Sunday Message (2nd service) - Pastor Jennifer Neuschwander (March 1, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today, and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. All right, well...

Most of you probably know who I am, but just

in case you don't, I'm Pastor Brad's wife. He's

out of town ministering at a church, so please

keep him in your prayers. But there was a need

for someone to fill the pulpit, so here I am.

Thank you. It's always an honor to share the

word. About two and a half months ago, my husband

and I were on a little getaway. We try and get

away the first of the year just to hear God for

our church. This year was a little bit more difficult

because we are in a major situation, step of

faith, where with the riverbank, there's a lot

of things, a lot of pressure has been coming

against us personally as pastors and the church.

And so to hear God in a way of trying to clear

out all of the distractions was very difficult.

Anybody relate? You're going through a season

where you just feel like God is testing your

faith and it's a difficult season and you don't

like it. It's easy to wanna hear what you wanna

hear so that you can use God as a way to kind

of get you out of the pain and the suffering

or we're just not sure what's happening. And

so the Lord gave me this word and he led me to,

sorry, sound team, am I okay? All right. He led

me to the book of 1 Samuel. And the title of

my message this morning is called The Womb Where

God Works Miracles. Learning from Hannah's hidden

journey of surrender, silence, and destiny. We're

gonna talk about Hannah in the Bible in 1 Samuel.

And I wanna talk about how God works in hidden

places. And there's been probably the entire

journey of our church. Even the location of where

we are is not exactly in a place where most people

can find us. We've had pastors and ministers

and leaders come to our church and they'll be

like, where are all the people? Like, where do

they come from? There's no people. You drive

these roads and all you see is a bunch of sheep.

And it's true, but we're sheep, right? And they're

like, where do they come from? And honestly.

You know, they will say, man, if your church

was in a big city, you'd be three times the size

and it would be happening. And you guys would

have all this great, you know, you'd have all

these ministries and everybody would know about

you. And, but the Lord was like, no, that's,

that wasn't what God's plan was. He put us in

a little town by a river that one day we would

be fighting for our life. And so here we are.

And so God began to speak to me this scripture.

the story about Hannah. And we might get a little

vulnerable today. Is that all right? Just get

a little vulnerable. Let's just like take off

the filters. Just relax. Just you're in my living

room. We're just going to have a family conversation.

Amen. Deuteronomy 29, 29 says the secret things

belong to God and the hidden things. And sometimes

we don't understand. Many of you probably have

experienced seasons of being hidden. and you

see other people, and you see other lives, and

it's difficult, and we compare ourselves. But

I want to give you an understanding and revelation

of the beauty of the hidden place. Before God

unveils his greatest works, he often chooses

to conceal them. There is always seasons of hiddenness

that come before deliverance. Times of obscurity

precede advancement and a period of secrecy before

revelation. So we want the deliverance, we want

the advancement, we want the revelation, but

we don't like the obscurity, we don't like the

hiddenness, and we don't like that place where

God keeps us a secret. But that has to happen

before the shift. In God's design, what is hidden

is not forgotten. You are not forgotten. You

are not forgotten. And then when you hear that

and you think that in your mindset, you have

to realize you have to make a shift and think

about those hidden places the way God does. Because

that's what gets us in trouble. Is there's always,

even I'll just be really real with you this morning.

I put my phone on do not disturb because I was

getting text messages during first service. And

it was. messing with my mind. And then a few

people got up and walked out. And then some people,

more people got up and walked out and someone

looked like they were sleeping. And I was like,

this is so boring. No one's listening to me.

It's not a good message. It's so dry. And I'm

getting all of those thoughts while I'm trying

to stay on track is to preach the message. So

I'm just telling you it happens. I get it. Right?

We can be sitting in that space, but we have

to know the truth. If I sat down and stopped

preaching because those voices were in my head,

you guys would be like, what is wrong with you?

Amen? So we don't listen to those voices. We

keep going. Moses was hidden before he led. Joseph

was hidden before he ruled. David was hidden

before he reigned. Esther was hidden before she

was crowned. And Jesus was hidden for 30 years

before, the cross. Ecclesiastes 3 .1 says, for

everything, there is a season. We all probably

know that scripture, but do we believe it? Because

we like to purpose the seasons. We like to tell

God, like we get a word, but then we like to

advance that word, make that word happen, or

put our own interpretation on that word. But

we have to submit that every life begins in a

hidden womb. Concealment is protection and preparation.

It's not punishment. It's not punishment. It's

preparation. And when the Lord led me to this

message, he said, this is where the church is

at. As Life Bible Church, which is you. With

everything going on around us, everything that

we're facing, we're in a womb. We're in a womb

for the next generations. When that wall went

in, our engineer told us most walls are 40 -year

walls, 50 -year walls. This is a lifetime wall.

He told us, he said, I don't know, Brad. but

this is a lifetime wall. He said, the way it's

going in and the materials, he says, this will

stand for every generation until the Lord returns.

That is an amen. Now we may have had to walk

through some tough things, but a lifetime wall

is worth it. So when it hurts, God is still working

behind the scenes. Okay. There's pain. I'm sorry.

I'm going to lead us through a little bit of

suffering message I can't hardly help myself

but I feel like everything about our journey

with the Lord we have to embrace suffering and

we have to have an understanding of suffering

there's a doctrine of suffering out there when

I took biblical basic doctrine and taught it

we actually had a class on the doctrine of suffering

you're like what that's not right no because

those are parts of the bible that we don't often

like to study we like to put those away We like

the messages that really make our soul feel good,

but we are to be a people that are not soul -driven,

but spirit -led. Amen? Similar to the hidden

place, God also works tremendously through suffering.

Suffering is not a sign of divine absence. Often

it is the hidden place where God is preparing

resurrection life. You can't have resurrection

life if you don't have a death first. And we

can get really church eyes. I don't know if that's

a word. We can get really churchy, religious.

Oh, victory, resurrection life. Come on, God

is good. Amen. Yeah, that's good. But we don't

understand that in order for that, we have to

die. Your death. might look different than someone

else's. Your suffering is going to look different

than someone else's. Your womb and what you're

carrying and what God is birthing through you

is not going to be the same as someone else's.

And we can't compare. We have to embrace the

fact that we belong to God and what he's doing

in our life is for a purpose beyond you. Beyond

you. I'm a very selfish person. I will admit.

I know I'm selfish. I hate it. And every time

I think I'm not gonna be selfish and I'm gonna

think differently, I end up being selfish. And

I will kind of like have my self pity party with

the Lord and I'm like, man, they and he and her

and it and she and da, da, da, da, da. And the

Lord's like, you're selfish. Like what? You're

selfish. Okay, because I'm thinking about me.

If you're thinking about you, any part of you,

I'm sorry to say. You're selfish. Let's just

admit it. All right, moving on. We're done with

that. Put that on the altar. Blood of Jesus.

But you know, let's help each other not be selfish.

All right. All right, let's look at Psalms 139.

David describes about this hidden place. My frame

was not hidden from you when I was made in the

secret place, when I was woven together in the

depths of the earth. We were woven. God wove

us in a dark and hidden place. What if he's still

doing that with our spirit? In the natural, we're

formed and we stay in a hidden dark place for

nine months. But God is beyond, is not looking

for us to just have. our birth and here we are

now we get to live on this earth doing all the

things we want living all this life for myself

God's like no you're a womb and I need to birth

a lot more through you and so now there's going

to be seasons months maybe years maybe Many years

where your spirit man is going to be hidden and

I'm weaving and I'm working to birth out of you,

to birth out of you all of the things of the

kingdom and the things that I have planned. He

needs us to be wombs and not look at that womb

as a tomb. God often disguises wombs as tombs.

What appears closed, barren, painful, or final

is not necessarily a place of death, but a place

of gestation. Jesus gives us this in John 16,

21. When a woman is in labor, she has sorrow.

But when the child is born, she no longer remembers

the anguish for the joy that the human being

has been born into the world. You know, the baby

in the womb did nothing. to bring themselves

into the world. It was not painful. They just

grew, right? Happy. Some of them come out screaming

because they don't, they want to go back. They're

like, what's happening? I come out and saw lights

and everything in my face. That's how you came

out. Screaming, not happy. Who went through the

pain? The mother. The mother went through the

agony. The mother experienced the pain. Church,

Jesus went through the pain for you. You didn't

suffer the labor. Now we work out our salvation

through fear and trembling, but your birth, sometimes

we question and we get in these places with God

where we're questioning and we wonder, we have

doubt and unbelief. God birthed you. I'm a mother

and the pain that I went through to have children,

like I would never not adore and love and surround

myself with my children because that was work.

A lot of work, and it's still a lot of work.

I still feel like I'm in labor sometimes. Right,

moms? Right, dads? And the kids are like, just

living their best life. And you're like, you

don't understand what I had to do for you. And

so God is like, why do you question me? I birthed

you. I've labored for you. We did nothing to

bring ourselves into the kingdom other than say

yes and believe. And he's still, the Bible says,

Jesus is still making intercession for us. He's

still birthing. He's still, and so we have to

get this mindset that everything we're going

through starts with a season of womb and labor

and pain before it's birthed. And then he goes,

it's time to do it again. So, Life Bible, we're

doing it again. All right, let's get to Hannah.

In 1 Samuel, Chapter one, I believe Hannah is

a beautiful picture of hidden suffering turned

transformation. She embodies this truth. So it

says in 1 Samuel chapter one, verses one through

three, there was a certain man of Ramatham Zophim

of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was

Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son

of Tohu, son of Zuth and Ephrathite. I'm telling

you, I had to practice a lot. Somebody told me,

just say a bunch of names that you can't understand.

I said, nope, I am gonna say these names. I even

was practicing. Remethaim Zophim, right before

I got up here. I'm just being honest, all right.

He had two wives. The name of one was Hannah.

The name of the other, Peniah. Peniah had children,

but Hannah had no children. This man used to

go up year by year from his city to worship and

to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh,

where the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were

priests of the Lord. We'll learn as we explore

Hannah's life that she's one of many barren women

in the Bible. Rebecca, Elizabeth, Sarah, whose

wombs that God opened at crucial moments in redemptive

history. often to bring forth strategic children.

There has to be in us. Maybe someone next to

you, someone in the body or a friend of yours

is being really used of God and you're watching

their giftings just flourish and they're growing

and they're doing all these great things and

you just feel like nothing's happening. Where's

my place? I'm just sitting. I don't fit in. Do

I even have a ministry? Does anybody even notice

me? I'm just raising kids right now. I'm wiping

snot off noses and up in the middle of the night

and waking up to puke. It's like, why can't I

be prophesying and teaching a class on a Wednesday

night? And why am I not being used? God, it's

not fair. Well, maybe it's the time of a womb

season and barrenness that is not death. but

gestation. Let's look at the prophetic language.

I think it's important. Why do we read these

names? Why are they even listed in the Old Testament?

Well, they're there because names have meaning.

When a name was given to a person, it was very

significant. They have They mean names, places,

bloodlines, all hold significant weight in their

meaning. So like my daughter, I named her Jessica

and her name means the wealth of God. So I don't

go around and go wealth of God. Hey, wealth of

God. Hey, wealth of God. I don't say that out

loud, but back in that culture, when you said

a name, people didn't hear the name, they heard

the meaning. So names were significant. You didn't

want the name like Jabez, which means pain. Every

time someone said his name, that's why he wrote

that famous scripture. He said, Lord, let me

not cause pain. Let my name be reversed. Let

there be a blessing all of my days. And so sometimes

you got a name that you don't like. So names

in the Bible were very significant. Even before

Hannah prayed and Samuel was born or led Israel's

revival, names already carried a prophetic and

significant meaning. So the story opens in Rema.

which means the double heights of watchmen. So

not just God is watching, but double, double

layer, double heights, not just one level, but

another level of watchmen. Hannah lived in the

hill country of Ephraim, which means double fruitfulness.

So here she is experiencing a barren womb, but

she's living in a land that means double fruitfulness

and they worship at Shiloh, which means the place

of rest. So the land seemed to speak volumes

even before her womb opened. It foretold a bountiful

harvest. What happens is we get so caught up

in comparison and our own selfishness and our

own self -pity that we're not realizing the land

around us is speaking. What is the prophetic

message? Maybe that will change the trajectory

of how I see what God is doing in my life. But

I get caught up in looking ground level. I got

to go to double watchmen. I got to go to the

land of fruitfulness. And that's got to be the

place and the place of rest, which is our worship.

So the father of Samuel, Elkanah, means God possesses.

God is in charge. His father, Jehoam, means womb

compassion. He incredibly cares about our wombs.

And his father before him, Elihu, means he is

my God. So in this place where Hannah is experiencing

no children, she's living in a generational home

where number one, where the great grandfather

is, he's my God. He cares about my womb and God

is in charge. And he possesses, I'm living in

a land of double fruitfulness, and I'm worshiping

at a place of rest. Wow. Perfectly setting the

stage. Mercy, grace, fruitfulness, and covenant

are already at work, quietly orchestrating events

before Samuel's birth. Hannah's name means grace.

He is kind. I think it's important to understand

a little bit of the historical background of

what was going on in the nation at the time of

Samuel's birth. Israel's spiritual condition

at Samuel's birth marked the end of the Judges.

So when you read through the Old Testament, it

goes the book of Judges, and then it goes right

into 1 and 2 Samuel, and you go into now the

prophets and the kings and all of that. Without

a king, people acted according to their own will.

Oh, does that sound familiar? Oh, no. That's

not who we are. That's not our generation. That's

not our culture, right? It's not even in the

church. We don't act according to our will. I

like preaching on the floor because I can like

get up close and personal. The book of Judges

describes the cycle of sin, oppression, cries

for deliverance, temporary peace, and a relapse

into sin. By Samuel's birth, the nation was spiritually

exhausted. This period was characterized by moral

fragmentation, weak tribal unity, corrupt priesthood,

and the absence of constant prophetic leadership.

God is restoring the prophetic in the house of

God. Yeah, it's messy. Yeah, it speaks to things

that we don't wanna hear. Yeah, it exposes. Yeah,

it challenges. Yeah, it makes me ticked and frustrated.

Well, it's your flesh and your soul, but your

spirit is rejoicing. Because it's like it's time

that we bring the prophet back. And Samuel is

the beginning of this, the first prophet to be

born, to come on the scene. And coming at a time

when it feels like a tomb. But it's not. Everyone

doing what is right in their own eyes. Eli the

high priest, when Samuel was born, had two sons,

Hophni and Phinehas. They were worthless men

and disobeyed God. They stole from sacrifices,

committed immorality at the tabernacle and despised

God's offering. Worship at the tabernacle of

Shiloh had been polluted. This is critical because

Samuel's birth occurred during a priestly failure

and a national spiritual decline. But God is

on the move and he's cleansing and he's removing.

The background now is setting the stage for God's

hidden work to be accomplished. God often raises

up his most chosen servants in the darkest of

times. You know, I was so encouraged when the

Lord led me this. He said, you have to change

the way you think. We think loss. We think everybody

else is succeeding and what's happening to us.

Our church is crumbling. Not our church, but

the riverbank is crumbling and all these things.

I mean, I'm telling you, Brad and I have had

all these thoughts and we've wept before the

Lord. We're like, God, what do we do? This precious

church, this precious people. And the Lord is

like, you know what? It's dark, but I am raising

up a light. And in the darkest of times, that

light is the brightest. Amen? All right, let's

look at Hannah's life. Three keys from Hannah's.

testimony. You guys doing okay? You with me?

All right. Number one, Hannah's pain. First key

that we learned from her testimony, a tomb that

was actually a womb. He is the God who conceals.

First Samuel one, now six through eight, and

her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate

her because the Lord had closed her womb. So

it went on year after year. You guys have some

rivals. Some provoking that feels like it goes

on year after year after year. Don't look at

the person next to you. As often as she went

up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke

her. Therefore, Hannah wept, would not eat. Elkanah,

her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you

weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad?

Am I not more to you than 10 sons? I think it's

important to understand that that provoking happened.

As she went up to the house of the Lord. How

often do we get provoked in the house of the

Lord? And what does it do? We get provoked enough.

We get offended. We don't like something. What

are sometimes the first words? Well, I'm out

of here. I'm not going to go to that church anymore.

I'm not going to be around that person anymore.

I'm going to just take a break. I'm going to

pull back. No, she did not. And this is the lesson

we have to understand. If that birthing of the

Samuels that are to be born in this generation

are gonna come out, we have to be willing to

go to the house of the Lord year after year,

even in the midst of the provoking, even in the

midst of the irritation. Sometimes it's the Holy

Spirit that does it and sometimes it's people,

but it's all part of God's plan. Aren't you happy

loving this message today? Hallelujah. Give me

a smile, smile. So, all right, let's keep moving

on. So verses nine, 10 and 13, after they had

eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah arose. Now

Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside

the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was

deeply distressed and wept to the Lord bitterly.

Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips

were moving, but her voice was not heard. Therefore,

Eli thought her to be a drunken woman. Sometimes

there is no words. There's no way to express

that type of prayer. And we're misunderstood.

Sometimes we feel like our voice has been taken

from us. Amen. I've been through two vocal surgeries.

A lot has had to change in the past eight to

10 years of my personal life. And everything

that... every tool that I use to sing and talk,

I've had to retrain myself. And there's been

many times that I've had to put in the ground

again, the seed of the dreams and what I love

to do and release it so that the next generation

can do it. But if I fought for the platform I

used to have 25 years ago in the beginning of

the pioneering, there would not be a Jackie up

there, a James, an Emily, a Bryce, an Alicia.

I could go on and on. I have to let things go

for the next generation. And so there's seasons

sometimes where the Lord has to silence our voice

because there's a birthing about to happen. From

all appearances, Hannah's circumstances seemed

hopeless. Her womb was closed. Her rival thrived.

Her rival was having children and she was not.

The priest misunderstood her and her husband

cared for her deeply, but he could not ease her

suffering. The Bible says that in verse five,

the Lord had actually closed her womb. Sometimes

we turn to spouses, friends, family to be the

ones to ease our suffering. And God is wanting

us to lean into him because that suffering has

a purpose. When God allows something to close,

he's not always removing life. He's concealing

it until the time. Say time. Time he knows best.

We've all had words, right? I would say whether

you've had a word in the congregation or someone

has come up to you and given you a prophetic

word or the Lord's spoken to you. And when we

get these words, our normal reaction is to focus

on the word and think about how we're going to

make this word happen. And we're looking, oh,

I even opened up a, um, ugh. What is it? A fortune

cookie and the paper in it. It's a confirmation

about my word. We're looking for it under every

rock, in every door. We're looking for it on

billboards and stickers on the back of cars.

It's like, we're just looking for the confirmation

that this word and I'm just gonna take this word

into action and I'm gonna be a great star and

God's gonna use me. We have all these things.

Come on, am I the only one that does that? All

right. But God said, no, God is in control of

the time. If we take the time out of God's hands,

we can abort the word. I was in a season, I can

relate so well to this. For 12 years, we could

not have children. 12 years, God had closed my

womb. And there was prophetic words. There was

prophets that came to the church that kept prophesying.

We even got prophesied twins. A lot of prophetic

words. A lot of people praying. A lot of dreams.

And year after year, nothing. Nothing. And 12

years later, when the miracle happened, a complete

and total shock, because I had at the 10 -year

mark said, God, I give this to you. Our family

is a family of three and that is what you've

planned and that's okay. And two years later,

God did a miracle. And I remember when I read

the test, I fell to the floor and wept. Because

I was like, I thought I suffered secretly that

I had done something. Because the Bible talks

so much about barrenness in a negative way. And

when the Lord led me to this message, he said,

I want you to understand something. There was

not, you did not do anything wrong. I was waiting

for you to birth the next generation. Our girls

are 13 and a half years apart, a generation apart.

And God was preparing what I didn't know I couldn't

see. And so I want to convey to you that if you

feel like there's the answer of the no and you're

waiting and nothing's happening and nothing's

shifting, don't think that you're doing something

wrong. You have to surrender that to the Lord

and believe that God is concealing it until the

time that he knows his best. And we have a redhead

beautiful daughter and we all love Miss Jessie

Jo. Well, I hope you all do. I love her. He gave

me a redhead on top of it. That is so beautiful.

Just a sweet little kiss from heaven. So to Hannah,

her womb looked like a place of shame, a place

of loss, a place of unanswered prayer. But heaven

saw something else. Heaven saw a womb transformed

into a sacred space where a prophet was born,

destined to guide Israel's future to listening

and following God. Listen, the nation stopped

listening to God. There was corruption in the

house of the Lord. And what if that's what's

happening now? God is birthing. He's looking

for a people that will birth Samuels, that will

say, I am going to follow God. I'm going to listen

to God, not my version of God. I could go off

on that, but I won't. There's safety in a multitude

of counselors. And so the key is that God is

wanting to release Joel over us where it talks

about, in the last days, I will pour out my spirit

on all flesh. Come on, it's time that we be a

prophetic people, everyone prophesying, everyone

declaring the word of the Lord, but it has to

be the word of the Lord, okay? Not the word of

your soul and not the word that you want to be

said with your timing. the word of the Lord.

So we have to go through the tomb time for that

to happen. This became the very platform that

God would use to display his glory to his people.

What Hannah experienced as barrenness was not

a tomb. It was a womb. Even though in her mind,

she had considered her womb to be dead. It was

living and alive, waiting for God's timing. Come

on, I want you to hear me say that. There's things

in your life that you have to say, Lord, it's

not dead. My womb was not dead. God knew the

timing for the next child to be born and what

life Bible needed. I could tell you more, but

I'm not going to. That's not my message today.

But God has unraveled so many things about his

timing with me. And you know what? I have had

to surrender a lot of my own mistakes thinking

that I heard God when I really didn't. I heard

my soul. Your soul can want something so much

that it can sound like God. With the Lord, we

must keep in mind that he does not see suffering

the way we do. Our human nature wants to avoid

it at all costs. However, God uses suffering

to produce the depth of faith and reliance on

him. If gemstones and precious metals like pearls,

diamonds, gold, and silver could talk, they tell

us about their amazing journeys that they've

been on to become so beautiful, valuable, and

wanted. Factors such as heat, pressure, irritation,

and time represents the challenges that they

encounter during their formation. Ultimately,

these demanding conditions yield results of exceptional

worth. Often adorning royalty, these materials

derive their significance from the rigorous transformations

that they endure. I want to be a ruby. You want

to be a ruby. You want to be a diamond. You want

to be a pearl. Hannah's sorrow was born from

the brokenness of polygamy, a form of marriage

where one person is married to more than one

spouse at a time. That's rough. Though permitted

under the old covenant, scripture still says

it was a breeding ground for strife and sorrow.

And she lived in a constant place of rivalry

and jealousy. Hannah's grief was genuine. It

was not sinful. And that's the key that even

God had to show me. He said, your grief, there

was not a sin that caused your womb to be closed.

It was a time where you were crying out and preparing

with me what I have purposed. From the beginning

of Genesis, God wove into a woman's heart the

desire to carry and nurture a child. For Hannah,

the holy longing became a deep ache, a quiet,

relentless emptiness, not just the absence of

a child, but the promise, the presence of a promise

she could feel but not hold. All right, let's

look at some keys within Hannah's pain. I gotta

move along, but I'm gonna give you a few keys.

Number one, let trials cultivate the fruit of

the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 through 23, you're

all familiar with that. Also James 1, 2 through

4, write both those scriptures down. In the waiting,

God shapes patience, faith, gentleness, and self

-control. Number two, trials serve as opportunities

for growth. Spiritual growth as demonstrated

by Hannah's life. Romans 8 .18 and 2 Corinthians

4 .17. This momentary light affliction, which

affliction is pressure, crushing, trials, refers

to something being squeezed, is preparing us

for an eternal weight of glory. I don't have

time to go over the four things that affliction

represents, but I'm gonna tell you this. When

you read a scripture like this, this light momentary

affliction is preparing us for the eternal weight

of glory. So when we measure affliction, we often

measure our affliction against someone else's

affliction. And it's heavy. Come on, affliction

means pressure, crushing, squeezing. That's heavy.

Why does the scripture call it light? because

we're to measure it against the weight of glory.

So you take a scale out, you put glory on one

side and you put your affliction on the other

side, the glory is gonna by far measure the heaviest.

So in every area of our life, whatever you're

facing, whatever affliction, pressure, crushing,

jealousies, insecurities, self -pity, low self

-esteem, you can't hear God, bitterness. whatever,

I could go on and on. You can't measure your

affliction against someone else's affliction.

You have to measure it against the weight of

the glory of God because that affliction is the

preparation so that you can receive the weight

of the glory. There's purpose. It's not just,

oh, my life is rough and everybody else is getting

a better, has a better path and has a better

family and a better generation and all these

things have happened to me. No, God does not

waste anything. Your affliction is preparing

you because of the weight of the glory isn't,

you can't even compare. And so you have to measure

it against the weight of the glory of God. Paul

doesn't minimize affliction. He maximizes glory.

When eternity is considered, suffering becomes

light because glory is infinitely heavier. Despite

all this, Hannah's pain did not make her bitter

towards God. It made her desperate for him. And

this is exactly where God does his greatest work.

The second key to Hannah's testimony is Hannah's

prayer. The womb or desperation births destiny.

Hannah's grief drove her to the temple of God,

not away from it. Don't let your grief, don't

let your season drive you away from the house

of God. Let it drive you to the house of God.

Number two, it stripped her of religious performance.

It made her so desperate that this image that

she was trying to portray and trying to imitate

someone else, it stripped her of it because of

her desperation. That's what God wants to do

in all of us. It caused her to pray agonizing

prayers from her spirit, not her soul. Sometimes

we start in the spirit. I've done that. I do

still. I start in the spirit, but I gotta get

in. I'm sorry, I start in the soul, but I gotta

get to the spirit. Those agonizing prayers, the

suffering, the pain, the disappointment, but

I gotta get out of that and into the spirit.

It caused her to move from her confession of

doubt and unbelief and fear to the confession

of faith. Hannah did not conceive Samuel casually.

She conceived him through tears. She conceived

him through misunderstanding. She conceived him

through prolonged waiting. And she conceived

him through full surrender. 1 Peter 1, six through

seven, just write that scripture down. Psalms

126, five. Though we sow in tears, we shall reap

with shouts of joy. Her tears were not weakness,

they were labor pains. Labor pains. So let's

look at some keys within her prayer. Number one,

know your source. Just like Hannah, she turned

to the Lord of hosts. She wasn't looking for

help from people. Sometimes, yes, the suffering

comes from people, but our source is the Lord

of hosts. And we turn to him and we recognize

that people cannot help our suffering and they

cannot define our suffering because they're trying

to define their own. 1 Samuel 1, 10 through 11.

She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord

and wept bitterly. She vowed a vow and said,

O Lord of hosts, if you will look on the affliction

of your servant, come on, your servant, we should

be praying that, and remember me and not forget

your servant, but will give to your servant a

son, then I will give him to the Lord all the

days of his life and no razor shall touch his

head. Number two, pour out your soul honestly.

God can tolerate our bitterness and our tears

and our confusion. He values your honesty over

pretense. He values our honesty. That's the transition

of the soul being poured out and moving into

that place of the Spirit. Prayer is not just

speaking, it's an acting, yielding oneself that

was precisely the nature of Hannah's prayer,

a complete surrender of your soul. You need to

write that down. Lord, I wanna go to a place

where I have a complete surrender. You guys know

what the soul is? You probably do, but I'll tell

you anyway. Mind, it's our mind, it's our will,

and it's our emotions, and it's eternal. Okay,

our flesh, thankfully, is not eternal. You know,

as it ages and changes and all that, that's not

eternal. You'll have a beautiful body in heaven.

Sometimes I have to close my eyes and think,

what's it gonna look like? What am I gonna look

like in heaven? It makes me feel better about

how I look now. But our soul is the area of our

mind, the area of our will, and the area of our

emotions that like to drive the car. And like,

you know, most of us, maybe they're like a five

-year -old. or seven -year -old, or 12 -year

-old that think they can drive their car because

they've watched you drive. So because you drive

and I've watched you drive, I can drive. No,

I don't think so. But that's what happens. And

so we pour our soul out in honesty to the Lord

and he brings us in alignment to the spirit.

We don't stay living in that place of the soul.

I know you understand, you guys got this. Number

three, stay humbled and surrendered. Stay humbled

and surrendered. Hannah's journey reaches its

deepest and most transformative moment in the

union between her prayer and her vow. Her prayer

is the outpouring of a desperate heart. Her vow

is the surrender of a yielded heart. The outpouring

of a desperate heart. And we can't just stay

at the prayer church. We have to go to the vow.

And that's where it moves to the surrender of

the yielded heart. Together, they form the womb

in which God conceived destiny. What looks like

a tomb of loss or barrenness is often the womb

where God creates his greatest works. Number

four, Hannah's prayer was not polished or performative.

It was a soul outpouring. She did not hide her

anguish. She brings it raw before God. You've

got to get raw before God. You have to get robbed

before God. I've told my children, I said, listen,

and I learned this from my mother, when I would

wanna go tattle or have a problem or I would

complain or I just didn't like my life in the

moment, my mom would say to me and I tell it

to my girls, I've told it their whole lives,

you go tell the Lord about it and then we'll

talk. But I want you to go tell the Lord. And

I've taught them that from the time they were

little. I've been doing that since I was young.

I know you've all heard this story, but it's

important that you go. How many times? Parents,

tell your kids the same. Send them to the Lord.

Teach them how to pour their soul out to God.

Number five, she knew where her soul could find

rest, even in the midst of her pain. Psalms 62,

one through two. My soul finds rest in God alone.

My salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock

and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never

be shaken. I love that verse. I wish I could

preach a message on that verse. He is my rock.

Sometimes we call people our rock. We say, well,

he's my rock or she's my rock or da, da, da.

No, he's my rock. Sorry. I don't like that though.

I will never be shaken because I'm standing on

the rock and I'm not alone. I'm not alone. You're

not alone. Number six, Hannah's prayer is marked

by perseverance, a persistent, unrelenting cry

that refuses to quit. Come on, when we came face

to face with this riverbank situation, we were

told $10 million just to potentially save it.

But you have to get permits and they may or may

not. I mean, $10 million, but when we were told,

we were like, we're not gonna quit. We're not

gonna quit. We don't know what we're doing. We

don't know where it's gonna come from. We don't

know what's happening, but we're gonna keep advancing

as Riverbank is, you know, losing ground. And

then God sends this miracle of someone that can

do it for 2 .5 million. That's a lot of money,

but take 2 .5 in comparison to 10 million. Light

affliction, the weight of glory. Come on. There's

still affliction, but the weight of glory. And

we rejoice. over 2 .5 million. We would have

never rejoiced over 2 .5 million had there not

been a 10 million. Just saying. All right. Third

key to Hannah's testimony. You guys doing all

right? Take a deep breath. We're getting there.

Number three. So we had Hannah's pain, Hannah's

prayer. Number three, Hannah's promise. The surrender

that secures the breakthrough. It's important

we understand that. Our surrender. Even though

we don't see the breakthrough yet, it secures

the breakthrough. Now comes the moment of faith

after Eli says, go in peace, the God of Israel

will grant your petition. Hannah's countenance

changes before her circumstances do. She's a

living example of this. Believe that you have

received. Hannah becomes a living portrait of

sorrow plus persistence, plus faith, plus surrender.

One of the most striking elements of Hannah's

story is that she was willing to give back what

she had waited for. God often asks us to return

the very miracle he gives us, not to remove it,

but to secure it. When God gave us the miracle

of Jesse Joe, and we had waited a long time,

and I knew that the Lord knew that my heart would

start to become so... tied to this miracle child

that it would potentially compromise my relationship

with him. And he asked me one day, some of you

have heard this, but I'm going to say it because

I think it fits with our message. He asked me,

she was about two and a half. And he said, what

if my plan for her is to only live to be the

age of three and you only have her for three

years? And I take her home because heaven needs

a little redhead. I was like, what? At first

I was rebuking the enemy thinking it was demonic.

And the Lord's like, no, I wanna know. Am I enough

for you? Would you still love me? Would you still

serve me? Would you still do all that I've appointed

you to do? If three years old and I took her

home, Would you still thank me for the miracle?

Would you still testify? And would I be as much

to you as I was before and more? And I wrestled

with that. But I knew that God was putting me

into a Hannah experience. And he said, you give

her back to me. I will secure it. And so he didn't.

She's here and she's, praise God, she's going

to live a long life. I believe that as long as

she obeys. Children, obey your parents and the

Lord for this is right. And it is a promise of

long life. You all got that? Amen. All the kids,

right? I preach at Gen Church. Sometimes we have

to enforce those little verses, right? All right.

So her vow was breathtaking in its costliness.

1 Samuel 1 .11, she just says, Lord, I give him

back to you. I read that scripture already. This

was not an emotional bargaining for... for Hannah,

this was consecration. And church, that's what

the Lord told me as I was preparing this message.

He said, you're in a season of consecration.

And so God's cleaning out, he's shaking, he's

removing. Some of you have been experiencing

it, right? And God is working to consecrate us

and to prepare us because there's life to come

out of us. She was not manipulating God. She

was aligning herself with his purpose. This is

something the Lord has had to teach me, and we

need to remember this. This life within me, she

said, this life within me is not mine. It belongs

to God. Now, we may not be pregnant and having

an actual natural baby, but you need to say that

of yourself. This life of what I represent is

not mine. It belongs to him. And wow, if we could

all be in that place, that's the consecration.

In John 10, 18, Jesus said this, no one takes

my life from me. I lay it down of my own free

will. Her surrender is real, tangible, and costly.

A few keys within Hannah's promise. I'm just

going to give you these really quickly. Number

one, receive God's word with faith before you

see the answer. Receive God's word. Believe means

to trust, perceive, visualize the answer, receive,

take hold of it, and conceive. Completed action.

Faith is present tense reception, not future

tense hope. Present tense. We believe we receive

the answer before we even see it, and this aligns

with what Hannah did before she held her baby,

before even conception. She received it inwardly.

Number two, recognize your influence. You might

feel like you're not seen just like Hannah, but

our faith has the power to create the next Samuel.

Do not lose your faith. Do not get discouraged.

Do not get sucked into the dark season and the

womb season. Hebrews 11, 39 talks about the great

cloud of witnesses and those that died in their

faith. They're cheering us on. They're going,

look, we can't cross the finish line till you

get here. Why are you taking? so much time. Stop

wasting the time on yourself. We want to cross

the finish line. The greats have gone on before

us, church. You're part of that. We're part of

the great assembly. God is positioning our church.

This affliction, this season that we're in is

preparation. Some of us may not receive it in

this lifetime. There may be things that God has

promised you that you're just to pray in, but

it's gonna come in the next generation. But your

faith is gonna cause you to line the heavens

and prepare and be prepared for when the victory

and when we cross the finish line together. So

we're not in this journey alone. Heaven is in

it with us. Get your mind off yourself. Get your

mind out of this world. Get it off the news and

get it on the kingdom. Come on, get it on the

kingdom because heaven is cheering. Cheering

us on. I love it. Heaven's cheering us on. Number

three, keep your vows, integrity, manners. God

honors those who keep their word. A promise made

to God is a sacred thing. Hannah kept hers and

history was shaped by her obedience. If we wanna

have the ushers begin to prepare the table, we're

gonna take the table of the Lord together. Three

ways that God responds to Hannah. Number one,

multiplication. Listen to this. What is released

to God is never lost. What is surrendered is

never wasted. And what is given back is multiplied.

Hannah, after she gave Samuel, gave birth to

five more children, three sons and two daughters.

And that is the beautiful picture of grace. Galatians

6, 9, in due season, we will reap if we do not

give up. Number two, miracle working power. Hannah's

pain made her desperate. Her prayer is the cry

that brought an open heaven and her promise was

the surrender that secured the miracle. Hannah

illustrates that the greatest breakthroughs occur

when three things happen. Number one, desperation

meets surrender. Number two, faith meets obedience.

And number three, our deepest longings are placed

back into God's hands. Her life teaches us that

the womb of surrender is never a place of loss.

It is the birthplace of legacy. The last one,

the great legacy. When Samuel was born, it was

not merely the end of Hannah's suffering. It

was the beginning of something greater. And that's

what you have to understand. What's going on

in your life, whether you're birthing another

child, or you're birthing something that you

have been waiting for and not received the answers,

what you don't know is God is working the legacy

of the next generation in you. And that something

greater than you, God is doing. And that's where,

if we're not careful, We will get so caught up

in ourselves. We can't forget how much God values

our journey, even when we face sacrifice, trials,

release, disappointment, loss, even moments of

shame, delay, and hiddenness. These experiences

are all part of his preparation for us to become

the vessel through which the divine plan of God

is born. Amen. We're gonna prepare our hearts

to take communion this morning. Hannah's story

shows us that God does his deepest work in hidden

places. We need to trust God in the silence of

surrender with what we love the most. If you

just close your eyes with me, I wanna talk about

this. Sometimes God, not sometimes, most of the

time, God puts us in places and he keeps us hidden

because it's a season, thank you, of surrendering

what we love the most. It's easy to feel self

-pity or loneliness, but we must believe in him

before we see the promise. Nothing surrendered

with God is wasted and nothing placed in God's

hands fails to bear fruit. And it's time. Some

of you have been in a place where you feel like

your life is in a tomb, a closed door, a silent

heaven, a barren season, an unanswered prayer.

But what if it's not a tomb? What if it's a womb?

What if it's the place you've labeled death is

actually divine gestation? Hannah thought she

was carrying shame, but heaven knew she was carrying

a profit. You may feel your caring disappointment,

but heaven may be forming destiny. Jesus said

in John 12, 24, unless a grain of wheat falls

to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But

if it dies, it bears much fruit. God, we're willing

to be that grain of wheat. We're willing to die

so that we're not alone. So that our life, is

not what we want it to be, but it's formed for

you, God, for the next generation, the next season.

Lord, I'm asking as we all come before you this

morning and we prepare to take the table of the

Lord, we realize that you're not asking for perfection.

God, you're asking for surrender. And so today,

Lord, we give you our dreams. We give you our

timeline. We give you our children. We give you

our ministry. We give you our reputation. And

God, we give you our unanswered prayer. Lord,

we come to this table and we remember the most

beautiful sacrifice. And we do this in remembrance

of you, that you allowed your body to be broken

and your blood to be poured out. You withheld

nothing. You surrendered so that our salvation

could be secure. Thank you for your surrender

that we will be eternally saved. So God, in all

of our hearts today, you don't know the Lord

this morning. You've not experienced personal

relationship with him. I just would ask if you

just slip your hand up. I want to make sure that

you have an opportunity to just say, Lord, I

invite you into my heart. Maybe you need to do

it again. Maybe there's been a season of you

just pulling away. He birthed us. He went through

the pain. He went through the labor. He poured

out his body. And that's why we take the table

of the Lord, to remember what he's done for us.

We are so grateful for those who tune in each

week and have given generously to this ministry.

If you would like to give, click the link in

the episode description below. You can also help

us by subscribing to this podcast and sharing

it with your friends and family. Lastly, if you

are in need of prayer, send us a text message

at 541 -625 -1365. We would love to pray with

you.