Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Well, we're going to go ahead and get started here this evening
in our Bible study.
If you remember, we started a new Bible study last week.
We're going to be in First Samuel tonight, and we're going to
pick up where we left off.
And so we'll be in chapter two.
And here we're going to see Hannah's response to God working
in her life by giving her a son.
And we know that son was named Samuel, and it was an answer to prayer
that she was able to have this son and remember her promise to the
Lord in the midst of her struggle was, lord, if you give me
a child, I will give him to you.
I will.
I will dedicate him to you and for a life of service.
And we do know that that is what she does at the end of chapter
one.
It tells us that she does take the child Samuel to Eli there and
allows for him to be given over to the work of the Lord.
And I think that's a beautiful picture of how we as parents, if
that is something in your life that you can say that you are, then
you can look at that as an example, obviously, maybe not giving
our children away to go away somewhere else, but dedicating our
children to the Lord for his work.
And so here, what we're going to see in chapter two, at least the
first 11 verses of chapter two, is Hannah's response to God's
working.
And it is a response of worship.
It's a response of praise.
And ultimately we know that as God provides for us, as God protects
us, as God gives us those things that we need in our life and
ultimately above and beyond things that bless us, we are to respond
with a spirit of worship.
We're to respond with the spirit of humility, which we're going
to see here in this passage.
And ultimately, we are to give ourselves over the Lord completely
in a life of worship.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, Whether, therefore,
you eat or drink or whatsoever, we do do all to the glory
of God.
And so I think oftentimes we think about worship in the context
of church, which certainly there is a time for corporate worship,
Sunday mornings and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are opportunities
for us to come together, and that's why we call them worship services.
But it is a misnomer to think that the only time that we can worship
in our lives is when we're in a church service.
The Bible actually calls us to live a life of worship.
Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all
to the glory of God.
And so the Bible calls us to live a life of worship.
And.
And in some cases, we worship God in times of blessing, but other
times we see examples in Scripture where God calls us to worship
him in the midst of trials and difficulties.
And we even see that in the life of Hannah, as she's calling
out to the Lord in prayer.
God says that he is going to give her a child through the prophecy
there with Eli.
But remember, faith means this.
God tells us something, and there's a period of trusting until
we see that come to pass.
And so ultimately, faith is not seeing them believing it.
Faith is hearing the word of God, believing the word of God and
trusting in him that he will keep his word.
And so there's obedience tied to worship.
A lot of times we think that worship is just saying something
to God or singing something to God, or even doing something within
the church setting.
And that certainly can be an element of worship.
But an other element of worship that sometimes we forget
about is just simple obedience to the Lord, to His Word, like so.
So me following God's word is an act of obedience.
Because I'm saying, lord, I love you.
You're worthy of my worship.
You're worthy of my love.
You're worthy of my obedience.
And so I'm turning my life over to you.
And so that's another element of worship that I think that we can
talk about as well.
So here's a great example of Hannah's worship, and I think that
we can all learn from this.
So let's look at verse number one.
It says, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth in the Lord.
And so we see her spirit.
Here is a spirit of joy.
When God works in our life, it produces joy.
We even know that in the New Testament, the Bible says that the
fruit of the Spirit, one of the elements of the fruit of the
Spirit is joy.
And so as God works in our life in different ways, we are to
not only feel happy, but also have that inner contentment that
really biblical joy is.
Because joy can happen in the midst of difficulty in our life.
I always try to explain to people that joy, biblical joy is
not happiness.
They're not equal.
Now, there's related elements to happiness and joy, but at the
core of it, sometimes biblically, it calls us to have joy
in the midst of a trial.
And so the Bible doesn't say that happiness is the core element
of our Christian walk, but it does say one of the elements of the
fruit of the Spirit would be joy.
So how can we have joy in the midst of a difficulty?
Well, the Bible says that joy is inner contentment.
Happiness is circumstantial emotional feelings.
So it's okay to be happy when things are going well in your life
and maybe you get a promotion at work or maybe something happens
that is benefiting you.
Yeah, be happy.
But the Bible says that joy is something that is running in our
lives in every situation.
So we see that she rejoices in her heart.
And so Hannah shows a depth of joy, but in that joy comes commitment
for the love of God.
And she goes on to say, there my heart rejoiceth in the Lord.
Mine horn is exalted in the Lord.
And that's an interesting phrase there.
My horn is exalted.
And really what this means is the horn is a picture of strength
for her.
This is obviously showing that God has strength in her.
So she's speaking not of her own strength, but as the strength
of God has met her in her life, she's seen the power of God.
So she says, my horn is exalted in the Lord.
So she has joy.
She understands the joy of the Lord.
So that's one element of worship.
And she understands the strength of the Lord, and so she
rejoices.
Now, remember, her heart is rejoicing in a difficult time in
her life, you might say.
Difficult.
I thought you just said that she had a son given to her.
She did.
But if you remember what the agreement was is that she drops her
son off there with Eli and has to be separated from him.
So for.
For some of us, that.
That might be bittersweet, right?
For some of you might say, I would like to maybe drop off a kid
there at the.
At the tabernacle for a while with Eli.
But that's.
That's.
That's what she's talking about here, is there's joy in God
providing for her.
But ultimately, in the sense of her.
Her son being left there, she still can have joy.
She can have joy in.
In a desperate situation.
She can have joy in a difficult situation.
Why?
Because she knows the presence of God in her life.
And so Hannah shows commitment to follow through with her promise
to God and a humble sacrifice to give it over to the Lord.
So, so she rejoices in not leaving her son necessarily, but
she rejoices in the power of God and the presence of God in her
life and in her son's life.
And so sometimes that's what we have to worship in, because a
lot of times, as a Christian, we worship in times of abundance,
which we should.
But also the Bible does call for us to worship in times of difficulty.
The Bible tells us to worship because of who God is and what he
has done in his presence in our life.
And so she speaks of the joy of the Lord.
She speaks of the power of God resting in her life.
And she says right here at the end of verse one, she says, my mouth
is enlarged over my enemies.
Now, now that's an interesting phrase there, but essentially what
she's saying here is that she, she's.
She has been enlarged.
Her, her voice has been heard by God over her enemies.
Now, you can't help but think that in this context she's talking
about her enemy, which is the other wife that was married to her
husband.
Right.
If you remember back in chapter one, it was the other wife
who was basically saying things to her, persecuting her, belittling
her.
And so essentially what she says is that God has heard my voice,
and so now he has vindicated me.
God is the one who is.
I didn't have to go and, and have that vindication in my own strength.
I didn't have to go out and get revenge against her.
I.
God gave me that.
And that's a New Testament principle.
In the book of Romans, the Bible says, recompense man, no man,
evil for evil, a vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
And so, so God does make things right in, in the believer's
life.
And so she says, lord, thank you for enlarging me over my enemies.
She says, lord, you have exalted me and you have brought down
those that are prideful.
And so now Hannah is rejoicing because the Lord lifts her up.
Another New Testament principle that we could see there
is in First Peter, chapter five, the Bible speaks of God exalting
us in due time.
God resists the prideful, but God gives grace to the humble.
And so it's in humility where God can lift us up, where God can
exalt us.
We don't need to exalt ourselves.
And that's often what we see in the world's system of things is
exalt yourself.
Make sure Everybody knows how good you are.
Make sure everybody knows how strong you are.
Make sure that you make everyone else know how weak everyone
else is.
But biblically speaking, it's the other way around.
Being weak before God and allowing ourselves to humble our
lives to him gives him the opportunity, which he already has,
to give us that exaltation.
And that's what he's done here.
He's exalted Hannah above those others that don't believe.
And so she recognizes here that she can rejoice and says, because
I rejoice in thy salvation.
So ultimately, the source of her worship, it is the joy of the
Lord, it is the strength of the Lord, it is the victory that
she can find in the Lord.
But ultimately, the joy that she finds is her salvation in God.
And that's what we have to do when it comes to the motivation of
our worship.
It If I'm only worshiping God when I feel joy, or if only worshiping
God when I feel strong, there's gonna be many times in my
life where I'm not gonna be worshiping.
So what's the motivation for my worship?
At the core of everything, the motivation for my worship should
be my salvation.
It should be that God took me from a place of sin and emptiness
and brokenness and brought me to a place of salvation and marvelous
light.
And all of the other gifts that we have, though they do come
from God, are extra above and beyond abundant gifts that God gives
us above salvation.
And so what we can see here in verse two is the ultimate source
of her joy, the ultimate source of her strength, the ultimate
source of her victory is her salvation that she finds in God.
And that should be the motivation for our worship as well.
And so we see this repetition that she says here.
She says, verse two, there is none holy, asked the Lord, for there
is none beside thee.
Neither is there any rock like our God.
She says basically three different ways that there's no one
else like God.
He's unique.
And so you might hear me say sometimes when I'm speaking before
the church, we worship you, God, for who you are and what you
have done.
That's essentially what she's saying here.
Lord, I worship you for the salvation that you have provided
for me.
And I worship you for who you are in your character.
And what character trait does she highlight here in verse number
two is holiness.
And that's God's defining attribute.
A lot of people will argue, what's God's defining attribute?
And many people say his love.
And yes, God is love.
He's he's infinitely loving.
It's not just that he's loving.
He is love, as First John tells us.
But I believe that when we think about the character of God,
we must start with his holiness.
Why?
Because all of us, to some degree, can understand love and even
show love, but none of our love is completely perfect.
God is perfect in his love.
God is perfect in his forgiveness.
God is perfect in his judgment.
God is completely and wholly sinless in every single way.
There is no spot in Him.
There is no sin found in Him.
And So therefore, verse 2, she highlights who God is by highlighting
and worshiping him for his holiness.
There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee.
Neither is there any rock like our God.
And so this shows a motivation for her worship, and that is to recognize
God's holiness.
To say the Lord is holy is to say that he's completely, completely
set apart.
He is unique.
There is none like him, as she says, there's none beside you.
And so this is recognizing that God and God alone, he alone
is worthy of our worship.
You know, as Christians, I don't think any of us would probably
utter the phrase, well, this is worthy of my worship.
Like, okay, so my job is worthy of my worship.
Or, you know, this hobby is worthy of my worship, or this money
is worthy of my worship.
We know enough, hopefully, within our church and within our
society not to say that we would say, yes, God alone is worthy
of our worship.
But it's one thing to say something, and it's another thing
to do something.
And so if someone was to come in to inspect our life, if God was
to come in and inspect our life, would it be true that we worship
God and God alone for his holiness?
Or do we worship God sometimes and take other opportunities to worship
other things by the way that we act, by the way that we dedicate
ourselves, by the way that we commit ourselves to things?
Because really what we do in life is we put things on an equal
playing field with God, and we worship this, and we worship this,
and then we worship God when it's convenient.
But ultimately, what we see is that that's essentially the definition
of idolatry.
It's mingling worship of other things into a life that should only
be worshiping God.
And what does the Old Testament and the New Testament say
about idolatry?
The Bible says that God hates idolatry.
He rejects it.
And so what we can do in our lives is that we can end up idolizing
things and essentially giving worship to things and people in this
world that is only really truly given should be given over
to the Lord in worship.
And so what I would encourage us all to think about is what do
we worship in our lives, not just on Sunday mornings, but by the
way that we live, by the way that we respond, by the way that
we're committed.
And so that's what verse two is all about.
Setting God apart, putting him above everything else.
For there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our
God, talking about his strength, talking about his security,
talking about that firm foundation that we can plant our
feet on.
And ultimately that has to be our foundation, the rock of God.
And so that's part of her worship.
So I want you to think about that when we think about worship.
I've heard some people say it this way, you know, there's really
no wrong way to worship God.
And that phrase in and of itself sounds nice because it sounds
inclusive, like, hey, just try your best.
But really, we know that, biblically speaking, there are right
ways to worship God and there are wrong ways to worship God.
Now, we ultimately know that there are people who might have good
intentions but might need to be taught that, you know, worshiping
God this way can be problematic because of the simple
fact it's in rebellion to how God has laid out in scripture how
to worship him.
And so what does that look like?
Well, for one example, in the New Testament, we saw the church
at Corinth.
Now, if you know anything about the church at Corinth, they
were a body of believers, and they were in a place that was very
worldly.
Most of the people that were in the church at Corinth that Paul
is writing to in 1st and 2nd Corinthians had been saved out of
pagan worship.
Specifically, there was the goddess Diana that was there at the
temple in Corinth.
And so what was happening in the church at Corinth was that you
would have these Christians who are saved.
They believe in Jesus Christ as their savior, but they believed,
or at least to some degree, felt like it was appropriate to bring
in some of the worship that was there with the goddess Diana
and mingle that in with the worship to God.
And actually they were taking time to do certain things that were
happening in the temple and bringing that into worship in the
church.
And obviously, Paul condemns that.
Paul says that's wrong.
You got to get rid of that.
You got to separate yourself from the world.
You have to be distinct.
You cannot try to worship God in a fleshly pagan way.
And so what we can see here is that there is a right way to worship.
And Hannah is giving us an example of that.
But we see many instances in the New Testament where God condemns
that fleshly style of worship.
And fleshly style of worship can be done in what we would consider
to be very obvious ways.
So to give you an example, in First Corinthians, one of the things
that was happening in the church of Corinth was, and forgive
me, this is a sensitive topic, but there was temple prostitution
happening.
That was happening because Goddess.
The goddess Diana was the goddess of fertility.
So that was something that was happening in the temple there, in
the pagan temple.
And they were bringing that in to the church and thinking that that
was appropriate.
Now, that's obviously wicked.
And we know we're like, oh, that's fleshly worship.
We can see that from a mile away.
But.
But I'm going to tell you that all worship that is fleshly is not
as obvious as that type of sin that we see in First Corinthians.
There's other types of worship that might, from the outside, look
completely normal to everyone else in the church.
But at the same time, we know that if we're doing it with the wrong
motivation, if.
If.
If we're doing it with the wrong heart, with the wrong spirit,
with the wrong intention, then at the same time, that's fleshly
worship, too.
And God does not accept that.
God does not desire that in our lives.
And so we have to understand, yes, there is a type of worship that
is completely wrong because it's obvious sin.
But sometimes we think that as long as the outside's taken care
of, we can come into the church and really be thinking about
anything else.
And I'm worshiping God just so that people see me worshiping God.
Maybe people will think I'm a good person.
Maybe people will give me more favor.
And the Bible says that that type of worship is just as bad because
the heart of sin is at the core of it.
So fleshly worship is something that God is not happy with.
It is not something that pleases him.
So verses one and two, we see essentially Hannah worshiping God
for what he has done and who he is.
And then we go to verse number three, because in the midst of her
worship, we see that there's a warning to those who are arrogant
and proud.
And really, we see fleshly worship.
At the core of fleshly worship is pride.
It's all about me.
Or it's all about this.
This action that I'm trying to do and get approval for in my Life.
And so she says in verse three, talk no more, so exceeding
proudly.
So she warns people about proud speech, prideful speech.
And so I, I personally again I don't know for sure, but Hannah might
have been thinking about her rival, right, the other wife, Penina,
who was the one who was talking about pride.
And she was saying, look how great I am, you can't have children.
And so ultimately she's talking about this spirit of pride
that God rejects.
And so she says, don't allow that pride to get into your life.
Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth.
For the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are
weighed.
And so this is an obvious reason for us to forget about our
pride.
Because next to God, in comparison to God, we know nothing.
That's what she's essentially saying here.
She says, don't be prideful, don't speak with arrogancy.
For God is a God of knowledge, he knows everything.
And so in comparison to God, what does she say at the end of verse
three?
She says, and by him actions are weight, meaning he's gonna, he's
gonna be the one that judges everything.
He's gonna be the one that knows everything.
And so how can we think that we know everything or have all powerful
nature when in comparison to God we fall so short?
And you know, I think that that's one, one of the many, many
reasons, one of the many reasons why we see individuals who
at one point in time might have been living godly lives but
fall into sin in certain areas is because there's a sense of complacency
that happens.
Folks, I'm going to warn you, just as Hannah is warning you and
just as God has warned us, when we get into a sense of self
righteousness and complacency and just saying I'm comfortable with
where I am, I'm not going to fall into sin.
I know everything about the Bible.
I've been there, done that, have the T shirt.
So you know what?
I'm, I'm, I'm, I made it, I'm good.
That's the place where Satan can come in and get a foothold.
When we start to think that we, we don't need to learn, we don't
need to be vigilant.
What does the Bible say in First Peter, chapter five?
Be, be sober.
Be vigilant.
Why?
Because your adversary, the devil, he, he, he's walking around
like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
He's waiting for that opportunity.
So what does Satan do?
He finds that little door opening of pride in our life and
he tries to attack right there.
We have to be so, so careful.
It doesn't mean that we live in, in a place of, of fear constantly
of the enemy.
But we live with vigilance.
We live with, with clarity.
We live with humility, trusting in the Lord so we can live
confidently in God, but not prideful in our own flesh.
And so she says one of the attacks that can come into our life
is pride.
And so, so I would warn all of us to get to a place in our life
where we never get too comfortable with where we are, but
to the place where we say, lord, I need you more.
I don't want to be content with where I'm at in my spiritual
life now.
I'm content in Christ, but I'm not going to get apathetic in my
growth.
And so don't fall into a place of complacency where, where we can
slip into a place of sin.
Now we get to verse four.
She says the bows of the mighty men are broken, meaning it
doesn't matter how strong the world thinks that they are.
It doesn't matter how strong we are in our physical state.
God can break that like, like nothing.
God is all powerful.
So do you see how in a very poetic way she's highlighting many
of the attributes of God, his all knowing nature.
That's verse number three, right?
Don't be prideful because God knows everything.
You can't hide anything from him and you can't know more than
Him.
And then in verse four, she highlights his strength.
The bowels of the mighty man are broken and they that stumbled
are girded with strength.
That's a way to put it.
Is this when we are in the world's eyes strong and not.
And not relying on God.
That's when we are broken, when we're humbled.
As she says here in this verse, she says this, this, this
stumbling.
Those that are stumbled which, which, which basically would, would
mean this.
Th.
Those that have weakened themselves, those that have allowed
to be weakened before God, those that humble themselves before
God are girded with strength.
It's the same principle we see in the New Testament.
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
And, and so again there is this reminder of God's power.
So his wisdom, verse three, his power, verse four, verse five.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread and they
that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath born.
7 and she that hath many children wax feeble what's she talking
about here?
Well, we, we're seeing here that Hannah knows what it means to
be barren at some point in her life, and she knows what it means
to have God bring fruitfulness.
And so she knew God.
In this case, in verse five, it says, they that were full have
hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry
ceased so that the Barren hath born.
7 so, so there's times of abundance, but sometimes in, in abundance,
we turn to look, look how much I have, look how much I've done.
But for other times in our life, we need to recognize that we
have nothing without guidance, ultimately because of him, that we
have any provisions.
And so I believe that this is speaking here about the provisions
of God, how God meets our, our every need.
And so there's going to be times in our life where Paul even
talks about this in Philippians.
I know how to be a base.
I know how to abound.
There's going to be ups and downs and seasons of life.
But what we have to understand is that anything that we have does
not come from our own strength.
It comes ultimately from God.
And so she speaks of God's wisdom, God's strength, God's provisions.
Verse number six, here it says, the Lord killeth and maketh
alive.
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.
And so this speaks of God's power over life.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
And so we think that we have control of our life.
We, you know, we can try to do certain things to extend our life,
but at the end of the day, it's, it's.
Our lives are in the hands of God.
Life is but a vapor.
Life is fragile.
And so when we think about being in control, many times we think
about making our own decisions to dictate what's going to happen
in our life.
But I would encourage you to think about it from the perspective
of Lord willing.
Like, this is where I'm going to go, Lord willing, but I don't
know what tomorrow's going to bring.
And so the Lord killeth and the Lord make it alive.
He bring it down the grave and bringeth it up.
So the, the understanding really here is God has power over
life and has power over death going forward.
Verse 7.
The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.
He bringeth low and lifteth up.
This speaks again of provisions, but particularly I believe
it speaks of, of God.
God's not limited by any financial struggle that we might
be facing in our world today.
You know, we might be going through a difficult time financially.
Maybe our country's going through a difficult time financially,
whatever it might be.
But we know that our Lord is the Lord that owns the cattle on
the thousand hills.
And so he's going to provide for us and he's going to give us
what we need in our life.
Verse 8.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them upon among princes and to make them
inherit the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth are the lords, and he hath set the
world upon them.
And you could look at that from a few different perspectives,
but you could look at the fact that again, she's talking about this
power of God breeding the beggar from his terrible place and
pulling him up to high places.
And that could be a picture of God taking us from a life of sin
and moving us to salvation.
But also we see that she talks about, for the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them.
Meaning this is talking about God's creation.
This is God is not just over creation, but God is the Creator.
And so he's not just trying to deal with a world that's outside
his bounds and outside his understanding, but God is dealing
with a world that he created already.
He's the one that spoke it into existence.
And so a beautiful picture of the vastness and the infinite nature
of who God is.
And so Hannah was confident in God's ability to humble the strong,
prideful, and exalt the weak in.
In humility.
Why?
Because God is in control.
So the way that you could phrase up those last few verses is
this.
Hannah is worshiping God because He's in control.
I'm not in control of my life.
God is in control of my life.
And so that is a freeing feeling.
It's a very important note for us as Christians to understand that
we can live in liberty.
Why?
Because I'm not in control.
God's in control.
And it's a liberating feeling because a lot of people are saying,
I want to go and take control of my life because I want to have
freedom, I want to have liberty, and I want to be the one
that's making the decisions, folks.
That's actually what brings us to a place of bondage in our life,
because we're the ones always in trouble.
We're the ones always trying to figure things out.
But when we say, lord, you're in control, I'm going to submit to
you.
That actually in turn brings us freedom and liberty, knowing that,
hey, it's God in control, I can live my life following him, and
he's the one that's going to take care of me through all of this.
And so I think that's an awesome picture of her essentially
recognizing the control of God in her life.
Verse 9.
He will keep the feet of his saints and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness.
For by strength shall no man prevail.
Again, he loves his own, he takes care of his own, and then ultimately
he judges those that are in wickedness.
We can know that God is making all things right and will make all
things right, and he is going to be victorious over all.
And so I think that's important to, to notice as well.
When we're worshiping, God is Lord, you, you are good.
Now, sometimes we don't understand why God's doing what he's
doing.
Sometimes we, it might look like God is allowing evil to win.
It might look like a God is not taking care of his own.
I mean, even the psalmist David talked about that.
Lauren, it looks like you're blessing the wicked and looks like
you're allowing your people to suffer.
But what we know in scripture is that God in his character is perfect
and God as a perfect father will take care of his, his children.
And so that's the, the explanation there.
Verse 10.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces.
Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them.
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.
He shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his
anointed.
So again, it's just a reiteration of God's power that he
will judge the world and he will exalt those that are in his
family that, that are anointed, as it says there at the
end of verse 10.
So one of the many reasons why we worship is we say, lord, we worship
you because we're on your side and you are victorious.
And therefore we are victorious.
And so we have so many reasons to worship the Lord and we have so
many reasons to rest in his presence and to know who he is and
to know what he has done for us.
You know, I think that oftentimes worship in the church
setting can end up being very performative, meaning like I'm worshiping
so that people will notice me worshiping.
And as people notice me worshiping, I hope that they think
that I'm a good person.
And do you see the flaw with that is that's a self focused Worship.
It's really, really.
We're not worshiping really.
We're just performing.
And what we see in the sense of Scripture is that worship should
be driven from a heart of love, a heart of submission, a heart
of gratitude, a heart of complete commitment to God.
And so it really isn't really, if you look at biblical worship,
it's not concerned with other people's perceptions.
It's just saying, lord, this is for you.
And we corporately worship so that we can strengthen one another.
But I would encourage you to think about the concept of personal
worship.
So, you know, American churches, we think about Sunday mornings
as worship time, but biblically Speaking, worship is 24,
7, 365.
My life is a worship to God like that.
That's what it is.
And so I would.
I would have you think about and consider different elements in
your day, in your week, in your life that you can fine to consecrate
so that you can worship God.
You know, prayer time, I think, is, you know, obviously Hannah's
in the middle of a prayer time here.
So prayer time can be worship time, Bible study can be worship
time, family time.
You, you know, I.
One of the things that we put.
And again, we're not perfect in it, but one of the things that
we try to do as a family is get together and worship God on a
regular basis, corporately, together, as a family unit.
And the reason why we do that is because we.
We want to make sure that worship's at the center of our home.
It's not perfect, but we, we notice that when we're doing that,
we are stronger as a family, and we're stronger as believers individually.
And.
And so I would encourage you to find times where worship is not
just, hey, I come to church on Sunday mornings, but worship, whether
therefore, yeet or drink or whatsoever you do, do all the glory
of God.
And, and the Bible says In Romans chapter 12, to present your
bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto the Lord,
which is your reasonable service.
Which means this.
The way that you deal with your body is worship.
There.
There was a movement a while back, a long time ago, but it's leaked
into our society today, whether we know it or not.
It's called antinomianism, which, which basically means you
can, as long as you believe the right things and theoretically
understand it, your body.
Body isn't affected.
So you can go sin with your body, and that's not affecting your
spiritual life.
Well, the Bible doesn't teach that.
The Bible actually teaches that your body is a temple.
And in the context of, of that passage in First Corinthians, Paul
is talking about sins that we can commit with our bodies, that
we.
He says, it's not only that you're defiling yourself spiritually,
but physically.
And so as Christians, what we do with our bodies does matter, because
the Bible says that this is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So we have to think about presenting our bodies, presenting
our everything, a living sacrifice unto God.
So what we put before our eyes, what we listen to, what we,
what we do in our lives, across the board, how we treat our
spouses, how we treat our children, how we are in the workplace,
these are all elements of worship in our life.
And so we have to think about that when we talk about that word
worship.
And so at the very end here, we're going to look at verse number
11, and then we'll tie this all together.
So Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house, and the child did minister
unto the Lord before Eli the priest.
And so this is the conclusion of the worship.
The conclusion of the worship is that Hannah and her husband and
the rest of the family leave and go back to their homes.
And they leave Samuel at whatever age he is, he's a young
boy.
We know that much.
We don't know exactly how old it is, but we.
He is.
But we know that in this case, he's very young.
And he's going to be living there with Eli, serving the Lord.
And so that takes a lot of commitment, it takes a lot of dedication
to the Lord to allow your only son, that God blessed you with, to,
to go to, to be working for the work of God.
And so we're going to talk more about that next time when we
come back.
We're going to talk about two of Eli's sons, who we've already
mentioned in chapter one, but they have something here.
They misuse some offerings.
And then we're going to look at the, the story of Samuel with
Eli.
So some of you know those stories as well.
And then we'll, we'll kind of track Samuel and we'll follow him
along.
And then we'll get into the story of Saul, which most of you
know, Saul, the first king of Israel, first human king of Israel.
And then obviously, we'll eventually get to David and track
that through first Samuel and into second Samuel.
And then there's a lot more that comes along.
So this is going to be a long study, and I hope that you're able
and willing to be along with us in this study.
But you know, to start, we have to start with Samuel.
And to start with Samuel, we have to start with Hannah.
And to start with Hannah, we have to start with her relationship
with God.
So we, we do see a very interesting principle here that,
that the faithfulness of one woman impacted countless people.
Think about that.
Hannah's faithfulness, brought up, obviously through the power of
God, brought about Samuel.
And Samuel obviously had a huge impact on Kings of Israel.
And then ultimately David influenced the life of David.
And think how many people David has influenced.
And so it shows you that principle of multiplication, who,
who we are influencing now, we have no idea who is going to be influenced
through that later on.
And so that, that's really.
There's a biblical principle of multiplication.
If I just, you know, if I just think about this, if I disciple one
person, that's.
That, that's great.
And then that person can disciple five people, and those five
people can disciple 25 people.
And then.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletown baptistchurch.com
if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
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Thank you so much.
God bless.
Have a wonderful day.
And that's the idea is we see this amazing, amazing lineage that
happens really all the way back.
I mean, you can go back to the very beginning in Genesis and just
see how one person's impact on a certain individual can impact countless
people in the future.
So we'll go ahead and stop there right now, as we conclude this
study tonight.