Sermon Brief
Date Written: July 19, 2013
Date Preached: July 28, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series in 1 Samuel
Sermon Title: Praising God When Others Ask Why?!
Sermon Text: 1 Sam 1:24-2:11 [HCSB]
Introduction:
In our passage of Scripture this morning we see the conclusion of the story we started 2 weeks ago… it’s a story about a woman who reached out to God in a heart breaking prayer… seeking God’s intervention into her life!
God answers her prayer, and we find Hannah is a woman of her word and after she weans her son as a child she brings him to the temple in Shiloh and ‘gives’ him to God for service in the temple…
This was an act of obedience and faithfulness that many don’t understand… an act that most in this world would stand back and ask ‘why?’ – ‘why would you do that?’ OR ‘why would God let that happen?’
This morning I want us to see the obedience of Hannah, the faithfulness of Hannah and finally the JOY and CONTENTMENT of Hannah… all of these things came about in Hannah’s life when those around her were asking “WHY?”
First we can see that Hannah had made a vow to God that if He would give her a son that she would give her son BACK to God for service in the temple when he was ready…
God had answered her prayer and the time for Samuel to begin his service in the temple was fast approaching, and I am SURE that there were MANY people who knew Hannah and how much she had prayed FOR this son to be born… that were asking the question, “WHY?”
The first thing we see in Hannah’s response to them is
Obedience when the world asks “why?” – v.24-25
24When she had weaned him, she took him with her to Shiloh, as well as a three-year-old bull, half a bushel of flour, and a jar of wine. Though the boy was still young, she took him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh.25Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.
We can only imagine what Hannah’s friends were thinking and asking her… After all, she had been childless for so many years.
She had suffered so much mocking and ridicule by so many other people. She had cried herself to sleep so many nights… ALL because she did NOT have a child… ALL because she did NOT have a son!
And YET now she intent on completing her vow to God in taking her son, who has barely weaned from her breast and she is giving him to God to serve out the rest of his life as God’s servant in the temple!
I can imagine her friends and family saying, “Hannah! Why are you doing this? Why are you giving up your son to God? Why is God asking this of you?”
The fact of the matter is that the world never sees God’s plan as those who are IN God’s plan see it! The world always paints a grim picture of God and His plan!
They ALWAYS seem to see God as ‘taking’ something from away them… OR what God has NOT given TO them in this life! They cannot see what God has done.
BUT in this situation and story we know Hannah saw her situation very differently than those around her must have seen it!
Hannah’s saw God’s blessing upon her life and she wanted to honor God’s blessing by completing her vow to God in bringing Samuel to the temple to serve.
Hannah had known God’s blessing BUT another thing Hannah understood was that obedience was and is God’s first priority! It is the first priority for anyone who follows God.
Hannah had made a vow to God and it was a vow she had to keep! Hannah believed that God had answered her prayer and NOW she was going to honor God by completing her vow…
I believe that today in the church and in our society, we find far too MANY believers who do NOT stick with their vow to God!
It could be something as simple as a vow to God during our prayer life! OR it could be something as far fetched as a rash vow to God in our time of desperation!
I mean, have you ever prayed something like, “God if you will get me thru this…or get me out of this… I will (fill in the blank)”
When we make a vow to God, we must understand that it is a sacred promise! A sacred promise that God is going to hold us accountable to complete!
A modern day example of these sort of vows we can look to the ‘vows’ we offer up in our traditional marriage ceremony.
In a Christian marriage ceremony we make our vows before God and any witnesses to love, honor, and cherish each other, in sickness and health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer until DEATH separates them from each other!
We make these vows and we expect God to bless our union… BUT there are many who abandon these vows because of one reason or another, and won’t give a second thought to the fact they were sacred promises to God…and that those sacred promises to God should be honored!
Hannah made a sacred vow before God! God had delivered and now she was completely willing to honor her vow to God!
What we find in Hannah is that she did not flinch or hesitate, but in total obedience to God she fulfilled her vow to Him!
I can only imagine how hard that was to do… I KNOW that it was a painful thing to let go of the ONE thing she had been praying for sooooo long!
It was going to hurt to let him go, but Hannah found peace and solace in her obedience to God… a peace and solace that we see evident in her prayer of praise in the next chapter!
When we take the vows of marriage, we have to know that there will be hard times, times when we just don’t know how we are going to make it thru, but we must remember the VOW we made before God! We must find solace in our obedience to Him!
In v1 of ch2 we find her telling God, “YOU DID IT! You answered my prayer! You delivered me from my affliction!” and we can see Hannah found joy in her obedience because it was out of a true sense of thankfulness to God for his answer to her prayer!
But at the end of chapter one NOT only do we find obedience when others ask why, but we also find great
Faithfulness when the world asks “why?” – v.26-28
26“Please, my lord,” she said, “as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord gave me what I asked Him for, 28I now give the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.” Then he bowed in worship to the Lord there.
Faithfulness is persevering when others want to quit…
Faithfulness is finishing what you start even when you want to give up OR even when you think it is worth it any longer!
Hannah is a picture of faithfulness here as she comes to the temple in Shiloh and she presents her son to Eli the priest…
Eli has long since forgotten his brief meeting with Hannah several years before, but Hannah reminds Eli that she was that lady who prayed that heart-wrenching prayer so many years ago… and today she is here to fulfill the vow she made to God so many years ago!
Hannah is a great picture of being faithful to God EVEN when it doesn’t make sense to the world around us! Can you imagine the talk among her friends? Can you imagine Elkanah’s reaction to Hannah’s vow and her insistence in fulfilling that vow?
When we surrender our hearts to God and we profess Christ as Savior… we make a vow to Him to be our Savior AND our Lord. This commitment to God is not one we can take at our convenience, but it is one we must honor even when the world looks on and asks us WHY are you doing that?
Why would you give up your job and surrender to go to the mission field? You could do SO much better by giving more of your salary to mission efforts!
Why would you take your vacation and go on a mission trip? Why would you… [fill in the blanks]
Why would you give MORE than 10% of your money to God? After all, He only requires 10%...why would you give more?
OR we can look at this from another aspect… Why are you so faithful to God after all that has happened to you? Why do you serve God after what happened to your husband? Wife? Children?
Why are you so faithful to God when this ‘tragic’ THING has happened… why would you even serve God after He allowed this to happen?
I can hear Hannah’s friends and even her family members asking WHY… “Why would you give your only son up? God answered your prayer and gave you a son, surely He would not expect you to give him up?”
Why would you serve God with all your heart after God has allowed this or that to happen in your life… after God has allowed this pain or that suffering into your life?
Hannah was faithful to honor her vow/commitment to God even when it was hard… even when others questioned her!
Often God will test us in our faithfulness to see if we are willing to REST in Him during the difficult times! Seeing if we fully trust Him!
During these times of God’s testing OR troublesome attacks by the Enemy… we may not see the sense in staying faithful but we are called TO be faithful!
Hannah’s faithfulness to her vow/commitment to God we fleshed out in the nation of Israel having a just judge to rule over them for many, many years!
Her obedience and faithfulness to God and her commitment to God touched the lives of countless others!
How often do we think that what we do or don’t do for God affects ONLY us… Our vow to God… Our sacred promise to God is not made in a vacuum, but it will touch the lives of many other people… most of the time without you even knowing it!
Hannah was obedient AND faithful in her commitment and vow to God, but we don’t see her treating this as some drudgery or compulsory obedience… in her faithful obedience to God we find Hannah rejoicing!
Praise/Rejoicing when the world asks “why?”
Read 1 Sam 2:1-11 (HCSB)
When we are obedient and faithful to the calling of God on our lives, we find ourselves in the middle of the will of God… and there is NO greater joy than to be in and experience the Will of God accomplished in your life!
Hannah realized that God had allowed her to be a part of something truly special! It may NOT look joyous to those on the outside, but Hannah found great joy… NOT in losing her son, but in serving the Lord!
She did not see this as losing her son, but saw it as serving the Lord and being faithful to the God she loved and to the God who had blessed her with a son!
So often we DON’T experience the JOY of God’s plan for our lives because we are not obedient or faithful to carry out our commitment to God!
When we remain obedient and when we stay faithful to His calling on our lives we are going to experience what Paul describes as the peace that passes ALL understanding!
Scripture tells us that if we honor God that He is going to honor us… it may not be what the world sees as honor… it may not be understood by the world, but we are going to know God’s honor… we are going to experience God’s honor… we are going to experience the great blessing of God thru our obedience!
Many of us think that our life is hard… Many of us have difficulties that we don’t want to share with the world, but we feel as if God has let us down!
Do you ever feel like life is dealing you some pretty terrible cards? I know that there are people here this morning who have some really difficult situations in their lives… situations in which it MAY be hard for them to remain obedient to God… where it will challenge their faithfulness to God… situations that can lead them to NOT seeing the joy God has for them!
Before you throw in the towel…
Before you give up on God OR give up on the joy of the Lord… let me share a story with you!
Conclusion:
There was once a young man who graduated from Griffith University at 21 with a double major in accounting & financial planning. He decided he did not want to be stuck in an office so he decided to launch a career as a motivational speaker.
He was pretty good at it and he began to travel all over the world and found he had a great audience in addressing teen issues and the struggles they have and the difficulty the world presents to them today.
He has spoken to over 3 million people in over 24 countries on 5 continents… He speaks TO teens and about teen related issues, but also he speaks to corporate audiences, and schools as well.
This young man promotes his efforts thru TV shows and through his writing. His first book, was published in 2010 and was top seller. NOW, he is marketing a motivational DVD, AND a short documentary that was originally filmed in 2005!
Part of the documentary highlight this young man’s life and was actually filmed at one of his 1st motivational speeches!
He has starred in short films and won awards doing so… This young man, we will call him Nick has accomplished so very much in his life that many of us may secretly wish what we had his life!
Well his name is Nick Vujicic (voy-ah-chich) and he was born in Brisbane, Australia, with NO arms and NO legs due to a condition known as tetra-amelia syndrome, which is a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs at birth.
Nick struggled throughout his childhood, not only did he deal with the typical challenges of school and adolescence, but he also battled depression and loneliness.
He constantly wondered why he was different than all the other kids. He questioned his purpose in life, or if he even had a purpose.
His family, friends and the many people in his life encouraged him and they have also inspired him to overcome his struggles, BUT his victory over his situation happened when he read the story of the man born blind in John 9 where Jesus said that the man was born blind so that the miracles of God could be seen THRU his blindness…
This touched his life deeply and it was then he understood that his prayer for a miracle in his life had already been answered… He WAS the miracle! It was at this time that he met God and experienced God’s love wash over him! [play video here]
I have viewed several videos of Nick’s testimony and you can Google Nick Vujicic and you can listen to them as well… but the ONE thing I hear over and over from him is that if only ONE soul comes to know Christ because of his testimony… it is all worth it!
Nick was born with what MANY of us would consider a debilitating handicap and that his life would be hopeless and without happiness or joy!
So often we try to put God in a box and tell God that we would be happy if He would do this and this and this for us… meet our demands for happiness!
But the truth about happiness is that it cannot be found in things, position, people, family, money, sex, or anything this world can offer us or throw our way! We can only find true joy and contentment when we are in the center of God’s will!
We cannot allow the circumstances of life dictate our joy!
We cannot allow the situations of our life define what happiness is!
We cannot allow the choices of other people force us away from the joy and contentment we experience in the middle of God’s will!
Today you have heard the story of Hannah’s victory!
You have seen her obedience to God when others would have complained and questioned God’s intentions
You have seen her faithfulness to God when others would have thrown in the towel and given up on God
You have seen her JOY and victorious celebration when God touched her life… a joy and victory she NEVER would have experienced had she not been obedient and had she not remained faithful…
When others were asking WHY - Hannah was obedient…
When others were asking WHY - Hannah was faithful…
When others were STILL asking WHY - Hannah was REJOICING because of God’s victory in her life!
So how about you this morning? Is there some situation in your life where you are asking, “God why is this happening to me?” OR “God how could you let this happen?”
I am sure that both Hannah and Nick asked those questions at one time or another, but what we see in BOTH situations is that they did not become consumed by them.
What we DO see is that they both rested in the promise that God has given us… that He would never leave us NOR forsake us… even when we don’t understand WHY… God is still there!
God is there and even if you never get your question of why answered… and for the most part we NEVER do… God is still there and God loves you and desires a close intimate relationship with you!
God wants you to rest in Him THRU your difficulties and questions about WHY this life is so hard, why these terrible things have to happen to me, why did they make that choice, why did that situation happen?
This morning, I want to open up this altar to YOU! I want you to come down and throw yourself onto a compassionate and loving God…
a God who wants to hear your prayer…
a God who wants to heal your heart…
a God who wants to soothe your pain…
a God who wants to invite you into His family thru His love, grace and merciful forgiveness!
As Bro Ken comes to lead us… I call on YOU to come to this altar and seek out the God who wants YOU! Come and see His love wash over your soul… Bro Ken please lead us…
