Fixing God's Plan

of you, poor thing.

Grab your Bibles, I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 16.

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 16.

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

You know, God has a plan for my life.

God has a plan for your life.

And he'll show us how to live out that plan through his word.

And if you're a Christian today and you've surrendered your

heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ and committed to live

for him, when you did that, you were blessed to have the Holy

Spirit of God indwell within you to guide you through the maze of

daily decisions and discouragements and temptations and

hindrances.

But the reality is we don't always agree with God on what

he's doing in our lives and how he's doing it.

And when it does not suit us or when it does not feel right, we have a

tendency to try to fix it.

And sometimes that means we yield to temptation.

And when I mean yield, that's a real kind way of saying we mess up.

We fall to it.

We go our own way instead of God's way.

Even though his word is clear about the matter, even though his guidance

through our own time with him and our own relationship with him, and even the

utterings of the Holy Spirit to our heart that are not audible but are louder

than that, even with that sometimes the questioning of the timing of God causes us to go our own

way.

And, man, some folks do a good job of justifying it.

I mean, just ask them.

They'll tell you how it's justified.

Or they'll blame somebody else.

Or they'll try to wash their hands of it.

But in our passage today, it's dealing with such as that.

And it teaches us, I believe, a lot of lessons about what will happen when we try to fix God's

plan by doing things our way instead of the way God has shown us to do it.

God has told us to do it.

And God has even spoke to us individually, given us guidance of how his word is personalized into our lives

and how we ought to follow it.

If a man of faith like Abraham can mess up in that plan, so can we.

Genesis chapter 16, beginning in verse 1, it says,

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.

She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.

And Sarai said to Abram,

Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

Go into my servant.

It may be that I shall obtain children by her.

And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan,

Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, his servant,

and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife.

And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.

And when she saw that she had conceived,

she looked with contempt on her mistress.

And Sarai said to Abram,

May the Lord, may the wrong done to me be on you.

I gave my servant to your embrace,

and when she saw that she had conceived,

she looked on me with contempt.

May the Lord judge between you and me.

But Abram said to Sarai,

Behold, your servant is in your power.

Do to her as you please.

Then Sarai dealt harshly with her,

and she fled from her.

Man, I wish I could clean this up for Sunday morning

because it's kind of messy.

But I am thankful that God tells the truth in His Word.

He just puts it out there and shows us

so that we can learn from it.

I want you to notice this morning what happens

when we fall to the temptation of overstepping God

or fixing God's plan, at least attempting to.

Because we sometimes miss God's plan.

We overstep it or we try to fix it

when we listen to people instead of God.

This story starts long before this particular incident.

Before Sarai offered her servant to Abram,

it started when Abram went to Egypt during a famine.

Egypt had plenty.

And when you're hungry,

you want to go to a land of plenty,

and Egypt looked like it was a good spot.

But you find that,

as I spoke of when we talked about that passage,

Egypt was never a good place to go in the Bible.

It just wasn't a good place to go.

It looked good all the time,

but it was not a good place to go.

It was dangerous.

It was dangerous to Abraham,

who was called Abram at the time.

And to protect himself,

Abram called Sarai his sister.

Now, she was his half-sister,

and until somebody asked for her hand,

nobody would kill him to get his wife

if she was just a sister.

Therefore, he was good.

But when Pharaoh,

when she caught the attention of Pharaoh,

and he wanted to bring her into his home,

then that caused a problem.

And it just proved that he never should have lied

about the thing to start with.

Now, you say, well, I mean,

he said it was a sister and half-sister,

and that ain't half a lie.

Well, half a lie is a whole deception, you know.

And plagues came to Pharaoh

and started ruining his life,

and when he finally realized

that it had been due to his interest in Sarai,

he told Abram to get her and get out

and take all that he had been given.

Take the sheep,

take the goats,

take the cattle,

take the donkeys,

take the male servants,

and take the female servants,

and the camels.

Take them all.

It's what Genesis 12, 16 says.

And one of those female servants

was named Hagar.

And Sarai said,

since apparently I can't bear the child

that God has promised to us,

have one with her,

and that'll solve it.

And that seemed like an acceptable solution

to not having a child,

therefore the world would have applauded

Sarai's willingness

to be open-minded

about such a situation like that.

I mean,

why not put feet on God's promises

instead of merely waiting on them?

I'll tell you why.

Because that's not a fulfillment

of God's promise.

That's manipulating our way

and trying to make it look good,

and it never works like that.

Sarai was wrong to suggest it.

Abram was wrong to go along with it.

Because when God speaks

through His Word

and personalized to your life

by the Holy Spirit of God,

listen to God,

not to others.

People mean well.

And some of them

are looking out

for your best interest.

But they only have

their own personal insight,

which might be good,

but it's not great.

And God's insight's not only great,

but it's perfect.

And so listen to God.

It's a bad day

when somebody tries

to fix God's plan

because they,

by listening to other people

instead of God,

that's when we try

to fix God's plan.

I'll tell you what else

can happen

when we try to fix God's plan.

We try to justify

what is blatant sin.

Because this sinful plan

was contrived by Sarai.

God had given them

a promise of a coming child,

and she felt like

it was her job

to make it happen.

And when it seemed

she had failed,

she turned to other means,

and her mistake was

she tried to fix God's plan.

If God makes a plan,

He don't need you

to fix it.

God will see it through.

And it is,

if it's from God,

it does not depend on you

to make it happen.

All you have to do

is to obey the Lord.

do what He tells you to do.

Do what He tells you to do

and trust Him.

It will not be

on your timetable.

I can't prove it's,

it'll always surprise you,

but I can tell you

it'll probably always surprise you.

God will move quicker

than you think He will.

God will move slower

than you think He will.

It's not your timetable,

it's His.

He developed chronology.

He can handle it.

And when you try to fix it,

it'll cause problems.

That's what happens.

Hudson Taylor put it this way,

he said,

God's work done in God's way

will never lack God's supply.

However,

having said that,

I want you to understand

that what they did

was completely normal

and acceptable

in their society.

It was the custom

for a childless wife

to permit her husband

to take a servant

as a second wife.

And the offspring

from that relationship

was actually thought of

as the child

of the first wife.

But I want you

to hear me, folks.

In 2023,

it is just as relevant

as it was in that year,

I promise you.

I want you to hear me.

When society says it's right,

it does not mean it's right.

When society says

that we can

choose our gender

and ignore

the chromosomal makeup

that God gave us,

that's not right.

You can't do that.

When society says

that you can murder

a child in the womb

because it's your choice,

that's not right.

completely normal

to think that way

in our society,

but it's not right.

When the moral codes

of sexual acts

are not based upon

Scripture,

but instead on the

slippery slope

of society,

and that'll

consist of

unthinkable things

that are accepted

and applauded

that does not

make it right,

if you're trying

to figure out

from the winds

of culture

what's right

and what's wrong,

just wait a minute.

It'll change.

But God's Word

never changes.

And I want you

to hear me today.

When society says

that a Bible-believing

and preaching church

is one that's filled

with bigotry

and hatred,

that does not

mean it's true.

Truth and love

is Scripture.

But I'm telling you,

I feel a responsibility

when you get inundated

daily

through our world

in confusing matters

that are

making our world

into a chaotic,

perverted place,

you need to hear

the truth.

and it needs

to be clear.

All of these matters

are blatant sins

and God does not

ignore it

and we cannot

justify it.

Sarai was just

listening to society.

That's what she did.

However,

if Sarai's going

to get thrown

under the bus,

so is Abram.

But they can't

because they didn't

actually have a bus.

So,

she's trying

to please her husband

but you don't

sin against God

to please anybody.

And Abram knew better.

He knew better.

He had been living

in Canaan

for 10 years.

He knew God

would provide.

But it's when

we second guess

God

that we get in trouble.

This is the time

that Abram

should have taken

to sit down

with his family

and to lead them

and to look

at his wife

and say,

honey,

this is not

how we're going

to do it.

I believe God

will provide

what he said

he will provide.

I mean,

I'm going to trust

God in this matter.

Now,

he's an old man.

So,

it's easy

to see

why he's

listening to voices

instead of to God

but

because he's

giving up hope

but you never

have to give up

hope on the Lord.

He's always faithful

and he's always

on time

and it's never

going to be

on your timetable.

It's always

going to be

on his.

Abram

should have

just told his

family that.

Should have

told his wife

that.

Thank you,

ma'am,

for looking

out for me

but no,

I'd rather not

but he didn't

and I want

you to understand

that it was

Abram

that God

had come to.

It was Abram

that God

had spoke to.

Sarai

had not

experienced

that covenant

experience.

She wasn't

there when the

presence of the

Lord came

through in that

fire.

God's

working in

him.

She was

just going

along with

the flow

that if it's

normal in

society,

I guess it's

okay and it's

not.

And when we

try to fix

God's plan,

we will try

to justify

blatant sin.

But not only

that,

when we try

to fix

God's plan,

we'll cause

contention.

we will.

We get

petty when

we act

in the

flesh.

I mean,

we do.

We become

jealous.

We become

angry,

become

paranoid,

selfish.

We just

get ugly.

And now

there's a

rivalry between

Hagar and

Sarai and

no wonder

because now

Hagar is

holding this

over Sarai's

head.

And so

Sarai blames

Abram.

Now remember,

she's the one

that came up

with a plan.

But she

blames Abram.

Ladies,

it's never

our fault,

okay?

What does

Abram do?

I mean,

he's like a

lightweight boxer.

He's bobbing

and weaving

and trying to

stay out from,

you know,

y'all work

this out,

you know.

Sarai mistreats

her and

Hagar runs

away.

Why?

Because they

wanted to fix

God's plan.

God does

not need

our help.

What's

you trusting

God for

today?

what is it

in your life

that you're

holding on to

that you need

to let go

of?

What is it

about God's

plan and

about what

His word

has shown

you and

about how

what He

has convicted

you of

or has

He given

you direction

of and

you

and you're

going to

pause

and you're

going to

wait and

try to

fix it

first.

That's

what I'm

talking about.

Whatever

that is.

Let me

tell you

what God

wants.

God does

not want

our help

in fulfilling

the plan

that He's

promised to

us.

God wants

our obedience.

And

sometimes

He holds

out a

little

longer or

a lot

longer than

we wish He

would to

grow our

faith and

trust in

Him.

You say,

well, that

wouldn't be my

plan.

He didn't

ask you.

It's His

plan.

We follow

His plan.

What God

comes up

with, God

can handle.

He don't

need your

help.

He just

wants your

obedience.

It's not

too hard

for Him.

But when

we sin in

an effort

to fix

the plan

of God,

we cause

damage

bigger

than it

first appears.

Israel.

This is an

out-of-wedlock

birth that

started a

war-torn

relationship

between Israel

and the

Arab people

that make

up so much

of history.

Ishmael

would be

born and

the twelve

tribes of

Ishmael

would be

absorbed into

the Assyrians

and then the

Babylonians.

And if you

know anything

about biblical

history, you

know that they

always caused

havoc for the

people of

Israel.

In verse 12

of this passage,

Ishmael, the

coming offspring

is described as

a wild donkey

of a man, his

hand against

everyone and

everyone's hand

against him and

he shall dwell

over and against

all his

kinsmen.

A donkey is

resourceful unless

he's wild and

against everybody.

God says,

that's what your

son will be.

And history

has proven it's

true.

Sin and its

ramifications are

kind of like the

side mirrors in a

car.

Long time ago,

when they put

mirrors on cars,

they had a little

message on the

bottom of it.

Some of y'all

remember it.

It said,

objects are closer

than they appear.

It means stay in

your lane is what

it means, okay?

They didn't have

blindside monitors

to go on off in

your mirror.

You just had to

trust it and it

was saying don't

trust it.

And I will tell you

the ramifications of

sin are always

larger than they

appear.

They are.

But thank God,

when we try to fix

the plan of God,

God's not absent.

He's not absent.

This sense that God

was not responding

and was not going

to led to this

whole problem,

but God knew what

he was doing.

He also didn't give

up on them when

they messed up.

Hagar went away.

The abuse and the

rivalry was too much

for her and she went

away and I want you

to notice what

happens.

It's in verse 7 of

Genesis 16 it says

this, the angel of

the Lord found her

by a spring of water

in the wilderness,

the spring on the

way to Shur.

And he said,

Hagar, servant of

Sarai, where have

you come from and

where are you going?

And she said, I am

fleeing from my

mistress Sarai.

The angel of the

Lord said to her,

return to your

mistress and submit

to her.

The angel of the

Lord also said to

her, I will surely

multiply your

offspring so that

they cannot be

numbered for multitude.

And the angel of the

Lord said to her,

behold you are

pregnant and shall

bear a son and you

shall call his name

Ishmael because the

Lord has listened to

your affliction.

He shall be a wild

donkey of a man, his

hand against everyone

and everyone's hand

against him and he

shall dwell over against

all his kinsmen.

So she called the

name of the Lord who

spoke to her.

You are a God of

seeing for she said

truly here I have

seen him who looks

after me.

Therefore the well

was called Bir-la-hiro.

It lies between

Kadesh and Baird.

And Hagar bore

Abram a son and

Abram called the name

of his son whom

Hagar bore Ishmael.

Abram was 86 years old

when Hagar bore

Ishmael to Abram.

We mess up and feel

the effects of it but I

want you to understand

when we're feeling the

effects of it God does

not abandon us.

You say well it sure

does feel like it.

Well I want you to

understand something that

I've told you before.

God's presence is not

based upon your feelings.

It's based upon his

promises and he will

not leave you.

I want you to notice

something here this

angelical question.

Where have you come

from and where are you

going?

Does God not know where

the girl's been?

I mean you know he knows

where the lady's been.

So why is he asking that

question?

Why would God ask any

question?

God never asks a

question to get the

answer.

God asks a question so

you can think about the

answer.

So you can answer it for

yourself.

He already knows the

answers.

He asks it so that we can

grapple with those

questions in our hearts and

then God tells her to go

home and get back after

it.

And I want you to get

this and I'll close.

When we make a mess of

our lives by not allowing

God's plan but instead

trying to fix God's plan and

we pout about it and we

go off by ourselves it

does us no good.

And God came to her and

said go home and get

after it.

Don't alter the plan of

your life.

Follow the plan of God for

your life.

Now listen for some this

morning that may be major.

I mean God told Jonah to

go west and he turned

around and went east.

He did exactly the opposite

of what God told him to do.

That's major.

It could be what you

consider minor.

It could be stuff that

you're dealing with just

disobediently quite honestly.

You don't think it's a big

deal.

God thinks it's a big deal.

God went to the cross for

the sins in your life that

you think are small.

He died for.

So it is a big deal to him.

Maybe you're dealing with

stuff disobediently or

stuff that you're not

dealing with when God's

telling you to deal with

it.

If so, I want you to do

what God told Hagar to do.

Get up and come home.

He told her you get up and

go back and serve your

master.

God's plan for your life.

And I'm telling you today,

if you know God's plan for

your life does not involve

what you're dealing with and

what you're in the midst of

it, get up and come home and

serve your master and trust him.

Don't try to fix God's plan.

Don't try to alter God's plan.

Don't try to change God's plan.

Trust God's plan.

Follow God's plan.

Honor God's plan.

And God will bless your life.

God's plan.

Because a life of obedience is a

blessed life.

It's not our job to fix God's plan.

It's our job to fix our eyes on

God's plan.

To fix our minds on God's plan.

To fix our hearts on God's plan.

And then to do it.

Whatever it is.

With every head bow and every eye

close this morning.

I'm not going to even try to

guess this morning.

Where this hits you.

Because for some you need to

make a bold step of obedience.

It's not about that there's

things in your life that are

just you know blatant sins

against God.

It's just that God's leading

you in an area and you're you

kind of struggle to follow

through with that and it's time

to follow through with that.

You know.

Man we live in a society of

uncommitted people and the

reality is if you're not

committed to Christ you're

committed to something and so

we just need to be committed.

Maybe you're here this morning

and that there is some blatant

sin in your life and maybe it's

blatant but nobody else knows

about it but you but I mean it's

real and it presses on you and

you know it's not part of God's

plan for your life and you've

done your own deal and went your

own way and you not wanted to

give up that little area of your

life.

Well it's time to give it up.

It's time to get up and come home

and serve the master in that area

of your life.

Maybe you're here this morning and

you've never surrendered your life

to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

You never have.

Never been a time when you can go

back and say Lord I committed my

life to you and I trusted you and

asked you to forgive me and to save

me.

And if that's never happened to

you I want you to know that today

is the day of salvation.

We're going to stand in just a

moment and we're going to sing and

the most important thing you can

do is obey God.

You come down this aisle I'll be

happy to help you know what it

means to have a personal

relationship with Christ.

Maybe you've done that but there's

areas of your life that you need

to get right with God.

You deal with that.

You can deal with it where you

are.

You can deal with it at this altar.

You can have a pastor pray with

you.

However God tells you to do it.

Maybe you're a guest with us and

you feel like God's drawing you to

be a part of this fellowship.

As a matter of fact you know

that's God's plan.

You're just kind of putting it

off because you're not sure.

Just follow God's plan.

Just do what he tells you to do.

Maybe you've made a private

decision for the Lord but you've

never made it public through

baptism.

We had the joy last week of

baptizing.

Have more candidates that we're

counseling now.

Maybe when you look at your life

the reality is that you've never

been baptized as a believer and

you need to obey God in that.

I have no idea what God's doing

in your life today but I pray that

he is and I pray that you'll be

obedient.

I'll never ask you to do anything

more than what God tells you to do

and I never want you to be

satisfied with doing anything less.

Lord Jesus I love you and I thank

you for your love for us.

I thank you Lord for your love for

every person in this place today.

And I ask dear God that you'll move

and you'll work in their lives.

That you'll speak to them

individually dear God.

Let them know exactly what you'd

have them to do and give them a

boldness and a surrender as can

only come from you dear God.

To just simply follow you Lord I

pray.

In Jesus precious name.

Amen.