Take the low place

came down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, and he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, Samuel was laid down to sleep. But the Lord called unto Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou callest me.

And he said, I called not, I down again. And he went and lay down, and the Lord called yet again. Samuel, and Samuel arose, and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.

And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. The Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose, and he went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.

And Eli perceived the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Now you'll notice this is for the first time of which it says, So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood and called, as in other times, and Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Almost hard to comprehend that one who is a child could actually be a servant. You know sometimes young people relegate in their thinking that it is only the older people that really can serve God.

That's not true. You can be like a Samuel, you can be like a Josiah, and you too can serve God. There's only one way that which God has served, and that we can possibly serve him, and that is to be in our place.

Very sad, I think those are pathetic words about Eli, just sufficient to say, here's a man that could have been in his place, but he is laying down in the place. Now it's different when you come to Samuel, because Samuel doesn't perceive that it is the Lord speaking. He's running to Eli, he's running to Eli.

And to give the old man Eli credit enough, he recognized there was someone beyond him speaking to the young child. And so it says for the first time at the end of verse number nine, So Samuel went and lay down in his place. In other words, here was a man that was comfortable in his place.

Here's a man that could rest in his place. Let me ask just a very challenging question in the prayer meeting tonight, at least at the end of it. Are you comfortable in your place? Now I, sure, but in a broad way, I think of the assembly, the testimony of which you form a part, are you comfortable there? Is it a place where you can dwell? That's the words that are used in our New Testament and in the Old Testament.

When it came to Bethel, go up and say God to Jacob and dwell there. Make it your home. Are you comfortable there? What about the place that God has given you within that assembly? Well, you see, the most I've ever got to do is teach Sunday school.

Are you happy doing that? That's your place. Are you happy doing that? Reminded, we are reminded, of course, of the wise man that said as the bird wandereth from her nest, so is he that wandereth out of the way. So it was very important that to hear from God, Samuel had to be found in his place.

Now sometimes we can be in an allotted place in the assembly, but we're not that happy with that. And sometimes we can come to a conference or a ministry meeting or even a gathering of God's people and we're kind of discontent. We feel that there should be more place that should be given to us.

And after all, I've been here and others have just come and they've given them this and they've given them the other thing. But what about me? You know, the first thing and the hardest thing to do before we got saved really was to take our place, wasn't it? The only place that was ever given to us was the place of being lost. And if you're anything like me and I have reason to believe that you are, because the Bible says there's no difference, that was a hard place to accept.

I thought the lost people were people down the road that didn't know Genesis from Revelation. I thought they were people that never went to church. And I had to go three times on Sunday, not that I wanted to, but I had to go.

And once or twice during the week and gospel meetings within whatever mile radius we went to them too. So surely I wasn't the lost. Before I got saved, I even used to think of how I would get saved, where I would be and how I would hear it, who maybe would be preaching, what verses might be used.

The last verse I would have ever thought was Luke 19 and 10. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. You've got it.

That's the verse that God used to deliver me. I had to take my place. What blessing there was in taking that low place.

No, it hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. Seekest thou great things for thyself, said the prophet, seek them not.

Remember the Lord Jesus spoke of those, of course, that would come to a feast and seeking a man bidding to a wedding and sit not down, he said, in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thee be bidden, and thou with shame begin to take the lower place. Nothing wrong with taking the lower place. The very practical way, I come from a family of seven children and my mother would not tolerate it.

If she ever heard that we were being picked up by somebody and we would race to that car and jump in the front seat, that was just an unwritten rule. You just did not do that. If later you were asked to go there, then that was different.

I got to say it was in a very humiliating way. In fact, I think Scott might have been with me that time we were going up to northern New Brunswick and we were actually going on a bus. The bus was delayed and so they called in for a taxi that is a van to take us to connect with the bus in Fredericton.

And this taxi came along and there were some young people there and I was standing there with my grip and my computer and whatever, and the taxi had hardly stopped. This young teenage girl raced in, she popped herself down the front seat. I really didn't think anything of it.

In fact, I didn't even notice it until we had put our luggage in and the driver of that van walked up and he opened her door and he says, excuse me. He says, if you don't mind, he says, you just sit back here. He said, the older man will sit there in that front seat.

I was proud of that I was the older man, but I was very comfortable anyhow. So after all those years as a kid piling into the back of a car with whatever, there comes a day maybe when it paid off. Here's a man that God's, a young man that God's going to speak to.

He's going to be a servant. Think of the man that Samuel was. Think of the start that he got.

Think if he'd have missed that voice, God speaking to him. I think that's why we've come to this conference. We want hearts that are conditioned to hear his voice.

There's no one that wants to speak to us more than God wants to speak to us, brethren and sisters. We've got to be willing and open to hear his voice. We have to take our place.

Whatever's been going on in my life, and I know nothing that's been going on here, you know that, but there's nothing wrong with just taking a little place. And then if you're bidding something of a higher job, that's fine. I was at a conference one time and a brother pointed out to me, he said, I see that brother over there doesn't look that happy, that pleased, scraping plates.

He says, he's making it obvious I guess he's not too happy with his job. How do you make it when it comes to scraping plates? I've done it. Still do it at our conference.

I'm not the preacher at our conference. On goes the apron as it has for thirty years. And I work shoulder to shoulder with my fellow believers in the kitchen.

Aunt Scott will tell you, he's been to our conference, with the back scrubbing pans and cleaning off pie plates, and they kind of laugh because they know that's the only time of year I do something like that. But is there anything wrong with doing that? A man came to me one time, another preacher, God bless him. I'm no carpenter.

I'm usually the gopher man. We built gospel halls, I'm the gopher man. I go for this and I go for the other thing.

But we're trying to nail down a floor and this brother stopped in and he came over to me in the corner and he said, have you, you don't have anything to do? I said, I've got more than I can do right here. No, but he said, I mean, no meetings? I said, this is the best meeting here. I said, did you ever think the value of being able to maybe just get down in the, in the ditch, so to speak, and turn the shovel with your brethren, let them tell you what to do for a while.

Get off the preacher garb and put on the workman's clothes, put a tool in your hand and go to work. If that's the place that God had for me for those weeks, I was quite happy to do it. So maybe we just approach the conference like that.

Not that I am the example of it, but to be able to just to take the place that God has given us. There was no regret in Samuel's experience when it came to doing that.