HLBC Childrens Sunday School Lesson

(Don’t Say). Main Point: God Saves Those Who Submit to Him, But Will Destroy Those Who Stand Against Him, So Submit to Him.

(Say) Title: An Unlikely Faith in a Likely God.

1 Samuel 2:1-2&10

Illustration: Who here has ever prayed before? Raise your hand? Would someone like to keep their hand raised and say what they said in their prayer?

Get them to say that they asked for something...

Intro: Our story this morning is about a girl named Hannah who prayed to God and asked him for something. Something way more special than what you asked for last Christmas or your birthday, maybe you asked for a book, or a video game, or a baby doll, well Hannah in our story asked for a real life baby. She wanted to be a mom! So far though she could not have a child. She wanted to be like your parents and raise a kid that she loved very much, but she did not have a child yet.

She prays to God and asks him for a baby in 1 Samuel 1:11 “And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

What did she pray for? A boy or a girl? A Boy!

And what do you think happened after that? Do you think she had the boy? Well she did! And Hannah named her son Samuel. That is who our book is named after! So Hannah prayed to God before having a child and what do you think she did after having a child? She prayed again! First she was asking God for something and now she is praising God.

So now we are going to study her prayer of praise.

Read Verses 1-2: Hannah is praising God! She feels as if she has just defeated an enemy and has recieved victory from God. She is proud to be a servant of the Lord and delights in the Lord giving her a child. She says there is no one like the Lord. I wonder if this is how we view God this morning friends? Do we view him as if he is just like another friend or a character from another book? Or do we see him as the creator Lord of the universe. He created you and me, he is completely different than a movie or a book character or your friend because he is holy. To be holy means to be set apart. Our bibles are called the Holy Bible because it is a book unlike any other since it contains the very words of God and in the same way, our God is set apart. He has never sinned, he has never done wrong. Your friends, characters in stories, and even your parents have sinned. But who has not sinned? God! He is perfect and this is how we should think of him. Because he is perfect, he is our rock. In verse 2 Hannah says “there is no Rock like our God”.

What is special about a Rock you might ask? Rocks seem pretty boring and lame? You know what sounds much cooler than a Rock? Sand! I mean that is why people go on beach vacations right? They want to bury their toes in the sand and watch the water come up against the sand. The sand seems great and rocks seem boring, but what if I told you I prefer rocks more than sand. Let me show you why. So right now we are in the Old Testament, but I am going to read a verse from the New Testament:

Matt 7:24-27 ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

When the storm comes, you would much rather be like a rock, unable to be moved than sand that is tossed around and unsteady. That is why our God is like a rock! Because he is Holy and perfect, he is never changing you can always rely on him. If you have a really rough day, maybe you get in trouble at home or you fail a quiz at school, you might go tell your best friend. They may be able to comfort you a little bit, but what if they had a bad day too? They can only be there for you so much, but you can always rely on God because he is like a rock. So when the storms of life come, he is immovable.

2. Read verse 10-b: The greatest way our Lord is like a rock is found in verse 10: “He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed”. If you have ever heard of King David, Hannah is talking about him, but ultimately she is talking about another king, one found in the New Testament. His name is Jesus. All of the praises that Hannah gives God because she recieved a child are true for us because God has provided someone for us, a savior! God has given strength to the King Jesus Christ. Do you remember how we agreed that God is holy and we are not? God is perfect but you and me, we have all disobeyed God. We have done this through being unkind to others, not listening to our parents loving words, and much more. Since God is perfect, he is unable to have a relationship with us. A perfect God cannot have a relationship with an imperfect people: me and you. We are separated from our God because of our sin. But God has sent his son Jesus Christ who is both man and God to be our savior and act as a mediator between us and God. So even with our sin, we can have a relationship with our holy God. You can be saved by believing this gospel! Believe that Christ is the son of God and that God raised him from the dead. Christ took on the punishment of our sin by being killed, but God raised him from the dead. So in our life: we can either choose to trust in the Lord like Hannah or be like those who only trust in themselves. If we trust God like Hannah did, he is our rock! We can praise him and delight in him as she did. If you have any questions about what this means, you can ask me or another teacher here this morning. Or if you have heard something like this from your parents, you can ask them about it today too. Let me pray for you all now.