3.4.24 5.10.2020 Mother's Day Celebration in Isolation 1 Samuel 1 & 2
Notes
Transcript
Unlike Any Other
Unlike Any Other
Entice:
Generally, May is big.
Generally, May is big.
It is the first really big month since the "holiday" season so May is full of big days. Memorial day-the first real three-day-weekend style Holiday of the year. Jr. High, High School, and College Graduations. And the highlight of the middle of the month.
Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day.
This year things are very different. Covid-19. Social distancing. Fear about the future. How do we even have holidays when we can't gather as we wish-when our celebration is limited by isolation?
Engage: It's the people who are most important, isn't it? We don't want to miss the holiday, but we certainly don't want to risk Mom's life by taking her to church and following up at a buffet or bar-b-q. What a great time to rethink institutions like holidays, and the behaviors which drive them. We have long thought these behaviors are "instinctive" when in fact they are learned, traditional, and habitual. Which means that they can evolve to meet changing circumstances.
Expand:Today we are going to look at the story of a young mother and her first son. We will be looking at how she reacted to a difficult and trying time and how when she was blessed she chose to magnify that blessing into the lives of others. The book of 1 Samuel opens during the time of Judges in Israel. Hannah is childless and bereft, but full of faith and abounding in prayer. Eli misunderstands her frenzied pleading with God for drunkenness. When she pleads her innocence he blesses her. And God makes good on Eli's prophetic blessing. Soon Ekanah and Hannah welcome young Samuel. His story of faith began with a faithful mother in troubled times.
Excite: We still need faithful mothers, fathers, and children in these stressful and troubled times. But since it is Mother's Day we will focus primarily on Mothers. I miss mine. She's been gone for 10 years. Virtually all good mothers display the same characteristics.
Explore:
A Godly Mother helps us to achieve our potential.
A Godly Mother helps us to achieve our potential.
Explain: Three reminders of a Godly mother...
Remember....
1. How she Guarded you.
1. How she Guarded you.
21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.
22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.”
23 Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.
1.1 Nurture.
1.1 Nurture.
Mothers should guard and guarantee the space for Physical and Spiritual growth
1.2 Narrative.
1.2 Narrative.
Mothers should surround us with our defining story.
Remember....
2 How she Guided you
2 How she Guided you
24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young.
25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.
26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord.
27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.
28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
2.1 A Mother guides us as far as she can.
2.1 A Mother guides us as far as she can.
2.2 A Mother releases us to someone who can guide us even farther.
2.2 A Mother releases us to someone who can guide us even farther.
Remember....
3 What she Gave you.
3 What she Gave you.
18 Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod.
19 And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the Lord give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the Lord.” So then they would return to their home.
21 Indeed the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord.
3.1 A solid foundation.
3.1 A solid foundation.
3.2 A suitable tool.
3.2 A suitable tool.
(little ephod).
New Traditions
New Traditions
My mom would have been admirable even if she was not my Mom. As an advocate for the health-care of babies and mothers she impacted hundreds if not thousands of families in Southern Illinois. Good parenting is about preparation and release. It begins with a good example and is realized when the grown child parents well, serves others, lives by faith.
If your mom is still with you. Begin a new Mother’s Day Tradition! Call her or face-time or chat with her. Don't put her at risk but put her at ease with your love and respect. If she is gone, respect her memory by being the kind of person she raised you to be.
Ultimately we parent selfishly or faithfully. Hannah realized that all children are entrusted to us. They are on loan for us to train up for faithful service.