I recently read an article about what makes people feel behind in
life. What makes people feel like they
are behind in life? And according to this article,
the main factors were social comparison and societal
timelines, which is very related.
Social comparison is of course just you look around and like,
hey, that person's my age and this person has a bunch of
things that I don't have. I feel behind.
And societal timelines are just basic timelines that the culture
gives you. But what age you got to be done
with this and by this age you got to be done with that and
then and and so forth. I remember when I was a fifth
year senior, I fell behind in life.
That was a society tells us that well, no, you should probably
graduate in four years. But yeah, I knew that everyone
like, hey, all my friends are gone.
And the only ones who remained were like double majors or like
really hard majors. And I was the only one with this
easy major that took five years. Definitely fell behind.
And because of these things, we can't help but to think, man, I
wish I had that one thing. And it starts early in life
comparing and this, these timelines and, and as we get
older, what doesn't go away is that feeling like, man, if I
have that one thing, I'd be more complete.
If I had that, if I accomplished that, if I had that in my life,
I wouldn't feel such behind. We're always looking for that
one thing that we feel like we need to finally be happy,
finally not be behind, finally feel OK.
In today's passage, we read about Hannah and how she was
able to overcome that desire. She wanted one thing and one
thing only. It was to have children.
And she was kind of trapped in that desire.
She was imprisoned by that desire.
And then we will learn how she was able to overcome that and be
set free. So that's a question we want to
answer today. How can we be free from feeling
like that? One thing is necessary.
How can we be free from that feeling?
Number one, we need to know what enslaves us in the 1st place?
What makes us not free in the 1st place?
If you ever Bibles, please turn to First Samuel chapter 1.
We'll be reading one through 8, one through 8.
For those of you who read the passage at home, I know this was
not what was announced. I had a change of heart in the
middle of the week, so forgive me for that.
First time with three will be next week's tournament.
First one through 8. There was a man named from Sorry
from Rama fame, Zophim in the Hill Country of Efraim.
His name was Elkanah son of Gerald Ham, son of Elihu, son of
Tohu, son of Zoof. And if he was a Ephraim might he
had two wives, the first name Hannah and the second name
Panina. Panina had children but Hannah
was childless. This man would go up from his
town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of
Armies as Shiloh, where Eli's two sons, Hofni and Phineas,
were the Lord's priests. Whenever Alkana offered a
sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife
Penina, and to each of her sons and daughters.
But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even
though the Lord had kept her from conceiving.
Her rival. Penina would taunt her severely
just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from
conceiving year after year. When she went up to the Lord's
house, her rival taunted her in this way.
Hannah would weep and would not eat.
Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband Elk and I would ask,
why won't you eat? Why are you troubled?
Am I not? Am I not better to you than ten
sons? Let's go back to the previous
verses on the screen. Hannah was imprisoned by the
expectations in her culture. It says that she was devastated
to the point where she was weeping and she could not even
eat. I know in our culture, a lot of
women are expected to have children.
If you get married, maybe the first year, not so many of those
questions, but every year more and more when are you going to
have a baby? And that that weighs on you and
that gives you pressure. So some of you guys know this,
but I would say in this culture, 3000 years ago it was, it was
beyond that because women right now, women could find their
identity and many things. But at 3000 years ago, it was
only one thing. Culture expected you to just do
one thing well, which is to have children.
Because the vast majority were in the labor kind of intensive,
like labor, working class. Having children meant more hands
to help out for your family survival.
Bigger families would literally be richer families.
So if a woman had ten children, she would be a hero to her
family because she brought financial security to her
family. Children symbolize security,
honor, and it was hope for the family's future.
So based on the cultural expectation of Hannah, she was
worth nothing. Yes, it's wrong, but that's how
it was. She had zero children, therefore
her worth. The world told her your worth is
nothing. She was barren and Baroness
symbolize hopelessness in her culture.
So how did she cope with that? How did she survive knowing that
she was worth 0? When everyone looked at her they
said what a failure. How does she cope?
Well, we have hints in a couple of these verses.
It at least worked mildly, at least it worked temporary ways.
But I believe the love of her husband at least kept her
afloat. The Jews back in the day, it was
once a year you went to the temple and you had this big
sacrifice. And after the sacrifice, the
some of the meat was given to the priest and some of it you
kept. And it was a it was a public
thing. And publicly the the man of the
household would give some of the portions of meat to the family.
And it says here Elkanah gave a portion to his wife Penina and
to each of her sons and daughters.
But it says in verse 5, but he gave a double portion to Hannah.
He was publicly showing everyone, hey, I love this
woman. She has no children, but I still
love her. It was a public statement.
But it that did not stop from making her feel like she was
still worth nothing, she might have felt better about it.
In verse 8. It shows that the husband said,
why are you crying? You know, it might not worth
more than $0.10. No, she's she's very he's very
caring as well. But ultimately the voice right,
the expectation she could not overcome that her right, this is
her rival, the other wife. Penina would say hey, she will
remind her, hey, look at all the kids I have and look how you
have zero kids. It doesn't matter if you get
more meat, I'm still better than you.
And she would be devastated when that happened.
It says here that Penina taunted her severely ear after year.
Penina made sure that Hannah remembered her position on life.
You are in last place, I am in first place.
And we see how devastated she would be here.
Now you might think, OK, well this is this is a sad story
about a woman named Hannah in the Bible.
What what, what does this got to do with me?
I want to argue that we are all, at least to some degree, we are
all Hannah. You and I all have a little bit
of Hannah in US. Of course we don't have a second
wife or a second husband to compare ourselves to, but we all
do have a Panina in our lives. Meaning there is a social
standard that tells you this is what you need to make it in this
world. We might not physically have a
person human being taunting her, taunting us, but we have voices
out in the world speaking to us through social media or friends
or or wherever. We have that voice that tells
us, hey, you need this for self worth.
You don't have this, so you're not.
You don't have self worth. There's these voices telling us
you need that one thing to find meaning, to find purpose, to
find worth. And when we hear sermons like
this, it's so easy to think about other people.
Oh, yeah, I know somebody who's like that.
Yeah. That this person is all about
his job and and he's devastated that he can't get promotions.
And yeah, he's listening to those voices.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Pastor Tim, good sermon. I'm, I'm, I'm going to share
this to my friend. Well, please do share sermon
with your friends. I'm certainly not.
I, I will want you know our numbers from 5 to 10 eventually.
I'm not saying don't do that. But what I'm saying is more
important is that, oh, I know who needs the sermon.
It's no, it's you who need it. Because we are often blind to
our own false desires or wrong desires.
And we are so keen to other people's.
It's natural to feel like what we care about is always legit.
And what other people care about is you care too much about the
world. I remember in seminary that was
the topic of calling and we talked about, you know, like
some biblical figures who had calling different types, Moses
versus whoever. And we're sharing and there's a,
there's a good number of students in our class that were
from Korea. They, you know, they, they're
educating Korea, but they come here and they go to seminary
here and then they go back home. We had a good number of those.
And when they shared, I noticed that their sharing was a lot
different than the people from here.
Their sharing was my calling is to work at a big church and
become a senior pastor. And I remember thinking, oh, my
gosh, that is so worldly, so judgmental.
Well, that's the Panina that that in their lives, they grew
up in Korea, where it's all about best school, best job,
biggest, you know, biggest company.
So naturally translates to pastors like, OK, the best
school, best church, highest position, it kind of naturally
that's how they get influenced. But I'm blinded to my own.
I have, I have a voice that was speaking to me from the world.
It's just that it was different. What it said was different.
Maybe I would, I would have noticed that then.
But looking back, I definitely was influenced by the world.
I needed a ministry position. I didn't care about the biggest
church, but I needed a position that agreed with my values.
I needed a position that made me feel fulfillment.
I think like 10-15 years ago, there was a big wave of people
going into the healthcare system for jobs, going in healthcare
because a lot of people when millennials were getting jobs,
everyone wanted to help others. We have this voice like your job
has to give you meaning. It has to give you fulfillment.
It has to make you feel like it's worth life is worth it.
And we, we start working and we realize that's not true.
It doesn't give us meaning, right?
The truth is, whether you see it or not, This is why it's helpful
to have community so perhaps they could see it, something
that you don't about yourself. But we all have societal
timelines and someone to compare ourselves to.
We all have a voice telling you you need this otherwise you
don't have worth. We all have a voice saying you
know what, you have kids. Well, your kids need to turn out
like this or you failed. By this age, you got to have
this house. By this age, you got to have
this. You got to provide this for your
kids. You're going to be dating at
this age, married at that. We all have that voice.
And as long as we're listening to that voice, we are enslaved.
We are trapped. We will be in the same cycle as
Hannah. We're devastated by the voice.
And then her husband loves her a little bit and she's now I feel
better. And then, and then she's
reminded that she has no kids and she's devastated this this
cycle that goes back and forth over and over again.
And maybe, maybe you could say, well, Pastor, maybe just achieve
it and maybe maybe she'll be free or we'll be free.
That's not true either. Panita is the symbolism of
somebody who has it all. Everything that woman's supposed
to achieve, she achieved it. But does she seem free?
No, she's arrogant, she's oppressive, she's hateful, she's
jealous, she's trapped in her own way.
So whether you listen to the voices and then you fail, you
feel you're you're enslaved and you achieve it and you're
enslaved, there's only one path to freedom and that's number
two. We are freed when we surrender
that one thing to God. When we surrender that thing,
that's the only way we could be free.
That's three verses 9 through 11.
This is the turning point of Hannah.
On one occasion, Hannah got up. Take very close attention to the
word. We're going to talk about it.
Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh.
The priest Eli was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the
Lord's temple. OK, so she got up and she goes
to the priest and she starts praying.
Deeply hurt, Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many
tears. Making a vow she pleaded, Lord
of armies, if you will take notice of your servants
affliction, remember and not forget me and give your servant
a son. I will give him to the Lord all
the days of his life and his hair will never be cut.
Next page. Oh OK, never mind 9 through 11.
I'm sorry. So in nine through 11 we see
that Hannah got up and the verse 9 is the turning point.
And I say I want to focus on the word arise or got up and I want
to turn back to Jonah. This is a sermon that I preached
3 months ago. If you could find Jonah and
under you can find Jonah on the screen as well.
And in that sermon I also talked about the word got up or arise.
And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but just take
careful note of the word got up, arise something similar.
So this is Jonah. God caused Jonah to preach to
Nineveh. And of course Jonah hates the
Ninevites because the Ninevites conquered his people.
But God says, you know what? It's time to arise and go preach
to Nineveh. So God says, get up, arise and
go to the great city of city of Nineveh.
So what does Jonah do? Verse three, He gets up and what
does he do? He goes down to Jopa.
He found the ship, and then we go to the next page.
Sorry, another went down next page and there's a storm.
Do we have a next page? OK, it's OK.
No, we do have a next page. All right and then so he goes
instead of rising up, he goes down opposite way and he goes
down to the boat and then there's a storm and then Jonah
goes down to the lowest part of the vessels, lowest part of the
sea or of the of the boat arise. What does that word mean?
What is this just stand up. So when God calls us for a very
specific purpose, what God wants is a surrendering of our will.
So when God calls Jonah, God says I want you to arise.
I want you to surrender your will.
You don't like the Ninevites, but surrender that will and
follow my commands arise. But Jonah goes down and down and
down. He was the opposite.
In the verse 9, it says Hannah got up, she surrendered her
will. She got up and she surrendered
her will. And we know from the prayer that
she this is a different prayer. Many people think that this is
what happened. This people read this story or
hear the story and they assume that this is what happens.
This is woman without a child. And Hannah goes to the temple
and Hannah prays really hard, right?
He says, you know, I wept with many tears to the point we
didn't read this passage, but to the point after Hannah prays the
preschools, hey, have you been drinking?
So we assume that, oh, this is what we got to do.
You want a baby, pray really hard.
And like, you mean it with tears and passion.
You want something in life, pray really hard.
No. That's not.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with praying hard, but that's
not the meaning of the story. Her prayers changed.
Her prayers were different. This was an unusual prayer, a
prayer certainly none of us have prayed.
Give me a son. The one thing I wanted the most,
the one thing I desperately needed.
Give me a son, Lord, and I will give him right back to you.
I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, his
heroine that will never be cut, meaning I will give him to be a
prophet of God. And that's exactly what Hannah
does after Samuel was born, takes baby Samuel and gives him
to Eli. And then Eli, you raise him to
be a prophet, and Samuel grows up, becomes a prophet, and he's
the one who anoints King David, the teenager King David.
Let's look at verse 15 to 18. This is what happens when you're
freed. No, my Lord, Hannah replied.
This is Eli asking, are you drunk?
I am a woman with a broken heart.
I haven't had any wine or beer. I've been pouring out my heart
before the Lord. Don't think of me as a wicked
woman. I've been praying from the death
of my anguish and resentment, Eli responded.
Go in peace and may the God of Israel grant the request you
made of him, may your servant and find favor with you, she
replied. This is the key that Hannah went
on her way. She ate and she no longer looked
despondent. OK, remember, she wasn't able to
eat and she was devastated. What changed?
OK, in case you're thinking this, she's not pregnant.
She still needs her husband, OK? All she did was pray.
OK? No husband yet.
She prayed. She's not pregnant.
Why could she eat? And she why does she no longer
look despondent? She was free.
Hannah arose, she stood up and did what?
She released the things that was enslaving her.
The one thing that she thought she needed to find meaning and
purpose. She prays to God and says Lord
give me a son. I will give it right back to
you. I want a son, but I want more of
you. And she released the very thing
that was enslaving her. She released the social
expectations, the comparisons, the security she thought she
needed, the status. She surrendered her will, her
wants, her desires, her longings.
She gave all of that up to the Lord.
Her prayers are different. She doesn't say Lord, I need a
child. She says I want a child not for
me, but for your Kingdom, not so I can feel fulfilled so that but
so he could fulfill your will not I don't want a kid so I
could say ha Penina, I have a kid too, but I want a kid so
that he he could be used for your glory.
And soon as she releases all the things that she desperately
wanted, she releases to God, she's free.
She's free now. She could eat no longer look
despondent. So this is great for Hannah, but
what does this mean for us? What does this mean for you?
It means that your freedom is not on the other side of getting
that one thing. It's not you're struggling.
You get the one thing and then you're free.
That's not the formula here. It's you want something so bad,
it's surrendering it and then you're free.
Some of us, some of you have been waiting for that thing to
happen. I want happiness, I want
fulfillment and this needs to happen.
You feel like when I finally get married or finally have a child
or I finally have my second child or or one boy or one girl,
that perfect family where my finally when my career takes
off, when my finances stabilize, then I will experience these
things. But what God wants is I want you
to finally surrender these things so that you could
experience your my freedom. I'm not saying, you know, you
shouldn't go home and like, oh, I don't care about these
anymore. It's not about pretending, it's
not minimizing, It's not shaming yourself.
Oh, why do I care about these things so much?
But it's about releasing these things to God and by going to
him in prayer. Verse 15, it says I've been
pouring out my heart before the Lord, Eli, I'm not drunk.
I'm just pouring out my heart to God.
Pour your heart to God in this, in this time in our culture, we
are encouraged, you know, especially like we're like, hey,
even men share your feelings, you know, talk about your
feelings. And that part is good.
But I feel like now it's only about sharing with other people,
sharing with their therapist. Maybe those aren't bad, but
what's really necessary is that we go to our God and we pour our
heart before the Lord. Verse 16, it says I've been
praying from the death of my anguish and resentment.
Pray in your pain, pray through your pain and offer those up to
God. And the reason why we could give
these things to the Lord is because what Jesus has done for
us through the gospel. About 1000 years after this
impossible birth of Samuel, we learn about another impossible
birth. Just like Hannah surrendered her
son that she's so much long for, God surrenders his Son, Jesus
Christ, whom he loves so much so that Jesus can rescue us from
our sins. Samuel would grow up and serve
the temple. Jesus becomes the true temple.
Samuel would become a big part of how Israel is rescued from
their enemies. Through King David, He selects
King David. Jesus saves more than just the
Jews, he saves the world. Knowing this, you could
surrender anything to God because through the Gospel we
know that we already have what's most important.
Because of Jesus, you already have what you need the most.
You already have forgiveness. You already have acceptance.
You already have identity in Christ.
You already have security. You already received grace.
You are already beloved. There is nothing you could do to
make God love you more or less. He already loves you 100%.
He loves you to the maximum already.
Everything that we desire in life you already have.
Therefore, when you have these desires from the world OfferUp
straight to God, because you already have it.
Once you realize that, once you realize that in the gospel you
already have everything, then you are free.
The world whispers interior years, do you need this?
And you just whisper right back. No, I don't because I already
have everything through the gospel.
Only through the gospel, only through what Jesus has done for
us on the cross. We are free from all the
expectations of this world. Main point.
We can be free when we surrender ourselves to God.
Let's take time to pray.