, life giving hope and salvation leading.

*So to hear from God, One must be willing to freely hear and heed what God is saying.
1.Admit your need to hear from God.
2.Be willing to hear and obey what God says.
3.Turn you direction toward God and diligently pray (seek) for ears to hear what God would say to you.

Secondly, Maybe Eli stopped hearing God because he was so distracted with the superficial and therefore out of tune with the supernatural.

God is Spirit and he is supernatural.

God and God’s ways are not of this world;
God and God’s words are not set in worldly natural tones or wisdom;
God and God’s words are Spiritual and supernatural.

A natural-minded Nicodemus could not understand what Jesus the Christ was saying to him. Jesus Said to him,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh [the natural] is flesh [natural], and that which is born of the Spirit [supernatural] is spirit. Do not marvel that I said you must be born again. [a willing posture to hear from and obey God] The wind [the Spirit of God] blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born [super naturally] of the Spirit.” (John 3.5-8)

The times that I am not hearing from God I can usually count on one or two things:
1. I’m not listening for fear of what I might hear.
2. I’m not hearing God because I am more infatuated with the superficial things of this natural world and life than I am with the supernatural and everlasting truths of who God is and what He wants for my life.

What does God sound like? And when will I know that it is his voice and not my own conscience?

It use to be, in the Old Testament age, that God would speak from outside to an individual. Now, under this New Testament age, God can be within his creation and a person; God’s Spirit speaks from within a person.

When I hear from God it is all at the same time outside and within my being, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.” God’s voice, his visions, and dreams he gives me our as light as a feather and heavy as the entire universe.

Hearing the Christ is a spiritual act only able by spiritual ears. Hearing the Christ is only possible where there is a voluntary willingness and love toward God. Hearing the Christ and receiving his Kingdom are internal and supernatural realties.