Play The Long Game!

Today, we've been in our series on reaching into their future, looking at the powerful impact that you can make in other people's lives, and then looking at various texts that are meaningful for us in that way. Last week, we talked about the fist bump with God and partnership with God and how we are partnering with Him. We're praying for opportunities to minister to the people that are around us and even in practical ways to family members, friends, coworkers, neighbors, those kind of people. And today, we're going to dive into what it means to do that together, and I have with me Phil Johnson, Pastor Phil. And yeah, welcome, Pastor Phil. Fist bump, let's go. And Pastor Phil and I have a long history, and we're going to share some of that today. We're going to talk about what it means to hear the voice of God, but how we can help each other hear the voice of God. And it's not just a one-time thing. In fact, the title of today's message is The Long Game, or Play the Long Game. And we want to play the long game in our relationship, so it's not just about one moment, but it's about a lifetime. Well, we have not a lifetime, but how many years have we been hanging out? Two decades. Two decades. Two decades. And yeah, really excited for today, because I think in what you've modeled and just what we've seen in our story that we'll have here today is just like playing the long game, you

got to be able to hear the voice of God. You got to be able to hear the whisper of God. I got permission to share some of these photos to prove how long we've been doing life together. So the first one, this is a couple of decades ago. This is back in the day. And some of our locations might notice their campus pastor, and Pastor Jeff's in there hiding. And then Lakeville down there, you got Pastor Danny Williams and just a lot of great community there. This was at halftime of RBL. We've heard Pastor talk about it. It's the Roosh Backyard Basketball League. And that was before we got our chocolate chip cookies from Pastor Jody, for sure. So we were all extra excited for that. And then just even a couple of years ago, the next photo here just was a very significant moment. Just that was my last staff chapel on staff here at Emmanuel before stepping into a new assignment as district youth director for the state of Minnesota. And literally, I mean, that was a moment just you speaking and confirming just in all the unknown. But because of how you modeled that and the intention I'm speaking into my future by helping me understand the whisper of God, what that's done and we've seen modeled in our own home is what that's done for the next generation. So every Sunday, I still attend nine o'clock Spring Lake Park. And then this next photo is probably one of my favorites. It's a photo of my oldest walking with pastor

after first service. So notice my oldest has left me at this point. He's just like talking about college football with Pastor Nate, the latest games and all of that stuff. And it's such a joy to see that what you've done for me, that you're continuing to model that just even for the next next and helping them understand the voice of God and what is good and bad football as well. And so, but yeah, we've been on the journey for a while. Yeah, we have and there's so much wrapped up in that story after story after story. What we want to talk about today is the value and the joy of that. And it's not just one way, it's both ways. I like reverse mentoring might be a part of it. Pastor Phil is my shoe game mentor. And so like, if any of you notice, I'll have different shoes on at different times. He's the guy that actually helps me pick out the shoes because he knows what's cool because I might mess it up, right? Truly though, there is no greater joy for me than to watch Phil as he chases what God has called him to do. And that means that we, our relationship changes over time. And I need to be in it for the next season that he's in and available for that. I can't control it. I'm invited into his world. It's not the other way around. And because of my, our relationship, I've been a part

of some really fun seasons and some difficult ones along the way. And that comes with it as well. So today we're going to look at the scripture and as it relates to hearing God's voice yourself, but it doesn't end there. It's also learning to help others hear the voice of God. We're going to look at first Samuel chapter three. If you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to go there and also go to your Emmanuel MN app. And, and neither of us are perfect in here. But you're going to hear us interjecting, like Phil might interrupt me here and there, and I might interrupt him when he's talking. But the whole goal is, is for us to stay on the same page. And let me just say this before we start first Samuel chapter three, the backstory to chapter three is Israel has, had come into the promised land. Then they went through many years of the period of the judges leading Israel, and they didn't follow God. In fact, the critique of the end of the book of judges is each person did what was right in their own eyes. I mean, you know, that's a recipe for disaster when you do what's right only in your own eyes. It's a little bit of what we got going on in our society today. During that period of time, God had a succession plan in mind

for a new journey, if you will, and he was going to respond with a brand new king down the road. And in order to get ready for that moment, he had to have a new person born because the priest of Israel, as we began 1 Samuel chapter one, is chapter one, it's Eli. And Eli had been the leader, if you will, the final judge. And yet he wasn't doing it right. And judgment's about to come on the house of Israel, all of the country. And it had to do with his parenting because Eli's sons were not disciplined and they weren't trained up. And then they, as they became adults, they were doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And so the critique of Eli, who's a bad dad, and the plan had been for his sons to be the next priest, to take that succession baton in their hands, but they did not do it. So in the middle of all of this, God's got a plan. How many know God's always got a plan? At the darkest moment, God always has a plan. So there's a woman named Hannah who wanted a baby and she goes into the tabernacle and she weeps before God, like hysterically. And she says to God, I want a son, I want a child. And if you give me a child, I'll give him back to you, Lord. And that baby was Samuel.

Samuel now is the answer to his mother's prayers. Mamas, keep praying, because we're the answers to your prayers. Thank you. Some of you need to text your mom right now and say thank you for praying for me. Thank you for caring for me. And as Samuel is born, he's now dedicated back to serve in the house of the tabernacle. That was Hannah's promise. And as we turn into chapter three, verse one, it says this, 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. 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. How many of you like getting woken up in the middle of the night? Your kids ever do that? Oh, you're good, okay. So he says, what is it?

Did you call me? I didn't call you, go back to bed. Then the Lord, verse number six, the Lord called out again, Samuel. And again, Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am, did you call me? I didn't call you, my son, Eli said. That's my interjection of the voice of Eli. Go back to bed. Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. Now I'm gonna keep reading here in a moment. Did you know there are a ton of people in our lives have yet to hear the voice of the Lord? People in your family, people that you work with, they haven't, they don't even recognize God's voice yet. And when God does speak, they might run to the wrong thing. They might try different religions out. They might try different people out. They might follow because God is stirring them. We need an Eli in our lives in those moments. Somebody that will direct us. All right, where did I leave off, Pastor Phil? It was the third time. Okay, so the Lord called a third time, verse eight. And once more, Samuel got up and went to Eli. Here I am, did you call me? Then, everybody said then. Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. Let me just say this to those of you

that are parents, mentors, involved in other people's lives. You need to recognize when God is speaking to somebody else. Notice it. May God give us sensitivity to see what's really going on. Amen? Verse number nine. So he said to Samuel, go and lie down again. And if someone calls again, say, speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. So Samuel, Samuel went back to bed and the Lord came and called as before, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel replied, speak, your servant is listening. Then the Lord said to Samuel, I'm about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I'm going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn't disciplined them. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings. This is a powerful text and about a big prophecy over the whole of Israel, but as it relates to Samuel, this was also the first time he began to dialogue with God. And this is really what we want to talk about today is what's that like? Start small, but it emerges. And in this relationship that you see

between Eli and Samuel, some might think Eli is an idiot and he's lost it. And in some ways he has, but he's got one more chance to help somebody else. So even if you've blown all your chances with your kids and you've blown all your chances with people, did you know that God is still going to move and he'll use you in their life? You just got to be ready like Eli. Eli was critical in Samuel's story. And then he was raised in the tabernacle from then on. So Eli and Samuel's relationship continued until eventually the prophecy was fulfilled, Eli dies, Samuel becomes the leader of Israel as the priest. And so in this story, you see so many things about the voice of God and listening to God and speaking and hearing. And in Samuel's life, I'll just say one more thing and then I want you to take it here. And this is found in the book that, reaching into their future on page 165. From childhood to old age, Samuel heard God's voice, the whisper. Like Samuel, we don't know when God might break into our consciousness to reveal himself and give us direction. So that's why we must stay ready. If we cultivate a receptive heart, we can follow the voice throughout our lives, the whole long game.

No, it's a crazy story. I mean, when you really begin to lean into it. And as we were looking through this text, I was reminded of one of my first jobs in college in high school was working at downtown Target. And I worked in the electronics department and often we would have our communication through walkie talkies. And I remember I was working on a project and one of my team leads came into the aisle of which I was working. She's like, Phil, where have you been? And I'm like, I thought I was doing the right thing. I'm working on this project. She's like, we've been trying to get ahold of you. We have people that are waiting to be held. There's all these people that are waiting over the electronics area. And I looked down at my walkie and I realized I was on the wrong channel. That as they were trying to get ahold of me, what I thought I was doing was the right thing, but I wasn't able to hear the requests. I wasn't able to hear what was being asked of me because I was on the wrong channel. And I share that story because I think there's so much that what Eli helped Samuel do in this text in 1 Samuel 3 was helping identify something that was new to him. Maybe as we heard and read already,

it was the voice of God, a word from God was, it was rare at that point, visions were uncommon. So Samuel had not yet heard, he did not know what he was listening to or what to listen to. But I mean, look at Eli in this moment, like the foresight and vision to be able to do a couple of different things for Samuel in this moment. If you notice in the text, Eli helps Samuel identify the source. That as God is speaking to Samuel, that as Samuel returns back to Eli, Eli's identifying that is the Lord. It's not me, it's the Lord. He didn't try to act like he was him in that moment, but he points back to the source and then he gives Samuel a sequence. When you hear God, when you hear the Lord speak, this is how you are to respond. Speak Lord, your servant is listening. Now we see Eli in this identified the source of which the whisper was coming from and then the sequence of what is to take place next. I think we see that even in this text that God's whisper, it's personal. It speaks to God's desire for relationship, to do life with us, that he was wanting to have this relationship with Samuel, that it was personal.

see that as well, that God's whisper is persistent, that God wasn't like, well, Samuel, you missed it the first time, I'm not gonna try again. And I think oftentimes, we are our own biggest critic that there's this fear of, if I miss it the first time, I'm out of luck, that God's not gonna try to speak to me again. But we see that Eli encourages Samuel that, no, the next time God speaks, that when the whisper comes again, here is once again, sequence. So we see God's whisper is personal. It is persistent, it's perfect, it's lacking nothing. So notice it, I think sometimes in our human nature, we go, well, God, did you miss something? Did you leave something else? Because as Samuel hears from God, it's a really difficult prophecy to share. And I could imagine Samuel going, well, is there anything nice that I can say to Eli? Is there an easier way, God? Do you have some conflict resolution whispers that you could give me here to share with Eli? But it was perfect, lacking nothing. But then we see God's whisper is powerful, that even in the whisper, it calls us to action. It doesn't leave us just sitting there, but there is a call, that in that whisper, there was an application. So we see, though, that Eli helping identify

the whisper of God in Samuel's life, the source and the sequence, and we see that in God's whisper throughout that it's personal, it's persistent, it's perfect, but it's also powerful. Man, four Ps, you got to preach your stuff down. I like this. All the text. When it comes to Samuel's life now, we're gonna fast forward a few decades because he becomes the leader, and he hears from God. How many know you need to keep hearing from God, not just years ago at camp? Hello? Or even a year ago, we need to stay fresh, keep tuning in, change the channel, get it back on track. So then we get to 1 Samuel chapter 16, and you can go there if you want to, because in 1 Samuel 16, what happens next is that moment I referred to earlier, where Samuel receives an assignment from God, and he's gonna anoint a king. He's already done it once by this point. He's anointed King Saul, and Saul started off doing really great. He even had a prophetic moment at his beginning, but then Saul disobeyed God, and when Saul disobeyed God, God reached a moment where he was done with Saul, and now God says to Samuel, another difficult moment,

another difficult prophecy, if you will, now I want you to go and anoint the next king, because the next king is the one that I'm choosing, and if I'm Samuel at this moment, I'm like, yo, he messed it up. Why not me? Just let me be the king. Let me step in, but that wasn't what God called Samuel to do. God had called Samuel to come alongside others and invest in others and to see God's kingdom through others. He was a conduit of God's voice, and so as Samuel's reaching this moment, now he's going in chapter 16, and he's going to Jesse's household, where he's got a bunch of sons to pick who the next king is, and it's kind of like a clandestine spy novel, because this is tantamount to treason in the country. If Saul hears about it, he's gonna kill him, and so he comes up with this cover story. We're gonna go and we're gonna sacrifice, do a sacrifice in Jesse's household, and so he gets into the house, and he goes through all of the sons there in chapter 16, Eliab and all the sons, but none of them are God. He's still listening for, Lord, is this you? Just like he did in the temple. He had to speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Now he had to discern what God is saying. You know, you and I need to do the same thing.

We need to learn to discern what God is saying. He's called all of us to prophesy. We talked about last week, so what does that look like in our story? So as we get into chapter 16, verse seven, it says this, but the Lord said to Samuel, don't judge by the appearance or height, for I have rejected him. He was talking about one of the options. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the what? At the heart, and of course, he's referring to David now, and David is this shepherd out in the field. His dad, Jesse, didn't even include him as an option, so he's got rejection out there. His own family doesn't believe in him, and yet God sees him. Many of us today, I just wanna pause here, and you might feel lost, overlooked, and forgotten. You might seem like you're outside of whatever is happening in the world, in your family. people are getting promotions, other people are getting what they want, other people are getting attention, and you feel forgotten and overlooked. I just want you to know God sees what other people don't see. That he actually sees you and he notices you. You should take comfort in this because people judge by outward appearance,

but God looks at your heart. And of course now Samuel is used by God and he's receiving those words from God about David. Samuel, don't judge by outward appearance like everybody else does, but God looks at the heart. So you need to have eyes to see what God sees. You need to be able to look the way God looks at other people. And of course then he chooses David and David then is anointed in that place to become the king, but he does not become the king for another 15 years. So that means that it isn't all instant. Some of us are instant stuff. Well, I went forward and I got in a prayer line. Why didn't God do everything I wanted him to do right now? Some things he does in an instant. I've seen people healed instantly. I still believe for that. I've also seen God work in the long game. And this is what Samuel displayed with David. He had a long game perspective. David goes on the run for his life after killing Goliath and getting the applause of the people, saw the king gets insecure, begins to throw spears at him. A couple of chapters later, David runs back to Samuel because Samuel saw the heart, not just the outward. Now I wanna take this into the context of our relationship. Everybody here, I want you to consider yourself to be a Samuel, all right?

Raise your right hand. Say, I am Sam. I am Sam. Turn to the person next to you and say, you are Sam. Now there might be some people in here that actually have the name Sam, so that's pretty cool. But when it comes to our relationship now with Phil and I, I wanna unpack together what that looked like if I'm a Samuel and you're a David in this context. Now, not all of the things of David, we don't need to go crazy with it. But in the idea of what is that relationship, what am I responsible to do? What am I supposed to do with my kids, my sons, my grandkids? What about the people I work with? So it's not just younger to older, but peer to peer. What is my responsibility if I'm to be a Samuel to the call of God in other people's lives? And they're gonna go through things like David did. They're gonna go through ups and downs. They're gonna go through things. So what is my role in this? And I want you to kind of unpack a little bit of this. And as Pastor Nate had shared, like, I mean, we've been doing life together for about 20 years now. And we met at North Central University. And I remember one of the seasons, like when I began to pursue Pastor Nate

as a mentor for wisdom and encouragement with his schedule, the time that we had was taking him to the airport to drop him off for his flight, for a connecting flight. Now, it started off where I would drive and then he realized like, hey man, like I'll be a lot more focused if you go a little bit faster. Cause I'm like, I'm on five over. I thought I was good, but apparently five over was five to like 10 miles too slow at that point. So here's what we came up with a good decision. Like he practiced some authenticity. He's like, hey man, I'll drive, we'll talk. And then you just drive my car back and then come pick me up. And then, so we got it figured out. But one of the things that as we saw with Samuel and David here in 1 Samuel 16, that you modeled, you talk about it in the book as well. And we see it once again in scripture was there was a leveraging a personal relationship to speak into something that I had yet to see. That I think sometimes we feel that when someone might try to speak into something that God is doing, there's almost this extension of like, well, you don't really know me. Like you don't know what I've navigated or you don't know what I'm going through. And what you did and we see what Samuel even did here,

there was a leveraging a personal relationship to speak to the potential that they see that we might not see. So meaning that even with Samuel, he saw the King and David before David even saw himself in that role. David saw himself as a shepherd. It took Samuel to come speak into the potential that God had placed inside of David. And as pastor sharing, when it comes to the Samuels in the room, it's God, what is the potential of the coworkers you've placed in my life? God, open my spiritual eyes to see the things that you see in my kids, in my neighbors, in my family, in my schoolmates. And you leverage personal relationship to speak to the potential. And what it did is it began to shift. by positioning of the direction that I was heading. Because when you begin to speak and call out and call up the things that God has placed in others, what's happening is all of a sudden they start to move in a different direction. Pastor has shared this a couple times, that like if you're on a flight and they are like one mile off initially, and they keep going that direction, they're gonna end up in an entirely different location than what they thought.

And what happens is that when you begin to speak to that potential, you begin to change their position, what you're doing is you're helping highlight that what God's placed in you and where God is taking you might be a little different than where you thought you might be. That even in the space that I sit now, I didn't know my job existed when I was in high school. I didn't know that this role existed my first couple years in college, but the speaking into the potential of what could be, even in my own insecurity, helped begin to position me to step into something that God had that I didn't even know existed. So as Samuels, it's how do we begin to do this when you find yourself in that role? It's how can I leverage the personal relationship that there's a fear factor when you begin to speak into, they're like, ooh, I don't know, but it's like, hey, trust me, I see what God's placed inside of you and I see where God is wanting to take you. Yeah, so good, there's so much in that in the course of conversation. I have to learn and I practice listening, not just speaking advice. Some of us wanna tell everybody else what to do, but they don't listen even when you tell them. Any parents know what I'm talking about?

So the skillset that I have to have as a Samuel is when Phil would process questions or options for his life, I still need to step in and go, yeah, you could do that. Have you ever thought about a different option? And I had to listen more, I had to shut my mouth and ask further questions. Why do you think that? Why would you wanna stay where you are? Even on the size and scale, you were satisfied with being a shepherd over 12 sheep, but God had a design for hundreds. And one of the things on that point is when I would not listen to wisdom, what you did that was, I think really models just the good shepherd is when I would return embarrassed, full of guilt, because I knew good and well, I tried to do my own thing. It wasn't met with, I told you so. It wasn't met with, see, if you would have listened to me, it was, how are you? Okay, like I see that you doing your own thing. There's some wounds there. How are you? How's Audrey? How's the kid? There was still a desire for a personal relationship that when you could have held it over my head, it was. And so for me, it made it that much easier to come back later on with,

hey, I think God's doing something in there because there was trust. That even in a moment where you could have held it over my head. And that was something I think being modeled on a Samuel side, that there wasn't a guilt, like I wasn't stepping into guilt. I had enough of it personally, but there was a level of trust that was built in the posture of listening to the story of the life that was just lived in that moment. That's good. Now, as a part of that, as a framework, I don't control if I'm a Samuel. This is a challenge for parents. It's a challenge for leaders sometimes where we're happy with the individual as long as they do what we say. But what if they go outside of what we say or what we want? Do we withdraw our blessing? Do we withdraw our relationship? Now, there needs to be good, healthy boundaries, of course, along the way, but I needed to share what I shared, but let Phil do what he would do. I don't own Phil. I don't own his calling. It's a phrase I use with our staff. I don't own, they're called to the voice themselves. They're their own Samuel.

They have their own moment. They have to be obedient to what God is saying. And sometimes if they're disobedient, then God will take care of them, right? I don't need to be the judge and I don't need to be the executioner. I don't need to be the one that lays it out. But if I want to retain a long-term relationship, then I need to not withdraw my relationship when they mess up or when they don't do what you want them to do. And so I think that's a big part of the story because if we're controlling, let's take it into parenthood, in the home, when they're little, everything the parent says and does is yes and right. Kids follow it. They get into elementary school. They begin that journey to adolescent independence. Why? They're asking the question in elementary, why? Yeah, why? Why should they do that? And then it moves into middle school. I got this. That's a hardcore left-hand turn for parents, right? Because now, listen, they're moving towards independence, thinking for themselves. And parents, when they see their kids going through this and they're rejecting them and they feel it,

it can feel like you're not doing what I want you to do and I'm done with you. But if a kid hears that, they're not getting agape love. They're not getting unconditional love. And by the way, as kids get older, they're gonna make their own decisions. You think you can control them, you can't. You can put boundaries within your house and there are consequences to those boundaries, but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. You pray that they have their own surrender to Jesus moments that they develop their own character and their own personal reliance on God's voice. And then as they leave the home and they go off into the big blue world around us, it's not an easy world. It's a cruel world that they go into. So even as a parent, you need to adjust and believe in them for the long term. Play the long game with your kids because they're gonna make mistakes. And by the way, we used to say this with our sons, I can say this now, when they were teenagers, they made some stupid decisions and mistakes. They went outside the boundaries of what I wanted or Jody wanted. And they went outside of what God wanted. And I remember Jody and I have this conversation about it. We're like, ooh, let's pray. And Jody's got fear.

And I'm like, and she was upset. And we asked the question, did we do something wrong as parents? Because that's what happens. But it's not about you. What I said to Jody is I said, listen, I would rather them make their mistakes now while they're under our care than when they leave the home and it's a cruel world out there. I would rather kids make big mistakes while they're young than when they're old. And it's a lot harder to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Are you hearing what I'm saying today? And so that predisposition and that idea is that your place in their life is to care for them and they're going to make mistakes. They're gonna have detours. It's like 1 Corinthians 13, where it says that love protects. It's the Greek word stego, which has the same root word that we utilize as a roof over a house. In a stego, love is a protection for everybody underneath the roof. Can they make mistakes underneath your leadership? Can they make mistakes around you as a friend where you're not abandoning them? Or you're gonna cover them in a way

that helps lead to repentance, kindness that leads to repentance and it allows them to make changes. I'm not saying cover up sin. I'm saying cover over them until they find hope in Jesus. Can I get an amen to that? So that's a part of this relationship. So as he's communicating that, what are some of the obstacles that you see to us being Samuels in that regard? Yeah, I think some of the obstacles when it comes to hearing the whisper of God and helping others discover that, and you alluded to a little bit of that, which was we stopped pursuing wisdom. We stopped seeking the wisdom of the life lived of those that have gone before and helping, inviting them into the process. All of a sudden, when it comes to the whisper, we will stop hearing the whisper. Some of the things that begin to war for that time and attention, it's busyness, it's anger, it's disappointment. You see it in 1 Samuel 3, our text here today, that even before God speaks to Samuel, it's noted that the word of God, it was rare. That you see that just the level of rebellion of we're gonna do things our way, in our timing, it's under our control, that level of pride. And we see that sometimes with our schedule

of, well, I'm gonna optimize my schedule to do more with less, and how can I do all this? And it's oftentimes will begin to suddenly push out that personal time with God. It suddenly begins to, well, we've resorted to, I'm gonna have somebody else speak from a video, the word of God to me while I'm in the car, and that's gonna be my devotion. And God, I hope I can hear you speak through somebody else in another video, rather than pausing to actually go, okay, God, before I do any of this other stuff. Because I know for me, I'm in a recovering Martha. I think it's, I'm prone to add things to my schedule and be like, that's fine, it's good. But busyness is one, I think anger and disappointment when things don't go our way, as you alluded to earlier, Things don't happen in our timing, in an instantaneous Amazon Prime, one day delivery, Netflix, all that stuff where you can have things instantly when things don't happen within our time. I think that disappointment sometimes begins to plant seeds in the roots of distrust and cynicism towards hearing of whisper or hearing the word of God begin to show. And then I think anxiousness is another one, like worry, like as you alluded to, did I do something wrong? Have I messed up?

Is this the way it's always gonna be? And one of the things I've heard from counselors that anxiety and anxiousness, it's reaching into the unknown future and pulling into and robbing your present day of its known truth. And so that even I think as Samuel's ability to help recalibrate reaching into a future where others have reached in to something they don't know and they're pulling it in and it's causing anxiousness, we can help reach in and speak into it saying like, hey, you don't know that yet, but here's what I know about what God does. And it's through the wisdom of, hey, here's what I've seen, here's what I've known, here's what I've experienced about God, and it's helping redefine an unknown future and rather looking ahead full of worry and stress, it's now hope because there's a redefining of that. And I think even within the homes of the next gen, one of the questions we have to ask is the anxiousness that the next generation has, how much of that is caught from the environments and settings they're stepping into? I know screens have a lot to do with it, but there's a level of, we also have the most anxious generation of parents and guardians we've ever seen. So when it comes to how much of that when a student's walking into a classroom

of having a teacher that's at peace, walking into a locker room when there's a coach at peace and not an anxious presence, when a student's walking back home and they're wondering, do I even belong in my own home? Do I have a place that I feel safe? Because what you alluded to in your own story, there was a safety that your sons came back to because they knew I can trust this. I recognize that in the presence of one of my lowest moments this is still the safest place for me. And so I think part of what an obstacle we face in helping others hear the whisper of God is how can in my own life I model the peace that comes from hearing the whisper of God in such a way that it becomes so attractional to those that step into your cubicle, into your classroom, into your home, that they're going, what do you have that I don't have? And then all of a sudden it invites into a conversation of why I've recognized when I've heard God speak in such a way, this is what it begins to create. And they're like, can you help me hear the voice of God? Do you think God's speaking to me? And now it's been an invitation. So the obstacles of busyness, anger, disappointment, anxiety, I think what the Samuels in the room and online can do is going, God, how can I make sure that what you've spoken to me is modeled in the presence that I bring

to the spaces that I occupy that would invite conversations in to help the next generation reach in their future to hear the whisper of God in their own life. And then even not separating ourselves while we're trying to help others, don't separate yourself from voices of wisdom that are godly. You referenced to me this week a study, was it Barna? Oh yeah, Barna, it's one of the newer studies where millennials would say that AI, one in three millennials would say that AI is just as trustworthy as a pastor. As you go to the next generation, it becomes two to five say that AI is just as trustworthy as a pastor. But what gets scary is when you ask them about is AI as trustworthy as a parent, it actually increases. And I'm just like, well, I trust AI as much as my parents or this guardian. And once again, though, where I think it's a sign of where we're at, I think where the hope is found though is really the thing that the next generation is looking for that's right there, that's in the Samuels. Is there just looking for intentional presence? Do you see me? Do you hear me? And just as you alluded, it's the, am I safe enough to have an unfinished thought, to not have it all together? And can you still call out the potential that God's placed inside of me,

even though I don't feel like God can even use me? Yeah, so good. So we could go all day long. But as we conclude our time today, I want you to think and put your Samuel hat on. And can you have a vision for your own life that God would speak to you? Not just through Pastor Nate on Sunday. or your favorite podcaster or whatever, but that God would speak to you and you would recognize his voice. And then secondly, that God would have you develop a vision for the people that God has placed you around. That you have a patience when you're with them. I won't ask for a show of hands of how many you get impatient. But asking, but to ask God, what can you do? And I love what Philippians 1.6 says, and I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Leave that up there for a moment. Because I think this is something that we can claim for ourselves, but I also think it's something that we can believe in our own hearts for the people in our lives. I am certain that God, and read this out loud with me. I am certain that God who began the good work within you

will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. May we believe that out of ourselves for the people in our lives. I don't like what I see, they got off the track, but I am certain that the one who started this is gonna finish it. And I'm gonna play the long game. I'm not gonna give up on a ditch where in a canceled culture. But in the church, we cannot be canceled parents. We cannot be canceled friends. We cannot be canceled Christians. Come on, somebody. But we believe that Jesus will finish the work that he started in somebody else. And I believe that that's exactly the type of faith that God is putting in your heart and in your mind. May we have that kind of faith for a world that is yet to hear the voice of God. They're currently Samuels. They've never had a relationship with God yet, but God has a plan for their life too. Easter's on the way. I'm believing that God would win our neighbors and our friends and our family that are away from him, that they would hear the voice and that we would be partners with God to come alongside them, but we can't ditch on them. We gotta be there and available for them.

May God give you mentees and people over time, like Samuel, to see the king in other people, to notice what they don't notice and nobody else does either. What we're calling out the good, calling up the performance, not calling them out and canceling them, believing in the people that are in our lives. Would you stand with me today? Hallelujah. I think it's important, Phil, why don't you stay right here. The visual of relationship in the body of Christ is really what I wanted us to see today. Obviously, Phil is a far better communicator than I am. I love cheering on. He can walk into a room of 5,000 teenagers and God will do a move of God in that place. There's something powerful about his gifts. I'm not insecure about his gifts. I want you to see we can do this thing together, that you can do life together. And if you can do that in a marriage, you might not be married, but you can do that with the friends that God places in your life. Thank God for the family of God, amen, that we can do this thing together and we can do it for the long haul. We can play the long game. And this is what I want us to pray.

I want to pray that God does that in you. Would you just close your eyes. Together, right now, you're in this place or you're listening to us. And I just believe that God may be restoring some of that desire to love again. You've been hurt so many times, maybe somebody left you. It didn't go so well and you kind of pulled your toes in and pulled away from somebody in your life. That God would stir in you again a love for the people in your life. That God would give you the eyes, like Samuel eyes, to see the king in somebody else. That you begin to say, Lord, restore that in me. Give me the eyes to see what other people are missing. Help me be an instrument that builds up rather than tears down. Help me to love the people around me, the kids in my home, the spouse that I live with, the friends that I have, the coworkers that I'm with. I pray, God, that you would increase my vision and let that Philippians 1-6 run in our souls. You're not done yet with the people in our lives. You're still moving in their story. And I pray, oh God, that you would use us, help us to play the long game. Then Lord, we pray God that you would do it in a very real way in this church. That we as a people would be people that are in it playing the long game.

We're gonna listen to your voice in the whisper. We're gonna seek for others to hear the whisper as well. But we're not gonna give up. We're not gonna grow weary in doing good. We're gonna pursue what you have before us. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed right now, never wanna take any of our services, our moments of the preaching of the word of God and miss. There might be somebody here that needs to give their life to Christ or need to come home to him. And if you're here right now, nobody's looking around, but you say, Pastor Nate, I need to give my life to Jesus or I need to come back, I need to surrender to him. God's played the long game with you. He's patient, he's kind, he's waited for you to come back. You need to give your life to Christ, do it right now. And if that's you, just lift your hand up and say, that's me, Pastor Nate. I need to come back to Jesus or I need to give my life to Christ. And never know in any one of our gatherings, perhaps you're online right now and you're joining us and you need to give your life to Jesus. I wanna lead you in a prayer and I won't pray instead of you. I'll just give you words to pray. God will hear your voice. And so if you're one of those people

need to come back to Jesus or give your life to Jesus for the first time, just pray this prayer out loud and everybody else you can join in and just say this, say, Jesus, thank you for loving me so much that you came to the earth, you died on the cross for my sin, that you rose from the dead and I know that you're alive. Today, I surrender to you. I give up and ask you to take over. I choose to turn and follow you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen. Somebody give the Lord some praise.