🔴 WATCH NOW: FULL GATHERING from Passion City Church D.C.

[Music] hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey passion city church online family my name is brennan and on behalf of the team i just want to say we are so excited uh and really honored that you would join us for today's gathering and if this is your first time we want to give a special welcome to you and let you know if you want to learn more about our house or how you can get plugged in go ahead and check out our website or follow us on social media we would really love nothing more than to connect with you and then to start journeying alongside you we're just about ready to get started with today's gathering but before then we want to invite you to go ahead let us know in the chat where you're tuning in from and maybe just maybe if you're so bold you could send the link of today's gathering to a friend and invite them to tune in with you we are confident that today is going to be such a powerful time of worship together so let's go ahead prepare our hearts and lean in with full expectation for what god has for us today welcome to passion city church [Music] hey welcome to chuck [Music] come on it's good to see your faces it's good to be in the house of god with you we've got a reason to sing today no matter the circumstance you walked in with the lord wants your song we can walk in with confusion we can walk in with fear we can walk in with pain and we can walk in with guilt and anything else and he just says will you open your hands will you open your heart will you give me what you got and let me fill you up so let's not hold our song back today because something around us is trying to hold us back amen let's sing this come on [Music] in the presence of my enemies i'm raising hallelujah louder than the unbelief [Music] is [Music] heaven comes to fight for me so come [Music] the on [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] i will watch the darkness [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mystery [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] anybody believe that today the king is alive he's worthy of your prayers so come on [Music] or sing a little louder i'm singing a little louder [Music] presence of my enemies [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] church we have the opportunity today to surrender to the king to surrender whatever conflict is going on within us inside us we have the chance today to sit at the throne of god and to lift up a song to him to lift up a song that will please his hero his ears and bless his heart so can we do that church can we sing to him here as we wait we seek your face come and make your throne upon our praise here in this place have your way the moment that we see you we are changed to sing this out [Music] us your glory show us your glory [Music] heart be holy grace [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] only by the cross we come alive [Music] foreign [Music] show us your glory [Music] show us [Music] show [Music] we make space for you jesus every hurting heart every broken heart every anxious heart he wants to dwell with you he wants to abide in you so will you invite him will you ask him i sing shades for fear about here now jesus you change everything in life [Music] you change everything [Music] [Music] this is our hope today this is our freedom this is our redemption the presence of jesus jesus [Music] jesus you change day [Music] come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus you change every day [Music] jesus you change everything right here and now come on someone needs to believe that today right here and right now jesus can change everything for you even in your life even in my life even in my story i've seen him do it and i believe he can do it for you so can we ask him one more time to show us say show us your glory show us your glory [Music] come on church let's not stop there there's so much good news today that we have a king that is with us so with your voice what you're saying there's a grace [Music] when i look [Music] i know i will never as one voice as one body we say there was another [Music] should i ever [Music] there is [Music] this is great news as we [Music] hey i'm no longer a slave to my sin anymore [Music] and the body of christ can say i know [Music] [Music] [Music] come on [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] not a single thing not a single thing and take him away from his throne so we have the best news today saying there is no other name but the name that is [Music] is [Music] holding back [Music] cause i know that's [Music] is [Music] between us [Music] next to me [Music] everybody [Music] [Applause] [Music] as we were singing this song yeah he worried he gave him a hand class he woke you up this morning he gave you breath in your lungs he kept you in your right mind you get to praise his name today what an awesome god we serve and as we were singing about being able to see his glory and him being in the fire i thought about the story of elijah and the servant and the servant was afraid and elijah he prayed lord open his eyes to see that you that what surrounds us you have already surrounded so he's with us and we have all of heaven behind us we're back by the lord of hosts and the army of angels he's with us so lord pray with me lord open our eyes to see that you are with us that the things that we're afraid of the things that we have anxiety of the things that cause weariness and fear you have surrounded because the earth is still your foot still you are still sovereign you're still faithful you're running the whole show you're still in control and you have never lost a battle and you're not gonna lose one now and we thank you that you are opening our eyes to see the glory that surrounds us every day the birds and the trees and the skies and the moons and the waters that you set in place that still function today perfectly because you are a perfect creator and an almighty god and a perfect savior and we praise you god for your faithfulness and we love you in jesus name we pray amen can y'all tell him i'm excited he's been good i'm just i mean he's just been good what can i say what can i say he's faithful well good morning church i'm morgan i work for our church i do local engagement i would love for you all to go ahead and take a seat maybe make awkward eye contact you can do a little elbow if you're at home you can grab some coffee can get comfortable and we'll go ahead and we'll get this gathering oh look at y'all talking and being social the first gathering was a little shy but i see that y'all are you're talking a bunch we love that bring that energy to community group this week don't forget bring all this energy to community group well y'all just want to say welcome back i think i can speak for staff and our leadership to say that we missed y'all if you are joining us for the first time we're coming back from sabbath it was a time where we took a couple sundays off uh closed up shop and we just rested because it's biblical and it's important because our help comes from the lord it's not out of our own efforts that we do any of this he has empowered us and he's moving and so we can rest easy known that even if we take a week off he's still god and he's still moving and so we are excited and we are ready for what he's going to do this fall and speaking of this fall this week y'all we have something very exciting happening starting on tuesdays and wednesday i kind of gave y'all a little hint and that's community group can we get a handclap for community group yes so this last summer we kind of did an abbreviated version we met in eastern market but historically we actually meet in different neighborhoods across the dmv and what we do is we have a little bit of a message we meet with some people at a small group table and we just talk about what we're learning and how do we apply it and how do we process it and if you're like me i grew up in a church where we went to church on sunday and i went to bible study on wednesdays but we only ever learned in rose i never got to turn and ask a question or say well how does this apply to my everyday life or here's what i'm struggling with will you pray for me and community group is the time to do all of that and so it's going to happen every other week tuesdays and wednesdays at 7 30. you can choose the neighborhood that is most convenient for you on tuesdays we'll have capitol hill in maryland yeah capitol hill i heard two people so we'll have two people there taylor two maybe and then on wednesdays we will have dupont in virginia okay virginia people y'all could hype i love y'all's energy so we want to see y'all there i just want to reiterate that whether you call passion city church your home or not the doors are open and we have a place for you whether you're still trying to figure out this faith thing and christianity thing we have a place view in fact we're starting some content called savior we're talking about my best friend jesus so if you're trying to figure out the faith this is a perfect time to jump in and learn about the person and life of jesus we're doing all of this because of him and for him so we hope that y'all will join us if you have questions you can head over to our website go to social media find out the exact addresses again it's tuesdays wednesdays every other week through november and before we go any further i just got to give another praise report that for a long time we've been praying for a place for our families and for our kids to meet and we've scoured the neighborhood we've knocked on doors we've had more no's than yes but can i just give y'all a report that god made away and our kids get to meet during the first gathering that's a praise report because it's hard for families to bring their kids every sunday and be able to be attentive so we're grateful that we get to meet just behind us in the howard it was a door that was closed that miraculously got opened because the doors he opens no man can shut can i get an amen so we would love for you you have kids to come the first gathering bring your kids so they can hear the word and be fed and you can also come and be fit another thing we have is welcome to church it's happening next sunday after our 11 30 gathering here and the reason why welcome to church is important because yes the worship team and choir i mean spot on ben is a phenomenal teacher yes the message is good but you need to know the theology behind why we do what we do what are our values what's our heart posture behind serving the city and serving god so that's a great way for you to learn about who we are it's actually in small groups you can meet some other people who are new to our church so we would love for you to join us at welcome to church 11 30 after the 11 30 gathering next sunday another thing i'm very excited about barry is that today we have a special treat pastor ben is kicking off a new series called kings and kingdoms and he's talking about the life of david in this lineage and how god has been woven this perfect story and bringing a savior to save a broken world and he's given us a couple little snapshots this last week with our leaders and i have literally been blown away at the two or three things he shared so i cannot wait to hear this message and i know for sure that is going to bless our house another thing that's a blessing to me is that i get to introduce somebody who i love and care about so deeply she's going to come around our giving moment and her name is lainey williams her and her husband john serve here and what i love about laney is it's one thing for somebody to come up here and say be generous with your money and resource is another thing to be generous with your life to pour out everything you have for the gospel whether you're working at a store whether you're meeting a neighbor she is the kind of person who pours out everything she has for the glory of god and i've watched her do that in my own life when i'm struggling with being single in my 30s can i get an amen anybody else is struggling she will encourage me and say trust god he's faithful try him and see if he won't prove to be who he says he is and so i've just seen her be so generous with her time with me personally and i'm just excited for what god has placed on her heart to share with me so go ahead and give a round of applause for my dear friend lainey thanks morgan good morning everyone before i begin i would like to thank pastor ben and his beautiful wife donna for this offering to share over the giving just so grateful for them and i'm excited to share with you all some scriptures that really have encouraged me with my giving and to be able to give consistently and as you get to know me you'll know i'm a no fluff tell it like it is tell it to me straight tough love kind of person so you'll understand why these scriptures really really challenged me turn with me to malachi 3 8-10 and i'm going to be reading from the new living translation and it says should people cheat god yet you have cheated me but you ask what do you mean when did we ever cheat you you have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me you are under a curse for your whole nation has been cheating me bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple if you do says the lord of heaven's armies i will open the windows of heaven for you i will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in and this is the kicker try it put me to the test and after reading that i was like okay lord i see you i see you trying to egg me on and challenge me because he knows i do love a challenge and so i gave it a go i got saved when i was 25 years old and just last month on august 6th marks the day that i gave my life to the lord 21 years ago whoa i know y'all are doing the math 40s are the new 20s and yes forever 21 is still my jam so you know it's that store really is for people like me but by saying that being able to test god in this area with finances for 21 years not only have i seen him bless me monetarily but i have been able to just experience his faithfulness to me you know he really really just showed me how much i can trust him if i can trust him in that area i can trust him in every area and so not only did i see my friends and family come to church and give their life to the lord i've ha i have many many answered prayers and even some unanswered prayers and those are the thank you jesus moment for not answering those prayers because yes his ways are higher than my ways and so i just want to encourage you this morning you know if you haven't tested him in this area do it because he has abundant things for your life and so the giving details will be on the screen and as you prepare your gift let's pray lord god i just thank you father for your goodness i thank you father that this is an area that we can test you in lord i thank you lord that you have nothing but blessings for us i thank you lord that we can give to a cause that's bigger than ourselves i thank you lord for this church lord god i thank you lord that this is a life-giving church i thank you lord for your goodness so bless the gift and the giver in jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] all right all right well hello passion city church good to see you okay hey if you got a copy of your scriptures we are in first samuel first samuel if you want to turn there we're going to read some in a minute but while you're doing that let me just say uh again it is so great to be back we missed you it's wonderful to be in this space together and particularly on this weekend you know as a country we were grieving and remembering yesterday on 9 11 um sensing gratitude for those who served in that difficult day 20 years ago and i know for some of you in the space you think about 9 11 some of you were i mean four or five that you may be younger than my kids now you have no maybe memory of it you've heard about it in history and but i know others of you in here that moment was catalytic for you to enter into public service whether in the military or in the government or a variety of places and i just want to say wherever you are i think i i've heard so many people yesterday uh comment on the days following 9 11 the the sense of camaraderie that existed in our country that important sense of we need to help each other and support each other we may disagree on some fundamental things but can we do it in a atmosphere of grace of helping each other win and i just want you know i love being in the house of god on a weekend like this where we get to pray together seek the lord together and i've been asking the lord to help us as a people lead the way in supporting each other and seeing that sense of camaraderie come alive in us that we can support each other and love each other and be a house of grace and truth so wherever you are today in life or if you've ever been in this space or not we just want you to know i'm so glad you're here and excited that we're worshiping together today and one other note i want to make too before we jump into the message is this you know uh we took the last two sundays off and uh several people were asking you know hey as as the situation was unfolding in afghanistan what were we doing as a church are we stepping in to help people who are exiting afghanistan coming to america what are we doing and uh we were all scattered but i want you to know uh that you were helping in in the ways that we could and there wasn't necessarily an avenue for us to sort of marshal everybody to give in a certain direction but uh unfortunately i can't give you all the details but i wanted to encourage you church that there were members of our house that as people arrived and dulles with nothing um some of you mobilized with giving from our house to supply strollers and suitcases and clothes and little lovies for kids and some of you mobilized with medical care for people coming back and i just want you to know as a house i was so grateful to see that atmosphere of how can we serve how can we help when the world is experiencing difficulty what is my role to play in being a servant so thank you passion city dc for leaning in and helping people in a time of need it was encouraging to see and i thought you'd all be encouraged to hear that i don't know if uh yeah yeah there you go okay i just didn't know i'm like blank stares are a sign of love okay great um with that said we're in first samuel we're launching a series we're going to cover the first seven chapters of first samuel so uh volunteers will be passing out cliff bars and water uh throughout the course of the day and i'm kidding we it won't take that long we'll fly over but i do want to say this um we're going to cover seven chapters you'll see why in a minute uh but i'll just sort of fly over them but you know we got seven days till we meet again together so i want to encourage you uh read a chapter a day or get a bible app and have someone read it to you while you drive it'll be i promise better than probably whatever you're podcasting so uh grab that and uh listen to this talk again because it'll help you kind of give you some framework for it uh but there's a a poem at the beginning of first samuel that in many ways summarizes not just the message of today but the theme uh of the passage and normally i read the verses over us but this is a prayer from a woman named hannah and as we were preparing for today i thought you know it would be wonderful to have a woman read it and particularly one who has an accent far more interesting than my own so will you help welcome my friend chizzy to the stage as she reads over us uh the scripture [Music] this is first samuel 2 and hannah prayed and said my heart exalts in the lord my horn is exalted in the lord my mouth derides my enemies because i rejoice in your salvation there is none holy like the lord for there is none besides you there is no rock like our god talk no more so very proudly let not arrogance come from your mouth for the lord is a god of knowledge and by him actions are weighed the bows of the mighty are broken but the feeble bind on strength those who were full have hired themselves out for bread but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger the baron has borne seven but she who has many children is forlorn the lord kills and brings to life he brings down to she all and raises up the lord makes rich the lord makes poor and makes rich he brings low and he exalts he raises up with the poor from the dust he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor for the pillars of the earth are the lords and on them he has set the world he will guard the feet of his faithful ones but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness for not by might shall a man prevail the adversaries of the lord shall be broken to pieces against them he will thunder in heaven the lord will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed [Music] father help us now as we gather around your word lord i pray you'd help us understand it but not just understand it to be changed by it lord i pray for comfort today for those who need it i pray for encouragement for those who need fresh courage today [Music] i pray for for perspective [Music] and lord i pray for faith to rise and a confidence because we see the faithfulness of a good god [Music] and i want to invite you church if you're willing to for you to take a second and you pray and ask him say lord please teach me today [Music] and then if you would please pray for me that the lord would use me and i'd be helpful to you [Music] well father we love you and we trust you use this time and we pray that in jesus name amen well a few months ago my wife bought me a first edition copy of the personal memoirs of ulysses s grant pretty amazing that this man who led in such a difficult day in our nation's history wrote his memoirs and i have a first edition copy of it so she gave it to me and i was like man i'm too scared to read this like i don't want to open it up and all the pages to fall apart but i gotta look at the front page so i just kind of creaked it open and looked at what's the first thing that this man chose to write in the very beginning of his memoirs begins with the quote man proposes but god disposes what that means is we may come up with our plans but it's the lord who determines our steps and he wrote there are few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice and in saying that he's not saying we don't make decisions but he's saying there's a different hand that moves the course of history and we may make our plans but it's the lords who prevails and here's the fascinating thing is it's that same quote he didn't come up with it it's been quoted throughout history and and it was quoted to napoleon by one of his generals on the eve of the battle of waterloo napoleon was feeling confident he had more cavalry than the english he had more guns and bigger ones he was feeling good so he told his generals hey let's go ahead and destroy the british before tea time at two o'clock shall we and as he said that one of his generals warned him man proposes but god disposes and napoleon is said to have responded no sir napoleon proposes and napoleon deposes and then it rained a lot and those big guns in which he was so proud got stuck in the mud and his horses couldn't run through the mud and many of you know what happened at waterloo he got trounced and then exiled to a little island on his own and on that island he began to read the bible and marvel at the person of jesus who rules the kingdoms of men not guys like napoleon now why do i mention that because we're starting this new series about kingdoms and about kings and we're looking at this pivot point in the life of the people of god in the old testament this amazing moment in their history that back in genesis god promised a man named abraham i'm going to bless you and through your children i'm going to bless the whole world and you saw as his seed grew in egypt they came out into this promised land and god strategically places them in a piece of real estate where they could be a beacon of light and hope to the world but if you've ever read the book of judges they lose that light that you see god had given them a social contract the covenant to love god and love your neighbor and they dismissed god and fell in love with the idols of the culture and so they became harsh and cruel to each other if you've ever read the book of judges it is not an upbeat book try to do a quiet time in judges it's depressing people murdering each other everywhere it's a dark day and yet in the midst of that darkness a light begins to dawn and here you see the book of judges covers hundreds of years and the book of first and second kings covers centuries but here in first and second samuel right in the center the narrative of the old testament slows down it doesn't cover hundreds of years doesn't cover thousands of years it covers the lifespan of a man named samuel a man named saul and a man named david and you watch in the midst of a dark day god elevates a king and you see we're at a pivot point in a nation where we're going to watch them move from a loose confederation of tribes into an institutionalized monarchy being led by a king and as we go through the series let me just tell you something it's going to be fun church can i just let you know that like it is a fascinating story it's filled with political intrigue and betrayal and the quest for power and all kinds of sex and money it's the perfect book for this town that you see people grasped for power and others scared of it you see others lead with virtue and others assumed with their advices it's a fascinating book and yet it's not just a study of history we're gonna do as interesting as that would be we're gonna see that over our kings and over our kingdoms rules a king above all kings and we're going to watch as man proposes it's god who deposes and here's the idea that's so great about it that the same god rules over you today and me so all of us in here we're building our own little kingdoms you may work in government or not but all of us have our own little kingdoms over which we rule and god is going to determine the course of our story because he rules the nations and so it's important to see the priorities he governs by as we live on the earth he's made so that's what we're going to look at here and in these first seven chapters it doesn't start with the kings and it doesn't even start with the prophet although by the end here we will look at the entire career of samuel the prophet what's fascinating is the bible doesn't start with the urge to change all of kingdoms and change all of history the changing of a history the changing of a nation the changing of a people doesn't start with this massive global influence it starts with the prayers and the pain of a singular woman that the god who rules the nations cares about your story and your pain can that encourage you today and we're going to watch the faithfulness of a woman change the course of a nation and so let's begin today we begin with this woman hannah and when we look at hannah we see in chapter one her pain brought before the lord and we won't read it all but i'll summarize some we'll stay a little longer in chapter one because it starts with a man named elkanah and it says in verse 2 of samuel 1 it says he had two wives which let me just say scripturally is always a bad start uh it never goes great and you know the book of genesis alludes to hey the two shall become one flesh you don't need a bunch of wise folks the new testament's more clear about it hey you can't do this right so the bible's not pro-polygamy by the way so this guy you get the sense of why he did it in verse two it says the name of one was hannah and the name of the other was peninnah and panina had children but hannah had no children so you get the idea there that he married hannah first and she couldn't have kids and and back then your kids are who you handed all your property and valuables and who took care of you when you were old so if you wanted to live and wanted your property go on you needed kids hannah could not supply them and so he brought on a second wife panina and she begins to have kids but again two wives usually don't go good and you see in verse three now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and sacrifice to the lord of hosts at shiloh where the two sons of eli hofney and phineas were priests of the lord remember those guys on the day when elkanah sacrificed he would give portions to peninnah his wife and all her sons and daughters but to hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her though the lord had closed her womb and her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her because the lord had closed her womb so it went on year by year as often as she went up to the house of the lord she used to provoke her therefore hannah wept and would not eat so you see here the book doesn't begin with a concern about all the nations it begins with the concern of a singular woman in a small town who longs to have a child and can't and so it's a sad beginning in this woman's life and yet if you've read your bible you know there's a little glimmer of hope because you see you remember sarah in genesis chapter 11 a barren woman who had a child who helped lead the nation then rebecca in genesis 25 and rachel in genesis 29 and samson's mom in judges 13 and elizabeth in luke chapter 1. you see if you've read your bible you know that barren women seem to be god's instruments to raise up key moments in his history of redemption so if you're reading this with the eyes of scripture you know her pain has potential locked up in it that whenever god inaugurates a new chapter in his grand plan he typically begins with people's barrenness he starts with our nothing there's something about god his tendency is to make our total inability his starting point because god likes a miracle story and so it's fascinating you watch hannah here they go to shiloh which is where the ark of the covenant was the temple of the tent of meeting was there it was where joshua divvied up the land it was a holy place at that time they would go up there and they would worship and sacrifice and then peninnah her rival would poke at her make fun of her to start crying can you be loved by god and struggle yes and yet look what she does it says in verse 10 she was deeply distressed and she prayed to the lord and wept bitterly 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 that i will give him to the lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head so it sounds like she's making a bargain with the lord which the bible doesn't necessarily advocate but if you look at the heartbeat of it she's not really bargaining because she doesn't really have anything to bargain with but you see she calls herself three times his servant there's a there's a humility to her and then she calls him the lord of hosts this is the first time anyone's calls in that in the bible the lord of hosts means you're the god over heaven's armies you're the god over angel armies and thereby not just the armies of heaven the armies of earth you rule over all things over all nations she sees a sovereign lord and i am your servant you are a big god and i'm a small woman and so there's a humility but a confidence enough to know though you rule all things you care about the heart of your hurting daughter and so you see her come in humility and i just want you to marvel at that church what does hannah do with her pain she gets advice from elkanah he says aren't i better than sons not super helpful comfort bro she goes to the priesthood and there's no answers from the priest he thinks she's drunk i didn't read the story but it's weird the priest comes up as she's praying and he was like when will you be done with your wine stop drinking she's like i'm praying i'm at the temple come on man like the priest is a bit clueless peninnah's mean alkana and eli are lost and yet notice she doesn't roll her eyes she doesn't get discouraged she doesn't punch back at peninsula she doesn't start a social media campaign to destroy peninnah she takes her pain to the lord and you watch as she does that you're the sovereign lord and i'm your servant as she brings her pain to the lord eli does proclaim over her may you find favor that's the word grace it's a play on name of her name the name hannah means a woman of of grace i need the grace of god to help me and god is gracious to her and she gives her a son and she names him samuel because it sounds like ast she said i asked the lord for her son and he gave me a son and then this beautiful display of faith she upholds her promise she said if you give me a son i'll give him back to you and he gives her a son and she gives him right back to the lord she marches her little baby boy up to the altar and says he will now serve in the temple of the lord and as she does that then she breaks into song the song that chizzy read to us and in that song she starts out with just praising god for what he did for her you see all the first person personal pronouns my heart exults in the lord my horn is exalted in the lord my mouth derives my enemies because i rejoice in your salvation there is none holy like the lord there's none beside you there's no rock like our god so she's celebrating i brought to the lord my pain and he answered me and yet it's interesting then her her song expands and the expansiveness of her song she does something interesting she takes it out of her story and says the way god worked with me is just how god works she said you did this for me why because that's what you're like and this is where it's important for us as she shows us the same god who ruled over hannah rules over us and she says let me tell you what he's like and here's what's fascinating this poem that she sings becomes the overture of the book of first samuel that what she unpacks in these verses comes true in the lives of the kings that follow and what's fascinating is by the end of the story in second samuel the king david as he takes his throne at the end of his career sings a song and guess what it's just hardcore sampling hannah's that you see that what she prays here about how god rules you see play out in history so we would do well to pay attention she says in verse 4 the bows of the mighty are broken the feeble bind on strength those who are full have fired themselves out for bread those who are hungry have ceased to hunger the baron has borne seven she who has many children as forlorn the lord kills and brings to life he brings down to sheol and he raises up the lord makes poor the lord makes rich he brings low and he exalts and so here she presents the themes not just of the sermon but of the whole series let me give them to you in case you missed them theme number one is the lord reigns he kills and brings life he reigns even in a dark day even if she looks at the difficulty of her day she said yeah things are terrible the priesthood's been compromised the nation's in trouble and yet the lord rules over all things he's the lord of hosts the lord reigns even in a dark day and the humble will be lifted up did you hear that the hungry will be fed the baron will have the children she says the humble will be exalted theme number two is and the proud will be brought low so the idea is the lord reigns and he loves reversals that the lord reigns and as we're told later in the new testament he opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble that's the theme of her song that's the theme of this book and you're going to see through this book this ark happened you're going to see the humble get exalted and the proud be brought low that's the way god rules and then the fourth theme that's in there is that god will raise up his anointed king she kind of hints at the end about the coming monarchy she started with my horn was exalted and she ends with and he will exalt the horn of his anointed but it's the lord who reigns and he will give grace to the humble and what's beautiful is in that first point he'll give grace to the humble did you know she doesn't just sing that she lived it she's an illustration of that for us that she came humbly and the lord exalted her right what does humility look like before the lord well in her context it looks like prayer it looks like i take my pain to the lord in prayer which let me just pause for a minute and challenge this church how often do you bring your pain to the lord in prayer how much do you pray in minutes seriously think back about the last week because when you tell people do you pray everyone's like sure you're like all right how much when they're like um well i theoretically pray at times once when i was 13. like we have a hard time thinking about it we tend to post more than we pray and in doing so we betray how we think this universe works i'll tell you why we don't pray much because we don't believe point one that the lord reigns if we believed he ran things and we had an ear of the king we'd be talking to him about it but we said you know what when i see tragedy in the world where i see brokenness in the world there's no god who will do things about it so let me just lash out at my perceived enemies online let me just take some shots at the peninnahs of the world and has that in convinced anyone has that made the world better have we advanced because of that or maybe do we try say you know what in the midst of a dark day let me hit my knees before a sovereign lord and begin to believe that he opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble right so she comes humbly in prayer and the lord blesses that and so let me challenge you church let's pray more than we post let's pray before we post lord how the world would change if just a small group of people did that how amazing even if we took an hour a day average americans spent seven and a half looking at a screen just take one of those hours back and see what the lord might do as we lean into a sovereign lord who loves to exalt the humble but then what's fascinating is this passage moves on and we'll just summarize the next few chapters if you notice it still doesn't get to the monarchy it still doesn't get to the king it starts with the priest in the temple eli and his sons hopny and phillius because as peter says in the new testament let judgment begin with the house of god that before god wants to change a nation he wants to renovate his church and you see as he moves towards the priesthood as we get a look into eli's family it's not good and you can read it later but it calls his sons who were priests in the temple and i'll quote worthless fellows who did not know the lord that's bad can the church be led by worthless fellows that do not know the lord yes it can see hophny and phineas and as you watch these guys people would bring their offerings to the lord and the way it worked is you would bring a burnt offering they would burn it before the lord and then you would take it and eat it with your family to celebrate right you would have a holy barbecue because god loves community and yet hoffney and phineas got used to being in the temple as people would bring the offering they would grab it before people could burn it hey i want to eat that i want to have that and they would grill it up for themselves and people are like hey you're sinning against god you're allowed to have some of me but let us offer it to the lord first they said give it to me or i'll take it by force and so they abuse the people and then it says and they sleep with the women who volunteer at the temple uh back then canaanite worship usually involves orgies uh and israel whenever they were tempted to walk away from god there was usually some sexual element and so you see rather than worshiping god in holiness they've let it devolve into pagan worship right and so as god sees that is it allowed to persist yes does wickedness persist in the house of god for a time yes why because he is slow to anger and abounding in love he's patient and yet the moment comes where he confronts interestingly not hofny and phineas he confronts their dad eli and he confronts eli and says hey why have you valued your sons more than me and he uses the word heavy weight it's the same word for glory why have you put more weight behind your son's preferences than my glory he says you have weighed this wrong and now you have been weighed and balanced and found wanting and now judgment is coming the hand of mercy flies first but if you persist in disobedience the hand of judgment comes and he says i love my church too much to let it dwell in hypocrisy so he begins to clean house and he says your sons have actively disobeyed me and eli you're accountable too why because you did nothing and it's interesting he alludes to them he says hey hey you weren't doing what they were doing but you ate all the meat you got fat and he kind of picks on him for it he's like hey you've been eating from this their act of obedience is wrong but your passive obedience is wrong too god opposes the proud and we'll watch the house of eli fall what is opposing the proud look like it looks like god's saying your active and passive disobedience i will not put up with so he tells him hey guess what when you march out to battle hoffney and phineas gonna die on the same day he says but i will raise up a servant who will be a faithful priest in my house will god let disobedience persist in the lives of his people yes because he is patient and yet god loves you too much and i've seen this so often with people who who maybe know jesus and are walking with him and say man i want to love him but but i don't really want to obey his commands if they're inconvenient for me i weigh my preferences before his prerogatives and as believers do that can you persist in that yes you can but over time god will whisper to you hey this is not the best way to live life this is not the best way to honor me or serve the world god will whisper to you because he delights and for you to come and confess and repent and find grace but if you persist in disobedience he says when i'm whispering to you to confess if you won't i will expose you and how many times have you read the news of pastors that have done that very thing and god loves his honor too much to let hypocrisy live in his church and god will allow his name to be slandered in the culture in order to purify his bride and so he'll expose hofme phineus and eli and so it sounds really bad this whole thing has been compromised and yet the way the bible does it there's an interchange every time you get real discouraged by the hypocrisy of hofney and phineas and this church that's been compromised he throws in this line but little samuel is growing but little samuel's growing up he's serving in the temple he's five years old wearing a little outfit his mom knit him but he's just in there serving don't keep your eye off him in a dark day there's still a little light burning and you see that it's fascinating in the midst of it it starts using all this imagery of eli that his eyes were growing dim that the vision was gone from the spiritual leader but it says but the light of the lord had not gone out and little samuel was asleep before the altar and god begins to call to him samuel samuel's clueless so he didn't know what the lord sounds like so he's like huh what he's going into eli do you call me no man go back to sleep he's like oh okay ladies and good lord samuel what hey hey and he goes out again god's like no man you be still and then god begins to call little samuel what does humility look like it looks like crying out to the lord and it looks like being attentive to the lord it looks like listening and it looks like calling out what does opposition look like it looks like active or passive disobedience and god will oppose the proud but he gives grace to the humble that's how he works and so does god want us to just be a part of a church or be in the church building no he wants your heart it's like my grandad at the gym you've never seen my granddad at the gym but if you did you would know that's why you're not in shape even though you go to the gym every day because he goes to the gym every day and just kind of walks around starts chatting up people every now and then he like climbs into a machine sideway what are you doing and kind of slowly makes his way out and you're like man it's not enough to go to the gym you have to actually work this process to change right and for many of us i am so glad you're here i want you here this is a great place to be but all of us know god isn't just looking for the external accoutrements of religion he wants to change your heart so this is the place to be changed but there's a process to work and it's by laying out before the lord man i want a heart that's humbled before you're not proud and look i get this i god had to do this with me i remember for me when i was in my 20s i went for a summer and worked at this church and it was with this college program there was a group of us from all over the country that went to serve in this church and as we got there the way they ran it is like hey there's these adult leaders that are leading you college kids over the summer while you serve but at the midpoint in the summer we're leaving and we're going to hand off all our leadership roles to some of you and you'll lead the rest of this trip you'll lead your peers and within the first couple weeks i started to discern that i was more talented than most of the people in this group particularly on stage and so as time began to go by some people told me well you're obviously going to leave this outfit and i was like oh stop i mean yes but you know really you don't have to keep saying it and i started to believe it i would have never said it out loud that's so arrogant but i believed it in my heart and so you can imagine my shock on the day when they started naming leaders they went one by one through all the roles that were giving them off to other people and then finally they say for last the person who's gonna run this whole outfit and i was like oh okay clearly they're just building up suspense you know and i'm preparing my speech it's not me it's the lord i'm being through me obviously but you know like i was planning my speech and they're like okay for leader this whole thing kevin and i was like what kevin what's kevin done who does he think he is and they're like and we've created a new position called assistant to kevin and that's ben and i'm like what assistant to kevin like yeah you'll carry his water bottle in this town things like that i'm like you gotta be kidding me what a waste of talent and it took maybe one day of me following around in the wake of kevin to realize why he was exalted and i was humbled because he had character and i didn't and we've all seen talented people crater because they lack character and god loves you too much for that he wants your heart because he loves you and so for me watching kevin it took one day to watch how the way he led was trying to help other people access their gifts and give him confidence to do what god called him to do we would organize these basketball games outside there'd be guys there that didn't know the lord at all and he was so gracious and kind and encouraging to all of and i watched this man i was like man he has character and i just felt like the lord was whispering to me ben and i love you too much to let you live or serve in my house without it and so god and his mercy opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble what does pride look like it looks like active or passive disobedience i'm going to do whatever i do because i value me more than you lord what does humility look like i'm going to call out to you and i'm going to listen when you call i want to be attentive to your words and you see as the passage continues you watch not only samuel rise but you see eli fall the philistines attacked the nation and as our gaze widens to see the national story playing out you see the philistines attack the nation of israel and that israel loses it's fascinating that the passage never says the philistines defeated them it never says that it says the philistines attacked israel was defeated and then they asked why did the lord defeat us god always takes credit for how he rules his people and so the lord lets them lose and they go why did this happen and they decide you know what let's go get the ark out of storage that's what moses used to do they had the ark carried before them and they would win every battle and so they just put on the accoutrements of religion let's sing amazing grace while we do whatever we want and so they go and they grab the ark and they go out to the battle and they get trashed and the art gets stolen hoffney and phineas die as guy runs back to tell eli who's sitting in a chair at the top of the temple hey your sons are dead he falls over backward breaks his neck and dies and then phineas wife dies but right as she does she's giving birth to a kid and she names him ichabod which is the worst name it means no glory you say man god opposes the proud and she looks at the ark's gone the whole priesthood is dead she says there's no glory but here's the fascinating thing actually what's happening is god preserving his glory that god's cleaning house but keep your eye on the ball because little samuel is growing up in wisdom and stature god's not done and what's fascinating is the scene moves to the nation of the philistines and they're feeling pretty good about things because they just trashed israel so they take the ark that has the covenant god made with his people inside of it and they put it before their god dagon they're like man our god beat your god take that people and they go out to party they come back and their god has fallen over on its face before the ark and so in hebrew humor it says and they propped their god back up and then it falls down again and its head breaks off and his hands break off and they go man our god is getting trounced by their god and there's not even any people in here and then a plague breaks out and they all start getting welts and start swelling and get kind of different diseases and they're like oh my gosh what is happening and rats start investing their land and they're like we got a plague going on but they realize man who's causing this plague is it the israelite god that we got their god in our hand but we think his hand is heavy on us they said let's do a test let's get this ark out of here and they said we'll attach it to some cows that are milking and we'll put their babies behind them and if you're a milk and cow you want the relief of being milk so they would naturally run to their kids but we'll put the ark on them in israel's that way and if they run with the ark to israel something no sensible cow would do they'd go to their babies we'll know god did this so they attach these cows to the ark and the cows go run into israel and they go yahweh god is lord not just of their tiny little nation he is lord over the nations and the cows do a better job of preaching than the priests that the lord reigns and he does not need our help and so that's meant to convict us but to challenge us and i love that that god lets israel be trounced and they're like the philistines one there's no hope and god's like no man i can beat the philistines and i don't need y'all watch this kicks over dagon he's like watch this and they all start swelling up and they're like i get these rats out of here like god's like i'll protect my own glory i don't need you the lord reigns over the nations it's not a contest he's not in jeopardy and yet he will oppose the proud but he'll give grace to the humble and he'll reveal himself to any who'll be humble enough to repent notice he doesn't destroy the philistines he actually convinced them so they might come back to life spoilers not going to go good but anyway he's gracious first and as the story ends the final scene we get is samuel before the people in the philistines continue to attack and now the people are scared and they realize the external performance of religion is not sufficient so they come to samuel and he says in chapter 7 now an old man if you're returning to the lord with all your heart then put away the foreign gods and the astronauts from among you direct your heart to the lord serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hands of the philistines and what's fascinating is god's kicked away all their props and god's took away their vacant religion you you living your own way is not gonna help you flourish you're just trying to dress up your pagan lifestyle with the accoutrements of religion it's not it i want your heart because i reign and i want to bless the humble i want to use hannah's to change nations but i have to oppose the proud i can't bless that you're like that too you know that right any of you love arrogance you love pride in your office you know what i love about him his arrogance he's just always talking about how great he is i love it can you tell me another story about your awesomeness no one likes arrogance none of us why because you're made in the image of god god gives grace to the humble and we love the humble the person who comes to the office and compliments your outfit you're like i knew i liked her she's great why because she insulted you we love humility we spend thousands of dollars a year going to movies to watch arrogant bad guys get it and humble heroes rise we love this story why because we're made in the image of a god who loves to oppose the proud but give grace to the humble and so the wisest thing you could do while you're building your little kingdom is what israel finally figures out by the grace of god hey we're not going to play religion we're not going to put on some show but deny you our heart we're going to come humbly and call out to you we're scared we're going to come humbly and be attentive to your word we're going to walk with you and god delivers them from the philistines and when he does it samuel builds an altar and he names the altar ebenezer because ebenezer means this far the lord has helped us that it's not the day of ichabod no glory it's the day of ebeneezer the lord has helped us and by saying it that way this far the lord has led us he's calling them back into history god rules the nations and he rules it for his glory the lord reigns which i know some of you may say well ben how do we know that he reigns look over the course of history i think of what martin luther king would say that the ark of history bends towards justice and i hear so many people quote that today and they quote it for all their different causes well the arc of history bends towards judgment people with no view or fear or belief in god say that and whenever someone who doesn't believe in god says that the arc of history bends towards judgment i go why based on what if you don't think there's a god why would history do that why doesn't the arc of history bend towards chaos or despots you don't know that you're just saying things because it sounded neat when he said it but the believers in god can believe it because we see no the ark of history bends towards justice why because god is just because god is holy and when he leads his people no egypt no persian no babylon no philistines can oppose the will of god because he sets up kings and he deposes them he exalts the humble and he puts down the arrogance so will arrogance persist for a time yes will evil persist for a time yes sometimes the day will go very dark but keep your eye on the ball because the light never goes out in the temple and god exalts the humble and god can change things and in the midst of a difficult day i don't want to ever look in the face of god and say the word impossible because he can topple any idol he can set free his glory he can rescue his people and all you have to do is look back at history and see from the exodus all the way to jesus god has been faithful and you can look at that and get hope and he will be faithful in the future too because hannah's prayer inspires david at the end of samuel but he's not the only one she inspires centuries later another woman gets pregnant not an older woman who was very barren but a young teenager who wasn't expecting to be pregnant at all crisis pregnancy from god and the lord tells little teenage mary name that child emmanuel because god is with us he is the son of david he is my anointed one through whom i will rule and you see when jesus comes on the scene he's not arrogant he's not pompous he's humble it says of him a bruised wheat reed he would not break if you're bruised and hurting he's not here to break you he said comfort and nurture and restore you that he was gentle he came as a servant the king of kings serving everyone and it says he humbled himself to be a servant even on the cross that he would sit with the arrogant and offer them grace he would sit with the destitute and offer them hope and a future and then he took the sins of the world and he paid for them on that cross and he was buried in the dirt and philippians says that the one who humbled himself god exalted to the highest place that every knee will bow in every tongue confess that he is lord that our humble king rules all that's how god works the lord reigns he opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble and he will rule through his anointed king and it's not david it's the son of david jesus christ to whom we hope that our humble king offers life our humble king offers grace and wherever you are in this room you are not too far gone for him so little napoleon sat on his little island with lots of free time and he read the bible and he wrote in his journal alexander caesar charlemagne and myself we founded empires but upon what foundation did these creations of our genius depend upon force they depended jesus alone founded his empire upon love and to this very day millions would die for him that's your king not here to crush you it's the hand of mercy he opposes the proud because he has to and we want him to and yet when we see the pride in us that's a terrifying thought but then he brings grace to the humble so let's humble ourselves for our humble king let's watch him exalt a humble people as we come with our solitary pain and our solitary prayers he might just change the course of a nation that's not hard for him he's done it before he can do it again so father we come to you as a people i imagine many of us in here maybe we grew up in church forever but the truth is we have weighed you too lightly and we have dubbed our stomachs sovereign and not you and we have found ourselves poorer as a result but god i thank you that even in the darkest days the light never extinguishes in your house that you call out for us to bring our pain into your presence because you care and because it's in your nature that you delight to give grace to the humble so lord i pray even in our house today there could be some people who come humbly before you and say if the son of david the king of kings the anointed one jesus is forgiving people i need him to forgive me if i can be like hannah whose name means a woman of grace god would you make me a woman of grace or a man of grace would you bring your grace your kindness your favor upon me he delights to do it friend this is the day of grace tell him even now oh lord would you renovate yes a nation yes a city yes a church but let it start in me [Music] god count me not among the proud that you oppose may i come humbly confessing my need knowing that as i do what your grace purchased for me on the cross comes rushing in if you've never put your faith in jesus friend tell him today and you walk out of here knowing his grace will carry you all the way home [Music] for god for those of us who know you may we never commit the the offense of losing hope [Music] because there's no tragedy personal or global that's too big for you and though darkness persists and gets very dark and we don't have to call it otherwise you are still working out your sovereign will and behind every frowning providence there is a smiling face so we cling to you god i pray we pour out our hearts to you this week [Music] help us to pour your word back into us [Music] cleanse us god let judgment start in the house of god not to destroy but to redeem and then lord i pray that we could be a light of hope and life to a city to a country to a world that desperately needs to see the glory of god present in a human life start with us god you've brought us this far by your grace and many of us could look back and say it's only the grace of god that i'm alive today it's the grace of god through the prayers of grandma that got me here today many of us could look back and say i'm raising an ebenezer here in howard theater today because god brought me this far by his grace and i believe he will lead me safely home god i pray we would raise up an ebeneezer of faith today of hope in our hearts we can know a god who's been gracious in the past and we trust your grace in the present and in the future god we lift up on our altar of our hearts faith today we trust you we thank you for sending the humble king of all kings jesus and we trust him today let's let faith rise in our hearts church [Music] let's trust him with our hearts and our mouths let's trust [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me from [Music] [Applause] precious is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it's jesus our hearts are yours today we're trusting you and trusting your plan for our lives trusting your goodness just submitting to your power and coming humbly we love you lord thank you for this day thank you for this house we love you and pray all this in jesus name but he said amen amen it's good to see you all today let's get the worship with you all and it's good to be back and hey if you're praying through something or want to process with somebody we have a space over here called access where we'd love to meet you and pray with you otherwise on your way out you'll see our resources booth and welcome to church booth to get more connected to our house and we'll see you at community groups this tuesday wednesday night and then we'll see you back here next sunday love you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 1,503

Rating: 4.8139534 out of 5

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Id: 1OpVOC19R4g

Length: 95min 26sec (5726 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021