Untitled Sermon (2)
Notes
Transcript
A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Frank did a beautiful job leading us praying through suffering.
We can easily become cynical when our prayers aren’t answered in the way we want them to be answered or in the time we want them to be answered.
Hannah was a married woman who was barren. She couldn’t have children, which brought disgrace upon her. However, her husband’s other wife had plenty of children and used that to provoke Hannah. Every year the family would travel to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to God, on these trips Peninnah would continue to provoke Hannah and remind her of her inability to concieve a child. This left Hannah wo upset that we would weep and be unable to eat during the feast. This happened year after year until finally Hannah took her brokenness before God.
“ Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
This prayer came from a vulnerable and broken place in Hannah. She wept before God and made this vow to Him. This vow would be extremely hard to keep. Her prayer had turned into an act of worship and she had forgotten all about the other person in the room.
12 As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
Anguish and grief can cause us to say and do a lot of things. One of which is to try and bargain with God. We offer Him what we have in return for what He can give us. God listens to these prayers and we know that His heart breaks with ours, but He doesn’t want us to try and negotiate our way to the result we want. But here we see God listen to Hannah’s cries, prayers and vows and He says “yes.”
17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.
Hannah had a son and named him Samuel, which means the God who hears. For three years Hannah raised her son. She tenderly loved him and cared for him. I’m sure she prayed for Him. We also know that in those three short years she taught him to worship God and have a holy reverence for Him. Then when he was weaned, she took him back to Shiloh and gave him to Eli as an offering to the Lord. In those three years don’t you think that maybe she tried to get out of having to give Samuel up? We’re told that she didn’t return to Shiloh with her husband until Samuel was weaned. I wonder if she thought about Eli and what kind of a father he was. His own sons had turned into repulsive men who had no fear or reverence for the Lord. But she doesn’t seem deterred to follow through with her vow. When her son was three she took him to Shiloh and presented him to Eli.
“Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. 27 I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.” 1 Samuel 1:26-28
We have a choice to make when God actually gives us what we’ve asked for. We can become boastful and proud that God listened to us and answered us, which I know sounds ludicrous but it happens. This is how we begin to treat God like a genie in a bottle. This is how things like the prosperity gospel begin. When God starts answering our prayers we start thinking that He will begin to give us everything we want. We become entitled and think that God should answer our prayers the way we think they should be answered. Then when we realize that this is not how it works, we are left cynical and jaded.
When God chooses to say yes to the prayers we pray, we should respond in worship and sheer delight in His goodness. After leaving Samuel with Eli, Hannah offers a worshipful prayer to God, acknowledging His holiness and His might. She also draws attention to the fact that God knows people’s hearts and intentions. God knew that Hannah would make good on her word. He knew that her heart was pure and that she was willing to make that sacrifice for Him.
Hannah’s prayers preceded God’s anointing.
Samuel became a great prophet, priest and judge in Israel who heard clearly from the Lord. He was God’s mouthpiece and spoke on behalf of God to the nation. He anointed the first two kings, Saul and David.
Hannah chose to give her miracle back to God. Her prayers were effective but she never selfishly held the blessings that came about because of them. She gave him back to God in an act of worship and obedience.
Give it back to God
After Jesus rose from the dead, He told his followers not to leave Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. These men and women had no idea what was in store, but they trusted their savior. They stayed in Jerusalem and in Acts 1:14 we are told, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
Remember, they were all just learning to pray like Jesus, so it would be so interesting to have sat in on those prayer meetings. What exactly were they praying for? Were their prayers more like the traditional Hebraic prayers of their past, or were they wading out into more conversational prayer? What we do know is their prayers were powerful and they were heard.
Their prayers united them. They could process through Jesus’ death and resurrection. They could refocus on the mission Jesus had just left them with. They could take the fear that that mission probably stirred in their hearts and pour it out before God. They could pray for the lost, the hurting and the sick. When we come together and trust each other with our own prayer lives it connects our hearts in a powerful way.
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues x as the Spirit enabled them.”
Community prayer proceeded the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And that outpouring changed the course of history.
Right after they received the Spirit they immediately began to spread the good news of Jesus among the people who had traveled to Jerusalem for Pentecost. Thousands put their faith in Jesus that day and the early church was formed but it didn’t just stay in Jerusalem, it spread throughout the entire Roman empire and beyond. The faithful followers prayed and God said “yes!” Then they took the gift of the Spirit and turned right around and gave it to the world.
This may have been the first time this happened, but it’s not the last! I believe that Pentecost is a prototype for the church today. We say we want to see God move. We say we want to see God save. We say we want to see God in our families, church and community. But are our words backed up by our actions? Prayer precedes every great move of the Spirit.
I want to tell you about a revival that happened in the 16th century. The Moravian people had to flee their country and they found refuge in Germany. Hundreds of them wandered upon the state of a wealthy man named Count Zinzendorf. At this time in history the Reformation had helped religious institutions to some degree, but it also divided the church in many ways. There were tensions among every major Christian denomination of the day and endless theological debates consumed much of the church’s time and energy. During this time, Zinzendorf’s life motto was, “I have one passion; it is Jesus, Jesus only.” We can see this lived out beautifully in the way that he allowed hundreds of refugees to live on his land, dig wells, and build houses. He called the place Hernnhut, which was derived from the word watch. The key verse for this location was Isaiah 62:6, ““On your walls O Jerusalem, I have set watchman; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent, you who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise on the earth.”
The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 2:1–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 1:14). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
The New International Version. (2011). (1 Sa 1:26–28). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
The New International Version. (2011). (1 Sa 1:9–19). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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