From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You can't start a study on Samuel without talking about Hannah, Samuel's mother. Samuel had a godly mom and dad, and especially his mother; she made such a difference in his life. So here's the question: How can you and I make a difference with our lives? Make a difference in the lives of our children, make a difference in the lives of our siblings, make a difference in the lives of our friends and people we associate with?

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today as we begin a brand new series of lessons from Pastor Jeff called Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. In these messages will change your life and your relationship with God.

You see, Samuel was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament, and his life reminds us that what we do today echoes into tomorrow, shaping the lives of our families, communities, and future generations. In this new series we begin, Pastor Jeff is going to unpack the story of this man of God recorded in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel and shows us how his obedience and faith and devotion to the Lord made all the difference. And it can make a difference in you, too.

Today we'll begin by looking at the powerful story of Samuel's mother and reminds us of the eternal impact that faithful dedication and obedience can have on the next generation. For information about today's message or the current series that we'll be in for the next three weeks, give us a call at 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. Now, let's begin. Open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter one and Pastor Jeff's first lesson called, "Dedicated Before Day One."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You can't start a study on Samuel without talking about Hannah, Samuel's mother. And I've entitled this message, "Dedicated Before Day One." Samuel had a godly mom and dad, and especially his mother; she made such a difference in his life. So 1 Samuel chapter one, I'll begin reading in verse two, because verse one is full of difficult names. So we'll go to verse two.

Samuel's dad was a man named Elkanah, and it says he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Now, Elkanah loved Hannah. She was probably his first wife, but she couldn't have children. She was barren. We're going to read how the Lord had closed her womb. And so he marries a second wife, Peninnah. Peninnah could have children, but he really loved Hannah. And that created this friction between Hannah and Peninnah, as you're going to see.

Verse three. Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there. When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and to her daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb.

Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. It happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her. So she wept and would not eat. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?" Typical man. I tell Debbie that. "Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. And she, Hannah, greatly distressed—the word there is marah, bitter—prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head." That was a Nazarite vow that she was making before the Lord.

Hannah made such a difference in the life of her son Samuel even before he was born. So here's the question: How can you and I make a difference with our lives? Make a difference in the lives of our children, make a difference in the lives of our siblings, make a difference in the lives of our friends and people we associate with? Well, three key steps that you can take, that I can take, that we can take to make a difference.

Number one, we can get serious in prayer. Serious in prayer. It says in verse ten that Hannah prayed to the Lord. And in her prayer, she was greatly distressed and very bitter in her soul because of what Peninnah was doing, because she couldn't have children and Peninnah could have children. And Peninnah no doubt felt like, "Elkanah doesn't love me like he loves you, but I'm the one that's producing all these kids." So she would needle constantly, "Hannah, you can't have children. You can't have children. What's wrong with you? God must have cursed you."

And she prayed to the Lord, and she said in her prayer, "O Lord of hosts." That's how she referred to God. Now, that's a name for God that is used 239 times in the Old Testament, but it's found first in 1 Samuel chapter one. That's the first time we read the name, Lord of hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of angel armies. She's praying to God Almighty, the Lord most powerful, the one who rules the angel armies.

She prayed, and she asked the Lord, and she brought her bitterness of heart to Him. She went with all her grief, all her bitterness of heart, and she went to the Rock of Ages. She went to the Lord of hosts and she poured out her heart to Him. Now, remember this about prayer. We are privileged to enter the throne room of God. What a privilege for God to say, "Hey, call to me. Here's my very throne room. You can come in, and at any time I will listen to you."

The Imperials had a song that said, "Any good time at all that we can call upon the Lord." Hey, listen, your Father in heaven always has time for you, and He says the throne room is open. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, the Bible says, but one who's been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence—boldness to speak—confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

She was in a time of need, and she could go to the Lord, the Lord of hosts. We're privileged to be able to do that. And we're privileged to pray to a God who cares. God is not a God who is indifferent to our infirmities. He knows. We don't have a God—Hebrews 4:15—who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus put on flesh and so He could go through all the things that we went through. We don't have a God who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. That is the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest.

In Islam, you're afraid of God, and it's not a healthy fear. Allah is not Jehovah. Just get that out of your mind if you think they're the same God. They're not the same God. Allah says you give your son to sacrifice for me, and Jehovah God says I'm sending my son to sacrifice himself for you so that you can have a relationship with me. There's a lot of deprogramming that has to come into the mind of a Muslim because they've never been able to see God as a God who cares about them. Their god is indifferent to them.

But our God cares about us. And so she went to the Lord, brought her wounded heart to the Lord, brought her barrenness and her bitterness and all that was going on in her relationship with Peninnah, and she brought all that to the Lord. She poured out her soul to the Lord, and God cared for her. It says in 1 Peter chapter five, verses six and seven, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares and all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you." Literally, it matters to Him concerning you.

And so she knew, "I can go to my Father and I can share with Him my hurts, and I can pour out my heart to Him. He's a refuge, He's a safe place." And not only is the Lord the God who cares, but He's the God who can do something about it because He is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of angel armies, the Lord Almighty. So that's the first step we can take. We can get serious in prayer. She was serious in prayer.

Secondly, we can know that God answers prayer. That's a beautiful thing about prayer. We have the privilege of praying. We have privilege of praying to a God who's in charge of all things, who cares about us, and we have the privilege of knowing that God really does answer prayer. Jeremiah 33 verse three has been tagged as God's phone number. His cell phone number is Jeremiah 33. "Call to me," the Lord says, "and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know."

So if you call, God says, "I will answer." Psalm 116, verses one and two. The Psalmist says, "I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my supplications because He has inclined His ear to me." That means He's bent down and has His ear toward me. "Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." I mean, you'd have to be a big-time fool to say, "Well, God is leaning over to listen to me and He doesn't get anything from me because I never call upon His name, or I rarely call upon His name, or when I call upon His name I just kind of put my mind in neutral, I hit play on the tape recorder. Blah, blah, blah. I just read a long laundry list of things and I'm not engaging with Him in prayer."

Well, her prayer, she was engaged with the Lord. She was calling on Him, and she was asking Him to do something that only He could do.

Larry Nobles: When you pray, are you engaged in that prayer, or is your mind in neutral? Pastor Jeff will explore that more in just a moment as he continues part one of this message, "Dedicated Before Day One." This month, we're airing Pastor Jeff's powerful series Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel, where one of the lessons teaches us the greatest truth of the Bible. And what is it? That God answers prayer.

Hannah was unable to conceive. And as she prayed to the Lord for a son, she vowed to dedicate him to God all the days of his life. The Lord answered her prayer by giving her Samuel, and Hannah followed through with her promise. In this series, Pastor Jeff looks at the powerful story of Hannah and many others to remind us of the eternal impact that faithful dedication and obedience can have on the next generation.

This eight-lesson series is available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download for your gift to From His Heart this month of any amount. And we'll send you the copy in the format of your choice when you call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org and mention the series Leaving a Legacy. We'll send it with our deepest appreciation. Now, let's get back to part one of the first message in this Leaving a Legacy series called, "Dedicated Before Day One."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Prayer is so critical. James says you have not because you ask not. Hezekiah prayed when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was coming against Judah to wipe them out, and he prayed to the Lord for a deliverance and he says, "God, we need You desperately. I mean, we're dead men without You." And the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go tell Hezekiah these words: 'Because you prayed to me about Sennacherib, I will deliver Judah.'" Because you prayed. Prayer makes a difference.

Now, remember this: Prayer does not coerce God to do our will. We get the wrong idea about prayer. What is prayer? Well, prayer is trying for me, trying to get my will done by the Father. And so I bring my will to the prayer room, so to speak, and say, "Lord, this is what I want You to do on my behalf." And God says, "No, I don't want to do that." And it's like, "Well, I'm just going to keep praying about this and keep praying about this, and eventually if you pray long enough, you just wear God down."

It's kind of like the dad you may have heard the story about. The dad that brought his son to the grocery store, and he was going to help his wife out, brought the three-year-old boy out. "I'll take him off your hands, give you a little bit of break." Brings him to the grocery store and they're buying all the stuff. And it's tough on a dad to do that. And he gets to the checkout line and they're waiting in line. And the kid sees the candy, because it's right there. And he wants a candy bar. And the dad's like, "No, you can't have that." And he wants it, and he keeps saying, "I want it, I want it." And then he starts crying and then he starts whining and then he starts throwing a little fit in the line wanting the candy.

And the dad is saying, "Billy, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay, Billy. You're going to make it through this, Billy. It's going to be okay. We're almost done, Billy. Just hold on, Billy." And a woman behind him said, "I think that's so wonderful how you treat your son Billy." He said, "That's not Billy. I'm Billy."

Prayer is not getting God to do your will. And why would we want that anyway? Because God's will is good and acceptable and perfect. We want God's will. The will of God for your life, for my life, is what we would want for ourselves if we had sense enough to want it. I mean, it is wonderful. So we want to get in on His will. And remember this. So prayer is not coercing God to do our will. Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but it's getting in and entering into His willingness.

The Lord wants to do in your life and in my life. He does. But you have not because you ask not. And you ask and don't receive, James says, because you ask with wrong motives to spend it on your selfish pleasures. Hey, when we ask according to God's will with the right motive, then the Lord says, "That's right. That's what I want to do for you." So it's not overcoming His reluctance.

Sometimes we think that's what it is, that God's just reluctant to do, and that's why we have to pray and pray and pray and pray. When Jesus told the story about the parable of the friend at midnight, you know, he comes to his friends and he knocks on the door and he says, "Hey, open up for me. A friend has come to visit me and I don't have anything to set before him." And the person behind the door says, "Hey, go away. We're all down for the night and, you know, come back later." He says, "No, I have to—you have to help me." And he keeps knocking and knocking. And Jesus said, "I tell you that this man behind the locked door, he doesn't open up for him because he's his friend. He does it because of his persistence."

And God values persistence. But don't get the idea that persistence means you have to overcome the Lord's reluctance. The Lord is not reluctant to do. But remember, God does business with those who mean business. And the delays in prayer are for God to see: Do you really mean business?

Now, Luke chapter 24. When Jesus had risen from the dead, you remember the story? He attaches himself to two guys walking from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus. One man's name, Cleopas, and the other is an unnamed disciple. And all of a sudden, he just starts walking with these guys. "Hey, what y'all talking about?" Jesus was from the South. And he said, "What y'all talking about?" And they start saying, "Well, we're talking about what everybody's talking about. How do you not know what we're talking about? We're talking about Jesus. Everybody's talking about Jesus."

And so he just kind of plays like he doesn't know. "Well, tell me a little bit more about that." And so they said, "Well, you know, we heard that he rose from the dead, but how could that be?" And then this man, they didn't know—they were prevented from recognizing who Jesus was—and Jesus said, "O foolish men and slow in heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer and then to enter into His glory?" And beginning with Moses and the prophets, He showed these guys the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.

And then they got to where they were needing to go, and it says this: that He acted as though He would go farther. And they urged Him, "No, it's getting late. Please stay with us." And so He stayed with them. He went with them. But I love that because He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him and begged Him, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them.

What did the Lord want to do? He wanted them to urge Him to stay. He was testing them. "Do you really want me, or are you going to let me go?" When He wrestled the Lord, pre-incarnate Christ wrestled with Jacob in Genesis chapter 32, wrestled all night with Jacob—you remember that story?—and then the dawn was breaking and the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." And Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me. I'm not letting go. I'm going to keep knocking like the friend at midnight. I'm going to keep knocking, and I'm going to keep urging because I'm not trying to overcome Your reluctance. I'm trying to get in on Your willingness."

Prayer makes all the difference. So Hannah prayed. And she prayed from the depths of her soul, and she said, "Lord, I'm your maidservant." She humbled herself under the mighty hand of God that He could exalt her at the proper time.

And it says in verse 12, "Now it came about as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli, the priest, was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. Then Eli said to her, 'How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.' But Hannah replied, 'No, my lord. I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation.'"

Then Eli answered and said, "'Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.' She said, 'Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.' So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Then they arose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord and returned again to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah had relations"—literally, knew Hannah, his wife—"and the Lord remembered her." That's exactly what she prayed in verse 11, "Lord, remember me."

And it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son and she named him Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked him of the Lord." How did Samuel come to be? He was an answer to prayer, her prayer. "Lord, remember me and bring me and give me a son." And she prayed and she believed God, and she had confirmation from Eli, the high priest, who said, "May the God of Israel give you what you have asked him for." Prayer makes the difference. God answers prayer.

1 John chapter five, verses 14 and 15 says, "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him."

So step number one, we can get serious in prayer. Step number two, we can know that God answers prayer. And step number three, this is critical, we can follow through on our promises to God. Our promises that we made to God in prayer. Hannah made a vow to God. A vow is a solemn promise. And her promise to the Lord was this, "Lord, if You give me a son, I will give him back to You as a Nazarite for all of his life." Samson was a Nazarite for all of his life. Only two guys in scripture, Samson and Samuel, were Nazarites for their whole life. Samson didn't do very well with his Nazarite vows, but Samuel did. "I'm going to give him back to You, Lord, and he will be Yours, dedicated to You and be Yours for life." Well, that was quite a vow that she made.

Larry Nobles: As we've been speaking of prayer, prayer is powerful for many reasons. One is that prayer grounds us and provides a steady foundation for navigating life's challenges. Prayer should be a part of all of our lives. And when you join others in prayer, it is really a powerful thing. When two or more are gathered, there He is also.

And you can join people from around the world in prayer from our From His Heart website. Many people around the world have left prayer requests there and are asking others to join them in prayer. And when you do that, you can click a link that sends them a note that they have been joined in prayer. Do that. It'll be a blessing to them and to you. Go to fromhisheart.org, click the prayer link from our homepage.

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles and we heard part one of the lesson, "Dedicated Before Day One," from the series Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel, reminding you that From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, who believes that no matter how much you may have messed up in life, God still loves you and has a plan for your life. Find out more when you go to fromhisheart.org.