This past weekend I had the opportunity to preach my first sermon at First Free. It was a great honor and privilege to be able to preach for an amazing passage and a woman that had left a legacy of faith in her time of desperation. With that being said, I would like to share the outline from this past weekends sermon.

“Pain is often in the equation of righteousness.” – Dr. Rusty Hayes

“One of the great uses of twitter and facebook will be to prove that on the last day that prayerlessness was not from a lack of time.” – John Piper

Objective Sentence: “Every follower of Christ can learn to pray in times of desperation by following four actions from Hannah’s life.”
1. Identify the PROBLEM. (1 Sam. 1:1-8)
– In times of desperation we need to be sure to get to the root of the problem.
2. Present it in PRAYER. (1 Sam. 1:9-18)
– The first place that we go I’m our times of desperation is to our Heavenly Father.
3. Have hope in His PROMISE. (1 Sam. 1:18-28)
– Despite all of the things that were able to bring Hannah to her time of desperation, she did
NOT give up hope.
– InHannah’s time of desperation… The LORD remembered her (1 Sam. 1:19b). He also
remembers you!
4. Rest in His PRAISE. (1 Sam. 2:1-2)
– Hannah was able to rest in praising God, knowing that He alone is our omnipotent deliverer I
times of desperation.

It tells us in the beginning of this passage that “year after year” Hannah went to the temple and was in desperation praying and crying out to God. And as Hannah learned we too should learn, that God is at work.

“Unanswered prayer may indicate that the Lord is at work on a much larger scale than we can imagine.” – Ginger Garrett

In closing… The amazing aspect of this prayer is that Hannah went to God, and she got God.

I pray that this will be a help in our times of desperation.