Our Home: A Place of Preparation (I Samuel 1)

"Our Home: A Place of Preparation" from I Samuel 1 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on June 29, 2025.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

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Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta.

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Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel. And we come to 1 Samuel. We come to a very transitional book in our Old Testament. We're moving from the time of the judges to the time of the kings. And God is going to use a man to do that. He's going to use Samuel. He's this transitional figure. But many times when we see great men or great women that God uses, sometimes we forget they were once children. There was something that went into them by some godly man or woman or authority or preacher to help shape them and guide them and point them to the Lord. And we find precisely that in the book of 1 Samuel here. Let's read, beginning in verse number 26. 1 Samuel chapter 1, and verse number 26. This is a story of Hannah, and Hannah is going to be Samuel's mother, and she's crying out to the Lord for a child. She says this in verse 26. She said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Verse 28 says, Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord, as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshipped the Lord there. If you mark that phrase in verse number 28, this phrase, I have lent him to the Lord. I have lent him to the Lord. Hannah is saying, I was barren, I could have no children. I sought the Lord, I prayed. You can read in the first part of 1 Samuel 1, where she is crying out to God. She's broken over this. God gives her Samuel, and now she says, and I'm giving him back to the Lord. Ultimately, that's what God asks of every single one of us when he gives us children. To take that child and to release that child to him. We just sang the song a moment ago. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. Can we say, as a parent, if God sends my child anywhere, I'm going to let him go. We've got to release them to God. And we look here, we really need to ask the question, as Hannah did, have we released, have we released our own children to God? And really, what are we preparing our children for? And again, you may be here this morning and you may say, Well, Pastor, I don't have children. You may say, I don't know that God will give me children, or my children are gone. They're outside the home. There are still a number of things here we find in the life of Samuel. I think there's preparatory work that goes into those who God is going to give children, but there's also work that's being done in the heart of Samuel all through his life. You know, life is just a series of saying yes to God. I can remember, I always think about these things around May and June and working toward, you know, beginning of school years. I remember when I was in high school and I thought, I've got to decide what is next. And I thought the decision I make about where I'm going to college is the biggest decision I'll ever make. Now, up to that point, it absolutely was. And I thought I'll never make a bigger decision than this. And I look back and I smile about that now. It was a big decision then. But you know what it was? It was just finding out what God wanted and saying yes to him. And then you know what the next thing was? There was another big decision. I thought, oh, I'm going to marry somebody. I made the right decision. I'm thankful for that. It was a big yes to God, but it was just yeses all along the way. And we're looking this morning at this. Our home, a place of preparation. A place of preparation. What do we think as parents we are preparing our children for? Is it I want them to get out of the house and live on their own? If they just get out of my hair, then I've done my job. Is that what we're preparing children for? Is it I want them to go out and get a good job and make good money? Well, what is good money? How do we define good money? Is it I want them to make enough money to support themselves? I want them to make enough money to support me, whatever it may be, but too often spiritual preparation takes a backseat to worldly pursuits. The world tells us exactly what we ought to be aiming for, and we say, well, if that's what everyone else is doing, then that's what we're going to do, right? But we should be preparing our children ultimately to live a life wholly given to God. Now let's make note of some things as we look at this passage. First of all, would you write some things down if you're taking notes here in 1 Samuel? Number one, prepare our children, or we should be preparing our children from the earliest age. Preparing our children from the earliest age. Would you write this down? Samuel's preparation began before he was born. Long before Samuel is born, there's a mother, Hannah, who begins to prepare herself. Sometimes I think we think, well, look, I want to be a parent, and once I have children, I'll be a good parent. Once I have children, I'll be a good Christian, maybe we would say. Look, if you're not living the Christian life that you should live now, birthing children doesn't change that. It's like some people who they say, well, once I get to the mission field, I'll be a good missionary. People think getting on a plane and changing their geography is going to automatically make them a missionary. That doesn't happen. And just birthing children is not going to magically make us the parents we ought to be. There is preparation that has gone on in Hannah's life as a mother to prepare her to lead Samuel. Would you look with me at verse number 10? We find here she's asking God for children. It says in 1 Samuel 1 verse 10, she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. And there shall no razor come upon his head. You know what's interesting? She says here, and I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. She doesn't say, I'll give him unto the Lord, as long as he's in my home. There are parents here today that have children, including my own parents that are here, they're out of the home. And if you would still ask them, they would say, Yes, I still have to give my child over to the Lord. I still have to release them to God, knowing that my time of influence, most of that has passed. Not all of it is passed, but much of it is passed, and I'm still releasing them unto God. And Hannah says, I know I've got to start now preparing myself for him to live a life for the Lord. Verse number 20, we find the answer. It says, Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come after Hannah conceived that she bare a son, called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. You know, the greatest work we can do as parents is preparing our own heart and life for what God wants to do in our child's life. You know, there's a great mistake that is found around marriages and births today. Often more work is put into the gender reveal than the raising of the child. Often more work today and more labor and more time and more effort is put into the wedding reception than into the marriage. Are we for what we can put on Instagram and Facebook and the glam of it all? And we put no preparation into actually being a parent or being a spouse or just being the Christian we're supposed to be? That's all the things that no one else sees on social media. That's what the time, that's what the effort, that's what the labor goes into. Many times we get tired of things because we can't tell people about it. Well, if I can't take a picture of it, then I guess it didn't happen, right? If it's not on Facebook, it didn't really happen, right? But often all the work is to put into the scene and put into the imagery and not put into the labor of preparing and working and following the Lord day in, day out. That's the work the Lord blesses. Go with me to the book of Exodus. Go back with me. A few books to the book of Exodus, chapter 2. We find another mother here who labored in preparing her child from the earliest of ages. We come to the book of Exodus. God's people are slaves in Egypt. And Pharaoh has put out a decree that every man-child that's born of the people of God, the Hebrews, is to be killed. Well, I'm glad there is a mother and a father who love the Lord, and they fear God. And it says here in Exodus chapter 2, verse 1, it says that when a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son, and when she saw him that she was a goodly child, she hid him three months. Remember, this is against the king's, the Pharaoh's command. When she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bull rushes, dubbed it with slime, with pitch, and put the child therein, laid it in the flags by the river's bank, and his sister stood afar off to wit what should be done to him. We know what child this is. What child is this? It's Moses. And we find here she has him, she has this child. Pharaoh says the child has to die. They keep him, they hide him. There comes a point where you just can't hide a three-month-old any longer, okay? And she puts him in a small little ark, a little boat, sends him down the Nile, and we find, we know the story. Pharaoh's daughter finds him. Moses' sister is there, Miriam, and she says, Let me find you a Hebrew woman that can nurse this child. And she has she has Moses just for maybe one to two years, possibly up to three years, possibly. Just long enough to nurse the child, and then she gives them back over to Pharaoh. She just has this child for a moment's time, and he's gonna live 40 years in Egypt. But she realizes my time starts now. You know, we don't start training children to live for the Lord when they're 10 years old or when they're 15 years old, or once they get out of the house, then we're gonna give them some tips on how to live for God. You realize it starts before they can speak, it starts before they can crawl. They should be hearing the things of God and hearing the word of God. They should be in the house of God. By the way, when you have a child, from as early as possible, they should be in the house of God and they should be around God's people. There's a trend today of people having children and you don't see them for six months or a year. They keep them away from everyone and everything and everybody. That's not God's design. God's design is for the whole family to be together in God's house. Now, if the child's sick and the child's got a fever, I realize they've got to stay home. There's no problem in that. But you don't take a year off from church because you had a baby. You're in God's house. And here we find a woman. She starts preparing Moses from the earliest of days. It says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw it was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. And you know what there came a point where, if you look at Exodus chapter 2, look at verse number 9, it says, And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew. And she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. There came a day where Jacobed releases Moses to Pharaoh's house, and she knows whatever I put into him up to this point is what's going to stick with him. I will lose all influence now. And I don't know what she put in, but it was strong enough to when Moses had the choice to choose God's people or Pharaoh, he chose God's people. That's the kind of parents we've got to be. That's the kind of homes we've got to have that we are pouring into those children from before the time they're born. Training them from the earliest of times. Proverbs 22, verse 6 says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. You know what that verse is doing? It's connecting childhood with adulthood. We've got to understand there is a connection between this child now at six months or one year or three years or five years old or seven years old. The things going into them are going to make them the man or the woman they're going to be. We're not just setting the sails, we're building the cells from the ground up for their life. Psalm 128 verse 3 says, Thy children like olive plants round thy table. You know, it doesn't say olive trees, it says olive plants. You know what's interesting about olive plants is you don't plant them for yourself. You plant olive plants and olive trees for the next generation because it can take as long as 40 years for olive plants to bloom. So you don't plant them for yourself because you're probably not going to see the harvest. And you know what it says here about Psalm 128 that our children as olive plants? One writer said this olive trees take a long time to mature and become profitable. Patiently cultivated, they become quite valuable. And they continue to produce a profitable crop for centuries, longer perhaps, than any other fruit-producing tree or plant. You know what we're doing when we're training children? You know what we're doing when we take the Bible bus out? We pick up children? I've had people say, well, look, if their parents can't bring them to church, you shouldn't bring them. I don't think so. I think we should go get them. Our first pickup. We were heading down Paynes Avenue this morning, and the girl was so excited to get to Sunday school. She about ran out in front of the bus. I mean, that's excited. I mean, she came bounding off the sidewalk, bounding in the street. I said, and her mom, her mom was sitting there, she started coming during summer day camp. Her mom was sitting there on the on the uh front porch. I said, She's ready to go. Her mom was beaming ear to ear, so excited about her daughter, happy about going to Sunday school. You know why? Because we've got to make sure those children are getting the word of God and they know about the Lord. Who else is going to do it if we're not going to do it? And we find here they realize these are just little plants. They've got to be cultivated, they've got to be worked with, they've got to be developed. And an intentionality to prepare our own heart for parenting and point our child to God from the earliest age. Would you make note of a second thing? Not only that, but secondly, to prepare our child to grow spiritually. Go back in our passage of 1 Samuel chapter 2. We're preparing our child to grow spiritually. 1 Samuel 2, verse 26 says, And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. Henna did everything she could to get her child to God's house. In fact, she leaves him at God's house. She raised him to the point where he's weaned, and she says, Now, he's yours. Eli, I'm leaving him here. I've got to get him in the house of God. And she was so serious about it, she said, I want him serving here in the house of God. He becomes a servant. In fact, it says in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 26, the child Samuel grew on and was in favor. Favor here means is good, pleasant, and agreeable, both with the Lord and also with men. You know, there's a part of growing, and we've got to work with children on this, where they're in favor with God. That means God is pleased with how they're living. And it says also with men, that means society, and I don't mean society as a whole. There's a society that's against God and against his word. But people who love the Lord, they're good and pleasant and agreeable to be around other people. Look, we're always working at that. I'm always working at that. I'm working with my children about that. But children should always be a blessing to have around. Now, there are times we have to be very diligent in that kind of work, and I realize it. And there are some times I fail in that. But we're always working at it to make them favorable before God and favorable before men. The same is said of the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 2 and verse 40. It says, And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Now, I don't know all the ins and outs of this. I'll be very honest with you, in Luke chapter 2, verse 40. How Jesus, who is the very Son of God, fully God, fully man, co-eternal, coexistent with God, and he grows, and he waxed strong in spirit, and he's filled with wisdom. How does he grow in these graces? I just know there's a mom and daddy, they're working with him, and they're bringing him along, and we've got the same responsibility. Here's what he says in 1 Samuel 3, back in our passage, 1 Samuel 3, verse 19, it says this, and Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him. This child is growing and developing to the point where you see this child and you know this child has a relationship with God. Now God help us to raise children. And that's look, that's something both we as parents have to put in, but that's also something that child has got to want it. I don't know how old he is at this point. Maybe he's six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old. I don't know, but he's still a child. He's not a young man yet. And it says, the Lord's with him. And it says this in verse 19. And did let none of his words fall to the ground. Now, what does that mean? You know what that means? There was no idle talk from Samuel. There was nothing that was said that he would have said, you know, I wish I wouldn't have said that. You know, I shouldn't have talked about that. Matthew chapter 12, verse 36, Jesus says, But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Idle words, sometimes just chit-chat. Samuel's serious about the things of God even from the earliest of ages. We also find as he's growing spiritually, he's standing against evil influences. Standing against evil influences. Do you know who else is serving in the tabernacle while Samuel is there as a boy growing? Eli's sons are there. We looked at them last week, Hophni and Phinehas. Absolutely devilish men. They're grown men at this point. Samuel's just a child. It says in 1 Samuel 1, verse 3, it says that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, the priests of the Lord were there. If you go over to chapter 2, verse number 12, we find it says, now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. Belial means they're literally good for nothing. These men are good for nothing, and yet Eli has promoted them to priest in the tabernacle. And Samuel's growing up all around this. You know what that tells me? You don't have to be persuaded and moved to live for the devil by those around you. You know, he's a child. He's just a little child. Children are so easily persuaded and easily follow people. And here are these two grown men. We find they're sleeping with women that have come to worship God. They're desecrating the house of God, they're taking this, they're stealing parts of the sacrifices that aren't theirs. They give up the Ark of the Covenant in the day of battle. They let it go out and get lost. And yet, what is Samuel doing? He can still live for God. You say, well, Pastor, I've got a family that's not living for God. Samuel lived for God. Well, I've got people in my class, I've got people in the group, I've got people in the dorm, I've got people I work around. They're not living for God. You know, it's just hard not to give in. Samuel didn't give in. Samuel didn't follow them. Samuel didn't bow to this peer pressure. It says in chapter 2, verse 17, wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, and men abhorred the offering of the Lord. And yet, right in the middle of this, Hapni and Phinehas desecrating the tabernacle, here's little Samuel. And he's faithful. And people say, I tell you what, Hophni and Phineas, they've turned this place. People don't even like to go to the tabernacle anymore. But I love seeing Samuel there. You know, we're never more encouraged than when we see a child with a heart for God. And here's little Samuel living for the Lord, following God, faithful to do the little ministerial works that God's given him in the tabernacle. Would you make note of a third thing? Not only did he grow spiritually, not only did his mother work with him from the earliest of ages, would you make note of a third thing? We're to prepare our children to hear from the Lord. Prepare our children to hear from the Lord. Now I'm going to read an account in 1 Samuel 3, where Samuel's going to hear the audible voice of God. Now that is a way in the Old Testament we find that often the Lord speaks audibly in the Old Testament. He speaks sometimes through dreams, he speaks sometimes through visions. You've got to remember in the Old Testament that God's people did not have his completed word at this point. We come to the New Testament, and He begins to speak through His Word, because we have the completed Word of God, 66 books, all put together that God's given to us. That which is perfect is come, and now we seek Him in His Word. So don't come to me tomorrow and tell me that you had a dream or God spoke to you audibly or something like that. Go to His Word and tell me what you saw in His Word, okay? It's the standard. But we find here in 1 Samuel 3 it says, The child ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, and there was no open vision. It came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, his eyes were waxed dim that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep. Alright, so they'll all sleep. It's nighttime. It says verse four. And the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, Here am I. So Eli is sleeping. It's nighttime. They're in the tabernacle. Samuel, just a young boy, he's sleeping. And God calls. It says, Samuel. Samuel says, Here am I. And it says in verse 5, he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, Samuel says, I called not. Lie down again. And he went and lay down. Now think about this scene. Samuel laying down, sleeping. He hears his name. Samuel. Middle of the night, wakes up, gets up, bolts to go see Eli, and he says, Here am I, you called me. He doesn't know God called him. Who does he think called him? He thinks Eli called him. So what does this show us? He knew how to answer to authority. He answered. He's called. It's the middle of the night. If the rest of us were called in the middle of the night, I mean, you know, we hear, we hear something, we think the door busted open, we're like, well, maybe it's not a robber. I'll just roll over, right? We're dead to the world. Eli as a boy, he jumps up and he goes. I'm sorry. Samuel as a boy jumps up, runs to Eli. What do we find here? He had been taught to listen to the authority that had been put in his life. And how does that translate? How does that translate? Keep reading with me. It says verse 6. The Lord called yet again Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son, lie down again. Verse 7, and Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Verse 8, and the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Hear am I, and thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, it shall be, if thou call thee, thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down his place. Verse 10, the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Now what happens here? This boy had been taught to answer to the authority in his life. Eli calls, he runs and says, Yes, I'm here. You called. And you know what that translates into? Samuel listening to the voice of the authority in his life? It translates to him listening to the voice of God in his life. Do you know why often children aren't ready to listen to God? We've taught them they don't have to listen to us. If we speak to children and we give clear expectations and we call them, we say, you know, I'm just going to use Max, my boy, and say, Max, come here. And he doesn't come here. And he hears me and he disobeys and I let it go. What have I shown? You don't have to listen to your parents. You don't have to listen to the authority in your life. Well, what are they going to do when God speaks? What are they going to do when they're going to the Word of God and God is trying to deal with them? God's trying to speak to them. God's trying to show them what he wants for their life. And God begins to move and he pricks their heart and he begins to convict them of sin or he convicts them about something they're doing in their life. Well, I don't have to listen to mom and dad. Why should I listen to God? Why should I listen to his word? If we're not training children to listen to us, we're training them they don't have to listen to God. And from the earliest of ages, what are they doing? They're putting this in. You listen to your parents, you listen to the authority in your life, and then you're going to be ready to hear God. You know, the Lord speaks about speaking in a whirlwind, speaking of fire, speaking of an earthquake. But you know how God wants to speak? He wants to speak through a still small voice. But if we will not listen to the still small voice, you know how he has to speak to get our attention? Through the fire and through the earthquake and through the whirlwind. But he says, I want to speak in hushed tones and you be ready to hear. You realize that's the same in each and every one of our lives? That's how God wants us to be. He wants us to be ready to listen, ready to hear. And then when he speaks, we're ready to act. Maybe you're here this morning. And you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Then I pray that God helping you, you're ready to listen to the word of God. And you're ready to listen when he speaks. But if you don't know him today, if you're not truly a child of God, you can't hear him speak. You can't hear his voice. It may be there's never been a time you've truly accepted the Lord as your Savior. I ask you, do you know that you've been born again? Do you know? Do you know that God has saved you from your sins and you're on your way to heaven when you die? Because if you don't, you can't don't expect leading from God. Don't expect God to speak to you and guide you and direct you. You've got to get that nail down first. The Bible tells us we're sinners all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And because of that, it says the wages or the price of sin is death, that spiritual death, the separation from God. Our sin has separated us from God. Well, how are we going to get to him then? The Bible tells us in the book of Romans, chapter 5, but God commendeth and reproved his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he says, and that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you called on the Lord to save you? Has there been a time where you've asked the Lord to forgive you of your sin and to save you, to take you to heaven when you die, then you can hear from the Lord. Because look what happens. Go all the way with me to 1 Samuel 7. Would you look at me a little further on, 1 Samuel 7, verse 3? It says this. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and asteroid from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. You know what we find? Samuel was ready to hear what God spoke to him, so that he could take it and could speak to others. That's why God speaks to us in the first place. That's why God guides us and directs us and gives us direction from his word. He gives us things so that we may pass them on to others, that we may give back to others. We can't just take everything in. Sometimes we take everything in and we give nothing back out. That's not how God designed the Christian life. He hears the word of God and then he passes it on to others. And then we make note of a fourth and a final thing. Fourthly, we prepare our children to live their whole life for the Lord. We prepare our children to live their whole life for the Lord. You say, well, Pastor, does that mean they've got to be a they've got to be a pastor? They've got to be a missionary? No, no, no. I hope if God leads my children to be a lawyer or a plumber or a teacher or an electrician or working HR or an insurance salesman, they give their whole life to the God and they do it to the absolute best of their ability and honor the Lord with everything they do. Look what he says in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 35. He says, And I will raise me up a what? Two words there, read them out loud. A faithful priest. You know, I think we could put any word in there. I will raise me up a faithful police officer, a faithful firefighter, a faithful stay-at-home mom, a faithful businessman. God just wants to raise up someone who is faithfully going to labor in the place where he put them. That's where he put Samuel. He put him right there in the tabernacle. And he says, I'm going to use him faithfully right there. But wherever God put our children, that they be faithful right in that place. Because look at the end of the story. Go back with me to 1 Samuel 7. 1 Samuel 7, verse number 15. Here's what it says. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. And here's what happens. Little Samuel, little boy Samuel, serving the tabernacle, who's growing spiritually, growing in favor with the Lord, growing in favor with men. He's listening to God and listening to the authority in his life. You know what it does? It sets him up for a whole life of living for God. And then at the end, you know what it says? And he judged Israel all the days of his life. What are we preparing our children for? We're preparing our children for a whole life lived for the Lord. And you know what we have as parents? Sometimes I think, look, the days are long, but the years are very short. I think we're never going to get out of this. But you know what I've realized? I just have a moment. You know what we started doing? Our oldest Macy now is 12. I think we have five summers left with her until she leaves the house. When you start counting that down, I realize it's going to go like that. I don't have much time left until they're gone. Now, we'll still love them, they'll still be around. We want grandchildren in God's time. All in God's time. But then they will be out on their own, and I'm trying, seeking to, prayerfully trying, to prepare them for a life given to God. That's how we make our home a place of preparation.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

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