Grace in the Midst of Mess

Mother's Day. This is Mother's Day, and hopefully that's not a shock to any man in this room. but being Mother's Day, we want to take a moment to recognize the moms that are in this room this morning, and we have a gift for you, a book by Brenda Payne called Motherhood Hope for Discouraged Moms. So if you are a discouraged mom, or maybe you're not discouraged, but you are a mother, we would love to have you stand and put this gift in your hands.

So why don't you stand and let's express our appreciation. You moms are, I started to say you moms are huge, but I You moms are very important, is what I want to say. And in Proverbs 4, Solomon says, when I was a son to my father, tender and precious in the sight of my mother, then my father taught me. And what we learned from that is that moms have a very significant role in the instruction of their children.

And one of the significant elements of their ministry is to create an atmosphere of tenderness and nurture. and, and it's in that atmosphere that children open their hearts to the Lord, to the beauty of the Lord. And in that state, they can receive instruction and the nurture and discipline of the Lord. So you in a lot of ways, moms, you are the thermostat in the home, the mood setter, and God uses you to create an environment in which biblical instruction and the ways of the Lord can, can happen.

And so, we just want to celebrate you and, encourage you this morning with how much you mean to us. And I'd like to take a moment, if you don't mind, and pray for you moms. Is that OK? Can I do that?

OK, you need it? OK, well, why don't we, why don't we pray together? Lord, just on behalf of everyone in this room, I know I, I represent them when I say that we thank you and We praise you for the moms that are represented in this room this morning. We thank you, Lord, for all the work that they do in caring for their children and in molding the lives of the children in their home.

Some of these mothers, Lord, are young and others are older. Some have younger children in the home, some have older children out of the home. Some have grandchildren, some have great grandchildren. Some of these moms are in the process of adopting and they're waiting for Their child who may be across the ocean or here in the United States.

Many of these moms, Lord, have husbands by their sides. Many of them have Believing husbands by their sides who themselves are laboring to be men of God who leave their homes as you have called them too. We know, Lord, that some of our moms are single moms, and spiritually single, without a saved husband by their side, and they must labor alone in many capacities as they seek to bring up their children and the nurture and discipline of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for all the moms, and I include in this, Lord, the women in our church that, that invest themselves in a motherlike way in the lives of, of those significantly younger than them in classroom settings and in other venues.

For all of our women, Lord, who in the home and out of the home and in classrooms who who play a life giving, tender, nourishing role in the lives of those that are younger than they are, we give thanks to you for them. We ask Lord that you would bless all of these women in a very special way and that you would help them to understand how important their ministry is in your economy, how fraught with eternal significance their labor is day in and day out. I pray, Lord, that You would give them the grace to be exactly the woman.

That their children need for them to be at whatever stage of their life they are at at this point.

Lord, help these mothers to mirror your image to others. Especially to their children, help them by the lives they lead, the example they set, the words they speak, the countenance that they display, the way that they go about relating to their children, help them through all of these means, Lord, to show their children, and all who watch them what you are like. Use these moms, use everyone in this church, use the men in this room, and, and the women in this room, Lord, use all of us to invest ourselves wisely in bringing up a godly generation.

of men and women who in the days to come, will be champions of the faith, who will know their God, who will know Jesus and do great exploits in his name.

And we ask all of these things, Lord, In the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen. Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to First Samuel chapter one. First Samuel chapter One for our time of study in the word this morning, we're gonna be focusing our attention primarily on chapter one, but we'll get a little bit into chapter two this morning. We'll be looking at a story from the life of Hannah.

I think we counted this week, we have 7 Hannah's here at Cornerstone. And the Hebrew word Hannah or Hanna technically, It means grace. So if your name is Grace or Hannah, and there's, I think, one or two in our church whose name is Hannah Grace, so Grace, Grace, they have a lot to live up to. Then basically, your namesake is in this passage, this morning in 1 Samuel chapter 1 and 2.

And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be Grace in the midst of mess. Grace in the midst of mess. I really, my, my passion in this message, ladies, is to, to leave you encouraged as we look at something from the life of Hannah. most women coming into marriage and motherhood, no woman I've ever met comes into marriage and motherhood saying, what, I'm gonna mess things up.

That's, that's my goal. No, no one has that goal. I think every woman coming into marriage and motherhood has the highest of expectations of her marriage and of the institution of motherhood and the high, highest expectations of herself. most women coming into marriage and motherhood dream of having a model marriage.

Of having a model home. And of themselves being a model wife and a model parent. However, it is not long into marriage that most women realize that they cannot have a model marriage because they are not married to a model husband. Right?

And even more painful to themselves is the realization that they themselves have fallen woefully short of what they thought that they would be as a wife. It's not very long into mothering that a mother looks at her children and realizes that she doesn't have model children. And even more painful to her is the awareness that she herself has fallen woefully short of what she thought she would be. As a mother to her children.

And so every woman, I think at some point into her marriage and into home life and into motherhood, experiences profound disappointment in herself and even in her circumstances as the reality falls far short of the dream. And that can create a discouragement in the hearts of many women, leaving them at a point where in the midst of that disappointment, they don't know what to do with that. And their thought is that, I guess, I guess with my dreams are not going to be fulfilled of being a model of all of these things, then God can't really do much with me.

In fact, such moms often look at their marriage and their home life and their kids, and they're like, what a mess.

Here's what my dream was and what I did instead is a mess. To discourage moms like this, Brenda Payne in the book that we just gave you a few moments ago, says a mother is one who gives life, but these days, far from feeling like a life giver, you feel drained of life. Perhaps you are looking around at all the other good Christian mothers with their good Christian children, and wondering what's wrong with me? And my kids, how could I be failing at one of the most important things in all of life, parenthood?

How could I mess up something I was so looking forward to doing? How many of you ladies can identify with that? OK, a few of you. I really want you to be encouraged by Hannah, and how she, what her circumstances were.

And what she does in the midst of her circumstances, and what God does through her in the midst of her circumstances, there's really no other way to describe Hannah's family situation and the opening chapter for Samuel as anything other than a mess. It's an absolute mess. And it's not the family situation that we would look at and go, Oh, that's exactly the situation that God would choose to work in and do something world altering. And yet that's exactly what God does.

God delights in doing a work not only in spite of the messes that we live in, but even using the mess to further his kingdom purposes. So if you look around and you see a whole lot of mess as you look in your marriage and your children, just realize God can use that and intends to use that. But what God wants from you is to do certain things to, to enable him. To accomplish what he wants to do, do not underestimate how important you are inside of the mess that you might find yourself in terms of allowing God to really begin to do a wonderful miracle, and it may just begin with you.

So let's take a few minutes here, beginning in verse one, and try to wrap our minds around the mess that Hannah found herself in. And as we look at this, ladies, I want you to imagine this being your circumstances and what you would be feeling. Let's begin in verse one. Now, there was a certain man from Ramathaim Zoim from the hill country of Ephraim.

And his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zeph, an Ephraimite. I know you wanted to know all of that. Verse 2, and he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah and the name of the other was Penninah.

And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Now from what follows in the narrative and also from the order in which the names of the wives appear, there's every indication that, Hannah was Elkanah's first wife, and so she gets this dream fulfilled. She grows up as a Jewish girl and preparing herself for marriage, and the day comes, the wedding day comes, and she is able to give herself to Elkanah. They have this marriage, and every A girl at this stage of life in Jewish culture dreamed of being able to give to her husband many children.

However, what evidently happened is a few years go by and it becomes evident to Elkanah that Hannah is not going to be able to give me children. So imagine Hannah's disappointment in that already her family situation is falling short of what she would have dreamed as she realizes that she is not able to give to her husband what she longed to be able to give to him so that the family name could continue. Well then, to add insult to injury, Elkenna. Decides, what, I'll stay married to Hannah, but I will become married to a second woman named Penninah.

So that through her, I can get what Hannah is not able to give to me. OK, imagine that. And so then in the coming years, after marrying Penninah, imagine being Hannah and observing year after year after year, it seems like every year Penninah is producing children. For your husband.

From the text, the sense we get is there were at least 5 children that Penninah was able to give to Elkanah. So look at what happens. It seems like Hannah was able to figure out a way to not be too bothered by that and to keep herself separate from Penninah and her children. but when all of the family would get together once a year and travel to Shiloh, basically they they all climb in the family van and drive to church at Shiloh.

And there's no way of getting around the situation. It would always get ugly on their way. And then while they're at church, look at what happens, verse 3. Now this man Elkanah would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts and Shiloh.

And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there. And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penninah, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb. So he would offer sacrifice.

They would slay an animal, and then the meat of that animal, the priest would give a portion. of that animal back to Elkanah so that they could have a worship meal in the presence of the Lord. And then Elkanah would take that that was given to him from the priest, and he would give a portion to Penninah and give portions to her sons and daughters. And then he would give to Hannah, it says, a double portion.

And not because she loved to eat. But he gave her a double portion as a way of expressing to her his love for her. He loved her, he cherished her, and he's seeking to honor her. But even though he gave her a double portion, and although he loved Hannah, the text says, the Lord had closed her womb.

It almost seems like that statement, the Lord had closed her womb is the punctuation unlike any statement that Hannah would ever make about herself. This and this and this, but the Lord has closed my womb. Verse 6, here they are now, they're at church, they're at the church potluck, as it were, and they're eating and Elkanah gives to Penninah and her children portions of food, and then he gives to Hannah a double portion. How does that go over?

Verse 6, her arrival, Hannah's. rival, her adversary, her competitor. That's the relationship that she had with Pennina. Her rival, however, would provoke Hannah bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.

So Pennina is not content. She's obviously an unworthy woman. She's not content to have been blessed with 5 children, but she sees that Hannah has none. And that's obviously a soft spot, a tender spot for Hannah.

And so Penninah, I don't know what she's saying here, but she's figuring out a way to be catty with Hannah and to say things and do things, to crawl under the skin of Hannah, and to provoke her bitterly and to irritate her. All of this happened. on their way to Shiloh. And now that they're at Shiloh, they're supposed to be eating this meal in worship to God.

And there's this rivalry that is going on, this conflict that is going on, where Penninah is provoking Hannah to bitterness and the irritation. Verse 7, and it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, that she, Penninah would provoke her. Provoking Hannah. This was, man, whenever we all get together and to go worship the Lord at Shiloh, this turns into such an ugly thing.

Does it sound like your Sunday mornings? I'm not gonna ask. But isn't that something? they're just, they're gathering together to worship the Lord.

And it's, it's something that no doubt Hannah began to dread. Penninah would provoke her so that Hannah wept and would not eat. At this worship meal, Elkanah would honor her with a double portion. Everyone else is eating, but Hannah sits there, she's crying, she's sad, she's downcast, she's hurting, and she refuses to eat.

She refuses to even accept this honor that her husband has given to her. Verse 8, Elkana makes a very fumbling attempt to address the problem. And he asked Hannah 4 questions. The 1st 3 are brilliant.

The 4th is probably the dumbest thing, the dumbest question any man has ever asked his wife, and I am sure that when Elknah found out that what he said to Hannah made it into the pages of inspired scripture for billions of people to read. That he probably was not happy about that. Imagine the dumbest thing you've ever said in your life being publicized for everyone to read. So look what he does.

Verse 8. Men do not follow this example. Verse 8. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, question number 1, why do you weep?

That's a good question, right? Why do you weep? It sounds like On the surface, he's trying to draw out of her what she's feeling and why she's weeping. Second question, why do you not eat?

Why are you not eating? So far, so good. Third question, why is your heart sad? That's actually real good for a guy, for a guy to notice you're not eating, and you're weeping.

And that tells me something about your heart, inside you, in your heart, your heart's sad. And that's why you're weeping and not eating. That's, this is good up to this point. and it seems like when you look at these three questions that he's wanting her to open up and begin to share with him, right?

But when he gets to the 4th question, you realize he's really not asking for that. Because he then says, am I not better to you than 10 sons? And when you realize what he's saying in that fourth question, you go back and basically here's the gist of it. He's saying, Hannah, why are you weeping?

Why are you not eating? Why is your heart sad when you got me? That's literally what he's saying. He's like, I don't get it.

You have me. And you're sad and you won't eat, and you're crying. What is there to be so sad about when you've got me? In our own family situation, when we go back to Indiana to visit family or they come out here, the goodbyes are always painful, and And Donna will typically start to choke up, and there are times we're driving away from her parents' house in Indianapolis and And she starts choking up and, and most of the time, I will turn to her, and I will just say, honey, You still have me.

And And my intention is to minister comfort to her, but it always fails to minister the comfort to her that I'm hoping that it would. In fact, she'll often begin to weep louder. Anyway, that's, that's what Elkana is doing. Why be sad?

You've got me. So he's reflecting now she realizes to add insult to injury. My husband doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what I'm feeling, and why.

And how can he say you've got me when I could easily say, by the way, she doesn't reply to this question. maybe she did and it's not fit for print. So it's not in the scripture. Or maybe she did hold her tongue and not reply, but she could have said, I've got you.

I've got you, you married another woman. Who now requires much of your time, and the children of her require much of your time. What do you mean you're better to me than 10 sons? But she, from all indication, may not have said anything.

But then she begins to respond, and this is what I want us to look at this morning. This is a mess of a situation. It's ugly. There's irritation.

There's bitterness. There's hurt feelings. There's on top of that, a husband who does not understand her. This is not the situation that we would look at and say wow, this is like this is exactly what God's going to use to do something very significant in Messianic history.

But he does use this situation. And weaves it all together to do something very profound and significant. And what he begins to use is a woman named Hannah in this situation. She does certain things to position herself in such a way to where God could use her inside of this mess to do something that to this day impacts our lives.

We are saved today in part because of what Hannah did inside of the family mess that she found herself in. 6 actions that we'll try to look at as the narrative unfolds. Of Hannah that enabled God to do something world altering through her in the midst of the family mess she found herself in. Number 1, she went to God and poured out her soul in prayer.

She went to God and poured out her soul in prayer. Hannah realizes no one understands what I'm feeling and my husband obviously doesn't understand either. I know who I'll go to, I will go to God. So look at what it says in verse 9.

Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking at Shiloh. That doesn't mean she ate and drank, but after the eating and drinking was done, she got up. And she would have run to the tabernacle, the place where the people of Israel would gather for worship. Now Eli, the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.

And she, look at this, literally in the Hebrew texts, bitter of soul, prayed to the Lord and wept greatly. Her soul is embittered at this point, which means literally that if you could take a bite out of her heart at this point, it would have tasted foul. OK, there's a lot of bitterness, a lot of emotion, and it ain't a pretty sight. Bitter of soul.

She prayed to the Lord, and she wept. She didn't just weep, she bawled in the presence of the Lord. Which I think is just wonderful, ladies. And men, you might go bitter of soul, and she prayed, Oh, we're not supposed to pray if we're bitter of soul.

And the tendency is if you're feeling all that like God, somehow I got to get that taken care of, and then I'll be fit to come before God in prayer. No, God says, I'm a big God. If you're bitter a soul, and you can't make sense of it all, and you're feeling all these feelings of bitterness and frustration and anger, and you don't even know how to make sense of it, bring it to me. Bring it to me.

Bring your bitter self to me. Bring that bitterness of soul, bring your pain and your confusion, your bewilderment, your agony, your anger, your frustration, just bring it to me, and pour it out on me. In fact, look how she describes her prayer to Eli in verse 15. She says, I've poured out my soul before the Lord.

I have spoken out of my great concern and provocation. The way she characterized her prayer is, I poured out my soul before the Lord. This is not just praying, guys. This is soul emptying praying.

The praying where a woman whose heart is so full comes into the presence of God and just unloads all of it and lets it all pour out to where when she's done, she's empty. There's nothing left inside of her that she has not poured out before the Lord. This is very different than Lord, thank you for this day. I've got some requests.

This is a heart wrenching, soul emptying praying. God knows that there are frustrations in our lives and in our ministries, whatever they may be, God knows, moms, that, that often you reach a point of extreme frustration, agony. and bewilderment, confusion, God would say, listen, just come to me with that, bring that mess to me. Bring it to me.

That's the praying that God delights in. Somehow, in the context of this weeping, and this pouring out of her soul, she did make a request to God. She made one request. First Samuel 1:11, she says, give your maidservant a son.

And we'll look at that in just a minute. But she She did ask God for a son. When he did give her the sons, the boy Samuel, she said, for this boy, I prayed. So in the context of her praying, she's pouring out her soul to God.

And she's also asking God to give her a son. So she went to God, she poured out her soul in prayer. when Hannah here is on her knees praying, I'm sure she's on her knees here praying for a miracle. She probably doesn't realize that the fact that she's even on her knees praying in such desperation is already a miracle.

Often when God wants to do a great work, the first thing he does in accomplishing that great work as he performs the miracle of reducing someone to desperate prayer. And God's like looking at Hannah saying, there you go. That's my first miracle in this situation. Someone in desperate, soul emptying prayer.

God wants to do a lot in your families. He wants to do a lot. And whatever the mess is that you find yourself in, let that first miracle of God be bowing your head and bending your knee in prayer. It's one of God's mightiest signs and wonders.

Pray and while you're praying, enjoy being God's miracle. There's a second thing that Hannah does, and that is that she surrendered to God the thing that she most wanted for herself. She surrendered to God the thing that she most wanted for herself. It becomes evident that That something's happening inside of Hannah while she prays.

Her heart is being readjusted while she prays. See, here's the deal God makes with us. Whatever the mess is in your heart, bring it to me. I can take it, pour it all out.

Say whatever you want to say to me. But here's the deal when you're done speaking, stick around and listen. Because I'll have something I want to say. I have something I want to do in your heart, and she did that.

This is not just her speaking, but there's obviously listening that's going on, a dialogue between her and God, and she's examining motives and, and she reaches a point of surrender. Look what she says in verse 11. It says, and she made a vow and said, Oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come to his head.

My son will be under a Nazarite vow.

All I want to pull from this, is this that in her time of prayer, Hannah began to realize, like a moment of clarity came, where she realized this, that my desire for a child, my desire for a son, has taken on a level of importance that is idolatrous. And it's wrong. I should not let myself be this affected. By this, my desire to have a son, and to be able to give a son to my husband has become an idol.

And so in this moment of surrender, she stabs a knife right into the heart of that idolatry, by saying to God, give me a son. And if you give to me a son, I will give that son back to you, all the days of his life. Indicating she's not just wanting the son for her anymore, and even more interestingly, a woman wanted a son for her husband. To carry on the family name.

She's not even, and that was probably an idol. I want to be able to give a son to my husband, and that became her obsession. But she's now like, what, Lord, give me a son, and if you do, I'll give him to you. The son won't be mine.

The son won't be my husband's. The son will belong to you all the days. of his life. One of the things we observe here and elsewhere and even from experience is that sometimes God withholds from us.

What we most want Until we've surrendered that thing up to him. Has that not happened in your life? There have been times in my life where I've been wanting something to the point of obsession, and then a lot of times unwillingly, God orchestrated events in such a way that he reduced me to a point where it's like I didn't care anymore. And then on the other side of that, he then gave me the very thing I used to be obsessed over.

Cynthia Heimel in her book, The Village Voice, talks about Hollywood stars, actors and actresses that she knew before they became famous. And she said, in virtually every case, the people that I knew before they became famous, were a certain way after they got the thing they wanted most. After they got that thing that they wanted most, which was fame, success, whatever, they all became angrier and more intolerable and insufferable. It didn't make them happier.

It whatever preexisting issues they had, it made them worse. And I don't believe she's a Christian, and this is not some theological statement to take to the bank. But she said in the book, she said, I've begun to realize that when God wants to play a practical joke on someone, he gives them what they want. He gives them the thing they most want.

And I think God is saying to Hannah, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to play that practical joke on you. If God had given her what she wanted most, who knows what she might have done with that, he would have been perhaps enabling that idolatry. And so God in His gracious providence is withholding that, but she reaches this point of surrender to where I don't want a son for me anymore. I don't want a son for my husband anymore.

I want a son that I can give to you. God, this is, this is yours. She surrenders. There's a 3rd thing that she does, and that is that she changed her countenance even before God changed her circumstances.

Something world altering of messianic import, impacting all of human history down to today is going to happen in this situation. And it took a woman who came to God and poured out her soul in prayer, who surrendered herself and her desires to God and gave it all to Him. And it also involved a woman who changed her countenance even before God changed her circumstances. Look what happens.

So here she is praying in the presence of the Lord. It says now it came about that as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.

So Eli said to her, how long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you. And when he says, put away your wine from you, he's, he's saying, go home and sleep off your wine before you come back and try to worship God and pray. So, So imagine adding insult to injury.

She's now praying and her pastor is accusing her of being drunk as he's watching her, no doubt with all of the emotion and the agony, the heart wrenching agony that she's praying with, he concludes she's drunk and rebukes her for that and basically sends her home saying go sleep off your wine and then you can come back. It's interesting, Eli was willing to rebuke her, but not his own sons, right? Read through the rest of Samuel, you see that in the coming chapters. Hannah doesn't get upset with Eli, verse 15, says, but Hannah replied, No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit.

You're not seeing drunkenness, you're seeing brokenness here. I am a woman and oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. I've not been pouring wine in.

I've been pouring the contents of my soul out before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant as a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now, out of my great concern and provocation. Then Eli answered and said, somewhat chastened, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him. And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.

Now Eli doesn't know what she's asked. But he, as the priest says, may God grant your petition. And it says, so the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Which is a great translation of the Hebrew here, but literally in the Hebrew, it's, and her face was no more.

Her face was gone. Now what does that mean that she had no face anymore? No, the face that she had, the face she had been wearing, the downcast, despondent, frustrated, bitter, tearful, sad face. That was gone.

That's the idea here. Her face, as everyone had seen it in recent hours and days, was no more. And so, imagine she, keep in mind, guys, her circumstances have not changed at all, right? She has not conceived a child in her womb yet.

She's not given birth to a, a son yet. And yet her countenance, though her circumstances have not changed one whit, her face, her countenance has changed. And I'm sure she came home from this time of prayer and Elkanah looked at her and it's like, what happened? What happened?

Why is her face different? I'm sure Penina noticed that. And noticed, man, Hannah looks very different. Others perhaps would have noticed it.

But I'm sure people would have looked at Hannah, and concluded there's something she's in on that we're not in on. She knows something that we don't know. Let me take a stab at offering this lesson, ladies, this applies to men, but it applies to ladies. When God wants to do great miracles in your circumstances, ladies, sometimes he wants to begin with your face.

Your face, your countenance, sometimes is where God wants to begin a miracle. And Hannah was able to leave with a different countenance, no doubt. I don't think it was because, oh, I know I'm going to get an answer to my prayer. No, I think she had, she had spent herself, spilled herself out.

She had reached a place of surrender. So whatever God wants to do, that's OK. And the knowledge that she was heard by God was in and of itself enough to change her countenance. And then there was an element where I think, given what Eli said, that she felt that God was going to answer her prayer.

But though her circumstances have not changed at all, anyone looking at her, not realizing it would realize or would be seeing the beginnings of a wonderful miracle that would impact world history. And it started on her countenance. It started on her face. Ladies, I want to encourage you to wear the countenance.

That reveals the fact to all around you, your husband and your children, that something. that you're in on something, that there's something between you and God, something you're privy to, some secret between you and God, that you're in on, and it's evident by your countenance. And what you're in on is the knowledge that what, things are going to work out, and God will glorify his name. God will glorify Himself.

Let your face be the morning star. Let your face be the harbinger of great miracles to come and, and people will look back and see that it, it started here on the countenance, even before the miracles to come became evident. I know for me when I'm flying on an airplane and we hit turbulence. I, especially when I hadn't flown a lot and we would hit turbulence, I would know, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Is this something to worry about or not? And where would I look? You guys know because you do the same thing. I would find a steward or stewardess, and I would look at their countenance, right?

And if their countenance is OK, then I'm OK. That tells me how to view what's going on around me with the turbulence. If they're freaking out, which has never happened, but if they were freaking out, that would tell me something about how to view my circumstances and the turbulence. And moms wear the countenance that lets people know that you're in on something that God's going to glorify Himself and things are going to work out.

As you're dealing with your child, your child may see grief on your face as you're rebuking them or disciplining them because of some issues, some character flaw in their life, but may they also see, may they be able, trust me, ladies, your children are looking into your countenance for hope for themselves more than you realize. And may they see in your countenance that Mom thinks I'm going to turn out OK. This is going to work out. God's going to be glorified.

Let the miracle of God in doing something world altering in your family situation, let it begin with your countenance. And God's going to do great things in and through Hannah, and the passage to come, but it started here on her face. There's a 4th thing that she did. And that is she shared what she had done with her husband who joined her in her surrender.

All right. Think about it. It's a risky thing as a wife to just before the Lord say, OK, Lord, give me a son. If you give me a son, I will give that son to you.

And what you mean by that is I'll, I'll send them, I'll send my son to the church campus on Lynden. And when my child is 3 years old, and they'll spend the rest of their life on the campus of Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church just doing church stuff. All right, as a wife to like make a vow like that is a pretty risky thing, because what's your husband going to think of that? And so she's making this vow, Lord, if you give me a son, I will give my son to you all the days of his, his life, this son will not be mine, and this son will not be my husband's.

And she's voicing that vow to the Lord. And so it's obvious that she would have had to have talked to Elkanah, and the passage that follows indicates that she must have. Look at verse 19. Then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord and returned again to their home in Ramah, and Elkanah had relations with Hannah, his wife, and the Lord.

The Lord remembered her, and it came about in due time after Hannah had conceived that she gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the Lord. Quite literally, she gives birth to a boy and she says, I'm going to name him prayer request. That's, that's like literally the idea prayed for of God, answered prayer. That's the name of my son, because I have asked him of the Lord, then the man Elkanah, this is now 12 years later, so she would have conceived and given birth around 9 months later.

And, and then, 3 months would go by and it was time now to go back to Shiloh to worship the Lord and to offer sacrifices. So verse 21, then the man Elkanah went up with all his household to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow, pay his vow. What vow is that talking about? Most commentators would suggest that given the context, Hannah would have communicated to Elkanah what her vow was, Elkanah would have bound himself together with that and also added to that saying, Lord, if you do give us a son, we will not only give him to you after he is weaned, but I will give such and such to you.

And so he made a vow tied with that. quest, and he's ready to go to the Lord to worship him and to pay on his vow. And you see his passion for her to carry out her vow in verses 21 and following. It says, but Hannah did not go up.

Little Samuel's 3 months old. It's a little too early to drop him off on Eli's doorstep, saying, Here, he'll, he'll help you with all the tabernacle stuff that you have to deal with. Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned and a Jewish culture that was somewhere between 2 and 3 years of age, then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever. Elkanah, her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you.

Remain until you've weaned him. Only may the Lord confirm his word. Like you better pay on your vow. The word you spoke, a vow to him, that was your word when it came out of your mouth.

But you gave that word to him. And now it's his word, and may God see to it that your vow that you made to him come to pass. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. By the way, in Numbers 30, there's a provision in the law that if a wife makes a vow and the husband hears of it and he doesn't like it, he can nullify it.

So Elkanah could have, upon hearing of it for the first time, he could have nixed the whole thing, but he evidently did not. He affirmed it and participated in the vow. And so she shared what she had done with her husband. And he was like, this is, this is of God, this is, this is the right thing to do.

And I want to join you in this. And so he participates in this. The 5th thing that Hannah does to enable God to really do something world altering. in her family situation is that she followed through and behaved according to her surrender.

a lesser woman would have said, God, please give me a son. And if you do, I promise I'll give them to you. And then God gives the woman the son and then a lesser woman would say, Oh, good, I got my son. It worked.

I got a son out of this. And then totally not carried through on her vow. But not Hannah. This idolatry had been dealt a death blow.

It says now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with a 3 year old bull, and one Ife a flower and a jug of wine. I think that's for Eli. Because Eli said, put your wine from you. And she's like, what, I'm gonna bring some wine with me this time.

And he brought him, Samuel, or she brought him, Samuel, to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, although the child was young, very young. Samuel was probably about 3 years old, although I am sure exceptionally mature for his age. Verse 25, then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli. And she said, Oh my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord for this boy.

I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord as long as he lives. He is dedicated to the Lord. And imagine Eli's surprise here.

Here's my boy, he's yours to help you with anything you need, here at the temple. And he, Samuel, worshiped the Lord there, this young child worshiping the Lord for the first time. At the tabernacle or the temple, so she followed through and behaved according to her surrender. There's a 6th thing that Hannah does, and that is that she worshiped God, praising Him for His wise and gracious providence.

God's done a lot in Hannah, and, her mess still continues. There's still Penninah. There's Penninah with her 5+ children, and they're still Penninah trying to get under her skin. It's still a messy family situation.

But God's done a wonderful work in Hannah in the midst of that mess. And even in giving to Hannah Samuel, and God has grown her in her understanding and, and, and think about it, she comes to the, to Eli, and she gives her son away. we might think, well, that would be a sad day and her heart's being torn, but no, she explodes in song. She gives her son away, and she's praising God.

And you can read of her song in chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. It says then Hannah prayed and said, My heart exults in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.

God. She's praising God and worshiping God. And we're not going to look at the full contents of the song. Let me just take you to the last verse because this is where we begin to see how significant what God has done really is.

Hannah says this at the end of this song, she says, those who contend with the Lord will be shattered. Against them, he will thunder in the heavens. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. Hannah is saying, I don't know how, but God is doing something through all of this that will end up affecting the ends of the earth.

And then look at this, and he will give strength to his King. Wow. And there's no king in Israel yet. This is the end of the period of the judges.

Liberal commentators read this and say, oh, there's no way Hannah could have written this. This was, this was put in her mouth by whoever wrote this because there weren't kings and there's no way she could have known that. Well, we know better, right? The Lord will give strength to his king, and then look at this, and we'll exalt the horn of his meshiach.

His Mashiach, his Messiah. This is the first time in Scripture that the Messiah, that the Christ is referred to as the Messiah. OK. and so we're not surprised, by the way, hundreds of years later, when Mary, conceives the Messiah in her womb.

Mary sings a song, and Mary lifts some of the lyrics from Hannah's song and puts them in her song, and very appropriately so. Hannah is realizing, I don't know how this all fits in, but I'm realizing something way bigger than me, and way bigger than my family's going on and me dedicating this boy to the Lord. Somehow, some way, this is going to set in motion a chain of events that will reach the ends of the earth. It will have something to do with some coming King, who will be the Messiah, the Mashiach.

And, and doing this, giving my son to the Lord has something to do with all of that. Little could Hannah have realized what God was really doing. Because Samuel would be given to the Lord. And in that position, he would end up being the last judge essentially in, in Israel's history that would help lead Israel into the time of the kings.

It would be Samuel that would anoint King Saul. And it would be Samuel, about 40 years later, who would go to the house of Jesse, and in defiance of everyone's expectation would look at all the sons of Jesse and say, no, no, no, no, through all of them, until there's no one left. And then it would be Samuel who would say, you got another son somewhere? yeah, he's out in the field.

Bring him to me. And the little freckly faced kid comes in, and Samuel points his finger to that kid and says, he's the one. I will anoint him. And that boy named David was the one from whom the Messiah would descend.

And in the chain of events in Messianic history, one of the links in that chain was Samuel, who would one day extend his arm and point to a boy named David, saying he's the one who will be the king. Hannah doesn't know all of that at this point, but she realizes something bigger than me is going on, something really wonderful. And just in closing, God, what is God's heart like? Does God want to take things from us?

Is he looking at Hannah going, Man, I got a boy from her, she gave him to me. And look, she's happy. So I guess I don't need to give her anything again. No, God, you learn later in chapter 2, verses 18 through 21, that God looks upon Hannah and remembers her and gives her 3 more sons and 2 daughters.

6 children in total, just for the fun of it. Just let me bless you, Hannah. Let me give you more than what you asked. That is the heart of our God.

Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, God says, and let me have the fun of just adding the things to you that are beyond what you would have ever thought to even ask. Ladies, you might look at your situation right now and say, what a mess. And I just want you to know that God is a God who delights to take our messes and weave them all together and do something world altering. And significant, And you are not beyond the reach of God doing something amazing.

The story is not over. God is the one who writes last chapters, and your last chapter has not been written. The last chapter of your family has not been written. God is on the throne, and he's working, and he's powerful, and he loves you, and he loves your children more than you do, and you can take that to the bank.

Let's bow our heads this morning. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. If you're here as a mother or even a dad and you just feel like you've blown it in so many ways, and you might say, Pastor Milton, I do look around and there's a big mess, and I, I made the mess.

Just know Jesus died. He went to the cross exactly for those sins that mothers commit. That cause messes and that dads commit. Mother sins.

Father sins. Jesus died for those. And I believe that the day will come when we stand before God at the judgment and God says, hey, let me show you what I did with the good things you did, and we're going to go, Whoa, Lord, you're amazing. And then he's going to say, hey, let me show you what I did with the mistakes you made.

Let me show you what I did with your failures. And we will fall on our faces. In worship of this God. Who is so amazing.

Lord, thank you for this consolation from the text of the Bible, for this woman named Hannah. Who teaches us all something of the way that we should comport ourselves in the midst of The messes that we find ourselves in. We're all inside of a reality that is below what we dreamed, and yet we find you in our reality, and you can make much. of where we find ourselves, Lord, if we're willing to step out and cast ourselves upon you in full surrender, and say, God, use me somehow, some way, I don't even know how, just use me, use me.

And may you begin your miracle. On my face. May my countenance be the harbinger of the great things to come, as all see that my confidence is in you. Thank you for this opportunity also, Lord, to give our, of our offerings to you, receive these funds and do much with them in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said,