God's Faithfulness in the Midst of a Troubled Home: Genesis 21:8-21

If you have your Bibles this morning, if you would turn to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And we'll be looking at verses 8 through 21.

Genesis chapter 21, verses 8 through 21.

Genesis 21:8–21

It's in your bulletins, and it should be up on the screen also, but we're going to look at God's word this morning.

Genesis chapter 21, verses 8 through 21.

Genesis 21:8–21

And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

But Sarah saw that her that this that the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.

So she said to Abraham, Cast out the slave woman and her son.

For the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

And this thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased, because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you.

For through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

And I will make a nation of the son and of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away.

And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went about and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a distance of a bowshot.

For she said, Let me let me not look on the death of the child.

And as she sat opposite him, she she lifted up her voice and wept.

And God heard the voice of the boy.

And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar?

Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

Up, lift up the boy and and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make into him a great nation.

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and she filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

And God was with the boy and he grew up.

He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

He lived in the wilderness of uh in the wilderness of Paran.

And his mother took him a wife with him from the land of Egypt.

Let's let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your word.

We we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would make your word clear, make it plain, that you would open our eyes, that we would behold all that you want us to see.

Um we pray that you would speak to our hearts.

And Lord, we pray that this would just not be an information gathering session this morning, but that it would be that which we take in, that it is applied to our hearts and we live it out.

And so, Lord, we just pray, um have mercy on us this morning and allow your word to do what only your word can do.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We have been following Abraham and Sarah uh in this series, and we've been looking at their walk of faith through the book of Genesis.

We've we've seen the ups and the downs, and we've seen the good and the bad, and last week we we saw Sarah finally see the fulfillment of the promise.

Twenty-five years.

Twenty-five years, she and Abraham have been waiting for the promise of this son, and finally, finally, the the son is born, the child is born.

And one of the one of the lessons as we've been going through this series that for me that the Lord has been impressing on my heart is just this simple fact is that the walk of faith, when what God is showing me is that he really doesn't need my help to get his work done.

You know, you look at this story with Abraham, you look at you look at all the stories in the Old Testament where God is at work.

Basically, God is saying, I'm going to do something for you, and I really don't need your help.

And what he does is he gets the individuals into a space, into a place where all their resources is gone, and then God then says, Okay, now I can get things done.

God doesn't need our help to fulfill his promises.

That's that's one lesson that the Lord has been teaching me.

Another thing he's been teaching me is that he isn't gonna give me the details on how he's going to do what he said he's going to do.

He just isn't gonna give you the details.

He isn't gonna let you know how he's gonna do it.

He isn't gonna, he isn't gonna say, well, on in three months of time, this is gonna happen and that's gonna happen, and you're gonna meet this person.

He he doesn't give you the details.

All he says is that I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you.

He doesn't tell us how he's going to do that, but he'll get it done.

And and and and we'll talk about that more, but beloved, I think that's one of the things for me.

I've got to I've got to get in my heart, I've got to get in my mind because I hear the promises of God, I I see the promises of God, but I'm always thinking, how is he going to do it?

I've got a timeline here, I've got I've got things to do, I've got places, I've got limited resources.

How is he going to do it?

And God says, That's not your business.

I'm almost reminded, remember when when Peter was was when Jesus was with the disciples and Jesus had come back and he was getting ready to go, and Peter was wondering, you know, Jesus had told Peter what he was gonna do with his life, and he looked at John and he says, Well, well, what about him?

You want to tell me his story?

And Jesus basically said that's none of your business.

And and Jesus says to us oftentimes, when he's working out his stuff in our lives, that's really none of your business.

Trust me.

Trust me.

So so the promised son is here, they take a big sigh of relief, and and finally we have, they've been, he, he, they've been waiting for this son, and he's here.

And and I think we all have had that experience where where you've been looking for something, you've been longing for something, you've been hoping for something, and and it's taken so long, and then when it finally comes, you're like, sigh of relief.

Finally, I can move on, finally we can move forward.

The birds are singing with Abraham and Sarah, the sun is shining, the wind is at their backs, all is well with them, but but out of nowhere, storm clouds in our passage today begin to appear.

That's how trouble is.

Trouble doesn't announce I'm on my way.

It just doesn't do that.

It just raises its ugly, chaotic head in our lives.

It doesn't, but it doesn't let you know that it's coming.

It doesn't let you know that it's on its way.

And and and trouble can come in in a lot of different forms.

A couple of ways trouble shows up, and we'll see that in this passage today.

Sometimes trouble comes because of things that we have done.

You've made choices, you've made decisions, you've you've gone things, you've gone off the grid, as it were, and you'll walk with the Lord, and next thing you know, there's trouble that brews and and builds up in our lives because of our own rebellion and our own sin.

Sometimes trouble is is visited upon us and we're innocent.

You didn't ask for it, you didn't, you didn't, you didn't sign up for it, and and somebody in their own sin is visiting their their sin, their problems, their troubles on you.

Today, the the trouble that Abraham and Sarah are gonna uh uh experience is it's trouble that that brewed from some things that they did.

Now, when they got up the morning to prepare for this feast, because in our text they're they're celebrating.

It's about three years now.

Isaac is about three years old.

And they're getting ready to celebrate a feast.

And and and I I can imagine, there's no way they got up and said, This is gonna be a terrible day.

You know, think about yourselves when you plan your feast, your cookouts, your thanksgivings.

You you don't get up and think that this is gonna be a mess.

You're anticipating something joyous, you're anticipating something that's going to be a happy time.

And and and yet Abraham and Sarah, they get up on that morning, they're preparing this lavish feast to celebrate Isaac's weaning, and trouble is right at the door.

He didn't send them a text, it didn't say, I'm on my way.

It just showed up.

Look at verse 8 of Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

They're celebrating.

You can imagine the music is popping.

You can imagine this food is is smelling good.

Just think about Thanksgiving.

You know all those aromas of Thanksgiving that turkeys in the oven, the gravy, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the bread that's being cooked, the pies in the oven.

You you get all those aromas, you hear the voices and music's in the background, everybody's happy, waiting to eat.

We're ready to eat.

What time is it gonna be to eat?

Everything's going well, the music is going on, things are happening, they're going well.

There's a party going on here.

All of a sudden, all of a sudden, in the midst of all this laughter, in the midst of all this celebration, all of a sudden, Sarah sees something.

Sarah sees something.

Ishmael does something that enrages her.

Look at verse 9.

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.

And this isn't a joyous laugh.

There's been a lot of laughter as we've been going through this Genesis narrative.

Sarah laughs and disbelief, but then she laughs in joy earlier in this chapter.

Now Ishmael is laughing, but this is more of a antigonist, antagonistic type laugh.

There's something, and the scriptures don't tell us exactly what he did, but whatever he did, the party stopped.

She was unhappy.

Notice here.

But Sarah saw Sarah, the son of uh Sarah saw Hagar, the Egyptian's son whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing in verse 10.

So she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman woman with her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

Now, we there are married couples in here, and you know your mates.

There are times in our relationships, in your relationship, where you can look at your wife or your husband, you can know, oh, oh, we got a problem.

You know, you just know them.

You just know, you just know you can come into the room, you can come into the house, you can, you can, you can, all they can do is answer the phone, and you know, all something's wrong today.

You might go through the Rolodex in your mind.

What did I say?

What did I do?

What did she tell me to do?

What did he tell me to do?

You know, you just go through all this because you're you're you you recognize that something's wrong.

And I imagine that in the midst of this party, and I don't know if Sarah looked across the room, I don't know if they she talked to him afterwards, I don't know if she stopped the party and said this thing is over.

He's got to go.

Beloved, that's a strong.

This this troubles here.

This is no small thing.

This is just no no, oh, I burnt the bread.

No, this ain't none of that.

No, this is this is you're talking to a man whose son is about 15 years old and and and and and he did something, and Sarah looks at that and she says, Him and his wife, his mother, they're out of here.

Now we got a problem.

The trouble shows up.

And and this trouble that showed up, see, this this trouble did not have to be in their lives.

Understand this.

This situation with Ishmael and Hagar did not have to be in their lives.

Remember back in chapter 16 of Genesis, when they were waiting for God to bring about the promise of the child, and and it was taking too long, and they were they were they were wondering how is God gonna do it?

And Sarah comes up with this ideal and she says, Well, I tell you what, since we don't have a child, why don't you take my handmaid, Hagar, and you can have a child through her?

See, that was the custom of the day.

They they they they they would take the handmaid, and if they couldn't have a child, they would be their that they would be as it were their surrogate and they would raise up a child through them.

That was not God's will.

That wasn't God's will, beloved.

And and and and they knew, I like I can't imagine that Abraham didn't know that God said in Genesis that you should have one wife.

There's something about the narratives in the Old Testament that that they don't they don't always tell you the consequences of sin, they just show you.

See, God didn't tell Abraham and Sarah when they did this, this is a sinful thing for you to do.

And you see it all throughout the Old Testament where they do things, and you're like, well, that really isn't inconsistent with God's word.

And what you see is the results of what happened when they disobey God, and and now they're reaping the results because now they have a son in the home that is an heir, also.

He he has rights, and then you have Isaac, and Sarah is saying, no, no, no.

He's not getting your stuff, he's got to go.

There are times, beloved, when in our in our journeys, and I just want to do a little parentheses here, where you are toying with the idea of doing something you know God says you shouldn't do.

This is Abraham and Sarah's situation.

They they knew God said that he was going, that Sarah was going to bear him a son, but they took things in their own hands.

And and and God forgave them, God straightened that out, and God was working with them, but there's consequences.

And and there might be some of you this morning who are toying with the ideal of taking matters into your own hand.

I don't know what is what it is.

There's something that the Spirit of God has been telling you, leave it alone.

There's some relationship that the Spirit of God has been telling you, let it go.

There's something that you've been engaging in where the Spirit of God has been saying, stop toying with that.

And you've been sitting there and you've been, just like it says in Ecclesiastes, because judgment doesn't happen the moment you do it, you figure God's forgotten.

Be not deceived.

God is not mocked.

Whatever a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl sows, they will reap.

Now, does that mean that God cannot forgive or will not forgive?

No, it doesn't mean God will forgive, God will restore.

But understand that there are some times that there are things that you and I do that they will have consequences that will follow you possibly for the rest of your life.

Is God punishing you?

No, that's just the way it is.

So if you're thinking about doing something crazy, if you got something on your mind this morning, if you're thinking about doing something when you leave here, think twice.

Learn from Abraham, learn from Sarah.

God wants to spare you and I from unnecessary trouble.

There's enough trouble in the world on its own.

Don't be adding stuff to it.

There's enough on his own.

Now again, we don't know, we don't know back at our text, we don't know exactly what it was that that that Ishmael had done, but Paul gives us some insight in Galatians chapter 4, verse 29.

Galatians 4:29

This he says, he says, but just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh, and he's speaking about Ishmael, persecuted him who was born according to spirit to the spirit, so also it is now.

So there was some type of persecution, there was something that Ishmael had done.

That Sarah said, He's got to go.

Do you feel the tension in that?

Do you feel the problem here?

That that that this his wife is telling him about his son.

That's his son, about 15 years old, so this relationship that was built here, that is, that has been established here, he's saying, she's saying, I want them out of my house.

Now Abraham is not really happy with this.

Um this is an intense disagreement.

And it says in verse 11, it says, and this thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

Abraham was wrestling with, no, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm not doing that.

We've all had those kind of conversations.

You know, don't don't don't y'all look at me like I'm the only one that had those kind of conversations.

You there's other husbands and wives that had those kind of conversations in your home, in your relationships where where one says this is what we're gonna do, and the other says, No, I'm not doing that.

That's not how this is gonna work out.

Abraham does not want to let his son go.

Now, now the question is, where's God?

Where's God in all of this?

I mean, I a lot of times, you know, we look at when trouble shows up in our lives, we might ask ourselves the question, where's God?

You know, where's God when I need him?

I need, you know, it would have been nice if he would have been here.

Maybe he could have he could have turned this thing off before it got went bad.

Where is God?

And and and one of the things that we need to understand and see is that that God is always there.

You see, this isn't a situation where an angel had to tap God on the shoulder and say to God, hey God, I I think you need to get over into Abraham's house.

Because they got a real, there's something brewing over there.

They got some real problems that that need to be.

No, no, nobody needs to tell, needed to tell God what was going on.

Because God is omniscient, God is omnipresent, God was there when the conversation was going on.

No, we're we're we're good reformed Christians.

We we speak about the sovereignty of God, we speak about the the the ever-presence of God, that God is everywhere at all times.

We know those things and we know them up here, but that's a reality that that in the midst of this conversation, God was there.

And and in the midst of the conversations and the things that are happening in our homes when trouble arises, God is right there.

He's right there.

What he would like us to do is turn to him, he'd like us to address him.

He'd like you and I in the midst of the conflict, in the midst of the trouble, to cry out and say, God, this is going on in my home.

This is going on with my child, this is going on on my job, these things are happening right now.

I need you.

Because he is right there.

As a matter of fact, if you're a child of God, you have the Spirit of God, and He's in you.

There's never a problem, there's never a circumstance, there's never a thing that happens to you and I where God is not present.

It ought to be a comfort to you and I.

That ought to be a word of encouragement to you and I.

That in no matter how chaotic my life is, no matter how difficult things are, I'm not there alone.

There's an old song that says, Oh, never alone, oh, never alone.

He promised never to leave us, never to leave me alone.

I am never alone.

Doesn't matter what it is.

Notice God's response in verse 12.

You notice because he knew the conversation.

He's he says, but God said to Abraham, do not be displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you.

Now, one brother told me, He said, Don't hang on that part too long.

You know, some of the wives might say, Here, you see what God says, whatever I tell you to do, do it.

Well, that's that's not.

What's going on here?

This one particular instance.

Whatever he tells you to do, she tells you to do, do it.

For through Isaac shall your offspring be named, and I will make a nation out of the son of the slave woman also because of uh he is your offspring.

See, God, God, God knew this whole situation.

God knew the whole circumstances, God knew who did what, who said what, why they were in the problem that they were in.

He knew, he knows, he knows what trouble is in your life.

He's aware of all the details.

What he's looking for you and I to do, what he was trying to work in our hearts, is to work on this reflex that when trouble knocks on the door, you don't go there and answer.

You take God and you say, God, come with me, please.

When when your kids are getting crazy and they're going south, Holy Spirit, come with me, please.

When your husband ain't acting right, Father, come with me, please.

When when the boss is out of his mind, Lord, I need you.

You're with me.

Come with me, please.

Stop answering the door on your own.

Stop running up there and trying to manage stuff on your own.

And then when things get out of control, then you say, God, can you help me?

He's been standing there all the while just waiting for you to open up your mouth and look and see, I'm here.

Trouble comes, and it's gonna come.

Things are going well, praise God.

I remember one preacher said some Christians, Christians are either in trouble, getting out of trouble, or heading for trouble.

So it is.

You know it's true.

You get a good little space, and the next thing you know, you you get out and you're like, oh, thank you, Lord.

Walk enough, walk long enough, and then it's the clouds coming again.

But that's just life because we live in a broken and a fallen world.

You can't escape it.

Jesus told you and I, that the the in this world you will have what?

Trouble.

Can't get declared in that.

Jesus didn't say, just because you accept me as your personal savior, there's never going to be any trouble in your life.

All things are gonna go well.

You're just everything's gonna be up and to the right.

That's not what he said.

He said, clearly, in this world, you will, not might, not maybe you might be able to skirt it.

No, you will have trouble.

But then he said, Be of good cheer.

I've overcome the world.

You see, understand that that that the trouble might not be settled on this side.

You you might go through trouble and be in trouble all your life.

It might happen like that, beloved, but this isn't the end.

Jesus is coming back again.

And when he comes, he will take us out of all the trouble.

And so he tells you and I, what what do we do?

How does how do we manage this?

He's he's always present.

Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I free from your presence?

Jeremiah says, I am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and do not my uh not a God far away.

Can can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord.

Do I not fill the heaven and the earth?

declares the Lord.

I have heard what the prophets have said and prophesied lies in my name saying I have.

He says, I know it all.

I know everything.

I know what's going on in your life.

See, now our problem is, well, why aren't you doing anything about it?

See, that's where we are.

If you know so much, God, why won't you handle this?

That's that's what's happening.

He tells Sarah, he says, tells him to do what Sarah tells him to do.

And and and then he says, and there's a there's a challenge here because he says, put them out.

He says, do what she said to do.

There's a couple of things going on here.

First of all, one the first thing that we want to see here with this Abraham and Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael situation that should never have been.

God is able to bring glory out of our mess.

He's able to bring glory out of our messes.

What did he say to Abraham?

I'm gonna make a nation out of him.

He didn't have to do that.

He didn't have to do that.

And and God, God takes our lives and some of the stuff we we mess up, and and he can he can bring glory in his time and in his way out of our messes.

He'll do that with Ishmael, he'll do that for Hagar, he'll do that for you and I.

But also what we see here is that that God is reminding Abraham and Sarah when he says, Abraham, do what she says.

They have to leave.

He's reminding them that I told you from the beginning that Isaac is going to be the one through whom the blessing is going to come.

You got in the middle of this, you tried to help me out.

I didn't ask for your help, I Abraham and Sarah.

Y'all created this mess.

He has to go because I want you to understand, Abraham and Sarah.

And he was just saying this to you and I.

I want you to understand, I don't need your help.

I told you that the son of promise that I was going to give you a son and he was going to come from your own wombs.

I told you that.

Listen to me and do what I tell you to do.

Stop trying to help me.

Stop trying to second guess me.

Stop trying to show me different ways that I can go.

He says, put them out because they hadn't, they should have never been there.

And there are things in our worlds and in our lives that should never be there, but but you were trying to help God.

You're trying to help God.

Well, you know, if I do this and that, and God doesn't know all the circumstances, so let me do this and let me do.

God said, I don't need your help.

Put them out.

Put them out.

Now, as we go as we move on, hasten on.

Um verse 14.

What about Hagar?

What are we to do about Hagar?

God, God is telling Abraham, um, hey, look, I see the trouble in your home, and and I'm gonna work and I'm gonna fix this.

Um I'm not gonna tell you how I'm gonna fix it.

He didn't tell him how he was gonna make Ishmael a great nation.

He said, I'm gonna do it.

So just trust me.

Do what I asked you to do and trust me.

But now we've got Hagar and Ishmael.

Verse 14.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulders along with the child and sent her away.

And he and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Bathsheba, where the water in the skin, when the water in the skin was gone, she put the child on on under one of her on one of the bushes.

Then she went out and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a distance of a bowshot.

For she said, Let me not look on the death of the child.

And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

Trouble has reared this ugly head in their lives.

They're out in the desert.

They got some water and they got bread.

Walking and they're walking, and they don't know where they're going.

They're basically wandering in this wilderness, and the the water bottle's getting low, the bread's getting low, and and then they take that last sip.

The sun is beaming down on them, and and they realize we're not gonna make it.

We're not gonna make it.

So she tells Isaac, she says, Isaac, you can go sit go sit sit over there.

And she she walks about 200 yards away because she doesn't she doesn't want to see it.

She doesn't want to see her son die.

You look at Hagar, and one of the things we have to understand and realize, which is true, she in many ways she's innocent.

Hagar didn't insert herself into Abraham into Sarah's life.

When they were when they were longing for a child, it wasn't as if it wasn't as if Hagar said, I got an ideal.

She didn't say anything.

This she was a victim of Abraham and Sarah's concoction.

They came up with this ideal.

They brought her into their mess.

She's a recipient of their foolishness.

And sometimes we talk about the trouble that you create, sometimes folks create trouble and put it on you.

Sometimes there are things that are going on in your life that you're innocent.

You didn't do anything.

You didn't ask for this.

And all of a sudden, you're being visited upon by someone else's foolishness or someone else's decisions that are now impacting your life.

Where's God when that happens?

Where's God when when I was just minding my own business and this fool came up and turned my world upside down?

Where's God when that happens?

Verse 17.

And God heard the voice of the boy.

And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar?

He doesn't even give her a chance to answer.

He says, Fear not.

For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

He still hears, beloved.

He hears even when you didn't create the mess.

He's a God who hears.

Ishmael means God hears.

That boy was out there crying in the wilderness, and God says, I hear.

You're crying at home.

God says, I hear.

You're frustrated on your job.

God says, I hear.

I'm a God who hears.

He hears, beloved.

I want you to know that right now.

I don't know what you're going through.

I don't know what you're facing.

He hears.

But not only is he a God who hears, look at verse 18.

Up, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.

God not only hears, he's got a plan.

He sees your circumstances.

He sees our situation.

He sees what you're going through.

He says, I hear you and I got a plan.

You and I are like, what's your plan?

God is like, none of your business.

Trust me.

Trust me.

That's the hard part in all of this.

He's got a plan.

I don't know how he's gonna work it out.

I don't know when he's gonna work it out.

I don't know where he's going to work it out.

I don't know if he's gonna work it out in this lifetime.

That's the real reality, beloved.

That it might not work out in this lifetime.

But this is not the end.

This is not the end.

Oh, maybe, maybe he's gonna work it out in the sense that he wants you to go through the fire so that as you go through the fire, you come forth as pure gold.

I don't know what he's gonna do, but he's got a plan.

Remember what it says in Isaiah Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope.

He's got a plan.

He had a plan for Abraham and Sarah.

They didn't trust him.

That's how Hagar got mixed up in this mess.

He's got a plan for whatever's going on.

He knows what he's doing, he's got a plan.

He's saying to our hearts, trust me.

And then God will provide.

Look at verse 19.

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the skin with water and gave it to the boy to drink.

And God was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

And he lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him for a wife.

God has a plan.

God hears you.

God has a plan and God will provide.

Now you might be sitting here this morning as I close.

You might be saying to yourself, you know what, preacher, that's all fine and good, but you don't know what I'm in.

That's fine for you to stand up there and preach this nice little sermon.

You don't know my mess.

You don't know, as the song says, the trouble I am seeing right now.

I don't know, it just doesn't register with me, but but but but understand, God, God doesn't ask us to go through something that he does not or has not gone through himself.

You know who else was in trouble?

Oh Jesus.

Jesus was in trouble.

He came into his own.

He came into a world that he created, that he made, that was his world, and and it rejected him.

And it got to the point where they crucified him.

They beat him, they spat on him, they beat him until he did not even look like a human being.

They hung him up on a cross and he was up there naked.

They put spears in his side, they had a crown on his head, and then he cries out in Matthew.

He says, about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lemasibactini, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

You know what Jesus did?

You know what God did?

God says, Let me show you that that let me do this for you.

I will be forsaken so that you won't have to be.

I'll go through it.

Because God forsook him.

God left him up on that cross.

He bore the the weight of hell for you and I so that ultimately you and I would not be forsaken.

He's done for you.

He's done it for us.

He says, I'll do this.

I know this is a hard world.

I know this is a challenging world.

I know this is a wicked world, but none of our problems, none of our situations compare to what Jesus went through.

And yet the scripture says he entrusted himself to him, speaking of God, because he knew he was a good God.

He knew as the preachers would say, Friday's here, but Sunday's coming.

He knew that there would be the resurrection.

He knew that there would be a change.

And beloved, I don't know what the problems are, I don't know what the situations are in your world, but but ultimately, and and that's the perspective we have to have, ultimately, there'll come a day where there'll be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more betrayals, no more being blindsided by evil, no more sickness.

All will be well.

Because Jesus was forsaken for you and I.

Oh, that God would adjust our hearts to see the big picture and to trust him in the midst of the troubles that we are seeing.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this morning and I confess, Lord, I'm like Abraham and Sarah in many ways.

I I I want to I need answers.

I want you to show me how you're gonna do it.

I want you to tell me what you're gonna do.

And it's would you strengthen my faith so that Lord, even when you don't tell me how, that I will believe that you will.

Even when I don't sense your presence, that I will know that you are there with me.

And that I will remember, and that we all will remember ultimately that Jesus has secured for us a future where the trouble will be over.

Because of what He's done for us at Calvary.

So, Father, we pray that you speak to our hearts.

Lord, help us to trust you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.