When Sadness Invades: Finding Refuge in God || Pastor Adam Mesa

The fold with the fellow.

This is just play sad.

All these people here living their life happy, just stayed

in bed. They're just irritating me with their joy.

Well, I'm in pain. They have sunshine, I have rain?

Wait?

Is that o j rat By Robbie? What is that

John pay Sunshine? Yep, that's Robbs. Yeah.

I heard it at the work karaoke night.

That was such a fun night for everyone else. I

hated it. I was so miserable. Why did they invite me?

I just loads that stuff.

It's like they invite me so I can hate it.

Maybe they hate me so much they are actively contributing

to my misery.

She looks Is that Trevor? He looks so much like Trevor.

But I can't believe you broke up with me. We

had such good times. I miss him.

He was kind of SYMPATHO. You had a total buzzkill.

You could always bring me down. I feel so lone.

What what am I even doing here? In line of movies?

Guys, it's just a reminder that my life is a

horror movie, or like a tragic love story. It's like Titanic.

I would be jacked.

There's no room for me.

On the life raft.

God, I'm a tentantic and all of these people are icebergs.

This is such a sad day, Mber.

I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about what I did.

Sorry.

I wanted to ask you something because you're a doctor, right, yeah.

I don't like myself sometimes.

Can you help me.

Marry him a dentist day?

What gotta help do you think I can give you?

Hey, everyone can answer your question. You got a moment?

Which team do you play for? Well?

I don't teach.

Well. I was just.

Wondering because I couldn't figure out.

Why you would throw home when we've got it to

run lead.

You let the tying run get on second, and we

lost the lead because of you.

Are you crying?

No?

Are you crying?

There's no crying.

There's no crying in baseball.

This is sadness with a caring touch and a kind heart.

Sadness leaves into action to let you, I said, Sadness

leaves into action. Sadness, Oh, sadness.

Sadness.

You know, when you think about it, sadness can be

a great friend, but it also can be a great enemy,

depending on what you feed that sadness.

You know, if you've been like me. Anytime you've gotten

a new car.

Every car takes a different level feel Some take regular fuel,

some take premium fuel, and it's important to understand if

you want to take the vehicle somewhere, you got to

know what fuel to put in the vehicle.

Your sadness is kind of like that.

You have great movies that provoke either sad emotions or

the movie itself is sad in it of itself.

Long Live Fucking.

You. Also think of the movie The Lion King where

Simba loses his father.

He's in a power struggle with his.

Uncle, and he's outcast from his family and his community.

There's other movies like Marley and Me where a great

man who loves his dog is gonna lose his dog

and it may pass away. There's incredible movies like this

that provoke and feel certain feelings of sadness that we see.

The reality is sadness could be so healthy for us

if we're in the process of grieving. But also sadness

should we not know how to grief properly, could be

something that we remind ourselves every single day.

There are some emotions that just.

Aren't healthy for you on a regular basis, But unfortunately

sadness isn't one of those sadness, grieving, crying, those could

be really good for your soul. But also should you

continue to hold onto those emotions and you find yourself

sitting in that place, that can also feel levels of desperation,

levels of depression, and you'll even see anxiety creeping in

that emotion as well. So why don't we take a

look a little bit deeper today into that feeling of sadness.

All right, let's talk about sadness. I didn't know if

we were gonna do that lego giving video game.

It's good to see all you guys.

Hey, if you're just ready to jump in the world,

would you go to Psalm's thirty one. That's where we'll

start today. So good to see everyone. You're turning to

Psalms thirty one. If you didn't bring a Bible today,

that's okay, we'll have it up on the screen.

I just want to spend a moment.

Can we thank all of our dream team and volunteers

for this month, specifically everything they've done for.

At the movies.

You know, we get popcorn outside and characters and our

dream team is wearing their blockbuster shirts and just giving

us the whole experience. I'm so thankful for all those

that serve. And if you ever want to jump into

serving anywhere in the church, we do something called Growth

Track every Sunday. So if you ever want to be

part of Growth Track, you just go on our website,

go to the connect tab. And it's not just about serving.

It'll also tell you about about our church. It'll teach

you a little bit about your gifts, It'll let you

discover a little bit about God, It'll know a little

bit about your purpose. And then lastly, if you'd like

to plug in in some type of way, you'll be

able to do that.

So you could always.

Jump into Growth Track and be a part of the

family in that way by going to our website. If

you're there, why don't you do me favor and stand

for the honor of reading God's words today?

Psalms thirty one, verse.

Nine to eighteen, And I'm doing a different translation today.

I'm doing the New Living translation because it'll help us

kind of put it into.

Our modern day language.

If you read it in the ESV, which is closest

to what the original language would have been, it would

have maybe words that you aren't familiar with. But this

new NLV will have it in a language that we

understand today. To really captivate what King David's emotions were

in Psalm ninety one or Psalm thirty one. Here's what

it says. Show me loving kindness, O Lord, for I'm

in trouble. My eyes, my soul, and my body are

becoming weak from being sad. For my life gets weaker

with sorrow and my years with crying inside myself. My

strength has left me because of my sin, and my

bones waste away because of all of those who hate me.

I've become a shame to my neighbors. Even my friends

don't want to be with me. Those who see me

on the street run for me. I'm forgotten like a

dead man, and they do not think about me. I

am a broken pot. For I have heard many saying

things to hurt me. Fear is on every side. They

plan together against me. They thought of ways to take

away my life. But as for me, I trust in you,

O Lord. I say you are my God. My times

are in your hands. Free me from the hands of

those who hate me and from those who try to

hurt me. Make your face shine upon your servant. Save

me in your loving kindness. Do not let me be

put to shame, Oh Lord, for I call to you.

Let the sinful be put to shame. Let them be

quiet in the grave, Let the lime lips be quiet, for.

They speak with pride and hate.

Those who do right and do good. Amen, you may

be seated. That's enough that we can it all.

Just closing prayer and head home and get in our cars.

He just said speaks.

Enough in and on, But maybe we'll use that as

a launching point today to see how King David encourage us.

And then we're gonna actually see some from some individuals

in the Bible who experienced sadness in their life in

three different ways.

But I just want us to see this morning.

Normally, when we think of some type of sadness in

our life, normally we put it into a connotation of

a few things.

We experience sadness when we experience grief.

Maybe you've lost someone or you've lost something, and it

causes a massive amount of grief in your life, and

so it hurts, and so you're sad continually and you

find those emotions there. We also find ourselves in a

place of sadness often when it comes to being a

shamed of something. Maybe it was a large decision you made,

or maybe you don't want to show your face to

a certain type of people, or maybe you don't even

want to show yourself your face to God because of something.

And so there's a shame, there's a sadness, and then

a little bit different but similar is.

Oh, God's calling somebody.

And then lastly, there's also this idea of embarrassment. You know,

embarrassment happens a shame, maybe something that we don't want

to see or revisit, but embarrassment is just, hey, something

has happened to me in my life, and I just

completely am embarrassed about it. And I don't know if

you've ever got that ick before where you're just sitting

in the car, you're somewhere and you just remember something

really embarrassing you've done in your life and you just

you're like, I can't believe I did that, or I

can't believe I said that. That's normally we're kind of

where we think of where sadness sits. But I also

want you to see sadness is also in some other

things that are seasonal. You see sadness can happen. I

have been a youth pastor for many years. Sadness would

always happen to seniors who were graduating high school and

they were going off to college. They weren't going to

see their high school friends anymore. It was a step

into adulthood. They were gonna go to college where they

didn't know if they were gonna do good, were they

gonna do bad, how things were gonna be, And so

I always knew seniors who would experience sadness during those seasons.

I also know seasons of sadness often happen for parents

who start to become empty nesters. At first, it may

seem like a celebration, but when that last kid either

goes to college or gets married and they're moving out,

and then you look at your spouse for the first

time and say, I haven't looked at you in eighteen years,

there's sometimes sadness attached to that because you've realized your

whole life has revolved around your children, and so there's

a sadness to say, Oh, what's our marriage gonna look

like in this season? What's my life gonna look like

in this season? Some people celebrate it but all too

often I meet parents who are sad about it. There's

also people who find sadness. I know, for me, I

found sadness when my Sommathias went to kindergarten for the

first time. That was a hard day for me because

similar I don't have teenagers yet, so for my son,

I'm off Mondays and Tuesdays, so that's usually during the

week when kids are at school. So when my sons

before they go to kindergarten they start school, I could

do anything with him on a Monday and Tuesday because

that's my day off. And then they start school and

I'm like, oh no, I like, this is gonna be

hard to navigate, hard to wrestle with because the days

that I'm off, my son's in school, and so I missed.

I kind of missed those days where I was able

to just on a Monday, my day off, go.

To Disneyland with him or whatever.

And it was a new season that I had to navigate,

and it was sad for me and Ashley. And now

we have Toms who we can take him out whenever

we want because he's still in pre K.

But still there's this.

Idea that in seasons of life. They can cause sadness too.

It's not just embarrassing moments, it's not just shame. It's

also natural moments that you and I will encounter that.

Will be sad things.

And so how do we navigate those things? How can

we see purpose in those times? How can we visit

sadness without building a tent for sadness?

How do we do that? Well? Hopefully today we'll offer

some things.

Henry Nuenn, a great Christian thinker, said this sadness should

not be seen.

As a problem.

It is a human response to our brokenness and the

brokenness of the world. In acknowledging our sadness, we open

ourselves to the possibility of healing. We can open ourselves

to the possibility of healing when we understand what sadness is.

We're gonna spend some time in just a moment Genesis

chapter sixteen. If you'd like to turn there, we're gonna

read a little bit from there.

Today.

There's three people in this biblical story I want to

share with you about all three of them experience sadness

in three very different ways. And there are times in

your life that you may experience sadness in one of

these three ways. We have three characters that we're gonna

read about three historical figures. The first one name is Abraham,

but in this story he hadn't had his name changed yet,

so it's still Abram. We're gonna hear about his wife Sarah,

and then we're gonna hear about a servant of theirs

named Hagar. It's important to note that in this passage

they're gonna reference Hagar as Abraham and Sarah's servant. One

of the things is important is to understand culturally those

days what a servant. Your translation may use the word slave.

They're kind of interchangeable. But what it was back then

is if you were someone that was either part of

an impoverished nation, tribe, or people group. If there was

a person who was doing better, they let's just say

they were a successful farmer, they were successful craftsman, what

you and your family would do is you would offer

yourselves as a servant or a slave to get covering

and protection from that person. Okay, so you would say, hey,

I will become your servant if you give us food.

Clothes, and a place to live.

And when that exchange is agreed upon, you immediately become

in their servanthood. Otherwise you recognize that without some type

of person providing for you, your family may die of malnutrition.

So that was very common back then.

Many tribes still do that to this day in bury

developing countries. And so when you see that, it wasn't

forced slavery or force servanthood. It was something that they

chose to step into. Nonetheless, even though someone chose to

be a servant, you can.

Still abuse it.

And we see how Abraham and Sarah abused their servant.

But we're gonna see today. So Genesis chapter sixteen, verse one,

here's what it says.

We do a little reading, but it's important to get

the context. It says, now.

Sarah, Abram's wife had borne him no children. She had

a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarah

I said that Abram, behold, the Lord has prevented me

from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be

so I shall obtain children by her. So she tells

Abraham to sleep with his servant. Probably gonna be no problems,

probably not no red flag whatsoever. And Abram listened to

the voice of SARAHI. So after Abram had lived ten

years in the land of Canaan. Sarah, Abram's wife, took

Hagar the Egyptian her servant, and gave her to Abram,

her husband as a wife, as a second wife. And

he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she

had saw that she had conceived, she looked at her

mistress with content. And Sarah said to Abram, may the

wrong be done to me on you. I gave my

servant to your embrace. And when she saw that she

had conceived, she looked on me with content.

May the Lord judge between you and me.

But Abram said to Sarah, behold, your servant is in

your power.

Due to her as you please.

Then Sarah dealt with her harshly with her, and she

fled from her. The Angel of the Lord found her

speaking of Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness,

the spring on the way to sher, and he said, Hagar,

servant of Sarah, where have you come from and where

are you going? She said, I'm fling from my mistress Sarah.

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 they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the Angel

of the Lord said to her, behold, you are pregnant,

and you shall bear a son.

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 singing, For she said, truly

I have seen him who looks after me.

Therefore the well is called bear Lehai Roye.

It lies between Kadesh and Bared. Let's talk about that

for a few moments.

Today. You see what happens in Layman's terms.

What happens is Abraham and Sarah are married for many,

many years. They're now in their older years, and they've

not been able to bear children. So Sarah gets a

great idea, which is, hey, you should sleep with my servant,

take her as a second wife, and.

Then we'll have children together.

And Abraham instead of saying, hey, bang, I don't think

that's wise.

Maybe we should trust God.

In this season of barrenness, and maybe we should trust

God that one day he will give us a child,

which actually two chapters later, God does give them a child,

but they were impatient, and so he says, hey, that's

a great idea. Who doesn't want two wives? One wife

has never been hard. Let's just add another to the equation.

And so he takes a second wife. And then immediately

now Hagar becomes pregnant, she conceives, and now Hagar looks

as Sarah like, I.

Can do what you can't do.

Sarah don't like that. So then Sarah goes back to

Abraham and says.

Hey, you need to stick up for me. She's giving

me the side eye when I walk in the room.

She's holding her belly every time I walk in the room,

and then looks over at me.

What are you gonna do about that, Abraham?

Abraham goes, that's that's not my servant, that's your servant.

I just did what you wanted me to do. You

do whatever you.

Want with her, and Sarah goes, okay, perfect, I'm gonna

treat her terribly.

Now we don't know what terribly or harshly is.

We don't know if it was physical, we don't know

if it was emotional.

We don't know if it was communal.

We don't know if Sarah told all her friends that

we don't talk to Hagar anymore.

We don't know what it is.

But what we do know it was harsh enough that

Hagar wanted to run away. So Hagar decides, I'm out.

I'm running away, and she goes into a wilderness and

she finds herself far, far, far far away in a spring,

and the Angel of the Lord appears to her, maybe

can have a conversation, and she says, I'm done.

I'm done with this.

I'm done with Abraham, I'm done with Sarah.

I'm good being a single mother. That's what she says.

Do this on my own. The Angel of the Lord says, no, Hagar,

that's not part of the plan. You need to go

back to Abraham and Sarah. And then he says, but

here's a promise.

Is where they did not see you, where they did

not care for you, where they did not look after you,

I see you.

I will look after you.

And whether they take care of your son or not,

I will take care of your son. I will make

in him a great nation. I will bring about a

people in him. Because there's always this idea in their

day that because of famine, because of poverty, that their

family line can in at any moment, any disease can happen.

And so there was always this concern.

Like is this it for my family? Does it stop

with me?

And God makes a promise to her, say it don't

end with you. This doesn't stop with you. And so

in that moment, she introduces us to a name of

God that we have yet to ever hear before, and

she gives him the name el roy Hee, which is God,

you see.

Me, God, you see me.

And here's the great thing about sadness or implications of sadness,

or when you feel like running away, or you feel

like your time to go into wilderness, the beauty is

no matter how far you run, God sees you. God

sees you. God sees you, and he ensures Hagar. He

says I have seen you. And she says, you know

what you're el roy He. That name has never been

given to God before. You're the God who sees us.

And so I don't know about you, But for me,

I can only see so far. Right, So my naked eye,

my naked eye for Adam, it only takes me so far.

I can only see so far I see, and I

can only hear so far. So when I'm not in rooms,

I don't know what people are or aren't saying about me.

When I'm in a space, if they're out of my

eye distance, I don't know whether they're looking at me

positively negatively. I don't know what's going on. I can

only see so far. I can only do so far.

And give me binoculars. I mean I could see further

than my eyes can see. So I mean binoculars. I

can see some people, you know, back there, you know,

sitting down, and I can see some people down in

the hallways, and I can okay, I can see further

than what my naked eye sees.

But I can't see further than that. But then I

could get.

A telescope, and I'm like, oh, okay, if we open

the double doors, I could probably see someone in the

courtyard watching service right now.

Okay, if I get a telescope, I could see to

a certain distance. But that's it. I can only.

See as far as something that hates me or helps me.

But when Hagar says you're the god who sees, she's saying,

there is no element.

God that you need to assis you.

With your sight, you can see in any darkness, you

can see in any valley, you can see in any brokenness.

So she sits there.

She says, God, I came here to run away, but

I guess there's nowhere far enough I.

Can run that. You can't see me, nowhere far that

I can't go. I love that.

That's the beauty of God. I can only see what

I see. Last week I met a beautiful family and

she came up to me and we prayed, and she

had her AirPods on, and she said, on Sundays, my

husband who's in prison, he calls or during his allotted

call time, and I sit in service and I have

my AirPods in and he listens to the sermon while

he's sitting in the penitentiary. And she said, well, you

pray for my husband. He's on right now, and we

pray for the whole family. And here's his name, Pastor Adam.

I didn't see him. I can't see him. I'm not there.

I can't go there on Sundays. You can't go there

on Sundays. But God can go. God can reach areas

that you and I can't reach. He can touch people

that you and I can't touch. That's the beauty about Elroy.

He he sees where you can't see. And that's the

beauty for Hagar as she realizes man God is good

and for her she's Egyptian, she worships false gods. So

she meets Yahweh for the first time as the one.

Who sees her. He saw her, so.

For a few moments today, I just want to look

at three aspects Sarah's, Abraham and Hagar's aspect of sadness

because they're both experiencing sadness very differently. And I'm gonna

give you the thoughts ahead of time and we'll break

them down really quickly together.

But I want you to see, this.

Is the first aspect of sadness for Abraham and Sarah

and Hagar. First aspect of sadness is it was invited.

They invited sadness into their home. You see, Sarah invited

sadness in her home because in her barrenness, in something

that she wasn't willing to trust God anymore. She came

up with a solution that at the time felt like

it was a great solution until reality set in when

there was going to be a child in the home

that wasn't hers and was gonna get the attention of

her husband, and was gonna potentially get the inheritance of

her husband. She starts thinking to herself, I don't like

this idea. Well, Sarah, you invited this idea into your home.

You invited sadness into the home. The second aspect is

it was invented. It wasn't just invited. Sadness was invented

in their home. You see, Abraham agreed to a solution

that would lead to sadness. So Abraham is the father

of the home, says okay, yeah, let's do it.

Let's do it.

So they start to invent a sadness create a problem

in their home that was never gonna be there, was

never meant.

To be there.

Yeah, God had was going to promise, and he had

always promised them a scene. But they let's let's go

to Hagar and then there's little old Hagar, which sadness

was instructed to her.

She didn't ask for this.

She wasn't baking on Abraham's door saying would you please

take me.

As a wife.

She was perfectly fine as a as a servant. They

presented a good idea to her, and then it was

instructed to her, and so Hagar felt the effects of

sadness by just obeying what was asked of her. And

sometimes you experience sadness because you just feel like you're

doing the right thing. Someone asks you to do something,

as someone asks you to be a part of something,

someone asks you to hold something, and then all of

a sudden, sadness is on your front door, and you're like,

I was.

I thought what I was doing was the right thing.

It was asked of you, it was instructed of you.

Here, here's the first aspect I want you. We're gonna

look at where it was, where it was invited. You know,

Sarah begins to invite this because she is sad in

of herself. She's hurt because of her brokenness. She's hurt

because of her barrenness. For decades, she has prayed for

a child, and so what happens because her prayers are

answered on her time, she concocts a solution that might help,

but it doesn't, so in fact, she ends up inviting

this into her home. You know, a few weeks ago,

I had opportunity that I was in Ephesus, which is

the letter of Ephesians was based off of where an

early church was booming. It's in modern day Turkey, and

the apostle Paul had been there and preached there and

he established a church there. And we went to go

see and learn about the Ephesians and the early Church.

And one of the things that we were told by

our guide was there are these pools, these baths everywhere,

and so you'll see in the picture there's these there's

these baths, and the Ephesians and the Romans, really they

put these baths everywhere. So they put these baths, and

that may look dirty there because that was rain and

all that kind of stuff like that. They don't feel

the baths today, so that's just after some rain and

stuff like that.

But it gives us an idea of what the baths

it looked like.

So they were clean and they were refilled all the time,

and all the natural springs came to them. And what

they did was because sickness was really prevalent in their day.

They thought to themselves, everybody was coming into our city

dirty and passing like germs, and so they figured they

put bass in the entry of the city. They put

bass in front of everybody's store, and they put baths

in front of everybody's home, and anytime you entered the

city you had to take a bath. Anytime you entered

into a store, you had to take a bath. Anytime

you entered into someone's home, you had to take a bath.

Because no one wanted to get sick and die. What

they didn't know is when you include that much amount

of water with human conditions, you invite a bug called

a mosquito that.

Carries disease and malaria.

And so what happens is by them thinking they're providing

a solution by adding bath after baths after bath, they're

actually inviting mosquito after mosquito after mosquito, And so they

were actually causing their own death by passing malaria to

each other.

By every home.

That put a bath, it invited a new cluster of mosquitoes.

And so the Ephesians never figured it out that they

were inviting and causing their own issues. They were inviting

their own sadness, and they were never able to focus

on the problem, which was the mosquitoes and the bath.

So instead they just thought, we'll just add more baths,

just people are dirty, make them bathe more. But the

problem was in making these bath It's more prevalent. They

were inviting more issues. There's a lot of times in

our sadness, instead of focusing on the mosquitos, instead of

focusing on the thing that's actually killing us, the thing

that's actually crumbling us, the thing that's actually causing sadness,

we just start building more pools.

We just start inviting more problems. We start asking for more.

Problems, We start trying to pick up more solutions.

Rather than sitting is saying God, how can I.

Get rid of these mosquitoes. These mosquitos are eating me alive.

This sickness is eating me alive. This unforgiveness is crushing me. God,

a broken heart of someone is not that the equation

is not to add a human that will try to

mend your broken heart. It's not a solution. That's just

another pool. And a lot of times we introduce pool

after pool after pool without focusing on the problem and saying.

God, help me, what are the mosquitoes?

I'm inviting these things, this sadness, this brokenness.

In my life. I gotta stop. How do I stop?

The second thing is this is it's an invented problem.

Abraham created and invented an issue for them, and inventing

this issue for them, which they thought was gonna serve

as a solution, ended up being something that was a

massive problem for them, a problem that ultimately affected him

because Agar and.

Ishmael were not great friends.

And even still to this day, that sibling rivalry exist

because the Jewish people are sons of Isaac and the Arabs,

the Islamic people are sons of Ishmael. They both trace

their descendants. They all trace their descendants to Abraham. If

you ever talk to someone's Muslim, the Quran talks about

Abraham a lot. It doesn't talk about Isaac a lot,

talks about.

Ishmael a lot.

And so that sibling rivalry still exists today because of

invented problem that Abraham created in his home, in his home.

But even in the quote unquote mistake, God was faithful

to Ishmael. And there are even times where you may

invent a problem in your life, but that doesn't mean

God can't redeem it. Yeah, I'll talk to young couples

all the time. They invent a problem. They got a

little overly excited with their testosterone and estrogen, and they're young,

and they get pregnant and they say, we made a mistake,

and I say it's okay. It's okay to admit that

you made a mistake. But that doesn't mean that God

can't redeem it. That doesn't mean that God doesn't have

a plan for your child. That doesn't mean that God

isn't going to look at it. Well, the father's not.

In the picture.

And if that doesn't mean that God can't be there,

that doesn't mean God recognized that for Ishmael, Abraham was

not going to serve as his favorite in that time.

But God said, but I will take care of him.

I will cover him, I will be a father to Ishmael.

I will open the doors that So, because there are

times that you may invent sadness in your home, don't

say well that's that that that we're living in this

No God can redeem it. God can reconcile it. God

can mend a broken heart. But will we be like Heygar,

because Hagar was told you got to get back to

that house.

And a lot of.

Christians today we're really good at when problems come to

our door and sadness comes to our door. We're really

good at being like Hagar and we're really good at

running away. We run away from the world, We run

away from.

People, and we just label it.

We just label well, they're they're they're lost, they're just lost.

Well that God likes lost people. They're broken. Oh they

they got problems. God likes problems. But we we go

oh way. But I'm a child of God. So I'm

out of here.

Oh God, like Hagar, God may ask I need you

to go back. You need to be a light to

that family. I call you to leave that place you need.

You needn't get back into action. And so Hagar, even

though things were instructed over her, she was also encouraged to.

Be an example.

And where Abraham and Sarah were supposed to be the

chosen couple that heard the voice of God, Hagar actually

was able to experience God with a personal name before

Abraham and Sarah Elroy. He is personal to say, God,

you see me, you see me. At the time, Abraham

only knows him as the Creator. He don't even know

him yet till Moses steps in as Yahweh the I

am the very personal new name that's covenantal. Abraham doesn't

know God yet as this personal God. But Hagar, she

knows the Lord as the one who sees me in

my wilderness, in my moments of brokenness.

So be encouraged.

Martin Luther said this, Even if I knew that tomorrow

the world would go to pieces, I would still.

Plant my apple tree.

It's this idea that says, Hey, I'm I may be

sad tomorrow. Sadness may be on my front door next week.

I may either invite it, I may either invent it,

or sadness may be instructed on me. But here's what

I know. It's not gonna keep me from showing fruit.

It's not gonna keep me from walking with Christ. It's

not gonna keep me from being obedient to God. You're

not gonna get me to lose myself. You're not gonna

get me to be broken. No one else is gonna

have the upper hand over my emotions. Why Because, like David,

he said, I may be a broken pot, but I

will trust in the Lord who puts me together. So

David recognized, he said, I'm sad. My body is in pain.

People hate me, my own neighbors don't want to look

at me. I'm ashamed.

But then he goes back and he says, oh, but

I will trust in the Lord, he says, My times

are in your hands. He says, God, I have every

excuse to fall apart, but he won't.

David doesn't.

And so we can see that there may be t

sadness in your life. But if you fully rely on God,

and if we take an aspect to say, why am

I sad? How have I gotten this sad place? Is

it something that I asked to come into me? Is

it something that I invented in me? Or is it

something that I had no choice in doing?

But it's on my front door.

The reality is, wherever a space of sadness you are,

God still had a plan for Abraham.

God still had a plan for Sarah.

Sarah still got her child Isaac, and even Hagar had purpose,

and even God redeemed Hagar's story. So no matter where

point of sadness you find yourself, all of it equals

God sees you. No matter where you're at el Roy,

he God sees you. So just know today when you

leave this place, no matter how far you find yourself,

you may be in the back row, you may be

in the courtyard, or you may be in a correction

facility right now. But God sees you even if man doesn't.

It's a good news as a God. And I want

to invite you today if you never made Jesus Christ

your savior. As we close right now, I want to

encourage you today that the first step to experience the

grace of God is by receiving Jesus Christ in your

life as Lord and savior. The good news of Jesus

as this is that he would die on the cross naked,

being ashamed for you, and I Jesus was perfect. He

didn't have to go to the cross. That's what I

love about the word of God. Because sometimes I'll meet

people that are skeptical about the Bible and they'll say,

I've read the Bible. There's people like Abraham who have

second wives and they sleep with people, and they do this,

and they do that. And I go, man, you're just

proving the point on what the Bible's about. The Bible's

about broken and imperfect people. God never said Abraham was perfect.

God never said David was perfect. God never said Israel

was perfect. Who he did say was perfect was Jesus.

That is the point of the scriptures, And so that

you see how imperfect the world is and how necessary

Jesus is, and out of Jesus's lips is to say.

Come to me, all who are heavy laden.

Jesus says, if you deny me on earth, I will

deny you before my father in heaven. He makes it

clear that he has redeemed humanity. And to redeem humanity

is to say, Jesus, you are my Lord and you

are my savior. It's to confess that as the people

in the Bible are broken, so are we.

As the people in the Bible needed a savior, so

do we.

And so today is an opportunity for anyone in this

place that has never given their life to Jesus Christ

to confess.

With him as Lord and savior, and to believe.

In your heart that he died on the cross and

he rose three days later. So I encourage you in

this place as we bow our head and close our eyes.

If you're here you never given your life to Jesus Christ,

and you find yourself at a point that the Holy

Spirit is speaking to you, and the Holy Spirit is saying,

today's the day to make that decision. And I encourage you,

whether you're in the cafe, the courtyard, or you're in

this room, to make that confession of faith, not because

I've convinced you, but because.

God has got a hold of your heart today.

Because as God would get a hold of your heart,

that means you'll be changed forever. If I convince you

for a moment, you'll go back to whatever life look

like tomorrow. But if God gets a hold of your heart,

you'll never look the same. So, as God is getting

a hold of your heart right now, would you join

me in repeating this prayer of confession today? All we're

doing is affirming what God is already doing. Would you

join me in saying this today, Dear Lord Jesus, in

this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior.

I repent of my sins. I believe in my heart

that you rose from the grave.

And from this day forward I call you Lord and Savior,

and I commit to follow you for the rest of

my days.

In Jesus' name, Amen,