Echoes of Her Faith: Hannah

Well, thank you to those ladies. They're all

great friends. They've been with us so long.

I should say, you know, three of them are up

here, but there's a host of other ladies that

just help facilitate or host or open their homes.

And we feel so fortunate. Being a portable church,

as you've heard me talk about so many times,

just creates really unique variables that we

have to contend with. And one of those is always

finding a place to do anything. And so I'm so

grateful for the ladies that have opened their

homes and places in our community that host us.

It just makes it so much easier to do what we

do. So hope many of you ladies will take advantage

of that. All right. Before we start this new

series called Echoes of Her Faith, I just want

to say a huge thank you to so many of you who

volunteered on Easter. Easter was last Sunday.

If it feels like a lifetime ago, I'm with you

in that. It was exhausting, but it was wonderful.

We hosted just about 800 people between the two

services. Yeah, you should clap. And thank you

to those of you that volunteered. We simply could

not do it without you. We just couldn't. In fact,

we actually got out of here a little bit earlier

this year than we did last year. And that's a

testament to your help and your support and just

leaning in. So many of you did things that you've

never done before, but we just needed the help

and you were there. And so we're so grateful

for that and really appreciate your help in that.

We're glad that it's over, but anticipating next

year, if that makes sense. All right, we're kicking

off a new series today called Echoes of Her Faith.

It's a five -week series that we're going to

do leading up to Mother's Day, wrapping it up

on Mother's Day. And the intent of this series

is to trace the impact of some of the great women

of the Bible. And not lost on me as a man is

the fact that, especially in the New Testament,

a lot of our time and attention is just kind

of the disciples. There's a lot of men that kind

of dominate the story of Scripture. you will.

And some of that is just the disciples in the

early church. And those stories are kind of weaved

throughout the Bible for us. But also in the

scripture are some really incredible women who

had incredible faith and just did incredible

things that kind of keep advancing the kingdom

of God, so to speak, and so much that we can

learn. And so I'm going to kind of give you a

snapshot of it, and then we're going to talk

about the first one today. In Hannah, which is

the story we're going to consider today, we find

hope in waiting. In the story of the woman at

the well, which is next week, we're going to

look at redemption in brokenness. In the story

of Ruth in week three, we're going to consider

God's faithfulness in uncertainty. In the story

of the widow and the two coins, we're going to

consider generosity in lack. And then on Mother's

Day, we're going to wrap it up by looking at

Mary, who we think about surrender and calling.

When God calls you to something profound, like

he did Mary to be the mother of Jesus. What does

surrender look like in those moments of calling?

So that's the layout of the series. And it's

through their stories that we're going to learn

and see timeless echoes of faith, inviting us

to trust God more deeply and to live with courageous

faith. And as I mentioned earlier today, we're

going to start with the hope of Hannah, the hope

of Hannah. Certainly there are seasons in life

where hope feels fragile, doesn't it? I don't

know if you've experienced it. Maybe it can feel

like more of a, if hope feels more of like a

whisper rather than a certain declaration that

you're holding on to, or it's a small flickering

rather than a burning, something that's burning

brightly. And yet it is often in those seasons

that faith produces its most enduring echo, if

you will. And such is the story of Hannah. Hannah,

whose quiet suffering became a loud testimony,

whose quiet season of waiting became a loud testimony

that we still talk about and consider all these

years later in her story. Her life reminds us,

this is kind of the one -line summary of her

life, her life reminds us that hope is not the

absence of pain, but it is the persistence of

hope and trust in the midst of it. Just the number

of people that I know just sitting here today

and others that I have the privilege of interacting

with, like there is no shortage of suffering

and hardship represented among us. And the hope

of Hannah is a reminder that hope is not the

absence of pain. but it is the persistence of

hope and trust in the midst of it. And most of

her story, which we're not, I mean, we don't

have time to cover all of it, but most of it

is found in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel,

in the first couple chapters in particular, 1

and 2 Samuel. And the thing that I love about

Hannah's story is that it's deeply human, and

it's very relatable. I mean, I'll be honest,

when you read the life of Christ, because Jesus

is obviously Son of God, God himself, like there's

a part that is just, you just can't quite identify

with, right? Even though it says that he became

like us and he knew suffering like us and he

knew temptation and there's a very human side

to Jesus, but there's also a very divine side

to Jesus that we're like, try as we may, we're

just different than him. He's different than

us. Thank goodness. But you start digging into

some of the characters of the Bible. That's why

I love the story of Peter in the New Testament,

the disciple Peter, right? He's so relatable,

like he's just a knucklehead. And there's a lot

of knuckleheads sitting here today, including

myself. But Hannah's story is just very human.

It's just very relatable. in my opinion. It's

a story that's marked by longing. It's a story

that's marked by misunderstanding. And it's a

story that's ultimately marked by redemption.

So who is Hannah and what is her story? Well,

the first thing to know is the context of which

the time, if you will, that she was living in

in Israel's history was spiritually unstable.

It's a time known as the Judges. That's where

we get the book Judges from. And the Bible describes

it this way in Judges chapter 21. In those days,

Judges 21 · chapter mention

there was no king in Israel. And everyone did

what seemed right to him. Hello, America. In

those days, and turns out nothing has changed,

right? Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new

under the sun. Turns out he's right. In those

days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone

did what seemed right to him. And in the middle

of this chaotic society, we meet this family.

There was a man from Ramothan Zophon in the hill

country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanan. He

had two wives. More on that in a moment. That

didn't like hit your radar at all? He had two

wives. You're like, that's normal. It is normal,

but more on that in a moment. The first named

Hannah, the second named Paniah. Paniah had children,

but Hannah was childless. So we meet Hannah,

and that's the primary thing that is kind of

the leading piece of her story is that she was

childless. So let me first quickly address the

elephant in the room. within this passage, which

is the polygamous relationship, if you will,

that the Bible seems to condone here in the story

of Hannah. She was one of two wives. It's a factor

in this story, and you'll see why in a moment.

There's a lot that could be said. This message

is not about polygamy, although there's plenty

that we could say about that, but I have to address

it because some of you won't be able to move

past it. Like, how is it that he had two wives,

and we're just like, okay, that's good. It's

not the focus of our passage. It's not the focus

of our time. But here's a few things that I'll

say about it just so we can move through the

text accordingly. First of all, we shouldn't

interpret allowance as approval. That's the most

important thing to know. Allowance is approval.

Secondly, and this is contextual now, as we speculate

about God's what I would call permissive silence,

that's kind of what it seems like here, there

is at least one key factor to consider. And that

is in societies like this where the male was,

the patriarch was kind of superior, if you will,

or supreme, it was nearly impossible for unmarried

women to provide for themselves. Almost impossible.

So women were often then, who were uneducated

and untrained, they would often depend on their

fathers or their brothers or their husbands for

provision and protection, which meant that unmarried

women were often subject to slavery and prostitution.

That's just the culture that they were in. So

possibly, and it's a speculation from silence,

that's what it is. possibly God may have allowed

polygamy, in this case, to protect and to provide

for the women who otherwise would have been left

destitute. A man who would have taken multiple

wives to serve as the provider and the protector

of them all. It's not like he had a girlfriend,

if you will, okay? Last thing to say, and the

most important thing to say, that whatever may

have been culturally permissive then is not today.

Are we clear on that? I'm serious. Culturally

permissive, not so today. And the Bible's very

clear. Go over to the pages in the New Testament.

The Bible's very clear about the marital relationship

between a man and a woman exclusively between

them. It's an important pause to clarify because

it's a weird part of the story for sure, right?

You read this and you're like, man had two wives

and one had children and the other one didn't.

You're like, well, first of all. What's the deal

with two wives? That's the bigger problem, right?

So you have to pause here just to clarify it

because it is a weird part of the story, but

it is not the main part of the story for Hannah.

So then let's go to the main part of Hannah's

story. In ancient Israel, to be barren, to have

no children was more than just a private sorrow.

It was a public stigma. It was a public stigma.

It carried cultural shame. It often carried spiritual

misunderstanding, like somehow God was displeased

with you or you had done something to make God

mad. A woman without a child or children was

frequently viewed as being under divine disfavor

from God. And so that's the stigma that Hannah...

carries and it's magnified by the fact that this

other wife in the same relationship in the same

family had children and she did not and so if

you're just a spectator on the wall so to speak

you're like okay you you did something to upset

God and you must have the favor of God There

was a stigma that came with it. Hannah was barren,

but her pain was layered. Not only was she barren,

but she was often provoked by Paneah, the other

wife. She was misunderstood by her husband, and

she was emotionally exhausted from it all. And

I tell you this because you can read it in her

story. I'm going to show you this. Her rival,

that's the second wife, would taunt her severely

just to provoke her. Because the Lord had kept

Hannah from conceiving. Year after year, she

went up to the Lord's house. Her rival taunted

her in this way. Hannah would weep and not eat.

Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband Elkanan

would ask. Why won't you eat? Why are you troubled?

Am I not better to you than ten sons? Oh, the

arrogance of that man. Am I not better to you

than ten sons? And so when I said she's misunderstood

by her husband, case in point. He's like, what

do you need? all these children for that you

have me. I tell Kendra that all the time. Just

kidding. I know my place. But the key phrase

in this passage is year after what? Year. Like

this wasn't a momentary three -week, one -month,

six -month kind of deal. But this was a prolonged

season of unanswered prayer. unanswered prayer.

Like, she had been longing for so long for a

child, and yet layered on top of the grief of

that is the fact that she's being taunted by

this other wife who does have children, even

her own husband, who's like, what's the big deal?

Why are you so sad? There was a heaviness to

what was largely a silent suffering for her.

And this is where I think some of you in the

room lean in. You're like, oh yeah, that kind

of describes my situation. There's a heaviness

to a silent suffering, meaning you can put the

look on and say, I'm good. How are you? I'm fine.

I'm fine. There's a heaviness to this, this silent

suffering, and it's something that she was mostly

internalizing. Although she would weep, she would

not eat, she carried a grief that others couldn't

fully see or understand. You know, I would say

with a lot of sensitivity, probably very similar

to women and couples today who face the journey

of infertility themselves amongst other hardships

that we all face. But the path of infertility

is hard. It is painful. It is often somewhat

silent suffering, if you will. There's a longing

there that few people understand. Even her own

husband tried to comfort her. Hannah, why are

you weeping? Don't I mean more to you than 10

sons? And of course, he's well -intentioned.

He's absolutely well -intentioned, but not the

solution to this deep grief that Hannah carried.

Hope is not dependent. There's a key point to

make. Hope is not dependent on being fully understood

by others, but it is anchored in being fully

understood by God. Being fully understood by

God. Nothing, I think, can discourage our sense

of hope more than others around us thinking we're...

crazy, weak, unreasonable, irrational because

of that silent grief that we may carry. And quite

honestly, very transparently, there are some

things that my heart hopes for, particularly

as I think about our journey with our daughter

that we are on, and that most of you just wouldn't

quite understand. And that's okay. I don't expect

you to I don't need you to. That's the reality

of some of these things that we carry close to

the chest sometimes is that it feels like even

the most well -intentioned people around us don't

fully understand and nothing can crush our sense

of hope quite like people's response of like,

get over it. What's the big deal? What's the

problem? And so hope is not dependent on being

fully understood by others. It's anchored in

being fully known by God. This hope is not dependent

on being fully understood by others. but rather

being fully known by God. So you keep reading.

1 Samuel, you see Hannah, instead of turning

bitter, she turns faithful. Her hope, her grief

drove her back to God. This is the turning point

in her story. This is in verses 9 and 10. On

one occasion, 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,

deeply hurt. Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept

with many tears. So this is a moment of honesty.

This is a moment of vulnerability for Hannah.

She doesn't suppress her pain. She doesn't deny

her longing. She brings it fully and honestly

before God. And here's her prayer in verse 11.

Making a vow, she pleaded, Lord of armies. If

you take notice of your servant's 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. She's

just keeping in accordance with some of those

laws. And three things stand out in her prayer.

She's honest, right? She's naming her pain. Like,

if you will take notice of your servant's affliction.

She's honest about it. She's humble. She refers

to herself as your servant. And she surrendered,

offering back to God the very thing that she's

asking God to give her. She surrendered. Hannah's

prayer is an example of surrendered hope, not

transactional faith. And it's so important that

you understand and differentiate between those

two. This is a distinction that is so important

to understand. Bargaining with God is not the

same as placing our hope and faith in God. There

are too many names for me to even remember over

my time as a pastor of people who wanted to bargain

with God. And then when they got what they wanted

from God, I never saw or heard from them again.

It has nothing to do with me, but the fact that

they like press into God because it's a 911 situation

and I need this. And God, if you would come through

for me. And then I'll just carry on with my life.

And Hannah's an example of not transactional

faith, but like surrendered hope. Like, God,

if you will give me this son, I will actually

give him back to you. This is not transactional

here. This is surrendered hope, placing my hope

in the fact that you know and see the longings

of my heart. Imagine holding something tightly

in your hands, whether it's a dream or a desire

or a future that you planned, whatever it is

that your heart just longs for today. And now

imagine God asking you to open your hands, not

just to receive it, but then to release it. No

sooner do you get it and then you give it back.

And that's exactly what Hannah was praying for

and committing to. That's the example we see

in Hannah. Not just praying for a child, but

praying with open hands. And transformational

hope is hope that actually surrenders. If your

hope is transactional with God, it's not enduring.

It will not stick. Because one of two things

will happen. Either you will get it and you will

carry on your merry way, or you won't get it

and you'll get mad and carry on your merry way.

But if it's surrendered, then there's transformation

in that. And there's a stickiness to it that

takes root in your soul when it's surrendered.

Why? Because that's all it is, is hope. It's

not a certainty. It was not a certainty that

the Lord was going to answer her prayer. Which

means then that we surrender. The transformation

comes through the act of surrender. Why? Because

it feels scary. That's where you're... growing

the most in those moments where it feels scary.

The things that are easy for us are not the things

that produce the most growth in us. You've experienced

that even in your own life, for sure. For sure.

The times that you're most scared are often the

times where there's the most growth happening

within us. And so that's the act of surrender.

Let's keep reading in verse 12 to 14. While she

continued praying in the Lord's presence, Eli

watched her mouth. Hannah was praying silently,

and though her lips were moving, her voice could

not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said

to her, how long are you going to be drunk? Get

rid of your wine. There's some humor in the Bible.

If you can't appreciate it, I can. Imagine that.

You're in this place of deep sorrow. You're pouring

out your heart before the Lord. You're in anguish,

and someone else comes along that doesn't understand,

even to the point of accusing you of being drunk.

But Hannah's response is one of grace towards

this confused, well -meaning priest. Verses 15

and 16. Now my Lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman

with a broken heart. I haven't had any wine or

beer. I don't think they had beer there. That's

a modern day translation. 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 depth of my anguish

and resentment. I mean, you want to talk about

honesty and vulnerability in prayer. And then

shortly after this moment of confusion in the

temple, there seems to be another shift. This

comes in verse 17. Eli responded, So if you just

pause here, I would just point out that nothing

has changed externally with her circumstances.

She is still... childless. She is still barren

at this point in the story. Her circumstances

are still difficult, but internally it seems

as though something in the form of hope is beginning

to actually take root in her heart and in her

soul. It seems as though Hannah is finding peace

before the answer comes, if you can catch that.

Corrie ten Boom said, never be afraid to trust

an unknown future to a known God. And that's

the example that we see in Hannah. There's an

unknown future, but I'm trusting it to you through

surrender. I mean, we see that in her prayer.

We see that even in her response to this confused

priest who thought she was drunk. And so Hannah

leaves the temple, not with a child, but with

deep trust in God. Not with a child, but with

deep trust in God. And then it keeps going in

verse 19. The next morning, Elkanah and Hannah

got up early to worship before the Lord. Afterwards,

they returned home to Ramon. Then Elkanah was

intimate with his wife, Hannah, and the Lord

remembered her. After some time, we don't know

how long, Hannah conceived and gave birth to

a son. She named him Samuel because she said,

I requested him from the Lord. I love that sentence,

the Lord remembered her. What a beautiful declaration.

What a beautiful declaration. We should be careful

to not misunderstand, though, this to mean that

God had forgotten her at some point. And then

suddenly like, oh, shoot, Hannah, yeah. I forgot

about her. She's been waiting for this child.

We should not interpret it that way so much as

rather this came to the point where God acted.

You could even use the word finally if you want

to. God acted. So this isn't God suddenly remembering.

This is simply God acting, which is a reminder

that God's timing is not random, but it is rather

purposeful. I don't have the time to go into

the story about how I landed as a church planter

at Living Branch Church, as opposed to another

opportunity. Some of you heard that story, of

course, but as another opportunity that I was

pursuing that I wanted so desperately. And it

didn't happen. And then three years later, this

happened. And thanks be to God. Amen. So God's

timing is not random. But it is purposeful. It

wasn't as though God was like, man, I'm just

so sick of hearing Hannah cry in the temple.

Like, fine. Here you go. Have a kid. Have a son.

It's not random. It's very, very purposeful.

And Samuel, whose name means God has heard or

heard by God or requested from God. multiple

ways to interpret that, would go on to become

the final judge and one of Israel's greatest

prophets who anointed the first two kings of

Israel. And there's a story, the story told,

you may be familiar with it, the story told of

bamboo trees, something we know nothing of and

have nothing around here that resembles that.

Anyhow, my understanding is that The way that

they grow is that you plant them and years of

planting, nothing really appears before above

the ground. Just kind of dormant almost, if you

will. And then the seed is watered, it's nurtured,

it's cared for. There's no visible growth that

occurs for some extended period of time. And

then suddenly in a short span of time, it just

shoots up rapidly several feet in a matter of

several weeks or a month. And you can liken that

to... A lot of what this story looks like for

Hannah and even for us, growth wasn't sudden.

It was hidden. Roots were being developed. And

then in God's good and perfect time, he says,

now's the time. And the growth comes and the

plant sprouts, if you will. There's a picture

of Hannah's years of waiting with hope. These

weren't wasted years. They were establishing

roots of faith. And then comes the hard part.

God heard her cry. He's answered her plea for

a child. But the question that looms is, would

she fulfill her end of the vow? Because remember

what she said to God, if you will give me this

child, I will give him back to you. So here comes

the moment. 1 Samuel 1, 27 and 28. I prayed for

this boy. And since the Lord gave me what I asked

him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For

as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.

Then he worshiped the Lord there. So after Samuel

is weaned, she brings him to the temple. And

can you just imagine that moment? Imagine that

moment. The child that she so longed for and

prayed so earnestly for, they answered to years

of prayer, and now this moment that she is going

to surrender this child back to the Lord. If

you've been here on a Sunday when we do a child

dedication, that's the picture of child dedication,

is believing that our children, if we have them,

for those of us who do, are gifts from God that

we are saying, this child does not belong to

me, it belongs to God. And I give this child

back to God, knowing he's a gift or she's a gift

from the Lord. And I would just say, if you contextualize

it in the story of Hannah, hope doesn't end when

the prayer is answered. It matures us when we

trust God with the outcome. And again, it goes

back to that idea of how we view God as a transactional

faith that I can bargain with God and get what

I want. If that's the case, then when you get

it, there's no need for enduring hope at that

point, is there? You have what you need. You

have what you wanted. Then as you go into chapter

2, I said her stories in 1 Samuel chapters 1

1 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

and 2, you find what's called Hannah's song.

And you could really call it a theology of hope.

It's a prayer that is really a song of praise.

And one of the most profound, beautiful, theological

declarations in the whole Bible. It's the first

10 verses of chapter 2. I'm only going to read

the first two. It reads this way. Hannah prayed.

This is her song. My heart rejoices in the Lord.

My horn is lifted up by the Lord. My mouth boasts

over my enemies. Remember, she had been taunted

for so long. All of her, even the other wife

in this family and people in her society, they

taunted her like, you must be under the judgment

of God. My mouth boasts over my enemies because

I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one

holy like the Lord. There is no one beside you

and there is no rock like our God. There are

all sorts of truths in Hannah's song, but a few

that are prominent that we see clearly is that

God reverses fortunes. God lifts up the lowly.

God humbles the proud and God is sovereign over

all, over all. And her personal story became

a universal testimony of who God is. Like Samuel

was a big deal. He was a big deal. And his story

traces to this mother who prayed in a place of

grief and surrender. Hannah's suffering refined

her understanding of God and her hope deepened

because of it. And so the question is, is what

can we learn from Hannah? What can we learn from

Hannah? And by the way, this is not a story just

about infertility. It's about unmet longings

of our soul. And how do we step into that place

of hope in the midst of longing, in the midst

of waiting, in the midst of like, is it ever

going to change? Is it ever going to be different?

Is it ever going to feel different? Is it ever

going to happen? Is it ever going to go away?

Whatever the longing in our soul can be, that's

what this story is about. So what can we learn?

I'm going to give you five things. I'm going

to move through them pretty quickly. If you don't

get them, they're in the Sunday Hub. You can

get it all there in the app. First is this. Hope

is forged in hardship. Hope is forged in hardship.

Hannah's faith, if you think about it, did not

grow despite her pain, but through it. I don't

know that we would know of Hannah if it weren't

for the pain. So hope is forged in hardship.

You've experienced it. You may be experiencing

it now. Hope is forged in hardship. Number two,

prayer is the language of hope. Prayer is the

language of hope. It's impossible to read Hannah's

story and not to understand and not to see it,

I should say, that... In her deepest places of

grief and agony and suffering, she was in the

temple praying. She was pouring out her heart

in anguish, so much so that people thought she

may be drunk because it's like, this seems weird.

This seems excessive. Whatever it is, like the

prayer is the language of hope. How do you describe

hope? How do you describe hope? In the Bible,

we see it as a form of prayer. That's the language

of hope is through prayer. She didn't withdraw

in her pain and suffering. She engaged God more

deeply through prayer. Thirdly, peace can precede

the answer. Her countenance changed before her

circumstances did. And I got a weird reminder

of this just yesterday through my wife. Someone

reached out to her that we do not know. that

his daughter has a similar diagnosis to ours,

very rare. And it kind of, when you live in a

reality every day, it just becomes your reality.

You don't think about it very much sometimes.

And, but it's all just... You'll be right there.

Oh, I'm back. Okay. My friend Luke's here today

and he reminded me that the last time he was

here, the sound system didn't work. And so Luke,

wherever you are, dude, you're not coming back.

This is it. I promise you that hasn't happened

since the last time you were here. So you think

I'm kidding. I'm not. Luke's not coming back.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah. So we got this

unexpected reminder of... a reality that sometimes

we have found some peace with, even though we

don't have the answer, if that makes sense. Like,

we kind of live in this place of hardship and

longing, but there's a peace to it. And sometimes

in moments that get poked, you're just like,

oh yeah, that's still here. That's still a thing.

But in Christ, through God, We sometimes get

peace even though we don't have the answer. And

that's what hope does. And that's why prayer

is the language of hope, because it grounds us

in a place of peace. To say, even though my circumstances

may still be whatever they are, God has not forsaken

me, and God is in this with me. And remember,

she left the temple barren, but her whole...

countenance changed, you feel it in her words

and in her prayer and all of those things because

she had a deep trust in God. That's what hope

does is it grounds us in the truth of who God

is and in the character of who God is independently

of our circumstances. So peace can precede the

answer. Number four, God's delays are not God's

denials. The caveat to this is to say, Not everything

ends in yes. So I want to be clear with you in

that regard. Just because it hasn't happened

yet, I can't tell you if it will or if it won't.

But what I can tell you is that God's delays

are not, maybe I should have put the word in

there, always God's denials. We've seen it in

the story of Hannah. We don't know how long.

We suspect it was a longer period of time than

shorter, right? And she just had this longing.

Remember the term, year after year. And you can

interpret that to say it was not abandonment,

but rather it was preparation. It was preparation

for what God was going to do when Samuel was

born and this act of surrender in the temple

and then all the generations and the lives that

would be impacted by the life of Samuel. And

so this was not abandonment. This was preparation

for Hannah. And then the fifth thing that I would

say from this story is that surrender is the

ultimate expression of hope. Surrender is the

ultimate expression of hope. She gave back the

very thing that she had prayed for. She gave

back the very thing she had prayed for. And Hannah's

story doesn't end with Samuel. Her faith echoes

forward. Samuel anoints kings. He shapes a nation.

He becomes a bridge between chaos and covenant.

his life had a profound impact. And it all began

with a woman who chose hope in the midst, middle

of heartbreak. I love the quote from C .S. Lewis.

He said, hardships often prepare ordinary people

for extraordinary destiny. And we are ordinary

if we are anything. Amen. We are just ordinary

people. We are ordinary people that know hardships

and To his point, they prepare ordinary people

for extraordinary destiny. We sit here with the

advantage of hindsight into the scripture. We

go, Hannah's not ordinary. She's famous. Right.

She was very ordinary when God tapped her on

the shoulder and said, okay, it's going to be

Samuel. And Samuel's going to anoint kings. And

he's going to be the last judge. And he's going

to do all these great things. It begins with

ordinary people, hardships prepare for an extraordinary

destiny. Hannah was ordinary, but her hope was

extraordinary. It was real. It was rooted. It

was all those things. And my friends, I would

just say to those of you that are in the year

after year season, you're praying, but you're

not seeing. You're waiting, but you're not receiving.

You're hoping, but you're feeling tired. Hannah's

story speaks directly to you that God sees, that

God hears, and that God remembers. And I don't

know what the outcome will be. I have question

marks on some longings in my heart, for sure,

as do you. So this isn't me standing up here

saying, this for sure will be what happens. I

don't know what will happen. Hannah didn't know

if God was going to give her a son. But her story

speaks directly to the fact that God sees and

God hears and God remembers. The beautiful line

in there is that God remembered her. God remembered

her. The hope of Hannah is not just about getting

what you asked for. It's also about becoming

who God is shaping you to be. I mean, when I

really want to be honest with myself, which is

like never, but when I really want to be honest

with myself, I have to pause and remember. How

much different I am and how radically transformed

I've been by some things that I didn't necessarily

want or to experience. Or some longings that

didn't go my way. Or some prayers that didn't

get answered either the way I thought I wanted

them answered or in the timing that I thought

I wanted them answered. Hope is not about just

getting what you want. Or what you ask for. But

rather it's about becoming who God is shaping

you to be. It's about trusting when you don't

understand. It's about praying when you feel

empty. And when others around you maybe are like.

What's the big deal? It's about surrendering

when it feels costly. Because true hope is anchored.

Not in outcomes. But rather in God. And that's

the. That is. Just. that just comes off the pages

of Hannah's story for us. It's not rooted in

outcomes. It's rooted and it's anchored in God.

And your hope is in him. It will echo long after

your season of year after year has passed. May

Hannah's hope become our hope if we need it today.

Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you

that you are, as we sang earlier, you are working.

You are moving even when we don't see it, even

when we don't sense it. And Hannah's story is

such a clear reminder. It's a beautiful reminder

of what it looks like to have hope in seasons

of longing. There's a lot of us in the room that

would say year after year, I get it. I get it

too well. It has been year after year. of an

unfulfilled longing of the heart. They are as

varied as there are many of us in this room today.

Whether that is for a child or whether that is

for a relationship or whether that is for physical

healing or whether that is for a restored relationship

with somebody or the longings of our soul are,

they're real and they're numerous. And God, I

pray, I pray first for each of us in the room

that we would just be in a place of true vulnerability

and surrender, God, that we would trust you with

those longings. And we would, whether literally

or more likely metaphorically, go to the temple

every single day and pour out our heart before

you, trusting that you see, you hear, You know

you have not forsaken us in our place of longing.

You have not abandoned us. Your delays are not

your denials. Would you give us the language

of hope, which is prayer and communion with you?

Thank you for the untold number of stories in

this room today that have ended with a yes. And

then there are many that there's still a longing.

There's still a deep desire. Thank you that you

see, you hear, and you know. Give us faith to

trust you. Give us an assurance that you are

near and that you see and you hear and you understand.

And that as we draw near to you, you draw near

to us. And so we do that by faith now. We give

our song back to you, God. You are a God of hope.

Our hope is fixed and anchored in you. It's not

in our circumstances. It's not in our outcomes.

It is in you. You are worthy of our praise. You

are worthy of our lives. We surrender them back

to you by faith today. In Jesus' name we pray,

amen.