God Heard, God Caused, God will

What worship song or hymn is meaningful to you right now?

The songs we listen to and sing, whether publically or in the shower matters.

Worship matters.

Public worship matters. Private worship matters. We see in our text this morning the important of worship. The importance of being faithful in worship matters. The prayer of Hannah was most likely based off one of the public songs sung in worship of God in those days.

The family was used to worshipping God and this would not have been unusual for Samuel to experience, even as a small child/baby.

Worship prepares us.

We do not know what the future will be like but we can be prepared for it in part because of worship. Elkanah, who probably was part of the tribe of Levi, and his family were faithful in worship and thus prepared for what was to come.

In fact, this prayer/psalm of Hannah becomes part of the foundation for the Mary, the mother of our Lord’s, song of praise found in Luke 1.

We must be faithful in prosperity.

Sometimes when things are bad we drop out of worship and then sometimes it is the valleys of life which brings us back to worship and Christ’s church. However, the same is true when everything is going well.

Hannah gives the gift back to God with no assurance of more.

As she dedicates her son, Samuel, to the Lord she does so not knowing what God will do next. For her, and us, the gift must not be more important than the giver. The blessings of God must not replace God himself.

This is similar in my mind to the scene in Genesis 22 with Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac. As was the case with Abraham, Hannah does give birth to more children. However, in our scene this was not a foregone conclusion. She had to be faithful with no promise or assurance of what God would do next.

God is able.

God is capable of intervening. He is all powerful. God is able to be known.

God does.

Not only is God able to do things he actually does them. God is willing and able to intervene in our world.

God alone is God.

This may seem like a “captain obvious” type of statement. But, we must remember this truth. Our worship must remind us of this truth.

Being present in worship does not equal faithfulness.

Eli and his sons remind us that just because we know a lot about God, we may even be present each week in worship, it doesn’t mean we are faithful. In the irony of the beginning chapters of 1 Samuel we see the faithfulness to God of Elkanah, Hannah and Samuel and the faithfulness of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas to themselves.

God’s promises require appropriate response.

Why? Because God is the judge of all! What is your response to God’s Word? Not my word this morning but I believe the Spirit of God is nudging some of you to make a response.

God can do something “new”.

The birth of Samuel, initiates a “new stage in Israel”. God is doing something new and I believe He wants to do the same today. Not that the old way is bard but that changing times sometimes need new methods. The message is the same but how it is shared may be different. Just because God used something in the past does not mean it is meant to alway sbe used.