What does Tribe teach about samuel?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on Samuel begins with the world he was born into. Amanda Lack, who is on staff at Tribe, set the scene carefully: Israel was in the era of the Judges, a time the book of Judges sums up by saying every man did what was right in his own eyes. The priesthood under Eli was corrupt, his sons were flagrantly rebellious, and prophetic words from God had grown rare. The lamp in the tabernacle had nearly gone out. Amanda read all of that as more than background. Into that barely-lit moment, God called a preteen boy whose faithful mother Hannah had prayed him into existence, kept her promise, and brought him to serve at the temple, where he slept near the Ark and wore the little robe she sewed him every year.
The heart of Amanda's teaching was the difference between hearing and listening. As she put it, "Hearing and listening are very different. You can hear your mom call you to dinner while you're playing video games, but are you listening to her?" Samuel heard God's voice three times before he understood what was happening, running to Eli each time. Amanda read that as showing something about God's character, that he kept calling rather than giving up, confirming his word through repetition the way he does throughout scripture, through a burning bush, a fleece, or a friend saying the same thing you just read in your Bible. Eli's guidance was itself part of that patience, a piece of community helping Samuel recognize a voice he had not yet learned to identify on his own.
When Samuel finally answered with his whole posture oriented toward God, Amanda noted that God did not deliver the message until that moment. She pointed out that "Before Samuel is ever called to a public ministry, he is marked by private obedience." The phrase Samuel used, speak Lord your servant is listening, appears in the mouths of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah and Ananias across scripture, always at a moment of real availability to God. That posture of listening, not merely hearing, is what Tribe's teaching on Samuel keeps coming back to as the thing God is after.
Taught from 1 Samuel 3:1-21 · 1 Samuel 1 · Judges 21:25 · Psalm 103 · Isaiah 30:18
“Hearing and listening are very different. You can hear your mom call you to dinner while you're playing video games, but are you listening to her?”
From “Here I Am” – Samuel's Obedience
The passage taught · 1 Kings 21:25
25 But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 11, 2026 “Here I Am” – Samuel's Obedience Amanda Lack teaches on 1 Samuel 3, tracing Samuel's call from a young boy sleeping near the ark to a prophet whose every word came to pass through private obedience.
- May 10, 2026 "Here I Am" A preteen boy, a sleeping prophet, and a God who kept calling. This Mother's Day sermon from 1 Samuel 3 explores what it means to say "Here I am, Lord, your servant is listening."