Well, thank you to those ladies. They're all
great friends. They've been with us so long.
I should say, you know, three of them are up
here, but there's a host of other ladies that
just help facilitate or host or open their homes.
And we feel so fortunate. Being a portable church,
as you've heard me talk about so many times,
just creates really unique variables that we
have to contend with. And one of those is always
finding a place to do anything. And so I'm so
grateful for the ladies that have opened their
homes and places in our community that host us.
It just makes it so much easier to do what we
do. So hope many of you ladies will take advantage
of that. All right. Before we start this new
series called Echoes of Her Faith, I just want
to say a huge thank you to so many of you who
volunteered on Easter. Easter was last Sunday.
If it feels like a lifetime ago, I'm with you
in that. It was exhausting, but it was wonderful.
We hosted just about 800 people between the two
services. Yeah, you should clap. And thank you
to those of you that volunteered. We simply could
not do it without you. We just couldn't. In fact,
we actually got out of here a little bit earlier
this year than we did last year. And that's a
testament to your help and your support and just
leaning in. So many of you did things that you've
never done before, but we just needed the help
and you were there. And so we're so grateful
for that and really appreciate your help in that.
We're glad that it's over, but anticipating next
year, if that makes sense. All right, we're kicking
off a new series today called Echoes of Her Faith.
It's a five -week series that we're going to
do leading up to Mother's Day, wrapping it up
on Mother's Day. And the intent of this series
is to trace the impact of some of the great women
of the Bible. And not lost on me as a man is
the fact that, especially in the New Testament,
a lot of our time and attention is just kind
of the disciples. There's a lot of men that kind
of dominate the story of Scripture. you will.
And some of that is just the disciples in the
early church. And those stories are kind of weaved
throughout the Bible for us. But also in the
scripture are some really incredible women who
had incredible faith and just did incredible
things that kind of keep advancing the kingdom
of God, so to speak, and so much that we can
learn. And so I'm going to kind of give you a
snapshot of it, and then we're going to talk
about the first one today. In Hannah, which is
the story we're going to consider today, we find
hope in waiting. In the story of the woman at
the well, which is next week, we're going to
look at redemption in brokenness. In the story
of Ruth in week three, we're going to consider
God's faithfulness in uncertainty. In the story
of the widow and the two coins, we're going to
consider generosity in lack. And then on Mother's
Day, we're going to wrap it up by looking at
Mary, who we think about surrender and calling.
When God calls you to something profound, like
he did Mary to be the mother of Jesus. What does
surrender look like in those moments of calling?
So that's the layout of the series. And it's
through their stories that we're going to learn
and see timeless echoes of faith, inviting us
to trust God more deeply and to live with courageous
faith. And as I mentioned earlier today, we're
going to start with the hope of Hannah, the hope
of Hannah. Certainly there are seasons in life
where hope feels fragile, doesn't it? I don't
know if you've experienced it. Maybe it can feel
like more of a, if hope feels more of like a
whisper rather than a certain declaration that
you're holding on to, or it's a small flickering
rather than a burning, something that's burning
brightly. And yet it is often in those seasons
that faith produces its most enduring echo, if
you will. And such is the story of Hannah. Hannah,
whose quiet suffering became a loud testimony,
whose quiet season of waiting became a loud testimony
that we still talk about and consider all these
years later in her story. Her life reminds us,
this is kind of the one -line summary of her
life, her life reminds us that hope is not the
absence of pain, but it is the persistence of
hope and trust in the midst of it. Just the number
of people that I know just sitting here today
and others that I have the privilege of interacting
with, like there is no shortage of suffering
and hardship represented among us. And the hope
of Hannah is a reminder that hope is not the
absence of pain. but it is the persistence of
hope and trust in the midst of it. And most of
her story, which we're not, I mean, we don't
have time to cover all of it, but most of it
is found in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel,
in the first couple chapters in particular, 1
and 2 Samuel. And the thing that I love about
Hannah's story is that it's deeply human, and
it's very relatable. I mean, I'll be honest,
when you read the life of Christ, because Jesus
is obviously Son of God, God himself, like there's
a part that is just, you just can't quite identify
with, right? Even though it says that he became
like us and he knew suffering like us and he
knew temptation and there's a very human side
to Jesus, but there's also a very divine side
to Jesus that we're like, try as we may, we're
just different than him. He's different than
us. Thank goodness. But you start digging into
some of the characters of the Bible. That's why
I love the story of Peter in the New Testament,
the disciple Peter, right? He's so relatable,
like he's just a knucklehead. And there's a lot
of knuckleheads sitting here today, including
myself. But Hannah's story is just very human.
It's just very relatable. in my opinion. It's
a story that's marked by longing. It's a story
that's marked by misunderstanding. And it's a
story that's ultimately marked by redemption.
So who is Hannah and what is her story? Well,
the first thing to know is the context of which
the time, if you will, that she was living in
in Israel's history was spiritually unstable.
It's a time known as the Judges. That's where
we get the book Judges from. And the Bible describes
it this way in Judges chapter 21. In those days,
there was no king in Israel. And everyone did
what seemed right to him. Hello, America. In
those days, and turns out nothing has changed,
right? Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new
under the sun. Turns out he's right. In those
days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone
did what seemed right to him. And in the middle
of this chaotic society, we meet this family.
There was a man from Ramothan Zophon in the hill
country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanan. He
had two wives. More on that in a moment. That
didn't like hit your radar at all? He had two
wives. You're like, that's normal. It is normal,
but more on that in a moment. The first named
Hannah, the second named Paniah. Paniah had children,
but Hannah was childless. So we meet Hannah,
and that's the primary thing that is kind of
the leading piece of her story is that she was
childless. So let me first quickly address the
elephant in the room. within this passage, which
is the polygamous relationship, if you will,
that the Bible seems to condone here in the story
of Hannah. She was one of two wives. It's a factor
in this story, and you'll see why in a moment.
There's a lot that could be said. This message
is not about polygamy, although there's plenty
that we could say about that, but I have to address
it because some of you won't be able to move
past it. Like, how is it that he had two wives,
and we're just like, okay, that's good. It's
not the focus of our passage. It's not the focus
of our time. But here's a few things that I'll
say about it just so we can move through the
text accordingly. First of all, we shouldn't
interpret allowance as approval. That's the most
important thing to know. Allowance is approval.
Secondly, and this is contextual now, as we speculate
about God's what I would call permissive silence,
that's kind of what it seems like here, there
is at least one key factor to consider. And that
is in societies like this where the male was,
the patriarch was kind of superior, if you will,
or supreme, it was nearly impossible for unmarried
women to provide for themselves. Almost impossible.
So women were often then, who were uneducated
and untrained, they would often depend on their
fathers or their brothers or their husbands for
provision and protection, which meant that unmarried
women were often subject to slavery and prostitution.
That's just the culture that they were in. So
possibly, and it's a speculation from silence,
that's what it is. possibly God may have allowed
polygamy, in this case, to protect and to provide
for the women who otherwise would have been left
destitute. A man who would have taken multiple
wives to serve as the provider and the protector
of them all. It's not like he had a girlfriend,
if you will, okay? Last thing to say, and the
most important thing to say, that whatever may
have been culturally permissive then is not today.
Are we clear on that? I'm serious. Culturally
permissive, not so today. And the Bible's very
clear. Go over to the pages in the New Testament.
The Bible's very clear about the marital relationship
between a man and a woman exclusively between
them. It's an important pause to clarify because
it's a weird part of the story for sure, right?
You read this and you're like, man had two wives
and one had children and the other one didn't.
You're like, well, first of all. What's the deal
with two wives? That's the bigger problem, right?
So you have to pause here just to clarify it
because it is a weird part of the story, but
it is not the main part of the story for Hannah.
So then let's go to the main part of Hannah's
story. In ancient Israel, to be barren, to have
no children was more than just a private sorrow.
It was a public stigma. It was a public stigma.
It carried cultural shame. It often carried spiritual
misunderstanding, like somehow God was displeased
with you or you had done something to make God
mad. A woman without a child or children was
frequently viewed as being under divine disfavor
from God. And so that's the stigma that Hannah...
carries and it's magnified by the fact that this
other wife in the same relationship in the same
family had children and she did not and so if
you're just a spectator on the wall so to speak
you're like okay you you did something to upset
God and you must have the favor of God There
was a stigma that came with it. Hannah was barren,
but her pain was layered. Not only was she barren,
but she was often provoked by Paneah, the other
wife. She was misunderstood by her husband, and
she was emotionally exhausted from it all. And
I tell you this because you can read it in her
story. I'm going to show you this. Her rival,
that's the second wife, would taunt her severely
just to provoke her. Because the Lord had kept
Hannah from conceiving. Year after year, she
went up to the Lord's house. Her rival taunted
her in this way. Hannah would weep and not eat.
Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband Elkanan
would ask. Why won't you eat? Why are you troubled?
Am I not better to you than ten sons? Oh, the
arrogance of that man. Am I not better to you
than ten sons? And so when I said she's misunderstood
by her husband, case in point. He's like, what
do you need? all these children for that you
have me. I tell Kendra that all the time. Just
kidding. I know my place. But the key phrase
in this passage is year after what? Year. Like
this wasn't a momentary three -week, one -month,
six -month kind of deal. But this was a prolonged
season of unanswered prayer. unanswered prayer.
Like, she had been longing for so long for a
child, and yet layered on top of the grief of
that is the fact that she's being taunted by
this other wife who does have children, even
her own husband, who's like, what's the big deal?
Why are you so sad? There was a heaviness to
what was largely a silent suffering for her.
And this is where I think some of you in the
room lean in. You're like, oh yeah, that kind
of describes my situation. There's a heaviness
to a silent suffering, meaning you can put the
look on and say, I'm good. How are you? I'm fine.
I'm fine. There's a heaviness to this, this silent
suffering, and it's something that she was mostly
internalizing. Although she would weep, she would
not eat, she carried a grief that others couldn't
fully see or understand. You know, I would say
with a lot of sensitivity, probably very similar
to women and couples today who face the journey
of infertility themselves amongst other hardships
that we all face. But the path of infertility
is hard. It is painful. It is often somewhat
silent suffering, if you will. There's a longing
there that few people understand. Even her own
husband tried to comfort her. Hannah, why are
you weeping? Don't I mean more to you than 10
sons? And of course, he's well -intentioned.
He's absolutely well -intentioned, but not the
solution to this deep grief that Hannah carried.
Hope is not dependent. There's a key point to
make. Hope is not dependent on being fully understood
by others, but it is anchored in being fully
understood by God. Being fully understood by
God. Nothing, I think, can discourage our sense
of hope more than others around us thinking we're...
crazy, weak, unreasonable, irrational because
of that silent grief that we may carry. And quite
honestly, very transparently, there are some
things that my heart hopes for, particularly
as I think about our journey with our daughter
that we are on, and that most of you just wouldn't
quite understand. And that's okay. I don't expect
you to I don't need you to. That's the reality
of some of these things that we carry close to
the chest sometimes is that it feels like even
the most well -intentioned people around us don't
fully understand and nothing can crush our sense
of hope quite like people's response of like,
get over it. What's the big deal? What's the
problem? And so hope is not dependent on being
fully understood by others. It's anchored in
being fully known by God. This hope is not dependent
on being fully understood by others. but rather
being fully known by God. So you keep reading.
1 Samuel, you see Hannah, instead of turning
bitter, she turns faithful. Her hope, her grief
drove her back to God. This is the turning point
in her story. This is in verses 9 and 10. On
one occasion, Hannah got up after they ate and
drank at Shiloh. The priest Eli was sitting on
a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple,
deeply hurt. Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept
with many tears. So this is a moment of honesty.
This is a moment of vulnerability for Hannah.
She doesn't suppress her pain. She doesn't deny
her longing. She brings it fully and honestly
before God. And here's her prayer in verse 11.
Making a vow, she pleaded, Lord of armies. If
you take notice of your servant's affliction,
remember and not forget me and give your servant
a son. I will give him to the Lord all the days
of his life and his hair will never be cut. She's
just keeping in accordance with some of those
laws. And three things stand out in her prayer.
She's honest, right? She's naming her pain. Like,
if you will take notice of your servant's affliction.
She's honest about it. She's humble. She refers
to herself as your servant. And she surrendered,
offering back to God the very thing that she's
asking God to give her. She surrendered. Hannah's
prayer is an example of surrendered hope, not
transactional faith. And it's so important that
you understand and differentiate between those
two. This is a distinction that is so important
to understand. Bargaining with God is not the
same as placing our hope and faith in God. There
are too many names for me to even remember over
my time as a pastor of people who wanted to bargain
with God. And then when they got what they wanted
from God, I never saw or heard from them again.
It has nothing to do with me, but the fact that
they like press into God because it's a 911 situation
and I need this. And God, if you would come through
for me. And then I'll just carry on with my life.
And Hannah's an example of not transactional
faith, but like surrendered hope. Like, God,
if you will give me this son, I will actually
give him back to you. This is not transactional
here. This is surrendered hope, placing my hope
in the fact that you know and see the longings
of my heart. Imagine holding something tightly
in your hands, whether it's a dream or a desire
or a future that you planned, whatever it is
that your heart just longs for today. And now
imagine God asking you to open your hands, not
just to receive it, but then to release it. No
sooner do you get it and then you give it back.
And that's exactly what Hannah was praying for
and committing to. That's the example we see
in Hannah. Not just praying for a child, but
praying with open hands. And transformational
hope is hope that actually surrenders. If your
hope is transactional with God, it's not enduring.
It will not stick. Because one of two things
will happen. Either you will get it and you will
carry on your merry way, or you won't get it
and you'll get mad and carry on your merry way.
But if it's surrendered, then there's transformation
in that. And there's a stickiness to it that
takes root in your soul when it's surrendered.
Why? Because that's all it is, is hope. It's
not a certainty. It was not a certainty that
the Lord was going to answer her prayer. Which
means then that we surrender. The transformation
comes through the act of surrender. Why? Because
it feels scary. That's where you're... growing
the most in those moments where it feels scary.
The things that are easy for us are not the things
that produce the most growth in us. You've experienced
that even in your own life, for sure. For sure.
The times that you're most scared are often the
times where there's the most growth happening
within us. And so that's the act of surrender.
Let's keep reading in verse 12 to 14. While she
continued praying in the Lord's presence, Eli
watched her mouth. Hannah was praying silently,
and though her lips were moving, her voice could
not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said
to her, how long are you going to be drunk? Get
rid of your wine. There's some humor in the Bible.
If you can't appreciate it, I can. Imagine that.
You're in this place of deep sorrow. You're pouring
out your heart before the Lord. You're in anguish,
and someone else comes along that doesn't understand,
even to the point of accusing you of being drunk.
But Hannah's response is one of grace towards
this confused, well -meaning priest. Verses 15
and 16. Now my Lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman
with a broken heart. I haven't had any wine or
beer. I don't think they had beer there. That's
a modern day translation. I haven't had any wine
or beer. I've been pouring out my heart before
the Lord. Don't think of me as a wicked woman.
I've been praying from the depth of my anguish
and resentment. I mean, you want to talk about
honesty and vulnerability in prayer. And then
shortly after this moment of confusion in the
temple, there seems to be another shift. This
comes in verse 17. Eli responded, So if you just
pause here, I would just point out that nothing
has changed externally with her circumstances.
She is still... childless. She is still barren
at this point in the story. Her circumstances
are still difficult, but internally it seems
as though something in the form of hope is beginning
to actually take root in her heart and in her
soul. It seems as though Hannah is finding peace
before the answer comes, if you can catch that.
Corrie ten Boom said, never be afraid to trust
an unknown future to a known God. And that's
the example that we see in Hannah. There's an
unknown future, but I'm trusting it to you through
surrender. I mean, we see that in her prayer.
We see that even in her response to this confused
priest who thought she was drunk. And so Hannah
leaves the temple, not with a child, but with
deep trust in God. Not with a child, but with
deep trust in God. And then it keeps going in
verse 19. The next morning, Elkanah and Hannah
got up early to worship before the Lord. Afterwards,
they returned home to Ramon. Then Elkanah was
intimate with his wife, Hannah, and the Lord
remembered her. After some time, we don't know
how long, Hannah conceived and gave birth to
a son. She named him Samuel because she said,
I requested him from the Lord. I love that sentence,
the Lord remembered her. What a beautiful declaration.
What a beautiful declaration. We should be careful
to not misunderstand, though, this to mean that
God had forgotten her at some point. And then
suddenly like, oh, shoot, Hannah, yeah. I forgot
about her. She's been waiting for this child.
We should not interpret it that way so much as
rather this came to the point where God acted.
You could even use the word finally if you want
to. God acted. So this isn't God suddenly remembering.
This is simply God acting, which is a reminder
that God's timing is not random, but it is rather
purposeful. I don't have the time to go into
the story about how I landed as a church planter
at Living Branch Church, as opposed to another
opportunity. Some of you heard that story, of
course, but as another opportunity that I was
pursuing that I wanted so desperately. And it
didn't happen. And then three years later, this
happened. And thanks be to God. Amen. So God's
timing is not random. But it is purposeful. It
wasn't as though God was like, man, I'm just
so sick of hearing Hannah cry in the temple.
Like, fine. Here you go. Have a kid. Have a son.
It's not random. It's very, very purposeful.
And Samuel, whose name means God has heard or
heard by God or requested from God. multiple
ways to interpret that, would go on to become
the final judge and one of Israel's greatest
prophets who anointed the first two kings of
Israel. And there's a story, the story told,
you may be familiar with it, the story told of
bamboo trees, something we know nothing of and
have nothing around here that resembles that.
Anyhow, my understanding is that The way that
they grow is that you plant them and years of
planting, nothing really appears before above
the ground. Just kind of dormant almost, if you
will. And then the seed is watered, it's nurtured,
it's cared for. There's no visible growth that
occurs for some extended period of time. And
then suddenly in a short span of time, it just
shoots up rapidly several feet in a matter of
several weeks or a month. And you can liken that
to... A lot of what this story looks like for
Hannah and even for us, growth wasn't sudden.
It was hidden. Roots were being developed. And
then in God's good and perfect time, he says,
now's the time. And the growth comes and the
plant sprouts, if you will. There's a picture
of Hannah's years of waiting with hope. These
weren't wasted years. They were establishing
roots of faith. And then comes the hard part.
God heard her cry. He's answered her plea for
a child. But the question that looms is, would
she fulfill her end of the vow? Because remember
what she said to God, if you will give me this
child, I will give him back to you. So here comes
the moment. 1 Samuel 1, 27 and 28. I prayed for
this boy. And since the Lord gave me what I asked
him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For
as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.
Then he worshiped the Lord there. So after Samuel
is weaned, she brings him to the temple. And
can you just imagine that moment? Imagine that
moment. The child that she so longed for and
prayed so earnestly for, they answered to years
of prayer, and now this moment that she is going
to surrender this child back to the Lord. If
you've been here on a Sunday when we do a child
dedication, that's the picture of child dedication,
is believing that our children, if we have them,
for those of us who do, are gifts from God that
we are saying, this child does not belong to
me, it belongs to God. And I give this child
back to God, knowing he's a gift or she's a gift
from the Lord. And I would just say, if you contextualize
it in the story of Hannah, hope doesn't end when
the prayer is answered. It matures us when we
trust God with the outcome. And again, it goes
back to that idea of how we view God as a transactional
faith that I can bargain with God and get what
I want. If that's the case, then when you get
it, there's no need for enduring hope at that
point, is there? You have what you need. You
have what you wanted. Then as you go into chapter
2, I said her stories in 1 Samuel chapters 1
and 2, you find what's called Hannah's song.
And you could really call it a theology of hope.
It's a prayer that is really a song of praise.
And one of the most profound, beautiful, theological
declarations in the whole Bible. It's the first
10 verses of chapter 2. I'm only going to read
the first two. It reads this way. Hannah prayed.
This is her song. My heart rejoices in the Lord.
My horn is lifted up by the Lord. My mouth boasts
over my enemies. Remember, she had been taunted
for so long. All of her, even the other wife
in this family and people in her society, they
taunted her like, you must be under the judgment
of God. My mouth boasts over my enemies because
I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one
holy like the Lord. There is no one beside you
and there is no rock like our God. There are
all sorts of truths in Hannah's song, but a few
that are prominent that we see clearly is that
God reverses fortunes. God lifts up the lowly.
God humbles the proud and God is sovereign over
all, over all. And her personal story became
a universal testimony of who God is. Like Samuel
was a big deal. He was a big deal. And his story
traces to this mother who prayed in a place of
grief and surrender. Hannah's suffering refined
her understanding of God and her hope deepened
because of it. And so the question is, is what
can we learn from Hannah? What can we learn from
Hannah? And by the way, this is not a story just
about infertility. It's about unmet longings
of our soul. And how do we step into that place
of hope in the midst of longing, in the midst
of waiting, in the midst of like, is it ever
going to change? Is it ever going to be different?
Is it ever going to feel different? Is it ever
going to happen? Is it ever going to go away?
Whatever the longing in our soul can be, that's
what this story is about. So what can we learn?
I'm going to give you five things. I'm going
to move through them pretty quickly. If you don't
get them, they're in the Sunday Hub. You can
get it all there in the app. First is this. Hope
is forged in hardship. Hope is forged in hardship.
Hannah's faith, if you think about it, did not
grow despite her pain, but through it. I don't
know that we would know of Hannah if it weren't
for the pain. So hope is forged in hardship.
You've experienced it. You may be experiencing
it now. Hope is forged in hardship. Number two,
prayer is the language of hope. Prayer is the
language of hope. It's impossible to read Hannah's
story and not to understand and not to see it,
I should say, that... In her deepest places of
grief and agony and suffering, she was in the
temple praying. She was pouring out her heart
in anguish, so much so that people thought she
may be drunk because it's like, this seems weird.
This seems excessive. Whatever it is, like the
prayer is the language of hope. How do you describe
hope? How do you describe hope? In the Bible,
we see it as a form of prayer. That's the language
of hope is through prayer. She didn't withdraw
in her pain and suffering. She engaged God more
deeply through prayer. Thirdly, peace can precede
the answer. Her countenance changed before her
circumstances did. And I got a weird reminder
of this just yesterday through my wife. Someone
reached out to her that we do not know. that
his daughter has a similar diagnosis to ours,
very rare. And it kind of, when you live in a
reality every day, it just becomes your reality.
You don't think about it very much sometimes.
And, but it's all just... You'll be right there.
Oh, I'm back. Okay. My friend Luke's here today
and he reminded me that the last time he was
here, the sound system didn't work. And so Luke,
wherever you are, dude, you're not coming back.
This is it. I promise you that hasn't happened
since the last time you were here. So you think
I'm kidding. I'm not. Luke's not coming back.
Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah. So we got this
unexpected reminder of... a reality that sometimes
we have found some peace with, even though we
don't have the answer, if that makes sense. Like,
we kind of live in this place of hardship and
longing, but there's a peace to it. And sometimes
in moments that get poked, you're just like,
oh yeah, that's still here. That's still a thing.
But in Christ, through God, We sometimes get
peace even though we don't have the answer. And
that's what hope does. And that's why prayer
is the language of hope, because it grounds us
in a place of peace. To say, even though my circumstances
may still be whatever they are, God has not forsaken
me, and God is in this with me. And remember,
she left the temple barren, but her whole...
countenance changed, you feel it in her words
and in her prayer and all of those things because
she had a deep trust in God. That's what hope
does is it grounds us in the truth of who God
is and in the character of who God is independently
of our circumstances. So peace can precede the
answer. Number four, God's delays are not God's
denials. The caveat to this is to say, Not everything
ends in yes. So I want to be clear with you in
that regard. Just because it hasn't happened
yet, I can't tell you if it will or if it won't.
But what I can tell you is that God's delays
are not, maybe I should have put the word in
there, always God's denials. We've seen it in
the story of Hannah. We don't know how long.
We suspect it was a longer period of time than
shorter, right? And she just had this longing.
Remember the term, year after year. And you can
interpret that to say it was not abandonment,
but rather it was preparation. It was preparation
for what God was going to do when Samuel was
born and this act of surrender in the temple
and then all the generations and the lives that
would be impacted by the life of Samuel. And
so this was not abandonment. This was preparation
for Hannah. And then the fifth thing that I would
say from this story is that surrender is the
ultimate expression of hope. Surrender is the
ultimate expression of hope. She gave back the
very thing that she had prayed for. She gave
back the very thing she had prayed for. And Hannah's
story doesn't end with Samuel. Her faith echoes
forward. Samuel anoints kings. He shapes a nation.
He becomes a bridge between chaos and covenant.
his life had a profound impact. And it all began
with a woman who chose hope in the midst, middle
of heartbreak. I love the quote from C .S. Lewis.
He said, hardships often prepare ordinary people
for extraordinary destiny. And we are ordinary
if we are anything. Amen. We are just ordinary
people. We are ordinary people that know hardships
and To his point, they prepare ordinary people
for extraordinary destiny. We sit here with the
advantage of hindsight into the scripture. We
go, Hannah's not ordinary. She's famous. Right.
She was very ordinary when God tapped her on
the shoulder and said, okay, it's going to be
Samuel. And Samuel's going to anoint kings. And
he's going to be the last judge. And he's going
to do all these great things. It begins with
ordinary people, hardships prepare for an extraordinary
destiny. Hannah was ordinary, but her hope was
extraordinary. It was real. It was rooted. It
was all those things. And my friends, I would
just say to those of you that are in the year
after year season, you're praying, but you're
not seeing. You're waiting, but you're not receiving.
You're hoping, but you're feeling tired. Hannah's
story speaks directly to you that God sees, that
God hears, and that God remembers. And I don't
know what the outcome will be. I have question
marks on some longings in my heart, for sure,
as do you. So this isn't me standing up here
saying, this for sure will be what happens. I
don't know what will happen. Hannah didn't know
if God was going to give her a son. But her story
speaks directly to the fact that God sees and
God hears and God remembers. The beautiful line
in there is that God remembered her. God remembered
her. The hope of Hannah is not just about getting
what you asked for. It's also about becoming
who God is shaping you to be. I mean, when I
really want to be honest with myself, which is
like never, but when I really want to be honest
with myself, I have to pause and remember. How
much different I am and how radically transformed
I've been by some things that I didn't necessarily
want or to experience. Or some longings that
didn't go my way. Or some prayers that didn't
get answered either the way I thought I wanted
them answered or in the timing that I thought
I wanted them answered. Hope is not about just
getting what you want. Or what you ask for. But
rather it's about becoming who God is shaping
you to be. It's about trusting when you don't
understand. It's about praying when you feel
empty. And when others around you maybe are like.
What's the big deal? It's about surrendering
when it feels costly. Because true hope is anchored.
Not in outcomes. But rather in God. And that's
the. That is. Just. that just comes off the pages
of Hannah's story for us. It's not rooted in
outcomes. It's rooted and it's anchored in God.
And your hope is in him. It will echo long after
your season of year after year has passed. May
Hannah's hope become our hope if we need it today.
Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you
that you are, as we sang earlier, you are working.
You are moving even when we don't see it, even
when we don't sense it. And Hannah's story is
such a clear reminder. It's a beautiful reminder
of what it looks like to have hope in seasons
of longing. There's a lot of us in the room that
would say year after year, I get it. I get it
too well. It has been year after year. of an
unfulfilled longing of the heart. They are as
varied as there are many of us in this room today.
Whether that is for a child or whether that is
for a relationship or whether that is for physical
healing or whether that is for a restored relationship
with somebody or the longings of our soul are,
they're real and they're numerous. And God, I
pray, I pray first for each of us in the room
that we would just be in a place of true vulnerability
and surrender, God, that we would trust you with
those longings. And we would, whether literally
or more likely metaphorically, go to the temple
every single day and pour out our heart before
you, trusting that you see, you hear, You know
you have not forsaken us in our place of longing.
You have not abandoned us. Your delays are not
your denials. Would you give us the language
of hope, which is prayer and communion with you?
Thank you for the untold number of stories in
this room today that have ended with a yes. And
then there are many that there's still a longing.
There's still a deep desire. Thank you that you
see, you hear, and you know. Give us faith to
trust you. Give us an assurance that you are
near and that you see and you hear and you understand.
And that as we draw near to you, you draw near
to us. And so we do that by faith now. We give
our song back to you, God. You are a God of hope.
Our hope is fixed and anchored in you. It's not
in our circumstances. It's not in our outcomes.
It is in you. You are worthy of our praise. You
are worthy of our lives. We surrender them back
to you by faith today. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.