And I ain't got no notes for
the second one. I had to preach that first one first. Why am
I thus? If it be so, if there's life
in me, why am I just warring inside of me? And the Lord said,
because I put two nations in you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you
for your word. Now I'm still at war, but I've
been instructed by the Lord to thank him for that. When those
trials come, who sends trials? Thank the Lord for that. How
many people has cancer killed? None. Ever. God kills and God makes alive.
You know that? A hurricane has never killed
nobody. An evil government, a tyrannical government has never killed anybody.
Ever. Stalin ain't killed. Pol Pot
don't have a drop in the bucket. It ain't happened. God kills.
He makes alive and he makes us thankful for that. And that new
man, and that spirit, not in the flesh, the flesh is just...
and yaps and proves itself to be a fool all over the world.
But that new man... Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
This is hard, but I thank you. It's on purpose, I know it is.
You're going to bless it, Lord. Thank you. Here we have a woman's
prayer. I was thinking, Van Morrison
sang Brown Eyed Girl and every girl I ever knew had brown eyes.
I said, that's how he sang about me. He don't know you. You weren't
born yet. This is a woman's prayer. The
Lord gave us this, and I think I know why. There's a whole lot
of men's prayers that's recorded in Scripture. David prayed often. Most of the Psalms are prayers.
They're singing them, but they're prayers. The prophets of old
prayed. The apostles prayed. All these
men prayed, and they're recorded for us to learn from. And our
Lord prayed. prayed the greatest prayer, didn't
he? But he gave us here a woman's
prayer. Why? This is a prayer that's just like all the other
prayers and that unity and that oneness of his bride. Kevin,
I don't pray that way. Well, I ain't saying you're a
bride or not. That's between you and the Lord. I'm just telling
you how God's bride prays. If you don't pray that way, ask
him to teach you how to pray and quit doing what you're doing. But this is how God's wife prays,
how his bride prays. It's what we're gonna read. It
said, Anne, there in Samuel, 1 Samuel 2, verse 1. Anne, Hannah
prayed. Anne, Hannah prayed. She'd already prayed once. Something
happened, that's the Anne, right? Something happened before. She
had petitioned the Lord. She asked the Lord to do something
for her. She asked the Lord to give life
in her. And he did. And then she prayed
again. Thank you Lord. She went from
petition to praise. That's a growth in grace too.
As we get older, we quit asking for so much and asking and asking
and categorizing our asking and lists Say it out loud when you're by
yourself and see if it makes sense. I'm gonna take a listen,
Lord. Is that demands? We stop asking Him to do stuff
and we start thanking Him. Everything's like, thank you,
Lord. Thank you, Lord. And that takes time. That ain't
a week. It's a lifetime is what that
is. You gotta walk with Him a long time. And I don't mean 20 years
or one day at a time. It's one day at a time. But he
gives a long experience over and over and over and over and
over again. And we look back on those experiences
and we say, you know what? I've seen that. I didn't see
then. Even at the time in the trial, I had enough wisdom and
maturity to say the Lord sent this trial and I know it's going
to be for my good. I know it's going to be for the
good of my brethren. I know it's going to glorify the Lord. But
like Rebecca, they're still kicking inside of me. I ain't seen these
children yet. I don't know how, but then over
time, long time later, we look back and we say, I see exactly
what the Lord, oh look, I couldn't have dreamed it a better way.
Shakespeare couldn't have wrote this more beautifully. Look what
the Lord did. And we thank him for that. The
Lord broke my leg one time and took all of my aspirations and
my furtherance in this world. I was a shooting star. I was
going places. I was the golden boy. And the
Lord took it from me, painfully. And I thought, how, why did you
do this, Lord? Well, 20 years later, I look
back and I said, boy, that's perfect. That's perfect. I'm
standing here today preaching to you because of that. See in
detail. He's provided everything from
that. Boy, that's something. But Hannah prayed. It says, and
Hannah prayed. What happened? I remember in
Sunday school growing up, and little fellas, we had teachers,
they told us, they said, Elkana had two wives, and one of them
had a bunch of children. She's real mean. And she picked
on the other one. The other one's name's Hannah,
and she didn't have no children. And she was sad. And you know
what happened? She cast the Lord to give her
a baby. And the Lord gave her one. Oh, boy. Get a natural man to
get a hold of that. You understand how precious that
is? That's a gospel, buddy. She was
made to know she was barren. And she was made to cry out to
the Lord. And the Lord put life in her.
And he blessed it. And she thanked him for it. But
she had a, Elkanah had another wife. And boy, she was fruitful. She had children. That's easy.
I like to crack out kids. And she picked on them. Every
time they had to go up to Shiloh. I thought about reading all the
requirements. Once a year all the men had to
go if women could go if they wanted to. That's a horrible
practice in this day for just the men to go worship and the
women not go with them. What's wrong with you? Command your house, son.
No better. Use some discernment. But the
women didn't go if they had other things happening. So Elkanah
would leave and he would leave portions for them. Here, I'm
gonna give you this. It's your pizza money, right? So you can
live while I'm gone. I gotta go worship God. There's
all these things. All we have to do is come to
church. Isn't that easy? We ain't got to separate no land. We ain't got to bring
no this offering and that offering and sacrifice this and a lot
of fire. We've got to chop firewood. We just come listen to Christ
be exalted. Isn't that precious? He's good
to us. But Elkanah would leave and he would leave a portion
with each one of the kids, all her sons, all her daughters,
with Phineha. And he left a worthy portion
with Hannah. He left the filet mignon with
Hannah. Why? Because he loved her. He loved
her. He had to provide for that other
wife, because he wasn't a heathen. He provided for his wife. But
boy, he really provided for Hannah. He loved her. He loved her. And
she petitioned the Lord. And she said, you give me a child,
Lord. She made a vow to God, and we're told not to do that,
but she did. This is a picture of something else. She said,
you give me a child, and he's yours. I know he's yours. Not that her making Samuel the
Lord's is what made Samuel the Lord's. She said, if you give
it, it's your giving. And I just give you what you
gave me. What can we give the Lord that He didn't give us? What praises can we give Him
that He didn't put in our heart? What wisdom do we have? What
righteousness do we have? None. We have Christ. He's given
us Christ. What do we come to His holy throne
with? His Son. His person. His work. That's all we have,
isn't it? So she gave Sam, she said, He's yours. Well, she weaned
him. She went with him, and Fenia picked on Hannah every year,
because she went with her husband to go worship God. She didn't
stay back. She didn't have no children to
stay back with, which, of course, Fenia always had an excuse. She
kept having children, so she didn't have to go, right? And
she picked on Hannah. We're back here doing the wife's
work. I'm doing the important wife, wife stuff, and you ain't
got no children, so you just going to go up there and worship
God. She diminished. She spit on the birthright of worshiping
God. and excused it on raising children. What a shame. Well,
Hannah became conceived. And now Cana said, you will go
worship God? And she said, no, I'm going to do what's customary.
I'm going to stay here and I'm going to take care of this child
and I'm going to prepare him till it's time for me to go worship. And when I go worship, I'm bringing
him and he's the Lord and he ain't coming back with me. I'm
going to give of my first fruits. It's the only fruit I got and
I'm giving it all to the Lord. because he gave it all to me.
It's reasonable. Reasonable. It's easy, isn't
it? That makes sense. And so she weaned him. Now, that
doesn't mean that she took a six-month-old baby up to the temple. What good
would that be to Eli? Don't you dare bring no babies.
If you're going to commit somebody to help me here at the church,
I don't need babysitting, okay? I don't need to be making formula.
But there was something in the Jewish tradition of weaning. There were three weanings that
took place, and this is the same in our day. If we obey God's
Word, it's the same if we listen to him. The first weaning was
weaning of the mother's breast. Sarah gave suck. She breastfed
a baby. The Lord designed us to do that,
the human beings to do that, and whenever it come time, probably
about however many months when they start growing teeth, she
weaned him. And the scriptures tell us that
the child shall eat bread and honey. Now, is there a spiritual
reference to that? Of course. The Lord said, my
word is spirit and truth. That means before you get any
practical out of anything, you better understand the gospel
part. There's a spiritual application to that. But physically, the
children, they would go from drinking their mother's milk
to eating bread and honey. They were weaned from their mother,
and they were given to a dry nurse. If it was a big family
like this one, they had some nannies. until they're seven
years old. And that dry nursery, teach them
right from wrong. Teach them to sit still. Teach them how
to read. What we do in our day? We got
a nursery in the back. Almost any gathering I know of
of the Lord's people, either four and under or five and under,
go into the nursery. And they're trained in that nursery. That's
a cry room. You train them from a young age to sit still whenever
the gospel is being preached, to stay awake, to turn in your
Bibles. You teach them how to read. And we send them out in
the world to kindergarten, don't we? Everything you need to learn
is in kindergarten. How to be nice, how to take turns, how to speak
when spoken to. That's why God gave us this.
And then about seven, there's weaned from that dry nurse. Now
them boys is old enough to hang out with the men. You work with
the men. You will go in the field with
men. People say that's too young. My grandfather worked in the
coal mine in Kentucky at nine years old. That was a hundred
years ago. Oh, ain't that long ago. What do you think happened
5,000 years ago? Nine-year-olds and seven-year-olds was plenty
responsible enough to go to work with the men. And they trained
them more, and they trained them more, and they taught them. And
whenever they asked them, why are we sacrificing these lambs?
God passed through Egypt, son. When he saw the blood, he passed
over his people. They told them about Christ,
told them why, told them what the Lord did. This is his doing.
And they trained them, and trained them, and trained them. And then
at 12 years old, at the end of that 12th year, they still do
this in our day, don't they? We still wean children that are
breastfed real young, get them on baby food, we still send them
to kindergarten, we still send them to the nursery, we still
train them, and we still teach them at home. And in the Jewish
tradition, at 13, they have a bar mitzvah. That's the transition
from a child to a man. Adolescence is an invention of
the modern age. There's no such thing, well,
they're growing, they're going through an awkward phase. No, they're
going through lazy parents is what they're going through, period. That's just plain. It's so. Paul said, I was a child, I acted
as a child, I spoke as a child, I thought like a child, but when
I became a man, I was a man. There wasn't no in-between, a
gap year, or whatever kind of nonsense man's invented this
time. No, you either act like a child and be a child, or you
be a man. Have you heard that before? You've heard it, ain't you, Jerry
Wesley? Often. Before you was 12. And so at
12 years old, Now they're weaned. If you raise your children according
to God's Word, physically, practically, at 12 years old, they'll handle
themselves. They don't have little maturity. They've weaned off
of their childish ways of mooching off of mommy and daddy and have
mommy and daddy do everything for them and get their water for
them and make their peanut butter and jellies for them. They're
weaned from that. What example could we have of
this? Who else went to the temple to worship God at 12 years of
age? Well, maybe this ain't Kevin's
opinions, and I'm just telling you what God says. Christ went,
didn't he? He stayed, and he, do you think
he's well brought up? He instructed them fellas. If there's a 12-year-old telling
me about Christ and him crucified, I'll listen. I hear much better
things out of young people than I do old people, many times.
She was sad. She didn't have no baby. What
happened? She asked God for a baby, and God gave her one. He's the
one that gives them. That child's learning something. Ain't they?
Well, they went. She took him up to the temple.
She went back to Eli and said, Remember me? You thought I was
drunk 12 years ago? Here's that child. Lord gave
me life. He gave me this and it's all
his. I'm going to praise him for it. It's his. Lord, if I
have a new life in me, Lord, it's in your hand. You deal with
it. You keep it. You secure it. You train it. You use it. God has people who uses them.
Can't be unequally yoked. You ever seen ox and yoke together
not pulling something? Well, no, that's why you put
a yoke on them, so they can do something. Lord is using us until
he's done using us and then we're not here no more. He takes us
home. But she said, this is yours,
this life you gave me, it's all yours, Lord. And it says in chapter
one, Verse 27, For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given
me my petition, which I ask of him. Therefore also have I lent
him to the Lord. I've returned him to the Lord.
I'm just giving him what he gave me. As long as he shall live,
he'll be lent to the Lord. And he worshiped the Lord there.
Who's the he? Well, who knows there? Eli was
there, wasn't he? You think Eli praised the Lord?
Lord, thank you. Oh, you saved somebody. Oh, you
did what you said you was gonna do. You called out your people.
You put life in somebody and they thanked you for it. And
they serve you, they follow you. Thank you, Lord. You think her
husband, Elkanah, prayed? He's a faithful man. That's a
good husband. He said, thank you, Lord. Oh, my wife has life
in her, finally. She's bearing for a long time.
She's married to her. I loved her the whole time. God
finally saved her. And you've given us this child
and you're gonna use him. Thank you, Lord. And Eli. Eli prayed, the husband prayed,
Elkanah, and Samuel prayed, too. He'd been taught to pray. He
didn't hear some vain repetition his whole life growing up. He
had believing mommies and daddies that taught him how to pray right.
And Eli said, Lord, this is right. He obeyed his believing mother
and father. He trusted them. They said, we're
going to take you up. He knew what was happening. He's plenty of
them now. Son, we're going to go up shallow, and you ain't
coming back. We love you. Once a year, we'll be up here.
Hope Lord uses you. But you ain't coming back. He
was an obedient son. Isaac went up that mountain.
Where's the lamb, daddy? As far as Isaac knew, he wasn't
coming back. He kept walking. And his father
said, Lord, provide a lamb. He was obedient. Christ was obedient
unto death. He was separated from his father
coming to this sin-cursed world for us. But Sam, you'll pray. Worship
God. Thank you, Lord. I'm yours. From
a young age, he knew. The Lord revealed himself in
him. This is the path he's going to
take. He didn't know God yet. The Lord hadn't spoke to him
in his heart yet, but he knew he was going to be obedient to
one named God. He knew he was going to do what the word said,
what his parents said. He was obedient. All three of them men
prayed. Chapter two, verse one says,
and Hannah prayed. Women prayed with the men. Hannah prayed,
and she said, my heart rejoiceth in Samuel. Oh, wait, that ain't
what it says, is it? She said, my heart rejoiceth
in Elkanah. No, wait, they didn't say it
either, did they? My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. That's a prayer. I'm thankful for my wife. I rejoice
the Lord gave me the best human being I've ever met in my life.
I'm thankful for it, but my heart rejoices in the Lord that gave
it. You think she rejoiced in her
husband? Elkanah gave good advice. He said, you do what seemed good
there in chapter one, verse 23. Tear your hair until you've weaned
him. Only the Lord established his word. God's the only one
that can keep his word. But if you make a, you better
keep it. You make a promise. You said he's going to do this.
You see it through. Don't you back out. You give your word,
you keep your word. You want to do this, go ahead.
But you remember whose word or who you're giving that word to.
Lord's the only one that can keep it. And you ask him to keep
your word. That's a good husband. That's good. And he went with
her. She was thankful for her husband. She rejoiced in her
husband. That's the husband the Lord gave
her. She rejoiced in the Lord. Isn't that what Paul did? I know a lot of people rejoice
in things and in families and in children and in stuff and
whatever. Oh, thank you, Lord, for doing this. Thank you for
getting us. Thank you for bringing me all the way to San Diego in
a plane not crashing or whatever. Well, thank you for everything.
But Paul said we are the circumcision. He's talking about Paul and he's
talking about you who believe and he's talking about Hannah,
Mama Samuel. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. What we see last hour. She had
two natures worn in her, didn't she? You think she wouldn't let
go of that boy? She had him for 12 years. She loved him. She
loved him. Do you think Elcano wanted to
see his son go? He trained him up for the last
five. That's a good help to him. He carried a whole lot of firewood.
You got to talk with him, tell jokes with him. He knew his personality.
They had a flesh that wanted to keep this boy. They had a
spirit. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Christ, God, Jesus, the man. We rejoice in the God-man and
have no confidence in the flesh. I can't keep my word. He can.
The Lord keeps it. Hannah prayed and said, my heart
rejoiceth in the Lord and my horn, she has no confidence in
the flesh, my horn is exalted in the Lord. Right next to horn,
you can get you a pencil, and right next to it, strength. Strength. My strength is exalted in the
Lord. If I have any strength. Well, you're just so faithful.
Look what you did, Hannah. You gave up your only son, the
son you loved, your only begotten son, whom thou lovest. You gave him up. What faith you
had. She said, I had no faith. I had
no strength to do that. God's my strength. He did it.
What a good Christian you are. No, no, no, no. The Lord's my
strength. He's my strength. He's my horn.
My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in
thy salvation. The Lord saved me. That whole
time she just took a tongue lashing and a tongue lashing and a tongue
lashing and a tongue lashing from that older woman that wouldn't
quit hen pecking her. She bore it and then the Lord
saved her and he put life in her. And now her mouth is enlarged
over her enemies. That means she can go to her
enemies and cuss them up real good. No! You want to shut them
up? Tell what the Lord did for you. I wouldn't do this, I wouldn't
do that, I'd never do this. You know what God did for me? He gave me this
injury, or this wound, or this trial, or this carnal blessing,
or this job, or this whatever. God did it. Enemies don't like it. That's
called heaping hot coals on her head. Hannah prayed, she said,
my heart rejoices in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord,
my mouth is enlarged over my enemies because, I got something
to say now, because I rejoice in thy salvation. I rejoice in
Christ and Him crucified. Says she rejoiced in the Lord
and in His salvation. Yep. The person and work of Christ. I got something to say now. Let's
see what, we get real personal. Let's see what doctrine this
lady could enter into. You don't want personal messages? Here you go. Let's see how much
this woman understood. This is a long time ago, too.
You question a lot of times what old believers knew. What did Isaac really know going
up that hill? Did he know that there's going to be a man, a
God-man come to this earth and bear his sin on a cross and die
in his room instead? Or is he just like, oh, I just
listened to daddy and Lord provide lambs or something. I ain't know
something. What, what did Hannah know? Is
he the same yesterday, today and forever? Who did she know? If we quit worrying about what
people don't know who they know about that by the way they pray,
you tell who they know by the way they pray. Look here, verse
two, there is none holy as the Lord. What Isaiah know. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God. You children need to learn, I
wonder about 10 years if they come and ask some of you young
people, what's God's chief attribute of his character? What is the
chief thing? Holiness. He's holy. God's holy. You ever heard me
say that? God's holy. What'd Hannah say? I rejoice
in him. He's holy. Do you say that? Has anything changed in 5,000,
6,000 years? God's holy. There is none holy as the Lord
for there is none beside thee. There's nobody that's your equal.
Nobody gives you counsel. You ain't gonna get coached up
by nobody. Nobody's gonna correct you. Nobody's gonna speak against
you because you're God. I know what that means. These ain't empty words. You're
the Lord and you're holy. A whole lot of people ask Jesus
for something. Few people ask the Lord God Almighty
for something. Big difference. Neither is there any rock like
our God. Oh, she said, you're a holy Lord.
I rejoice in you and you alone. I tell my enemies about it. Tell
anybody. I tell the enemy that's inside of me about it. Get that? And there's not a rock like our
God. What's a rock? It's a foundation. Everything
I'm built upon is built upon Christ and Him crucified, and
there ain't nothing like Him. Our language doesn't contain
words that He deserves to be magnified by. You think she knew
God? Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes
Benz? Is that different? Is that drastic enough to see
a difference? There's a holy God Almighty on His throne, and
He set me upon Christ the rock. Now I want stuff. Your will, Lord, your will. I
know what I deserve and I know what I petitioned for. And your
will be done. It's something we just that's
a sidecar you tack on at the end. I mean. She don't want this to be vain
repetition, this beautiful, you ready? Verse three, she's talking
to herself. She's asking the Lord to make
this happen in her because she knows what she is, because there's
two nations in her talk no more exceeding proudly. Let me quit
being proud. And let not arrogance come out
of your mouth. She's not talking about the Lord.
She's not talking to him, is she? He's not arrogant. He's
not proud. He's right. He's holy. That's
what she just said. She's talking to herself. This is that war
going on we saw the first hour right now. This is live action.
You want a drone footage of this? Here it is. She's speaking to
herself. Talk no more exceedingly proudly.
Shut up. Quit yapping at the mouth on
everything and how good I am at everything and all the good
things I do and good things I'm better than other things. Stop
it. And let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. Oh, I don't
want to be arrogant. You know what that word means? The root word of arrogancy. I've
looked it up and it was arrogate. And I got a pretty good education,
but I got poor stock. I thought it was ariate. Like,
you know how you aerate a lawn? And I thought, that's a good
use. They must be cousin words or something. Because it's just
puffed up with air, isn't it? You just put air in. But it's
not aerogate. Aerogate, that's a root we get
arrogancy from. You know what that is? To lay
claim to something without justification. To lay claim to something without
justification. Talk about a KISS concert you
ain't never been to. You get that, kids? Don't talk
about something you ain't never seen. A man can't come back from
a place they've never been. They can't talk about a God they've
never met. But they're arrogant. Work's been 300 years, ain't
ya? How arrogant we are on our face,
on this person. How arrogant we are on our race.
We're Americans. Little greatest nation that this
world's ever seen, isn't it? Our military is so mighty, our
democracy is so wonderful. Or the Jews. Or me, growing up. I grew up believing parents. I grew up under one of the greatest
preachers in the last several hundred years, maybe one of the
greatest preachers that ever lived. He was my pastor. My pastor! Not my preacher, he was my pastor.
And he corrected me, he gave me instructions. That's something to be proud
of, isn't it? No, it ain't. What about grace? Can I walk out in
this world and look at those Rahabs and those harlots and
prostitutes walking up and down the street and them drug addicts
that's living underneath blue tents downtown and say, boy, the Lord
saved me. Y'all need to pack it up and
get out of here. I'm gonna go down and preach to them. Because
of arrogancy, because of pride, I think I'm something. Hannah knew what she was talking
about. Is that deep waters? Hannah knew what she was talking
about. Why? Because it represents God's bride, and she knows what
she's talking about. She knows there's a war in her.
Let not my mouth have arrogance in it. Verse 3 says, For the
Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. Oh,
Brother Spurgeon had a long sermon on that. I'll give you the paraphrased
version. God weighs actions. Does that
mean good or bad? He puts it on a scale. No. He
weighs the heart that causes the action. God looketh upon
the heart He weighs it. He sees the end state, but he
knows where that came from. He knows how much that thought
weighed. Oh, I know something. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. All
those that think they're strong come up nothing. And all of us
that are just, if so, if I have life in me, why am I thus? I'm stumbling, I'm bruised, I'm
tore apart. I'm ripped to shreds on the inside.
That one's girded with strength, with a horn of the Lord. They that were full have hired
out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased.
They that were full, do you ever know of a nation that's full?
We're full in this nation, ain't we? We got everything, everything
in abundance. I was upset because they didn't
have my brand of coffee beans down to store. What kind of nonsense
is that? That's arrogant. Is that prideful?
I'm an idiot. They don't have my brand of rice
in abundance or my soda that I like so well. We're full in
this nation. There'll come a time you can't
sell yourself to get bread. Christ the living bread. One day, if I get one more toys,
I think they're an abomination to God. One more toy arcs and
just take the door and close it real slow. Sell yourself for Christ, okay?
Do whatever you can do. It don't matter. It's done. But
those that are hungry, those that need the Lord, not those
that want the gospel, those that need Him, I have to have Him
or it's death. It says the hungry ceased. They
quit being hungry. Your field. Grace is sufficient.
Lord's fed His. He does it daily. So that the
bear and half-born seven And she hath many children as wax
feeble. Those that say they got so much, they're wax feeble.
They can't do nothing. But those that are barren, those
that know that they're dead and the Lord has to do it, they bear
perfection. They born seven. Hannah knew about pandemics and
everything else. Verse six, the Lord killeth and
maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. Everything's in the Lord's hands.
Everything's in the Lord's hands. He does as he will in the armies
of heaven and on this earth and under this earth, and none can
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Now do you think
Nebuchadnezzar and Hannah grew up together? That new man did,
didn't it? It's the same. It's the same
prayer. The Lord maketh poor, maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. That's what Moses said. Lord
promotes. You want to get a promotion at
work? Lord did that. He demotes, too. That's what she said. He
raises up the poor, verse 8, out of the dust and lifted up
the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and
to make them inherit the throne of glory. Hannah was a joint
heir of Christ. She said, I was a beggar and
you've lifted me up. You've sent me among princes. Revelation
hadn't been wrote yet, had it? Was the apostle John around?
who said, he's made us unto God kings and priests. She said,
we're made princes and made to inherit the throne of glory.
For, because the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he hath
set the world upon them. His whole kingdom, he did it.
That's how. How could you be made holy, Hannah?
God did it. That's not complicated enough
to suit me. I don't care. I ain't here to argue with it. I'm here to tell it. Lord did
it. Lord's done everything. This
entire universe has existed and has performed exactly as he saw
fit to the saving of his people and the glory of his son. Hands
down. That's what Hannah knew. Now
he saved us. She asked him for life, he put
life in her. She gave it all to Christ. She's thanking him
for it. She's praising his name. I try you and God. You've done
this all. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. And you control
the pillars of this world and everything you're doing. Now it's up to you. You gotta keep yourself. You
gotta make yourself more holy. You gotta make yourself better.
Make yourself reformed. Is that what she said? Get out of town. Did you say
that? You wouldn't say that, would
you? Why? Because you know better. I got life in me. There's wars.
Look at verse 9. He will keep the feet of his
saints. Who's going to keep us? He's going to keep us. His sanctified
ones. And the wicked shall be silent
in the darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. It ain't
going to be a man's doing in wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification or in redemption. It won't be in our strength,
be it his strength. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to
pieces out of heaven, shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall
judge the ends of the earth and he shall give strength unto his
king. and exalt the horn of his anointed." Is that a good prayer? God Almighty's done it all. He's
going to do it all. And we thank him for it. And
Elkanah, verse 11, went to Ramah, to his house, and the children
did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. They went home.
She didn't just talk a good game about worshiping God. You talk
about giving her firstfruits. She didn't talk a good game about
playing church. She did it. Like, well, it's a thought that
counts. Well, no, the groceries still got to get bought too,
don't they? Sitting around talking
about doing something is different than doing something. Her husband told her,
said, you keep your word. She did. And then went home,
didn't she? Every year they went back. She buys him, or doesn't
buy him, she made him jackets. I figured it was about this big
this year. They go back to see. She got to watch her son. I don't
know how long she lived. She got to watch her son grow
up and be God's prophet. You think God honored her giving
unto the Lord? This great prophet, Lord used
to go anoint King David. I may be the peon that gets to
preach to the one that's going to just tear this world out of
pieces. One of God's great, great preachers. or may use me to preach
to them. Wouldn't that be a precious gift?
She watched Samuel grow up and preach. And you know what the
Lord did? Like it had enough? That's pretty good, isn't it? Lord came to her. She bring them
jackets up. And Eli said, Lord's gonna bless
you for this. He gave her five sons, or five children. Look
at verse 21. The Lord visited Hannah as he
had before, as he did, As he continues to do, because he said,
Lo, I'm always with you. Lord visited Hannah so that she
conceived and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child
Samuel grew before the Lord. What our Lord said, You can't
be my disciple. That's his conditions of surrender.
You can't be my disciple unless you give up mother, daughter,
son, cousin, wife, friends, neighbors, jobs, businesses, everything
else. You walk away from that nonsense and them idols and you
serve me. And Peter said, Lord, we've given all. And Peter gave
a whole bunch, hadn't he? But I'm thankful for him. I'll
beg him bold enough to ask questions I'm too chicken to ask. Didn't
I give everything? And he said, Peter, in this life
right now, I'll give you a hundredfold. And that's true. I'm going to
take off to Nashville Thursday, Lord willing. The Lord lets me
get there. And I got a house. I've never
been to that house. Do you know I own property in
Nashville? Might as well be mine. Then people in Nashville own
some property here, don't they? Go up my house, do what you want.
For Hannah, in this lifetime, the Lord gave her three sons
and two daughters. And she got to watch Samuel grow in grace
and knowledge and understanding before the Lord. What a blessing
that is. What's she going to do after
all this? What are you going to do? Thank him one more time,
ain't you? Thank him because he did something. Because of
who he is. Because he's holy. Amen. All right. Brother Mark.