The Story of Hagar in the Bible - Genesis 16: 1-16

so if you got your Bible you can go to Genesis 16 1 to 16 or if you have your Bible app you can do that as well and I'm going to read the word and then we're gonna get right into to prayer Genesis 16 160 do you have it yes okay so you're nodding good it says now Sarai Abrams wife had borne him no children but she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar so she said to Abraham the Lord has kept me from having children go sleep with my slave perhaps I can build a family through her Abraham agreed to what Sarah I said go after so after Abram had been living in canine ten years Sarah his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife he slept with Hagar and she conceived when she knew she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress then Sarah said to Abraham you are responsible for the wrong I'm suffering I put my slave in your arms and now that she knows she's pregnant she despises me may the Lord judge between me between you and me your slave is in your hands Abram said do whatever you think's best then Sarah mistreated Hagar so she fled from her veins Allah the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert it was the spring that is beside the road - sure and he said Hagar slave of Sarah where have you come from and where are you going I'm running away from my mistress Sarai then the angel of the Lord told her go back to your mistress submit to her angel added I will increase her descendants so much that you will be too numerous to count verse 11 the angel the Lord also said to her 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 he will be like a wild donkey of a man his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he will live in hostility hostility toward all his brothers she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her you are the God who sees me for she said I have now seen the one who sees me that is why the well was called beer-lahai-roi it is still there between Kadesh and bread so Hagar abraham a son and abraham the name Ishmael to the son she had born Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael let's pray together Heavenly Father we now want to focus on what you have to say in this story and sometimes this story is overlooked and we do pray that you will help us to learn from the story we pray that you will give us wisdom and guidance and counsel and help us ladies to learn from the behavior and the attitudes of the women in this story and also for even for the men in the in the in the in the church to learn from this story God so we thank you that your word always applies to everybody and we thank you Lord that you have been a gracious God to us and so lord I pray that whatever we're facing right now or difficulty we're facing that may the God who sees us and the God who knows us hear our prayers and release the things that have to be released in our lives so that the enemy will be crushed and God would be exalted in Jesus name Amen in this story we learn about manase our Abraham and Sarah but then it changes to Abraham and Sarah so I'll be using that instead of the name here and there's a reason why there's a name change because things happen in their life to reflect Abraham means the father of many nations and he finally did have the son Isaac and he was the father of many nations so names mean something in the Bible and this is the case with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17 their names are changed but at this point of the story we're in Genesis 16 they're called Abraham and Sarah and in the story we learned that Sarah's the one that makes the suggestion to Abraham to have a son through Hagar and in the ancient world this was an appropriate kind of behavior that was what the culture did if a woman could not have a child her husband was allowed to bear a child through a servant this was culturally accepted this was not accepted by the Lord this was culturally accepted bearing a child was a sign of God's blessings the inability to have a child was sometimes seen by God's people as a punishment from the Lord and so she was the one that says in verse 1 God has kept her from having a baby and her situation would have made her a social outcast because she have a child and if she if Abraham wanted he could have divorced her according to the law and because of all these different reasons because she's not getting older she doesn't have a child she doesn't have a son because the Sun was going to carry on the inheritance in the name of the family she decided to take matters into her own hands and in her mind she doesn't see herself having a baby and she's waited and waited and waited and nothing has happened and so now in her mind she's going to take action bearing in mind that in this story which is Genesis 16 remembering in Genesis 12 if you read there you will read that God told Abraham and he was 75 years old he said Abraham go to a new country a new place follow me and I'll make you a great nation and God also promised Abraham that he would bless him and then in Genesis 15 this chapter before 16 God is telling Abraham you're going to have a son and you're going to be the father of many nations and so in that in that part of the Bible the Bible says that Abraham believed and he was credited as righteous because of his belief faith is so important right we have to have faith if we're believers in God the Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God and we need to have faith in all things and so abraham believed and because of his belief god honored that now some time has passed and sarah is tired of waiting because that's how we are - so we can't put our fingers at Sarah and be like she's just impatient most of us are like that - like if we see God's not working or we're waiting and waiting and waiting sometimes we push the agenda and we go forward and God doesn't want us to do that so she takes matters into her own hands and it says Abraham slept with Sarah Hagar and she conceived and I want to I want you to think about this from Hagar's perspective sometimes women are caught in the middle of a mess and it's not her fault does that make sense ladies sometimes women are caught in the middle of a mess and it's not her fault in this story Hagar did not ask to be with Abraham but because of her she was a servant she had to listen to what they said and this was not her desire this was not her desire and somehow she is caught in the middle of a mess because the Bible says that she became pregnant and now Sarah despises her and women and mothers and ladies have you been there do you know what it's like to be caught in the middle of a mess and you know that it's not your fault for example sometimes the principal or the school might call you and say you know what your child did this your child did this and and you know you're going and driving to the school and you're like I didn't raise my kids like this why am I getting a phone call and you're caught in the middle of a mess and sometimes unfortunately sometimes ladies if you're married your spouse might not be helping you with things in the house and it's making things very stressful and so women are caught in the middle and and feel like they have to fix the problem all the time and do some do something because they need to make sure things are happening when you're at work and you don't comply to your boss sometimes women are fired and they're caught in the middle of a mess or in other cases women are the reason other people are upset with them so that's another situation or when a woman is being faithful to her husband and she finds out he's not being faithful she's caught in a mess or when a woman is dating a man then finds out he's married she's caught in a mess sometimes women and I know I'm making sense here are caught in a mess does that make sense right ladies and it's not our fault you know sometimes we're being faithful where we are and we're not perfect we make mistakes too but sometimes women are caught in the mess and they find out things and they just say to themselves why am I here why am I in the middle of a mess and so Hagar conceives and when this happened guess who's mad Sarah when she knew she was pregnant Sarah began to despise her mistress and the Bible says Sarah despises her and mistreats her all because she conceived and we ladies and we have to be very careful as we're walking with God we should not despise one another what is this word despise made it means to have contempt towards somebody and in this story Sara hates Hagar because she's pregnant and women we need to be very careful and men we have to be very careful not to despise other people for example when you find out someone's engaged or they're getting married or you know someone got promoted at work or you've you know you see somebody there eating well they're very healthy they look good or they're working out or someone has children and or somebody has a good husband or a good wife or you thought you see on like social media people are maybe traveling and they're doing things and it's easy for us to despise another person to despise the blessings that going on in their life and I really want us to stress this morning that it's not our place to despise people God does not want us to look at other people and despise them or covet what they had our place is to be content where we are and be grateful and count the blessings we have and this is how the enemy works he likes to take the one-two-three things that are not going well in your life amplify it and make it seem like it's the end of the world so that you feel sorry for yourself and then we forget about all the other blessings we have in our life and you know one of the ways you learn this well is when you travel you begin to appreciate things that you have for example I mean this may sound silly but we were just in Florida this week and they have a lugg Love Bug problem okay Love Bug meeting there's two bugs stuck together and in May and June these bugs come out and they are if it only had like a huge purpose they do something for the the earth ecosystem but they were everywhere like swarming everywhere and they were they come on your body and your leg and you're just like they're not good-looking creatures so you're just not you're disgusted seeing that that's the best way for me to say it a Love Bug problem right and they are attracted to heat so it was very hot down there apparently this was there this year they're like having a major problem and I remember say to myself we were driving I was like you know what I have an appreciation for winter now winter you don't see any bugs right and so you think about these things until until you until you see yourself in a worse situation you don't understand what you have until you're in that situation you we take for granted what we have and we need to sarah here is just so mad that her her servant was pregnant and instead of using all that energy all that mental space emotional space physical space being mad at God and mad at people let's use it for good and be thankful where we are and thankful well for what it's coming and then use your time to bless somebody else amen because there's so many people out there in need you know buy a coffee or tea for somebody or buy clothes for somebody's kids or do something and you'll see how you feel good inside because God designed us to give not to receive all the time the Bible actor says it's more blessed to give than to receive and so when you give with a faithful heart and you do these things then you don't have time to be jealous and you don't have time to despise other people and just know that because you are here and you're honoring God with your time and your money and your talent God has big plans for you plans beyond your expectation and imagination amen and so the story unfortunately goes from bad to worse here's what Sarah says to her husband you are responsible for the wrong I am suffering I put my slave in your arms and now that she knows she is pregnant she despises me may the Lord judge between you and me like this story is going downhill it's not going better if you haven't noticed and I really want to remind ladies and men be careful not to blame your husband or wife when your idea does not work out take responsibility for your actions amen and it drive this point home ladies and men do not blame your husband or wife when your idea does not work take responsibility so here's the issue today Sarah needs to have an attitude check I mean it was her idea for Abraham to sleep with Hagar and Abraham agrees and when I was a kid I was like this is a silly story like why would he do this now that I'm getting older I understand that sometimes a spouse does what their spouse wants just to make them happy even though it's a bad idea like bad idea and so I think in this case he was just like I'm just gonna try to make her happy even though in his mind I'm pretty sure he thought this is not a good idea I mean anyways and when the idea doesn't work some wives blame their husbands she's like you are responsible like read the story uh-uh Sarah you told him to do this so Abraham is responsible too because that means the same dude to Adam Eve story Eve's like half the Apple and Adam took it like what is wrong with the ladies and what is wrong with the men the women have all these crazy ideas and the men are just listening like what is going on you think about these stories okay when I get married I'll probably have the same problem that's okay so she encouraged him like this is a great idea and I think some women do that like we sell the idea to the men and then the men you guys are so nice you just like okay sure I'll do it anyways so ladies when your idea doesn't work out please don't blame your husband or your boyfriend or the opposite way to you know men don't blame don't blame your wives either when your idea doesn't work out because you have some ideas too okay so couples maybe you want your spouse to have two jobs so you can have more income but now you're always complaining that he or she's not home well it was your idea too to have the two jobs so you can't complain about that right couples you told your spouse to take some money invested in the bank and now it's not going well the economy's low and all this then now you're blaming your spouse that you lost all this money you can't do that right sometimes couples you tell your spouse to go buy all these items buy these groceries and whatnot then you review the budget you're like hey the budgets we're over-budget well you told your spouse to go buy all that food and all that clothes and all that stuff you have to take responsibility all right and this is a funny one like sometimes you know couples I see this all the time like they complain about how their spouse looks like and so they the spouse is now I'm gonna go to the gym and eat better and now all of a sudden the wife or the husband is looking better and getting all this attention well you told them you told them to go get look better you know what do you think people have eyes right they're gonna see so of course as a couple your eyes are only for your spouse amen all right and so but other people gonna notice if your spouse is working out and looking better now that this is not the place for you to go to entertain that I'm not saying that at all but people do have eyes and so you know this is important to like spouses your your if you're married you need to make sure that you're building your your wife or husband self-esteem so if they are struggling in the area of being healthy find positive ways to send that message of how to be healthy please don't put them down the Bible talks about don't let on a wholesome talk come out of your mouth but say something that will benefit the listener so that it will build them up okay now if you have a loving spouse that's very caring and very loving and been very supportive and you don't still feel confident about yourself this is not an issue this is an issue with yourself okay I'm being very clear here if you still feel that you're not good enough and that you don't look good and all these different things even though your spouse is supporting you in a positive way then you have an issue of insecurity and you need to take that with the Lord because you have to realize that your identity comes in Christ I must say you have to be perfect like if you want to eat healthy and he cleaned great you're gonna look good but I was just so on vacation now all I ate was junk food okay and so sometimes you know there's gonna be seasoned your life you're not gonna look so good you're gonna feel tired or you're gonna have health problems and you're not gonna look as good but remember when you make a vow to somebody it's in sickness and in health in you know poor or rich whatever season you are in you're gonna have challenges and you need to pray about these matters right so Sarah blames her husband for the pur bad idea and I want to say to all of you today spouses especially husbands and wives please do not blame your spouse when your idea doesn't work and take responsibility Sarah should have said to her husband you know what this is a bad idea and I am sorry so you need to practice that as well if you made a mistake and you told your spouse to do something and your idea didn't work you need to go to your spouse and you know say to them I'm sorry that this didn't work out and apologize to them and take responsibility please be mature amen we have to be adults and we have to and you know this is a pride issue for some people I'm not going to tell my spouse my idea didn't work and knocking it well that's not a good that's not good mmm that's just the I'm just gonna say that is just not good you need to be responsible and be mature amen I'm preaching really good amen all right all right and so then the story continues here and I know you can't read all of that there but I'll just kind of sum up the situation so Hagar takes her son and runs away and the God says to Hagar why verse 8 where have you come from and where are you going and he she says I'm going away from my mistress then a verse 9 the angel the Lord said go back to your mistress and submit to her so God confronts her and this is really important today men and women do not run from your problems deal with your problem all right when life becomes difficult what did Hagar do she ran away from her problems but God talked to her and said you need to go back and deal with your issue God told her submit to your mistress because she was a servant that is what she has to do sometimes lady we need we need to be careful and men not to run from our problems with a deal with our issues when we struggle in our relationship with our spouse friend or kids we need to go to God and ask for wisdom God what should I do in this situation when life becomes tough the answer is not to run away from your problem the answer is not to travel and go away from your problem when life gets hard God does not want us to run the Tings like things like substance abuse like drugs smoking eating drinking to comfort us God wants to be our comfort God wants to be our help God wants to help you through your problem so what is your problem lately do you have a health problem then we need to make choices that will help us to improve our health don't run away from the problem you know the doc you're gonna have to do the doctor and see the doctor and the doctor is gonna say what you need to do so and I understand that sometimes this is a struggle like we know we know what our problem is we know what we need to do but we're struggling we call that a stronghold in our life and because sometimes we've let this stronghold in our life kind of start from when we were young and now we've been it's five 10 years now it's 20 years 50 years into the same problem and you know what's so amazing God can help us he if we are just do our best to focus on God little by little you begin to see you begin to walk away from the problem meaning like you walk away from the stronghold and you walk away from that temptation and all of a sudden the temptation that looks so good doesn't look so good anymore because God through His Holy Spirit fills us and helps us and empowers us you know I can tell you like there's different things in my life that I used to do when I was in my teenagers and now like I don't want that I don't care for that I don't need it it doesn't make me happy it just was a distraction and a problem amen do you have a money problem we need to get disciplined on how we spend our money make a spreadsheet or make a tracks make a sheet so you can see how you spend your money that's what I do when I go on vacation I track every day when I'm spending because by time I get to the end I'm like where did all my money go so you need to track what you're spending give to God save a little spend a little a mint do you have an emotional problem were you abused or mistreated when you were a kid maybe you need to see a counselor maybe and you know you need to sit before God and say lord help me I have this problem I need help do you have a relationship issue with somebody ask God to help you to forgive that person ask God to intervene and ask that to that that person will come and ask for forgiveness the answer is not to run away from your problem because I'm gonna tell you something whatever you run away with you have to eventually deal with in the end all you're doing is delaying what you're supposed to do this is the case with Jonah God told Jonah go to the Ninevites preach them and he went into a boat he went into the opposite direction and he ended up in a fish and some of us are in a fish right now because we don't want to deal with our problem the answer is not to run away because here's the truth you will have to deal with your problem which means you cannot avoid it forever amen at some point in your life you have to deal with the money issue health issue substance abuse relationship work issue self self issue you have to deal with the problem and the good news is God is unconditional love he has unconditional love for us no matter how many times you make a mistake he's still gonna love you no matter how many times you do wrong he's still going to be there amen even if your family and friends don't want to be there God is always gonna be there and that is more than enough praise the Lord amen I know somebody who had an anger problem every time I'm with this person she'd get go from 0 to 100 like right away one day she called me and she was having challenges with her boyfriend and I said to her do you want to hear the truth you spent 10 years do you want to hear the truth now okay I said you have an anger problem you go from zero to 100 like right away and you have no self awareness of it so she lifts and she was very quiet and I said if you want to change you need to submit to God and you need to admit your problem your boyfriend is upset with you because when you get like that he's allowed to talk to you that is the truth and so she listened and so I said to her you need to deal with your problem what is the what are the problems or things in our life that we're not happy with and do we need to come to the altar today and say Lord I want you to help me with my problem amen we can't run and hide you will not help us hiding doesn't do anything Adam and Eve what happened when they ate the apple they hit and guess who was in the garden walking God says where are you you know the only person we can't hide from is God so since he sees everything let's let God fix the problem amen let him fix the problem amen that's the good news today and so finally in the Word of God here well yeah I'll just I'll just put that up for you so you can read it in your notes there verses 10 to 15 it talks about how God is speaking to her and in verse 13 it says Hagar gave the name to the Lord who spoke to her you're the God who sees me for she said I have now seen the one who sees me and so here's number five today God can give you a word of encouragement because he sees you amen I like she's not even a believer in Yahweh she understands some greater person is talking to her she has no idea of the history of the the whole story of the creation story and Noah and now we're at Abraham and so she has no understanding that there is a God out there that cares and loves about her but in that moment she's having an encounter with the Lord the Lord is talking to her and she says you are the one that sees me and so what's great about that is God is the one that sees us too he sees our he sees our conflict he sees our hurt he sees our problem and he wants to give us a word of encouragement today and as you and I be obedient we will see the goodness of the Lord if your children are on the wrong course you just need to say the Word of God the word that's going to encourage you today is in the Book of Joshua it says as for me in my house we are going to serve the Lord if you're a parent this morning and you're not happy with your kids you take their names to your prayer closet and you pray and you ask and say Lord my child is doing this but you can fix this and watch one day they're gonna come home you look you know what mom and dad I want to go into ministry or I want to go to a missions trip or I want to do something good for God and you're gonna be like oh my prayers are working amen if you're having challenges at work remember you're not working for people you're working for God glosses 3:23 says whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for human masters because here's the real truth today people don't promote you god promotes you God uses people to promote you because God sees everything so if you are diligent and you work hard God can and will promote you and if you're looking for a job stick continue to be perseverant continue to give out your resumes continue to pray God can open the door amen Philippians 4:6 what does the point of worrying when God's Word says don't be anxious about anything but by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and so if you're worried about something today you need to come to the altar or come stay in your seats and pray to the Lord and say Lord I don't want to worry I don't want to be wasting energy I want to use my good energy for good things and instead of worrying the Bible says we are supposed to give thanks so if you keep giving thanks to God God can change your situation amen and maybe you're feeling fearful today I don't know what you're going through like Hagar was feeling fearful and very upset and and you have this fear and anxiety as to what's going to happen and you are worrying and having attacks again the Bible says God did not give us a spirit of fear but one of love power and discipline amen and it says actually King James love power and I think sound mind so if you feel mentally distressed this morning guess what God can give you peace and he can give you a word of encouragement this is what I do like when I'm not sure about something like I go to God over and over again I said Lauren you need to talk to me you need to help me I need to know my direction here I need peace over the situation and somehow in some way God speaks to me just this week our last day in Florida which was Friday we were driving and we saw this big truck a Jeep actually and on the back of it on the top of it it said God's timing is perfect and you know it just really spoke to me it really spoke to me God use the truck to speak to me and if you have something that you're heavy heavy about and you don't know what's going to happen he can give you a word of encouragement this morning we love our ladies we love what you have done we love the fact that you have given so much for your family and for your spouse and for your extended family and for your friends and we praise the Lord for you and we are very thankful this morning for what you do because without you we wouldn't have made it we won't be we wouldn't be where we are today I am a product of my mother and I'm a product of what my the ladies in my life have done in my life and so this morning I pray that you will be encouraged by the word that we have just read and so I'd like us to spend some time in prayer and maybe what would be a good ideas at the end we could have the or while we're singing the song if the ladies are able to come up and just stand here at the altar that'd be good and we could pray together right so let's pray right now Heavenly Father we are thankful for this word we are thankful for what you're doing in our life we are thankful for the ladies and we are thankful for God that you are giving us guidance and direction and help we believe in trust that you are active and Living God and this morning we pray for our relationship with Jesus Lord we want to know you more we want to go deeper we want to be stronger we want to throw in our walk with the Lord so God we pray that you will give us the wisdom and guidance we also pray God that if there's somebody here who does not who has not put their faith in trust in Jesus that they would make it the day of salvation they will open their heart to you and say I want to know about Jesus I believe that my sins are forgiven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and I believe that strongholds have to be broken in my life so we thank you Lord for what you're doing and we thank you for your grace in Jesus name Amen so what I'm going to ask us to do this morning is for assessing the song and you can come to the altar and I would like the ladies if you can to come up and then we will pray together and anyone else that's remaining at the altar I can pray with you afterwards so let's stand as we sing this song it's you are my all in all [Music]

Channel: solidrockcommunityca

Views: 5,426

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Keywords: caught in a mess, women, ladies, blame your husband, word of encouragement, Hagar in the Bible, Hagar

Id: ze2W15m34B4

Length: 32min 5sec (1925 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019