Surrender

Are You Ready to Hear the Call of God? (1 Sam. 3:2-9, 19-20,7:3-5, 12) God’s call is an act of grace (Gal. 1:15, 1 Pe. 2:10) The Lord called Samuel before Samuel had had the word of God revealed to him. (1 Sam. 3:7) The Lord called Isaiah from the womb (Isa. 49:1) God foreordained His chosen ones (Ro. 8:29-30) God calls the lowly (1 Cor. 26-30) Jesus came to call sinners (Matt. 9:13, Mk 2:17, Lk. 5:32) Hannah understood that Samuel was a gift of God’s love, grace and mercy, on loan to her for a little while. Do you feel the same way about your children? In fulfillment of her promise of dedication, she lent him back to God. (1 Sam. 1:28) She was later blessed with 3 more sons and 2 daughters (1 Sam. 2:20-21) (Side note: Samuel was promised to God as a Nazerite. (1 Sam. 1:11), refer to last week’s lesson) God’s call requires the commitment of our whole, undivided heart (Deut. 4:29-31, 6:5, 1 Sam. 7:3, Matt. 22:36-38) God knows what is in our hearts (Gen. 6:5) Our character, thoughts and deeds reflect what we truly believe about God in our hearts. (Matt. 6:1921, Mark 7:20-23, Luke 6:45) God let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground (1 Sam. 3:19), in other words, everything that Samuel prophesied for God came to pass, the test of a true prophet (Deut. 18:21-22) God requires our exclusive worship and our service. (Deut. 10:12, Joshua 22:5, 1 Sam. 7:3, 12:20) God has called us each of us The word vocation is from the Latin, vocare, which means to be called by a voice. God has a unique place and unique tasks for each of us. A unique role in partnership with Him. As Martin Luther liked to say, "God milks the cows through you." Every worthwhile endeavor in life is potentially a calling from God. In addition, we have all been called to live lives of faithfulness and service (Rom. 1:7, 1 Cor. 1:2, called to be saints and to care for and love each other (1 Pe. 3:8). God sometimes calls us by name. (Gen. 21:17-19, 22:1 & 11, Exodus 3:4, 1 Sam. 3:4-10) God’s call is often intrusive

Many of the key figures in the Bible were people whose lives were moving along in accustomed, conventional, predictable paths, only to be disrupted by an intrusive word, only to hear their named called, and to have their world rocked. (Ex. 3, he called Moses while Moses was working as shepherd and driving his flock, Matt. 4:18-22, Simon, Andrew, James & John, fishing/mending nets) Our hearts must be receptive to hear God’s call (1 Sam 3:1, Proverbs 29:18, Isa. 54:6-8, 55:2-3, Jer. 7:13, Micah 3:5-7, Acts 28:25-28) Our trust must be in God and not in ourselves (Ps. 85:8) “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). God makes all things work to the good of those called according to His purpose (Ro. 8:28) Are you ready to hear the call of God; to do something you may not want to do, to go someplace you don’t care to go, to be among people you would rather not be around? Close with 1 Thes. 1:11-12