Chatham Charge Worship Service January 17, 2021
We come together as a community of faith to praise and worship our Father Almighty, He is the one that calls us to worship. His Holy Spirit is calling us now. He welcomes us into His house to spend time together in fellowship with him and with one another.
*Call to Worship: Psalm 139:1 – 6 #854
L: O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
P: You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
L: You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
P: Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it altogether.
L: You pursue me behind and before and lay your hand upon me.
P: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.
Opening Prayer:
O God, you call to us today, just as you called to the boy Samuel so long ago. Gathered here today, we are many different ages, but we pray for the maturity of faith to hear your call and respond to your Word. Open our ears and our hearts as we worship, as we work, and as we care for one another. We ask that you would give us courage and integrity to answer your call with the heart-felt words, “Here I am!” Amen.
*Hymn: When Morning Gilds the Skies #185
- When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries: May Jesus Christ be praised! Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair: May Jesus Christ be praised!
- The night becomes as day when from the heart we say: May Jesus Christ be praised! The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear: May Jesus Christ be praised!
- Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound: May Jesus Christ be praised! In heaven’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this: May Jesus Christ be praised!
- Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine: May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this th’ eternal song through all the ages long: May Jesus Christ be praised!
First Scripture: John 1:43 – 51
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe[a] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
The Lord’s Prayer
Gloria Patri: UMH 70
*Prayer:
Before we turn to the Word of the Lord, let us turn to the Lord of the Word in prayer. Heavenly Father we ask that you send your Holy Spirit to come dwell with us at this time in order that he might open our ears to a new meaning of your Word, open our minds to a new understanding of your works, and open our hearts to greater love for you. Be with us Spirit, be our guide and our companion on this spiritual journey to a greater understanding of the God of this Word. Amen
Message Lesson: 1Samuel 3:1 – 11
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, 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 the land that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle”.
The Words of God for the People of God!
The Message
Recognize God’s Voice
1 Samuel 3:1 – 10
Can you recognize other people’s voices? You mother or father, your husband or wife? Your children probably. We get so used to hearing those voices, the intonation and dialect, the phraseology that they use. Maybe it is in the names that they use for us. Our grandson when he very young, could recognize his mother’s voice coming out of a phone, he recognized that familiar voice because he heard it so often.
Our passage in 1 Samuel tells of a time when the nation of Israel could not Recognize God’s Voice because of disobedience and unholy spiritual leadership. The people had simply stopped listening or refused to listen. But that is going to change because of a young boy the learned to Recognize God’s Voice. Soon the Word of God, the voice of God came freely to all of Israel.
This change came about through God’s call of child that might not have even been born if it wasn’t for the prayers of a barren woman, a child that grew in faithfulness to become God’s prophet to His people.
Our text today is set early in the life of the nation of Israel which had been led by strong, faithful leaders like Moses and Joshua. In Bible Study right now, we are witnessing these leaders bring the Israelites from servitude to Pharaoh in Egypt, giving them the Covenant of God at Sinai, leading them through periods of disobedience wandering through the desert for decades and finally into the Promised Land of Canaan.
But after they enter the Promised Land. When Joshua dies the nation suffered from a lack of righteous leadership. At this point, Israel is not a single organized nation but rather the 12 tribes. In fact, as the book of 1 Samuel begins, tribal wars threaten to tear the Israelites people apart.
1 Samuel opens not in the halls of power, but in the house of a man remembered only here. A man by the name of El-kanah who is married to two women, and Hannah, his favorite, is barren. In a scene familiar in the Old Testament, the barren Hannah turns to God for help and goes to the Tabernacle at Shiloh and begs God for a child.
During her prayer, she encounters the temple priest Eli, who is not especially comforting and actually suggests that Hannah is drunk. Despite his initial reaction, Eli tells Hannah that her prayer will be answered.
The Lord did indeed answer her and He gave Hannah a son. She named him Samuel which means “heard by God”. As she had vowed to God, when the child was no older than five or six, she brought him back to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to give him back to the Lord for the rest of his life. Eli, the priest, will now train him in the ways of serving God.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. Our story begins with the ominous note: The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. Samuel lived during a precarious time because these were dark days for God’s people. It was towards the end of the time of the Judges, when people did as they saw fit, turning away from the Lord toward greater and greater evil.
Enemies oppressed them. The Philistines were a growing threat in the west. Even the spiritual leadership of the people was in decay. Eli appears to be an honest man, though incompetent at times, his sons however, although they were priests, were purposely wicked and all Eli did was scold them. He did not punish them or remove them from office. For the tribes of Israel, the times were as dark as the night-time that comes at the beginning of the story.
The boy, Samuel, sleeps in the temple in the room that contains the Ark of the Covenant while Eli slept in another room. The boy hears a voice calling: “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!
So he gets up and runs to Eli. You see Eli’s eyesight was failing and the lamp that is left burning during the night is dimming right before dawn, he might need help. Samuel wants to help, he wants to serve. But when he get there Eli tells him “I did not call; lie down again”
Three times the boy hears a voice calling him and three times he arises and goes to Eli to ask what he wants. Two times Eli tells Samuel to go back to bed without any other instruction. You see that even Eli does not understand what is happening right away but by the third time it finally dawned on the aging priest that it is God who was calling the boy.
Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and laid back down. On the fourth time, the Lord came and stood there, calling, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Even though his parents’ as well as Eli’ would have told him about the Lord and his promise of the Savior, the young Samuel did not know that the Lord could reveal himself in this special way. But it was God himself that was announcing to Samuel that He had a purpose for Samuel. He needed Samuel to speak for Him to the people!
This was Samuel’s epiphany, his “Aha” moment when he came to understand God has a purpose for all of us and this was to be his purpose in the divine plan of God. Over the coming years as Samuel grew and faithfully conveyed messages from God, it became obvious that God was working through him. The people of Israel came to trust in the insight of Samuel and consulted him on difficult subjects including their desire to have a king like the countries that had been fighting them.
We know Samuel because of his part in the story of David that we worked through this last year. Samuel was the instrument God used to anoint the first two kings of Israel, Saul and then David. Samuel cared for Saul and served as an instructor to him in his early years of kingship. Later, when Saul overstepped his kingly authority and disregarded God’s commands, God spoke through Samuel to tell Saul that he was rejected as king over Israel.
God then sent Samuel to anoint young David to be Israel’s next king. For several years David was close to Samuel, able to learn from his guidance and experience. Samuel called the nation to repentance. Samuel explained to the people of Israel that they must put away their false idols and faithfully turn their hearts back to God. The ancient Israelites generally forsook their one true Protector and Provider until they faced a crisis.
All of these things came to pass because Samuel was committed to listen to what God had to say to him and to serve God in any way that he was asked. Samuel might have been confused why God was speaking to him but as we see throughout the Bible, God does not always choose the expected ones. Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David were all unlikely choices.
As we have seen in recent Gospel lessons, Jesus calls fishermen, laborers and tax collectors to serve as disciples instead of the priests and prophets of Jerusalem. Power and position in the church or community do not guarantee a similar place in God’s world. All of us, even outsiders, are given tasks in God’s kingdom. We all have our own special calls.
God’s call comes when we least expect it and often to those we least expect. God is always the God of surprises. We, as individuals and as the church, need to be like Samuel and be listening for the voice of God encouraging everyone to hear the voice that calls them forth into all that they are created to be.
Hear the Good News my friends……..
As you know, we are in the Season of Epiphany, the season of “Aha” moments. This is the time of the year that we consider how God reveals his mighty truth to us and to the world. The truth of how He ripped open the veil between Heaven and earth, between God and mankind, between eternal and the temporal.
Christ was sent down to us to reveal the very nature of God to all of us. We should not forget that this is a season where we can and should Recognize God’s Voice that reveals truths to us about his ongoing plans for each of us.
We need to be like Samuel and Recognize God’s Voice. “Speak, for your servant is listening”. That’s listening like a servant. The words of our Lord should move our hearts so that we listen and serve with willing readiness.
That willing readiness — that’s the servant’s attitude. As a servant, my will is no longer my own. It belongs to my Lord, my Master. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I am yours. ‘Take my will and make it thine; It shall be no longer mine.’ Mold it like clay to match yours.
Dear ones we must say along with Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening”! We must run along with Samuel to our Lord saying, “Here I am”? Such willing readiness comes when we listen, even in the middle of the night. When God speaks to you, dear Christian, through his Word in the Scriptures, through the answers to your prayer, through the faithful people around you.
And when he does, listen as a servant and when you Recognize God’s Voice speaking to you, you can do remarkable things in the name of the Lord. Then we will help fulfill God’s promise in the last verse that we read today “See, I am about to do something in the land that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle”. Friends, God will renew our people, He will renew our land, and we can help if we will listen and Recognize God’s Voice and faithfully respond “Here I am, Speak, for your servant is listening”. Amen.
Hymn: Here I Am, Send Me #593
- I the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry. All who dwell in dark and sin my hand will save. I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. Who will bear my light to them? Who shall I send?
Refrain: Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.
- I the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people’s pain. I have wept for love of them. They turn away. I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone. I will speak my word to them. Whom shall I send? (Refrain)
- I the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the pour and lame, I will set a feast for them. My hand will save. Finest bread I will provide till their hearts be satisfied. I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send? (Refrain)
Prayers of the People
Pastoral Prayer:
Patient and Wise God, you have called this church into being to serve you in this world by helping others. We rejoice in the many ways we are able to be of help. We offer our prayers for each other, for those near and dear to us, for the situations of difficulty and strife in community and world. You hear our voices cry out and with your eternal compassion you respond in loving care to each of us. We gather here this day, meeting and greeting each other, celebrating fellowship and friendship, welcoming each other in your name. You remind us that you are with us always. What have we to fear? But we fear far too often the unknown tasks that lie ahead of us. We always want to be assured of the happy out come of our efforts. Help us to trust your guidance and presence, Lord. Help us remember that there is no time in which we are out of your care. Enable us to be in serving ministry and mission with joy and confidence. Heal our wounds, bind up our bruises and broken spirits. Put us on a pathway of peace. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Hymn: Jacob’s Ladder #418
1 We are climbing Jacob’s ladder; we are climbing Jacob’s ladder, we are climbing Jacob’s ladder; soldiers of the cross.
2 Every round goes higher, higher; every round goes higher, higher, every round goes higher, higher; soldiers of the cross.
3 Sinner, do you love my Jesus? Sinner, do you love my Jesus? Sinner, do you love my Jesus? Soldiers of the cross.
4 If you love him, why not serve him? If you love him, why not serve him? If you love him, why not serve him? Soldiers of the cross.
5 We are climbing higher, higher; we are climbing higher, higher, we are climbing higher, higher; soldiers of the cross.
Benediction
And now, sisters and brothers, go knowing that the God who made you also sustains you. The God who calls you also goes with you. The God who loved you before you were born still loves you today, and into all the tomorrows. Amen.