Genesis - Part 31 | Pastor Paul McGee

Things that broke out on their body and the question that they

asked those that were around them was what shall we do with

the Ark of the Covenant? It'd be at one town.

They pawned it off another town. Same thing that happened to

them. They're like pawned off your and

they're all, they're all like what?

What shall we do with the Ark of the Covenant, which is the

presence of the Lord in that day?

Amen. I'm glad that I'm not pawned it

off somewhere. Like what?

What should we do with it? I hope we're not ever in the

situation that he moves in and we're like what?

What should we do with this? I hope we know what to do with

it, right? Amen.

That we engage with it. Hallelujah.

Engage with the Spirit in the presence of the Lord.

He man. Just a few announcements

tomorrow night, ladies, night out.

You are leaving the church at 5:15 ladies night out.

You're leaving at 5:15. This coming Sunday is Mother's

Day. Just be 1 service in the AM and

the sister McGee will be speaking mothers on that Sunday

morning and there'll be no PM service again.

Those who there is a sign up sheet on the bulletin board If

you want to participate or help in bringing a dessert for

feeding the firemen then on Monday the 12th and bring that

on Sunday or then there's also time frame there on Monday that

the sister Milan and brother Reese would be your doors open.

You have any questions about that time frame You can see them

and such on the 12th also. This is very important if you

are going to camp. This is important on the 12th is

camp registration. So keep your eyes on Facebook.

I know brother Alex Mason keep things have posted things he

always post things on our church site district stuff.

Amen. About the particular time and

you want to be there before that time and you want to be sitting

at your computer of your phone. If you have a quick thumbs and

you want to be ready to go. It's like a race.

I mean, it's just like a race. So you want to be ready.

You don't want to. Oh, I'll do it at 30 minutes

later, 30 minutes later you might not be going to camp.

Well, let me say like you probably ain't going.

Yeah, and it's Eastern Time. All right.

Pardon me. OK, 6:00 PM Central, 7 Eastern.

So you 6:00 your time PM. So just kind of putting that out

there to kind of, you know, keep damage control down and by

coming to me crying on my shoulder about just a second,

it's seriously, I might be crying.

I go out there for my four man 10 pray God, my wife says she

ain't staying. I would if I had to game of

night the 23rd of of of May. That starts at 7:00 PM game

night. Then our summer kick off on the

25th of May. That's Memorial Day weekend one

service in the AM and then we're going to have food.

Our, our plan is to do and we'll have a menu up here shortly to

do like hot dogs and hamburgers and like potato salad and things

that just kind of like that springy, you know, start type of

aspect. And I'll be getting a menu up

for people to be able to sign up and be trying to talk to a few

men, see if they want to bring maybe two or three girls here at

the church that we can cook off of them such outside and such.

So we have a good time and have a good time.

And then June the 1st through the 4th, I'm stating this ahead

of time. So, you know, like a broken

record, that's OK, but it will be revival with Adrian Sanford.

That's a Sunday through a Wednesday, Sunday through

Wednesday. Amen.

Stamp me turn to the book of Genesis chapter 16 to where we

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

left off last week. We dug into 3 verses.

I'm going to finish out the chapter tonight.

How about that? How about that, Amen.

Also at the end of service, I got some books up here that I'm

ready to go on with, like pass on with.

So anybody that's interested in the book, you can come after

service, peruse, take it, take one or two.

I got one called a good man. That's really along the lines

for men from Baroness to Fruitfulness.

The end of me. This is a devotional.

All right. If you need a devotional for

next year, connect. And then this is a little bit of

a technical read on the science side that folks, I mean, I'm a

nerd. OK, This is very interesting.

Parasite Rex, it's all about parasites, even parasites in

your body that's there right now.

It's pretty interesting. So it is, it is a little bit of

a technical read though, on scientific side.

So for some it might be good reading material for going to

sleep for some of you. All right, Genesis 16, Genesis

16, and verse #4 is where we're starting.

All right. The Bible says, And he went in

unto Hagar. And she conceived.

And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was

despised in her eyes. And so I said unto Abram, My

wrong be upon thee, I have given my maid into thy bosom.

And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her

eyes. And the Lord judge between me

and thee. But Abram said unto Sarah, I

behold, thy maid is in thine hand due to her as it pleaseth

thee. And when Sarah dealt hardly with

her, she fled from her face. I'll stop there and we'll pray,

and then I'll continue reading tonight.

The overall title for all of this is Shared space, Separate

Pain. Shared Space, Separate pain.

Amen. Lord I need you tonight God,

we're great for those that have gathered in on this Wednesday to

once again send our lives around your word.

I pray God it is a word. The Lord, these are the words of

life. Jesus said God and I know Lord

that they can be life giving for us even tonight in our personal

walks, relationship with you. We will not Lord fail to honor

you that I pray Lord Jesus with what we have learned and

understand from here this evening in Jesus name.

You may be seated and I'll continue with verse #7 I'm going

to go and read to the end of the of the chapter and then we can

go from there. And the Angel of the Lord found

her by a fountain. So she fled from Sarah face.

Okay. And so this is going on.

And the Angel of the Lord found her Speaking of Hagar by a

fountain of water in the wilderness.

By the fountain, and the way to sure.

And he said, Haggar, Sarah's maid, Whence camest thou, and

whither thou go? And she said, I flee from the

face of my mistress Sarai. And the Angel of the Lord said

unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit myself

under her hands. And the Angel of the Lord said

unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall

not be numbered for multitude. Let's just pause and think.

This is not being said to Abram, this is being said to Haggar.

And the Angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with

child, and shalt bearish, and thou shalt call his name

Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.

And he will be a wild man, and his hand will be against every

man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell

in the presence of all his brethren.

And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou

God seest me. Or she said, Have I also here

looked after him? That seeth me.

Wherefore the well was called Behold, it is between Kadish and

bread, and Haggar bear Abram a son, and Abram called his son's

name, which Haggar bear Ishmael and Abram was 4 score.

Scores is 20 years all right and six years old when Haggar bear

Ishmael to Abram all right, so he's 86.

Heaven Ishmael, God bless Abram. God bless Abram.

I was just the other day I was at a a doctor's office, actually

a dentist. They were talking about how a

friend of theirs were just having her second child and they

were like my age. I'm saying God bless him, God

bless him. I said I and that's fine.

They do that. I think the Lord allowed me to

do it a little younger so I'd have the energy for the kids

that came into my house. So Amen, Amen.

So most scholars, and I'm just going to kind of do this along

the way tonight because in my own personal notes, I always, I,

I don't just do title of the sermon, but I kind of head up

sections of my sermon. So I'm going to talk a little

bit for here to begin tonight about the womb, A womb, not a

woman womb, not a woman. Because Haggar, again, according

to verse #1 was an Egyptian. She was a maidservant of Egypt

before she was a handmaid or a maidservant of, of Sarah.

And so with that in mind, that basically means that that Haggar

was a female slave of, of some sort, or to some degree, that's

one of the reasons why. And, and note, she is really

Sarah's, Sarah's handmaid, all right, Sarah's slave, so to

speak. And whenever I, I feel like I

could do a whole lot of explaining right here, because

oftentimes we start talking about slaves in Bible, I think

we all think about our recent history in America of modern day

slaves. And that's not what it's like,

but nonetheless, So I don't have time to go into all that.

All right. But when your mind goes there,

that's not what it's like, all right.

But nonetheless, here she is a slave of sorts.

And that's one reason why that whenever Sarah is is concerned

here a little later after that, she is after Hagar has conceived

and she sees a little attitude. It would seem she picked up on

the attitude difference and how Hagar was was toward her that

that she goes to Abraham talking about or Abram talking about all

this and Abrams response to her was in verse number six that

basically your maid is in your hand.

Your maid is in your hand due due to her as as you please her

as you would want to do so again, tying that back to this

is really Sarah's made her slave, so to speak.

But in that there's something else we catch.

You remember that Abram wasn't too had much forethought where

they first went down into Egypt about what might actually happen

to his wife member. You know, say that you're my

you're you're you're my sister, not my wife.

You remember the whole scenario and we talked about that aspect

of of of him a little bit the consideration for his wife.

Well, here's really kind of a second time that Abram Abram

doesn't advocate for another woman his life, the one that now

carrying the seat of his first child, Hagar.

Let's do it for what you want. So this this almost gets a

little bit confusing to me, but the Hebrew term that that

describes Haggar's slavery identifies her as a non Jewish

female slave expected to perform difficult or menial tasks within

the household. And it's actually derived from a

root that specifically refers to this an extra appendage.

An extra appendage, something else, right.

And so it's like that's the viewpoint of Haggar within the

household of Abram and Sarah, the extra appendage, it's almost

like you have a complete nuclear family here and you're just

extra. I already got two hands.

I really don't need another one, but you know what I'm saying?

And so she's she's in this row then really supplementary,

supplementary to them, if I could say she's not essential.

Let's put it in modern day terms, Erica.

She didn't matter. She's the take it or leave it

type of option, you know. And so as a slave, though,

Haggar has no control over her fate.

She has no control over the places that she she would be

taken. She's considered by cultural

standards, she's considered property.

She's considered property. And so she appears to have no

control over her life or the events that happened around her

in her life. As a matter of fact, even her

sexual relations and activities are controlled by her mistress,

Sarah or Sarah. And so that's why we see Sarah

giving Hagar. She's giving Hagar to Abram, and

Abram has relations to her in, in verse #4 And so at this

point, Hagar has has no doubt again been drawn into a

situation here. She has been given to Abram.

She's been drawn into a situation she doesn't have any

control over. All right?

No control over it. Sarah is barren, all right, And

so Sarai sees Hagar as a womb. She's a womb.

And so Hagar assumes the role then that Sarai wants her to

play in, and she does fulfill the role she fulfills a role

that Sarai couldn't fulfill with Abraham herself.

Well, folks, you, you, you, you take a person that's an extra

appendage that's non essential, that doesn't matter, and you let

them fulfill something that matters when the one that's her

Master couldn't. I mean, almost any human being,

almost any human being is going to have a little feelings come

up inside of them. I'm, I mean, I'm just being on.

I mean, I probably would have too.

I know I can't get pregnant, but I'm just saying, I probably, I'm

just saying the, the dynamics, I probably had a little bit of

that also. I mean, I've been subjected to

all these menial tasks. I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I can

be present in the room, but I'm unseen, you know, I, I don't

really matter. I just viewed as extra

unnecessary appendage all these things.

So now though she's been given this task she's needed now, the

non essential is essential now. And so she became what Sarah

couldn't pregnant, pregnant. And so the with this we have

some things that develop and this is my next setting.

They're in this shared space. Speaking of Sarai and Haggar

without shared understanding, according to Sarai, Hagar's

sense of worth now after she is conceived has somehow altered

her attitude to a certain degree towards Sarai.

We read in verse 5 and some of these verses that Sarai even

picks up on that she's she's despising me.

Sorry. She's saying she's despising me.

She's spiteful toward me. And maybe she felt Hagar was

trying to, you know, claim some type of equality with her now,

right? I don't know the whole

situation, but here's Sarah. I, we got to understand these

two lives, these two women, their two lives, Sarah is

dealing with a delayed promise in her life, or at least what

she feel like is delayed. She's barren.

She's aging, right? Bible says that Abram was 86

when Ishmael was born. She's aging.

She's desperate, all right. But then on the other side,

Hagar has been living with this reality of being property.

She's used. She's given to someone like, I

mean seriously given another human being to another human

being and she's controlled. So neither of these ladies are

really at peace. They have their own things that

they are contending with in this moment.

Sarah's identity, here she is. She has barrenness that has

marked her life. Hagar has ownership that's

marked her life, not hers, but someone else owning her.

And So what we see that happens in the Bible.

And I find this also true to life, that whenever pain isn't

processed correctly in our own lives, then it's projected into

other people's lives. Because now that Haggar has this

shift in row of being the concubine or the wife, so to

speak, to Abram, and she conceives, she's empowered by

that right. And she projects some resentment

towards Sarai, toward her mistress.

But Sarah seems to project her frustration right back, no doubt

largely connected to the fact she could get pregnant.

And I couldn't look at the Bible, says Genesis chapter 16

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

and verse number six. We are ready to look at it

again. Here's where Sarah goes and

consults Abram about what what she senses.

And it says that Abram said unto Sarah, I behold thy mate is in

thy hand due to her as it pleaseth thee.

And where Sarah, I dealt hardly with her.

She fled from her face the translation of that last phrase

there there's various various meetings from different

translations. Some of the translations read

that Sarah I dealt harshly or cruelly with Haggar, that she

oppressed Hagar or afflicted and mistreated Hagar.

The Message Bible even goes this far to say that Sarah I was

abusive to Hagar. Mr. Bruce and Fist says this.

He said if Sarah couldn't send her slave away, and the reason

why he says this is because there was some old Babylonian

law and code that that that said that you couldn't just send them

away. You couldn't just send your

slave away. He says if she couldn't send her

away, he said then she could at least make things so ugly that

the poor girl would leave on her own.

So the scenario, the plot thickens for me.

I think it gets a little bit more interesting because here

Sarah has dealt with years of bareness and Hagar's dealt with

years of servanthood. And so they both each, each

woman has their own insecurity. They each have their own

insecurity and, and everything that it entails of being barren

for Sarah and everything it entails of being a slave or

owned for for Hagar. But fact of the matter is, this

one and the other may not understand what this moment

brings to the surface for the other one.

In other words, whenever the conception takes place, one may

not understand how the other one is feeling in this matter at

this particular juncture of time.

Because Sarah, she's no doubt seeing this girl's getting

rebellious. She's there's something rearing

up inside of her, right? But then Haggar's feeling

rejected by Sarah. Huh.

Sarah's feeling dishonored, right?

And then Haggard, she's, she's feeling quite discarded,

especially with the mistreatment and stuff that's coming.

And so it's more than just Haggard serving in the role that

Sarah should have for Abraham. It's that these two ladies are

colliding because they both have some unspoken wounds in their

stories that they're both coming to the same table with.

They're both in pain, different, categorically different, but

they're both in pain. And so they're sharing similar

space, same household, but they lack empathy for one another.

Amen. They lack empathy.

And so Sarah gives Haggard, she gives her away to Abram as a

wife. She mistreats her.

Then after the conception, after everything that was performed,

here's the thing. She wanted what happened,

happened, right, Sarah? That's what Sarah was going for.

That's what she was hoping would be the end result.

But now she's mistreating her for what she wanted to happen,

and she sees she's misunderstanding.

Really the reflection in Hagar because she just doesn't

understand really where she's coming from.

Folks, the end of the day, it's this.

There's a lot of times even in church life, we share space, but

we don't share understanding. Your pain is not my pain, but we

all set in here to some degree with some portion or mount

categorically of pain. And you interpret things that I

project from the unhealed stuff in my life, and you project

stuff from the unhealed stuff in your life.

And then we're more like this than like this, when a good dose

of empathy all around could really change the whole feeling.

Amen. And so Sarah, those remember

this whole thing because it's the promise, the promise.

They come in, you know, quick enough for them.

And so this situation is created and she goes through with it

with with giving Haggar. And then she can't handle the

consequences or she can't handle the consequences of all this.

So Sarah's insecurity is causing her to interpret Haggar as a

threat. And now Hagar's feeling a little

good because she was non essential.

Now she's essential. So there may be a little bit of

pride in there to make you, I mean, come on, you know, welling

up inside of her possibly, you know, And so she started to

interpret. Then this pregnancy is, you

know, superiority. Got a leg up on the mistress.

You know, I could bear children. So when it comes down to the

neither woman is fully seen, fully heard, fully understood.

But also it's important to note though, Haggar wasn't just a

womb for hire. She was a person.

Not just a womb for hire, a person who has a breaking point.

She might have been quote UN quote A servant, but she had a

breaking point. Just because she was labeled A

servant didn't mean she wasn't human.

She had a breaking point. Look at your neighbor and say, I

have a breaking point. That is a very, very good thing

to admit. We all have a breaking point,

right? And so all of Sarah's bitterness

kind of blinded her from the consequences, even from the

consequences of her own cruelty that she's showing back, the

mistreatment that she's showing back toward Hagar.

And the Bible says that Hagar fled from her face.

Think with me, folks. I mean, just take a moment to

think. The promise is delayed.

I'm doing this so that maybe we can help the promise along.

This will still be a child from Abram's bowels.

She's pregnant with the child. Let's make it hard for her so

she'll leave. What?

Right. It's like the thing that you

thought you wanted, now you don't want.

Hey, man. So, well, you know what that all

really boils down to that. That boils down to the results

of trying to push God's will through human means.

And so with that, let's go a little step further.

I want to talk to you about outcasts and covenant places.

Genesis 16 verse #7 So Haggar has fled, the Bible says and the

Angel of the Lord found her as found Haggar by a fountain of

water in the wilderness by the fountain in the way to sure I'm

you know, I'm not a woman, number one, I'm not pregnant #2

what is? Sometimes you're trying to

identify with characters in the Bible and stand in their shoes,

right? And so I'm thinking, oh, sweet

or sweet or not hack ours. Probably a little dish

disillusioned right here by the whole play out of things.

I mean, seriously, think of it for a moment.

So Egyptian slave, slave of another.

But here's the important thing. She's not just the slave or the

handmaid just to any other. She's the handmaid to someone

and in a household that's in covenant with God, that's

important. She has no personal possessions

of her own, but now she feels like she has part ownership

because of what's starting to grow in her womb.

And whether even if she don't own it, because that would

typically be than Sarah's kid, you know, she feels responsible,

feels responsible for what's growing there.

And she looks ahead. Future looks kind of bleak,

right? And so with all this Haggard's

like, mistreat me. You know, you gave me to him.

I didn't have to say so on that. Anyway, mistreat me.

I'm, I'm out of here. I'm I'm going to go back.

I'm going to go back. She goes into the wilderness,

the Bible says, on the way to Sure.

The way to Sure is the southernmost route from Canaan

to Egypt. In other words, the the land of

Sure itself is near Egypt. It seems as though that Haggar

is on her way back to where she was before she ever met Abram

and Sarai. It's as though she's going back

to Egypt. John H Walton said this.

He said if Abrams Camp is still in Hebron, which we read earlier

in the scriptures, that that's last one of the last places

we've seen him. If he's still there, then Haggar

traveled about 70 miles through inhospitable territory, and

she's been on the road for probably about a week.

So she's a pregnant woman. Come on, ladies.

Come on, Sister Grace. She is a pregnant woman.

The, the, the terrain is not. It is not.

It's not forgiving. It is difficult.

She's travelled 70 miles, more likely on foot for about a week.

You want to rub your feet at night, rub Hagar's feet.

This isn't good. She had a place, a household.

Now she's totally dis dis. You know, she's discarded from

there. She don't even have a place.

She don't even know going back to Egypt.

What's that going to be like? I was a handmade there as well,

right? And so so she's desperate.

She's walking back toward Egypt. The one and evidently listen to

me, she's walking back toward Egypt.

Evidently they didn't want her to begin with because they gave

her away to Abram and Sarah. I'm just saying, I don't know.

So what, what does it say? Let me put it in these terms.

What does it say when someone would rather return to the world

than stay near the people of promise?

Because what I see in this picture can also be a church

problem sometimes having insecure covenant people like

Sarai and I'll name some others here in scripture, Saul and

Israel as a nation. And Ahab.

Let me point out to you what I'm getting at.

Outcast with or in covenant people.

First Samuel 27 and verse one, the Bible said, and David said

in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.

Saul was a Israelite, David was a Israelite, Saul was king.

All right. These guys know each other quite

well. He says, look what David says.

There is nothing better for me then that I should speedily

escape into the land of the Philistines.

And Saul shall despair. Saul shall despair of me to seek

me anymore in any coast of Israel.

So shall I escape out of his hand.

David, Saul, there's considered Israel covenant people.

But David said the way that things are right now with Saul,

there's nothing better for me than to resort and be a part of

someone that's known as the enemy of ours, then stay here

with someone that's supposed to be a covenant person with me,

someone hearing me. So what we have here, he said

there's there's nothing better. OK, you might say, well, David

could probably go there and Saul wouldn't go there, you know,

because he that's the enemy territory.

Well, maybe so. But if that was the case, David

had to consider if he went there, that maybe he would be at

harm's way at two. But evidently he felt at less

harm's way being among his enemy than he did being among his

people. For David, he said if he's seen,

if I stay here with God's people, all I see there's a

death sentence on my life. But if I can go to Akesh, that's

where he went. Note now he went to gas.

Now, if you're a Bible reader, that should cause your mind to

think Gath, Gath, whatever. I heard Gath.

Oh, Gath, I tell you where you heard Gath, Goliath.

He was from Gath. Now the pot sweetens.

And this is after the Valley of Elah.

This is after David battled Goliath.

He's saying there's nothing better for me to go to the

hometown of the man that I slaughtered.

I would be safer there than with the people of God.

Another case in point, the prophet Jeremiah you read in the

book of Jeremiah, he's the weeping prophet, right?

Israel never wanted to listen to him.

His own people beat him, his own people imprisoned him, and his

own people virtually hated him. But do you know who Jeremiah was

protected by? According to Scripture?

The invading empire that was coming into Jerusalem after

Jerusalem's fall. The Bible tells us that the

Babylonian king, which was Nebuchadnezzar, instructed his

captain to care for Jeremiah. This is what the Scripture says.

Jeremiah 39 and verse 12. This is what Nebuchadnezzar said

to the captain. Take him.

He's Speaking of Jeremiah. Take him.

Look well to him. Do him no harm, but do unto him,

even as he shall say unto thee. Jeremiah's got two different

scenarios among his own people. Beaten, imprisoned, among what

would be considered his enemy. Take care of him.

Do no harm. I know no one wanting to hear me

right now. We also see what happens.

Elijah flees from Ahab and Jezebel.

Those are Israelites. They're Israelites and he goes

to Zarapath. Zarapath is a Gentile town, not

an Israelite town. He goes to a Gentile town inside

and where the Bible says a widow woman sustained him there during

the famine. And Jesus uses this very example

in the New Testament of Luke 4 whenever he says there were many

widows in Israel during the days of Elijah, but he was sent to

none of them. He was sent to a Gentile widow.

God said I didn't send, I didn't send him to any widows of our

people. I sent him to a Gentile widow.

Why? Because sometimes you can be an

outcast in covenant places with covenant people.

And I say, Amen. It's warm up here.

Help me, Jesus, I want to talk to you a little bit about I have

some water over here somewhere. I want to talk to you about the

God that sees me or the God who sees me.

This is the first time in Scripture, and you can read it

there in verse #7 but this is the first time in Scripture that

the Bible mentions particularly the Angel of the Lord that

disappears. In Scripture, this label

typically identifies A theophany, which means God

manifest in himself in some way. Nonetheless, whenever we see

this the first time, it's mentioned other times in

Scripture, but this is the first time it's mentioned.

The first time it's mentioned, it's not because the Angel of

the Lord is appearing to Abram. It's not because the Angel of

the Lord is appearing to Sarai. The Angel of the Lord is

appearing to the Egyptian slave girl who's running away,

pregnant and alone. And that that holds weight for

me, that the first time we see it is with someone that wasn't

in covenant with God. And he didn't find her.

He didn't find her in the tent. He didn't find her there.

No, he found her in the wilderness.

She's a runaway at this point in time.

She's a runaway female slave, which for their culture was one

of the lowest of lows. That is number one, to be a

slave and secondly to be a female slave, yet he finds her

and he didn't he didn't speak to her through a patriarch.

He spoke directly to her and more more important than

anything else, he called her by name.

Look at verse 8 again. And he said this is the Angel of

the Lord. And he said, Haggar Sarah's Mae,

whence Camus thou whether wilt thou go?

And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

What's so important about that? Because all the verses prior,

when you read about Abram or Sarai talking about Hagar, it's

always my maid and thy maid. They never call her by name, but

the aims of the Lord shows up in her life to this extra

appendage, this non essential. And when nobody else recognized

her by name, that's the first thing that he came to her with

was her name. He.

I know you've been called my maid.

I know you've been called the handmaiden.

I know you've been called a slave.

I know you've been called extra, he says.

But let me call you who you are, Hagar.

And he calls her by name. Though aren't you glad tonight

that you serve a personal God? He didn't call.

Listen, God could stand up here tonight, start calling some of

us by our mistakes and calling us by our past and calling.

But but he don't. He comes and he calls us by our

name because Haggar, he's saying, what are you always

doing, Haggar? You're not limited to what you

can do. You're not limited to what you

can do in society or such. Amen.

You're not limited by what? But the church world maybe even

calls you. I'm going to call you by name.

And so he want her to know. I see you.

I know you for that matter, if no one understands you, I

understand your circumstances. And he called her by name.

That's something very human. Us humans.

Listen, there's not a person in this building that doesn't like

somebody that they met before coming up to them again and

remembering their name. That's there's some there's a

feeling that comes up. They they remembered my name.

Yeah, they remembered my name. And so God shows up to this poor

Haggar and he calls her by name. There's there's just a sight of

humanity that longs for that, that he knows your name.

And this is what Haggar realizes in the moment.

It's the reason why she named the welder as it does.

She said, thou God seest me. I've been in the court of Sarah

and Abram and I've stood in a room and been unseen.

But God, you see me. I've left and I've from the

cruelty and the mistreatment of of these covenant people.

But God used to me. I'm out here in the middle of a

wilderness trying to make my way back to Egypt.

Nobody might even care if I'm God.

But God, you showed up right here in the middle of this

wilderness and you called me by name.

I mean, I've lived my life having no control over it, but

you see me. I've been mistreated because I

was obedient. But you see me, I've run away

and I'm clinging to a small little fountain out here in the

middle of nowhere and you see me.

And listen, we have no record that anybody else is around.

So this is a very poignant, purposeful, narrowed out trip

for Haggar. I'm telling you folks, there's

been times when I've not been with anybody not in the church

setting that God's come down and made himself known.

And it's at that point in time. It's not because there was good

service or good music that he just passed by, but because I

was important of the God. How is important enough to God,

essential enough to God that he said, you know what, there's

going to have to be anybody else there.

Don't have any music, no other worshippers or praisers.

You're important enough. I'm going to stop by and just

say Paul, because God sees me and God sees each one of you as

well. I got to go on, I got to hurry

and I said go get through the chapter and go get through

chapter. Now I want to talk to you about

this. When God names the pain, when

God names the pain, I'm sharing these with you.

I usually just have these in my notes as indicators to me.

A transition's happening. I know where I'm going, but God

names the pain. Verse 10.

So not only does he come to visit, and I'd point this out as

we was reading the text, God promised to multiply Hadgar's

seed exceedingly. You might say, Well, wait for a

moment. Her son's not the son of

promise. That's true, He wasn't.

But there are aspects of Ishmael's life that flow from a

promised father. Abraham was promised that his

seed would be as the stars of the sky, as the sand along the

shore. That which was in Hagar was

Abraham's seed. Maybe not the promised child,

but his seed nonetheless right back and we'll get to it later

where Abram even has conversation with God says, oh

God, you know, you know, Ishmael let him.

He was thinking God, you know, Ishmael can be the one that God

like, no, I make my covenant with Isaac.

He said, but I'll bless Ishmael. Why?

Because the seed that's going to come through Ishmael is still

seed that came from Abraham. Someone say Amen.

And so we have no record. I read the Scriptures, I looked.

We have no record that Hagar had any other children beside

Ishmael. But the Bible tells us in

Genesis 17 that we'll get to that.

Ishmael had twelve sons. It's quite peculiar, honestly,

because we see later Jacob through the promised seed of

Isaac. Through Jacob comes 12 tribes of

Israel. Through Ishmael comes twelve

sons, making him also a father of a great nation.

Now the Bible describes and I'm, I'm, I'm, I don't know, I'm

feeling like I'm moving slowly, but that's OK.

Some of you all probably are too.

Amen. Bible says Ishmael will be a

wild man. Another translation, say a wild

donkey. Either way, what the expression

is is, is conveying is that he'll have a solitary existence

in the desert away from society. That's really what it's

conveying. And that there would be friction

between him and others because of their different ways of life.

And yes, Brother Ethan, we could get into the fact right now that

you know, the, the, the, the, the Palestinian people and, and

the Jewish people and stuff. That's still a conflict today.

But I'm not getting into all that.

I've brought that up several other times at other places and

I would not get done this evening.

But it appears Ishmael is given to Haggar, particularly verse 11

says, look at it now. This is the Angel of the Lord

speaking to her. He says you should have a son.

Thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath

heard thy affliction. Ishmael's given to Haggar

particularly because God has heard her affliction, and

Ishmael's very name means Anybody know what Ishmael means?

God hears. Now that brings comfort to a

Haggar out in the middle of the wilderness, but when she goes

back home to submit herself to Sarai, that can bring comfort to

a sarai too. Every time that boy's name would

be called, the interpretation of God hears is being brought up in

the emotions of a Sarai that that hasn't had a child yet.

Someone say Amen. So he's going to be born to a

very complex, a very painful situation.

Ishmael, if I may, becomes a living reminder that neither

woman's suffering when unnoticed by heaven, God hears.

For the haggard that fled into the wilderness under the weight

of the mistreatment of despair. Boom, God hears.

He's heard your affliction. Here's Ishmael, sealed the

moment, sealed eternally, if you will, in memory.

But even then, for Sarah, all the bareness, all the doubts,

couldn't find any, any peace, if you will.

Even that child born through her maid, we're going to even be

proof for her from God that guess what, He's not ignoring

anything. God hears God, God listens when

human understandings, even of each other fail.

Not only that, Ishmael is going to be there, that God has been

hearing all alone, even in the silence of your struggle.

So yes, God has a promise, Abram and Sarah.

Ishmael seems to be born out of impatience more so than divine

timing, and although he will not fulfill the covenant with Abram,

he will never. He was never outside of God's

compassion, presence, and plan. What are you saying?

Because God still said He would care for Ishmael.

We give him those descendants. We do XY and Z.

He may have not been the fulfillment for the promise, but

he also wasn't outside of God's presence, compassion, or plan.

I'm running, I'm running, I really AM.

We're doing all right. I know it's not 30 minutes.

I've been doing, you know that 30 minutes.

But this is teaching. If I preach this, it'd been 30

minutes. I want to talk to you about

obedience in uncomfortable places.

Obedience in uncomfortable places.

And this is kind of right at the very end, and I'm kind of going

back to a verse to talk about an uncomfortable verse.

And that's verse #9 when the reply to Haggar was that the

Angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and

submit myself under her hands. That's a difficult verse because

we know whenever Haggar left, she was being mistreated,

whatever that interprets by by Sarai.

And so we we have we have difficulty reconciling that God

would send Haggar back to someone that had been harsh to

her. And I'm just going to read this

to you exactly like I have it written down so I don't get it

wrong. Sometimes God calls us to return

to difficult places, not because they are ideal, but because he

has a plan that one flowed through our obedience.

Submission isn't. This is so important, folks.

Submission isn't always about the person.

Go back and submit yourself to Sarah.

Submission isn't always about the person.

Sometimes it's about the purpose.

God wasn't endorsing Sarah's harsh treatment, No, but He was

calling Haggard to return so that the child that she was

carrying in her Ishmael would grow up within that framework of

Abraham's household. And Haggard's return was really

a part of a larger plan that she couldn't even yet see, and that

was a future for her descendants.

And as we'll see, it positions her God's visitation in the very

near future in Genesis 21 when he meets her a second time in

the wilderness. So I'll conclude with this, and

you can stand with me tonight. See, we're doing good.

So yeah. Genesis 16, Sarah's and Abrams,

impatience, Sarah's Baroness. But it's not about all that.

It's also about a God that sees sometimes people that's caught

in the crossfire of human failure.

And when, when people fail to see you, God sees you.

When your identity is stripped from you, when you feel like

that extra appendage, you'd rather trout, right?

Like that third ear. You know, we got to understand

that God sees and he doesn't just see us, though he observes,

he restores to a certain degree. He gives dignity.

He gives dignity. He names our pain, names our

pain, gives us promises in the wilderness.

And whenever Hagar went back, she didn't go back to the same

woman that left. Do you understand that in that

wilderness she got a promise? She left not with anything, but

she got a promise in the wilderness that she could take

back in submission and see a greater plan carry out if she

hadn't, if it that she would see carried out that she may not

have seen if she hadn't. So I guess the moral of the

story is folks, we got there's I don't think it's just so cut and

dry sometimes as we look at this chapter, so cut and dry.

There's a lot of there's a lot of things going on with these

two ladies. There's a lot of wounds, there's

a lot of misunderstandings. There's a lot of like there's a

lot of stuff. It's like a man field, a mine

field. We need, you know, we need a

licensed therapist to kind of deduce this whole thing.

I'm serious. There would be some good content

there. Amen.

Let's pray tonight and let's pray this that we would be a

church that wouldn't cause any of the covenant people trying to

look for more security beyond this place and find it with

their enemy more than with their friend.

God, we come to you tonight. We need you, O Lord, in this

place. God, I pray, O Lord, you ever

anoint our hearts, touch our lives.

God, help us, O Lord Jesus, God too, Lord, not to be a soul, not

to be a Ahab, not to be Lord, the nation of Israel.

Lord, toward the Jeremiah. I pray, O God today, help us, O

Lord Jesus, today. God of all the widows, Lord,

that their word Israel. Lord, you did not send Lord

Elijah to any of them. You sent him to a Gentile widow.

A pre old God minister has got all the different people with

their pains and their woundings and all the different things of

life that they contend with it I might not contend with.

Help me God not to project God, the own pain of what I'm feeling

on them or toward them or vice versa.

God, Lord, we need your help. We need a God that sees us and

each of us individually and that we would find a place the

security and they even walk Lord God right there God as we walk

with you, help us God to share this space and also share

understanding. I pray God under this roof, help

us God to be what you want us to be in the name of Jesus Christ

that I pray Hallelujah in the church say Amen, Amen.

Ladies night out tomorrow night leaving here at 5:15.

All right, if you're.