When God is Enough (1 Samuel 1:1-11, 15-18)

I recently read an article about what makes people feel behind in

life. What makes people feel like they

are behind in life? And according to this article,

the main factors were social comparison and societal

timelines, which is very related.

Social comparison is of course just you look around and like,

hey, that person's my age and this person has a bunch of

things that I don't have. I feel behind.

And societal timelines are just basic timelines that the culture

gives you. But what age you got to be done

with this and by this age you got to be done with that and

then and and so forth. I remember when I was a fifth

year senior, I fell behind in life.

That was a society tells us that well, no, you should probably

graduate in four years. But yeah, I knew that everyone

like, hey, all my friends are gone.

And the only ones who remained were like double majors or like

really hard majors. And I was the only one with this

easy major that took five years. Definitely fell behind.

And because of these things, we can't help but to think, man, I

wish I had that one thing. And it starts early in life

comparing and this, these timelines and, and as we get

older, what doesn't go away is that feeling like, man, if I

have that one thing, I'd be more complete.

If I had that, if I accomplished that, if I had that in my life,

I wouldn't feel such behind. We're always looking for that

one thing that we feel like we need to finally be happy,

finally not be behind, finally feel OK.

In today's passage, we read about Hannah and how she was

able to overcome that desire. She wanted one thing and one

thing only. It was to have children.

And she was kind of trapped in that desire.

She was imprisoned by that desire.

And then we will learn how she was able to overcome that and be

set free. So that's a question we want to

answer today. How can we be free from feeling

like that? One thing is necessary.

How can we be free from that feeling?

Number one, we need to know what enslaves us in the 1st place?

What makes us not free in the 1st place?

If you ever Bibles, please turn to First Samuel chapter 1.

1 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

We'll be reading one through 8, one through 8.

For those of you who read the passage at home, I know this was

not what was announced. I had a change of heart in the

middle of the week, so forgive me for that.

First time with three will be next week's tournament.

First one through 8. There was a man named from Sorry

from Rama fame, Zophim in the Hill Country of Efraim.

His name was Elkanah son of Gerald Ham, son of Elihu, son of

Tohu, son of Zoof. And if he was a Ephraim might he

had two wives, the first name Hannah and the second name

Panina. Panina had children but Hannah

was childless. This man would go up from his

town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of

Armies as Shiloh, where Eli's two sons, Hofni and Phineas,

were the Lord's priests. Whenever Alkana offered a

sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife

Penina, and to each of her sons and daughters.

But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even

though the Lord had kept her from conceiving.

Her rival. Penina would taunt her severely

just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from

conceiving year after year. When she went up to the Lord's

house, her rival taunted her in this way.

Hannah would weep and would not eat.

Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband Elk and I would ask,

why won't you eat? Why are you troubled?

Am I not? Am I not better to you than ten

sons? Let's go back to the previous

verses on the screen. Hannah was imprisoned by the

expectations in her culture. It says that she was devastated

to the point where she was weeping and she could not even

eat. I know in our culture, a lot of

women are expected to have children.

If you get married, maybe the first year, not so many of those

questions, but every year more and more when are you going to

have a baby? And that that weighs on you and

that gives you pressure. So some of you guys know this,

but I would say in this culture, 3000 years ago it was, it was

beyond that because women right now, women could find their

identity and many things. But at 3000 years ago, it was

only one thing. Culture expected you to just do

one thing well, which is to have children.

Because the vast majority were in the labor kind of intensive,

like labor, working class. Having children meant more hands

to help out for your family survival.

Bigger families would literally be richer families.

So if a woman had ten children, she would be a hero to her

family because she brought financial security to her

family. Children symbolize security,

honor, and it was hope for the family's future.

So based on the cultural expectation of Hannah, she was

worth nothing. Yes, it's wrong, but that's how

it was. She had zero children, therefore

her worth. The world told her your worth is

nothing. She was barren and Baroness

symbolize hopelessness in her culture.

So how did she cope with that? How did she survive knowing that

she was worth 0? When everyone looked at her they

said what a failure. How does she cope?

Well, we have hints in a couple of these verses.

It at least worked mildly, at least it worked temporary ways.

But I believe the love of her husband at least kept her

afloat. The Jews back in the day, it was

once a year you went to the temple and you had this big

sacrifice. And after the sacrifice, the

some of the meat was given to the priest and some of it you

kept. And it was a it was a public

thing. And publicly the the man of the

household would give some of the portions of meat to the family.

And it says here Elkanah gave a portion to his wife Penina and

to each of her sons and daughters.

But it says in verse 5, but he gave a double portion to Hannah.

He was publicly showing everyone, hey, I love this

woman. She has no children, but I still

love her. It was a public statement.

But it that did not stop from making her feel like she was

still worth nothing, she might have felt better about it.

In verse 8. It shows that the husband said,

why are you crying? You know, it might not worth

more than $0.10. No, she's she's very he's very

caring as well. But ultimately the voice right,

the expectation she could not overcome that her right, this is

her rival, the other wife. Penina would say hey, she will

remind her, hey, look at all the kids I have and look how you

have zero kids. It doesn't matter if you get

more meat, I'm still better than you.

And she would be devastated when that happened.

It says here that Penina taunted her severely ear after year.

Penina made sure that Hannah remembered her position on life.

You are in last place, I am in first place.

And we see how devastated she would be here.

Now you might think, OK, well this is this is a sad story

about a woman named Hannah in the Bible.

What what, what does this got to do with me?

I want to argue that we are all, at least to some degree, we are

all Hannah. You and I all have a little bit

of Hannah in US. Of course we don't have a second

wife or a second husband to compare ourselves to, but we all

do have a Panina in our lives. Meaning there is a social

standard that tells you this is what you need to make it in this

world. We might not physically have a

person human being taunting her, taunting us, but we have voices

out in the world speaking to us through social media or friends

or or wherever. We have that voice that tells

us, hey, you need this for self worth.

You don't have this, so you're not.

You don't have self worth. There's these voices telling us

you need that one thing to find meaning, to find purpose, to

find worth. And when we hear sermons like

this, it's so easy to think about other people.

Oh, yeah, I know somebody who's like that.

Yeah. That this person is all about

his job and and he's devastated that he can't get promotions.

And yeah, he's listening to those voices.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Pastor Tim, good sermon. I'm, I'm, I'm going to share

this to my friend. Well, please do share sermon

with your friends. I'm certainly not.

I, I will want you know our numbers from 5 to 10 eventually.

I'm not saying don't do that. But what I'm saying is more

important is that, oh, I know who needs the sermon.

It's no, it's you who need it. Because we are often blind to

our own false desires or wrong desires.

And we are so keen to other people's.

It's natural to feel like what we care about is always legit.

And what other people care about is you care too much about the

world. I remember in seminary that was

the topic of calling and we talked about, you know, like

some biblical figures who had calling different types, Moses

versus whoever. And we're sharing and there's a,

there's a good number of students in our class that were

from Korea. They, you know, they, they're

educating Korea, but they come here and they go to seminary

here and then they go back home. We had a good number of those.

And when they shared, I noticed that their sharing was a lot

different than the people from here.

Their sharing was my calling is to work at a big church and

become a senior pastor. And I remember thinking, oh, my

gosh, that is so worldly, so judgmental.

Well, that's the Panina that that in their lives, they grew

up in Korea, where it's all about best school, best job,

biggest, you know, biggest company.

So naturally translates to pastors like, OK, the best

school, best church, highest position, it kind of naturally

that's how they get influenced. But I'm blinded to my own.

I have, I have a voice that was speaking to me from the world.

It's just that it was different. What it said was different.

Maybe I would, I would have noticed that then.

But looking back, I definitely was influenced by the world.

I needed a ministry position. I didn't care about the biggest

church, but I needed a position that agreed with my values.

I needed a position that made me feel fulfillment.

I think like 10-15 years ago, there was a big wave of people

going into the healthcare system for jobs, going in healthcare

because a lot of people when millennials were getting jobs,

everyone wanted to help others. We have this voice like your job

has to give you meaning. It has to give you fulfillment.

It has to make you feel like it's worth life is worth it.

And we, we start working and we realize that's not true.

It doesn't give us meaning, right?

The truth is, whether you see it or not, This is why it's helpful

to have community so perhaps they could see it, something

that you don't about yourself. But we all have societal

timelines and someone to compare ourselves to.

We all have a voice telling you you need this otherwise you

don't have worth. We all have a voice saying you

know what, you have kids. Well, your kids need to turn out

like this or you failed. By this age, you got to have

this house. By this age, you got to have

this. You got to provide this for your

kids. You're going to be dating at

this age, married at that. We all have that voice.

And as long as we're listening to that voice, we are enslaved.

We are trapped. We will be in the same cycle as

Hannah. We're devastated by the voice.

And then her husband loves her a little bit and she's now I feel

better. And then, and then she's

reminded that she has no kids and she's devastated this this

cycle that goes back and forth over and over again.

And maybe, maybe you could say, well, Pastor, maybe just achieve

it and maybe maybe she'll be free or we'll be free.

That's not true either. Panita is the symbolism of

somebody who has it all. Everything that woman's supposed

to achieve, she achieved it. But does she seem free?

No, she's arrogant, she's oppressive, she's hateful, she's

jealous, she's trapped in her own way.

So whether you listen to the voices and then you fail, you

feel you're you're enslaved and you achieve it and you're

enslaved, there's only one path to freedom and that's number

two. We are freed when we surrender

that one thing to God. When we surrender that thing,

that's the only way we could be free.

That's three verses 9 through 11.

This is the turning point of Hannah.

On one occasion, Hannah got up. Take very close attention to the

word. We're going to talk about it.

Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh.

The priest Eli was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the

Lord's temple. OK, so she got up and she goes

to the priest and she starts praying.

Deeply hurt, Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many

tears. Making a vow she pleaded, Lord

of armies, if you will take notice of your servants

affliction, remember and not forget me and give your servant

a son. I will give him to the Lord all

the days of his life and his hair will never be cut.

Next page. Oh OK, never mind 9 through 11.

I'm sorry. So in nine through 11 we see

that Hannah got up and the verse 9 is the turning point.

And I say I want to focus on the word arise or got up and I want

to turn back to Jonah. This is a sermon that I preached

3 months ago. If you could find Jonah and

under you can find Jonah on the screen as well.

And in that sermon I also talked about the word got up or arise.

And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but just take

careful note of the word got up, arise something similar.

So this is Jonah. God caused Jonah to preach to

Nineveh. And of course Jonah hates the

Ninevites because the Ninevites conquered his people.

But God says, you know what? It's time to arise and go preach

to Nineveh. So God says, get up, arise and

go to the great city of city of Nineveh.

So what does Jonah do? Verse three, He gets up and what

does he do? He goes down to Jopa.

He found the ship, and then we go to the next page.

Sorry, another went down next page and there's a storm.

Do we have a next page? OK, it's OK.

No, we do have a next page. All right and then so he goes

instead of rising up, he goes down opposite way and he goes

down to the boat and then there's a storm and then Jonah

goes down to the lowest part of the vessels, lowest part of the

sea or of the of the boat arise. What does that word mean?

What is this just stand up. So when God calls us for a very

specific purpose, what God wants is a surrendering of our will.

So when God calls Jonah, God says I want you to arise.

I want you to surrender your will.

You don't like the Ninevites, but surrender that will and

follow my commands arise. But Jonah goes down and down and

down. He was the opposite.

In the verse 9, it says Hannah got up, she surrendered her

will. She got up and she surrendered

her will. And we know from the prayer that

she this is a different prayer. Many people think that this is

what happened. This people read this story or

hear the story and they assume that this is what happens.

This is woman without a child. And Hannah goes to the temple

and Hannah prays really hard, right?

He says, you know, I wept with many tears to the point we

didn't read this passage, but to the point after Hannah prays the

preschools, hey, have you been drinking?

So we assume that, oh, this is what we got to do.

You want a baby, pray really hard.

And like, you mean it with tears and passion.

You want something in life, pray really hard.

No. That's not.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with praying hard, but that's

not the meaning of the story. Her prayers changed.

Her prayers were different. This was an unusual prayer, a

prayer certainly none of us have prayed.

Give me a son. The one thing I wanted the most,

the one thing I desperately needed.

Give me a son, Lord, and I will give him right back to you.

I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, his

heroine that will never be cut, meaning I will give him to be a

prophet of God. And that's exactly what Hannah

does after Samuel was born, takes baby Samuel and gives him

to Eli. And then Eli, you raise him to

be a prophet, and Samuel grows up, becomes a prophet, and he's

the one who anoints King David, the teenager King David.

Let's look at verse 15 to 18. This is what happens when you're

freed. No, my Lord, Hannah replied.

This is Eli asking, are you drunk?

I am a woman with a broken heart.

I haven't had any wine or beer. I've been pouring out my heart

before the Lord. Don't think of me as a wicked

woman. I've been praying from the death

of my anguish and resentment, Eli responded.

Go in peace and may the God of Israel grant the request you

made of him, may your servant and find favor with you, she

replied. This is the key that Hannah went

on her way. She ate and she no longer looked

despondent. OK, remember, she wasn't able to

eat and she was devastated. What changed?

OK, in case you're thinking this, she's not pregnant.

She still needs her husband, OK? All she did was pray.

OK? No husband yet.

She prayed. She's not pregnant.

Why could she eat? And she why does she no longer

look despondent? She was free.

Hannah arose, she stood up and did what?

She released the things that was enslaving her.

The one thing that she thought she needed to find meaning and

purpose. She prays to God and says Lord

give me a son. I will give it right back to

you. I want a son, but I want more of

you. And she released the very thing

that was enslaving her. She released the social

expectations, the comparisons, the security she thought she

needed, the status. She surrendered her will, her

wants, her desires, her longings.

She gave all of that up to the Lord.

Her prayers are different. She doesn't say Lord, I need a

child. She says I want a child not for

me, but for your Kingdom, not so I can feel fulfilled so that but

so he could fulfill your will not I don't want a kid so I

could say ha Penina, I have a kid too, but I want a kid so

that he he could be used for your glory.

And soon as she releases all the things that she desperately

wanted, she releases to God, she's free.

She's free now. She could eat no longer look

despondent. So this is great for Hannah, but

what does this mean for us? What does this mean for you?

It means that your freedom is not on the other side of getting

that one thing. It's not you're struggling.

You get the one thing and then you're free.

That's not the formula here. It's you want something so bad,

it's surrendering it and then you're free.

Some of us, some of you have been waiting for that thing to

happen. I want happiness, I want

fulfillment and this needs to happen.

You feel like when I finally get married or finally have a child

or I finally have my second child or or one boy or one girl,

that perfect family where my finally when my career takes

off, when my finances stabilize, then I will experience these

things. But what God wants is I want you

to finally surrender these things so that you could

experience your my freedom. I'm not saying, you know, you

shouldn't go home and like, oh, I don't care about these

anymore. It's not about pretending, it's

not minimizing, It's not shaming yourself.

Oh, why do I care about these things so much?

But it's about releasing these things to God and by going to

him in prayer. Verse 15, it says I've been

pouring out my heart before the Lord, Eli, I'm not drunk.

I'm just pouring out my heart to God.

Pour your heart to God in this, in this time in our culture, we

are encouraged, you know, especially like we're like, hey,

even men share your feelings, you know, talk about your

feelings. And that part is good.

But I feel like now it's only about sharing with other people,

sharing with their therapist. Maybe those aren't bad, but

what's really necessary is that we go to our God and we pour our

heart before the Lord. Verse 16, it says I've been

praying from the death of my anguish and resentment.

Pray in your pain, pray through your pain and offer those up to

God. And the reason why we could give

these things to the Lord is because what Jesus has done for

us through the gospel. About 1000 years after this

impossible birth of Samuel, we learn about another impossible

birth. Just like Hannah surrendered her

son that she's so much long for, God surrenders his Son, Jesus

Christ, whom he loves so much so that Jesus can rescue us from

our sins. Samuel would grow up and serve

the temple. Jesus becomes the true temple.

Samuel would become a big part of how Israel is rescued from

their enemies. Through King David, He selects

King David. Jesus saves more than just the

Jews, he saves the world. Knowing this, you could

surrender anything to God because through the Gospel we

know that we already have what's most important.

Because of Jesus, you already have what you need the most.

You already have forgiveness. You already have acceptance.

You already have identity in Christ.

You already have security. You already received grace.

You are already beloved. There is nothing you could do to

make God love you more or less. He already loves you 100%.

He loves you to the maximum already.

Everything that we desire in life you already have.

Therefore, when you have these desires from the world OfferUp

straight to God, because you already have it.

Once you realize that, once you realize that in the gospel you

already have everything, then you are free.

The world whispers interior years, do you need this?

And you just whisper right back. No, I don't because I already

have everything through the gospel.

Only through the gospel, only through what Jesus has done for

us on the cross. We are free from all the

expectations of this world. Main point.

We can be free when we surrender ourselves to God.

Let's take time to pray.