Parent Child Dedication
Raising Christian Families • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Warren Brosi
May 12, 2024 (Mother’s Day)
Dominant Thought: Prayer equips the next generation because God is listening.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to know God hears us when we pray.
I want my listeners to desire to pray to God in seasons of grief and joy.
I want my listeners to pray for the next generation of kingdom leaders.
Prayer equips the next generation because God is listening. One of the best gifts you can give the next generation is to pray for them. In 1 Samuel 1-2, we will meet a lady named, Hannah, whose name means comes from “grace or favor.” It is the same root that we studied recently from Exodus 34.6, “The LORD, the LORD is compassionate and gracious.” Throughout Hannah’s story, we will find her praying.
Our story in 1 Samuel picks up about 400 years after the exodus from Egypt. We spent five weeks in Exodus 34. Now we move to around 1050 B.C. Between Exodus and and 1 Samuel, the children of Israel wandered for 40 years. Joshua led them into the promised land. Then, a series of judges lead Israel for several generations. We are near the conclusion of this season of judges. The story of Ruth and Naomi is in this era of history. The conclusion of Judges still applies in this season, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21.25).
Our story opens in 1 Samuel 1 with a man named Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah was able to have children and taunted Hannah who was unable to bear children. This is similar to Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar who bore Abraham a son, but Sarah had no children. After Hagar became pregnant, she despised Sarah (Genesis 16.5). It seems that at some of the major turns of salvation history, God’s family experiences turmoil and infertility. Sarah was unable to conceive until much later in life. She and her handmaiden Hagar didn’t have a healthy relationship.
Later, Jacob’s wives Leah and Rachel had a child bearing contest between them and their handmaidens that lead to much drama.
And now, Elkanah and his two wives are experiencing something similar that previous generations experienced.
Elkanah loved his wife Hannah and as they would go to Shiloh to worship, he would favor her with a double portion for the offering. It is during one of these worship experiences where we meet Hannah praying.
First, we pray for the next generation in times of grief (1 Samuel 1.10-20). Three times in our text we overhear Hannah’s sadness. In 1 Samuel 1.10, Hannah prays in deep anguish and weeping bitterly. She calls out to the LORD Almighty or LORD of Hosts (1 Samuel 1.11; also “Most High” in 1 Samuel 2.10).
She is praying so intently in her heart (1 Samuel 1.13) that her lips were moving but her voice was not heard that the priest Eli accused Hannah of being drunk.
Hannah pleads her innocence and tells Eli, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled…I was pouring out my soul to the LORD” (1 Samuel 1.15). She continues by telling Eli, “I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief” (1 Samuel 1.16).
My friends, I invite you to pray to God in times of grief. I read in Psalm 130 this week, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice” (Psalm 130.1).
In 2010, I had to opportunity to visit with our mission partners in Indonesia. After a worship gathering a young couple came up to one of Indonesia ministers who was serving as our translator. This couple had been trying to have a baby and were unable to conceive. They were asking us to pray for them to ask God to give them a baby. We prayed in English, and our translator spoke our prayer into their heart language of Indonesia. I’m not sure what all we prayed. I’m sure it was asking God to grant them favor and a baby and that children are gift from God. We asked for God’s timing and wisdom. As we prayed in English, our prayers were translated into their heart language. And then I noticed, a tear come from the eye of the young woman. While we couldn’t understand each others spoken language, we understood each other’s hearts that day. I’m not sure if God answered their prayer for a baby. But, I am confident that God hears those prayers prayed in those seasons of grief and anguish. I’m confident that God can bless the next generation of kingdom leaders whether they come from our physical bodies or God puts them in our families or church families in other ways.
God chose to answer Hannah’s prayer. She and her husband conceived a child and she named him, “Samuel,” which means “God hears” or “heard by God.”
Second, we pray for the next generation in times of joy (1 Samuel 2.1-10).
Hannah makes good on her vow to God and presents Samuel to God. She said in 1 Samuel 1.27-28, “I have prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now, I give him to the LORD...”
In 1 Samuel 2, Hannah prays a powerful prayer. She opens her prayer, “My heart rejoices in the LORD, in the LORD my horn is lifted high” (1 Samuel 2.1).
She boasts over enemies. She declares how God raises up the humble and humbles those who are proud and rich. If you ever need some words to freshen up your prayers, I encourage you to check out Hannah’s prayer.
She closes with a prayer to the Most High who will thunder from heaven, who will judge the earth, who gives strength to His king, and exalt the horn of the anointed” (1 Samuel 2.10). She’s calling out of for the power of God to be revealed. Even though there is no king yet in Israel. Her son, Samuel would anoint the first couple kings: Saul and David.” He would be the one who would pray and call down thunder.
A few verses later, we see this mother visiting her son in Shilo. “Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice” (1 Samuel 2.19). She would continue to encourage him and worship. The priest blessed her and asked God to grant her even more children which he did. She had three sons and two daughters (1 Samuel 2.21).
Samuel would grow in stature and favor with the LORD and with people (1 Samuel 2.26). He would be a man of prayer. During farewell season, the people asked Samuel to pray for them. He affirmed by saying, “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12.23).
Hannah’s prayer echoes through some Psalms and into the first century when another first time mom prays in Luke 1. Mary, the mother of the anointed one, Jesus, the Savior of the world prays some language similar to Hannah. “My soul glorifies/magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1.46). Both speak of God has holy (1 Samuel 2.2; Luke 1.49). Both speak about God’s care for the hungry (1 Samuel 2.5; Luke 1.53). Both talk about God bringing down the proud (1 Samuel 2.3; Luke 1.51).
Luke also gives a summary similar to Samuel’s growth from 1 Samuel 2.26. In Luke 2.52, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” If you trace trace the word back to the Hebrew Bible, that word for favor will sound like Hannah’s name. Both Samuel and Jesus had praying moms. Both were used by God to lead the children of Israel. Samuel was appointed for a season. Jesus was the anointed one, the king for all of eternity. I pray that our families and our church will commit to praying in seasons of grief and joy to raise up the next generation of kingdom leaders.
Last week, I went to Columbia, MO to pick up our daughter Grace to attend our nephew’s graduation. As I came into Grace’s neighborhood, I expect crazy sights as it is just block away from the fraternity houses and those pursuing the wilder side of college living. As I drove near, I saw two young men with gallon jugs. Both had about a quart of choice beverage. One jug had blue liquid. Another had red liquid. Then, I turned the corner of a yard of a big house. It was a corner lot and it was littered with those gallon jugs that had been consumed the night or day before, plastic cups, and empty flasks of alcohol. There was more plastic than grass in this yard.
It was reading day. It was the last day of classes for the semester. I saw several students with cups in their hands. Others playing yard games. As I turned the corner to the Christian campus house, I thought to myself, “I need to be praying more for my daughter and those in this environment.”
I parked the car and called Grace. I was a block away from her house. I asked her, “Do you want to come to us or do you want me to come help you?” We both agreed it was a good idea for me to come walk her to the car. She told me, “Don’t pay attention to anyone.” In other words, there were a lot of drunk college students, so be aware.
As I was walking to her house, I met Anderson. I’ve met Anderson a few times. He’s a graduate student studying law. He loves Jesus and is a member of the Christian Campus House. He’s also the older brother of one of Grace’s roommates. After exchanging greetings, he said, “Yeah, I ran into Grace and Kate, his sister on campus. I thought it’d be a good idea to walk them home so they didn’t have to deal with all that’s going on in the neighborhood today.” He’s than me. In that moment, my respect for him grew even more than his physical height. I told him thanks, and then he replied, “That’s how I was raised.”
Moms and dads, and members of Berlin Christian Church. Whether you have your own children to raise or are help raise the kids God brings to us, I pray that someday when our kids are off at college or in the workplace, they will look back with confidence on their formative years and make the choices that honor our mighty God who saves, who fills the hungry with good things, who thunders from heaven, and has exalted His anointed one and say with confidence, “That’s how I was raised.” In a family, in a church that prays to our powerful God who hears and raises the next generation of kingdom leaders.