1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,940 This text, there's also some of the verses we will use are on your handout this morning. So I'm going to read this text, and then we will spend some time being led, I think, to the goodness of God and to worship in Him. 2 00:00:14,940 --> 00:00:30,880 So this is they, this is Hannah and Elkanah. They arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son. 3 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:51,820 She called his name Samuel, for she said, "I have asked for him from the Lord." And then Elkanah and his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever." 4 00:00:51,820 --> 00:01:20,820 Elkanah, her husband, said to her, "Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord establish his word." So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her along with a three-year-old bull and ephah of flour and a skin of wine. And she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. And they slaughtered the bull and they brought the child to Eli. 5 00:01:20,820 --> 00:01:49,820 And she said, "Oh, my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted to me my petition, and I made him, and I made to him. Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord." As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, help us to see the goodness 6 00:01:49,820 --> 00:02:18,820 of your love toward us, that you would help us to see the greatness of your power, and that you would help us to see that you are our hope. Be with us this morning as we look at your word and learn from your word and are moved and convicted and strengthened and encouraged by your word. Be with us during this time. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 7 00:02:18,820 --> 00:02:38,820 There is always that moment, I think, where as a child, I have heard about this, where you move from being the child to being the parent. Rachel and I, we had just been married. My parents had come down to visit, so we stuck them in the basement, because that is where they stuck me when I was a teenager. 8 00:02:38,820 --> 00:02:47,820 There was one of those tropical storms that had been a hurricane, kind of moving up, and it was going to directly come over us in Virginia. 9 00:02:47,820 --> 00:02:58,820 And so it rained, and it didn't rain for 40 days and 40 nights, but it felt like it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. And so in the middle of the night, it was like 2:00 in the morning, 10 00:02:58,820 --> 00:03:08,820 I hear my dad tromping up the stairs once again. Now the child has become the parent, right, just like I used to do. And there we are. Dad walks in and goes, "Your basement's flooded." 11 00:03:08,820 --> 00:03:16,820 And I was like, "I don't know what you want me to do about it. Like, it's raining." It turned out the sump pump had broken, and so the hole that the sump pump 12 00:03:16,820 --> 00:03:25,820 sets in to pump water out of, it had died. And then that hole that was supposed to remove water then filled the basement with water. 13 00:03:25,820 --> 00:03:33,820 And our dog at the time, Rigby, she loved my mom and dad, specifically my dad. And so when they were staying in our guest bed in the basement, 14 00:03:33,820 --> 00:03:40,820 she would go lay down next to their bed, and I guess Dad woke up and like looked around and saw a little bit of water 15 00:03:40,820 --> 00:03:45,820 and then looked at the stairs, and there's Rigby with like one paw on the stairs going, "Do I wake him up 16 00:03:45,820 --> 00:03:55,820 or do I just leave them to drown in the basement?" And so at 2 AM, this is not what I am expecting to find in my basement. 17 00:03:55,820 --> 00:04:03,820 Yeah, I expect to find my parents. I expect to find my dog. I do not expect to find like 10 inches of water. 18 00:04:03,820 --> 00:04:10,820 Not just like a little puddle, but completely covering the entire basement. Now, if we would have had kids back then, 19 00:04:10,820 --> 00:04:14,820 they probably would have been overjoyed because you have an indoor swimming pool and they would have 20 00:04:14,820 --> 00:04:19,820 probably asked for more water, but not what I was expecting in the middle of the night. 21 00:04:19,820 --> 00:04:25,820 And as we come to this text this morning, it is filled with worship. 22 00:04:25,820 --> 00:04:32,820 And it's not what I'm expecting from this text. It's not what I expect to see happen. 23 00:04:32,820 --> 00:04:37,820 And it's not just bookended with worship because as we read in the first verse of our text, 24 00:04:37,820 --> 00:04:43,820 they got up first thing in the morning and they go and worship and it then ends with worship. 25 00:04:43,820 --> 00:04:47,820 Christ throughout all of these verses is filled with worship. 26 00:04:47,820 --> 00:04:52,820 It's filled with the worship that is hopeful. 27 00:04:52,820 --> 00:04:57,820 The things you have prayed for have not yet come to pass, but my hope is in you. 28 00:04:57,820 --> 00:05:02,820 It's filled with this confidence that God will establish his word. 29 00:05:02,820 --> 00:05:07,820 It's filled with obedient and sacrificial worship. 30 00:05:07,820 --> 00:05:12,820 And then we see it ends with continual worship. 31 00:05:12,820 --> 00:05:24,820 So I want to begin by talking about that sort of unexpected moment in this text, the surprise of hope-filled worship. 32 00:05:24,820 --> 00:05:29,820 Oops, I'm going the wrong way. 33 00:05:29,820 --> 00:05:37,820 What makes the worship, I think, in this text so surprising is that it seems backwards to how we normally approach worship. 34 00:05:37,820 --> 00:05:43,820 So we normally approach worship as something that is dependent upon our circumstances, right? 35 00:05:43,820 --> 00:05:49,820 If my circumstances are good, if I feel good, if I am joyful, if I am thankful, you know what it does? 36 00:05:49,820 --> 00:05:56,820 It leads me, ultimately, to worship, right? If my circumstances are good, then I am ready to worship. 37 00:05:56,820 --> 00:06:04,820 And if I'm struggling, I come to God, I pray, He fixes things, and then I worship, right? 38 00:06:04,820 --> 00:06:14,820 Generally, we kind of think of worship sometimes as the consequence or the result of God fixing the struggles we have. 39 00:06:14,820 --> 00:06:22,820 But here in the text, that's not what we see. We see that worship is not dependent upon circumstances, 40 00:06:22,820 --> 00:06:29,820 but rather worship is dependent upon the greatness and the goodness of God. 41 00:06:29,820 --> 00:06:36,820 And that's so important because our circumstances change, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. 42 00:06:36,820 --> 00:06:42,820 And if our worship is dependent upon our circumstances, it's going to be a roller coaster. 43 00:06:42,820 --> 00:06:53,820 But God, the Lord, does not change. And so if our worship is dependent upon Him rather than our circumstances. 44 00:06:53,820 --> 00:07:00,820 Let me try to unpack just a little bit of what is happening here and why it's so surprising. 45 00:07:00,820 --> 00:07:09,820 The beginning of this text is filled with both humility and struggle. It begins with a small town that we're not quite sure of the location, 46 00:07:09,820 --> 00:07:16,820 a family that we have some idea of who they are and where they end up, but are relatively unknown. 47 00:07:16,820 --> 00:07:24,820 And we move almost immediately into the suffering of Hannah, physically, but not just physically. 48 00:07:24,820 --> 00:07:31,820 You see that her suffering is also in regards to conflict, because there's another wife in the household 49 00:07:31,820 --> 00:07:38,820 who is intentionally sort of attacking and berating and goading her, and it doesn't just happen once or twice, 50 00:07:38,820 --> 00:07:50,820 but the verses preceding says year after year, it just doesn't stop. And so her suffering is physical, and it's relational, 51 00:07:50,820 --> 00:07:59,820 and it's continual, but it is also spiritual. And in her desperation, she runs to God and pours out her heart. 52 00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:07,820 And here's the remarkable thing, right? As she is pouring out her heart at the door of the tabernacle, 53 00:08:07,820 --> 00:08:14,820 the guy who is supposed to be the priest of Israel, the one who is supposed to stay pulling God, 54 00:08:14,820 --> 00:08:20,820 who's supposed to be chosen from among the people so that he can bear their burdens and be close to them in their heart, 55 00:08:20,820 --> 00:08:28,820 this priest looks at her and goes, "Hey, you're drunk. Go home." Can you imagine pouring out your soul before God, 56 00:08:28,820 --> 00:08:36,820 and then somebody just simply calls you a drunk and tells you to go home? 57 00:08:36,820 --> 00:08:43,820 And then, when she explains that she's not drunk, but she's pouring out her soul before the Lord, 58 00:08:43,820 --> 00:08:51,820 he kind of gives her this flippant answer that says, "Go in peace. May the Lord of Israel grant your petition." 59 00:08:51,820 --> 00:09:00,820 And it's almost as if Eli just kind of smiles and nods and goes, "Yeah, maybe if I agree with you, you'll leave." 60 00:09:00,820 --> 00:09:08,820 And I understand this because this is often the same response when you get somebody strange showing up at church. 61 00:09:08,820 --> 00:09:13,820 I don't mean on a Sunday morning, but generally like 10 o'clock on a Monday night going, "Hey, are you the pastor?" 62 00:09:13,820 --> 00:09:19,820 I just want to smile and nod until you go away and stop being weird on my front doorstep. 63 00:09:19,820 --> 00:09:28,820 And I feel like Eli is doing this just a little bit. And one of the reasons we know that Eli really doesn't make a lot of this conversation 64 00:09:28,820 --> 00:09:39,820 is because down in verse 26, Hannah has to reintroduce herself to Eli and go, "Remember that lady that you thought was a drunk? 65 00:09:39,820 --> 00:09:48,820 Now I'm back and God has granted my request." I don't...it's hard because I think Eli dismisses it. 66 00:09:48,820 --> 00:09:57,820 But what you find is that I imagine in his ministry as a priest, for every one sincere, hurting person, 67 00:09:57,820 --> 00:10:04,820 right? There's 10 or 11 who are simply seeking to manipulate or to use God. 68 00:10:04,820 --> 00:10:11,820 And it may be that in this moment, Eli has become cynical and jaded. 69 00:10:11,820 --> 00:10:16,820 It doesn't help Hannah, though. It just sort of adds to her hurt. 70 00:10:16,820 --> 00:10:26,820 She brings her hurts and hopes to God in prayer, and he gives her sort of a generic blessing. But what's interesting is that God uses that. 71 00:10:26,820 --> 00:10:34,820 And Hannah's heart is relieved. And she said, "Let your servant find favor in your eyes." 72 00:10:34,820 --> 00:10:38,820 And the woman went away and ate, and her face was no longer sad. 73 00:10:38,820 --> 00:10:48,820 That even this moment of accusation and almost like dismissal, Hannah has been dealing with God. 74 00:10:48,820 --> 00:10:55,820 And he has taken the burden of her heart. Her appetite's restored, and she is no longer sad. 75 00:10:55,820 --> 00:11:06,820 And then it says this, "They arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and they went back to their house at Ramah. 76 00:11:06,820 --> 00:11:10,820 And Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her." 77 00:11:10,820 --> 00:11:14,820 Let's talk about what it means, just for a moment, to worship. 78 00:11:14,820 --> 00:11:18,820 See, there's some words that are just kind of like buckets, right? 79 00:11:18,820 --> 00:11:24,820 There's a lot of different meanings that can fit into that bucket, often similar and related. 80 00:11:24,820 --> 00:11:31,820 But sometimes words are used like bucket, probably the most common illustration and the one that's easiest for me is the word love. 81 00:11:31,820 --> 00:11:41,820 Like I love my wife, I love my kids, I love coffee, I love the weather at like 8:30 last night when it was cool and clear and the bugs weren't out yet. 82 00:11:41,820 --> 00:11:48,820 We can use love to describe a million different things, but we don't mean the same thing when we say love, right? 83 00:11:48,820 --> 00:11:58,820 At least hopefully we don't. Hopefully I don't mean the same kind of love when I say I love coffee as when I say I love my wife. 84 00:11:58,820 --> 00:12:09,820 And so love is kind of a bucket word that we fill with all sorts of inflections and meanings and differences, and depending on the context is what it means. 85 00:12:09,820 --> 00:12:20,820 And the same, I think, for us is true of worship. So for us, worship can be described as a service. We come to worship, it starts at 10:15-ish. 86 00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:36,820 Maybe we think of it as singing. We sing worship together in song. Sometimes we view worship as an attitude or some kind of feeling that comes up within us, whether that's joy or hope or gratitude. 87 00:12:36,820 --> 00:12:46,820 Now, I want to be clear, these things are a part of worship, but we're missing what's deeper and more wonderful. 88 00:12:46,820 --> 00:13:00,820 Right? Biblically, this word "worship" just means to bow down. And it's not just a picture of physical posture, but it's a picture of the posture of your life. 89 00:13:00,820 --> 00:13:15,820 And true worship means living in submission, bowed down before God in your life. And it includes your heart, and it includes your song, and it includes your emotions and your mind and your actions. 90 00:13:15,820 --> 00:13:28,820 All of it tied together. And worship encompasses things that I think are both deeper and more important, and maybe even more shallow, but also wonderful, right? 91 00:13:28,820 --> 00:13:41,820 So in the deepness, your actions, your work, your marriage, your friendships, every action can be worshiped to God as you bow down before Him in how you live. 92 00:13:41,820 --> 00:13:50,820 But also on the other side of that, there are things that we would see as flippant or simple or not important that are also worshiped to God. 93 00:13:50,820 --> 00:14:01,820 I love in Nehemiah, the eighth chapter, Israel, the people of God, they're broken by hearing the word of God read, and they see their sin on display, and they repent. 94 00:14:01,820 --> 00:14:16,820 And the counsel given to them by Ezra is that, "Go and eat the fat, because this day is holy to the Lord, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." 95 00:14:16,820 --> 00:14:26,820 He literally tells them to go. Have a cookout. Send the meat to those who have none. Enjoy the food that God has provided for you. Enjoy. 96 00:14:26,820 --> 00:14:37,820 And what you see is that worship can include having a barbecue for the glory of God, and sharing with friends, and enjoying the fellowship, and the good gifts that God has created. 97 00:14:37,820 --> 00:14:49,820 It also involves those moments where we live in submission in those times often that we don't necessarily want to. 98 00:14:49,820 --> 00:15:00,820 Romans 12 says that our worship is a living sacrifice. And true worship is living not just part of your life, but all of your life in submission to God. 99 00:15:00,820 --> 00:15:12,820 In your joys, moments where it feels like we're worshiping, right? Overflowing with goodness and thankfulness, but also in those moments of sorrow like Paul in the Philippian jail. 100 00:15:12,820 --> 00:15:26,820 Now in verse 19, when it talks about they worship, probably a literal physical bowing down, but it's also symbolic of what is happening in Hannah and Elkanah's heart. 101 00:15:26,820 --> 00:15:41,820 What you find is that worship means submitting your life to God. The next thing we see, and we'll pick up in verses 21 through 23, we have this short sort of conversation and a record of events. 102 00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:51,820 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice. We don't know how long this is from this last trip. This may be the next trip. 103 00:15:51,820 --> 00:15:58,820 It may be a trip or two in the future, depending on how the timing of things work out. But for whatever reason, we pick up in this specific year. 104 00:15:58,820 --> 00:16:04,820 He's going to pay. There's been a new child born. He's going to pay his vow, but Hannah did not go up. 105 00:16:04,820 --> 00:16:12,820 For she said to her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever." 106 00:16:12,820 --> 00:16:18,820 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, "Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. 107 00:16:18,820 --> 00:16:26,820 Only may the Lord establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him." 108 00:16:26,820 --> 00:16:31,820 Hannah has made a vow that if you give me a son, I will give him to your service. 109 00:16:31,820 --> 00:16:37,820 What's interesting is Elkanah, the father, has also made a vow. 110 00:16:37,820 --> 00:16:44,820 And while we saw last week that he may not be very good at dealing with the emotional struggles of his wife Hannah, 111 00:16:44,820 --> 00:16:48,820 it seems like he seeks God with his heart and seeks to honor him. 112 00:16:48,820 --> 00:16:53,820 And so he faithfully goes to Shiloh to fulfill his vow. 113 00:16:53,820 --> 00:16:59,820 And there is his conversation. He says, "We're going to Shiloh." And she says, "Well, I'm not going this year. 114 00:16:59,820 --> 00:17:06,820 I'm not going until the child is old enough to go and for me to fulfill my vow." 115 00:17:06,820 --> 00:17:10,820 Likely about three years as well. He goes, "I go to fulfill my vow." 116 00:17:10,820 --> 00:17:15,820 She says, "I will fulfill my vow, but this child is not ready to go yet." 117 00:17:15,820 --> 00:17:20,820 In a real sense, right? This child depends on her for her very survival. 118 00:17:20,820 --> 00:17:27,820 And she's not dishonoring her vow. She's simply waiting until the time is right to fulfill it. 119 00:17:27,820 --> 00:17:34,820 And Elkanah says something to her. He says, "Do what seems best to you. Do what you think is right." 120 00:17:34,820 --> 00:17:39,820 I don't think he's being passive-aggressive and going, "Well, you do what you think is right." 121 00:17:39,820 --> 00:17:44,820 I think what he's doing here, because of the next phrase, he's acknowledging the wisdom of her decision. 122 00:17:44,820 --> 00:17:49,820 "Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him." 123 00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:52,820 But then Elkanah says something strange. 124 00:17:52,820 --> 00:17:57,820 "Only may the Lord establish his word." 125 00:17:57,820 --> 00:18:02,820 Now, the word "establish" here means to rise up or to get up. 126 00:18:02,820 --> 00:18:08,820 It can be used of someone waking up out of bed and standing up for the first time during the day. 127 00:18:08,820 --> 00:18:14,820 And Elkanah says, "May the word, God's word, may it stand up." 128 00:18:14,820 --> 00:18:19,820 And commentators struggle to figure out what word he's referring to. 129 00:18:19,820 --> 00:18:25,820 And the chapter doesn't give us the specifics, only that Elkanah says, "May the God's word rise up. 130 00:18:25,820 --> 00:18:29,820 May he establish it. May he stand his word up." 131 00:18:29,820 --> 00:18:37,820 I think that there's two things, and I don't think they exclude each other in this text. 132 00:18:37,820 --> 00:18:43,820 I think, in part, Elkanah is referring to the promises of God for the people of Israel. 133 00:18:43,820 --> 00:18:52,820 It's possible, I think, that he has a glimpse into what God is doing for this scattered, immoral, broken, 134 00:18:52,820 --> 00:19:04,820 living in darkness, surrounded by enemy's people. And what he is saying is, "May God establish his promises for his people." 135 00:19:04,820 --> 00:19:10,820 And maybe he glimpses a little bit of what will happen with Samuel by the grace of God. 136 00:19:10,820 --> 00:19:17,820 "May God's promises arise because of you and his work in you, my son." 137 00:19:17,820 --> 00:19:25,820 But Elkanah, I think, also, and additionally, at the same time, might be referring to the word of God in the life of his son. 138 00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:33,820 Right? It's no accident that this birth of Samuel parallels so very closely the birth of Samson. 139 00:19:33,820 --> 00:19:40,820 One sent by God to save and to judge his people. And do you remember how Samson turns out? 140 00:19:40,820 --> 00:19:49,820 Right? He doesn't pursue God. Right? He pursues his own passions and his own pleasures continually. 141 00:19:49,820 --> 00:19:56,820 And here is another baby born miraculously just like Samson. 142 00:19:56,820 --> 00:20:02,820 In fact, the last recorded birth of a judge was Samson. Now, Samuel, the last judge, his birth parallels. 143 00:20:02,820 --> 00:20:12,820 I don't think it's an accident. And I can't help but wonder if Elkanah, as he looks at his baby, says, 144 00:20:12,820 --> 00:20:21,820 "May God's word be established in your life. May God's word rise up in your life." 145 00:20:21,820 --> 00:20:31,820 Either way, Elkanah lives his life in this moment and others, confident that God will establish his purposes, 146 00:20:31,820 --> 00:20:42,820 either for Israel or for his son. And what God does is both. God establishes the promises of Israel by establishing his word in the life of Samuel. 147 00:20:42,820 --> 00:20:52,820 And in his words, he confidently bows down to the purposes of God. And so we've seen this hope-filled worship, 148 00:20:52,820 --> 00:21:00,820 worship that occurs before the prayer is even answered, this worship that is confident, saying, "Let God's word rise up 149 00:21:00,820 --> 00:21:11,820 in this land and in this child." And now we come to obedient and sacrificial worship. 150 00:21:11,820 --> 00:21:16,820 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her along with a three-year-old bull and an ephah of flower 151 00:21:16,820 --> 00:21:24,820 and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and the child was young. 152 00:21:24,820 --> 00:21:35,820 And the time comes and Hannah obediently fulfills her vow. And I don't want you to discount the human side of this. 153 00:21:35,820 --> 00:21:43,820 This has to be, especially for a mom, a moment where I can't imagine there's much but tears. 154 00:21:43,820 --> 00:21:51,820 We didn't even need to leave our dog at the groomer before we had kids. 155 00:21:51,820 --> 00:21:56,820 When it came time to leave our kids, I was like, "Hmm, I don't know about that." 156 00:21:56,820 --> 00:22:01,820 And we're calling back, checking to make sure that they're okay. 157 00:22:01,820 --> 00:22:05,820 And she's bringing him to be raised in the house of God. 158 00:22:05,820 --> 00:22:09,820 And you might say, "Well, how is this worship?" Yes, it's heartbreaking. 159 00:22:09,820 --> 00:22:15,820 I struggle 3,000 years later to understand how somebody could do this, but how is it worship? 160 00:22:15,820 --> 00:22:19,820 Hannah is bringing her greatest treasure to the house of God. 161 00:22:19,820 --> 00:22:25,820 She is submitting her heart, she's submitting her desires, and all of those motherly instincts to God. 162 00:22:25,820 --> 00:22:32,820 It's both obedient and sacrificial as she comes to the house of God. 163 00:22:32,820 --> 00:22:36,820 In fact, listen to what she says in verse 28. 164 00:22:36,820 --> 00:22:40,820 "Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord." 165 00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:44,820 As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. 166 00:22:44,820 --> 00:22:47,820 And when Hannah says she lent him to the Lord, 167 00:22:47,820 --> 00:22:52,820 "I don't think she's saying, 'He's mine, so you better give him back.'" 168 00:22:52,820 --> 00:22:55,820 Think about what happens when you lend, right? 169 00:22:55,820 --> 00:22:58,820 You're entrusting something that is yours, 170 00:22:58,820 --> 00:23:02,820 and oftentimes something that is valuable into the care of someone else, 171 00:23:02,820 --> 00:23:07,820 and she is saying, "I'm entrusting." 172 00:23:07,820 --> 00:23:13,820 Other translations will say, like, dedicate or entrust. 173 00:23:13,820 --> 00:23:19,820 Elkanah is saying, "I am entrusting my heart and my son to the service of God." 174 00:23:19,820 --> 00:23:26,820 Right? She comes hopeful. Elkanah comes confident, and she comes sacrificial and obedient. 175 00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:36,820 And now we have this verse at the very end of our section that says, "He worshiped the Lord there." 176 00:23:36,820 --> 00:23:38,820 And the question is, who is worshiping? 177 00:23:38,820 --> 00:23:43,820 And I don't think it's Elkanah, because he hasn't been seen since the earlier part of this section. 178 00:23:43,820 --> 00:23:52,820 Some translations will try to say, "They," meaning Hannah and Elkanah, but I don't think that the text fits this. 179 00:23:52,820 --> 00:23:59,820 This, I think, refers to Samuel. And you might say, "Well, he's too young to worship the Lord there." 180 00:23:59,820 --> 00:24:04,820 His very life is the worship of the Lord. 181 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:10,820 And this legacy of worship in the life of Samuel would not have happened 182 00:24:10,820 --> 00:24:17,820 without a mom who hopefully worships and without a dad who confidently worships God. 183 00:24:17,820 --> 00:24:24,820 And so the question about all of this, with this worship that both starts and stops, 184 00:24:24,820 --> 00:24:32,820 that's filled with confident, sacrificial obedience, this picture of a legacy of worship, what about us? 185 00:24:32,820 --> 00:24:40,820 I don't think the intention of this passage is to make us go, "Man, I'm not doing any of that." 186 00:24:40,820 --> 00:24:49,820 Although that may be true, I don't think the purpose of this text is to simply give us an example to follow. 187 00:24:49,820 --> 00:24:57,820 Because we might say, "I'm not hopeful. I'm not confident. I'm not obedient. I'm not continual." 188 00:24:57,820 --> 00:25:05,820 And I don't think the point is that Hannah and Elkanah did this, and Samuel did, "Now you better do it, too." 189 00:25:05,820 --> 00:25:14,820 I think the answer goes deeper than that. In all of these situations, how is it possible to worship? 190 00:25:14,820 --> 00:25:22,820 How is it possible when it feels like it's hopeless? How is it possible when the future looks uncertain? 191 00:25:22,820 --> 00:25:27,820 How can you be certain in the face of uncertainty? How can you be obedient and sacrificial? 192 00:25:27,820 --> 00:25:32,820 How can you keep going with perseverance? 193 00:25:32,820 --> 00:25:40,820 I think the only way to worship, like we see in this text, is to see both the goodness and the greatness of God. 194 00:25:40,820 --> 00:25:47,820 And we have to see both, because if all you see is goodness with a God who's really, really nice, 195 00:25:47,820 --> 00:25:53,820 but He can't do anything for you. And if all you see is God's greatness, you see somebody who is powerful, 196 00:25:53,820 --> 00:25:58,820 but that power, as we see in our world, is often not directed toward helping, 197 00:25:58,820 --> 00:26:06,820 but rather toward the person who has the power. And so if you have God's greatness without God's goodness, 198 00:26:06,820 --> 00:26:14,820 you find God angry. If you have God's goodness without God's greatness, you have a God who is weak. 199 00:26:14,820 --> 00:26:23,820 And in this, I think the reason Hannah and Elkanah are able to worship is because they see both God's goodness 200 00:26:23,820 --> 00:26:30,820 and God's greatness. And there's a verse that I want to bring you to, and it's a verse we've been before. 201 00:26:30,820 --> 00:26:41,820 It's one of my favorite verses in Luke's Gospel. It's in Luke 12, verse 32. And almost every word in this verse is a sermon. 202 00:26:41,820 --> 00:26:50,820 It just simply says this, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 203 00:26:50,820 --> 00:27:00,820 And every part of this verse is filled with joy and hope. And notice that it's written into a context of fear. 204 00:27:00,820 --> 00:27:06,820 The disciples in this moment, they're afraid of maybe not having enough. They're afraid of what people are going to do to them. 205 00:27:06,820 --> 00:27:12,820 And Jesus comes and says, "Don't be afraid." And what I love is when God says, "Don't be afraid." 206 00:27:12,820 --> 00:27:19,820 He tells us why we shouldn't be afraid. He doesn't just say, "Don't be afraid. Be brave and be strong and don't be scared." 207 00:27:19,820 --> 00:27:27,820 He says, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 208 00:27:27,820 --> 00:27:33,820 And He tells them why they shouldn't be afraid. And it starts like this. He says, "Little flock." 209 00:27:33,820 --> 00:27:40,820 In Greek, this is what's called a diminutive. And the way that we understand this, this is like a shortening of somebody's name 210 00:27:40,820 --> 00:27:50,820 or changing their name as a sign of affection. So like one, in our house, we have Penelope, who we love very much. 211 00:27:50,820 --> 00:27:59,820 We don't always call her Penelope, right? We call her Peeps. And we don't call her Peeps because we can tell you it's a sign of our love 212 00:27:59,820 --> 00:28:08,820 and our care and our deep knowledge of her that we say that. And when Jesus says, "Little flock," he's doing the same thing. 213 00:28:08,820 --> 00:28:15,820 He gets to be like, "Hey, sheeps." But Jesus comes gently and he goes, "You're my little flock." Right? 214 00:28:15,820 --> 00:28:21,820 It's a sign, not just of care, but of affection. Right? There's a difference between somebody who cares for you 215 00:28:21,820 --> 00:28:28,820 and someone who has affection for you, and Jesus has both. And in our fear and in our struggle, 216 00:28:28,820 --> 00:28:38,820 we begin to glimpse the goodness of God as Jesus says, "Little flock." And then he says this, "Let me tell you about your father." 217 00:28:38,820 --> 00:28:47,820 Not your boss. He doesn't say, "It's your boss's good pleasure." Not your advisor, the guy who tells you what to do. 218 00:28:47,820 --> 00:28:57,820 Not some stranger, but it is who? Your father's good pleasure. And your father is a king. 219 00:28:57,820 --> 00:29:06,820 And your father comes to you not just with a piece of land or a castle, but your father is the God of all creation. 220 00:29:06,820 --> 00:29:18,820 He's immortal, invisible. He's the only one who is wise. He's almighty. He's victorious. His name is above all names. 221 00:29:18,820 --> 00:29:34,820 This is your father. And you see in this idea of the kingdom, the power of God, the little flock, and you have a dad, but who is also the almighty king of all creation. 222 00:29:34,820 --> 00:29:44,820 This is who you call father. And here's what I love. You got the little flock. You got the kingly father. And then in the middle, what does it say? 223 00:29:44,820 --> 00:29:56,820 It is your father's good pleasure. As a dad, it's easy to be busy and in the pressures of life. 224 00:29:56,820 --> 00:30:05,820 And sometimes we can be short with our kids. Sometimes we can be difficult. Sometimes we can be annoyed. Sometimes we can do stuff out of obligation. 225 00:30:05,820 --> 00:30:20,820 Notice our heavenly father. Little flock. It's his good pleasure. Not just that he can, but that he wants to, and he finds joy in giving you the kingdom. 226 00:30:20,820 --> 00:30:29,820 The all-powerful and all-good God of all creation sees you as his little flock, and he loves you. 227 00:30:29,820 --> 00:30:36,820 And when we see the depths of this, not just with our minds or our hearts, but with the depths of our soul, it's going to move us to worship. 228 00:30:36,820 --> 00:30:46,820 The kind of worship we see in Samuel that's filled with hope and confidence and sacrifice and obedience and leaves a legacy for generations to follow. 229 00:30:46,820 --> 00:30:53,820 Fear not, little flock, for it is the father's good pleasure to give you his kingdom. Let's pray. 230 00:30:53,820 --> 00:31:10,820 Father, help us to see your greatness and your goodness. Help us to remember that if we are in Christ, we are your children, and that we are your little flock, and that you are our great and powerful King. 231 00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:22,820 Encourage our weary hearts, humble our pride. Help us not to rely on ourselves, but on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 232 00:31:22,820 --> 00:31:24,080 We're going to stand together.