1 Sam 3:1, Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.
	We ended our last consideration with the warning that the Prophet Amos voiced from Jehovah to His people. This was the passage of Amos 8:11-14. 
Amos 8:11-14, "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord God, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. "And people will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it. "In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' And, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again." 
This was the situation into which Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God was born. There was a period of several hundreds of years in which there had been nothing evident from God. As with the time of Samuel recounted in this morning’s passage …And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent. 
The people were not used to and neither did most of them expect anything other than the routine. They went to temple regularly. They performed the rites and rituals of sacrifice and the observance of the traditions that had been handed down from the days of Moses, However, they did not expect anything miraculous or out of the ordinary. Many hoped for God to deliver them from the hands of the Romans, but they did not really expect that God would act in a miraculous manner, if at all. They were seeking for an earthly king to rise up and to overthrow the Roman oppressors. 
They were hoping that God would rain down fire and brimstone upon the heads of these pagan and heathen dogs, much like He had delivered His heritage from slavery to the Egyptians. There was much that they wanted to happen, but they did not really expect anything other than the normal routine of life. 
They were born under oppression, they toiled under oppression, they lived under oppression, and they died under oppression. The only thing that gave they any solace was the fact that they were the People of Jehovah, the Living God, Who had delivered their fathers from slavery to Egypt and had brought them into the Promised Land. This distinction set them apart from the Roman pagan masters of their day. 
Then, in the fullness of time, God acted in a way that is beyond any human understanding. He brought forth, in the richness and the power and the wisdom of only Himself, the deliverance of all who would receive the free gift of His salvation. He visited His creation through the giving of the Only Begotten Son, born of a virgin. 
Jesus of Nazareth was born to take upon Himself, through His ghastly and horrid crucifixion on the cross of rough hewn wood, our sins and our trespasses and our shame and our deserved punishment. He came to die, that we might live through the power of His glorious and victorious resurrection. All who but call upon His name will be saved, because God acted in the course of human history to so love us unto Himself as only He could.
Accordingly, let us trace a bit of how this all unfolded with respect to the fact that God indeed visited humanity by being born of a virgin. He, Alone, as man, could live the perfect life that was otherwise unattainable under the curse and the stigma and the sinful nature of fallen humanity.
Initially, consider what the angel told Joseph, the betrothed of Mary as he was contemplating what to do with her in her pregnancy. He was a caring and good man who did not want to bring disgrace or dishonor upon this one who was soon to be his wife. God had made preparation even for the encouragement of this man who would be the earthly father of the Christ child. 
Please open to Matt 1:19-25, and read along with me. Matt 1:19-25, And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. 
	Suddenly, at the birth of Jesus the prophetic declarations from of old were fulfilled. Here was God, in the flesh, walking among those whom He had created. He was no longer silent or unseen or rarely in evidence through the rituals and the sacrifices and the various temple services. 
He was walking and talking and encouraging those who would come to Him through signs and wonders and the sharing of Himself, the Word made flesh. There was no longer a silent heaven, but the chorus of angelic beings heralding His birth and guarding His growth into the man who would face every vile and violent and obscene action of humanity through to His perfect sacrifice.
	As we read in Luke 2:39+40, concerning the Christ child, And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. 
	Jesus grew in the strength and the wisdom and the grace of God. He was immersed in the course that was set before Him from before even the foundations of the earth were laid. Even as a growing lad, He sought to be about the work that needed to be done in order to honor and to glorify His Heavenly Father. 
	Consider the passage of Luke 2:46-52, wherein Jesus was missing from His earthly parents because He was so engaged in the learning and the wisdom that would show forth the truth that He was serving the Father with every fiber of His being. After the family finally realized that Jesus was not among them, they began their search for the child and they found Him in the temple.
	Luke 2:46-52, And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. 
	… And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. He knew the course set before Him, and He recognized His need to grow in His relationship, as the incarnate Son of God, with His Heavenly Father. That relationship was evidenced to all those who were so blessed to be witnesses. It revealed that there was a miraculous showing forth of the love of God unto those who came to Jesus and to talked with Him and were witness to the very visitation of God with His own beloved creation. To those who were so blessed, there was no longer any doubt that God was here. Jesus was and is Immanuel, God with man.
	After His gruesome and undeserved torture and bloody crucifixion, followed by His glorious and omnipotent resurrection, Jesus was again taken up into Heaven. Those disciples, whom He had called, were the living witnesses of the established Kingdom of God on earth. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to bear witness to all the glory of God. They had been so blessed to know and to walk and to talk and to commune with The Messiah for but a short span of time. They were completely changed men and women who declared the Good News of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
	These disciples went forth boldly doing the work with which they had been tasked by the Lord. They declared, through their words and deeds and the miracles that accompanied those works, Who God was and all that He had done in coming to earth as a man.
The Only Begotten Son had taken upon Himself all the sin and the shame and the trespasses of those who would but believe upon His Name. He buried all that filth in His grave. Then, by the awesome and miraculous power of God, He was raised up from that grave and bore with Him up into the heavenlies, every single man, woman, and child who will but receive this free gift of salvation. 
	The miracles that were performed by God, through these servants, so gloriously empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit, wondrously attested to the fact that God was no longer silent. Rather the whole of His creation was now so blessed by His physical visitation. The Son of God became man, and dwelt among those whom He so loved unto Himself. 	
	This was the great truth proclaimed to the masses and the religious leaders by Peter and John at the healing of the lame man as recorded in Acts 3:11-26. Please open to this tremendous declaration of the work of God for the sake of any who will respond to His gift of Love in the Only Begotten of the Heavenly Father.
	Acts 3:11-26, And while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered up, and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. "But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. "Moses said, 'The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in everything He says to you. 'And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' "And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. "It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' "For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways." 
	As a direct result of this tremendous action of God to so bless humanity with such a glorious visitation, the Lord’s presence is now eternally evident and out flowing from the very essence of mankind. This is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within those who have called upon the Name of Jesus the Christ to be both Savior and Lord of their lives. We no longer have those times that were in place in the days preceding the call of Samuel, and especially those centuries before the birth of Jesus. The situation highlighted by the text of this morning, …And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent is, in us,  completely obliterated. We have the continual presence of God working in our lives to bring us into all the growth into Christ that is His desire in and through us.
	The Apostle Paul so encouraged all the readers of His epistles in this amazing truth. One such passage is recorded in 2 Cor 13:7-14.
	2 Cor 13:7-14, Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we should appear unapproved. For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong; this we also pray for, that you be made complete. For this reason I am writing these things while absent, in order that when present I may not use severity, in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me, for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 
	Notice the reality expressed that we are now the recipients of all the very omnipresence of God at all times. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 
He is working in our lives, every moment of every day to bring forth the living joy of our relationship as the Children of God. We can talk with Him any time of any day and know that we are being heard. We have that continual assurance in our hearts and minds of how much God now has invested of Himself to bring us into the place where we can listen, hear, know, and obey Him without any hindrance or lack of understanding. He communes with us Spirit to spirit, having made us alive in Jesus.
	That is why the Apostle could write such truths and realities to those in whom the Holy Spirit is very actively at work. What Paul wrote to his protégée Timothy in 2 Tim 4:22, the same is so very much the fact of what is our portion in this life with which we have been gifted through the love of the Lord God Almighty. 
2 Tim 4:22, The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. No more are we just going through rituals and customs and theological exercises without any apparent response. We are made alive to God in Jesus Christ! We are participants in the living relationship of fellowship that has always been the heart of God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So be it!
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 2:9, but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." Amen.