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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. If you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find [email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: What was supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year, Christmas for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Turns out for him, it was one of the worst times of the year. It was in 1863, and two years prior to that Christmas, Henry was laying down for an afternoon nap and his wife was walking through the house. This was back in the day where people used to wear those big billowy dresses, and her dress bumped into a table that had a candle on it. The candle fell over and ignited her dress on fire. Henry was asleep, so he didn't hear the initial scene of what was happening, but then he began to hear her cries. He woke up from his nap to see his wife engulfed in flames. So he found a rug on the floor and began to try to put that over her to extinguish the flames.
That wasn't working, so he used his own body, got on top to try to put out the flames, and in the process, ended up burning himself, too. So he ended up rushing his wife to a hospital, and by the next day, she was pronounced dead.
And so Henry, what he ended up doing was growing out the beard that you see here. And part of the reason, as he put it, is his burns on his face were so severe that he didn't want to scare people. So he put the hair and grow the hair on his face.
But the pain he was feeling on the outside didn't even compare to the pain that he was feeling on the inside, because one of the things that he talks about, if you've ever read his biography before, was that he also almost checked himself into an asylum because of the depth of grief he was experiencing.
And if it couldn't get worse, about a year later, this was during the time of a civil war that his son said, I want to go and serve. But he had already lost his wife. He didn't want to lose a son too. But against his father's wishes, he went and served. And in that battle he ended up getting shot in the back. He, with his other son, went to the hospital to hear the news that his son would be paralyzed.
That was his situation on Christmas of 1863.
And so when he woke up that morning, on Christmas morning he heard church bells ringing and the church bells were singing and playing this song, peace on earth.
But the difficulty, and we might say the paradox for him was this. It's one thing, is it? Not to hear peace on earth but to experience something different in your home?
And so what he did is something that he hadn't done in years, which is write.
According to his book, in his grief he kept just sitting in this chair.
But his biography says he rose from that chair, went to his pen and paper and began to write. He wrote one of the most famous poems that's ever been written called Christmas spells.
And the first part of the poem I'm going to share with you. The latter part where he ended, I'm going to share with you later. But listen to the grief in his voice while he hears about peace but experiences something different. He said, I heard the bells on Christmas day their old familiar court carols play they were wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men and in despair I bowed my head there's no peace on earth, I said for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men maybe some of you in the audience this morning can relate to the words of Henry that you hear about things of peace. You hear words about joy and maybe even in your life. As we look at the life of Hannah this morning you can even find portion and blessing in your life. But you and I all know that just because you might have portion, you might have blessing. It does not take away from the fact that there are still places in our life. There's pieces of our heart that are dealing with heartache and pain and problems.
But what I want you to find comfort in this morning is in the truth of God's word. That the Bible is not immune does not ignore our struggles. Does not ignore our pain in fact, I'll go and tell you the Bible is refreshingly honest about our pain and our struggles. And that's exactly what you're going to see today in one Samuel, one from a lady named Hannah. Hannah was experiencing grief in her country. But she was also experiencing grief in her heart. Because the one thing that she wanted in life was a child.
But not only was she not able to have a child at that time, but some of the people in her life not only didn't know how to handle her grief, but actually made her grief even worse.
But what you're going to see today is that Hannah made a decision just like Henry did, and it's this to rise.
And so, as we dig into the text today, as we continue our series on prayer, what I want us to notice about Hannah that I hope you notice about yourself, is there are moments in life where you hear about hope, but you also experience heartache. And it almost feels at times like, all right, I need a prayer on hope, and I'm going to offer that one. Or I'm going to have a prayer on heartache, and maybe I can get to a place of hope. What I want us to see today, that there's a place where hope and heartache together can be prayed.
Prayer is the pathway on how we bring that before God. And Hannah this morning is going to show us that. So I want to give you a little bit of context to first Samuel one. Israel is in a time of what we might say is oppression. They're in a very dark period of time for them as a people. This, if you look at your Bible timeline, first Samuel one overlaps with the time of the judges. Specifically, the judge. That is, the judge at this time is a guy we're very familiar with Samson. And if you remember anything about Samson, he was supposed to be living that Nazarite vow, and it didn't take him very long to violate every single one of those things. Because you see ourselves in Samson, right? He's a very strong man. But sometimes pride, sometimes lust, sometimes envy gets in the way of making us as very strong men, at times weak. Well, his example of struggles with those things was just a reflection of Israel's. Israel was struggling with pride, lust, envy. And so they were going through a very difficult dark.
So while they were going through that difficult time, what's amazing to me is that God, who is the creator, the sustainer of the universe, he's the alpha, the omega, the beginning and end. There's big stuff happening, but yet he still zeroes in and focuses on one woman from a foreign country.
And the reason why I love that is you and I see the same things on the news, don't we? We hear about the heartache, we see the difficulty. And it's easy at times when we see what we see, hear what we hear. To think, man, God's got some really big stuff going on.
How can he see me. Hannah's narrative shows us that no matter how small, broken, hidden, you may feel, you are never too small, too broken, too hidden from God. God sees you, and God hears your prayers.
And so what we're going to do today as we look at Hannah's narrative, I divided it into three.
And to me, these sections also kind of reflect our own pathway with prayer at times. And it's this. Number one, we've all got trouble.
But what I want us to know about that trouble is we're going to see in Hannah's narrative, your trouble. It belongs to God. Number two is your prayers matter to God. And number three, your salvation comes from God. So let's start with the trouble. Here's the trouble Hannah was experiencing. It says this beginning in verse one.
There was a certain man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zup. I've practiced that all week, and it still didn't go well.
So if you don't name your kids, that is what I'm saying. All right, so he had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Panina. And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children. Before we get to Hannah, we first have to get to know Elkanah, because it doesn't bear as much weight unless we know Elkanah's situation.
So, Elkanah, the Bible gives us two important clues. He had land, he had inheritance, and he also had genealogy. Now, what I mean by that is, anytime in the Bible, it mentions someone's land or it mentions someone's specific genealogy. That's God's way of saying, this is a very important person. This is a person that is respected, that has a lot of money, has a lot of notoriety. But also, when they list the genealogy, it's letting you know that family needs to keep going on because their family is mentioned. Does that make sense? So genealogy, land is an important clue. This is an important, well known person. It's also probably a clue that he's wealthy. He had to afford having two wives. So you see, this guy had land and he had genealogy. But why in the world did he have two wives?
Well, we get a little bit of the clue as to why when it says this in the text, that Hannah, who was his first wife, was not able to bear children.
So we had Panina, and she was able to bear children.
Now, part of the reason I gave you Elkanah's background is to help us understand how important it would have been for Elkanah to have someone next in line to care for their farm, to care for their land, to continue their genealogy. Do you think Hannah knew?
So just as it's difficult and crushing today for someone to have a desire to have a child, but they can't in this day, especially, too, it was seen as that is the primary way you have value, is if you can bear a child.
And just as it is today, it was then. I'm wanting us to see that the inability for her to bear a child, that was not just something that was sad, that was crushing.
And to make matters worse, she already knew that she had that limitation at that time, and she was living through that unfulfilled desire. What makes it worse is this girl named Panina actually provoked her and made it difficult.
And so they're getting ready to go on their trip that they do every year, which is to Shiloh to go worship. And by the way, if you look on the history of this trip, the whole purpose of the trip was to be thankful and grateful for what you have. You see the dilemma she's in, and so she's getting ready for this trip. And one of the customs of what they do is they share a meal together before they go. And so this is what this text says. On the day when Elkanah was sacrificing, he was giving portions to Panina, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. So, you see, she's got a lot of family, a lot of kids.
But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. I want to stop here for a second, because this is an important biblical background detail. During this day, the person that got the double portion usually was always the one that had children.
So he's going out of the way to give the one who has no kids the double portion. So, technically, who should get it? Panina. And so he's going by, and Panina's there, and he scoops some food on her plate. And, by the way, I kind of thought this was an od way of showing love. Here, honey, here's two scoops of mashed potatoes for you. Wink, wink. So he goes and gives her the double portion.
The reason I give you that detail, and I'm not trying to let Panayna off the hook, but I also want us to see that there's more to the story.
That part of the reason why Panina also experiences a little bit of jealousy, too, is because she knows that he loves her more.
But also she sees that she's getting what she thought she would get. Does that make sense? I'm just wanting us to see that there's some frustration, some tension on all angles here. All right?
But then what we see happening is that after this meal, they're getting ready to make this trip. And whenever they made this trip, it says that Panina used to provoke Hannah. And this is how it's worded, grievously irritating her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year after year. As soon as they went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore, Hannah wept and would not eat. One of the commentaries I used, he mentioned what could have been situations that Hannah would have experienced. One of the commentaries mentioned, you wonder if they're around that table, that Panina was like, hey, can you help me feed the kids? It's difficult feeding kids. I mean, you wouldn't know anything about that.
Or you have to wonder if they're on that trip, that as they're walking, she's like, kids. They can be so difficult. But you wouldn't know anything like that. Like subtle jabs to make it very difficult for her. And here's the thing I think about.
Hannah did not need to be provoked by somebody else. The situation in and of itself is provoking enough, is it not? Because think about this. She's on a trip.
You don't have to hide the fact that kids are. That, like, kids let you know when they're on a trip is what saying.
Like, they let you know sometimes too late when they've got to go to the bathroom. They also like to ask for snacks.
And then you also think about, as they're walking, you know, one of the kids probably grabbed Hannah's dress and rubbed their snotty nose on it as they were walking.
So the fact that she provoked her was difficult. The fact that Panina was a baby factory was difficult. And the problem that Hannah didn't have the very thing she wanted anyway was difficult.
There's pain. There's hurt involved on so many levels in this narrative that Hannah is experiencing.
This is one of those instances where the Hebrew really gives a powerful picture of what Hannah was experiencing when the Hebrew says she was grievously irritating her. In the Hebrew, that means to roar or to thunder. The only other time in the Bible where that phrase is used is to describe a literal storm.
The Bible is trying to let us know there is a storm brewing inside of Hannah.
So if there's a storm brewing, what do you do next? Well, here's what makes it even more difficult for Hannah is number one. This was supposed to be the happiest time of the year. Did you know that? In your psalms? And by the way, in our connect group tonight, we're going to look at one of them, psalm 130. But a lot of the psalms that we have today were actually written on these trips, on these pilgrimages. They were meant to be times of celebration. So Hannah is supposed to be happy. But maybe you can relate to Hannah that there's certain places you drive by, that to other people, it's a great place, but to you, it's a reminder of pain.
Maybe for you it's a day on the calendar that whenever that day rolls around, that for some people it's a day of celebration. But for you it's a day of pain. Maybe for some of you, it's going to see family, and it's a holiday, and it's supposed to be a time of celebration. But for you, it's a time of difficulty. That's what Hannah is experiencing. What is supposed to be the happiest time of year for her is one of the worst. See, God has given every single one of us desires. And the desires we have, some are good. Those are the ones that are given from God that I think we're going to dig in today to show that how he urges us into righteousness through the Holy Spirit. But then there's desires that we have within us that are not from God.
Desires that are sinful, that can cast shadows. But here's the difficult balance. What about the good desires? Like, what about the good desires we don't get an answer to?
Or even maybe we might say, God given desires. How do we handle those?
See, two of the most difficult things we will ever go through in life is, number one, an unfulfilled desire and a limitation.
Hannah has both an unfulfilled desire and a.
Here's. I guess we might say the paradox of desire is this.
You might desire a job, you might desire a situation, you might desire a relationship.
And when you desire something, you open yourself up to possibilities that are good.
But what do you also open up yourself to?
The possibility of pain.
In fact, I was talking with someone recently that looking for a job, and what he was struggling with was I kept opening myself that this was going to be it. This is going to be it.
But when you open up yourself to that desire and you get told no, it also opens you up to the possibility of pain. You see, the dilemma of desire is that when we open our hearts up to desire, maybe for some of you, it's to desire again. It is the possibility of pain that we're opening ourselves up to. But if you shut it down, it's like you die altogether.
This is where prayer comes into play.
So Elkanah, her husband, ended up saying to her, Hannah, why are you weeping?
Why don't you eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons? Now, I do think Elkanah, her husband, was well meaning, but it didn't land okay.
And I want to stop and say for just a second, again, I don't want to paint him an overly negative light, but he does what a lot of men try to do, which is fix it, fix things, when the reality is a listening ear is what's needed.
And when I heard this phrase, am I not more to you than 10,000 sons or ten sons? Excuse me. It made me think of a time when someone that had lost a child told me that there was a person that said to them, I'm sorry for your loss, but at least you have another kid.
Sometimes people say things like that, and maybe your intention is good, but that's not the pathway to help somebody. Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. People don't need to think that. Number one, we don't have the answer to people's problems.
God does. He's got the answer. We don't.
But it's insulting and dangerous anyway to think we are the answer to someone's pain and problems.
In fact, you look through the Bible and you think about just the word rescue. One guy pointed out that rescue is used over 80 times in the Bible. And almost every single time, it's talking about what God does.
We relate. We reach out to people, never down.
It's God's job to do the also, you know, he says, why are you sad? I wonder, did he not know?
But also, am I not more to you than he's like, listen. What? Remember the mashed potatoes I gave you? All that extra. She's like, that's not enough. The reason I'm highlighting that is, did Hannah have double portion? Yes.
But did she still have a problem?
Yes. What I'm saying is you can be at a place in life where you experience portion and problems.
Prayer, as we're going to see for Hannah, is how she navigated both.
And so here's where her prayer is about to be offered. It says this in the text after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. It says, hannah Rose. I've read that before. Didn't think much of it.
But if you look in the Hebrew, this is a different word than stand up.
The word rose here means that Hannah didn't just stand up. Hannah made a choice.
Hannah Rose.
Do you remember Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? He had satin in that chair for so long. And he decided to rise and begin to write. Do you remember Luke, chapter 15, the. The narrative of the prodigal son?
The turning point in the story was not just the father's embrace as he's walking home. Do you know what the turning point was when he was in the pig pen?
When it says so, he what? Got up Hannah Rose.
And after she rose, here's what she did. She offered her prayer. So it says, eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple. She was deeply distressed. She had prayed to the Lord, and it says she was weeping bitterly. One of the details I think about in this text, it would have been enough for the Bible just to read that she wept.
But to say she was weeping bitterly, does that not give it even more weight?
And so she ended up vowing to the Lord, a vow, and said, o Lord of host, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me, not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son. Then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head. Don't notice just the depth of her prayer, but also notice, too, what she is offering and focusing on. See, the very thing she wanted more than anything was a son. But she's saying, I'm willing to give you God, the very thing I want the most.
Wow.
See, during this day, you couldn't just become a priest if you wanted to. You had to be of the levitical tribe.
But you could take on the Nazarite vow to set yourself apart, which was not cutting your hair, not drinking of strong drink, or touching dead things.
So she's saying, I'm going to give you a child. I'm asking for a child that I'm going to give to you, lord. And by the way, I was thinking back to my little Sunday school books I had. The child that I remember picturing in my head from those Sunday school books was like, he was like a teen when she gave him.
He was not a teen. The text says when he was weaned. So that's like two or three years old. She's saying, I'm going to give him back to you, Lord.
Wow.
What you notice in this text is Hannah is not just praying for a son, she's praying for the Lord.
And that, to me, also gives a clue about the value of prayer. One of the books I have made this statement, what makes prayer valuable is not the stuff we get from God, but that we get God.
When you see this point in Hannah's prayer weeping bitterly, it makes me think of the series that we're going through right now in the book of psalms on Sunday nights.
For every different emotion we experience, you probably have noticed and will notice there's a psalm for it.
But what I also want to draw your attention to as she continues her prayer, that God understands your pain. He welcomes your questions, and he would much rather you cry at him than actually walk away from him. And so here's what it goes on to say. And so she continued praying before the Lord.
Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart. Her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.
Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman. Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.
You notice here how much of a deep prayer she's crying to where he thinks she's drunk.
And I know for me, and this is something I've had to grow in, and I'm not there yet. And maybe you can relate to this. I only really had one category of prayer.
And what I mean by that, it was almost like, all right, I'm about to approach the Lord, and of course I'm always going to do it reverently, but it's kind of got to fit in this nice, neat box of all right, let me get myself together. Let me get all the words right. Let me get everything how I need to say it. All right. Nope, not there yet. So I can't pray. That was me. And I don't know if you ever dealt with that or do deal with that, but yet you hear a prayer from hannah where her lips are moving but nothing's even coming out of her mouth. And when I read things like this, I used to think, man, that would be so awesome if we could do that to where there was something I had here and here. I knew in my head what maybe I needed to say, but my heart was struggling to get the words out. That would be so neat if we had that. And then you turn to romans eight, and guess what? You see we do.
In fact, romans eight to me is one of the most underused chapters in the entire bible for us as the church today. And I want you to turn there with me to see the power and the opportunity of prayer.
And if you go to verse nine of Romans chapter eight, it says this, you, however, those of you that have put on Christ, he's saying, are not in the flesh, but you're in the what?
Spirit.
He says, in fact, if the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit of life because of righteousness, and this is the most powerful verse to me in this whole chapter, verse eleven.
If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
Is that not amazing?
The one who rises others and rose himself, I'm saying, can rise you.
He's saying that the same one that rose him from the dead is the same one that when you made that decision to put on Christ and you were given the gift of the Holy Spirit, he's saying, that's who's in you. That's him.
And so then, understanding that context, now read verse 26.
Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Maybe you've started a prayer, dear Lord, and you didn't know what to do next, what to say next.
God hears it.
But the other thing I was thinking about is I read an article not too long ago about the Puritans and the Puritans like us, that they believe in the power of prayer, but also like us, we would all say we don't pray as much as we should, but also sometimes we don't know what to pray. So d. A. Carson used to have this phrase for those that had that struggle. And he said, here's what I want you to do. Pray until you pray.
To pray until you pray. Which might sound odd, but it's the idea that you might start out like dear God.
So, you know, I'm trying to get there. You might even be fumbling through the words. You might not even know how to zero in on what you need to say. But as you're bringing it to him, he begins to work and he begins to operate, getting you to that depth and that point of prayer. Sometimes that's how it has to start. You've experienced this, whether you know it. Even with worship. There have been days where you've walked through these doors where you didn't really feel it. You were struggling walking in. But then you start to sing songs that maybe get your heart in a certain place, that start to maybe shift your focus a little bit again.
Yes, the portion's there, but the problem's there. But how you navigate that portion and that problem, the more you begin to worship, the more you begin to pray, there starts to be a shift. So here's what happens. Hannah answered, no, my lord, I'm a woman that's just troubled in spirit. I've drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Notice this sentence.
Do not regard your servant as worthless woman. For all along, I have been speaking out of my great anxiety.
Eli answered, go in peace, and the God of Israel may grant your petition that you have made to know. One of the things I think about, number one, is this.
Are we a community for people like Hannah?
And what I mean by that, are we always needing to, by the way, assessing ourselves to make sure that when people are grieving, when people are discouraged, when people are lost, that they have a place to land?
And when we talk about a place to land, it's more than just a listing ear. It's a trusting ear. Like when someone shares with you a pain or a difficulty of what they're experiencing.
To be people that are trustworthy. When they say, listen, can you just keep this to yourself and pray that you will be that, but also to be a person that doesn't try to fix it, thinking that we're the answer to their problems? We're not.
But the other part I think about so far as we look at this text, is that what Hannah also did was a part of prayer we don't talk about enough?
Is that when she rose, not only did she pray, but she also put herself in a position to be prayed for.
I don't know if you feel this way, but sometimes it is almost easier to pray for others than to let yourself be prayed for.
And maybe for each and every one of us as we dissect and really dig into what a culture of prayer looks like. Yes, it is those moments where we say, hey, let's pray.
Let's bring this before God.
But it's also the flip side, you saying, hey, I need help.
Can you pray with me? Can you pray for me? It's not just enough about praying for, it's also about being prayed for. And so that's why the action steps this week is this. To rise, to make a decision, and to pray until you pray.
Now, if we stopped here, the narrative would be incomplete. But I do want you to notice this detail. It goes on to say, and so she said, let your servant find favor in your eyes.
Then the woman went her way, and she ate. And her face was no longer sad. Now, did she hear from Eli that God's going to grant you a request? Yes, but notice. Had she gotten it yet? No, but still notice that her face was no longer sad. So she rose early in the morning they did, and they worshiped the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife. And the Lord remembered her. In due time, Hannah did conceive and bear a son. And she called his name Samuel. For she said, I have asked him from the Lord.
Now, I guess this is the human part of me. As I was reading the text, I kept thinking this would be the perfect opportunity for Hannah, now that she has a son, to go on a trip with Panana and rub it into know for her to really show her what's up and to make it difficult on her. Let her child, let little you know, his nose on her dress. And let her be the vending machine for the like. This is the perfect moment.
But that's not what you see from Hannah.
It says, the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice to pay his vow.
Hannah had the perfect opportunity to go on this trip, right? To rub it in. But it says, hannah did not go see, because her next trip was when she was going to give away that son.
She said, as soon as the child is weaned, I'm going to bring him so he can appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there.
Know, one of the things that I admire so much about Hannah is not just her prayer and the fact that she rose. But once her prayer was even answered, the way she handled herself, she didn't lash out or try to get even.
She kept taking her issues to the Lord. And so Hannah ended up crying this out. And it says this, oh, my lord, as you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the Lord for this child. I prayed, and the Lord granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore, I loaned him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is loaned to the Lord.
What's interesting about this number one, is that in the end, her joy was not even just her son, but was even more so the Lord. In fact, one of the things you might notice if you have cross references in your Bible. Is one of the most cross reference verses from one Samuel 126 and 28. Actually, cross references to when Mary sang the song that we just sang this morning. Which is magnificent, because if you remember Mary's situation, it was anything but ideal.
She wasn't some 30 year old woman. She was a pregnant teen, all right.
But yet her focus, even at that young age, was to the Lord. What's the point of this narrative? Is the point, well, if we just pray and we even weep and we do all those things, that the point is that God's going to give me whatever I want? No.
In fact, even as some of you were reading through this narrative with me this morning, it lands different on everybody.
Because you might have seen answers that you would have never conceived of, imagined.
And then also, we got to be real, too. That there's moments, too, where we still don't have answers. And we may not.
So it's not simply just pray enough and you will get what you want. But it's pointing us to God. But the second part is this, that there is a place that we're all in and we've all been in. Where we hear about hope, we hear about portion, but we ourselves have problems. We experience pain.
What I want you to see, Hannah did is after she rose, she prayed.
Prayer was the way she navigated the heartache and the know. One of the things that I shared with you at the very beginning of this message was that was the situation.
For, you know, he heard from those church bells peace on earth. But in his home, he experienced anything but peace. And if you notice, as he rose and he sat down at his table and he began to write, all he could talk about was the pain he saw. The difficult he saw. But what was interesting is towards the end of the poem, the problem did not go away. The pain didn't go away. But his perspective began to change. And this is the last verse. Then peeled the bells more loud and deep.
God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. With peace on earth, goodwill to men.
Maybe you're here this morning and you're dealing with a deep pain and a hurt, a heartache, a problem.
And you don't even know what to pray.
I encourage you to find one of our shepherds at one of these backdoors. Or to come here this morning and we'll bring it before the Father what Hannah had. You have the opportunity today through the Holy spirit.
But maybe you're here today and you've never made that decision to put on Christ. And you're like, I want that.
As it was talked about by Mike this morning. It's a free gift to all.
We would love to help you. If you want to put on Christ in baptism, maybe you want to repent of sin. Maybe you're here this morning and you've got these different things on your heart. Let's bring them before the father. You think about what Romans eight talked about. He's like, listen, you're in the spirit, which is awesome, but also reminds us we're in a. What kind of battle? A spiritual battle. So since we're in a spiritual battle, we need spiritual weapons. And he's given us that through prayer. Don't try to fight your battles on your own.
Let us fight with you. Let us pray with you and bring those groanings that you have that are too deep for words before God. So whatever you have a need of this morning, go to one of these exits to find a shepherd or come forward this morning. We would love to pray for you and encourage you while we stand and sing this song.
