Whitehall Baptist Church
May 10th | Mother's Day | 1 Samuel 1:1-2

      • Hebrews 10:24–25KJV1900

      • Romans 15:13KJV1900

      • Matthew 14:30–31KJV1900

  • Love Lifted Me

      • Romans 5:8KJV1900

  • My Savior’s Love
  • The Love Of God

      • Romans 8:38–39KJV1900

  • In Christ Alone

  • 1 SAMUEL 1:1-2 | A DEDICATED MOTHER

    INTRODUCTION: Happy Mother’s Day
    I am thankful for the mother’s in my life.
    I’m grateful for my wife, who God has given me who is an incredible mother.
    My kids don’t even know how lucky they are to have the mother they have.
    To watch her as we raise our kids together is incredible.
    The patience she has with them and with me, leaves me blown away.
    And then I’m thankful for my mom.
    I am blessed to have a mom on this earth that I can call and talk to
    I’m grateful for how she raised me.
    She would often tell me as a kid and teenage, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!”
    But she said it in love…
    I’ve truly been blessed by the women in my life who are mothers.
    This morning, if you are a mother with little kiddos
    If you are a mother working through those teenage years
    If you are mother whose kids are grown and gone
    Or if you are a grandmother who has now seen the next generation step into that role
    I want to tell you Happy Mother’s Day.
    But I also want to say something to some of the people in the room, for whom Mother’s Day is not a day of joy and rejoicing.
    Some of you came in this morning with an empty arm and an aching heart.
    You wanted to be a mother, and the Lord, in His sovereignty, has not given you that yet — or has not given you that at all.
    And the world tells you to smile through it, but you know what it is to cry on the way home from church on Mother's Day.
    Some of you are mothers, but you came in here this morning carrying the weight of a child who is far from God.
    You laid in bed last night wondering where you went wrong.
    You watched the kids in the seats in front of you and thought, "I used to have that. What happened?"
    Some of you are mothers who feel invisible.
    Nobody applauds the loads of laundry, the early mornings, the late nights, the meals nobody compliments, the prayers nobody hears but God.
    And some of you here this morning had a mother who hurt you.
    Or a mother who was never there.
    And Mother's Day reminds you of what you didn't have.
    I want you to know that the message this morning is for you.
    Because the woman we're going to meet in 1 Samuel chapter 1 — she felt every one of those things.
    She knew tears.
    She knew shame.
    She knew being mocked.
    She knew being misunderstood.
    She knew the silence of unanswered prayer.
    And yet she became one of the most powerful mothers in the entire Bible.
    If you have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to 1 Samuel 1
    EXPLANATION: As you’re turning there let’s set the scene.
    We are at the very end of the period of the Judges.
    Israel is a mess.
    The book of Judges ends with that heartbreaking sentence — "every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
    There is no king.
    There is moral collapse.
    The priesthood at Shiloh is corrupt.
    Eli's sons are wicked men.
    Spiritually, the nation is empty.
    And into that dark moment in Israel's history, God begins His work of redemption — not in a palace, not in a temple, not through a king or a prophet — but in the broken heart of a barren woman in a village in the hill country of Ephraim.
    That should encourage somebody this morning.
    Because God still does His greatest work in the hardest places.
    And here's the big idea I want you to hold onto from the very beginning: God uses faithful mothers — and faithful parents — to shape generations, and sometimes to shape eternity itself.
    Let’s ask for the Lord’s help and then let’s dive into this passage together this morning.

    V.1-8, HANNAH’S SORROW

    1 Samuel 1:1–2 KJV 1900
    Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite: And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
    EXPLANATION: The story opens with a man named Elkanah.
    He's a Levite, he's faithful, he goes up year by year to worship at Shiloh.
    But verse 2 tells us something that, in that culture, was not just a footnote — it was a crisis.
    He had 2 wives!
    Now, before I go any further, let me deal with the obvious question — why does Elkanah have two wives?
    Polygamy was never God's design.
    From Genesis chapter 2, it has always been one man, one woman, one flesh, one lifetime.
    The Bible reports polygamy, but it never approves of it.
    And every time you see polygamy in Scripture, you see heartbreak.
    You see Sarah and Hagar.
    You see Jacob's tangled mess with his twelve sons and how they hated Joseph.
    And here you see Hannah and Peninnah.
    Most likely, Elkanah married Hannah first, loved her, and when she didn't bear children, he took a second wife to have a child
    That was cultural solution of the day.
    And it created the very situation that's about to break Hannah's heart.
    You see, in that culture, a woman’s worth, her identity, was wrapped up in her ability to have children.
    To be barren was a public shame.
    People would assume, “Her womb was closed by God… so what sin is in her life?”
    “What would cause God to withhold His blessing?”
    To all the world she appeared cursed but God.
    And then on top of that, there was Peninnah.
    1 Samuel 1:6 KJV 1900
    And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
    The Hebrew words for “provoked her sore” carries with it the sense that she tormented her… and v.7 says it was something that happened year after year!
    Every year as they would make there way to Shiloh she would dig the knife in deeper and more painfully with her tormenting words.
    She was so broken by this repetitive provoking that v.7 tells us that she wept and refused to eat.
    So her husband came along and tried to make things better in v.8
    1 Samuel 1:8 KJV 1900
    Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
    ILLUSTRATION: Men have you ever been in that place where you walk away from a conversation asking, “did I say something wrong?”
    Did I do something that made her mad?
    What did I say?
    EXPLANATION: Well, the answer to that question for Elkanah was “YES!” Big time!
    I mean it doesn’t matter how well-meaning he may have been, God’s Word put this in here for us to look at and shake our heads and say “what were you thinking?”
    Everything and everyone in Hannah’s life were only adding to the pain she was already feeling in her heart.
    A pain, a sorrow, that sometimes leaves us saying, “God, I don’t understand.”
    APPLICATION: We’ve probably all been there art one point or another.
    Where you are asking that question to God.
    You feel like you are going through the most heartbreaking of situations and you can’t see the reason and you don’t have any answers.
    If you are here this morning even, and you feel right where Hannah was, don’t forget, God wasn’t done with her story yet!
    And He isn’t done with yours either!
    HANNAH’S SORROW

    V.9-18, HANNAH’S SURRENDER

    1 Samuel 1:9–10 KJV 1900
    So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
    EXPLANATION: In this moment of brokenness and heartbreak, so many turn inward.
    So many seek revenge on those that have hurt them.
    So many look for a way to solve their problems their way.
    But that isn’t what Hannah did.
    V.9-10, tells us that she went up to the temple of the Lord.
    APPLICATION: This is a simple lessons, but so important for us to remember, when you don’t know where to go, run to God!
    You will always find His door open and ready to listen to you.
    EXPLANATION: And when Hannah came to the Lord, she didn’t come with beautiful prayers and eloquent words.
    So many times we think that’s how we have to come to God when we pray.
    But look how Hannah came to the Lord in v.10, “bitterness of soul”
    Now understand what that doesn’t mean.
    When we think of bitterness, we think of getting angry and making accusations.
    But that’s not what the words mean in this passage.
    It carries with it the sense that her prayers were barely even words.
    They were mostly just tears with a few syllables in between the sobs.
    APPLICATION: Sometimes in life we come to that place in our prayers.
    Romans 8:26 KJV 1900
    Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
    Sometimes we can reach a place of such brokenness that our prayers are little more than a cry out to God.
    And yet, so often it is in those times that our prayers become the most real.
    Because we aren’t concerned with saying the right words for people to hear
    We are worried about what we need to get to next
    They aren’t just vain repetition that never accomplishes anything.
    Sometimes it’s in those times of broken-heartedness that we find ourselves bowing right in the presence of God.
    Because it’s real… it’s raw… and yet it’s reverent because you recognize He is only the One Who can give an answer
    Hebrews 4:16 KJV 1900
    Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
    That’s exactly where Hannah found herself.
    EXPLANATION: Now look at the prayer Hannah prays in the moment of her greatest grief
    1 Samuel 1:11 KJV 1900
    And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no rasor come upon his head.
    Now don’t miss this, Hannah is begging God to give her a son… and in the same breath she promises to give that son back to the Lord!
    What powerful faith she is demonstrating in this moment.
    And it raises a question for us here this morning, Do you have enough faith to surrender the children He has given you, or will give you someday to the Lord?
    Most of the time, we want God to bless our plans for our children.
    Hannah wanted to be part of God's plan for her child.
    Most of the time, we say, "God, give me a healthy child, a happy child, a successful child, a child who turns out the way I want."
    Hannah said, "God, if You give him to me, he is Yours from the cradle to the grave."
    One is a prayer that trusts God as long as He does things your way
    The other is a real prayer of faith to God, as she surrendered her son with no strings attached!
    As she continues praying and begging God for His intervention, off to the side, Eli the priest sees her and believes she is drunk.
    Now to be clear, Eli was not a spiritual leader.
    In fact, he wasn’t much of a father either, as his two boys abused people and the temple of God and ultimately would be killed for it.
    As he accuses her, she defends herself and explains she is crying out to the Lord.
    And Eli says, 1 Samuel 1:17
    1 Samuel 1:17 KJV 1900
    Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
    And look at Hannah’s response in the next verse:
    1 Samuel 1:18 KJV 1900
    And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
    Now this is huge! Hannah hadn’t received the answer to her prayer… she only had a promise for her surrender!
    She had taken what had broken her, and she gave it to God!
    Matthew 11:28–30 KJV 1900
    Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
    APPLICATION: Maybe you are here this morning and you are carrying a burden that is just too heavy!
    Maybe it’s a wayward child
    Maybe it’s a situation you are facing
    Maybe it’s the way life has gone and you don’t know what to do
    You can give it to Jesus this morning
    1 Peter 5:7 KJV 1900
    Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
    When you give your burden to God, He has a way of lightening your load before the answer even comes!
    ILLUSTRATION: Jochebed was the mother of Moses.
    She lived at a time when Pharaoh had decreed that every Hebrew baby boy was to be thrown into the Nile and killed.
    And Jochebed had a son.
    The Bible says she hid him for three months because she saw he was a "goodly child."
    But she couldn't hide him forever.
    So Jochebed did something that, on the surface, looks insane.
    She wove a basket.
    She sealed it.
    She laid her infant son in that basket.
    And she put him in the very river — the Nile — that had become a graveyard for Hebrew babies.
    Think about what kind of faith that takes.
    One person said, “The river of death becomes the cradle of deliverance.”
    She put what she loved most into the hands of God, in the very place that should have killed him.
    And God protected him, and Pharaoh's daughter pulled him out, and Jochebed got to nurse her own son and raise him in his earliest years before he went to Pharaoh's palace, and that son became Moses, the deliverer of Israel.
    EXPLANATION: Hannah surrendered her son to the tabernacle.
    Jochebed surrendered her son to the river
    But in reality both of these mothers surrendered their children to God!
    Because they knew a child in God’s hands is the safest place in the universe!
    A child placed in God’s hands, is the place where you can have peace.
    APPLICATION: Friend, can I encourage you this morning, surrender your children to the Lord
    It’s the safest place they can be!
    Tressa and I have been blessed with 3 incredible kids!
    And I want the absolute best for each of them!
    But I cannot save them.
    I cannot guarantee one single thing about their future
    The most that I can do is exactly what Hannah did, and place them into the hands of a God Who will never fail them.
    To train them to love God above all else… because His love for them will never fail!
    HANNAH’S SORROW. HANNAH’S SURRENDER

    V,19-28, HANNAH’S FAITHFULNESS

    1 Samuel 1:19 KJV 1900
    And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.
    EXPLANATION: I love what the Bible says here… “The Lord remembered her.”
    In those moments of brokenness
    When she was being mocked by her husbands other wife
    When here sorrow was being minimized by a husband that didn’t understand
    When she was accused of just being cursed by God.
    God hadn’t forgotten Hannah!
    God remembered her
    And He saw here where she was.
    And He cared about her.
    He heard her broken prayers and He saw her tears.
    APPLICATION: Friend, God sees you this morning!
    He hasn’t forgotten you.
    When you are praying those prayers it doesn’t seem like He’s going to answer
    When you are in the places where anxiety is trying to take over
    When you don’t know what else to do with your wayward child
    He remembers you.
    EXPLANATION: Hannah found the incredible truth that God remembered her.
    And God gave her the child that was promised to her
    And she named that child Samuel
    ILLUSTRATION: Figuring out a new baby’s name is a process.
    Each one of our kids was a process of writing down multiple names and going back and forth about which ones we liked and why.
    Except for Kynoa… I had heard hers on a podcast after we had Jayce and I told Tressa and we decided if we ever had a girl that would be her name.
    But it was a long process of trying to pick a name that was somewhat unique and would fit our new baby.
    And of course during that process we had to figure out, what does the name mean?
    EXPLANATION: During the times of the Bible, the name of a person often told a story about the person.
    It held special meaning.
    And such was the case when Hannah delivered that precious baby and they named him Samuel
    Samuel means “heard of God”
    Every time she would call out his name, she would be reminded… “this child is because God heard me.”
    “This child is because God remembered me!”
    And then, in what has to be the most stunning part of the story, when Samuel is old enough, she takes him back to Shiloh
    1 Samuel 1:27–28 KJV 1900
    For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.
    The word “lent” carried a different connotation from what it does today during the recording of the Bible.
    The word mean “to give” or “to give claim”
    In Hannah’s moment of brokenness she had given the child she begged God for to the Lord.
    But now, at least a couple of years has passed by.
    She’s held this child in her arms
    She’s heard those first words
    She’s seen him grow beyond just being a baby.
    And while so many make vows to God when things are bad hoping for things to become good.
    Many begin to negotiate on promises they’ve made to the Lord.
    Many promise to give their child to God when the baby is on the way or just first born.
    But as they grow, they become my kids
    I want them to grow into the young people I want them to grow into.
    I want them to live where I want them to live
    I want them to do what I want them to do
    And I have no doubt that many of those thoughts ran through Hannah’s mind, though the Bible doesn’t point to them.
    What the Bible tells us is that Hannah was faithful to give the claim of her child to the Lord.
    Because she knew a truth that every person here must learn.
    Psalm 127:3 KJV 1900
    Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: And the fruit of the womb is his reward.
    Hannah knew, this child God had given to her, belonged to Him!
    APPLICATION: Now, please don’t bring your child to the church and try to give them to us… that’s not what we are talking about.
    But when you know something belongs to someone else, you treat it differently.
    ILLUSTRATION: Tressa and I had the blessing of getting to go down to Coronado, CA last year.
    And while we were on this fancy island, just the two of us, I wanted to at least try to look the part.
    So I upgraded our rental vehicle to a sports car.
    When we got to the airport and they handed me the keys to a new red ford mustang, I was a pretty happy guy.
    My dream car is a Ford Mustang, so I was loving life.
    My only disappointment was the fastest speed limit we ever found was 45 miles per hour… but we got to 45 quickly… at least as quickly as Tressa would let me.
    You know, as we drove that car around that week, I always parked in places where there was plenty of space to open the doors.
    I was extra careful looking around when we drove anywhere.
    I treated it with extra care because, it didn’t belong to me… and I didn’t want to have to pay for any damages to the car!
    APPLICATION: Friend, those kids that have been entrusted to you belong to someone else… they belong to God.
    You have the responsibility to raise them to love God!
    Ephesians 6:4 KJV 1900
    And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
    Proverbs 22:6 KJV 1900
    Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
    You see friend, something the Hannah recognized and Jochabed recognized is that dedication isn’t just a moment… dedication is a daily decision
    Deuteronomy 6:6–7 KJV 1900
    And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
    Friend, the dedication of your children to the Lord is not a decision of a moment… it is daily decision teach the truths of the Bible diligently to your children!
    To bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!
    ILLUSTRATION: Susanna had nineteen children.
    Nine of them died young.
    The ten who survived were raised in a parsonage that was poor, sometimes burned to the ground, and married to a husband who was often distant and difficult.
    And in the middle of all of that, Susanna set aside one hour every week with each child individually.
    One hour.
    To talk with them, listen to them, teach them the Scriptures, pray with them, and shepherd their souls.
    She wrote out her own household curriculum.
    She personally educated her children.
    And out of Susanna Wesley’s home came John Wesley, who led the Great Awakening on two continents, and Charles Wesley, who wrote nearly six thousand hymns — songs we still sing today, like Hark! the Herald Angels Sing and And Can It Be.
    Susanna Wesley did not change the world by leading the Great Awakening.
    Susanna Wesley changed the world by leading her children to Jesus Christ… And then God did the rest.
    EXPLANATION: Hannah gave her child back to God… and she was faithful to her commitment.
    When Hannah walked away from Shiloh, leaving her little boy at the door of the tabernacle… all she had was her surrender to the Lord.
    Hannah did not see that this little boy would grow up to be the prophet who would close the broken era of the Judges and open the era of the kings.
    Hannah did not see that this little boy would one day stand before a man named Saul and anoint him king of Israel.
    Hannah did not see that this little boy would one day stand in a field outside Bethlehem and pour oil on the head of a shepherd boy named David.
    Hannah did not see that the David Samuel anointed would father a line that would lead, generation by generation, all the way down to a little town called Bethlehem, on a quiet night, where a young woman named Mary would lay her firstborn Son in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
    Hannah did not see Jesus.
    But that’s the legacy that was left… because she gave her child to the Lord.
    ILLUSTRATION: And that wasn’t the last time a child was given and powerful things came to pass.
    2000 years ago, a Father gave His Son to us to be the Savior of the world.
    APPLICATION: And today, we have the privilege to give our children back to the Lord.
    To purpose each day to dedicate them to the Lord with the way we raise them
    To point them to Christ through our action in how we live
    To instruct them in the Scriptures as we communicate how God’s truths are transforming our lives
    To guide them so one day this faith will become theirs!
    You see friend, the question this morning is not just “have you given your children to the Lord”
    But a deeper question must be asked… “have you given yourself to the Lord?”
    Mom — if you have never trusted Christ, all your faithful parenting in the world will not save your soul. You need a Savior. And He is offering Himself to you this morning.
    To the rest of us — let's be Hannahs.
    Let's be Jochebeds.
    Let's be Susanna Wesleys.
    Let's be parents and grandparents and church members who pray our children into the hands of God and trust Him with the rest.
    And to the Hannah this morning who is sitting here in brokenness in some kind of barren season — whatever it may be— I want you to hear this one last time,
    God hasn’t forgotten you… Just like He remembered Hannah, God remembers you!

      • 1 Samuel 1:1–2KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:1–2KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:6KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:8KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:9–10KJV1900

      • Romans 8:26KJV1900

      • Hebrews 4:16KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:11KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:17KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:18KJV1900

      • Matthew 11:28–30KJV1900

      • 1 Peter 5:7KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:19KJV1900

      • 1 Samuel 1:27–28KJV1900

      • Psalm 127:3KJV1900

      • Ephesians 6:4KJV1900

      • Proverbs 22:6KJV1900

      • Deuteronomy 6:6–7KJV1900

Whitehall Baptist Church
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406.285.1003
http://wbcmt.org
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