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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Samuel chapter 1, 1 Samuel chapter 1.

[0:12] I don't know if you can imagine with me this story, it's kind of a crazy story. If you go all the way back in the time to a time when men and women didn't have, men and women did not have the marriage to one person.

[0:33] I've got technical difficulties, probably my fault, but I'm working on them. I'm good. Let's see if that fixed it. All right, if it didn't fix it, I'll shoot myself.

[0:45] It did fix it. I'm good. Okay. Wow. Betty, did you know I could do that? Okay.

[0:56] So, a man had more than one wife. And in this story, this guy, he's got two women that he's married to, and one of them is having a whole bunch of babies, and the other one is having no babies at all.

[1:10] And so her tragedy is that she calls this, the Bible calls this woman her rival, her adversary. And so the husband has two wives, so he sleeps with one, has babies, sleeps with the other, and doesn't have babies.

[1:24] And they're having a big discussion, having this argument, because the one that's having all the babies says, you can't have kids? What's your problem? I've got lots of kids.

[1:35] You don't have any kids. And then she could say, yeah, but he loves me more than he loves you. And that's pretty obvious. He shows it pretty publicly. We go to the temple, he gives you something for you and all your kids, but he always gives me more than he gives you and your crowd.

[1:49] So there's this big argument going on. But she wants to be a mother more than she wants to be alive. And she is begging God. And so one day on their many trips to the temple, to have a place of worship and to get a hold of God, she gets a hold of God in prayer and she's talking and praying to God, and she is just weeping and crying and fasting and begging God.

[2:15] She is in bitterness of soul, the Bible says, and as she prays, she has gotten to the point now she can't even say the words. No sounds are coming out of her mouth, but her mouth is moving.

[2:26] And the independent Baptist pastor happened to walk through while she was praying. I know he was independent Baptist because he was judgmental. Amen. And so he walked through the room and then when he got in there and he saw her lips moving, he goes, you drunk woman, you son, your daughter of the devil, you devil worshiper.

[2:44] And she said, hey, I am not drunk and I am not a daughter of the devil. I don't want God to answer my prayer. I'm begging God to give me a boy. I just told him that if he give me a son, I give him a son right back to him.

[2:57] I'd raise a son and give him my child back. I just want to be a mother. And the priest says, Eli, the man of God says, well, the Lord's going to give you a request.

[3:08] And so she goes home and the Lord remembers her and she has a baby. And she is so excited. She waits a couple of years, maybe three, till the kids weaned.

[3:19] I don't know how long they held on to them back then. But my grandmother had 10 kids and the only birth control she knew about was not weaning them. And so two and plus, they used to come to her and ask for milk.

[3:33] And she didn't get pregnant. So I don't know, two, three years. She got the boy weaned and she took him back. When they got back, they took with them enough things to have sacrifice and feast and fellowship.

[3:44] And she's going to turn over the thing she has most wanted, a child. She's going to turn that child back over to God. And she walks up to the priest and says, probably don't remember me, but I'm the woman that you thought was drunk.

[3:57] And I'm the woman you thought had problems. And this is the kid I asked for. God heard me and God answered my prayer. And I brought my boy like I said I would. And then she will spend the next years, every year, making him fine clothes.

[4:11] And once a year, taking him a suit of clothes and leaving her son there. God didn't leave her in that condition. He let her go ahead and have, I'd have to check my notes, but I'm pretty sure it's five more kids that she'll end up having.

[4:23] And God blessed her tremendously. But I see some things, some lessons that if you'll take these seven lessons from this woman, you'll learn some great lessons that will help you be a great mother based straight out of the word of God.

[4:37] So if you'll take your Bible and go with me, I want you to know several things as we get started. And that is you can be a good mother in less than ideal situations. Now, when I say that, you know, if you had, I don't think, I don't know if you can capture the idea of me being married to two women.

[4:53] And there's two women in the house. I hope they got two different bedrooms. I don't know. In Africa, when I'm in Africa, sometimes a man lives in the middle house and his five wives live in little huts that he's built around there.

[5:05] I mean, it's got to be a weird situation at my house. I'm the one that shoots the guns, but I'm afraid I get shot by the gun if I ever tried that. So here, it's an unusual situation.

[5:16] But Hannah has been favored by grace and she's got a sweet disposition in the whole thing. But I'll just tell you that being married to two women was never right, even if it was culturally accepted.

[5:29] Just like abortion is not right just because it's culturally accepted. I shouldn't have said that.

[5:40] Yes, I should. And gay marriage might be culturally accepted, but it's not right just because something's culturally accepted doesn't make it right. But this woman becomes the mother of the guy whose book you got in your hand.

[5:54] Two books, two books out of the book of the Bible, two books, first and second Samuel. Those books bear his name. Number one, first thing I want you to listen, I want you to write down. Worship God with your family.

[6:06] Worship God with your family. Every truth I want to tell you, you know it and they're so simple. But in first Samuel chapter one and verse three. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice.

[6:20] And in verse four, when the time was that Cana offered, he gave to Pana his wife and all her sons and daughters portions. So that's the first wife and he gave them portions.

[6:33] Verse five, but to Hannah he gave a worthy portion. For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. The first thing I see in the whole story is this.

[6:45] These are God worshiping people. They made the long trip. They came further than David comes. From over here, 200 miles away.

[6:59] Not really. From Ella J. Ball Ground, wherever it is y'all come from, Brother David. Here's some lessons for us. Number one, ladies, all you young girls marry a godly man.

[7:11] You need to be careful to know right now that you will seek to marry a godly man. And a godly man is not a spiritual man. And a godly man is not a religious man. And a godly man is not even a church going man.

[7:24] A godly man is a saved man. A godly man is a man that's born again. A godly man is a man that loves Jesus. A godly man is a guy who's consumed with him. But in this story, they go up to worship.

[7:36] And they're worshiping as a family. And the husband is giving to his wives the offerings that they're going to give. And so, could I just say to all of you, work on always being a worshiping family.

[7:50] Don't come to church to hear the preaching. Don't come to church to see your friends. Come to church because God likes crowds to get together and tell him how great he is.

[8:02] God likes crowds of people to get together and sing songs to him. And while the girls were singing a special just a minute ago, God loved it if your heart was lifted up to say, what a god.

[8:14] And when the guys and girls were leading us in a song, if your heart was lifted up, God likes that. And Christianity is never a solitary event.

[8:25] It's not a single thing. It's meant to be done in community. Getting together. And they got together and they worshiped God. Ladies, why don't you encourage your husband? Why don't you encourage your husband to do the work of God?

[8:38] Why don't you encourage him to serve God? Why don't you encourage your children? Why don't you worship at home? By the way, there ought to be private worship. I mean, you ought to have time alone with God in prayer when you read your Bible and you get a hold of God.

[8:51] There ought to be time when the family gets together to read the Bible. Because God ought to be the center of everything we're doing. This isn't a band-aid on our week. This is our week. Worshiping God and loving God and seeking God.

[9:04] Who we are. Work on developing your personal walk. Now let me say something before I leave this point. You can't worship God if you're not saved.

[9:17] You see, worship is like the opposite of self. You see, egotism, selfishness is me and mine and my stuff.

[9:28] And worship is like throwing yourself on your face before someone and saying, I'm a nobody, you're everybody. I'm a nothing, you're everything. I can't but you can. I'm not but you are.

[9:40] And I'm here to worship you. If you came this morning and you're not saved, you're not able to worship him. Because the truth is you worship you. See, if you're not born again, that's because you think you can take care of yourself.

[9:58] You think you can get you to heaven. You think you're good enough. And you think that you're doing all right. And you think you and your family got it together. And you got all these opinions about yourself. So the truth is you really got you lifted up and you're worshiping you.

[10:12] But real salvation will be when you're on your face and he's lifted up. Real salvation, real worship will start when you step back and say, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing, I can't.

[10:24] And it's God who can. Now this morning before I go to the next thing, could I ask you, do you really worship God? Have you come to a place in your life when you've realized you were a sinner, you realize you were on your way to hell, and you turn from your sin and you turn to Christ and he saved you?

[10:41] I'm afraid those words no longer mean very much to most of us. We're not really ready to say, hey, he saved me. I'm born again. God did a work in my life.

[10:52] Worship. Number two. This lady is number two. She saw the value of being a mother. The value of being a mother. Look at first Samuel chapter one in verse six.

[11:03] And her adversary provoked her sore. I mean, she worried her to death. To make her fret. To make her worry. And get anxious and upset.

[11:15] Because the Lord had shut up her womb. You should underline that in the Bible. You do know who opens and closes the womb. If you're a Bible believer, God believer, God lover, you know this.

[11:28] It's God that gives us children. It's God that opens the womb. It's God that lets that miracle of life happen. And we ought to be getting in touch with him. Verse seven.

[11:39] And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, to she, to so she provoked her. Look at it. Provoked her. She wept and did not eat.

[11:51] And her husband, Elkanah, comes and says, why are you weeping? Why are you crying, sweetheart? I love you. Why aren't you eating? Why are you so sad? Why are you so depressed? Am I not better to you than ten sons?

[12:03] But she wasn't satisfied till God gave her a son. She wasn't satisfied till God gave her a son. This lady wanted God to bless her and let her be a mother.

[12:17] And aren't they in time, you're almost kind of looked down on if a child is anything more than a plaything for you. Because your fancy car and boat and cycle and an airplane and every other thing you could have might be more important.

[12:33] And somehow you're looked down on if you're a mother. And you're looked down on if you're not just a full time, full fledged executive woman. And being a mama is not a big thing. But I can promise you this.

[12:44] That's not how our God sees it. Our God loves you mothers. Our God honors that. Our God honors that.

[12:55] And she wasn't satisfied till she had a child. She knew God controlled who could have children. I hurt with some moms that can't have children.

[13:09] Or wives that can't have children. If you're single, you're not supposed to have children. Just say amen right there. But if you're married and you can't have children, I just want you to know God is the one to get in touch with.

[13:21] And I know you hurt. I'll tell you the story of our son Chris and his wife Andrea. And they went like eight or nine years with no children. They cried themselves to sleep at night.

[13:33] He said the hardest thing in the world was when his wife would lay her head on his chest and soak his chest with tears. Saying why can't we have children and everybody else can have children. And people get in the back seats of cars and have children.

[13:45] And people do wrong and have children. And we're not allowed to have children. And why can't we have children? This amazing miracle took place in our little family. They got to the point they were willing to adopt.

[13:57] And because they hadn't been able to have children, they were finally willing to adopt. Andrea had been really raised by a stepdad and she wanted to talk to me. She's our daughter and us.

[14:08] She wanted to talk to me. And she said, can you tell me? She said, I don't know how I could ever love an adopted child. That's what she said. And I said, really? So you don't love your stepdad?

[14:19] And she said, who are you talking about? I said, your stepdad. You know your dad's not your dad. You're not even actually adopted. You don't even have the same last name. Oh no, he's my dad. And she looked at me and she said, I guess I could love him because I love my dad.

[14:32] And God gave them two children. They didn't ask for gender. They didn't ask for race. God gave them two children, Jacob and Hannah. The Pearsons, John and Sandy picked those kids up.

[14:44] And John Pearson, in his very unkind and unbenevolent way, sent pictures of him hugging my grandkid and let me know he was doing it first. And now those kids are like 14 and 13 or whatever it is and grown up little kids.

[15:01] And as soon as they adopted those kids, bam, bam, two more. And they had four children. But you just need to know this. You need to know this. Get a hold of God and trust God.

[15:12] And I understand you hurt if you can't. That's an aside. That's really not part of this message. So the lesson number one was pray. The lesson number two is value the position of being a mother.

[15:23] There's not a greater position you could have. From the beginning of time, human time, which is the only time we have any idea about.

[15:34] God doesn't have a beginning nor an end. He is all eternity. The woman had the promise that she'd be a mother. She had the promise she'd be a mother.

[15:46] You see, they had sinned against the holy God. Their sin had separated them from God. They deserved to die. And in that day, they spiritually died. And they fully expected at any moment for God to show up and to end it all and they would be dead.

[16:02] And the sin had been the fault of the woman who had listened to the serpent. And so she had lost her dignity. Her husband was going to die and she was going to die because he followed her lead and she'd done wrong.

[16:13] And in all ways, you could see it. The human race is in chaos. But the great God of grace, the most wonderful God anybody could ever dream of because you could never dream of the real thing.

[16:25] Like the real God, he stepped up and said, I'm going to forgive your sin. I'm going to let a little lamb die and cover your sin and you can be saved. And he turned to Adam's wife whose name at the moment was woman.

[16:37] And he said, I name you the mother of all living. You're going to have a child. And then Adam gets her the name of Eve. You know what they were looking for? The coming of the Messiah.

[16:48] You know what, lady? The dignity you lost in a mess up you gained all back when God let you be. The channel he used to bring the virgin born son of God into this earth.

[17:01] And from the day Eve heard who she was and heard that she would have a child, the very next two children she has that are listed in the scripture, she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

[17:12] I've gotten a seed from the Lord. Because those are the terms that were used. And all down through history every woman was dreaming until one day Mary was privileged to be the girl. And an angel of the Lord showed up and said, you're going to have a baby, but it ain't your baby.

[17:27] It's God's baby. And he's doing it now exactly what he promised. So you know what, being a mama in the Bible is like a big thing. So you ought to be honored and privileged that God lets you be a mama.

[17:38] Say amen. Amen. Amen. They were looking for the Messiah, but you get to raise and train children. Mom, you get to raise and train children.

[17:49] The next generation, they're going to learn how to live. They're going to learn how to act. And I don't want to, I'm not trying to just brag on my wife because this is Mother's Day. I say this all the time, but we have four children serving God. And I'll be honest, she did more raising than I ever did.

[18:02] I was going and working and she did the work. Mom, you have a privilege of being a mom, being a mom and raising children that will serve God. Third thing I'd like you to look at real quick.

[18:14] She knew how to pray. Number one, she, they worshiped together. Number two, she knew the value of being a mother. Number three, she knew how to pray. First Samuel chapter one and verse 10.

[18:26] And she was in bitterness of soul. Now, when you get in bitterness of soul, sometimes you pout and whine and get on Facebook. And Twitter and everywhere else had spread all your vile.

[18:39] But this woman was in bitterness of soul and she prayed unto the Lord. And while she was praying to the Lord, she was crying and weeping. And she said, God, I'll make you a promise in verse 11.

[18:50] She vowed a vow. She made a promise. Oh, Lord, if you will look on my affliction. I'm just your servant. I'm just a handmaid. And if you won't forget me. And if you'd give me a little boy baby, a man child, I'll give him to you for the rest of his life.

[19:05] And no razor will touch his head. Now, you don't get that. You're like, the kid ought to get our hair cut. But it was an embarrassment for a Jewish man to have long hair.

[19:17] And the only time you had long hair was when you made this vow to God or you were something wrong with you. You didn't get the haircut. And so this guy would never cut his hair.

[19:28] And it would be a sign everywhere he went, that guy has separated himself to the Lord. That guy is a man of God because it was a part of a vow they took to serve God and honor him. And she gave him that.

[19:39] Verse 12, she continued praying. Verse 13, and she spake in her heart and only her lips moved. So Eli thought she was drunk. She knew where to go when she was in need.

[19:52] You know the needy people in this room right now? You're hurting emotionally. You're hurting financially. You got family issues. You got family problems. You got health problems. You got all kinds of problems.

[20:04] And bitterness swamps us and hurt swamps us. And we feel alone and we feel like no one's there. But I don't know if anybody could feel any more alone than a woman who lived in a house full of little children running around that weren't hers.

[20:16] Full of little children whose mama kept saying to her, why can't you have children? She was alone. She knew where to go. She got alone with God and she poured out her bitterness to him.

[20:29] And she made promises to God. You see, I think she had this verse down though it hadn't been written on paper for us yet. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 it says, Without faith it's impossible to please him.

[20:42] For he that comes to God must believe that he is. And he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It's impossible to please God unless you believe. And see, here's what Hannah believed that day when she was talking to God.

[20:56] She was like, I know you're there. And I know you hear prayer. And I know you answer prayer. And I know if I seek you and beg you, you'll do something. And that's why I'm here.

[21:07] And I want some help. We have another New Testament verse that kind of explains that in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6. He said, I don't want y'all be torn up about anything.

[21:18] Look at Philippians 4, 6. Be careful for nothing. That means don't worry about anything. Don't be anxious. Don't get upset. Don't be flustered and frustrated.

[21:29] But in everything, by prayer and begging, supplication, prayer and beg. Beg God. But when you do it, do it with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.

[21:41] And once you get through praying and asking God, you say thank you, the very next verse says the peace of God will flood your heart like you never had before because you know God heard and answered your prayer.

[21:53] Before I leave, I'm going to ask you over and over today if you're saved. You know, you can't pray if you don't know God. You have no access if you don't know God.

[22:04] Did you understand that? There's only one prayer. He's going to hear from you and that's a prayer that says, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve to go to hell. I'm turning from this sin and turning to you. I want to be saved. Don't you dare bite into the new fad all across America that God just loves everybody and everything's good and everything's going to work out.

[22:23] No, you're either in his family or you're not in his family. You're either under his grace and love or you're under his wrath. You abide under his wrath. Do you understand that? So if you're here and you're in need, your first prayer request isn't God give me a baby.

[22:38] Your first prayer request is God forgive me for my sin and God save me and God give me new life. Number four, if you would, she except you need to accept that your husband isn't perfect.

[22:51] That's most of you. Some of you might have a perfect husband like Rhonda Wilson. Say amen, brother Sam. First Samuel chapter one in verse two, the Bible says that he had two wives.

[23:03] Well, that's not very perfect. Say amen. And the name of one was and the name of the other one was he had two wives. You know, this is a good man. This is kind of he's a really good guy in the story.

[23:15] He's going to worship God in the story. He is preparing his offerings when he gets ready to go to the temple. He doesn't say I'm just going to go when they pass split them or act like I put something in. He's not he's not going to say, hey, I gave at the giving kiosk.

[23:28] Hey, I gave online before I got here. He said when I go, I'm taking the money with me, baby, get to get the bullocks ready, get the animals ready, get everything we're taking ready. And we're taking all of our offer.

[23:39] Go read the passage. We're going to take all our offer to go up and worship. Fact is even said I need my family to learn how to give. So, honey, here's your part of the offer. And here's for your boys and your daughters for them to give. And I'll give a worthy portion to my wife because he was a good guy going up to worship, carrying the money.

[23:54] And he loved his wife when she cried. And he didn't walk in there and say, oh, hush. Oh, hush. Stop the crying. That's what I like to say, man. When Betty's crying, I'm like, I can't do nothing about hush.

[24:06] I really don't say that. I just try to leave the room. You know, if I was a little bit younger, I'd just put on headphones like some of y'all do. But we see no complaints against him from her at all.

[24:22] He's a good guy, but he wasn't perfect. And yet she's not griping. And some ladies, man, you're like, you think you married Jesus. And you thought you married Jesus and found out he was the devil when you got home.

[24:36] And I just think it's an interesting thing that this story could have been very different. She could have whined and cried. She could have killed herself.

[24:47] She could have run away. Or she could go to God. She could just accept the husband that God gave her. Can I just throw this in for extra with no extra charge? Your relationship with your spouse is far more important to your child than your relationship to your child.

[25:01] You see, if you say, well, I love my children, but you don't love their daddy and you don't love their mama, your children know something's wrong at home. Years ago, I shouldn't confess this, but my wife's not perfect.

[25:19] So I thought I'd confess her sin. Years ago, I had built a wall in our basement in our first house. And I don't know how to build anything and I'm not very good at it. I do fix microphones.

[25:31] I have witnesses. But I built this wall and so I put the studs together and I stood them up and I put the wall there. And I was moving a freezer, a deep freezer. I was moving this deep freezer and I had Betty pushing.

[25:44] I had her guiding it on a broom so I could just shove it. And somehow the broom came out, the freezer stopped and I fell into the freezer, hit my chin, fell to the floor.

[25:58] I mean, I am dying. But I get up and I mean, I'm just, I mean, this happened like 30 something years ago. I get up and Betty goes, what's wrong? What's wrong?

[26:09] I said, just be quiet. I'm dying. She's, what's wrong? What's wrong? Hush. And so finally she said, I don't know why I asked you. You don't even care what I asked. Would you hush? And so she walked through the wall I had just built and slammed the door.

[26:23] That made me mad. So I hit the door and the whole wall fell. I just want you to know how good I can be. If y'all need a carpenter, give me a call.

[26:34] You know, my kids ran upstairs and Betty got upstairs and my kids were in a bedroom having a prayer meeting. For real.

[26:45] She walked in and said, what do y'all do? It said, pray and y'all don't get a divorce. So the way you two act might have more to do with your kids than how much you're acting like you love your kid. But you don't even work on your marriage, do you?

[26:57] Oh, I want to be a good mommy. Well, good mommies love their husbands. I, they mean.

[27:10] They're learning how to live, love and act from watching the two of you. They learn virtue, forgiveness, love, understanding, honesty and integrity from you.

[27:23] By the way, there's only one perfect person that can meet all your needs and his name is Jesus. And your husband can't do that nor can your wife. I got three more points in three minutes. So here we go flying.

[27:34] Number five, raise your children for God. You know, this is the most wonderful story in the world. I'm not going to read the scripture with you real quick. Do you understand how hard it must have been on the day she decided he's old enough and I gave my word.

[27:48] I'm taking him there. Do you have any idea when the baby was born her husband came in? I can almost imagine her husband saying, baby, don't get too attached. You wanted a baby so bad.

[28:00] And but in a couple of years we're going to give him up. I mean, really? But she knew this child isn't mine. I am raising this child for Jesus.

[28:13] And I don't have time to develop that. I got some things I can say to you. But she knew this is not my child. Do you know that's not your child? You know, when you get them, I mean, you dress them.

[28:25] Do you live your life through them? And you never consider this child was given to you by God to raise for him. That's all I'll say. Number.

[28:36] Number six, be concerned about your testimony. Be concerned about your testimony. They thought she was drunk. And verse 16, she says, don't count the handmaid for a daughter of Bilal.

[28:51] I just out of the abundance of my heart, I'm crying. My heart's broken. How can you do you? Do you? Parents, would you listen here? The day you got married, you lost all right to live for yourself.

[29:09] You lost it all before that. Really, you should have gotten that loss. And today you got saved. But as a married man, everything I do affects her. And as a parent, not only does it affect them, they're watching you.

[29:25] They're watching you. You are telling them how to act. So you're a nutcase and so will your kid be a nutcase.

[29:36] You're a divorcee and your kids are going to follow in your paths. You're a drunk and they're going to follow in your paths. You don't pay your bills and they're going to follow in your path. You're a bitter and spiteful man or woman and your kids are going to be like you.

[29:48] You can like it or not like it. But they've been saying that ever since I was a kid. And the Bible says it, like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter.

[30:00] She was worried about her testimony. No, no, no. No, no, no, no. I serve Jesus. No, no, no. I serve God. Man, I'd be concerned. If I didn't feel like being at church and reading my Bible and praying and tithing and doing the things I knew a Christian I'd do, I'd do it anyway.

[30:16] Because little eyes are watching me. Now you've never seen these commercials because you're so young. But when I was a kid, smoking was still on the television and all the people smoking.

[30:27] And this is not anything about you smoking or not smoking. That's not what this is about. But they would always be saying you don't want your children to smoke and the dad would be smoking. And that son, you don't want to get this nasty habit when you grow up. Don't do like this.

[30:38] And then they would go out for a walk. And this is on TV. A commercial one that's trying to get you not smoking. And then the dad would sit down and lean against the tree. And the son would sit behind him and lean against the tree. And the dad would put down his cigarette and his pack of cigarettes there.

[30:51] And the son would reach around and grab the cigarettes and start smoking as a little kid. Because gonna do what daddy does. They're gonna do what you do, not what you say. And yet you don't seem to have time for prayer.

[31:02] You don't seem to have time for Bible reading. You don't seem to have time for church. And you're gonna wonder why your kids don't do it. Just remember, you set them off on that track.

[31:13] Number seven, and I quit. Honor your commitments. In 1 Samuel chapter one and verse 23. Towards 24, she weans him.

[31:24] Verse 25, they took the kid to Eli. Verse 27, she said, I says the kid I prayed for, and I have lent him to the Lord. And then from on she'll keep carrying it. You know what?

[31:35] Watch this. This is the last thing I want you to hear this morning. She honored her commitments. You know what you, how many, if we were to go back in your life and consider all the commitments you've made.

[31:46] Lord, if you let me marry the right kind of guy, I'll honor you the rest of my life. You got the guy and said, well, forget that one. You don't have to say amen. You don't have to say amen. You can say, oh, me.

[31:57] God, my baby's sick. And if you'll heal them, I'll raise them for you. But you don't. God, I promise you, I'll honor you with my money if you'll get me out of this fix.

[32:08] And the truth is, you've been making promises to God. You pray a whole lot more than you'd ever admit you pray. Huh? Because every time you have a need, you pray to God. And just like this woman, when she was in bitterness of soul and needed, she prayed and then she begged God, but then she promised God.

[32:25] Doesn't that sound like us? You promised God, but you're not doing it. Why don't you this morning say, I'll be like old Hannah. What a woman.

[32:36] Because I'm giving you a hint. It's nearly three years later, maybe four, before that boy's old enough to take. And I don't know what she thought every day as she changed his diapers and spoon fed him or whatever they did back in those days.

[32:52] But every day she had to think with tears streaming down her face, very likely, I think, because I know Betty and I know Betty would be crying. I'm going to have to take him. I'm going to have to give him to the Lord.

[33:05] He's not even going to be six years old. I'm just going to get him weaned. I can only imagine the tears. I can only imagine the heartbreak that she made the promise of God. I doubt very seriously.

[33:17] She was getting up every morning and saying, well, let me just count the days I have. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. I'm a positive thinker. Normally, some people could call me for folks. I doubt it. I imagine she was going, well, not much longer.

[33:30] I've got to take him. I imagine he's running around the house now and he's playing. He's a toddler. And the husband says, well, honey, what are we going to do? And she said, well, I made a promise.

[33:42] I'm going to take him and give him to Eli just like I said I would. I'll be honest. I'll be trying to figure out was there an exception clause in the contract?

[33:53] Is there any way I can get out of this? What if I just promised to go to church a couple of extra times? Back when Betty and I were pastoring in our first church that we started here in America, I felt like the Lord wanted me to go to the mission field.

[34:08] And so I told Betty, I said, the Lord wants us to leave. We're going to leave here. We're going somewhere. We're going to preach overseas. And Betty didn't like missionaries. She did not like them. She said they don't preach well.

[34:20] They bore us in the services. They don't dress well. I don't like them. I don't want to be one of them. We had one pull up outside our church one time in a school bus that he had fixed up to be a motor home.

[34:34] And when he pulled up, he cranked the thing like this and a chimney came up out of a wood stove and he lit a wood fire in the thing. And Betty came and said, I ain't never doing that.

[34:46] And I told her, I said, I think the Lord wants us to be missionary. She said, honey, let's pray about this. What do you think? We could get more money. We can get more money. And I'll get a good attitude when they come.

[34:59] I'll even say amen when they're here. Isn't that how we do? Anything to get out of the commitment. But did you make God some promises? This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.

[35:15] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.

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