Bible Guys Classics: 1 Samuel 3:1–10

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways. Well, hey, everybody. Happy Monday. Yeah. And today, me and Wesley are The Bible Guys together. Yes. And it's because Jeff is around the world doing great things like Marco Polo. Yes, he is doing a lot of traveling. Yeah. Yeah. So Wesley, this is what is commonly now known as the Platinum Edition, thanks to your nickname. I actually had someone come up to me and say, Platinum Edition. Yep, yep, yep. That's right. You just kind of came off the cuff with that one time. Yeah, we did. So that's really fun. So hey, this week we are the Bible Guys, and we are in the middle of a series. Actually, we're in the third week of a series called Dangerous Prayers. And this week has a theme, and this whole week is our Prayers of Calling. Well, easy for me to say. I can't talk yet today. Prayers of calling. In other words, like God calling us out and calling our voice and And so when we feel like God calls us to something, that's the vein that these are all in today, right? Yeah, this is going to be good. Yeah. So before we jump into that, we have a great segment today. Jeff would always say we scour the internet for all the best sources of news. High quality only. High quality only for our people. But the reality is, is that actually it's really just segments of the Babylon Beat. Yes. Which is a satire news source podcast. And so anyway, we gave this to Wesley to read because Wesley has a sickness with this topic. Yeah, this is very near and dear to my heart. I love the Waffle House. If you know me, I love waffles. Actually, I'm a waffle snob. Are you really? You got to get the ingredients right. You got to have the right mix. You got to do all of that. I even looked at buying a Waffle House iron. Wow. And when I saw the price of it and what you had to do to hook it up in your house, I quickly changed my mind. Okay. They are expensive. Are they really? Like, yeah, a brand new one is like over a thousand. Wow. Yeah, for a brand new waffle iron. Yeah, it could be like 1200 bucks. Wow. So I'm like, you know what? I think the $ 20 Black & Decker is okay. Right. And by the way, you and I share that in common because I lived in Atlanta for 10 years. And I was- It's the birthplace. The birthplace. And I was and- Still am a Waffle House huge, huge fan. Yeah. Huge fan. In fact, every time we go to Youngstown, Ohio, there's one in Youngstown. Yeah. And I have to go there. Yeah. Because there are none in Michigan, right? Yeah. I have frequently gone to Toledo or Perrysburg, Ohio to the Waffle House. That's hilarious. All right. So this is the title. Waffle House unveils successful brand strategy. of just keeping everything the same forever. That is the best title ever. That is the best title ever. Yeah. And again, this is from the Babylon Bee. It says, following the public relations disaster Cracker Barrel experience this week after it introduced its new logo, popular restaurant chain Waffle House unveiled a successful strategy of just keeping everything the same forever. The 24-hour breakfast chain sought to avoid the same backlash Cracker Barrel suffered by simply not ever changing any of its branding, products, or decor, and instead maintaining everything exactly as it has been since 1955. If you've ever been to the Waffle House, it's exactly that way. We're never going to be different, said Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers III. Other restaurants may feel pressure to change the way they look, come up with new logos or occasionally wipe crumbs and grease off the tables. But at Waffle House, we pledge that our customers will never have to deal with that type of jarring change. While many popular brands have fallen to the temptation to update their looks and products to keep pace with the modern world, Waffle House expressed its commitment to providing the same environment and services that its customers have always known. There's no reason to try to reinvent the wheel here, Rogers continued. We know what we are. Our customers know what we are. When you want to eat a stack of pancakes, a pile of bacon and some grits at 2 a.m. while watching a live fight between some transients who wandered over from the truck stop, Waffle House has been and always will be the place to go. At publishing time, Waffle House had issued a follow-up statement promising that even the oil used in the fryers of its locations would never, ever be changed. Ever, ever. That is hilarious. That is really good. Ever, ever. Yeah. That place is a classic. I will bet you they keep that promise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they are amazing. So when I go into Waffle House, one of the things I do, and I know not many people do it. Yeah. Which is why I do it. Yeah. But there's no music in Waffle House. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So at least the ones in Ohio. So it's just silent and they basically, it's almost like they punish people and they force you to spend the money at the jukebox. Yeah. So there's a big jukebox there. And so the first thing we do is we get in there and I make sure I have to have dollar bills or a five or at least, you know, I usually throw a five in there because I stay for a while. Yeah. And then I just have fun taking, so it's part of the experience for us now. Yeah. And so my son and I have been going to Waffle House, gosh, since he was three years old, two years old together. Yeah. Sort of our thing. And one of the things we always do is go up there and say, okay, son, let's go. And anyway, there's a song on every Waffle House playlist that is called the Waffle House Thank You Song. Oh, I don't know that one. Yeah, yeah. So it's actually by Waffle House. Yeah. And it's like, Waffle House says thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And they're thanking you for coming to Waffle House. And I'm like, every once in a while, I mean, not recently, but like when we were kids, especially when he was a kid, we always would play the. Thank you song. Yeah, the thank you song. That is hilarious. Yeah, it's hilarious. Now I'm going to have to do that the next time I go to Ohio. For sure. For sure. Yeah, and then you'll be sitting there eating your waffles going, really? This is what they did? Like, I paid for this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's great. Yeah. But there's a lot of pressure, by the way, when you choose the music. Yeah. Because there's a diverse crowd in there. Yeah. It's like you have like your, you know, sort of like your cowboy country kind of folks, right? You know, kind of like, hey, welcome to Waffle House. Yeah. You kind of have that crowd. Yeah. Which, by the way, that's true whether they have accents or not. Yeah. And everybody knows what I'm saying, right? And then you sort of have your urban crowd. Yeah. And then you have like people, like super lame people like me who want to hear like, you know, you know, Freebird. Yeah. Things like that, right? It's like, it's like you have, so you have to like, like, what are you going to do? Pick the right song. So honestly, I, I feel pressure to pick songs that, that nobody can argue with. Because some people are just like, oh, I'm going to do top 40 hits or whatever. Rick Dees or Casey Kasem. Whatever it is. And I'm like, no, no, I'm going to try to pick literally living on a prayer or things like that. Don't stop believing. Because I don't think the world can much argue with it regardless of who you like. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's what I do. Yeah. I try to pick super big classics. Chris has a strategy. So that's the Waffle House strategy right there. Yeah. I want everybody to go, oh, thank you, sir. Yeah. You know, thank you for doing that as opposed to, ugh. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Have you ever done that? Have you ever been in a place where somebody plays their genre and you're like, let me leave right now. Or it's like the song that has been played over and over and over again. Yeah. And you're like, just stop it. Right. Right. Well, okay. Well, Hey, that was a very fun segment. Yeah. And, uh, and, and, and honestly it, it caught me by surprise. Yeah. You can never go wrong with the Waffle House. Yeah. Hey, by the way, you know what else was a surprise? What was that? God calling Samuel. That was a good transition. That was good. It was terrible. I made it up. Yeah. Because that sent me, it wasn't a surprise. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, that's what we're talking about today. So in 1 Samuel 3, verses 1 through 10. Yeah. So are you going to read? I can read. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, we never covered that. Yeah. Well, Jeff's the reader. I will be reading. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, 1 Samuel 3, verses 1 through 10, it says, Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now, in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. Verse 2. One night, Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the ark of God. Suddenly, the Lord called out, Samuel. Yes, Samuel replied. What is it? He got up and ran to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you, Eli replied. Go back to bed. So he did. Then the Lord called out again, Samuel. Again, Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? I didn't call you, my son, Eli said. Go back to bed. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called a third time. And once more, Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am. Did you call me? Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So he said to Samuel, go and lie down again. And if someone calls again, say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So Samuel went back to bed. And the Lord came and called as before, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel replied, Speak, your servant is listening. That's it. We're stopping there, huh? Yeah, it stops right there. That's pretty good. Well, yeah, I mean, I guess the dangerous prayer is speaking. okay, God, I'm going to listen to whatever you're saying. So God calls and do we dare to say, okay, God, what do you have to say? Yeah, that can be a very tough thing, Chris, especially when it's something that you don't want to do. Right. So that's a little different from the context here in this scripture, but it's easy when it's something you want to do. It's kind of like if God said, Chris, preach on this coming Sunday. Well, you normally speak. That's something you can do. That's not a hard thing. But what if God says, go forgive that uncle? Right. Who did something to you. Ain't nobody got time for that. And nobody wants to do that. So that's the question. Will you be obedient when it's something that you don't want to do? And I even pose that to the listeners. What is the thing right now that God is calling you to do that you know you should be doing that you're just not doing because you don't want to do it? Right. What is that thing? Yeah. Are you willing to have the response of Samuel in the story? which is God calls and he's clearly calling you to do something. And in this case, again, we've not yet gotten to the story, at least in our reading, we've not yet gotten to what God wants Samuel to do, but that part doesn't matter. So the application though is the same. If God says, hey, I want you to do this. Hey, I want you to do this. And you're like, I don't want to recognize God's voice. There has to be a moment where you're like, okay, I'm going to acknowledge God. Speaking, right? Because, because isn't it true? There are times where we'll go to like, let's just say like church, for instance, we could do this almost anywhere, but, but church is a good example. You walk into church, you hear a sermon and you feel convicted. You feel like God is nudging you or encouraging you or challenging you something very specific. And it's like, you feel like, oh, I really need to do that. Whether it is forgiving somebody or giving your money to something or, or giving of your time or, or just whatever it is, or changing a bad habit or ending a bad relationship. And we say to ourselves, I'm going to ignore that. And then God just nudges us again. And you're like, nope, I'm going to ignore that. But it's funny how we ignore things that are holy. Right. You know what I mean? It's not like we're ignoring bad things. We're Who else is going to tell you to do something that is good or that is helpful or that is holy? You know what I mean? We want to ignore those things because we don't want to do it. Well, it's very much like a parent, isn't it? Yeah. It's like, I'm going to ask you to do something you don't want to do, but it's for your betterment. It's for the good of everybody. Trust me. You'll thank me in the end. Yeah. Right? It's one of those things, you know, especially when it's delayed gratification. you know, hey, put money in your savings account. I don't want to. It's like, you'll thank me one day. Yes, you'll thank me in about 20 years. Yeah, and so it's one of those things where, you know, when God speaks, we have to learn not to ignore it. Now, in this particular case, for those of you who know the story, the thing that God asked Samuel to do was actually quite bad. It was something Samuel, I'm sure, did not want to do. Samuel was a young man. Yeah. And what he was basically saying is, he was basically saying, hey, I'm going to bring out all of my threats, all of my threats that I've given to Eli, who, by the way, you're working for, the old man who you're supposed to respect. He's the high priest that's assigned to the temple. He's your authority. I'm just going to let you know, Samuel, as a young man, that I'm carrying out my threats against him because of all the different, you know, wicked things that he's done. And that's a whole nother topic altogether. But Eli was not obeying the Lord at the time. And even though that he was the high priest in the temple, And so Samuel was hearing news that he did not want to hear. Yeah. And then he had to go back and Eli said, okay, what did he say? And can you imagine this young man? Yeah. Right? It's like what young man would have the courage to say, well, actually, Eli, it was about you. Yeah. Right? Even though I'm like a young teenager, maybe not even a teenager yet even, maybe like 12 years old or whatever, however Samuel was. And he's speaking to this very old man who's respected in the community and is in charge and has been in charge for decades. And he has to tell him, actually, God's carrying out negative things against you. But anyway, all that to say, I just think that, you know, that there are times in our lives where this is a really great parallel because you and I, we may know what God has to say, whether it's good or bad. And we're just like, God, I, I'm just going to pretend like I didn't hear it. I'm going to pretend like I wasn't inspired. I wasn't moved emotionally. I wasn't convicted. And if I just ignored long enough, I can go back to doing what I want to do and not doing what I don't want to do. As if God's going to stop because you don't want to do it. You know, we kind of think if we ignore God long enough, maybe he'll forget. And I'll share a personal story. And I think I've shared this on the Bible Guys before. When I was in college and I was saving up money for a car, and it saved up almost $ 1, 000. I don't know why I had the money on me at that time, but I went to a Friday night church service. I will never forget it. It wasn't my church. It was a church in Detroit on the west side of Detroit, not far from Grand River, a really big church. So I go there, I'm sitting in service, and I get this feeling to put all of the money in the offering plate. Ooh. And I said to myself.. And back then, a thousand bucks might as well have been 5,000. Yeah. And I said to myself, no, I am not putting my hard-earned car money in this offering plate. Then it came to me again, put the money in the offering plate. And the implications of losing that money are huge. Now, I want the audience to think about this because I want to set the stage. I'm in college. You know how long it takes to save up almost $ 1, 000 on a minimum wage job. And minimum wage back then, like when I was in college, minimum wage might have been, I don't know what it was, like seven? It was like seven, I think, something when I was... So I saved up all of this money, and now God is telling me the thing that I loved so much, the thing that I... Didn't want to release or relinquish. God is saying, okay, give me that. And I said, no, I am not giving that. I don't want to. But eventually after I'm sitting in my seat, arguing with myself for a while, I decided, you know what, God, if this is, it keeps coming to me to put it in there. So I put the money in the offering plate. Wow. Did the sky open up? No. Was there an earthquake or anything like that? Nope. But something did happen, though. Within 30 days, my boss came to me and said, hey, Wesley, you're traveling back and forth. At the time, I was going to eastern Michigan. You're traveling back and forth to eastern Michigan. You're doing this crazy catch a cab from the Renaissance. to DTW the airport and then you're going from the airport via it was a crazy commute I had he said why don't we just give you a free company car you just have to put gas in it and you can use that to go back and forth to school wow why do I believe I got the vehicle because I was obedient to God with the money. God didn't need my money. God's not poor. But me doing that was an act of obedience and God blessed me as a result of that act of obedience. And God used you to do what God was going to do anyway. Yes. Right. And so, but you got to be the one to be a part of it. So he used your thousand dollars for whatever that church was trying to accomplish. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah. And then you got to witness God in action. Yeah. So you got to see a side of God that you perhaps would have missed out on, right? So here we are, how many years later, you're still telling the story. Yeah. You know what's so great about it? You said a minute ago, as if God's going to stop. Because there are some things where God will not stop prodding us and nudging us. Yeah. But in that case, God would have stopped. because you would have missed out on that opportunity because that opportunity was limited. Yes. Right. It was a, it was a limited window. Yeah. The offering period was only so long. Right. Yeah. It was only a few minutes. Yeah. And so, and so, so in that case, God would have stopped because, uh, because, uh, it's like, Hey, Wesley, here's an opportunity to experience me in a richer way to develop your faith, to grow in faith, to, you know, just, uh, have a better relationship with me to understand that, my dependability, my promises, you know, everything else. Here's a chance to be a blessing and receive blessings. And it's this window. Yeah. You have five minutes. Yes. Or less. And go click. Yeah. Right. I mean, from the time you probably thought about it to the time you gave was probably like a couple minutes. Yeah. Right. So, yeah, there are things where, you know, when God asks, we have to understand that it is a limited window of opportunity to either miss out on or experience God's blessings. Now, Chris, I got to throw this in because I know someone is listening and they're thinking, all of this sounds nice and the story Wesley shared, that was good. Yeah. But how does God speak? I'm going to pose that question. How does God speak to us? How does he communicate to us? Is it... Is it going to be via a dream? Is it going to be a gentle nudge? Will it be a voice? Make this super practical for people in terms of exactly how God will communicate with them to do what he wants to do. Yeah. And, you know, this is such a great question for, you know. This is probably a bigger question that we have time for. But yeah, but that's OK. But I think there is a quick and a long answer. Yeah. So the quick answer, I think, which is not super quick, is honestly, I think that it is a feeling more than an audible voice. So in other words, like, but it has clarity to it. Yeah. Right? So an audible voice is clear most of the time, right? Yeah. An audible voice is like- Chris, do this. Chris, do this. And that's pretty clear. Yeah. Sometimes feelings are unclear. So what I'm saying is I think God's voice is a combination of really, really powerful feelings with crystal clarity. And I think that one of the sure ways to understand that it's from God is is when it comes out of the blue and it has nothing to do with anything you would have ever thought of by yourself. So for instance, you could be reading the Bible, you could be praying, you could be talking with another believer, you could be sitting in meditation by yourself. Honestly, you could be doing just about anything. And then the power of the Holy Spirit speaks to us. And when it speaks to us, now sometimes, sometimes it could feel like an audible voice, right? And some people would even say they've heard audible voices. And some people would say that God speaks through dreams. And I believe that is true, by the way. I believe God can use dreams to speak. Although interpreting dreams is a tricky little thing, which is why it's so important to seek godly counsel. We don't just take obscure things like dreams and say, I know exactly what that means. We have to line it up with the Bible. I think that's the key. It must align with the Bible. If you're receiving something that you think you're receiving, and is that God? If it's against the Bible, no, it is not God. Because people can justify anything. I know God wants me to divorce her. It's like, well, wait a minute, let's talk about this because I think you're just trying to, you know, so God wants me to be happy, doesn't he? Okay, let's talk about this, right? So you could actually go down that road pretty quickly, but If you actually seek godly counsel and you line it up with God's word, that's the best way to understand that God's never going to give you advice that goes against himself or his will or his ways. Yeah. And so anyway, the bottom line is, I think that through the power of the Holy Spirit, there's an impression and sometimes it comes out of the blue. It's like, wow, what a random thing. And then the longer you become or the longer you are a Christian, then the more you learn to recognize what is from God and what is not. Yeah. Right. Wouldn't you agree with that? Yeah, I agree. This just happened to my wife and I, we were downtown at a new restaurant right off of Gratiot and we're sitting there, we're eating and minding our own business. And just as we're about to pay, I just felt that we should pay for the older lady who was eating by herself like one table away from us just to pay for it. And it was out of the blue. Like it wasn't like my wife and I were like, should we pay for that lady's food? It was literally like, huh, ma'am, can we, can we pay for her food over there? Yeah. So it wasn't even a thought I was thinking of. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and did she end up knowing that it was you? Here is the funny part about that and how God works. The other table, there was a group on the other side. They said the same thing. Wow. So they got to her first. They said, we felt led to pay for her food too. So I just thought that was very interesting how everyone just was kind of like, you know what? I'm going to pay. No, I'm going to pay. Yeah. Just as a cool little thing. Yeah. That's awesome. That's very, very cool. Well, hey, so let's summarize by just saying that in this particular case, Samuel does not recognize the voices from God. God's clearly calling Samuel to do something. Yes. And then Samuel, in essence, ignores the fact that God is calling because he doesn't quite understand. So he's doing it out of ignorance. Yeah. Right? So for the believers out there who are learning to recognize God's voice, A very appropriate discussion, right? Yeah. Let's learn to lean in toward God's voice, listen for it, and then say, God, speak, your servant is listening. And then for the Christians who know God's speaking and want to ignore God's voice, that is another direct application to this. And so we need to learn to stop brushing off God's leading and finally to sigh and release and just say, God, speak, for your servant is listening. And he will always speak to you through his word. That's right. So if there's ever a lack of clarity, he will always speak through his word to us. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, hey, that's a great place to end. And that's our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on The Bible Guys.