One Child Matters

Let's pray again. Father, help us to look into the story of Hannah

and learn kindness, grace, prayer, persistence, and the gospel in Jesus'

name. Amen. Mother Teresa once said this, There is a terrible hunger

for love. We all experience that in our lives, the pain, the

loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may

have right in your own family. Find them, love them, put your

love for them in living action, for in loving them, you are loving

God himself. That's a profound statement. You may have no children in life,

you may have never married. It doesn't matter to God. There are

plenty of children in the world to love in the name of Jesus Christ.

Some of them come to church and some can't. But never forget that one

child matters to God. That child should matter to you and me and all

of us as well. I think it's true that many of us in life

can say that we're either broken or mended by what happens to us in childhood.

And so if you're the child that never had a childhood, now you're

an adult and you're acting out in ways you shouldn't do, you realize God

is in the healing business. He wants to go back and by your relationships

in the church, your interaction with others, to learn the love, the

kindness, the respect that will allow you to live forever in the family of

God. God's not done with his children now. Our study this morning is

taken from the life of Hannah, whose story begins in First Samuel one,

verse one. The Bible reads another there was a certain man from Ramathaim ZOPHIELM

I think has said it right, from the whole country of Ephrium. And

his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Eli who

the son of Tohu, the son of Zouf and Ephriamine. He had two

wives. The name of one was Hannah. The name of the other was

Panina. And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children. That's how

the story is introduced. One's a winner, the other's a loser. The

other has relationships, the other is defined by her lack of them. Paniana's

name refers to a prize possession that one would naturally want to keep because of

its obvious value. The name Pania literally means red jewel or pearl. The

name can also mean profitable. She was the jewel of her family, a

profitable wife who bore children for her husband. Tragically, though she's not the

loved wife in the relationship. She's like Leah in relationship to Jacob. Because

she bore children, she was worth something in her culture and society, so

she had a commodity to offer. Self worth in her day was based on

how many children you can have or not have. In contrast to Baniana,

Hannah's name is a plea for mercy based on her obvious poverty and need for

help. You know, it's amazing in the Bible how God focuses on those

who have nothing and those who have plenty in are arrogant, and he reverses

it so that the humble are exalted and proud or brought low. The name

Hannah literally means grace. She was the wife who was unproductive. She was

the wife in need of children. She was the woman who would not produce

on her own. She was the woman who had no children to sway her

husband's heart. She was the woman who had no children to show her God's

regard for her life. Maybe God doesn't care for me because of this.

Her only tide of life was her family's was her rival's family. That was

the family she was stuck in. Paniana's group that mocked her all the time

because she had no children. Her only tide to her husband's heart was the

name Hannah, which means a plea for grace, something in that good Man

loved this woman, irregardless of the culture that he was in. The Bible

says Panana had children and Hannah had no children. Dramatic statement. Panana is

the fruitful woman who has children all on her own. It appears she just

can't help it, but she has children. Hannah is the barren woman who

cannot have children except by God's grace. Paniga is the arrogant wife. Hannah

is the gracious wife. For Hannah to have children, God will have to

work a miracle that breaks the laws of nature. Apparently, but God is

the law, isn't He can't the lawgiver call the shots in our life when

the law says you can't have a life. God has our right to define

what grace means, irregardless of our notions of law. Many a person who

stood up to oppose someone come to the King of God as if it's a

scandal, because they come to church it's a scandal, because there they are.

But I tell you right now, Jesus died on the cross, and

his arms stretched from east to west and circled the planet. And with his

own blood, he signed the emancipation papers of the human race, so that

the knowledge of God, the goodness of God, the grace of God,

would go to the ends of the earth, and any person, no matter

where they came from, who would call on the name of the Lord,

would align with the everlasting covenant of God's grace. Hannah's name means grace.

So what do you do when you're a loser but you're appealing for grace.

She's the barren woman. He can't I have children except by God's grace.

For Hannah to have children, God has to intervene. Hannah represents everyone who

trusts in God to work a miracle to bring life to a helpless and hopeless

situation. The seed in the Children's story needs to be in our life,

God's miracle. Panigna represents the beautiful and the strong who don't need God to

work miracles in their lives. They're self sufficient, they're satisfied, they're complete

without God actually, and they're very often the one who's who persecutes the like

of Hannah. They aren't broken people, these Panigna folks. They are in

the business of breaking people. In First Chronicles six thirty three to thirty eight,

the Bible tells us that ol Kana was a descendant of Chord. Does

anybody here know who Kora was? Okay? And the story of the Exodus

and the word Korra is famous for two things in the Bible. Number one,

he rebelled against Moses in the desert. Number two, the earth opened

its mouth swallowed him and his whole house alive, and they went down to

shield alive. The Bible says, look at number sixteen, thirty two and

thirty three. The earth opened its mouth, swallowed them up, their households,

and all the men who belonged to Kora with their possessions. So they

all they and all that belonged to them went down alive to shield. The

earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

Now that's a family system you want to stay away from in the Bible.

But evidently now hear this, al Cannah was a descendant from a fortunate child

of Klora that didn't align with his dad that stood back, probably hugging Moses

as the earth opened up and took his family away. And you know the

sons of Klora who wrote the Psalm in the Bible. It's from those kids

that didn't participate. They separated and they became special people in the nation of

Israel, not defined by their father It's rebellion, but defined by their faith

in God. It's children, it's the ground swelled up everyone else. One

child that would eventually give us al Kana was spared, and we know that

others were the sons of Kor who separated from his father's house to create a

legacy of faith. I left my home at the age of fifteen to separate

from fifteen years that I don't even like talking about. And I am grateful

for Jesus Christ who honored that decision did aromy twenty four to sixteen. Fathers

shall not be put to death for their sons. North shall sons be put

to death for their fathers. Everyone should be put to death for his own

sin. In the Old Testament, every man dies for his own sin.

Is that good? Well, it's not good enough. In the Book of

Hebrew, one man dies for every man. So the New Covenant grace is

deeper still. But God was fair. But in the New Covenant we all

deserve to die, and Jesus died for me. The line of el Cannah

represented a break from the past. El Cannah was proof that god good children

can come from bad homes, and that they can surmount and start all over

again with God's help. First Samuel one to three. Let's notice the text

together. Now, this man would go up from his city yearly to worship

and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons

of Eli, Hoffnai and Phineas were priests of the Lord there. And when

the day came that el Cannah sacrificed, he would give portions to Panana,

his wife, 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. Who gets the credit for the problem. Here read the

verse. The Lord does, and that's inspired. Hey, Look, sometimes

bad things happen to you so God can show his grace to you. So

don't don't thank God's on trial for this. He's working a miracle in her

life. Oh, Canna didn't have to give Hannah an extra portion in his

kindness. He gave Hannah a double portion because she was twice as empty as

everyone else. He was like that noble son of Kara that separated to become

a model in Israel. Sometimes God sends people into your into our church who

need twice as much love as everyone else. Did you hear me? I

mean there are people with borderline personality disorder cluster B in the DSM manual who

struggle beyond belief to remain emotionally stable within a thirty minute time period, and

the BIE you know and researchers tell us they can be healed by love and

security consistently over a period of time. I don't know. Hannah wasn't likely

in that group. You know, it doesn't matter who God brings to our

church. If God brings someone to our church who needs God's love, that

person needs to belong here. Am I right? So sometimes we meet wounded

souls we need a double portion of grace. Sometimes we are the ones who

need the double portion of grace to be healed. She came to Shiloh,

the House of God, empty empty, and her husband gave her twice as

much grace as everyone else. Double portion for the woman who could not provide

provide a child for him Isaiah forty. Verse one describes God's attitude toward the

empty who need to be filled. Verse one, Comfort, comfort my people,

says you're God. Verse two, speak kindly to Jerusalem, call out

to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity has been removed,

that she has received to the Lord's hand. What does it say in the

Bible? Look at it double for all her sins. God will pay you

back double for your sins. Did you hear me? That's what it said.

Yes, But yet when you look in that verse, there's only one

word that's double And what is it? Go back to verse one and look

at it. Comfort, comfort my people. Look, we deserve to really

be hung out. But God will pay you back with double mercy, double

grace, double comfort. If you come to Christ. That's God's justice.

Scandal of a kind of justice. Elknna was a living model of the grace

of God. In the story of Hannah panana El Cannah had gave Hannah a

double portion of the sacrifice because she needed a double measure of God's grace to

be healed. There are people here today who need a double mayish measure of

God's grace to be healed. My Aunt mary Anne in Elk Creek, Virginia

used to cook us great food. Now, I don't want the Health Ministry's

team getting angry at me here because way back then, you know, my

aunt mary Anne grew up in the South, and she had a recipe of

fried chicken, and that came up went all the way back to the Civil

War. And I'm telling you, when my Aunt mary Anne died, this

great secret died that people would love to pay for. And the Kentucky Colonel

be out of business. And I came in my situation where I was at.

I'm the son of her sister who struggled just to put food on the

table, and we went to Aunt mary Anne's house. It was a royal

feast. I never will forget. What Mary Anne would say is we would

come to eat her out of house and home every Sunday we could, and

a few others from the community. Aunt mary Ann would say, oh,

dear heart, you just look like you're hungry. Let me give you more,

a double portion, and she would just load our plates down. We'd

say thank you, and we would go for a third fourth. She never

refused us. It took a big whack out of her grocery bill. And

one day as we were doing a presentation on through ABN television, saw that

presentation and heard me use the word dear heart, and now you know where

it came from. It came from her. Paniga represents the self righteous church

in contrast, the self righteous church member who persecutes the woman who needs a

double measure of God's grace. Look at for Samuel one six. Her rival,

that's how she's defined. However, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her

because the Lord had closed her womb. It happened year after year. Imagine

taking this stuff year after year, as often as she went up to the

house of the Lord, she would provoke her. So she wept and would

not eat. What kind of person would do that to someone arrival? Year

after year, Hannah ate the lamb. Year after year she took a double

measure of the sacrifice, and year after year her rival would mock and ridicule

her for taking twice as much as everyone else. Panigna's words are the words

that every legalist levels against every sinner who comes to God for a double measure

of his mercy in the church. As a rule, the self righteous persecute

the people of God who come to feed on Jesus in their need for grace.

Pania's objection is archetypical. It is a timeless protest against grace that is

itself a scandal. It is an eloquent argument, but a wrong argument that

would scandalize the mercy and love of God is somehow immoral and wrong. Hannah,

you only come to church for what you can get out of God you

want to take. You only come to church, Hannah, to take from

him. You only come to church handa to seek mercy here. You only

come to church to hide from the kind of person you know. You really

are a worthless woman, a want to be mother, an unproductive person.

Verse seven sadly reads Baniana would provoke Hannah so she would not eat. You

realize that when people are treated that way by Christians, and we can do

it, I have done it. They come to church and they said I'm

done hearing the word of God because of how it is treated. And God

wants to realize that eternal destinies will be determined by what we do for Christ

and the person, the poor and suffering, the emotionally distraught, the one

in need. One day she set the sacrifice aside. One day she said,

I've had enough of religion, God in church and all this trouble that

dominates my life with Panigina. And one day, her personal pain, her

public persecution, became too much to ponder in private and to parade in public,

and she was on the brink of losing it all. There are people

who come to church and they hear the words of the Paninas, and they

need to hear all Kaina kind of talk, and they leave church devastate.

I can remember when I did a special music years ago at a church that

I was attending, and I had my guitar and I didn't do good at

all. I messed up. I was doing a Wedgwood trio song little Boy.

I don't even remember the title of the song is. I probably tried

to forget it. I never will forget. In the back of the church,

the head elder laughing at me. I'm not a victim though, don't

misunderstand me, but I never forgot it. You know, we are all

tender folk. We need to fill the church with people who need Jesus,

and we got to be right so it can happen. There has to be

the right attitudes in all of us. And verse eight Alcanah represents the attitude

of Jesus Christ, the true husband of the church. Verse eight. Look

at verse eight, then ol Cannah. Her husband said to her, Hannah,

why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why

is your heart sad? Now if he couldn't figure that after year after year,

but you know he's working with her. He's trying to bring it out.

And am I not better to you than ten sons? Now he had

a high view of himself as a husband, didn't he. Now Canon sounds

a lot like Jesus Christ when he comforted Mary at the tomb in Resurrection More

John twenty fifteen, Jesus said to marry woman, why are you weeping?

The turning point Hannah's sorrows comes in verse nine when she takes the sacrifice and

she eats it anyway. You see, if you've been wound in your life

by believers or others, but you say it doesn't matter, I need Jesus

anyway, something happens in your life, a miracle is unleashed in your life.

The turning point comes when she does that. She stops listening to Pania

and starts listening to God. She quits focusing on the objections of her critics

and starts focusing on the cure for her sickness. In the sacrifice, she

takes the double portion of grace because she really needs the double portion of grace

to dig out of trouble in her life. Verse nine, Then Hannah rose

verse Semu one nine Hannah rose after eating and drinking shiloh now Eli. The

priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the Temple of the Lord.

She greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. Can people

do that in church? Let them come if they're in that state, and

pray to the Lord and weep bitterly. And you know, the last thing

they need when they do that is a critic. They need a loving hug.

They need Jesus in you. Now, up to this point, Hannah

had kept her prayers to herself. She had silently suffered in her sorrow with

a stolid stance of the secret sufferer. She had quietly carried her rival's calumy.

She had painfully pondered her personal perplexity. Her pain was poetry. Suddenly

she now falls on her knees and loses it like a broken girl before the

loving God who knows it all. You know and mom or Dad don't affirm

you little girls. They don't tell you you're pretty. God will. Every

little girl needs to know from a father that they're pretty, so they don't

marry a toad. That's how it works, the physics of this thing.

Okay, boy, you're looking at me funny. I'm serious. You know

fathers, you don't. You don't hug your little girls. You don't tell

them they're pretty. They'll deck themselves out, paint them up selves like warriors.

So somebody you don't appreciate will like them. The secure girls will learn

from you what it means to be loved. Now, if you come to

church and never had any of that in your life, God can give it

to you. You can feed on the word, and your heavenly Father can

firm you. Her prayers recorded verse eleven. She made a vow and said,

Oh, Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction

of your maid servant, remember me and not forget your maid servant, but

will give your maid servants a son. Then I will give him to the

Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on

his head. He'll be a Nazarite, he'll be uh, he'll be amazing.

He'll be like Sampson, but not mine anymore. I give him back

to you. Hannah's prayer offers three please for grace. You can write them

down. First, she calls on God to look at her. Sometimes we

think God isn't looking at me, he doesn't care about me. Look at

me, Lord. Secondly, she calls on God to remember her. We

can think that God is interested in us. And finally, she calls on

God to not forget her. We need God to remember us now, tomorrow

and for the rest of our lives, don't we. And that's what's in

play in her prayer and the first plea for grace. Hannah calls them God

to look on her, to save her from her sins, her enemies,

condemnation, and fear. And that happens because it's at the beginning of our

prayer that God's acceptance comes into our lives. It's as we begin the journey

He puts the royal robe of his righteousness around us. We are accepted in

the beloved as we begin this growth journey, not after we are successful and

become quote perfect. And on that distinction, the reformers died in the Church

of Rome taught you're accepted after it's all over, and after you've burned a

lot in purgatory. The reformers from the Bible says, you're accepted when your

heart is strangely warmed by the truth that Christ died for you, and in

raw faith you cling to him as savior from your sins. At that moment,

you are a child of God. The second plea for grace Hannah's called

for God to remember her as the call to remember the covenant he made with

Abraham long ago. So i'ms the one hundred and eleven, verse five.

He has given food to those who fear him. He will surrender his covenant.

He will remember his covenant forever Isaiah fifty nine to twenty one. And

as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.

My spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in

your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth or the mouth of your

children or your children's children, says the Lord. From this time forth and

forevermore. God is hanging in there for us if we reach out to him

in this way. In the Bible, children and the Covenant go together.

Fruitfulness is rooted in the Covenant. God promised Abraham that he would make him

the father of many nations. I got two sons, and we finally got

a granddaughter and her dedications next week. Isn't that cool? I'm finally the

father of one nation. I'm just kidding. I have two boys, but

these grandkids matter. Hannah is asking God to make her the mother of a

single son, just one who can make a difference in the world, small

piece of the blessing of Abraham for her empty life is all she wants from

God to make a difference in life. Now. I'm an Adventist Christian today

because of a woman who could never have children, could never have children,

adopted me in the church as her child. Not legally, but it was

real. I had lost my father, my mother, paranoid, schizophrenic,

lovely person, but struggling could not do me with this dear woman of God

did at the age of fifteen, and I'm telling you if you don't have

a child, because you couldn't have a child, you look around you.

God has a child for you. Pour your life into one of these children,

like Alan Halleck did for me. Small piece of Abraham's fruitfulness is all

she's asking for is a baron mother. Hannah, in faith and tears,

pleaded with the living God to make her a mother in Zion in the third

plea for grace her plea. Hannah's final call is the call for God to

not forget. Unlike the first two calls, this call represents the call for

a friendship that will never end a relationship with God. It represents the heart

that turns to God and stays with God because God will not forget you in

life. It represents the person who longs to be in God's presence forever because

God will not leave you. To never forget is to never quit, never

reject, never leave the sinner behind. Now there's something here. We leave

God when we don't realize we're sinners. You hear me. That's the problem

of the strong, the strong and the weak. It's the weak blessed are

the poor in spirit. You see. It's when we come to see that

that we latch onto the riches of God, the strength of God, and

so the strong must be humble, the weak exalted in God's plan Isaiah forty

nine to fifteen. Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should

have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget,

Yet I will not forget you. Behold, I've graven you on the palms

of my hand. What did Jesus nail marks mean in his hands? It

means He's not forgotten us. We're saved by grace for Samuel one thirteen.

The story continues as for Hannah. She was speaking in her heart, only

her lips removing, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she

was drunk. People come to church either just crazy because I got all these

problems. Maybe I smelled alcohol on them, tobacco. Well, Eli's assuming

the worst because he had sons that were drunkards and worse Verse fourteen. Than

Eli said to her, how long will you make yourself drunk? Put away

your wine from you the good corrective model. But Hannah replied, no,

my Lord, respectful, I am a woman impressed in spirit. I have

drunk neither wine nor strong drink. But I have poured out my soul before

the Lord. Do not consider your maid servant as a worthless woman. For

I have spoken into now. For for I have spoken unto now out of

my great concern and provocation. I'm praying. She says, do not consider

your maid servant a worthless woman. I've tasted the double measure of the sacrifice.

I'm not worthless. I'm praying. I have called on the living God

to save me from my sins. I am not worthy worthless. I am

saved. I have called on God to remember his covenant to Abraham, to

grant me a single son, one child that will matter, to make a

difference in the nation. I am not worthless. I've called on God to

not forget because he hears the outcast and the afflicted. I am not worthless.

Would you repeat after me in Jesus' name, I am not worthless.

Eli said, go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition.

But you have made to him. He is saying that one child matters,

and his mother matters also, Hannah, Mother Grace. They arose,

they worshiped before the Lord, and then they went home, and before long

Hannah had a son, crying in her arms, and the child meant everything

to her. She named her son Samuel, which literally means well, it

means two things. It can mean the name of God or God has heard,

and both are true. Her son is a foretaste of the promise of

Jesus, who is the ultimate son to save, who bears the covenant name

of God, whose proof that God hears. When Hannah brought her son to

the temple to give him to the Lord, she prayed this prayer to God

and the hearing of Panna, when you like to have been a fly on

the wall that day when she prayed this prayer? How many do you like

to be a fly on the wall when she prayed that prayer, Yeah,

of course you know. Shiloh and Hebrew literally means the one who is for

her. That's where she was at. It's the promise of the Messiah,

Shiloh, the one who is for her, the promise to Eve that the

seed of the woman come and crush the head of serpent. So here she

is at a place called the One that is for her. And she finally

has one a child, and verse one, my heart exalts in the Lord.

My strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies,

because I rejoice in Thy salvation. There is none holy like the Lord.

There is none besides thee. There is no rock like our God. Talk

no more so very proudly, Let not arrogance come from your mouth. For

the Lord is a God of knowledge, and buy him. Actions are wide.

The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who

were hungry have ceased to hunger. The baron has born seven, but she

who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life.

He brings down to shield, and he raises up. The Lord makes poor

and makes rich. He brings low. He also exalts. He raises up

the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash sheep,

to make them sit with princes, and inherit a seat of honor, amazing

thing. All the days of her life, Hannah never forgot that God gave

her the double portion of grace at Penina's table. She never forgot the God

who gave to her the dignity and the honor to become a mother in Zion,

actually Shiloh Zion's not online. Yet she never forgot that God is the

God who had not forgotten her. She never forgot the meaning her name grace,

Grace. But more than this, she never forgot the one child,

the one son she gave back to God at Shiloh, which means in Hebrew,

the one who is for her Shiloh, the one who is for her.

Why because one child matters and she named her son Samuel, God hears

because one child matters to God, and that son became the great prayer warrior

in Israel as a child given the prophetic gift, he'd be the greatest of

the judges to transition from the ear of judges to the ear of kings,

humble man of God, stand in the breach between good and evil and defend

the right. Who would not allow the slop bucket theology of his day to

drag the Church of his time into evil living, but to stand true for

God as a prophet of God. Hannah's prayer made a difference. Our children

can make a difference. Why are we taking the time to invest in them?

Up here? Didn't it push our worship service about ten minutes over come

on didn't it. We had a little revival today where the children wanted to

pray five, six, seven of them more maybe, and we have them

eagerly wanting the word of God. We don't have time to coordinate the practice

every week, so we're going to do our best. I am so proud

of our children, every single one of you. May God move on the

hearts of every woman here to be a gracious and humble force for good,

for the sake of all our children and for their future with God. Because

one child matters. Don't forget that one child matters. Through Heavenly Father.

It could be some that someone here today is a child in adult clothes and

body that had an awful upbringing and just needs to know inside that you love

em, that you care for them irregardless of their struggle, that they can

be accepted in the Beloved who is Jesus, as if they had never sinned,

as if they had never had a rotten childhood, and be found in

You for the last day, a beloved child of God. Because the one

matters, the one child matters. You don't have to raise your hand.

Just tell God that's me, and when you say it to him, hear

him. Say back to you. This is my beloved child, with whom

I'm well pleased. Thank you in Jesus. That's true for us who reach

to you by faith. Lord, Bless your children, Keep the church,

May every one be saved, get sent out of our lives altogether. Lord,

it's so easy the world we live in. And keep us for you,

and bring people here, Lord, because you can trust us with our

attitudes so we can help save them. And I trust you with that prayer

in Jesus' name, Amen,