Closer Than You Think: The God that Calls You by Name

You might describe your faith like you made the first move, but what if the real story started long before you ever “decided”? We sit with a truth that can undo years of shame and spiritual striving: God is always the initiator. Before you reached for Him, He was already reaching for you, calling your name longer than you’ve been listening. 

We walk through the Bible’s pattern of pursuit, starting in Genesis where Adam and Eve hide, and God still comes looking. Then we move to 1 Samuel 3, where God patiently calls Samuel again and again until he learns how to answer. If you’ve ever wondered how to hear God’s voice, this is a grounded, practical reminder that God keeps speaking and Scripture keeps guiding, even when we’re slow to recognize what’s happening. 

From there, we look at Zacchaeus in Luke 19, shocked when Jesus stops, looks up, and calls him by name, and Saul in Acts 9, interrupted mid-rebellion by relentless grace. We connect those stories to John 6:44 and Philippians 2:13, showing that even your hunger to come back to God can be evidence that God is already drawing you. We also get personal about calling, insecurity, comparison, and the freedom of being known by your name, not your title. 

If you’ve been hiding, keeping your distance, or trying to perform for God’s attention, there’s a simple invitation waiting: stop running and respond with three words, “Here I am.” Subscribe to Christian Cafe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people hear the good news that God still calls.

Transcript

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God Moves First

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I want you to think about the moment you first got serious about God. Most of us, when we tell that story, we say something like, Well, I found God, or I gave my life to Christ, or even I made a decision. And those things they're real. I'm not minimizing any of them. But I want to suggest to you that today that the story started way before your decision to follow Christ. Because before you reached out to him, he was already reaching out to you. You didn't find God, God found you. And he's been calling your name a lot longer than you've been listening. Welcome back to the Christian Cafe. This is episode two of our series, Closer Than You Think. And today we're going to be talking about something that I believe will completely reframe how we see our relationship with God. We're talking about the fact that God is always the initiator. Always. He never waits to be discovered. He pursues.

Adam Hides, God Walks Toward

SPEAKER_01 2:02

What did they do? They went and hid, didn't they? They covered themselves with leaves, fig leaves, and other stuff. They heard God walking through the garden and they took off running in the other direction. That's a human response to sin, isn't it? We go hide and we cover up, we run because we don't want nobody looking at us because we feel ashamed of what we've done and we try to hide from it. But let's look at it for a minute. What did God do? Did God stop there? No, God, he kept walking toward them. He even calls them out. He kept saying, Adam, where are you? Where are you? In other words, he initiates the contact. It wasn't Adam that initiated, it wasn't even Eve. They took off running. They wanted to hide because of shame. But God, he took the initiative. See, even our worst moments, even in our most shameful moments, God doesn't wait for us to come clean and come crawling back to Him. See, He came looking. He went looking for Adam and He comes looking for us when we at our lowest moments, when we've done something shameful, we've committed sin. He doesn't stop. He doesn't stop looking for us. He doesn't stop calling us. He's constantly trying to initiate contact with us. And I'm thankful that he does that because I mean just think about it. What if, you know, God just quit trying to call out to us? I mean, we would be devastated, wouldn't we? Yeah, I know I would be.

Samuel Learns The Voice

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Let's go look at over here in 1 Samuel chapter 3, and let's look at someone that knows a little bit about having their name called several times. This is one of my favorite moments in all of Scripture because it shows how tender God we God is. See, young Samuel, he's sleeping in the temple at the moment. He doesn't know God yet. The text says that the word of the Lord had not even been revealed to him. And in the middle of the night he hears his name called. Let's take a look over in 1 Samuel chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. It says, Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation. And it came to pass at that time while Eli was laying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and where Sam and while Samuel was laying down, that the Lord came to Samuel, and he answered, Here I am. So he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. And he said, I did not call, lie down again. And he went and laid down. See three times God calls Samuel's name. Three times Samuel thinks it was Eli. See, I love this. See, God didn't stop calling just because Samuel wasn't recognizing the voice yet. Do you get that? He kept going. God kept calling. He's patient in our learning curve. He doesn't give up because we didn't respond correctly the first time. Man, that would preach. How many times we keep saying no or we refuse to answer God, but that doesn't stop him, does he? God keeps calling. You have to remember that the word of the Lord was not rare in those days. By Eli's time, few prophets were speaking God's message to Israel. So why was he calling Samuel? Why now? Why was he calling Samuel now? See, Samuel wasn't Eli's biological son. He wasn't in the priestly line, so to speak. He was just a boy dedicated by a desperate woman in answered prayer. He was dropped off at the tabernacle to serve. That's what his purpose was. From a human standpoint, he had no credentials. He had nothing, which made him exactly God's type. Aren't you glad that you do not have to be in a priestly line or in some other chain of command to be called or accepted by God? Aren't you glad of that? I am. I'm glad that, you know, He God saw me who as I was. He knew what I was going to become before I was even born. I don't want to get ahead of myself here for a moment because I want to take my time here. But I'm glad that he didn't just say, well, he's not recognized by anybody. He's not in a priest line. But he went ahead, and in Samuel's case, he called Samuel, right? That's who God calls. Those that are least expected, those ones God calls. See, Samuel, he had an uncontaminated heart towards God. It wasn't like Eli's sons. See, Samuel had been sleeping near the ark of God, ministering before the Lord, in an environment that was spiritually compromised. And he was not being shaped by it. There's also something worth noting about how God called him. He didn't go through Eli, he called Samuel directly. See, God bypassed the high priest entirely. See, the bottom line is God doesn't choose based on our position. He chooses based on our availability and our orientation of heart. Hothani and Phineas, they had all the right credentials, but none of them had the right posture. Samuel had none of the credentials, but had all the posture. See, Samuel, he was sleeping near the ark. He was where God was. And when God called his name in the night, all he knew to say was, here I am. Listening and responding is vital to our relationship with God. Did you hear that? Listening and responding. If we just listen and don't respond, then it's not likely we're gonna get anywhere. But see, Samuel, he heard the voice of God and responded to God. That's that's key right there. See, although God does not always use the sound of a human voice, he always speaks clearly through the Bible. We receive his message through the Bible. We must be ready to listen and act upon whatever he tells us to do. Like Samuel, be ready to say, Here I am, when God calls you to action. That is the character of God. He calls and he keeps calling. I'm so glad he keeps calling, amen.

Zacchaeus Sought By Name

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Now let's look at someone else in the scriptures that also got his name called. Let's look over in Luke 19, and we see uh Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. He's a short man. He was despised by many because of his job title. He was a tax collector. He couldn't get to the crowd this day. So what does he do? He climbs in a tree, which, by the way, has to be one of the most undignified things a powerful man in his stature and in the culture could do was climb a tree. He climbs a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Let me throw this in right quick. He thought he was pursuing Jesus. But let's see what happens. See, here's the thing. The text says he was seeking to see Jesus. Right? That's like I said, he thought he was the one seeking Jesus. And Jesus in the middle of the crowd, he was walking through Jericho. Now imagine, picture this in your head. Walking through Jericho, all these people know Jesus is coming through, and he's crowded around and everything, and Zacchaeus is trying to see him, and all of a sudden Jesus stops. Then he looks up. And what does he say? First 19, verse 5 in chapter 19, it says, He said, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. Look at that. He called Zacchaeus by his name. He knew him before Zacchaeus ever knew Jesus. Zacchaeus thought he was looking for Jesus. But you see, Jesus was already looking for Zacchaeus. Oh my goodness. Imagine that. How shocked Zacchaeus must have been to hear his name called by Jesus. And say, and then here's another

Saul Stopped By Relentless Grace

SPEAKER_01 12:00

one. There's Paul on the road to Damascus, not seeking God, not even open to God, or actively hunting down the followers of God. That's what he was doing. And Jesus, he literally stops him in his tracks and calls his name. Over in Acts chapter 9, verse 4, it says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? God called a man who was his enemy by name. That's not just pursuit, that's grace in the most aggressive, relentless form. Amen. And see, even Jesus himself confirmed this in John 6 44 that no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. See, all these guys thought they were seeking after God, seeking after Jesus. But in all reality, it was Jesus the one doing the pursuing. Because you can't come to him unless he pursues you first. Just like I read in John 6 24, that no one can come to the Father unless he's drawn. Unless He draws them. That word draw here in the Greek means he'll go. It means to pull, to drag, to draw irresistibly toward something. Even the desire you feel to come to God. Yes, even that desire. That desire was put there by God. He initiated that desire. He initiated that pursuit and the call. He initiated all of that. The word backs this up in Philippians 2 and 13. It says, For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure. The will, the wanting. It comes from God working inside you. Before you acted, God was already moving. Oh man, ain't that wow. That's worth a shout right there. Before we ever started acting on what God wanted us to do, He was already moving in our direction. Amen. The bottom line is from the desire to the draw to the call, God's fingerprints are on every step. That hunger you feel for him, that relentless, that pull for him, he put it there. He was already working before you knew you were even seeking. That's not a small thing. That's the grace of God in the most purest form. See, you were never just a seeker. You are always the salt. Get that? You are never just a seeker. You are always the one sought after by God.

Called By Name, Not Title

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Let me ask you a question. What does it mean that God is calling you by name? I want to camp here for just a minute because I I think this changes everything about how we pray and how we worship and even how we see ourselves. See, in Isaiah 43, verse 1, God says, I have called you by name. You are mine. He didn't call by category nor by denomination, not even your church membership, or by our ministry titles. We get so caught up on ministry titles. I used to be bad about that. Every time I went to a church and asked to sign your name, I always put reverend in front of my name. Or pastor. Like, you know, I had to be somebody important in the congregation to be recognized. God don't care about none of that. God don't care about your church membership. He doesn't even care about your ministry title. He only cares and knows you by your name. Your name. The one that your parents gave you, the one that God knew before they did. How do you think you got your name? It was just not by purpose. It was not because someone, your parents looked at a nurse or something and said, I like that name. I'm going to name my child that. Uh-uh. How do you think that they got that name, that desire to give you that name? By God. He initiated it. He initiated that person coming in front of your parents and you find their name out and says, I want that name for my child. He initiated that. Call me crazy if you want to. But nothing that happens is by accident. There's always a purpose, always a reason behind what takes place and what goes on. Think about that. I I never I never thought about that until I was studying for this episode about, you know, how we got our name. I thought, well, maybe, you know, just something my the reason I got my name was I was my dad's brother, baby brother, was named Westwood Glenn. He died at birth. And so they decided to name, uh, give me that name. Well, why did they side that? Was his death the purpose I've got my name? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that God gave it to me, gave it to my parents to have for a purpose, for a reason. See, there's something deeply significant about being called by your name. When someone knows your name, your real name, your whole name, it means they know you. It means you're not a stranger to them, you're not a statistic or a project or even a number. You're a person that they recognize, a person that they know. That's why God called you by your name. See, God recognizes you. See, in a universe of billions of people across thousands of years of human history, He knows your name. He knows your name if it's Jeff, John, Melissa, Jane, Dawn, Jeff, Harry. It doesn't matter what your name is. He knows your name. He even knows your voice. He knows the specific sound of your worship and the specific weight of your grief and the specific shape of your hope. So you're not generic to him. You're somebody. Here's what that means practically. When you feel like you have to earn God's attention, when you feel like your prayers are they're just too small or your life is too messy, and you've been so inconsistent for him to really want to hear from you. Have you ever felt that way? Ever felt like that you were just so messy or you've been so inconsistent with your prayers or serving him that you really don't think he wants to hear from you? I need you to hear this. I need you to hear this and pay close attention. He already called your name. Did you hear that? He's already called you by your name. He's not waiting to be impressed by you. He knows we're gonna make mistakes. He's been pursuing you. The question has never been whether God wants you. Never. The question is whether you'll stop running long enough to let him catch you. That's the question. See, I believe somebody, somebody listening to this podcast right now, you've been hiding. You've been hiding from God. You you you you've done something that you feel so shameful about. You've you've committed a sin or or whatever it might be, you're disobedient to God, and God's calling you, and you feel like that you're not worthy. So what do you do? You take off and you run and you're hiding. You're trying hiding from God. You're trying to hide because you're shameful, because you don't feel worthy of the calling. You don't feel worthy of the name that God has called you. See, God has called you his child. You are you have an inheritance. You are in the bloodline of Jesus Christ, and you have a purpose. You have a reason that he's calling you. You have a reason that he's called you by by your name. You have a reason why you're here on this earth. If you're still listening to this and you're still walking around and breathing, you're not finished yet. God still has something for you. I'm not talking about Jesus called you from God exactly. You don't you ain't heard this, but you know, you're hiding from him. You're hiding from the closeness that you can have with him. You're in the building, you're doing the right things, but deep down, you've been keeping distance. Because somewhere along the way, you got the idea that you weren't the kind of person God really wanted to become. Close to. Let me just say it right now. That's a lie. That's a lie from the pit of hell. Devil, you are a liar. The whole biblical record is the evidence against you. See, God called us. God called us. I'm not saying that we're all gonna do great things. But what is great things? Anything that God has ordained you to do, whether it's big or small, is a great thing. Because everything in the kingdom of God and everyone in the kingdom of God is important. I may never be a television evangelist. I may never be one that travels the world preaching the gospel. I may never see thousands of people saved or healed or anything like that. And maybe that's my not my calling, and and I don't believe it is. But what I'm doing for God is what He's put me here to do.

A Personal Story Of Calling

SPEAKER_01 23:05

You see, there was a time in my life that I thought that I had to be on a stage somewhere. I was always told I was talented in music. I was always told I'd be a great musician. I had opportunities to go to Nashville and play. Never went. And there's I ain't gonna lie, there's been times I I I have regretted that decision, but I was young, I was in my early twenties, I didn't know what I was doing, I was just walking through the earth, taking up space. Didn't realize, you know, I could have a better life. And and maybe there's a purpose for that. But I I remember the day that God called me. I can tell you to the place where I was at when God called me into the ministry. I can take you to the very spot, and I almost tell you the time of day. But I can remember God calling me and and and and and calling me to preach, calling me to teach his word, and I kept fighting it. I was excited because my dad was a preacher at the time, and my brother was a minister, and and I was just a musician. But I remember when God called me and told me to preach, and I and I remember telling God, I said, God, I can't do that. I says, I'm not my father, I'm not my brother. And his next words he says, I don't want you to be neither, I want you to be Glen. That's exactly what he said. He wants, I want you to be Glenn. He called me by my name. Thought that for several years. I ended up pastoring, and I've I've evangelized a little bit, I've preached in other countries, and and all that. And there was a season where I just quit. I walked away from God because I wasn't satisfied with what was going on in my life. I wasn't satisfied, I wasn't being recognized like my father and my brother was. I was just a mediocre person sitting back following my daddy's foot footprints, hanging on his coattail. That's what my thoughts were. And I really didn't think that God needed me. I thought that, hey, there's enough of preachers around. God don't need me. So I stepped away. This is about the time after my mother passed away. But I remember when I realized that I was not happy with where I was let where I was at. I had started drinking, doing all these other things, and and just walked as far away from God as I could walk. And I remember when I came back. I remember when I came back to God and someone told me that God never stopped loving me. He always loved me regardless of where I was at. See, that changed my posture then. When I realized that there was someone that out there that loved me more than I could love myself, and that I could be the person that God wanted me to be. Have I struggled since then? Yes, I've struggled. I've struggled with self. I've struggled with my attitude and my posture of how I'd done things and what I did. I still thought that I needed to be, needed to be somebody, even tried to be somebody, because the where I go to church at now, when I first went there, and I've told told the uh pastor this, I've told, I've stood in front of the church and said this the last time I preached, that I thought that I was somebody. I kept, I went in there and told him what I could do, how I could do it, and how good I was. That was eight years ago when I said that. And God cut me down to size again because I still hadn't died to self. But see, I still remember that even though in those times, even though I was rebellious and I was all about me and and what I thought I could do, God still loved me and he still called me. And he's still calling me today. And I'm thankful that I'm here. I don't give myself no credit for this podcast because when I started, I'm telling you, three three years ago, I said, who's wanting to listen to this country boy talk? This old hick boy from Randolph County, North Carolina talk. And I I realize it's not about me. It's about getting the gospel out to those that that may not have a chance to hear it. And honestly, I don't know who listens to it. And it really doesn't matter. I'm obeying God, I'm doing what God wants me to do and doing it to the best of my ability and making sure that people hear the gospel and know that there's a purpose for them. See, God's called you. We talked about last week about He knew you in before you were ever thought of. He knew you in the womb, he has a special place for you. So it's time for us to quit fighting. It's time for us to quit fighting the call and get out and do it. So here's what I want to leave with you today.

Three Words That End Hiding

SPEAKER_01 28:47

If God is the initiator, if he always moves first, then your job is not to generate the pursuit. Your job is to respond to it. Your job is to stop running, stop hiding, stop performing for his attention, and just turn around. Because he's been calling your name longer than you know. Through the church service that you almost didn't go to, through the song that hit you out of nowhere, driving down the road in your car or at your house or wherever, through a friend who said exactly the right thing and exactly the right time to help you through something, through the quiet moment at 2 a.m. in the morning when you couldn't sleep, or you woke you up, and something inside you said that you needed to talk to God. Say that was Him. That was Him pursuing you. It's always been Him. This week, I want you to do one thing. Respond. Just respond. You don't have to have a plan, you don't have to have the right words, you don't have to clean yourself up per first. Just respond to the God who has already been calling your name. Just say, Here I am. That's all Samuel did. All Samuel said was, Here I am. He had to say it three times before he realized who was calling him. You may have to say it three times, you may have to say it four times or five times. But don't stop saying it. Because one of those times you're gonna realize it that it's just not in your head, it's not just something you think, but it's Jesus calling you. And when you do that, those are the three most powerful words you'll ever speak to God. Because when you say, Here I am, guess what? You're no longer hiding. You come out from hiding, and now you're ready. Now you're ready to do what God has called you to do and is calling you to do.

Next Week And Ways To Connect

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Thank you for being at the table today. We are two episodes into closer than you think. And I hope and I pray that you are already feeling something shift inside of you. Next week, we're going to go somewhere that might cost you something. We're talking about what it actually means to be called a friend of God. That title sounds beautiful, but Abraham could tell you, and it comes with a price. We'll dig into that next week. Share this episode, leave a review, find us on Facebook, YouTube, and visit us at our pod page at the Christian Cafe for all of our episodes, guys. Wherever uh podcaster fan, we are there, Apple, Google, you name it, we're there. I would love to hear from you. Send us an email at the ChristianCafe2022 at gmail.com and let us know what God is doing in your life. If you have a prayer request, feel free to uh let us know. We would love to help you pray. Until next time, he's been calling your name, and it's time to answer.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Join us next time, right here on the Christian Cafe, and see what God is serving up fresh for you.