Beacon Sunday Service: May 12th, 2024

This morning with a word of prayer, and then we'll jump right into it. So let me pray for us. God, we thank you so much for this opportunity, this wonderful opportunity to come before you to worship you corporately. God, we're just so excited to give you all the praise and thanks for all the things that you have been doing. Uh Lord, we uh celebrate today, our mothers and just the mothers, even in our congregation. Uh God, we're so grateful for the people that you place in our lives that just form us that you use to form us and shape us. And uh, God, may we just give you all the glory because of your great grace. Um, so we thank you, we love you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. And this morning, uh, we have a special worship set this morning.

I did this last year, but I did it a little bit more particularly this year. Uh the songs that we're be singing today were actually chosen by the mothers of our ministry, and it's a testament just to their just their godliness, their um the way that God uses them to just raise godly children. Just the song. I'm so blessed by the song choices that they made. They're just such biblical and God-honoring songs, and so uh as we sing them today, may we just give uh the Lord all all the praise. Uh, especially since these are some songs that they love to sing as well. So let's sing together. Uh, this morning our call to worship comes from Psalm 64 and the response from Isaiah, and it says this. Let the righteous, let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him.

Let all the upright in heart exalt, and let's confess together. Let us greatly rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed us with the garments of salvation, he has covered us with the robe of righteousness. Amen. Uh, what a great reason to come before the Lord to worship him.

You made the starry host, you trace the mountain peaks, you paint the evening sky with wonder the earth, it is your throne, from desert to the sea, all nature testifies your splendor, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, sing His greatness, all creation, praise the Lord, raise your voice, you heights in all you depths, from further seas to west, let everything that has breath praise the Lord reach into the dust, you reached into the dust in love, your spirit breathe, you formed us in your life to know your wondrous works, to tell your mighty deeds to join the everlasting, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, sing His graveness, all creation, praise the Lord, raise your voice, you heights in all you depths, from further seas to west, let everything that has breath praise alone.

Symphonies resound, let symphonies resound, let drums and choirs ring out, all heaven hear the sound of worship, let every nation bring its honors to the king, a roar of harmonies eternal, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, sing his grainness all creation, praise the Lord, raise your voice, you heights in all you depths, from further seas to west, you distant burning stars of creatures near and far from sky to sea to shore, sing out forevermore, let everything that has breath praise the Lord Amen. Praise the Lord, my hope is built on nothing in Jesus and righteousness.

Together, my hope is built, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but only trust in Jesus name Christ alone Corner stone weight strong in the Savior's love through the storm He is Lord Lord of Darkness seems when darkness seems to hide his face I rest on his unchanging grace in every heart and stormy game my anchor holds within the veil, my curve, my anchor holds within the veil in Christ alone corner weak main strong in the Savior's love through the storm He is Lord Lord of Lord of Christ alone corners weak main strong in the savior's love through the storm He is Lord Lord of He shall come when he shall come with trumpet sound.

Oh, may I then in him be found? Yes, dressed in his rightness alone, the stand before the throne. Amen. This morning we will confess our faith using the Baptist Catechism. In this question and answer, we will confess what prayer is. So let us confess that together. What is prayer? And together, prayer is an offering up of desires to God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgments of his mercies. Amen.

Good morning, everyone. We are reminded constantly of the struggles and our shortcomings. Sometimes each day, some of us, if we reflect back on the week, we're like, oh yeah, that was a tough day, or that was things that I could have done better. But as as believers, we know that God's spirit is continuously sanctifying us. And we want for us to acknowledge that we are nothing without him, and we want to confess the things that we struggle with, our sins to our the Lord, because he wants us to be transparent and honest with him. So let's take a time corporately to go over our confession of sin, and then we'll take an individual private confession of sin afterwards. So together, Heavenly Father, search us and know our hearts, try us and know our thoughts.

Wash us clean from all the impurities of our flesh, the world, and the devil. Our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Set us free from a past that we cannot change. Open to us a future in which we can be changed. Grant us grace so we can grow more into your likeness through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. Please be seated, and let's take now a time of private confession of sin.

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. So as Brother Howard shared this morning, uh today is Mother's Day, and um our service he tailored um the songs to the requests of our our sisters, the mothers here. Um I also wanted to do a prayer for them, specifically just uh for the beacon mothers, uh knowing what a blessing they are to our ministry. I want to read a passage from Proverbs thirty-one, verses twenty-four through thirty. And they says, She makes linen garments and sells them, she delivers uh sashes to the merchant. Uh strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Amen. So lifting up our mothers. I just wanted us to consider everybody here.

Tiff, uh Katya, who's not here, but hopefully she'll come. Just lift them up in prayer, that the Lord will bless them as mothers for everything that they do daily, everything that they even have to put up with with as with husbands, um, and just maintaining the household, uh, being patient and loving and kind. Uh just bless them, pray over them, their health, their well-being, um, and and just that the Lord will continue to uh give them gratification in the way that they live and love their families, their children's um, and and serve our church. So let's pray for them.

Lord, I lift up the mothers of the beacon, uh Sister Jean and Kathy, Sarah, Tiff, Katya, um, and just the example of what godly mothers should be. Uh, as we read in Scripture, Lord, we know that they do everything in their power to exemplify your word and who you call them to be as mothers, as wives, as sisters of our community. Um, we want to lift them up. We want to encourage them, we want to bless them, Father. So we we thank you so much for them and all that they do for us. We also pray for our own mothers, Lord. We pray for their health, for their well-being, and the way that they have raised us as their children, the much love and care that they've given us to shape us with who we are.

We pray for blessing upon them as well. And Lord, we ask, Father, for blessing upon our service, Lord, uh, and allow us to receive the word through the Spirit as present in this place. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please follow teacher Stephen for Sunday school. Teacher Abraham is joining them as well. Uh, as they're being dismissed, we have a few announcements. Uh, it's not up there, uh, but I actually wanted to acknowledge that our sister Lily, who has just gotten married and come back from honeymoon, uh, wanted to introduce her husband, Ray Park. So if you guys could rise and let's congratulate them on newly their newly wedness. Uh, they I think you guys brought some uh something from to share today.

Thank you so much. You didn't have to, but thank you for bringing that, and what a great day to celebrate. Um, there's also other refreshments, so after service, please uh hang tight. We'll we'll kind of break bread together, have these uh refreshments together right after uh service is done. Uh I also wanted to acknowledge that our brother Philip Yang is engaged as well. Dear Sister Christabel. Now that you're here, we can actually formally just kind of acknowledge. So uh a date is set, and we just want blessing upon you as you plan, and hopefully you're not overly stressed with everything going on, but uh, we are praying for you. Uh so uh other few announces that we have is uh Josh Sue's law school graduation is May 19th.

Uh let's pray for him. As I think this is kind of like the final leg of his of law school. Did you finish your finals this week? Or you have some more to come. One more tomorrow. So if you could keep him in your prayers and just help him to kind of pass everything, finish everything strong. Uh, I know like just even just having his family fly in from Canada to come and watch him graduate is such a big deal. So uh let's just uh thank the Lord for him finishing uh you know his uh law school. Um we're also going to, well, not as an official church function, but uh we're going to Korean Heritage Night Um at Dodger Stadium May 22nd. So if you'd like to join a group of us who are going, please let Stephen or myself know.

And if you want to sit together, uh please let us know. We can carpool as well. Our brother Simon uh is doing an art show near Chateau Park here in Los Angeles. It's gonna run from May 31st to June 1st. If you'd like to support him and to see kind of his amazing gift of art and drawing his passion, which is cars, please comment and support him. And if you need any more details, just ask him right here and he'll be happy to share with you. Uh and last but not least, uh, we have our offering options or Zell Vemo Cash and Check. If you're visiting today, please don't feel obligated to give. But if you're a member, we ask that you support our ministry as the Lord has blessed you with that past Madison.

Hey, what a joy to uh ask you to open up uh God's word if you have the Bible. It's uh first Samuel. Uh we've been going through the uh book of James, uh, but since it's uh Mother's Day, I wanted to talk uh a little bit about Hannah uh from the old testament and just uh what was up in her life, and on the screen you can see I want to talk about teaching others. Uh and I would say if I could put the sermon in a sentence, I would say it this way. You cannot teach others what you yourself do not know. You gotta know it before you can teach it. And so it in our lives, um, in Hannah's life, she learned so that she could begin to teach others as well. So let me uh take you to the globe here, okay.

When I was uh I'm an old guy now, you know. Uh when I was when I first graduated from MBI in Chicago, it was 1970. So, you know, probably uh I don't know if you were even born, you know. So I I graduated in 1970, and then I uh was asked to come on staff at MBI in Chicago, and so my job uh in Chicago was to preach uh to colleges, universities, and youth for Christ, campus crusade for Christ, things like that for the nation, and uh somewhat into the Canadian area uh in Ontario and in that region. So I was just traveling uh all the time. I was 22 years of age, and just uh they said, Hey, you're you're doing a great job. MBI only had 800 students during that time they wanted to grow to 1500.

So over the next two years, uh the the school grew to 1500. We double the the student body almost during the time, and my job was to go and speak to youth conferences and tell them also about MBI, and and they ended up coming there. They said to me, and this is ended, this is why I ended up actually leaving MBI at one point, because I was traveling 65% of the time. I had two secretaries, I was having to send out 300 letters a week. Um, and they said, You're doing a great job. What we'd like you to do now is we'd like you to travel 95% of the time. And I thought, let's see. Everybody else at the school was older than me. They were old like uh Howard here, you know, and an old guy, you know. And so they'd all come back to their wives, but I came back to nobody.

And so I thought, you know, this is getting to be uh I was beginning to realize it's not good that man should be alone. And so, but I they said, Why don't you travel? Um it's 95% of the time, and I thought I can't do that. But on the weekends, when I was in the Chicago area, and so let me just kind of zoom in here for a second, um, so here's zooming in on Chicago. So when I was in the Chicago area, I would then preach weekends at different churches, churches where they might not have a pastor, or churches where the pastor was on vacation. So I was asked to preach at a church, and during the the week, one of the guys from the church called me. The guy said to me, Hey, uh, I just want to give you directions to the church so that you know where you're going on Sunday, and so here's what he said to me.

I want you to take, let me zoom in on this. I want you to go west, right out of Chicago. It's called the Eisenhower Expressway, and he said, You'll just go west until you hit the toll road, 294, and just go north and get off on Grand Avenue. So I'm thinking, I mean, Chicago's a big place, and so there are a lot of churches, and so I've preached to different churches there, and Grand Avenue. Anyone that lives in Chicago knows where Grand Avenue is, and it just starts in downtown and goes just due west. So I'm gonna go, Eisenhower Expressway, turn north, it's about uh four miles, and I get off on Grand Avenue, and so the guy said, you know, you're just gonna get off on Grand Avenue and and then head to our church.

I'm got it, you know. Now on Sunday morning, the last thing you want is for the pastor that's gonna preach at your church not to be there, right? So I leave in the morning, I go west on on the uh Eisenhower, and I turn, go north on 294, and there's no exit on Grand Avenue. I thought, oh, come on, Grand Avenue is it's a major street in Chicago. So I thought, well, I'll go to the next service street, get off, go back to Grand Avenue. I did that, I'm on Grand Avenue. I'm looking for the church. There's no church. I'm thinking, now it's about 15 minutes before the service is gonna start. My heart starts to go, oh no, I need to get, I need to find out where we're where we're going here. And this is back in the days, you know, in the stone age, when there wasn't any cell, there weren't any cell phones.

So I think I need to get off. I need to I need to get to a payphone, and so I get to a payphone, and I'm thinking, oh dear lord, I hope I hope somebody answers the phone at church. Because if somebody called our church here this morning, would anybody answer the phone? No. And most of the time, nobody sitting at the at a reception desk and answer the phone. I call the church, somebody answers. I say to them, hey, uh, this is you know, Pastor Madison, I'm gonna be preaching uh at your church this morning, but I'm right down here on Grand Avenue, and and I uh and I can't find the church. He says, Oh, are you in Cook County or Lake County? I go, oh my goodness, Cook County is where Chicago is, and that whole Cook County area, and Lake County is all the way up here, and I'm going, oh my!

But it helped to know that in advance, but I didn't, and so I'm, and I said to him, okay, 15 minutes before the service starts, the music's going to go for about a half hour. I'm on my way. But let me put on the screen this way. Even when we think we know what to do, we can make mistakes. We can do things wrong. Whether we're parents or moms, because we're on Mother's Day, we're talking to moms. But you know, what applies to moms often applies to every believer. And so even when we think we know what to do, we can make mistakes. But let me put this on here. This is what I said the sermon was in a sentence. Before we can teach others how to do something, we must know the lesson first. We can't teach them something we don't know.

Now, if I apply it to mothers, let me put this on the screen. Mom taught me everything I needed to know, right?

Not quite. Mom taught me everything I needed to know, except how to live without her. You know? Yeah. How do I do the laundry? How do I cook the meals? How do I go shopping? You know, as all of a sudden, as a kid, when you grow up and you're 18 and you head off to school, if she's never taught you to do the laundry, if she's done your laundry, if she's done all the shopping, if she's done all the cooking, you go, okay, what do I do now? Oh, yeah, I do the whites with the colored. And I oh, do I do the hot water or do the cold water? Or let me let me say this. My mom teaches me to hit and to steal. And you'd say, wow, that's a terrible thing. You know, mom shouldn't teach her kids how to hit and how to steal.

But this is baseball. And she taught me how to hit the ball and how to steal bases. So sometimes you need to listen carefully so you know exactly in scripture or in our lives, what they're saying, what we really need to be doing. And really, moms, they're they're really teaching others, and they're teaching our children how to live godly lives. So, how do I know we're supposed to teach others? Matthew chapter 28 says it this way. Then Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them, what are we supposed to be doing?

We're supposed to be teaching them. Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded. So our job is to be teaching. But what did I say? You can't teach what you don't want. What you don't know.

Or teach others. Sermon in a sentence, if you're to teach others how to live godly lives, you can only teach them what you know. I want you to look at some lessons that Hannah learned and was able to teach Samuel and others as she followed the Lord. First lesson, she learned that life can have heartaches. I think, you know what's interesting to me? We try to teach people, kids in our society anymore. Everybody has to get a trophy. You know, if they're playing the soccer game, if they're playing the t ball game, if they're playing whatever they're playing, every child has to win a trophy. They might not be very good at it, but they get a trophy. And we never teach them that life has heartaches and difficulty.

Here's the way it's worded in 1 Samuel. So this is an old testament book. It was written at the time of the judges. So there was a book called Judges. In the book of Judges, here's how people lived. It almost sounds like today. In that day, there was no king in the land, no leader. And every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Does that sound like America? There was no spiritual leader in the land, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Not in the eyes of God, but it is in his own eyes. And so in our society, we have people that think, oh, it's it's okay to, you know, do abortions and take life. What's amazing to me is they're they're all worried about their rights.

It's my body, my body, my rights. And I think, well, what about the child in that body? Don't they have any rights? And by the way, who puts that child within them? God says, hey, I am fear. God says in his word that we are fearfully and wonderfully made within our mother's womb. So God knows us by name, even while we're in the womb. But when this was written, every man did that which was right in his own eyes, not in the eyes of God. So here's what's said. There was a man from Ramathan Zophan in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was El Kanah, son of Jerobam, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zoph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives. Guys, there isn't a wife out there that would say, Yeah, you know, I'm your wife, but hey, get a second one.

And just so you know, I've been married 49 years this month. All I can say is, my wife is just a sweetheart and a gem. But if I had two wives, it would be a mess. There is no way that you can treat your wife like Christ loved the church and have two wives. And when God created man, how many wives did he make for Adam? One. He created Eve. And he said, okay, here's the plan. One man, one woman, and you know, you've heard this before. I'll say it clearly here. When God made Adam, he didn't make Adam and Steve, he made Adam and Eve. He made a man and a woman, and that's how the design was done.

And he said, look, here's, and so here's Elkanah, and he has two wives. The first named Hannah, the second, Peninah. Penina had children, but Hannah was what? Childless. So what was the first lesson she learned? That life has what? Heartaches. There are times, you know, for a Jewish woman, one of the greatest things that she desired was to have children. And somebody, somebody was going to have the privilege of the Messiah being born to her. And if she can't have a child, she was just stricken. She was, it was a heartache. The text goes on, verse 3. This man would go up from his town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh.

Where Eli's two sons, Hoffney and Phineas, were the Lord's priests. These two guys were as ungodly as can be. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phineas. And they served at the Lord's house there. And they slept with the prostitutes and other women that came to the Lord's house. The text goes on. Whenever El Kanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Panina and to each of their sons and daughters. So every day they would make sacrifices, but when he would go up to the Lord's temple and make sacrifices, he would say, Hey, Panina, you've got all these kids who didn't take care of them. Let's give them food from the sacrifice. The text goes on, but he gave a double portion to Hannah.

For he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving.

God, this is the Bible. God says, God in his word says that at that moment he kept Hannah from conceiving. God's in charge. We talk about the, you ever heard of the word sovereign? The sovereignty of God. The word sovereign, right within the word is the word reign, R-E-I-G-N. God reigns over everything. He is sovereign. He can do whatever he wants. He's God. And so he at that point kept her from conceiving. What was she learning? What was the lesson she was learning? That life has heartaches at times. She couldn't, she wanted a child, she wasn't having a child. The text goes on. Her rival, her rival was Panina. Remember? There were two wives. Can you imagine? If you have to share your husband with another woman, I just I can't even begin to imagine what it's like.

And the other woman, though, was able to have children, and Hannah was not able to have children. Her rival would taunt her severely. Did you catch that? I'm going to highlight it. Her rival would taunt her severely. Just to provoke her. Because the Lord had kept Hannah from what? Conceiving. Her rival taunted her in this way every year. And Hannah wept. So every year they went up to the temple up to worship the Lord. And when they got there, Panana would have her kids there. And then she would say to Hannah, hey, oh, where are your kids? Oh, that's right. You can't have any. Oh, that's right, you haven't been able to have any. Oh, that's right. Can you imagine being desiring to have a child and being taunted by your husband's other wife?

What lessons? Listen to me. What lessons was God going to teach Hannah? He was teaching her that life can have heartaches. So that when she does, she does. I'll give you the spoiler alert. God lets her have a child. But God wanted her to be able to help that child realize that life has heartaches. You cannot teach your child about heartaches if you've never had a heartache.

And you can't teach your child how to cope and trust God with their heartaches if you've never been able to trust God with your heartaches. Hannah wept. The text goes on. Now her husband comes on the scene. Her husband.

Okay. Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband El Kana said. Ask. Why won't you eat? Why aren't you? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you? Oh, wait. I'll highlight this. Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons? Uh no. As a matter of fact, that's why she's crying. She has you. And she doesn't have she doesn't have a child. The thing to say to your wife, listen, the wives can correct me later, okay. But when I've talked to women, you know, they come to us with a problem as a guy. And they'll say, hey, oh, I don't know what to do, you know. And they're there if all the husbands were here of the wives, I'd say, have you ever is your wife ever come to you and said, I don't know what to do?

And I'm and they're discouraged and they're they're downcast. And you know what the husband does? He says, Oh, you know what you need to do? Here, a, a B, a C. It would be just like an attorney being able to go, just lay it right out there and in all the designs. Listen, when your wife comes to you with a problem, what she wants is for you to just put your arms around her. Just hold her and listen. And then pray. Say, we'll discover together. Not you have all the answers, and it's A, B, and C. And you didn't even take time to comfort her heart. Did you uh, you know, this is a Mother's Day message. Guys, are you catching this? And those of you who aren't married, are you catching this? They aren't looking for you to answer their problems.

You may have an answer. And probably 99% of the time, you have an answer. You know, she gave you the problem. Here's the answer. You want to do it? Well, I told you what to do. Why aren't you doing it? Because they're not ready to do that right now. They're just hurting in their hearts. Hannah got up after the ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the door post of the Lord's tabernacle. Deeply hurt. Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears. This is a godly woman. But she still can be deeply hurt. And she's learning this lesson. You know, in our church in uh Palmdale, if somebody's going to become an elder in our church, a leader in our church, we never let them become an elder in our church.

Um without asking a number of questions. They go through like a whole year and the process and questions. One of the questions we ask them is this. Have you ever been hurt in a church? Because they can't be a young, they can't be a new believer. Even if they're 60. If they're a new believer, they're a they're a new believer and they don't know what they don't know at that point. They can't be a young person. They can't have more than one wife. They have to be the husband of one wife. They have to rule their house well. They have to be given to hospitality. But one of the main things we ask them is have you ever been wounded in a church? Listen to me. Look at me. We're hoping they have been wounded in a church.

Why? Because if they're going to be an elder in our church, we want them to never wound anybody in our church. And if they've never experienced being wounded by somebody, they won't know the hurt of it, and they won't know how to help. And so we're saying to them, have you been wounded in another church or had a because you can't teach what you don't know. If you don't know it, you can't teach it. She wept with many tears.

And with 12 to 15 minutes without oxygen.

What you're looking for in a pastor and in shepherds are people that have what? A heart. Those that sow in tears will reap in shouts of joy. What did Jesus do? I'm gonna I'm gonna have you uh memorize a verse of scripture during this morning's service. Okay, gonna it's it's it's not alone, but and you may already know it. When Jesus learned that Lazarus had died. Do you remember what his response was? John 1135. Here's the verse to learn, John, this morning. John 11 35. Jesus wept. Shortest verse in scripture. Jesus wept. People looked at him and said, Wow, look how much he cared about him. You know, when you start to leak out of your eyes, and you have tears, people say, Wow, he's moved. There's heart.

That's what Hannah had. She had heart. And I don't know what we got going there, so I'll I'll go on to the next picture. I told you about Johnny Erickson Tata. And Johnny, this is her picture. Uh, and she paints with her mouth. They the the paintbrush, or in this case, it looks like the pencil, she paints with her, and on July 20th, not July 30, excuse me, 1967, she dove into the Chesapeake Bay, struck a submerged rock, and crushed her spine. Instantly, she was a quadriplegic. This summer will mark 57 years since she has been able to walk. She was a wonderful athlete at that time. She just graduated high school. She was gonna turn 18 in the fall. She's 75 years old today, and she hasn't been able to walk.

She has one of the most thriving opportunities to minister to handicapped people in the world. The headquarters that her organization built called Johnny's and Friends built their facilities debt-free. They have retreats there, they bring in handicapped people, people that can't walk, can't do things.

Um last week or so when our daughter, our granddaughter, was up visiting with her, they taught them how how it is to be handicapped. Right down to they have kids put a little golf pencil in their mouth and try to write their name, like she does the painting, or how to unwrap candy when you have gloves on, or how to have uh put blindfolds on and pour a glass of uh a pitcher of water into a glass. Here is Johnny. Uh well, I'm gonna give you this. She wrote she wrote the book called Johnny, and in the preference of her book, she wrote, I have found that God knows my needs infinitely better than I know them. He is utterly dependable, no matter which direction our circumstances take us. She wouldn't, nobody would know about her today if she hadn't had that accident.

But today she has a worldwide ministry, the thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Uh is Johnny uh on April, I think April 29th, meeting my granddaughter, uh, and my granddaughter has painted a picture for her, made a picture for, and made a bracelet for her. Uh and my granddaughter can hardly talk. I mean, she um when she had the ablation, she lost everything. They said she was going to be a body in the bed the rest of her life, blind, can't talk, can't eat. Here's Johnny meeting her. Yes. Can you turn it up? I am so happy to meet it. Turn it up. I wish my hands were, but I'm gonna have to borrow my friend's hands. Is that okay? May I let me see this?

Did you oh my goodness, that's okay.

Stretch. Strength, stretch. You made this for me. Natalie, I'm so I'm so amazed. Can I look at your did you write this? Okay, turn this around. Turn this around. Well, you want to see the open it up. Oh, there we go. Turn it around.

Turn it around the summer. Did you write these words? She did that on or not. She was so excited. I I spelled it for her. Well, you know what? I I read your story, Natalie. And you're a miracle girl. Yes. You are a miracle girl. Oh, and that's so inspiring too. Thank you for being an inspiration to us. Oh, DM. I am so honored. And I almost called you on you for a couple of those. That was just a couple of weeks ago. Natalie, at one point meeting Johnny, just broke down and cried. When my daughter said to Natalie, why did you cry? Natalie said, I was just so happy. She realized that even though you can't do everything, you can still be used of God.

Hannah, what lesson did she learn first? That there are heartaches in life. And out of the heartaches, when Johnny Erickson Tata was paralyzed, there were times in the first few weeks and months. She thought, oh, I wished I could just die. But as God began to work in her heart and life, she has a ministry now worldwide. But God used that lesson, the lesson of heartache, so she can now teach others. That they that sow in tears will reap in what? Joy. So, what do I say to you? If you're going to teach others how to live godly lives, you have you have to know it before you can teach it. So, what are the lessons? Well, she learned that life can have heartaches. Secondly, Hannah learned to take her cares to the Lord.

Because her husband didn't have the right answers, right? Her husband was getting out. Hey, aren't I better than ten sons? Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's tabernacle, deeply hurt. What did Hannah do? She knew where to take her concerns. And she prayed. Hannah prayed and wept. She knew where to take her concerns. 1 Samuel 11 says, making a vow, she pleaded, Lord, if you will, you know, do this. Here's what she said. Lord, if you will, take notice of your servant's affliction. Remember and do not forget me, and give your servant a son. And I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.

She pleaded with the Lord. She knew where to go. But listen to her prayer. How does it start out? If you will.

But King James, but thine be done. Not my will. And so what is she saying here? See, when we pray, we can't demand God. You know, we're not. It just amazes me when I listen to some of the pastors that name it and claim it. Pastors. Just name it and say, God, you gotta do this, you know. God never said that. Even Jesus didn't say that to the Father. Why would we think, you know, we want to say, Lord, if it's your will, but I let him know my heart's desire. I let him know my will. What did Hannah let God know? Her desire. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 34, Psalm 37. He says, Oh, learn, learn to delight yourself in the Lord. You'll get the desires of your heart.

Listen to me. God, however, might change your desires. If you delight in him, he may change the desires of your heart and give that to you. Or he might give you what you want. And what did she need to learn? How? How to trust God with the fact that she had no child and was being taunted by Panina year after year after year. Let me give you one other lesson she learned. She learned life can have heartaches. She learned take her cares to the Lord. She learned what it was like to be misunderstood. So if you're a mother here today, yeah, you've been misunderstood by your kids or by your husband. She learned what it was like to be misunderstood.

What does the text say? Hannah, why are you crying? Her husband El Canna asked. Why won't you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better than ten sons? This sounds like a little two-year-old. A little a little three-year-old. What's her husband? Why? Why? Why, mommy? Why can't I do this? What's her husband say? Oh, what? Why are you crying? Why aren't you eating? Why? Again, do you do you hear the mistakes this husband is making? Is he understanding her? Does she realize what it's like to be misunderstood? She wants, she would love to have a child. She would love to be able to place that son in her husband's arms and say, hey, congratulations, Dad. But he's off on another tangent. Misunderstood.

Hannah. But there was somebody else that misunderstood. In the text, her husband misunderstands. But there's somebody that you'd think would understand. And that person misunderstands too. Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's tabernacle, deeply hurt. Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears. Making a vow, she pleaded, Lord of hosts, if you will take notice of your servant's affliction, remember and do not forget me and give your servant a son. I will give into the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut. While she continued praying in the Lord's presence, Eli, the high priest, Eli watched her lips.

Hannah was praying silently. And though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk. Let's see. If you have someone in the Lord's house, and they're broken before the Lord, and you're the pastor, you're the priest, if anybody ought to say, hey, how can I be praying for you? What's going on? But instead, this priest jumps to a conclusion, says, ah, she must be drunk. And what did you do? What did he do? And scolded her. How long are you going to be drunk? Get rid of your wine. You think she's ever going to come back to that church? Ever going to come back to that temple? Ever going to come back and trust that guy?

Now, why? Why do you think he even said it? I mean, he's foolish for saying it to begin with. But why? What was going on? I told you about it. What was going on with his two sons? His two sons were sleeping with women, prostitutes who came to the temple. And now this woman appears to be drunk. Maybe she's just coming to get with his sons as well. And he shouldn't even have been in charge of it, because if you're going to be an elder in a leadership role of a ministry, you have to rule your house what? You have to rule your house well. You have to have children who believe. And he had children who were ungodly.

Eli thought she was drunk. Did he misunderstand? Hannah. Can you imagine the grief in her heart? She's pleading with God for a child. That she's going to do what? Give back to the Lord. And instead misunderstood. Oh no, my Lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman with a what? With a broken heart. I haven't had any wine or beer. I've been pouring out my heart before the Lord. Don't think of me as a wicked woman. I have been praying from the depths of my anguish and resentment. Did she know what it's like to be misunderstood? Do you think when her kids came to her later on, because she was able to have kids?

When they came to her later on and they had been misunderstood. Do you think she was able to counsel them and say, Oh, honey, you know, I know what it's like. But don't worry. God's in charge. And even though people are going to go after you and misunderstand. God's in charge. He's on your side. Trust him in this. Let me give you the last one, okay? Four lessons I'm going to give you. She learned that life can have heartaches. She learned to take her cares to the Lord. She learned what it was like to be misunderstood. And she learned how to completely give to God. Here it is. I'm going to completely give to God. And what's she going to give to God? Verse 21 of chapter 1. Now you're jumping just beyond where we were in the text.

When El Kennah and his household went up to make the annual sacrifice and his vow offerings to the Lord. Hannah did not go and explain to her husband. After the child is weaned, oh, I've jumped over where she had a son. God gave her a son. And she's weaning the child, and she's going to give that child to the Lord. Let me tell you this. What she gave to the Lord and how she gave to the Lord. I don't know of anyone else besides maybe Abraham. Remember when Abraham was asked to offer Isaac his son? And God didn't take his son's wife. God let Abraham draw the knife, come all the way up, and then God said, Oh, that's enough. Now I know you love me. I just wanted to know was your son more important than me.

That was one example. This is another example. Here's what it says. When Elkennah and all his household went up to make an annual sacrifice and his vow offering to the Lord, Hannah did not go and explain to her husband, after the child is weaned, I'll take him to appear in the Lord's presence and to stay there what? Permanently.

At that time. Why? And a son. And I'm going to give him to the Lord's service.

If you give me a son, what am I going to do? Do you know what God says in his word in Ecclesiastes? He said it's better not to vow than to vow to God and not keep it. He even says it, he goes on to say in that verse, he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what thou has vowed to God. That's why when you marry somebody, what do we have you give? A vow to God. A vow to your mate and a vow to God. And God's going to hold you accountable for those vows. She's going to let that child stay there permanently. Let me ask you this. That child has just gotten weaned. What is he? Three?

Two or three. I mean, they didn't have the kind of foods that we have back then. So two or three. And she's going to let that child. If she'd come to me, I said, Oh, you yeah, you vowed to God. Oh, you know. Listen, I want to say to you, be cautious in your vows. Not that you can't vow to God, but make sure that what you're vowing is something you really want to do. Because if she'd have come to me and said, Hey, I'm thinking about vowing and turning my son over to Eli and his two sons. Do I want that child to grow up under Eli's, under Hofni and Phineas, the guys that are sleeping with other women and getting drunk, you know, at the Lord Temple?

I said to her, Oh, I don't know if you want to do that. Do you follow me there? But she'd already made a vow. And she's going to keep her vow to God. Her husband El Cana replied, do what you think is best and stay here until you've weaned him. May the Lord confirm your word. So Hannah stayed there and nursed her son until she weaned him. When she had weaned him, she took him with uh with her to Shiloh, as well as a three-year-old bull, half a bushel of flour, and a jar of wine. Though the boy was still young, she took him to the Lord's house at Shiloh. Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli. Please, my Lord, she said, as sure as you live, my Lord, I'm the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord.

I prayed for this son, and since the Lord gave me what I asked for, I now give the boy to the Lord for as long as he lives.

God's word goes on and actually is very clear on it. You know what she did? Every year they would go back and celebrate with the Lord. And every year she would make him a new robe for his size.

So she was teaching him lessons that she herself learned first.

So what is God teaching you right now? That you will be teaching others, and especially your kids.

How to give to God permanently.

Guess what? Your children are little. You're going to give them away someday. You need to be ready for that day. Because that day's going to come. And whether you want to give, it would be better for you to want to give. Say, Lord, they're yours. Then for them to rebel against you and say, I'm tired of you telling me what to do. I'm on my own now. I can be, I do whatever I want. You want that child to learn how to honor God. They will only learn how to honor God if they see it in you. And if they know you're willing to let go of them for God, they will willingly do what one of the Ten Commandments happens to be. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that your days will be long on the earth.

What are you teaching others today? How to handle heartache, knowing that God sees and understands and is there with you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we give you these moments, and we're asking that the lessons you want us to know, you'll teach us in a way that we can pass it on to our kids or pass it on to others in our church fellowship here. While your heads are bowed, while your eyes are closed. Can you say, Lord, you've taught me a lot of lessons, and I want to be able to pass those lessons on now to others, and I'm praying that whatever lesson you're wanting to teach me this week, I could have learned from Hannah.

How to willingly let you teach me that lesson. How to learn to take my problems to you.

And I want them to learn from me how to be godly. So make sure, Father, that I learn that lesson well so that I can teach it well to my children. As a man here today, as a husband or a husband in the future, I'm praying that you will learn from El Kana. How not to encourage your wife.

For we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's respond and just worshiping the Lord and giving him the praise. Let's all rise.

Oh God. Engages our hearts. May Jesus Christ be known. Wherever we are.

So we pray your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done. So that one might know your name, let your soul be heard every way till your son were this done. Let your kingdom come. Give us your strength, O God.

Give us your strength, oh God, and courage to speak, perform your wondrous deeds through those who are we use us as you want whatever the test by grace will preach your gospel till our breath let your kingdom come, let your will be done, so that one might know your name.

Every way honor to your sovereign work honor this done that you can come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, so that one might know your name, let your song be heard, every honor till your song work honor this done, let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come.

So if you're a mom, I'm gonna ask you to come right up front here. Would you do that? Kathy, let's have Tiffany and Kathy and Jean and Sarah. Okay, perfect. As we give those flowers to them, and we're gonna pray for them, and that God would really continue to use them in wonderful ways for his kingdom, and in their kids' lives, and in their husbands' lives. Because they're the helpmates that God has brought into their lives. So would you join me in praying specifically for them?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father it's with great joy that we thank you for these godly women. We're praying that your hand would continue to be on their lives. Father, in the name of Jesus, I want to pray for Kathy that you would use her with her family and in her work. Father, I pray for Tiffany. Thank you for what you have done in her heart and life and how you're using her with her kids. Father, for Katya. Thank you that you brought her to this country to be used for your glory. Use her with her boys this week. Father, for Jean. Thank you for the opportunities you've given her with her children. Uh with uh Stephen and his new job. Help her to be able to be the help meet that you desire in her life.

And then, Father, for Sarah, thank you for the way you use her in her family and in this church. Thank you for uh her ability at the keyboard and the way uh she and Howard are used to minister to us in music. Father, would you now watch over these five mothers? May you cause your face to shine on them, be gracious to them. Father, we're praying that their children will do as your word says, will rise up and call their mom blessed. Now, Father, we pray that you take us for our time of fellowship here. Would you bless the refreshments that are in the back? Use this time to encourage us with one another. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless.

Have a great day. We also have one more five days. Well, I'll see that my wife gets this, and she's going to be here next week with us. So uh we'll look forward to both being here with you next week. Okay? God bless. Have a great week.