WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:08.640 Uh, today we start a new sermon series that will take us uh into June and into the summer on the book of 1st and 2 Samuel. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.919 We break it into two, but it's really one long book. 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.560 This is one of my favorite Old Testament books. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:21.839 If you've never read 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, I highly recommend you do so while we go through this series. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:32.960 This is this book tells the amazing story of Israel's return to Yahweh after years of kind of a downward spiral recorded in the book of Judges. 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:42.399 If you've ever read the book of Judges, if you're not familiar with it, it can be kind of confusing because things just seem to get worse and worse and worse, and then the book ends, and you're like, wow, all right. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:43.359 What's next? 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:47.200 Well, what's next is the book of 1 Samuel. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:57.119 Uh and it centers around two beautiful, godly men, the uh Samuel, who we'll hear about his birth this morning, and then David. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:04.159 Um Samuel is full of incredible uh iconic Old Testament moments. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:19.519 The rise and fall of King Saul, David and Goliath, David and Jonathan, David and his mighty men, uh David's run from Saul, the Ark of the Covenant, the rise, decline, and fall of King David himself, and the transition to King Solomon. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.000 So I'm very excited for what's to come. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:25.599 Let's continue reading in our passage for this morning. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:39.920 Now, this man, Al Kanah, used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Haphni and Phineas, were priests of the Lord. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:52.640 On the day when El Kanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Panina, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 00:01:52.879 --> 00:02:00.079 And her rival used to provoke her grievously, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.239 So it went on year by year. 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:06.079 As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:09.199 Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:14.159 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:15.759 And why do you not eat? 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:17.759 And why is your heart sad? 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:21.680 Am I not more to you than ten sons? 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:25.680 A lot of husbands in here going, like, Yeah, I can relate. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.560 Why doesn't my wife think I'm as good to her as ten sons? 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:30.159 Lots we can relate to. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.800 Our first point in our passage this morning. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:38.800 We live in a fallen and broken world riddled with sin, suffering, and grief. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:39.599 Amen? 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:40.800 Amen. 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:41.280 That's right. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.639 I wanted us to get kick off on a happy note. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:03:02.000 Um it's noteworthy to me that this epic book that covers so many years, so many generations, so many lives, such an important piece of Israel's history, it begins in the middle of a domestic squabble. 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:08.960 And inside the grieving heart of a particular, specific woman. 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:12.639 The man, Elkanah, appears to be relatively wealthy, right? 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.360 We get this lineage back four generations. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:24.400 And he has two wives, which, you know, in some ways was um somewhat normal practice back in the day, but you had to be wealthy to support multiple wives. 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:32.080 Hannah was probably Elkanah's first wife, but when she proved to be barren, he married Panina. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:41.360 To have an heir, particularly a male heir, was huge, was was um a big deal in the ancient Near East. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:45.680 And so marrying a second wife was a way to solve the problem. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:56.240 But as we, if you know the scriptures, as we learned in the book of Genesis and Abraham and Sarah's story, taking multiple wives uh tends to produce problems of its own. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:56.800 Amen? 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:57.360 Okay. 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:00.560 Um first point. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:14.319 Uh but what I love about this opening passage, right, taking the whole book in mind, is how the author of Samuel, like a master storyteller, he's able to capture the theme of the whole book. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.959 And I would even say the theme of the whole of Scripture in these opening verses. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:26.560 Who of us in our own way can't relate to these characters, to Hannah or Elkanah or even Panina? 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:31.839 The heartbreak of loss, of falling short, of not being enough. 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:37.040 In her culture, Hannah was a complete and utter failure. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:41.519 She could not give to her husband what he required. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:51.600 How many of us can relate to the love you feel for a loved one who is hurting, particularly a spouse. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:58.639 When we see El Kana, what we see of him is that he seems to genuinely love Hannah. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.959 He he treats her in actually a unique way. 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:10.160 He doesn't treat her in relationship to what she's able to provide, but actually loves her for who she is, and his love is evident throughout these verses. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.920 We also see the pride of the haves over the have-nots. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:21.279 It's easy, isn't it, to look down on others who don't have what comes easy to us. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:28.560 As I read this passage, it brought me back, you know, unprovoked to my days in college. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:34.800 I grew up here in East Cobb and went down to Georgia Tech, moved down to the city, and it was an exciting, you know, exciting time of life. 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:43.920 I joined a fraternity, and pretty early, we, as college students are wont to do, we we, a group of us went to Kroger on a on a Kroger run. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:58.639 And as we were driving back to the fraternity house, we're leaving the parking lot, and uh the guy was driving, he didn't see this homeless guy who was kind of crossing the parking lot uh on a sidewalk, and he kind of swerved to miss him. 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:06.720 And one of the other guys in the car yelled out the window, get a job, you bum! And it just sort of it sort of struck me in that moment. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:09.199 You know, we're all being whatever. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:18.959 And um, but but kind of the harshness and the cruelty in that moment um struck me, and I remember it to this day, but that was the basic mentality that I grew up with. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:22.560 If you were homeless and you weren't working, it was because you were lazy. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:46.800 But then later, years later, as a pastor, I moved into the city and I was faced with homelessness on another level and on a personal level, and I learned the generational and the historical reasons for a lot of homelessness, the grinding uh nature of poverty, mental illness, and the number of factors that can lead to homelessness for a variety of reasons. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:52.000 And it was passages like this that began to open my eyes to my own sin of pride. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:07:02.560 And also open my eyes to a God who looks upon the weak and the vulnerable, even the lazy, with compassion and grace. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:10.079 Beloved, we live in a broken and fallen world where we sin and where we are sinned against. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:22.160 And when we look at stories like this, sometimes what is revealed is that we are not the hero of the story, we are not the victim of the story, but sometimes we are the villain in the story in need of God's mercy as well. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.720 Let's look at the next part of the passage. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:30.480 If they uh after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:36.399 Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:41.279 She was deeply distressed, and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:59.600 And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed 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'll give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.360 Point two, Hannah invites us to learn to lament. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.639 What I'm calling the prayer of the heart. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:22.399 In these verses, we are we are invited into a very intimate space, the space of Hannah's heart as she grieves and endures, you know, kind of the petty bullying of her rival sister wife. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:29.839 But the interesting thing here is to note that this has been a situation that Hannah has been going through for years. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:32.000 It's been years since she was first married. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:34.720 It's been years since she proved to be barren. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:43.759 It's been years since Panina came into this story, and it's been years since she has had multiple sons and daughters. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:59.039 And yet, year after year, what we're told is as they went to Shiloh, to the temple of the Lord, where God's presence uniquely dwelt, and where God's people went to meet with the Lord, she went to him to cry out to the Lord in prayer. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:07.279 It would be understandable if Hannah had become bitter of heart and had been turned in on herself. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:12.879 But what we see is that she has been able to remain within the gap of lament. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:18.000 Here's a helpful diagram that I got from another book. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:19.440 I did not come up with this. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:24.639 But in this simple image, it kind of captures what it's like to live in a fallen world. 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:26.480 Right, we all live in reality. 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.639 We experience suffering, setbacks, good things, you know, bad things. 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.720 But we also have hopes and dreams in our lives. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:38.320 Hopes to be married, hope to be parents, hope for a certain type of job, a certain type of life. 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:47.200 And often in their day-to-day life, we experience a gap between our hopes and what is true about our lives. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:59.440 And in that gap is pain, disappointment, disillusionment, just discomfort, right, when we acknowledge the gap between our hopes and the realities of our lives. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:01.679 Nobody likes living in pain, right? 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:03.120 Not me, not you. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.480 And so we tend to respond through this through a number of steps. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:12.480 And they don't always have to go in this order, but these tend to be pretty typical. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:14.480 First step is denial, right? 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:16.240 Notice there's the line of hope. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:18.799 But the line of reality is gone. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:24.320 Denial means we we look at hope, but we don't pay attention to reality, right? 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:25.519 I'm in denial. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:31.200 I'm not gonna face uh what's going on in my life. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:36.320 Now we experience this both as Christians and as non-Christians. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:38.399 In non-Christian circles, right? 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:40.799 This may be uh the idea of manifesting. 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:42.559 Have you ever heard of manifesting? 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.120 Um I hear it all the time these days, right? 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:51.279 If I if I think it hard enough, if I talk about it, then I'm gonna bring it into reality. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:11:03.440 Uh in Christian circles, we can see this uh in communities where it just doesn't seem safe, it's not okay to be sad, right, as a Christian, or depression is kind of seen as a result of a lack of faith. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:03.919 Right? 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:05.120 Hey, don't you be sad. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:06.480 God's gonna give you that baby. 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:08.240 You just need enough faith. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:11.440 You're gonna get that job, God's gonna provide. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.360 Don't worry, don't look at the bad, look at the good. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:26.240 Um, but over time, in this denial, uh, we tend to get tired, tired of waiting, tired of just hoping against hope. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:29.519 And so we turn to step two, which is determination. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:33.039 And in determination, we take matters into our own hands. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:34.559 And we say, you know what? 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:38.879 Maybe God wants me to make my hopes a reality. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:44.559 Now, the classic example of this, of course, is again Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis, right? 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:50.720 God had promised to them a son by the two of them. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:52.879 But time passed, years passed. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:55.120 And finally, they took matters into their own hands. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:02.639 In fact, we're told that Sarah is the one who instigated the idea of giving her servant Hagar to Abram. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:11.279 But what they learned, of course, is uh that they could not bring about God's promises in their own power. 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:18.960 Now, you know, we were praying to God to get a job, but maybe we've been waiting so long we kind of lie and tweak our resume. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:26.159 Maybe we we try to sabotage that guy or that girl who's also uh vying for the position. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:32.639 Maybe we we just spend endless amount of hours in email and tweaking our LinkedIn profile. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:34.480 We're trying to do whatever we can. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:43.200 Maybe we're getting on the dating apps and we're bending our own kind of moral codes the longer it takes because man, I've just got to do whatever it takes. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:53.200 Well, over time, when we learn that uh we can't make our own hopes a reality, we we turn to the third step, which is despair. 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:56.480 Now the the line of hope is gone. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:02.159 We look only at reality and we begin to believe that our situation can never change. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:10.320 We wonder if God is good, we wonder if God even exists, we wonder if our prayers are heard. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:20.159 And in despair, we tend to look for things to distract us, to self-medicate us against that pain and hopelessness of despair. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:25.600 And so we'll turn to get busy, we'll give ourselves to projects, we pour ourselves into work. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:32.720 Maybe we look for some kind of physical stimulation like a drug or alcohol or Netflix, right? 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:36.559 That just makes the pain kind of go away for a minute. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:43.519 We can look to change our environment, a new house, a new job, a new state, a new spouse. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.519 Anything to get away from the pain. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:55.759 But what Hannah is showing to us, and what God is inviting us into is lament. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:02.879 And it's it's the way to remain in that gap between hope and despair. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:06.559 God calls us to cry out to him. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:11.519 Lament neither gives up on hope nor ignores reality. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:19.679 It recognizes where we are and where we need to be and cries out for God to narrow the gap. 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:33.279 Again, this next slide here, that place between, we stay in the painful place, never giving up on faith, but never lying about reality. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:35.919 Lament is actually an act of faith. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:51.200 It says that what is true, what is what is ultimately true, that we are weak, that we are limited human beings, creatures created in God's image, who have not been given the power or the prerogative to create reality. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:15:03.440 We live in a fallen world where we experience pain and suffering, but we live in a world where Yahweh is the king and reigns over all of creation. 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:05.519 And beloved, let's be real. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:11.279 We live, many of us, uh here in the in this area of Marietta. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:17.840 Many of us have college and graduate degrees, many of us have good jobs, have good income. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:19.039 You look good. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:21.840 That's just, you know, I'm gonna be honest with you. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:23.679 You're a good-looking group. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:35.600 But because of that, we tend to believe a false gospel that says, I should be able to overcome reality. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:45.360 I'm smart enough, I have enough money, I have enough connections, I should be able to do it. 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:53.840 And beloved, I will tell you that God actually does bring circumstances into our lives to remind us of the truth. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:16:01.600 He brings us to the end of ourselves so that we will remember who we are and who he is. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:10.960 You see, in this moment, Hannah embodies Psalm 51, 17 that says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:15.840 A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.639 God loves it when we confess the truth, the truth of our weakness. 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:26.000 So, a question for you to ponder which of these steps do you tend to fall into? 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.720 Where might you be today? 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:31.200 Are you in denial? 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.679 Are you in despair? 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:36.080 Are you in lament? 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:37.679 Let's continue. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:42.960 As she, Hannah, continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:48.559 Hannah was speaking in her heart, and only her lips moved, her voice was not heard. 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:51.519 Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:55.360 And Eli said to her, How long will you go on being drunk? 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:57.519 Put away your wine from you. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:03.919 But Hannah answered, No, my Lord, I am a woman, troubled in spirit. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:10.160 I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:19.200 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:27.680 Then Eli answered, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:32.000 And she said, Let your servant find favor in your eyes. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.839 Then the woman went home, went away, and ate, and her face was no longer sad. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:44.000 This third point here teaches us about the role of the priest. 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:51.119 Eli helps us see something important here in the midst of this situation. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:18:00.880 After making a huge blunder, right, coming up to a woman just desperate and undone by grief, he rebukes her for being drunk. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:06.160 But when she responds and tells him her situation, he recovers, right? 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:10.720 He blesses her and he prays with her. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:17.359 Remarkably, we're told that Hannah goes away and her face is no longer sad. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:18.880 She's able to eat. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:20.880 So what is going on? 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:36.160 I believe what this is showing us is that God, our God, who is relational by nature, who has existed from all eternity, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has made us as relational beings as well. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:43.119 And we often need someone in our times of suffering to act as a priest for us. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.680 You see, a priest, generally speaking, is one who stands between. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:55.200 One who stands between God and man, who bridges the gap as a mediator and makes relationship possible. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:19:00.240 That's why the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our perfect high priest. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:12.960 Because it was through his willing sacrifice that bridged the gap between us sinful human beings and a perfect God, so that we can become sons and daughters of God and he becomes our Father in heaven. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:21.359 Now, Eli shows us another act of a priest, which is rather than standing between, is one who comes and stands beside. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:32.240 Another as they come before the Lord, acting as an advocate, a companion, and one who stands in solidarity. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:38.799 Beloved, this is something that we are called and meant to do for one another. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:46.480 Last week we had a particularly difficult thing happen in our family, and I was in distress. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:48.319 Let's just put it that way. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.440 And I called a friend. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:59.519 I thought of someone kind of someone I hadn't talked to in a long time, but who I knew could kind of relate to what was happening in that moment. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:06.160 And I called him, and by God's grace, he answered, and we talked for almost an hour. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.039 And he listened, he empathized, he told his story. 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:13.680 By the end, we were laughing. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:17.279 And when I hung up, I felt better. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:24.799 In fact, it was about 20 minutes later, I just it just kind of struck me like, oh, I haven't, you know, I've I've been feeling good. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:28.640 And um, and then I realized, oh yeah, this thing, horrible thing is happening. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:30.720 And so then I plummeted back into despair. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:40.480 But the point is that just talking to my friend alleviated my distress. 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:43.680 And this is why counseling can be so helpful, right? 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:46.240 To have someone that we can go to who will listen to us. 00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:50.799 They don't even have to be a good counselor to sit there and listen. 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:59.920 Now, I am very pro-counseling, and there are some amazing counselors out there who are gifted and can do a lot with what they tell us, what we tell them. 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:04.559 But sometimes we just need another human being. 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:10.880 We can and we ought to, and scripture tells us to go to God directly, and that's what Hannah does. 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:17.279 But again, God created us as relate as relational beings, and we need other human beings. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:35.279 And when we when we come into the presence of someone who is willing to see us and to listen to us and simply be with us, I think theologically what is happening is that that presence reminds us on an unspoken level that God too is with us. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:36.960 That he is present. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:45.599 It speaks against the voices in our head that say we are alone, we are unworthy of the Lord's presence and he has left us. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.759 Am I someone who can be a priest? 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:59.680 Am I someone that a friend or a family member or a fellow church? 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.640 Or would come to in a time of need. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.599 Someone who needs a confidant, someone who needs to confess even sin. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:16.960 This beloved is a sacred role that we can play for one another. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:20.799 Okay, let's look at the final portion of our passage. 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:26.079 They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:28.319 Then they went back to their home at Rama. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:30.960 And Al Kana knew Hannah his wife. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:33.039 And the Lord remembered her. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:36.799 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:39.920 And she called his name Samuel. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.559 For she said, I have asked for him from the Lord. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:50.000 And this is our fourth and final point, which is that the Lord is faithful. 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:56.720 This is the point of this story, and it's actually the point of the whole Christian life. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:12.640 This is the message that we come to give a hearty amen to week out, week in and week out as we come to church to be reminded of what has God done for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:20.160 He has been faithful to his promises, promises to forgive, promises to embrace, promises to remain faithful. 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:28.240 In the midst of our own failures and our own losses and our own sufferings, he will never leave us or forsake us. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:37.839 And we who have walked through the valley of the shadow of death and whom the Lord has led through the other side, we can give that hearty amen. 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:46.960 But this truth, that the Lord is faithful, is also the hardest thing for us to amen when we are in the midst of the valley. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:59.680 Even those of us who have walked through it in the past and come out the other side but are being led to it through another season, it becomes difficult again to believe this truth. 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:06.079 And that's why we have the scriptures that tell us these stories. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:10.160 That's why the scriptures are full of finished stories. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:21.839 Stories like Joseph in Genesis, stories like David in the book of Samuel, the stories of Abraham and Sarah, and so many others. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:24.079 And in the New Testament as well. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:34.079 We get to see people who walk through suffering for years and years, and yet the Lord shows himself faithful in the end. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:37.200 Because we need to hear that message. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:41.839 We need to be reminded when things are hard that the Lord is indeed faithful. 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:48.799 And so I, as your pastor and as your priest this morning, I say to you, the Lord is faithful. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:54.240 Whatever's going on in your life, believe this truth. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:01.359 Now we don't have time to get into chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:02.160 It's awesome. 00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:04.880 I encourage you again to just read this book. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:09.839 But there's some incredible, surprising, I wasn't expecting as I studied these passages. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:16.880 There's some places in chapter 2 that echo in a very unexpected way from the Gospel of Luke. 00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:20.640 Chapter 2 begins with Hannah's prayer, right? 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:28.079 She has this kind of long prayer of thanksgiving that she is giving to the Lord for his faithfulness to give her a son. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:36.319 And if you look at her prayer and you look at the Mary's magnificat, I mean it's just eerily similar. 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:38.799 Both the wording and the structure. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:44.240 Also, later in 1 Samuel 2, it says this the boy Samuel, right? 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:47.359 Samuel's been born and he's growing up with Eli at the temple. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:26:05.279 He said, Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man, which is almost identical in its wording to Luke 2, 52, that talks about the boy Jesus, who grew in stature in the eyes of the Lord and men. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:27.119 And, you know, looking into the in into the commentaries and the different things, there's there was no like aha moment, there was nothing there, but it reminded me of nothing else that Hannah and Samuel are meant to point us to the ultimate fulfillment of this story, which is in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:32.160 Jesus is the yes and amen of all God's promises. 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:49.759 Jesus came to meet us in our darkest place, our separation from God, the heart and the root of sin that creates barrenness, that creates abandonment, that creates our unworthiness. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:27:04.559 And Jesus came, a promised son who would call God's people back to faithfulness, and to play that role of priest and prophet and king, who would bridge the gap between God and his people. 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:21.279 Beloved Jesus is the better Samuel, Mary is the better Hannah, where God proved his ultimate faithfulness, to come himself in the flesh, to die upon the cross for our sins and to rise for our justification. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:35.599 And so when we, it is these stories of faithfulness that climax in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that allow us to exist in that gap between reality and hope. 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:41.920 To hold on that, yes, God will be faithful to me, but I will not let go of him. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:45.680 I will not simply look at hope and ignore reality. 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:56.480 I will not look at reality and give up on hope, but I will I will remain in that place crying out to the Lord until I see his answer to me ultimately. 00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:10.319 There's no better passage that Hannah points us to in the New Testament than Hebrews 14 through 16 that says, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:22.960 Let us hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet is without sin. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:32.319 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need. 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:38.079 If you have any questions or need prayer after the service, someone will be right here down front to meet with you. 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:39.440 Let's pray. 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:49.519 Our Father and our God, thank you that you are the God who does not shy away from our pain and our suffering. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:58.960 Lord, that you took our pain and suffering, brokenness and sin upon yourself, and that you have overcome and conquered. 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:04.079 Lord, meet us wherever we are today with your faithfulness. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:05.839 For we ask it in Jesus' name. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:06.559 Amen.