On September 21st I shared how we were at an inflection point as a church. I showed the growth of the past few years, while acknowledging we needed to grow our staff team by hiring 5 positions. Today I want to tell you that we have hired 4 of these 5 roles and I’d love to tell you who they are and what they’ll be doing.

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I used to hate waiting for pretty much anything, no matter how great it might be. I would rather go on a decent ride at Disneyland than spend an hour in line for the best ride. I know there’s Lightning Lane now, as well as a VIP experience that gets you to the front of every line. Seriously, I’ve heard it’s great…if you have a billion dollars to spend at Disney. I used to be tempted to hire someone who was mediocre but could start right away as opposed to the best candidate who might need 6 months to a year before they could join the team.

But waiting for God’s best has always been normal for the people of God. And what has happened when people grew tired of waiting on God? Well this is how you end up with evil leaders and things like a golden calf. During this year’s advent series, Waiting for the Morning, we do want to normalize waiting on God to be sure. We will all need to wait on God in various seasons of our lives. The only question is this: Are we going to wait passively or actively? Or I might say ask it like this:

Are you waiting on God passionately or passively?

Are you throwing up a prayer to God every now and then to just ask for His will to be done in a particular situation or are you going after God in prayer with everything you have? I don’t think I have to teach us how to wait passively; after all, this is the default response for all of us. But I do want to show us what it looks like to wait passionately on God to move in our lives. Our text is 1 Samuel 1:3-20. Here’s a little context: Elkanah was a man who had two wives – not a good idea, but also not the point of today’s message. The name of the first wife was Peninnah and she had children. The second wife is Hannah and she had no children.

1 Samuel 1:3-20 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and 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 his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”

When we’re brought into the story, Hannah’s womb is closed. This causes her deep pain in and of itself. But to make matters worse, she is shamed for her inability to have children. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here, but here’s the first thing that stands out to me about this story:

God is able to open what seems like it will be closed forever. God is able to provide what seems like it will be lacking forever.

Hannah didn’t know if God would provide a child in her future, but she was completely convinced that God was able to do this. And she knew she had access to God in the present while she was waiting on His provision for the future. Let’s stop assuming that God only exists in the future with the thing that we’re waiting for.

While we’re waiting on God to move in our lives, we can experience God’s presence in the present.

The text tells us that this went on year after year, meaning Hannah kept showing up with a barren womb AND she kept showing up to ask God for this miracle. Oftentimes, for us, if God doesn’t answer our prayers within 3 days, we either give up or start taking matters into our own hands.

If it took 5 years of daily prayer to get what you want most in life, would that be worth it to you?

Before Jesus tells a parable about persistent, audacious prayer in Luke 18, the gospel write Luke tells us why Jesus gave the parable.

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

What prayers have you quit praying?

Hannah does not wait passively; she waits passionately. Let me give you some of the phrases the text uses to describe how she’s praying: Deep Anguish, Weeping Bitterly, Deeply Troubled, Pouring Out My Soul. Eli thinks she’s been drinking too much and she responds, “I’m not drunk. I’m praying out of my great anguish and grief.” Do your prayers sound like, “God I would kind of like you to give me ____________, but just do whatever your will is”? Or do you prayers sound like, “God I have to have ____________. I’m begging you to use your authority to grant me _______________.”

In a long season of waiting, it can feel like we’ve been forgotten.

Hannah asks God to remember and not forget her. One of the best ways we can have confidence in God never forgetting us is by remembering we are His children and by remembering what kind of Father He is to us.

Isaiah 49:14-16 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

I know there are people in this room and watching online who feel absolutely forgotten. God cannot forget you.

Hannah is teaching us so much about how to actively wait on God. And then she gives us a lesson that most of us never consider. Hopefully there is an increasing number of us in this Epic community who think about how to dedicate to God all that He’s put into our hands: our time, our marriages, our children, our work, our influence. But Hannah adds a whole new dimension to this.

You can dedicate something to God before you ever receive it from God.

In verse 11, she basically says to God, “If you will give him to me, I will give him to you.”

How can we dedicate something to God before we even receive it? The first thing we do is give God our whole lives and everything that will ever be part of our lives. Then we make pre-decisions. God I will honor you with whatever position I receive, whatever wealth I receive, if you give me a spouse or a child in the future, and whatever measure of influence I have – I want to dedicate to you everything I do have and everything I will have.

If God gives you what you long for, will you dedicate the gift to God?

Then it happens. Hannah gets pregnant and she gives birth to a son. Why did God answer her prayer? Get ready because it’s a super complicated answer . She tells you by the name she gave to her son in verse 20. She named him Samuel. Why? She said, “Because I asked the LORD for him.” Jesus said ask and we will receive. He also said we can ask for anything in his name.

“The reason God answers prayer is because his children ask.” -Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Will we be the kind of people who go after God with everything we have to receive everything we long for? Will we be the kind of church who goes after God with everything we have to receive everything we long for?

Waiting means there’s a gap between what is present and what we long to be present in our lives, in our families, in our church, in our companies, in our city, and in this world. How will we respond to the gap? We can fill it with doubt or we can fill it with faith. It’s been said that desperate times call for desperate measures. And I think today we need to adopt this mantra: desperate times call for desperate prayers. I could tell you about past seasons that have brought passionate prayers of desperation out of me. But I’ll tell you about a very recent time that leading this church brought passionate prayers of desperation out of me.

In mid to late August, I had a sense of what we needed as a church. This is what led to me hitting my knees daily, crying out to God for those 5 words I’ve been teaching this fall: Anointing, Vision, Wisdom, Provision, and People. God has responded and I’m still crying out for what’s still missing. How about you?

Response:

-Let’s go after God with passion and desperation (altar/have someone pray for you)

-Let’s dedicate what we long to receive from God: future spouse, child, job, home, influence, wealth, etc.

-Let’s get back to praying the prayers some of us gave up on.