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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/joel-portman/desire-for-spiritual-children/
Let's read in 1 Samuel chapter 1, 1 Samuel chapter 1, and 1 Samuel chapter 1, and I'll give you the condensed version. As I said, that sometimes works out the best. Chapter 1 and verse 1, now there was a certain man of Rimethium, Gopham, of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeraham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zeph, and Ephrathite.
And he had two wives, the name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other Penina, and Penina had children. You'd like to stop there, wouldn't you? But Hannah had no children. 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. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Penina his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions, but unto Hannah he gave a double portion.
For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. Drop down to verse 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 the post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed, vowed, said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of mine, thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but 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.
We know that Eli's response was, but we'll go down to verse 17. Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition, that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.
She conceived, she bore a son. Verse 20, she called his name Samuel Sain, because I have asked him of the Lord. She didn't go up for three years, approximately, until he was weaned. Verse 24, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bullocks, and one ephah, a flower, and a bottle of wine, and brought him into the house of the Lord at Shiloh.
And the child was young, and she slew, they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as I so liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.
For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him, or I have given him. I made him be asked one to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
And he, or they, worshiped the Lord there. Very quickly, I want you to speak, I want to speak to you about the exercise of a barren woman. If you look at the first verses of this chapter, you would think this is a wonderful home, almost a perfect environment, a very godly home.
And this is a couple that is living, of course, in an elevated position. It's ramath, ramatham gilpam. It's a place of elevation, a place of the watchers, a high position for a child of God to be in. If we translate that into spiritual condition, we think of the position that every believer should occupy and enjoy in relation to God, in fellowship with God, walking in harmony with God.
This is a family that was very exercised. They were a godly family. They were faithful to the things of God and attending the feasts at the tabernacle in Shiloh. They did so on a regular basis. You say this is a perfect home, and really an epitome of what an Israelite home should be, wouldn't it be?
A lovely place to be, in every aspect enviable. It certainly was something that should be representative of the entire nation of Israel. Sadly, it wasn't the case, of course, because it stood out in a distinct contrast with the condition that existed all around it, because the nation had sunk to a very extreme low condition.
The nation was in a condition of weakness. The tabernacle was desecrated. The sons of Eli were disregarding any reverence for the things of God. They were doing things in that tabernacle and their practices that were so obnoxious, so contrary to the atmosphere of the place, so unfitting, and so representative of the deadness that existed in the nation at that time.
They'd gotten so far away from God, and Eli, who had the responsibility to control his family and his children, his sons, failed to do so. He was a weak high priest, and it says it was so bad that people despised the offerings of the Lord.
You'd think that would be a terrible condition to be in, but this is a family that stands out. They're outstanding in every way so far as their spiritual character was concerned. They were prosperous.
They brought three bullocks when they consecrated Samuel to the service of God. They were those who were faithful. They regularly went up to the tabernacle, and they did so despite the conditions that they saw there.
I learned something from that. You know, sometimes I hear believers, and they find many things to criticize about the assembly where they're found. Many things that they find fault with, things are not the way they ought to be.
The brethren are not doing what they should be. Conditions are not really in a righteous state so far as they're concerned. Ministry is not good. There's not gospel exercise. There's not this, that, the other thing, and they could find all kinds of fault.
Elkanah and his family still went. They still faithfully attended at the feasts because they were doing it for God. You know, there's something that you and I, we can't change. We'd love to see a perfect assembly, but if it is, of course, we've always been told, don't go there because you'll ruin it.
But here was a place where everything that existed in the tabernacle must have been great into their souls, must have been oppressive to their spirits to go to such a place. But every year they went. You know, it's easy for you and me to stay away.
It's easy for us to give up. It's easy for us to find fault. I have a measure of that problem myself. I found that I need to look in the mirror if I want to find fault. There's plenty of it there, and you'll find a great deal of it.
But they went anyway. I love to think about the Lord Jesus. Despite the conditions in the synagogue in Nazareth, he then, he went and he stood up to read. He was there on a regular basis. He was there because it was a place of worship for God's people.
I just want to encourage my fellow believers. You know, assemblies have never been perfect. That's why the epistles were written, because they're written to correct problems. And I thank God for them.
I thank God for the assembly in Corinth. My, we'd be, we'd be the poorer for the lack of teaching that Paul gives to them that is so applicable and so helpful to us today. And so we have the need to appreciate the fact that God always rewards and recognizes faithfulness.
We got helpers in our day to remain faithful. It looked like a, it looked like a just about a perfect family, didn't it? But it wasn't. There was one fly in the ointment, and I had no children. It's evidently the reason why Alcina had taken a second wife, because he wanted children.
It's a natural tendency. And he was only following the pattern of others that had gone before him, especially Abraham, likely. Abraham had done the same thing. When Sarah couldn't have a son, couldn't have a child, well, just take Hagar.
That'll solve the problem. But it didn't. And so he has Penina, second wife. And I asked myself when I read this, she had had sons and daughters. How long had Hannah been longing to have a child? And her prayer was still unanswered.
You sometimes wonder, why is it that I pray? And I long to see results of my life. I long to see fruit of the gospel. I long to be used of God in a different way. And it seems like God doesn't answer her prayer.
Listen, she just kept on praying. She just kept on asking. We know it had been quite a while, because it likely was several years from the time that they realized she couldn't have a child until they took Penina as a wife.
And then we read that she has sons, that she has daughters, so there's a plurality. So we can recognize the fact that maybe six, eight, ten, who knows how many years that this dear woman had suffered in a barren condition.
But she wasn't satisfied to stay that way. You know, there are barren women in the Bible that don't seem to be concerned about it. Manoah's wife never expressed any concern. You have also others in the scripture, didn't seem to be bothered by it.
But Hannah longed to have a child. Let me ask each one of us here, and I'm not talking about physical children. What about spiritual children? How many of us are barren? We need to ask ourselves, how long has it been?
How long have I been going on in a barren state? I have no children to show. You know, I notice in the Bible that godly believers always desire to have children. You know, you and I have opportunities that we're afforded.
I wonder when is the last time you sought to have a spiritual child? Have you ever spoken to anyone, let's say in the last year, about their soul? Is there many intent on your part, as well as I say on my part, to speak to anyone about their need of salvation in the last year?
I wonder how many here would have to say, I've never given out a tract, or I've never really had a deep exercise of heart to constrain me to speak to someone about their need of salvation. I wonder, dear child of God, how many of us are barren?
Is it possible we're barren and we're not concerned about it? You know, really, the lifeblood of an assembly is the gospel. We need to be careful that we don't depend upon, shall we say, professional preachers.
Seed sowers are all right. I'm not commenting, I'm not, I'm not saying, but I'm saying about our personal witness here at Thessalonica. You know, those believers in Thessalonica had probably been saved only about three or four months, and from them had sounded out the word of the Lord and all that are at Achaia and Macedonia.
What an area! And they were new believers, and they've been speaking about the Lord Jesus. I remember a dear young lady got saved in meetings that Paul Elliott and I were having, and for various reasons she moved away from there, not very far away, but I knew where she was living.
And I stopped in where she was living, and as I drove in the driveway, there was a man drove out of the car. I waved at him and drove on in, went up to the place where she was living, knocked on the door.
She opened the door. She said, I'm so glad to see you. She says, I was just talking about you. That man that just drove, did you see him? That was a salesman, and I was telling him how I got saved, and when I was telling him how I got saved, I talked about you.
I thought that thrilled my heart. A young believer hadn't been saved a year or less, and she's already talking to a salesman that comes to her door. And I had to ask myself how many of us ever speak to another soul about salvation, and I wasn't content to be barren.
Do you ever think that if each one of us made a point to try to witness to a soul, I shouldn't say how often. I was going to say if we just sought to see one person saved through our efforts in a year, wouldn't that increase the size of assemblies?
We need children, brethren and sisters, and we're not seeing people get saved these days very much. Not only individually, but we're becoming barren as assemblies. I had meetings one time in a tent with Brother Jim Smith, and quite a few people came to those meetings, and a good brother in the assembly wanted to buy a tent so they could continue to have tent meetings around the area, and there was an older brother in the oversight.
He said, as long as we have a place to break bread until my wife and I die, that's all I care about. The assembly's about gone nowadays, and I wonder sometimes if we don't need to be aware of the fact that God has left us here, that we might have children.
You have a desire to have a child? You know someone you ought to speak to? What about your neighbor? What about somebody you work with? What about some other soul? You need to have a few tracks in your pocket.
That helps a lot. I found that I was very embarrassed sometimes to be with Mr. Scherzinger because of the fact that he had a track almost all the time to give to anybody he met, and I didn't have one.
I thought he's giving out tracks and I'm not giving out any. I told him, I said, you have it easier because you write your own tracks. I said, why don't you write your own? And you give them out. But dear brothers and sisters, I want to exhort us this afternoon at the close of this conference afternoon, we need to get to realization that we need to be personally witnessing for Christ.
We need to speak to their souls. They're surrounding us on every hand, and they're perishing. They're going to hell. And we're forgetting the fact that we are here in this environment, this ugly wicked world, like this environment where Hannah was.
And we have a responsibility to carry the gospel to the special meetings. That's all right. They're good. But I wonder sometimes if we don't feel to realize that I have a personal responsibility for every person I've met.
I heard a man once, I never met him. I'm going to have to stop here real quick, but I heard this man speaking one time. And after God saved him, he made a point in his life that he would speak to some soul every day.
He would speak to some soul about Christ. He'd speak to someone about their need for salvation. He made it a point in his life to do so. And he did so faithfully. He said, one night I went to bed, and after I put my head on the pillow and shut off the light, he says, I forgot.
I didn't speak to anybody about their soul today. He said, Lord, I'll talk to two tomorrow. I'll talk to two tomorrow. Couldn't go to sleep. The Lord wouldn't let him go to sleep. Okay. He gets up and he changes his pajamas, gets dressed, and he gets in his car, goes down the highway.
You know, this is old days. He picked up the first hitchhiker he saw. And the hitchhiker asked him, he says, how far are you going? As far as I have to. And he told him why he picked him up. And before that man got out of the car, he was a man that had heard the gospel and he got saved.
You know, we need to have that same kind of an attitude. And I could go further in what she did. She got a son. Think of the attitude that she had. She couldn't enjoy the feast. It was impossible for her to enjoy that feast.
She knew it was against the law because you couldn't eat the feast of the Lord in a sorrowful state. And there she has been weeping. And you find it's increasing. She gets a bitterness of soul. And she's praying earnestly.
And she wept sore. And she says, I poured out my heart to God. I poured out my soul to the Lord. Because that woman was not satisfied to go on in a childless condition. She was going to have a child. I'm just going to take a few moments, if you don't mind, brother.
I believe that first of all, she wanted a child just to hold a baby in her arms. Just to have the joy of having a child. Every Israelite mother wanted to have a child. They long for a child. And I think for all those years she was praying, oh Lord, give me a child.
Just to see a toddler in the house and just to see one growing up and to enjoy that great privilege and have that pleasure of having a child in my home. Maybe she prayed that for years and years. You know, God doesn't use us so that we might have just personal pleasure from it.
He doesn't want us to be used and desire to see souls saved just because it makes me feel like I'm big or important or makes me feel good. I think the time came that she changed that prayer. She said, Lord, this nation needs a son.
This nation needs a man-child. That temple, that tabernacle needs a man-child. They need someone to speak for God. Someone to have the capacity to represent God to this godless nation. It's not for me, Lord.
It's for God's glory. It's for God's work to be done. It's for God's faithfulness to be maintained. And the reason that you and I need to be earnestly concerned about seeing souls reached by the grace of God and saved and then brought along and nurtured and weaned and taught the things of God is because it's so essential for the perpetuation of testimony and for the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what? Assemblies are dying. Aren't they? Most of them. I'm thankful for a few that go against that, but in reality, we're not increasing. I know some assemblies today that used to be so full you could hardly get a seat.
And now there's hardly 15 people there. May God help us, brethren. Barren families, barren believers don't result in any spiritual children. May God stir our hearts in these days. It's a difficult day and I know it.
People aren't very receptive. I can tell you this, we still know the word of God. We know the truth. We know what men need. We need to be stirred in our hearts and our souls to be carrying the gospel continually, daily, personally, in every way possible.
One thing I noticed about Mr. Serger, when he was going to approach a person, or I'm not going to speak about Mr. Serger, but I just say he did make it a practice. He made it a study. When he was coming to a person to meet them, he was trying to figure in his own mind, how can I speak to that person?
What can I say to get an opportunity to give them the gospel? We need more of that today, brethren. The gospel is dying. Some assemblies hardly have a gospel meeting at all. And if it continues that direction, I can only say, may God help us.