Ron Lyles: The Call You Cannot Afford to Miss

image_pdfimage_print

Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact [email protected].

Ron Lyles: The Call You Cannot Afford to Miss (1 Samuel 3)

Screenshot of notes from Ron’s first sermon Jan. 1963

Ron Lyles, retired senior pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, started preaching at age 12, using 1 Samuel 3. He preached from the same passage for his last sermon after 40 years at South Main.

Lyles opened by pointing to how people hate to miss a call. Voicemail is an effort to capture calls when we can’t take them. 1 Samuel 3 is a story about a call that wasn’t missed. It has three characters: God, the boy Samuel and the priest Eli. Lyle asked which of the three characters is “the most important one in the successful completion of this call?”

In answer to the question, Lyles recounted his father’s call to ministry, as well as his own. In his own story, Lyles found God, Samuel and an Eli each playing a role in the success of the call.

This sermon was delivered online Aug. 29, 2021, for the morning worship service of South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, which was Lyles’ last Sunday as senior pastor.

A sermon outline is available here.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard