How to Turn Worry into Worship
By Pastor Matt Black
02 March 2008
Lord's Day morning
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Samuel 1:1-28
Introduction: Worry and fear are powerful motivators in our society. People who are afraid will do things they would never do in a normal state of mind. Fear pushes people to do a lot of irrational things. But God says the right response to fear and worry is to talk with the God who controls all things!
Worry is a fact of life. What is the cure for worry? In our day, some people deal with it through drugs or alcohol, covering the symptoms. Others turn to mindless entertainment. Some become bitter. And some even end their lives.
Worry is a merciless slavemaster that keeps us from God. Instead we need to find the Bible’s solution! And the Biblical solution for worry is prayer, or more specifically, worship, or seeing the smallness of your problems in light of the greatness of God!
Our theme verse for March is Philippians 4:6-7. You will find it on the back of your bulletins if you need it. Would you quote it with me? “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
As we come to the life of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1-28, we are going to learn “How to Turn Worry into Worship”.
Let’s stand and read 1 Samuel 1, “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah” Verse 2, “And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there. 4 And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: 5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. 6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. 7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. 8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons? 9 ¶ So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. 11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. 12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. 13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. 14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. 15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. 16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. 17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. 18 And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. 19 ¶ And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. 20 Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD”. Now look at verse 24, “And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. 25 And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.”
I. Like Hannah, there are many things that cause us to be entangled with worry. Almost all of what causes us to worry can be put under two headings: sinful human choices and the unexplainable sovereign choices of God.
A. There are our own sinful human choices and those of others around us.
1. Look at Elkanah’s sinful choices. We are not responsible for the sinful choices of others, but we are responsible to have right responses! Look at verses 1 and 2, “Now there was a certain man of Ra-má-thaim-zóphim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, …2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children”.
A great cause of grief and division in Elkanah’s family was marrying two wives, “which was a transgression of the original institution of marriage”.[1] Christ says in the New Testament that “From the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:5, 8). It is probable that Elkanah married Hannah first, and, because she was barren, he married Peninnah, who did give him children, but was in many ways a thorn in his side.[2]
2. Look at Peninnah’s sinful choices. Peninnah didn’t make things easy for Hannah either. Look at verse 4, “And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: 5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. 6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.” She had such a burden that at times she could not even eat. Verse 7, “And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat”.
Elkanah was a devout man and would yearly offer a tithe—he would donate ten per cent of all his livestock to the Lord. Men would sell their tithe of cattle or sheep and bring the money to the Tabernacle. The Temple was built in the days of Solomon, so there was not Temple yet. At the Tabernacle they would purchase an animal to offer as a sacrifice, pay their tithe to the priest from all the cattle they sold. Then they would sacrifice the animal and gather round as a family for a bar-b-que of sorts. They would eat this wonderful feast in the presence of the Lord as His guests at His own table—very much like the Lord’s Table we have today.
It was the custom to give every woman and her children a certain portion of meat, but, of course, Peninnah and her children received the greater part of the sacrifice. To make up, Elkanah would give Hannah a double portion, but she was constantly reminded that she had no children. So the yearly sacrifice was a time when Hannah’s barrenness came home to her more sharply than it ever had before. The Bible calls Peninnah her “adversary”. Peninnah used to provoke her more severely on during these special occasions than any other time, taunting her and mocking her because of her barrenness.
Now that we looked at the sinful human choices that we make and others make…
B. Let us look at the sovereign choices of God. God is sovereign. “Hannah had no children” (verse 2), because “the Lord had shut up her womb” (verse 5) and again in verse 7 we read “the LORD had shut up her womb.”
1. Explanation: God had chosen to make Hannah barren even though there was great pressure for her to have a child.
a. Elkanah was a Levite and he was from the Kohathite family—the most honorable among all of the Levites. So it was an even greater honor for the women to bear children. This equaled PRESSURE for Hannah!
b. To put more pressure on Hannah, her and Elkanah lived in Ra-má-thaim-zóphim. The word “Zophim” means “watchmen” referring to the prophets. There was probably a school of the prophets there. So there is even more prestige for bringing a son into the world. He would be born into a great family, and could possibly aspire to being a prophet.
c. There was a great need for a prophet in those days. 1 Samuel 3:1 says, “the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.” There were no prophets convicting the people, and there hadn’t been for quite a long time. In fact between Moses and Samuel there is only one unnamed prophet mentioned in the Bible (Judges 6:8).
2. Application: We can look at what God has allowed in his sovereignty or what other people have done to us, or even our own sinful choices, and we play the “What if???” and “Why me??” games. We must stay away from that! God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11).
There are many lies that feed our worry, and the only weapon that will defeat the lies of your own heart and of the wicked one is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God!
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Lies |
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God’s Truth |
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God has left you. |
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“I will never leave you” (Hebrews 13:5) |
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No good will come of this. |
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“All things work together for good to them who love God to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)—and the good is to be conformed to the image of His Son!
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People hurt you. |
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“They meant it for evil but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
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God is punishing you. |
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“Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:6-11).
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I am too weak to go through this. |
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Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
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II. We need to understand the Difference between sinful worry and a God-given burden.
A. Explanation of Hannah’s Temptation to Worry. Hannah dealt with the daily temptation to worry about all of this. Hannah had the temptation to make her barrenness an idol of the heart. We wonder why God allowed Hannah to be barren for so many years before giving her the prophet Samuel. I believe God was doing a work of sanctification in Hannah’s heart.
For years it is quite probable that Hannah wanted children for the wrong reasons:
Ø in order to please her husband
Ø in order to compete with Peninnah
Ø in order to get rid of the stigma of barrenness in her Jewish society
Ø or simply in order to experience the joys of motherhood that all the other mothers in Israel took for granted
It may But there came a point where she gave all of this to God, later in her life, she brought all of her worry to God and began to pray and vow to God.
B. Definition of Sinful Worry. You might ask, what is the difference between sinful, idolatrous worry and bearing God given burdens? A worry is burden you are carrying alone. A worry is a burden with God removed from it. And so removing this worry becomes the point of living, or an idol—an idol of the heart. We see this in Ezekiel 14:3. We learn there that the people of Israel had “set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face”.
Worry is an idol of the heart. It is a stumbling block that robs us of our view of God.
C. The Biblical Solution for Sinful Worry is worship. Now we are going to see this in the life of Hannah in just a moment, but I want you to look at this principle from the New Testament in Our theme verse for March is Philippians 4:6-7, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
When we are tempted to worry, first we need to replace that worry with worship. The word that is translated “prayer” in verse 6 includes the idea of worship. In the Bible there are a number of words used to describe prayer, and this particular one is a broad term that refers to the whole aspect of worship. What Paul is saying is “Don’t worry; worship!”
So every worry you have is an invitation to worship God.
III. Like Hannah, when worry comes, we need to engage in worship. The name Hannah means “grace”, and that one word describes the story of her life. She was barren, but she turned that worry into worship! She brought her cares to God. She could have aired them with Peninnah.
But through Hannah’s journey of grace she learned to turn her worry into worship. You see, deeply embedded within the heart of every human being is a spiritual altar. Every human being was created to worship something far greater than themselves. The objects of our worship are those things which have taken the first place of importance in our life. Whatever they may be, they cast their enormous shadow over all of the other aspects of your life. It is this highest place in the human heart that God demands to occupy.
Sadly, because of our fallen nature we are prone to give that love and worship so often to something else. We bow ourselves before all kinds of things in this earthly life: our job, our home, trying to make ourselves look good, trying to please people. We even bow ourselves before good tasting food, sports, and relationships. And in this culture, we have a great temptation to forget our problems with hours of mindless entertainment through all the media, TV, video games, Internet, etc. The problem is not all of the things that we tend to worship—the problem is our heart! The heart, as John Calvin said, is an idol factory.
God wants to occupy the first place and the last place in our heart and every place in between! In our text this morning, Hannah’s heart was occupied with her barrenness. For years she had watched other children grow up, but she had no children of her own. That was a disgrace in the Jewish culture, and Hannah was overwhelmed with bearing it. What was her response to this worry of being “out of place” in her culture and even in her own family? She worshipped the Lord.
A. The response of worship. Worry is a divine reminder of our smallness and our need for God! We must always remember that as enormous as our burdens seem, they are like a speck of sand in the ocean of God’s omnipotence. Someone said, “The things that cause us to worry are like gnats knocking against the granite of God’s almighty power.” Like Isaiah, we need to see the Lord “high and lifted up”. He is infinitely greater than any problem you are facing.
1. Hannah prayed to God, and so should we!
She had such a burden that at times she could not even eat. Verse 7, “And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. 8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons? 9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore”.
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). God gives us burdens to remind us of our smallness and of His greatness. Turn worry into worship! Pour your deepest sorrows and cares to God. It is not a sin to weep and be in bitterness of soul over something in the presence of God. It IS a sin not to bring it to God and to bear that burden alone.
2. She surrendered to God. She made a vow. Verse 11, “And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed l ook on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid,”
a. She gave her son—look at the last part of verse 11, she says if you Lord will “give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head”. She would dedicate him to be a Nazarite.
b. She gave her heart—verse 12, “And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. 13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. 14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. 15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. 16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.”
She poured her soul out to God and left her all on the altar with God. She became a living sacrifice, but something even more beautiful happened, and we see this in her relationship to Elkanah.
Look at verse 17, “Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. 18 And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. Something happened here. There was a change in Hannah’s heart and in her countenance. She had reached the point of surrender. She did not know if God would answer her prayer, but she was content in the will of God. She had reached contentment with her husband whether she had children or not.
B. The Reward of worship. Hannah’s reward was that she was content in God’s will, whatever it was. Psalm 113:9 tells us that the Lord, “maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.”
Verse 19, “And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.” We can take our worries and carry them ourselves, or we can give them to the Lord. If you will give your worries to the Lord in worship, the Lord will remember you. Verse 20, “Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD”.
Now look at verse 24, “And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. 25 And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there”.
Conclusion: God used Hannah’s great burden and discouragement to push her to a total surrender to Him.
Let me close by giving you some practical suggestions to turn your worry into worship.
1. First, remember that worry is always an invitation to pray.
2. Second, take down the idols of the heart! Pray for God’s will to be done, not just for the circumstances to change. If you pray for anything other than God’s will to be done, you “ask amiss that you might consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:4).
3. Third, get time alone to reflect on the greatness of God in prayer. The more your understanding of God’s greatness and awesomeness, the smaller your cares will seem.
4. Forth, pray through your day. Pray under your breath in all things. Philippians 4:6-7. You will find it on the back of your bulletins if you need it. Would you quote it with me? “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
5. Listen to hymns and spiritual songs that lift your soul to heaven and bring you a heavenly mindset.
6. Take a prayer walk.
7. Do something for someone. Shovel the snow for your wife men. Ladies make something for someone who is hurting. Reach out to others. Don’t be introverted!!
8. Rest. Vince Lombardi said that “fatigue makes cowards of us all”.
9. Recite the promises of God. Let’s do that now. Philippians 4:6-7. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”