Rich Wilkerson Jr. — The Hannah Hotline

alright first Samuel you don't have a Bible we got a big one up on the screen here we go 20 verses get ready there was a certain man from Rama the'm a zoo fight from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Al Kaena son of Jerome the son of Allah who the son of Tohu the son of zeus and ephraim aight if you're new to church this is elvish from Lord of the Rings okay alright he had two wives one was called Hannah that was funny and the other pnina pnina had children but hannah had none year after year someone say year after year but but say it was some passion it's a year after year year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh where hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli were priests of the Lord and whenever the day came for El Canada's sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to his wife pnina and to all her sons and daughters but to Hanna he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb and because the Lord had closed her womb her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her now this went on year after year every once a year after year whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat now okay nough her husband would would say to her Hannah why are you weeping why don't you eat why are you down hearted don't I mean more to you than 10 sons but once when they had finished eating and drinking in shiloh Hannah stood up Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple in in bitterness everyone say in bitterness in bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying Oh Lord Almighty if you will only look upon your servants misery and remember me and not for your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head she kept on praying to the Lord elie observed her mouth hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard eli thought that she was drunk and said to her how long would you keep on getting drunk get rid of your wine not so my lord hannah replied i'm a woman who is deeply troubled i have not been drinking wine or beer i was pouring out my soul to the lord do not take your servant for a wicked woman i have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief and eli answered go and peace and may the god of israel grant you what you have asked of him she said may your servant find favor in your eyes then she went away and ate something and her face was no longer downcast early the next morning they arose in worship before the Lord and then went back to their home in Rama and al cana lay with hannah his wife and the lord remembered her so in the course of time hannah conceived and gave birth to a son she named him samuel saying because i asked the lord for him anyone thankful for a God who hears our prayers tonight or take a few moments tonight and I want to preach to you from the subject the Hannah hotline like what does that mean nobody knows what it means but it's provocative and it gets the people going I want to preach night around the topic of Prayer we are in our seventh day of a 21-day prayer journey and I believe the Lord has given me a word that I want to share with you tonight so let's let's ask him now to speak to us let me thank you so much for all that you're doing God tonight thought as people have walked in here so many carrying so much Lord so many carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders so many having trouble and having dilemma and having pain and having sorrow and heartache lord I just pray right now as I begin to speak holy spirit that you would come and that you would remove the burden that we would see that there is hope that we would seek today God that we have faith to keep moving forward god I pray that you'd have your way in this place let us see Jesus in a new way we honor you we praise you and if you believe it tonight come on all of God's people said come on all of God's people said come on 6:00 p.m. if you love Jesus can you make a little bit of noise come on can you make a little bit of noise if you got some faith tonight that God is up to something anybody out there you're like me and that you like making music playlist anybody got a little inner DJ in you I recently purchased some turntables I haven't used them yet but I did go ahead and make sure I got a DJ name my name is DJ relentless if you didn't know and it's a passion of mine I don't know how to work the turntables yet but I definitely have always loved putting together platelets in fact like this has always kind of been a part of my journey member anyone back there back in the day we remember burning CDs remember that like you'd put a music burn it never ever like Napster remember you thought you were going to jail for a minute there you know LimeWire what happened to that Oh still worn out for some of you on that stuff now I know I might lose some of the audience here but like I just wonder if there's anyone who probably you probably over the age of 30 but like you can go back to like back in the day like when it was it was painful it took patience took real sacrifice and have a real fortitude and that is when you actually made a literal a real mixtape where you actually took a cassette tape look for all those that are a part of generations II I'm losing you quickly but there was a day that when you wanted to get a mixtape together you could not go to Apple music you could not use a CD but instead you had to go to your radio and you had to listen to your favorite radio station and you had to wait and you had to linger and you had to tarry until your favorite song finally played and when it did you hit both buttons down and said oh I got it it's hard out there man you know my story I grew up in Tacoma I know it doesn't look like it but like I was I'm a huge R&B fan yeah don't judge a book by it's cover yo you don't know me you don't know me you do not know me you think you don't know me Tony Tony Tony the Tony Rich project Jodeci lady would cry for you boys to men Oh God give me a reason I'm down I'm been me [Applause] being in the red oh my god oh my god I used to always have to tell my dad he says oh my gosh baby all those times at night when you were out there with all those other guys baby I knew about it I just didn't care if you know you know so I would I would at the time the radio station was called cube 93 and what you would do is there was this there was this hotline number that you would you would call and you could ask or request the DJ to play your favorite song I'm telling you for a full year straight I would go to my friend's house his name was Joey stage but we'd sit on his waterbed once again generation Z this is the you missed a lot but like we would sit there all day long and we would call the DJ and we would request our favorite song because we wanted we wanted to record and make our mixtape I mean I gotta be honest with you for a full year straight of calling with Joey like I I called every Saturday and and for a year straight honestly cube 93 never put me on air with the DJ in fact most time they pick up and you always had to say they would say it's Cuba 93 what's the phrase that pays you to say uh the phrase that pays a cue 93 plays today's hit music and so I would always get it written down cuz they want to mess it up and I don't want to make sure I was ready and so I always set it back to like whoever the operator wasn't it's okay we're gonna get you on line with the DJ and then all I would hear is the waiting line music for like an hour and a half to two hours they never ever picked up my call and I kept calling that hotline but no matter how many times I call the hotline no one really ever responded I was thinking this week as we're talking on the subject of prayer because I think so often we get so confused about what what is prayer and how do I do it and why does it matter you see prayer really at the end of day is simply communication with God and prayer is actually an invitation for God to take over your situation and you need to know tonight that you have a God who has a hotline number to heaven and every time you call he promises to not only pick up the line but even better than that we serve a God who promises to respond to us in our time of need anybody thankful for a God who doesn't just pick up but there he is he wants to speak back to you he wants relationship with you he wants you to call upon him prayer is a direct line to heaven ever since we started our church we've always taken to times out of the whole year two different moments that we have a systemic reset where we go on to a 21-day prayer and fast journey it happens at the begin of the year in January then we do it again in August as we're coming around our Anna shree and vision Sunday and the reason why we do it is not because we feel like it's an obligation but we see the opportunity in it I don't want to feel my way into prayer I want to act my way into prayer and I don't want prayer to be my last resort I want it to be my first response and so we just systematically put it on the calendar that for 21 days as a church we're gonna challenge each other and so we do fun stuff in fact tomorrow's day 8 and if you haven't started joining us yet you ought to just get on board because tomorrow day 8 at 12 p.m. every day this week you go on to Instagram the food church Instagram we go live on Instagram and for about 5 to 7 minutes we just have a corporate focus that we pray about something specifically together the testimonies have been so cool because some people like y'all it's during like during work but I got to sneak away and like I'm in the stall and I'm watching that's I feel radical you are radical like join us and then event on Wednesday nights what we do during this 21 day season is when Zeitz we have corporate prayer meetings this past Wednesday was absolutely amazing come on was anybody had prayer this past Wednesday it was our largest prayer meeting to date we had over 500 people show up on a Wednesday night simply to pray come on can somebody celebrate what God is doing in our community when the church shows up to pray things start to change has always been my heart's desire since we started this community that man I'm happy that you come to church but what I know about gathering on Sundays is that most of us we gather occasionally in fact stats would show us that most people who would say they attend church regularly they do so once a month now I'm not trying to come at you tonight about that but I want you to know that you have a weapon that when you leave this room you don't have to leave God's presence but rather you have this weapon called prayer that at any moment you can call upon God it doesn't matter if it's in your car doesn't matter if it's in your shower doesn't matter if it's at your work and as you call upon him he promises to bring his presence to you you see occasional praise is no match for consistent prayer Jesus did not say I want to turn my house into a house of praise he said my house shall be called a house of prayer maybe you're here tonight and your sandwich this sounds good and not all but I gotta be honest with you when it comes to this idea of Prayer I I kind of resonate with like that idea of you as a kid calling the radio station and as you called the radio station you were just on the line waiting in fact if I could give a picture rich and if I could speak to you personally I would say that's how I feel like prayer has been for me that every time I do dial up the number of heaven I don't get much response in return tonight I want to take a moment and I want to look at this woman by the name of Hannah in the Bible because I think her story is gonna help us in fact I think there's some observations that we can learn from her prayer you see she had a dilemma on her hands and her dilemma was so big that she could not solve it she could not come to an answer on her own so tonight why don't we take a look at the Hannah hotline because I have a feeling if God was faithful for her I got a feeling he'll be faithful to us come on anybody got some faith tonight historic van is interesting when Hannah is married to this guy named el Elkanah and elkanah if you can believe it actually has two wives some dudes like yo bro we should go back to Bible times yeah you're definitely not married who just said that you know cuz any dude who's actually marries like y'all I can only handle one of these girls right I uh I can do to my god this dude's got to I said his first wife her name is pnina now pnina has like lots of children Hannah the second wife she's got a challenge because she can't have kids in fact the scripture says that her womb has been closed and maybe here tonight you're gonna keep it rich it's not a big dilemma not a big problem yet it is a problem it is a challenge because something she desired in a heart but even deeper than that culturally speaking thousands of years ago in Middle Eastern culture children we're not just something that would go hey that's a cool thing to have or you need to have that but rather children were truly a symbol of fulfillment and truly a symbol of legacy for a woman not to be able to have kids she was scorned she was ashamed of it in fact many times men who were married when that couldn't have kids they were discarded they were overlooked and so she has this desire to say I want to bring children to the earth because I want to continue the legacy but there's nothing I can do about it yet what's interesting about the store and you got to go back and read it for yourself the scripture says that every year when Elkanah would go to the temple to offer sacrifices this is under the Old Covenant where they used to have to go in and they'd have to kill a lamb or a goat and then the blood of the lamb with a goat would be the atonement for your sins and so you have to do that once a year thank God we don't do that anymore thank you Jesus anyways he would go and the scripture says that he would take a portion of his sacrifice and he would give it to pnina and her kids he here's what's strange is he would take a double portion of the sacrifice and give it to Hannah now what's wild about this is that culture and society would say that Hannah does not deserve a double portion she's done nothing to deserve that she can't have kids she's a barren woman yet L kanna's favor for Hana is not based on her fruitfulness for him Elkanah loves Hannah even though she's barren I don't know if you're catching what I'm throwing down here but it kind of gives me a glimpse of our God is there anybody out there tonight who's thankful for a God who loves you despite your Baroness despite your failures despite your deficiencies despite your weaknesses despite your issues even when you weren't fruitful he still had favor on you God doesn't give us what we deserve he gives us what He desires here she is and she's she's getting a double portion although society would say you you do not deserve that it was amazing about Hannah her name literally translated means grace and mercy new it tells me it tells me that favor is not a feeling favor is a fact is if you went up and asked Hannah Hannah do you feel favored she would say no my womb is closed and I've got nothing to celebrate about I've got nothing to be happy about but all the while while she was speaking to you what she would not be mentioning is that my name actually means grace and grace is the unmerited favor of God and you better believe tonight as you look around your life you might not feel like you are favored but if you are in Christ Jesus favor is a fact for you deserved punishment but he gave you blessing you deserve death but he gave you life you deserve curses but he gave you a blessing is there anybody thankful tonight for a God who declares you are favored come on six p.m. give God some praise in this house [Applause] your child of God your name is shouting out you've been promised heaven so whether you feel it or not if you're in Jesus favor is a fact here's Hannah she's got this double portion if she don't feel it and on the flip side of this the story continues that Hannah not only has a double portion of blessing from Elkanah but but the part of this story that is kind of interesting is that while while Hannah is dealing with a closed womb in which is one bit of a burden she has a double burden because it's not only that her womb is closed it's also that her rival aka pnina won't stop provoking her like by the way what do we expect between these two Sister Wives I mean come on how's that gonna go you know there's a whole lot of security in that home I'm sure no it's full of competitions full of strife and the scripture says that pnina because hannah can't have kids continues to provoke her continues to ridicule her continues to make fun of her to the point that Hannah begins to cry begins to weep she gets to a place where she is in misery here's what I've learned man I've learned that every time I have a problem the voice of pnina will always be very close it irritates before that a lot of your problems in life are typically attached to some people who magnify it who won't let you off the hook see it's one thing to be down it's another thing when people won't let you get back up [Applause] it's one thing to fail it's another thing when everyone else around you keep saying you're a failure you want to know why I come to vous I don't come to vous because of the lights I don't come to vous because of all the cool things that it offers I don't come to vous because of the Instagram page I don't become because the music is so good I come to vous because I want to align myself with the right voices that when I'm down I need some voices that will say you're gonna get back up when I feel like quitting I need some voices who will speak to my future and say we're not gonna let you quit when I'm afraid I need the voice of courage around me come on somebody give you a shout of praise tonight you gotta realize that when you have problems the voice of punana will pop up and who you listen to will determine the future you experience I'm telling you I remember with Dawn shootout we went through this whole story of Hana it's so close to our heart because we went through an eight-year journey of infertility nothing about it is easy or fun and if I'm being honest while we were in that journey there was different voices that stood up and spoke and a lot of times the voice of Penina was really close the voice of punana was the critic it was the doubter it was the naysayer and it's in that moment that you have to turn down that voice and you have to turn up the right voices the right voices were those that were speaking faith that were speaking hope that were speaking love that were saying we can do this we're gonna get through this I don't know what you're carrying tonight I don't know what type of dilemma you have on your hands but tonight why don't you do what Hannah did Hannah called upon God why not take access to the Hannah hotline and take your problem take your issue to your maker Hannah's prayer is been intriguing me this week because I really think there's three components attached to a prayer there's this inward component that we'll look at there's this outward component but then lastly as we as we finish that you're gonna see there's that there's this upward component I want to make three basic observations that I see in her prayer life that I believe should show up in your prayer life and maybe if you're here tonight and you're feeling like the line is always busy or if the line is always giving you the waiting music maybe the night you can learn from Hannah's hotline and you can plot apply it to your hotline the first thing I see about Hannah's prayer and I want you to write this down is that she prayed from her heart said that I would say she prayed from her heart Hannah's story is interesting because literally everything that she's going through is clouding her entire outlook on life scripture uses very clear words that she had gone into deep grief and misery and that that misery had turned into bitterness the problem with bitterness is when you're looking through the filter of bitterness everything you see will be bitter did you notice that one part that literally because she's so bitter she's missing out on the good things that are happening in her life she's got one problem and that is she's barren she's got a second problem that is she has someone provoking her but after that she's got a lot of good things happen in your life look at what it says there in the scripture it says that Elkanah came to her that's her husband and said girl I don't he's a girl but that's how I talk girl he's am I not good enough for you you need 10 sons come on am I not enough what's he saying he's saying I'm right here I'm not blaming you I'm not pointing a finger at you I'm not mad at you I'm not trying to discard you I want to be with you yet her problem is that her filter is bitter and although she's got a good thing in front of her she can't see it correctly so when the good thing comes her way she can't even receive that because of this problem that she can get through this past summer this is important this past summer I would advise everyone in this as well every summer I make an investment in new sunglasses it's just good just good advice and it's past year this past summer I I invested in a pair of oakley razor sunglasses once again Generation Z you can just tune me out tonight okay but Oakley rays or sunglasses I mean these are these are pretty intense sunglasses this is like literally you know center field for the Atlanta Braves who are you David Justice like I you know it's like it's a look and what was cool about these sunglasses is that they came with all these different lenses and so you could pop the lenses out and and one of the lenses was this orange filter it was like really cool was like Cyclops and I was I was wearing them and it was funny because like we're at this lake house with a bunch of our friends and we're all looking through these sunglasses and before he knows I like this orange lens and so I just wore him all day long and as the Sun began to set I finally took my sunglasses off for the day and I was kind of like I was kind of like rad a little bit like I was going oh man I've gotten so used to looking through the orange filter that when I took them off and I would discover what reality was it looked a whole lot different from the outlook I had previously had see what happens when you're looking through a lens that is broken if you're looking through a lens that is broken you might think to yourself that your whole life is broken but what if you don't need a new life what if you simply need a new lens that's why when we come to church and we start worshipping guess what you do you are trading out the lens of this world and you're putting on a god lens you're putting on a faith lens you're putting on a courage lens you're putting on a peace your whole landscape shifts as you get into God's presence as I start to pray I'm getting God's lens for my life the scripture says that Hannah although she was bitter the best thing that she did is she did not just try to handle her bitterness on her own but instead she took her bitterness to God verse 13 says that Hannah began to pray and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard for she prayed from her heart I want to try to preach to someone the night because prayer is not lip service towards God and God doesn't care about all your religious antics it doesn't care about all your religious rhetoric he wants to hear from your heart and the best thing Hannah does and she comes to God and she's like yeah I am upset I'm angry I'm in grief I'm frustrated I am bitter but I'm not just gonna sit around here and talk to people that can't solve it I'm gonna bring it to the one who can change it who can heal it who can help it I don't know how we got this notion in church that if you're a follower of Jesus you can't have days that you doubt I was in some interview that someone said you ever doubt God I said all the time and they're like oh my god you're a pastor I was like you obviously don't go to our charter ship nothing wrong with doubting only thing wrong with doubting is when you keep it to yourself and you don't bring it to the one who can solve it you got worried tonight take it to Jesus you got pain tonight take it to Jesus you've got heartache you've got depression you got anxiety there is one who promises you peace in the midst of the storm don't deal with that thing on your own look if you can't be honest with God you're definitely not gonna ever be honest with yourself so Hannah's not like so noble she just like honest and it's the honest prayers that God wants God longs to hear you heart God longs to hear your desperation God loves hearing about your anxiety God loves to sit there with you and he will help you through it but you know what you and I love to do we don't we don't we don't like to take this up to God we'd rather just complain about it just talk about it notice Hannah doesn't go to Elkanah he doesn't go she doesn't go back to you know punana with the she's just she takes it to God I don't know what I was gonna do there but I but I stopped myself like it's still charge knows that scripture it says um pray without ceasing Christians like that's such a hard Scripture no one could ever dare that it's funny you don't have a hard time complaining without ceasing [Applause] like what if you spent the same amount of time you do complaining praying goodnight we'll see you next Sunday like I know you guys are really spiritual and really Christians I'm like I got some problems and I still I still struggle with complaining you know and um this week this week you know my wife I love my wife dawn she she's my Hannah and she uh if I'm being honest like dawn Cherie is like the contractor of our home the Builder in our home the developer in our home I'm I'm like an interior designer honest that's what I do don't judge me and about a year or two ago I had purchased this beautiful shag rug very nice rug I'd done this layer effect with this like oriental rug it's really cool you loved it but anyways um this rug absorbs a lot of dirt and now we've got this infant his name's Wyatt he's crawling all around the house I can't wait to see this guy if he could crawl I'm gonna do it next Sunday you can just crawl it's crazy and so he's all in it in the dirt and stuff you know and so Donn she was like hey rich um we're gonna we're moving this rug I was like excuse me just like yeah this rug has to go it's like we're we're done this rug is nasty and our boys gonna get sick I was like alright you know the Lord really hasn't revealed that to me yet she's like alright I'm not gonna keep talking about it and so I'm gonna this to me she goes and just buys a new rug and the new rug shows up on Wednesday and so I get the house and she's hey we're putting all these new rugs down and I need your help I was like I didn't I don't remember you know agreeing to this just like fine I don't need your help I'll do this whole thing and so she starts putting the rugs down and Wyatt's room and finally she comes to the last part of the project and the last part of the project required her to move the couch and she can't really move the couch without me and so she came to babe with this couch I was like hmm I think this is your project and that was Wednesday and that's when we went into a waiting game quit judging me you have problems in your marriage - okay but really what I started - is I just I started to complain now you know just yeah I just complain they say rich how do you know you're a complain well I know I'm complaining you know when you're complaining this is how you know when you're complaining you know you're complaining when you're talking about your problems with no intent on solving your problems [Music] [Applause] obviously we ended up moving the couch in dawn Shree one and I love her idea as always oh my god but what a lot of us do is a lot of us we have pain in our life we have bitterness in our life and we have misery in life and all we do is just talk about it all we just do is complain about it all we just do is share it with everybody else and all the while there's God the one who can solve it and you have to make a decision tonight you can either complain about it or you can choose to pray about it I wonder if there's any prayer warriors in the house who are saying I got some issues I got some problems I got some worry I got some fear but I'm gonna take it to my God because he's the one who can turn situations around you got a hotline tonight use it she pray from her heart but but secondly what I see is she did not pray to impress people this is important the first part is that she pray from heart but the second part is that she when she prayed she wasn't trying to impress the people around her how we know this is because as she began to pray as you read back in the story what you'll find out is that as she was praying it must have been pretty dramatic we don't know what she was saying but apparently her body language or her posture was causing quite the scene the scene was getting so bad that the priest of the temple his name is Eli he came by in saw Hannah and he thought to himself this woman is drunk it's amazing when you think about that you cross-reference that with Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 is the story of the birth of the local church the New Testament church Jesus has ascended to heaven and now a hundred and twenty followers of Jesus are gathered in what they call was the Upper Room and most scholars believed that they were waiting there praying for 10 days straight finally on the tenth day the Holy Spirit fell in the upper room and when he came through it was like a mighty rushing wind tongues of fire appeared on people's head and the scripture says that they began to speak out in other tongues but as they started speaking other tongues all the spectators who were watching guess what they said said those people are drunk Peter the leader of the church had to come on by no it's early in the morning no one's been drinking obviously this would not be a good excuse in Miami Florida with club space down the street but you know I'm talking about was a different culture and period I think they're not drunk they're not drunk you say rich what's the point the point is is it's amazing that when God's presence shows up people apparently start to behave in a way that they don't care what the person next to them thinks about them says about them say I think we got to be real careful at vous Church judging people's worship cuz you don't know what people have been through you don't know the trials someone's walking with you don't know the heartache that someone's carrying you don't know the valleys that they've walked through and so sometimes when you've been through some stuff do you start to worship God in a way that you say to yourself I don't really care who sees me this worship is not about anybody else around me but I'm trying to get a hold of my maker and if I look a little crazy if I look a little silly so be it [Applause] so you might not like the scene someone is causing but that's because you haven't experienced the story they are living [Applause] and as we're church and we're a community we're not here to play church I don't know where you came from I don't know what your background is but it's just never gonna be that here there's just way too much life and death happening to sit around and play religious games this is a safe place that when people walk in here they can worship God and I love Hannah because as she begin to worship God she's like you know I'm not here to impress people in fact as I pray I don't pray to impress people I pray because I've been impressed by God I remember 9/11 September 11th 2001 I was in an airplane you know 17 years of age headed out to the west coast and somehow by the grace of God we landed in Chicago and I would turn the news on obviously we're seeing Towers go down and it was it was the craziest day I don't know if any of you were following Jesus back then but I was or at least I was told on my parents I was and so I was in church that Sunday and that Sunday at church there was a different feel because people were there was a new level of desperation and when you start getting desperate for God you stop caring about what other people think about you you know like God he doesn't speak like New King James when you pray in fact Jesus he said it this way he's like when you pray don't be like the Pharisee who goes out in the street and babbles that's his reward everyone thinks oh he's so spiritual it's not about the quantity of your words but the quality of your heart you don't have to say therefore I beseech that you don't have to say any of that stuff you just pray from your heart and you don't care about what other people think about you but I'll never forget that Sunday after 9/11 man there was a different feel in that room because people were desperate people were scared you see there's a purpose so often to our trials and there's a purpose so often to our struggles it's in the valley and it's in the pain that those moments they drive us to our knees and I don't know what it is but God loves it when we're desperate for him God loves it when we're fully focused on him not here to impress one another here's Hanna she's praying to the point that the priest thinks that she is drunk I don't know what you came in here tonight with I don't know what it is that you're carrying but I know tonight that there is a hotline to heaven that you have a direct line to God that this God loves you you have too much in front of you to give up now to quit now just found out today a friend or acquaintance I should use the word a pastor and the West Coast met up 10 years ago did an interview with him amazing guy handsome good-looking strong a pastor three boys incredible man of God God was using him church larger than this thirty years of age this past weekend he took his life I just have more stories we got a witness how many more things we got to go through for us to stop putting pressure on one another today in Jacksonville I don't know if you saw the news before you got here but another mass shooting at a videogame competition say rich why are you telling Matt I'm telling you that people that are in this room right now they are feeling insurmountable amounts of pressure and this should be the safest freakin place in the world that when they step into this house they can lift their hands they can lift their voice and they can get rid of some of that pressure I know I need it I know I need it so I'm gonna fight for it I don't get up here to impress you like I can't impress you that's my goal that's my intent that will me I can't handle that pressure it's not why we gather no I got a hotline to heaven when I Pratt is no God here's the real stuff going on my heart everyone knows my titles and everyone knows my accomplishments but Lord you're aware of all the junk I'm not just gonna complain about it I'm gonna share it with you how am I here to play Church and to impress people I'm here I'm here because you've so impressed me Hannah she she pray from her heart and then secondly Hannah she didn't pray to impress people ask they only write this down to be ready to close tonight this is big this is a revelation for somebody in this room tonight she attached her prayer request to God's glory this is this is this is this is worth so much if you can let this get in your heart tonight watch this Hannah she starts in her heart this is the inward component she does not get lost in the outward component which is about people but somewhere on the journey her prayer moves upward what's amazing about the prayer journey with God is that as we begin to pray this is what I fully fully believe that as we start to pray many times God will begin to reorder our prayer request he will start to reprioritize the things that we are praying about sometimes in church people come with real needs and real problems and sometimes all we have to say to them is hey just pray about it for a long time that felt very cliche to me and that felt very disingenuous to me but the older I get and the more I witness God's hand at work I actually don't believe it's cliche I actually believe it's one of most powerful things that you can do because here's what's gonna happen one of two things will happen if you actually just go and pray about it one God will answer your prayer request and he will work a miracle but if he does not do that you don't have learned about God is God will begin to reveal you during your prayer journey the thing that you actually should be praying for [Applause] the scripture says that year after year someone say year after year year after year she would come and she would pray and year after year pnina would provoke or someone say year after year year after year pnina would provoke her and put her in this state of depression and oppression but the Bible says that she just kept on praying yet somehow in 1st Samuel chapter 1 something must have shifted with her request somewhere on the journey at all if you saw it or not her prayer request it went inward it didn't get lost outward but it moved upward she declared God the reason why I want you to give me a son it's not so I can be happier it's not so I can prove all the haters wrong but God if you give me a son I will give him back to you [Applause] God if you give me this boy I'm not gonna sacrifice him I'm gonna surrender him he's gonna be a vessel and he's going to be used as a vessel for your ministry I don't know what it is but there's something about attaching our requests to the glory of God that gets his attention it's not just the story of Hannah how about the story of Solomon people ask all the time what is it that Solomon prayed that was so incredible that God answered it well everyone says it's because Solomon when he prayed he prayed for such a noble thing he prayed for wisdom and that's true ish for Solomon they not just pray for wisdom read the next part of the verse it says that he prayed for wisdom why so that he could lead God's people he attached his request to God's heart which is people and he said I want to lead these people effectively and efficiently why so that the God of Israel can get every bit of glory that he deserves John the Baptist known as the greatest prophet a man who led a revival in the desert I don't care if we don't know in a building I don't care if we don't have a big enough staff I don't care if we don't have millions of dollars in the bank if John could lead a revival in a desert what could God do with us in Little Haiti in Wynwood if we would surrender our lives over to him we don't need to be marketed by man we've been marked by God [Applause] what was John's request he must become greater I must become less what was he saying he was saying everything about my life I'm surrendering it for your glory God and here's Hanna she prays God give me a boy and if you give me a boy I'm giving him right back to you would you believe that as she prayed that prayer eli said get up and may the lord do this work in your life sometime later she lay with her husband Elkanah then as she awoke some time later she conceived a boy the boy's name was Samuel Samuel if you do not know is arguably one of the greatest prophets that Israel ever saw or witnessed only to be rivaled with Elijah or Elijah hid the greatest contribution that Samuel might have brought to the whole story is one day he walks in the house of Jesse and they're in the house of Jesse he says I have come to anoint the next king of Israel and Jesse does what most of us does he goes and he grabs all the people that look good on the outside he grabs all seven sons Samuel sees all of them and says no none of these of them do you have any more boys he says I got one more boy but he's a shepherd out in the pasture land he says you might as well bring him in and when David walks in Samuel says that's the next king of Israel say why is it such a big deal it's a big deal because Jesus Christ he comes from the bloodline of the house of David and our Savior came because of David yet David was picked and found because of Samuel yet Samuel would have never showed up on the scene if there wasn't a woman named Hannah who had a hotline to heaven who said I won't give up i'ma keep praying and I'ma keep praying and imma keep praying [Applause] tonight here's the truth ya might as well just stand it's an awkward slow stand but I like it I'm not mad at you for it here's the truth because I want to preach to your heart tonight a lot of us we walked in here to this room and we know the facts of the matter you don't I mean by the facts that matter right the facts of the matter are all the things that you can hear see taste smell the facts of the matter are the doctor he did give you a bad report the fact of the matter is yeah your husband did leave you the fact of the matter is yeah your business is bankrupt the fact of the matter is yeah your kids are running from God but this is the very reason why I pray because as I start to pray the facts of the matter they pale in comparison to the truth of the matter and the truth of the matter is your God is a healer the truth of the matter is your God is a redeemer the truth of the matter is your God is a waymaker the truth of the matter is your God declares you are favored whether you feel like it or not so tonight all over this room why not lift your hands why not lift your voice why not call upon the name of the God that is you begin to pray the truth of the matter will begin to sink into your situation come on church

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 19,242

Rating: 4.9222465 out of 5

Keywords: Rich Wilkerson Jr., Vous Church, The Hannah Hotline, Sermons, Prayer, Vous

Id: 0pPvbF022Kc

Length: 48min 51sec (2931 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 27 2018