GYC 2019: By Many Or By Few

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Morning Devotional

Sikhu Daco

Elkanah and Hannah

This message was presented at the GYC conference by many or by few in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

Does anyone remember 2000, those who are old enough to remember?

I remember when that happened, it was like, we will never get to 2020, and here we are.

The sad part is, I think for a lot of us, we felt like 2020 won't get here because Jesus will be here before then, right?

But the glad part is, if it's 2020, his coming was soon then, it's even sooner now.

This morning we're going to read the Bible together.

If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 1.

If you have your Bible on a phone, you can tap to 1 Samuel chapter 1.

We're just going to read the Bible this morning and make some observations and pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us from his word.

Before I pray though, I promised my son who is in Zimbabwe with his grandparents that I would say good morning to him.

1 Samuel chapter 1, bow your heads with me as we pray.

Loving Father, we would like to thank you for the gift of life, and we'd like to ask that you would be our teacher now.

Lord, you know that I have nothing worthwhile to say, but we trust that the Holy Spirit can speak to our hearts through the Word of God.

I ask that I would be hidden behind the cross if there's anything in me that could hinder the impartation of this message in a clear way, that you would remove that because We want to hear your word today and we want to see Jesus lifted up.

So help us as we study your word to be focused on what your word has to say to us this morning.

First Samuel chapter 1, we're reading from verse 1.

Now, there was a certain man of Ramatai-muzam, Ramatai-muzam of Mount Ephraim and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuf, an Ephrathite.

And he had 2 wives, the name of the 1 was Hannah, the name of the other Penina, and Penina had children, but Hannah had no children.

And this man went up out of the city, out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh and the 2 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there.

And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions.

But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb Let's pause there and we're going to backtrack and read analytically.

It says that unto Hannah He meaning Alcanna.

He gave a worthy portion when it was time to offer sacrifice for he loved Hannah.

We learned something about Alcanna and in this first 5 verses, 1 Samuel introduces Alcanna to us and the first thing we're going to look at since we're backtracking from here is that Alcanna was a loving husband.

And he loved Hannah in spite of the fact that the Lord had shut up her womb, this is significant because you know back then to have children was a very very important thing.

And here you have a man married to this woman and she was unable to bear children for him but in spite of her inadequacy so to speak, it says that he loved her.

Because he could have loathed her because she was unable to bear children for him.

And this is a beautiful picture of what a lot of us are looking for in love.

Like if you're thinking about getting into a relationship, you're like, I want somebody who's going to love me for me.

You're like, I want a guy who's not going to see how gorgeous I am only, but who will love my heart.

And guys, you're like, I want a woman who's not just gonna see my fat wallet.

I want a woman who's gonna love me for who I am.

And this is something we're looking for in relationships.

So this is the picture of romance, right?

He's like, even though you cannot have children, I love you.

And not just love you, I love you as if you had children.

Because It says he gave her a double portion.

So when they go to sacrifice, it was as if she had children when he gave her her portion.

Verse 4, it says when the time was that Alcanna offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife.

In verse 3, it says the man went up out of his city yearly.

So firstly in verse 4, we find that he gave to Peninnah, who had a bunch of children.

He didn't just give her a portion, He gave her a portion and her children portions.

Well, the equivalent thereof in his day, right?

A man who not only loves you, but he can show you that he loves you.

And I'm being silly right now, tongue in cheek, because you don't have to have money to show a woman you love her.

But you know when I was talking to a certain young woman who shall go unnamed so I don't embarrass her, but she was like, you're going to GYC, you're going to be on stage, can you make an announcement that I'm looking for a man.

And announce my phone number, they can WhatsApp me.

I think she was joking, I'll check with her and if she wasn't, I'll give you her number tomorrow.

But I said, so my husband followed up with it, he said, what are you looking for?

As long as he loves the Lord and he's got money, it's good.

I'm at that stage where the height doesn't matter anymore.

It's like he can be short and fat and bald and I'll love him if he got the money.

And that's what this, Elkanah loved the Lord.

In verse 3 it says, this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and sacrifice unto the Lord.

And the Bible puts an important note here.

It says that the 2 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.

It says that because Hophni and Phinehas were notorious.

They were serving as priests of God in the temple but they were corrupt priests.

Actually it tells us in chapter 2, I'm going to say it now because I don't know if we'll have time to say it in the future, that they were so bad that they made it so people did not want to go to the temple.

You know, those Christians who they're just so evil, they're wicked, that they make it so you don't even want to go to church.

You're just like, I mean, if this is the church, I'm out of here.

Matter of fact, I have a friend of mine, a good friend of mine from when I, when I was a student at an Adventist institution, I'm not trying to embarrass no institutions here, but it's just the fact that he left Adventism Christianity He would proclaim himself to be an atheist and you know where it began Was he said if this is the picture of Christianity that I'm seeing in my professor Who had mistreated him in a class?

He said if this is the picture of Christianity that I'm seeing in my professor, who had mistreated him in a class, he said, if this is the picture of Christianity, if this is Adventism at its best, I'm out.

Now, our faith shouldn't be based on people, right?

My faith shouldn't be based on the person next to me and, you know, how they are representing Christ.

The Sidekick

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

And good morning, Itai, if you're watching.

We're going to do what we did yesterday and read the Bible, if that's okay?

Hopefully some of you brought your Bibles, and those who didn't, you can go into Google Play Store, I don't know what the Apple version is, and download a Bible, and then you can follow along.

And side note, some people did approach me for that phone number from yesterday, so I got your back.

Let's bow our heads and pray as we begin.

Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of life.

We thank you because we know we're not here because we are superhuman or somehow more worthy than anyone else.

But in your grace and your mercy, you've seen fit to give us life again today.

And we're grateful for the opportunity to be in this place, this venue, which is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to be poured out without measure.

And Father, we pray that that would be our experience.

And Lord, I ask right now that you would hide me behind the cross, that Jesus would shine through.

I know that you have spoken in the past through donkeys, and Jesus said if need be, rocks themselves would cry out.

So just make me a willing vessel, Father.

Use me to communicate what you want to communicate to your people this morning.

This is the chapter that our key theme for this weekend is based.

And I'll admit that in preparation I was kind of nervous about preaching from this chapter because I'm like, man, everybody's going to preach from this chapter and then it's going to be whack and everybody's going to be like, oh, we heard the sermon already.

So I was struggling and I was trying to develop a different sermon and then my husband said, why don't you just preach from the main chapter?

And I was like, because everybody's going to do that.

And then I prayed more about it and I realized, well, if I should preach from the main chapter, I'll preach from the same chapter.

And if somebody else preaches from it, then maybe something we need to hear again.

So if you hear this chapter again and again, don't get bored with it.

Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bear his armor, come and let us go over to the Philistines garrison that is on the other side.

And then it says but he told not his father.

That parenthetical statement, but he told not his father, troubled me for a bit.

This is not the main crux of our sermon, but it's an important thing to think about.

Jonathan was about to do something crazy and then it says but he told not his father.

It insinuates that maybe this was something he would want to tell his father but he didn't tell his father.

We're not going to read through it, but just have your eyes perusing the chapter for reference.

In chapter 13, Saul had been reigning for 1 year, and then he takes 3, 000 men as part of his army.

And what happens is Jonathan and his men, they go out and they actually fight the Philistines.

So Jonathan goes with his men and they fight and defeat the Philistines in Geba and then word goes out that the Israelites have defeated some of the Philistines.

They're like 30, 000 chariots and a gazillion horsemen and gazillion people, groundsmen.

And they're just, they're ready to fight.

Saul calls his people and they have this thing where before they go out to fight they need to seek the will of the Lord and they're waiting for Samuel and Samuel's not coming and they wait and Samuel's not coming and it's day 7 and Samuel hasn't come.

The Israelites get so scared by seeing the Philistines gathered around them that they start running away until Saul is left with only 600 people from that 3, 000 that he had initially.

He's like, how are we gonna fight these gazillion Philistines with only 600 men?

And in a panic, he decides, even though he is not a priest, that he is gonna offer the sacrifice.

He fails to trust in God, what we talked about yesterday.

Instead of trusting God's leading, trusting that God's timing is perfect, instead of trusting in God, he takes matters into his own hands and he offers the sacrifice.

Now you remember the story about Gideon and his 300, right?

And then he, and even with 30, 000, he's like, how are we going to do this?

And God dwindles his army until he's got only 300 men left.

And 1 of the things that Gideon said to the Israelites at that time for them, for the numbers to dwindle so much was if anybody is scared, if anybody has something else on their mind, if you're distracted, if you can't focus on the work of the Lord, you need to go home.

Ultimately, until he's left with only 300 now, this waiting time for Saul, the numbers dwindled until he had 600.

If Saul had remembered that story, Maybe he'd have realized that he didn't need the other 2, 400.

Maybe he would have realized that he didn't need those people.

That I could be attending a teeny tiny church.

Now I'm part of a small church plant in Maryland.

And my husband and I started attending there after they had planted the church.

And you know, the challenge is, you know, they don't have a kids program.

So we go and we are growing the children's program Biologically.

And teaching the children that we are contributing to the church.

People kind of like to go where people are, right?

So you got, because we're there and there are children there, when young families come and then they're like, oh, there are children here and there's a children's program.

But there will not be children and no children's program if no parents with children go to the church.

Little David

This message was presented at the GYC Conference by many or by few in Louisville, Kentucky.

Because he first loved me that's the reason we all ought to love Him.

A good friend of mine does that every time he speaks.

That's my son, who is in Zimbabwe for those of you who weren't here previous mornings.

This morning we're going to do the same thing we've done every morning, we're going to read scripture.

While you're flipping there, I've always wanted to do special music at UIC and nobody's ever invited me.

For Samuel 17, we're going to talk about David this morning.

Our loving Father, we are so thankful for the gift of life.

We're thankful that we've made it into this new year.

We're thankful that you have preserved us and that you have a purpose in mind for us.

As we delve into scripture this morning, we ask that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher.

We ask that as this is holy time, that we would have an experience of holiness that we've never had before.

Lord that our walk with you would be closer and deeper as a result of coming into this time of worship and prayer.

It's 1 of our childhood favorites Because you got this little boy named David and he's there and he does this mighty feat.

See the Philistines were not always this formidable, they were always formidable but they weren't always this like impossible situation.

I think 1 of the saddest chapters in the Bible is 1 Samuel chapter 4, where you have the Israelites and come up to battle the Philistines.

And then the Philistines come up there and and the Israelites get a little bit of a beating They lose like 4, 000 of their men.

They run back and they're like what happened?

They try to regroup and they decide, you know We're gonna take the Ark of the Covenant With us into battle because they think back to the stories from back in the day and when the Ark of the Covenant was there, the Israelites were winning.

So they're like, we're going to get the Ark and we're going to be winning now.

So they go and they take the Ark, again not consulting God, and secondly treating the Ark of the Covenant like it were an idol.

As if just the presence of this physical thing would mean that God is present.

So they bring the Ark of the Covenant and there's this huge, loud shout among the Israelites when they see the Ark come in such that The Philistines are terrified.

They're like, oh no, what are we going to do?

The Ark of the Covenant is now in the midst of the children of Israel.

They're like, back in the day when the Ark shows up, it's game over.

But they say, hey, we got to quit ourselves like men.

And in spite of their fear, this is the Philistines in chapter 4.

In spite of the fact that they are so scared, they go out to fight.

And it's 1 of the saddest chapters for me because these heathens who recognize the power of the God of the Israelites, but went out in spite of their fear in order to protect their families, they end up defeating the Israelites.

Eli is old at that time and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, had gone with the ark.

They died defending the ark of the covenant.

So when word cuts back, Eli is sitting and is waiting, trying to hear what happened, expecting terrible news and the news finally gets to him and it's bad news.

The news is that the Israelites have been defeated, that is sad.

The news is that your sons have been killed and that is sad.

This old man loses his bearings, he falls and breaks his neck.

Phineas' wife, Eli's daughter-in-law, is pregnant at the time.

And she finds out that Israel has been defeated.

Your husband and brother-in-law are dead.

And the Ark of the Covenant has been taken.

At the news of the Ark being taken, she goes into labor.

And you know there's a fourth piece of news for her.

Your father-in-law is dead at the news of the ark being taken.

She births a child and names him Ichabod, for the glory is departed.

It's 1 of the saddest chapters in the Bible, I find.

She dies after giving birth to her child.

So when we get to chapter 17, this is the background of how the Philistines gained the kind of courage that they had, like the defiance that they had against God.

And I wonder If in our lives we do things that give the enemy courage to treat us a certain way.

Not because God isn't great, but because of the way that we've acted the fool in the past.

Verse 4, they went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a span.

And then he tells us that he had all of this armor on him.

In verse 8, he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them, why you come up to set your battle in array?

Am I not a Philistine and you, the servants of Saul, choose you a man for you and let him come down to him, to me, if he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then we'll be your servants.

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us." So this was going to be somewhat of a battle by proxy.

You pick 1 person and send him out here, we'll pick — we have our 1 person and we got him out here and let's see who wins." It kind of reminds me of the book of Job where, you know, God is up in heaven and Lucifer goes up there and he's like, you know, God's like, where you been?

Lucifer says, I'm roaming about on my territory.

And God's like, well, actually, have you seen my servant Job?

And that means, yes, you may be claiming that as your territory, but I have a representative down there.

And because Job is there, Lucifer can't lay claim to the entire earth.

Because you are there, the devil can't claim this entire earth.

Series

Morning Devotional

Elkanah and Hannah

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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