In Bitterness & In Blessing

In 2005, two doctors got together, Elaine Soloway and Dr. Sarah Salon, and they were fascinated with the idea of the Judean date palm, as I know a lot of you are. I know you spend a lot of time thinking about the Judean date poem, and I'm sensitive to that. So today I wanted to give you an update.

It's actually fairly fascinating. The Judean date palm, a symbol of Israel for thousands of years, has been extinct, wiped off the planet for over a thousand years. So what would be so interesting about the Judean date palm? Well, the truth was they Learned in the 1960s there was an excavation in Israel of Masada, which was the desert fortress in the south of the country. Tragic story that I'll share a bit about in a moment.

But in that excavation, in exploring, they found jars of seeds in the food storage areas of the fortress. And with some testing and different things, they found out that these seeds dated between 155bc and 64ad and they were Judean date palm seeds. So these two ladies, these two doctors, became fascinated with what could we get our hands on these seeds. Those seeds had been discovered in the 60s and they sat dormant and for like 40 years. Almost makes me think of the old Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know, Indiana Jones type situation, right?

They found it, it's sitting in there, but no one could touch it. And there's reasons for that. But they were able to get permission and they had these ideas and they began to think and strategize and they actually got a bottle warmer. Right, Moms? Right?

You remember the bottle warmer? We're trying to. They got a bottle and put the seeds in a little jar and let it slowly warm up. They were given permission to plant several. And do you know, one of them sprouted.

And for the first time in over a thousand years, a Judean date palm grew. This was weeks after they had planted it. They named the tree Methuselah. Now, for all my good Bible students out there, Methuselah is the oldest person recorded in scripture. So that's really amazing.

That's miraculous. A tree that had been extinct for over a thousand years, a symbol of Israel. It's really a big deal. Matter of fact, the Judean date palm is featured on ancient coins in this time in history as a symbol of Israel. You can see it on the right hand side.

That's a Judean date palm. And for over a thousand years it's been off the planet. Well, it was miraculous that this tree sprouted and grew and everyone's Freaking out all over the world. News outlets are coming and they're studying this and learning about it. But that's only part of the miracle.

You see, date palms, similar to people have to have both a male and female in order to produce fruit. And so Methuselah was a male tree, and they had planted several other seeds and several other males had come up, but they didn't have any female trees. And I know that sounds crazy, it has to do with the pollen. But here's the bottom line. After many years, all of a sudden, a female tree sprouted.

So now a male tree, over a thousand years extinct, is planted a female tree. They begin to pollinate. And in 2020, while the world was shutting down, for the first time in over a thousand years, real Judean date palms became available again. And the name of the tree, the female tree that they planted, they named her Hannah. And Hannah produced the first crop of Judean date palms in over a thousand years.

A tree that was extinct. So matter of fact, it's so fascinating, I'm going to show you a quick video clip of the news when it came out. Let's watch this.

Today is a historic day which we celebrate the harvest of the first fruit of Hannah, an ancient date tree sprouted from an ancient date seed. This is the result of many years of scientific research at the aravai Institute by Dr. Elaine Soloway. Here we are with Hannah. She is the female tree that we pollinated from Methuselah's pollen. And she bore us 111 really nice dates with a caramel honey aftertaste.

We had a bit of a ceremony in which we cut the dates ceremoniously. Later on, my husband Michael said, And we ceremoniously tasted them. It really is a symbol of the miracle that we try to perform here at the Aravay Institute, bringing people from the Middle east together in order to plant a seed of peace, which we hope will someday sprout into a tree of peace and friendship.

So fascinating on many levels. 1,000 years extinct. Two, they're just kind of hanging out, eating those things, right? I mean, I watched that video, but that feels like that's fairly a big deal. Like this is the first fruits of a thousand year extinct tree.

Let's have some. You know, it felt pretty exciting to me. Here's the point. It's miraculous. It's impossible.

It's absolutely impossible. It's unthinkable. Except God made a way. Except God made a way. It was done.

It was so done. I would say a Thousand years extinct means it's done. Okay. Right? I mean, doesn't that feel like at some point you're like, okay, buddy, it's time to go home.

I think we're done here, you know? Except that it wasn't done. Here's what's amazing. In order to get permission to use the seeds, they had to get permission from the Israeli government because they were located in Masada, the desert fortress. Masada is the symbol of the strength of Israel and it was conquered by the Romans in the first century in a painful, painful thing.

If you don't know the history of Masada, one day I would love to share that story. I don't have time right now, but there's a picture of the desert fortress. You'll see it. It's unbelievable. I had the privilege of going there several times.

It is mind blowing. But it was the last stand of the Jewish freedom fighters of under the Roman oppression. And as the Romans laid siege for several years to wipe them out, they all committed suicide in order to never be slaves to the Romans. It's a sacred ground and therefore those that died there, it is a place that you're not allowed to touch and do a whole lot. So them trying to get permission to get these seeds was a big deal because it was discovered in that place.

But they petitioned to go back into the place of loss and pain because they discovered there was fruit still to be found. If they could just go back and reach for the future. I believe today God wants to speak to us and remind us, I don't care how done it seems. I don't care how over it is. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Lord Savior Jesus Christ says, if you're breathing, there's an opportunity. And here's the beautiful thing. Today, it doesn't matter if it's a thousand years extinct. The dream, the hope, the prayer, it does not matter because God is sovereign and he's on the throne. Can I get an amen?

If you've got your Bibles open to the book of First Samuel, chapter two. We've been in a series called Desperate Cry. We're talking about notable prayers of the Bible. And the prayer that the Lord put on my heart to highlight is Hannah's prayer, found in First Samuel chapter two. And then I'm telling you, the Lord reminded me of the story of the Judean date palm.

All of you need to watch more YouTube. Okay. And so I remember seeing a clip about the discovery blew my mind. I saved it, I kept it. I forgot that I Had this.

And in prep for this message, the Lord reminded me I had completely forgotten the name of the tree that bore the fruit. They named her Hannah. We're gonna study Hannah's prayer in 1st Samuel, chapter 2. If you've got your Bible, would you turn there? Would you stand If I haven't met you yet?

My name's Nathan. It's a great privilege to be one of the pastors on staff here at our church and just so honored that Pastor Jay and Melanie gave me the opportunity to share the word of the Lord today. And I'm honored that you're here and we get to experience God's love and his truth today together. First Samuel, chapter two. I'm going to start reading here in verse one.

Then Hannah prayed. My heart rejoices in the Lord. The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies. I rejoice because you rescued me.

No one is holy like the Lord. There's no one besides you. There's no rock like our God. Stop acting so proud and haughty. Don't speak with such arrogance.

For the Lord is a God who knows what you've done. He will judge your actions. The bow of the mighty is now broken. Those who stumbled are now strong. Those who are well fed are now starving.

Those who are starving are now full. The childless woman now has seven children. The woman with many children wastes away. The Lord gives both death and life. He brings some down to the grave, but raises others up.

The Lord makes some poor, others rich. He brings some down, lifts others up. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honor for all. The earth is the Lord's and He has set the world in order.

He will protect his faithful ones. But the wicked will disappear in darkness. No one will succeed by strength alone. Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered. He thunders against them from heaven.

The Lord judges throughout the earth. He gives power to his king. He increases the strength of his anointed one. Let's make a declaration over this word that we make every single week. Are you ready?

Let's say it together. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I'll be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I'm confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it.

In Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated. This Morning, a desperate cry. 1 Samuel, chapter 2. We get to hear Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving.

And it's so incredibly powerful. In order to fully appreciate Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving, we have to back up a little bit and appreciate why is she so grateful? Why is she rejoicing so much? And why would the doctors in Israel name the tree Hannah after this precious one in First Samuel Chapter two? Well, if we back up, to really understand the book of Samuel in general, it comes after the season of the Judges.

And if you any familiarity with Old Testament, the history, the stories, it was in the series and the time of the Judges, where Israel had no rulers and. And everyone did as they pleased. And it was a time of wickedness. It was a time of moral depravity of the people of God. And God would raise up different judges.

Some of you remember Deborah, some of you remember Samson or Gideon, different ones. And he would raise them up. And then all of a sudden, the Israelites would get their act together. They would repent, they would return to God. And as soon as that judge was gone, then they would go back to their waywardness.

And this is the pattern. And so it's in this season that we come to start the Book of Samuel. And it's there we learn first thing in the first chapter that Hannah is barren. Hannah is barren. She's married to Elkanah.

Elkanah has two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. And Peninnah has many children and often chides Hannah for her barrenness. And Hannah cries out to the Lord. Matter of fact, if we look in 1st Samuel, chapter 1, verse 10, this is her prayer. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.

And I'll just highlight, she took her complaint to the Lord. It didn't just say she was bitter. It didn't just say that she cried. It says that she took her bitter cry to the Lord and she made this vow. Now this is where it goes next level.

She cries out to the Lord in her pain and then says, lord, I want you to know something, oh, Lord of heaven's armies. Oh, that's our defender right there. If you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime. And as a sign that he's been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut.

That has to do with a vow in a certain portion of Hebrew life. I won't go into it right now, but here's the point. Hannah Said, I'm gonna reach out to the Lord. I'm not gonna whine and complain and fight with others, and I'm gonna make a vow to God. What's amazing is Hannah comes in the line of many notable women in scripture who were barren.

Rebecca, Rachel. Right. So in these, Sarah, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, all of these matriarchs of the faith, all had been barren, and God supernaturally opened their womb. And now Hannah is the fourth in that storyline. If you look at the big picture of scripture, she's now the fourth.

Except she's the only one that doesn't waver. She's the only one that doesn't doubt the promise. As a matter of fact, it's amazing to consider as we get ready to look at the prayer that we read just a moment ago, her prayer of rejoicing that in this time in Hebrew culture, a woman was not able to make a vow without the approval of her husband. And her husband, if he was not present when she made the vow, he could cancel the vow. Well, as we learn in the story, she goes and prays, and Eli, the priest thinks she's drunk because she's so mourning and so bitter and so pouring out her heart to God that the man of God even despises her a bit.

It's like, girl, you gotta quit drinking so early in the morning.

That was my paraphrase. Right? And. And she's like, please don't think I'm a wicked woman. My soul is in anguish.

I'm just crying out to God. Even then, she didn't close her heart off. Even then she didn't give up. And Eli, the priest says, and I pray that God answers your prayer. It lets us know Hannah laid hold of that and never let go, whereas others wavered.

We have nowhere in scripture that it says Hannah wavered in that it says that she became pregnant and she gave birth to a son that she named Samuel, which is where the book gets its name from. Powerful, amazing story. We're going to be talking about her desperate cry of thanksgiving today, but we can't fully appreciate that without appreciating her anguish. Similar to the Judean date palm, because they had to reach back into a place of such pain. It was so difficult to go there.

Many people didn't even want to touch it. But they were persistent. And in that place, they were able to find hope for the future, not just for themselves, but for all of Israel now, for all of the world, as the date palm is now back in cultivation. How amazing is that? How amazing that it produced fruit in 2020.

That blew my mind. Amazing what God has done. Elkanah, her husband could have cancelled the vow at any time. It says he deeply loved Hannah. She had made this vow without him, and he had every right to say, that's my son, too.

We're not going to just give him to the priest and the people in the temple. We're going to raise him. We can share time. We'll bring him to the temple at any point. And he refused to do it because he saw that she honored the Lord.

And. And as we study Scripture, Hannah is the only woman that we see that makes a vow to God and keeps it. And she's forever recognized as being one who cried out to the Lord and did exactly what she said she would do. And it's a beautiful picture. Eugene Peterson says this in his book A Long Obedience.

In the same direction, the hard work of sowing seed in what looks like perfectly empty earth has, as every farmer knows, a time of harvest. All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed. Sow it in God, and he will finally bring a crop of joy from it. All of us have faced difficulty, and as we're preparing to celebrate Hannah's prayer of rejoicing and thanksgiving, we can't fully appreciate it without recognizing. All of us know what it is to not have our prayers answered.

All of us know what it is to pray, to reach, to cry and see nothing. Every person here at some point or another has desired, prayed, asked. We don't know for how long. Hannah had prayed before Samuel, Chapter one, and she'd been waiting. I don't know how long it's been for you.

And whatever your circumstance, the dream that you had, the business that you wanted to start, the family that you wanted to have, the person that you wanted to marry, on and on and on, the things that you hoped for and you haven't seen it yet. We have hope in Hannah's story because she did not let go and she took it to the Lord. And we're going to draw some strength from her story today. P.T. forsyth said this.

We shall come one day to a heaven where we shall gratefully know that God's great refusals were sometimes the true answers to our truest prayers. Many of us have lived long enough to realize we were praying for some things and it didn't happen. And then later we realized, praise God, Praise God. I thought for sure that was the business I was supposed to start. And then you realize that was not the one, you know, And God said no.

And we were angry, we were complaining, whining, and then realized later on, ah, Lord, you know more than I know. Now. Some of us have had that revelation. Some of us, a little slow to that one, okay? But I love you.

My name's Nathan. I'm your friend. I'm glad you're here. But, oh, Lord, you know more than I know. And I'm just telling you, I don't understand fully why you're in a place of delay.

I don't fully understand why it hasn't happened yet. That's not my job to know that. Praise God, I'm off the hook. And so are you. If we'll trust his wisdom, trust his leadership.

Because for such a time as this, it was time for Hannah to produce fruit and for Samuel to come forth. I don't know your story. I don't know what it is. But I can tell you this. If you will continue to trust the Lord, in due time, you'll see him do exactly what he said he would do.

Three ideas I want to pull from Hannah's prayer in Samuel, chapter two, and it's the first thing I want to draw out is this. Hannah delighted in the Lord more than she did her answered prayer.

You see, many of us understand navigating disappointment and not seeing our prayer answered. Can I tell you something? Some of us have fallen into the other ditch. We actually got the thing we prayed for. It happened, and then we camped out right there, and it became our total focus rather than the God that provided it for us in the first place.

Some of us have been intoxicated by our blessing.

Some of us have been intoxicated by our lack. Can I tell you something? Neither is fruitful. It's only when we delight ourselves in the Lord that we're able to receive the blessing or be maintained in the delay and it not waver us at all, one way or the other. And that is what happened in Hannah's story.

And I'll prove it to you. First Samuel, chapter two, the verse two verses. My heart rejoices in the Lord. The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies.

I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord. There's no one beside you. There's no rock like our God. Do you know when she's praying this?

She's had the baby. She's weaned Samuel. She's now brought him to Eli the priest, and she is gone, giving him over.

Let me tell you something. If her whole world was centered around having this baby, there's no way she gives that baby up. Do you understand what I'm saying? Men may be a little harder for you to grab that mothers, probably a little easier. But let me tell you something, men.

If we hold so tight to that dream that we had, we'll never give it up to the Lord. Even though the Lord may have given us the opportunity to see it happen. We will hold that thing so tight because it has become the thing that we worship. But I'm telling you, the Lord is the one that we're to worship. Hannah understood that.

Can you imagine offering your only child, the child of your barrenness, Offering the only proof that you have in the natural, to a rival wife that's been jading you for years, to others that have looked at you as a place of bareness and not being able to be fruitful, and then to give it back to the Lord. You can't do that. If this is the prize and the full reward, I promise you. Hannah delighted in Samuel. I promise you.

And it wasn't wrong for her to delight in him. It was a blessing. It was right to. He just couldn't be put in the Lord's place.

And too many of us have been intoxicated by our delay, or we've been intoxicated by the success and we've forgotten the blesser. And Hannah gives us a picture of how to not do that. Here's what St. Augustine said. God gives where he finds empty hands.

That sounds beautiful and poetic when you think about having lack not having anything. Can I tell you something? It's not just for the person that has nothing. It's for the person that has it all. We've got to set it down because we block the blessing of God in our life by holding onto it.

Does that make sense at all? I love you. We're friends. But this is so helpful and it's so true, we can't grip it. We say, thank you, Lord, but it's all yours.

It's all yours. And Hannah exemplified that.

The beautiful thing is, as Hannah prays to the Lord and worships him and says, you are my rescue. Samuel's not my rescue. You're my rescue. You're my Savior. Samuel's not my Savior.

You're my Savior. I love this boy, love him with all my heart. But I know from where he came. And if we can walk that way, it will change our lives in 2025. The beautiful thing is Hannah goes on to have six more children.

The Scriptures tell us that as you continue to Read the book of Samuel. It wasn't like God said, I'll give you this because you said you'd give it back and that's all for you. He says, no, if you'll give me the first portion, I'll bless everything else. Sounds like the tithe. Sounds like so many things in our lives.

If we will trust God and leave our hands open, well, then the Lord can give, he can take away. And we are steady and consistent in our relationship with him. Because that wasn't my supply to begin with. He is my supply. We have to understand he is our reward.

Our prayers must always come back to the goal of nearness with God, not just a solution to our problems. I'm here to tell you today, God cares about the thing that you're praying about. I mean that everything inside of you may get bitter as soon as I say that out loud because you're so disappointed. I've been there before. I'm not even mad at you.

I totally get it. I'm just telling you you're wrong.

I love you.

He cares. He does. Well, I don't see it. I understand that. And I'm not even saying you're a bad person because it's hard to see it.

I often don't see it. So please don't think too highly of me. You know, you ought to hear my prayer. Times God was, you know, That's often right. Don't be too impressed.

We have to call out to the Lord.

It's okay that you don't understand. You're not required to understand. I don't know where we figured out we were supposed to understand. We have to trust and obey. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but must always come back to nearness with God.

Here's what I have found. When I keep him the focus when I receive it, and when I don't, I draw near to him in both circumstances because he is the focus. Nearness with Him. Hannah was just as close to God, calling out in her bitterness and pain as she was when she received the promise and was bringing it before. She was just as close in both scenarios.

Can I tell you something? If you will fix your eyes on him in this season, Whatever you're walking through, the nearness of God will be the reward. And if the nearness of God is the reward, then it doesn't matter anymore. He can answer every prayer. It can be delayed.

It can happen tomorrow. But you're able to just continue in fellowship with the One who knit you together in your mother's womb. Second idea I want to draw out from Hannah's story is this. Hannah recognized God's authority and power. She recognized it.

She recognized there's nothing I can do to fix this situation. I just can't. I am literally and utterly helpless. So many would say, well, then quit. Whisper, hush your mouth, suck it up, get on with it.

She's like, but I know he cares. And I'm going to continue to ask. I'm going to continue to cry out. And she recognized that all the authority and power belonged to the Lord. It wasn't on her to figure it out.

Here's what 1st Samuel, chapter 2, verse 8 and 9 says. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord's. He set the world in order.

He will protect his faithful ones. But the wicked will disappear in darkness. No one will succeed by strength alone. God is in control. He has all authority, all power.

So that means we cannot let ourselves be impressed with our lack, and we cannot let ourselves be impressed with our ability. Because either way, you will think you have the authority or everybody else has the authority, and I'm just oppressed and no one cares, right? Either way, you're missing the point. The Lord has all authority and power, and we must submit to his leadership. In the midst of the things that we don't understand, we don't have to make our own way.

It's in this middle section of Hannah's prayer that it kind of turns from her and the Lord to her giving a public proclamation to the people around her, saying, hey, quit thinking. It's all about you. Quit trusting in your own ability. I don't care if you have a lot that could disappear in a day. I don't care if you don't have anything that could be changed in a moment.

And this is the truth, and we know it intellectually, but for some reason, we like to lie to our hearts and pretend like, well, now everything's in place. I got it now. You ever said that before? And then it's just like the day didn't even get through. It's like, what happened, you know?

It's like, all falling apart. We can't control it. But the Lord is good.

No matter the circumstance, no matter what you think you lack, no matter what you think you have. Neither should be the thing that takes our focus. We have to trust the Lord. Here's what Raymond Edmonds said. Never doubt in the dark.

What God told you in the light. If God has spoken a promise, if he's put a prompting in your heart to pray, if he's given you any sense of assurance to continue in that. Can I tell you something then? Don't doubt it when you don't see it because you're doubting him. Trust him.

Well, Nathan, what if it doesn't happen? I'm here to tell you there's still good news because we're going to keep going. Here's what Rick Warren said. I believe the single greatest cause of stress is this. We take ourselves too seriously and we don't take God seriously enough.

We get so tore out of the frame because we're trying to fix this thing and make it happen. We're trying to muscle stuff into. I've been working on a thousand piece puzzle. I love puzzles. My birthday was yesterday.

I'm 45 years old, guys. Can you believe this?

Unbelievable. So when you're old, you do puzzles. And I'm really enjoying doing a puzzle. And my family for my birthday bought me the nicest room in a nursing home. I'm so excited about it.

They've already got it furnished. It's gonna be great working on this puzzle. And I'm telling you in frustration, you can try so hard to force that thing in there. Cause you're just tired. You're like.

I'm telling you, that's where you go, you know, you can't do. Makes everything go wrong. Because if one piece is out now, all the pieces are out. And we have got to trust the Lord. We're trying to wrangle this thing.

Some of us to prove we don't need the Lord's help. I love you. Some of us to prove to God we can do it.

Some of us to prove to ourselves that we finally know how to get it right.

God's not interested. He gets it right every time. And it's like, be happy to do that for you if you let me help you. It might be. Might take a little patience, but I'll help you do it.

Save you a lot of stress and you won't break your puzzle. You know what I'm saying? Right? It's the kindness of the Lord. But some of us take ourselves so serious that we don't take God serious enough.

Would you look at me for just a minute? Can I tell you something? He really loves you today. He does. He's working proactively for your good right now.

And everything inside of you that wells up that says then why? I want you to Know he's not scared of that. He's not. He loves you. Even when you say that.

I'm just telling you. If you'll lean in instead of leaning away, you'll find that the nearness of. Of the Lord will be the answer to your challenge. And then he can bless you or he can delay things and you'll be okay either way. Our prayers must reflect.

Acknowledge that God is good and he is not hindered in any way. He's not hindered. He never says, oops. I love that he's not hindered. He's not.

Here's the third idea. And this gives us hope for those of us that are still waiting and still looking. Hannah looked to a coming king. Hannah's prayer finishes in the most amazing way. Here's verse 10.

Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered. That's not super encouraging, guys. So let's make sure we line up with the Lord. He thunders against them from heaven. The Lord judges throughout the earth.

Watch this. He gives power to his king. He increases the strength of his anointed one. This is First Samuel, chapter two. There is no king.

There's no king. There's no king. This is coming out of the judges. There is no king in Israel. Who is she talking about?

Hannah says, and you know what? No matter what all this is about looking to the one that he's going to anoint. His anointed one, the one who's going to rule and reign. You know why? Because she's not content that she received the answer to her prayer.

She wants everybody to live under the beautiful rule of a loving savior, a loving king who will meet everybody's needs. And she's looking to that day. It's not just about that. Well, here's the beautiful thing. Her son Samuel, that she commits to the Lord grows up in contrast to the priests, sons who were hellions.

If you read the story, my dad's a pastor, so I've heard all the preacher's kid jokes, okay? They're true in this book. So you want to read some? You can get some material there. Here's the point.

Samuel becomes the one that anoints the first king of Israel, Hannah's little boy that she vowed to give to the Lord God said, I'll use that one to anoint the first king of Israel, who was Saul. Then he used him to anoint the second king of Israel, who was David, Hannah's little boy. The one of promise, the impossible one dedicated to the Lord is the one that ushered in the Kingdom of Israel. Because she trusted the Lord and didn't hold too tight to the blessing. Trusted Him.

You know what's also beautiful? It says that she's looking to the one that is the Anointed One. In Hebrew, that word is Mashiach. That's the word for Messiah.

Her little boy, Anointed King David. But she was also praying for the Son of David, the Anointed One, Yeshua. Jesus, the Messiah who would come. She's saying one day, God's going to establish his kingdom for all eternity. And then whatever is broken, whatever prayer is unanswered, whatever thing you haven't seen done yet.

Nathan, I've been waiting a long time. Listen, if you have to close your eyes and go to glory, I'm telling you, the King will make it right. The King will make it right. But, Nathan, I want to see it now. I wish I could fix all that for you.

I can tell you this. You keep your eyes on the Lord. You trust him in the midst of it, he will be your reward. And if you don't see it on this side of heaven, Hebrews 11 tells us this. There were many that prayed, and they never saw it.

Oh, but they see it now. Because there is a king who rules for all eternity. You've only got a little bit longer to wait until the king puts all things in order. You will see it done. You will see it done.

I pray you see it sooner than later. But if you don't, you have all confidence in the one that Hannah had her confidence in. She didn't know she'd have six more kids at this time. She was looking to the one that was her redeemer. She knew it wasn't Samuel.

She knew it was the king to come. And today, you can have hope.

You can have hope in the man Jesus. He is the son of David. He is the Mashiach. He is the Anointed One. Mashiach in Hebrew is translated into Greek as Christos.

As Christ Jesus Christ means the Mashiach, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Hannah was praying for him and didn't even realize it. Here's what's so beautiful. As we get ready to close in prayer, not only did she pray for Jesus to come, to be the king that would rule the eternal, that would reign and care for all of us, Mary took a page out of Hannah's book when she received a promise that she was going to have a miracle. Son, if you look at Luke chapter one, just quickly, Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

For he has looked on his humble estate of his servant. For, behold, from now on, generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him.

From generation to generation, he has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estates. Does this sound familiar at all? He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Bible scholars believe that Mary had Hannah's prayer in view as she's declaring her prayer to God. Remembering. I remember what God did for Hannah. I remember how she glorified the Lord.

And I'm gonna do the same. Hannah prayed in desperation, and God heard her. And then Hannah prayed in delight, and God heard her. She knew that nearness with God was the prize when she was without. And she knew that nearness was God was the prize when she had.

He has all authority. We can trust his leadership. You're not required to understand to get a good grade. Jesus got the perfect grade. And he'll give you his paper if you'll just trust him.

And whether you see it today, tomorrow, 10 years from now, or you don't see it until you look into the face of the king. Who, himself. I'm telling you, you will see it. You will. I don't have it all figured out.

I just know he's not a liar.