The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Speak, For Your Servant Hears

Episode Date: May 12, 2019

“Will you put your yes on the table and let God put it on the map?” - Pastor J.D. Greear Everyone's “YES” looks different. Not sure what God's calling you to do? Take a free SHAPE test at coe22.com/1samuel.

Amen and amen. How's everybody doing? Doing good? Well, you look great. If you got your Bibles, we'll be in 1st Samuel chapter 3, or if you brought your journal, I think we're on page 12 in this third week of private priests and kings, and I know it's been mentioned a couple times already, but can we give a hand to all the mamas here? Thank you, thank you very much. Happy Mother's Day. We wouldn't be here without you, literally. So, hey, Jesus is the head of the church. There's no doubt about that. But the backbone of the church has been some praying mamas since the empty tomb, right?

who showed up first but some mamas. And then also this very book, 1 Samuel, that we're studying, it really starts with the mama praying with Hannah, pouring out her soul to the Lord. And so happy Mother's Day. I hope everybody treats you right. As I'm putting together this message, though, it occurred to me rather late that I would be preaching it on Mother's Day,

and it's not a very good Mother's Day sermon at all. In fact, it's kind of a nightmare to most American mamas, because what I'm praying happens today is that God speaks to you, to the mamas and the kids and everybody in between, that God speaks to you. And in fact, if God really does speak to some of you, it could be the American mom's worst nightmare. That your baby might reject the American dream and take the gospel to the very ends of the earth, that great danger to their self. But the most dangerous thing for their soul could be to grow up where we all grow up.

Now, for the gospel-centered Christian mama, this would be the answer to prayer, that God would speak to you and speak to a whole generation. And we would raise up, not just good citizens here at 1122, but we would raise up missionaries. And some missionaries would go to the Congo, and some missionaries would take the gospel to the HOA. Both very dangerous. The HOA maybe a little more.

So, I have, you know, you saw in the video here, we are well into this two-year discipleship journey that we call the one initiative, okay? It's all rooted in the shema. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And what does it look like for us as a church to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength? What would it look like if he's the one thing that drives everything?

And so, you know, for us, God has called us to be one church, to reach one more, especially one more generation. We're really focused on that over the next two years. But that is just the first few steps in this longer vision that God has given us, that God has called us as a church to plant 1,000 churches over the next 10 years all over the world. And over the next 10 years to send 100 missionaries. That means some of you, some of us, mostly you, will be called to take the gospel to the very ends of the earth, give at least a two-year commitment there, and that God is calling us to plant at least 10, 1122 campuses around Jacksonville,

from St. Augustine to St. Mary's. I'm going to be honest. We ain't going to stop at 10. We're going to do more than that. But 10's a good number too. So currently right now, we have already planted 200 churches out of the church of 1122 around the world, right? So we got 800 to go. And I think this is super cool. This weekend, there will be about the same amount of people attending those 200 churches around the world as we'll attend the church of 1122. We'll have 10 or 11,000 people here, plus we'll have 10 or 11,000 people attending those 200 churches all over the world.

This means in the next few months, More people will be attending in the churches that we planted than we'll be attending here at this church that we started from. Amen? Glory to God. And also, we want to send out 100 missionaries. Now, a bunch of you will be like traditional, race support, get trained, and you'll go be missionaries. But I want a bunch of these people to be, just do what you are good at to the glory of God, somewhere strategic for the mission of God. In other words, you graduate from UNF with your nursing degree and you go to Brazil or you go to. to East Africa or you go to the Middle East and you join with our church planning teams there as a covenant member of one of our partner churches. Currently, we have 11, 11-22ers in the mission field and like John and Colleen there on the video, we have 11 more in training that are about to be

sent out. So we got 11 now, we'll have 22. Can you imagine those numbers? We have 11 now, we'll have 22 by the end of this year ready to go. And at the end of this sermon, I believe in we'll have dozens more that feel called to be long-term missionaries. And then, again, we have six campuses around the, well, we have five campuses right now around the city. And this summer, we'll launch Fleming Island. Amen? More to coming on that. And then honestly, this fall, we're going to launch number seven, and next year we're going to launch number eight, so we'll probably be at 20 in 10 years, whatever. So, when you watch a video like those kids, and by kids, I mean, young adults, but I'm at the age now where if you're 20 years younger than me, you seem like a kid. Amen. Amen. Amen.

And you hear them say something like, we felt like God called us too. And maybe it raises some questions in you. Like, what is that like? Does God speak to people? Does that still happen? And maybe there are some of you, and you begin to ask this question, what am I doing with my life? I mean, like, really? What am I doing with my life?

What on earth am I really here for? Because I ran the play that they gave me. in middle school and high school in college. I mean, you know, I got out of, I made it through middle school, and then I went to high school and about 10th, 11th grade. I started paying attention and thinking, okay, well, I need to try to get into college. And so I didn't get into one I really wanted to go to, but I got in this other one that was good enough.

And then, you know what, my college mottoes was C's equal degrees. And so that's what I did. It took me about six or seven years, and I graduated with a major, and then I got out and I found a job. It's not in my major, but whatever. My parents are mad at me because of that, and I owed a bunch of money, but I lived in their basement. So then they would really encourage me to just get out on my own.

And then I got a job. And again, it's not like my dream job or what I thought I was going to do, but it pays the bills. And you know what? Everything seems to be going okay. Like, my life's okay. I got Netflix and a car with air condition and some dumb friends I run around with. But sometimes in the darkest parts of the night, when I lay my head down on the pillow, I begin to ask, is this it? I mean, this is the American dream?

This is it? Like is there not more to life than just get up and eat something and drive something and go to work and sell something and come home and watch something and go to sleep and just do it again? And the biggest prayer of my life is thank God it's Friday. Is that it? Well, I've got maybe good news or terrible news for you. No, that's not it. That God has more for you in this life than just taking another lap around the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Some of you have hopped on the merry-go round of normality and you've been on a merry-go-round of normality and you've been a lot of,

around it enough that you think it's not that merry. Now listen, some of you are still into it. Some of you are still, you feel satisfied chasing the shiny things of this world. Just give it a minute and it wears off quickly. Ask somebody that's older than you and they will say, now there are some of you and you'll never get over it, okay? I really don't have much to say to you today. But if you have a soul, listen, you are created on purpose by the almighty king of glory. and he loves you. It just ain't about you. And I believe that God still speaks

and that God may be calling you. Have a call on your life. And the greatest thing you could ever do with your entire life is to live it for the glory of the one true God. And maybe he is still talking. Maybe he's talking, but we live in a culture that's preoccupied with information. I read recently that every day now,

Americans take in five times more information than we did in all of 1986. And there was some sweet information in 1986, okay? Like the Ghostbusters and Hammer Pants and Sweet Child of Mine. There was some sweet stuff. But now, every day we have more information riding around in our back pocket than all of the information available in 1986. Today, the average person encounters 100,000 words every day, 6,000 hours of video or, uploaded YouTube every day. TV station has produced 85,000 hours of original programming. Maybe it is that the Almighty God is still speaking. It's just our world. It's turned up so loud we can't hear.

I have an agenda for you today. Okay. Anybody close to me knows this. I tell people all the time, God loves you and I have a plan for your life. And so my plan for your life is today that you would hear the voice of God in your life. That's what I hope happens, okay? I hope you clearly hear a call of God in your life. And I hope you're ready for that. And as we study 1 Samuel 3, we're going to see how God continues to speak to his people. Because I believe that God wants to speak to you. And I don't think when we use the phrase calling, like what's God's call in your life, I don't think that's some kind of sacred experience for a select few that are called into like vocational ministry. I think it's for every son and daughter of the most high king that he wants to speak to his children like every dad wants to

talk to his kids. And so here's what I'm hoping. If you're a 22 or, like you would say, this is my church, this is where I go to church. I hope God speaks to you in such a way that you would start making plans to go on a short-term mission experience sometime over the next three years, either with 1122 or any organization. I don't care. And it's not because those people need you. It's because you need to go and watch what God will do in your life. Trust me. Then there's a group of people, and this is like a few dozen. I believe there are some of you that today you would begin to take your first steps or your next step in becoming a full-time missionary, that you would take the gospel for at least a two-year commitment, either in partnership with some of our church planners,

or you would go to places where the gospel has not been proclaimed, and God would begin to start that work in you right now. And then, I hope that every single one of you that considers Jesus your Lord and Savior, that every single one of you hears the voice of God and that you would go to work differently. That you would go to work, you would go to school, you would go into your neighborhoods tomorrow on mission. Whether you work at a bank or you're at Baker Correctional, everybody in between would begin to understand that you have been sent on mission by the Almighty God for His glory and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. That's my prayer. Amen? If you were more into it, we wouldn't have to sit here for another. hour, but here we go, all right? Chapter 3, verse 1, this is how it goes down. Now, the boy Samuel

was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. I got to be honest, as I was preparing to preach this weekend, when I got to this verse, it just made me sad. I mean, really, really sad. And I began to kind of think about, study a little bit, that when 1 Samuel was put together or written, it's during the period of the judges. And the most common phrase in the book of judges, hopefully you'll remember this, we studied it two years ago. The most common phrase in the book of judges is this, and they did what was right in their own eyes. And I think because they were making gods of themselves and doing what is right in their own eyes,

I think that led to the word of the Lord was rare in those days and there was no frequent vision. You see, dependence upon the almighty God and obedience to God are the ingredients by which the frequency of the Word of God and the frequency of God's vision come through. You see, because when I read this, I thought, how sad for these people, because I'm going to just be honest, man, the Word of the Lord, it does not have to be rare in your life. That God has spoken. This word is not just an ancient document that records historical events that did actually happen, but it is. It is a living, breathing, active word of God. Do you want to hear God speak to you? Then read the Bible out loud and you will hear the words of God.

And the great news about God speaking to us from His Word is that it is readily available and it is always certain. There are times, we'll talk about this in a little while, there are times where we feel like we think God has spoken to us. But if you're honest, and I know, man, there's been a lot of preachers that have just said, God told me. Okay. I'd kind of like to say, I think God told me. Because sometimes it's, I don't, you know, you just have these thoughts, right? And you're like, is that me? Is that God? Is that bad tacos? What's going on in here? And the Bible says about this time there was no frequent vision. I would say

this, not here at 1122. You know what our vision is? Our vision, we say it all the time. Our vision is is that we are a movement. Not a building, not an organization. We are a movement for all people. no matter who you are, where are you from, what you've done, and who you did it with. If you follow it in the all-people category, then this movement's for you. We're a movement for all people to discover. That means like for the very first time that you would meet Jesus and deepen. And here's the most important part, a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's our vision.

Did you know so far this year, there's been 1,0002 people that have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? The vision of God is not rare here. And maybe my favorite part, in 140. 52 of those are at our Baker Correctional Campus. Amen? Listen, you want to see a vision of God come to fruition? Come to baptism next week. And listen, if you're one of those 1002 or if you've never been dunked, if you've never been baptiste, though, that's a Greek word, it just means to dip, dunk submerged.

If you've never been baptized as a believer, we've got a class right after all of our services, you should go and get dunked next weekend in the ocean. Your whole church family is going to be there. see a miracle of God, you should go to beach baptism. Here's what I mean, man. We'll have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people walk out into the Atlantic Ocean, declare Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and we will baptize them, dip, dumps, immerse them under the water, and resurrect them in a newness of life. Now, they've already been saved by the blood of Jesus, but this is to declare that they are saved. And when you see that thing happen, man, disciple groups all over

the beach will pop up, family members. People will begin to see, I have seen a miracle. mamas that have been praying for their sons for years and years and years will say if that sinner can get saved then God can do anything. If the tomb is empty, then anything is possible. I'm just telling you, the word of the Lord is not rare here and his visions are not infrequent. And so that is the context in which Samuel is called in the ministry. Verse 2 says this. And at that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim. Can I get a witness? Oh, my goodness, gracious.

I mean, seriously, look at the size of my print now. That is. My Bible. I mean, one more step, and it's going to be like, in the beginning. That's not my Bible's with me. And at that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, he was lying down in his own place, and the lamp of God had not yet gone out.

And Samuel was lying down in the temple of the temple of the... the Lord where the Ark of God was. Now real quick, this verse scares me a lot. As your pastor, this verse makes me nervous. Because we're going to find out in verse 7 that Samuel doesn't yet know the Lord. And he sleeps in the temple. Do you know you can be close to God and not know God? You can be close to God and not know God.

And let me tell you, it makes me exceedingly nervous in Jacksonville, Florida, with a growing church. And every time we open a campus, the thing fills up with more people. And here's what I mean, that you could know church and not know Jesus. That you could show up to church and be a good churchman, a good churchwoman, man. You could know the thing. You could know, like, where to sit and where to park and how to, like, pay off a Nehemiah got to get your kid out early so you can beat the traffic out. You could know, you could know, like, what part of the song to raise your hand to. You can know what part of the sermon to, mm-hmm.

You know, everybody around him thinks you're super spiritual and you take notes. You could do all the things and be close to him and not know him. May that not be you. I hope and pray that you don't get inoculated with church. Do you know what that means? You get a flu shot? You know what they do? They give you just enough flu,

that your body creates the antibodies so when the real flu comes, you can fight it off. I hope and pray that you don't just get so comfortable with church that you miss Jesus. And we're talking about like an intern in the priesthood here. He's close to him, but he doesn't know him. And then the Lord called Samuel. and he said, here I am, and he ran to Eli.

And he said, here I am, for you called me, but he said, I didn't call. Lie down again. And so he went and he lay down. And the Lord God called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose, and he went to Eli, and he said, here I am, for you called. But he said, I did not call, my son, lie down again. By the way, how patient is Eli? You wait me up twice.

I'll be like, I'm about to call you. All right, here we go. Verse seven. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. You see, it is about, it is not about religion, it's not about a bunch of rules, it is about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not about rules and regulations. Samuel is doing all the right things.

Samuel, for at least eight years, has lived in the temple. He's ceremonially clean, he's obeying the Levitical law, he's doing all the sacrifices. It's not about rules and regulations. He's getting all the rules and regulations right, but he doesn't know God. It's also not about pedigree, or it's not about his genealogy. Now, again, what Pastor Adam talked about last week matters, man. It is a blessing to grow up in a godly home because godly parents in the new covenant put gospel kindling around the hearts of those little souls, but it is only the Spirit of God that can ignite

them. And it is not about information. Samuel had all the information. He literally watched all the sacrifices. He works directly for the priest. It is not about information. It is about a revelation from God. That we don't need more information.

You got all the information you need. Jesus died on the cross for you. There it is. There's the gospel. But I cannot convince you of that. I cannot inform you to heaven that God has to reveal himself to you for the scales to fall off of our eyes and for our hearts to be made of flesh. and in this moment

God is going to reveal himself to Samuel. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and he went to Eli, and he said, here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. All right, does God still speak to his people? You see, there are some people that would say, no. There's a group of believers, and they're called cessationists.

I mean, he's like to cease, and they think that God doesn't speak to his people. I can't see any evidence of that in the scriptures, and we are not a part of that tribe. We are continuationist. I believe, if you're here, get on board with me, that we believe that God, the works of the spirit still continue to this day until Jesus returns. Now, when it comes to like the Holy Spirit speaking to people, have you ever heard somebody say to you, well, God said, and you're like, huh, did he?

So there's kind of two camps, okay, two camps of people when it comes to the Spirit of God leading people in their life. Because in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit shows up 59 times. And 36 of those 59 times, the Bible says that he speaks or he says. But it never says how he speaks or says. Like, is it a text? Does he like write it in a sand? Is it a dream?

He just speaks to his people. So there's a bunch of people that believe that. But the way that they relate to the Holy Spirit is the way that you relate to your medulla amblangata. You know it's important? You've heard about its function. It's in there somewhere. You don't want to do without it, but you're not sure how it works, and it kind of freaks you out a little bit.

Okay? And typically, this group of people, denominationally, would be like Anglicans or Presbyterians. Any Presbyterians in the house? See, exactly. All right? They're here. They just don't talk. They're like, what do we do?

Do we send an email? Right? Okay. So it's kind of that group. And that group often, the Holy Trinity for that group is kind of God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible. Then there's this other extreme, and these are like the charismatic, like the assembly of God, to bring you on tambourine crowd. You know what I mean? And oftentimes they will ascribe things to the Holy Spirit that the Bible does not ascribe to the Holy Spirit.

But they are really excited about any kind of God-speaking, God-talking kind of thing. And in fact, I've had multiple people tell me the number of times that God has told them something. They would come and say, hey, God spoke to me. Oh, yeah? About what? It was very clear, God spoke to me about the girl that he wants me to marry. Okay, Scooter, how'd that work out? Go, well, I know what was the Lord because she's in disciple group with me,

and as I left to drive home, it was all green lights, and she has green eyes. And then the once I got stopped by a red light, and she has red hair, and at the red light, I was thinking about her hair, and I looked at the red light, I was thinking about her hair, and I looked up and there was a billboard, and on the billboard was a phone number, and the last two digits of the phone number just happened to be the year that she was born. And in that instance, Dreamweaver came on the radio. And God spoke to me. And I go, hey, buddy, that doesn't really sound like God speaking as much as it does the preamble of a restraining order.

You might want to pump the brakes on that. So how do you know? How do you know if God is speaking to you? We're blessed here at 1122. Pastor Adam Flint is getting his doctorate of ministry, and he's primarily studying pneumatology, the study of the spirit. And he's a Presbyterian studying the ghost. Glory. All right. And so in his dissertation, he writes six questions to discern if you were being led by the Spirit.

Feel free to jot these down, or we'll put them on our website so you can track them down. And the good news is, they spell out the acronym Gospel, so you can maybe help remember. Number one, is God leading you to do whatever you think he is? Number one, gee, God's glory. Will this decision primarily be about your glory or God's glory? About 99% of all that God told me, which should be shut down right here that I've heard. Is this about you and what you want, or is it about the glory of God? The second one is this, other Christians.

What do other gospel-saturated, Christ-centered, wise friends say about this upcoming decision? What do other Christians say about this decision? Girls, you've been here before. You've been in your disciple group, and one of your girlfriend comes running in and goes, I think I met the man in my dreams. And you're like, seriously, what's his name? And she says his name. And you think, oh, no.

That's not the Lord. Right? Men, oftentimes, the voice of God in your life will sound eerily similar to your wife. And I'm not joking. When Samuel is called, where does he go to? goes to the voice that he's most used to hearing, Eli. Men, when you think God is moving in your life, here's why you should check with your wife.

Here's why she is your best counselor. Because nobody loves you like she does. Nobody knows you like she does. And nobody is less impressed than she is. Okay? This is why you, honestly, this is why you need a disciple group. This is why you need mature men and women around you that can help discern in what you think God is calling you to do.

The most dangerous place you can be as a Christian is isolated. The third one is scripture. Does the Bible command, permit, or prohibit this? What does the inerent, infallible scripture say? God is not a liar. God is not a God of confusion. He would not tell you to do something specifically that he has told all of his followers not to do generally.

The fourth one is prayer. Have you abided with? Rested in. Ask from, listen to, and waited on God. end this decision over time. You see, we have a staff value around here that we try to practice. And it's this, pray first, decide second. And I don't mean say a little prayer.

You remember how Hannah prayed for a son? She poured out her soul. Do you know that when they chose the 12th apostle to replace Judas? Do you know what they did? They gathered two qualified men, and then they just prayed and cast lots. Now that's praying. That's a really big deal.

To replace an apostle is a really, really big deal. Most of the time, what we do is we decide to do what we want to do, and then we ask God to come and bless our deal. That looks like you're the Lord, and he works for you. I want to be in the kind of place where I am laying it at the foot of the cross, going, no, no, no, no, you are my Lord, you are my king. I do what you say. And you lay it at his feet.

have you really, really prayed about it? Then the E is evangelism. Will this decision allow me the opportunity to share the gospel and invite people to faiths? In other words, here's something that I know, without a doubt, that every believer at all of our churches and every believer around the world that God has spoken to you. He said, go therefore and make disciples. It's called the Great Commission. So how does this leading in your life help you understand your role? in the Great Commission.

And then sixth one is this, lifestyle. The L is lifestyle. Will this decision lead me to live a lifestyle of love marked by the fruit of the spirit and holiness? In other words, God would not lead you into a lifestyle that does not bring him holiness. So that's how, that's a filter by which we can begin to understand, has God called me to fill in the blame?

Now, some of you're like, yeah, I've heard preachers talking about I need to find my calling, but I do good to find my car keys, find my way back to work the next day. You know, I'm just trying to like pay the bills and just live life. What do I do if God isn't speaking to me? What if God hasn't given me this big grand vision for my life? Then I would say this. I would say, then get busy about what he has already said. God has commanded every believer some things that we don't even have to debate about. So get real busy about worshiping him like you have today,

showing up, gathering together as a body of believers and making much of him. Get busy serving in your local church. Get busy in sharing the gospel and doing your part. Again, whether it's the Congo or the cubicle next to you in sharing your faith. Get busy at praying at all times. get busy at forgiving one another. Get busy at loving your enemy. Like you love yourself.

Did you know, in fact, if you study sermons over history, which I'm sure many of you do, like I do, this whole idea of figuring out what God's will for our life is individually right now is a very recent church phenomenon. Like you can't find a sermon during the Reformation about these kind of things. It really oftentimes is this result of this like me-centered, Western idea of what it means to be a Jesus follower. So what I would say to you is this, I wouldn't presume upon the Lord to give me a specific word if I haven't been faithful with his

written word. So get busy on what God has already called and commanded you to do. Because notice, that's what Samuel was doing. Samuel wasn't like, I got an idea. I'm going to be a prophet and a priest. No, no, no, no, no. He was just trying to be obedient with what was right in front of him. and then he trusted that in God's timing, God would do for him what he had. Listen, I am by no means the model or the expert, but I will tell you, do you know why I get to do this this weekend while I get to preach to 10 or 11,000 people in Jacksonville and literally millions around the world? Here's why. Because when God called me into ministry, I wasn't trying to do this.

When God called me in the ministry, I was fateful to just try to disciple six or seven high school students in a broom closet. in Beaverdam, Virginia. Not exactly like the metropolis launching pad of mega world ministry, is it? Because that's not the point. The point is just to be faithful to what God has already called you to do and then persevere and have patience. Verse 9, therefore Eli said to Samuel, again, Samuel hears this voice out loud, hears his name.

He thinks it's Eli. So multiple times he gets up and go see Eli. And Eli said to Samuel, go and lie down. and if he calls you, you shall say, speak, Lord, for your servant hears. And so Samuel went and laid down in his place. Notice it doesn't say go to sleep. Can you imagine how nervous you would be? If you heard a voice out loud, and then Eli, the priest said, go lay down one more time,

and if he talks out loud to you again, this is how you respond. Some of you don't sleep good now. You ain't no way you'd go to sleep, but there he is, just laying. I don't know how long it doesn't really say. But it says this in verse 10, and the Lord came and stood calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, speak for your servant hears. There's a lot here. First of all, notice this, that God calls Samuel by name.

Did you know that in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eid had sin, they were naked in the shame, so they ran and hid? And the Bible says in Genesis 3 that God Almighty walks through, the Garden of Eden calling out to the man and woman. That from the very beginning of human history until this day, God Almighty, the king of glory, walks through the garden of your life calling out your name. And anyone who would listen to believe he would adopt as a son and daughter of his. Here's why this is important. Because before God ever calls you to something, God first and foremost calls you to himself.

that God calling you to himself is primary. Your calling in the kingdom of God is secondary to that. In other words, identity always precedes activity. Who you are in Christ will drive what you do for Christ and not the other way around. So can I just ask you, do you know him? Do you know him? Do you know? Have you ever had that moment where you believe that he was calling out to you?

what he does and then look what Samuel does. Samuel in this moment surrenders his life to God. Because here's how he answers. Speak Lord for your servant hears. Here's what he is saying. God, the answer is yes. I'm your servant. Now what's the question? You know what we call that? We call that faiths. Because what if God asks you to do something you don't want to do? Well guess what? When you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that means you ain't a boss of you anymore. You do what he says. You don't just try to bring him along with what you want to do for you. Verse 11, and then the Lord said to Samuel,

behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel, at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. So does the Lord still speak to his people? Yes. For sure, through the Word of God, but there are also some particular experiences that God speaks through and to us. Now again, very generally speaking, I get to, so far, I get to experience this on a weekly basis. This might not matter to you. It matters to me, so I'm saying it, whatever.

Every Monday, I go get in the woods. So tomorrow morning, I'll go get in the woods so that nobody can bug me and get to me with my Bible and a notebook. And I start by praying this. I just pray simply, God, they're your sheep. They're not my sheep. You are the chief shepherd or the senior pastor. I'm just an under shepherd. what do you want to say to your people through me? And then I open up the Bible to wherever we are, and I just start studying it. And I don't know how to explain it, but it's undeniable that every week God gives me a sermon. And he doesn't owe it to me. He doesn't owe it to me.

There are some weeks for the first time I look at this, I'm like, how am I even going to preach this? This is not even a sermon, you know? And I don't know how it happens, man. I just, as I meditate on his word and hang out here, I'm telling you, he just gives me a word for us. And I know they're not that good. I listen to me too. It's not that good. It is moderately delivered, exceptionally received. And I had a guy after the last service come up and say this, but it may be moderately delivers, exceptionally received, but we believe it's divinely inspired, and so do I. It's because it comes from here. So there's that grace on a, on kind of a regular

basis, but then there are some moments in my life that, again, they're kind of unexplainable, they're just undeniable. I remember the moment where God called me to himself. I was a high school kid at this little terrible Baptist camp in Benet'sville, South Carolina. And on the last night of camp, and look, man, I grew up in church, I didn't grow up in church, but I grew up in the South. So like every good Southern boy, I believed in God, in college football, and NASCAR, and the Easter Bunny and, you know, but I didn't know him. And on the last night of camp, after I heard all these Bible studies and kind of played all these goofy camp games, the counselors that were all college kids, they were all like

Fellowship of Christian Athletes kids, they were at this camp and they reenacted the crucifixion of Christ. Like way before Mel Gibson's passion, there was the Camp Pine Hill passion, much lower production budget, I promise. It's just like a guy from Furman with like a Toga outfit on, being pilot. What should all do with this man named Jesus? I mean, it was, you know, everybody had a country accident. It was not awesome. And I'm watching this thing. And the way it was set up for us, we're sitting on these little railroad ties, and there was a pond. There wasn't a pond in the Bible, but that's what we had there because the voice is carried better. And on the other side of

the pond, there were three crosses. And this, my counselor was a kid from Furman. And he just says what Jesus says from the cross. And he says, it is finished. Father in thy hands I commit my spirit And the lights went out And somebody showed a flashlight On Coach Lee's face And he just simply said For God so loved the world

And that means you That he gave his only begotten son So whosoever And that means you Would believe in him Would not perish but have an everlasting life I'd heard that a hundred times in my life but somehow in that moment God revealed himself to me,

and I knew that when Jesus says it was finished, somehow it counted for me. Even though I didn't deserve it, I just knew it. And then it was a Baptist camp, so I think they're under contract to sing just as I am, so he started singing just as I am, without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for me. And about on the 17th verse of just as I am, Coach Lee got back up and said, I believe there's one more. And I was the one more.

and I got up from my railroad tie and I walked forward and said, all right, I want to be a Christian. And even the language that we used, I wouldn't even use it today. I asked Jesus into my heart. That's not really how it works, but I did and he did. And he called me into himself. A few years later, Coach Lee's got me back at the camp and I'm cutting grass. That's about all I was qualified to do.

And he made me go to all the Bible studies and stuff. And we're standing in the back of the room. I've told you this before. standing in the back of the room, and Coach Lee says to me, boy, when the singing's done, you're going to preach. What? And by singing, we were singing the song called I Am a C. Anybody know this camp song?

Raise your hand if you know I'm a C. I just want, oh, glory. Come on, hop high. All right. Good. If you don't have your hands up, you're welcome. All right. We didn't have like real worship yet.

It hadn't been invented. It was like, I am a C, I am a C, I'm a C, H, I'm a C-H, I'm a C-R-S-T-I-N. And now, I graduated high school for I realized that we were spelling, I'm a Christian. I didn't know. I didn't know. I thought somebody caught tongues, and we were going to get in trouble with the Southern Baptist deacon. So, anyway. So I told you this, Coach Lee's like, boy, go up there. And I was like, Coach, what do I talk about?

And he said, boy, that's easy. You talk about Jesus? You talk about 30 minutes. Okay. So I went up, and I did. I preached John 316, because it's the only one I could find in the Bible. And so I preached it. Kids got saved.

And I came, we didn't have a stage. I came, like, from the front. and Coach Lee said this, boy, when you teach the Bible, I see two things happen. I see you come alive. I see them come alive. This is what you should do. Years later, I would realize that the voice of God sounded a whole lot like Coach Lee. So I got home, college, man.

I was volunteering in our youth group because I was just going to serve at my local church. I knew that that's what we were supposed to do. I had no plans going into ministry whatsoever. I was teaching on Wednesday nights, and it was, you know, whatever, it's fine. And then one weekend, we read this thing called a Disciple Now weekend, and the speaker is up there speaking. I named Wade Morris. And he's preaching, he's doing his thing, and then he gives an invitation. And it's Baptist, man. So in Baptist world, the invitation is like, if you want to ask Jesus in your heart, become a Christian, come down here,

talk to these people. So a couple kids, come on down. He goes, and if you want to rededicate your life to Jesus, come on down here. About 700 kids come down here, you know. They swear, you're not going to sin, at least until the next week or whatever. That's what you do there. And then he says, and some of you, God is calling into full-time vocational ministry. And I'm telling you, it's unexplainable. I didn't hear anybody talk out loud except Wade up there on the front, but it was undeniable. God was just called. I thought, oh, no.

He's talking about me. And at this point, man, I was a rising senior at VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University, and I had just got accepted into the medical college of Virginia. I was going to be Doc Martin. They always laugh at me, Doug, when I tell him I'm going to be a doctor. And I walk down front and told the senior pastor of my church, I think God's calling me in the ministry. And he said this. He said, God always confirms what he calls.

And he gave me an internship there the next week. And ever since that moment, this is what I've been doing. And I did student ministry from that. I was like 19 years old, 20 years old. I did it until I was 35 or something like that. And I thought, this is sweet, man. I'm fully content to just do this. I'll just do student ministry.

I had the sweetest gig in the world at Beach United Methodist Church. We had hundreds of kids, have my own little staff. It's awesome, man. I surfed so much. I ate so much, and Angie's subs. They named stuff after me. Here's what's great, man. First of all, in ministry, it's the best return on investment.

85% of people that meet Jesus do so before they graduate high school. And so I thought, I don't know what to do with little kids. They scare me. And adults, you can have them. These are my people. And even if you screw it up, you get a brand new congregation like every three years. So I figure I'll just outlast those little demoniacs. minding my business doing this.

Then we start a service called 1122. And we had no intention of it turning into all this, man. We really didn't. In fact, my goal, I'm such a bad leader. I got my team together. I was like, listen, nobody's going to come. Because Ben Williams, you sing like, you cry when you sing. And who wants to see that?

And then two, I'd preach too long. So nobody's going to be into it, which would be perfect. What if we could make 250 disciples? That was the goal. If we could make 250 disciples in Jacksonville, that's what Jacksonville needs. And then sure enough, y'all started bringing too many people. You've got the 300, and I was like, I'll fix this. And so what it is?

I came up one day, and I said, you got three years to go on a mission trip or get out. People are like, what? I was like, I'm being serious. Go not listen to somebody else. But if you don't go on a mission trip in three years, then we need your seat. Get out of here. And people left offended. And they got three people and brought them back.

Y'all got to come here this. We tripping. Oh, no. Then we did our first compassion international. weekend. And instead of a bulletin, we gave every person a compassion packet. We had 300 people at the service. We gave out 300 packets every person. And I preached an emotionally manipulative sermon. And we lined the back of the place with trash cans. And I said, you got two options. You can throw them in the trash or you can sponsor them. Because if you don't sponsor them, they're eating out of the

trash tonight. People are crying. They're like, wow, I can't believe it. Left. We sponsored every kid. Then they brought like 10K. Come, y'all got to hear this fool. This is crazy. Lots of things happen. And before you know it, man, the leadership team of Beach is in a meeting in St. Augustine, Florida. And Pastor Jerry Sweat, my pastor, he comes in and says, I think the Lord has spoken. And it's crazy.

That night, the voice of God in my life sounded a lot like Pastor Jerry Sweat. He said, I think it's time that Beach plants a church. with you as the lead pastor. And then he said this. Christians are famous for saying this. I just have a piece about it. To which I said, huh, I threw up my mouth a little. So that's weird how the Spirit of God manifests himself differently in people's lives that way.

And so, you know what we did? Listen, man, we had no idea if it was going to work. We didn't know anything about, all I knew is this. Lord. speak for your servant hears. I'm going with a yes. Now what's the question? Because we didn't have a checking account.

We didn't have, we were just an idea. It wasn't like a thing. One of the first things I do is gathered elders together to protect me from me, made them my boss. And then a couple of my friends, the Stones and the Williams and the Browns, and several of us began to meet at Petty's and Deb's living room. And we would just get in there, we would just pray. And the word of the Lord was not rare.

And his vision was not infrequent. We wrote it down. I wrote it on a napkin. This thing's going to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now again, we didn't have a checking account. How do you do this? And I tell you, you know who the Lord moved in? Got him Tony Slaman.

I met him on the corner of our San Pablo campus right out here. I met him. I walked up because he owned this building. and I walked up and he thought I was the air-conditioned repairment. I went, hey, Mr. Slaman, he goes, yes, the second unit. I'm like, P.D. is like, this is our pastor. And I used to see his face was like, oh, no. And the Spirit of God said, get him, get him.

So I went after it with the gospel. I said, Mr. Slaman, God's going to use you in this building to change the world. Let's go. And he said, let's go to work. Okay? I'm telling you. Since then, he's surrendered to Jesus because I'm mission truly. It's unbelievable, okay?

It's unbelievable. I can tell you, when it got real, real for me, when it got real, real for me, was things were coming together and we were going to move in this place and we'd set a date and we were working and praying and praying and working and praying. And one of the things that the church growth consultants told us that whatever you do, don't put a lot of religious icons in the building because millennials aren't into that. So I was like, that's cool. How about a 40-foot red steel cross?

What do you think about that? Because that's what we're going to do is point people to the cross. And so Petey called me one day and said, hey, man, they're putting the cross up. And so we hopped in our cars. We drove out here. And Gretchen and I stood in the parking lot, check this out. This is what our church looked like then. We had no idea.

People asked, is it going to work? What do you mean is it going to work? I'm not into the is it going to work park. I'd have no control over is it going to work. All I can say is speak for your servant hears. But the point of this thing is not for you to listen about how I've answered God's call in my life. The real point of this thing is to ask yourself, what is he calling you to do? What is he calling you to do?

Because there is no sacred, secular divide. It's not like my job is holy because I work here and yours is unholy because you work at the bank, or yours is unholy because you're an author, or yours is unholy because you're a police officer. That is not how it works. That God has a call in the life of all of his children, and all of our call is for, for his glory in the advancement of his kingdom. The question is, what does your part in that call look like? In your journal, if you flip over a couple of pages, there's a link to a website called a

shape inventory. And if you go there, you can take some tests, and basically all it will do is it will help you understand how God has shaped you so that you can do what you're good at for the glory of God. And what if you began to do that thing somewhere strategic for the mission of God. So this is how Samuel was called. And again, man, it wasn't fun. What he was called to wasn't fun. He has to tell Eli, his mentor, hey, your son's disobedience and your, your abdication of your role as father is going to eliminate you from your role here. That's not fun. Just because

God calls you to it, doesn't mean it's fun. When I told my daddy, I was going into ministry, he said, boy, you don't get up and go to fun. You get up and go to work. That should be in the proverbs too, shouldn't it? And this is how the chapter ends. It says in verse 19 and Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground and all Israel from Dan to Beersheba. That means like from sea to shining sea. And all of Israel from Dan to Bersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. You see, you don't apologize for the Lord's anointing. You just walk in it. Because it ain't yours. It ain't yours to brag about it. It ain't yours to be ashamed of. And the Lord

appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. So let me ask you this. What is God calling you to? What is God calling you to? What is God calling you to? What do you think God call in your life is? For some of you, I pray that today you begin making plans for you and your family or you and yourself or you and your disciples group to go on a short-term mission experience sometime over the next three years. I pray that every single one of you, every single one of you, would go to work differently tomorrow, would go to school differently tomorrow, and would go into your neighborhoods differently tomorrow.

Again, whether you work at the bank or you're at Baker Correctional, that you would go with a yes. And then there are some of you that I believe God is calling into full-time vocational missions. And so what I want you to do, when you came in, you got this little card here, okay? Because we want to help you with what that thing is in your life. And the bottom of it is perforated, which is Hebrew for it to tear away. So do that. And it just says yes.

The way my friend J.D. Greer says it is this. Are you willing to put your yes on the table and watch God put it on the map? What does that look like for you? Listen, for most of us, God's yes in our life is right here in Jacksonville. God has called us to minister here to be a part of this church. Also, God has called us to be like an aircraft carrier that raises up people and sends them off to the very front lines all over the earth. And so if you're in kind of category one that says, we need to start praying about what mission trip are we going on, I want you to put this somewhere in your home where you can see it so that you can say yes when God opens the door for you to go on that mission, that short-term mission experience.

And for every single one of you, I want you to put this yes somewhere where you're going to see it before you go to work tomorrow. so that you realize that what you are doing is for the glory of God, whether it's in finances or you're staying at home making two disciples or three or four disciples with your very own last name or whether you're a police officer or whatever that thing is. And then for those of you that feel like it's time for you to take the first step or the next step and what it means to be one of our hundred missionaries sent around the world with the gospel, then in just a minute you're going to fill your name in, your email address,

your phone number and this week somebody from our mission team is going to contact you to help you take the next steps to say yes to God because here's the thing I can't get over. Here's the thing I can't get over. Somebody asked me a long time ago, what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? What would you do for the glory of God if you knew God was all over it? To which today I'd say I'd plan a church. It's a movement for all people to discover in deep in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And you might say, well, that's easy for you to say now because you already did it.

You're right, but I'm standing in that parking lot. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. We were willing to risk whatever it takes just to be obedient to what we felt like God was doing. And can you imagine? Look, God is sovereign, that's what he wants, whatever he wants, he doesn't need any of us.

But can you imagine if we didn't plant 1122? Do you know the Bible says that God does exceedingly more than we ever ask or imagine? I never imagine any of this stuff, any of this stuff. I'd never imagine that somebody on our staffs, one more, Uncle Brian, would come to a hunting encounter and you'd get saved at lunchtime while we're eating cornbread.

I didn't imagine that. And I didn't imagine that when you did before all things and you felt like the before all things was to reach out to one family member that God would use your obedience to save three generations of people in your family. I had no idea that God would do that. And I had no idea that God would lead my very best friend to Christ and I would get to baptize him in Jamaica.

I had no idea all that God wanted to do in us and through us. He was just simply waiting on a yes. And you know what hangs in the balance? Do you know what hangs in the balance and what God is calling you to do? You have no idea. You have no idea. I dare you by faith to step out and do whatever that thing is. that God is calling you to do.

Would you please stand and let me pray for you. Our good and grace is heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. And God, I thank you, but I praise you that you still speak to your people. God, I thank you first and foremost for your word, your spirit breathe, holy, infallible, inerrant word that is so readily, is so certain. We thank you for that. And forgive us when we treat that which is sacred as if it is common. And God, I thank you that you still speak through your people.

people to your people. God, I thank you for your voice through the mouth of Pastor Jerry and through the mouth of Coach Lee and through the mouth of Gretchen Martin. And God, I pray that you would continue to speak to your children and may by faith we answer. God, the answer is yes. Now, what is the question? We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.