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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Go ahead and get started this evening. If you would, grab a hymnal and turn to hymn number 63. What a day that will be. Hymn number 63. Hymn number 63. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. There is coming a day When no heartache shall come No more clouds in the sky No more tears to dim the eye All is peace forevermore On that happy golden shore What a day, glorious day That will be What a day that will be When my Jesus eyes shall see And I look upon His face The One who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the Promised Land What a day, glorious day That will be There'll be no sorrow there No more burdens to bear No more sickness, no pain No more parting over there And forever I will be With the One who died for me What a day, glorious day That will be What a day What a day that will be When my Jesus eyes shall see And I look upon His face The One who saved me by His grace When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the Promised Land What a day, glorious day That will be Good singing will open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity to gather together tonight and sing praises and to listen to some preaching, Lord. I thank you for all the souls that were saved and I pray that you would just give us a ten of ears to hear the message that you played on Brother Dillon's heart. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. For our next song, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 321. Where he leads, I'll follow. Hymn number 321. Hymn number 321. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. The promise is kind is the word Dearer far than any message man ever heard Pure was the mind of Christ Sinless I see He the great example is in pattern for me Where he leads, I'll follow Follow all the way Where he leads, I'll follow Follow Jesus every day Sweet is the tender love Jesus has shown Sweeter far than any love that mortals Have known Kind to the erring one, faithful is he The great example is in pattern for me Where he leads, I'll follow Follow all the way Where he leads, I'll follow Follow Jesus every day List to his loving words Come unto me Weary, heavy laden, there is sweet rest for thee Trust in his promises, faithful and sure Lean upon the Savior And thy soul is secure Where he leads, I'll follow Follow all the way Where he leads, I'll follow Follow Jesus every day Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have one, you can raise your hand and an usher will bring you a bulletin. We have our Bible memory verse of the week on the front there, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 3. On the inside on the left there you'll see our service times listed, Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening 430, and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m. All of our soul-winning times are listed there with the respective leaders. All those meet here at the church building. We have our updated nursing home ministry schedule listed there. If you're participating in that ministry, make sure to pay attention to that. Also on the bottom we have our year-to-date stats. Make sure just whenever you go soul-winning you're reporting those numbers to the soul-winning leader and leaders, please text or email me the information listed there. On the right, make sure you're continuing to pray for Mrs. Reed. This Sunday, it's finally coming up, this week is the fifth Sunday fellowship, family favorite dish. Looking forward to seeing what everyone's going to bring to this. It's going to be a great time of fellowship and the evening service. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Make sure you've got your favorite hymn in mind. We're going to have a crowd pick for the evening service as far as songs go, so make sure you're thinking about that. Also the same day is going to be the pastoral ordination of Brother Salvador Alvarez, so I'm sure he'd love to hear from you guys, some texts and encouragement, let him know you're praying for him and excited for him. It's going to be a great, great weekend for Pure Words Baptist Church, very excited. September 7th, which is not this upcoming Saturday, but it's the Saturday after, we're going to be starting a Saturday soul-winning rally, and this is going to be a weekly event and something I really hope people can participate in. It's going to be kind of like a normal soul-winning time, except this first time that we have the event, I'm going to cater breakfast and coffee, so make sure you come, bring your family, there'll be lots of good food, lots of coffee. But basically, instead of just showing up at 11 o'clock and getting maps and leaving, you know, we're going to start the soul-winning time at 10 o'clock, we're going to have a song related to soul-winning or salvation or heaven or something like that, and one of the men of the church is going to preach a 10-minute soul-winning challenge for everyone, and so that's going to be a good opportunity for people to get some time preaching and hopefully get everyone encouraged, filled with the Spirit before we go out soul-winning. After that, then we'll hand out maps and go out, so I hope you'll join us for this, this Saturday soul-winning rally. That's September 1st, that's going to be, or sorry, September 7th is our first one. Normally it's going to be at 10 a.m., but if you look at the announcement there, just because we're going to be catering food and coffee for this first event, the food and coffee will start at 9.15. The service will start at service. The soul-winning rally will start at 10. And then going forward, every single Saturday, that will be at 10 o'clock. So I did send an email last night to some of the men inviting them to preach and be a part of this ministry, so make sure you check your email and respond to that if you are interested. October 4th through the 6th is the Heritage of the Lord Conference in Cedar Hill. And November 6th through the 10th is the Faithful Word Baptist Church Missions Conference in Tempe, Arizona. That's all we have for announcements this evening. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. All right. If you would, grab a white handout and turn to Psalm chapter 126. Psalm 126 in the white handout. Psalm 126 will start right on the very first verse or only verse. The Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Good singing. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 3. 1 Samuel chapter number 3. Good evening, 1 Samuel chapter number 3. 1 Samuel 3, the Bible reads, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see, and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I, and he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay down, and the Lord called yet again Samuel. And Samuel arose, and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son, lie down again. Now Samuel, now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose, and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor of offering, nor offering forever. And Samuel lay until the morning, and he, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son, and he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee, and more also if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto thee. And Samuel told him every wit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan, even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord, and the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Amen. Alright, 1 Samuel chapter number 3. Of course, last week we learned about Hophni and Phinehas and their grievous sins, the fact that they were perverting the house of the Lord, causing people to hate the service of God, and lying carnally with the women at the congregation of the house of the Lord. And God promises to kill his sons and replace his house with someone else. And that brings us to verse 1 of 1 Samuel 3. The Bible says this, And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And again in this chapter, we're already seeing this repeated theme that God is wanting to point out to us, that serving God is also for children. It's not just something that adults do, it's not just something that old people do, but rather this is something that even children can get involved in. And I think a lot of churches purposely exclude children, purposely like putting them in children's church where they're just playing around, playing games, playing video games. I went to a church as a child one of the handfuls of times that I ever went to church, and it was literally just you walk in and there's Xbox 360s everywhere and just the walls covered with TVs and that was church, right? But you know sometimes churches may, they may not purposely exclude the children in that sense, but sometimes people just forget about kids and forget about the fact that the service includes them too and that they're here to learn the word of God as well. And so I would just encourage all the parents in here to teach your children to take church seriously. And you know your children, they can pay attention in church once they reach a certain age. Obviously I'm not talking about babies and toddlers here, but once your kids grow up to a certain age level, you know church should not just be a time where they sit around playing with toys or scroll on their tablet or something like that. They should actually be paying attention to the preaching. Why? Because we see here that Samuel was a child, yet he ministered unto the Lord. You know what are some of the ways that children can minister unto the Lord? Well you know I've seen countless children especially at Steadfast Baptist Church in Cedar Hill where there's a ton, tons of kids at that church, over a hundred children, and I've seen many of them do complete chapters of the Bible by memory. And honestly children might be able to do this better than adults. They got those fresh young minds and so this is one of the areas that your children can serve God is just by doing that Bible memory verse. This week my wife was teaching our kids John 3 16 and even though they're little, they're getting John 3 16. So you don't want to just forget about the opportunities that your kids have to serve God as well. You know something else, don't be afraid to take out your children's soul winning. That's a great opportunity for them to serve the Lord and to hear the Gospel over and over and over again so that when they get older hopefully they will call upon the name of the Lord themselves and trust in Him. You know as they get older and they can read make sure that they're being taught to read the Bible. You know what I'm just saying here is don't forget about your children's spiritual walk with God. It's important for them. And when you look at a great man of God like Samuel, it didn't just start when he was an adult. It started as a little child ministering unto the Lord. Let's keep reading in verse 1. Notice what it says. It says in the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. And what that word precious is referring to is simply that the word of the Lord is hard to find during that time. Something that's precious is of extreme value and it's hard to find. You know you're not going to just be walking down the streets of downtown OKC and find just pure diamonds laying around. Why? Because diamonds are precious. They're rare. And what the Bible is saying is that at this time the word of the Lord was rare and there was no open vision. And while thankfully you know the word of the Lord is not rare in our society I mean we have King James Bibles everywhere. If someone wants to have a Bible they can find it. Yet I think there's a modern day parallel with this in the sense of it's rare to find a good church. It's rare to find a church that has a good vision where they have the pure precious word of God and there's just an open vision in that church. And you want to know how I know that it's rare is that people still move from all over the world and from all over America to go to a good church. And when I went and visited Germany this year there's people driving from other countries on a monthly basis just to go to a good church. Why? Because in a lot of places in this world the word of God is precious. Meaning it's rare. And even in the United States of America where thank God you definitely can find a church that's saved. You definitely can find a church that has the right gospel but that doesn't mean that just on every street corner in America you can find an absolutely great church to go to. Go to Psalm 119. I'll read Ephesians 118. The Bible says this, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. So the Bible explains that when you're saved your eyes are now enlightened. And here in 1 Samuel the Bible is saying that there was no open vision. Now the first step in finding a good church is just going to find a church where their eyes are enlightened. And a lot of people haven't even gotten to that step in America yet. Why? Because a lot of people are going to places like the Catholic church where news flash, the clergy of the Catholic church, their eyes are not enlightened. They may have a Bible or something that calls itself a Bible but any person that gets up and teaches that you get to heaven by doing good works, that you get to heaven by repenting of your sins or by following a list of rules or by confessing to a priest, that's a person whose eyes are not enlightened. That's a person who's still in darkness and the people that follow those people are still in darkness as well. Not only is it just hard to find a church often times in many places in this world that's saved, on top of that it's even harder to find a church that actually has the word of God and is using it well. Look at Psalm 119, 105. The Bible says this, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So notice, remember in 1 Samuel it's saying that there was no open vision. You know in one sense once you're saved your eyes are enlightened and you have vision and you can see. But beyond that there's vision when it comes to your daily life and your daily walk with God. The Bible says that thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Meaning that if you're not letting the Bible guide your decisions, if you're not letting the Bible shape your opinions and teach you what the right way is, you are in darkness. You are in a sense not having any open vision. So not only is it important to find a church where they're enlightened when it comes to salvation, but also it's one that uses the word of God as the light to our feet, as the lamp to our path, or lamp to our feet, light to our path. And here's the thing, the Bible says that thy word is these things. Makes me think of the churches that are using false Bible versions. You know they have a defective light. They're holding a flashlight that has no batteries in it and it's worthless at that point. You know it's so important to have the pure words of God, the unadulterated perfect King James Bible. Look at verse 2, it says, And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. So notice it was just talking about how there was no open vision and then we get this picture of Eli. He's an old man and what is he doing in his old age? He's just laying around. He's not doing much and what happens to his eyes? His eyes begin to wax dim that he could not see. And what I think that this is a picture of, this is a picture of someone that does not read the Bible. The Bible is saying that the word of the Lord was precious in those days. It was rare. There was no open vision and then we get this picture of Eli. What is he doing? He's laying down. He's not doing anything. He's not being a spiritual leader. He's not accomplishing anything for God and what's happening? His vision is going dim. He's going blind and this is what happens to the Christian that stops reading the Bible. You know there's no such thing as a Christian that doesn't read the Bible but just serves God faithfully their whole life and they're just really shaking up the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ and they're just preaching great sermons and they're leading great churches. That doesn't exist. And you know what happens when a Christian stops reading the word of God, when they get backslidden when they no longer make Bible reading a priority in their life, you know what happens? Is that their eyes start to wax dim and they start to become blind. Often times they're blinded by pride because one of the reasons that you're supposed to read the Bible is that your heart is not going to be lifted up above your brethren and when someone isn't doing that, you know what happens? Their heart is lifted up above their brethren and I've seen it so many times where someone stops reading the Bible and you just see a change in that person. You see the pride in their life and you see that they're no longer making wise decisions. They're often saying really foolish things. You can tell that their opinions are being drawn from men from the world and not from the word of God and something just changes in them and what is it that changed is that they stopped reading the word of God. And you know Eli here is a picture of a lot of old independent fundamental Baptist churches where they're kind of just lying around, they're just getting old and they're just waiting to die. You know old age does not mean that you have to stop serving God. You know I really wish that these old independent fundamental Baptist churches, even though that some of the preachers may be old, even though that their congregations are full of boomers pretty much and that's it, that doesn't mean that they still can't preach good sermons but what would it take? It would take them actually to realize that the word of God is precious and in this instance I mean of high value and read it and then your eyes won't go dim. Then your church wouldn't be so blind to a lot of heresies that are out there like repent of your sins that you wouldn't be creeping in to many old independent fundamental Baptist churches. Or you know the false doctrine of Zionism wouldn't be creeping in if your eyes were open, if you were spending time in the word of God, you know the pre-trib rapture wouldn't be creeping in. You know I saw a sermon this week by this old IFB pastor where the whole subject of the sermon was what happens to children in the pre-trib rapture. Like you know you're saved and your parents just get raptured up and kids are left behind. It just sounds like a funny movie or a funny book you know you could write about like a kid's adventures after his parents just got raptured or whatever. Man maybe that's what the wrath of God is, the world being run by children. But here's the thing like why are we even talking about what would happen during the pre-trib when there is no pre-trib? It's like man you're not spending enough time in the word of God you're blind in this area and now you're taking a whole Sunday to talk about what kids should do when their parents are raptured. Come on Eli you need to get off your butt and get to work. This could happen to a person this could happen to a church, this could happen to a nation. And if you look at the United States of America you know when our nation was started we were a nation that was truly enlightened. We were enlightened and it was just coming off of the enlightenment period. And you know really what the real enlightenment was was believing the word of God and applying it. And you know I'm going to preach a whole sermon on this soon. But if you read the original state constitutions of the original 13 colonies it was explicitly stated that our laws are based off the Bible that in order to hold an office of any authority in the government of your state you had to make an oath or affirmation that you believe that the Old and New Testaments were inspired by God and that you believe in the Holy Trinity and that you believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. You know in many states even to have a business license you would have to make the exact same affirmation they didn't allow any type of pastors or clergy to be in the government and that wasn't because they despised pastors they actually explicitly said hey their work is way too important to be distracted with the civil government. And so most of the states banned pastors from this. What am I saying? I'm saying that our country when it was started had its eyes open. They had clear vision. Our nation had a clear vision. Why? Because we believed the Bible as a people. And now you look at our country and it's just like we are blind. Our whole country is blind and our country is represented by an old man who's going deaf and blind and mute all at the same time and he can't walk and he can't control his bowel movements and it's just like this is a picture of America. It's just you're getting old you're doing nothing and you're just ready to die. And what would it take to reverse this? It takes the word of God. It takes reading the Bible. Now go to verse 3 it says an heir, that word heir just means before and before the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was and Samuel was laid down to sleep. So the Bible is saying that Eli was doing this before the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord and that will be brought up later on in this book but this idea of the lamp going out of the temple go to Exodus chapter 27. Exodus 27. Why is this a significant event that the Bible mentions? Look at verse number 20 of Exodus 27. It says and thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring the pure oil olive beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn notice always in the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord it shall be a statute forever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. So notice in the temple as 1 Samuel puts it or in the tabernacle as Exodus 27 puts it what's supposed to happen? You're supposed to be having this lamp that's lit with oil that is on all the time. It's never supposed to be extinguished. Why is that? Well obviously because this is a picture of the Holy Ghost. Oil is often a picture of the Holy Ghost. Fire is often a picture of the Holy Ghost and if you read the New Testament we know that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of God until the day of redemption picturing the fact that Christ is never going to leave us or forsake us we're always going to be saved that we can never lose our salvation and so when the lamp goes out it kind of ruins that picture just kind of like how marriage is a picture of salvation but when someone gets divorced it kind of ruins that picture doesn't it? Because guess what God's not going to put you away. God's not going to make you lose your salvation and in the same way it should be till death do us part yet people break that. Well this lamp was supposed to be a picture of salvation yet later on we will see that this light does go out. Also I think that this lamp is also just a visual representation of God's blessing on them. Just seeing this lamp burning it's a visual reminder to the people of the God that they serve and it's just something they could see and just remember hey this is a commandment that God gave us why are we doing this? Why are we making sure this stays? Well because God told us to and it's just a reminder of God. Now go to Revelation chapter 2 Revelation chapter 2 So let's think about this in the context of that second picture of God's blessing. So in Revelation 2 Jesus is talking to the church at Ephesus and look what he says in verse 5. He says remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will notice remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. You know if you read Revelation 1 Jesus explains that the candlestick represents the church and how Jesus has the church in his hand and he can remove that candlestick from a church whenever he wants to and he's threatening to do that here to the church at Ephesus because they left their first works they left off soul winning I believe they left off preaching the gospel and so God's basically Jesus is basically warning them hey I'm gonna remove my blessing from you I'm gonna remove my stamp of approval of you being a church if you don't repent what's so funny about that is think about this this is the church of Ephesus this church hasn't been around for that long and it just goes to show that us as human beings we're prone to wander we're prone to stray so quickly. You know God wants this lamp in the tabernacle to always be lit but how long really did that last for not very long did it and think about the old covenant even you know God's giving us God's giving people the commandments to follow but how long did it take for man to sin not very long at all it's in Genesis okay just immediately basically right and so just all of this is to make you think about how quickly man strays from God because think about it Paul started that church and yet here we are in Revelation and he's already threatening to remove it we see that happen today we see you know churches like First Baptist Church of Hammond Indiana where there was a great pastor Pastor Jack Hiles then what happens his pervert son-in-law takes over and you know ends up going to prison for all of his perversion and the church just isn't the same as it used to be go to Titus chapter number three Titus chapter number three so what do we have to do about this fact that we're just prone to wander prone to stray Titus 3 8 says this this is a faithful saying and these things I will that that will affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men so what are we supposed to do you know we know our human nature we know that we're prone to sin we're prone to quit we're prone to wander from God what do we have to do we have to affirm these things that the Bible says constantly you know what that means that means coming to church and you'll probably hear several several times in the course of a year about salvation and you'll hear several several times about baptism and you'll hear just countless amounts of times about the importance of soul winning and the importance of abstaining from fornication and the importance of not drinking alcohol and the importance of modesty and of women wearing dresses and of men working hard and providing for their families why because we need to affirm these things constantly all of us need it constantly that we why may maintain good works because you know just like anything in this world it needs maintenance you can't just let a car sit for forever and expect to start it up nice and good in 20 years you can't expect Eli to be sitting down doing nothing letting his eyes wax dim and then all of a sudden he's going to change things around on a dime no what does it take again it takes reading the Bible to get vision to affirm constantly the things that are written in the word of God to maintain good works let's go back to first Samuel three verse number four verse number four says that the Lord called Samuel and remember he's a child and he answered here am I and he ran unto Eli and said here am I for thou callest me and he said I called not lie down again and he went and lay down so notice God is the one that's calling Samuel but Samuel's a child and when he hears the voice of God calling him what does he do he actually ends up going to Eli but notice how he does it he runs and I think that this is an awesome example of a very obedient child this child he just hears his voice harken to by someone and what does he do he thinks that it's Eli he just runs to him children that's a great example to follow that when your parents tell you to do something that you do it quickly you don't sit there and drag your feet you don't sit there and whine and complain and ask why you know Samuel just thought that Eli was calling him and he just ran to go see what he wanted and you know that is an attitude that you should learn as a child that you should carry over to the workplace that bosses shouldn't have to beat their employees over the head with a stick to get them to do anything you know nothing makes me cringe more than seeing employees drag their feet be disrespectful to the boss ask questions why I mean I've already seen it this week and it just blows my mind that people are like this that people will mouth off to their boss for their boss asking them the most simple easy things in the world it's not like they're being asked to run NASA or something it's like do this simple task it's like why is that in our contract is that in my job description just like what is wrong with you or hey you know work starts at 6 a.m. the boss comes and talks to you at 559 come back to me in 60 seconds I've seen this situation happen and it's like this is a terrible example and it started as that person being a child and not being taught this principle that when authority tells you to do something you just do it quickly and you know there wouldn't be as many police shootings in this world if people weren't fighting the cops too because I never just see videos of cops just walking up to random black people and just shooting them in the head no usually it's people fighting back punching them going for their weapon not listening to them trying to put someone else in danger and then they get shot by the police but you know it's funny how I've had tons of experience with police officers because of our protests I've had more interaction with police officers than probably any non-police officer that I know and never one time have I ever been hit or maced or tased or shot why because I'm not a retard that's really why you know and I've been pulled over before and I've never had my body dragged out of the vehicle and shot no it's just do what they say just be polite actually stay there let me read for you Galatians 4.18 it says but it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you you know Samuel's attitude here makes me think of zeal he hears something he hears what he thinks is Eli and he just runs to do it and us when we hear the voice of the Lord when we read something in the Bible you know we should do it we should just run to do it you know most people and God bless people I want people like this here I'm happy that these people come to church I'm happy that these people get saved but most people what they do they get saved and years go by and they maybe have changed one or two things in their life maybe they come to church every once in a while you know maybe they pick open their Bible every once in a while but ideally what would happen is someone gets saved and they learn something that God wants them to do and they just run and do it and then they come to church the next time and they hear the voice of the Lord and they learn something else that they should do and they just run and do it immediately not just dragging your feet and saying like oh yeah someday maybe ten years from now I'll become a soul winner no they just they hear one sermon on soul winning or they read the Bible and they just do it you know those people are few and far between that's why there's not very many people like Samuel in this world but what made Samuel special what made him different if you want to be special if you want to stick out be like this where you hear something and you just run and do it you have zeal look at verse six verse Samuel three it says and the Lord called yet again Samuel and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said here am I for thou didst call me and he answered I called not my son lie down again so once again he thinks that it's Eli look at verse seven now Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him now what this is saying I think is the fact that he's not yet saved and it's kind of interesting that it says the word of the Lord was not yet revealed unto him yet the word of the Lord was just calling him multiple times but I think what it's what it's saying by revealed was that his mind had not yet understood that this was the word of the Lord and this is just an obvious fact that you know if you're a soul winner that oftentimes people need to hear the gospel multiple times before they get saved and so you don't need to worry or freak out that you gave someone the gospel one time and they didn't understand it you know don't just write that person off as a reprobate necessarily sometimes people need to hear it over and over and over and over again you know I know this one lady that told me that Pastor Menes gave her the gospel like seven times before she ever got saved and so hey I'm glad Pastor Menes didn't give up on that girl you know the Bible says that an heretic after the first and second admonition reject now that's a heretic that's someone that's actively opposing you trying to teach something different than what the Bible says but when someone is just ignorant or when someone's just confused when someone's just confusing Eli for the Lord here you know they need to hear the word of God more times and it needs to be revealed to them more times 1 Corinthians 3 6 I'll read for you says I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase you know there's going to be people in your life where you knock on their door and you're the first person they've ever heard the gospel from and that might be you just planting a seed in their heart and it might take time going on maybe they visit another church with a saved pastor and they hear the gospel again and it waters a little bit waters a little bit maybe they see a reel by Pastor Mejia on Instagram and it's about the gospel and it waters them waters them and then maybe in a year from now we knock on their door again and you're ready to reap that harvest that's what it takes often times for people to get saved so you should never be discouraged when you go out soul winning you don't get someone saved right away because people's souls it's a long term investment that we're making we're making a long term investment in this community knocking on doors sometimes planting sometimes watering sometimes reaping look at verse 8 it says and the Lord called Samuel again the third time and he rose and went to Eli and said here am I for thou didst call me and Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child therefore Eli said unto Samuel go lie down and it shall be if he call thee that thou shalt say speak Lord for thy servant heareth so Samuel went and lay down in his place and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times Samuel Samuel then Samuel answered speak for thy servant heareth and the Lord said to Samuel behold I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle so notice Eli tells Samuel hey you know I think the Lord's calling you you need to go lay down and if the Lord comes to you again respond to him and speak and say hey I'm your servant I'm ready to listen to you and notice how it says in verse 10 that the Lord came and stood and called as at other times you know it's very possible that this situation was an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ because it says that the Lord stood to me this doesn't really sound like like a dream or something like that it sounds like the child is seeing the Lord here and of course if you're seeing the Lord if you're seeing the face of the Lord you know it's not God the Father it's the Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ and of course the word of God is Jesus Christ so that's another way you can look at it as well but notice what he says he says I'll do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle now keep your place there go to 2 Kings chapter number 21 2 Kings chapter number 21 this is kind of a strange phrase your ears tingling this isn't really something that we use in our modern day speech the only thing that I can think of is we talk about hey were your ears burning and that usually means like we were just talking about you and you walked in and like hey were you listening to us but that's not at all what this is saying when it's talking about your ears tingling look at verse number 12 of 2 Kings 21 therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel behold I am bringing such notice evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever heareth of it both his ears shall tingle and when you see this phrase your ears tingling it means that you're hearing something that's extremely negative you're hearing extremely bad news and it's causing your ears to tingles and look at verse or go to 2 Timothy chapter 4 as well 2 Timothy chapter number 4 there's kind of a there's kind of a similar mention in the New Testament as well or 2 Timothy chapter number 4 for the time will come oh sorry verse 3 of 2 Timothy 4 verse 3 for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having notice itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables so it kind of seems like people in the New Testament are described when they don't want to listen to the truth when they don't want to listen to sound doctrine they don't want to hear anything negative even if it's true those are the people who have itching ears but yet when you hear something super negative the Bible refers to it as someone's ears tingling now go to verse number 12 verse number 12 of 1 Samuel chapter 3 now let's see if this matches up because the message he's about to get from the Lord is a very negative message verse 12 it says in that day I will perform against Eli all the things which I have spoken concerning his house when I begin I will also make an end what were the things that God promised to do considering the house of Eli he promised to literally kill his children Hophni and Phinehas and to replace Eli's house that's a serious curse and so he's saying hey when people hear this it's going to cause their ears to tingle this is negative news this is a negative message that he's giving and he's saying when I begin to do this you better believe it's going to happen I will also make an end verse 13 for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not so notice God is super super angry not only with the sins of Eli or the sins of Hophni and Phinehas but with the fact that Eli as their father knew their wickedness and did not restrain them go to Proverbs chapter number 29 now what's the lesson there for us the lesson for us is that God can also be very angry with us if we don't restrain our children because we have an example here of God being super angry at a dad for not restraining his kids look what the Bible says Proverbs 29 verse 17 correct thy son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy soul and that is the exact opposite situation that Eli finds himself in where he has no delight in his soul what he has is his ears are tingling because he heard the news that his sons are going to be literally killed by God now look at the next verse verse 18 I find this very interesting what did we just read in first Samuel chapter 3 that the word of the Lord was precious there was no open vision what happened Eli knew of his son's wickedness and he did not punish them here in Proverbs 29 it says correct thy son and he will give thee rest look at verse 18 where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy is he you think that's a coincidence that in first Samuel 3 we learned that there's no vision and Eli didn't correct his sons then in Proverbs the Bible is telling you hey correct your sons why because when there's no vision the people perished and by Eli not having clear vision clear judgment from the word of God of knowing my sons are doing wrong so I need to stop them I need to correct them he was blind in that sense what happened the people perished what people his sons literally died and so this proverb is true in the most literal sense that where Eli had no vision his sons literally perished they literally died and you know us as parents if you have children you need to get a vision for your children you know you need to get a vision that's in accordance with the word of God not a vision of what the public school system wants for your kids or what the world is saying is what's best for your kids but rather the vision that the Bible gives you that's going to give you the clearest vision and you know one of the visions God gives us is to correct our children and there's a huge attack today on corporal punishment on spanking your children but you know I would rather spank my children and people think I'm mean or not like me than my kids turn out like Hophni and Phinehas and literally die go to Proverbs 13 flip the page Proverbs chapter number 13 verse 24 he that spareth his rod hateth his son but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes you know think of that word hate and when people think of hate and you say what's the opposite of hate what they normally think of is love think about love love is both an emotion and it's an action right the Bible says that love is the fulfilling of the law so in that sense love is very much an action meaning that you're not sinning and you're doing the things that God told you to do well it's really the same thing with hate hate oftentimes is both a emotion and an action and you can hate someone by your actions even if you don't necessarily feel animosity towards them even if you don't think that you feel any loathing of that person yet your actions can be hateful towards that person and the Bible saying here is that if you spare your rod if you decide not to spank your children your actions are hateful towards your child now here's the thing if you wouldn't talk to parents that don't spank their kids and you say do you love your kids all of them will say yes and I'm sure all of them when they see a picture of their son or their daughter they have a pleasant emotion and a feeling of love towards their child but their actions whether they're aware of it or not is actually extremely hateful to their child it is a hateful action to not correct your children why because when children are young that's the easiest time to mold them and to give them character and to make them a good person and when you decide that I'm going to withhold that training period from my children I'm not going to apply the rod I'm not going to spank them you know what you're hating them because you're allowing them to grow up without character and with a bunch of problems that's going to cause them to face serious consequences and while sometimes the consequences aren't that severe you know you see people grow up today and they're not disciplined and they can't hold down a job and so they have money problems you know that's not as bad as Hoffney and Phineas their problems are literally being killed by God why because obviously they never were taught any boundaries in their lives they apparently thought hey I could just sleep with women in church and I could just cause people to abhor the offerings of the Lord why because they were never corrected obviously and the Bible straight up says that Eli did not restrain them and so God was angry at Eli for that he was not just angry at the kids he was angry at Eli you know when kids turn out bad not because of their own free will but because you didn't discipline them mom and dad you know God's angry at you for that and while sometimes it's too late and your kids are growing up and there's really nothing you could do you know those of us in this room that have younger kids ought to make the decision now that you're not going to be hateful towards your child that you're going to do what the Bible says that you're going to have clear vision and that you will spank your children why because it's the best thing for them go to Proverbs 22 Proverbs 22 let's look at a few more verses on this Proverbs 22 verse 15 foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him you know God's not really that mad at the kid for being foolish all kids are foolish he's mad at the parent that has Proverbs 22 15 and knows that their child's foolish but decides not to drive that foolishness far from his child that's who God's mad at flip the page look at Proverbs 23 Proverbs 23 13 withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell so notice if you spank your kids the Bible's saying they won't die and they won't go to hell what happened with Eli's kids he didn't restrain them he didn't punish them and what did they do they died and they went to hell how do we know they went to hell because the Bible says that they were sons of Belial they were reprobates so these Proverbs I mean this isn't just general wisdom here these are the truest verses in the most literal sense of the word if you spank your kid they won't die often times and if you spank your kid it'll deliver their soul from hell go back to 1 Samuel chapter 3 1 Samuel chapter 3 now verse 14 is very interesting it says and therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever go to Leviticus chapter number 4 Leviticus chapter number 4 so God's saying hey I have sworn that Eli his house they're not going to be able to just sacrifice a bull and make this situation okay they're not going to be able to just sacrifice a goat and for me to just be appeased and forget about this situation there's going to be no more sacrifice that's going to appease this situation why does he say that well because often times that was how things were done look at Leviticus chapter 4 verse 3 it says if the priest now that's what if the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people then let him bring for his sin which he hath sinned a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering so notice if the priest sinned they were to go make an offering for their own atonement of their sin not to be forgiven of their sin not to be given salvation but to basically have their fellowship restored with God to be on good terms with God and they would make these offerings and it would basically restore them but in 1st Samuel he said you're not going to be able to do this this is not going to be an option for you and for your house go to Numbers 15 why the question is why is it that Leviticus said that this is what the priest is supposed to do but in the case of Hophni and Phinehas this is not an option for them Numbers chapter number 15 verse 30 it says this but the soul that doeth ought presumptuously that word presumptuously means showing presumption in conduct or thought as by saying or doing something without right or permission unwarrantedly or impertinently bold or forward so someone that's doing something presumptuously they're taking it upon themselves they don't care what the rules are they don't care what the authority is they don't care what the punishment is they're just completely self-willed and are going to do whatever they want it says but the soul that doeth ought presumptuously whether he be born in the land or a stranger the same reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him what's the difference between the priest that sins and has the option of going and making a sacrifice and Hophni and Phinehas in the house of Eli well these guys were sinning grievously presumptuously it's not like hey we're all sinners no it's like hey we're not all committing serial adultery in the house of God that is a huge example of sinning presumptuously having no regard for the Bible no regard for God no regard for God's people what is that that's someone that's just completely untoward froward presumptuous and if Hophni and Phinehas are just going to blatantly despise the word of the Lord then a sacrifice is not going to be an option for them they are going to be cut off they're going to be killed and eventually they're going to drop into hell and you know what this makes me think of is the fact that false prophets are not going to receive any mercy from God you know it's one thing if you are a soul winner or a preacher or even a pastor and you sin because guess what everyone sins and you know what God will show mercy on his children God knows how weak we are God knows that we just are flesh here and he will have mercy on us when we ask him for forgiveness when we seek his face when we repent but here's the thing when it comes to false prophets God doesn't care about them why because they're sinning presumptuously they're not saved they know they're not saved and they're teaching people lies that will literally send them to hell you know God's not going to just give that person an opportunity to receive mercy from him no God's going to cut that person off and sometimes we may see it in our lifetime and sometimes we won't see it until the great white throne judgment but you know what we will see every single false prophet like Hophni and Phinehas cast into the lake of fire someday and there will be no mercy for them go to Hebrews chapter number 10 Hebrews chapter number 10 now how does this apply to us? Obviously it's one thing for a reprobate reprobates are not going to receive any mercy you know we obviously being saved all of our sins have been forgiven from a salvation perspective but look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26 it says this for if we now that's Christians if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins now remember in Leviticus if the common people sin there's an offering they had to do if the congregation sin there's an offering that they had to do if the priests sin there was an offering that they had to do and then they would be back on good terms with God but the Bible is saying here us if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins we're not in the Old Testament you can't go sacrifice a heifer or a goat to get back on good terms with God what do we have to look forward to when we sin presumptuously willfully look at verse 27 but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries think about that what do we have to look forward to when we sin as God's people God's chastisement and he goes on and explains that more in Hebrews chapter number 12 but you know we obviously talked about the reprobates but hopefully that doesn't apply to anyone in this room but apply this to yourself you know when you know the truth when you know what God's will for your life is when you know for example like in context like Hebrews chapter 10 is talking about when you know that you're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is and you just do it presumptuously you don't care you despise the word of the Lord you know what's going to happen to you there's no more sacrifice for sins for you you can't go sacrifice a goat and get right with God you know what's going to happen God's going to punish you God is going to chastise you and while oftentimes in our life God's very long suffering and merciful and gives us many chances you know eventually in our life if we just despise the word of the Lord we've heard the preaching we've read the Bible we know what's right and we don't care we do what we want anyways God will come down on us God will punish us just like Eli should have done to his children because God's not a negligent father like Eli no he's actually going to make sure that he restrains his children and if you think you can go out and just live the most sinful life being saved you have another thing coming you know God will make sure that he punishes you in this life for that go to verse number 15 verse number 15 now think about where we are in the story here God is coming to Samuel and he's saying hey everyone's ears are going to tingle when you hear this message what's the message I'm going to kill Eli's sons and I'm very angry at Eli because of the fact that he didn't restrain them from their vile acts this was God by the way speaking to a child what does that tell you about the philosophy today from churches that children shouldn't be in the main congregation and children are being scarred and damaged when Pastor Anderson gets up and screams faggot or Pastor Shelley gets up and screams queer like God Almighty God literally came to this child and started talking about how he's going to kill Eli's sons and that he's pissed at Eli for not restraining them that's to a child and when you think about this like when I think about the age of Samuel here I'm guessing that he's somewhere around the age of like 10 that's kind of how I picture him here he doesn't seem like a young man like David was during David and Goliath like this seems like a child to child like a 10 year old would you imagine a 10 year old in most of these churches today hearing a message like this you know it probably would wake them up probably put the fear of God into them probably make them take church a little more seriously you know we not we ought not to just exclude children from the church if God didn't exclude this extremely graphic negative message from Samuel why should we neglect the Bible from children in our church we're not going to do that look at verse 15 it says and Samuel lay into the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord and notice this and Samuel feared to show Eli the vision so I mean put yourself in Samuel's position here he's a little kid he's a little kid and he's serving one of the priests of the Lord Eli and he just had the Lord Jesus Christ in Old Testament form come up to him and give him this message and what does he say what's going on in his heart he feared to show Eli the vision now listen if you and I are honest with ourselves every preacher experiences this emotion at some point in their life and if you're a soul winner you've probably experienced this emotion in your life you know for me it's harder for me to preach the gospel to my family members than to random strangers it just is and that's probably how it is with everyone and especially when you first start soul winning you know it might be hard for you at first you might fear to show someone the word of the Lord or if you're a preacher if you get an opportunity to preach behind the pulpit and you see something in the word of God and you know the Holy Spirit is just moving you to say something you think someone might think that I'm talking about them you might feel like oh man this is kind of uncomfortable but really this is what separates the men from the boys right here this is why Samuel is Samuel he had he had this feeling but notice notice what he did says in verse 16 then Eli called Samuel and said Samuel my son and he answered here am I and he said what is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee I pray the highest the Lord hath said unto thee I pray thee hide it not from me God do so to thee and more also thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto thee and you know what to God that every person in sincerity would have this attitude that Eli has where he says basically I don't care what God told you I just want to know what it is you know some people will say this or think like oh yeah I want to hear hard preaching but very few people actually want this in their life very few people actually want to be told what they're doing wrong and where they can get better most people want to pat in the back which is why Joel Osteen's church is packed every single week because they go to get a pat on the back they have itching ears they don't want they don't want someone to burn their ears they don't want their ears to be tingling they want it to be itching for something soft look at verse 18 notice this and Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him and he said it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good go to 2 Timothy chapter number 4 so there's two aspects of this there's what Samuel did and then there's Eli's reaction let's talk first about Eli's reaction he says it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good you know I was kind of getting on to Eli at the beginning of the sermon but really Eli does have a good attitude when he actually hears what God said and you know we have to just realize that you know our ways are not as God's ways his ways are above our ways we have a mind here a human mind of flesh but everything that God says and does and everything in his word is always right and when we you know have our feelings hurt by that or in our flesh we disagree with that we should always have the humility to realize that whoa that was a foolish thought whatever God said is right and you know if God says to Eli hey I'm going to kill your sons because they're reprobates you know Eli doesn't know better than God God knows better than Eli so what does Eli say he says hey it's the Lord let him do what seemeth him good and you know you'll have a lot of peace in your life if you just stop trying to constantly fight against the Bible fight against what it teaches and just think I really want my sodomite brother to be saved and you're just never going to believe what the Bible says on that issue because you just want to fight against it you should just be like Eli and say let the Lord do what seemeth him good you know and if that means killing your reprobate sons then hey God's going to do that God's not wicked God's not sinful God's right but now let's focus on what Samuel did he told him every wit and he hid nothing from him even though the Bible records that Samuel was afraid to do so you know this like I said this is what separates the men from the boys right here not wanting to do something but doing it anyways not feeling a certain way but doing it anyways this is this is being a disciplined Christian right here not just relying on your motivation of whether or not you want to preach someone the gospel or am I feeling motivated to get someone saved today am I feeling motivated to preach the Bible today and actually preach what it says regardless of people's feelings regardless if people like me or not or am I just going to do it anyways you know what Samuel chose even though he was afraid even though he was a child he told him every wit you know shame on preachers in America today that are afraid to preach to other adults that are saved that have the same Holy Spirit as them that this little child could look another man of God in the eye and basically rebuke him from the word of the Lord why can't pastors today you know make their congregation a little upset from time to time why can't they go ruffle some feathers time to time with some hard passages in the Bible with some negative things look what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 4 2 preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine you know just like Samuel was given a negative message to preach here oftentimes we as preachers us in the New Testament we are given a negative message as well you know most of the Bible is full of negative stories now I still think they're positive because I love the negative stories I love them you know I find them all positive even the negative ones hey I think it's positive that Hoff 9 Finneas are in hell I really think that's a positive story why because reprobates deserve to go to hell people that would commit serial adultery in the house of God and cause people to hate serving God hey I'm glad that those people are in hell you know I'm glad that Ravi Zacharias is in hell I'm glad that Billy Graham is in hell you know to me that's all positive but not to everyone and there's going to be things in the Bible that are not that pleasant to people but you know what a faithful man of God does just tells him every wit and hides nothing from him you know we need more preachers in America today they're going to be like Samuel and just tell the world all of the word of God and not hold anything back you know it's so annoying being in church and just waiting for a pastor like he kind of gets close to saying something offensive but he just never quites get there and it's not that just you want to be offensive for the sake of being offensive it's like he gets close to saying the word of God and he just stops you know the same preacher that I listened to that was preaching the pre-trib message about babies he talked about in passing he kind of talked about abortion he's like you know it just makes me it makes me wonder how Jesus would feel about people mutilating these precious babies you know it just makes me wonder how he'd feel about that and he moves on it's like I want someone to say like hey this is murder I want someone to say like hey abortion is first degree murder that it's an abomination that it's disgusting that it should be completely criminal in all 50 states not just oh get rid of Roe versus Wade no make it criminal in all 50 states that if anyone gets a first degree premeditated abortion that you should be put to death that's what I want to hear why because that's what the Bible actually teaches and that any abortion doctor that willingly participates in the mutilation of a little child should be put to death that's what we need preachers saying today you want to know why conservatives are so weak on the issue of abortion is because preachers are setting the bad example because preachers are getting behind the pulpit on Sunday saying I wonder what Jesus would think about it and that's why you have Trump saying like oh it's fine in the case of rape and abortion yeah rape and incest because preachers are just leaving people with I wonder what Jesus would think instead of saying thus sayeth the Lord instead of being like Samuel saying like I'm telling you every whit and I'm not holding anything back you know Samuel is a better preacher as a child than a lot of preachers adults in America today what a shame that is look at verse 19 but notice in first Samuel chapter number 3 verse 19 notice we saw the character of Samuel what he's like as a person and look at the result in his life of being like this verse 19 and Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground you know I'd rather preach the word of God I'd rather preach everything that the Bible says and not hold back anything and be hated by the world and be protested and be death-threaded and be doxxed and be stalked but God be with me then have none of those things and think I'm safe but holding back from preaching the whole word of God trying to play it safe and not telling people the full truth thinking somehow that's going to make me safe when in reality that's the most dangerous place you could be as a Christian you know where the safest place you could be as a Christian is where Samuel is here where he's looking a man in the eyes and telling him that God's going to kill his children and take away his house from being a priest and what does the Bible say the Lord was with him you know that is the most valuable thing you could possibly have in your life you know it is more valuable in your life to have the Lord with you than to have a hundred billion dollars because God's security is more sure than the assets of a hundred billion dollars doesn't matter how much you spend on health insurance doesn't matter how many guns you buy it doesn't matter if you built a literal castle and dug a moat and put some alligators in there and hired you know the air force to patrol the air space around your castle if God wanted to kill you he could just choke the breath out of your lungs in one second and so on the other hand you know if God's with you who can be against you if God's with you then hey you're good to go no matter who's your enemy no matter what situation you're in and so you know whenever you feel the fear of man I don't want to open my mouth right now I know people aren't going to like me I know this isn't going to be popular I know my family isn't going to like what I'm about to say just think about the little child Samuel that decided to tell him every whit anyways and as a result God was with him God didn't let any of his words fall to the ground and look what verse 20 says it says in all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord you know it was obvious it was obvious to everyone that this child was different and you know if you truly take this to heart and this isn't just a sermon for you but you actually make the decision in your heart that no matter how hard it is you will always say what needs to be said you will have a clear vision you'll read the word of God you'll believe it you'll apply it to your life you'll actually live Christianity you know this will be you too it will be obvious to everyone that you're different and some people teach oh yeah you get saved and your life just magically changes no that's not true but you know if you get saved and you listen to the word of the Lord and yeah you might be scared but you just preach the whole Bible anyways it will be obvious that you're different from the rest of the world verse 21 and the Lord appeared again in Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh notice this by the word of the Lord we only have a few more verses to go to go to Hebrews chapter number one Hebrews chapter number one notice says that the Lord appeared to Samuel again and that he revealed himself how by the word of the Lord now look at Hebrews chapter one verse one it says this God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets so in the Old Testament God used to speak audibly to people but notice verse two hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the world now think about this God may have spoken audibly to Samuel in fact he did and God may have looked Moses in the face and God may have communed as a man with his friend with certain people in the Old Testament but guess what that does not happen in the New Testament why because if you read the Bible if you read Hebrews 1 it plainly says that God may have done that in times past but now he has communicated to us by his son now the Bible says elsewhere that Jesus Christ is the word of God so how does Jesus how does God commune with us today it's through the Bible it's through the King James Bible and so many preachers today the Pentecostal movement the charismatic movement what do they do they like to speak in tongues and claim that they're communing with God in this special heavenly prayer language well not according to Hebrews 1 you're not because the only way that God has communicated with us today is through his word there's no extra revelation there's no preacher out there that gets a special word from God Joseph Smith there's no one getting another testament of Jesus Christ no there's the New Testament there's the book of Matthew through revelation and that's it that's the New Testament Mormonism is a complete joke and you know even even people that aren't hardcore tongue talking freak weirdos oftentimes still there's a version of charismatic preachers well they'll say this well you know I was praying and God just told me that's what they say God told me and I hate that phrase because you know what if it's not a verse in your Bible God didn't tell you God may have told Samuel God did tell Samuel you know God may have told other men you don't have to go there but I'll read 1st Corinthians 14 37 Paul said this if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord look God may have spoken to Samuel God may have spoken to the Apostle Paul and he could be under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and write scripture but you know what he didn't do that to you he didn't do that to me he didn't do that to any person that's alive on this earth right now and any preacher that gets up and says God told me look most of the cases they're just liars and charlatans maybe there's some people that just grew up in this culture and they're just used to saying this but look if you grew up in a church where you heard this and this was the culture you need to stop saying this because it's not true it's lying you're putting words in the mouth of God the Bible says add thou not unto his words so you say you know I want to be like Samuel maybe maybe some children in this room are inspired by this child man of God here Samuel you say I want to be like Samuel I want God to speak to me you can you just wake up in the morning and you just open the book of Genesis and you just hear from God and then you go to the next one and you read Exodus and you hear from God and then you go to Leviticus and you hear from God and you know it doesn't matter how old you are if you're a man or a woman you could be just like Samuel where God can talk to you in the sense that you just open up the Bible and read what it says when you read the Bible hey God is talking to you then you can say hey God told me in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 yeah you could say that all day long but don't just make stuff up so you know Samuel is a great example why well he was obedient he was zealous he preached the word of God no matter what regardless of how he felt and he heard the voice of the Lord you know let us look to this great child example that many of us men and adults in the room can learn from let us be like this child Samuel who has heart sensitive to the word of God let us also read the word of God let's pray Lord thank you for this day thank you for the book of first Samuel pray that you'd bless our church pray that you would give us more laborers and I just pray that every single person in here would have a steadfast heart to stand on your word whether it feels comfortable or not whether we may feel the emotion of fear or not that we would choose rather to fear you above all else and just pray that you would stand with us if we do that in Jesus name we pray amen all righty if you would grab your hymnal we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service hymn number 343 revive us again hymn number 343 we'll start there right on the first we praise thee oh god for the son of thy love for jesus who died and is now gone above hallelujah thine the glory hallelujah amen hallelujah thine the glory revive us again we praise thee oh god for thy spirit of light who has shown us our savior and scattered our night hallelujah thine the glory hallelujah amen hallelujah thine the glory revive us again all glory and praise to the lamb that was slain who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain hallelujah thine the glory hallelujah amen hallelujah thine the glory revive us again revive us again fill each heart with thy love may each soul be rekindled with fire from above hallelujah thine the glory hallelujah amen hallelujah thine the glory revive us again good