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00:02 Very good morning church. Uh welcome to the house of the lord. Uh
00:07 may we just rise for the reading of scripture.
00:13 Today's passage is taken from 1st Samuel uh chapter 1 vers 4 to 11 and verse 20
00:21 and chapter 2:es 1-10 of the NIV translation.
00:29 Whenever the day came for Alcana to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Penina and to all her
00:36 sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a doubled portion because he loved
00:41 her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in
00:49 order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to
00:55 the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Alcana would say to
01:02 her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted?
01:08 Don't I mean more to you than 10 sons?" Once they had finished eating and
01:14 drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair
01:20 by the doorpost of the Lord's house. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a
01:27 vow, saying, "Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and
01:32 remember me, and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of
01:39 his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." Verse 20. So in the course
01:46 of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,
01:51 saying, "Because I asked the Lord for him." Chapter 2.
01:59 Then Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord my
02:05 horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your
02:11 deliverance." There's no one holy like the Lord. There's no one besides you.
02:16 There's no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your
02:22 mouth speak such arrogance. For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are
02:28 weighed. The bows of warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed
02:33 with strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who
02:38 are hungry are hungry no more. She who is barren has borne seven children, but she who has many sons
02:47 pines away. The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave
02:53 and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and he exalts.
03:01 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He
03:06 seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the lords.
03:14 On them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in a
03:20 place of darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the
03:26 Lord will be broken. The most high will thunder from the heavens. The Lord will
03:31 judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and
03:36 exalt the horn of his anointed. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated.
03:42 Thank you, Mika, for reading the scripture for us.
03:48 Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ, friends and family. Can you hear me? Well, at the back outside the hall,
03:56 hands up. Yeah, that's good. Um, also want to welcome those who are online this morning. Yeah. um to my wife too
04:02 who is not feeling well and um please pray for her. Yeah. That she'll recover.
04:09 Um so I ask that you take a moment um bow
04:15 your heads and uh pray with me. Yeah. Lord, we come before you this morning
04:22 praising you for you are the Lord of all host
04:27 and that Lord you are the um God of of King of the angel armies and you are
04:33 lord of the universe Lord and we thank you father for this privilege to be here
04:39 in your house on a wonderful Sunday um and we ask that Lord you minister to our
04:45 hearts as uh your word is being delivered this morning and most of all father I ask that you anoint my lips and
04:52 so that lord everything that is bring forth here on will be from you and I ask that your spirit descend on me right
04:59 here right now father for I can't say anything of significance without you in
05:05 Jesus name I ask amen all right uh intro I will introduce the
05:10 speaker for to oh there's a change of position yeah it's kind of weird now he's on my left
05:17 um Brother Anelim is going to talk about lessons from the genocide of the Amalachites and then followed by brother
05:24 William um a man after God's own heart and brother Anna again. Yeah. You're
05:30 seeing double in the next three weeks. Yeah. Soul's selfdeception. Yeah. And
05:35 this morning I'm going to bring forth a sermon entitled uh from roaring agony to
05:42 redeeming peace. Yeah. I beg your pardon. I can't pronounce the R very well. Yeah. Uh let me set the stage
05:48 right for you from the beginning. Yeah. So I want to ask you the question. Have you ever found yourself uh in a season
05:56 where your heart is just so restless you know uh where the worries and the pain
06:01 and the hurt runs so deep that it feels like a big stone you know on your chest
06:07 and it gets heavier for each with each passing day.
06:13 Now maybe it was the day you found out that your beloved child is marrying someone of a different faith and is
06:20 killing you. Or it could be the insecurity of being trapped in a dead end job, you know, and
06:28 you cannot get out. Or maybe, just maybe, you are stuck in an unhappy
06:34 marriage and that your life is not going anywhere except down a slippery slope.
06:41 whatever it is. Yeah. U it inflicted a pain so deep that it settles into a
06:48 silent daily drag. A pain that slowly but surely drains the life out of you.
06:56 And if you're feeling this way, this kind of pain this morning, then you come to the right sanctuary. Cuz this morning
07:02 we step into the story of Hannah. And in her story, we discover a truth, a
07:08 fundamental truth that transform the chaos of your crushing agony into the
07:14 peace that you will not understand at all. Now, this sermon is divided into
07:19 three parts. Um, and
07:25 part one is the pain or hopelessness. Part two is the pitfall of force hopes.
07:30 And part three is the prayer that brings hope. Now this story takes us to the setting
07:37 uh where we meet Hannah in a place of deep agony,
07:43 deep pain, you know, and this is her reality. Yeah. She's one of the two wives married to this man called Elena
07:50 or the Hebrew call say Elena. I think they don't pronounce the K. Yeah. But I'm so used to English. Yeah. And the
07:57 reason of her misery is very simple. Yeah. Uh she's barren which means that
08:02 she cannot have child. Yeah. And verse 5 says that the Lord had closed a wound. So mind you, yeah, this is not a passing
08:10 misery for Hannah. Yeah. Because verse seven, oops. Because verse 7 says this.
08:16 Yeah. Uh this is a misery that repeated year after year. Why? Because every year
08:23 at the pilgrimage to Shiloh, her rival Yeah. the other wife Panina would be
08:29 waiting there to mock her. And verse six, verse six says, yeah,
08:35 Banana would provoke her severely to make her miserable. In other words, yeah, Banana was a repulsive uh verbal
08:43 abuser. So, she would bully Hannah relentlessly with taunting words, you know, to break her spirit. Yeah. So, you
08:50 will often hear people say sticks and stone will break your bone, but it wouldn't hurt you. That's totally, you
08:56 know, untrue. Yeah. Words leave a deep scar. Yeah. in our soul. And I can
09:02 almost hear her taunting, can't you? Yeah. Oi Anna, why are you even here in
09:09 the temple? I don't see any babies. You know, isn't it obvious that God doesn't
09:14 give two hoods about you? Now, this kind of provocation is not
09:20 only confined to ancient history. If you are approaching your late 20s, uh the
09:26 young people here and still single, you might receive the same. Yeah. at every family gatherings you know or any
09:32 gathering when one of the KPC kapuchi I would say were arstone so when
09:40 are you getting when are you settling down you know you're not getting any younger you know
09:46 or if you carry a bit of weight around you and you can feel their eyes scanning
09:51 your body you know and then you will hear that irritating sound or voice of fakery you know that goes this way wow
09:59 ah life must be good to you h you're looking very prosperous you know I
10:05 receive a lot of that yeah through my life you know now it's the voice that take your very insecurity and rub it in
10:13 your face you know making you feel like a loser deep down inside you
10:20 now I suppose if this happened to you would drag your feet yeah uh and the trip uh to such gathering will would be
10:26 uh lesser and lesser Yeah. Well, I suppose that um I'm quite sure that Hannah dragged her feet too. Yeah. But
10:33 she couldn't escape unfortunately, you know. So verse 7 says that therefore she wept and would not eat
10:40 and her pain was emotional and allconsuming. Yeah. She was in the house of the Lord
10:47 and yet what happened? All she could feel was the weight of her own worthlessness. You know
10:55 now this is the pain of hopelessness. Yeah. The feeling that your future is heading towards a dead end and there is
11:03 nothing you can do about it. Yeah. And why would Panina do such a conniving
11:09 things you know now verse 5 says yeah uh it give us a clue. Verse 5 it says Elka
11:16 is a pious man and every year he would go to the tabernacle in Shiloh and make
11:21 sacrificial offering to the Lord and you know when you go to the temple and slaughter a lamb you know for
11:26 sacrificial uh sacrifice you know onethird of the lamb will go to the lord yeah you burn it out you know and
11:32 one/ird of the lamb will go to the priest yeah because priest need to be feed yeah you cannot keep them poor you
11:38 know and another one/ird will be shared by the family and So Elkina will give a
11:44 portion to Banana and her children. But as a public display of his affection and
11:50 love for Hannah, he would give Hannah a double portion.
11:56 Can you imagine that? Yeah. I thank God I only have one wife. You know,
12:02 by the way, I want you to know that Panina was a second wife to Alkana because uh probably because he Hannah
12:08 couldn't conceive, right? And so Elkana married Panina for children. But Hannah
12:15 was the love of his life, you know. I don't have a picture of her. I don't know whether she's pretty or not, you
12:20 know. But she's the love of his life, you know. So driven by jealousy, Panina
12:27 attack Hannah at the most at her most vulnerable point. That is her baroness
12:33 to shame her endlessly to no end. You know
12:38 now the I want to take great care of the words that is coming out of my mouth for the next few moments. Um especially to
12:46 the accomplished women among us. Yeah. Now I want to say that I want to say this as gentle as possible. Yeah.
12:53 Because I don't want to be stoned on the way out. You know now sitting here you might be thinking why was Hannah so sad?
13:01 Isn't she silly? She had a husband who clearly adore her. Yeah, she should be
13:06 celebrating, right? What's the big deal about not having children? You know, now
13:12 in fact, I came across uh some successful uh women today willfully choose not to have children because the
13:18 quality of life is so much better without them financially at least. Yeah.
13:25 Now, to understand this dilemma, yeah, we need to go back in time and see the world through Hannah's eyes. Yeah. Now,
13:31 let me take you back to the ancient Jewish culture. Now in this culture a
13:36 woman's identity, her security and her very worth, selfworth was inextricably
13:42 tied to bearing children. Yeah. Now in the agricultural society that requires manual laborers, children were the only
13:50 guarantee of provisions and care in her old age. Now to be barren is to face a
13:57 future of poverty, uncertainty and oblivion. And therefore in her mind there's no
14:05 future for her. Now this is why uh the renowned old testament uh scholar water bugman calls
14:13 baroners the ultimate biblical metaphor for hopelessness.
14:18 And I want you to know that Hannah eats and breathes and sleeps this oppressive
14:24 ideology. Yeah. And then in verse six, yeah, I want to I
14:29 want I want to help you to feel the depth of her pain. You now the NIV
14:35 translation says that Hannah was irritated. But this is a very poor translation. Yeah. Because the original
14:41 Hebrew words uh kra carry the meaning of to thunder or roar
14:47 like in a storm. And this would mean that Hannah soul was so torn up by a raging storm of grief
14:55 and shame and anger all mixed together that is the most detrimental emotion
15:00 that you can feel and she was dying inside you know now sitting here again
15:06 you might be thinking what a stupid oppressive culture isn't it yeah especially to women I'll miss
15:14 thank god I'm a woman living in the 21st century you but the question is you Are are you
15:21 really sisters? Yeah, brothers. Yeah. Are you really free from any form of cultural oppression?
15:29 Well, my take is I don't think so. Yeah, you can back to defer. Yeah. Well,
15:35 Hannah's culture say that you are nothing without children. What does our culture say?
15:41 Our culture says that you are nothing without riches and beauty without
15:47 status. True or not? Yeah, we are you are judged, you know, by the clothes
15:53 that you wear, the bags that you carry, you know, the cars that you drive and
15:58 the houses that you live in. I only have one. Yeah.
16:04 Now, whether you like it or not, every culture, 21st century or before Christ, creates a value system that compels you.
16:12 Yeah. Unless you have these things, you know, you are nothing. Isn't it?
16:19 And we we desperate to be valued. Yeah. Ban our lives to meet these demands, you
16:24 know. And this kind of pressure creates havocs in our life. Yeah. I quote you some examples, you know. Now, some girls
16:32 would stuff themselves or regurgitate the food that they ate because they believe that a smaller dress size will
16:38 finally make them feel worthy and get back their dignity.
16:44 And most people would just um simply surrender. Yeah. To the relentless toy
16:49 for more more of what? More money, more status, and more power.
16:56 Mistaking that the accumulation of wealth is the ultimate security in life.
17:02 How many of you agree to that? Yeah, I only see one hand.
17:07 Tough crowd. Now you see when we are lack of the very
17:13 thing the world uses to define you and me it creates a crushing agony within us
17:19 because it doesn't match the world's narrow definition of success. You're not
17:24 successful if you're driving a small car. You're not successful if you're not well-dressed. You're not successful if
17:31 you live in a tiny house. Now this was Hannah's pain.
17:38 But if we are honest this morning, this is also our pain too. Yeah. The pain of
17:44 deep agony of hopelessness. And it is into this exact kind of agony
17:52 in our own lives, each of his own, that God is speaking to you and me this
17:57 morning. Yeah. We go to the second point. So into Hannah's misery, she was offered two
18:04 solutions. Yeah. two seemingly good but ultimately futile solutions.
18:12 Now the first solution is offered by her husband Alka. Yeah. He saw her weeping and not eating and he asked her Hannah
18:19 why do you weep? You know why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not
18:26 more to you than 10 sons? Yeah. Now on the surface Yeah. This is
18:32 beautiful and admirable, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. husband is very caring you know and he's giving her a guarantee of love
18:39 and security and he's saying to her that I paraphrase him yeah why worry about not having children Hannah can't you see
18:46 that I love you more than panina not in so many words yeah and I will take care
18:51 of you to the end of time how many husbands here say that to your
18:57 wife yeah oh that's not good
19:05 Now Elena is offering her relational hope. Yeah. He is inviting her to build
19:12 her identity, her sense of security and worthiness, you know, on his love for
19:17 her. But this, my friend, is a false hope.
19:23 Why? because it makes her dependent on somebody or something that while good is
19:29 not the ultimate. Why is not the ultimate? Because no human relationship is ever perfect. Yeah, we are broken and
19:37 sinful and therefore even with the best intention we are capable of stumbling.
19:45 That's why affairs happen. That's why dishonesty, you know, lies
19:51 takes place in our our horizontal world. Yeah. And when we stumble, guess what?
19:57 That very relationship or that very person that we depended on becomes the source of a new crushing agony, trapping
20:05 you in a vicious cycle of hope and despair, hope and despair, hope and despair over and over again. Don't get
20:13 me wrong. I'm not asking you not to love. I'm asking you not to put your hope in
20:19 that love. And so this is the danger of the of a
20:25 relational hope. Yeah. And the second futile hope is pushed by her culture to her one that is employed by Panina to
20:31 torture her. That is the cultural performance demand you know as in having children in her case. And so Hannah is
20:40 trapped between two futile hopes.
20:47 And if we are honest here, so are we. Because by and large, if you
20:53 think about it, many of us live our entire lives being trapped between these two falsehood as well. We spend all our
20:60 days, our energy, our time and our resources either trying to match
21:05 our worth to the world value system and what is that? money, beauty and status,
21:14 isn't it? If you go back and calculate the time, yeah, multiply by the years,
21:19 you know, the hours multiply by years, you know, that you have spent in it, you know, and then you divide the total
21:24 time, you will see how disproportionate it is. Yeah. Or we try to secure it from
21:32 the people who matters to us. And I want to tell you point blank this morning,
21:37 you know, from bib biblical point of view that they both would have would
21:42 leave you exhausted and empty inside.
21:49 But look at verse 9. In the midst of this still, something pivotal happened, you know, and what
21:56 happened? Verse 9 tells us that Hannah, so Hannah arose. Yeah. Now the word
22:02 arise or arose in English is defined as a act of just standing up. Yeah. But in Hebrew to arise is a sign of a decisive
22:10 decision. Yeah. After years of being paralyzed by this pain. Yeah. Hannah is
22:15 fed up, you know, and she's done listening to the voices around her. She's finally doing something about it.
22:21 So she made a conscious and willful decision to reject the relational hope offered by her loving husband Elcana and
22:29 the sociological hope that her culture demands from her you know and so this is
22:35 a critical turning point in Hannah's life and my prayer is it is also the
22:41 critical turning point for some of us in this auditorium this morning
22:48 our brothers and sisters in Christ friends and family. The path to peace does not lie in choosing a better false
22:55 hope. Yeah. If I don't have a husband, I go for money. You know, I don't have money, I go for power. No,
23:03 the path to peace lies in rejecting all of them together. Yeah.
23:09 And so here I want to break for a moment and take a moment to appreciate a profound truth that we have just
23:14 covered. You know that is Yeah. God unmasks the failure of every earthly hope to
23:21 compel us to seek in. Yeah. Let it sink in.
23:27 Now when God strips away the very things that we once lean on, be it our plans,
23:33 you know, our dreams, you know, the things that we work on, our wants or our security, whatever form it takes. Yeah.
23:40 Let me tell you that it is not cruelty. Yeah. And God doesn't answer your question to give you a Ferrari or a big
23:47 bangalow. It is not cruelty. It is called mercy. Yeah. Because what feels
23:53 like breaking in our life is often God's way of bringing you back to the center
23:59 of his heart. Yeah. And I want you to take a moment now. Yeah. To quietly reflect on this truth. Yeah. Now I want
24:07 to ask you, yeah, which of these two between the hope of cultural success and the hope of relational affection are you
24:15 currently chasing after or gravitating towards, you know, to find your hope.
24:26 And where has the pursuit of these futile hopes left you feeling empty,
24:32 worry or in agony? And how will you ask God, you know, to
24:39 unmask the false hope in your heart so that you would stop building your
24:44 selfworth or identity or happiness or joy or peace on them.
24:54 And so Hannah stood up. Yeah. She stood up from the place of sorrow and stepped
24:59 into the tabernacle. Yeah. Where she began to pray. And verse 10 says this that she was in
25:05 deep anguish of the soul and she prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.
25:12 But unfortunately even with such you know passionate and sincere prayer uh it
25:17 has invited an unexpected reaction for Eli the priest. You know Eli who was watching from the side thought that she
25:24 was actually drunk. And I was when I was uh you know reading these words I cannot understand why Eli would make such an
25:30 assumption. Yeah. Um and but well you know uh you're free to imagine the Bible
25:36 didn't say anything about it. I suppose completely overcome by a crushing agony. Her posture in prayer must have been
25:43 quite strange. Yeah. It could have been quite erratic you know as in uncontrollably rocking you know back and
25:49 forth. Yeah. And then maybe swaying from side to side you seeing this abnormal display Eli came to
25:56 a startling conclusion that she was drunk. And so in verses 12 to 14, he
26:01 scolded her. He said, "How long are you going to keep this up, woman?" You know, "Put away your wine."
26:08 But listen to her rebuttal. Yeah. To Eli's accusation. In verse 15, she said,
26:14 "Not so, my lord. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking. I have been pouring out my
26:22 soul before the Lord." Now, pouring out her soul. What a
26:28 passionate way to express a pain, isn't it? When was the last time you go to the Lord and pour your soul to him? Yeah.
26:36 Now, think about what we would do if we were in Hannah's shoes. Yeah. I can offer you two one or two tendency. Yeah.
26:43 Which are the extremes. Of course, there are others. You know, some of us, yeah, especially if we are more religious.
26:49 Yeah. Pious, you know, moralistic. Yeah. We will suppress the pain. Why? Because
26:56 we don't understand the radical grace of God. Yeah. We believe that God only take good people to heaven. Yeah. And we are
27:04 not good people if we expose our dark emotion to God or let it out in the
27:09 public. Yeah. And so we deny our feelings. Yeah. And pretend that everything is hunky dory but inside we
27:16 are actually dying you know or bittering. Now conversely the secular and liberal
27:22 people would say just vent it out. know you will feel better and I hear this a
27:27 lot you know in my uh pagan days you know and but let me tell you that's not
27:32 healing it's at best a coping mechanism you know yeah so when we vent out yeah
27:39 we do not vent in honesty as well why because we are scared yeah that other people will use it against us so we take
27:46 it out on others in other forms it can show up as sarcasm or outburst or anger
27:51 you know yeah aggressions or passive aggressive behavior. Have you ever seen people who are passive aggressive? Yeah.
27:59 They punch you without you knowing it. You know, now in the process of doing so, we say
28:04 things that we don't mean. And a lot of the time we hurt the very people that we care about, especially the one close to
28:10 you, your family members. Yeah. And yes, for a brief moment, it feels
28:15 like a relief. Yeah. But when the dust settles, the pain would become worse
28:21 because now it is layered with guilt.
28:26 But thankfully this morning, Hannah show us a third way. She shows us that we can take our dark emotion to God. We can
28:33 take the whole raging storm inside us, the grief, the anger and the confusion and pour it all out honestly and
28:39 directly to our Abba father. And so Hannah went into a radical
28:45 prayer. Yeah. A prayer that pour all her crushing agony to the reality. Yeah. Of
28:51 who God is. You know, now listen to the words that came out of her mouth in 11a.
28:57 Yeah. She started with she called God, "Oh Lord of hosts." And in Hebrew, yeah, the Lord of hosts
29:04 means Yahweh Sabbath. Yeah. And do you know what that means?
29:09 It means that he is the Lord. They translate to the Lord of uh armies.
29:14 Yeah. And this army are no ordinary army because God is the lord of a host of
29:19 angelic armies you know. And he is the king of the galaxy. The god for whom a billion star are just dust to him
29:27 because he's created out of dust and out of his words you know. And she's
29:32 acknowledging and praising God as the one who is infinitely exalted. Yeah.
29:37 Utterly transcendence and overwhelmingly holy. The reality of who God is. Yeah. And
29:45 then in the very same breath she say this. If you will indeed look into the affection of your maid sermon servant
29:52 and remember me. Do you see what she's doing? Yeah. She just declared yeah in
29:58 no certain terms that God the most high is not too high to care for her. So God
30:04 is infinitely personal and personally infinite as uh Tim Kala put it. You
30:10 know, he's the king of the universe. And yet, he's loving and merciful enough to
30:15 care even for this barren, broken, and obscure women, a woman that everybody
30:23 looks down upon. And so, Hannah pour her agony into God's
30:28 reality. Yeah. So, honestly and radically that God's divine greatness and his beauty, you know, transform her
30:35 from inside out. And how do we know? How do I know that Hannah is transformed? Yeah. Look at
30:42 verse 11b. You know, and she say this, "If you will give me a son, then I will give it to the Lord all the days of his
30:49 life. Now, I want you to take this in and chew on it for a while." Yeah. Isn't
30:56 this astonishing? Crazy, right? Because Hannah's deepest longing all this while for a son. And
31:02 yet in the very breath of asking for one from God, she's committing him, giving
31:08 him back to God. You know, that's not normal. Or is it?
31:14 No reaction. So I'm talking to myself
31:20 now. You see, when we finally get what we want, Yeah. or what we wanted, Yeah. we want to hold on to it, isn't it?
31:27 Don't you? Yeah. When you get your first million, what do you do? You hide it.
31:33 You know, only brother Anna. Uh Anna, you know, anyone when you got a first million,
31:39 give it to church. Yeah. I see no hands. Yeah.
31:45 We want to hold on to it real tight, right? But Hannah did the opposite. Yeah. And to prove this is not just lip
31:52 service from her, she put her money where her mouth is. You know she said this and no razor shall ever touch his
31:58 head. So if you're reading this for the first time, why no razor? Yeah. It means that she is dedicating her son to be to
32:06 be a Nazarite, you know, a lifelong servant to God from birth to death. Yeah. And a Nazarite shall never cut his
32:13 hair because it is a visible sign of that commitment, public sign. Yeah.
32:20 You know Samson. Yeah. He was a Nazerite. And more importantly,
32:27 I want you to know by making this commitment, Hannah is forgoing everything. She would have this son that
32:33 she will not leave with. You know, she would not get to play with him. She will not get to feed him and raise him. She
32:39 would not be able to show off to Panina or parade her in front of Panina at every gathering. She would not be able
32:46 to even embrace him in the cold of the night or whenever she wanted to.
32:53 Do you see the miracle transformation that God can do in your life? Yeah.
32:59 And for years, yeah, Hannah's prayer was Lord give me a son for me. Yeah. Every
33:06 morning we pray like this like or every evening for me Lord you know for me. But now her prayer has become Lord give me a
33:13 son for you.
33:18 And how how did this happen? You know now this happened because her hope has
33:25 been transformed or transferred. Yeah. From the gift of a son, her son. Yeah.
33:30 The hope in her son to the giver himself, the Lord of the the Lord of hosts.
33:37 And she's saying in her that her deepest desire is no longer for God to serve her story, but for her to be a part of God
33:45 redemptive story. You see the point, the connection? Yeah. Brothers and sisters
33:50 in Christ, your friends and family, are you motivated this morning to be a part of God's story or not? You are in his
33:59 story whether you like it or not. Yeah. But are you motivated, you know, to play a great part, a bigger part in his
34:05 story? Yeah. And if you are, I want you to stay tuned. Yeah. Now look at verse
34:12 18. Yeah. This is one of the most stunning detail in this passage. Because
34:17 the text does not say that she pray Hannah prayed she and God granted her the request and she got pregnant and
34:23 then she go away and and ate and have peace. No, it didn't say that. Yeah.
34:29 What did it say? It say then the woman went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. You see the
34:36 sequence of event here? Yeah. Do you notice that her peace came before she
34:42 was pregnant? Yes or no? Yeah. Her peace came while God still closed her womb.
34:49 And she had no son in her hands. Yeah. Or arms, you know. But she had peace in
34:55 her heart. Isn't that beautiful? How? Because her hope was no longer chained
35:03 to her circumstances. Yeah. She was free. She was liberated and released from the tyranny of this oppressive
35:10 value system that you and I subscribe to. and she had found her worth, her identity and her peace in God alone.
35:22 So when you shift your hope
35:27 on our value systems to the one who is the king of the universe,
35:35 you may still face the sum same circumstances, but you will have joy and peace in your
35:40 heart. And eventually God granted her a sons. Actually God granted her many children
35:47 after that. Yeah. And uh she called this son Samuel in verse 20. And the meaning is because I asked the Lord for her for
35:54 him. You know then Hannah give thanks by singing a song to God in uh chapter 2.
35:59 Yeah. Samuel chapter 2. You know and her song was overflowing with divine inspired insight. Yeah. A prophetic
36:06 vision of God's salvation that stretches far beyond her own struggles. you know
36:11 and her story she saw that her personal story is now a part of something much
36:17 bigger a part of God ongoing story of redemption you know that is unfolding in
36:23 our world yeah and her joy launched her into a majestic vision you know of God's
36:30 universal character again yeah his reality you know she praise God for his holiness praise God for his justice and
36:37 mercy reaching far beyond her personal miracles
36:43 And look at what she proclaimed about God in verse four. She say the bows of the warriors are
36:50 broken. You know, but those who stumble are armed with strength. What does it mean? Yeah. Hannah is saying that God
36:58 the reality of God is he disrupt the world power system. Indeed, if you look at the scripture
37:04 throughout the scripture, God indeed chooses the weak, the stumble, the insignificant and the broken and the
37:10 barren to display his power and grace so that no one can ever boast in front of
37:15 him, you know. And in verse six, yeah, she declares, you know, she says that the Lord brings
37:21 death and make life. He brings down to the grave and raises up.
37:28 She declares that God has the absolute power over life and death. Death. Amen.
37:35 Absolute. God is the ultimate engine of salvation. He brings life where there
37:40 was only hopelessness. And so if you come in with the came into
37:47 the church with hopelessness in your heart this morning, I pray that you know the Holy Spirit minister to you through
37:53 these words, you know. And then in in verse 8, yeah, she says, you know, he raises the poor from the dust and lift
38:00 the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seed of
38:06 honor. Yeah. Now, she's saying that God will lift up the poor. Yeah.
38:11 If you don't believe me, look at the Bible. Yeah. The insignificance and the marginalized and set them in position of
38:17 honor. And this is indeed God's signature moves throughout the canonical
38:22 encounter. Yeah. He's consistently chosen the barren and the weak and the impossible to be the
38:29 building blocks of his salvation plan. I'll give you example. Yeah. He did the
38:34 same for Sarah. Who is Sarah? Abraham's wife, right? Yeah. And she was barren
38:40 well beyond her childbearing age. And God give him give her Isaac, you know,
38:45 the child of God's promise. Yeah. He did the same for Manoah's wife. Yeah. who was barren to bring forth Samson the
38:53 deliverer and he would later do the same to Elizabeth. Yeah. Who was barren to bring
38:59 forth John the Baptist the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you
39:05 Yeah. Each of these was was an impossible birth. Yeah. And each one was
39:10 a divine metaphor. Yeah. Pointing to how God does not Yeah. saved
39:18 through human strength but through his power alone and all glory to him in the
39:25 midst of human weaknesses and hopelessness. You
39:31 and if this is God recurring pattern to bring salvation through human impossibility then we have to ask the
39:39 pivotal question this morning. Yeah. Where is the ultimate and the final fulfillment and expression of this
39:46 impossibility? I'm happy to tell you that the chain of
39:53 this impossible birth Yeah. finds its ultimate breathtaking fulfillment in God
39:59 himself entering into the world through a virgin called Mary, you know, and baby Jesus
40:06 Christ is the ultimate impossible birth. Yeah. And he's the ultimate savior to
40:12 whom Hannah's song was ultimately pointing to. First pointed to David and
40:17 then to the Lord Jesus Christ you and in him yeah I want to remind you you know
40:24 that God truly brought down the mighty like Hannah said you know that that's
40:30 sin andh death and raises up the needy. Who are the needies? That's you and me
40:38 through Jesus's resurrection. And like Hannah, this ultimate savior
40:43 Jesus Christ also poured out his soul, his agony, you know, his crushing agony to God. And I want to tell you, Hannah
40:50 has not experienced the kind of agony that Jesus experienced on the cross.
40:55 He cried out with emotional desperation, you know, in crushing agony and pain. He
41:01 said to God, "My God, my God, you know, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew
41:07 27:46. Yeah. But do you notice the difference between Hannah and Jesus?
41:13 Yeah. The only difference is Hannah was heard and Jesus was ignored.
41:19 Why? Jesus was ignored so that Hannah could be heard. And when you and I poured out our souls to God so honestly
41:27 and so passionately, we will not be ignored. You know Jesus was forsaken. Yeah. So that we
41:34 will not be forsaken that we can be accepted into the kingdom of God. You know
41:40 Jesus was laden. Yeah. And was numbered with the transgressors. You know to bear
41:46 the punishment that you and I so deserve so that we shall not endure such
41:54 crushing agony on the cross. you so that you and I shall see God in eternity.
42:00 Isaiah 53:12. Amen. Amen.
42:05 Amen. So this brings us to another pivotal truth. Yeah. That is God uses
42:12 prayer to shift our hope from his gift to himself who is our true hope. Yeah.
42:21 Be a pardon. Moment to drink.
42:28 Now let me be very clear. They're praying like Hannah. If you go back
42:34 today, you open your window like Daniel and you you face towards the direction northeast uh Jerusalem direction and you
42:41 pray so passionately and so uh honestly, yeah, it doesn't guarantee that you will
42:46 get what you want. Yeah. Why? Because God's goal is not to fulfill your dream.
42:51 You know, he's not your Santa Claus. In fact, Santa Claus has nothing to do with Christianity, in case you do not know.
42:57 Yeah, but I'm sure all of you know that. Yeah. Sorry, children.
43:04 But God's goal in your life is for you to make him your only dream. Did you
43:11 hear me? God should be your only dream. Until and unless God is your only dream,
43:17 you do not fully enjoy the joy of salvation. Yeah.
43:22 Now when you pray from a place of crushing agony, more often than not, God
43:28 does not change your circumstances, isn't he? He doesn't take your trouble away, did he? Does he? No. Instead, he
43:35 changes what you hope in. Yeah. Absolutely. So the peace that feel Hannah before she
43:41 was pregnant is the same peace, brothers and sisters, that's available to you this morning. Yeah. Now you may leave
43:47 this hall, this auditorium with the same problem that you came in this morning. But you don't have to leave with the
43:54 same heart and same pain and agony. Why? Because true peace is not found in
44:02 changed circumstances. No, but in God himself. You follow me? Yeah.
44:10 So in this season, Yeah. I want you to take a moment and ask yourself, what specific gift from God are you tempted
44:18 to ask and to place your hope in it instead of
44:23 placing it in God? Now, is it the the the the hope of a of
44:29 a child? Yeah. That you do not have a life partner
44:35 or a rel or a relational reconciliation. Yeah.
44:40 or a career breakthrough. You you're stuck in this day end job. You can't wait, you know, to get a promotion or
44:47 get a better job or physical healing. I have many good
44:53 friends and brothers in this church, you know, who are sick and life is full, you know, covered by a
45:00 cloud of darkness
45:05 or financial success or security. I want you to be brutally honest to
45:12 yourself. Now, based on the answer, yeah, what would it look like for you to
45:17 pray Hannah's prayer this morning? Are you willing? Are you willing to pray
45:22 that dangerous but liberating prayer here right now?
45:28 Now, if you are willing, yeah, repeat this quietly after me. You know, in your heart, sitting there. Yeah. Shall we?
45:36 Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Let's do this. Aba father,
45:42 whether you give me, you fill in the blanks. Yeah. Whether it's a child or
45:48 life partner or relational reconciliation or a career change or breakthrough, a
45:54 physical healing, a financial security, or if you decided not to give me,
46:00 Father, it's okay. I ask that you shift my hope until I find my ultimate hope in you alone. And
46:09 all God's people say, "Amen." Yeah.
46:14 In closing, now I can totally relate to Hannah's story. You know, I want to tell you
46:20 this. Yeah. Let me tell you why I can relate to her. Now, on a faithful day in 1975,
46:26 at the age of nine, I learned what it is like to be an enemy in my own home. you
46:32 know, and I was taken Yeah. uh to live with my father and his new wife. And I
46:37 thought, man, this is going to be a beginning of a wonderful life. Yeah. And little I know, you know. Yeah. I
46:43 actually walked into a nightmare because my stepmother, the woman who has broken our home, saw me as a trap. I'm the only
46:51 son. Yeah. And out of jealousy, you know, she made it her mission to ensure
46:56 that my life is a living misery. So you think that all this only happened in Cinderella's story. No, I'm telling you
47:03 it happened in real life. You and it is real. The human heart is extremely extremely dark. You and she feel, you
47:11 know, she does it by she did it by filling the ears of my father with lies about me. And the most heartbreaking
47:18 truth is this. Yeah. He believed every single word that she said.
47:23 And so I became the target of his rage. And I endure many many beatings you know
47:29 and I remember I've been beat by beaten by many things you know you name it cane you know belts and and broomsticks you
47:35 know and I remember being chased with a clever ones.
47:58 It was so frightening that I hid in a neighbor's backyard, trembling, too
48:04 afraid to go home.
48:13 [Music]
48:29 And I was never given an opportunity to defend myself in my home because in my father's house the rules is you know to
48:37 is scolded and beaten first [Music]
48:42 and whatever I said he never believed
48:47 and our relationship has gotten so dysfunctional so bad that he once he disowned me you know actually
48:55 and in my heart that was the day I started to learn to hate
49:04 [Music] And in my crushing agony, I prayed for
49:11 rescue. I don't know God yet at the time. Yeah. I looked to the sky. I prayed for rescue. But all I heard
49:18 was silence for 5 years. Yeah.
49:24 And after such a long time, thank you, sis. All hope was lost.
49:32 And so I begin to believe, yeah, I began to believe that I was born a mistake,
49:40 that I was worthless, that I would never be good enough for my
49:45 father. So years later, brothers and sisters, when I went to university and someone
49:53 shared the gospel with me, I tell you, I was furious inside because I felt betrayed
50:01 because the images of my abusive childhood flashes through my mind and I thought, how could God call himself a
50:09 father? And if you are God, why did you let these terrible things happen to me?
50:17 And so I rejected him. And for years
50:22 that abandoned abused boy shaped the man I became. You know I tell you what I became. I became bitter. I became angry.
50:28 I became self-centered. I became entitled and also driven but not in a
50:33 good way. Yes. In a very wrong way you know because in everything that I do I want to get ahead of everybody at all
50:39 cost. Yeah. So people became a means to an end to me. But after four decades,
50:47 almost 40 years, you know, of wandering in the wilderness, you the God of Hannah
50:52 heard me. Finally, he heard the cry of this terrified 9-year-old boy, you know,
50:57 who was still trapped inside this broken grown man.
51:02 And he began to the slow but beautiful work of redemption in me. In fact, God
51:09 did the impossible. I tell you what is the impossibility. He gave me the grace
51:16 to forgive my late fathers and my step my late stepmother
51:22 who tormented me. And God gifted me from the ash heap of rejection and pain just like Hannah. He
51:29 transferred my hope from the broken things of this world to the unshakable person, the truth, the only truth, the
51:36 Lord Jesus Christ. And he gave me a new song that I can sing day and night no matter what
51:43 situation that I face. Now God took the story of my abusive childhood which meant to destroy me and
51:50 now using it to bring life to others through his words.
51:56 And this same pain that I beg him to remove, guess what? God didn't remove it. Yeah. In fact, he endur it for 5
52:02 years. But that same pain has become the platform from which brother and sister I
52:08 can be a tiny tiny tiny part of his salvation story.
52:14 Hannah would never dream, you know, that one day, you know, on the faithful
52:19 October 26, you know, we will be here hearing her story for being part of God
52:27 redemptive story that is unfolding in our world.
52:32 So you will not too. My friends, you know, my story is the
52:38 living proof of our main truth this morning. And the main truth is God
52:45 God hears the cry of the desperate and he exalts the hopeless who find hope in
52:53 him. You hear me? Amen. Yeah. And you know what? He's waiting to do
52:59 the same for you and to you brothers and sisters in Christ. you know friends,
53:06 family wherever you are this morning whether you are that child who feel abandoned
53:14 like me or the adult that is um acting out of crushing agony you know always
53:19 angry you know always passive aggressive you know because of the pain that you
53:24 felt inside you know this is your moment to arise just like Hannah you know make
53:29 a decisive change viewful change this morning and bring it all to God all to
53:34 Jesus And don't let this hopelessness, the agony in you define your story. Does not
53:40 let it end your story as well. You know, let Jesus rewrite your story. And one
53:48 day you will be used, you know, to bring others to salvation. Yes.
53:54 Why? Because God's power begin to work in your life at the point of your total
54:01 hopelessness. total barrenness.
54:06 So rise, yeah, and build your life on Jesus. Let God be your only peace. Let
54:14 God be your only hope, brother and sister. Let God be your only or let Jesus be your all. Yeah. Can I ask you
54:22 to arise? Yeah. Symbolically, please arise, you know, to sing these songs of
54:27 response that we have uh chosen for you. In Christ alone my hope is found. Yeah.
54:34 To God be the glory, all honor, all praises, and all power to him forever
54:40 and ever. Amen. Yeah. Thank you for tuning in. Enjoy the song. Yeah. Enjoy. And now,
54:47 brothers and sisters in Christ, you know, friends and family. Yeah. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who meets
54:53 us in our wilderness, the love of God the Father who collects every tear and
55:00 hears every silent prayer. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that is
55:05 present among us this morning who does this beautiful ongoing work of redemption in you be with you now and
55:14 forever more. Thank you. Amen. Yeah. And there with a moment of silence meditation. Yeah, the
55:21 service is over. Um, we are happy to pray for you. Please do come forward. And if you are shy, you just signal to
55:27 me. I'll come to you. I'm also happy to engage you in any question that you have regarding the sermons. Otherwise, I see
55:34 you at the connect table. Yeah. Connect corner, you know, especially those newcomers. Yeah. Okay. All right. Amen.
55:41 Go build a big kingdom of God. Yeah. God. Put Go put your hope in him alone.
