Hello, and welcome to this
message from Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. As these teachings
are shared worldwide, our prayer is that
God uses them to bring more people into His family. If this message deepens
your love for Jesus, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. In this special teaching,
we celebrate moms and how their influence
has transformed our lives. As we consider Hannah, the
mother of the prophet Samuel, we learn that despite
difficult circumstances, she was shown favor by God. Let's open our
Bibles to I Samuel chapter 1 as Skip begins
the message, "Marks of a Great Mother." Would you turn in
your Bibles, please, to the book of 1 Samuel
chapter 1, 1 Samuel chapter 1. It's in the Old Testament. If you're at
Genesis, keep going. If you're at Isaiah,
go backwards. 1 Samuel chapter 1. Our purpose today in gathering,
first of all, of course, is to honor the Lord and
to worship Him supremely. We always gather with
the primary intent is to make Jesus great. He already is great, but we
want to make much of Him. Second reason that we gather
is to encourage one another. There's something about
getting together and being in each other's presence
and singing the Lord's music and speaking to one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that brings
a sense of encouragement to us. But a third reason
we gather today is we want to honor
the mothers that are in our midst on this
very, very special day. We want to honor moms. Motherhood is the oldest
occupation in the world. There wouldn't be a
world without a mother. And I'm glad that 102 years
ago, President Woodrow Wilson decided that this needs to be a
national holiday, Mother's Day. But even before
he did that, there was a woman named
Anna Jarvis, who petitioned the celebration
of Mother's Day. And fittingly, the first
Mother's Day celebration in America took
place in a church. I like that. And I think that that's an
important thing for churches to do, to honor those
women who are mothers, and so we follow suit. And of course, a mother's
love sets the standard, right. If you want to talk about
different degrees of love, you don't get much higher on
Earth than a mother's love. You've heard the old
saying, "he has a face that only a mother could love." Right? You've heard that before? That's a put down. But it says a lot
about how great a mother's love is, right. I mean, mothers just
love their children. And children feel
special because of it. Of course, we relate
to our mothers differently at
different age groups. When you're age four, you might
think my mom can do anything. By the time you're
12, you're thinking mom doesn't know everything. By age 14, you're already saying
mom doesn't know anything. At age 18, you're saying mom is
so out of step with the times. She's so backwards. At age 25, though,
you're thinking, well, mom knows a few things. At age 35, you're
thinking, before we decide, let's get mom's opinion. At age 45, you're
saying, I wonder what my mom would say about this. And at age 65, you're saying,
I wish I could talk to my mom just one more time. Some of you are having
that feeling this morning. You miss your mom because
she's not on Earth any longer. And am I right? When you have your own
children, you suddenly realize how appreciative
you need to be to the parents who bore you? You want to call them
and tell them, wow, you put up so much
patience with me. And you showed so much
devotion and so much love. And now, I realize the
weight of responsibility of being a parent. There was a mom pushing her
shopping cart through Walmart. Her little girl was in the
cart, screaming the entire time. And the mother was saying out
loud, now, calm down, Ellen. And it'll be all right, Ellen. And it's almost time
to go home, Ellen. So one of the
Walmart store clerks said to the woman,
ma'am, you are to be commended at how patient
you are with little Ellen. And the mom looked back at
the clerk and said, lady, I'm Ellen. [LAUGHTER] She's calming herself down. Calm down, Ellen. It'll be all right, Ellen. But you know, by the time you're
a grandparent, you look back, you think it was all worth it. In fact, if I would
have known how fun it is to be a grandparent, I'd
have had grandkids first. Aren't they the best? Well, we're in 1
Samuel chapter 1, and we want to look at certain
things in this chapter. And let me just say
that 1 Samuel as a book is about three great men. It's about Samuel, the prophet;
Saul, the first king of Israel; and David, the
subsequent king, who is a man after God's own heart,
the greatest king of Israel. So it's a book about
three great men. But the book begins
with a woman, and a woman who is infertile,
but eventually has a son named Samuel, who
becomes this prophet. Somebody once said, when God
wants to do a great work, He gets hold of a man. But when He wants to do an
exceptionally great work, He gets hold of a woman. I like that. And I think there's plenty
of precedent for that, even in the scripture. Israel's deliverance
from Egypt began with a woman named Jochebed,
the mother of Moses, who had the faith to put that
little basket with her son down in the river. That's how it
began, with a woman. The story of the lion of
King David began with a woman by the name of Ruth. The miraculous preservation
of the Jews in Persia was the story of a
woman named Esther, who had the kind of faith
that she put it on the line. And our salvation in
the Gospels begins with a young Jewish
woman, a virgin named Mary, who was visited by God. Now, in 1 Samuel
chapter 1, I'd like to show you three attributes
of a great mother, three traits that are common
to all great moms. And first of all, great
mothers have great problems. That needs to be said more. Because sometimes, we
think of Bible characters as perfect people
without problems. They glow in the dark. They've got shiny halos. But people are
people, and every life has problems,
including her life, the mother of the one who would
be the great prophet, Samuel. Let's look at her problem. First of all, in
verse 1 and 2, she has a problem with infertility. It says, "There was a certain
man of Ramathaim-Zophim-- say that 10 times really fast--
of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah,
the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu,
the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah,
the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but
Hannah had no children." There's a lot in that verse. There's a lot of emotion
that is in that verse. She had no children. It was the hope of every
Jewish couple to have children. It was seen as a
blessing from the Lord, because the idea is that
you live on in your kids. And they thought,
back in those days, the more kids you
could have, the better. Psalm 127, "Children are
a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the
womb is a reward. Happy is the one whose
quiver is full of them." In fact, childlessness
was such a terrible stigma that it was seen as an
affliction, a curse from God. Look down at verse 11. In her prayer, she made a vow
and said, "Oh, Lord, of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the
affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not
forget your maidservant but will give your
maidservant a male child." Notice how she talks
about her condition. It's an affliction. In the book of Genesis, when
Jacob's wife, Leah, finally becomes pregnant, you
know what she says. She says, "the Lord has
looked upon my affliction." And then, his
other wife, Rachel, because she couldn't have
children but her sister could, says to her husband, give
me children or I will die. So that was so ingrained
into the psyche of parents thousands
of years ago, that even the rabbis,
as time went on, had certain sayings,
not Biblical, not from the heart of God. But one rabbi even
said, "There are seven people who will be
excommunicated from God. The first is a Jew
who has no wife. And the second is a Jew who
has a wife but has no child." In fact, did you know
if a woman couldn't bear a son or a daughter,
that was grounds for a divorce if within a 10-year
period there was no child. Either a divorce,
or the husband could be allowed in many
of these cultures to marry a second wife. And that's why we see
this man with two wives. Because his first wife,
Hannah, was unable to bear. And so Peninnah comes in,
and she is able to bear. So we have Hannah, and her
first problem is infertility. But she has another problem. She has a rival, and
that is Peninnah. Go back to verse 4. It says, "Whenever the
time came for Elkanah to make an offering"-- the
previous verse tells us that once a year, he
went up to Shiloh, where the tabernacle
was, at that time the central place of worship,
and had a festival, a feast, and made offerings. Whenever the time came for
Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions
to Peninnah, his wife, and listen to this, to all
her sons and daughters. Now, just imagine being Hannah,
unable to have a single child. And you've got another
wife in the equation, who has many sons and daughters. It's hard to even have
a meal with the family. It's hard to go to
church with the family. And the worst time
was this annual feast, was to be a time of
rejoicing, but not for Hannah. It was a time of
recoiling for her. It was a time where she
felt the most rejected. And then look at verse 6. And "her rival"--
that is Peninnah-- "her rival also
provoked her severely, to make her miserable because
the Lord had closed her womb. And so it was year by
year, when she went up to the house of the Lord,
that she provoked her. Therefore, she, that is
Hannah, wept and did not eat." Boy, Peninnah, the
pest, not only can she have many sons and daughters,
but Hannah can have none. And Peninnah goes out of
her way to provoke her. Now, it was obviously
very bad for Hannah. But this does give insight
into a common problem today, and that is infertility. Infertility affects more women
than we might be aware of. It is estimated that one out of
every eight couples cannot have children in our country. 12% of the adult
population are infertile. That's 7.3 million Americans. They've gone to doctors. They've had prayer,
anointed with oil, no child. What that means is
every Mother's Day is not a happy day for them. They're happy to
celebrate for others, but there's that tinge
of burden that they carry because they're infertile. They want it so badly. But they can't have a child. Now, I want to tread carefully
here but I believe this. Childbearing is part of
the sovereignty of God. I don't know why some can have
children and others cannot. I don't know why there are
so many pregnant teenagers while couples who
want to have children are unable to in many cases. But I do know this. Your value to God is not based
on your ability to reproduce. God loves you because you
are made in His image, and you are of
great value to Him, whether you can
produce a child or not. And I also know this,
you're not alone. In fact, if you are
infertile, you're in a long list of women of
faith who are infertile. Here's a little list, Sarah,
Abraham's wife was infertile; Rebecca, Isaac's
wife, infertile; Rachel, Jacob's other
wife, infertile; Ruth, the wife of Boaz,
in her first marriage unable to produce children;
Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, infertile. Now, do you notice
something here? That in the scripture,
the most childless women are often the righteous women,
the matriarchs of faith, women of great faith while
many of those who can easily conceive were not so righteous. So it doesn't mean that
if you have children, you are a better
person or you're godlier than somebody
else, and that if you're infertile that you're not. In fact, if you're
unable to bear a child, it doesn't mean you're cursed. I believe it means you are kept. You are reserved
for other blessings. Now, hear me out, I
can think of a few. Number one, God may still
be preparing you right now to be a parent in the future. Just because the doctor says
you are unable to have a child doesn't mean you're
unable to have a child. You know how many
babies I've dedicated from this pulpit for
parents who were told, you'll never have a child. And now they're on
their third or fourth. So God may be preparing you
now, even though you're not able to bear right now. Second, He may be preparing
you to be foster parents or adoptive parents. Folks, there are more kids
needing parents out there than parents wanting children. And you would not
even have thought that until an event
like infertility comes into the relationship. And now, you are open to
it and wonderfully so. And then, number three,
here's a possibility. He may just want you available
for a very specific work that having children would preclude. That is, it would be difficult
for that special calling God has on your life if
you were to have children. You don't know that until
the Lord reveals that to you. Great mothers, then,
have great problems. That's number one. That's the first attribute,
trait, character trait. The second trait, great
mothers keep great priorities. As we look at this
woman named Hannah, we understand that
her relationship with God and her husband and
her son, whom she will have, are right on target. Let's look at her priorities. First of all, with her
God, verse 9. "So Hannah arose after they had finished
eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now, Eli the priest
was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the
tabernacle of the Lord. And she was in
bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord
and wept in anguish. And then she made
a vow and said, Lord of Hosts, if
You will indeed look on the affliction of your
maidservant and remember me and do not forget
your maidservant, but will give your
maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the
Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall
come upon his head." That's a Nazarite
vow, a special vow. And it happened.
"As she continued praying before the Lord
that Eli watched her mouth. And Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved but
her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought
she was drunk." Any good priest, right,
would think that. So Eli said to her, "how
long will you be drunk." He was so encouraging. "Put your wine away from you." And Hannah answered and
said, "No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine
or intoxicating drink. But I have poured out my
soul before the Lord." What a snapshot, her
hot tears mingled with her heartfelt prayers. And some of you know
what that pain is like. When there are
tears in our eyes, there's travail in our hearts. And this woman poured all of
that before God, interesting. There's no record
at all in the text that she complains
to her husband. This is your fault, or
give me children or I die. She's not complaining
to her husband. And there's nothing
in the text that says she's wanting to fight back
with Peninnah, her rival, who was provoking her, at all. But what she does is she
takes her sorrow of heart, and she pours it
out before the Lord. And look at verse 11, what she
calls God, Oh, Lord of Hosts. That's a frequent designation
for God in the Bible. Do you know what it
means, the Lord of Hosts? It literally means, You
are the master commander of heaven's armies. She is appealing to God, based
on God's character of authority and sovereignty. He is powerful. And based on your power, as the
commander of heaven's armies, I ask you this. I give you this request. Notice, also, in verse 12,
it said, "As it happened, as she continued praying
before the Lord." Mark that, this wasn't a
quick little popcorn prayer. Let me just shoot one
up and then I'm done. She prayed and continually
prayed and repeated that request before God. And then, look at verse
17, Eli answered, and said, "Go in peace, and the God of
Israel grant your petition, which you've asked of Him." Now, that's a benediction. That's a blessing. That's a well-wish statement. In other words, I'm not saying
you're going to have children. But I hope you do. I hope God will
bless you in that. Go in peace. Verse 18, "And she said,
let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went
her way and ate. And her face was no longer sad." It's interesting, isn't it? She goes in sad. She comes out glad. She goes in with
sorrow of heart. She leaves that time of
prayer with the peace that passes all understanding. "Let your requests
be made known to God, and the peace of God, which
passes all understanding, will guard your hearts." So all of that to
say, here is a woman who has a real
relationship with God. It's not just a yearly offering. She's not just going through
the rituals of going to church and-- no, no, no, this lady has
a depth in her relationship. And can I just say, on Samuel's
behalf, what a great mom he has. What a great heritage
Samuel would have. He has a praying mother. And praying mothers do more
than just about anyone else. Praying mothers are greater
than any politician running for office. You wonder who's going
to change our country. Get a mother to pray. Get a group of mothers to pray. Abraham Lincoln, 16th
President of the United States, said no one is poor
who has a godly mother. And he remarked, I remember
my mother's prayers. And they have
always followed me. They have clung
to me all my life. And one of the prayers
that I pray is God, give your church godly mothers. Why? Because you can't pass on to
others what you don't have yourself. So here's her
relationship with her God, the priority of
pouring out whatever's on her heart in her life to God. Let's now look at her
relationship with her husband. In verse 4, it says, "whenever
the time came for Elkanah to make an offering,
he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to
all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he would
give a double portion for he loved Hannah, although
the Lord had closed her womb." I'm going to have you
skip down to verse 8. Then, Elkanah said, her
husband, said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to
you than 10 sons?" Now, I don't know how helpful
that last statement was. Honestly, there's a little
bravado in that statement, am I right. I mean, she's just
broken-hearted because she can't have a child. And he comes along and
says, baby, you got me. What could be better than that? I'm like better than 10 kids,
maybe even 11 on a good day. OK, whatever. But aside from that,
I want you to notice, there is an understanding
between Hannah and her husband, Elkanah. And there is great
love between them. Verse 5 explicitly
says, he loved Hannah, gave her a double portion. You know, in the
Middle East, when you want to honor somebody,
you give them more food. You give them a double portion. You might remember that Joseph,
when all of his brothers came to him when he was
prime minister in Egypt, and little Benjamin, his
little brother, was there, he gave Benjamin five
times more portion of food than the rest of the brothers. It's just an indication
of love and of favor. Oh, by the way, gals,
in the Middle East, in many Middle Eastern cultures,
the larger the woman gets, the more there is to love. That's how many cultures
in the Middle East see it. So it's like, sweetie,
I love you so much, have twice as much. Just remind your husband of that
if you put on a couple pounds. Honey, there's just more
to love, OK, it's Biblical. [LAUGHTER] I better move on. Here's a couple, they
understand each other. Here's a husband, who is
dwelling with his wife with understanding,
like Peter writes. Somebody said marriage is like
a long trip in a tiny rowboat. If one passenger starts
to rock the boat, the other has to steady it,
or they both go to the bottom together. I think that's good. I think that's actually
a helpful little picture of marriage. You've got to steady that boat. You know, people
say love is blind. Well, if love is blind,
marriage is the eye opener. And you need to pour in
understanding and love and stability for that
relationship to go long-term. And there has to
be a love for God and a love for the
husband and wife. One teenager said,
quote, "I wish my parents had known that
unless marriage partners truly love one another, there
is little they can teach their own children
about the love of God or Christian
living," close quote. You know, I've discovered
kids love to see their parents love each other. They might think it's mushy
and gross and all that. But I remember,
clearly, when I would kiss Lenya in front of Nate. And he would go,
oh, that's gross. And then he'd go, do it again. Kiss mom, go ahead. And he'd go, oh, man, you know. But they just love the idea. There is such a stability when
those parents love each other. By the way, that's the best gift
that you can give your kids. Love God and love your
spouse in front of them, in front of them. So great women have
great priorities. And she has a priority toward
God, toward her husband, and toward her family. Verse 19, "Then they rose early
in the morning and worshiped before the Lord and returned and
came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew his wife,
and the Lord remembered her." That is, they had
physical, conjugal, marital relationships. "And so it came to pass
in the process of time, that Hannah conceived
and bore a son and called his
name, [? Samuel-- ?] the Hebrew for hearing,
God hears, Samuel-- saying, because I have asked
for him from the Lord. Now, the man Elkanah
and all of his house went up to offer to the Lord the
yearly sacrifice and his vow, but Hannah did not go up. For she said to her husband,
not until the child is weaned, then I will take him that he
may appear before the Lord and stay there,
remain there forever. And Elkanah her husband said to
her, do what seems best to you. Wait until you have
weaned him, only let the Lord establish His word. So the woman stayed
and nursed her son until she had weaned him." In those days, a weaning wasn't
a couple months or a couple years. It was several years, could be
five to seven years or more. A child was weaned
for a long time. And the idea of weaning
isn't just physical nurturing or breastfeeding. The idea, the word means
"to deal fully with." And it has the idea
of spiritual training as well as physical
nurturing, spiritual training. You remember that Paul wrote
to Timothy, and he said, I know that you, from
childhood, have been trained in the holy scriptures. You learned them from your
mother and your grandmother. They weaned their
children physically as well as spiritually. So when God gave Hannah
this little child Samuel, she was dedicated to
raising that child, even though it
took several years, even though that
means no, I can't go up and enjoy the feast. There's a lot of
hobbies I can't do. There's a lot of activities
I am unable to do. Here's a season in my life where
I am dedicated to nurturing. It's my priority
to train my child. Why? Because she knows she's going to
drop him off at the tabernacle. And he's going to live
there and grow up there as a priest and a Nazarite. But folks, it's
those first few years that are the most important. A British psychiatrist by
the name of John Bowlby said the first five
years of a child's life are the most
impressionable years. He writes, and I quote,
"the young child's hunger for his mother's
love and presence is as great as his
hunger for food. Her absence inevitably generates
a powerful sense of loss and anger," close quote. The Jews had a proverb that
said God couldn't be everywhere so He created mothers. I appreciate the sentiment. I don't agree theologically. I know God is everywhere. But I love the idea that God's
representative everywhere are mothers. God couldn't be everywhere
so He created mothers. So here is a woman
with great problems but with great priorities
toward God, toward her husband, toward her family. And here's the third trait. We'll end with this. Great mothers make great plans. So look at verse 24. "Now when she had
weaned him, she took him up with her with
three bulls, an ephah of flour, a skin of wine, and brought
him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young. And they slaughtered a bull
and brought the child to Eli. And she said, oh, my
lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman
who stood by you here praying to the Lord. For this child, I
prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition
which I asked of Him. Therefore, I also have
lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he
shall be lent to the Lord. So they worshiped
the Lord there." This is the launching. This is what she promised
and planned she would do if the Lord gave her a son. I realize she said a child
is on loan from God to me to parent, to nurture,
to build, to train. And then, I will lend him
back to God for His purpose. Now, here's something you
need to know, historically, contextually. In our English Bible, you
have the Book of Judges, followed by the book
of Ruth, followed by the book of 1 Samuel. So right before 1 Samuel
is the book of Ruth, not in the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew Bible,
it's the Book of Judges, followed immediately
by 1 Samuel. In other words, 1 Samuel's
stage is the Book of Judges. It's that period of time where
Israel was at its lowest. They were the
coldest spiritually. They were the most
morally debauched. In fact, the end of
the Book of Judges said there was no
king in Israel, and everyone did what was
right in his own eyes. During that period when Israel
was at its lowest level, God's plan and this
woman's plan with God was to have a child who would
come on the scene as a prophet, be used as a priest under Eli,
having taken a Nazarite vow, and impact the nation so that
he would be the king maker. He would select Saul
and then King David. And she planned for it. She made a vow to
dedicate her son to God. Hannah realized that nothing
we have is really ours anyway. It's not. You're a steward of
whatever you have. You might think you own it, but
you'll leave it to somebody. You're just touching it now. And that includes your children. God gives us children that
we might pour into them and then launch them. My favorite-- or let me rephrase
that-- one of my favorites-- because I will say "my favorite"
about a lot of people-- but one of my favorite
Bible expositors is a guy named G. Campbell Morgan. He's been-- I think he
died before I was born. But I love his writings. I love his legacy because he
taught through the scriptures to his congregation. He believed in that. And he was a great preacher. He was called the
"prince of preachers." He pastored a church in London. I've been to his church. He had several children,
four boys, all of which became preachers. See G. Campbell Morgan, famous
preacher, four preacher sons, as well as some daughters. At a family reunion,
a friend asked one of the boys, who's the
best preacher in your family, thinking he might
say my dad or me. He said, my mother. She's the best
preacher in our family. Even G. Campbell
Morgan, himself, said, my love for the
Bible is maternal. I first learned Bible stories
at the foot of my mother. And then, he would hear
those Bible stories, he would go into
his sister's room, line up the dolls on her
bed, and preach a sermon to the dolls, the
text that mom taught. She was the preacher. Now, as we close here, and you
consider these three things that great mothers
have great problems, they have great priorities,
and they make great plans. I want to leave you with three
takeaway points, three things to linger in your
hearts as you go. If you write them down,
you'll be better served. Number one, you are a value to
God whether you have children or not. God loves you for who you
are, not for what you do. That's first. Number two, when you have
pain, God has a plan. When you have pain,
God has a plan. When you are at your
worst, God is at His work. He's up to something. You have to find out what it is. Number three, this
is where you come in. You need a set of
priorities that you're going to live your life
with, personally toward God and relationally toward others. If you want your kids
raised in a Christian home, then make sure that Christ
is at home in your heart. Don't be like that family
who brought their child to be dedicated at
church, their little baby. And after the church service,
they were driving home. Baby had been dedicated. And the oldest son, Johnny,
in the backseat was crying, was wailing, and carrying on. Finally, his mother said,
Johnny, what is wrong. And Johnny said,
it's that pastor. That pastor said
that he wanted us to be brought up in
a Christian home, but I want to stay
with you guys. [LAUGHTER] Oops, the honesty of a child
preached a powerful sermon to parents. Father, thank you
for our mothers. Thank you for these
women who are mothers. Thank you for those
women who are not yet mothers but planning or
hoping to be or soon to be. We pray a special
blessing on those who have not been
able to have children, that you would comfort
and direct their steps and show them your
promises and your plan. We pray for those
who have lost moms. And we even pray for those
dads who have lost a wife and have raised or are
raising their children in that very unique capacity. Strengthen them and bless
them, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Being a mom is a tough job. And we are thankful
for the moms who make sacrifices for their families. How will the truths you
learned in this message help you appreciate
your mom more? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving. Thank you for joining us
for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque.
