Here I Am - Part 1
090510 Here I Am—A Response to a Rare Word
Part 1
Mothers Day
I Sam. 3:1;
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
- Happy Mothers Day!
- Today marks the beginning of a new series of messages leading up to the Children’s Conference at the end of the month entitled: Here I Am—A Response to a Rare Word. This message introduced the journey to I Sam. 3:1.
- Parents are awakening. Young Samuels are strengthening. The Word of the Lord is going forth!
- I am compelled by the urgency of the hour to see parents equipped to help raise their children to respond to the Word of the Lord. The word of the Lord is precious. It must be responded to.
- Samuels Mother was key to Samuel’s life in helping to make him the man of God he was.
- Mothers get that powerful position early in life. You carry them for 9 months. You feed them from your own breasts. You are up with them in the night. You mend skinned knees. You are influential in helping them to walk, talk, laugh and pray.
- Samuels mother play a major role in him becoming a prophet of God.
- If we can be as intentional about raising our children, as Hannah was Samuel we could have some very powerful preachers, presidents, educators, and actors.
- The key word is intentional—by design of purpose, not casual.
- The Question is: What must we be intentional about?
- Lets look at Hannah life.
1 Quick Lessons
A The Setting
i This story begins in Israel.
ii The people involved – In scripture I have found names are significant to understanding a passage. They seem to always have important understand in which truth can be extracted.
a Elkanah-Meaning God has possessed. This is important if you want to raise a child who is not only able to hear the word of the Lord, but considers the word of the Lord precious. The other interesting thing to note is that he yearly, at the feast of Passover, made the journey to worship and sacrifice at Shilo. Men if you think you are not a part of this processes, think again. You are the head of your home and will give an account to God on how you have done.
b Peninnah meaning jewel. Outward beauty only goes so deep and then the real person comes out. We see that in Peninnah.
c Hannah –meaning grace or favor. There is nothing like living life with the grace of God on you. Grace—the ability of God in me to do the things I cannot do in and of myself.
B The Obstacles
i Hannah is barren. If you were barren in this day, it was interpreted that the favor of God was not on you and that you were being punished for something.
ii Peninnah is a discourager with a vile tongue that takes advantage of Hannah’s barrenness and uses it to attack her. Vs 6 provoked her severely to make her miserable.
iii Hannah has to endure her verbal attacks while at the same time deal with the shame of her own barrenness. Shame is one thing to deal with but when accompanied by another’s verbal attack and pointing out that shame it is huge.
iv The issue at hand is how do I raise a Samuel that hears God and counts his word precious?
C Hannah makes a vow to the Lord that if He takes away her barrenness she will give Him her son. This poses two hard questions that must be answered for both Hannah and for us today.
2 Hard Questions
A 1:11, 28. What is the condition of the thing that you are giving to God? Most of you have dedicated your children to God.
i Hannah was giving her son to the Lord as she had vowed to do. Vs. 11 & 28. The NKJV is lent but a better translation is “give.” It is the same word used and translated give in verse 11.
ii You do not want to give God a gift that is broken, beat up and worn out. He is always looking for the best from us. You couldn’t bring a sacrifice that was lame, blind, and diseased. It had to be your best.
iii If you are going to give God your best you have to be intentional about everything you do.
a We do not always parent our children that way.
(1st) Many times our children get what is left over from us at the end of the day.
(2nd) We have a tendency to invest more in our work, education, and play time than we do in our kids.
(3rd) We often to don’t think about what we are doing as parents and we just let life come at us taking it as it comes, not even thinking about how to adjust course.
(4th) We let schedules dictate what we invest in. Rather than prioritizing the schedule.
B How do you prepare a young child to not come home with you?
i 1:23 speaks of Hannah taking young Samuel to present him to the Lord when he was weaned.
a Scripture is not clear on this but it is one of two things.
b When he no longer was on his mother’s breast. For the Hebrew this was age 3.
c When he was a the age of learning, 6-10.
d How do you prepare a three year old that you are not coming home with mommy but you will be trained among the children of the priests.
ii If you are going to leave your child in the hands of God, you have to be very intentionally about:
a Your relationship with God.
b Your relationship with your child.
c How you build your child’s relationship with God.
d Why this is important to God and the depth of honor in it.
3 Going Deeper How do we start this process?
A Samuel’s father, Elkanah.
i He was a man possessed of God
ii He faithful and committed-yearly he attended the Passover in Shilo and worshiped.
iii He gave Hannah a double portion at the sacrificial meal because he loved her.
B Samuels Mother, Hannah
i Hannah lived in pursuit of God.
a Even in the midst of barrenness, and vexing rival Hannah did not let the obstacles stop her going for God.
b In fact, Hannah used the obstacle to fuel her passion and pursuit of God. This is a powerful principle. Our children must not see us quit going for God. The Christian life takes lots of effort, requires constant change, accurate responses to life challenges.
ii Her response to her greatest obstacles
a She let the pressure of the obstacles push her into the arms of God. In her adversity she does three things.
(1st) She responds to the bitterness/brokenness of soul in two positive ways.
(i) She weeps. Nothing wrong with weeping/crying. Ps 126:5-6 Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. 6 He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. NKJV
(ii) She prays. It is obvious from chapters 1 and 2 she is a woman of prayer. She did not let disappointment push her away from the God she loves. This is a powerful message to our children. Way to many Christian live out lives before their children in disappointment when God does not meet their demands or expectations. She was positioning herself to hear God in spite of all the clutter in her life and head. This a picture of real faith/trust in operation.
(2nd) 1: 11 She makes a vow to God. The Hebrew word is ‘Neder’ meaning to bind one’s self by your words. You are literally creating a situation that requires your own obedience. A vow has two parts.
(i) You do this…Gods part
1. look—see, consider, inspect. Show up!
2. remember—to be thought of
3. give—Hebrew—nathan- to bestow or entrust.
(ii) I will do this… Hannah’s part.
1. I will give him back to you all the days of his life.
2. I will commit him to a Nazarite life all his day. Num 6:5 All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. NKJV Set apart for God.
(3rd) She calls herself a maidservant. It literally means a female slave.
(i) It is unique in its context on how it is used as one who voluntarily gives herself to this position in honor. Again, I want you to see that Hannah has a powerful relationship with God in the area of commitment. She lives to please God ready to obey his every command. It is so powerful that young Samuel sees this relationship his mother has with God and he realizes the importance of it. Your children know what is important to you!
(ii) She binds herself to God with her vow.
(4th) Summary—she prays, she vows, she lives as slave to God. All three of these actions resonate great faith in this woman. We need a generation of children who are raise seeing great faith lived out before them in their homes.
iii Now what do we learn about Hannah in this story beside what we have already seen?
a 1 Sam 1:21-22 Now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the LORD and remain there forever." NKJV
(1st) She is highly committed to God. God is not a ‘well, if I have time’ God. She is committed!
(2nd) She is dedicated to his purposes both for her life and her sons.
(3rd) She trusts God immensely. She has a ‘crazy, wild faith.’
(i) I will take him that he may appear before the Lord forever.
(ii) That is faith: to give her son that way, secondly that he would remain there forever.
b Hannah worships.
(1st) Hannah is a worshiper!
(i) 1:24 She brings three bulls to sacrifice on the day she presents her son to the Lord. She is about to leave her prized possession with the Lord and she still brings bulls to sacrice!
(ii) 2:1-10 She gives great thanks to God from a heart of gratitude not sorrow.
(2nd) 1 Sam 2:11 Then Elkanah went to his house at Ramah. But the child ministered to the LORD before Eli the priest. NKJV Hannah returned home but Samuel ministered to the Lord.
Conclusion:
- Ho do you raise a Samuel who hears from God and considers his word precious? You learn from Hannah and start there.
- Hannah was an overcomer. She didn’t let adversity stop her or interfere in her relationship with God.
- Hannah was consistent and persistent. She never gave up.
- Hannah was a woman of prayer.
- Hannah was a woman of worship inspired by her gratitude.
- Hannah trusted God
- Hannah remained committed to the mission of presenting Samuel to the Lord.
- This intentional lifestyle was imparted to Samuel. Her values became his values at that young age as he began ministry before the Lord.
- Invitation to mom to start with God.
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