LISTEN: GOD IS SPEAKING TO YOU I Samuel 3:9b-10:
Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls for you, you shall say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!"
And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

It was somewhere between 3:00 and 3:30am and I was fast asleep. It was back in those Princeton days now a dozen years ago. I had been up past 1:00am studying Hebrew. Ah the dreaded Hebrew - many were the late nights with those ancient sqiggles. I was asleep. I was asleep but I heard my name. Once, then a pause, then I heard it again----and my mind raced to this story of Samuel. I forced myself to awaken a little more and I heard my name yet a third time being called out of the darkness of the night. Oh yes, I knew the story of Samuel and I was ready for this moment. So I leaned up in bed, and in a little more than a whisper I said, "speak Lord, for your servant hears." I knew the proper response to the night calling my name - it was the Lord. I was ready for this. I had been waiting for that audible voice to actually come to me. Oh this was a moment - one of those splendid life changing moments and it was happening to me. I waited. And no response. I waited some more. And no response. My name was not called again. Distressed that I had somehow waited too long to respond to the call of the Lord, and the Lord had just given up on me and moved on - I struggled to fall asleep again. But I must have because I woke to the buzzing frustration of that evil alarm clock. Once dressed I made my way to the dinning room for coffee with my friend Zoe Ann. We were to go over our Hebrew vocabulary in preparation for the morning's quizz. I was troubled, however, because I had missed my opportunity to speak with the Lord. Oh that audible voice was there, and I had been too slow, too sleepy, too reluctant....I had missed it. There was no concentrating on Hebrew for me - so I began to pour my heart out to Zoe Ann. Expecting that gentle, pastorly response of loving support and comfort. I didn't get it. She began to laugh - and then she laughted louder - and then she said to me, "You crazy man." I had missed God - and she told me I was crazy - how glad I was for sharing my inner self. Then she settled down a little. And she began to explain, "It was me. It was me. I couldn't sleep. So I went out running about 3:00 o'clock and I thought I saw your light on so I came outside your window and called out your name. But you didn't come to the window so I went on." We both laughed. The voice of God I had heard was Zoe Ann Henderson. *** While relieved that I had not missed the Lord On High, I was disappointed that in fact some sort of miraculous epiphany of sorts had not happened there in Brown Hall room 109 in the middle of the night. I believe we all want to have that personal face to face encounter with God. We read these fabulous stories from the Old Testament about how God meets and speaks directly to humans and we wonder why that seems to never or rarely happen for us. "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." *** We tend to think we are listening for voices that call out our name in the night - but I would submit that God does speak to us - continues to and always has'we just may not be listening for the right thing. We want it to be like a phone call. Nice little conversation. Question. Answer. Response. Thank you for calling Lord. Goodnight. We are Christian people. We are as Samuel. Give us that voice calling out our name in the night and commissioning us for some great service in the kingdom of God. We are ready for that? * Oh, but it not a matter of hearing the voice, it's a matter of listening for the Word. Samuel isn't to be remembered for hearing the voice of the Lord calling out to him in the night - what he should be remembered for is his heeding and listening to the Word of God which was spoken to him. It wasn't only about hearing God - but more about listening to God. He listened to God. The same is true today - if we want to listen to God, then don't stay half awake in the night so that you are alert when you think your name is being called out of the darkness. Rest assured if God wants you awake you will be. We don't need to worry about missing God - what we need to do is listen. Listen for God's Word to touch us. For God's Word to touch our lives. That's one of the primary reasons we come here. It can happen as we worship and attend Sunday School. It can happen as the Scriptures are opened and as we study God's Word. It can happen in your daily devotional and meditation time. Listen for God's Word to touch your life. Don't only listen for that audible voice - listen for the Word. God still speaks to us - not only in voice and appearance - but God speaks - oh God speaks to us in the Word that comes to us in the pages of the text - in our quiet mediation - in our prayer closets. That's why basic Christian practice is so important. Read your Bible. Attend Church. Pray. Listen. Listen. Dig into the Word, Worship, talk about your faith. "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." *** One of the ways God also speaks to us is through other people. Yes God uses other people and God uses us. So listen to others. You know we get so caught up in our own lives that we seldom listen very closely to other people. We live in a me first - take care of yourself world. Yet, the Christian life has always been about reaching out to others. You see, its in other people that we are able to hear how God is leading us and speaking to us. Through others. We grow in our understanding of where God wants us to be when we dialogue with others, when we interact with our Christian friends - we are able to discern where God wants us to be and what God wants us to be doing. Our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are our partners in that process of discerning God's place and leading in our lives. Listen to God's people - and you will hear God. Listen to what people are saying to you about you....... Just as a little side line note - its good advice not to listen to what other people are saying about you - that's gossip. Don't listen to that. Listen to what people are saying to you. One on one. Directly. That's where and how the Spirit works between people. Listen. "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." *** I tell you - the bottom line for me - and I'm absolutely certain it works this way for all of us. The bottom line is we are able to discern what God is saying to us when we are doing the work of a disciple. When we are out there working on God's behalf, living to glorify God, doing our best to love someone who is not particularly loveable. Its then and there - in those moments and in those times that God is able to work and speak right through us and to us. Give your heart and your time to Christ and you will feel God's voice deep inside of you. And its heard in our service, in our sharing with others, its heard in the Word. *** But its heard. God still speaks. And Paul says in that First Letter to the Corinthians that "God is faithful." And God is----God is faithful. God calls us just as Jesus called those first disciples. And as God calls us we are to hear exactly what God's people have always been hearing. We are to hear that God accepts us. Yes God accepts us. That is the message of the cross. And not only that God accepts us. But that God empowers us to change. We can change. We have all the courage and power we need in the Holy Spirit. God will strengthen us to change and be changing. That is what we are to be hearing. Because that is what God is speaking to us through the cross. You are accepted. You are loved. You can change. You can help to make changes........ *** Yes God does speak. And God's voice is made loud and clear in the cross of Christ. And it can be heard in each other, in the Word, in service. And it may be heard in audible voice, or in appearance. Or religious experience. Be open to it. Listen for God.... I cannot help but be sure that when Rosa Parks in her quiet hushed voice said "No" - she was doing that in response to the call for justice that God was speaking to her. And Dr. Martin Luther King's life stands as a testimony that God still speaks to us today through others. My friends listen---- Listen for God---- Be open to the Word---- to the calling in the night? Be open........ Listen. "Speak, Lord, for we - your servants are listening." Amen.