”Faith Must Be Patient” // Genesis 16 // Lakeview Bible Church

Amen.

>> Amen. Amen. Thank you, Tom. Uh, good

morning, family. How are we? Excellent.

Excellent. Apparently, the score was two

to one. Is that correct?

None none of you skipped first service

to to watch that. I know.

No harm, no foul. We got um I played

pond hockey as a kid growing up in New

Jersey, so I it's my favorite winter

sport. So I will watch it later. That's

what I will do. Um Jesus before he sends

back to the father, he says, "You will

be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and

Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of

the earth." And so as we continue as

Lake View to build what we're going to

do in each of those spheres, Jerusalem,

think our city, our neighborhoods. Uh

Judy and Samar, think like greater

Austin proper and all the counties that

that touches and ends of the earth. You

obviously know what that means. uh we

are going to begin to send and we are

this week folks around the world to take

the gospel to different parts. So I want

to invite a team of people up front who

we are going to pray over as we send

them to Rowaton Honduras and that's

Rowaton that island right there. Um they

are going to be doing among other things

working at an orphanage uh helping folks

at a rehab center who are battling

addiction, providing meals, other

necessities to folks that need the

basics as well as helping kids learn

about Jesus through some backyard Bible

club stuff and a lot in between. And so

if we were in the first century when um

Acts 18 was written, what we would do as

the church and say Antioch or Jerusalem

is we as the family as we sent our

brothers and sisters to take the gospel

to places beyond is we would lay hands

and pray over them. Why? Why the laying

on of hands? Because it's a way of

expressing we go with you. Like we're

not physically with you, but you are our

brothers and sisters and we go with you

spiritually and so we send them. So, uh,

here's how we're going to do that. If

you wouldn't mind standing

as we pray over this team and, uh, just

extend a hand, your way of saying that I

am with you in this endeavor. And we're

going to pray God's blessing over them.

So, Father, would you by grace, watch

over, protect, fill by your spirit our

friends. May our brothers and sisters go

in the grace of the Lord Jesus. May they

be equipped with everything they need

practically and spiritually to be good

news to those who you're sending them

to. Would you watch over every step?

Would you give them gospel conversations

and gospel interactions? Would you have

um folks come to meet Jesus because of

their efforts? I pray that you would

help them to help folks practically and

spiritually and that they would come

back changed because of the change you

worked in them and through them. We

can't wait to hear all that you do and

pray that you would do ask uh more than

we can ask, see, or imagine for Jesus'

sake. And everyone said, "Amen." Amen.

All right. Would you thank them?

All right. You can be seated. Uh

question as we get going today. Um are

you

are you a patient person?

And as you chuckle, those are the honest

people because you're not. I am,

however,

so I'm going to teach you how to do it.

I'll just give you one example of Eric's

amazing patience. So, for instance, if

I'm behind you at a red light and I see

you get out your phone because I'm

looking for you to get out your phone,

you have like again patience a good half

a second to go when that thing turns

green. Otherwise,

like like my my kids are like, "Dad,

don't do it." I'm like, "They need to

learn."

It's not my fault. They shouldn't have

picked up their phone. Uh no, I'm not

patient. I struggle at that. So, I'm

going to teach you what I learned this

week about patience. And you're like,

"Man, can we talk about the hockey

game?" Okay. Uh, one of the things that

psychologists have been doing for years

and years is trying to figure out at

some level is patience something that

you're kind of born with. Like there's

some people in here you're just better

at it because you have some sort of

wiring or gifting or something that that

other people don't have. Like no one's

perfect at patience, but you're just you

have a leg up. And so what they did is

they devised this thing called the

marshmallow test. And what the

marshmallow test is is you put a child

in a room and you put a marshmallow in

front of them and here's what you say.

It's like you can eat this marshmallow,

but if you don't, if you wait, I'm going

to go and I'm going to get another

marshmallow and I'm going to come back

and if you show your patience, then

you're going to get to eat two

marshmallows. And they see kind of,

okay, how much patience impulse control

does the child have? And one of those

looks like this.

>> Okay, so that's your All right, here's

the deal. marshmallow for you. You can

either wait and I'll give you another

one if you wait or you can eat it now.

When I come back, I'll give you another.

So then you'll have two. But stay in

here and stay in the chair till I come

back. Okay. All right.

How'd you do?

Did you do good? You did.

>> You wanted to eat it, didn't you? Yeah.

So, did I tell you to give you another

one? Okay. Now, you can have both.

You need them.

Oh man, I love that kid. He's gonna be

president one day. I know it. Um,

I doubt I would have made it. Uh what's

also interesting is they've been doing

these studies long enough, but there's a

longitudinal aspect to them now as

they've tracked kids over time and said,

"Okay, the kids who like our young man

was able to withstand the temptation

sniffing it as much as he did." Um that

those kids who were able to be patient

actually higher SAT scores, higher uh

academic achievement and success later

in life. So, but you're not surprised by

that. Why? Because you know, you're

probably going to do better if you can

be a patient person versus an impatient

person, which is exactly what the Bible

has been talking to us about for

centuries. This is Proverbs 16. It says,

"Whoever is slow to anger," the other

way you can translate that is patient in

your anger or patient in your emotions.

You know what that kind of person,

they're better than the mighty.

And then the correlary, he or she who

rules his spirit, they're better,

they're stronger, they're more able,

capable than someone who could take a

city. That's the level of patience like

what patience can bring to your life and

my life. Right? Problem is like patience

is really hard to build, is it not?

Because I don't know about you, but I

have found it requires the one thing I

never want to do, which is wait. As I

think back on my life, and if you think

back on your life, have you ever had a

time where impatience got the best of

you and maybe you said something that

you later regretted?

Or have you ever done something that you

later regretted because you got

impatient?

Have you ever had to go back and say,

"Gosh, sorry. I don't really know what

came over me. Sorry, I lost my temper. I

lost my mind.

Sorry." I can think of those things. And

you have to admit to it. I'll just know

that like we all struggle, right?

Patience is something that yeah, maybe

like that kid, you're like in the

moment, man, I did it and I overcame the

thing. But over time, man, man, I get

put in situations and man, it turns out

I'm not very patient at all. Just put me

behind a red light with a teenager on

their phone. Lose my mind. Um,

so then the question is like then how do

you get better at it? If it's true, and

I don't need to convince you much that

um, you'd be better off if you develop

some patience. What would you do if I

said, "Okay, here I'm going to pray in a

minute, send you all off, start building

patience." What would step one be?

Just just go to different red lights and

just sit there behind people on their

phone. Um, Yeah, it's a little hard.

It's a little opaque. It's like, so what

would I do in order to to build that? As

I processed this this week, I had a

thought that I hadn't thought before

because we're in our Abraham series

looking at this living a life of faith

that I think there's a real linkage

between patience and faith that I had

never seen before. And it's this that I

think patience is more about what you

believe

than it's about your actual ability to

wait. What I mean by that is you want

something. You've been waiting for

something. It's like a relationship or

you've been waiting for a career move or

you've been waiting for that person to

stop acting the way they act and you've

been waiting for your kids to figure out

some stuff and you've been waiting for

your spouse to figure out some stuff and

uh you've been waiting a long time. And

what happens in your waiting is you want

the thing. You know it's the right

thing. You know you should wait. you

felt like, yeah, you prayed about it and

God told you like, "Hey, just wait. I'm

gonna I'm gonna work in that person. I'm

going to work in that situation. Your

finances are going to get better. You

don't have to cut a corner. Just wait.

You don't don't cut a corner in your

relationships." But what happens over

time is like, "Yeah, but I could do it

this way and just kind of circumn this

problem." I mean, because all my friends

are doing it. I mean, like, it's working

out for people in the world. Like, why

don't I just do what they do?

And the question is, do you believe in

that moment? Do you have faith that

waiting for the thing that you know you

should wait for is actually better than

I'm just going to do it on my own and do

an end around. Have you ever been there

this morning?

That's what I want to talk about. So,

now that you're scared and almost

depressed, um, Genesis chapter 16 is

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

where we're going to be. And from the

fun of watching USA hockey win to a

story that I'm just going to warn you.

You're going to be like, "Oh my gosh, I

should have watched more hockey

highlights." Um, here's here's the first

truth that we're going to bump into. And

you'll notice like how I how I worded

these points. I'm kind of bringing that

faith piece and that patience piece

together because I think this is what's

going on. that God is going to put you

in places where you're going to need to

wait in order to build patience so that

you build faith. You strengthen what you

believe as you wait, which at the same

time builds your patience and faith.

It'll become clear as we move along. But

the first truth is faithful patience

listens to God's voice. Faithful

patience listens

to God's voice. This is Genesis 16

starting in verse one.

Now Sarai, Abram<unk>'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." Now, a couple of thoughts and

just things to notice just to set the

scene and for us to feel what's going

on. We're not surprised at some level.

We're in chapter 16 that Sarah hasn't

been able to have a child. We knew that

going in. First Sunday, Genesis chapter

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

11 into 12. We found out Sarah was

barren. We knew that.

But we also know it's hard.

It was hard then. It's hard today. If

you're a woman and you want to have kids

and you are unable, that is hard.

Your identity is tied up in that at some

regard. Your value as a woman is tied up

to that in some regard. And rightly so.

As I've talked to ladies over the years,

very few will tell me like, "Ah, no, I

don't really want to be a mom. I'm good.

No, I don't really want to." The v like

that's the minority, the vast majority

of women that I have met want to be a

mom.

So to be deprived that good day or bad

day,

how about for a 60-year-old woman?

Good day, decade or bad decade after

decade after decade.

And so you can empathize. I can

empathize with how Sarah feels in the

moment. That stinks.

She's been promised a child. So she now

can sit and be like, "Oh, like God said,

one day we're going to have a child.

But since that promise in Genesis 12 to

now, guess what? She's had to wait

another 10 years."

Easy or hard?

I can't think of much harder things to

wait for.

The other piece that we learn here is

that um Hagar was an Egyptian servant of

Sarah. If you remember also back to

Genesis 12, uh Abram and Sarai because

of a famine in Canaan had to sojourn to

Egypt. And so likely that's where their

household expanded and that Haggar the

servant went with them as they went back

to Canaan. The other thing I want you to

notice is Sarah at this point gets it

right in that if you were to ask her,

"Hey Sarah, why do you think you haven't

been able to have a kid?" She she gets

the right answer. Behold, it's the Lord

that has prevented me from bearing

children. That's correct. What you'll

see in Genesis and on through is it's

God who opens and closes wombs. As hard

as that truth may be, depending on the

season you're in,

What do you think she's going to do to

solve it?

She's been walking with God, her and her

husband, imperfectly, but they've been

doing it. And so, here she is. She knows

like God said, like we're going to have

this.

But I also see in my culture a whole lot

of people fixing this problem, not

waiting for it, and then doing an

endound.

What does Sarah decide?

Having the conversation with her

husband. She says, back to verse two,

"Go into my servant."

It may be that I shall obtain children

by her. Now, to our modern ears, that

sounds a bit crazy. Um,

because who would do that?

I'm going to give my husband to my

servant, my maidervant, and have them

sleep together.

That's one way to solve it. Again, so

that you understand a little bit

plight totally normal in that day and

age like people were doing it all the

time. One of your servants is like

you're going to see it not um Abram's

son but his grandson is going to do a

very similar thing. Jacob and if you

ever read that story uh it goes about as

well.

Uh

ah but right you you were here last week

and we read Genesis 15 and Abram had

this amazing moment with God. They grew

closer. God reaffirms in the clearest

terms the promise. You're gonna have a

kid and it's going to be great. I'm

gonna make a nation of you. He has him

look about the stars like that's how

many kids you're going to have. It's

going to be amazing. So, what's going to

happen is Abram is going to stand

strong. He's going to look at Sarah and

he's going to say, "No,

hold on. We're going to trust God. We're

gonna hang on another day and another

week and another year if it's necessary

because God promised. And now look what

Abram does.

And Abram listened to the voice of

Sarai.

So after Abram had lived 10 years,

that's the decade that they've been

waiting. In the land of Canaan, Sarai,

Abram<unk>'s wife, took Hagar the

Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to

Abram her husband as a wife.

Please underline, highlight, um, note,

star.

Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Question, whose voice should Abram be

listening to?

But he doesn't.

What you should have read is when Sarah

comes to Abram, he goes, "I get it,

babe. This is hard for me, too. I'm

sorry. This is so painful. Let's build

an altar to the Lord, and we're going to

beseech the Lord again." And they

worship again. It doesn't happen.

What he does is he listens to the voice

of his wife. And then sure enough, they

go through with their plan. And

I mean, you're smart people. How's this

going to go? Good or bad? I'll pray

about it first.

No, you know how this is going to go.

This is going to go horrible. And just

so you know, I'm gonna make you

depressed even more here in a minute.

Um,

but the issue is, what voice are you

listening to?

What voice are you listening to? Because

in the midst of your waiting, whatever

you're waiting for right now, you're

waiting for something in your marriage,

you're waiting for something with your

kids, you're waiting for something in

your business, you're waiting for

something and you're tempted like I hear

this voice and one voice is the voice of

your enemy who's lying to you about how

to fix it or you're listening to the

voice of your friends or you're

listening to the voice of culture or

you're listening to voices online and

and you're like, "Oh man, it seems to be

working out for them. I'm trying to wait

for this thing. It seems like God's

being unfair to me at some level. I

don't know. We've been waiting forever.

I totally know how these folks feel. And

you're tempted in that moment like, man,

if I could just do an end around, we'll

just cut the corner and it'll be fine.

It'll be fine, right?

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever been there? Here's like

this is a hard story to read. Why?

Because God really wants you to listen

to his voice. Because the prime here's

the principle. The primary voice that

you and I are listening to is the voice

you will ultimately obey.

The primary voice you are listening to

is the voice that you will ultimately

obey.

Here's what I thought we'd do. I thought

we would talk about each of our dating

lives. Okay? Okay. So, we're going to

make up a line over here and you're

going to come up and I'm going to give

you the microphone and

um I know some of your stories and you

are married to your high school

sweetheart and praise God for you. For

the rest of us, right here, I just want

to like I tried to like figure out a way

to describe uh my dating life in my 20s

before I met Heather. This is my basic

description of my dating life.

What am I doing? Uh why? Why? Well, if

you if you can empathize with me in that

because that's a bit of your story,

right? What we're in February. What

holiday comes in the middle of February?

Valentine's Day. And what happened? I am

tired of being alone on Valentine's Day,

right? I'm also tired of being alone on

my birthday. I'm tired of being alone at

the holidays and New Year's Eve. I like

to have a date on New Year's Eve. And

so, what happens? Well, she shows up and

like, yeah, there's some glaring

problems, but she's got some good

qualities, too.

And I know I shouldn't. Like, yeah,

we'll go out. Or this is the other thing

I'll hear a lot, right? Students, please

listen. Um, this is what you'll hear.

Yeah, but she's hot.

Or or students, keep listening. Or,

yeah, but he's hot. right? Which I

always respond with, well, hell's hot,

too.

And I recommend you don't go there.

That's what I recommend.

But notice like this is a principle,

right? If you have if you have anything

like that in your dating life, right?

You know, you should wait. You know,

like, okay, I'm going to trust God. If

he wants me to be with someone, he's

going to bring someone. And please don't

hear me. I'm not saying you're being a

hermit and you're just sitting in your

house. Lord, deliver me a spouse. Right?

No, you got to get out there. Please

hear me. Don't hear what I'm not saying.

But here's what happens. You know, like

here's an option. And you're like, it's

not a great option, but better than

being alone. So,

how's it go when you do that?

Or how about this? You're a parent,

right? And you're trying to like loosen

the reins and help your kids grow and

make their own decisions. And then they

start to make their own decisions and

you're like,

Don't say anything.

And then what happens, right? You can't

take it anymore. And you say something

and it brings the relationship together,

doesn't it not?

Yes. Closeness

comes. No. Right. We're also in tax

season. Part of my Saturday yesterday

was on Turboax. Is that fun? If you're

an accountant, I love you. Um, there's

going to be a ton of people this tax

season, like every tax season, and be

like, "Yeah, we totally can take that

deduction

and that one and that one." Why? Well,

because I'm not going to wait for God to

provide for me to the level that I want

to provide. And heck, you know how many

people are cheating the government way

worse than my couple thousand bucks?

Which voice are you listening to?

I want to give us something that

hopefully will become a foundation stone

in how we operate as uh Lake View, not

only now, but in perpetuity.

When you come every Sunday, I I care a

little bit that you listen to me. I care

a lot that you listen to the Lord.

So, here's what I want us to do every

time you come. Here's the question I

want you to ask and answer every Sunday.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to me?

Whether it's me preaching or someone

else or something in a lyric or

something Michael leads us in like when

we do uh special prayer time like we did

this morning. What is the Lord

speaking to you? That's what I care

about. And you and I all growing in the

ability to tune our ear to hear his

voice.

Of all the skills, like if I could just

like if God said, "All right, Eric, I

give you three wishes. My first wish,

all of you would have this.

All of you would have this." Full stop.

You're like, "Well, a lot of people when

I bring that up, they're like, I don't

know. Like, sometimes I feel like I

know, sometimes I don't. Like, can you

give me some help? So, here's my help.

as you think about like, okay, you're

here this morning and you're like, okay,

we're talking about patience. We're in

Genesis 16 and maybe it's the thing

about listening to the voice. You know,

I feel like the father is telling me

like the Holy Spirit's saying, listen to

my voice more. Okay, man. I write that

down. I put a note in my does it align

with God's character. How you can check

in the moment is if it like it's

definitely from him. It aligns with his

character. Is this something that I know

like the character of my father would

say he's a good dad? Does it align with

that? The second piece is this. Does it

align with his word? He's never going to

tell you something. The spirit will

never speak to your heart um other than

what's already in alignment with what's

been revealed in scripture. So, if it's

something that doesn't fit, you can

jettison that. I don't know. That was

the burrito the night before. All right.

But what I want you to do, not only

here, but when you show up at men's,

women's, your small group, here is the

question to ask and answer. What's the

Holy Spirit saying to you?

What's the Holy Spirit saying to you?

I'm telling you, the better you get at

this question, man, life goes a lot

better. Not easier,

better.

All right. So, first, faithful patience

listen to God's voice. And second,

faithful patience knows impatience leads

to increased pain. So, now we're going

to read the ramifications of what we all

know was a bad idea. Verse four,

and he went into Hagar, and she

conceived. And when she saw that she had

conceived, she looked with contempt on

her mistress. And Sarah I said to Abram,

"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 Sarah, "Behold, your servant is in

your power. Do to her as you please."

Then Sarah dealt harshly with her, and

she fled from her. Um, everything gets

worse to no one's surprise.

What's interesting is right out of the

gate the the power dynamic say between

Sarai and Hagar flips where Sarai who's

the master and Hagar is the servant now

who's on top of who? Oh, I can imagine

like Hagar is not dumb. She knows she's

a bit of a pawn. They She knows she's

being used and so she conceives. I would

imagine

a little pride

Who's a real woman now, Sarah?

Wouldn't you think?

Finally, man. Who's on top of who now?

Ah, you're still barren. I see the word

for contempt there literally means it

means to despise or disdain.

Okay. So, whatever relationship they had

before, that's now worse. How are uh

Sarai and Abram doing?

Sarah turns to Abram. you dirty

something something

can't believe this happened

and now their marriage is well you read

it

but Abram

man of faith strong in the Lord

totally passive whatever you want to do

he was from southern Canaan Um,

here's the principle I think we see in

this passage.

Here's you get to choose while you're

waiting. You can either choose the pain

of patience

or the increased pain of impatience.

That's your choice.

Let me explain.

um 20 thou uh 2011 to 2018,

my wife and I uh planted a church in the

Dallas area. Uh have you has anyone been

a part of a startup? Raise your hand if

you've ever been to a part of a startup.

Yeah, I mean a lot of folks

entrepreneurial and whatnot in Austin.

Um startups are hard, right? Um about

the same percentages fail church-wise

and business-wise. you know, you do the

studies, whatever, 60 to 65% of startup

businesses fail. About that number of

churches fail, right? Startup like it's

just difficult to get something started

from nothing. And so, we endeavored. We

felt like we heard God. We did all the

praying like, "Okay, I feel like the

Lord's calling us to this. We're going

to start." And 2011, uh, we started and

it went horrible.

And if you've been a part of a startup

where like month to month you're like I

don't know if we're going to make it

another month. It was kind of like that.

And so month after month and we'd start

to get a little progress and then boom

something would happen and that progress

would go away and it was just like man

for like the first three years

it's like man I don't know if this thing

is going to make it. It just felt like

like like if a like if a soft breeze

went by the thing would crumble kind of

feeling. If you've been in startups, you

know what that feels like. Um,

but me, man, man of faith. You know what

I did is I prayed and I didn't pray,

God, you know, should we continue or

should we not? You know what I prayed?

God, let me go.

Man, why did you take me out of the

military? I was at least good at that.

Like, I'm a bad leader. I'm a bad

preacher. I'm a bad pastor. I'm like I'm

bad in every way. Like I had I I would

joke like I have the antimidas touch.

You know the mightest touch you touch

everything turns to gold. I touch it

every turns to something else.

Yeah. You feel me? You've had that

season. You're like everything I choose

turns to. That's how I felt.

That's exactly how I felt.

I was God you made a mistake.

Like I prayed and you told me no. stick

it out. And every time I prayed, you

know what God said? No. And I get more

mad.

Just let me go fly for Southwest. Let me

go fly for FedEx.

Go fly packages around. Packages don't

tell you you stink. That'd be awesome.

And then I don't remember how I came

across this. Maybe I was listening to a

a message or whatever. probably my wife

told me this because most good ideas

come from her. Um but this idea of um

play the movie,

play the movie. Uh what play the movie

is is when you're trying to make a

decision and you've got a couple

options, just imagine the movie scene of

what's going to happen from your

decision down the line,

right? good way to kind of just play it

out like okay I'm gonna I'm thinking

about doing this like what's gonna

happen six months and 12 months just

play the movie right and so I did and I

imagine myself you know we're at 30,000

ft and tray tables up and all that

and I would have known that I was not

where I was supposed to be

and the Lord in his kindness

said, "Okay, let's play the movie. How

are you going to feel if you make that

decision?"

And I said, "I'm gonna

I'll actually feel worse."

Here's what's going to happen to you as

you wait on God. You are like Abram and

Sarah. You are going to feel the pain of

waiting. The challenge is that's a known

quantity. You know what that's feels

like. And what the enemy is going to

tell you and what your flesh is going to

want is to reve uh relieve that pain.

And so you're going to look at like, oh

yeah, but you know, I know that's a

possibility, but it's probably not going

to be as bad as I think.

And what you're going to do is you're

going to exchange your present pain for

like raise your hand if you're at all

surprised what happened. Yeah, me

neither.

It got worse. It got way worse.

And so in the midst here's here's what

the Lord is trying to get us in the

midst of your waiting. It's hard. He

knows it is hard. It is it is legitimate

pain. He knows it. Whether you're

waiting for some like you're you're a

couple and you're waiting for a child.

You're in a marriage that isn't going

great and you need to wait. Don't

divorce. Like just hang in there.

Or in your career you're like, man, it's

just ah, and please don't hear me. I'm

not saying you don't ever make a change.

Sometimes you do. But often here's

here's what I found more than anything

else, right? When when I do the debrief

with someone, I like, "Hey, did you pray

about the decision before it?" Like

kind of

here's what the Lord is trying to get

you to do. He's trying to get you like,

"Please just hang in with me." Could you

imagine how this story would have gone

if they just said, "Nope, we're not

going to do it that way.

Whatever you're waiting for right now,

please,

please wait on God.

Please listen for his voice.

Please continue to press in. I know I

know it's painful,

but I'm here to tell you that the other

option is worse.

The other thing I love about this

chapter,

We're all thoroughly depressed. Um

is it ends in such grace

because faithful patience trusts our

faithful God who hears

and sees

and sees me.

This is this is amazing. Verse seven,

the angel of the Lord found her by a

spring of water in the wilderness. The

spring on the way to Shure. sure would

have been um on the way back to Egypt.

So Hagar is trying to go home.

Can totally understand.

And this angel, more on that in a

second, said, "Uh, Hagar, servant of

Sarah, where have you come from and

where are you going?" She said, "I'm

fleeing from my mistress Sarah." The

angel of the Lord said to her, "Return

to your mistress and submit to her." The

one thing she doesn't want to do. And we

totally get it. In verse 10, the angel

of the Lord also said to her, "I will

surely multiply your offspring so that

they cannot be numbered for multitude."

At first, this figure, this angel of the

Lord, you're like, "Hm, angel of the

Lord shows up. Is this like an angel or

maybe something more?" And at the end of

that paragraph, what does the angel say?

Only something God can say. An angel

can't say, "I'm going to multiply you."

Only God can say that. And in a second,

you're going to see where Uh Hagar calls

this angel God and she doesn't get

corrected.

So who is this that she's talking to?

This is Jesus. This is a pre-incarnate

what we call theophony

where Jesus shows up.

And then in this passage

and starts in verse 11, the the the main

point is going to be carried in the

three names that we're going to see.

The first is Ishmael, which means God

hears. Look at verse 11. And the angel

of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you

are pregnant and shall bear a son. You

shall call his name Ishmael,"

which means literally God hears.

Because the Lord has oh, and there's our

word again, listened to your affliction

that he is really listening

and we are to listen to him. And then

verse 12, he shall be a wild donkey of a

man, his hand against everyone and

everyone's against him, and he shall

dwell over against all his kinsmen. Um,

parents, how often do you use the name

that you gave your kids?

A little or a lot over their lifetime?

All the time, right? You better pick

wisely because you're going to say it a

lot. Here's what I love. Like, this is

so kind and gracious what Jesus is doing

with her and Abram and Sarah. What would

you do if you wanted to make that they

remembered the lesson and didn't forget.

We're going to name the child God Hears.

Hey, has anyone seen God Hears? Left him

here a second ago. Hey, God hears. Time

for bed. Hey, God hears. Time to uh

brush your teeth. Hey, God hears. Come

in. Wash up. It's time for uh uh dinner.

God hears. God hears. God hears. God

hears.

What message do you think the Lord is

trying to get

in the kindest way?

He's not trying to call him on the

carpet. You know why you guys are in the

situation you are?

We're going to name the child God Hears.

In the midst of your waiting, in the

midst of your being patient, do you know

what you need to know? That your father

hears you. And if he hears you, what's

the implication?

Talk to him. Talk to him.

It gets better.

Second name, God sees. Verse 13, she

called the name of the Lord who spoke to

her. Spoke to her. You are a God of

seeing. literally

at Elroy, the God who sees. Well, why?

Because it's it's actually it's helpful

to know that God hears you. But it's not

really enough, is it? Because I also

want to know that God's paying

attention. I also want to know that he

knows what I'm going through. Do you

realize how long we've been waiting? Do

you realize what's going on? Do you

realize all the other people are you're

blessing and you're not blessing us?

Like, what gives God

He's like, "I see you. I'm not distant.

I'm not I'm not dispassionate. I'm not I

haven't forgotten about you. I see you

right where you are with what you're

going through."

And then it gets better because he

doesn't just see, he sees me. So

the rest of verse 13, truly here I have

seen him who looks after me.

Therefore the well was called

Roy that lies between Kadesh and Bared.

And Hagar bore Abram a son. And Abram

called the name of his son whom Hagar

bore Ishmael.

Abram was 86 years old when Haggar bore

Ishmael to Abram.

In the midst of our waiting, what you

want to know is not only does God hear

you, God sees you.

But he sees exactly what you're going

through.

And then you can wait and then you can

I came across an article in the Atlantic

this week called Relearning the Lost

Skill of Patience.

I don't recommend you read it.

Jessica Lehei is the author and in the

article she cites the work of a Harvard

professor who um has a um class at

Harvard for the engineering students uh

on observation how to uh and problem

solving

uh and what they do what she does is

engineers many of you are those

uh engineers solve problems

right? They solve hard problems. And um

what they have found at Harvard, I

guess, is that if you increase your

observational skills, you'll be a better

problem solver. Makes sense. So what she

does as kind of like a seinal project in

the class is they make all the she makes

all the engineering students uh write an

essay on a piece of art

and she makes them not just like look up

a picture on the internet. She makes

them go to a museum or gallery

and the first thing they have to do is

observe the painting

for three hours. They have to sit there.

Uh she comments that it's it's meant to

be intentionally a little bit over the

top to help drive the point home.

Um,

she says this,

this is the professor, extended

attention reveals nuances and details

unavailable to the casual student or

rushed museum goer. She notes that just

because, please listen, just because you

have looked at a painting doesn't mean

you've seen it.

Just because something is available to

your vision doesn't mean it's available

to your consciousness.

Why is God going to have you wait?

What's he really doing in your waiting?

He's growing your patience. Yep. He's

growing your faith. What does he want

you to see

him?

The reason why you have had to wait in

your life and the reason why in the

future you will have to wait is God is

going to leave you there. I promise you

until he gets your attention. Why?

Because you need time with your father.

There is nothing more important for your

life than to see the contours, so to

speak, and the details and the nuances

of who he is and who he is to you. So

God in his grace, sometimes severe

grace, is going to put you in situations

where I'm leaving you there until you

look at me.

I'm you are going to wait until you look

at me until I'm the most important

thing. Why? Because he is.

Because he is.

And when God looks around heaven and he

wants to bless you, he wants to bless

you with the most important thing he

has, which is what?

Himself.

And he will not let you have lesser

blessings when he wants to give you

I just love that Jesus showed up

like in a story that starts off as a

train wreck.

Jesus comes.

Why?

Because in the midst of your waiting,

who wants to come?

Why? So you and him can know each other

better. And then guess what happens?

Then you're able to wait. And then your

faith grows. Do you see it?

Please hear me as your brother and

friend. I'm sorry for the things that

you have to wait for. And I'm sorry for

the disappointments. I know they stink.

But your father does not waste one of

them. And he doesn't waste one day that

you have to wait.

But he will not give you something less

than himself.

It's not actually good for you.

So, here's what I thought we'd do.

Can we practice?

If you're here with your spouse, please

hold their hand.

If you're here with a friend and you're

a guy, don't hold his hand.

Um,

if you want to pray with a friend,

that's great. If you're by yourself, you

can you can talk to God by yourself.

But here's what I want to invite us to

do just with the last few minutes. The

thing that you are waiting for, talk to

him about it.

Why? Ishmael,

he hears.

Like you are not here by accident. That

thing you were waiting for and you're

like God like what gives?

He wants to tell you.

So whether it is something you've been

waiting for or you're like in a season

right now and you're like, man, like I

feel like God has delivered some stuff.

I'm feeling pretty good. Then I would

just say whatever is on your heart and

mind,

but why don't we talk to him? So just

take a minute while you're there, bow

your heads.

Gentlemen, if you feel comfortable,

please pray out loud over your wives.

What does the father want to have a

conversation with you about?

Your father loves you more than you can

imagine.

And he's good.

He's so good.

Go ahead and pray to your father.

Whatever you need, go ahead and ask.

Whatever you need to hear him say,

Father, we uh

we declare that you are a good God,

that Jesus, you are the one and only

savior

and Holy Spirit, you are with us.

And so I ask for my friends that

in the midst of something they're

waiting for. I pray that you would

deliver

and that you would show up for them in

the ways that they need.

I pray that you would help them. If your

answer is going to be you need to wait a

little longer, I pray your grace over

them to wait.

Pray that you continue to help us. I

just

If anything else, can we hear your

voice?

Would you speak to us?

Where else are we going to go?

Jesus, you have the words of eternal

life.

Father, I pray that you'd be with us

now.

I thank you that you heard every prayer.

Thank you for your love and your grace.

I thank you, King Jesus, that you're on

the throne.

And I thank you that one day we're going

to be done waiting.

We ask it in Jesus name.