The Lord Remembers the Brokenhearted | 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 05/10/26

That is our great and glorious hope.

That is what uh opens our hearts to be

able to hang in there through the trials

of this life. Look at verse two with me.

You just sang it. What a blessed hope

though now what?

Oh, we don't There it is. Okay. What a

blessed hope though now tired and worn,

we will spend eternity around our

Savior's throne. Look at the next part.

Hang on just a minute, guys, with the

outlines. Just stay right up here in the

front. Though we grieve our losses, we

grieve not in vain. For we know our

crown of glory waits beyond the grave.

You see, the Christian's hope and the

Christian's joy is far beyond um our

current circumstances, and we rejoice in

that. I don't know of a more appropriate

sermon, I mean, a more appropriate song

to come before this message than that

one. Okay guys, if you have not received

an outline, would you please do two

things? Number one, receive an outline

right now. Lift up your hand. These guys

will give one to you. And number two, if

you would, I'd like to ask you to take

out your Bible. Uh, take one of the pew

Bibles in front of you. The scripture is

not printed on your outline today. So,

everyone needs a Bible. Everyone needs a

Bible. Um, and I want to encourage you

to open to the table of contents. And

we'll get to that in just a minute. So

have your Bible open, open to the table

of contents, and then look at your

sermon outline. So get yourself situated

as I share with you this. You know, it's

really interesting. There's a lot of

things about motherhood that seem

ultimate. Um, some great things and some

difficult things. I remember this as a

kid growing up, and maybe some of you

remember this as well. You remember when

you're in middle school or you're in

high school and there were some of those

rough and tumble years? I don't know

about gals, but among guys, the ultimate

insult

The ultimate insult in a verbal fight

was bringing up what?

>> Your mother.

I'm serious. I I experienced that. Now,

I know times have changed a little bit.

Some of kids are maybe looking at us

like, "You did what?" Well, I mean, you

know, you know how it goes. I mean, I'll

never forget Nathan Billingsley said

this one time. We were joking around

about something and he goes, "Ah, your

mama wears combat boots." And I didn't

quite understand that except I've never

seen a mother in combat boots. And at

that time, um, now we know women often

go into battle. I I think about some of

our women that have worn combat boots.

Um, great, but you know, it was an

insult. And one guy would say, "No, you

know what? Your mother." And the guy

would go, "No, you know what? Your

mother." Have you ever heard that

before? You ever seen that in a movie?

You know, everybody's talking about he

said something about my mother. That's

it. You know, that's what breaks out

into blows, right? So, the ultimate

insult in part because, you know, that's

a sacred place. It's a sacred place to

us, motherhood.

We we would often say in and many of the

women in this room have experienced an

ultimate joy, an ultimate joy of having

a baby that once you nurtured on the

inside that finally you get to nurture

on the outside. and all of the pain and

all of the difficulty of childbirth

turns into tears of joy and some have

experienced that. Well, to the converse

of that, not being able to experience

that can be an ultimate sorrow and we we

recognize that or some who have

experienced birth but then have

experienced the sorrow of the loss of a

child which we look at that and we say

it's just not supposed to be that way.

and we would say, "That's exactly

right."

This morning, I had a phone call with my

other brother-in-law, Marcy's other

brother,

and we were talking about Mother's Day

and getting things ready for Mimi out in

Oklahoma and super excited about that.

And um

I said, "Jamie, we're praying for you

guys today. Today will be their first

Mother's Day. This will be Courtney's

first Mother Day, Mother's Day without

their 23-year-old Tempy.

This last year, due to severe mental

illness, um she took her own life.

Wasn't involving drugs, wasn't involving

bad people. It was a severe mental

illness. And you can imagine the pain

that Courtney feels today. And I think

about women in this room who have

experienced the identical thing. The

identical thing. So there are this is

one of those bipolar moments. If you

think about it, this is a bipolar day

and that there's a some ultimate joys

here, but there's also the potential for

some ultimate sorrows.

And what you've heard me say over and

over and over again that I love about

the word of God is that the word of God

is so honest and it is so rich and it is

so organic to us because God is organic

to us. God knows us better than we know

ourselves. He knows us in our being. He

knows us in our design. He knows us.

Listen to this. In our fallen

brokenness, he knows our world and its

pains.

He knows the failures. He knows the

things that were not originally designed

for that. But because

of what happened in the Garden of Eden

and what's happened in every one of our

lives as we entered in to Adam and Eve's

sin, we know that death has entered into

this living life.

And so we experience the the feelings of

that. We experience the reality of that

in our life. And so when we come to

preach on this, you know, there's a lot

of pastors who won't even who won't ever

deal with Mother's Day or they deal with

Mother's Day and it's all in platitudes.

It's all everybody's happy and

everything and and the person who has

some reasons to have some struggle

because of whatever it may be men or

women I should say women or men too we

can often ignore those. But today

there's a message here for us that's

encouraging I believe to all of us in

whatever circumstances that we come to.

There's some joys because I don't know

of a mother no matter how idllic her

circumstance you know there's there

there's not been infertility there's not

been difficulty in those things there's

not but I still don't know a mother

that has gone through parenting

without pain.

I don't know of a mother where there

hasn't been frustrations.

I mean, if your kid made it to middle

school, there's been frustrations,

right? Middle schoolers, not hacking on

you too bad. But just know, I mean, it's

difficult. Parents are sitting there

going, "What? This little kid had it all

together for a while. Everything was in

a line. Everything was perfect. And then

something happened."

And then they learned to talk back.

Wow. They never used to do that. They

they used to be happy about everything

and now they're happy about nothing.

What do I do with this?

We've all experience pain. It's just a

matter of different levels. And so

today, as we come to this topic, I I

want us to look and I want us to be

encouraged. I I I really believe that

God has a word for us in this. And I

believe that we can be encouraged. And

we are going to read a good little

section of scripture. There'll be a few

names here that are kind of interesting

to us. But first of all, I want to say

this. We're we're coming to Samuel and I

want you to notice in your in your table

of contents. I' I've asked you to go

there purposely. I want you to look at

this for especially for those of you who

are new to the study of the Bible. Of

course, the Bible is divided in two

major sections, Old Testament, New

Testament. And there's different

sections within the Old Testament um as

well as the New Testament. But look at

your Old Testament. What does it start

off with? What's the first book listed

there?

>> Genesis. Well, those first five books

are what we call the pentetuk or the

Torah. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, Deuteronomy. This is the law of

Moses. This is written by Moses given.

This is where your ten commandments are.

This is where we see God initially

dealing with our patriarchs. Um, from

Noah to Abraham. Uh, we we see God

dealing with Joseph. We see Jacob. We we

we see the patriarchs here and then we

come to the period of the judges. So it

starts off with Joshua judges Ruth and

then look at this. You see what's the

next one after Ruth?

>> First Samuel. And so there's a

transition here from what we call the

period of the judges who were judges

that were leading Israel to the

transition to the kings. The people

said, "We want a king." God said, "No,

let me be your king." And they said,

"No, other nations have kings. We want

kings."

And so God in his grace was working with

them. And he in his providence, he knew

that we had to learn that he alone

should be our king. But he works with

them. And so he gives them a man named

Samuel.

And here we start and we see first and 2

Samuel. Now, on your outline there, I

want you to notice this and you can fill

this in before we read the text. You

need to know a little bit about who

Samuel was. Even though this message

really isn't about his life, you need to

know about the importance of his life so

that you get the context of who his

mother was. So, who was Samuel? This is

on your outline. Samuel was the last

great judge of Israel, the first major

prophet after Moses. And the man, look

at this, the man God used to lead Israel

from the chaotic period of the judges

cuz all of that was breaking down into

the era of the kings. So this is the the

period this is the man that God would

use leading them from judges to kings.

Now Samuel was the bridge between the

time time of the judges and the rise of

King David. The most now there was a

first king, King Saul was absolute

disaster, but it was King David that God

through his lineage is going to bring

ultimately the Messiah. So notice this

on your outline there. Samuel was the

bridge between the time of the judges

and the rise of King David. And look at

this. He's helping set the stage for

God's unfolding plan of redemption

through Christ.

So, this is all part of God's plan. This

is all part of the ark. So, some of you

are new here today and you're saying,

"Wow, these people like look at the Old

Testament." Oh, yeah. The Old Testament

is really important. And the Old

Testament is what brings about the

setting and the promise of the Messiah,

which we see in the New Testament. But

notice, God is at work and what he was

doing in this period is extremely

important to us. understanding who he is

and who we are or really who we are not

because the lesson great lesson of the

Old Testament is you really cannot save

yourself.

You God will be with you. God will do

all of these things. He will bless you.

He will set you up and you ultimately

will fail in trying to save yourself.

The Ten Commandments, yes, were given to

us so that we would be protected by them

and so that our lives would be better.

But one of the great lessons of the ten

commandments is no one has kept them. No

one has perfectly fulfilled the law. And

that's why we need a law fulfiller. And

the law fulfiller is Jesus Christ who

would do that. And so we see that this

is all about the redemption. So Samuel

is a big deal to us. Moses was a big

deal to us. And Christ of course is the

ultimate deal to us. But I want you to

think about Moses's birth. Do you

remember what happened with Moses when

he was born?

Pharaoh made a declaration that all the

Jews in Egypt that all of the newborn

babies should be put to death, should be

thrown into the Nile. And so Moses's own

mother and Moses so much rides on Moses.

God made a plan to use Moses in a very

powerful way to show us his salvation.

Think about it with me. Moses is taken

and put in put in a basket and he's

saved there in that river of death for

babies. He is saved with a little ark.

And that little ark carries him until

God's providential plan to bring Moses

into Pharaoh's house. And then God is

going to use Moses in order to bring

salvation of Egypt out of bondage and

slavery. And so it's very interesting to

me that very often in the scripture when

we see God is using a consequential

figure, his birth, the beginning of his

life is a really big deal. And we see

that not just with Moses. And we see

that not just with Jesus, born of a

virgin, born in austerity, born under

threat, but we also see a great struggle

around the birth of this important

figure, Samuel. We see a great struggle

with his birth and his concept. So, it's

going to be from God. It's going to be

God's providence. It's going to be God

working because God has a plan for this.

And that's where we come to this

passage. Now, notice this, the account

of Samuel's mother's trouble. That's

what we're going to be reading. His

mother's trouble and his special birth.

And so, in this story, we're going to

see a few key figures um that are really

important. And I've outlined it here so

it's not too confusing to you. I pray um

I want you to see this because we're

going to read it quickly and I want you

to follow along as best you can. But

look at the key players. The first one

um that's mentioned here is Elcana.

Elcana is Samuel's father. And then who

is Samuel's mother?

>> Hannah. Put a big circle around Hannah

and that that whole little line there.

Put Sam Hannah's mother. That's that's

our key focus here. And then there's

Eli, their priest, the priest there in

the temple. And we're going to see how

this fits. And then there's some

secondary figures.

Look at the first one there is Panenna.

Panenna is another wife of Elcana. So

it's kind of like a stepmom but another

wife of Elcana. And then we also see

Eli's two sons, Hoffnney and Phineas.

And this the scripture says these were

his worthless sons. So, what's really

interesting to me just in these two

chapters,

we see one son who God is going to use

to bring about his grand plan through

King David's lineage in anointing him as

king that's going to bring the Messiah.

And we see two other sons of of a priest

who the Bible calls are worthless. They

were ungodly men. They did greatly

ungodly things. They perverted the

temple. They used the temple worship for

their own gain. They were wicked men.

And it was because Eli was not attentive

to his sons. And so, we see this whole

thing of parenting going on here. And we

see it's all in God's work and his plan

in our story of redemption. And this is

part of the reason I love the Bible so

much because it's just so honest. If we

will take the time to start to read and

mine out God's works of the past, we

begin to see his heart and his work

toward us. And so, let's read the story

um very quickly. I want you to see this

and um just follow along carefully. I'll

I'll call out the verse numbers so you

can stay with us as we go. 1st Samuel 1

and verse one it says there was a

certain man of Raman Zofheim in the hill

country of Ephraim whose name was Elcana

a son of Jero son of Eliu son of Tohu

son of Zuf and Ephraimite

he had two wives the Bible doesn't say

that's right the Bible doesn't say

that's wrong it just simply tells us he

had two wives

The name of the one was Hannah and the

name of the other was Pinaniah

and Penana had children but Hannah had

what?

>> No children.

>> Okay. So here we see this guy has two

wives. One of them has children. The

other one does not.

Now this man used to go up year by year

from his city to worship. That means

going up to the temple in Jerusalem. It

was at a higher elevation. Um so when

you would come from miles around

Jerusalem is a high place. It's actually

Mount Mariah. So notice this. They would

go up year after year from his city to

worship to sacrifice to the Lord of

hosts at Shiloh. and where the two sons

of Eli, Hoffni and Phineas, were priests

to the Lord. So there's those two guys

that were worthless. They're priests of

the Lord. On the day that Elcana

sacrificed, he would give portions to

Penaniah, his wife, and to all her sons

and daughters.

But to Hannah, he gave what?

>> A double portion because he loved her.

though the Lord had closed her womb.

Notice that her womb was closed and it

was it says here clearly the Lord had

closed her womb and her rival that's

Paniah her rival used to provoke her

grievously to irritate her because the

Lord had closed her womb. Wow. So, not

only is there the injury

of her womb being closed, but there's

the insult to her injury. It's the

rubbing the salt into the womb

that she was experienced. Poor Hannah

was experiencing.

And so, notice this in verse 7. So, it

went on year by year.

as often as she went up to the house of

the Lord, she used to provoke her.

Therefore, Hannah wept and could not

eat. And Elcana

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?" Now, that's a husband

that doesn't have a confidence problem.

And he may be delusional. I don't know.

But it does say that he loved her. And

it does say then he gave Hannah more

than all of not only his other wife and

her children. You say, "Well, aren't

that that's not fair. There's injustices

in the Bible." Oh, the Bible, it's it's

never about fairness. Never. If we got

fairness, we would have no hope. Let me

remind you of that.

It's about grace

and it's about love. And he loved her

and gave to her, but yet he did not

understand her.

After they had eaten and drunk at

Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest.

So here comes the the priest enters the

story. Now Eli the priest was sitting on

the seat beside the doorpost of the

temple of the Lord.

She was, what does it say there?

>> Deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord

and what?

>> Wept bitterly. This is a woman who's

really in sorrow.

And she vowed a vow and said, "Oh Lord

of hosts, if you will indeed look upon

look on the affliction of your servant

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 nose razor

shall touch his head." So the idea is as

a Nazerite vow would that he would be

set aside and a sign that he wouldn't

have his haircut, a sign that this man

serves the Lord. Maybe I should grow my

hair out and long. So the, you know, one

who serves, you know,

verse 12,

and she continued praying before the

Lord.

Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was

speaking in her heart.

Only her lips moved and her voice was

not heard. Therefore, Eli took her to be

a drunken woman.

Wow.

So, first of all, her womb's clothed

closed and then her rival harasses her

day after day, year after year. And now

the man of God thinks she's just drunk

when she's actually in the midst of deep

prayer.

Verse verse 14. And Eli said to her,

"How long will you go on being drunk?

Put your wine away from you." But an but

Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord.

I am a tr woman troubled in spirit. I

have drunk neither wine nor strong

drink, but I have been pouring out my

soul before the Lord. Now, if you have

your own Bible, if you have your own

Bible, take your pen and underline that

statement at the end of verse 15. But I

have been pouring out my soul

before the Lord.

Verse 16, she says to him, "Do not

regard your servant as a worthless

woman, for all along I have been

speaking out of my great anxiety and

vexation."

Then Eli answered, "Go in peace, and the

God of Israel grant your petition that

you've made of him." And she said, "Let

your servant find favor in your eyes."

The woman Then the woman went her way

and ate and her face was no longer sad.

That's very interesting.

She poured her heart out before the Lord

and she rose up. She ate and her face

was no longer sad. They rose early in

the morning and worshiped before the

Lord. Then they came back to their house

at Rama and Ela. Ela knew Hannah his

wife. That means they had sexual

relations. Elcana knew his wife, Hannah,

his wife. And the Lord remembered her.

And in due time Hannah conceived and

bore a son, and she called his name

Samuel, for she said, "I have asked for

him from the Lord."

Now look verse 21.

Then Elcana and all his house went up to

offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice

and to pay vow. But Hannah did not go.

For she said to her husband, "As soon as

the child is weaned, I will bring him so

that he will appear in the presence of

the Lord." And look what it says there,

"and dwell there forever." So she

finally got this baby. And what is she

going to do? She's going to fulfill the

vow, the deal that she made with God.

He will be yours soon as he can live on

his own. I will give him to you. And

this is exactly what

she does. Okana her husband said to her,

"Do what seems best to you. Wait until

you have weaned him. Only may the Lord

establish his word." So the woman

remained and nursed her son until she

weaned him. And when she had weaned him,

she took him up with her along with a

three-year-old bull and of flour and a

skin of wine. and she brought him to the

house of the Lord at Shiloh and the

child was young. Then they slaughtered

the bull and they brought the child to

Eli. So this is a a ceremony. This is a

ceremony of sacrifice, a ceremony of

giving and giving that which is dead and

giving that which is alive.

And she said, "Oh my Lord, as you live,

my Lord, I am the woman who was standing

here in your presence praying to the

Lord for this child. I prayed and the

Lord has granted me my pos petition that

I made to him. Therefore, verse 28,

therefore I have lent him to the Lord.

As long as he lives, he is lent to the

Lord. Now, there's a recognition here is

that it is her child that God gave to

her. But then she is doing what? She is

and that will never not be her child.

But what she's saying is is now even

though we recognize this is my child, I

am giving him to the Lord's purposes

and he worshiped the Lord there.

Now chapter 2 looks different in your

Bible. Chapter 2, it's not in paragraph

form. It's now in an outline form. And

the outline form represents this as

poetry. So this is Hebrew poetry. In

fact, this is poetry that Hannah writes

and that she prays to the Lord. Look

what she does. My heart exalts in the

Lord. My horn is exalted in sal in in

the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies

because I rejoice in your salvation.

She's saying, God, those who hate you, I

hate. Those who love you, I love. She's

saying, Lord, I'm on your team. I'm with

you. I don't go after the pagan gods.

Lord, I see you as the one true God.

That's what she's saying there by that

statement with the enemies. Verse two,

there is none holy like the Lord. There

is none besides you. There is no rock

like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly. Let not

arrogance come from your mouth. For the

Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him

actions are weighed. The bows of the

mighty are broken, but the feeble bind

on strength.

Those who were full have hired

themselves out for bread, but those who

were hungry have ceased have ceased to

hunger. The barren has borne seven, but

she who has many children is for lawn.

She's saying that knowing God, serving

God is better than anything else. The

Lord kills and brings to life. He brings

down to shiel and raises up. The Lord

makes poor and makes rich. He brings low

and he exalts. You see, this was a woman

who knew God.

Verse eight, he raises up the poor from

the dust. He lifts the needy from the

ash heap to make them sit with princes

and inherit a seat of honor. For the

pillars of the earth are the lords, and

on them he has set the world. This is

the God of all things. He will guard the

feet of his faithful ones, but the

wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For

not by might shall a man prevail. The

adversaries of the Lord shall be broken

to pieces. Against them he will thunder

in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends

of the earth. He will give strength to

his king and exalt the horn of his

anointed.

So here we see this glorious picture of

a woman who is transformed from ultimate

sorrow, pain, and sadness to seeing that

God is a God who rules and reigns over

all things regardless of her

circumstances.

And we can gain some real things from

this. Very quickly, I want you to see

and be encouraged by her life. First of

all, I want to see this. The big

picture, let's just get the big picture

and we can take this home with us. The

big picture is this, that God sees the

silent sorrows that people carry.

God sees the silent sorrows that people

carry. Not only does he see the silent

sorrows, but he honors the humble faith.

He honors humble faith. And he works

through imperfect and painful

situations. Yes.

>> So, he works through imperfect and

painful situations. So, um just kind of

notice these and notice the screen

that's in front of you. I've gone to the

next slide where it says he sees, he

honors, and he works. So, he sees the

sorrow, he honors the humility, and he

works through the situation. And why

does he do these things? I want you to

notice this. This is what this passage

is showing us. to display his grace and

to raise up worshippers for his glory.

So God is always at work. He's at work

in every story of the Old Testament.

He's at work in everything he does

through the life of Christ. He's at work

in the works of the book of Acts of the

of the New Testament believers. And he

has been at work through 2,000 years

since Jesus in the church history. God

is at work. He's always at work. And

it's a big picture that can really

encourage our faith. Number one, I want

you to see this. God sees the pain that

others cannot see. God sees the pain

that others cannot see. You know,

there's there's pains that you have in

your heart and no one else really knows.

They don't understand the depth of your

pain.

They're not in your shoes exactly.

Notice this letter A. Hannah's suffering

was deep. It was long. It was year after

year. was personal. It was highly

personal.

She was barren. That was bad enough.

Then she was provoked by this other

woman. And you're Can you imagine the

diabolical nature of that?

This other woman has all of these

children.

And here she is grinding it after this

godly woman.

Perhaps she could see that her husband

loved Hannah more.

And so there was I'm going to abuse her.

She was barren. She was provoked. She

was misunderstood.

In verse 13, what do we see? The priest

thought she was what? Thought she was

drunk. Woman, put away your wine.

She was spiritually exhausted. If you

read chapter 10, excuse me, verse 10 and

verse 16, we go back and we see this

happened year after year. She's

exhausted in this. She was in desperate.

She was vexed. It says,

have you ever been that way?

It's not just a woman who can be that

way. Guys can be that way, too.

the pain not only of a mother but the

pain of a father

or maybe the pain of a child.

Um all of us in this room can experience

vexing

long-term persistent pain

and year after year and that that's part

of the reason I love God's word. He's

he's ministering to us, showing us

you're not the only one who's going

through something.

There's been people who've gone through

things before you. In fact, his story of

redemption is filled with people who

have experienced deep and heavy sorrows.

Just in the last few months in the life

of our own church, we have many who have

experienced

deep long-term difficult sorrows. As we

speak, I think of Alex Nemes with his

precious wife, Elizabetha.

She's been in ICU for a long time, in

tremendous pain in her abdomen. And you

know, as we watch them suffer and we see

Alex attending to her,

we see faith still.

faith still.

And we could go through many examples in

this room of people who have learned to

trust in the Lord even through the pain.

So Hannah's suffering was deep, long,

and personal. Letter A. Letter B. God's

people must be careful with the wounded.

Now these were supposedly God's people.

Panana was was supposedly a woman in the

nation of God. But we can see that

sometimes people that are supposedly

God's people can be horrible towards

others.

People must care for wounded souls. The

church must never be like this wicked

woman.

The church must not antagonize.

And the church must not trivialize the

pain of women and men who have gone

through many sorrows. The church must

not be ignorant of those things.

The gospel must be applied to all of our

pain

in the times of great joy when

everything works, the baby is born, and

everything is healthy.

In the times of sorrow,

we are seeing here that we're called to

trust in the Lord. Look at letter C.

The pain did not drive Hannah away from

God. Amen.

>> She continued

to look to God and ask of God and pray.

It actually drove her to God. It's very

important.

This is the one of the great evidences

when we go through pain and we're driven

to God. This is one of the great

evidences of genuine saving faith.

This this is what tests our faith and

proves it true.

You see faith that is not tested

is it really faith? We don't know. It's

never been tested.

But then God in his grace

tests our faith. James 1 says he tests

our faith to grow us, to move us, to

work in us.

Dr. John MacArthur, one of my favorite

pastors. If you've ever heard me preach,

you've heard John MacArthur because he

has had such a powerful impact on me.

But he says this, "Perseverance,

perseverance is the mark of genuine

saving faith."

>> Amen.

>> We believe in a doctrine called the

perseverance of the saints. That those

who are truly saved are going to

persevere with the Lord. The

perseverance of the saints. Perseverance

is the mark of genuine saving faith. So

when we are struggling and we persevere,

this is an indicator that we know God.

Look at the next one here. Dr. Martin

Lloyd Jones, pastor of Westminster

Chapel, not Westminster Abbey, but

Westminster Chapel for um 25 years, uh

an amazing pastor in London, wrote this,

"The true test of our profession, that

is our profession of faith, that we

profess to know the Lord." So, not your

job, but your profession of faith. The

true test of our profession of faith is

not whether or not we have moments of

glory.

You know, oh wow, look at him preach.

Oh, wow. Look at her with that great

thing and this great ability that she

has or boy, you know, whatever this

thing was that happened that was so

great and so Christian. The true test of

our profession of faith is not whether

we have moments of glory, but whether we

continue in times of suffering.

>> Amen.

That's what shows what we are.

Not the shiny things,

>> but the dull and hard things. You can

safely flip over your page there as we

fly.

Roman numeral number two. God invites

the brokenhearted to pour out their

souls to him. That's what we see Hannah

do. Letter A. Hannah prayed honestly.

She prayed honestly. She didn't hold it

back.

Look at that. What it says in verse 15.

I have been underline that pouring out

my soul before the Lord.

I I would just say to you,

if you have never poured out your soul

before the Lord,

you need to you need to begin to do

that. And I would encourage you to do

that before the hard times come

so that you're ready to do it when the

hard times come.

But sometimes it's through the hard

times is what finally motivates us to

pour out our soul before the Lord. What

does it look like? Oh, it may look you

get a good clean towel out of the

closet. You put the towel down somewhere

there in your bedroom where it's quiet

and you get down on your face before God

in a place of being laid out on the

floor. And with your face down before

God, you say, "Dear God,

here I am again,

and I need to worship you. I need to

share with you my heart. And I need, oh

God, to hear from you in your spirit and

in your word.

That's what it means to pour out your

heart before the Lord, to begin going

through every recess of your heart and

giving it to God, dealing with him. If

you didn't get the book Calvary Road, I

want to encourage you. The little tiny

book Calvary Road in the bookstore will

help you learn what it means to pour out

your heart before God.

Hannah was doing it. Let her be. Even

spiritual leaders can misunderstand

hurting people. So you can't you can't

even just look to spiritual. Now

spiritual leaders are there to help you.

You should not ignore spiritual leaders.

But just understand this. There's no one

who gets it right all the time except

one.

And that is the God of heaven. He is the

one who will never get it wrong in your

life.

You see, Eli missed it at first, but he

was humble enough to pivot

and he blessed her. And even when other

people misunderstand us, we need to

recognize that God does not. Letter C,

the Lord welcomes desperate people. If

you're desperate, you're in good shape

because the Lord welcomes you. And he

welcomes them just as they are. They

don't have to clean it all up. Hannah

didn't clean it all up in order to come

before the Lord. She just ran to the

temple of God

>> and poured out her heart to God.

Not even in an audible voice.

But we know she was specific in what she

was saying because her lips were moving.

Look at Psalm 34 and:18. Can you guys

read Psalm 34:18 with me? Let's read it

Psalms 34:18

good and strong. Read it with me. Psalm

Psalms 34:18

34:18 says, "The Lord is near to the

brokenhearted and saves the crushed in

spirit."

So, is the Lord near to you?

Does the Lord save you?

That's whom the Lord saves

is the crushed in spirit. No. Roman

numeral number three. God's grace can

turn sorrow into worship.

>> God's grace can turn sorrow into

worship. Notice the Lord remembered her.

He heard her worship. He heard her

prayer.

And that's what so often he is doing.

when we come to him with our sorrow, we

wind up standing up in praise.

And that's what she did. She stood up

and she walked out before the promise

had been granted, before anything had

happened. She went away and she was not

sad. Why? Because she had worshiped and

heard from God. She didn't know whether

or not she would have a child. She she

there was a lot that she's still working

through there, but she by faith poured

out her heart before the Lord. You see,

Hannah understood that Samuel ultimately

belonged ultimately to God. She knew

that. We see that by her actions. She

sees, and if you read her praise, think

about it. She's saying, "This is the God

of heaven. This is the God who's not

wicked. This is the good and righteous

God who upholds all of the universe."

And really what she's saying is this is

the God who owns it all, including my

only son.

And I want you to see here as well as

you think about this as God gave his

only son on the cross of Calvary for us.

Hannah is a little bit of a picture of

what God is going to do at a later time.

Hannah is giving her only son to the

work of the Lord.

It's hard,

but she does it by faith.

Notice this. Hannah gives Samuel back to

God. These gift, these children are

gifts. They're entrusted to us by God.

Christian parenting is stewardship.

It's not ownership.

We're called to be a steward of the

children that God gives us.

God is the one who owns.

Notice letter C. Notice Hannah's strong

points, excuse me, Hannah's song points

beyond herself to God's greatness. You

see, it turns into worship. It goes from

herself to God. Her eyes are lifted up

beyond her misery

to the Lord. Now, do you remember what

happened with Jesus's mother, Mary?

The angel comes to her and tells her,

"You're going to bear a son." She's

like, "I'm not married. I've never been

with a man. This is going to look really

bad. I have no idea how the world is

going to take this." But my soul

magnifies the Lord.

>> Amen.

>> I mean, there's all kinds of things. At

that moment, Mary breaks into praise.

You see that in Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Looks beyond herself to God's greatness.

Roman numeral number four. The gospel in

the beauty of godly motherhood.

The gospel in the beauty of godly

motherhood. Motherhood is not ultimate.

It's not ultimate. Christ is ultimate.

>> Amen.

>> I mean if motherhood was ultimate then

our sorrows in parenting our sorrows

either as men or as women. If if if

parenting is ultimate then that means

when there's sorrow there there's no

solution. But my friends, Christ is the

ultimate.

>> Amen.

>> He is the one who comes and heals us,

causes joy. Motherhood reflects, this is

a key theological word. Motherhood

reflects a great deal of God's

nurturing, his sacrifice, his lifegiving

design. When we look at motherhood and

what God has designed in that bringing

forth life and then nurturing it and

protecting it and caring for it, this is

God's design for us. So we see in a

physical way. How many of you here have

never had a mother?

That's a stupid question, right?

You didn't get here through a test tube,

right? remember the petri dish

pregnancies and all that kind of thing

that they were trying to work out.

Listen, we have mothers. This is God's

grand and glorious design and God is at

work in showing us his heart in this.

So motherhood is not ultimate. It

reflects the greater picture of God's

nurturing. Letter B, motherhood proud

remains proudly beautiful and essential.

Motherhood remains proudly beautiful and

essential. We live in a world that is

becoming secular more and more. Secular

means non-religious, not biblical

values. And look at this. In secular

culture, it trivializes motherhood. Says

that it's not that important. It

trivializes as well fatherhood, by the

way, but it trivializes motherhood.

Secular culture stigmatizes motherhood.

There are there are now movements around

us where there are some women who say,

"Oh my goodness, are you kidding me? I

would never, you know, just and there's

a whole group that just kind of look

down on motherhood."

There's elites that look down on

motherhood and the commitment to a

family

it as as some type of primitive way of

life. I mean, I don't know how they

think that worked out for them,

but it stigmatizes motherhood. This is

the short range

blindedness of secular culture. Secular

culture mocks sacrificial parenting. No,

it's no, you be you. you be true to you

and you know hopefully your kids will

work it out and so forth, but it's it

mocks laying down your life for your

children as a mother or a father.

Secular culture treats children as

burdens.

Um let's get more money to just fund

child care so somebody else can take

care of them. Let's let's get more, you

know, let's the the government should

pay for that.

How about secular culture celebrates

selfc centered independence?

That so often is the picture that is

there is that it com fundamentally

misunderstands God's grand and glorious

design that we would fill the earth and

subdue it.

Letter C. Scripture presents motherhood

as deeply dignified and worthy.

And some of you would say, "Yeah, and

that's why it's so painful. We want to

have kids and we can't." Or, "Yeah,

that's why it's so painful because we

had but now we don't." Or, you know,

"Yeah, that's why it's so hard that I'm

estranged

from my child." Listen, that doesn't

change the fact that God has made

motherhood deeply dignified and worthy.

Scripture presents motherhood as

powerful

and impactful

that you change the world. I mean,

there's been many who have said the hand

that rocks the cradle does what? Rules

the world.

You see the the power of your role as a

mother is a beautiful thing. It's a

beautiful thing and it's a impactful

thing. I want us to close with this. 1

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 1. Now the Apostle Paul

is the one writing and he's writing to a

young pastor. He's writing to a young

guy named Timothy. And I want you to see

what Timothy and Timothy knows the

family. I mean, excuse me. Paul knows

the family, but look carefully here at

this in in the beginning of second

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 1 and in verse 5, he

says, "I am reminded of your sincere

faith, Timothy,

of faith that dwelt first in your

grandmother Lois

and your mother, Ununice." Isn't that

cool? They're named. I love that. 2,000

years of church history, we've known

Timothy who would become a very powerful

figure. We've known who his his mother

and his and look it says and now I am

sure dwells in you as well. So the faith

that he received from this godly

grandmother and this godly mother. Look

at verse 14. You how however continue in

the things you have learned and become

convinced of knowing from whom you have

learned them and that from what

childhood you have known the sacred

writings which are able to give you the

wisdom that leads to salvation through

faith which is in Christ Jesus.

What a beautiful and powerful picture of

godly motherhood

that we give to our children the sacred

writings. We live it before them in such

a way that they too come to embrace it.

Let me tell you that this this morning

if you do have a mom who taught you the

gospel, you ought to give thanks to her.

Maybe you ought to call her. you ought

to see her today. And perhaps the most

important thing that you could say to

her is, "Thank you for giving me Jesus."

Some of you would say, "My mother

wouldn't know the Lord if he hit her in

the head.

She doesn't know God at all." You know

what? You can love her. You can pray for

her. You can thank her for the things

that she did teach you. And you can pray

that she would come to know and that it

would go the reverse direction. Right?

But I want us to see today the the

beauty and the power of this. Now as we

as we go from here, notice this.

My challenge is this.

May we pour out our soul as Hannah did.

May we pour out our soul as Hannah did

that we may experience God's grace as

she did. So whether you have that long

persistent pain or whether you have that

joy that is there, listen,

there are those who have gone before us

who know it well. Amen.

>> Would you stand with me for prayer?

Lord in heaven, I thank you that your

word meets us where we are.

I thank you that your word is for every

aspect of our lives. Lord, I thank you

that this is not just platitudes and

sweet little optimism and and nice

thoughts. I thank you that your word

reveals your heart toward us to save us.

and Lord that you re you deal with the

pain of our sin in our fallen world.

And Lord, you redeem us out of it in

Jesus. Lord, I thank you that Lord, the

sorrows of our life are not what's

ultimate. I thank you that the ultimate

thing is the savior of Christ that

overcomes our sorrows. And Lord, I pray

that for those in this room who have

heard the gospel from the lips of their

parents, I pray that we would live

faithfully to what we've heard. I pray

that Timothy's challenge, Paul's

Timothy's

challenge to Timothy would be to us

and we would put oursel in that.

May we walk faithfully

to what we've heard. Lord, I pray for

our children. I know there's many

children in this room or in represented

in this room by parents um that walk

with the Lord. There are many who do not

or there are some who are struggling.

Lord, I pray that our children would

pour their hearts out to God because

Lord, I know that if my children are

close to you, they will be okay.

Even Lord, above all of the struggles of

their lives,

if they will learn to pour their hearts

out to you,

they will be safe. Lord, I thank you for

your goodness to us. I thank you that

you're the one that heals our sorrows.

We pray that you would take our lives

and let them be all that you want them

to be. Thank you that that was Hannah's

attitude. Take my life. Let it be God

consecrated to you. take my son and let

him be consecrated to you. Lord, I pray

that we would have Hannah's faith and

Hannah's attitude toward our sorrows. In

Jesus name I pray. Amen.