Phone Call From God

“Phone Call From God”
I Samuel 3 and John 1:43-51

The passages of scriptures today take me back to the 1970s when as a little girl I used to like to go through my parents 33 albums. One album I enjoyed playing over and over was an Album entitled “Phone call from God” by Jerry Jordon. It was a comic monologue in which Jerry receives a phone call. It is a collect call from Heaven. In his best Southern redneck accent Jordon has about a 5 minute conversation with God giving all kinds of explanations for why he doesn’t go to church regularly, why he doesn’t tithe a full 10 percent and so on. At the conclusion of the phone call his wife calls from the other room to ask who it was. She asked if it was the wrong number. He said no, the caller definitely had my number but next time the phone rings you answer it because you sure did need it a lot more than me. Wouldn’t it be great if we really did get phone calls from God? How many times in my life I wished that I would have a burning bush moment, or that God would just do some sky writing for me so I would know the answers to the questions of my heart. Does God really speak to humanity. How do we know it’s God? Well, I think that our passages of scripture today provide us with two very real examples of God speaking to humanity. In I Samuel 3 we have a young boy being called by God for the first time. In John 1 we have recorded the calling of Philips as a disciple in the first story God was an invisible voice. In the 2nd one He came through Jesus.
Bill Hybels is the founder of Willow Creek Church in Chicago. He is an author and well sought after speaker on matters of leadership. In His book “The Power of a Whisper” He writes about the “whispers” of God and outlines for the reader filters to put our whispers through to insure they are from God. In the preface to the book he explains that it has taken him 30 some years to write this book because he had to figure out how to explain it without people thinking he was mentally ill.” The first chapter of his book outlines his own experience with whispers from God and his desire to listen for whispers which came from the telling of the I Samuel story you have listened to today. When he was in the 2nd grade his teacher read this story to him. “On a typical day Bill would be the first one out to the playground. On this day, after hearing the story of Samuel and Eli he lagged behind and when all the students were outside he asked his teacher if she thought God still spoke to little boys. From that day on he tried to listen for the voice of God.
One night I got a call from a friend to come over to her house. I got there and she was crying. I could tell she had been crying for a long time. Her eyes were swollen, her face was puffy. Her question was How do I know which voice is God’s voice. I have one voice telling me this and another telling me the complete opposite. How do I know? We spent about an hour going back and forth mulling over this question. My answer was which one is true to your nature. Which one makes you feel at peace? Which voice condemns you? Which voice loves you? I shared some scripture with her and we prayed together and I set out on a quest myself to find the answers. I began pouring myself into scripture and prayer and the more I did that the more I began to experience for myself these whispers from God. God’s callings and whispers have since become a focal point of my life.
So what do these two stories from scripture today tell us about how God communicates with humanity. First I want us to look at Who God Speaks to:
In the Samuel story God speaks to a young boy, Samuel. Samuel had been dedicated to temple work by his mother who promised God if he gave her a child she would dedicate him to God for life. After finishing nursing him she honored her promise and Samuel was taken to the temple where he would live there with the Priest, Eli. In our John Story God speaks to Phillip, a fisherman, an ordinary blue collar worker probably middle aged. There are many different stories in the scripture of God calling young persons, old person, Jews, Greeks, men ,and women. God does not discriminate in people. He does not discriminate. God calls you, God calls me. It is not a one-time deal but a constant renewing.. God begins speaking to you when you are young like Samuel and he continues speaking through adulthood and in to retirement. God is never finished with us. We are never too young, we are never too old to be listening for the whisper of God. Unlike the beliefs of our Old Testament patriarchs, we do not need a temple to be in the presence of God for what we know is that the presence of God is always within each and every one of us.
The second question that our scriptures bring to mind today is how we know who it is that is speaking to us. For Samuel, he originally believed that the voice calling him was Eli. He would hear the call “Samuel, Samuel” he would get up from his bed and go to Eli saying here I am you called. Eli would say no son, I didn’t call you go back to bed. This happened a total of three times before Eli then realized that it was God calling. We see here in the scripture text that Samuel “did not yet know God.” I don’t think that meant that he didn’t know who God was, didn’t know about God but he had not yet had that life turning experience of personal connection with God. Eli, however, older and wiser and more experienced recognized that it was God calling and he instructed Samuel to go back to bed and when he heard the voice call out again to answer, Here I am Lord. Samuel did as Eli instructed. Sometimes to know whose voice we are hearing we need an advisor, we need the wisdom of one who has already had the experience. Why sometimes we may even be called to be that wise advisor. I suspect I’m sitting among a room full of wise advisor Elis today. In the new testament Story, Phillip knows who Jesus comes from because of things he has read in scripture. He goes and tells Nathaniel. We have found the one that Moses speaks about in the Law. Jesus, from Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Sometimes we know a whisper is from God because it resonates with what we have learned in scripture. In His Book the Power of the Whisper, Bill Hybels lays out 5 filters through which we can put the whispers we here that will help us answer the question “who is calling?”
First, You ask yourself is this prompting/whisper truly from God? Who do we ask that of, we ask it of God. You say “Well isn’t that the question we’re trying to answer with these filters? Yes, but the real question of this filter is does this prompting line up with what you know to be the character of God, revealed in scripture. Bill Hybels tells of a man who came up to him one day with a supposed “message from God” that Bill’s children were going to be “struck down” within 30 days. Bill knew they would not be in line with the character of God he knew from scripture and he could without a doubt and with ease and no worries say this message is not from God.
The second filter is “Is it scriptural.” When you feel a prompting to act ask yourself “can I see Jesus taking this action I am considering taking.” Go to the scriptures. See what you can find about the action you are being prompted to take. Read Galatians 5:16-26 which says:
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
The third Filter is “Is it Wise?” Wisdom is knowledge. Wisdom tells us to practice gentle speech. Wisdom tries to live blameless. With wisdom comes honor. Find out all there is to know about that which you have been prompted to do and figure out what the wisdom is regarding that action.
The 4th Filter is “Is it in tune with your own character”. God is not going to call you to go join the Crossfire Ministries Basketball team when you cannot even dribble a basketball God is not going to call you to give a Million Dollars to Haiti if all the resources you have in this world is 1000.00 and you have no gifts for fundraising. If God is calling you to act, He is calling you because you have the gifts and talents to handle the job.
Finally, the last filter is What do the people you most trust think about it. Proverbs 11:14 states “where there is no counsel, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Don’t just go to one trusted friend. Go to all your trusted friends and see what they advise, what they think about this thing you have been prompted to do.

Hopefully these filters provide a framework within which for more discussion to take place regarding the whispers of God.

Finally, the last thing to look at in these two passages of scripture are the responses of those being spoken to by God. In the old testament passage Samuel responded by saying “here I am Lord” The Lord gives him a very difficult message to deliver to his beloved mentor and caretaker, Eli. It’s not a message Samuel wants to deliver but he trusts and he obeys. In the John passage Jesus has just called Andrew and Peter to follow him and then goes within the same town and finds Phillip. He says to Phillip: “Come, Follow me.” Phillip not only immediately says yes but he goes, as Andrew did, and finds another companion for the journey and says come on I have found the one. He brings Nathaniel to see and witness for himself that Jesus is one whom should be followed. While there seems to be no doubt in the stories of these two callings, the Bible is chalked full of others who had to be convinced. Moses, who said he stuttered and couldn’t possibly be the one, Abraham who said I am too young, Jonah, who simply did not want to go to Ninevah. They all responded with God, are you sure you’ve got the right number. Well rest assured my friend, just as Jerry Jordon said in his monologue comedy skit, “God has your number.”

Going back to Bill Hybel’s book, the Power of the Whisper, I told you the story about Bill being in Second grade and hearing the story about Samuel and wondering if God still spoke to Little boys. His teacher’s response then was to say “Oh yes Billy, He most certainly does. And if you learn to quiet yourself and listen, he even will speak to you. I am sure of it.” Before he left that day his teacher slipped him a poem. She told him that she had kept it there in her desk for quite some time but somehow she thought she should give it to him that day. The poem went like this:

“Oh! Give me Samuel’s ear,
An open ear, O Lord,
Alive and quick to hear,
Each whisper of Thy Word;
Like him to answer to Thy call
And to obey Thee first of all.”

Little Billy Hybels memorized that poem that very night and it became a life Mantra for him, One that I pass on to you today. A challenge to be still and allow yourself to know that God is with you every moment of every day. At every crossroad you reach, God is there to whisper to you the path to take. Will you have Samuel’s ear to hear and to answer; to trust and obey?

Thanks be to God for this message today.

***All References to Bill Hybels come from Power of a Whisper, copywright 2010