Our God Remembers: Life of Hannah | Pr Gloria Paul

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

The title of today's message is that God remembers. Okay,

turn to the person next to you and tell them

God remembers you. Okay. God remembers you. He remembers the

prayers that you have said. You know, He remembers every details.

Sometimes you forget, but God does not forget, right, He

knows every detail. You know. You may not know God yet,

but God knows you, right. God knows you. And so

we're going to learn from the life of Hannah. If

you have your Bibles, could you wave your bibles if

you're proud of it, yes, very good. Yeah. So we

are encouraging our partners to bring their Bibles, okay, to

own one because it's such a precious book, okay, and

we want to journey together. And so we're going to

read from the book of First Samuel. If you have

read the first First Samuel book, yes, okay. And so

if you read it, you'll see there's a there's two

parts to it, First Samuel and Second Samuel. And we're

gonna learn about the life of Hannah and how she

experienced a God who remembers, right, and so let's just

even read God's word together, okay, and then we will

go into what he's telling us this morning. Are you

there for Samuel? Yeah? Right, First Samuel, Chapter one. I'm

reading from the ANTIJV version, so you can just follow along, right, okay.

So the first verse here in chapter one, it says,

now there was a certain man of Brahmatam Zophim, of

the mountains of a freem And his name was Elkanah,

the son of Jiroham, the son of Iluhu, the son

of Tohu, the son of Zouf and every mind. And

he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah,

and the name of the other Penanna. Panena had children,

but Hannah had no children. This man went up from

his city yearly to worship and sacrifice the Lord of

Hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli Hofni

and Bananice, the priests of the Lord, were there. And

whenever the time came for Alcanah to make an offering,

he would give portions to Banana, his wife, and to

all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he would

give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the

Lord had closed a woman, and arrival also provoked her

severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed

a woman. So it was year by year when she

went up to the house of the Lord that she

provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat. Let's

just pause there. So there's a bit of a background

over here. Okay, who's Hannah's husband. What's his name? Can

you see? Let's see what's paying attention. What's Hannah's susband's

name here? It's just there scriptures Alcanna, Yes, okay, Alcana.

He's the husband. And so he has two wives, okay,

Banana and Hannah. And so I mean the scriptures doesn't

tell us exactly who is the first wife. Yeah, but

as you can see from the scriptures that he loved

Hannah more. Okay, though she couldn't bear a child, he

gave a double portion compared to what Banana had. And

of course Banana would have been jealous. Okay, so she

would always try to irritate her, okay by saying, oh,

I have a child, but you don't have. Okay, So

you can kind of imagine the kind of feelings Hannah

would have had okay, and she couldn't bear a child

as a woman. I mean that would have been her desire, right,

And so she couldn't bear a child. And then you

have this lady who is trying to irritate her. And

so then the scripture tells in verse seven that she

wept and did not eat, so kind of describes the

emotion that she has. Right now, let's continue on with

verse eight. Then Elkana, her husband said to her, Hannah,

why do you wip? Why do you not eat? And

why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to

you than ten sons? So Nna arose after they had

finished eating and drinking in Shiloh now Eli the priest

was sitting on the seat by the door poles of

the tabernacle of the Lord verse ten. And she was

in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and

wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said,

oh Lord of ho, yes, if you will indeed look

on the affliction of your maid servant and remember me

and not forget your maid servant, but will give you

maid servant a male child, then I will give you

to that and I will give him to the Lord

all the days of his life, and no razor shall

come upon his head. And it happened as she continued

praying before the Lord that Eli washed her mout. Now,

Anna spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but

her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.

Let's just pause there a little so you can see

that she was with a husband, and the husband question her, right,

like why why do you feel so down when I

love you so much? It doesn't matter if you have

a child. But yet she was so troubled, and so

what she did. She left the place. She went to

the temple and she said this prayer to the Lord. Right,

And so you can imagine when the priest could actually

take her for being drunk, meaning she was that sorrowful.

If you've seen someone who is really, said, really sorrowful,

their countenance is down, right, she could have been crying,

and like the scriptures say, she could. She was praying

those prayers in her heart, but the mouth was not

saying it out loud, so you know, it sounded like

she was just murmuring. And so the priest thought that

she was drunk. So you can just imagine the kind

of state that she was in desperate for a prayer

to be answered, Broken, helpless, disappointed. Yeah, so this was

all that she was dealing. I'm just trying to paint

the picture to you of how Anna was feeling. Yeah,

and it was not enough that she had those earthly love.

Husband loved her, right, I'm sure the husband could have provided,

but yet that didn't bring that the need or the

satisfaction you know, she was looking for. She was still

longing for something here right now. Let's continue on descriptures.

So in verse fourteen, so Eli say to her, how

long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you?

But Anna answered and said, no, my Lord, I am

a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine

nor intoxicating drink, but I have poured out my soul

before the Lord. Do not consider your maid servant a

wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint

and grief I have spoken until now. Then Eli answered

and said, go in peace, and the God of Israel

grant your petition which you have asked of him. And

she said, let your maid servant fine favor in your sight.

So the woman went her way and ate and a

face was no longer said, so, what do you notice

about Hannah? He now after prayer? She what do you notice? Yes,

she had a smile. She was no longer sad, right,

I was a prayer answered yet no at that point

when she left the temple, but she could just be relieved.

How many of you felt that way after praying? Right,

when you bring your burdens to the Lord, you say, God,

this is in my heart, you know, this is my need,

and then you just kind of feel a sense of relief. Right,

you feel a sense of calmness. Sometimes that happens when

after you worship God as well, when you lift up praises,

when you sing to him, and when you feel him,

you just feel your heart is just settled. Right, You

feel your heart is settled. And so she went on

and ed, let's say something, right that she kind of

picked up her pace. You know, she just went on

and carried on with life. You know, we talk when

scriptures talk about eating food and all that, they're giving

us a mess. It just kind of shows how a

person is feeling at that point. You know, if you're

feeling sad, I mean depends. Some people said they like

to eat, right, But some they you know, wouldn't want

don't have the mood, right, But for Hannah, she just

didn't want to and then she went on eating. Right now,

before we go on with the scripture here, I mean,

if you have read the story, you know what happened

after this. I just want to take some time to

understand about Hannah. Okay, we can see these scriptures that

we read that she was going through cous barren, not

being able to bear a child. She was being bullied,

all right, and she was waiting for an unswert prayer, right.

I mean, the scriptures gonna show that it's immediate chapter one, okay,

chapter two, it's unset. But then again when we talk

about being real live, yeah, things don't happen right away.

She had to wait for a period of time for

the prayer to be unswered. Yeah. And in fact, if

you think about having a child, especially at that culture

at that time, I mean even now, sometimes you know

women are you know, you look, you looked low upon

if you don't have a child, you know, they put

a blame on you. And so you can kind of

think about the kind of culture she was living in

and how she was being disgraced for not being able

to bear a child. But if you think about it,

Hannah is not the first woman in the Bible who

couldn't bear a child. Can you think of someone else

in the scripture who couldn't have a child even till

they old age? Sarah? Yes? And what did Sarah do?

She laughed when God gave a promise, she couldn't take it, right,

and then she told Abraham to go with his with

a servant instead. So she kind of took the situation

into her own hands. You know, she could have prayed

about it, yeah, but still she wanted a fast answer.

I'm running out of time, I'm old, so I've got

to have a child, right, so let me do something

about it. But Hannah the same situation. But can you

see how she responded very different? Right? If you were

here In the previous sermon that I shed about, we

spoke about the choices that we have in our lives,

and God tells us not to worry, but to bring

our troubles to him. And the same thing Hannah did

here today in this scripture, right, she brought it to

the lot. You know, even though she had that encouragement,

the assurance by a family, a husband, but yet she

still chose to bring it to the lot, right. And

you know when we read the scriptures, okay, especially in

verse eleven, she says heym Then she made a vow

and said, ah, lot of hostess, if you will indeed

look on the affliction of your maid servant and remember

me and not forget your maid servant. Just hold on

to that scripture because you'll see how God remembers her later. Yeah,

a God who remembers, She says, God, could you just

remember me? And if you've had those prayers, I just

want to tell you today that God remembers those prayers

that you've told to him. Yeah. And in fact, if

you read the Old Testament, Anna was actually one of

the first persons to have an individual prayer in the century.

She builds a personal altar. Of course, there were different

characters that we can draw from later, like Daniel and all,

but for someone who like a background like Hannah, she

builds a personal altar. She went by herself. She didn't

have anyone with her, but she did it anyway. Yeah,

And like I'm just trying to stress the point again

about how she could have not even carried herself right

with all the emotions and troubles that she was facing,

but yet she could bring herself to face God. Amen. Right,

So when you read this first portion of the scripture,

we can see three you know, I mean three different

things changed. Before prayer she was in despair, she didn't eat,

she was down. During prayer, she just poured a heart out.

She prayed and shared everything. She didn't filter, she just

say God, this is how I'm feeling. And then after

prayer she was no longer set and she went on

and at emphasizing the power what prayer can do to us,

not just the unswered prayer, but who God himself is. Yeah.

So I'm gonna share with you tree Peace help us

remember as we carry on with that week about how

how what is this God that remembers okay, and what

kind of respond that it needs from us? And then

I hope to share with you a bit of a

testimony towards the end as well. Yeah. Now, the first

pe that we can see here is priority. Okay, priority,

I maybe speak about priority. It's not about just what

comes first. Right when things are going fine, you know,

when I've got things sorted out, then I kind of

plan my schedule. I plan what's important. But the priority

that Hannah had here was even when things were not

going fine, she knew what was important in her life. Yeah,

she knew where to take up problems too, Okay. In fact,

she was alone. Okay, but yet she was so determined

that this is what I want to bring to God

in prayer. Yeah, she had a very clear mission. And

as you heard the prayer that she say just now,

she said, if you do this for me, I will

not forget and I will bring this back to you

as a sacrifice. Right, as a sacrifice, and so meaning

she knew that she was in this fate mission. You know,

I'm going to God in prayer knowing that God can

answer me in his way, and this is what I'm

offering myself unto him. Right, So she went to God.

No matter how desperate and broken our situations are, we

can't solve them. God wants us to bring it unto him.

To focus on him. Yeah, to focus on him. God

gives us free will. God gives us choices in life, right,

but at the end of the day, his ways, his

choice is always the best for us. Men, it met

you eleven twenty eight to thirty, most of us would

know this scripture. It says, come to me, all you

who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give

you rests. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you

will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is

easy and my burden is light. Amen. Right, And that

is why she brought it all to God. And therefore

she walked out of sorrow, as we read in script

in verse eighteen. And in fact she experienced peace and

she was able to eat. Yeah, And so this is

what Hannah did. Her priority, okay, a priority? What is

our priority in life? If I may ask? Yeah, even

for myself? What is our priority? What comes first? And

I'm not just talking about when trouble comes, but in

every other situation, you know, in every other situation when

times are good as well? Do I turn to God

when I'm making decisions in life? Do I actually include

him in that or do I just go about doing

it and say God, just come join me? Right? So

what is it that is your priority? Yeah? Now, the

next thing, I think I have a question here, Yeah, yeah,

what do you do when you are feeling troubled? And

who would you bring your conscience to. Yeah, what would

you do when you're feeling trouble? Who would you bring

your conscience to? And I think it's just very a

very common thing for us to call a friend tell

them what's going on. Yeah, which is totally fine. But

imagine bringing it to a god who is in control

of your life. Yeah, you're going to someone who knows

the beginning and the end, right, so why not go

to someone who has all the answers. But maybe it's

just not revealing all to us yet because our hearts

may not be able to take it at this point, right,

But you can still trust in his perfect plan, perfect timing. Yeah.

So can I just encourage you church to make prayer

our priority? I can, you know, emphasize this enough as

a believer, Prayer is the one that keeps us going.

Prayer keeps us strong. And when you're strong now and

when trouble hits you, you still stand strong because your

foundation is laid on him. Yeah, laid on him. And

as we draw towards the end of the year, maybe

make that as your goal, right, make that as your

I'm going to just keep doing this, you know, and

sometimes we can just go on saying, yeah, maybe I'm

not you know, close enough with God. I'm not making

enough time. It's a challenge, but I would say make

time today. Yeah, you can make time where you are today,

at this very moment, you're driving, wherever you are. Just

communicate with him. It's simple as that. Right. Prayer is

communicating with God. You don't have to find a very

quiet you know, if you have that space, great, but

if you don't, just speak to Him wherever you are,

right and you can see things happen, things change within you.

Most of the time, God works in our spirit first, right,

and then he changes the atmosphere. Right. So let's do that,

making prayer our priority. Man. Now, the second thing that

we can understand from the scriptures that we read, and

we're going to continue reading from verse nineteen, is that

God's timing is always perfect, right. And I just put

it in record patience because not everyone like that word patience, right,

but that's just how it is. We've got to wait, Okay,

Now that's going to read the scriptures from First Samuel,

chapter one, verse nineteen. Okay, so let's see what happens.

After Hannah picked herself up went home, she started eating

right now verse nineteen. Then they rose early in the

morning and worship before the Lord, and returned and came

to their house of Brama, and Alcana knew Hannah his wife,

and the Lord remembered her. Do you remember where the

word remembered came earlier? Right? Hannah says, God remember me,

And if you look at verse nineteen, God remembers her. Yeah,

verse twenty. So it came to pass in the process

of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and

called his name Samuel, saying, because I've asked for him

from the Lord. Now the man Alcanah and all his

house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly

sacrifice and his vow. But Hannah did not go up,

for she said to her husband, not until the child

is wait that I will take him, that he may

appear before the Lord and remain there forever. So Elcanah,

her husband said to her, do what seems best to you.

Wait until you have wait him. Only let the Lord

establish his word. Then the woman stayed and nurse the

sun until she had winned him verse twenty four. Now,

when she had winned him, she took him up with

her with three bulls one half of flower and a

skin of wine, and brought him to the house of

the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young. Then

they slaughtered a bull and brought the child to Eli Eliz,

the priest, and she said, oh, my Lord, as your

soul leaves, my Lord, I am the woman who stood

by you here praying to the Lord for this child.

I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition

which I asked of him. Therefore I also have lent

him to the Lord. As long as he leaves, he

shall be lent the Lord. So they worship the Lord there, men,

how beautiful it is, right she I mean, if any

other mothers who are here, you know, if you ever child,

you've been praying for so long, and now you are

keeping to your wit, and you're bringing your child back

not just to visit, but to stay on in the

temple to be serving. Yeah, And that speaks about Hannah's heart,

her faithfulness, because she made God her priority and God

provided right. God provided her a child, not just one child.

She had few others after that, but she still kept

to her word. She still remained faithful and say, I'm

just still going to bring him to the temple. She

didn't forget that because she knew God remembered his promise, right,

And that is Hannah. Yeah, that is Hannah. She chose

to bring to God. Yeah. And you know, when we

read this scripture, if you can understand the heart of

a mom, it is not easy to do that. But

she did it anyway. Yeah, she did it anyway. Do

you notice that sometimes waiting is a big part of

our lives, you know, where you wonder what am I

learning from this season? You know why? Why is it

just difficult? Shelin shed a little bit during the worship

just now, right. Sometimes you're waiting and you're wondering why

why is this me? But it's in that waiting that

God teaches us something most of the time. And I

believe for Hannah it was something right. And as you

read these scriptures, you realize that the son she gave

birth too was not just an ordinary guy, but he

was there to bring such an impact to Israel, to

bring such a transformation. Right. In fact, he was right

beside the priest. You know, he as you read the book,

you know the rest of the chapters, you will see

that he could dream dreams. God spoke to him and

is he sheard to the priests about it, you know,

and different things change. So he was not just any

other guy who was just going to be there, you know,

but he was to leave a life to bring about

a change to the generation. So just wanted to remind

us that the prayers that you say is not just

for now, but it's a prayer for a generation, right,

it is for a generation parents who are here. When

you're praying for your child, remember you're praying for the generation,

the impact that they can bring about to the You know,

we all don't leave forever, but your prayers live on, right,

Your prayers leave on. Your prayers impacts others. So never

take your prayers for granted. No, never see it as oh,

it's just me praying. No, every prayer is important. Every

prayer is powerful if only you can believe in it. Yeah,

if only you can trust that God can use what

I have today. Yeah, just like Hannah. Right, just like Hannah.

Her choice could have been different. She could have chose

to give up, you know, she could have gone and

done it a whole way like how Sarah did. But no,

she chose to wait in God's perfect timing. Right, she

chose to wait in God's best plan and go with that.

And that's when we see the result. She got a son,

and this son, Samuel, changed the entire generation, right, He

brought such an impact. Yeah, so God remembered her fate

was tested definitely, but God gathered the strength to get through,

and in fact, she experienced a miracle. Man, if we

look at first Samuel Tree, like he just reading a

portion here for Samuel chap the Tree, verse nineteen, you

can see this is the journey of how Samuel grew

up from a little boy. Okay, I mean, it doesn't

say exactly what age, but it says a little boy

could at the age of five six could be walking already.

And so in chapter three it talks about Samuel's first prophecy.

So this little boy started getting prophecies, so it's not

just any ordinary boy. And when we look at you know,

verse nineteen, Okay, it says here, so Samuel grew and

the Lord was with him and let none of his

words fall to the ground. So he grew in the

ways of the lot. And I believe it was the

prayers of his mom Hannah. She prayed, she waited, and

therefore she bat a son like Samuel. Yeah, so God

always has you know, he is fast sighted. He looks beyond,

you know, but we just always looks at now, tomorrow,

next week, or maybe next year. But he sees way beyond.

And what God saw here was that he saw the generation.

It looked difficult to see. I'm sure it was difficult

for God. I mean, when we look at the scriptures,

know that God grieves with us. He knows our cry,

our sorrow. And to see Hannah crying and all that

she had to go through, God comforted her, I believe.

But at the same time he kept her waiting for

a bigger plan and a bigger purpose. Amen. So how

many of you are praying? You're praying for something, you're

waiting on the Lord. Can I encourage you to not

give up? Keep praying, keep trusting God, keep edifying your

spirit with the word of God. Right, keep telling God

those praise. It's okay to repeat your prayers. Yeah. God

will never feel bored about it. You don't have to

be changing the choice of your words. Yeah. Just keep

saying those prayers and God sees your heart and he

will answer it in due time a man, he'll answer

it in due time. Looking at a couple of scriptures.

Here in second Peter Chap the Tree Okaya to nine

is says, but beloved, do not forget this one thing

that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand

years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord

is not slack concerning his promise. Turn to the person

next to you and tell them the Lord does not slack. Okay,

as humans, we forget, right, we forget the promises that

we do with each other as well. Yeah, but God

does not slack his promises as some count slackness, but

is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance. So when God

delays something or when he changes a plan, it's for

a bigger reason. Yeah. Maybe you are there still in

that same place because you're there to impact someone to

bring Christ to their lives. Yeah, you know. Or you

are still there reading for the answer prayer because he's

preparing the place that is bringing you to other people

that he's going to bring you into. Yeah. So God

does not slack. His promises are always perfect. Probably sixteen

verse nine, Okay, it says a man's heart plans his

way but the Lord directs his steps. So you can

go ahead planning, you can go ahead having dreams, desires.

Those are all precious in God's eyes. But the end

of the day, submit those prayers, submit those dreams desires

unto him, and he directs you say, Okay, this is

what you want. This is how you do it, this

is how you approach it, this is how you speak.

And how beautiful it is to have the Holy Spirit

always whispering and telling us what to do. Right. You

don't need you know your own compass. God is your compass.

He directs your steps. Amen. Yeah, so that is the

God VISERLF. So do you trust in God's perfect timing? Yeah,

it's good to ask ourselves. Do I trust in God's

perfect timing? Because sometimes it's a struggle to trust that,

you know, like, like we get things going our way,

and it could be for different reasons. It could be

because of your experiences, or it could be sometimes even

painful to be waiting. Right, I get that, Yeah, and

we sometimes want to figure out our way. But if

I can just remind us together this morning to trust,

because when you trust in God's perfect timing, nothing bad

goes right, It's all going to be good man. Yeah,

so it's all going to be good. So that's the

second pe that we can learn from Hannah and her life. Yeah,

God's timing is always perfect. And the last pee that

we can see here is praise, right, praise. Hannah was

faithful until the end. In fact, she was committed with

God's plan and sovereignty. As we read earlier in First

Samuel one twenty four to twenty eight, Right, she'd say,

this is what I want to do, and therefore she

did it. So Hannah was set apart for a higher calling. Okay,

And as we know, she was a mother of Samuel,

and he played a very important role in Israel's transition

from the time of judges to the time of Kings

of Israel. Yeah. So Anna's prayer did not come out immediately.

He does not answered immediately, but it came in the

course of time, right, in the course of time. And

so my encouragement for all of us today is that

as you wait in that course of time, would you

be willing to be faithful? Right? Would you be willing

to be faithful? Not to doubt God? I mean, you

can ask him questions, but don't question God. The question

who God is, right, don't question you know who are you? Lord?

You don't say that, But God, why is this happening?

Could you come help me? I can't seem to figure out. Yeah,

So bring those questions to him. He's all here. He's

a great listener. Yeah, and he knows how to encourage

your heart. Amen. So praise in every way thing, in

every unanswered prayer. One thing that we can be assured

is that there's praise. Okay, there's a there's a big

reason for us to praise God. We praise God not

in only good times, but in difficult times also. Yeah,

and when we praise God, what changes our spirit? Our

inner man? Right? We just have a little bit more

energy to go forward and say, God, I know you

have it in control. Yeah. So let's make praise as

a normal thing that's part of us. Yes. Yeah, we're

not trying to just praise God because it's just trying

to fake it. No, you're praising God because that is

who he means to you. He's a God who brings victory. Right,

He's a God who brings healing. He's a God who delivers. Right.

And the scripture tells us as we read that you

know he has already overcame the world for us. What

more do we want? Right? It says I have overcame

the world. All I've got to ask and I'll give

you peace. Yeah. And so you may have not seen

the end yet. We may have not seen the prayer

been unswered, or the healing or the breakthrough answered yet.

But one thing you can know is that he has

already overcame all of that. Right, So if you can

know that, that's all we need to know at this point.

That is all that he wants us to know. Yeah.

I think that's just how our human capacity is. Yeah,

we can't know too many things. What are you going

to do with all this information? Anyway? Right? The tomorrow

is not yet there, and that is why he tells

us in the scripture that tomorrow has its own troubles.

Let's do what we need to do now. Yeah. And

it's so much liberating if you can just focus on

the now rather than thinking about the problems and the worry. Yeah.

So just wanted to encourage I believe many of you

here maybe praying, maybe in the season of figuring things out.

You know, what's next? What do I do? Well? I

can just tell you. One thing is that Prase is

waiting for you. Yeah, you can stand and just envision.

It's always good to see yourself maybe standing in the

front here one day and saying I'm giving a testimony

because God this in my life. Right. God healed me,

God opened this door. God just answered something that I've

been waiting for so long and he came true. Always

envision yourself doing that and it will come to pass. Amen. Yeah.

I hope you're encouraged with this three piece. As you

go on with this week, just tell yourself how would

I how would I respond to different situations in life,

because God remembers. Yeah, my priority matters with the world

of a lot of you know. I mean there's so

many things that takes our priorities in life, be it work, family,

and these are important things also, but ultimately God has

to be still the most important no matter what. Right,

So priority is very important. Secondly is to remember that

God has the perfect timing, even if the world tells

it otherwise. He has the perfect plan, the perfect timing.

And of course deadly is to always remember to lift praises. Yeah,

live praises and God comes true. Amen. Yeah. And you know,

as I'm just drawing to its not exactly a close,

but as I'm just as I was just writing this message,

and I would just reminded of maybe there are those

of you here who are saying, well, my prayers were

not unswert. Yeah, well, waiting for your prayers to be

answered is one thing, But what if my prayers were

not answered? What if it was completely something else that

happened in my life. I hear you, I hear you.

I understand I've had my own seasons as well. Yeah,

but I just wanted to encourage some of you here

that you know, it's it's okay to hold our disappointments

right in one hand and maybe on another hand saying God,

could you please still come true?

Right?

The plan did not work out the way I thought

it would be, but your plan is still perfect. Yeah,

they just want to encourage we can be waiting and

at the same time seeking. What I'm trying to say

here is that we don't have to put a pause

in our life, in our ministry or the way we

do life. You know, we don't have to put a

pause just because things didn't happen, or just because my

prayers are still not unset because when you pause, what's

going to happen, There's going to be more things running

in your minds.

Right.

The enemy will take that space to fill it with

other things. Then, But while you're waiting, or maybe while

you're feeling disappointed, still keep going. Yeah, still keep praising God.

Still keep trusting in his promises, Read his word, praise

seek his face. Yeah, because that is how we were created.

We were created in his image so that we will

praise him, so that we will worship him. And so

once we stop doing that, we will start worshiping other things.

There will be different idols that comes in our life,

you know, Like I say, sometimes they can look like

they're look they look good, they look important, but they

may not be the what you need in your life. Yeah,

And I just wanted to to share a little bit

of my journey, right, and I'm just going to read

a portion later to just encourage us. Okay. You know,

sometimes we always talk about a good, good ending in

our lives, right, but of course not it's always not

good ending. But God still has a perfect plan. He

always has a beautiful, you know future for all of us,

and it is in his own way. Yeah, in his

own way. And so I'm just gonna share a bit

about my parents. Actually, yeah, it's my first time sharing. Yeah,

hope there's no tears, okay, Yes, So I just started

sharing about them because my plans, my dreams were very different,

but it turned out very differently. Yeah. So just to

share with you some pictures. If you look at this

picture here, I don't know if you can see there's

a little child sleeping that is my parents. Yeah, and

I was just two years old. And this was on

our way to the mountains and chang My okay. And

so my parents were missionaries. Yeah, one of them have

gone home to be with the lot. And so I

was just two years old, and yeah, they could be

married about four four to five years by then. And

so when they had a calling to to go to

Thailand and to Pioneer Church, families were like, are you

are you sure about it? It's your first child, she's

two years old. But they did it anyway. They didn't

speak the language, and so they were there in Thailand

for six months ministring and I think we have more

pictures from there. Yeah, those are my beautiful parents, right.

So that little girl in the middle there, that's me.

I would always carry my dad's bible, his huge bible,

following him behind. And so all my life I knew

my parents as you know, walking in faith in church. Yeah.

And so the first two pictures the ones in Thailand,

you know, we were with the I can't exactly remember

the I mean, of course I don't remember I was

only two years old. This was stories shared by them. Yeah,

but these were the local tribal people in Shanghmai. Yeah.

So they stayed on the mountains. They started the church

from scratch, not knowing the language, but they had you know,

a translator, and they stayed and that that was their journey.

And those are some pictures of my mom was in India.

She was teaching and and you know, doing missions at

the same time time. And after two years, not two years,

and after one year of marriage, they were called to

actually pioneer a church in Suburburnham, right and Suburburnham if

you know this place, it's in Slango. It's not like

how it is today. It's this is about thirty over

years ago rural place. And so they were called to

actually plan a church. That they were there for about

a year to two years, and that is when you know,

after that is when I came. Yeah, and that is

how they live their lives, right, and so one thing

I can always remember is the life that they devoted

to God all their life. My mom was a Tamil pastor, right.

She ministered to the Tamil speaking community. My dad hardly

couldn't speak Tamil at all once he learned. Once he

got married to my mom, he learned it and they

could so my mom would my dad would be preaching

in English, my mom would translate in Tamil. Oh. Yeah,

and I'm sharing all these stories. I mean, if you

come to my house one day, I can share with

you more pictures. My dad just loves capturing all these

pictures and putting it together. Yeah. For us to always

remember what I'm sharing with you here today is that

you know, Remember I told you the prayers you say,

it is not just for now, but it's for the generations. Yeah.

And I believe the prayers that my parents said, the

things I saw from a young person is what has

made me today, you know. And I'm saying this with

God's grace, planting a church, sharing the word, and I

think just even being able to pick myself up and

come back to ministry even after losing them. It's by

the grace of God. Yeah, and this is what I'm

trying to say, is that sometimes things don't turn the

way we want it to be. It's not a beautiful picture.

I mean this a beautiful memories that are always cherished.

I always remember Passendra always tells me, this is your

legacy that you've got to always hold on to do.

I wish that they're here, definitely right, But I think

God has brought me through a journey of trusting in

his beautiful plan, right in his beautiful way. He remembers,

he remembers. And if there are those of you here

seated and saying that, yes, I've been praying, but it's

not answered, or you did not answer the way you

wanted it to be. But it's still going to be okay. Yeah,

it's going to be okay. I knew they they live

their lives, they had a mission, they had a purpose,

and that's passed on to me and my sister and

I can borely share with you this story because the

way they live their lives. Yeah, not just think about

the now as we pray, but think about the big

picture that always God has God always sees beyond what

we can see. Yeah, And nothing happens out of just coincidence.

Nothing happens because in an accident or you could have

done better. Right. But God already predestined, you know, when

He brought you into your mother's womb, you already knew

how that fifty eighty over years is going to look like. Yeah.

He knows the beginning, he knows the end, and God

has the best interest for you. Yeah. And so I'm

just sharing this because you know, sometimes we always like

to just paint the perfect picture. That's how our childhood

fairy tales. You know, once upon a time they lived

happily ever after. Yeah, right, it's always like that. But

in reality, in life, it's not always that way. Yeah,

but you can always be assured that God knows. God knows. Yeah,

and though the ending may doesn't may not look like

how you wanted it to be the AIRPV after, but

it's in the way He created it that it's going

to be still happy ever after in his own way,

and he it is your journey. Yeah. And you know,

not everyone will understand the journey that you go through.

From the outside. We can sometimes see someone and say

that as it's okay, what everything is going easy for you?

You look fine. Well, you know your own journey, So

don't expect people to always give you the assurance that

you're doing great, because you don't always get that from people,

but you can get those assurance from God. Yeah, be

confident with your own stories. Be confident with your own journey. Yeah,

you all have a special journey a hit. Don't just

ride on someone else just because this person and I'm

you know, you must have your own journey. You must

have your own walk with God. You must encounter him

for yourself, not just because the preachers say this way

or you know, I heard it from someone, but you

want to hear it for yourself. Yeah. You want to

taste and know that God is good, not just because

someone else felt it was good, but because I know

it is good. And I can tell you this morning

that God is good because I have tasted and I

know that God is good. I've experienced peace that I've

never felt. I've experienced joy in the midst of sorrow,

and You've got to feel that too for yourself. That

God is good. Right, God is good, So build your

own journey church. Yeah, and I'm just telling this also

because yeah, as we always end the year, how we

talk about you know, new year resolutions and all that,

but I think how we end is also very important. Right,

God has brought us this far, and what am I

going to use with my time? Time is so precious? Right,

time is so precious. Can I make it count? Yeah?

Can I make it count? And as you faithfully so,

and as you faithfully do what God has called you

to do, positioning yourself where God has positioned you to be,

He's just going to move. He will move in ways

that you can't see, can't expect. If only you can believe, Yeah,

only you can believe and trust. These are very simple

words that we take for granted sometimes believe and trust

that it is all God wants from you. Yeah, and

he remembers you. Amen. Right, could you just stand? I said,

were going to even commit this time in prayer? Right?

I just want to give you this space to build

your personal altar. Remember, it's your own journey. You know

what's in your heart, and more than that, God knows

what's in your heart. Yeah, And we're going to spend

some time worshiping. And I'm just gonna read this portion

of scripture here, thank you, okay, and as we you know, yeah,

Extremest will lead us in a song in a bit.

But I'm just gonna read this scripture and if you

just look to God, allow this scripture to even minister

to you. In the Book of Lamentation, you know, we

don't read this scripture much of this book much because

if you're familiar with this book, it is filled with

crime and sorrow. But you know what, in chapter three

we can see how the author is reminded of who

God is. In fact, there was a beautiful song that

was written from this scripture a Lamentation chapter tree, verse

twenty one. It says this, I recall to my mind.

Therefore I have hope true the Lord's mercies. We are

not consumed because his compassions fall not. They are new

every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,

saves my soul. Therefore I hope in him. The Lord

is good to those who wait for him, to the

soul who seeks him. It is good that one should

hope and wait quietly the salvation of the Lord. It

is good for a man to bear the yoke in

his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent because

God has laid it on him Verse thirty one. For

the Lord will not cast off forever though he causes grief,

Yet he will show compassion according to his multitude of

his mercies. Amen. And so the word of God reminds

us here that his faithfulness is you every morning. You

can experience it for yourself every morning. And truly, the

Lord is your portion. When you feel that you don't

have enough, he feels it. He feels your portion, not

just nice, but to the brim overflowing that you can't

contain it. And that is the God myself, our God

who remembers our God, who is faithful to the very end.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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week is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless