Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20061119.htm

BIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLE SAINTS
I. Hannah - Ministering As An Individual To Influence A Needy World
C. Step Three - Following God Over The Influence Of Errant Relatives
(1 Samuel 2:1-10 with 1:11 and Judges 13:2-5 with 18:1-31)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

This past week while preparing this message, and soon seeing that the Lord was indicating this message be applied in our relationships to our relatives, I perused our Church directory to count the number of families who have either spoken to me or who have voiced prayer requests in our worship services regarding spiritual challenges they face with their relatives.

I was surprised to find that every family in our directory has faced or is currently facing such pressing spiritual needs!

Now, close, blood relatives have a great human impact upon us, which impact can affect our walk with the Lord either negatively or positively due to our human vulnerability to the influence of these dear people! That being said, in view of the coming Holiday Season when most of us will gather with relatives, there is a great need for us to know how God expects us to think and to act rightly as we gather with those who are spiritually needy but who have great human influence with us!



So, in seeking to "make a difference for Christ" in our needy WORLD, we must ask: "HOW are we to HANDLE functioning in close proximity to BLOOD RELATIVES who can powerfully impact US, and who decidedly do NOT hold to the truth of God?"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "In trying to impact a godless world for Christ, I find it tough to get started as SOME CLOSE RELATIVES who IMPACT ME often COUNTER God's will! HOW am I to handle THAT?!"
  1. In Hannah's era, not only was her nation spiritually needy, she was deeply hurt by a close relative who wrongly verbally abused her:
    1. Before Hannah's era, Israel had had 300 years of "political, moral and spiritual anarchy and deterioration," Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 431.
    2. Then, when Hannah failed to have a child, her husband wed a second woman who hurt Hannah by ridiculing her infertility, 1 Sam. 1:1-8.
  2. Yet, as we before learned, Hannah gained victory over this trial to impact her nation for God by APPLYING SCRIPTURE regarding Manoah's barren wife who had Samson, and PRAYED about it for VICTORY OVER the IMPACT of her UNGODLY KIN (1 Samuel 1:11, 19 with Judges 13:1-5), a victory depicted in 1 Samuel 2:1-10:
    1. Hannah praised God for giving her Samuel in a "pointed" way refers to God's blessing in relief of the verbal abuse she suffered from her husband's other wife, Peninnah, 1 Sam. 2:1, 5; Ibid., p. 434.
    2. This praise is expressed in verses 1-5 where Peninnah, the "enemy" (v. 1) who once spoke "proudly" (v. 3a) saw God "weigh" her actions against Hannah (v. 3b), and so give the "barren" Hannah (v. 5a) a son to the humiliation of (the resulting "feeble") Peninnah (v. 5b)!
    3. Thus, Hannah called God her Deliverer (v. 1) Who was holy (v. 2) and a defensive "Rock" (v. 2) who rules all men, 1 Sam. 2:4-8, 9-10a.
    4. Hannah broadened the application, alluding to the future Anointed One, the Messiah Whom God would exalt over His foes, 1:10b, Ibid.
    5. As we learned in a past message, Samuel became the judge God used to anoint David to reign and reverse Israel's apostasy, 1 Sam. 16:1-13.
  3. Hannah's victory over her relative's ungodly influence mirrored another victory with erring relatives that the woman whose example she followed Scripture had gained, Judges 13:2-5; 18:1-31:
    1. We before learned that Hannah's vow to make the son God gave her a lifelong Nazarite arose from her recalling God's giving a past barren wife in Scripture the infant Samson, 1 Samuel 1:11; Judges 13:2-24.
    2. That woman and her husband, Manoah did not violate God's Biblical will as many of their relatives did, so God blessed them with Samson:
      1. Judges 13:2 claims Manoah lived in Zorah of Dan, Jos. 19:40-41.
      2. Also, Judges 13:25 notes God's Spirit began to move Samson as he was at "Mahaneh Dan" that is located between Zorah and Eshtaol.
      3. "Mahaneh Dan" means "Camp of Dan" (Ibid., p. 410), and marks the campsite where relatives of Manoah and his wife left God's will versus the remnant that stayed in God's allotted plot for them:
        1. The tribe of Dan had failed to trust God to defeat pagans in the land God assigned them, a land containing the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, Ibid., p. 409; Jud. 1:34 with Jos. 18:10; 19:40-41.
        2. To deal with the oppression, a group of Danites from Zorah and Eshtaol then moved north to conquer land God did not assign them as they sought a life free from their oppressors, Jud. 18:2, 8-11, 27-29; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV (1978), ftn. to Judges 18:7.
        3. Now, as they moved, they formed an errant religion, Jud. 18:30!
        4. When this group began their move, they camped between Zorah and Eshtaol, so this campsite was named "Mahaneh Dan," the "Camp of Dan" where Samson later saw God's Spirit move to prepare him to defeat Philistines, Judges 13:25; 18:11-12 NIV!
        5. Thus, opposite their kin who left the land God assigned them, Manaoh and his wife stayed in accord with God's will, 13:2!
        6. God had then rewarded those Danites with them who stayed in giving them Samson who began to defeat their foes, Jud. 13:5b!
    3. So, living obedient to GOD'S revealed will VERSUS following the lead and keeping fellowship with their erring kinfolk, Manoah and his wife whose example Hannah later applied were given Samson by God, and he began to defeat their foes so that the Danites who had STAYED in their God-assigned land could there be blessed, 13:3-5!
Application: If faced with influential, errant kinfolk, may we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin (Jn. 3:16) to become a child of God. (2) Then, relying on the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9b; Gal. 5:16), may we (a) believe God's Word, (b) heed the examples of applicable godly people in the Bible, (c) heed Scripture's directives for us, (d) pray for God's help and (e) allow ourselves to part company with the errant if necessary to stay in God's will. (3) God will then use us to impact others.

Lesson: Like Hannah and Manoah's wife, we can overcome the influence of erring relatives to impact our world for Christ by (1) TRUSTING Scripture, (2) HEEDING applicable EXAMPLES of godly believers in Scripture, (3) by OBEYING Scripture's directives to us, (4) by PRAYING for God's help and (5) letting ourselves be PARTED from errant relatives if NECESSARY that we stay in God's will as did Manoah and his wife!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

While I was preparing this message, I received a call from a believer who was facing a crisis in regards to his relatives. The crisis involved meeting the needs and wishes of elderly parents when the caller had his own immediate family household's needs to consider.

Moved by the fact that the Lord had already been leading me to go in the direction I had with the application of this passage, I realized the "safest" thing to do was to think Scripturally , and to apply Scripture to the situation.

That led to a clarification over the phone on 1 Timothy 5:8 KJV where Paul had noted that " . . . if any [believer] provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." I recalled that the words, "his own" in that context referred to one's relatives in general such as nephews in verse 4 where "own house" from oikeion in the Greek New Testament means one's "immediate family," the people living in one's house, cf. Hendriksen, I-II Timothy-Titus (NTC), p. 171; Theol. Dict. of the N. T., vol. V, p. 134-135. I also know that "specially" comes from the Greek New Testament term, malista that colloquially meant, "most of all" in Paul's day, Moult. & Mill., Vocab. of the Greek N. T., p. 387.

Accordingly, with God's Word before me, I could "hide behind" the priority schedule of relating to relatives that is offered in SCRIPTURE, and advise the believer to put the needs of his immediate household ahead of helping other relatives. After all, GOD'S WORD directs us believers to have that priority!

The day after giving this advice, I recalled that Genesis 2:24 right at God's creation of the first man and first woman directed a similar priority: there we read a man is to "leave" his father and his mother, close, blood relatives, and then "cleave" unto his wife to form "one flesh"! That means God clearly expects us to put a new priority on our marriages that exceed our relationship to our own birth parents who now live outside of our new household! Yes, we must care for aging parents -- Matthew 15:1-6 teaches as much, but only after we have met the needs of our immediate family who live in our home!

May we as believers depend upon the Holy Spirit to REVERE and HEED the SCRIPTURES above even the views and actions of close relatives to the contrary; then we can be USED of God to IMPACT a needy, spiritually dark world for His glory!