(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The part of chapter I wanted to focus on was there in verse 11, where the Bible reads, And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And the title of my sermon tonight is Raising a Samuel. Raising a Samuel. Now this sermon is going to admittedly be focused more on mothers, on women, on the importance of a mother. And we see that this is so important when it comes to the focus of raising a child because in reality, the mom spends more time raising the child than the dad does. That's just pretty much a fact if you're going to follow the biblical role, if you're going to do what God said and she's going to be a keeper at home and she's going to be raising the children. We see that the mother's influence on the children is the most important because they're spending the most time with them. I mean they're the person that's raising the child, they're going to be the ones instructing them, teaching them. I mean if you ask my wife right now, because she's about 34 weeks pregnant, which one of us has contributed the most to this child? I think it's pretty obvious. I think it's pretty obvious that she's the one that's doing all the hard work. She's the one that has to, you know, be pregnant and be uncomfortable and grow the child and raise it and give birth to it and then she has to feed it and nourish it and take care of it every single day. I mean she doesn't get a break from the children. She doesn't get to just go off. No, the kids are with her all the time, night and day. So we see this is a sermon that's going to be focused on the women because it's just practical that the women are going to be the ones that are raising the children. But I think this can be applicable to all of us. It can give us the importance of the mother and the role that she has and how we can encourage women. It can give us an understanding of what the Bible teaches about raising a Samuel. Go to verse five if you would. We're going to see that Hannah, she had a lot of determination and resolve as a mother. She was not this weak woman. She was a very strong woman. We're going to see, I have six reasons that we can see that she was determined and resolved in the first part of this sermon. If we look at verse five it says, But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion for a loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. So we're introduced to a character named Hannah and this woman, she doesn't have a child. She's been barren for a while. She wants a child, but it says very clearly that the Lord had shut her womb. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Keep your finger here because we're going to constantly be looking at 1st Samuel. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. The Bible makes it clear that God is the one that opens and closes the womb. And this is very important that we see that just because she wasn't having a child, she didn't let that discourage her because she knew that God's the one in control of this situation. God's the one in control of giving children and taking children or opening the womb or closing the womb. God's the one that's in control. I'm going to read for you a couple of verses. It says in Genesis 29 verse 31, And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So we see God is the one that opened the womb. In Genesis 30 22 it says, And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. So in the case of Leah and Rachel's sisters, God opened the womb for both of them because it's God that's in control of childbearing. In Psalms 127, I'll read for you one other verse, in verse 3 it says, Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. So God's the one giving the reward of children. Look here in Ecclesiastes 11 verse 5, it says, And thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. Even so, thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. God is the one who makes all. God's the one who opens and closes the womb. God's the one in control. And we see Hannah knew that. She knew that it was the Lord that is the one that opens and closes the womb. So even though she wasn't having a child, she was still trusting in the Lord that that was his will. That that was what God was wanting for her. That she was going to not be discouraged by the fact that she wasn't having a child because God knew that. God's in control of this situation. So she wasn't getting down and she wasn't getting discouraged. And I think this is one of the hardest things for a woman, a woman who wouldn't be having a child or would be barren for a long period of time that's desiring a child. I can't really, you know, completely empathize because I'm not a woman. But I can imagine this being a very difficult situation because God has created women to desire to have children, to desire to have fruit, to desire to produce. And if she can't have that child, if she's going out with a long time, I can see how it'd be very grieving. It could be very, uh, a big struggle. We see that Hannah, even though she knew that it was the Lord, it didn't discourage her. So go to verse 6 here in 1 Samuel, go back to 1 Samuel, and we're going to look. So the first thing is, maybe bad things happen in our life and God's in control of that situation. And we shouldn't just get discouraged just because something bad or negative is happening to us. If we're fulfilling God's will, if we're following His commandments, then we should just realize that and trust God that maybe He's going to use this for a reason, for a purpose. That we can just trust in Him no matter what the situation is. Look at verse 6, it says, and her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as He did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. So then verse 7 is saying He did so year by year, saying that her husband Elkanah, he went up year and year to the Lord, to worship the Lord. And as he would go up, he's taking his wives with him. He had two wives, Benaiah and Hannah. And Benaiah had children. And Benaiah, she was, I don't know what she was saying, but she was giving a lot of grief on Hannah that she didn't have a child, that she was barren. She was provoking her sore. I mean this just sounds like a great affliction, making her fret. And it says the Lord is the one that shut up her womb, but we see that her adversary, this other woman, is just constantly provoking her sore, making her fret. Look, it's not good to have multiple wives. The Bible makes it clear, you don't want these two women, they're going to be pitted against each other. It calls her adversary. And I can't even imagine having two wives, I mean they're going to basically be enemies. They're going to be angry with one another, whenever one gets something better, or they get to spend more time with the husband, look, she's pointing at the other one and making fun of her, or she's giving her grief, or giving her conflict. The Bible makes it clear, one husband and one wife is what God desired for him. And if you have multiple wives, it sounds like a treacherous situation, where they're constantly adversaries, provoking one another. Go to Genesis chapter 16, if you will. But we see that in Hannah's affliction, because this is an affliction, I mean, to not only the fact that you're not having children, the fact that God's withholding you, you also have somebody in your life that you're constantly seeing, that's constantly, you know, giving you a hard time about it, constantly provoking you, constantly making fun of you, or putting you down. Maybe she was saying, well, you must not be very godly, because God's not giving you a child. I mean, who knows what she was saying? But she's probably said all manner of evil. And we see this against a lot of godly women today, people will provoke you. If you live godly, if you want to follow God's model, if you want to trust in the Lord, people are going to provoke you. People are going to afflict you. Look at Genesis 16, we're going to look at another lady who was provoked. Look at verse 5, it says, And Sarah, I said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I had given my maid and my bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand, due to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarah dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself unto her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. It's kind of interesting. Again, we see this kind of a multiple life situation, and guess what, they're enemies. Shocker, because women, you know, that's not something they want to share. Men don't want to share a wife just as much as women don't want to share a husband. But it's interesting in the same situation, she was being provoked by her mistress Sarai. She was being provoked, and then it says the Lord had heard her out of her affliction. Out of the affliction, out of her suffering, out of her provoking, God heard her cry and blessed her with a child. So we see with Sarah, we see with Hannah, maybe she had this story and remembered. She was thinking, well out of the affliction, God heard Hagar's affliction, heard her prayer and her affliction, so maybe he'll give me a try. Go to Psalms 22. The Bible makes it clear when we're suffering affliction, when we're suffering persecution, when we're being provoked by our enemies, God wants to hear your prayer. God wants you to call upon him and ask for the deliverance, ask for him to save you. In Exodus chapter 3 verse 7, it says, and the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. We see God, he's hearing the cry of people suffering and he wants to save them. We see in Genesis 19 when it talks about Sodom, he heard the cry of the city. He went to go see what was happening in that city. In Deuteronomy 26-7 the Bible says, and when we cried in the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and on our labor and on our oppression. God doesn't, you know, just turn a blind eye to affliction. God doesn't turn a blind eye to somebody provoking you sore, to making fun of you or you going through some type of suffering or people persecuting you. God hears it and he wants you to cry upon him and ask him for help and he'll help you. Look at Psalms 22. Look at verse 22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, and in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him and fear him. All ye the seed of Israel, for ye have not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither have ye hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard, my praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. So see this person being afflicted, and he says in verse 24, he's not going to abhor the affliction of the afflicted. He doesn't look down on people that are being afflicted. No, he wants to hear their cry. He wants to hear them ask for salvation. He wants them to call upon him and to trust on the Lord so he can show his strength. God's a savior by nature. He wants to save people. So when you're going through affliction, when you're going through suffering, God wants you to call upon his name. He wants you to ask for that help, for that deliverance, for you to just be trusting in him and for him to show himself mighty on your behalf. He wants to help you. And we notice in context of this, the persons, they're constantly praising the Lord. They're constantly going, they're going to church, they're praising God, and then they're crying out and saying, please help me, please save me, and God hears their prayers. Even in affliction, even in suffering, we should have the attitude that we can still praise the Lord, that we can still give honor and glory and praise unto him, and then we ask for his help. He's ready. He's wanting to save you. He's wanting to help you. Go to, flip over just a couple of chapters, Psalm 34, I want to look at one other place. I'll read for you from Hebrews 11, it says, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming their approach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect on the recompense of the reward. If you decide that you want to live Godly, if you decide you want to follow the Biblical model, especially as a mother, especially as a woman in America today, you're going to suffer affliction. You're going to suffer people persecuting you, provoking you, calling you, you know, wicked types of beings, being against you. But we see that, you know, Moses, he chose rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He counted the cost. He said, you know what? I would rather obey God than to just enjoy my life now, to go out and enjoy it with all the other heathen women of this world and to just follow their example. I'd rather follow God's example knowing that I'm going to suffer affliction because I know God's going to give me a great war. I know that it's going to be for my benefit. I know that it's going to be for the better of my child. We see that Hannah, you know, maybe from Moses' perspective, he wasn't necessarily thinking of his future children, but when Hannah, she knew that she was going to go through this affliction for her child. She wanted to go through anything to get a child. And we're going to see some more examples, but I heard you turn to Psalms 34. Look at verse 17. It says, the righteous cry and the Lord heareth and deliver them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and say this such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord deliver him out of all of them. Wow. What a powerful promise of God. He says, look, you're going to have a lot of afflictions if you're righteous, if you're doing the right thing, if you're being a godly mother, if you're raising your children, if you're following God's rules, if you're dressing like a godly woman, if you're acting like a godly woman, if you're reading your Bible, if you're following God's word, if you're going to church three times a week, if you're teaching your children at home, if you're following God's examples, you're going to suffer affliction. I mean, it's just guaranteed. But look, God wants to deliver you out of all the afflictions, all the sufferings, all the persecutions. He can deliver you. His grace is sufficient for you. Go back to First Samuel, if you will. We see that Hannah, she was determined to have a child, even though she knew the Lord had already shut up her womb. Even though her adversary was provoking her and causing great affliction and great, you know, distress upon her, she's still determined she wants to have this child. Go to verse 8 and First Samuel. It says, Then said Elkanah, her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? And not I better to thee than ten sons? So we see, not only is the Lord shutting up her womb, not only is her adversary provoking her, but her husband's not even sympathetic. I mean, he's just like, what are you crying about? I mean, aren't I better than ten sons? I mean, this guy's not sympathetic. He's not, he's not trying to level his wife. This isn't a fair comparison. It's a stupid comparison. No woman has to choose between having a husband or ten sons. That's not a realistic scenario. That's not something that a wife's having to choose between. And we see that her husband, he's not even being sympathetic. And I think a lot of times, maybe it's difficult for a man just in his natural flesh to be real sympathetic about a woman's, you know, feelings and emotions, especially around children, especially if she was barren for a long time. He's not going to know how to handle that situation, maybe in a lot of times, especially if he's not real godly. But we see that the spouse is not more important, that it just means that you don't care for children. Hannah cared to have children. It's not like just because your spouse isn't more important than children, that you can't have a great desire to have them, and if you didn't have them, it would make you sad. Because honestly, yeah, I agree. My wife is more important to me than my children are. But that doesn't mean that I don't have great love and affection and want children and want to raise them and be with them. That's just a dumb comparison. Go to Job chapter 2, if you will. But we see in marriage, you know, sometimes your spouse is not always going to act right. Sometimes your spouse is not always going to have the right attitude. They're not always going to give you the most encouraging comfort. They might not even say the right thing. They might say things that make it worse. I mean, that's just marriage. If you've been married, your spouse is sometimes going to say things that make the situation worse. In Psalms 146, the Bible says, put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. Now God is saying, look, when you're in affliction, when you're in suffering, he wants you to go to him. Now obviously we can have great friendship with our spouse. Our spouse can lift us up. Two are better than one. We should find, you know, a lot of enjoyment with our spouse. But ultimately we shouldn't put our final trust in our spouse. If we need to have our spirits lifted, we need to put that in the Lord. That's why it said, I'll read you one other place in Micah 7, it said, trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lie in thy bosom. For the son dishonored the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house, therefore I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. Ultimately we should get all of our fulfillment and joy from God because he'll never let us down, no matter what a spouse could do. Now I pray that everybody would have a godly spouse that loves them and cares for them and wouldn't forsake them, but in the world that we live today, that's not the case for a lot of people. And if you put all your trust in man, they're going to disappoint you eventually. They're going to disappoint you, they're going to say something that upsets you, they're not always going to be sympathetic, they're not always going to see everything from your perspective. Look at Job chapter 2 verse 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a poacher to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain that integrity? Curse God and die! But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips. So we see kind of a contrary situation where the husband's going through the greatest suffering, the husband's going through the greatest affliction, and is the wife there to just comfort him and say it's going to be all right? No, she's like, Curse God and die! I mean, they're just having a fight, I mean, it's just a plain fight. We see that the spouse can sometimes be against you, they can say the wrong thing. They have emotions, they're people, they're not perfect. Sometimes their emotions are going to get the better of them. And so we should get our final encouragement and comfort from the Lord. And it's just a bonus point. Look at verse 10 at the end of this, it says, And all this did not Job sin with his lips. Notice that Job rebuked her. He said, you're speaking as a foolish woman, and it said he didn't sin. So yeah, if your spouse is out of line, if you corrected him as the husband corrected the wife, he didn't sin in rebuking his wife. That's just a little bonus point there for you. Go to Matthew chapter 5. Even in a family member that's really close, if they're speaking against God's word, if they're saying something wrong, we need to correct them. We shouldn't just silence his agreement. We see a lot of examples, though, of the husband and wife having problems, of them not always being the perfect comforter. In Exodus chapter 4, I'll read for you, it says, Then Zephora took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. You see, man, they didn't have the best marriage ever. We read at one point, Moses' father-in-law brings his wife back to him. I mean, so for a while they weren't even hanging out with each other. I don't know why exactly, but not everybody just has a picture-perfect marriage where the spouse is just always saying the right thing and always doing the best thing. Now, as a spouse, you should always strive to treat them the best that you possibly can. Always be loving, always be comforting, but just as a reality, that's not always going to be the case. I heard you turn in Matthew 5, look at verse 33, says again, Ye have heard that have been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord, thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. So I just wanted to make this point clear at the beginning that in the New Testament we're not even supposed to swear at all. But let's go back to 1 Samuel chapter 1. We see it said in the old time, you know, if you do make an oath, if you were to make a vow unto God, the Bible says you're supposed to keep it, that you're supposed to honor your word. But in the New Testament, Jesus Christ said, just don't even swear at all. It's better just to never make an oath or make a vow or make a swear. But we're going to get a glimpse in here when Hannah did make a vow. In 1 Samuel 1, look at verse 10, it says, And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a manchild, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. So you see, even though the Lord shut up her womb, even though her adversary is provoking her sword, even though her husband's not sympathetic, she's still going to the Lord and she's making a petition for it, right? She's determined to have this child. She's strong. She has great resolve. She wants this child. She's praying unto the Lord. She's making a vow, which is a serious thing. This is a very big thing. Now, obviously, in the New Testament, Jesus said that we shouldn't be making vows. But even if you did, even in the New Testament, you're supposed to honor that vow. You're supposed to keep that vow if you make it, just like the vow of marriage. We still, you know, get married, it's till death do us part. It's not to have any other exception. I mean, the Bible makes the exception for fornication, but that's never the case for anybody in the world that we live in today. Go to, look at verse 14. So we see that there's been basically three things that have really kind of tripped her up possibly, but she hasn't let them yet. Look at verse 14, and Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. Now it's interesting because when she prayed, she just prayed kind of privately unto the Lord. So now she has another temptation where the prophet comes under and he's accusing her of being a drunk. Now as I was thinking about this, a lot of times women, you know, just tend more than men to be easily offended. Easily be offended by somebody saying something to them or maybe attacking them. I was trying to think of some examples about this, but what if you were to, you know, just come up to a woman and say, well, are you going to really eat all that food on the plate? I mean, a lot of times women might have a tendency to take that the wrong way. You know, you could have met something very, you know, harmless or innocent by that, but now she's going to be offended by it. What if you said, you know, you walked up to a woman and you said, oh, when are you due? And she's not even pregnant. Let me tell you a secret, man. Never ever, ever ask a woman when she's pregnant. Don't comment on her, on her size. Don't comment on her body. Just because a woman got pregnant doesn't mean you can start talking about how, how big she is or her, her body or weight. That's just a foolish thing to do. A mature man will never ask. Just never ask. Just don't ever make that mistake to say, hey, you look really big. Oh man, you look like you're about to pop. He's like, yeah, I've been pregnant for a couple of months and it's like, oh wow, I thought you were going to pop tomorrow. And we see a lot of times this can tend for women to get kind of offended, get really upset. And I mean, if you're in the temple of God and the prophet comes to you and he's accusing you of being drunk, you can see how a woman could take that negatively. She can decide, I'm not even going to talk to this guy. Now I'm offended. I'm just going to walk away. But that's not what she does. Look at verse 15. It says, and Hannah answered and said, no, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. She didn't get offended at this guy making a false act. You know, he wasn't trying to like rail on her and he just was making a mistake, an honest mistake. And she didn't get offended. She just told him, no, my Lord, I'm not drunken. I'm not a child of Belial. I'm not drunk coming into the church and yeah, only a son of Belial get wasted in coming to church. That's a wicked thing. But we see that she's pouring out her soul for the Lord. She said, I'm going to give it all to God, even though God shut up my womb, even though my adversary is provoking me sore, even though my husband's not sympathetic, even though the priest is calling me a truck. Look, I'm still just trusting all the Lord to give me this child. She's a strong woman. She's a godly woman. She has resolve. She's determined to have this child. And I think this all plays into raising a child. You say, I don't know if I'm ready to have a kid. It's not about how much money you have in the bank. It's not about, you know, having all these things that the world thinks, reading the book of what to expect when you're expecting, no. It's having the determination to have a resolve, to be trusting in the Lord with all your heart. To not let these minor afflictions or these grievances to stop her from pursuing to have this child. She wants to have this child. Go to Mark chapter 4. The Bible says in Psalms 119, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. If you really get your heart on the Bible, if you really get your heart on God's words and his laws in your heart, you're not going to be easily offended. And so I would encourage women, you know, just pour yourself into the word of God. Pour yourself out for the Lord, trusting in him only, and maybe you won't be offended as much. You won't be as offended as easily. The Bible says in Matthew 11, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended and meet. Now of course the primary context is talking about, you know, not being ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ, not being ashamed to preach the gospel. But look at Mark 4, we're going to get a little bit more insight about being offended. Look at verse 17, it says, and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. So again in this context it's talking about preaching the gospel or living a godly life, but they weren't, these people were immediately offended and he gives us the answer of why they were. It says because they had no root in themselves. They hadn't grounded themselves in the word. They didn't have all their trust in God. If you put all your trust in God, if you're rooted with God's laws, you're not going to be easily offended by this world, by the provoking of your adversary, by your husband not being sympathetic sometimes. Look, it's going to happen and we shouldn't have all our confidence in strangers. I mean, does it really matter if some bozo comes up and asks you a dumb question? You shouldn't let that just run your day, run the rest of your life, decide to change all of your emotions just because somebody asks a dumb question. We should be rooted in God's word and have all our trust in Him. She said that she poured out her soul before the Lord. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 1, we're going to look at verse 20. Because wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bear a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. So you see, she finally has the child that she's been desiring to have. God finally grants her petition. God finally answers her prayer. Because of her resolve, because of her determination, because she put all of her trust in the Lord. It says because she had asked Him of the Lord. I don't believe that she would have had the child if she hadn't asked Him, but she had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get there. She still went up to the house of the Lord and asked the Lord, and was pleading with Him and pouring out her soul, and God heard that prayer and gave her a child. Look at verse 22, but that's not the end. Look at verse 22, it says, But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever. So not only does she finally get the vow that she asked the Lord for, but now she has to decide if she's going to keep her promise, if she's actually going to keep that vow. A lot of people today, they'll promise you the moon, but then once they get what they want, they just walk away. They aren't willing to fulfill their part of the deal. They aren't willing to follow through with what they vow to do or what they promise to do. But we see that she's already deciding, look, I'm going to fulfill this. And she says, but I'm not going to take him until I've weaned the child. So she decides, oh, now that I have this child, I'm going to love it. I'm going to nourish it. I'm going to cherish it. She's not bitter against her promise. We see that now that she has this child, she could think, well, now I'm going to lose it. Now I'm going to have to give it unto the Lord. And she doesn't want to take care for it as much. She doesn't want to keep her end of the deal. Maybe you pay somebody for some kinds of goods and services beforehand. Now they don't want to do as good a job. Now they don't want to really perform the actions that they really would because they've already gotten paid. Maybe if you had somebody come over, you don't really want to pay them to mow the grass before they mow the grass. You want to make sure that they mow the lawn before you pay them, why? To ensure they're going to do a good job. But we see the Lord, he's so gracious and merciful, he gives the child and then he waits for her to fulfill her part of the deal. But we see a godly woman, a woman that truly loves the Lord, she's going to fulfill that vow. She's going to fulfill that promise that she made in the Lord. Go to 1 Peter chapter 2 and notice that she's going to be weaning the child, meaning what? She's going to draw out the breast to feed the child. The Bible says in Lamentations 4 verse 3, even the sea monsters draw out the breast. They give suck to their young ones. The daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. The Bible makes it super clear that women are supposed to breastfeed their children. That that's God's desire, that that's God's role for them. But there's women today that will be looked upon negatively if they breastfeed their child. If they decide that they want to follow God's model, the thing that God wanted them to do, maybe women will give them grief for it or maybe women will flick them or they'll speak evil of them or they'll put pressure on them to just go ahead and bottle feed them. Maybe because they want to have a career. Maybe because they want to, you know, go out on the town. And they can't do that when they have a young suckling. I mean, when you got a young suckling, he's pretty much attached to the head. I mean, he's constantly eating food. He's constantly needing attention. And we see the mother that truly cares for her child, she's going to be with that child. She's going to breastfeed that child. She's going to nourish him. She's going to be there. Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 2, as newborn babes desire formula, oh I'm sorry, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. The Bible makes it clear the baby desires milk. She desires the mother's milk. God made it for a reason because it's the best thing for a child. We should follow God's example, but women that sometimes want to follow God's example, they may suffer affliction. The affliction of the fact that you can't just go out on the town. You can't just go do whatever you want when you're a breastfeeding mother. You're going to be restricted to the home a lot more than you want to. You're going to be restricted with the child being attached to the hip. You're going to suffer all kinds of affliction of the fact that it's more uncomfortable, that you're maybe not getting as much sleep. I mean, it's just a fact. A breastfeeding mother gets almost no sleep. I mean, it's just, it's a struggle just to survive. We see that the mother that loves her child, the mother that has a lot of resolve, the mother that's looking on her child with more love for them than herself is going to do that. She's going to take care of that child. Go back to 1 Samuel and let's look at chapter two now. Maybe we're getting a better idea. It's so important for the mother's role. She's so vital to the child's life. Even before it begins, just having the determination that she wants the child, that she's going to raise the child to be a godly child. The fact that she's going to care for it, that she's going to teach it, and that she's going to even breastfeed it when she gives birth, that she's going to nurse this child. Go to chapter, or verse 19, look in chapter two, verse 19. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from ear to ear. When she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice and Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said, the Lord give thee seed of his woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord, and they went under their own home. Now in the story, just for the sake of time, we find out that she does deliver the child unto Eli the priest, and she's lent him unto the Lord, and he's training there. And we see that even though he's there, she still has him in her mind. She still makes him the coat, she still has the determination to think about the child, to go and visit the child, to give him the coat. She's still thinking and contemplating this child, and you say, well, this kind of seems a little weird because, I mean, she's giving her child into someone else for a large portion of their life. She's having them raised in the priesthood. Well, I'm going to change gears and say, well, how do you raise a Samuel? Because Samuel's not just your average run of the mill dude. He's not your just average Joe, he's not average person in the Bible. He has two books of the Bible. He's a guy that does mighty works for the Lord. He's a mighty prophet, and so I have two points of how do you raise this Samuel? We see that Hannah went through great afflictions, great persecutions, and she overcame them to have this child. But then you say, well, how do you raise a Samuel specifically? How do you get this guy? Well, it's not your everyday run of the mill woman either. We see that Hannah wasn't just an average woman. She had great determination, she had great resolve. So the first step in how to raising a Samuel is you have to have a godly mother. Without the godly mother, without this mother that has the resolve and the determination, you're not going to have the Samuel. You're not going to have this great man of God without the godly woman behind her. You say, well, how is she determined? She's determined that she's going to homeschool her children. Go to Deuteronomy chapter four. There's a lot of things that a determined mother, a godly mother has to make decisions for today that she might suffer affliction. Whether or not she's going to vaccinate her children. Whether or not she's going to take them to church. Whether or not she's going to raise the children in the home. Whether or not she's going to dress like a godly woman. Whether or not she's going to dress her children right. Whether or not she's going to teach them values. See that this is super important. Go to Deuteronomy chapter four, look at verse ten. Especially the day that thou shouldest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. God has commanded for God's people to teach their children. But we see today, parents don't want to teach their children. They want to send them off to have somebody else teach them. Go to Deuteronomy six, flip over a couple more chapters. See that it's God's will that parents would teach their children. Deuteronomy six, look at verse four. O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Look at verse five. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which are commanded thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sit is in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. God's saying, look, teach your children night and day, at the table, in the bedroom. Just constantly teach your children. It says to do it diligently. That means what? When you don't want to, you teach your children. When you don't feel good, you teach your children. When you're not having a good day, you teach your children. He's saying diligently, no matter what the circumstance, whether we wake up in the morning, whether we're at the dinner table or the lunch table, whether we're out, whether we're in the bed, we're teaching our children the Bible. That's what God's desire is. How are you going to get a Samuel? It's not by never cracking open this book. No, it's by constantly having an open, being diligent in teaching your children. Go over a couple more chapters, go to Deuteronomy chapter 11. We see that the woman though, the mother, she has to be determined in her heart. She has a purpose in her heart that she's going to diligently teach her children. She's not going to just wake up one day and have taught them all these great things. No, it's difficult. It's difficult as a mother to do all the right things, to raise all the children, to be in the home, to diligently teach them, to raise them right. It's hard work. But you know what? If you want a godly child, if you want a Samuel, it's going to be worth it. But it's going to be hard work. You're not going to get there for free. If Samuel just came out for free, everybody would raise a Samuel. We see that's not the case because the woman's not diligent. She's not deciding that she wants a purpose in her heart to raise that child. Look at Deuteronomy 11 verse 19. And he shall teach them, your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. He's just drilling in this point. Constantly teach your children the Bible. Constantly speak to them the Bible. Constantly sing them the Psalms and the hymns and spiritual songs. Constantly speaking about spiritual things, taking them out soul winning, teaching them the Bible, taking them to church, giving them the Word of God. Go to Lamentations chapter 4. We see this mother has to be determined. Not only that, she has to be diligent. She has to be diligent in the teaching, she has to be diligent in the reading, she has to be diligent in loving her child, she has to be diligent in the needs of the child. Constantly feeding them and bathing them and taking care of them. A lot of work goes into a child that's oftentimes not thanked. Nobody gives you the appropriate amount of praise, the appropriate amount of thanks. But you know what? I believe that Hannah, and mothers like Hannah, they don't need that. They're just trusting in the Lord. They're going to get over all those afflictions of the fact that maybe their life's hard or they have to work hard. They know that what they're doing for their child is the best. They want to raise a godly child. Not only that, but they're going to not spare the raw. The Bible says in Proverbs 13 verse 24, he that spareth his rod hated the son, but he that loveth him chasteth him betimes. Now again, the mother practically is with the child way more than the husband. So it's the wife's responsibility to lay down the law, to get out the wooden spoon, to get out the belt, to get out the rod of correction, and to correct the child. So he doesn't grow up and be a loser, so he doesn't become a derelict, to be some wordless person who is never corrected properly by the mother. We see that the mother needs to be laying down the law. She needs to be using the raw. You know, I have people close to me, even family members, that they needed a lot more raw as a child. They're becoming these just derelicts that won't follow any instruction, they don't want to do anything. We see this world's full of all kinds of lazy, selfish jerks because their parents weren't laying down the law. We need parents that are going to lay down the law and for the children to fear their parents. There was one time when I was like 15, and I was driving with one of my friends, and we were sitting in like a truck, and there was just three of us across the front of the truck. It was just a single cab, and his mother was there, and he was in the middle, and I was kind of on the side, and his mother says something to him, and just like, you shouldn't do that. And he says, no! And he just slaps his mom across the face, a 15-year-old. Now I was sitting in the seat just trembling, like I wanted to jump out of the car moving, and I was so afraid, I thought, this woman's just going to murder this kid. She did nothing and apologized to the kid. Not joking. That's not the kind of godly mother, that's not how you raise a Samuel. That guy's going to raise up to be a jerk, to be selfish, to be arrogant, to be prideful, he's going to be a derelict. You need the mom to get up and the children to fear the mom. I would have feared that God would have strived me dead if I had done that to my mother. I mean, that's wicked, that's horrible. We see in Proverbs 31, the Bible says the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. We see even one of the godliest people, Solomon, the king, one of the wisest people ever, he was taught by his mother. His mother instructed him. He was so wise, hey, his mom taught him the Proverbs. Think about that. His mom taught him Proverbs 31. It's so important. The mother's role is so important. We should never downgrade the role of a mother with her children. It's so vital, it's so important. Every godly man you see, I guarantee there is a godly mother behind, almost every time. It's the mother's responsibility to raise these children. So my second thing though is that we need women to have a godly purpose for their child. To decide, hey, I want my child to be somebody. I want my child to live for God. I want my child to be somebody, to give your child a purpose. You know, parents today, they do this in the heathen world all the time. They want their kids to be a professional basketball player. They want their kids to be a professional football player or to be some great academic or a gymnast or to be, you know, somebody really successful in business. And so they even train them as a young child. They're trying to get them, you know, to the basketball practice and to the gymnastics and to whatever. They're constantly trying to get this kid to be somebody great. We see, God wants the same thing, but not with sports, not with, you know, gymnastics, not with the business world, but with things of God. And you know, unfortunately, this isn't everybody. I would say the majority of people, the parents, they're just completely apathetic. They have no purpose for their child. They have no desire for their child to be anything but great. They're too concerned with themselves that they don't give any purpose to their children. They have no interest in their children. They have no enthusiasm. They have no concern. The Bible says, or the, I'm sorry, not the Bible. I looked up some statistics online. It says the US families says today, one in three children today have a full time parent at home. Only one in three children actually have somebody in the home as a full time parent. But in 1975, over half of the children had a stay at home mom, who was usually the parent. So you see in America, there's a great decline of mothers staying home to raise that children. Why? Because they're selfish. Because they don't care about the child. They're not trying to put all their time and energy in their child to be somebody great. They're trying to be somebody great. Or they're trying to fill all their selfish purposes. Says in 2012, 29% of mothers are stay at home mothers, where in 1967, it was 49%. So you see dramatic declines of the mother not wanting to be with their child. I had you turn to Lamentations 4, look at verse 3. We already read a little bit of this. It says, even the sea monsters draw out the breast. They give suck unto the young ones. The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. We see Jerusalem was destroyed. And it said there's going to be a time when the parents, they don't care for their children. They care for themselves so much that they're willing to let their kids starve to death. They're willing to let them just be thirsty and starve to death and just perish in the way, even to the point where they even eat their own children. I mean, talk about just wicked heart. But we see in America, it may not be that extreme, but we see a resemblance of this. Where the parents, they forsake the children. They don't care for the children. They're not putting the children first. They're willing to fulfill their desires first. Go to Ephesians chapter 6, and in Isaiah 49 it says, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion in the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Well, it's possible for women to forget the suckling child, her brand new baby. And we see in today's world, mothers are being like this. This is actually happening today. There are mothers who will give birth, and then two weeks later they're back at work with their newborn baby in a nursery, in adult care, in a pre-full. Why? Because they don't have love for their child. They don't have any purpose for their child. They're too selfish to go on to fulfill their dreams, to fulfill their purposes, to fulfill their lusts of their flesh, that they don't care for the child. So they just stick it with a stranger, with somebody that doesn't care for the child. Look, nobody cares for your child like you do. Like it's so wicked and selfless and ungodly for some woman to just take a two-week-old and just drop it off with a stranger. Just give it some formula, not even wanting to care for it, not wanting to stay home. And yea, maybe if you stayed home you'd have less money, maybe you wouldn't go out on the town with your friends, and get to eat all the luxuries. But guess what? The godly mother, she cares more about her children than herself. She cares more about raising that child. And we see in the world this is constantly the case where parents do give their children a purpose. Now it may not be a godly purpose, but there was a guy, I was big in golf, so probably most people have heard of the guy Tiger Woods. Well the interesting thing about Tiger Woods, I'm going to read for you a little bit of information. It says he was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father. It says that Tiger's father was a member of the military and had playing privileges of the Navy golf course behind the Joint Forces training base in Los Amitos, which Tiger had played there. It says that in 1978 Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in the television appearance on the Mike Douglas show. Just as a toddler, he's already on TV as a pretty good golfer, it says at age three he shot 48 over and nine holes in the Navy course. It says at age five he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible. Before turning seven, Tiger won the under age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Put competition. This kid at ages two, three, four, five is already constantly instructed in golf, constantly instructed in the sport, and we see him become one of the greatest golfers to ever live in this world. Why? Because his parents gave him a purpose. You say, how do you get the next Samuel? By parents giving their child a purpose. You say China athletes, I mean these Olympic athletes, I mean they're training these kids at two, three, four. I looked at an article that said kids as young as four will exercise for 10 hours a day for gymnastics in China. I mean parents are training their children in these crazy things and you say, well, I don't know about Hannah giving her son to the Lord. I mean, man, that's way better than some vain game or some vain gymnastics or some vain corruptible crown. It's not necessarily even wrong to just give your child into the Lord. We see a lot of examples of this in the Bible. A lot. Go to John chapter five. We see Samson. He was told before he was even born, he was going to be a special man. We see John the Baptist. He was told before he was born. He had a purpose. John the Baptist had a purpose in his life before he was born. The Bible says in Jeremiah one verse five, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. And what came his forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. We see people are given great purpose for their lives. They're given a great desire to do godly things. The Bible says in Daniel one verse four, children in whom is no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such as have ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. The heathen got this figured out. The Chaldeans, they wanted them young and they wanted to train them and teach them. I mean the sports athletes, they get them young, they get them at four and five, they're already in athletics, the gymnastics, they got them young. Why can't God's people figure the same thing out? Look, God wants you to train your children young in the things of God. Even my 18 month old, he'll sing the songs. He loves to open the Bible. I mean you wouldn't think about it, but man, he loves to open the Bible and sing the songs. Look, children pick up so many things when they're young. I want them to pick up the things of God. I don't want them to pick up the things of this world and the things of the heathen. We see in John chapter 5, look at verse 30, it says, I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which had sent me. Go to 1 John chapter 4. We see Jesus Christ, he even fulfilled the will of his Father. God gave Jesus a purpose and then he fulfilled that purpose. Why? Because it's a good thing for godly parents to give their children a purpose. To live for God. To be a godly person. You want to raise the next Samuel, give your child a purpose. Give them a desire. Show them the way of the book of the law. Show them why we're even on this planet. It's to preach the gospel. It's to give people saying. It's to do big works for God. It's to follow his commandments. It's to sing praises unto him. That's the purpose that a godly mother should instill into her child. It says in John 6 verse 39, And this is the Father's will which he hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. John 8 it says, And when he has sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. John 17 says, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. John 20 it says, Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me. And so I send you. Jesus Christ has sent us just as much as the Father sent him. Look at 1 John 4 verse 14, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ's purpose was to be the Savior of the world. And guess what? Jesus Christ fulfilled that purpose. You want your kid to do something big for God, give them the purpose, give them some direction, give them a way to live a godly life. You see, my father, he didn't want me to move away from the parents. He thought it was wrong. He didn't give me a purpose. He said it was wrong to move away from your parents. But you know what? Abraham was told by God to move away from his parents. He said, I'm God going to move away from your parents. We see parents should give their children a purpose. We see birds, they push out their young out of their nest. Why? They're trying to help the baby. They're trying to help the baby bird. They're trying to teach it how to learn how to fly. They're giving it a purpose. You see, my mother, she actually didn't still listen to me. She said, you know, I think that you have a gift of speaking and maybe one day people want to hear you speak. And that always stuck with me. You know, she's real charismatic. So she's had a lot of wrong things. But just that one thought, it gave me a little bit of purpose in my life. It always stuck with me. Hey, maybe I should, you know, work on that gift. Maybe God does want to do something with that gift. Maybe God does want to let me do something for him. We should have godly mothers that want to give us that purpose. For sake of time, I'll skip a few places. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3, we'll finish there. See that Christ fulfilled the will of his Father. We were supposed to hearken to the instruction of our mother. Well, how is a child going to do that if the mom's not instructing the child? We see that Solomon was taught by his mother. We even see the mother of James and John. She goes into Jesus and she wants them to be at the right and left hand of the Father. She's giving them a purpose to be one of the greatest men to live on this earth, to be at the right and left hand of Jesus. I mean, she's like, look guys, you better go for just the top. You better be the greatest prophets, the greatest men. She's giving her sons a purpose, is she not? I mean, she's asking Jesus, what do we got to do? So as a mother, you need to forest your children sometimes to do things they don't want to do. To eat their vegetables, to go to bed on time, to practice the piano, make them read, make them memorize. I wish my mom had made me keep practicing the piano. I didn't want to do it. But now that I'm older and mature, I wish that she just made me do it. A godly mother has more wisdom than the child. You can't just, well, I just want the child to figure it all out. I want the child to just do whatever he wants. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. No, you have a better idea of what your child needs to be doing. You need to be giving them that purpose. You need to be giving them that drive. You need to be giving them that instruction. Look at 2 Timothy 3, chapter 3, verse 15. And that thou from a child is known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which in Christ Jesus. We see that a godly mother, she lets the child know the holy scriptures. A child doesn't accidentally know them, no, they get them from their mother teaching it to them. So we need mothers that are going to trust in the Lord. They're going to overcome provoking. They're going to overcome, you know, even their spouse not being always empathetic with their feelings. They're going to overcome all the assumptions of people, you know, saying things that they don't like. They're not going to be easily offended. They're going to nurse their children. They're going to raise their children with nurture and admonition of the Lord. They're going to care for their child after they've been born. We see that we need godly mothers that are going to give their children a godly purpose. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father for your word. Thank you for all our mothers. Thank you for all the women in this world. I pray that they would see how important they truly are and how much influence and impact they have in their children's lives. I pray that you would just raise up a generation of mothers that give their children purpose to live for God. They show them the scriptures, they teach them how important it is to live a godly life and they show them the commandments that they may follow the Lord with all their heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.