Abounding Grace

Larry: Are you suffering through a crisis right now? Well, we don't mean to make light of it, but Pastor Ed says God is up to something great.

Pastor Ed Taylor: There aren't a lot of these super heavy-duty crises in our lives, but there are some. Marriages do dissolve. They do go through great strain. Money does run out. Jobs do end. Adultery does happen. Jail does come. Addiction grabs hold. Houses burn down. People we love die.

These things do happen in our lives, but God is using them. We may not even see how God's using them until years later or even into eternity. But God is saying, "I want you, and I want all of you, and I want more of you." And God is going to use the crisis in your life to draw you to Himself.

Larry: Maybe you can look back on your life and an experience you went through that was really difficult. At the time, you couldn't see beyond the pain, but now you see much clearer and notice that God accomplished something great through it.

That's a common experience for the believer, and today on *Abounding Grace*, we'll see the crisis is God's tool to accomplish something great. He'll receive more of you, and you'll receive more of Him. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor to illustrate that through the life of Hannah from 1 Samuel chapter 2.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Friends, I want you to know that God uses crisis in your life. I want you to know that He's asking for a deeper depth of faith and relationship with you. I know that you don't like it, and God doesn't judge you or condemn you for that. And I know you'd rather not experience it, and God doesn't judge or condemn you for that. But I would ask you to pray to embrace it because you don't know the end, but God does. And God's end is good. And so therefore, we can see these times of crisis.

You can look back on your own life, I'm sure, and say, "You know what? I went through something a couple years ago. Man, it was hard back then, but I can see now what God was doing. My life is stronger now. I'm different. I'm different. I'm not the same person. I mean, I really loved God back then, but I'm different. It's just changed me." God has done something different. I had heard with my ear, but now I've experienced with my life. That's different. I know by experience, I just don't know by testimony. I know by experience the faithfulness of God, the work of God in my life.

There aren't a lot of these super heavy-duty crises in our lives, but there are some. Marriages do dissolve. They do go through great strain. Money does run out. Jobs do end. Adultery does happen. Jail does come. Addiction grabs hold. Houses burn down. People we love die. These things do happen in our lives, but God is using them.

We may not even see how God's using them until years later or even into eternity. But God is saying, "I want you, and I want all of you, and I want more of you." And God is going to use the crisis in your life to draw you to Himself. Not only will He receive more of you, but you will then receive more of Him in intimate relationship.

There are two things that help relationships grow. You see, you're not involved—if you've been born again, you are not involved in religion. You might refer to it as religion and you can use that as a generic term and go, "My religion is Christianity." There might be a question on an application or something, "What's your religion? Christianity." But you'd be fine if you just crossed out religion and put relationship with Jesus. And relationships grow only with two ingredients. These are the two ingredients that help relationships grow: time and testing.

Think about some of the deep, close relationships you have. I would think that in those close relationships, they've happened over time and you guys have been through the fire together a few times. Maybe even against one another. I think of marriages that have gone through great crisis, how strong they are now because God has done a work.

You look back and you go, "Whoa." I was just telling Marie probably a year and a half ago, we were just saying, "Man, babe, we have really been through a lot together." We're a lot closer than we were when we were just teenagers in high school. God's just done a work in our marriage. It almost dissolved. It almost disappeared. It was almost done. You and I would almost never have met if it wasn't for the Lord.

And so even in my life with Jesus, I'm closer to Him because of time and testing where He's allowed tests in my life. Do you like tests? I hate tests. Although God's made me where I was always pretty good just to study. I was one of those guys I could study the night before and ace the test. I know you don't like me, but that's the way it is.

But tests, you get people, there's even conditions where people get—they're very, very smart, but they get nervous at tests and they flunk the test. I mean, they're super smart. They know all the stuff, but there's this test anxiety. I would just say as you experience test anxiety perhaps with your relationship with Jesus, I want you to know there's an answer to that.

The Bible says that we're to be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, let our requests be made known to God. And God, He will give us comfort and peace through making our requests be made known to God. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts—that's the place of emotion—and our minds—the place of action. We'll have a guard and protection through the trial as God is developing in us a deeper devotion.

The time of waiting for Hannah, it's brought her not just for a desire for a child. That was the desire. That's a good desire. But through the time and testing, that desire for a child turned into a desire for a child that will devote himself to the things of God. "I want a child, God, but I want a child more for You than I do for myself."

And there was great brokenness. That's where Hannah is: barren, taunted, misunderstood, mishandled, lonely, forgotten, anguished, desperate, in crisis. God is getting more of her. Isn't it true something pops into our lives, a crisis, and so quickly we cry out, "Not fair! Not fair!" But friends, listen, whatever God says is fair, and whatever God does is fair. You see, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you. He's covered the injustice and the unfairness. He gave the just for the unjust, our God. He gave the innocent for the guilty.

We think often that when God's working in our lives, we get the picture of God working with a clean, sterile instrument because that's how it works. If you're going in for surgery, it's going to be absolutely clean and sterile. Everything's going to be in order. Everybody's going to be all protected. And we take that and go, "Well, if God's going to do surgery on me..." and we use the phrase, "Well, God's going to do spiritual surgery." We almost begin to associate, "Well, then it's going to be something clean, nice, even cut. It's the very precision of the surgeon."

And yet the Bible shows us that God will use everything to do a spiritual work in our lives. The Bible tells me that God will use Amalekites and Babylonians to do His work. The Bible tells me He'll use wind and storms. Today, God allowed a storm to come in to get you to move somewhere. Did all your phones freak out today? Do you have that on there? I can't even turn it off.

And I was here today. It happened here yesterday. I was in my home office yesterday, but today I was here. And so I'm walking down the hallways. What am I supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go? Where is it? I know where we're supposed to go. We're supposed to go downstairs. What are we doing? What are we going to do with the kids in the school? And just the storm moved us.

It got us asking questions. It got us going, "What are we going to do to protect the kids? What are we going to do to make sure they're all safe, all the teachers, everyone's all in order, everyone's going to the place where they need to be?" And what was it? The threat of a storm, the wind that was dark. It was really heavy-duty stuff today.

I was getting texts. I got a text from our friend in Hawaii, Ben and Jen. "Hawaii, are you guys all right? Are you still there?" And I texted them back, "I don't know, I don't have my phone, it went off in the air." No, I'm just kidding. It's like, "We're cool, we're all right." But they see stuff on the news, they're like, "Are you guys still there?" The storm moved my friend Ben, who was part of the fellowship here many years ago, good brother. Moved Ben, he's all the way in Hawaii safe and sound, probably hanging out on the beach enjoying it. He's going, "Whoa, there's something going on in Colorado and what's going on?" and it moved him.

See, God uses all kinds of things to move us. Sudden and unexpected. Quick and unwanted. Deep and hurtful. And we're learning, aren't we? And we will learn that God is on the throne, and when He isn't allowed to rule, God will overrule. And He is the Lord of Hosts, and His purposes and will for us will be accomplished. And that is where Hannah is, and it could be where you're at as well, and you're not alone.

And while you don't know the end, God does. You could be tuning through the dial right now on the radio and stumbled across a radio station with talk, and you were a little bit tired of music. And so you heard some talk and you didn't know it was talk about the Bible. But you're just tired of music and you wanted some talk, and here you are now focused in on this very time of talk because God is using this voice to speak to you comfort and to speak to you hope.

It's not just in the room here today and it's not even just in this moment because the Bible says that God's Word will go out and it will not return void. It will accomplish the purposes for which it is sent. And whether it be Hannah or Daniel or Abraham or Moses or Paul or Peter or Mary or you or me, I know we don't know the end, but God does.

And so let's get just a little bit more from Hannah's story here in verse 19. "Then they rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her." Don't think of this—this is the Bible written in human language. Why? Because the Bible's addressed to humans. That's all we have. That's all we can relate to. Don't see this as God forgetting.

Don't you feel in times of crisis sometimes that you're forgotten? But it's just speaking to a deep feeling. Hannah felt like her womb was forgotten, and so God has remembered her. It's language to say, "You know what? God is there. He shows up." Hannah, you've not been forgotten. You've not been abandoned. You've not been left on your own.

And because of the sexual relations with her husband, it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son and called his name Samuel because saying, "Because I've asked for him from the Lord." That's a glorious verse. God answered her prayer. God gave her the desire of her heart. She got a baby. She received the answer from the Lord.

And the man Elkanah, verse 21, and all of his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "Not until the child is weaned, then I'll take him. Just give me some time. Just give me some time. Just give me a little bit of time. The time of weaning. Just give me some time. I'm going to stay back that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever." The very gift that God had given to her she's going to give right back to Him.

But just give me some time. Give me some time with this baby. I want to enjoy him. And so Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what seems best to you." He's learned his lesson. He's got a little bit more sensitivity. He didn't say, "Hey, don't you want to spend some time with me?" No, you want to spend some time with that gift of God. Do whatever seems best. Only let the Lord establish His Word.

And then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. It's always such a glorious time, friends, when the assurance of God's Word comes to our hearts. We just have that assurance. God's answer is Samuel. The Bible says in Psalm 119:38, "Establish Your Word to Your servant who's devoted to fearing You." See, God, You're so sovereign. You love me. You care. You hear. You answer. What a peace.

And it was in this peace that God gave Hannah a son, Samuel. His name means "heard of God" or "appointed" or "asked of God." And in naming her baby, Hannah remembered. See, God remembered her, but Hannah remembered God. And in naming her son, she remembered that the delivery was an answer to prayer directly from God, and God received the glory for His faithfulness.

And as Elkanah went to worship, she stayed back with the vow of God on her mind. Wouldn't you think—and we're not recorded for Hannah, but wouldn't you think there'd be a temptation to forget the vow? "You know, I did say dedicate, but I didn't really mean—like I meant to dedicate on the stage, God. That's what I meant. I didn't mean, in my heart, and that's it."

I want you to know something, friends. The time of crisis is not your greatest danger. It is a place of vulnerability, but it's not your greatest danger. You're not most vulnerable when you're in a time of crisis. Your most vulnerable time is when things are going well and things are going wonderful, and when the marriage is doing well and when there's money in the bank and when there seems to be the blessing of God.

That's when we begin to let our guards down and we begin to sit back and we're not desperate and we're not crying out and we don't care to grow in our relationship because, hey, after all, everything's going well. That, my friend, is a great place of vulnerability. And so even if you're in a place where God has answered your prayer, where He has given you the desires of your heart, give Him the glory. Name that. Build an altar there symbolically. Make it a place of worship. Make it a place of faithfulness. Be careful.

And of course, in Hannah, that's not recorded for her. She had the vow on her mind, verse 24. "When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah of flour, a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young." Some suggest that Samuel's about three years old here. She's dropping off her three-year-old at the church to work with Pastor Ed forever and saying goodbye to him. That's what she's doing.

She's just driving up and said, "Here's my boy. I believe God, I made a vow to God, and you're the man." I mean, that has never happened, but can you imagine? "There you go, Ed." "Well, thanks. We'll put up a cot in here for him and he can be the house caretaker." He's three! Bring him back out of diapers, would you? No. This is amazing, this woman, what great faith. Where did it come from? Great crisis.

"They slaughtered the bull, verse 25, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, 'O my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord.' And so they worshipped the Lord there."

Although Eli had failed her in the past, she looks past his failures to fulfill her vow. God was able to give her a vision beyond the weakness of man to continue to serve Him and fulfill her vow. She inspires me, this woman Hannah. While I can't relate with her barrenness, I certainly desire to relate with her faith and her desire to please God.

It's an interesting phrase there that she uses about lending her child to the Lord. In that phrase, we recognize both children belonging to God and we as parents having a responsibility to raise them. But they're really His. They belong to Him. Are you having trouble with children, with grandchildren, backsliding, not walking with Him anymore?

I want you to come to Hannah and ask God for the kind of faith with Hannah where you just commit them to Him. You commit them to Him and you trust that God will do what is right and proper with your child's life, with the grandchild's life, with even your other family members. Say, "God, here they are."

And for some of you because you've grown up in the church, you did dedicate them on the church stage or altar somewhere. You could even pull out the old VHS tape or the picture that they drew for you back then because there was no video tape, they just drew a picture for you. "Here you go." And you can look at that and by faith you can go, "Lord, we dedicate this child when they were a baby, and they're still dedicated today, and we claim by faith their walk with You, God. They belong to You. They're Your kids. Bring them back, Lord." Could be your daily prayer.

And so what'd she say? She says, "As long as Samuel lives." This wasn't temporary. "He's Yours. He's Yours, Lord." What a testimony. She's looking him in the eye in humility—this is great humility. She's looking in the leader, a spiritual leader who hurt her, misunderstood her, and she says, "I'm the lady you thought was drunk. I'm the lady you misunderstood. I'm the lady you totally missed it with.

And yet, here's God's answer. You know what I was praying for, you know how you misunderstood. Yeah, you can," because it looks like he changed a little bit, Eli did, when he tells her, "Go in peace and grant," and she does. Just her heart's changed back in verse 18. She's no longer sad. It seems like Eli changed a little bit of his perspective, allowed the Holy Spirit to speak and he changed a little bit. And so she comes back and she says, "Look, here's the answer to my prayer. You were wrong, but God's still sovereign, and here's the baby."

And it's just sweet in my heart to read this for those of you that have been misunderstood and those of you have been forgotten, those of you have been lonely, those of you been taunted, those of you been desperate. Your testimony's coming. Your testimony's coming. Those of you that have been hurt by a pastor or a leader, I just want you to know it's not between you and the pastor or leader. It's between you and God. God will deal with the pastor, and God will deal with the leader, and God will deal with you.

It's not between you and the pastor. If you're walking around with all this hurt and all this pain that comes between you and a—it's not about you and the pastor. It's not about you and the Sunday school teacher. It's between you and the Lord. And God will deal with the leader however He wants to deal with the leader because a leader's accountable to Him.

But for you, you just keep praying because your testimony's coming. Can you imagine? We're reading it in black and white. I don't have enough emotion to share with you the depth of the faithfulness of God in this chapter. And if God was faithful to Hannah, we worship the same God who is faithful to give us Jesus Christ so that we serve Him now not by the old covenant written in stone, not by the law, but we get the relationship with God now.

We have the bonus and advantage of the new covenant, the new covenant that says, "I will receive you not because of what you have done, but because what I have done. I'll forgive you of your sins not because you deserve it or you earn it, but because I love you and my Son Jesus has died for you and rose again." We have the new covenant. How much more now would God want to draw out from us deeper relationship and a deeper faith in our lives in these last days?

Larry: Well, thanks for studying the Word with us here at *Abounding Grace* with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing the study from 1 Samuel again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com. And another way to listen to Pastor Ed's teachings is through the Calvary Church app. Pastor Ed, you pointed out today that God uses the crisis in our lives, but does that mean He's always the one that causes the crisis?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Oh no, Larry, absolutely not. God does not always cause the crisis. Do you know the origin of most of our crisis is our own sin, our own failures, our own mistakes? And then I think the second cause—and I mean they can go back and forth, one or two, I'm not necessarily stuck on the order—but the second reason is other people's sin.

But the overarching reason for the pain in our lives is sin. And we think sometimes because we've done it or someone else has done it, we feel like the victim of circumstance or you know how the world is—just be a victim. Just take on victim identity and be the one that's always "woe is me" and pity party and no, God is at work. You're not a victim. That's not your identity. You're a daughter, a son of the King.

You're the one living under the umbrella of Romans chapter 8 verse 28 that we know that God is working all things together for the good. You're living in the footsteps of Joseph when he looks at his brothers and he says in Genesis 50:20, he says, "You guys meant this for evil, but God meant it for good to bring it about as it is this day."

We're the ones dealing with all that's been lost—the years, like in Joel chapter 2, all the years that have been wasted. But we have to keep reading because God promises that He will restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. And so crisis is hard and I'm sorry that you're going through it. I got a few in my own life right now that I just wish weren't happening.

Truly, I don't want them, I don't like them, but they are drawing me closer to the Lord and they are making me a better brother in the Lord, a better pastor, better believer. And I know the Lord's doing the same in you. And don't run away from Him. Abide. Abide in Christ and He'll abide in you. Abide in His Word and His Word will be in you.

The Spirit of God will reveal to you His great love for you. And I'm sorry you're in crisis, but the Lord is using it and you can keep moving forward becoming that woman, that man that God wants you to be.

Larry: Thanks again, Pastor Ed. You know, there's a tragic and growing crisis facing the church concerning the ministry of counseling. An increasing number of churches and church leaders are forsaking God's way of counseling and turning to man's ways.

*How to Counsel God's Way* by Bob Hoekstra calls God's people to return to Jesus as our wonderful counselor. Whether you're in a position to give counsel or wanting to receive it, this book can be very helpful and a valuable addition to your library.

When you give a donation of $25 or more to *Abounding Grace*, you're invited to request a copy of *How to Counsel God's Way*. Give us a call, 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. You can also make a donation to the ministry online at aboundinggraceradio.com.

And thank you in advance for helping us reach people with the love and truth of Jesus Christ here on the radio and online. Glad you've taken time out for our study in 1 Samuel. Join Pastor Ed each day as we continue to learn how to live by God's abounding grace.