Keep your Bibles open there in Genesis chapter 16.
Genesis 16. Look at verse number 13. Genesis 16 verse 13.
And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her,
Thou God seest me. So the title for the sermon this morning is, Thou God Seest Me.
Did you know God sees you in all your difficulties, in all your trials?
It's not just when you're doing well. It's not just when you're being blessed.
But we see here in this story that Hagar was in a difficult situation.
She was downcast and she was able to recognize when the Lord comforts her
that the Lord sees her. The Lord sees her in her difficulties.
So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.
And we all have gone through difficulties.
Maybe today, this morning, you're going through some type of difficulty.
And let me encourage you, let me remind you that the Lord sees you.
You know, He wants you to be with Him. He wants you to fellowship with Him.
He wants to comfort you as He does to Hagar in this story.
Now, if you just drop down to verse number 16, the last verse of the chapter there,
just to give you a bit of a picture as to the time and of all the events here in this chapter,
it says, and Abram was four score and six years old.
Remember, a score is 20. So that's four times 20, 80, 86 years old when this takes place.
And I believe, I can't remember exactly where it is in the scriptures,
but Sarah was about 10 years younger than Abraham.
I mean, these guys are well past childbearing years, right?
Especially his wife Sarah, or Sarah in this chapter.
And so this probably helps understand why these events take place here in chapter 16,
when you recognize the age of Sarah and the decision she makes with Hagar,
which is very sort of odd, very unusual decision to make.
So again, just as you're reading through the book of Genesis, just remember,
I mean, obviously, we read through the Bible quite quickly.
We read chapter 14, chapter 15, chapter 16, but there are years going by,
there are decades going by, right?
God has promised Abraham before he even left,
that he would bless him and make him a great nation,
bless him and give him this seed.
And the decades are going on, and it's not happening for them.
And we've seen how Abraham lapsed in faith a little bit.
We even saw in the previous chapter, if you guys can remember that,
back in chapter 15, that Abraham had doubts about whether this would come true.
And he looked at the steward of his house, remember Eliezer and his son,
and said, well, maybe this is the seed you want to give me, God.
And God says, no, the seed is going to come out of your own bowels,
you know, he told Abraham.
And so we get to chapter 16.
And now it's Sarah, it's Sarah who's having doubts about this prophecy,
or this promise that God has given them.
And again, I can understand, I can understand how, you know,
if God has said something and the decades are going by,
and it's just not happening, you know,
but we need to remind ourselves that the Lord's timing is perfect.
You know, the Lord's timing might be different to your timing.
You know, the Lord has asked something from you,
the Lord has promised you something, and you might want it now.
But the Lord says, no, look, that there's going to come the right time for you.
And in this case, you know, Sarah finds herself barren, you know,
and being barren for a woman is very difficult, you know,
I mean, we live in a society where women don't want to have kids,
you know, women would rather delay to have children,
you know, they want to have their career, they want to travel,
they want to, whatever it is, you know, enjoy life before they're tied down with kids.
You know, that's a choice they make.
But when women want to have children,
and they find difficulty in that when they're barren,
it's a very difficult state to be in, you know,
and they can make some mistakes, you know,
some mistakes by the stress that's upon them,
the way that Sarah made a mistake here in this chapter.
So let's start off and look at verse number one there.
Genesis chapter 16, verse one, the Bible says,
Now Sarah, Abram's wife, bear him no children,
and she had in hand made an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
Now, as we go through this chapter, you'll notice that Hagar,
the servant to Sarah, many times, again and again,
the Bible calls her the Egyptian, the Egyptian.
It's like the Lord wants us to remember that she's an Egyptian.
You say, why is that important?
Because if you remember the story as we led up to this,
that Abram took his family, took his household into Egypt as a mistake.
You know, because they were lacking faith that God will provide for them
in the land of Canaan, they went into Egypt.
And if you remember, the Pharaoh gave to Abraham, you know,
cattle and sheep and servants.
And of course, this is where Hagar comes from, from Egypt.
She was one of these servants that was given to him by Pharaoh.
And the Bible keeps reminding us that she's an Egyptian.
And I think the reason for this is because we see a great sin
that takes place here with this Egyptian and Abraham,
but this situation would not have presented itself
if they hadn't gone to Egypt in the first place.
And one thing we need to understand is some of the mistakes we make in life,
some of the sins that we make in our life can have lasting effects into the future.
And we need to be careful.
We need to be careful about the mistakes we've made,
the sins we've made.
We confess them to the Lord.
You know, the Lord is willing to forgive you.
The Lord wants you to move on with your life,
but we can't neglect the fact that sometimes these sins,
the consequences of the sins follow through with us.
You know, we need to be careful that we don't fall back into those same sins,
or we recognize the kinds of sins we can fall into
because of the mistakes that we've made in the past.
All right, look at verse number two.
And Sarai said unto Abram,
Behold now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing.
So she recognizes something true.
She says, look, I haven't been able to fall pregnant.
And she recognizes, look, it's the Lord that's refrained me from bearing.
It's the Lord that's closed my womb at this time.
Hey, she's made the correct observation here.
You know, it's the Lord that opens and closes the womb.
You know, it's a law that, you know, if he decides to give you children,
that's going to be the Lord's decision.
All right.
And ladies, when you fall pregnant,
or when you're able to carry through a child to delivery,
and you have that child,
it's the Lord that made the decision for you to have that child.
Okay, appreciate the children that you have.
They grow so quickly.
I mean, I'm just, Isabelle, you're 14 years old.
I missed a birthday because I was in America.
I got to make up for it, okay.
But look, you know, it's just seeing my kids grow so quickly.
And I remember seeing, you know, just having Isabelle,
keep reminding her, this is a two-week-old just holding her,
because it took me two weeks to adjust being a parent.
And I finally, two weeks, I was able to hold her on my chest,
and I felt like protective.
And I'm like, wow, I'm a father, you know.
And now she's 14, what's going on, you know.
You know, in another 14 years she'll probably be married,
you know, with her own family and all these kind of,
probably even earlier than that, okay.
So, you know, time goes quickly.
Parents, just appreciate the children that you have.
It really does go quickly.
I mean, everyone says that it's going to go quick, and it's true.
It's true.
So appreciate the children you have.
They've been given to you by the Lord.
But sometimes when women are unable to fall pregnant,
like I said, it's a very stressful situation for them.
Why?
Because there's an innate desire,
there's an innate, you know,
thing that God has put into women to desire to be mothers.
Believe it or not, you know, those women that say,
no, I'm going to hold off from having kids,
they're going against their own nature, okay.
That's why they're depressed.
That's why they're never happy, all right.
It's because they, you know, just like men,
you know, it gives us joy to go and work.
It gives us joy to be productive.
It gives us joy to provide for our families, all right.
Even though it's work, it gives us joy.
It gives us satisfaction.
Well, the same thing with being a mother.
It's work.
It is work.
It's going to prevent you from traveling and be free, yeah.
But it gives you great satisfaction, okay.
And when you're unable to have children,
and it's difficult as men,
it's difficult for us to understand this.
But if you can understand just,
what if you were unproductive?
What if you, you know, you could never land a job?
You know, that would cast you down.
That would get you depressed, okay.
And in the same way, when women are unable to bear children,
it gets them cast down and upset.
And as men, we're like, come on, you know,
you know, you can get out of that.
But understand that's just a part of who they are.
You know, little girls, you know,
I've got a couple of girls, you know,
I've got boys and girls.
You know, I didn't teach my girls to play with dolls.
You know, I didn't teach my girls to,
or Christina didn't teach the girls to,
you know, pick up a baby doll and feed it and, you know,
put a nappy on it and put it in bed and sing songs to it.
No, it's just innate in a girl, in a young girl,
even then, a desire to have children, to be a mother,
you know, to be a wife.
And that's why they play these kinds of games.
You know, the tea parties and, you know,
the doll houses and these kinds of things.
You know, they like it just as a natural thing,
because it's something that God has placed in them, okay.
And that's why boys, they like to, you know,
they like the rough and tumble kind of games.
They like to play with cars and balls
and those kinds of things, you know.
But anyway, that's just how it is, right.
You know, God wants men to be productive.
You know, they want them to achieve certain things
so they can get out there, work hard
and provide for their families.
But just understand, you know,
if your wife is unable to, you know, fall pregnant,
that's gonna be a burden upon her husbands
and please remember to comfort them.
You're there to be a leader, a spiritual leader
and a comfort to your wives, okay.
But look at the mistake she makes there in verse number two.
She goes, look, the Lord has restrained me from bearing.
I pray thee, go in unto my maid.
It may be that I may obtain children by her
and Abram hearken to the voice of Sarai.
What a mistake.
I mean, what a disaster, right.
She says, look, I am unable to have children,
but I have this Egyptian servant.
Why don't you have a physical relationship with her?
And if she falls pregnant, that child will be our child.
Because obviously this servant
is under the authority of Sarah.
And, you know, it says here that Abram hearken
to the voice of Sarai.
You know, sometimes, you know, these kinds of stress,
you know, not having children
can cause you to make some really ridiculous decisions.
You know, just not being sober minded in your decision.
Of course, this is a major sin to commit adultery, okay.
Or to take on another wife, commit adultery.
This is a major problem.
And I would have, you know, I almost expect Abraham to say,
what are you talking about, woman?
You know, you're my wife.
I'm not going to cave into this.
And, you know, I would probably,
we don't have much in the Bible here.
We just have this statement, right.
But I would expect that this is probably not just
a one-time conversation.
It's like, all right, yeah, I'm going to commit adultery.
I expect probably this was weighing heavily on Sarai.
You know, and probably something she's been bringing up again
constantly, constantly to Abraham.
And he finally goes, all right, you know,
if this is going to give you satisfaction,
this is going to appease you.
You know, I don't want you to be downcast.
I don't want you to be depressed.
You know, if this is going to appease you,
if you think this is the way we're going to have children,
then he goes and partakes of that.
Now, what I'm saying is,
I'm not saying Abraham's innocent in this.
I'm saying he's guilty.
And so is Sarai for coming up with that decision, okay.
They're both guilty.
They're both committing a sin here.
And Abraham, of course, being the head of his home
is really the one that's accountable.
We'll see as we go through this chapter that,
you know, that he really was the one
that's accountable for his family.
And it says that Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
So what this reminds me of, reminds me of is,
remember Adam and Eve.
The Bible says that Eve was the one that was deceived, okay.
It doesn't say Adam was deceived, okay.
But he hearkened unto the voice of his wife, okay.
He listened to his wife.
His wife had eaten of the fruit.
He goes, all right, I'll eat of it as well.
But the Bible doesn't say he was deceived.
He knew full well that this was a mistake,
he knew full well this was in this obedience to the Lord God.
He hadn't been deceived,
but he hearkened to the voice of his wife.
And wives, you're probably not going to like
what I'm going to say here.
But, you know, husbands, husbands,
you can't hearken to the voice of your wife all the time, okay.
Especially if it's contrary to the word of God.
And you know what I get out of this from Abraham and Adam,
is that men, we have a soft spot for our wives.
You know, we want them to be happy, right.
There's a saying that goes, happy wife, happy life.
I've heard that preached behind the pulpit.
That's not true, right.
Happy wife is not happy life.
Well, to some extent, I guess it is.
But what's a better statement than that is
a righteous life makes a happy wife, okay.
A righteous life makes a happy life.
And here, you know, I assume Abraham's just seen his wife just downcast.
He says, well, all right, I'll give into this.
We'll do this.
If it's going to lift you out of this depression,
it's going to lift you out of this state of being downcast,
we'll do this.
Even though he knows it's wrong.
Even though he knows it's sinful.
And husbands, sometimes we have a soft spot for our wives.
We love our wives.
We should love our wives, right.
God's given us our wife to be our help, you know, to complete us, you know.
I don't know what I'd do without my wife.
I lost my passport without my wife in America.
I lost my passport.
What do we do without our wives, right?
And sometimes when your wife is upset and downcast and stressed,
you might cave in.
You know, you might decide to comfort her or satisfy her
in a wrong way, in a sinful way, you know.
You know, this is not how we ought to do things as a family.
You know, this is not, you know, what we should do.
But if it's going to make my wife happy, you know,
well, that's been a bit lazy, you know.
You should seek to give your wife joy, but you should seek to do that
through the Word of God, okay.
And if you can just quickly turn to, well, actually I skipped around
from my notes a little bit, but let's go to Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25.
And of course, this is a passage about the husbands and the wives.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25.
Again, just keep your finger back in Genesis 16.
We'll go back there pretty quickly.
But, you know, the Bible says here in Ephesians 5, 25,
husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it.
Hey, we ought to give ourselves to our wives.
We ought to be there for our wives, right?
Just like Christ was there and gave his own life.
He sacrificed himself for the church.
And then verse number 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the Word.
All right?
So the Lord has cleansed us by the washing of the water by his word.
Verse 27, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So what men to love their wives as their own bodies,
he that loveth his wife loveth himself.
So the instruction, guys, is that as heads of our homes, as husbands,
we are to love our wives.
But verse 26 says that we ought to sanctify and cleanse.
This is the comparison to Christ and the church,
but this is then true about us to our wives,
that we ought to sanctify and cleanse her or it
with the washing of water by the Word.
You see, if your wife is going through difficulties,
if she's having bad thoughts,
making wrong decisions in life,
you're not to just go with it.
I don't want to offend her.
I don't want a cranky wife today.
No, you ought to take her to the Word of God.
You ought to wash her.
You ought to sanctify her, be the spiritual leader,
open the Word of God and show her,
look, wife, this is what God says about this situation.
I know you want to do this.
I know you think this is going to make you happy.
I know you think this is going to satisfy you.
But according to the Word of God, this is a sin.
According to the Word of God, this is wrong.
This is the direction that we need to make.
You need to be the spiritual leader of your home.
This tells me you need to know the Bible.
And your wife's going to harken to the Word of God
if you're able to patiently show her
and teach her what the Word of God says.
So please, husbands,
and I know we're all at fault of doing this.
Sometimes we take the shortcut.
We just want to make our wives happy,
but it might not be the right way to go about doing it.
We need to make sure it aligns with the Word of God.
Wash your wives, be the spiritual leader.
Wash your children through the Word of God.
Sanctify them through the Word of God.
Anyway, verse number three, back to Genesis 16,
verse number three.
So husbands, don't compromise.
Don't compromise on what the Lord has asked you to do.
You know, verse number three, Genesis 16, verse three.
And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian,
after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan.
This gives you another idea.
They've been 10 years there already.
And gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife.
And, you know, I don't know if she,
when it says here that Sarai gave to her husband Abram to be his wife,
I don't know if Abraham actually took her as a wife.
I'm not sure if this is polygamy.
I'm not sure if this is actually,
it's not saying, like it's not coming from the Bible that she became his wife.
It's saying that Sarai gave her to be his wife.
Kind of like, in Sarai's mind,
the decision she was making was she was giving a wife to Abraham.
So I'm not sure, because we don't have any other passages in the Bible
that kind of call Hagar the wife of Abraham.
Okay.
And if you do take on a wife, of course, even a second wife,
even if that's a mistake, you know, husbands were to still,
you know, provide for that person.
You know, be there for that person.
Make sure they didn't go without.
And if you know the story later on, Abraham actually drives Hagar away
and she departs into the wilderness.
I'm not sure if she really took on the status as a wife,
but this was probably Sarai's impression or idea
that she would become a wife to Abraham.
All right.
Now, verse number four.
And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived.
And when she saw that she had conceived,
her mistress was despised in her eyes.
So Hagar the servant, right?
She has this physical relationship with Abraham.
She falls pregnant.
Okay.
She conceives and then she despises her mistress with her eyes.
Okay.
So again, immediately, guys, just the sin, straight away,
Sarai came up with this decision.
Now it's backfiring on her.
Okay.
Hagar has fallen pregnant.
She believes she now carries the seed unto Abraham,
the promise that was given to him.
And of course, she thinks well of herself.
You know, she exalts herself.
She goes, wow, you know, as his second wife,
you know, I've been able to bear him children.
You know, Sarah, my mistress,
why haven't you been able to do that?
You know, and she lifts herself up and she despises Sarai.
You know, for that, that happens.
Okay.
I mean, what a mistake.
You start messing up with the institution of marriage.
You know, you take on a second wife, you commit adultery.
It's going to mess up your family.
It's going to mess up your marriage.
It's going to mess up your life.
Okay.
Having multiple wives committing adultery never works.
Okay.
It's immediately backfired on Sarah.
Now she's been despised by her own servant.
And I'll just quickly read to you from Matthew 19 verse 5.
Jesus said, for this cause shall a man, amen, amen, one man,
leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife,
one wife, not wives, wife, and they twain, twain is two,
two, they twain shall be one flesh.
Okay.
What is marriage, guys?
It's one man, one woman, twain, one flesh for life.
Okay.
Till death do us part.
And unfortunately, Abram had messed up here.
So had Sarah.
Okay.
And this brings some significant consequences into the family.
You know, even the two brothers after Sarah had a son,
that being Isaac, Ishmael.
You know, there was competition between the brothers.
You know, it didn't end in a happy home.
You know, happy wife, happy life.
No, it didn't work for Abram.
Okay.
It didn't work for him.
And these kinds of situations will always bring problems into your life.
You know, we have so many examples in the Bible, you know, even Jacob.
Remember, Jacob married two sisters, you know, Leah and Rachel.
And of course, Leah and Rachel, then they become competitive toward one another.
It causes stress and problems within the family.
Solomon had 700 wives, 300 concubines, and they turned his heart against the Lord God.
They turned his heart to worship false gods and idols and those kinds of things.
And, you know, it never ends well, men.
Never ends well to take on more than one wife.
And why would you want to destroy your family, you know?
And these guys did destroy their family.
They did have problems in the families because of the stupid decisions they make.
Okay.
But one thing I just want to make very clear here, guys,
and I know a lot of people struggle with these verses.
When you read about men like Abraham, like Jacob, like Solomon, like David,
you know, we can go on and on where they took on multiple wives.
There's an assumption where maybe God is okay with taking multiple wives.
You know, like the Mormons, they think it's okay to commit polygamy
because they see the Old Testament saints in the Bible doing that.
And they say, well, you know, if that's okay for them, why can't I?
No, it's not okay for them.
We really saw what Jesus Christ said.
One man, one woman for life.
Okay.
That's what marriage is.
And just because these men make mistakes doesn't mean it's okay.
They make mistakes so we can learn from their mistakes.
So we don't make the same mistakes that they've made.
All right.
Keep that in mind.
So it never ends well there.
Let's look at verse number five, Genesis 16 verse five.
And Sarah said unto Abram, look what she says here,
my wrong be upon thee.
She says, look, my mistake is now your mistake.
Okay.
I have given my maid into thy bosom.
And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes.
The Lord judge between me and thee.
All right.
So look, she's obviously angry at Abraham.
She says, look, my mistake is now your mistake, Abraham.
You know, my servant despises me.
What are you going to do about it?
She's basically saying, it's now your mistake.
It's now your mistake, your problem.
Okay.
What are you going to do about it, Abraham?
She's right.
All right.
Now, did she make a mistake?
Yes.
But who's the head of the home?
Abram.
So men, the mistakes of your wives, the mistakes of your children are your mistakes.
You've got to own your family.
And if they want to go off and do something wrong, you need to stop that because it's
going to fall upon you.
She's right.
She's saying, my mistake is your mistake, right?
You know, my wrong be upon thee, she says.
You know?
And she's right about that.
And then look, I was despised in her eyes at the end of verse number five.
The Lord judge between me and thee.
She's saying, look, the Lord's going to judge you.
Yeah, he's going to judge me, but he's also going to judge you.
And of course, he's going to judge Abraham Harsha as the one that should have made the
right decision, shouldn't have committed adultery, shouldn't have taken on, you know,
Hagar as a wife or a concubine or whatever you want to call her here.
And, you know, it's good that she recognizes her mistake.
And just again, remind the men, when you see your wives making mistakes or committing sin,
you need to step in there.
You need to step in there because the Lord's going to judge you as well by the mistake
of your family, okay?
And one thing I just wanted to, this is kind of not in context of this chapter, but one
thing I do want to point you to, look at verse number five again.
It says, my wrong be upon thee.
I have given my maid into thy bosom.
Okay, you guys are familiar with the doctrine of Abraham's bosom, all right?
This sort of, this place, this paradise in hell, you know, in the bottom of the earth
that some, you know, that is taught by dispensationalists, okay?
And I just want to show you this.
Keep your finger there and go to Luke chapter 16, please.
Luke chapter 16, verse 22.
I've already taught on Abraham's bosom.
I don't really want to rehash that quickly, but I just thought it was interesting when
we talk about the bosom of Abraham here in Genesis 16.
But look at Luke 16, verse 22.
And of course, this is the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
You know, they both die and Lazarus is being comforted or, well, have a look at this, all
right?
Well, but the rich man opens up his eyes and he's in hellfire.
But look at verse number 22.
And it came to pass that the beggar died, look at this, and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried.
And in hell, he lift up his eyes, been in torment, and see if Abraham afar off and Lazarus
in his bosom, all right?
So you guys have, I don't know if you've heard this, but some of you have, of course, you
know, the teaching that basically all the Old Testament saints or every believer that
died before Christ was crucified, instead of going to heaven, they went into a place
called Abraham's bosom, okay?
And what they mean by that is they basically go to hell, but it's the paradise side of
hell.
It's a nice side of hell, okay?
Not the fire and the brimstone and all that kind of stuff.
No, that there's a chasm between the fire and the brimstone and there's this, you know,
perfect paradise part of hell called Abraham's bosom.
And they'll say, well, look, this is a place they were taken.
Look in verse number 22, Luke 16, 22.
It says the angels carried the beggar into Abraham's bosom.
And look, all this is teaching is that as the beggar came into paradise, into eternal
life, you know, in the afterlife, I should say, he was being comforted by Abraham in
his bosom, okay?
He was being held there by Abraham.
Abraham was comforting this beggar of his, okay?
And, you know, those that teach, well, no, this is a place in hell.
They say, no, he was carried into the bosom.
So this is a place inside the cavity of the chest, but a spiritual place inside of hell.
And I just wanted to show you, if you get told that, you know, if you go back to Genesis
16, you see there in verse number five that Hagar was given into his bosom as well.
You know, did she enter into his cavity?
You know, did Hagar enter into this paradise in hell?
Is that what happened?
No, of course, the Bible's consistent.
You know, being taken into the bosom is basically being comforted or being close by the chest
there of Abraham.
So I just thought that was a funny thing, but it's interesting how the Bible clarifies
for us what it means to be into the bosom.
It means basically being held, being close, physically close to Abraham in his bosom
there.
Anyway, back to Genesis 16.
Genesis 16, verse six.
And Abraham said unto Sarai, behold, thy maid is in thy hand, due to her as it pleaseth
thee.
And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
So basically, Sarai deals hardly or harshly.
You know, she becomes, you know, maybe aggressive or difficult to work with.
And this causes Hagar to flee from her mistress, Sarai.
Now, she flees and what I guess I want to bring to your attention here, of course, Hagar,
you know, I don't know how compliant she was with this.
You know, I don't know if she's just being told to sleep with Abraham or she was really
willing to do that.
But Hagar made a mistake as well.
All three are in sin.
You know, Sarai, Abraham, Hagar.
They've all done the wrong thing.
And Hagar here, remember, she's just a servant.
She's a servant from Egypt.
She's not of the people of Abraham.
She's a servant.
She's a lower class person.
Okay, she has a lower social level about her.
She's now pregnant with a man that's not really her husband.
You know, she's committed adultery, as it were, with Abraham.
And now she's being treated harshly by her mistress and she flees.
You know, I mean, how would you feel, ladies, if you were pregnant?
You know, you didn't really have a man there that's meant to be your husband.
You know, you're being treated harshly.
You know, you see yourself as a second class citizen and you flee.
You flee the situation.
I mean, that would be difficult for a pregnant woman, I think.
That'd be a very difficult thing.
Of course, ladies, that full pregnant starts to feel the attachment of closeness to the
child in the womb.
And I'm sure she's wondering, you know, what's going to happen to us?
You know, what's going to happen to us?
I can't go back to Sarai.
I can't go back to the household of Abraham.
You know, how am I going to deliver this child?
You know, how am I going to feed and provide for this child?
What's going to happen to my child?
And I'm sure lots of doubts in her mind.
And she thinks of herself as a lower class citizen.
And what I love about this story is that even though this sinful activity took place, very
exceedingly sinful thing took place, the Lord still has mercy on Hagar.
You know, the Lord sees Hagar in her difficulties.
And, you know, it's just a reminder for us.
Sometimes you might make some pretty bad mistakes.
You know, you might think of yourself as really low class.
And, you know, you might look at other Christians and say, wow, you know, they've got a happy
home and a happy marriage and they don't seem to be having any major problems.
I wish I could be in that situation.
It doesn't matter.
Look, whatever situation you find yourself in, even the big mistakes you've made in the
past, God sees you.
God knows about your situation.
Okay.
And the Lord has mercy here on Hagar.
He has mercy.
He has love for Hagar.
Look at verse number seven.
The Lord sends an angel.
The Lord sends an angel to Hagar.
And, you know, we shouldn't, guys, when you've made mistakes in your life, you shouldn't
run away from the situation.
You know, you shouldn't think, well, the only way out of this is to run away.
And that's where people commit suicide and do stupid things like this.
They just want to get away from their life, get away from the depression, get away from
the mistakes, get away from the stress.
And they do stupid things like commit suicide.
I hope you never contemplate that in your life.
I hope you never contemplate to run away from a difficult situation.
Sometimes children run away from the home, run away from the family because they feel
like I can't live in this environment.
But you'll see soon that the Lord calls her back to the household of Abraham.
The Lord sees her.
The Lord sends this angel of the Lord, verse number seven.
And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain
in the way of Shur.
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou?
Or from where?
And whither will thou go?
Where are you going?
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 thyself under her
hands.
You see, one thing that is very clear in the Bible is the authority structure that God
has put into place.
And this example of Sarai, she was a servant, not a slave, but she was a servant to Sarai.
And her authority, her boss, as it were, her employer, if you want to consider it that
way, was Sarai.
And Sarai, as her employer, as a boss, was treated her badly.
And she left the job.
She left the work.
She fled.
And the Lord instructs her, look, go back.
You're under the authority of Sarai.
Submit yourself unto her hands.
Now keep your finger there and go to 1 Peter chapter 2, please.
1 Peter chapter 2.
Children, you're under the authority of your parents.
And if you ever feel like you need to run away, or mum and dad, they've been too strict,
they've been too harsh, the Lord says submit yourself unto their hands.
Okay?
Be under the authority of your parents.
But look at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 18.
1 Peter chapter 2 verse 18, the Bible says, servants, be subject to your masters with
all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
And the froward means the ones that's hard toward you.
The one that's hard to get along.
The one that's harsh toward you.
The Bible instructs us if we're servants, if we're under the authority of others, that
we need to submit ourselves to them.
Yes, it's easier to submit to those that are good to you, that are good and gentle
toward you, all right?
But also you ought to submit yourself to those that are difficult toward you.
Okay?
So the Bible's consistent, you know, from the book of Genesis to the book of 1 Peter,
that the Bible expects if you're under the authority of somebody, to submit yourself
unto that authority.
Look at verse 19.
For this is thank worthy, if a man for conscience toward God and deal with grief, suffering
wrongfully.
You see, if you suffer because you've submitted yourself under the authority.
I'm not talking about sinful situations, okay?
If your authority tells you to commit a sinful act, okay?
You need to obey God above the authority.
The Lord God is above every authority.
The Lord God is above every institution, okay?
But if they're just making you work hard, okay, and they're not causing you to commit
sin, then you ought to be under the authority that God has given you, under the master.
And the Lord sees it, guys.
The Lord sees it if you suffer wrongfully, okay?
Sometimes when we suffer wrongfully, we want to get out of that situation, right?
We think, well, this is not fair.
Hey, but the Lord sees you.
The Lord is watching you.
Don't you think the Lord's going to shine His face upon you even more?
Don't you think His grace and His mercy will shine upon you even more when you know
you're in a difficult situation, okay?
This is not the best situation I'm in, but I know the Lord wants me to be under that
authority.
Don't you think that's going to please the Lord God?
Don't you think that He's going to look upon you and go, that's my son.
That's my daughter.
They're obeying my word.
And the kind of rewards and the blessings that will come to you, you know, your way
from God, I think, you know, it's worth it.
I think it's, you know, it's definitely worth suffering for Christ.
And so just want to show you there that even in the book of Genesis, we really see the
importance of the authority structure, servants being under their masters.
Back to Genesis 16, verse 10.
Genesis chapter 16, verse 10.
And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that
it shall not be numbered for multitude.
And the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, thou art with child, and shall bear a son,
and shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord have heard thy affliction.
I love those words.
The Lord have heard thy affliction.
You know, she was suffering.
She was in anguish.
She was downcast, but the Lord heard her, you know.
And this tells me, you know, some people struggle with these kinds of things.
You know, Hagar and Ishmael were these godly people, were these believers.
I believe they were saved, you know, because Abraham taught his household the ways of the
Lord, you know.
And we see here that Hagar is suffering, and the Lord hears her cry.
And she gives us this great promise, this great prophecy that her son Ishmael will be,
will multiply exceedingly.
You know, he would be a great nation.
He would have a great lineage as well.
And I believe that Ishmael grew and became a saved man.
Okay, I truly believe that.
And I'll show you that, well, I'll explain to you why some people resist this.
And again, it has to do with Zionism, dispensationalism, okay.
The general teaching of dispensationalism is this, that, you know, Isaac, obviously
the promised child of Abraham, that obviously he would become the progenitor to the Israelites.
Of course, we know that.
And they say, well, who are the descendants of Ishmael?
You know, who are these people?
And quite often, you know, people teach that it's the Arab world, you know, the Arab world
out there that hate the Jews, right, that hate Israel.
They're the Ishmaelites.
But I looked hard into this, guys.
There's no solid evidence for this at all.
Look, it's possible.
I'm not saying it's impossible, okay.
I'm sure there are people, of course, in this world.
He became, you know, many were descendants of Ishmael.
It's possible that they're out there, okay.
And maybe they are some of the, you know, Arab nations and the people out there.
But we don't really have that as a crystal-clear teaching from the Word of God.
We can't even really trace that from history, okay.
But it's just the assumptions that people make.
So sometimes just be careful.
I mean, I'm sure you've heard these things as well as I have, okay.
If you've studied the Bible, we don't always know.
People come up with things, and then people just parrot those things without really fact-checking it.
I try really hard to fact-check it.
I couldn't find any evidence that this is the truth.
But it's possible.
It's possible out there, okay.
But I believe Ishmael grew to be a saved man.
Because they would often say, well, see, the Muslims hate the Jews.
And, you know, the Muslims, of course, they're unsaved.
But so are the Jews, okay.
And then they'll be like, see, well, Ishmael was a progenitor.
You know, he wasn't a saved man.
I'll show you.
I'll show you that he definitely was saved.
Keep your finger there.
And go to Genesis.
Well, next chapter anyway.
Genesis 17, verse 23.
Genesis chapter 17, verse 23.
The Bible says, And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were bought in his house,
and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house,
and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day as God had said unto them.
Okay.
This doesn't prove that he's saved.
But the fact that, you know, Abraham had circumcised himself, his household, including
Ishmael, if you remember, the physical circumcision was a type, was a picture
of the circumcision of the flesh.
You know, we don't trust the flesh to be saved, right.
It's a circumcision of the heart.
We put away the works that we have in the flesh.
And it's just by faith.
If you place your faith on Christ, you've been circumcised in the heart, okay.
And of course, the circumcision of the flesh was just a picture of that, was a type of that, okay.
Now, let's go to Genesis 18, verse 19.
Genesis 18, verse 19.
Basically, my point there was, if Ishmael has been circumcised in the flesh,
I think that's good evidence to say he's been circumcised in the heart.
Now, we know that's not a hard and fast rule.
Anybody can circumcise themselves in the flesh.
But this is the first time that God had instructed Abraham to do that.
But look at Genesis 18, verse 19.
We've read this passage before in previous chapters.
Genesis 18, verse 19.
God says about Abraham,
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord.
Okay, so Ishmael was a child of Abraham.
It doesn't say he will instruct, you know, or he will command Isaac or his child.
It says his children, the way of the Lord.
Okay, so we see that obviously Ishmael was a child of Abraham.
Therefore, he would have been instructed by Abraham in the way of the Lord.
Now, drop down to Genesis 21, verse 20.
Genesis 21, verse 20.
And I think this definitely, you know, starts to reinforce the fact that he was a saved man.
Genesis 21, verse 20.
It says,
And God was with the lad, and grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
So we see that God was with Ishmael.
Okay, this wouldn't make any sense if Ishmael is an unsaved man,
an unsaved teen, you know, young lad or something.
No, the Lord is with him.
Okay, the Lord has been there with him.
And again, just a reminder, you know, again, if you've made mistakes in the past,
you know, if you've been a child out of wedlock,
or, you know, you've had children out of wedlock,
these kinds of mistakes that people make,
you know, your child, you can still be a child of God,
and the Lord will be with you.
You know, the Lord loves you.
You know, sometimes you might be seen as less in the eyes of men.
You might feel a lower class.
But again, though, the Lord is with you.
You know, become a child of God.
That's the best place to be, the best household to be part of.
Even if you've messed up the household that you have on this earth,
you can be part of the household of God.
Go to Genesis 25, now.
Genesis 25, verse 17.
And now this is the end of Ishmael when he passes away.
It says, Genesis 25, 17.
And these are the years of the life of Ishmael,
and hundred and thirty and seven years,
and he gave up the ghost and died,
and was gathered unto his people.
Again, that's a statement that was made of Abraham.
When he died, he was gathered unto his people.
Ishmael, when he passed away,
he went to be with his forefathers in the faith.
You know, he was gathered to the people there.
You know, because when you die, when you're a believer, you never die.
Okay, he's been gathered with his people.
So we see that Ishmael, you know, a product of a bad decision.
You know, but the Lord was with him.
He was saved.
And we praise God for that, that, you know, even a wild man.
He's been, he gets called a wild man later on.
And, you know, he definitely didn't have an easy life.
Go back to Genesis 16, verse 12.
Genesis 16, verse 12.
Because the prophecy continues about Ishmael.
It says here,
And he will be a wild man.
I'm not sure what that means, okay.
But I'm assuming it'd be difficult.
I mean, he lived in the wilderness.
He was an archer, right?
He'd be out there.
He'd be in a bit of a rough personality.
Probably not easy to get along with, you know.
You know, a man of the wild, you know.
And not really, maybe not very civilized,
and not easy to get along with.
But he'll be a wild man.
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.
So, again, those that teach that Ishmael was a descendant of,
you know, the Arab world that hate the Jews.
They'll point to the wars and the turmoil in the Middle East,
and say, well, see, this is the reason why they're always fighting.
There's always turmoil.
There's always problems, you know.
Is, well, this is a prophecy that came upon Ishmael.
But again, I don't really see that.
This seems to be a prophecy specifically about Ishmael.
That he would be a wild man.
That, you know, every hand will be against,
that his hand will be against every man.
He wasn't an easy person to get along with.
He was in constant conflict, Ishmael, okay.
And every man's hand against him,
and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
So he was there, but no one really got along with him very well, right.
He was always arguing.
He was always in conflict.
This was a prophecy that God would give about Ishmael, you know.
And I guess, you know,
he probably didn't have the best household to grow up in, you know.
Growing up in a broken home, as it were for him and his mother,
it's not an easy situation.
You don't have, you know, great examples to live by, you know.
And sometimes you can mess up your life.
But again, just the fact that he was a difficult person
does not remove the fact that he was saved.
You know, you can be a really wild person.
You can be a really difficult person to get along with,
but you can still be saved, all right.
I mean, that's not ideal.
You don't want to be that kind of person.
You want to be someone that gets along with the brethren.
You want to be someone that is able to resolve conflicts, okay.
But just because someone's very difficult to get along with
doesn't mean they're unsavable, okay.
They're definitely savable, okay.
Christ came and died for the sins of all men, all right.
So, you know, it's just, this is how Ishmael would live.
He would live a life full of contention.
Verse number 13, and this is what Hagar now says to the Lord.
She, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her,
Thou God seest me.
She's comforted by the Lord, right.
She's comforted that God sees her in her situation.
Look, this is the same God of Abraham and Sarai.
You know, God's blessed them in a mighty way.
And she goes, well, the same God of Abraham,
the same God of the household that I fled with,
He sees me.
He loves me.
He's come and comforted me.
And it says that she gave, she called the name of the Lord.
This is the name that she gave God.
Thou God sees me.
That's how she called God.
You know, if she prayed to the Lord,
she referred to the Lord, she called Him,
Thou Lord seest me.
That became her name for the Lord God in the Bible.
For she said, have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?
Question.
She says, look, I've not looked for God in the same way
that He's looked for me, okay.
And you know, if we can take this and apply it to ourselves,
we know what God has done for us.
We know that God loves us.
We know that He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for us, okay.
And we know He did it while we're sinners, okay.
While we're sinners, while we're breaking the laws of God,
He sent Jesus to die for us.
You know, the Lord has looked upon us.
The Lord has shown mercy upon us.
But sometimes we don't look to the Lord the same way He has.
Well, we definitely haven't, okay.
We definitely don't look to God in the same measure
that He has looked upon us with His mercy.
And she's just, you know, I guess she's just contemplating the fact
that, you know, she hasn't been the best Christian out there.
No, she hasn't really been setting her sights upon the Lord.
She hasn't really been faithful toward the Lord,
but the Lord has been faithful to her.
And she's encouraged, she's reminded by the love of God that He has upon her.
Keep your finger there and go to Psalm 34, please.
Psalm 34 verse 15.
And while you're turning there,
I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 15 verse 3.
Proverbs 15 verse 3.
The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place,
beholding the evil and the good.
The Lord sees all things.
You know, the Lord sees you in your trials.
The Lord sees you with your blessings when you're doing well.
Sometimes even if you want to hide from the Lord,
you want to, you move away from the Lord.
You don't set your sights on the Lord.
You're not in fellowship with the Lord.
You know, the Lord still sees you in your situation.
You guys are in Proverbs 34 verse 15.
The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous
and His ears are open upon their cry, okay?
And the Lord was, His ears were open upon the cry of Hagar.
He says He's heard it.
He's heard her travail.
He's heard her cries, okay?
But it says here, the eyes of the Lord upon the righteous.
He hears the righteous, the cries of the righteous.
Are you righteous today?
Well, if you probably have, if you're saved,
you have the imputed righteousness of Christ,
a child of God, and the Lord hears your cries.
I mean, I think we miss out on the blessings
and the comforts of God because we don't cry
unto the Lord as much as we should.
You know, and maybe we're embarrassed.
You know, men, we don't like to cry, right?
I like to bottle things up and I'll deal with it.
You know, I'm a man, you know?
You know, why should I cry?
No, you know, the Lord wants you to cry.
If you're righteous, if you're His son,
if you need help, you know, ladies,
you know, I hope you take this to heart as well.
You know, that sometimes you just need
to take things to the Lord, unload your burdens,
unload your cares, you know, the stressful things.
You need an answer to prayer.
You're in a difficult situation.
You need to cry unto the Lord.
Nothing wrong with that, perfect.
It's not a weak state of faith.
No, you cry to the Lord to strengthen your faith,
to comfort yourself.
That's what the Lord wants from you,
but He wants you to cry out to Him.
And the Bible says, He will hear you.
He promises to hear your cry.
And what a blessing to know that, okay?
That my crying, you know, the stress
and the depression that I might suffer,
you know, it's not in vain.
If I direct it to God, I know He will come and comfort me.
And in this picture that we had here,
the Lord sent an angel to comfort Hager, sorry.
And I just love the fact that she acknowledges,
you know, He's watched me.
I haven't really been looking for Him
the way I should have.
And, you know, sometimes we need to be reminded about that.
I think quite often when we go through hardships,
it's because we've not set our sights on the Lord.
We've probably moved away from the Lord and His word,
and we've brought some difficulty,
some trial upon ourselves in our lives.
And back to Genesis 16, verse 14.
Genesis 16, verse 14.
I'm pretty much done now,
but we'll just finish the chapter off here.
It says, wherefore, so because of what she said
about the Lord that He sees her,
the well was called Beah-lahoy-roy.
Behold, it is between Kadesh and Berad.
So I didn't look, I didn't go back to the Hebrew here,
sorry guys, but I'm assuming by the context of this,
the fact that this well is called Beah-lahoy-roy
has something to do about the Lord seeing her.
Now she's named, or someone's named this well
after the fact that the Lord has seen her in her distress,
has heard her cry.
And then verse number 15.
And Hagar bare Abram a son,
and Abram called his son's name,
which Hagar bare Ishmael.
And Abram was four score and six years old,
when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
So again, just a reminder there
that Abraham was 86 years old.
You know, it appears at this point in time
that he's not gonna get that promised son.
And of course, we have many chapters to go about Abraham.
And we know that the Lord does give Sarai,
even though she's well past the age,
well past the ability to have a child,
the Lord blesses her.
He opens the womb.
He proves that he has the power of the womb there.
He shows that he's able to bless them with a child.
We'll go into that later on as we go through the chapters.
But just in conclusion, guys, just a reminder,
a few key things that we saw there
is that I don't want anybody in this church
to feel like a second-class citizen.
You know, I don't care.
I've been blessed with a good family.
You know, I'm not gonna apologize for that.
You know, I've grown up in a blessed home,
you know, in a Christian home.
You know, I've had a faithful wife and children.
The Lord has opened the womb of Christina.
We've had children.
You know, I feel blessed.
You know, and sometimes I feel saddened
because, you know, I love the church.
I love this church.
And I know sometimes you guys are struggling with things
that maybe I haven't really struggled with.
You know, I don't know what it's like
to not grow up in your family home.
I don't know what it's like to grow up
in a divorced situation.
You know, I don't know what it's like.
You know, I don't have that experience, okay?
But you know who does know
and who does feel your sorrow
and does hear your cry is the Lord God.
You know, the best thing I can do
for the brethren in this church as your pastor
is to pray for your situation.
And I do pray for you.
I want you to know that I do love you
and I do pray for you.
But I'm not always going to be able
to relate to your situation.
I don't know necessarily what it's like, you know, to suffer.
But Jesus Christ came.
Remember He came and He felt the afflictions of the people.
He knows what it's like to suffer.
He knows your pain.
And that's why you can go to the Lord in prayer.
That's why you can bring those things to Him
and be strengthened and comforted in Him.
I just want you to know,
just because I've had a pretty decent life,
a happy life,
I don't really have anything to complain about.
If you go through problems and marital problems
or whatever things in the past
that you've made mistakes,
I don't think of you yourself as any less, okay?
In fact, I kind of almost wish in a way
that I've had a little bit of your experience
because you've come out of a more difficult situation.
You've been lifted up by the Lord.
You've had your sins forgiven.
Maybe you can even appreciate the mercy of God.
Maybe you can even appreciate the sacrifice of Christ
even more so than I do.
So there's another element to that
where you can really appreciate,
you can really thank the Lord for bringing you out
and saving your soul.
Whereas I probably can't relate
to that same level of emotion as you have.
But I've got another level of blessing.
And that's how life is, guys.
We all come from different situations.
We all have different backgrounds.
We all have different challenges in life.
But the truth remains the same.
When we go through difficulties,
we have to take them to the Lord, okay?
The truth remains the same
that we shouldn't take actions upon ourselves
and say, well, the Lord hasn't come through.
I'm going to take my own action.
Even if it's sinful,
I'm going to harken to the voice of my wife.
No, the same instruction is to all.
You know, we have to go to the Word of God.
We have to sanctify ourselves
with the washing of the water,
found it and sanctify the waters in the Word of God
and come to realize how God feels about certain things,
how God wants us to walk in our way, in His ways,
how God wants us to fellowship with Him.
And I hope you're encouraged by the story here of Hagar
and her son Ishmael, you know?
The Lord did not look down upon them.
In fact, He encouraged them and gave her a promise
that he would be fruitful as a man
and have multiple children.
So we'll leave it there, guys. Let's pray.