1 Samuel 3:1-4:1a
Avoiding Missed Calls
by Steven Kooy
Preamble
Our mission of Geneva Fellowship can be summed up in 3 lines:
We exist to
Draw the campus to Christ
Draw it into community
Draw out our individual and communal callings
And so everything we do flows out of these purposes.
- Group Studies
- Fellowship Meal
- Student Leadership Program
If you would like to know more about our ministry,
a great source of information is our website – geneva.queensu.ca
Today I would like to focus on the 3rd area of our mission – calling.
To do that, let’s look at a passage in the Bible that tells the story of someone who had a dramatic calling.
His name is Samuel and the story is found in 1 Samuel 3.
(read it)
It all started with drums and smoke signals.
Then the field was taken over by the telegraph.
Next it was the rotary phone,
And in 1946 television stole the show.
Today, 60 years later, the domain is dominated by
- The Internet
- Cell phones
- Blackberries
- Satellite Radio
This magical realm is the world of telecommunication.
Literally the word means
“the transfer of information from far off”
And today getting messages out is big business.
Currently it is a $1.2 trillion industry that spans the globe.
One of the most popular mediums for getting the message out on the internet is called My Space.
Created in 2003, My Space is a website that contains blogs, photos, music, and videos.
Each member has their own My Space profile and their own personal page which is a launch pad to connecting with people all over the world.
My Space is the 6th most popular website in the world of any language.
It is so popular that as of this past September (8th, 2006),
they had 106 million accounts and attracted 230,000 new members everyday.
Potentially, a My Space member could network with millions of people.
With today’s technology, communication from far off flows freely.
But that doesn’t always mean it always works the way it is supposed to.
Occasionally if I am using my cell phone, there are places where I lose my signal and my call is lost.
These spots are dead zones. Places where communication stops and no messages are received.
And these places are lot like the situation that Israel found itself in at the time of Samuel.
The Hebrews had developed communication problems, not with their cell phones, but with God.
Their relationship with God had begun to disintegrate and they were disconnected.
How did this happen?
The answer to this question is in the book of Judges. It tells the story of Israel before Samuel and it shows that Israel entered into a dark cycle of rebellion against God.
The pattern went like this:
Everything seemed to be going great for the Israelites and so they thought they didn’t need God. They turned away and began to ignore him.
God responded by letting them go.
But before long, the Israelites got themselves into all sorts of trouble
And realized that they needed God.
And so they cried out to God for help,
In turn, God responded by saving the Israelites
Things would be good for a few years
And then the Israelites would start to ignore God again and the cycle began to repeat itself.
For Israel in that period, the cycle occurred 12 times.
I wonder how often that pattern occurs in our lives?
A recurring line in the book of Judges captures the situation:
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord”
That was true even for the priests, the ones who were supposed to mediate between God and the people.
Chapter 2 of Samuel tells us that the priests Hophni and Phineas, were having relations with temple servants and they were stealing from God. Instead of taking what was left over from sacrifices that people brought, they were taking the first and best share, and they were giving the leftovers to God.
And their father the chief priest Eli, did nothing about it.
The result of this way of life is found in the first verse of our text,
“…In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”
(1 Sam 3:1b)
God’s messages were uncommon.
His messengers were quiet.
And his miracles were scarce.
These were dark days for Israel.
The people were majorly disconnected from God.
Their signal was weak.
Weak, but not lost.
Things were very bad, but not beyond repair.
Because God does not give up on the ones he loves.
And so God produced a new means of getting his word out.
He provided a new channel for his messages to flow through.
His name was Samuel.
From an early age, Samuel’s mother consecrated him to God.
And when he was still a child, he received a calling from God that marked an important stage in the unfolding of God’s plan for his creation.
Through Samuel God would begin to speak powerfully to Israel again.
Verse 19-21 says:
The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.
That is a Hebrew saying that means that everything Samuel said came true.
And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba (the most northern to the most southern part) recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD. The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.
For Israel that meant that they had re-established communication with God again.
But God had more in mind than just increasing his volume of air time.
From a big picture perspective, God was using Samuel to move Israel into a new stage of development.
- A period of leadership by earthly kings, like Saul, and David and Solomon.
- A period where imperfect rulers would lead the lives of an imperfect people.
This stage in turn would lead to a time when a heavenly king would come, some 1100 years later.
A perfect ruler who would not only lead people’s imperfect lives but he would lead their imperfect hearts out of their sinful cycles and back to an intimate relationship with God.
This king’s name is Jesus, it means saviour.
Whereas:
Samuel spoke for God, Jesus was God. He came to earth and spoke for himself.
The message that Jesus spoke was that God was at work to restore what had been broken when sin entered the world.
The message that Jesus lived out was that God was willing to sacrifice himself to make this happen.
God wanted to repair his creation and his creatures.
Because of his great love for his world and every person in it.
And today God’s plan continues to unfold.
We are in a stage where we wait for Jesus to finish the work he has started.
And just like Samuel, God gives each one of us a part to play in his plan.
He made us to make a difference in the time that we live in.
1 year ago, my world changed significantly when our youngest daughter Isabella entered the world.
Why was she born on Nov 11, 2006?
Why this year?
Why this decade?
Why this century?
Because God has a plan for her life.
God created her, because he wants to use her.
And God created each one of us, because God wants to use each one of us.
John Calvin, was a 16th century theologian, pastor, university founder and church father to Reformed churches.
He taught that we have 2 types of callings in life.
- General
- Special
1. Disciple of Christ
Our general calling is to follow Jesus.
Christ invites us to become his disciple and to live in close relationship with him.
In the book the Purpose Driven Life,
Rick Warren says this about life – it is all about God.
“If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.” (17)
2. Vocation
But in addition to this general calling, we also have special callings.
We have specific functions that God wants us to perform in our lifetime,
specific callings.
Sometimes these callings overlap.
- Think about a father.
- A father is also a husband, a son, maybe a brother.
- He could be a teacher, or a farmer.
- Maybe he is an elder or a deacon, a member of the school board, a soccer coach.
He has a number of specific roles to fulfill.
Just like the rest of us.
We all have our part to play.
It is like the story of when Sylvestor Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were auditioning for roles in a film about classic musical composers.
Both of them wanted to be Mozart, but Stallone kept insisting and insisting,
And Arnie didn’t want their relationship to get Rocky, so he gave in.
With that settled the director asked Arnie, “who do you want to be?” What role do you want to play.
Schwarzenegger thought about it for a moment and then replied,
“I’ll be Bach!”
We all have our parts.
Our biggest part is what we label our “vocation”.
It is what we often call our career, although that term can be limiting.
Vocation is an area that can cause a lot of stress in the life of a university student.
They face questions like:
- How do I know if I should go into nursing or economics?
- What should I major in – developmental studies or music?
- What am I going to do after I graduate?
Ultimately they are asking - How do I know what God’s will for my life is?
Maybe this question is something that you struggle with too.
I want to spend a few moments reflecting with you on this idea of vocation, because not only is it a real issue for many of you, it has been a real issue for me personally over these past 10 years.
And I want to share with you a bit of my journey and some important principles I have learned about how to understand God’s call in our life.
And so travel with me through time to the year 1989.
It was a time of big hair, pastel clothes, and breakdancing.
I was in grade 11. School would soon be over and I began to feel the need to make a career choice.
I had a few options.
- I could pursue a future at my after school job at Zellers.
- But I also knew someone in the drapery hardware business. My Dad was the merchandise manager there and we always had nice curtains at home because he believed in the verse:
He who spares the rod hates his son, (Prov 13:24a)
When it came to getting a job with him, I was sure that he could have pulled some strings and gone to the wall for me.
The business world was an option, but I wasn’t really passionate about it.
It didn’t really excite me.
And that is the first principle about calling that I want to share.
1. Passion
Passion.
At the heart of understanding our special calling is passion.
Fredrich Beuchner taught that
vocation is where your deep longings meet the world’s deep needs.
Willowcreek’s Network Course defines passion as:
“…the God given desire that compels us to make a difference in a certain area. It gives direction, motivation, and energy.”
That doesn’t mean that everything will be easy and you will love every part of your calling.
But as Willowcreek teaches, passion will give direction, motivation, and energy.
For me, that meant full time ministry.
What are you passionate about?
How does that relate to a future calling?
How does that relate to your present calling?
Understanding your passion is essential for understanding your calling.
2. Discernment
I had a passion for ministry and so off I went to Redeemer College in pursuit of my calling.
I was glad to have my vocation all figured out.
But a few years later I learned there was little more to it.
Another key component of calling that I was about to discover was the need for discernment.
After I finished Redeemer I applied to Calvin Seminary and was awaiting acceptance, when I noticed an ad on the job board at Redeemer.
It was for a youth pastor position at Ancaster CRC.
So in May, I applied as a fall back position, not really thinking seriously about the job.
August came around, and I had received a letter of acceptance from Calvin.
But 3 weeks before I was supposed to go, I received a phone call saying that Ancaster was offering me the position.
Suddenly, my understanding of my calling got a lot more difficult.
Before it felt like I was on a conveyer belt, headed down the minister production line.
But now there were 2 routes.
This event in my life marked the most formative time for me in terms of understanding God’s will.
It was a time of intense wrestling with God over what he wanted me to do.
I spent a week wrestling with him in prayer, and asking for a clear sign.
Should I go to Calvin, or should I take the position at Ancaster?
I didn’t care if it was a burning bush, or a voice calling in the night like Samuel,
I just wanted to know very clearly what God wanted me to do.
I pleaded and waited. (3x)
But no bushes, signs, or voices came.
That was very frustrating for me.
I wanted to do God’s will, why didn’t he show me what that was?!
And in the end, time ran out, and I had to make a decision.
I weighed the options, and prayed a prayer of coverage
- God if I made the wrong decision, please make it right.
And took the position at Ancaster CRC.
Looking back 10 years later it is easy to see that it was the right decision.
But why didn’t I know that right away?
Why didn’t God make it easy?
Why doesn’t God normally give big signs and tell us exactly what to do?
I have come to understand that the answer is that God wants us to learn how to discern his will.
Learning to discern is an essential part of being a follower of Jesus.
Imagine what life would be like if God always gave big signs to tell us what to do.
We would become mindless followers.
Christian Zombies.
Discernment is a spiritual discipline.
It is a skill that God wants us all to learn so that we can grow and mature in our relationship with him.
And often the process of discovering God’s will is as important as the end result.
Because through it, God shapes us.
He teaches us things about himself.
And he teaches us things about ourselves.
In his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg says this,
“God does not intend that guidance be a shortcut to escape making decisions and taking risks. Indeed, God wants us to develop good judgement, and there is no way to develop it apart from a process that involves choices and risks.” (150)
The journey is as often as important as the destination.
With that said, there are 4 important steps we have to take along this journey.
And very quickly let me share these with you.
i) Connect
The first thing we need to do is connect.
If we want to discern what our calling is, we have to connect with the one who does the calling.
In the house we lived in before coming to Kingston, we only had 1 phone jack.
We had 3 phones but only 1 was connected.
The others were wired up, but not plugged in.
They were built to receive, but they were unable to because they were not hooked up.
If we want to know what our calling is, we have to be connected with one doing the calling.
In his book Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby puts it this way,
“If you want to know God’s will, you must respond to His invitation to love Him wholeheartedly.” (16)
In our text, Eli’s mistake was that he let his connection with God become weak.
- He let his sons’ sins get in the way of his responsibilities.
- He didn’t address major connection issues.
And the result was that God says to Eli, in 1 Samuel 2,
“…Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. (30)
So Now
I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. (35a)
We can’t just live the way we want to live and then ask God what he wants us to do.
If you want to know what God is calling you to, you have to get to know the God who is calling.
How is your connection with God?
Does your space include space for God?
Connect with God, it is essential.
ii) Listen
Secondly, we need to listen.
That is what Samuel did. Following Eli’s instruction, he responded to God by saying
Speak, for your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3:10)
It is not likely that God will speak to us in an audible voice like he did with Samuel.
And very rarely will the Bible offer direct advice on which college to attend.
Unless of course you are trying to decide between Queens University and Kings College, and your Bible happens to fall open to Ezra 4:19 which says,
“…revolt against kings..” Ezra 4:19
But that is not how the Bible was designed.
Listening to God’s specific directions usually happens through a balancing of inner convictions, and outer circumstances.
Galatians 5:25 says,
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal 5:25)
Discerning means following the Spirit’s inner promptings.
But it also means listening to how he works through outside forces like people, and timing, and circumstances.
Peter Schuurman was a chaplain at Brock University and now he is with Home Missions.
In his reflections on vocation, he once wrote,
A calling is something to hear with ears and intuition, and it comes through teachers, preachers, books, and family and friends.
We need to listen to the Inner and Outer leading of the Spirit.
iii) Submit
Thirdly, we have to learn submission.
We have to learn to use the words of Samuel, who said
“here I am”.
In its original language of Hebrew, Samuel used one word
“hinneni” הִנֵּֽנִי
It is the word of a servant hearing and obeying.
In his commentary on this passage, Bill Arnold explains it this way,
“Samuel is placing himself at the disposal, at the beck and call, of his master.” (Arnold, 81)
God wants a heart that says “here I am”.
That is what Christ modeled on the cross. 1 Peter 2:21 says:
…Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
How much are you willing to surrender to God?
What do you need to give up?
Where do you need to say to God – Here I am?
iv) Reassess
And finally, we need to constantly be reassessing our callings,
because they can change from time to time.
It may be time for a change in venue.
We need to ask ourselves is this where God is calling me right now?
Is this where can I be most effective for God?
Reassess.
3. Equality - All calls are equal
And the last thing I have learned about calling that I want to share with you, is that all callings are equal.
Whether you are
- a stay at home mom
- a student
- a professor
- a social worker
- a pastor
No one is more important than another.
1 Corinthians 12 says this:
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
…there should be no division in the body, but…its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
(12, 25-26)
“Every calling is great when greatly pursued.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Equality.
Conclusion
We all have callings.
We all have important roles to play.
C.S. Lewis once said - “What saves a person (man) is to take a step. Then another step.”
Today I invite you to take a step closer to Christ.
And take another step in discovering his calling for your life.
- Connect
- Listen
- Submit
- Reassess
God is calling you. Will you answer?
