Amen. Please be seated. Please turn with me in your Bibles to that passage we read earlier in 1 Samuel 1. And our text begins with verse 19 and ends at verse 11 of chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 1 beginning with verse number 19 down to chapter 2 verse 11. And our title for this message is The Blessing of God. The Blessing of God. As we read this text earlier, you see a wonderful answer to prayer, Hannah's prayer, as we saw two weeks ago. And my original working title for this was, until I changed it, The Blessing of Children. But while this is spoken about here, I think we are in danger of missing the greatest blessing of all, the blessing of God himself. that we need to rejoice, as Hannah does here, far more in the giver than in the gift itself. As wonderful as that gift is, we can be overjoyed with our own answers to prayer in times. But even though the gift is in some way, yes, to be rejoiced over and we're thankful for it, we must never forget the one who has given it to us in the first place. We must never put anything between ourselves and God. It's so easy for us to get a wonderful answer to prayer. And that good thing God has given us, we can make it more important than God. A good thing in and of itself Now, did Hannah pray for something good? Oh, yes, she did. She prayed for a child. And not only did she just pray for a child, she prayed for a child that would serve God. Dedicated unto the Lord, a very good thing, a wonderful thing. But as we see here, something even more wonderful is she finds the greatest blessing, not in Samuel, her son that was born, but in the God who gave her such a wonderful gift in the first place. And we saw as well, Hannah was in great distress. She prayed in a time of decline, time of division in her own home. Elkanah, her husband, was not just married to her. He was also married to another woman named Penina. And there was much difficulty between the two of them in the home. And there was discouragement. She was so discouraged, she came to the point of not being able to eat at all. And also when she did turn to seek help from God, Eli, did not understand what she was doing. Eli thought, here's yet another drunk in the temple. Perhaps you're here this evening and perhaps you're facing a distressful situation in your family, in your work, among friends, maybe even your marriage, finances. All sorts of things can distress us. And may I even say, because praise God, there's a lot of wonderful things that the Lord has given us recently, deacons, changes in our local government here in our church. But change is never easy, is it? It's difficult in many, many ways, and it can raise many challenges. But what do we find here in our text? With all these answers to prayer, we, like Hannah, must never lose sight of the God who is in control. Though we face many changes around us all the time, God never changes. And God who has blessed us in the past is the greatest blessing of all. Now, she has vowed to God to make her son a Nazarite. That is set aside. And that's not an easy situation either. And as we'll see, she really only has Samuel for a few years and then hands him over to serve the Lord with her whole life. But yet she rejoices in the God who gave such a wonderful gift. Our first point that we're going to look at here this evening is the blessing of power. the blessing of power. As believers, we all, like Hannah before us, have access to God who is all-powerful. Verses 19 and 20, and they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore, it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived, that she bear a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the Lord." Samuel means there, as we see it, asked of God. Asked of God. Almighty power. Hannah's already prayed, and God has heard her prayer. And we see this language, this wonderful phrase here, the Lord remembered her. The Lord remembered her. Now, when we think of remembering something, we say, oh, I remember the keys that were there. But does God forget anything? Our God does not forget anything. You see, we are limited creatures. And when something comes into our mind, when we're thinking about something, when we're concerned about something, we remember it. But we must remember with God, our God is all-knowing. He doesn't learn anything, for he doesn't need to know anything. He knows everything. We must never forget who God is in such things. So when we creatures, limited creatures, read this language, we have to realize we are looking at the infinite, eternal God. Why is such language used in the Bible? Well, it reminds us that God cares. He thinks of his people. We may feel at times, we pray for something for ages, and we wonder, is there gonna be any answer to such prayer? And we wonder, don't we, Is God thinking of me? But this such language should remind us the Lord remembered her and what happened when the Lord remembered her? She conceived. Something wonderful happened. God cares for Hannah. Now, it doesn't mean we will all have the same answer to prayer. Again, as we said two weeks ago, the answer may be yes, the answer may be no, the answer may be not now. We may wait for years for all sorts of reasons, but the Lord gives good gifts to his children. Sometimes we'll look back and go, we can kind of see to a degree why there was a delay to answer prayer, and sometimes we have no idea. But we must trust that the Lord is good in all these things. Luke 11 and verse 11. Luke 11 and verse number 11. Down to verse 13. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, shall he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" It's a wonderful picture here spoken about. Every child knows a loving father. If you ask for something good, if you ask for bread, will he give him a stone? That would seem very cruel, wouldn't it? But God is good. He pities his children. And because he gives us good things, he gives us not just what we need, not necessarily what we want, but what we need at that moment at the right time. Precisely at the right time. And this is what God does wonderfully for Hannah. Hannah has an answer to prayer. after she's learned to depend on God and seek comfort from Him. We saw that in the last message. You see, we sometimes in those, what may seem like a delayed answer to prayer, nothing's really delayed in the eyes of God, we learn to depend on God's power. And Hannah sees it more freshly, you could say. Verse one of the next chapter, chapter number two, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. And that horn is a symbol of strength or power. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. She has learned to depend upon God, the greatest blessing of all. Because if the answer to prayer came earlier, it wouldn't have helped her as much as it did. Though painful it was, she has learned of the power of God. She has learned to find comfort in Him. She has learned to seek refuge in Him more and more. John 11, verse number 25. John 11, and verse number 25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Jesus said in John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus didn't just possess life. He was and is and ever shall be life itself. He is life. So Jesus, as God, is true God, true man, is the greatest blessing of all. And we depend upon him. We see our weaknesses. Hannah saw her weaknesses. Hannah saw her dependency. And she saw the power of God answering wonderfully in this way, bringing such a wonderful gift such as Samuel. But it's usually in moments like that we realize we're utterly helpless. You know, you're praying, and that dear loved one just seems to get sicker and sicker and sicker. And you're just absolutely, you feel like, We feel even more feeble and weak as time goes on. And then many a time, God answers that prayer. And what have you learned in those moments of your weakness? You see your weakness. We're all weak. The question is, do we see that we're weak? And there's gonna be times when we feel physically weak, exhausted even, and you learn wisdom that way because you say, I can't do this. Because we often think we can. We think we can do it in our own strength. We just plow on, we're gonna do it in our own efforts, and then we learn time and time again of our own limitations. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And verse 10, Paul writes to the Corinthians, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. Now, this may seem like such a strange thing for Paul to rejoice in. He could rejoice in revelations. He could rejoice in all these other things. But what does he rejoice in? He takes pleasures in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions. And he went through some difficult times because he learned in those weak moments greater dependence upon God. He learned of the blessing of the power of God, where true power is, because when he saw he was weak, he saw where the true power was and he gave up more and more. You see, this is what we do when we grow in holiness. We're actually surrendering more to him, we're seeing more and more how weak we are and we're seeing more and more by God's grace, his power and his strength. The greatest blessing for Hannah As wonderful as Samuel was, it was God. It was God. Verse 2 of the next chapter, chapter 2, says, And this is right after, having weaned her own son from a very young age, And she had to do the very difficult thing of handing him over to Eli, the priest. But she found her comfort. She found her joy in God, who was her strength. You see, what we've got to be very careful about, though we may pray for good things, and I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for these things, we should, but even as something as wonderful as a child, we should never make that an idol. We should never even make our husband or our wife an idol. And we should thank God for such wonderful gifts. But God comes first. God is our greatest blessing of all. We should love our neighbors. Yes, we should love our children. Yes, we should raise them and nurture them. And as Hannah did in verse 22, she weaned the child. that food that was necessary for their growth. I know it's wonderful about that. It's in the weakness of those years. And perhaps Samuel was no older than five years old, possibly as young as two. I know we can think of weaning. And typically around that time, they were more dependent on their mother to nurse for a bit longer than we are today. So you're talking about the years between two to five years old. But in those early years, it's wonderful the types of habits and the blessings that a young, small child can learn, even if they're under the age of five. And we actually see an example of it in the Scriptures, in Exodus chapter two and verses eight to 10. Exodus chapter two and verses eight to 10. We see Moses here. He spends, yes, he grows up in royalty, but he is nourished by his own mother. at a very young age. Verses 8 to 10 of Exodus chapter 2, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go, and the maid said, and call the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses. And she said, because I drew him out of the water. And what's amazing is, it's wonderful, is the influence of that mother seems to have planted a seed that years later, Moses rejecting the pleasures of sin for a season in order to follow Christ, as we find out in Hebrews chapter 11. So, whether we're young Physically weak whether we're a bit older we are all weak and We learn the greatest blessing is to trust in the power of God That God is in control and this brings us to our second point the blessing of praise The blessing of praise because we have such a high opinion of God and because we think so much of him It's a blessing to worship him We love to praise Him. We think so highly of Him. And she is so pleased to worship Him. And I want us to notice something as well. In verse number 19, this is a little bit before the answer to prayer and before Hannah conceives. And it says in verse 19, And they rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house in Ramah. It's after this. So do we see a situation where the people of God are waiting for these good things to happen before the worshipping happens, before the praise happens? Praise happens before answer to the prayer, praise happens after, during, middle, And it's ongoing. Verse 21, and the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. There's no indication that there's any real change in behavior. This is normal behavior. This is for them. And though there will be times in our walk when we'll feel more moved to praise God, sometimes more than others, this is to be normal. This is to be normal and it was for them and for their family. What would you say if someone, you found someone and you said, that person is not breathing? You'd probably be concerned. And as breath leaves our body as naturally, so ought praise to come from our lips. as naturally as it comes. A Christian is a worshiper. That's what we are. We have been saved to glorify God. Actually, we've been made to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And in heaven, we'll have the complete enjoyment of worshiping Him and praising Him and enjoying the fullness of this great blessing. We will never grow tired. We will be there for eternity and never think, oh, how long has this been going on for? We'll want more of it and more of it and more of it, and we'll never grow tired of it. And Hannah has a taste of that blessing of praise. She has learned to depend upon the power of God, and she is so delighted in His presence. And as she says in our prayer in chapter 2, she declares, talk no more, so exceedingly proud. Verse 3, let not arrogancy come out of thy mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. God's knowledge and the wisdom is by which is the standard by which all things are weighed. Now, as we see here, there may be times, we see verse 22 of the first chapter, But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, and then he may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever. There may be times when we can't go to public worship, and there's nothing necessarily sinful about that, especially if it's health reasons or other things like that. This is not her being sinfully neglectful to the worship of God. Now, we also have to remember this is a time before supermarkets. This is a time before washing machines. This is a time before baby formula. And this was a pretty full-on role that she had. I also don't want to say as well, we must be careful. We don't think, well, we won't bring the children until they're about 15 years old or something like that. That's plain wrong. But we do our best in the situation we find ourselves in. I know godly people, and they become sick at times, and they feel so guilty they can't come to church. But the Lord blesses those people who sincerely, yes, want to be there, but can't, but can't. Sometimes, for various reasons, we cannot. And she wanted to wait until the child was weaned. And she said, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever. Do you see that? Not just until the end of his life, forever. She's got an eternal view. And this is why she's so joyful. Worship is a priority for Hannah, and worship is a priority for how she raises her child. A blessing, it's such a blessing. See, we ought not to think about worship or as little as possible. Worship is the greatest, most wonderful thing we will do because of the greatness of the one we worship. If you take God out of worship, it is just pure entertainment. They're for men. And that's so what's happened to modern worship. God has been taken out and we've erected another idol in its place. What we need is our focus and our attention entirely upon God. Verse 24, and when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bullocks and one ephah flower and a bottle of wine and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young. And then in verse 11 of the next chapter, and Elkanah went to Ramah unto his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. Samuel was very young when this began. To young people especially, you're never too young to follow the Lord. I always like reminding my children about King Edward VI. He was 15 years old when he died, and he was a very well-respected godly king. The reformers thought very highly of him, and he did much to encourage the reformation in England in the 16th century. He died at 15 years old. You're never too young. You're never too old. You're never too sick. Whatever context God places you in, you may be housebound. You may not even be able to leave your bed, but you have a ministry in that situation. Perhaps it's to the carers who help bring you in and out of bed. The Lord has a purpose for you. God put Paul in prison, and he had a ministry there. God is able. God is powerful. This brings us to our third point, the blessing of promise. The blessing of promise. Our God is good. Now, we are not, but we have such a blessing in all these things because God has promised to be merciful in and through Jesus Christ, to forgive us of our sins. If he treated us like we deserve, we couldn't come with boldness. We couldn't come saying the things that Hannah is saying here in our prayer in chapter two. They that were of, verse 5, they that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath borne seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth up. She can say these things, she can say these things with delight because of Christ. There's mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and our God is good. He gives good things. Now, he also gives good things to unbelievers in this world. We have to acknowledge that as well. The Lord has given many good gifts to people who never turn and acknowledge the Lord, but we will be held accountable for such things. Do we give thanks to the Lord who is faithful? 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1 and verse number 9, God is faithful, by whom we're called unto the fellowship of his Son, Christ our Lord. God is faithful. And I always find it very interesting, Paul writing to the Corinthians and the Corinthian church, in some ways got so many things wrong. but they were reminded at the beginning of the letter, God is faithful, and all the blessings that they had in Christ Jesus. Our God is a God of promises. But while God has made many faithful promises to us, and he will do all that he has said, there are blessings in our own vows and promises to God. Though we will fail, we do. Our vows when followed are a blessing to ourselves." Elkanah, in verse 21 of the first chapter, it says, went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. Now, Elkanah's vow, that could be the vow that his wife, Hannah, had just made about Samuel being in Azorite. It could be that. He could have, according to Numbers chapter 30, if he disagreed with it, he could have canceled it, I guess you could put it like that. Elkanah sought to keep his vow to God. And if our promises before God are good, and according to the scriptures, they must be according to scriptures, there can't be something against the scriptures, then they are a blessing unto our soul. Joshua 24 and verse 15. Joshua chapter 24 and verse number 15. And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me, In my house, we will serve the Lord. Elkanah, Hannah, they sought to keep their vows unto God. Now again, if you vowed a vow unto God and you discover that it is not in line with scripture, then we're not to keep that. However, Think about it. If this is biblical, what you have vowed unto the Lord, it is a blessing unto our soul. She, this is Hannah, brings Samuel to Eli. Verse 26 of the first chapter, and she said, "'O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.'" She's basically saying, do you remember me? Verse 27, "'For this child I prayed, and the Lord had given me my petition, which I asked of him.'" Is this easy? Think about it. This is the child she has prayed for, suffered for, And she's had him for a few years. And now, in keeping her vow before God, you may think she's losing him. She's losing him. But does she lose him? Not at all. Not at all. And this brings us to our fourth and final point, the blessing of principle the blessing of principle, and by principle, the teaching. There's a teaching here that is a blessing for us all to learn. Hannah learns this, and this is why she can do so joyfully. No doubt, it's tinged with a little bit of sadness in her heart. No doubt she's going to miss her son. You know, it's hard when your children hit 18 years old, and they go off to college, and you miss them. But imagine they're five years old. It's a little bit harder to do it then, or six or whatever the age that Samuel was at this point. But Hannah sees this in verse number 28 of chapter one, therefore, also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. It must have been hard, There's no indication from the text that she's done anything but rejoice because she realizes anything that we have, whether it's children or anything else, we're merely borrowing them. None of these things, none of the things we have, the things we gain, the things we lose, were ever ours truly to begin with. The Lord giveth, as Job said, and the Lord taketh away. It doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. It does. But we rejoice in the giver more than we rejoice in the gift. We get to enjoy these wonderful things for a period of time, but then we have to keep our eyes on eternity. And Hannah did. Hannah did. She kept her eyes on eternity because she said for her son, At the end of 23, there abide forever. See, think of Psalm 23 in verse 6. How long will we be in the house of God? Forever. Forever. It's a wonderful, wonderful blessing. And as that old famous phrase from Jonathan Edwards, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. And the world looks very different when you keep eternity in view. This principle, if you understand it, then yes, though tinged with sadness, no doubt, you can rejoice like Hannah did, even though her child would no longer be as close anymore. And what a blessing, the blessing that Samuel is going to serve God later on, called as a prophet even. And beginning a whole series, you could say a reformation, because they just come out of a wretched period. You see it in the book of Judges, one of the hardest books in the Bible to read. And Samuel begins a process of bringing them back to biblical truth. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. As Christians, this ought to be our attitude. Let him take it all. It all belongs to him. When we have it, we're thankful. Whatever good gift that is, maybe our children, grandchildren, our spouse, our husband or wife, whatever it is, To have our parents for as long as we have them, praise God for that amount of time. To have whoever we have in our life, our best friend, whoever they are, they're there for a period of time, but they won't be there forever. We should be thankful for the time that we have with the people we love. But we give praise and thanksgiving for the giver more than the gift. Let us remind ourselves as well of Hannah's Praise of God in chapter two and verse two. There is none holy as the Lord. There is none beside him. Neither is there any rock like our God. There's nothing like him in all the world. Nothing in heaven nor on earth. And he gives all the, he's the source of all the blessings. And we should bow and listen to his wisdom. is wisdom. Friends, I pray that as we look through this chapter and as we see the godly response of Hannah, and it's a godly response to a difficult situation. And I'm sure you look at this and wonder, how did she respond this way? How did Hannah, after handing over her child, say, my heart rejoices in the Lord? She did it joyfully. because it was all about him, because the greatest blessing she saw was God, not her child. That's very hard for her, especially when you saw the distress she went through for not having a child in the first place. That's what we must all do. And for you, it may not be maybe a child. It may be something else. But what we must all do is rejoice in the great giver of life. Are you here this evening? Are you a Christian? Oh, that is wonderful. That is the greatest gift of all. Salvation, a home in heaven, not just for a short time, but forever. Forever. What a wonderful thing. Verse 11 at the end of chapter two. Verse 11 in chapter two. And Elkanah went to Ramah and his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. What a joy Samuel's witness is. And as we'll see later on in future sermons, compare that with the sons of Eli. Eli's sons were close by, but were a disgrace. They were sons of Belial. The greatest blessing for your children, friends, is not that they're close by necessarily. We'd love that, of course we would. It's that they're serving God. That's the most important thing. That is the most important thing. Amen.