WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:07.040 The sermon text reading for today is Genesis chapter 16, verses 1 through 14. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.960 And you can find this passage in the Sanctuary Bible on page 20. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:12.960 That should be easy to find. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.239 Please listen as I read God's word. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:25.120 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.440 So she said to Abram, The Lord has kept me from having children. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.079 Go, sleep with my slave. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.719 Perhaps I can build a family through her. 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:37.520 Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:47.200 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:50.079 He slept with Hagar and she conceived. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:54.880 When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:59.920 Then Sarai said to Abram, You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.840 I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:08.719 May the Lord judge between you and me. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.719 Your slave is in your hands, Abram said. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.120 Do with her whatever you think best. 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:20.159 And then Sarai mistreated Hagar, so she fled from her. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:25.040 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.400 It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:34.959 And he said, Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from? 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:36.480 And where are you going? 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:40.640 I'm running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:47.359 And the angel of the Lord told her, Go back to your mistress, and submit to her. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:56.959 The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:03.519 The angel of the Lord also said to her, You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.280 You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.639 He will be a wild donkey of a man. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:20.719 His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.879 She gave this name to the Lord to spoke to her. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:33.039 For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:37.599 That is why the well was called Beer Lehoy Roy. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.960 It is still there between Kadesh and Bared. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:42.879 Here ends the reading. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:50.800 Good morning, everyone. 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:54.000 It's great to be together with you today. 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:54.960 My name is John. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:06.800 I serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood, and if you are newer to Elmwood today, whether this is your first time or just new-ish to Elmwood, uh, we just want to say once again that we're so glad that you are here with us. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.439 I would love to connect with you sometime this morning. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:14.879 The church meal that's taking place right after the service today gives a really good opportunity for that. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:20.319 There's gonna be a bunch of food down in the fellowship hall, uh and then in the backyard is where we'll be out there. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:23.360 There's a bounce house, there's activities for kids, and all that. 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:29.520 So uh so excited to be together with you, and I look forward to connecting with you then. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:38.719 Uh if you are newer to Elmwood, I just want to encourage you with this that uh it's really hard to get a sense of what a church is like by coming one time, right? 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:44.240 This could be like the best Sunday we've ever had, or this could be like the worst Sunday we've ever had. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:52.960 And if you judge a church based on just that one experience, uh you don't really get the full picture of what that church is actually all about. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:58.240 So my encouragement for you is uh I just want to ask you, would you give us three Sundays? 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:04.479 Give us three Sundays uh to get connected and to see what Elmwood is all about. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:09.759 Those three weeks will give you a good sort of picture window into what uh our church is like. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:13.439 Uh coming up on the first Sunday of October, it's the fourth. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.560 Uh so three weeks from today, we're actually having what's called a welcome party. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:24.480 And this is for those of you who are newer to Elmwood, new ish, you know, if you're new to Elmwood, we want to connect you with other people that are new to Elmwood. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.000 There's a lot of you who are new around here, and so we want you to meet each other. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:32.399 We want you to be able to ask questions of us and to get to know some of our ministry leaders. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:34.319 And that's going to be right after the service. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:36.240 It's like 20 minutes long, it's short. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:38.720 We provide cupcakes and some other snacks. 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:46.000 Uh so we just encourage you, if you are new to Elmwood, uh, if you would join us for that welcome party, we would be uh grateful for that. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:53.439 As we come to the passage that you heard read just a moment ago, let me invite you to join me for a word of prayer. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:00.240 God, we thank you for being the one who sees us. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:08.800 Thank you, God, that nothing is hidden from your sight, nothing that we experience is unknown to you. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:20.000 Thank you that you not only see us, but that you love us, that you meet us in our misery, you meet us in the wilderness. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:34.560 God, as we think about these verses today, would you be with us by your Spirit in a tangible way to teach and instruct us and to help us see Jesus clearly and to be transformed more and more into his image. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:37.519 So we ask all this in his name. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:38.480 Amen. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:48.800 A pastor friend of mine and his wife have been on the disheartening journey of infertility for about ten years now. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.279 Ever since they got married, they have wanted to have biological children of their own. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:06:00.560 They have longed for that, but they have experienced many complications and miscarriages along the way. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:08.639 Last December they got pregnant, and as they have, which with each of these pregnancies, they had hoped that this one would be different. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:14.879 She actually carried their baby girl full term and made it to the day where she gave birth. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:21.519 And while she was in labor, this day turned from one of the best days of their life to one of the worst. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:28.879 During labor, the baby went into some sort of medical distress, and the doctors were not able to revive her. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:40.240 At the funeral, she shared about how the journey of infertility and the death of their daughter has been one of, if not the hardest thing, that she has ever experienced. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:52.879 But she also shared about how these tragedies that she and her husband have been through have led her to come to know Jesus in a way that she simply could not have known him otherwise. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:07:05.120 She doesn't celebrate the tragedies, she doesn't like that this is happening, and yet she knows that she's able to experience and encounter Jesus in ways that she simply couldn't had she not gone through these things. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:16.480 And so what she's come to know, and what some of us who are in this room have also come to know, is that very often God does his formative work in unexpected places. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:24.800 God does his formative work in us in places that are not just unexpected, but completely and totally unwanted. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:39.120 This morning we are starting a new series of messages where we are looking at stories throughout the Bible of God's people who find themselves in the wilderness, who find themselves in the desert. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:48.720 And throughout the Bible, this is this is a theme that you see where God's people very often find themselves, quite literally, in the wilderness, in the desert. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:54.000 But the desert in the wilderness isn't just about that geographical location. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:58.639 I think that we all know that it's more than that. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:09.920 The wilderness isn't just a geographical place, because we all know what it's like to find ourselves in places that we would describe as the wilderness, a wasteland, a desert. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:22.879 We all know what it's like to find ourselves in places that feel desolate and lonely and barren and uninhabitable and inhospitable. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:37.600 We know what it's like to find ourselves in seasons and in places where we feel dry, where we feel discouraged, tired, lost, hopeless, helpless, and the list could go on. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:44.799 Those are all things that characterize what we would think of as the wilderness, the desert. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:09:07.840 What we're gonna be doing over the course of these next weeks is we're gonna be looking at these different vignettes, these little pictures of God's people in the wilderness, and we're going to see over the course of this fall that the wilderness is one of the unexpected places where God loves to meet his people and to do his good formative work inside of them. 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:18.480 So this morning we're gonna look at this passage from Genesis 16 that you heard read a moment ago, and we are going to learn from Hagar's encounter with God in the wilderness. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:26.799 So our text today can be broken up into this the story can be broken up into two scenes, and so we're gonna look at those two scenes together. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:32.799 So the first scene that we come across here, we could title Abram and Sarah's Failure of Trust. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:46.720 Now, it may not be immediately obvious to us that what we're reading here is a failure of trust, but there's a couple different aspects or parts of this passage that clue us into the fact that that is what is going on here. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.960 So the first thing that can clue us into this is just to look at the immediate context of this story. 00:09:53.200 --> 00:10:22.879 So if you're familiar with the life of Abram in the Bible, you see that in Genesis chapter 12, God called Abram and made him these incredible promises that he and his wife Sarah would have generation after generation after generation of these descendants, which was uh uh, these are people that were the least likely people to receive this kind of promise because they're old, number one, and number two, Sarah, his wife, is physically incapable of having children in the first place. 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:34.320 But in spite of those things that from a human perspective look so insurmountable, God made this promise to Abram and Sarah that they would have generations of descendants. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:45.840 And then in the passage, the chapter just before this one that we're looking at here today, God reaffirmed those promises where he said to Abram, He says, Look up at the sky and count the stars. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:51.200 If indeed you can count them, so shall your offspring be. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:56.960 So this is the incredible promises that God made to Abram and his wife Sarah. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:05.440 But as we come to chapter 16, we find Abram and Sarah, and ten years have passed since God first made that promise to them. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:11.440 Ten years of waiting, and in the end it would be 25 years of waiting. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:17.600 So they're waiting and they're waiting and they're wondering what God is doing, they're wondering when God is going to make good on these promises. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:23.039 And in chapter 16, Sarah decides to take things, she takes matters into her own hands. 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:31.039 We can see that in verse 1 to 2, which says that Sarah had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.799 So she said to Abram, The Lord has kept me from having children. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:36.480 Go sleep with my slave. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.759 Perhaps I can build a family through her. 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:45.360 So immediately after God reaffirmed, he said, Abram, I'm gonna do this. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:47.440 You can count on it. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.480 The very next thing we read is Abram and Sarah saying, Well, I'm not really sure. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:54.320 Let's do this our own way. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:56.879 Let's do what we think is best in the moment. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:02.799 And so the the immediate context tells us that, like, this is this is a failure of trust on their part. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:10.399 But in addition to this, another aspect of this passage that can clue us into that is uh to look at all of the hyperlinks that are here. 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:13.840 Okay, we like to talk about these things uh in terms of hyperlinks. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:19.200 You know, when when you see the blue thing on your web browser that when you click it, it takes you somewhere else. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:26.240 There's so many of these in Genesis chapter 16 that lead us all the way back to, you probably could guess it, Genesis chapter 3. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:33.600 Okay, so going back to Genesis chapter 3, what you see is there's a man and a woman, and they are tempted to doubt God's word. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:40.000 They're tempted to doubt God's promise when he said, I've given you everything here for your good and your flourishing. 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:42.159 Just don't consume of this one tree. 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:44.720 Everything else is enough for you. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:52.480 And they were tempted to doubt that promise and doubt God's word that everything he had given them was indeed enough for them. 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:53.919 And so what does she do? 00:12:54.159 --> 00:13:13.840 She took the fruit of the tree and she gave it to her husband, and their eyes were opened after they consumed of it and sinned, and all of a sudden they recognize that they're naked, and they went and they hid from one another, and they hid from God, and then the result of this is there's relational conflict between them, and there's blame shifting that's taken place. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:20.639 The man says, Well, it's the woman's fault, and the woman says, Well, it's the serpent's fault, and everyone's pointing fingers, like the Spider-Man meme. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.360 Everyone's pointing fingers at everyone else. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:25.039 So that's Genesis 3. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:33.360 And then you come to this passage here in Genesis chapter 16, and we see lots of similar things. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:47.519 We see a man and a woman who are tempted to doubt God's word, who are tempted to doubt the promises of God when he said, I'm going to give you generations and descendants too numerous for you to count. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:50.480 They're tempted to doubt his word. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:52.639 And what does she do? 00:13:52.960 --> 00:14:00.559 Sarah, his wife, took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:14.159 And the result of this is lots of relational conflict, where when Hagar realizes now that she is pregnant, she began to despise her mistress, Sarah. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:19.519 And then, in addition to this, there's all sorts of uh blame shifting that takes place. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:26.240 And Sarah goes and she complains to her husband Hagar and says, This is something that you've done to me. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.360 You are responsible for the wrong that I am suffering. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:37.120 And in Genesis chapter 3, the sin in the garden can be described as doing what is good and what is right in your own eyes. 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:41.360 Choosing to do what you think is good rather than what God says is good. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:50.720 And we see that same exact thing here, where after Hagar, Sarah rather, complains to Abram, he says, Do with her whatever you think is best. 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:55.120 That word best is a literal translation, is the word good. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:05.279 It's the same word to use to describe the tree in Genesis, in the beginning parts of Genesis, that say there was a tree of the knowledge of good and bad. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:23.120 And so they're taking things into their own hands, they're doing what is good and what is right in their own eyes, and this whole passage is just dripping with all of these hyperlinks that clue us into the fact that help us see that this is a catastrophic failure of trust on Abram and Sarah's part. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:32.879 What's happening in Genesis 16 is that the same sin of Genesis 3 is being replayed over and over and over again, this time just in a different situation. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:38.399 This is Abram and Sarah's failure of trust. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:48.000 And it's their choices, ultimately it's their choices, that lead Hagar into the wilderness, which is the next scene that we come across. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:51.039 So first we see Abram and Sarah's failure of trust. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:55.679 Second scene we can title Hagar's Encounter with the God Who Sees. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:06.000 So Hagar becomes pregnant, and once she finds out that she's pregnant, we're told that it begins to go to her head. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.799 She, that is Hagar, began to despise Sarah. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:18.639 She now is the one who gets to bear the child of promise. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:26.320 And she becomes arrogant and begins to think more highly of herself than maybe she ought to. 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:40.559 And even though Sarah is the matriarch of the household, the one in the highest social standing, all of a sudden Hagar, who's this servant slave girl, begins to think of herself as better than her mistress Sarah. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:50.240 So this begins to go to her head, and the damage relationally that's been done is beyond repair. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.559 The damage is beyond repair. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:59.279 Remember, Sarah goes to Abram and says, Hey, uh, this is your fault. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:01.200 And he says, Hey, do whatever you think is right. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:14.000 And what Sarah decided was the right thing to do, what she thought was the good thing to do, was to make Hagar's life so unbearable and so miserable that she would flee the household. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:17.759 That's what Sarah thought was this is this is a good thing to do. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:19.519 And that's exactly what she did. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:26.000 And as a result of this, Hagar had no choice but to flee and to run away and to leave. 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:31.039 And so we find her in this passage, 70 miles down the road from where she lived. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:41.920 She's, we're told, next to a spring along the road to Shur, and that's uh that geographical marker is really important because it clues us in to the fact that she is going back to Egypt. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.240 That's a milestone between Canaan and Egypt. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:46.720 So she's going back to her home country. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:18:05.279 And if you're familiar with the story of Abram, you know that in chapter 12, Abram and Sarah left the land that God promised to give them, went down to Egypt as another act of not trusting God, and while they were there, they ended up with a bunch of servants and slaves that came home with them from Egypt back up to Canaan. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:09.359 And so Hagar was one of those slaves that they came back with from Egypt. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:17.759 So Hagar has lived as a slave in Egypt, and then as a slave in Abram and Sarah's household, and now she's doing the only thing she knows how to do. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:28.319 She's got one option, and it's to go back to her home country and hope that someone is going to take her and her child back to be their slaves. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.240 That's where she is. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:36.000 And you can imagine what must be going through her head as she's traveling. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:41.920 As she's walking this long road by herself, she's about a week into this. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:46.720 70 miles she's traveled, and you can just imagine what's going through her head. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:50.160 She's got no idea what awaits her when she shows up in Egypt. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:58.559 She doesn't have a clue what's in front of her, but what she does know is that it's worth the risk to get out of Sarah's household. 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:09.920 Whatever the unknown and the, you know, the fear and the anxiety and the uncertainty of what is to come in Egypt, she would take that over being in Sarah's house any day of the week. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:14.160 And so she left, she's fleeing on her way back to Egypt. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:31.279 And as she's resting at this spring on the road to Shur, the angel of the Lord finds her, seeks her out, and says to her, like the one thing that she didn't want to hear, go back. 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:33.759 Go back to where you came from. 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:36.480 Go back and submit to Abram and Sarah once again. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:43.200 She's like, I don't want to do that. 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:49.359 She's she's probably arguing and negotiating, trying to get out of that because she doesn't want to go back to Abram and Sarah's house. 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:53.440 It must have been a terrifying thought for her to go back there. 00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:00.960 To have to, you know, in some ways, you know, put your tail between your legs and come crawling back and say, No, I do need you. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:08.720 It must have been a terrifying thing for her to think about, but she does not come back from the wilderness empty-handed. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:14.720 She comes back with these promises of her own that the angel made to her. 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:22.480 Notice the angel said, I will increase your descendants so much so that they will be too numerous to count. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:31.599 This is almost identical to what God spoke to Abram and Sarah when he said, I'm going to make your descendants too numerous to count. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:47.440 So he gives her, this angel gives her a promise that is almost identical to what he gave to Abram and Sarah, and he goes on to say, You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son, you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:59.680 She goes back into Abram and Sarah's household, and all the pain and the dysfunction of going back to that place, she goes back with these incredible promises that God made to her. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:13.599 And we know from what the angel says here that her son Ishmael, his life, if you read about this down here, his life is not going to be easy either. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:22.559 But she comes back from the wilderness with something better than an easy life. 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:29.920 She comes back knowing the God who saw her and met her in her misery. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.119 She comes back knowing the one who saw her. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:37.839 And she says in verse 13, she gave this name to Yahweh, the Lord, who spoke to her. 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:43.759 For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:48.960 This is probably the lowest moment of her entire life. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:56.720 As she's walking this terrible journey down to Egypt, into the unknown of whatever that's going to be. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:21:59.680 God met her in this lowest place. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.799 Of her life, and he extended his grace and his kindness and his mercy to her. 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.599 Now, Hagar didn't do anything to earn these promises. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:19.839 She didn't do anything to earn the fact that God saw her and met her in that place and was with her. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:21.680 She didn't do anything to earn that. 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:28.960 This is, everything she experiences in the wilderness is 100% an act of God's grace. 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:36.160 So Hagar was, she was mistreated and she was abused. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:40.880 And I in no way, shape, or form want to minimize what happened to her. 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:44.720 It was wrong, it was evil what Abram and Sarah did to her. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:48.079 But she was not faultless in this situation either. 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:57.519 She was mistreated, but after being mistreated by Abram and Sarah, she then, once she finds out she's pregnant, begins to mistreat Sarah. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:07.839 And now Hagar finds herself in a position of mistreating the woman through whom God said he was going to bring his blessing and promises and salvation into the world. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:14.720 So she's not faultless in this, but she still experiences the grace and the kindness of God. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:24.319 God met Hagar in her misery as she was in the wilderness, and it's because it's just the kind of God He is. 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:26.799 This is what kind of God He is. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:29.519 It's who He was then, it's who He is now. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:31.839 It's just the kind of God He is. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:43.119 See, this account here in Genesis 16 is one story among a larger number of stories in the Bible that point out a pattern for us. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:50.000 And the larger pattern is that God sees us in our distress and he comes to our rescue. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:56.559 That's like if you take the story of the Bible as a whole, that's like that's the book. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:57.039 Okay? 00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:59.920 There's a lot more to it than that, and there's a lot more to explore. 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:11.599 But if you want to summarize the story of the Bible, it's that God sees us in our misery and our distress, and he comes to our rescue and extends his kindness and his grace to us, which we did not deserve. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:19.359 And of course, the ultimate example of this is found in the New Testament when we see the person and the work of Jesus. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:28.880 Listen to how the Apostle Paul was, he was a first-century church planter, and he wrote to the church that he planted in the city of Ephesus, and he wrote this to them. 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:36.960 He said, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:43.519 He then goes on to say, just a few verses later, like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:54.160 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.599 It is by grace you have been saved. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:13.519 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:24.480 What Paul is saying in these verses here is that we all find ourselves in a situation that is far worse than Hagar's. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:27.759 Hagar's in a bad spot, right? 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:35.359 Socially, relationally, economically, as she leaves the house to go flee to Egypt, she's in a bad spot as the angel finds her. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:44.559 And what Paul tells us, and the rest of the Bible confirms, is that we all find ourselves in a situation far more dire than Hagar's situation. 00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:50.160 Paul says that in our sin, we are spiritually dead. 00:25:50.559 --> 00:26:04.559 We are dead to God, we are dead to the way God has designed us to live, and that deadness, that spiritual deadness, and the sin that exists inside of each one of us is a poison that ruins us and ruins our world. 00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:10.400 We're in a situation far more dire than Hagar's situation. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:15.839 But God saw us in that desperate condition. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:18.319 And he met us there. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:19.759 He sent his son. 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:25.200 He saw us in our spiritual lifelessness. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.960 And in his great mercy, Paul says he made us alive. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:39.359 He made an opportunity for us to be spiritually made alive again, for our sins to be forgiven, to be able to enter into relationship with our Creator and our God. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.039 He did that for us. 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:44.079 While we were still sinners, he did that for us. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:53.279 He met us in our misery and came to our rescue because it's just the kind of God He is. 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:59.039 God saw Hagar in that desert place. 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:04.079 And the good news is that he sees you too. 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:19.359 I don't know what all you are facing today, but I do know that many of us sitting in this room today would consider ourselves to be in a wilderness place. 00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:23.119 And I don't know what that looks like exactly for you. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:38.000 For you, that wilderness might be might be spiritual, or you feel dry spiritually, you feel disconnected from God, you feel like you're struggling to trust and to believe and to put one step and foot one foot in front of the other, spiritually speaking. 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:41.519 It may be spiritual, it might be relational. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:47.599 There may be relationships in your life that are just not the way you want them to be, and you long for them to be different. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:28:05.839 That wilderness may be financial, it may be physical, health conditions, chronic illness, chronic pain, the aging of your body, and the breakdown of your body and the way that things used to work. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:13.839 It might be an emotional wilderness, it might be a wilderness of your vocation and your work. 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:22.400 I don't know all of what you are facing today, but let me leave you with this word of encouragement. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.680 In the wilderness, we are not alone. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:34.640 In the wilderness, whatever wilderness you are experiencing and facing today, you are not alone. 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:44.400 The story of the Bible tells us that God's people are familiar with the wilderness. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:51.359 This is one of the places where God's people often, sometimes always, find themselves. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:29:03.680 And we know, those of us who have followed Jesus for more than about 15 minutes, know that being a follower of Jesus, being in relationship with God, does not make us immune to experiencing life in the wilderness. 00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:07.839 This is a part of, this is what it's like in life outside of Eden. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.119 And so we experience those wilderness seasons. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:17.759 And the people of God throughout history, as you look at the story of the Bible, you see God's people have always found themselves in places like this. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.200 So if you are in the wilderness today, you need to remember and to know that you are not alone. 00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:27.200 You are in good company with the people of God throughout history. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:41.920 And not only this, if you were to take a moment and look around this room, what I can tell you with certainty is that more people than you know are in some kind of wilderness season that you know nothing about. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:53.599 And so you're not just, not only are you not alone, sort of in the big scope of things, you're not alone because the people of God sitting in this room know exactly what it's like to be in the wilderness. 00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:01.119 You are not alone, and my encouragement to you is therefore don't go it alone. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:07.759 God has designed you to need community and to need relationships. 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:22.079 He's designed it so that other people in your life who are a part of this sometimes weird, messy thing called the church, get to walk alongside of you and get to love you and serve you and care for you as you live life in the wilderness. 00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:23.599 That's the way God designed it. 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:26.160 Is for us to be there for each other in that. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:27.759 So don't go it alone. 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:41.680 If you haven't already let us know that you're interested in one of those groups, friends, can I just encourage you, if you haven't yet, take the next step of just saying, hey, I'm interested in learning what it looks like to get a part of community. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:45.279 That may sound like a crazy risky thing, and you're like, I'm not ready for that. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:46.240 I don't, whatever. 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:52.240 We're not asking you to sign away your life to a small group or to whatever for the forever and ever amen. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:52.720 Okay? 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:55.039 These things come and they go and they're seasons. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:31:14.559 And so all we're asking you to do is just be open to the possibility that maybe God has community and relationships within our church community, and maybe God wants you to be in those relationships because there's people who can love you and care for you and serve you and walk alongside of you as you navigate life in the wilderness. 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:17.279 You're not alone, so don't go it alone. 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:26.640 But most importantly, remember that if you are united to Jesus through faith, he is by your side. 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:30.880 Every moment of your time in the wilderness. 00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:37.359 The most famous psalm in the entire Bible is Psalm 23. 00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:51.680 And it says, Even though I walk through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me. 00:31:52.480 --> 00:32:02.720 Even in the darkest valley, the shadow of death, the wilderness places, we can know that God is with us even there. 00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:12.079 And as we look to the cross, what we see is that Jesus is no stranger to the wilderness. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:16.480 Okay, Jesus knows exactly what it's like to be cast out. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:24.880 He knows exactly what it's like to be mistreated, he knows exactly what it's like to be forsaken and to be utterly alone. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:34.160 He knows, and he has promised that if you belong to him by faith, he will never leave your side. 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:41.119 And so you can know that in whatever wilderness experience you find yourself in, you are never alone. 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:44.799 God's people are in the wilderness with you. 00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:52.640 God's people have been in the wilderness in years past, and he is with you in the midst of the wilderness. 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:54.559 God has proven. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:57.279 As we look to the cross, we see God has proven. 00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:12.640 He's demonstrated for us that he's faithful, he's demonstrated that he cares, and if he was willing to go so far as to give us his son who would suffer and die for us, to experience the banishment that we deserve because of our sin. 00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:24.079 If he was willing to send his son who would experience the ultimate wilderness in our place for us, if he was willing to do that, friends, he's not going to leave you now. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:28.799 And that's the good news that we get to remember and celebrate today. 00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:38.559 We get to come to the communion table as we do each week and be reminded of what God has done for us, his love and his compassion and his care for us. 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:43.920 And some of us who come forward today are going to come forward, we've done this more times than we can count. 00:33:44.079 --> 00:34:03.440 And every single time is another opportunity to express trust in the Lord, to express trust in Jesus, and to say, I still trust you in the midst of the wilderness, in the midst of the hardness, in the midst of the pain and the sorrow and the suffering, whatever that is, I still trust you. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:09.360 And it's a formative event for us to week after week after week come and say the same thing over again. 00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:11.599 God, I don't see it, but I trust you. 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:20.960 If you're here today and you don't know the one who sees you, you can know him today. 00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:28.400 You can come into a relationship and have the same kind of encounter with the one who sees you that we see in the life of Hagar. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:34.000 And so if you're here today and you are not yet a follower of Jesus, can I just invite you to trust him today? 00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:37.760 And if you decide to trust him today, the communion table is now for you. 00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.960 You get to come partake of Christ and experience the grace and the mercy that he has poured out on you. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:51.039 We're going to come to the communion table now, and as we do, I'm going to just leave us a few moments for silence and confession. 00:34:51.280 --> 00:34:55.039 And then we are going to come remember Christ together.