The Birth of Samuel

Sermon Transcript

Let’s start reading together in 1 Samuel 1:1, our first main division, of course, being barrenness. It says, “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.” Now, to our dismay here in verse 2, “And he had two wives . . . .” We immediately will come to a screeching halt there. Those of us that have studied the Bible for some time, we know that we have come across this before where a man would have multiple wives. Now, we’re just opening the story. Some of you are familiar with it; some of you are not. For some of you, this will be your first time going through it, but the question we have immediately is, whoever these people are and whatever God’s about to do, why in the world would He be using a man that has two wives? Is God okay with that? What’s going on here?

Obviously, God is not okay with it, and we are going to see some evidence to back that up in a few minutes as we get further on into our chapter, but he does have two wives. Now, you need to understand God can use whoever He wants. Amen? If Bobby Brown could have his own prerogative, God can too. God can use whoever He wants. He can work in any situation, and He chooses to work in this situation. Again, we will see what I believe to be some proof that God was not approving of this. We know from Genesis 2 - right? - that the two “ . . . shall be one flesh.” What did Jesus say when asked about that? God made them male and female, so it’s just two. That’s God’s original plan. Keep that in mind as we go through.

It says in verse 2, “And he had two wives,”—so we’re introduced to Elkanah, we know that he has two wives, and we get his wives’ names here—“the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah”—we start with—“had children, but Hannah had no children.” Some of you may say, “Oh, Hannah was blessed, wasn’t she,” because that is what our society teaches us - right? - that kids, “Oh, man! Kids are going to cramp your style.” You know what, you have kids and then you can’t just take off on weekend trips here and there, jet setting around; and you can’t just go to the mall and go shopping at your favorite store, now you’ve got to shop at Walmart. You’ve got to trade in that little sports car for a minivan, and there are people in this world who will try to dissuade you from having kids claiming that they “cramp your style.”

Those of us that are parents, and I’m a parent. I’ve got 4 kids. My youngest daughter is right here in the front, I’ve got to be careful what I say. But the truth is, those of us that are parents, here’s the facts: Kids absolutely cramp your style, don’t they. They absolutely do. But you start to have those beautiful children, and you gladly give those things up - right? - you gladly give those things up.

“And he had two wives . . . Hannah had no children.” Now, for her, and we’ll see this through the chapter, but let me just mention it here, Hannah not having children was extremely painful for her—extremely painful for her. We’ll see that. Verse 3, “This man”—Elkanah—“went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh”—that’s where the tabernacle was at this time, the place of worship, the place where they would go and sacrifice. We’re introduced to three more people here, “Also the two sons of Eli”—Eli is the priest there at Shiloh. He’s got two sons—“Hophni and Phinehas”—we would say, “Phinehas,” but however you say it. It says that they were “the priests of the LORD, were there.” As far as chapter 1 is concerned, Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas, the two sons are not really going to come into play until later chapters, so today we’ll see a little bit more of Eli the priest.

Let’s move on, verse 4, “And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.” We do not know how many sons and daughters they had together, Elkanah and Peninnah, but here we see that it says “ . . . all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah”—who, of course, had no children—“he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah,”—does that mean that he did not love the rest of his family? I do not think so. I would guess that he loved the rest of his family, Peninnah and those children that they had together. I believe that what it’s telling us is that he felt bad for her. He did, in fact, love her. It seems that maybe there was a special love for her. Maybe he loved her in a different way than he did Peninnah. We cannot be sure of those. It’s conjecture on my part, so you can throw that out if you want, but he gave her “ . . . a double portion, for he loved Hannah . . . .”

We know that Hannah had no children, right? We just read that a minute ago, but look at this in verse 6, “ . . . because the LORD had closed her womb.” That doesn’t sound right for some of us. We go, “No, no, no, no. That must be a mistranslation. God, all He does is bless us. All He does is gives and gives us what we need or what we want. He’s there to make our life a little bit easier.” Those of us that’ve been saved or Christians for more than five minutes will know that that’s absolutely not true. Does God bless us? Absolutely, but what is my definition of “bless” and what is God’s definition of “bless”?

You may be suspecting here that God is going to do something miraculous, He’s going to do something wonderful. You would not be wrong, He absolutely is, but I want you to note how this all starts. This is an imperfect family, this man Elkanah and his two wives, and here is this Hannah, who is barren. Some Bible teachers suspect that because Hannah couldn’t have children that Elkanah then went and married Peninnah, but we’re not told that. That’s only a guess. But he’s got Hannah, who cannot have children. Why can she not have children? Now, some of us might jump to conclusions and say, “Well, you know, there’s medical problems and medical issues and things going on with the body.” Okay, but that’s not what it says here. In fact, it says in verse 6, “ . . . because the LORD had closed her womb.” I do not know this for sure, but I wonder if there was absolutely nothing wrong with her body and God was simply withholding from her the ability to have children until He was ready. We don’t like that do we.

We want to pray for things, and we’ll pray as long as God will hurry up, give me what I want. It’s funny how I always think that I am ready for whatever I’m asking for and how often God has said, “No, you’re not ready. Well, let’s give it a couple of years,” or “Let’s give it a few months,” or “Let’s give it some time.”

He’s closed her womb. That doesn’t sit well with some Christians, “No way! No way! We’re supposed to be blessed by God. God’s supposed to prosper us and make us rich in every way,” yet here is this woman who has had her womb closed, and it was the Lord who did it.

If you are taking notes here, at verses 6-7, we’re still in this first main division called “Barrenness.” If you’re taking notes, this is a subpoint I titled “Brokenness,” from the barrenness comes brokenness. She’s unable to have children. This is heartbreaking for her, verse 6, “And her rival,”—wait a minute. Church, help me out. Who is Hannah’s rival? The other wife, Peninnah. Now, this for me is the first little clue that God is not okay with this marriage between this one man and these two ladies. I’m going to tell you why. Sometimes because we might read that and say, “Why didn’t God just judge them, man, just chop them down?” Some of us feel like, “God knew that they weren’t living right, why didn’t He just chop them down?” Sometimes we have found, we see it in the Scriptures also, God’s judgment on sin is to allow your sin to play itself out and for you and me to experience the ramifications of those sinful choices, and I believe that that is what’s happening here. You see, we’re talking about a marriage, and some Bible teachers might try to tell you, “Oh, everything was honky-dory and everybody loved one another.” They obviously didn’t. The word “rival” was just used. These two wives are competing with one another—they’re competing with one another.

Now, I keep giving these conjectures, and here’s another one that you can disregard if you want, it’s not in the passage, it’s just my thought. I cannot imagine that if these two women are rivals, and they’re competing for one another, I cannot for a moment think that it didn’t somehow affect Elkanah. I would be willing to bet that there were times where Elkanah said, “Oy vey! Why did I marry these two women. Why didn’t I just stick with one?” It does’t say that. I digress. Let’s move on.

Verse 6, “And her rival also provoked her severely”—how severely? What are we talking about?—“to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb.” So, we get our first clue, she was miserable; and in verse 7 it continues, “So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD”—when they went to Shiloh to go and sacrifice—“that she provoked her”—that means Peninnah provoked Hannah, and it goes on to say in verse 7—“therefore she wept and did not eat.” She’s miserable, she was weeping, she wouldn’t eat. There’s no way that that did not affect Elkanah. He was aware of it, that will become plain to see here as we move on. A husband and two wives, that’s not right, and it seems that God has allowed that sinful choice to play itself out. They’re now experiencing the effects of that choice, but we move on.

From “brokenness” here, we’re still in our first main division, “barrenness,” we’ve seen brokenness in verses 6-7. Now, from verses 8-18, it’s another subpoint I’ve titled, “Bitterness.” From “barrenness” we see “brokenness;” from “brokenness” it turns into “bitterness.” Verse 8, “The Elkanah her husband said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?’” Nothing wrong with Elkanah’s ego. Isn’t that hilarious? “Oh, come on. Hannah, what’s the problem? I’m better than ten sons.” Obviously, you’re not because, Elkanah, if you were, she would not be miserable and weeping and not eating. There wouldn’t be rivalry going on. Nothing wrong with his ego.

I do have to say I love Elkanah. From what I can see from his heart here, I like this guy. Now, aside from having the two wives, he seems to love his family. He provides for them the sacrifices for all of them to go and worship. He provides a double portion for Hannah because, of course, he loves her. But I love also here, look at this, at the end of verse 8, and into verse 9, this is probably in my own strange mind, but here’s what I see. He says, “‘Am I not better to you than ten sons?’ 9 So Hannah arose,”—in other words, “Mmmm, Elkanah, no.” He says, “Listen, aren’t I better to you than ten sons?” And she just gets up to leave like, “Let’s not even go there.” “So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the LORD.” He’s there waiting for people to approach, and he will lead them in their sacrifice.

Now, still part of this “bitterness,” remember we’ve got “barrenness,” we saw “brokenness” as a subpoint in verses 6-7; verses 8-18 is another subpoint, “bitterness,” but this is a subpoint to a subpoint. Notice this, verse 10, “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish.” The language, verse 6, she was miserable; verse 7, “ . . . she wept and did not eat;” verse 10, “ . . . bitterness of soul . . . wept in anguish.” We have a clinical term for this and that is depression. That’s what we would call it, depression—bitterness of soul, anguish, weeping, miserable. But, church, let me say something to you. Read this with me again, slowly, “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish.”

I want you to please, please, please do two things. I want you to note what she did—she was miserable, she was weeping and would not eat, she was experiencing bitterness of soul—and what did she do with all of that? She prayed. Church, I would not be a good pastor if I did not point this out, if I did not highlight this for you. What did she do? She “ . . . prayed to the LORD . . . .”

Do you understand? She didn’t say, “I need some mall therapy. Let me go add to my shoe collection. I’ll feel better if I just go buy a new dress.” She didn’t say, “I feel terrible. Let’s go buy a new sand toy.” “I’m in anguish, let’s spend the day in Temecula Wine Country.” Watch out. Aren’t you so glad you came tonight. She didn’t seek some way to get revenge on Peninnah. She wasn’t looking for a way to get back at Elkanah. She wasn’t trying to take it out on Peninnah’s children. She didn’t jump on her Instagram or her TikTok and say, “I just hate all these people and here’s why.” Do you understand what she did? When faced with misery, weeping, anguish, she prayed. She prayed. Church, she prayed. She didn’t go buy medication, she prayed. That’s the first one.

The second one is this: Who did she pray to? To the Lord. She prayed to the Lord. She took that misery and that anguish and that weeping and the hurt and the pain, the embarrassment, the shame, she took it all to the Lord. In a couple of minutes when we get down toward the bottom of this, she’s actually going to say, “You know what, I came to God with my complaining and my grief.” Did you know that you could do that? That you could take your complaining and your grief to God? You can go and complain to the Lord. Here’s the second thing. The first thing is she prayed. She didn’t try to cover it up, mask it, or fix it—some temporary fix—she prayed. Secondly, she talked to the Lord.

You can come and tell me your problems or the other pastors that are here. That’s part of what we get paid the big bucks to do is for you to be able to come and share with us, and that’s okay. That’s what we’re here for. Here’s what we could do for you, we can open up the Word and say, “Well, this is what the Bible says about your situation.” The second thing we can do is we could say, “I’ll pray for you,” but we cannot fix you. It’s okay if you want to come and share those things with us, but I know someone even better that you can give it to that will listen, that will counsel, that will love, that will heal, that will lead you through that issue—the Lord.

I say this, and here’s why, because oftentimes we want to talk to somebody face to face, and again, it’s okay. The Bible has many examples of that, of people confiding with one another. That’s okay. What I’m telling you is the very best thing that you could do is take all of that to the Lord. Take it to Him. He created the universe. He raised people from the dead. He gave deaf back their hearing. He gave sight to the blind. He healed the lame. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He can handle your issue. The problem is for us…and, I mean, listen. I don’t need you to raise your hands, I already know the answer. If I were to ask you, “What area of your Christian life is lacking the most?” For all of us, it’s universal, my prayer life. I don’t pray enough. Why do I not pray enough? Here’s why, because when I pray I want God to do something like right now, let’s go, immediately, and He just takes too long. I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time for that. Let me just go to the church and talk to one of the pastors, maybe they can fix me. We don’t want to wait.

Hannah was filled with grief, bitterness of soul, anguish. Again, I told you we have a clinical word description for that—depression. She took all of that and went to the Lord. Here’s what I see, and I’ve done this myself a lot of years ago. Here’s what I see. We like to take our problems and go talk to all of our Christian friends, and you go and talk to twenty different people, guess what you get? Twenty different opinions. Years ago I learned my lesson, it had my head spinning. I didn’t know what I was going to do or where I was going to go, trying to figure this out. I was going around town talking to everybody about it, and everyone had an opinion.

Did you know that God’s ways are higher than our ways? Someone might have what appears to be great counsel, it’s never going to be as good as God’s counsel. So, church, I would challenge you. Those issues…and I mean we don’t have a huge crowd in here tonight, but I can guarantee you, there are many of us in here that are facing issues and problems, hardships right now. Take that to the Lord. Do what Hannah did. Let’s see what God did when she did that.

In her prayer, verse 11, she first petitioned. This was part of her prayer. “Then she made a vow and said, ‘O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child,”—notice how specific she is, and then right in the middle of that, she first petitions, now she makes this promise, right in the middle of verse 11, if You’ll do that—“then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” You say, “What? What is that?” That was the vow of a Nazirite. She says, “If You give me a male child,” not just a child, a male child, “I’m going to dedicate him to the Lord for all of his life.”

Verse 12, “And it happened, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli watched her mouth.” This is comical for me, he watched her mouth. “Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14 So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!’ 15 But Hannah answered and said, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman’—here’s another one to add to the list—‘of sorrowful spirit’—miserable, weeping, anguish, sorrowful spirit. She said—“I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” Do you see how she described it—“I . . . poured out my soul before the LORD”—poured it out. In a moment we will see that she emptied herself of it.

Verse 16 says, “Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.” See? She’s saying, “I went to God with my complaining and my grief.” You can throw into there sorrowful spirit and all the other things that we read. What did we read? Misery, anguish, bitterness of soul. She took it all to God.

Verse 17, “Then Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.’” Now, as part of her prayer, what is she to do in verse 11? She petitioned. Then, in the second part of verse 11, she promised, and because of this, and because she poured out her soul, she experiences peace in verse 18, “And she said, ‘Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.’ So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” What? Why? How? What did she do? What was the secret to the success? She told us at the end of verse 15, she “ . . . poured out my soul,” in other words, when she prayed, she prayed to the Lord. She didn’t go out looking for a quick fix, something to make her feel better on the outside but still empty on the inside. You know and I know that all that does is—getting those quick fixes—make matters worse. The secret is to give it to God.

Look at this verse. Many of us know this, Philippians 4:6-7. Paul said, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,”—supplication meaning you’re giving your petition—“with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding”—look at this—“will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I love that because when you and I are in misery and anguish and we’re suffering through issues, it’s not just my heart, it’s my mind also - right? - and I lay down in bed and can’t go to sleep because I’m thinking about the issues, and I’m tossing and I’m turning and I’m getting up in the middle of the night, and I just can’t get to sleep. I don’t have peace. My mind is going crazy. It’s not just my heart. If I will surrender to the Lord that issue, I, like Hannah, may walk away experiencing the peace of God. Again, the problem is I do not want to wait. I don’t want to wait.

If I could pray, and God would immediately answer me, then I would pray more. It’s God’s fault. He doesn’t answer my prayers fast enough. But, you see, that is faith is to pray, give it to God, and then trust Him. Experience that peace. That’s faith. But we don’t want to wait. But, you see, that’s what God’s doing here. That’s what God’s doing.

In the process of raising up a leader for Israel, who will eventually anoint the first king of Israel, that’s later on in the book of 1 Samuel, in the process of all of that, He’s also stretching this woman’s faith. But we don’t like that. God made her barren for a time, but we don’t like that. “Nah, I don’t want the hard times, Lord. You’re supposed to make everything easy.” No, uh-uh. No, He blesses us, but too often our definition of “blessing” is different from His definition of “blessing.”

If I want to…it’s March already, so by now, by March, you already know that you blew your New Year’s resolutions. It’s hard, right? Our New Year’s resolutions normally consist of health—what I want to do, I want to slim down, or for the guys, we want to bulk up, but it’s hard. Why is it hard? Because what does it require? It requires strenuous work. If I want to bulk up and I go to the gym and lay down on that bench, you put the weight on there and start to push that. You get good at that and realize after a while, “You know what? This is a little bit easier.” What do you have to do? Throw on a couple more plates—if you’re me, like 2-1/2 pounds on each side. What’re you doing? You’re making it harder for yourself.

If you want to slim down, what do you gotta do? You get your running shoes and go out for a run. You’ve got to get some cardio in, right? Or, you can go to the gym and get on the treadmill, but it’s going to be better if you get out and go run. What does that mean? Well, now you’ve got to have dinner done a little bit earlier, and now you’ve got to wait for someone to watch the kids, but it’s getting late and, man, I just want to watch my favorite show. It requires discipline, and you get out there and start running and can’t breathe the first day and just think, Oh God, have mercy on my poor soul. I’m never going to survive, but then you do survive and then as you continue what happens is you get a little bit better, a little bit easier, “Oh, man, okay,” and what do you do? Maybe you run a little bit faster or a little bit further. What’re you doing? You’re pushing yourself. It’s discipline. But we do not like that.

Listen, it’s the same thing in our spiritual lives. God is building up our faith—stretching it, strengthening it—and to do so, He must at times cause us to experience hardships like Hannah. He closed her womb. She wanted a baby so desperately, and that’s the one thing it seems to us that He would not allow her to have, stretching her faith, and stretching her faith, and you know what? It didn’t destroy her. What does she do? She gave it to God that day, and then she walked away and ate and her face was no longer sad. Why? Because she had poured out her soul. She had given it to her God, and she knew. She trusted that her God was going to take it, and that He was going to answer in His time—His time, not mine.

I always think I’m ready. Rarely am I ever ready for what I’m praying for. It seems that every time I pray for something, God’s got to prepare me, “Ah! Forget it. I just won’t pray.” I’ll just go to the church and talk to the pastor, dump it on him. He can fix it. No, no. We want God to fix it.

Let’s get into our second main division and move along here, “Blessedness,” verses 19-20a, and I have a subtitle here for you also. Underneath “Blessedness,” verses 19-23, she was remembered by God. That’s why she was blessed. “Then they rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD,”—her whole family—“and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife”—that means - watch out - that they went home and that they were together sexually, okay? That’s what that means when it says that he knew his wife—“and the LORD remembered her.” There it is. She was blessed because God remembered her. What does that mean?

Verse 20, “So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son,”—what did she ask for, church? Give me a male child—“and called his name Samuel,—which means, “heard by God,” and she says—”Because I have asked for him from the LORD.” In other words, the Lord heard me. What a great name. What a great name.

Verse 21, “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”—why? Was she disobedient to her husband? No—“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.” She’s sticking to the promise that she made, “Lord, You give me a male child, and I’m going to give him back to You.” She says, “But I can’t go drop him off before he’s weaned. I can’t go drop him off with Eli and Hophni, and Phinehas. This child’s got to be weaned.” In other words, for those that don’t know, it means that she was breastfeeding, and she says, “We have to wait until this child is able to consume on its own without being breastfed, supported this way.” That could’ve been as young as two. It could’ve been five or six years old. We don’t know. What we do know is the child would still have been very young, even when the child was weaned, so it says at the end of verse 22, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the LORD and remain there”—for how long—“forever.”

Verse 23, “So Elkanah her husband said to her, ‘Do what seems best to you”—do you hear what this man just said? ‘Do what seems best to you.’ He didn’t say, “No, woman, uh-uh, you’re going. I don’t care. You’re going to make me look bad. No you can’t stay here.” He says, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him. Only let the LORD establish His word.” Some translations say, “Only let the Lord establish your word.” Either way, what it means is let God do what He wants to do. “Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.”

Underneath “Blessedness,” we said that she was remembered by God. Beginning at verse 24, there’s another subpoint, she released her son. I cannot imagine how excruciating this must’ve been. “Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls”—or else a three-year-old bull, we aren’t sure about the translation there, regardless, she took a sacrifice, an offering, she took him up with a bull or bulls—“one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered a bull, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, ‘O my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the LORD. 27 ‘For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of Him.’” He answered her prayer. Wait, God listens? He heard? He answered? Yes, in His time. Verse 28, “Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD.’ So they worshiped the LORD there.”

I have four children who are now all adults. My oldest daughter, as she was getting ready to, as the weeks were leading up to kindergarten, I told my wife, because I’m manly, “Listen, when we go drop her off, I don’t want to see any crying. We’re just going to drop her off, and she’s going to be fine. We’ll pick her up, and we’ll just go. I don’t want to see all that.” The first day of school comes, we both show up, my wife and I, to drop off my daughter, Mia. I wept like a baby, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani! My God, my God, why have You forsaken me!” I wept like a baby. I cannot imagine dropping my kids off somewhere forever!

My oldest daughter came last year, she’s in North Dakota, so it’s a situation, I’ll just say that. My wife and I had to take her back to the airport. It was like kindergarten all over again. I said, “Bye,” as best I could and just stood there and cried. I cannot imagine. We do not get to see this woman’s, you know, all of her emotions and everything that was wrapped up in this, but for her to go and leave her son there with three guys! Oh, man. But what was she doing? She was giving him to the Lord.

Again, I mentioned that we had four kids. My oldest daughter, as soon as we could, we took her to church and then we had her dedicated. You’ve probably seen it here before. We took her there to a little church, the church that we were going to, a Calvary Chapel in Colton. We all went up, and the pastor prayed for my daughter and we dedicated her to the Lord. The other three, we did it right in the delivery room. I told the doctors, the staff, the nurses. I said, “Okay, everybody, please be quiet for a moment. We need to pray.” Right there in that room I said, “Lord, I am a wicked man. You have got to take these kids. Save them. Use them,” and God is still twenty-plus, thirty years later, He’s still working on their testimonies. Sometimes I want to be like, “God, could You just hurry up? I prayed that a long time ago.” In His time, in His time, in His time. He’s still building their testimonies.

I want you to note this. This woman, man, I don’t know how long she had been praying for that child, we imagine it must’ve been a long time, I don’t know. But she was in anguish and misery, weeping, and wouldn’t eat, bitterness of soul, I mean all these words to help us understand what she was experiencing. She prayed, and God blessed her, answered her prayer in the positive and gave her a male child, and then she walks herself over to Shiloh, travels there and she hands that baby boy over to this man, Eli, “He’s the Lord’s. He’s got to stay here with you.”

Now, don’t get any ideas. Don’t come leave your kids here with us, okay? We can barely take care of ourselves. But what I want you to note is that what she had prayed for, what she had experienced anguish over, what she was miserable about, what she had poured out her soul to the Lord for, God had given her; yet she held it loosely, loosely. It doesn’t mean that she didn’t love her son, she loved her son dearly. As the story goes on, you find out that every year she comes back and brings him a new coat, every year. She’s always taking care of her baby. You know how moms are, right? Every year he gets a new coat. But what God had gifted her with, she held it loosely, and we struggle with that, don’t we. We struggle with holding onto things loosely. We struggle with that.

As if I need to have a death grip on my kids because I’m not really sure if I can trust God with my kids, so I don’t know. We have a death grip on so many things, and sometimes it’s a position at work, sometimes it’s a person, a job, a sport, things that God has blessed us with, things that perhaps we have prayed for and God has answered and given to us, and then we hold on with a death grip like, “No God, don’t touch them. I can do a better job.”

Not Hannah, Hannah said, “You gave me what I asked for. I told You I would give him back,” and she delivers the package. She holds him loosely. Oh, that we, the Church, would learn to hold this world loosely, to surrender it to the Lord. There is no better place for you and I to surrender things than to the Lord—your family, your kids, your stuff, your things, your position, the prominence that comes along with your position. Whatever it is that you have, hold it loosely. It is in no safer hands than in the Lord’s hands. We’ve got to let go, and Hannah let go.

Some of you tonight are struggling with things. You’ve been praying and asking and wondering, Where’s the answer? Come on, God, where’s it at? Why are You not answering me? Don’t You hear? Don’t You see? I hope that God has used His Word to speak to you tonight. A few thousand years ago He used Balaam’s donkey, perhaps tonight He’s used another donkey. I’m encouraging you, church, challenging you to surrender that thing to the Lord. Stop running all over town talking to everybody—your friends at church, your fellow employees, the people at Target, In-N-Out, and wherever else you’re going. Stop. You’re driving yourself crazy. Don’t do that. No one has better counsel than the Lord. Take it to the Lord.

We’d love to pray for you tonight. When I say “we,” that’s me, and I’m volunteering the other pastors and some of the elders that are here tonight. We’d love to pray for you tonight, and we can even give you some counsel from the Word. But, to be honest, we don’t have much more than that. The best thing that you can do, talk to the Lord tonight. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you just go on ahead and pour out your soul to Him tonight, and then you can leave here with your face no longer sad, and you can say, “You know what? Yeah, I’ve got a problem, but now it’s God’s problem. I gave it to Him that Wednesday night. I left it at Revival. It’s there. I don’t know what God’s going to do with it, but He can do whatever He wants with it.” And then, you don’t have to experience the anguish and the bitterness of soul and the misery, weeping. Give it to Him tonight. Amen?