Amen. You can be seated. A great song. Thank you for the singers and for the pianists, pianists. Let's turn to God's word. Let's open up our Bibles to First Samuel chapter one. Today, I want to look at the account of Hannah in the Bible and examine the grace that God shed upon Hannah to become a godly mother and by extension gives us some unique and distinct marks that godly mothers exhibit. First Samuel chapter one, I'm gonna read part of the first chapter. Hear the words of God. Now there was a certain man from Ramathame, Zothem, from the hill country of Ephraim. And his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoam, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoth. Now he had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Penina. And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. Now that man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice Yahweh of Host and Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to Yahweh there. And the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, and he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah. But Yahweh had closed her womb. Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irate her, excuse me, to irritate her, because Yahweh had closed her womb. And so it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her. So she wept and would not eat. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons? Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now, Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh. And she, bitter of soul, prayed to Yahweh and wept despondently. And she made a vow and said, oh, Yahweh of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a seat amongst men, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor shall not come on his head. Now it happened as she multiplied her prayer before Yahweh that Eli was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. Then Eli said to her, how long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you. But Hannah answered and said, no, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before Yahweh. Do not consider your maidservant as a vile woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great complaint and provocation. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him. And she said, let your servant woman find favor in your sight. So the woman went away and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we pray now that you would illuminate our minds and hearts to your word. God, help us to see, Lord, that this account, God, you've given to us for our benefit, for edification, for exhortation. The Word of God is living, it's active, and Father, we pray now that you would use this, Lord, to strengthen, sanctify us unto your holiness. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to say something very politically incorrect today, and that's Happy Mother's Day. If I wanted to be politically correct, I would say something like Happy Birthing Person's Day. Or actually, that's offensive to people who can give birth, so it's just Happy Day, I guess, right? Seems silly, but it actually is. You know where our culture is going. There's been a change and a really the attacks on womanhood have really amped up over the last few years. I preached this sermon, I don't know, about three or four, maybe five years ago when we first started the church, and I figured like most of y'all weren't here, and the ones that were here don't remember it. So just making some modifications, diving in again today, or this week, I figured I would bring this word to you. But kind of looking at my notes from a few years ago, and looking at the attacks of womanhood over the last few years, I mean, it totally amplified. dramatically. We live in a society that hates biblical womanhood, do we not? The world hates women like Hannah, as we read. They hate women who love, respect, and submit to their husbands. They hate even more women who deny themselves to be their husband's helpmate, They're children's nurturers, and they deny themselves to serve their God, our God, by managing and keeping the home. They hate women like this. And let me tell you, if you strive to be a woman like this, the world hates you. The world hates you because they hate God. They've made themselves, women have made themselves out to be their own God. A strong biblical woman who submits to her husband and raises her children in the home convicts the world. It convicts women. This is even more prevalent among so-called apostate churches. And this is a result of 100 years of feminism. Women seeking to have their own way, to live unto themselves, to live glorifying themselves, to be a law unto themselves, to live outside of the God-ordained authorities that he's given them. The feminist movement, which started 100 years ago, had seeds even before that. God hates. because it flips gender upside down. And this has infiltrated the church, unfortunately. And so there's a Christian flavor of feminism that has infiltrated the church. What are the results of feminism? Well, there's many of them, but two I want to point out. The first, a hatred of motherhood has turned to abortion on demand. Because motherhood isn't something that is celebrated, women, instead of seeking to celebrate the fruit of their womb, which God calls the ability to have kids, instead of that, they kill their kids. So we have abortion on demand. Instead of birthing kids, women kill them. Our birthing rates have skyrocketed downwards over the last 40 years. Last month, the CDC released 2024 data concerning births and birthing rates, and they're at an all-time low. There were 3.6 million births last year, which has been stagnant over the last few years. The fertility rate has dropped dramatically over the last 40 years, and the fertility rate now in our country is 1.6 births per woman. We're actually not birthing enough babies to replace our society. You need a 2.1 birth rate, births per women. I didn't write it down, but I saw the graph in front of me last night. And it was like back in the 50s. It was something like, I think it was five, no, it was like three to four, maybe five births per woman in our country. And that's dropped now to under two. So we don't even have enough. babies being born to replace our society. Abortions are still at about 1 million per year. These are reported number of abortions. The numbers slightly increased this last year, year over year. But here's the thing. That's reported number of abortions. It doesn't account for the increasing DIY at-home abortions. Those are not reported, and that's where the abortion industry is going. So if you think about, okay, it's 1 million, 1 million, 1 million, but over the last 3 years, the ability to order pills and have abortion inside the home up to 12 weeks, which is the majority of abortions, that has skyrocketed. It has gone through the roof. And we can't report on those, so we don't even know. So potentially, there are even thousands, if not millions, of more DIY at-home abortions. According to just the report of the reported number of abortions, 18% of all pregnancies end in prenatal homicide, end in murder. Again, that's not accounting for the DIY at-home abortions, which studies have looked at how many women are ordering these pills, because you can order them from in-state, out-of-country, they're flooding in-state, especially when you have more, you know, stricter bans, so to speak. So there's studies on how many, like, women are ordering these pills, and then they've done surveys to determine how many, what percentage of those pills ordered resulted in a successful baby murder, right? So there's studies to kind of at least give a general idea And it's in the thousands, if not millions. It's almost double the amount of reported abortions. So, potentially, you could have one-third, one out of every three image-bearers of God, conceived in the womb in America, are intentionally killed. 33%. And we wonder why God has judging our nation. The second result, and this is a result of feminism, it's a result of not looking to God's word or what it says about being a mother. The second result we're seeing really catapulted over the last couple years is our society is moving to an androgynous, androgynous society, which that word simply, friends, means that there's no gender. Male and female genders are being obliterated right before our eyes, which is quite amusing because it's like the opposite of feminism, right? Feminism is like women, women, women, women. Now they're like blurring the lines on what a woman is. Motherhood is no longer a thing to be celebrated. Anybody can be a mother. In fact, they aren't mothers, but they are people who give birth, birthing persons, like I mentioned. And this has affected the church more than we know, this idea of blurring the lines, that there's no genders. This is called androgyny, that there's no distinctions between male and female. But how many of you know that God makes very clear distinctions between male and female? And this cultural shift has infiltrated the church in more ways that we know. This is why, like the other night, we're in Romans 12, and we're reading verses 1 and 2, where it says, offer your body's living sacrifice, hold it acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Verse 2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We have to renew our mind with the Word of God because we don't even know how much the culture and how it's drifting is affecting our thoughts. And it has affected this idea of distinctions between male and female. This has affected the church way more than we know. And how do I know that? Well, if you think about, oftentimes, think about how you would react to something like, or how ladies in churches react to when things are said like, hey, we're going to have the men do this. Some women react, I can do that. Why can't I do that, right? It's natural for women to do that because the culture has affected us into thinking that there's no difference between male and female. All right. Why can't I do that? Well, if you flip it around and let's say, you know, we say, well, hey, let's leave the such and such to let's have the women do that. Right. Let's say it's something like decorating the church or fill in the blank, whatever. Like, OK, let's have women get together and do this. You don't see men say. I can do that. Why can't I go pick flowers and decorate the church? I'm better than that, right? So do you see, if we flip it on its side, it just crumbles. But that's the effect that the culture is having upon us. Yes, there are distinctions in the Bible that God gives us. And yes, there should be distinctive things that men go out and do. And yes, there should be distinctive things that women go out and do. It doesn't mean anybody's less than anybody else. Okay, because we're all equal in Christ, but God has made distinctions for men and women in the Bible. So even in the church, there's this blurring of the lines between the genders. But God not only gives those distinctions in the Bible, He exalts gender distinctions throughout the Word. And specifically for women, He exalts womanhood, and He exalts biblical motherhood all throughout the Bible. all throughout the Bible. This is the highest calling that a woman could have is motherhood. Now, not all women, God gives them the gift of being a mother, but motherhood should stand out as the highest calling for women. It should be encouraged. It should be celebrated. But even in Christian churches, you have abortions happening, you have birth control with most women in Christian churches, which, by the way, for the most part, most birth controls cause abortions, because there's two mechanisms of defense, prevention, but if prevention fails with birth control, it actually, as most of them have been proven to cause, early-term abortions, and many women don't even know that. Many Christian women don't know that, and when they find out, it breaks their heart because many Christian women who have been on birth control for years and years and years, unbeknownst to them, could have had multiple abortions and not even ever know about it. And even when they do know about it, because of the effects of the culture, they don't want to give that up because the fruit of the womb is not a reward to them. So God made, excuse me, so he exalts biblical motherhood. He uses godly mothers to accomplish his plan of redemption. Friends, this is important for us to understand. By his grace, he enables godly mothers to shape and mold the next generation for his glory. The petition from the Lord's Prayer, the second, thy kingdom come. God uses women and motherhood to shape and mold the next generation for God's kingdom to come. God made men to change the world from the top down. We call that icky word patriarchy. Everybody hates that word, but it's actually biblical, which simply means father's lead. God made men to lead the churches, to lead the nations, to lead institutions. God made men to lead the family. God made men to lead. So they changed the world from the top down. But guess what? God made mothers to change the world from the bottom up through biblical womanhood and biblical motherhood. So let's look at this wonderful example of Hannah. Now, I don't want to exalt Hannah. You don't want to ever exalt any characters in the Bible other than Jesus, right? God goes out of the way, as we're going to see, as godly as Hannah was, all by God's grace, we're going to see that God actually gives us some flaws in Hannah's life for us to learn from. So I don't wanna give a sermon that's just exalting Hannah and you go home and be like, I wanna be like Hannah, right? You wanna be like Christ. But God gives us these examples as a way to show us, to give us these marks of godliness and the flaws in all of these biblical characters. So to give you a little bit of background on where we are in 1 Samuel 1, we're in the time of judges, which is a very spiritually dark time in God's plan of redemption. There's around 350 years of this very dark time in God's historic plan. There were 14 judges, including Samuel, who was Hannah's son, right? Remember, Hannah had this son, Samuel. He was considered a judge, and then Eli was also a judge. But this time period, wickedness was rampant. Upon Joshua's death back in the beginning of Judges, Israel served the Lord during Joshua's life, but as soon as Joshua died, they turned to serve the Baals, Judges 2.11. You had idolatry, apostasy, you had moral corruptness. Even the spiritual leaders of the day, the priesthood was corrupt. The high priest's sons, Eli's sons, were corrupt. They were seducing women who served at the doorway of the temple. This is in chapter 2, verse 22. I mean, it was a sick time in the history. And it wasn't pagan nations that were doing this. It was God's church. It was the church doing all of this wickedness. And that's much like our society today. We see all this wicked immorality, not just out there. We see it in the church. We see wickedness in so-called churches, where you have people promoting abortion and all kind of depravity inside the so-called church. So Samson was the last judge. He's died. The last five chapters of Judges were miscellaneous accounts of the depravity of the nation. And it was summed up by the last verse of the Book of Judges, which we should all know this, right? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So then introducing 1 Samuel. This is a book of transition in God's plan of redemption. It goes from this time period of judges and 1 Samuel is like this hinge that just swings to the time of monarchy. So we're going from judges to kings. And it's all hinged by the life of Hannah. This is an important transition in God's plan of redemption. God is restoring his nation. He's establishing the Davidic line to bring forth the Messiah, the ultimate and high king. And Hannah here is a portrait of biblical womanhood, a godly wife and a godly mother. Again, I don't wish to exalt her, but to use this as an example for us and for the women to understand what it means to be a godly woman, a godly wife, and a godly mother. In this spiritual backdrop, in this darkness, right, we have Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. So here we have Elkanah getting married to two wives. That's his first problem. Men, don't do that. But you have to just look past the cultural norms. This was cultural. And if you read the text, it says that he was married to Hannah and then Penina. So generally, the one listed first is usually the one that got married first. So then we learned that Hannah's barren. So presumably, Elkanah gets married to Hannah. She's barren, can't have children. So then he gets married to his second wife, Penina. And presumably because she's barren and to have children. And it says that Hannah was provoked by Peninnah, her rival. This means adversary. Year after year, it says in verse 6 and 7, she would be provoked by Peninnah, and the Lord had closed her womb. Now Elkanah loved Hannah. Verse 5, it says that after Elkanah gave Peninnah and her sons and daughters portions, he would give Hannah a double portion. It says he loved her. Now, he took care of his other wife, and he's not showing partiality here, like why is he favoring Hannah? In that culture, giving a double portion was a sense of honor, giving just honor to Hannah, his first wife. This story seems rather familiar, doesn't it? We have barrenness throughout the Old Testament. You have Sarah, the barrenness of Sarah. You have the barrenness of Rachel. So imagine just a moment the tension and the strife within the house with the two wives, one provoking the other, the other one barren. You had a lot going on here, but in the midst of this, we see some distinguishing marks in Hannah that I want to point out to you. And the first one about godly mothers is this. Godly mothers love their husbands. Godly mothers love their husbands. I pray that if you are married here and you're a woman, you want to love your husband and you want to be godly. Well, that's the first and foremost thing is that Hannah loved her husband. Look at verse 3 through 7. It says, now the man would go up from his city, this is Elkanah, yearly to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of Host and Shiloh. They didn't have the temple. Shiloh was the meeting place where they would offer sacrifices. And the two sons of Eli and Hophni and Phinehas were priests to Yahweh there. And the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, and he would give portions to Peninnah's wife and all her sons and her daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah. But Yahweh closed her womb. Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because Yahweh had closed her womb. And it so happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh. Stop there. She was not required to go up. Elkanah, the men, were required to go up three times a year to offer sacrifices to the Lord. But guess who always went with him? Hannah. Hannah loved her husband. It's very evident. We're gonna get to later where he loves that she takes comfort in his words. But the point here that I wanted to make in that verse was that they worshipped together. And they were always together. She loved him dearly. Although the family wasn't perfect, she didn't have kids, there were two wives, there was obviously some strife going on, but she was not bitter towards him, she loved him. And a love that a godly mother has for her husband has a tremendous impact on her children. And this undoubtedly had a tremendous impact on Samuel, which Hannah would soon birth, and would have an impact more and will have an impact more on our children than we realize. Ladies, you have a tremendous impact to your children with how you love or not love your husband. John MacArthur wrote this about Hannah. He said, quote, Hannah's love for her husband is the first key to understanding her profound influence as a mother. Contrary to popular opinion, the most important characteristic of a godly mother is not her relationship with her children. It is her love for her husband. The love between husband and wife is the real key to a thriving family. A healthy home environment cannot be exclusively on the parents' love for the children, cannot be built exclusively on the love for the children. The properly situated family has marriage at the center. Families should not revolve around the children. Furthermore, all parents need to heed this lesson. When you communicate to your children, he says, through your marital relationship, we'll stay with them for the rest of their lives. By watching how mother and father treat one another, they will learn the most fundamental lessons of life, love, self-sacrifice, integrity, virtue, sin, sympathy, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. He ends by saying, whatever you teach them about those things, right or wrong, is planted deep in their hearts. Hannah loved her husband. And in the midst of this, we see a flaw in Hannah's disposition, in her spirit. And we see how she loves her husband enough to receive his correction. Look at verse 8. We see Hannah's discontent. And again, God is careful on all of these biblical characters. He's so very careful to show their flaws so that we realize that we're not to idolize and exalt these people. They're just people. They had extra, they had grace that God, they needed to do these things. And this is by God's grace alone. But look at verse eight. You see, she's barren, she's weeping, she's getting provoked by Panina. And it says in verse eight, then Elkanah, excuse me, look at verse seven first. It says, as often, year after year, as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, she, Panina, would provoke her. So she wept, and she would not eat. She was so distressed, she was, like, down in the pits, right? And she was in despair, she would not eat, she would be weeping, and look what Elkina says. Now, some people read this with the lens of cultural feminism, like, wow, how, how, um, insensitive Elkanah is. Look at what he says in verse 8. Elkanah said to her, Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons? So again, if we have the wrong cultural lens, we would say, wow, Elkana is very insensitive there. But you were bringing our culture into their culture. Here you have Elkana giving his wife an exhortation, if not a correction, when he says, why are you weeping? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Now in verse eight, where it says, why is your heart sad? That word in the Hebrew actually could be translated like a bad heart or even an evil heart. So he asked, why is your heart sad? Hannah in her bareness, at this point, had moved past the point of yearning for a child. Now she's in a bad state of discontentment. And Elkin is encouraging her by saying, am I not better to you than ten sons? There is an actual sweetness. If we get our cultural thinking out of it, there's an actual sweetness of the relationship. How do we know this? Because Hannah receives this love, receives this correction, receives the love from her husband, and she gets up. Look at verse 9. Alkin is asking her, why are you weeping? Why are you not eating? Am I not better than ten sons? And look how she responds in verse 9. Then Hannah rose. That's the idea. She's getting herself up. And what did she do? It says, after eating and drinking in Shiloh. She's not eating. She's in despair. And Elkanah comes and encourages her and exhorts her. And now she's eating. She wasn't eating. She was weeping. She was down. Now she rises up and she eats. This is a wonderful point that God gives us about how Hannah shows her love in receiving, being open to receive her husband's encouragement, her husband's exhortation. And we see the results that she gets up and she eats. This gives us the point, wives, women, that we ought to receive or you ought to receive your husband's correction with gladness. You ought to receive your husband's encouragement. You ought to be open and have an open heart to hear your husband's teaching and encouragement and know by doing so you are honoring Christ. So ladies, how do you receive your husband's counsel, your husband's exhortation, or is your heart so closed off to your husband that even if he hints at any type of exhortation or God forbid, any type of correction, you close your heart and you get offended? You know, I've noticed in many Christian homes, and I'm not talking about anybody here, In many Christian homes, women have no issue telling their husbands what to do. They have no issues with correcting their husbands on telling them how they should do something and how they messed up and you need to do it this way, whether it's work related, children related, whatever related. I've noticed that many wives have no problem correcting their husband, but on the flip side, Any time the husband ever hints of correction, they get offended, or they will never receive correction. So it's really good sometimes. The Bible says, treat others how you want to be treated. Jesus says that. So ladies, oftentimes it's good to put the shoe on the other foot. And how you speak to your husband, and how you maybe correct him or ask him to do things, just flip the shoe on the other foot. And think about if your husband talked to you in the way that you talked to him. How would you react? Because I know in many cases, there would be a lot of offended ladies. So just think about that a moment. Are you open to hearing your husband's exhortation? Are you open to hearing your husband's correction? The Bible gives the husbands the duty to wash our wives with the water of the word. So if your husband came to you in a loving manner like Elkanah does here in a loving manner and says, I noticed this in your life, I'm really concerned that I see this in your life. Are you open to receiving that exhortation from your husbands? Now, husbands, this gives you the great duty as well to be a loving wife and to lead by example and to not show hypocrisy in your lovingness and correcting or exhorting your wife. Now notice that Hannah also, after eating and drinking, we're gonna see later that Hannah comes at peace with her discontent of not having children. And this is a good example for us as well, and for ladies, if the Lord has closed your womb, or if you are a lady yearning for a husband and children, but God has not given you that, has your discontent turned into bitterness? That's where Hannah's flaw was going. She wanted, her yearning turned into bitterness and an, oh, woe is me. Hannah knew that the Lord was in control, even of her womb, and she needed to be reminded by her husband, look how much I've loved you and take care of you. Am I not better than 10 sons? So Hannah loved her husband, and that's the first mark of a godly mother is that they love their husbands. The second mark is that godly mothers pray. Godly mothers pray it says in verse 10. Look at the text Hannah wept before the Lord It says she bitter of soul prayed and now that's not bitter in the bad context there But she's bitter of soul prayed to Yahweh and wept despondently She poured her heart out to the Lord. Now, I thought about this, and I thought it was an interesting contrast to Rachel. Do you remember when Rachel was barren? She couldn't have kids. Remember, her sisters were having kids, and then sister's maidservant, her maidservant. Everyone was having kids but her. What did she do? Did she pour her heart out to God? Y'all remember? No, she went to her husband. and said, give me children else I die. In other words, it's your fault. Give me children. And what was his response? Am I in the place of God? Like, you're gonna have to take that up with God, right? Obviously, someone's getting pregnant. You're gonna have to take that up with the Lord. But she comes to the husband, doesn't pour her heart out to the Lord, comes to the husband and demands that he does something. So to her, it was his fault. Does this describe your attitude, ladies, when things aren't going right in your life, in your family, with your kids, right? So we see this contrast. Hannah has this yearning to have children, and instead of going to her husband, blaming him, she goes to the Lord and pours her heart out to the Lord. Which describes you? Do you constantly go to your husband to complain or insinuating the things that are his fault? Now listen, I'm not saying men are perfect, right? Sometimes it is our fault, right? But does that describe you that there's a constant going to your husband to complain and always, does he feel like everything is always his fault? That is what is called a contentious and vexing woman. And we know what Proverbs says about that. It's better to live in a dry land than with a contentious and vexing woman. An excellent wife is a crown to her husband. Praise God, Proverbs 12, 4. But she who causes shame is like rottenness in the bones." By constantly going to your husband, directly or indirectly, insinuating that everything is his fault with whatever's going on. Again, I'm not saying it may not be his fault. So men, don't, that's not your out, okay? Because some things are your fault. But do you constantly go to your husband then you are like that constant driven causing shame in the rottenness of? His bones don't be like that God gives us this example in contrast with Rachel go to the Lord pour yourself out to the Lord That doesn't mean that you can't go to your husband and voice concerns. That's not what we're saying at all But I think we kind of know the difference, right? Hannah understood the Lord's sovereignty and she took her heart to the Lord, the one who is in control. And then in verse 12, look, it says that Hannah continued praying before the Lord. Godly mothers pray, they pray. And the word there continued actually means multiplied. She was multiplying her prayers. Now to show how spiritually dark that time was when Eli saw Hannah praying, that was like foreign to them back then because nobody was really praying to Yahweh. So what was his reaction? He thought she was drunk. And it just shows you the spiritual darkness and God places Hannah as this godly mother with the spiritual backdrop of the time and to show us that godly mothers pray. And I think there's a side principle here. What was she weeping and praying for? A physical son, the birth of a physical son. I'm often convicted that I don't pray in such a way that Hannah does for a physical son for my children who are already born for them to be saved. How much more should we weep? for a second birth for our children, which we know the Lord must do. So it says she started weeping bitterly, verse 10, and by the end of it, it turned to peace. She poured herself out to the Lord. You see this example all throughout the Psalms, David in distress, Enemies are chasing him. He's near the point of death. He pours himself out to the Lord in distress He calls upon the name of the Lord and then by the end of the psalm you see this pattern that he then he's trusting the Lord and at the end he gives Yahweh praise and he's at peace with the situation and this is what we see look at verse 18 After Eli answers her and says, go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition, she said, let your servant woman find favor in your sight. So the woman went away and ate, and her face was no longer sad. She knew. She knew that the Lord was in control. She showed her faith to trust in the Lord's sovereign hand, and she was at peace with the situation. God, or excuse me, godly mothers, pray thirdly godly mothers praise godly mothers praise look at chapter two i'm not going to read the whole thing but the first 10 verses we have hannah praying to the lord but this prayer is a prayer of praise unto yahweh for god answering her prayer by giving her samuel Hannah's prayer of praise is a wonderful model on how we ought to praise the Lord, but what this shows us is that in the heart of Hannah was praise unto Yahweh. Hannah acknowledges in this wonderful prayer of praise, Hannah acknowledges the Lord's salvation in verse 1. She acknowledges the Lord's holiness in verse two. Indeed, there's none beside you, she says. She acknowledges the Lord's omniscience in verse three. For Yahweh is the God of knowledge. She acknowledges the God's power in verse five. Verse 10, excuse me, verse five through 10, she acknowledges how sovereign and in control God is. And in verse 10, she acknowledges God's righteous judgment. She says, God, Yahweh, will render justice to the ends of the earth. And then she acknowledges the Messiah that is to come in verse 10, and he will give strength to his king, and he will exalt the horn of the anointed. The major theme of this prayer of praise is about how God humbles the proud and exalts the humble. And this is the whole theme of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, that God, he humbles those who lift themselves up. He humbled the Israelites for treating the ark as a superstitious idol, if you recall, after a lost battle with the Philistines. He humbles the Philistines who then stole the ark Then he humbled Eli and Eli's sons, who exalted themselves in their evil acts. He even humbles Peninnah. He humbles Goliath. He humbles later Saul, and he later humbles David. Hannah's heart of praise, again, would have a tremendous impact on young Samuel. A mother's praise unto Yahweh has a tremendous impact upon their children. When the children see that the mother, no matter what's going on, no matter what the situation is, still has a heart of praise, even in the midst of hard times. So moms, Ladies, do you praise? Does your heart sing and pour out praise and thanksgiving to Yahweh, to God? What would it look like if I was a fly in the wall of your home? How would you go about your day? Is there praise that comes out of your heart? Is your home a home of praise, thanksgiving, love, or strife, complaining? How will your children remember you? There's no doubt that Samuel remembered his mother as a mother who had a heart of praise and thanksgiving. So godly mothers praise Yahweh. Lastly, godly mothers nurture, protect, and train their children in the Lord. Godly mothers nurture, protect, and train their children in the Lord. This is the ultimate calling of a mother for her children. God gave mothers to be the nurturer and to train them, even especially at a young, young age. We see this with Hannah. Even before Samuel was born, she gives a vow to God that Samuel, if you would give me a son, I will give him basically the Nazarite vows, what she's saying, that no razor would touch his head. So she's dedicating Samuel to the Lord even before Samuel was born. And then we see physical protection. This is also a mother's duty, that the mothers protect them physically. In verse 22, when Hannah did not go up, she was still nursing Samuel. She did not go up this time with her husband. She said, I will not go until the boy is weaned. Because remember, the death rate was very high back then. And she wanted to protect him. And she didn't go up to make that trip. Instead, she stayed home to protect and to nurture Samuel. And Elkanah trusts the heart of his wife, says, do what is good in your eyes. Stay here until he is weaned. Now, nursing usually lasted back then around three years old, generally anywhere between 18 months, sometimes up to five years. So here we see Hannah nurturing, protecting, and training Samuel in the Lord. Look at verse 27. She says, for this young boy I prayed, and Yahweh has given me my petition of which I asked for. So here, he's referenced as a boy. So he's growing. And he's dedicating him to Yahweh as long as he lives in verse 28. She then gives him to the dedication of the Lord. And it says that he worshiped, look at verse 28, he worshiped Yahweh there. Why do I bring that up? Because it wasn't like she had the baby and dumped him off at the temple, okay? He was probably at least three years old. And they didn't live too far away. They lived probably about 20 miles away. And it says that they would constantly go up and visit him. And so, She dedicates him to the service at Shiloh, where the Lord's service would be done. And it says he worshipped there. Now, verse 28, who's the he? That's Samuel. It's probably referring to Samuel. So what does this tell us? Samuel is a little boy, and he's being trained to worship Yahweh. And this was probably some sort of prayer. Hannah probably taught him how to say some sort of prayer. And he's a three-year-old. Why do I bring this up? Because this is the mother training him at a very early age to worship Yahweh. And we see the fruits of that with Samuel as he grows up and as he serves the Lord. So there's spiritual nurturing and training. Look at, let's look at. Oh, sorry, yeah, we see the fruit of Samuel when the author contrasts Samuel with Eli's sons who were wicked and evil. So Hannah and Elkanah didn't drop off Samuel to never see him again. They visited him three times a year. In chapter 2, verse 19, it says that they would visit often. As I mentioned, they were only a two to three day journey, about 20 miles away. So what I wanted to underscore here is that Hannah made a huge impact upon Samuel during the first three to five years of his life, and continued to make an impact during her visits. So think about this, ladies. If you only had three, four, five years for your child before they were going to go live in the temple service and serve God under the care and supervision of the spiritual leaders, how would you train and nurture your children? If you only had three, four, five years, would we do some things different? Probably, right? Now, some people might say, hey, it's only three years. How could she have made such an impact on Samuel in just those three years? Well, have you ever met a three-year-old who was raised in their own way with no discipline? Ever met a three-year-old who never had training, love, nurturing? It's pretty bad. Amen? Proverbs 22, 6 says, train up a child in the way he should go, which could also mean train a child up in his own way, meaning let him go his own way. Give him what he wants. It says when he's old, he will not depart from it. Meaning, you give him what he wants, let him go, and when he's old, he's gonna remain that way. So Hannah spent much time nurturing and spiritually discipling Samuel at a very young age. There's a thought in modern day Christianity that you don't make your kids do spiritual things until they get older and want to do that. Have you ever heard that from someone? I don't want to make my kid read the Bible. I want them to want to read the Bible. I don't want to make my kid do this spiritual act of service. I want them to really want to do that. I used to hear that all the time, and it is a lie. It is a lie from hell is what it is. We don't treat kids that way with other things. Like if a kid needs to brush their teeth, we don't say, I don't want to make my kid brush their teeth. I want them to want to brush their teeth. We don't do that. They need to brush their teeth. We teach them to do it. And then when they get older, they see the effects from it, so they keep brushing their teeth. Same thing with spiritual worship. We shouldn't wait till our children get older to make them. at a young age, learn to read, learn to read the Bible, pray, do all these spiritual disciplines. Hannah was doing that with Samuel at a very early age. Hannah made a huge impact on Samuel during his first three years of his life. And Samuel didn't come to know the Lord until he was probably a teenager. Over in chapter 3, verse 7, it says, Now Samuel did not yet know Yahweh. So again, mothers ought to have their children in the Lord's service before their conversion. And that's what Hannah was doing with Samuel, had him early serving the Lord and not buying into the idea of waiting until they're generally interested. And we think about like Timothy. Remember what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 verse 15, and that from childhood, you have known the sacred writings. which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That literally means you've known the scriptures from your infancy, and that's before Timothy was converted, but you've known you were taught the sacred writings. In Jewish culture, children would know big, they would memorize big portions of scripture at a very early age. I'm talking about like chapters upon chapters. They would have these scriptures memorized at a very early age. And that's why Timothy had his mother and grandmother to do that, so that when he grows up, he would have the knowledge and wisdom that would lead to salvation. God used Hannah, a godly mother who loved her husband, who prayed and who praised Yahweh to raise a boy who would change the world. And that's where I want to end where I started. God uses mothers to change the world from the bottom up. And God used Hannah to change the world through Samuel. Just a few highlights of Samuel's life. God used Samuel to usher in and to anoint David as king. Samuel was perhaps one of the most influential Old Testament. Well, he was a judge, but he was also a prophet and he was a priest. He was one of the most influential. We're told in 1 Samuel chapter 25 that when Samuel died, it says all Israel gathered to lament his death. And no doubt, much of this was due to a godly mother who prayed, a godly mother who loved her husband, and a godly mother who had praise in her heart for Yahweh. In conclusion, God uses godly mothers in his plan of redemption. And moms, he has showed grace to you by exalting you to the greatest role a woman could have, which is a redeemed wife and mother. Walk confidently in that. God will use you and other godly mothers to bring revival to our nations. But to do that, he first has to bring revival to motherhood and fatherhood. And to paraphrase John MacArthur, Mothers don't need to be presidents to change the world. They don't need to be legislators to change the world. They don't need to be corporate CEOs to change the world. They don't need to be church pastors to change the world. Nor do they need to spend all their time building themselves up as a social media influencer. No, to change the world, mothers need to learn to be godly mothers who love their husbands, who pray to praise, and who nurture and train their children in the Lord. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you. that your word is true, and God, that the attacks on womanhood in our culture, Father, help us to identify them, help us to see them for what they are. Father, help us to conform our lives into the biblical examples of motherhood and fatherhood, manhood and womanhood. Father, I thank you for your great mercy and grace that you've given upon us. I thank you, Lord, for all of the women here and all of the mothers that you've blessed this church with who seek to be godly. Help us, Lord, and Lord, help us as husbands, God, to be the leader and nurturer of our wives, to lead them with love as Christ loved the church. And Jesus said,