Sermon Transcript:Thank you so much, Hannah, we are going to be in the book of First Samuel and really kind of starts out with several characters, one of them being Hannah, who I assume her parents named her after this character, we're also going to see a town such as Shiloh, which is where I came up with my, my wife, and I came up with our daughter's name. And then we'll get into Sol First Samuel is that book, if you're not familiar with it, that is going to have that famous story of David and Goliath. And so that's coming as well. And so just really look forward to studying this with you. First, Samuel is one of those books that we call the narrative or history books. So when you look at your Bible, let's just make sure we kind of know where it's placed both in our Bibles and also kind of chronologically, because I'm not going to have all the scriptures that we're going to read up on the screen, because it's narrative, and it's large chunks that we're going to be dealing with. In terms of story in history. If you haven't ever sort of brought your Bible to Life Church, or you've never really pulled up your app, this may be a series you want to do that in because again, I'm not going to share everything, read everything that's in these chapters in this book. And so you may want to do that. Obviously, if you have an app, the YouVersion app is one of those, it's easy to find, we'll be in First Samuel, we typically read from what's called the New Living Translation. So if you want to pull that up, we're going to be looking at First Samuel, chapters one through three today. And I'll talk a little bit about those characters. If you want to kind of know where it's at. in your Bible, you have the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible. And then right before this, you have judges and Ruth. And if you remember anything about judges, judges is the book in our Bibles where it talks about how everybody's does what's right in their own eyes. Fascinating. It's a time where there is no no king and no authority that they want to come under. So they have a various series of judges, some good some not so good. A three get the famous stories of Samson and Gideon and those kinds of people. And then you get to Ruth, you may know about that one. But when you're here at the opening pages of First Samuel, what I want you to have in your head, and that's why we have this image of the crown behind us is this is the one we're going to learn about the coming King, we're going to see as King that's going to be rejected. And we're going to see about the coming King David who ultimately points to King Jesus. So a lot of good stuff in here. But it's narrative. So I just want to prepare you for that. Because a lot of times when you think of preachers and what we're what we're doing, as I'm y'all will read a little passage and we'll say, Okay, now take this, you can write it down, you can put it on your mirror, and you can memorize it and, and it may be encouraging to you. Narrative is bigger chunks is by nature story. And so that's why you'll see when I begin to read here, or I begin to story, these verses in these chapters, I'm not going to necessarily share everything that's in all of these verses, you can go back and read it or you can have it in front of you and follow along, as I'm going along. So let's get right into it. First Samuel chapter one beginning in verse one. So there's a man Elkanah. And he lives in a region of Aetherium. He has these children, but the thing you need to know is that he thought it was a good idea to have two wives. Okay, so he has Hannah, and Vanessa, and Vanessa had children, but Hannah did not. And each year Elkanah would travel to Shiloh to worship, I told you, there'll be a city called Shiloh, and to serve the Lord's armies at the tabernacle. And again, if you kind of know where we're at in history, the temple hasn't been built yet what's called Solomon's temple, which ultimately gets destroyed and ransacked and then rebuilt again, and what's called Herod's temple, which is the temple that you see, in Jesus's day. We're all pre temple here, we're in tabernacle times, coming out of the tents of Moses. And so that's where we're at. So that's how they're going to worship here. In the area of Shiloh, it tells you that the priests of the Lord at that time and you had priests who were go betweens between the people and God and and receive people's sacrifices. The priests, at that time were the two sons of Eli Eli becomes an important character in our story today, so healthy and thin A's. And so on the days, and alcanada presented his sacrifice, he would give portions of meat, and he gives one to his one wife, nya, and each of her children, even though he loved Hannah, he would give her a portion as well. But when you have this one wife and she gets more portions because she's feeding all this other children, and you have Hannah, who gets just one portion because it's just her. It's a reminder even and going to worship. That one is more favored if we can say A than the other. And so, Vanessa, she picks up on this and she would taunt and make fun of Hannah because she had no children. And you can see again, having two wives here probably wasn't the best, I Diem, it would even reduce Hannah to tears and she wouldn't even want to eat her portion of her sacrifice. He says, Listen, you know, the husband's like, well, let's don't you know, I love you. Isn't that enough? So let's say it opens up this story firsthand, like opens up with a screwed up family. So if you're in the room, Don't nod your head or raise any hands. But if you feel like you're part of a screwed up family, whether your immediate family or extended family, you're in good company this morning, okay, in First Samuel, and how to screw up, he screwed up, I think rather than to go he had two wives. Now, oftentimes, in Scripture, people who want to discount the scriptures will say, Hey, man, they were all messed up there that kind of did whatever they wanted. Now, listen, God told them what to do very clearly in the garden. And he reiterated it when he gave them the law, that is surmised in the 10 commandments. And what they had is they had people who did their own thing, and they always paid the price for it. That's why when Jesus comes along, and they start talking to him about marriage and divorce, he says, Listen, I get that you people figured out a way to send your spouse's off by giving them certificates of divorce. But I tell you, in the beginning, it wasn't meant to be that way, too. We're meant to come together in as one in some sense of permanency. So when you read the scriptures, sometimes what happens is, and I've introduced this concept before, it's just descriptive of how everything gets screwed up, when there is no savior or worshipping of the Almighty. And that's why we need Jesus, it's not always prescriptive, prescriptive is why we go to the doctor, and we get a prescription, take this medicine, and you will get better. Like what I was talking about, we read phrases from books such as Galatians, Romans and other places. Those are oftentimes prescriptive verses this is just describing to say the sin has always had its problems. And you're gonna see it kind of played out here. In First Samuel, she had one wife who's mean to the other, but God had a purpose for her womb being closed. And that's what's hard for us to wrap our heads around is when we're under such torment or pressure, we feel like God has abandoned us, he's forgotten about us. Something's not going right in my world. And so God, you must be asleep, God, however, I need to wake you up by you know, dancing around or coming up with some things to do. I'll try to do them because it seems like you're ignoring me. But here's the deal. God has a purpose and a means and something he wants to bring about, by holding back Hannah's wound from being opened yet, why what's she going to do? Let's see, and he's falling verses. She's gonna pray for a son. So after they had this meal at the tabernacle, what Hannah does is she goes in and she begins to cry out in anguish and in prayer. She's She's praying, oh, Lord, give me a son. And if you give me a son, I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire life and as a sign that he has been dedicated to Lord, I will never cut his hair. Now, Eli being the spiritual man that he is being the preset he is you would think that he would come along and just sacredly and just reverently, just Oh, bless those prayers. Bless you, my dear sister know, what does he do? He accuses her for being drunk. He says, must you come drunk? Throw away your wine woman. And she's like, listen, and I you guys have been in situations. I don't care if you're at the store or at church, where you get accused of something that you aren't doing. What is a lot of our first instinct I don't know about y'all. Y'all may be more holy than me. But mine is to look kind of fight back, snap back. She doesn't do that though. She says no, sir. I haven't been drinking wine or anything stronger.I'm very discouraged house pouring out my heart to the Lord. Don't think me being one of those wicked women, the one that's even women that does something so, so dumb. I've been praying and crying out in great Anguish and Sorrow if that's the case, Eli says, and again, I don't know if it was genuine. If it was flipping, if he did an out of routine because of his priestly duties. He says, Go in peace. May the God of Israel grant you the requests you have of him? And she says, Oh, thank you, sir. And she went, and she was no longer sad. Interesting, interesting. So then what happens? The next morning, they go back, he, the husband slept with Hannah, and she had a son. She named him Samuel. And again, names were significant in that time, and oftentimes in our time, says, I asked the Lord for him. And so then they go up to offer their sacrifices to the tabernacle. And they said, We're going to wait until the boy is weaned, which really just means that he no longer needs to be taken care of of his mother, he can kind of stand on his own two feet, which still would have been pretty young, right? Maybe three or four years old, maybe a little bit older, but not too much older, probably three or four years old. And then they brought along a bull and they sacrifice. And after they sacrificed the bull, they brought the boy to this priest, Eli. And he's, she said, Sir, do you remember me? Hannah asked, I'm the very woman who stood here several years ago, praying to the Lord, I asked the Lord to give me this boy, and he is granted my request. Now I'm giving him back to the Lord, He belongs to the Lord, his whole life, and they worship there. So first point I wants to see this morning is us missing the Lord's work, doesn't keep him from working. US missing the Lord's work doesn't keep him from working, how did I bring that up? Who wasn't paying attention when something spiritual was going on? Honestly, it was Eli, and you're gonna see that Eli, let a lot of things slide in his household, and it's gonna bring about some trouble, it's gonna bring about some problems. But I just want you to know that you and I missing the Lord's work doesn't keep him from working. That's why we often say we have to have eyes of faith, we have to see God's at work all around us. But are we aware? Are we seeing it and not only is he at work all around us, that our lack of faith or awareness doesn't keep him from moving and working? The priest thought she was drunk, I think about that. In fact, we have something that that he's not dealing with with his sons. And so that's coming up problems over I mentioned. And I also want to say that God's not a rabbit foot. Oftentimes we think about this in our spiritual life, we'll take a story like Hannah's and we'll say, Well, that means that God wants me to, you know, have a son is like, what does that also mean? God wants you to, you know, share your husband with another woman. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to take that part. I want to take the part of like giving me a child of I pray, see how you can, you can't, you can't do that with the scriptures. You have to see that this is narrative meaning meaning to show us ultimately our hope and need for Christ. And it's also showing how God works. And God is not some sort of rabbit's foot, he's not some sort of Genie, he's not obligated to do for us what he does for someone else. That's where we get all out of whack. Sometimes we're looking to the left and right, we're saying, Well, he did it for him, did it for her, gave them a spouse, give them a decent job, give them a decent house, give them a decent car. Where's what's coming to me. And I would just say one of the things that could free you up as a Christian as a believer, as someone who's considering the claims of Christ, is embrace your own story and figure out how God is moving in your life and join him. I get this phrase figure out where God is moving in, join him from a theologian called Henry Blackaby that died this week in his 80s. But he just always said, Hey, if you want to experience God in your life, figure out where he's moving in your church and in your community, and join him there. That's why I wanted to bring this first point up, you and I missing the Lord's work doesn't keep him from moving doesn't keep him from working in many people are able to get in on the blessings, hopefully many of us here at Life Church, but if you don't, that train will pass you by but it will not pass by is the Lord working and doing things don't wish for someone else's story or someone else's life. I am telling you, this is the source of so much anxiety and angst. I mean comparison game, not only will not do anything, but it'll bring discontentment in your life instead of contentment. And Christians historically have been people who are content. Are you saying, Are you saying that I shouldn't aspire to anything or want anything more? No, I'm not saying that at all. Please don't see that. And what I'm talking about, I have high views of leadership and growth and ambition, all those kinds of things can be good in the right place. But what I'm asking you is but to what end? If you start praying and asking for, you know, a home or a spouse or a child or whatever it is, or a different job? What is your end game? What is your thought process in that? What is your purpose? I want to tell you, God loves to answer prayers that are bent towards his glory. Did you notice when God answered We answered Hannah's prayer. And when he opened her womb, when she prayed out and said that whatever child comes out of me, I will dedicate to you and give right back to you. And when she does that, you're going to see later on the passage, she's blessed with all kinds of things. That's how we have to think about our prayers to even if you and I finagle something and go out and get it that's all No, no, I don't need the Lord to go out and get this car this house this woman this man, I can make this happen on my own. It'll it'll not it'll not be right. It will not it'll not taste right. It won't produce the outcome that you and I think that it should produce but when we start orchestrating our lives and aligning our lives for his glory and say, God, I really Do you want this thing and the reason why I want it is to spend myself for you. Those are the kinds of prayers God loves to answer. And those are the kinds of things that God's like good now your hearts aligned with me. Now I can move and work in your life. And I still don't say that to say that God's gonna necessarily give you everything you asked for. We know that's not true. But we know that he's good and that he has a plan and purpose for our lives, even when we don't understand it. You're not going to always, always, always trust and pray. And that will always lead to praise. That's why we come and we worship Matt reminded us of that this morning. So that leads right into the second chapter of First Samuel, where Hannah begins to pray. And she says all these things, she says, The Lord has made me strong, I rejoice in the Lord. He has answered me he has even exalted me over my enemies, he's rescued me, no one is holy like you God. And he she calls out for us to stop backing proud and haughty and, and that the Lord knows what we've done and he will judge our actions and those who are, who are starving are now fed and those who are fed are now starving, and the child is one now has many children, and the Lord gives death and life he brings down to the grave but raises others up, he makes some rich and others poor. He lives supporting from the dust and the needy from the garbage and he places them among princes and places them and seats them honor for all the earth is lords and he has set the world in order. He'll protect the faithful ones, but the wicked ones will disappear in darkness, no one will succeed by strength alone. And goes on says those who fight against the Lord will be shattered. He thunders against them from heaven, the Lord judges throughout the whole earth, He gives power to his king, he increases the strength of his anointed one. And so all this to say is she is overflowing in praise and trust. And she's saying the world system that we still grapple with now. Why is it that that the wicked prosper or seem to prosper? Why isn't that I get my dear. When I feel like I'm owed. She's saying all these things to say the Lord will will work it all out in due time. And in fact, he will turn things upside down often to show his power, his reign and his glory. This is this is her praise. This is her trust. It's not the song or the prayer, we would pray if we were finally given our child, right? Ours would just be it'd be a little bit different. But she knows that she is praying and representing Israel at that time, the trials that they are having, not only individually, but corporately as a nation on this earth. The same thing will happen when Mary comes along. A Mary the mother of Jesus when she has that what we often call the magnificant. In Luke chapter two, what's going on there, she's just praising God in the midst of such struggle, saying that those who are often poor and downtrodden are going to be noticed there are going to be seen by the Lord and He is going to bless them because what is she believing? Same thing Mary believed same thing. All the men and women of all believed that God is doing something barren women somehow get children happened to with Abraham and Sarah, doyou remember this? The promise child, Isaac, and we've already mentioned Mary, the virgin birth, and here we are with Hannah. It's this whole idea that something is stirring, and someone is coming. And in this sense, who's coming, Samuel, this beautiful baby boy named Samuel, who is going to be the one to anoint the king. It's just a beautiful, beautiful story. But before we get there, we got to talk about Eli's wicked sons and boy, are they scoundrels. Okay, so we're in chapter two. We're moving now to verses 12 through 26. And they had no respect for their duties as attendance with the priests. Okay, so Eli's the dad got two sons. And instead of taking their duty seriously, really what they're doing is when people come to offer their sacrifices, they're saying, Hey, don't burn up that good meat to the Lord. Let me stick my fork in the good portions. It's kind of like saying, you know, hey, I know you're bringing that ribeye, that really, really expensive cut of meat and to show your praise and honor to God because a sacrifice has to be made. Why don't you just leave it right there. And instead of like, burning it up on the altar, give it to me, and I'm gonna roast it on the grill out back. That's literally what he lost sons are doing. And they said, If you don't like that, we'll just take it by force. To man, that's bad. But that's not all. It says that they are taking advantage of the women who are working there in the tabernacle, and they are having sexual relations with them. And it's just bad. It's just real, real bad, what they're doing. So again, we know this to be true. You guys have heard headlines before that, that maybe you're coming to a church and the Lord and somebody says supposed to be safe, and instead of safety and security, you find predators such as Eli's sons And so all of the sudden, they're gonna have to be dealt with. But Samuel, he's in all this mix. Can you imagine this? He's in this sort of screwed up situation. And Eli, he was aware of all this. And so he tried to say, hey guys, why don't you just kind of stop sinning? Because you know, I can't do anything if you kind of wronged someone else. Yeah, we can maybe fix that or work that out, but you're rolling the Lord. You're defaming God. And it says in the text, that Eli sons are gonna get their due. But it says that, that Samuel grows up stronger in favor with God and with people. Who does that remind you of Jesus Himself, I remember that phrase, he grew in stature and favor with both God and men. And if you want to see people whose God's hand is on their life, men and women alike, you can always contest. It's like, oh, my gosh, they're growing up in the midst of even screwed up situation, there's something special about this little girl, something special about this little boy, because God's hand is on them. And somehow they have favor with both people of the world and with God him self. So he lost sons not good. It's a big deal when we let our children get away, not only with stupidity, but mocking and taking advantage of the things of God. He couldn't change hearts. And we know this, come on, we've all had instances where we've had to interact with our children and, or maybe we've been interacted with when we were doing something stupid, and we weren't gonna change our ways. Nobody can change hearts, but he they could have been removed from that situation. We have to know at certain times, it's bad enough that you actually need to be removed from that situation, and no longer in that context. And Eli doesn't do it. But God still uses Eli. And he uses Samuel in the midst of a screwed up situation. I say that as hope. Because I didn't ask for a show of hands, and I and ask for an amen. But I did start out by saying who feels like they may have had a screwed up home life. Currently, maybe the one that grew up with or extended family. And I would assume, if we're honest with ourselves, that would probably be most if not all of us, in the room at some level. And in the midst of all that. I just want you to see this this morning, because I think this is important. We can look to narrative to see how God works in the past as a way that he may work in the future. Samuel is able to, to grow up and stature and favor with God and people, he's able to grow up in the midst of a screwed up situation. It's all reminds me to of Jesus, you remember when nobody thinks anything's good is gonna come out of his family. Do you remember that phrase, where people are beginning to say, does anything good come out of Nazareth, Jesus, the Nazarene does anything good come out of Nazareth, everything gets dealt with eventually, in this life or in the life to come. Oftentimes sin is dealt with here. I mean, no matter how much you try to cover it up or hide it, it eventually kind of plays itself out. But even if not, even if it's has to be dealt with in the age to come, it will come out. And it will always come out in your descendants or those who are in your care in your charge. So then all of a sudden, a warning comes for Eli's family, profit or somebody, I don't know who it is. It says one day a man of God came to Ilan, he said, Listen, I want to tell you that I've been here and I've been an Israelite, so long I was there, or my family was there when we were taken out as slaves of Egypt. And I want you to know that what your sons and doing are doing is not good. And not only is it not good, but they will pay the price. And not only will they pay the price, but all of your relatives will pay the price, nothing good will now happen, your whole family's going to get kind of cut off and pay the stupid tax, they're going to pay the penalty for your sin of neglect, of not doing something about this, but really for their sin of being predators and taking advantage of the people of God and the women of God here in the tabernacle. And to know that this is coming from God. He says both of your sons are going to drop dead on the same day. And so what does Eli respond? We don't know. We don't know what he says. We don't know what he says to this kind of talk. What would you say? Right? I mean, we've all had those moments where you get called into the principal's office, because one of your children did something wrong, or you yourself were and all that. But can you imagine it going so far as to say because of these kinds of activities that have gone on for too long, there are now going to be instead of generational blessings, there's now going to be generational cursings what can Eli say at this point? How can he respond? I want to give you just an interesting thing I was thinking about this week. Some of y'all maybe in school you learned if someone called Jonathan Edwards in American history, Jonathan Edwards, helped with the first Great Awakening. We're talking pre we were a country. So we're talking about like 1740 and he was the first president of Princeton had all these daughters, and he and his wife they were Christians and again An influential early early early in American history. Now this is interesting from all these daughters he had, here's what his heritage looked like. And somebody in the 1800s, late 1800s, went back 120 530 years. And he found this about Jonathan Edwards, again, working as an adult and about 1740. In America. It says from his marriage, he had 729 descendants some 130 years later, of this number 300 became preachers. 65 became college professors. 13 became university presidents. 60 of them became authors of books, not modern day, this is pre pre 1800 pre something in 1800s, three United States Congressman and one Vice President of the United States, all under one Union had many daughters, and this is kind of their descendants 729. They also he's from New York, they also took a guy named Matt Jukes, he lived in the same state in New York. By the same time he and his wife, not Christians, not believers. So they both had a similar character. They found that he had 1026 descendants 300 of them died prematurely. 100 were sent to jail. For an average of 13 years each 190 were public prostitutes, and there were 100 Drunkards in his family, the family cost the state in the late this study was done in 1877. At that time, they figured that the family had cost the state $1.2 million because of their stupidity. Now, I just want to throw this out here. If you don't like those kind of Americans sort of interesting interest stories. Maybe you'll remember the 10 commandments. And remember that when God gave the 10 games in Exodus, he repeated them again in Deuteronomy when he gave me an exodus 20. This is the second commandment talking about idols. So remember how the kindness goes, I now know that God before me, you'll have no other idol says this, I lay the sins of the parents upon their children, the entire family is affected. They only hear that many of us and that's not fair. But isn't that how it works out just in reality that our parents choices for good or for ill affect us, of course they do. says this in the scriptures in Exodus 20, verses five and six, I lay the sins of the parents upon their children, the entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But verse six, this is important. And this is my second point this morning. I lavish unfailing love for 1000 generations, on those who love me and obey my commands. Guys, this matters. It matters what we do with our children. That's why we have you know, things like we've done up here where we dedicate our children to the Lord.Another way we can say it is it matters what we do with those who are put under our charge or care. This is not one of those sermons, and I'm not that kind of preacher says, Okay, you must get married, you must have a gazillion children or anything like that. No, I'm trying to help us to see what does God have for us, all around the room wherever we find ourselves. And here's what I'm here to tell you is if you live long enough on this earth, and you do enough things, right, you will have people who are under your care or under your charge, whether you're single or married, childless or have plenty of children, everybody has that. In what I'm saying is it matters what we do with those who are put under our charge who are put under our care. And what we are meant to do as Christians as believers is figure out how to have our lives that are not self centered, but others centered. I mean, this is so basic in terms of how we understand the first and second commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love others as yourself, the charge and the call is really given to us in every generation, but never has it been more strong the pull of our culture and our world to say spend it on self, you need that you need that. It breeds discontent. And there's billions and billions of dollars that is floating across our screens and in our minds and in our hearts. That is meant to what to get our affections away and to say this thing will satisfy. And it's the same old thing just like we talked about in Jeremiah twos, like when we've hearing for ourselves sisters, which is wells, broken systems that can hold no water. It's the same thing we've done when we've sort of tried to find ourselves our identity in anything but God and then when we try to say, self can satisfy myself or if I can just get one more toy. If I can just get one, whatever it is. It's self centered. It's not other centers. But what an impact when we recognize and take seriously and our responsibility to raise our children in the Lord. That's what's going on here. And I think I've already sort of said what happens if you don't necessarily have children? That's First Samuel chapter two. Let's go to First Samuel chapter three. Where's all Samuel? You He's a boy. He's serving the Lord. He's assisting Eli. And it says in those days, I mean, chapter three verses one through 21 says in those days, messages from the Lord were rare. And it says visions are quite uncommon. So oftentimes we think, Oh, now if I could have gone way back then it was a little bit different to follow God. No, no. We're gonna talk about that in a minute. But it says he lied. He was almost blind by now. He's gone to bed. And suddenly the Lord called Samuel, Samuel. And so little Samuel things is he lost and he runs. He says, you know, I'm here. What is it? He said, I didn't call you boy, go back to bed. So again, the Lord calls out Samuel, Samuel, go runs Eli, you call me? No, no, I call you go to bed. Third time, Samuel Samuel. So he runs his, you call me he said, Listen, I didn't call you. But if you hear it again, it is the Lord and say, speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. And so at that point, Samuel went back to bed. And of course, God called out to Samuel for a fourth time, Samuel, Samuel said, Speak, your servant is listening. And he says, here's, here's what he told Samuel, you can imagine this being told this as a boy, in some ways, orphaned, not really, because he has Eli and God, but this is what God tells him. I'm about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I'm going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family from beginning to end, I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn't discipline them. So I vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings. So Samuel stayed in bed till morning, he didn't go back to sleep that night, okay. He just met God. And God told him something wasn't fun. And so Elon said, Hey, Samuel clear. Sounds like I'm here. He said, what did the Lord say to you now? Now? Eli, he's, he knows this isn't good. I mean, he's been warned. He's been told, he knows he's, he's, he knows. And but he still says, Now listen, listen, boy, tell me the truth. And if you don't tell me the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, may God kill your strikey dead, don't hold anything back. And so he says, All right, I'm gonna tell you. So Samuel told him, everything that he heard, he didn't hold back. And finally Eli says, we'll let God do what he thinks is best. And the chapter three closes, as as the Lord, the Lord is with him. And everything Samuel did and said, proved to be reliable. And it says that all these things were confirmed that he was a prophet from God, and the Lord continue to appear at Shiloh and gave messages to Samuel there at the tabernacle. Third and final point I wants to see this one that you and I maybe have on our minds is okay, so how can I do this? How can I hear from the Lord and I want you to I told you, I was going to come back to that opening phrase there, this chapter that these were the days that it said that messages from the Lord were rare and visions were quite uncommon. And then I want you to see the closing of the chapter, it says, The Lord continue to appear to Samuel at the tabernacle in Shiloh. And the only thing that I can sort of come out with all this is just to say that man, it looks like that the people who cry out to God really cry out to Him not just a generic prayer, not just to throw up a prayer before dinner or lunch or whatever. It is not just a bedtime prayer, not just whatever, but they really cry out to God. They say, God, I need you to do something, I need you to move. That's how this story opens. Hannah was that way? It seems like that those are the people who get to hear from the Lord who else gets to hear from the Lord. Seems like those who lean in Lean ends a lot. What What is God doing it God? Are you are you speaking? Are you speaking is that you talking to me, it's the people who want to see, rest assure, if you don't want to see God and you want to live for yourself, and you want to ham it up in this world and eat, drink and be married because tomorrow you die. You can find plenty of people to join you in that endeavor. But it appears to me that if you look in the Scriptures from beginning to end, and you see men and women who lean in who want to see who cry out, these are the people who get to see God and be a part of what God's doing in the universe. Now, here's the deal, we got to clean up the basement. That's not really that's not really what we have in El Paso is it got to clean out the garage, got to clean up the casita Outback, kind of make some room somewhere. And that means that like, you know, you know, you see that you see this in this passage, and this is often true about the Old Testament. It's true about narrative a lot of times you see sort of the highest of highs, the amazing things that God can do through Hannah and Samuel. But then you see come to the lowest of lows, the ugliness, the despicable acts of Eli and his sons and what God's gonna do because he's gonna punish them and judge them because of their, their, their lack of cleaning up their house, their lack of what we would call them. quickly repentance, then, how can we hear from the Lord? And finally I say this, then wait and see what the Lord would be pleased to do in our lives and in the lives of those around us. That's how we do it. It's a simple, it's hard I get that may include. We've already talked about fasting a couple of weeks ago, I get all that, but it's just how much do we want it Life Church, individually, in our families, personally, corporately? How bad do we want to see God move. And if you and I are desperate for God, and if we're desperate for a move of God, don't be surprised if God moves. But the reverse is true as well. And if we just kind of shrug our shoulders, we just don't care. We just, we want to do our own thing. We want to tick a certain box, we want to please a certain person, we want to just come, then don't be surprised if he doesn't move in your life, in my life, in our church, or in our community as well. Let's pray. Father, I feel like the cries of many of our hearts is we do want to hear from you. God I know for many, many in this room, that is true. And so Father help us, help us to not let this just be a sermon that lands somewhere and is tucked away by the evil one, but that it that it that it lands and that it lands on good soil, and that it that it grows and it bears much fruit and that the cares of the world will come but that this is that this idea, this message this, this idea that you're worth it. You're worth relying on and leaning into and listening to that it won't be choked out by the cares of this world that it won't be run over and stomped out that it won't be dried up but that it will grow and bear much fruit not only for our lives, but for all those who come after us and are part of our care. We ask this in Christ's name and for His glory. Amen.

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