WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.700 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.240 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.660 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:13.640 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:15.779 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.280 in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:21.839 us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.519 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:29.320 sermon. God bless. Oh Lord God, we give you thanks 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:31.539 and praise for you are good and your mercy endures 00:00:31.539 --> 00:00:33.539 forever. It is good to be in your house this 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:37.140 morning. Please open our hearts and let us hear 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:40.159 your word. Please let the words of my mouth and 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:42.460 the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.299 your sight. Oh Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:47.780 We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I do want 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:49.939 you to know that in preparation for this sermon, 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:54.820 I did some serious research. I texted our family 00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:58.700 group chat and asked for things that you ended 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.060 up saying as a mother that you never thought 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:04.659 you would say as a mother. Here follows a partial 00:01:04.659 --> 00:01:09.420 list. One, no, you may not put your broccoli 00:01:09.420 --> 00:01:14.680 in my coffee. Two, do not put your face on people's 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:19.680 feet. Three, you are not allowed to say please 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.930 in this house. Are you imagining what led to 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:27.730 that one? And then this is my personal favorite 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:31.209 from my own wife. I dropped pizza on my baby! 00:01:32.469 --> 00:01:36.590 So, being a mother makes you do and say unexpected 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:40.170 things, right? Motherhood is hard. It's hard 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:44.709 work keeping small people alive and clean. Eliza 00:01:44.709 --> 00:01:47.989 Roper, who I don't see today, told me a great 00:01:47.989 --> 00:01:52.890 story a couple of weeks ago about how a very 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:56.750 new mama, you know, just a week or two into little 00:01:56.750 --> 00:01:59.209 Finn's life. She woke up in the middle of the 00:01:59.209 --> 00:02:02.870 night sort of terrified because she didn't remember 00:02:02.870 --> 00:02:05.650 Finn being in bed with her and here he was. Well, 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:08.550 so she wakes up and she starts bouncing him and 00:02:08.550 --> 00:02:12.469 she doesn't realize that it's the cat. She's 00:02:12.469 --> 00:02:15.569 trying to cradle the neck of the cat and doesn't 00:02:15.569 --> 00:02:20.289 notice the fur or the tail, right? So sleep deprivation. 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:24.500 Being a mama makes you sort of temporarily crazy, 00:02:24.659 --> 00:02:28.639 right? So that's a funny story, funny quotes. 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.379 And if you've ever been like a mother or a father, 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:34.060 you'll kind of laugh and nod and remember those 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.039 times and how different they are from everyday 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:39.879 life. But of course, mothering just isn't about 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:42.879 birth and infancy and very young childhood, right? 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:44.680 It's about everything that comes after that. 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:47.259 And the text that we read from the Bible this 00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:50.949 morning, Remind us that this mothering thing 00:02:50.949 --> 00:02:55.849 is not for the faint of heart. Think about how 00:02:55.849 --> 00:02:59.830 Mary was prophetically welcomed into motherhood 00:02:59.830 --> 00:03:04.129 by Simeon. A sword will pierce through your soul 00:03:04.129 --> 00:03:07.949 also. Now of course that's an extreme case. Praise 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:10.849 the Lord. Not everybody's mothering experience 00:03:10.849 --> 00:03:13.409 is going to be as tumultuous as being the mother 00:03:13.409 --> 00:03:17.189 of the Son of God. But while not everybody gets 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.199 crucified, nobody makes it through life without 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.159 getting beat up a little bit. And if you are 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.460 a mother, your heart gets beat up a little bit 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:26.580 every time your child goes through difficulties, 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:31.379 right? So being a mother is no joke. And just 00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:34.580 to make a note, culturally, it is not getting 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:38.039 any easier. There's a new story about 10 years 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:41.900 ago now where Hallmark, the card company, decided 00:03:41.900 --> 00:03:44.759 to donate thousands and thousands of cards to 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.960 prisons so that prisoners could send Mother's 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:51.020 Day cards should they want to at no cost if they 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:53.020 signed up for this. Well, this was a huge hit. 00:03:53.259 --> 00:03:55.300 Tons of people appreciated it. Lots of really 00:03:55.300 --> 00:03:58.300 nice news stories came out of this. Good on you, 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:00.900 Hallmark. Well, so Hallmark thought this was 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:02.379 a great idea, and they thought they would try 00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:04.979 the same thing again the following year on Father's 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:08.479 Day. Well, guess how that goes, right? Total 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.430 flop. Almost nobody in this country signed up 00:04:11.430 --> 00:04:14.189 in the prisons to send a father's day card and 00:04:14.189 --> 00:04:16.670 the reasons for this People with strong father 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:18.310 figures in their lives are usually not the ones 00:04:18.310 --> 00:04:22.230 in prison Right. So what this means I imagine 00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:26.170 is that the moms in our country largely are raising 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:29.410 our children Without the support that God intended 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:32.569 and they are being bruised from that all around 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:35.509 us So there's no guarantees that things are gonna 00:04:35.509 --> 00:04:40.149 go right for you as a mother but As a society, 00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:42.329 as a country, I think we still all understand 00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:44.250 the importance of motherhood. There's a lot of 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:48.069 support, no matter where you go, for moms. This 00:04:48.069 --> 00:04:50.129 means that, at the same time, moms are some of 00:04:50.129 --> 00:04:54.029 the most valued members of our society and also 00:04:54.029 --> 00:04:57.009 some of the most vulnerable members of our society. 00:04:57.110 --> 00:05:00.579 Why both at once? Well, I suspect it's because 00:05:00.579 --> 00:05:03.480 we all had mothers, and we didn't all treat them 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.160 the way that we should have all the time, and 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.540 so we've all seen from the inside how mothers 00:05:08.540 --> 00:05:10.759 bear more than they should have to bear, and 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:13.740 we're all sort of trying to make up for it. So, 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.120 what I want to start off saying today is that 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:20.939 thank you, mothers, of our community and of Second 00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:23.430 City Church. And of course I don't mean just 00:05:23.430 --> 00:05:26.990 physical mothers. I mean spiritual mothers too. 00:05:27.029 --> 00:05:30.009 You can have a huge influence in people's lives 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:34.029 without having physically produced them. So mothers 00:05:34.029 --> 00:05:37.769 of all kinds, you are loved and valued and we 00:05:37.769 --> 00:05:40.069 appreciate the work that you do and the Lord 00:05:40.069 --> 00:05:43.350 sees and will reward all of the stuff that you 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:45.129 do that doesn't get noticed, even by your own 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:49.579 children. Amen, right? Okay. All of that was 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:51.459 sort of an introduction. I want to use all of 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:53.699 that stuff. Mothers are underappreciated. Mothers 00:05:53.699 --> 00:05:55.920 are vulnerable. Motherhood is painful. Motherhood 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:58.120 is unfairly demanding. I want to use all that 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:00.680 as a sort of a springboard to what I want to 00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:04.060 pitch today to us as a community, as a church. 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:07.300 And I want to invite us all to be more like mothers. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.720 We can all be more suffering and underappreciated 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.839 and vulnerable guys. So my title today is Mother. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.819 Church, there's a comma in there. That is a comma 00:06:17.819 --> 00:06:21.959 of direct address or evocative comma for you 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:24.040 grammar people, right? That's not just an accident. 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:28.360 Think about that old line that you hear quoted 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:33.360 sometimes. No man can have God for his father 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.439 who does not have the church for his mother. 00:06:36.579 --> 00:06:39.759 We can discuss the extent to which this is true. 00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:42.389 It's certainly not true in the way some people 00:06:42.389 --> 00:06:44.509 have used it, meaning to say, if you're not a 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:46.769 member of my specific denomination or brand of 00:06:46.769 --> 00:06:48.209 Christianity, you're not there for a Christian, 00:06:48.269 --> 00:06:52.170 right? But there is some level of truth, right? 00:06:52.269 --> 00:06:54.089 No man can have God for his father if he will 00:06:54.089 --> 00:06:55.430 not have the church for his mother. Think about 00:06:55.430 --> 00:06:59.449 it. Who did Jesus come to save? He came for his 00:06:59.449 --> 00:07:02.189 body, which is the church, which is his bride, 00:07:02.350 --> 00:07:04.750 right? If you're a person who's saying, I want 00:07:04.750 --> 00:07:06.610 to be a Christian, but I don't want anything 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:08.610 to do with the church, you're You're saying, 00:07:08.889 --> 00:07:10.689 I want to be the beloved of Christ without being 00:07:10.689 --> 00:07:12.550 a part of the beloved of Christ. There's like, 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:14.389 there's a simple math problem there or something, 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:21.269 right? Anyway, what I'm talking about right now 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:25.189 with this is if we are called to have the church 00:07:25.189 --> 00:07:28.629 as our mother, we as the church need to do our 00:07:28.629 --> 00:07:30.829 best to make sure the church is being mothering. 00:07:31.550 --> 00:07:34.350 It should be easy for people to find the church 00:07:34.350 --> 00:07:36.949 a mother, right? So, how can we as individuals 00:07:36.949 --> 00:07:40.209 and as a body be mothers, be mother -ee, be mothering? 00:07:40.509 --> 00:07:42.189 Well, I think it starts with what we saw with 00:07:42.189 --> 00:07:46.290 Mary. A sword will pierce through your soul. 00:07:46.790 --> 00:07:50.350 Friends, what is mothering somebody but being 00:07:50.350 --> 00:07:54.029 willing to love that person at cost to yourself? 00:07:55.550 --> 00:07:57.610 All of us, when we're open to relationships of 00:07:57.610 --> 00:07:59.490 any real depth, we're opening ourselves up to 00:07:59.490 --> 00:08:03.480 being wounded. CS Lewis in his great book the 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:07.600 four loves says this about love quote to love 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.980 at all is to be vulnerable Love anything in your 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:15.459 heart will be rung and possibly broken if you 00:08:15.459 --> 00:08:17.620 want to make sure of keeping it intact You must 00:08:17.620 --> 00:08:21.420 give it to no one not even an animal Lock it 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:25.800 up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:30.540 But in that casket safe dark motionless airless 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:34.080 It will change. It will not be broken. It will 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:38.100 become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:43.580 If we are willing to love, we are willing to 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:45.980 be hurt. The two things are almost synonyms. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:48.419 And of course, we see this most profoundly in 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:50.679 Jesus himself, who demonstrates his great love 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:56.480 for us by his suffering, by his agony and death, 00:08:56.820 --> 00:09:00.289 right? So we're all in the same boat together. 00:09:00.289 --> 00:09:01.950 If we're willing to love, we're willing to be 00:09:01.950 --> 00:09:04.850 hurt. Now I want to go back to our Old Testament 00:09:04.850 --> 00:09:09.169 texts in 1st Samuel 1, and I want to look at 00:09:09.169 --> 00:09:14.309 Mary's prototype, Hannah. I think there's a number 00:09:14.309 --> 00:09:16.769 of things that we can learn from Hannah, whether 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:20.330 we're male or female or biological mothers or 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:24.029 not. old or young. I think there are things that 00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:27.110 we can learn here and that we can use as models 00:09:27.110 --> 00:09:30.850 in our own spiritual life. And by the way, Hannah 00:09:30.850 --> 00:09:34.690 is a positive figure in this test. We read this 00:09:34.690 --> 00:09:36.929 and I think we might think like, oh she's acting 00:09:36.929 --> 00:09:40.009 pretty strange, but she's definitely a positive 00:09:40.009 --> 00:09:43.269 figure. I know this in part because Luke seems 00:09:43.269 --> 00:09:47.049 to use Hannah as his model for Mary in his own 00:09:47.049 --> 00:09:51.860 gospel. So, for instance, this occurs, one, in 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.159 the long prayer that's given to both of them 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.620 at the end of their narratives. Two, the specific 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:00.960 word handmaiden. Both of them use the word handmaiden 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:02.679 in relation to themselves. Hannah and Mary both 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:05.740 do. And then finally, at the end of the records, 00:10:06.179 --> 00:10:08.960 Samuel and Jesus, the sons that come from these 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:10.740 two episodes, both of them are said to, quote, 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.840 grow in stature and favor with God and man. The 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:17.360 two lines are almost identical. So, Mary is very 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:20.389 definitely modeled. in Luke on Hannah. Okay, 00:10:20.549 --> 00:10:23.509 so she's a positive figure for us. Anyway, so 00:10:23.509 --> 00:10:25.190 I'm taking everything that Hannah does here is 00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:28.429 worthy of praise and emulation, even if it seems 00:10:28.429 --> 00:10:32.289 weird or out of place. So, here on Mother's Day, 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:34.889 what can we learn about being a loving community 00:10:34.889 --> 00:10:37.610 from Hannah? To me, it boils down to three points, 00:10:38.070 --> 00:10:43.570 okay? We need to want hard, we need to pray hard, 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:47.899 and we need to give hard. Alright, so first one 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:51.620 want hard Hannah is an intense person She has 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:55.620 a definite desire and she knows it and she expresses 00:10:55.620 --> 00:10:59.720 it I think that sometimes we have this idea in 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:03.720 our spheres that Progressing in holiness is actually 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:06.240 just progressing in being a boring person or 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.500 even being bored with life Just not caring what's 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:10.580 going on around you, right? I think that's totally 00:11:10.580 --> 00:11:12.379 wrong and I think we see this in part in this 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:17.710 text our desires should be increasing, they should 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:20.090 be getting calibrated, right, on the right things, 00:11:20.090 --> 00:11:22.710 to use a really good metaphor, but they should 00:11:22.710 --> 00:11:25.009 be increasing, getting more poignant, as we increase 00:11:25.009 --> 00:11:28.330 in holiness. I want to come back to that point, 00:11:29.049 --> 00:11:32.669 but for now, let's look at the text here. Hannah 00:11:32.669 --> 00:11:37.250 has a definite desire, it's for children. Elkanah, 00:11:37.289 --> 00:11:41.110 her husband, so we're talking a lot about how 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:44.570 mothering is hard, but This text suggests that 00:11:44.570 --> 00:11:46.970 being a husband is like no walk in the park either, 00:11:46.970 --> 00:11:50.090 right? Hannah is a godly woman. She is a holy 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:52.769 person, right? And she is not making things easy 00:11:52.769 --> 00:11:56.690 on Elkanah, right? So Elkanah tries to comfort 00:11:56.690 --> 00:12:01.210 Hannah with himself. Look at verse eight. He 00:12:01.210 --> 00:12:05.870 says, am I not more to you than ten sons? Right? 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:09.990 And the answer is totally no. And she's right. 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.080 A husband's not a kid. She didn't have what were 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:15.899 her soul's deep longing and she knew she couldn't 00:12:15.899 --> 00:12:18.460 accept any substitutes. So I think there's a 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:20.799 good and healthy element to this rejection of 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:24.700 El Khanna's misguided gallantry. Hannah didn't 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:27.659 just want to be a recipient of love. She wanted 00:12:27.659 --> 00:12:30.659 to be a giver of love and the desire to be a 00:12:30.659 --> 00:12:34.980 giver of love is at its root a desire to be like 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:38.509 God himself. Because beloved God is love. We 00:12:38.509 --> 00:12:43.169 love because he first loved us. So the desire 00:12:43.169 --> 00:12:45.230 to have an object to love is nothing short of 00:12:45.230 --> 00:12:48.710 a healthy expression of the image of God in us. 00:12:48.809 --> 00:12:51.750 I think Hannah is right to want to have someone 00:12:51.750 --> 00:12:55.269 to love. And so the question then for us is how 00:12:55.269 --> 00:12:58.730 hard do we want to love? Do you remember the 00:12:58.730 --> 00:13:01.110 Queen song? If I was brave like Peter, I would 00:13:01.110 --> 00:13:05.159 be singing right now, but I'm not. Can anybody 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:07.419 find me somebody to love? I need somebody to 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:10.659 love. Friends, ask the Lord to inflame that desire 00:13:10.659 --> 00:13:14.120 in you. Let's be like Hannah. Let's be like Jesus. 00:13:14.220 --> 00:13:17.000 Be a lover. Ask the Lord to find you somebody 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:22.039 to love. Part two, Hannah didn't just want hard, 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:25.860 she prayed hard. If Hannah had wanted hard and 00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:28.740 pouted, that would be a sad story and it wouldn't 00:13:28.740 --> 00:13:30.899 be in the Bible probably, right? We all know 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:32.759 enough people like that already, but Hannah didn't 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:36.240 just How she prayed she prayed really hard right 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:40.460 she went to Shiloh interestingly The temple had 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:42.580 not yet been built right Solomon wasn't born 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:47.679 yet. So Shiloh is where the high priest was it's 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:50.240 where the tabernacle was being stored So she 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.120 goes there and she it says it she prayed under 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:57.029 the Lord Wept sore in the King James in here. 00:13:57.029 --> 00:13:59.230 It's a little more discreetly. It says wept bitterly, 00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:03.230 but that's great She's praying so intently that 00:14:03.230 --> 00:14:05.490 even though she wasn't praying out loud She was 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:08.730 making some kind of commotion and Eli notices 00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:12.190 and comes over and accuses her of drunkenness 00:14:12.190 --> 00:14:15.490 That's why by the way, I have that quote from 00:14:15.490 --> 00:14:18.669 Baudelaire the French poet in the bulletin be 00:14:18.669 --> 00:14:23.820 drunk always on wine or poetry as you wish he 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:26.820 says, right? Well Hannah is drunk on prayer here. 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:29.840 I have that in there, not just because being 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:33.120 a mother makes you want to drink sometimes. One 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.740 time a very nice southern doctor told my wife 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:39.759 and I that the best remedy for baby Beatrice's 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:47.690 colic was a little whiskey for mom and dad. He 00:14:47.690 --> 00:14:50.169 was a very nice guy, wore a bow tie. Not to make 00:14:50.169 --> 00:14:51.990 light of this too much, and there's a lot that 00:14:51.990 --> 00:14:54.090 we can go into here, power differentials and 00:14:54.090 --> 00:14:56.029 things like that, but my point is that Eli is 00:14:56.029 --> 00:14:59.389 not far wrong. Hannah is drunk, or at least she's 00:14:59.389 --> 00:15:01.809 in an altered state of consciousness, right? 00:15:01.909 --> 00:15:06.090 She is so intent on getting God's attention that 00:15:06.090 --> 00:15:07.970 she's behaving in such a way that it's mistaken 00:15:07.970 --> 00:15:12.629 for physical drunkenness. And by the way, who 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:16.769 is God to Hannah, right? Experientially? If you 00:15:16.769 --> 00:15:21.049 look back at the text, look at verse 5. The Lord 00:15:21.049 --> 00:15:25.110 had closed her womb. That's the text of the Bible, 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:31.789 right? Hannah only knew God as someone who was 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:34.870 not giving her what she wanted. And yet, she 00:15:34.870 --> 00:15:36.950 did not allow herself to get cynical, she did 00:15:36.950 --> 00:15:40.649 not allow herself to get bitter. Instead, she 00:15:40.649 --> 00:15:43.429 continued to go to God in prayer, and in this, 00:15:43.549 --> 00:15:47.649 I think she reminds us of the widow that Jesus 00:15:47.649 --> 00:15:49.929 talks about in his parable, right? The widow 00:15:49.929 --> 00:15:54.250 who continuously went to the judge. The persistent 00:15:54.250 --> 00:15:57.809 widow. The way the Lord frames it is he says, 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:01.470 we ought to pray always and not become discouraged. 00:16:01.629 --> 00:16:03.669 That's scripture. What that means is that there's 00:16:03.669 --> 00:16:06.629 going to be a temptation to be discouraged, right? 00:16:06.889 --> 00:16:09.070 The message of the Bible is not you pray and 00:16:09.070 --> 00:16:11.509 then everything's awesome. Great news, right? 00:16:11.570 --> 00:16:13.149 The message of the Bible is sometimes you pray 00:16:13.149 --> 00:16:15.129 and pray and pray and it looks like nothing is 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:18.269 happening but you pray anyway. And Hannah is 00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:21.590 a model for us in this. Friend, I commend to 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:25.429 you Hannah's persistence. I commend to you Hannah's 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:28.169 drunkenness. Even though it would totally embarrass 00:16:28.169 --> 00:16:31.129 me if I saw you at this. I think we need to be 00:16:31.129 --> 00:16:34.950 less mindful of ourselves and more mindful of 00:16:35.049 --> 00:16:38.590 those people around us and getting ourselves 00:16:38.590 --> 00:16:42.070 into a position where we are mindful of them 00:16:42.070 --> 00:16:48.509 in prayer. Looking at my own life, I'm extremely 00:16:48.509 --> 00:16:51.769 good at being anxious about things, but I'm extremely 00:16:51.769 --> 00:16:54.230 bad about casting my anxiety upon the Lord because 00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:58.090 he cares for me. I feel like Hannah is a model 00:16:58.090 --> 00:17:00.169 to us here because she's anxious, but that she 00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:03.500 casts her cares upon the Lord. I'm not just advocating 00:17:03.500 --> 00:17:06.440 emotionalism. I'm not saying get drunk on emotion 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:08.559 all the time and actually the text doesn't allow 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:12.339 us to do that Look at verse 18 So this is after 00:17:12.339 --> 00:17:17.519 Hannah has prayed It says she said let your servant 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:20.420 find favor in your eyes Then the woman went her 00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:25.119 way and ate and her face was no longer sad Listen 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:27.700 to the wise words of the great 17th century pastor 00:17:27.700 --> 00:17:30.559 Matthew Henry on this verse He says Hannah had 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:32.579 by prayer committed her case to God and left 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:35.140 it with him And now she was no more perplexed 00:17:35.140 --> 00:17:38.460 about it She had prayed for herself and Eli had 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.839 prayed for her and she believed that God would 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:43.200 either give her the mercy She had prayed for 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.480 or make up the want of it in some other way Prayer 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:51.720 will smooth the countenance. It should do so. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:55.250 So what I'm saying here we should be really earnest 00:17:55.250 --> 00:17:58.470 when we do pray and then we should be really 00:17:58.470 --> 00:18:01.630 calm when we have prayed. One way of thinking 00:18:01.630 --> 00:18:04.109 about this is we can exhaust ourselves in prayer, 00:18:04.410 --> 00:18:05.970 just tire ourselves out and then when we're done 00:18:05.970 --> 00:18:08.390 praying we can really rest having given our cares 00:18:08.390 --> 00:18:11.329 over to God. I want to tell some stories about 00:18:11.329 --> 00:18:14.049 prayer really quickly. First off is a personal 00:18:14.049 --> 00:18:18.869 one. I knew a couple who was struggling with 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:22.160 infertility. By the way, I just wanted to stop 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:24.559 here and say that I know the desire to be a mother 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:28.380 and the agony when you're not one According to 00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:30.259 normal course of things. It's just really hard 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:32.000 I know this from this couple and I know this 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.200 from this text among other things and I just 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:37.640 want to not be insensitive to that I know Mother's 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:39.779 Day can be a hard time for people in that situation. 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:43.480 So please Go to somebody and pray, you know be 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:47.690 loved But anyway this couple that I knew I knew 00:18:47.690 --> 00:18:49.470 they had been trying to get pregnant for a while 00:18:49.470 --> 00:18:51.150 And it just seemed like things kept stretching 00:18:51.150 --> 00:18:53.250 on and these guys just weren't having their prayers 00:18:53.250 --> 00:18:55.730 answered and after a while And I just they just 00:18:55.730 --> 00:18:57.809 come to get sadder and quieter every time I saw 00:18:57.809 --> 00:19:00.250 them and after a while of this I said all right 00:19:00.250 --> 00:19:04.190 That's enough right, and I knew these guys pretty 00:19:04.190 --> 00:19:08.210 well So I actually knew where the man had proposed 00:19:08.210 --> 00:19:10.049 to his wife, and it was pretty close to where 00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:11.670 I lived. So every day after work, I went home 00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:13.990 and I got changed, and I ran to the spot where 00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:16.529 the man had proposed to his wife, and I demanded 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:19.250 that the Lord give them a child. And I did this 00:19:19.250 --> 00:19:20.990 for a while, and then after a while, the Lord 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:23.670 answered the prayer. And now every time I see 00:19:23.670 --> 00:19:26.170 their little one, I'm reminded that God is a 00:19:26.170 --> 00:19:32.579 God who answers persistent prayer. Now don't 00:19:32.579 --> 00:19:34.339 start thinking I have some kind of special link 00:19:34.339 --> 00:19:36.039 with the Lord here There's plenty of other things 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:37.839 that I've been uppity about with the Lord and 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:41.279 he has not answered me But take this as what 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.779 you will it feels pretty good when the Lord answers 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:46.819 a big one, right? One more story. This is one 00:19:46.819 --> 00:19:48.480 that many of you know already. This is the story 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:52.480 of the most famous Extra biblical mother in Christian 00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:55.940 history. I want to talk about Monica or Saint 00:19:55.940 --> 00:19:59.240 Monica as our Catholic friends call her She is 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:01.319 the mother of the famous theologian Augustine 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:03.880 who following the closing of the canon in the 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:06.319 Bible is the most important Christian in history. 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:10.000 John Piper says this, it's not just me. So, Augustine, 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:13.900 he'd been a bad guy. He broke his mom's heart 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:17.759 with specifically his sexual ethics. He was kind 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.819 of running around, right? And also these stupid 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:21.779 religious experiments that he was messing around 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:24.339 with. And Monica was a faithful Christian and 00:20:24.339 --> 00:20:27.740 she begged the Lord for years that her son would... 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:31.039 turn around, would repent and become a Christian. 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.240 And again, it took a while, but man, did the 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.619 Lord answer her prayers, right? This was no deathbed 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:42.660 conversion. And by the way, her husband, Constantinus, 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.019 appears to have been converted on his own deathbed. 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:50.400 But Augustine, When he gets turned around, this 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.079 in God's providence is literally world -altering, 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:55.880 right? So Augustine, in his famous book, The 00:20:55.880 --> 00:20:58.259 Confessions, he writes about this. And I want 00:20:58.259 --> 00:21:01.700 to read a little bit of that to you. So this 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:03.319 quote's a little bit difficult to understand 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:07.059 because in part it's translated and also it's 00:21:07.059 --> 00:21:10.599 written as a prayer. So when Augustine uses the 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:12.299 second person, when he says you, he's not talking 00:21:12.299 --> 00:21:15.019 to you, he's talking to the Lord. Anyway, here's 00:21:15.019 --> 00:21:20.160 what he says. indeed she his mother was a servant 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:23.180 of servants and Everyone acquainted with her 00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:27.920 gave her great praise and loved you whom they 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:31.680 met in her heart a Heart revealed by the impact 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:34.680 of her holy behavior on others. She cared for 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:37.640 her children Repeating her birth pangs for them 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:40.099 whenever they strayed Isn't that a beautiful 00:21:40.099 --> 00:21:43.500 thought? That we can meet the Lord in somebody 00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:46.710 else's heart and that we do meet the Lord because 00:21:46.710 --> 00:21:50.210 of other people's prayers, right? So what I'm 00:21:50.210 --> 00:21:52.250 saying here is this, who are we praying for the 00:21:52.250 --> 00:21:54.589 way that Hannah prayed for her son? Who are we 00:21:54.589 --> 00:21:58.730 praying for the way that Monica prayed for Augustine? 00:21:58.930 --> 00:22:02.650 Friends, let's be earnest, like these great women 00:22:02.650 --> 00:22:05.650 in our prayer. So, third point, Hannah wanted 00:22:05.650 --> 00:22:07.329 hard, she prayed hard, what else did she do? 00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:10.410 She gave hard. So admit it, when we first read 00:22:10.410 --> 00:22:12.630 this text, you were kind of thinking Hannah is 00:22:12.630 --> 00:22:16.539 pretty selfish, isn't she? Admit it. Couldn't 00:22:16.539 --> 00:22:18.240 she have just been a good stepmom to Penn and 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.880 I as kids? Couldn't she just learn to be content? 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.240 Why does she have to make things so rough on 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:26.779 old El Khanna? Well, I don't think the text lets 00:22:26.779 --> 00:22:29.640 us see us that way, in part because of what we 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:31.579 already talked about. Also, her name, Hannah, 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:35.299 means grace. That's kind of hard to beat. Nice 00:22:35.299 --> 00:22:40.059 job, Tannises. But also, there's a repeated theme 00:22:40.059 --> 00:22:42.220 in this chapter. So look again with me here. 00:22:42.259 --> 00:22:46.539 So verse 11. It says, I will give him to the 00:22:46.539 --> 00:22:50.720 Lord all the days of his life. Verse 22, I will 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:55.299 bring him so he may appear in the presence of 00:22:55.299 --> 00:22:59.519 the Lord and there dwell forever. Verse 28, as 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:02.839 long as he lives he is lent to the Lord. What 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:05.339 does this mean? Hannah wanted a child badly, 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:07.640 desperately, right? But she didn't want the child 00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:10.440 in part for herself. She wanted the child to 00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:15.450 be able to give. She needed something better 00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:18.630 than what she had in order to have something 00:23:18.630 --> 00:23:22.769 good enough to give to God and Then once she 00:23:22.769 --> 00:23:25.210 gets it once she gets this baby that she prayed 00:23:25.210 --> 00:23:27.410 so hard for she turns right around and gives 00:23:27.410 --> 00:23:29.829 The baby back to God and this is just the way 00:23:29.829 --> 00:23:33.539 of things for us as a people of God. God gives 00:23:33.539 --> 00:23:35.339 to us so we can give to others and we can give 00:23:35.339 --> 00:23:38.240 back to him. Think about the elders in Revelation. 00:23:38.599 --> 00:23:40.559 They've been given these crowns of glory that 00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:42.380 presumably they earned through pretty hard work. 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:44.799 What do they do? They turn around and throw them 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:49.119 in worship at the Lamb. That's the normative 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:51.579 motion of gifts to us. They come to us by the 00:23:51.579 --> 00:23:54.119 grace of God and we give them right back. And 00:23:54.119 --> 00:23:56.079 friends, if you're a Christian and you're a parent, 00:23:57.150 --> 00:23:59.670 You've already made precisely the same bargain 00:23:59.670 --> 00:24:01.730 as Hannah here, whether you know it or not. I 00:24:01.730 --> 00:24:03.930 don't want to startle you, but you've got your 00:24:03.930 --> 00:24:07.509 kids on loan from their real daddy. Your mothering 00:24:07.509 --> 00:24:09.970 and your fathering, they are real, but they are 00:24:09.970 --> 00:24:12.769 creaturely imitations of the kind of everlasting 00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:17.190 sacrificial love God has for them already. So 00:24:17.190 --> 00:24:20.869 you have your kids and you're weaning them just 00:24:20.869 --> 00:24:23.470 like Hannah. Why? So they may appear in the presence 00:24:23.470 --> 00:24:25.990 of the Lord and dwell there forever. That's real 00:24:25.990 --> 00:24:30.920 mothering. That's real fathering. It's training 00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:33.680 your children not to be loyal ultimately to you 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:35.559 or anything else that you love except to God 00:24:35.559 --> 00:24:40.880 himself, right? And children, this applies to 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:42.799 you. This applies to all of us. This kind of 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:44.440 parenting is one that we can do with anybody, 00:24:44.779 --> 00:24:47.700 everybody that we love. Okay, we can lift them 00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:50.559 in prayer to a position where they'll be able 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:52.559 to be lent to the Lord as long as they live. 00:24:52.660 --> 00:24:54.420 And by the way, in the presence of the Lord they'll 00:24:54.420 --> 00:25:00.019 live a long time. Okay, now you might be thinking 00:25:00.019 --> 00:25:03.319 come on stalker. This is just allegorizing This 00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:07.299 isn't a reformed reading Well as the great Robert 00:25:07.299 --> 00:25:09.759 for our capen says in his book the supper of 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:11.599 the lamb Which you are welcome to come out and 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:13.680 read with us on Thursday nights here at the church 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:18.079 Consider how wrong you are Let's look at some 00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:20.819 New Testament text to back this all up. So Romans 00:25:20.819 --> 00:25:25.559 16 13 Paul He says to greet Rufus chosen in the 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:28.250 Lord also his mother Who has been a mother to 00:25:28.250 --> 00:25:32.349 me as well You women you can be mothers to more 00:25:32.349 --> 00:25:34.069 than just your own children and remember Paul 00:25:34.069 --> 00:25:36.490 is a grown man Saying this so you can mother 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:40.210 people of all ages right Galatians 419 Paul calls 00:25:40.210 --> 00:25:43.170 the Galatians quote My little children for whom 00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:46.170 I am in the anguish of childbirth until Christ 00:25:46.170 --> 00:25:50.049 is found in you This is the masculine Paul right 00:25:50.049 --> 00:25:52.650 anybody who's sitting out there and saying I'm 00:25:52.650 --> 00:25:55.730 a guy I'm not listening to this mothering stuff 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.200 Well, this is Paul. He's comparing himself not 00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:00.299 just to a woman, but to a woman in childbirth. 00:26:00.339 --> 00:26:02.039 It doesn't get much more feminine than that, 00:26:02.339 --> 00:26:04.359 right? Remember how I said your desire should 00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:07.099 be increasing as you increase in holiness? Paul 00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:10.079 is in agony here to see the people that he loves 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:14.759 well off in their relationship with God. And 00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:16.279 then there's the one that we read this morning 00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:18.920 already, 1st Thessalonians 2 .7. Paul says this, 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:23.880 we were gentle among you like a nursing mother. 00:26:24.140 --> 00:26:27.880 taking care of our own children. Paul says that 00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:32.000 he and his male godly associates acted like gentle 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.160 nursing mothers. My dudes, are we taking notes? 00:26:37.259 --> 00:26:39.920 The clear implication here is that church leadership 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:42.660 should be gentle and sheltering and life -giving. 00:26:42.980 --> 00:26:45.319 So mothering is for everyone. Let's learn from 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:49.720 Hannah. Let's be grace to the people around us. 00:26:50.970 --> 00:26:53.130 And, like Augustine, in the quote that I've read, 00:26:53.349 --> 00:26:55.670 remember the mothering love that we've been shown 00:26:55.670 --> 00:26:57.970 by our own earthly mothers, of course, but also 00:26:57.970 --> 00:27:00.009 by the spiritual mothers the Lord has richly 00:27:00.009 --> 00:27:05.130 blessed us with. Philosopher James K .A. Smith, 00:27:05.829 --> 00:27:08.190 in his book, On the Road with St. Augustine, 00:27:08.470 --> 00:27:10.769 he's got a fantastic chapter in there on Monica. 00:27:11.170 --> 00:27:13.549 You should read the book, especially this chapter. 00:27:14.750 --> 00:27:17.750 In this chapter, he describes how his own wife, 00:27:18.170 --> 00:27:21.599 standing in front of Monica's tomb, Rome was 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:24.400 moved to tears and this is what he says about 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:28.500 that incident quote in this hushed space witnessing 00:27:28.500 --> 00:27:30.680 this encounter I realized something I hadn't 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:34.200 appreciated before and probably can't ever fully 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:38.420 understand a solidarity that spans centuries 00:27:38.420 --> 00:27:43.279 a sympathy that transcends geography this bond 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:47.920 between Monica and mothers who weep and pray 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:53.400 and chase their children, misunderstood, unappreciated, 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.619 resisted, resented, and yet none of that resentment 00:27:56.619 --> 00:27:59.700 could stop them. None of that resistance will 00:27:59.700 --> 00:28:03.259 deter them. No lack of gratitude could ever persuade 00:28:03.259 --> 00:28:06.920 them to give up. Like Grace, Monica and her emissaries 00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:13.940 do not work on a logic of return. Friends, this 00:28:13.940 --> 00:28:16.339 selfless and maternal love is what we all need. 00:28:16.569 --> 00:28:19.309 It's what the world desperately needs. It's a 00:28:19.309 --> 00:28:21.230 shining note of the gospel in our world that's 00:28:21.230 --> 00:28:23.809 so intent on only doing what feels good. So let's 00:28:23.809 --> 00:28:27.109 all be more motherly. Let's enter into the great 00:28:27.109 --> 00:28:31.490 faithful line of Hannah and Mary and Monica. 00:28:32.869 --> 00:28:36.289 Let's offer one another sacrificial love and 00:28:36.289 --> 00:28:38.849 kindness. Let's want one another's good and work 00:28:38.849 --> 00:28:41.730 for it. Let's pray for more people in our midst 00:28:41.730 --> 00:28:44.609 to pour the love of Christ into. Let's adopt 00:28:44.609 --> 00:28:47.720 one another as family. So we can more wholeheartedly 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:52.539 give one another to the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. 00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:59.680 Oh Lord, we give you thanks once more for all 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:02.420 of the care that you have shown us throughout 00:29:02.420 --> 00:29:08.819 our lives. For the care that you have shown throughout 00:29:08.819 --> 00:29:16.460 generations. Lord, we ask for your grace, that 00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:19.220 we might be good to those around us, that we 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:22.859 might be faithful. We ask, O Lord, that your 00:29:22.859 --> 00:29:25.400 glory would shine in us. We pray all these things 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:30.000 in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.799 to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this 00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:34.759 sermon has encouraged you to worship God and 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:37.599 to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please consider 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:40.039 subscribing to this podcast and joining us in 00:29:40.039 --> 00:29:43.180 person each Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us 00:29:43.180 --> 00:29:46.539 online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Instagram, 00:29:46.819 --> 00:29:49.200 Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. 00:29:49.579 --> 00:29:50.160 God bless.