" Desperation for the Presence of God "
1 Samuel 1:1-20
Billy Graham has been quoted as saying that he lives each day of his life with the knowledge that 80% of the people sitting in the church are lost yet in news polls across the nation almost 90% of the people claim to believe in God or think that they will ultimately go to heaven. If we were to apply biblical standards to the age old question of eternity, we would find that half or fifty percent of those who thought they were going to heaven would ultimately be separated from the presence of God.
1. The parable of the ten virgins as recorded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ written by Matthew bears this fact out. Read about it later in Chapter 25
2. Christ himself said that at His coming there would be two working in the fields and one would be taken and the other would be left behind, that two would be lying in a bed and one would be taken and the other left behind
As a pastor the realization of the lostness of the church and those outside the four walls of the sanctuary have become the highest priority in the ministry Almighty God has entrusted to me. My prayer is that the Most High God will send revival and renewal to this nation so that we will once again worship and serve the King of Kings by our undying devotion to him. Every night when I lay down to sleep there is a burning question in my mind if the Lord will come and if I have squandered my last oppurtunity to share the life changing message of Jesus Christ with some other lost soul in the same predicament I was in. I tell you all this to share with you that as long as there is breath in this body, I will not be silent about my Savior and I will not rest until revival and renewal sweeps across this once great nation. You need to be aware of that fact because if God calls me to pastor this church, I will not rest nor allow you to rest until we have done everything the Lord leads us to do to reach a lost and dying world.
1. When Real Revival comes we won’t be worried about the color of the man’s skin sitting next to us in the church house
2. When real revival sweeps through the house of God we won’t be so judgmental of those sitting next to us and what kind of background they were raised in or whether they’re from the right side of the tracks
Oh, friends when real revival comes into our hearts we won’t think that people deserve to go to hell because we have knocked on their door for the last time and they won’t slam it in my face again. When real revival comes from the presence of Almighty God we won’t be so busy looking at those around us but instead will be on our faces in the presence of the Holy Spirit and we will search our own hearts to see if there is any wicked way within us so that we can fellowship with God. Unless God’s people become desperate for the presence of God and seek his face, there is no hope for America nor for this little baptist church. Until God’s dear children desperately seek the face of God more than anything else out there the world has to offer, we won’t see Revival sweep across this land.
1. How sad it is for me to tell you that I pastored a church that saw revival break out and many people get saved, yet the church decided that they were too tired and too busy to continue to seek the face of God
2. I can’t begin to share with you the tears I have shed as Christians have sit back and said that we don’t need people like that in our church Brother Mike and I wish you’d just quit bringing them
Christ Jesus told the disciples to leave their fishing nets behind and come follow him so that he could make the fishers of men and there’s a strange thing about fish my friends…
I ain’t never caught a clean one yet!
All the fish I have ever caught have needed to be scaled and cleaned and filleted so that they were acceptable to the taste. It’s the same with new Christians, they also need to be taught and discipled and cared for before they can ever bear fruit suitable to the Master.
10,000 Southern Baptist Churches didn’t lead one single person to the Lord last year and if you apply the math to that it means that at least one million messages spoken from the Holy Ground I now stand upon had no power to move the lost into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 95 out of 100 Christians never lead anyone else to a saving knowledge of Christ through their witness and unless we become desperate for the presence of God there is no hope we can offer the world outside these four walls. The world lives in the reality of no hope as evidenced by the movies Hollywood spends millions of dollars to produce. One movie right after the other with the fate of all mankind weighing in the balance with either meteors or aliens blazing across the sky. I’ve got a news flash for you, it’s a sad day when Hollywood is more faithful to the message of a final judgement than the church is. Read the book of Revelation and you’ll soon see that one day earth will in fact be bombarded by meteors but I didn’t come here this morning to not share hope with you.
I have come within these four walls to share the life changing message of my Savior and Lord with you today and to give you the same hope that set this captive free…
Turn in you bibles to 1 Samuel 1:1-5 and I would like to share a simple message of desperation for the presence of God as told to us in the life of a little woman named Hannah.
( Prayer )
My grandfather used to tell me a story about a man who picked up starfish on the seashore one by one to throw them back out into the ocean waves…
That is exactly who I want to preach to this morning because I know that God has reserved himself a remnant of people who are sensitive to his voice and are still moved by the stirring of the Holy Spirit. In the verses we have just read there is an amazing story beginning to take shape and with the help of your prayers please I would like to share it with you this morning. It’s a simple story of the desperation of one little woman with an overwhelming need in her life but the most important part of the story is the order of events.
First: There was a man named Elkanah and he had grown up into a man and fallen in love with a young lady that he met. They had taken many moonlit strolls on the and shared their hopes and their dreams and then one day this man Elkanah knelt down and proposed to the love of his life Hannah.
Now here we have the ceremony with Hannah in her flowing white dress and her veil and all the church stands as the wedding march is played and she walks down the aisle of the church and this couple pledge their undying love to each other. They leave on their honeymoon with the congratulations and well wishes of all those present and return to live in the little cottage that Elkanah has built for them.
Just on the edge of the town with nice shade trees and a big backyard for the children to play in when the have some oneday. Life pretty much begins to take shape as Elkanah goes off to work each day and returns home from work to his meal placed on the dinner table as soon as he walks in the door by the hands of his lovely wife.
You know I married a Cajun girl from the swamps of Louisiana and I remember how she always tried to please me with the meals she would fix. I was a trim 200 pounds when I married the love of my life and look at what she’s done to me! Those first few weeks were kind of tough though because we like to eat blackened redfish and blackened snapper down there but my wife would serve me blackened pancakes in the morning and blackened cornbread at night. Took me a while to figure it out but eventually I realized it wasn’t gourmet food but was just plain burnt but our love carried us through those early days.
Holidays they would go and visit the in laws and the outlaws and over the years a cloud started to loom over the home of Elkanah and Hannah. Meals began to be eaten in silence and people began to whisper behind Hannah’s back when she went into town to do her shopping. Every holiday meal became an ordeal for little Hannah as her mother in law chided her for not having any grandchildren yet and as the door shut on her father in laws study she could hear the heated discussion between Elkanah and his daddy. Finally one night in the little home Elkanah had built for Hannah and himself, He said the words that would break little Hannah’s heart…
" Hannah you know it’s been so long now that we’ve been married and still you haven’t given me a son to bear my name. I am going to seek and marry another woman to give me children. She can never take your place but she will fill the space that you lack."
Oh, friends can you imagine the pain and the sorrow little Hannah must have felt as the love of her life who had pledged his undying affection to her, told her he would take another woman to his bosom. How many tears Hannah must have cried into her pillow at night as she was unable to perform the one task that would bring her honor as a woman. The shame she must have known when she went into the little town and heard the gossips speaking about her like she wasn’t even there or that she didn’t matter. How many times she felt her face flush red with embarassment as the conversation mysteriously stopped each time she entered a room.
And then misery piled upon misery, rumors stacked on top of gossip little brokenhearted Hannah found out her husband had found a new bride. Elkanah married Peninah and although she was the second wife and may have kept her place for a while. She desired the position Hannah held and as she bore Elkanah child after child, son after son, she became more and more the enemy and adversary of Hannah. Peninah gave birth to one child after another and the barren womb of Hannah must have cried out for life to be nurtured there, but it was not to be. Hannah watched as the belly of Peninah swelled with the life inside and inside her heart was breaking and there was an emptiness that nothing could fill. In a society where the measure of a good wife was in the children she had, little Hannah cried herself to sleep at night because she was found lacking.
· Can you imagine the pain she felt when Peninah came to torment her?
Don’t tell me it’s not in there and that’s not what she did because verse six of the text clearly says…
" Provoked her sore so as to make her fret!" Just like the devil himself! Everytime in your life you’ve felt the Spirit of God stir your heart to get saved, the old devil’s been right there with you. Everytime the Spirit of God has moved you to rededicate your life or to surrender to the ministry or to teach that Sunday School class or to serve somewhere within the house of God, Satan has been faithful to rear his ugly head.
" Where do you think you’re going? That preacher’s not talking to you, you know what you did. You know how many times you’ve failed, you just sit back down because God don’t love you!"
I’m so glad that my life is hid beneath the blood of Christ Jesus and I don’t know how you can cope if you don’t know him as Lord. I know that my salvation is secure not because of what I’ve done but because of what he’s done and the devil don’t have any hold over a child of God. For the devil to have power over me he’d have to be able to swim through the blood of Jesus and he can’t do it, can he? For the devil to be able to put me in place he’d have to be able to climb the walls of salvation and then whip every angel in heaven and he can’t do, can he? Jesus triumphed over Satan and every demon in Hell when he nailed my salvation to the cross. Read Colossians if you don’t believe it but take hope in the Lord because the devil is always faithful to remind us of what our past is, we need to stand up and tell him about his future. If you call me to pastor this church, you’re gonna get a preacher that ain’t afraid of the devil nor his servants and in the likeness of Charles Spurgeon I want to be so secure in my salvation I can swing out over the fiery pits of hell on a cornstalk and spit in the devil’s eye singing blessed assurance Jesus is mine!
Hannah was broken hearted so much so that she stopped eating and wept. Not cried my friend but wept at the emptiness inside her life. She began to lose weight and she was unconsolable. Elkanah tried but he couldn’t cheer her up, he had done everything he could for her. He treated her right, he brought home flowers but there was no bottom to the pit Hannah had fallen into. The desperation of her circumstances overwhelmed her and she had nowhere to turn.
· How many of you know that’s the right time to start looking up?
· There is an emptiness in your soul that only Jesus can fill my friends and even though you may try to fill it with money, family, friends, recreation, hobbies, careers, possessions, alcohol, drugs, sex and on and on I might go
You just need Jesus! The military may say to fight your way out, colleges and universities may say think your way out, psychology may say therapy your way out but Jesus says he is the way out! Jesus is the answer you’ve been searching for and there is no other hope in all the world for salvation or for the desperate circumstances in your life. Not Jesus plus something else but just Jesus. That’s the only thing that moved me from a pistol to the pulpit, Just Jesus!
Verses 9-11 Out of the desperation of her soul she poured out her heart to God… ILLUSTRATE
Until God’s people desperately seek the presence of God there is no hope for our nation our churches our young people our families or anything else. Unless we become desperate for the HOLINESS of God we’ll never see revival sweep through the church and spread into the community. God is the God of your situation my friend and if you’ll put your heart in his hands, he’ll heal the hurt you feel. He’ll fill the emptiness in your soul with his Holy Spirit and then you won’t have a problem living the Christian life because he’ll live it through you! His eyes are searching the earth at this very moment looking for the people who are desperately seeking his presence.
Verses 12-17 Something happened to Hannah in the house of God that day. She had gone in with her mascara smeared all over her face, with her eyes sunk back in her head and tears on her cheeks but she walked out of Church with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.
What made the difference?
She got a word from God and believed God was able to carry out his word! That’s what faith is folks, believing God is who he says he is and has the power to work in your situation. Do you believe God can still do miracles? That may be why you ain’t seen no miracles in a while. Hannah went home and at dinner that night when the mashed taters came around the table she reached out and got her a big spoonful of em. Fried chicken, cathead biscuits, gravy, turnip greens and apple pie she took her a helping of all of it. She cleaned that plate till there wasn’t nothing left and then she reached out and filled her plate again. Hey it’d been a while since she ate! Work with me people.
Washing them dishes that night, Peninah eased into the kitchen and started her same old garbage trying to put her down but Hannah couldn’t be discouraged now. I believe Hannah started singing in that kitchen that night amidst the taunts and the harassment of her adversary…
What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. If we’d do that the old devil might leave us alone too! She walked out of that kitchen and told Elkanah it was time for bed because they had a big day tomorrow. Went to sleep that night and woke up early the next morning to go where?
Back to church! Ha, Ha maybe you need a word from God so you’ll be happier in God’s house too! Put a smile on your face! You get to go to heaven!
After church that day she told Elkanah, you go on home honey, I got some shopping to do. Went down to Cribs are us and bought her a baby bed, I’ll take the blue one over there, cause it’s gonna be a boy. I got a word from God! Ha Ha Ha. Have faith in God folks, he’ll never let you down. Then she went to Victorias Secret and picked out a silk negligee, yeah it’s in there too!
Verse 19 says Elkanah knew his wife and she conceived a man child in her belly and he grew up to become one of the greatest prophets that walked on the face of the earth because of the desperation of his little moma! His name was Samuel!
Are you ready to seek the face of God for that overwhelming situation in your life?
INVITATION
