[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Erickson Covenant Podcast. We're so glad that you've joined us today.
We confess that we don't have all the answers, but as a community, we seek to find and follow Jesus and to discover daily the life he has always wanted for us.
We hope this message will be encouraging and will inspire you to take the next steps on your spiritual journey.
If we can help you in any way, please connect with us. The easiest way is through our
[email protected] let's get started.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Welcome to the launch of our new teaching series. Joanne already set us up for that. It's called Ancient Prayers for Today, where we're reaching way back into the Old Testament to find prayers that are still relevant now.
Dusty prayers that we can polish up.
Hidden treasures of wonderful value.
Lost and forgotten means of speaking to and hearing from the God who is always and eternally present to his people.
And why are we doing this? Well, maybe go with me on this.
Maybe it's like a bit like we are detectorists.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: So what are we doing?
No, I do.
Thought you probably would time travel.
What?
Metal detecting is the closest you'll get to time travel.
See, archaeologists, they gather up the facts, piece of jigsaw together, work out how we lived and find the buildings we lived in. But what we do is that's different.
We unearth the scattered memories, mind for stories, fill in the personality.
Detectorists.
We're time travelers.
Yeah, all right, I'll give you that one.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Detectorists are time travelers. I like that. I like that.
And maybe that's what we're doing now. Acting like time traveling detectorists, rooting around in the covenant story of God's people of Yahweh and digging out the bits and pieces of precious metals to see how these ancient brothers and sisters employed ways and means of praying things that maybe when you pull them out of the ground, they'll slide right on the finger.
Maybe they'll slide right into our own story.
Maybe because we are convinced that in the deep past are hidden wonderful treasures for us today. And nowhere is this more true than in the scriptures.
It's not necessarily always easy to find the bits and the bobs that lie hidden.
Sometimes the ground can seem unyielding and the soil hard to turn, referring to our hearts and heads. Of course, we often have to scour the landscape again and again because our untrained eyes often miss the cues. But we're listening for beeps and we're digging for those bobs. And we keep at it because we're Convinced that here, in this soil, in this story, in these scriptures, God has spoken, and he still speaks to us today.
And through it, we can learn to speak back to the God who is still listening. So today, maybe we find ourselves time traveling back to a time of descending darkness, when the fledgling nation of Israel was grasping for hope in what was a fading twilight.
And we will together unearth this igniting prayer that was used at a very difficult moment and I hope have a prayer then for us, a prayer that we can use in our times of confusion and darkness. Well, the opening chapters of First Samuel, that's where we're going today, describe a despairing time of corruption and abuse as a family of priests get fat, stealing the worship offerings of the common people, abusing their power over others, neglecting their duty and mocking the name of their God.
Eli and his sons were these priests. Now, Eli's sons were filthy shysters, and Eli himself was deeply compromised.
Now, Eli, we're told in the story we're told this is both getting fat and going blind, with his dimming eyesight representing his dulling spirit and his fattened frame representing his failing ministry. And yet, dark, dark as it was right then, all was not lost. All is never lost when Yahweh is around.
For there in the holy tent, there at the foot of the Ark of the Covenant, there, surrounded by this descending darkness, lies a young boy dressed up in a little linen ephod of a priest in training, a boy who is not yet quite asleep with the lamp of God still burning into the night. And this lamp will not go out while darkness remains.
This was the time just before the kings of Israel took stage in the late period of the Judges, where we are told repeatedly in the story of Judges, everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.
Everyone, including, as we find out, the very priests who had been called to represent Yahweh to his people and represent his people back to Yahweh. The chosen line of Aaron now come to rot and ruin in the family line of Eli.
Not that everyone was unfaithful, as hair raising as the story of Judges is. And it is hair raising with Samson and Jephthah and Gideon and all the idolatry and sex and murder.
Young guys love that story.
The story of Ruth reminds us that there are faithful people present as well.
Even the story of Samuel begins with a faithful family going up to worship and a faithful woman crying out to Yahweh for a child that she's been denied.
And then when her prayer is Answered, she offers that surprised son back to the Lord in service.
The boy lives there, doesn't live at home.
However dark it was, the birth of Samuel launches the golden era of Israel. But we don't really know any of that yet.
All we know is that these priests who were supposed to be serving Yahweh and serving his people, were getting fat, serving only themselves. And that, as we're told in chapter two, I quote, the sin of the young men and referring specifically to Eli's sons, was very great in the Lord's sight.
For not only we hear in another spot were they sleeping with the women who served at the entrance of the holy tent. We're told they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt.
Rot was at the very core, and judgment was near, and God sent warnings. But dim minds and dull hearts cannot perceive the day of their doom.
Judgment approaches.
Night encroaches on the nation of Israel and on Eli's priestly line.
And so now, as the night wears on, we're going to narrow our gaze to this specific little room in this holy tent where a young boy lays down to sleep under the flickering glow of a burning lamp, still pushing back the darkness. So let's hear the whole story from First Samuel, chapter three. I'll dip into chapter four as well.
Just listen if you'd like. Follow along if you'd like reading from the new international version. This is the story.
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.
In those days, the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions.
One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.
The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord with where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, here I am. And he ran to Eli and said, here I am. You called me.
But Eli said, I did not call. Go back and lie down.
So he went and lay down again. The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am. You called me, my son. Eli said, I did not call. Go back and lie down now. Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
A third time. The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am. You called me.
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel, go and lie down.
And if he calls, you say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there calling, as at the other times, samuel, Samuel.
Then Samuel said, speak, for your servant is listening.
And the Lord said to Samuel, see, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.
At that time, I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family from beginning to end.
For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about. His sons, blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them.
Therefore I swore to the house of Eli. The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.
Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, samuel, my son.
Samuel answered, here I am.
What is it? He said to you?
Eli asked, do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.
So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, he is the Lord.
Let him do what is good in his eyes.
The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground.
And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. And Samuel's word came to all Israel.
What a story, eh?
If that's a new story to you, or maybe it's been a while, I hope that will, you know, encourage you to just carry on with the story. I recently picked up a Deuteronomy and read through to the exile at the end of Second Chronicles. It's so easy to be swept up into this drama. It's incredible, and I hope you got some of it. Here, in the midst of this dark time of judgment, with the lamp of God not yet gone out, a boy hears the word of the Lord. And that prayer, that hearing, that listening, that response that he makes, is like a pebble fall of a coming avalanche. It's like a flickering spark that signals a change from darkness to light as judgment falls on Eli and his wretched sons. And then Samuel emerges and he goes forth to lead, and then to find and call and anoint the first two kings of Israel. But all that's yet to come. And today we, the detectorists, are narrowing down, looking for a specific treasure, a prayer treasure. And so let's focus now on this simple little prayer of Samuel nestled here in the middle of the night, here in the middle of the story. Speak for your servant is listening.
Speak for your servant is listening. Can we try that together?
Speak for your servant is listening. One more time.
Speak for your servant is listening.
Six simple words in English, in Hebrew, only four. This tiny prayer wastes no breath, expressing the readiness of a servant to hear his master speak.
Consider how you might use this prayer in your life.
Think of how it might come in handy, how this little gem could help you as you strive to know Jesus more and follow him more faithfully.
Well, let me share with you four ways this ancient prayer helps me pray today.
First, this ancient prayer positions the me to hear.
Speak for your servant is listening. We live in a noisy world, don't we?
Both my internal ears and my external ears are constantly clogged with sounds, with voices, with noise, with messages.
And on top of that, I'm a bit of a talker and I end up yapping way more than I should.
Not all of you have that problem. I know, though some of you share my plight.
But this prayer, this simple six word prayer, it positions me to hear. It helps me shut up.
You know, Tom, just zip it for once.
As we were reminded, or at least I was when I was a kid. God gave you two ears, two eyes and one mouth. So take a hint, buddy, right?
When I pray this prayer, this prayer helps me stop talking. Because if I'm hearing what I'm praying, I just ask the Lord to speak to me. So maybe I better let him.
You know how irritating it is to get together. Maybe you've never had this experience. Irritating it is to get together with a friend for coffee. You know, the friend who's been saying, we've got to catch up, we've got to catch up. I want to hear all about how things are going, your life. I just want to hear all about it. So when you finally sit down and settle down for a visit with them, what happens? They don't shut up, they don't pause for breath, they don't ask how it's actually going with you. They just talk non stop. And you get to the end of the conversation, you think, I didn't say a word.
If you ever had that experience, I got news for you. If you've never had that experience.
Yeah, well, all that to say, this prayer helps me shut up and listen.
Speak for your servant is listening. It's like saying, lord, I'm here and I'm all ears and I'm not Telling you what you need to say. I'm not demanding that you meet my expectations. I haven't decided in advance what I want to hear. You speak, I listen, I'm open, I'm ready, I'm quiet, attentive.
What a great position to be in. Whenever you sit down with the word of God open, ready to pray, ready to hear speak for your servant is listening. It positions us to hear. By declaring myself ready to hear, maybe I'll be a little more able to do it right.
Second, this ancient prayer prompts me to submit.
You know, as we invite the Lord to speak to us by His Spirit through His word, we listen as people who are under the authority of Jesus, who are submitted to his will.
When Eli instructs Samuel and how he should respond to the night voice, he tells him to use the formal title of Lord, or more accurately, Yahweh, the personal name of God.
Eli realizes after a few attempts that the God of Israel is trying to get Samuel's attention.
And as we find a little later story, I think he suspects it ain't good for him either. But at this point, he knows the God of Israel is trying to get Samuel's attention. So he guides him into a posture of submission.
But did you see when little wide eyed Samuel responds to his name being called repeatedly? Samuel, Samuel. Notice how he drops the formal title. It doesn't show up. He doesn't say Lord, he doesn't say Yahweh. He's just much more direct. I think he's stammering a bit. Speak for your servant is listening.
But that doesn't mean Samuel doesn't recognize God's authority. Just because the title is dropped, the submission is still there. This is a boy who knows he's being addressed by his holy God, even though we're told he barely knows him at this point.
And this position of submission is so crucial as Samuel receives his first message from Yahweh. Because the message he gets is not a light one.
It's not one that's going to be celebrated, not one that's going to be easy to share. It's a message of harsh judgment and a fully submitted Samuel will be required to deliver it.
By using this prayer to invite the Lord to speak to us, we're prompted right off the bat to submit to the word that comes from the Lord, to submit to the Scripture that speaks with authority, yield to the direction that's given even before we know what it will be.
Speak for your servant is listening. It prompts me to be fully yielded to the authority of Jesus and available to respond to what it is that we're being told. And the question it raises for me is personal. I ask, do I approach the word of God, fully submitted to it, even before I've read a word?
Do I specifically reaffirm my submission to the Lord as I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal my Father's will, his ways, for my life? Well, this prayer helps me do just that, and it can help you, too.
Third, this ancient prayer readies me to serve.
This stands out in the story, doesn't it? Young Samuel is a servant, and he sees himself as such.
Now, of course, he was dedicated to the Lord by his mother before he was even born. And now he's being raised in the service of the Lord and under the tutelage of Eli. So it is all that he knows.
And as this nighttime story unfolds, there's a little bit of comedy in there, isn't there? As young Eli runs back and forth, young Samuel runs back and forth to old Eli to see what he needs. Here I am. Here I am. Here I'm. Go lie down. Here I am. Go lie down. Here I am. You know, even there. Morning. Here I am.
We can see this is a boy who has no sense of entitlement.
This is a boy who knows who he is, and a boy who is ready to serve at a moment's call.
And now he's given this prayer by Eli, and it fits who he already is, a ready servant.
And isn't this a beautiful way that we can pray as we come to Jesus, as we quieten our hearts, as we listen to his word, as we sit in openness, we can join the servant Samuel and pray. Lord, I am your servant.
So whatever you say today, I receive in readiness.
Whatever you call me to do, I will do it.
Speak, for your servant is listening.
Just as we see with the posture of submission, this readiness to serve precedes the word that is given. Why? Because we know who we are and we know who God is. We understand that we are the servants and he is the master. We listen ready.
We do not need to know first what it is that Yahweh is going to say and ask us to do. Because I really need to weigh my options out and decide whether or not I'm going to actually obey, as though the ones who decide what's best.
No, none of that is here.
We are the Lord's servants, and we come ready to serve. So whatever you say, Lord, I'm going to do it in English. We have the word listen.
And we have the word obey as two distinct words.
But in Hebrew, there's no separate word for the two.
To hear is. Is to obey. You can't do one without the other.
Hearing and obeying are bound up in a single word, Shema.
So if you heard something but didn't obey it, then you didn't really hear it at all. Get me?
We kind of have a feel for this in English. Whenever you hear a parent shouting at a kid, are you listening to me?
How come you're not listening to me?
You kind of get the feel that both things are present there, I think. Do you? Yes, but mainly we keep them apart. But in Hebrew, they're together.
And in Samuel's prayer, stating that he hears that he is listening, it implies this active, responsive readiness. He's going to do what he's told to do.
And this hearing in the story is connected to the most central command of the covenant. It's called the shema. It's called here from Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, and it starts with the same word, Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Samuel isn't just saying, I'm listening. So he can hear the message audibly, but with an intention to act swiftly and obediently. Perhaps his mother Hannah's example is popping up here.
She named her son Samuel, which has a connotation, a linguistic connotation, that she was heard by God when God fulfilled her prayer and gave her a son in the first place. And then Hannah promptly responds by giving Samuel back to the Lord in obedience to the Lord.
So Samuel was born of a mother who was a ready servant, and now he's become one too. Never underestimate the power of a godly example or a praying parent.
This prayer helps us pray as listening servants, ready to obey. And fourth, this ancient prayer compels me to be courageous.
Having been positioned here, prompted to submit, ready to serve. This prayer also compels us to be courageous.
For when we listen to the word of the Lord and willingly, obediently do what the Lord says, his word will lead us at times into places that are difficult, into situations that require courage.
This message that Samuel was given as his very first word from the Lord when words from the Lord were very rare, well, it was not an easy one to deliver, was it?
See, Yahweh tells him, I am about to do something in Israel that would make the ears of Everyone who hears about it tingle.
Yikes. It's like, couldn't you lob the kid an easy one to start with?
Wouldn't you have lobbed him something easier than that?
This is what Samuel got.
Rather than starting him off light, Samuel was told that Eli, his mentor, his guide, the primary father figure in his life, was going to be judged for his failure to restrain his blaspheming sons.
And there was nothing they could do about it.
Eli's family was headed for disaster. That's the message.
That's Samuel's first word from the Lord. And the next morning. Coached or threatened by Eli, young Samuel then has to deliver that hard message to his mentor.
In our lives, as we obediently listen in submission to the Lord and His Word, there will be times where the Lord delivers a difficult message to us.
He might convict us of some hidden sin.
He might challenge us on a negative attitude that we've been nursing.
He might call us to seek out someone that we've wronged and ask for their forgiveness.
He may challenge us to enter into a new form of ministry or start ministering somehow.
He might call us to reach across some awkward boundary line or love a difficult neighbor or and this requires wisdom and discernment.
Jesus may even call us to speak a word of truth in love to a brother or a sister, calling them to repentance and warning them of trouble should they refuse.
You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.
I don't think that happens often, and it's almost always in the context of a trusted relationship. But as ready, listening servants, when God does direct us to do so, we have to take courage from the Holy Spirit and in godly humility, do what he says.
As we read in Galatians 6:1. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
And why? Well, because we read in Ephesians 4, for example, rather than being infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming, we are to speak the truth in love, so that we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ.
Speaking the truth in love as the Lord directs us, may be one of the hardest things we do in our lives, so hard, in fact, that we just refuse to do it. Usually we either speak lies in love or we think it's love.
And if you're confused on that, listen to last week's sermon.
Or we speak the truth without any love at all, which we can keep a distance and people are hurt. Neither of those things are appropriate to a servant of Jesus.
To really speak the truth in love will require that we've internalized this kind of prayer. A prayer of a ready, listening servant who does what his master says, particularly when his master tells him things that he has to change, or she has to address areas in the life where they need to respond, but also not only doing what the master says, even when it's difficult, but doing it in the manner of the master, in that spirit of gentleness, in actual love, in concern for the truest, best outcome for that person, doing it in the manner of Jesus himself.
But words of the Lord and the Scripture, as the Holy Spirit speaks to us, are not usually like that.
A word from the Lord or a message from the Father, or something the Holy Spirit highlights in prayer, both for you and for others, will most often be a word of great encouragement.
And it will often be, in my experience, focused on identity.
We will have opportunities to be reminded ourselves and to remind others of who God is and who we are. I've often said to people, as you mature in the Christian faith and get further and further down the line, most of what you need to hear is stuff you already know but you've forgotten. And most of what we need to tell each other is reminding each other of the truth we already know but we've forgotten. So being reminded of who we are and who God is and encouraging one another is critical to us. Responding as servants to the Word. The Lord is sharing us, but that takes courage too, both to really receive and be in that position of openness and readiness. That takes courage when God is speaking to us and he's got things we need to address, but also it takes courage to share that with others around us. Share that with the person the Lord has placed in your heart. Send that text, send that email, make that phone call, call them out for coffee and let them speak.
Take courage and be ready to share, even at a moment's notice, what the Lord Jesus has been doing in your life, what he's been teaching you areas in your life where you're trying to figure some things out, or he's been leading you into something new, or he's been challenging you on your financial giving, or he's been challenging you on maybe I need to reach out to this friend who's been challenging you on the way you've been thinking about other people, share what he's been doing in your life and that will also be very encouraging to other people.
As brothers and sisters, we need to do that for each other, to share more of what God has been speaking to us as we pray. Speak for your servant is listening.
It takes courage and that courage is needed. As servants under authority, we need that courage to speak a word in season, to share that encouraging truth, to witness to an unchurched friend, to just love the people around us and shine the light of Jesus into someone's dark corner.
And so our invitation today is very simple.
Would you take this prayer, this six word prayer, and use it for yourself?
We've unearthed an absolute treasure here.
But don't let it gather dust on the shelf.
Polish it up, make it shine.
Put it to practice. Let it be a prayer for this season of your life.
Pull it out and pray that prayer of a listening servant who is ready, who is attentive, obedient, submissive and courageous, just like young Samuel was so long ago.
Speak for your servant is listening.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Thanks for listening in today.
We hope you feel encouraged and challenged.
If you know someone who would benefit from what you have heard today, please share this podcast.
For more information or if you have questions, you can connect with us through our website, Erickson Covenant ca.
You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Erickson Covenant Church.
