WEBVTT 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:03.280 I'm going to invite you to Genesis chapter 21. 00:00:04.100 --> 00:00:08.540 Genesis chapter 21 is where we are together today, and we've been going through the book of Genesis. 00:00:09.020 --> 00:00:13.780 So if you're we're in chapter 21, so if you're new today, you've missed 20 chapters up to this point. 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:15.820 So let me just give you a quick review so you know where we are. 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.820 We took a few weeks for Christmas. 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:25.300 And so just to keep us and reminder of what we've been studying together, first couple of chapters of Genesis, beautiful passage of the 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:28.940 Bible shows us that God makes us intentionally, purposefully. 00:00:29.020 --> 00:00:31.520 The God makes humanity as the crown of his creation. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.620 He makes you uniquely different than any other creature he made. 00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:38.660 He made you in his image, which means you're designed to connect to God. 00:00:38.680 --> 00:00:41.860 And in connecting to God, you find you have intrinsic worth and value. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:43.030 You aren't an accident. 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.900 God made you for a reason to know him and to honor him with your life. 00:00:46.180 --> 00:00:48.640 When you live for his glory, it's a blessing to others. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:53.400 When you live for your glory, it's to the detriment of others and living for God's glory. 00:00:53.400 --> 00:01:00.720 We have the privilege of not only walking in relationship with God, but living for purpose in this world and 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:03.100 then blessing others and relationship through that. 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:09.020 But when we choose to walk contrary to the Lord, it's to the destruction of our own relationship with God and to others. 00:01:09.080 --> 00:01:12.650 And you find that after Genesis chapter two, that's how the story unfolds. 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:16.140 In Genesis chapter three, mankind rebels against God. 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:23.500 And from chapter three to chapter 11, you continue to see this rebellion play out, that God continues to intervene by his grace, to give us opportunity 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:24.420 to know him. 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:27.890 And man rejects God and runs away over and over again. 00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:35.420 And then when you get to chapter 12 of Genesis, you find that God intervenes by his grace in the life of one family, Abraham and Sarah and 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:36.540 her the Chaldeans. 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:40.120 And he tells them, follow me to a place that I'm going to show you. 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:41.580 He doesn't even tell him where they're going. 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:43.690 He just says by faith, follow them. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:47.300 And he says, when you get to this land, know that I'm going to give you a child. 00:01:47.300 --> 00:01:50.660 And through this child it will bless all nations, all people, groups. 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:56.140 And God calls Abraham and Sarah at Abraham, 75 years old, Sarah 65 years old. 00:01:56.140 --> 00:01:58.980 They go on this journey and then God. 00:01:59.420 --> 00:02:04.220 God doesn't deliver this child to them until they're 25 years later, 100 years old. 00:02:04.220 --> 00:02:07.780 Abraham is 75 years old or excuse me, 95 years old. 00:02:07.940 --> 00:02:09.020 Sarah is. 00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:10.639 And Abraham and Sarah. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:15.160 When God finally delivers this promise, their response really is just to laugh at God. 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:19.840 In Genesis 17 Genesis 18, God reminds them he's going to bring them a child. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:24.000 Now they're much later in years than even 75 years old and 65 years old. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.350 They laugh at God and response to that, but God reminds them of that promise. 00:02:28.760 --> 00:02:31.800 God again repeats that promise in chapter 19. 00:02:32.980 --> 00:02:36.580 and God repeats that promise in chapter 19 on the backdrop of Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:02:36.740 --> 00:02:40.520 God's going to bring his judgment on the sinfulness of humanity in Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:47.740 But God wants to remind Abraham and Sarah, going into that judgment, that he still promises them a future of blessing in him, as they, by 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.060 faith follow after the Lord. 00:02:50.140 --> 00:02:51.270 And it's a beautiful picture. 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:56.770 In the midst of adversity, our need to be reminded of God's goodness and the truthfulness of who he is. 00:02:57.340 --> 00:03:04.200 And what we discover in the promise to Abraham is that this promise isn't just a half concocted plan of God. 00:03:04.300 --> 00:03:11.660 That God, by promising this child he would establish a covenant through through Abraham that had a comprehensive, predetermined 00:03:11.660 --> 00:03:19.000 plan to for this child to die for the sins of the whole world, that ultimately Abraham would be the lineage by which Jesus 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.420 would come to redeem us from our sin, that we may know God. 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:30.840 And in Genesis chapter 21, now we're going to talk about the idea of waiting on the Lord, because this is the chapter where God fulfills 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:34.200 his promise to Abraham and Sarah by bringing this child. 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:35.980 This child is born. 00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:38.650 So what does it look like for us to wait on the Lord? 00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:46.200 I think one of the questions that we could ask by jumping into this passage is, why did God wait till Abraham was 100 years old? 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.880 100 years old like you think? 00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:50.680 What are you going to do with 100 years old? 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:52.700 Somebody asked me my day plan. 00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:54.090 When I'm 100, it's going to be. 00:03:54.260 --> 00:03:55.690 I opened my eyes today. 00:03:55.780 --> 00:03:57.580 Anything beyond that is just a success. 00:03:57.620 --> 00:03:58.080 It doesn't. 00:03:58.320 --> 00:03:59.080 Doesn't matter. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.380 100 years old, I don't really have an agenda. 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:01.960 Just breathe. 00:04:01.980 --> 00:04:06.060 I don't know, but Abraham has a has a child at 100 years old. 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:09.560 Why did God wait until he was 100 and he caught him at 75? 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:11.260 Why wait till he was 100? 00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:14.900 You know, there's nowhere specifically you're going to turn to the Bible that says this is the reason. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:19.959 But I think from the text, as we've studied this together, we can extrapolate a few things. 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:27.680 One is God uses this time to mature Abraham, for Abraham to learn whether or not he truly trusts in 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:29.120 the promises of God. 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:33.980 I mean, it's already a miracle at 75 years old when God says, you're going to have a baby, right? 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:35.340 And so why not continue to? 00:04:35.400 --> 00:04:38.360 If you're going to trust God at 75, why not trust God to 100? 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:43.780 But what we discover in the life of Abraham is that Abraham had to continue to learn and grow. 00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:50.180 I remember beginning in Genesis chapter 12, God tells him, go to the land that I'm going to show you, and I'll I'll provide. 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:51.600 Abraham gets the land. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:55.940 As soon as he gets to that land, there's a famine, and Abraham immediately runs away. 00:04:55.940 --> 00:04:57.010 He runs to Egypt. 00:04:57.260 --> 00:05:00.020 His wife is taken by Pharaoh, so he loses his. 00:05:00.140 --> 00:05:00.580 Land. 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:02.280 He loses that promise, and he. 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:03.300 And he loses his wife. 00:05:03.400 --> 00:05:07.460 And God has to intervene, rescue Sarah and send them back. 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:14.550 And through that, Abraham learns in chapter 16, Abraham and Sarah getting older in years, they're like, we still don't have a kid. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:15.910 God probably needs our help. 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:17.160 Sarah comes up with a plan. 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:21.440 She says, here, take my maidservant, Hagar, have a child with her because God needs our help. 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:22.880 And Abraham agrees to that. 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:29.360 And they learn through that that's not the way God desires to work, that God wants to work through Abraham and Sarah. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.740 That's who the promise came to, and that's what is honoring to the Lord. 00:05:33.260 --> 00:05:40.470 And then we just recently read in chapter 20, Abraham again abandons his wife to King Abimelech, and God has to intervene. 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:45.380 And God, by his mercy provides once again for Abraham. 00:05:45.760 --> 00:05:52.900 So one of the reasons I think we can we can take from the text that the reason God waited until he was 100 to Abraham was 00:05:52.900 --> 00:05:57.520 100 to provide for Abraham, and so that God through that time could mature Abraham. 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:00.120 And the importance of God's promises. 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:07.300 Each of those doubtful times that Abraham had led to problems and those problems even impact today. 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:09.770 We'll look at that at the end of this section together. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:14.480 But when we fail to trust God's promises, there are consequences. 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:18.610 But God is a great God that's willing to teach us in our adversity. 00:06:19.080 --> 00:06:26.260 I don't know why we're like this as human beings, but for some of us, or all of us, if we're being honest, it takes some 00:06:26.260 --> 00:06:31.160 adversity to really awaken our need to a relationship with the Lord. 00:06:31.380 --> 00:06:37.950 I don't know about you, but I tend to learn better in struggle, than I than I do in some of my successes. 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:40.720 My mom, when I was a kid, told me I should have been a lawyer. 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:44.300 I just, little hard headed sometimes. 00:06:44.320 --> 00:06:47.440 I don't think that that's what a lawyer is, but little hardheaded sometimes. 00:06:47.440 --> 00:06:49.160 And so you got to you got to learn. 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:55.100 And your struggles sometimes the adversity of life are some of the best teachers to what we have. 00:06:55.100 --> 00:07:02.200 There's a theologian that once said, God whispers to us in our victories, but he screams to us in our 00:07:02.200 --> 00:07:02.700 pains. 00:07:03.260 --> 00:07:07.810 And that's where most, opportune times really, to listen to the Lord is when we're going through struggles. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:13.880 So point number one, Abraham needed to grow spiritually, mature, mature in his walk with the Lord. 00:07:13.880 --> 00:07:16.160 That's likely why God waited till he was 100. 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:21.050 But also, there's no mistaking that God is the hero of the story. 00:07:21.780 --> 00:07:25.880 I mean, anyone having a child at 100 years old, if someone asks, how does that happen? 00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:30.200 The only answer you could possibly give is God is a miracle worker. 00:07:30.280 --> 00:07:33.520 I like that, I don't, I don't know how else that could happen. 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.260 Like God is the hero of the story, God had to provide this. 00:07:36.260 --> 00:07:37.950 There is no other way this can happen. 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:45.960 And it's so important for us that when we read narratives in the Bible that we come to understand that our tendency as human beings is 00:07:45.960 --> 00:07:53.080 we read these little Bible stories and we get a nice little lesson, but we sort of look at the figure that it's talking about, like as some great figure 00:07:53.080 --> 00:07:54.420 that's better than us. 00:07:54.440 --> 00:07:57.980 You know, I can never be like them, but I'm I'm so glad they're a hero of the Bible. 00:07:57.980 --> 00:07:59.200 We sort of put them up on a pedestal. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:06.120 But as you start looking at the grander narrative, you realize in all of Scripture these people are flawed individuals, right? 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:07.400 They they've got their problems. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:11.570 But the hero of the Bible, the great redemption story, is not about humanity. 00:08:12.140 --> 00:08:14.580 It's about the Lord and what God does. 00:08:14.760 --> 00:08:21.980 And to see him as the hero which says to all of us that we all have an opportunity to walk with Jesus, because God does that miraculous 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:25.260 work within our lives that is not about them being heroes. 00:08:25.260 --> 00:08:28.150 It's about the Lord being the hero and us following after him. 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:31.860 So waiting, waiting on the Lord. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:33.380 What does that look like for us? 00:08:33.380 --> 00:08:35.820 This is what we learn in Genesis chapter 21. 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:37.559 And let me give you point number one in your notes. 00:08:37.640 --> 00:08:44.480 It's this we have hope because God keeps his promises. 00:08:45.680 --> 00:08:45.820 Point. 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:51.060 Point number one in your notes we have hope because God keeps his promises. 00:08:51.700 --> 00:08:54.860 In Genesis chapter 21, verse one, this is exactly what we find. 00:08:55.760 --> 00:09:01.200 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah, as he had promised. 00:09:01.900 --> 00:09:08.200 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:14.520 I love this in the first seven verses we've actually talked about these seven when we were dealing with Genesis chapter 18. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:18.680 But in these first seven verses Sarah says this twice. 00:09:18.780 --> 00:09:23.340 She wants to identify how old Abraham is because she is a princess and she does not age. 00:09:23.400 --> 00:09:23.660 All right. 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:24.980 That's what Sarah means. 00:09:25.210 --> 00:09:26.120 Abraham, look at you. 00:09:26.140 --> 00:09:27.410 You had a child and you're really old. 00:09:27.460 --> 00:09:27.660 Abraham. 00:09:27.780 --> 00:09:29.200 She says choice in this. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:30.880 Abraham is so old, not me. 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.360 And she identifies this twice. 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:35.480 But here's what we want to see is that God is a promise. 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:36.180 Fulfiller. 00:09:36.280 --> 00:09:37.300 And I love that in Scripture. 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:46.480 and it's important for us to be reminded of this because as people, we can get jaded by experiences that we have in life and 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:48.200 we need something to trust in. 00:09:49.340 --> 00:09:55.540 But knowing that God is faithful, it becomes that place for us to learn to trust in him. 00:09:55.560 --> 00:09:59.820 When all other things can disappoint you in life, it's the faithfulness of the Lord, the. 00:09:59.880 --> 00:10:06.880 Promises of God that we can trust in, as long as it is God that made the promise and not what we want God to be, but 00:10:06.880 --> 00:10:08.500 rather who God says he is. 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:13.840 And God in this passage, he fulfills his promises. 00:10:13.900 --> 00:10:17.380 Theologians refer to this as the veracity of God. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.860 Veracity is not just the idea of truth, but the adherence to truth. 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:28.640 That God doesn't just doesn't simply say what truth is, but he clings to what he tells us he will do. 00:10:29.540 --> 00:10:29.780 Right? 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:31.460 He holds to it. 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:34.980 And the veracity of God's truthfulness is made known in this passage. 00:10:35.040 --> 00:10:42.200 And when it comes to the promises of God, it's important to remember that God doesn't work on our timetable, that he works on his, that 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:45.320 our calling in the Lord is to be faithful to him. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:50.720 And as we're faithful to him, we see how God works that out in our lives that we are. 00:10:50.920 --> 00:10:53.390 We are called to trust, and God is the one that provides. 00:10:53.880 --> 00:11:01.080 And Abraham and Sarah have been learning this lesson in good times and bad, in faithfulness to the Lord, and sometimes in needing the Lord's correction in 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:01.820 their life. 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:09.140 They see that God's hand is faithful, fulfills his promises, and it's in the midst of even their own pain. 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:17.660 In Genesis chapter 21, verse 3 to 7, if you remember this passage from a few weeks ago, remember it says in verse three, Abraham called the 00:11:17.660 --> 00:11:21.840 name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore to him. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:28.320 Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as God had promised or God had commanded him. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:32.800 In verse five, Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 00:11:32.880 --> 00:11:35.420 And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. 00:11:35.420 --> 00:11:37.720 Everyone who hears will laugh over me. 00:11:37.880 --> 00:11:38.720 And she said, who? 00:11:39.300 --> 00:11:42.470 Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? 00:11:42.700 --> 00:11:45.340 Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:47.680 See, Sarah says it again, man, you're really old, Abraham. 00:11:47.680 --> 00:11:49.860 Hey, look at look at how old he is. 00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:50.580 Everybody ignore me. 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:51.390 Look how old he is. 00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:53.680 but here's what he's saying. 00:11:54.380 --> 00:11:56.780 Is Isaac's name for us becomes a picture. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:02.320 Are you going to think of how difficult it, um. 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:04.420 This would have been for Abraham and Sarah? 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:07.130 Abraham at 65 or. 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:08.420 Excuse me, Abraham at 75. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:09.940 Sarah at 65. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:13.510 Following after the Lord being called in ur of the Chaldeans. 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:16.740 Could you imagine how this conversation would have gone with friends and family? 00:12:16.920 --> 00:12:20.560 This is not a day and age where people just packed up and moved hundreds of miles. 00:12:21.060 --> 00:12:24.080 You were born, lived and died all within a 50 mile radius. 00:12:24.140 --> 00:12:24.700 That was custom. 00:12:25.020 --> 00:12:28.560 To then just pack up and move hundreds of miles away would have been insane. 00:12:28.780 --> 00:12:33.520 Your protection as an as a person wherever you lived was the family group around you. 00:12:33.520 --> 00:12:39.750 There were no police to call to move to a foreign land as just a few people was to leave you vulnerable. 00:12:40.180 --> 00:12:42.580 And so for Abraham and Sarah to do this would have been wild. 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:46.300 But then if someone were to ask, and why are you doing this? 00:12:46.760 --> 00:12:53.420 For them to respond at 75 and 65 years old, oh, God's going to give us a kid like that would have been absolutely batty. 00:12:53.900 --> 00:12:59.060 People would have thought, should we put them in an institution or should we just celebrate what they're doing? 00:12:59.060 --> 00:12:59.960 This sounds crazy. 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:01.550 These people that think they need help. 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:03.480 But, Lord be with you. 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:03.620 Right? 00:13:03.620 --> 00:13:06.040 Listen, that would have been a very difficult thing for them. 00:13:06.180 --> 00:13:06.260 But. 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:08.930 But not only that to say, this is what God promised us. 00:13:09.560 --> 00:13:11.660 And then to go decades where it didn't happen. 00:13:12.400 --> 00:13:19.500 For Sarah, this would have deepened the pain because, culturally speaking, for Sarah, in her day, a woman's worth was 00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:21.940 determined by how she would bear children. 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.740 I'm not saying that's good or godly or right. 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:27.650 That's just simply what the culture was during that time period. 00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:34.880 In fact, if you were to get married after ten years, if a if a child wasn't born there were laws in those lands that said you could divorce your 00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:37.730 wife because she could not give you an heir, she could not give you a child. 00:13:38.380 --> 00:13:40.850 And during those days, a family survival. 00:13:41.180 --> 00:13:43.720 Your retirement plan was based on the size of your family. 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:46.700 As you got older, your kids took care of you if you want a protection. 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:52.280 It was the family that worked as the police to the protection of life around you. 00:13:53.020 --> 00:13:55.240 And so to not have children was to leave you vulnerable. 00:13:55.980 --> 00:14:01.320 And a woman's worth was became degrading if she couldn't bear children. 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:04.000 And so for Sarah, this became shameful. 00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:09.800 In fact, when Hagar finally produced a child through through Abraham, she birthed Ishmael. 00:14:09.800 --> 00:14:12.360 Hagar's response to Sarah was to mock her. 00:14:13.520 --> 00:14:17.640 And so, as God gave that promise every day, that promise wasn't fulfilled. 00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:22.560 For Sarah, that could have been a place of tension, a place of despair, a place of trouble. 00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:29.880 This is why, when God repeated the promise to them in Genesis chapter 17 and 18, that their reaction, Abraham's reaction 00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:31.120 was to fall over laughing. 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:38.120 Sarah's reaction was to laugh at the Lord, which, by the way, if you want to be known in Scripture, laughing at God is not a good one, right? 00:14:38.140 --> 00:14:39.160 But that's what they do. 00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:46.260 And when you read about Sarah's laughter in Genesis 17, Sarah's laughter is the cynical laughter. 00:14:47.180 --> 00:14:54.260 It's this laughter, as if to hide her pain, because what else can she do but just simply laugh at the situation because it's 00:14:54.260 --> 00:14:59.550 a reminder to her of what she's not been and what she doesn't have, and the people. 00:14:59.900 --> 00:15:05.480 That make fun of her because she didn't do what women in her day were supposed to do. 00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:10.220 And so for Sarah, the idea of laughter was a place of deep pain. 00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:18.540 But God chose to tell them to name their son Isaac, as a reminder that God can 00:15:18.540 --> 00:15:25.980 take the darkest, deepest pains of our life and use it as a symbol of triumph, as 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:26.860 a place of hope. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.010 And this is exactly what Isaac's name represents. 00:15:31.220 --> 00:15:35.460 That God intervened in the life of Sarah and provided exactly what he had promised. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:44.780 And God took a situation that was difficult for Abraham and Sarah, and he made it a place of victory 00:15:44.780 --> 00:15:46.020 and celebration. 00:15:46.920 --> 00:15:49.840 And every time they mention the name Isaac, it's a reminder of that. 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:55.380 And guys, can I can I say the same thing for you when it comes to the Lord? 00:15:55.460 --> 00:16:02.120 God can take the darkest places of our life and choose to make it an emblem of celebration and what he has done. 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:07.980 And the reason we can say that as Christians is because our very faith is represented that way. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:13.780 What I mean is, as Christians, we often carry the cross of Christ around because it's a symbol of victory. 00:16:13.800 --> 00:16:20.880 But if you think about what the cross represents, the cross was the darkest day in all of history that God died and humanity 00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:21.600 killed him. 00:16:22.680 --> 00:16:26.820 But it became the symbol of victory because three days later, Jesus overcame the grave. 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:32.040 For you and for me, the cross becomes a place where our lives are reconciled to the Lord. 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:36.660 The darkest day in history became the emblem of celebration for God's people. 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:40.360 And if God can do that at the cross, imagine what he can do in your life. 00:16:41.060 --> 00:16:45.180 And sometimes I know we come to stories like this and we think, yeah, that's good for them. 00:16:45.180 --> 00:16:46.160 But that doesn't relate. 00:16:46.160 --> 00:16:47.180 That's not for me. 00:16:47.520 --> 00:16:49.140 Like, this is Abraham and Sarah we're talking about. 00:16:49.140 --> 00:16:50.030 That's not me. 00:16:50.220 --> 00:16:54.200 But can I remind you, Abraham and Sarah are 190 years old. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:58.200 It's never too late to trust in what God desires to do. 00:16:58.260 --> 00:17:05.339 I don't care where you've come from, what you've done, what God desires to do in your life is incredible and 00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:10.010 miraculous, and God can take the darkest parts of your life and use it as a symbol of celebration. 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:12.980 How God can redeem those things for us. 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:20.520 And that's what the name Isaac represents, that God takes our cynical laughter and turns it into a laughter 00:17:20.520 --> 00:17:24.140 of joy and the way that he provides for us. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.960 We have hope because God keeps his promise. 00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:32.560 And so here's what's important for us. 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:39.420 Then the next point for you take your next step to walk in God's promises. 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:44.460 Take your next step to walk in God's promises. 00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:52.440 I know for some of us, and maybe someone here this morning, you're coming into a church this morning. 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:59.600 You might feel like your life is just hanging by a thread, and you're going to give this God thing a chance or 00:17:59.600 --> 00:18:02.240 a shot or maybe to follow after the Lord. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:06.920 You know, there might be some consequences in relationships that you face. 00:18:08.070 --> 00:18:15.460 But God's call for your life is to look forward to just simply say, What is God say? 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:20.020 And how do I take my next step to trust in the promises that he gives to me? 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:23.400 God will not disappoint. 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:25.350 It has a pastor. 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:32.640 I try to walk mindful of this, recognizing, we all come from different places in life, but at the end of the day, if there's one thing 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:39.900 I know that we can trust in, it's the sacredness of God's Word and who he is and how he communicates 00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:41.040 himself in His Word. 00:18:42.100 --> 00:18:46.090 I mean, when you look at the credibility of Scripture, it is incredible. 00:18:47.180 --> 00:18:54.640 from an archaeological standpoint, which we'll deal with that here at the very end, the way the archaeologically the Bible can be demonstrated 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:59.080 prophecy in the Old Testament declaring the goodness of who Jesus is. 00:18:59.080 --> 00:19:06.260 Hundreds of years before Jesus, appears eyewitness accounts in Scripture that the Bible is written by 00:19:06.260 --> 00:19:10.620 eyewitnesses who were a part of Jesus's own ministry. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:17.960 The manuscripts we have of the Old and New Testament, the early church Fathers, who wrote about the beauty 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:20.280 of Christ even beyond Scripture itself. 00:19:20.280 --> 00:19:27.320 We have church fathers who would have walked with the disciples, sharing with us God's Word, to the point that even faced martyrdom and 00:19:27.320 --> 00:19:33.610 Jesus's own disciples and the early Church fathers facing martyrdom because of their faith in Christ. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:39.940 I mean, it is incredible the foundation of Scripture, the foundation of our faith. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:45.630 And to get to the point today to share with you the importance of you taking your next step and your promises. 00:19:46.560 --> 00:19:49.120 the promises that God gives to you in verse eight. 00:19:49.320 --> 00:19:50.840 This is how Abraham and Sarah do it. 00:19:50.980 --> 00:19:57.470 And the child talking about Isaac grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:05.120 as they look at this child being born, they're just celebrating God's promises in their life to the point that they have a weaning party. 00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:07.860 I don't I don't know how many of you have ever been a part of a weaning party. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:08.600 Right? 00:20:08.600 --> 00:20:11.260 Like the gender reveal was so last year. 00:20:11.320 --> 00:20:15.530 You guys, if you ever want to think about a new kind of party you can have, it's the weaning party. 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:22.980 This is typically when a child between the ages of 2 to 3, at least during Abraham's time, they would celebrate this, that next step of 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:25.240 growth in their life when they were weaned from their mother. 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:32.860 But not everybody wants to celebrate what God's doing in your life, and that's why it's so important to focus on the promises of God and what God 00:20:32.860 --> 00:20:34.920 calls you to, just to take your next step with him. 00:20:35.660 --> 00:20:37.820 What does God desire for you to do right now? 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:41.380 What is God calling you to in your relationship with him? 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:43.700 And what excuses are you making? 00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:48.500 Or what are you allowing other people to be in your life to make excuses to your relationship with the Lord? 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:55.900 And verse nine it says, But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, laughing. 00:20:57.140 --> 00:20:59.760 See here is there, enjoying what God has done in their lives. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:05.540 They're recognizing not everyone is on board with what God desires to do in their lives. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:10.640 And it says in the story that Ishmael is laughing at Isaac. 00:21:11.340 --> 00:21:14.460 most likely Isaac is around the age of 2 or 3. 00:21:14.460 --> 00:21:19.420 Ishmael is somewhere around the age of 16, and he's mocking his younger brother. 00:21:20.360 --> 00:21:27.300 Now, if you know how the story unfolds, you know here in just a minute, God's going to say to Abraham, it's okay to send Hagar away, right? 00:21:27.300 --> 00:21:30.080 But the reason God is saying this is important. 00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:34.030 And I think the reason we find why God says this is found in this word laughing. 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:41.390 this word laughing is a is a very broad word in the way that it's used in the Old Testament. 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:43.240 It has all kinds of meanings. 00:21:43.300 --> 00:21:47.080 It could mean something as simple as, laughter. 00:21:47.080 --> 00:21:47.180 Right? 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:50.870 You're just laughing at something or you're laughing at someone. 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:52.310 It could mean that. 00:21:52.700 --> 00:21:59.940 And in this situation, I would say if it does specifically mean that Abraham should step in and deal with the tension between 00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:03.100 two brothers, because every once in a while they laugh at each other, right? 00:22:03.100 --> 00:22:04.640 They poke at each other, they laugh. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:05.960 And it's a good teaching moment. 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:07.540 I'm a father of four boys. 00:22:07.540 --> 00:22:09.480 It happens constantly in our home. 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:09.880 Right. 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:13.760 And it's a good time to help them understand how to treat one another with love and respect. 00:22:14.300 --> 00:22:19.580 But that word laughing also has a much more sinister meaning in Scripture. 00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:23.260 In fact, I gave you just a couple passages here in Second Samuel. 00:22:23.540 --> 00:22:30.900 There's a passage where there are two individuals who are individuals who come together and it uses the word play to describe their interaction. 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:32.170 But here's how they play. 00:22:32.280 --> 00:22:33.930 They play to the point they kill each other. 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:36.980 That's what happens in second Samuel chapter two, verse 14 and 16. 00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:39.780 They come together to actually physically fight and kill one another. 00:22:39.780 --> 00:22:40.780 That's they're playing. 00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:47.230 Or in judges chapter 16, it's what's used in verse 25 to describe the way people were treating Samson. 00:22:47.460 --> 00:22:54.220 If you remember the story of Samson, this is after his eyes were gouged out and they had him chained as a slave, and they bring him out to mock him. 00:22:54.820 --> 00:22:56.420 And so this is talking about the demise. 00:22:56.780 --> 00:23:00.600 The this is really the chapter where Samson dies or the story where Samson dies. 00:23:01.180 --> 00:23:08.100 And so this is not just, I think in this passage in Genesis chapter 21, this is not just Ishmael teasing his younger brother. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:14.280 I think Ishmael has ill intent towards Isaac to the point that he desires to harm him. 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:21.600 And when it comes to your faith journey with the Lord, not everyone's going to care about your walk with Jesus. 00:23:21.660 --> 00:23:23.800 In fact, some people might downright. 00:23:23.860 --> 00:23:29.340 Hate it, but God doesn't call you to live your relationship with him based on what other people say. 00:23:30.080 --> 00:23:33.480 God calls you to live your relationship with him based on what he says. 00:23:34.420 --> 00:23:37.540 And so when you go on this journey, there's a few things you want to look for. 00:23:37.540 --> 00:23:44.180 First, you want to find people that support you, that encourage you, and then you might find people that just simply give you permission. 00:23:44.180 --> 00:23:45.460 They let you live that out. 00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:46.730 They just you get permission. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:50.060 They don't necessarily on board with what you're doing, but at least you have the freedom to do it. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:52.040 But then there's other people who are just downright antagonistic. 00:23:53.760 --> 00:23:57.780 And when it comes to antagonistic people, you don't want to be mean to them, right? 00:23:57.780 --> 00:24:02.640 The Bible doesn't say, well, when someone's antagonistic to me, I need to be mean to you, right? 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:03.600 You throw mud at me. 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:05.880 Well, I'll put you in your place and I'll throw mud in return. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:07.440 That's not what Scripture says at all. 00:24:08.040 --> 00:24:10.780 Romans chapter 14, verse 12. 00:24:10.780 --> 00:24:15.100 It says, bless and do not curse even those that have ill intent towards you. 00:24:15.100 --> 00:24:17.520 That's the kind of people we are called to be. 00:24:18.040 --> 00:24:23.880 But in order to move forward in any relationship, what you need is a place of humility, right? 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:30.630 If someone's adverse to you, they're communicating that you're not in a place to be able to interact healthy in relationship. 00:24:30.820 --> 00:24:37.840 So what that relationship needs from you is not necessarily a slammed door, because God can always work in it later, but rather you just give them 00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:38.520 a time out. 00:24:38.760 --> 00:24:41.900 You say, you go sit over here for a minute, right? 00:24:41.900 --> 00:24:44.090 Because this is what God has called me to be. 00:24:44.840 --> 00:24:46.090 And I want to bless you. 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:49.680 I care about you, I love you, I want the best for you. 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:57.760 But we can't interact directly in this until there's this place of humility to experience the goodness of God and reconciliation and relationship. 00:24:58.360 --> 00:25:03.260 But we can certainly move forward with people that are supportive and at least permissive. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:11.000 And sometimes as a pastor, just I guess I'll just be frank here is not everybody that comes through our door, always has 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:12.780 the best intentions, right? 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:16.060 Could have all kinds of different reasons people might have for showing up at a church. 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:19.980 I want to assume the best of everyone, right? 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:20.100 And I do right. 00:25:20.260 --> 00:25:26.540 And until someone gives me a reason to think otherwise, like, let's be a little concerned here, but here's what we look for. 00:25:27.360 --> 00:25:29.110 God has created this church for a purpose. 00:25:29.660 --> 00:25:31.030 We want to live out that purpose. 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:36.850 We want a group of people that come together to support the cause for which God has created his church to accomplish on this world. 00:25:37.320 --> 00:25:42.430 The church lives for a mission, and if you don't want to live on that mission, do you at least give permission? 00:25:43.040 --> 00:25:47.560 Meaning, are you willing to at least, sit in the seat and listen to what God says? 00:25:48.040 --> 00:25:53.980 You be a benchwarmer for a minute and hopefully the Lord can open up your heart to what God desires to do. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:54.920 Either one of those positions. 00:25:55.060 --> 00:25:55.340 Great. 00:25:55.340 --> 00:25:56.680 We can still move forward. 00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:58.810 Ultimately, we want to support that cause together. 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:01.840 But not everyone has those desires. 00:26:01.900 --> 00:26:03.860 Some people are just antagonistic. 00:26:04.940 --> 00:26:06.900 And so for us as God's people, what do we do? 00:26:06.900 --> 00:26:08.040 We can't control them. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:14.100 We just simply remain faithful to what God has called us to do, to be who God has called us to be. 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:16.140 And we pray for them. 00:26:16.140 --> 00:26:17.780 We have the best hope for them. 00:26:17.780 --> 00:26:20.740 We keep an open door for the opportunity of what God can do. 00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:27.100 But what God calls us to is to follow after him and then verse ten, it goes on and it says this. 00:26:28.340 --> 00:26:29.100 well, maybe not. 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:29.580 There we are. 00:26:30.940 --> 00:26:32.060 So skip ahead too far. 00:26:33.220 --> 00:26:40.360 Oh well, let me show you this real quick from Galatians 429 talking about Ishmael. 00:26:40.360 --> 00:26:40.850 It says this. 00:26:41.220 --> 00:26:47.040 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. 00:26:47.040 --> 00:26:54.120 So also it is now in Galatians 429, Paul is writing about Ishmael and Sarah, and he's saying, if you want to know Ishmael's attitude 00:26:54.120 --> 00:26:56.220 towards Isaac, it was to persecute him. 00:26:56.620 --> 00:26:58.980 His heart's desire was not for the best of Ishmael. 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:06.100 And in verse ten it goes on and says, so she said to Abraham, Sarah said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with 00:27:06.100 --> 00:27:07.560 her, with her son. 00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:11.520 For the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:16.720 And this thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:19.570 What we call this in verse ten is baby mama drama. 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:20.250 That's what's happening. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.860 And but here's what you see in verse 11 is Abraham's heart still torn? 00:27:25.300 --> 00:27:27.200 And the reason Abraham's heart still torn is he. 00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:28.820 He cares about Ishmael, right? 00:27:29.060 --> 00:27:29.920 I mean, this is his child. 00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:35.230 And we as individuals, we walk in this world and we experience conflict and relationship. 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:39.860 It weighs on us because we're people. 00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:42.160 And God created us for relationship. 00:27:42.840 --> 00:27:45.960 And we want to experience the goodness of relationship. 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:53.040 And in a fallen world, it doesn't always happen, but our heart should be for the best of people what God desires to do in 00:27:53.040 --> 00:27:54.200 the lives of people. 00:27:54.320 --> 00:27:55.800 We're not here to fight against people. 00:27:56.180 --> 00:27:58.020 God wants us to fight for people. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:01.860 Not everyone wants to participate what the Lord desires to do. 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:05.340 And so we just patiently wait for their hearts to be ready. 00:28:05.340 --> 00:28:08.880 What God desires more than anything is the heart of people. 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:16.180 God's pursuing our hearts, and God has sent you out as a messenger in order to reach those hearts and to minister for him to care 00:28:16.180 --> 00:28:16.900 for those hearts. 00:28:16.900 --> 00:28:24.110 In fact, we say as a church, if you love the Lord, one of the best things you can do to show your love for the Lord is seen in how you love other people, 00:28:24.360 --> 00:28:31.640 whether it be people that are for you or against you, because you're always honoring the Lord and the way that you care for people, because people are made in God's 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:34.550 image, doesn't mean you have to be best friends with everybody. 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:42.640 But if I want to truly honor the Lord, if one of the best ways I can do that is seen in how I care for people around me, because people are 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.920 made in the image of God. 00:28:45.220 --> 00:28:50.440 And here you see in verse 11, Abraham has that concern for Ishmael. 00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:52.150 His heart is torn. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.260 He wants the best. 00:28:53.260 --> 00:28:55.620 He wants to see what God can do in this story. 00:28:55.960 --> 00:29:01.200 But in this moment, Ishmael's intentions are ill, ill intended towards Isaac. 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:08.300 And so in verse 12, God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave 00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:08.640 woman. 00:29:09.560 --> 00:29:12.700 Whatever Sarah says to you, do what she tells you. 00:29:13.340 --> 00:29:15.880 For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:21.160 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring. 00:29:21.580 --> 00:29:28.900 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:31.900 along with the child, and sent her away. 00:29:32.660 --> 00:29:35.900 And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 00:29:36.120 --> 00:29:38.800 He just keep that idea of wonder in your mind for a minute. 00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:40.680 We'll come back to that in just a few. 00:29:41.660 --> 00:29:48.840 But God, God permits the removal of Hagar and Ishmael and a couple of things 00:29:48.840 --> 00:29:50.180 we could point out here. 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:54.030 one, at the end of the day, you've got to protect your family. 00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:01.180 And God's desire is for you to produce a home in which you can provide shelter, comfort. 00:30:01.180 --> 00:30:03.690 You know the home needs to be a place where you can nurture growth. 00:30:04.760 --> 00:30:07.620 And in these moments, Abraham's home is not safe. 00:30:08.620 --> 00:30:11.360 And so Abraham wants to provide that safety. 00:30:11.560 --> 00:30:18.520 If Hagar and Ishmael didn't have ill intent towards Sarah and Isaac, certainly that could have happened. 00:30:19.780 --> 00:30:21.900 But in these moments it's not safe. 00:30:21.960 --> 00:30:28.980 And so God permits their removal and one of the reasons I think this also happened is because of a promise God 00:30:28.980 --> 00:30:30.240 gave in Genesis 16. 00:30:30.320 --> 00:30:36.120 If you remember in Genesis 16, Hagar, this is not the first time she's run away from the home or left the home. 00:30:36.800 --> 00:30:41.620 And the first time in Genesis chapter 16, she left because of problems with her relationship with Sarah. 00:30:41.900 --> 00:30:48.420 She had been mocking Sarah because Sarah couldn't have a child and Sarah attacked Hagar and Hagar ran away. 00:30:49.080 --> 00:30:50.700 But God, in those moments promised Hagar. 00:30:50.760 --> 00:30:55.260 And in Genesis chapter 16, verse 12, that you will have a wild donkey of a son. 00:30:55.880 --> 00:30:59.800 And I know, hearing the promise you're going to have a wild donkey of a son. 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:03.940 If you have a child, you would think, Lord, don't ever give me that promise, right? 00:31:03.940 --> 00:31:05.320 Like having four boys. 00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:07.140 I do not want to have a wild donkey of a son. 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:07.540 That's not. 00:31:07.660 --> 00:31:08.910 That is not what I'm looking for. 00:31:09.120 --> 00:31:13.840 But for Hagar, this promise would have also been an encouraging promise. 00:31:14.540 --> 00:31:19.560 And the reason for that is because God was saying to her, your son is going to be free. 00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.280 a wild donkey is a donkey that roams free in the land. 00:31:24.140 --> 00:31:29.220 Hagar, being a slave, hearing her son was going to be free would have been a delight to her heart. 00:31:30.120 --> 00:31:33.400 And now, in this story, she is finally set free. 00:31:33.980 --> 00:31:36.980 So Hagar moves in this freedom. 00:31:37.180 --> 00:31:39.600 And then in verse 14, this is what I find interesting. 00:31:39.880 --> 00:31:40.670 Let me be a little bit controversial. 00:31:41.580 --> 00:31:43.590 I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. 00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:45.420 Narrative doesn't tell us. 00:31:45.580 --> 00:31:52.680 You can speculate from this passage if you want, but when God says you're free to send off Hagar, I kind of wonder if the 00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:57.140 way Abraham sent her off was a way that would have been pleasing to the Lord. 00:31:57.720 --> 00:32:04.940 I mean, when you read this passage, what it says is he gave Hagar a bread, water, and Ishmael, and said, put it on her shoulders and says, it's all on you, 00:32:05.120 --> 00:32:05.660 right? 00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:12.940 You think if you're about to send someone off in this day and day and age like, or during the time of Abraham, this day and age, to send 00:32:12.940 --> 00:32:16.270 them off like that would have been an unsafe thing. 00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:19.680 they could have been left to the animals. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.020 They could have been left to marauders. 00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:21.610 They could have been robbed. 00:32:22.100 --> 00:32:22.500 They could have been. 00:32:22.580 --> 00:32:23.410 They could have been captured. 00:32:23.640 --> 00:32:24.360 Who knows. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:25.040 Right. 00:32:25.120 --> 00:32:29.340 And so the question I have is this really the way God wanted would have wanted her sent off? 00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:31.670 I mean, he could have given her a camel, could have loaded that up. 00:32:31.780 --> 00:32:32.300 Right? 00:32:32.380 --> 00:32:35.000 He could have blessed her even though he's having to separate his. 00:32:35.040 --> 00:32:38.600 God had promised here in this passage, like, is this really what the Lord had wanted? 00:32:38.800 --> 00:32:42.560 The other the other alternative to that is to say, look, Abraham is really trusting. 00:32:42.700 --> 00:32:44.820 God said he's going to provide for her. 00:32:44.820 --> 00:32:48.850 Abraham is really trusting in the provision of the Lord by only giving her bread and water. 00:32:49.360 --> 00:32:52.700 But then it says in this passage that Hagar wanders. 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:57.290 And let me just say this point number three, in your notes, and I'll move on. 00:32:57.500 --> 00:33:04.980 And talking about this idea of wandering is to say this let God handle the challenges your faith journey brings. 00:33:06.340 --> 00:33:09.880 Let God handle the challenges your faith journey brings. 00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:18.220 And sometimes we might play the what if game like God calls you to just take your next step with him, trusting that he'll be enough, he'll 00:33:18.220 --> 00:33:23.620 be sufficient, and what he desires to provide for you and calling you on that journey was. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:25.570 Sometimes we might play the what if game. 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:26.400 What if this happens? 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:26.980 What if that happens? 00:33:27.040 --> 00:33:28.120 I can't take this step yet. 00:33:28.280 --> 00:33:30.490 Rather than trusting the Lord, we look to our circumstances. 00:33:31.240 --> 00:33:35.280 But God calls us to let him handle the challenges our faith journey brings. 00:33:35.520 --> 00:33:38.160 Because God is able to care for things when we can't. 00:33:39.260 --> 00:33:41.660 Abraham can't change the heart of Hagar. 00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:43.490 He can't change the heart of Ishmael. 00:33:44.300 --> 00:33:45.480 God has to do that. 00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:47.480 He can try to force it. 00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:48.980 He can try to modify their behavior. 00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:52.740 But in modifying their behavior, he will never reach their heart. 00:33:53.580 --> 00:34:00.660 It's like when you come into a relationship and things don't go the way you want, and you get frustrated and you act in anger, your anger might get people to 00:34:00.660 --> 00:34:03.560 react, and they might even do what you want them to do based on your anger. 00:34:04.020 --> 00:34:06.540 But you completely isolate the heart. 00:34:06.540 --> 00:34:09.150 You completely alienate from true transformation. 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:14.040 And so it's important for us to remember to do for one, what you wish you could do for everyone. 00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:18.139 But at the end of the day, you can't do for everyone because you can't control everybody's hearts. 00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:23.550 And there comes a time where you just got to simply trust in what God desires to do. 00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:24.460 And God is. 00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:28.120 God is putting this in his hands and saying to Abraham, Abraham, let this go. 00:34:28.120 --> 00:34:30.179 You can't control this, right? 00:34:30.179 --> 00:34:31.460 You trust in me. 00:34:31.460 --> 00:34:35.760 And then let me, let me handle the challenges that your faith journey might bring. 00:34:35.860 --> 00:34:42.900 And in verse 15, when the water and the skin was gone, Hagar put the child under one of the bushes, and she went and sat down 00:34:42.900 --> 00:34:49.940 opposite him, a good way off about the distance of a bowshot for she said, let me not look on the death of 00:34:49.940 --> 00:34:50.600 the child. 00:34:50.980 --> 00:34:54.300 And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice. 00:34:54.780 --> 00:34:55.340 And wept. 00:34:55.739 --> 00:35:01.460 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, Hagar? 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:02.540 Fear not. 00:35:02.820 --> 00:35:05.380 For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 00:35:06.780 --> 00:35:12.520 Let me say when Hagar comes to this moment and it says, she puts down her son. 00:35:13.080 --> 00:35:15.980 The word really translates, lays him in his grave. 00:35:17.300 --> 00:35:24.090 She thinks that this is his dying spot, and when Hagar goes off from a distance, she doesn't want to watch her son die. 00:35:24.820 --> 00:35:28.400 And she goes off in a distance and she picks her dying spot, too. 00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:33.620 And Hagar, in these moments, we would say, is definitely in extreme poverty. 00:35:35.080 --> 00:35:42.940 But when I talk about we talk about poverty, I want us to know in the West we tend to have a different picture, at least here in America, of 00:35:42.940 --> 00:35:47.960 what it means to be in poverty versus, I think, what the Bible says about poverty. 00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:50.960 Typically in the West, if you ask someone what is poverty mean? 00:35:51.680 --> 00:35:55.450 They'll often respond with, you don't have a lot of possessions, you don't have a lot of wealth. 00:35:56.320 --> 00:35:58.700 But can I tell you guys that's not true biblical poverty. 00:35:59.460 --> 00:36:00.610 That could be a type of poverty. 00:36:01.360 --> 00:36:02.410 But that's not true poverty. 00:36:03.020 --> 00:36:06.580 In fact, some of the wealthiest people in the world are some of the poorest. 00:36:07.780 --> 00:36:14.860 And what I mean by that is God's picture of poverty is much greater than just simply not having monetary wealth 00:36:14.860 --> 00:36:15.480 in this world. 00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:19.740 In fact, I would argue Jesus is the greatest example of that. 00:36:20.600 --> 00:36:27.680 And you follow a Savior who walked this earth in poverty, but yet his life was completely 00:36:27.680 --> 00:36:28.600 full of joy. 00:36:29.400 --> 00:36:30.220 How is that possible? 00:36:31.740 --> 00:36:37.600 I think it's because there's a different way of defining poverty that we are often masked in our culture. 00:36:38.500 --> 00:36:43.910 We typically walk in American culture and realizing we lack things, and sometimes we might have a lot of monetary wealth. 00:36:44.560 --> 00:36:49.940 And so we'll spend that wealth in order to acquire things, to kind of satisfy the brokenness that's in us. 00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:57.880 Mother Teresa, once in talking about the West, she said she referred to the West as being in poverty. 00:36:57.900 --> 00:36:59.960 But she said there poverty is different there. 00:37:01.180 --> 00:37:06.540 Poverty is loneliness and spiritual brokenness. 00:37:07.420 --> 00:37:13.140 And I would argue loneliness is the worst kind of poverty. 00:37:13.380 --> 00:37:14.940 And I don't mean being alone. 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:17.170 You can be alone and not be lonely. 00:37:18.020 --> 00:37:25.040 But I think loneliness is the worst kind of poverty, because it recognizes the poverty that we have from the Garden of Eden 00:37:25.040 --> 00:37:26.000 with Adam and Eve. 00:37:26.960 --> 00:37:28.140 We talk about loneliness. 00:37:28.540 --> 00:37:32.700 What we mean is separated from God, right? 00:37:32.700 --> 00:37:34.370 This is the way Hagar feels in this passage. 00:37:34.640 --> 00:37:35.760 I mean, that's what you see, right? 00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:37.420 Ultimately is she's wandering. 00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:43.620 She's wandering in verse 15, then that means she's aimless and she's aimless and she's broken. 00:37:43.640 --> 00:37:44.780 She comes to this place of despair. 00:37:44.780 --> 00:37:46.520 This is why she calls out to God. 00:37:46.520 --> 00:37:51.340 She feels lonely and in her loneliness is recognizing her poverty. 00:37:51.340 --> 00:37:59.000 And can I tell you, if you're lonely in your relationship with God, like if you don't feel connected to God, if you're if you aren't connected to God, then 00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:04.120 not having a relationship with God, you can't understand who you are because you're created for his purpose. 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:10.380 And if you're not connected to God and you don't understand who you are, then you can't live the reason for which God has created you. 00:38:10.380 --> 00:38:17.300 So you're aimless, you're purposeless in your life, and if you don't understand the purpose for which you're created, you can't enjoy that in relationship with others. 00:38:18.980 --> 00:38:19.850 And so for Hagar. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.680 Not only is she without some monetary things here, she doesn't have food or water. 00:38:23.680 --> 00:38:24.860 She's certainly run out of that. 00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:27.960 But she's also bankrupt in her relationship. 00:38:27.980 --> 00:38:28.620 She's a wanderer. 00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:29.880 She's aimless, she's purpose. 00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:31.220 She's not connected to the Lord. 00:38:31.960 --> 00:38:31.960 But. 00:38:32.020 --> 00:38:33.000 But here's what's incredible. 00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:35.320 In that place. 00:38:35.320 --> 00:38:36.180 She calls out to God. 00:38:39.240 --> 00:38:40.000 And God hears. 00:38:42.700 --> 00:38:49.980 Even though there are problems with Hagar's relationship with Sarah, even though there are problems with Ishmael's relationship 00:38:49.980 --> 00:38:50.620 with Isaac. 00:38:52.600 --> 00:38:53.490 God still cares. 00:38:55.360 --> 00:38:56.400 God cares about Hagar. 00:38:57.740 --> 00:39:02.100 God cares about Ishmael, and God responds. 00:39:03.740 --> 00:39:04.100 Is that? 00:39:04.120 --> 00:39:05.190 I love that about Scripture. 00:39:06.200 --> 00:39:13.300 I think we talked about this just a couple of weeks ago where I said, sometimes when we fail and we mess up, we often think as people, as people, the last 00:39:13.300 --> 00:39:14.860 place we want to turn to is God. 00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:18.360 Because we're kind of embarrassed I messed up, I can't face God. 00:39:18.360 --> 00:39:19.400 I don't want to talk to God. 00:39:19.780 --> 00:39:20.660 I can't believe I did this. 00:39:20.680 --> 00:39:21.540 I've disappointed myself. 00:39:21.720 --> 00:39:22.940 I mean, how can I turn to the Lord? 00:39:23.020 --> 00:39:24.760 But I encourage you. 00:39:24.920 --> 00:39:29.540 Psalm 51 A broken and contrite heart God does not despise. 00:39:32.120 --> 00:39:34.580 Some of the closest moments you'll have with God. 00:39:35.860 --> 00:39:38.740 Or right after your worst failures as a human. 00:39:40.640 --> 00:39:42.130 Because it's in that place of despair. 00:39:42.180 --> 00:39:43.820 You realize your great need. 00:39:45.020 --> 00:39:45.470 I am broken. 00:39:46.660 --> 00:39:47.370 I am in poverty. 00:39:48.820 --> 00:39:50.020 I need the Lord. 00:39:51.860 --> 00:39:53.040 Rather than run away from him. 00:39:53.500 --> 00:39:55.640 What God calls you to is to run to him. 00:39:55.640 --> 00:39:57.140 Psalm 68, verse five. 00:39:57.140 --> 00:40:01.560 God is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, that is God whose dwelling is holy. 00:40:01.820 --> 00:40:03.860 God places the lonely in families. 00:40:04.100 --> 00:40:07.280 He sets the prisoner free and gives them joy. 00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:11.600 But can I tell you and I need to do this? 00:40:11.640 --> 00:40:12.300 In closing, let me. 00:40:12.460 --> 00:40:13.080 Let me read this. 00:40:13.300 --> 00:40:13.800 I'll tell you. 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:14.160 I'll tell you what. 00:40:14.200 --> 00:40:14.540 I'll tell you. 00:40:14.620 --> 00:40:15.530 Let me read this real quick. 00:40:16.100 --> 00:40:16.360 Up. 00:40:16.360 --> 00:40:21.440 God says, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. 00:40:22.100 --> 00:40:24.860 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. 00:40:25.260 --> 00:40:28.480 And she went and filled the skin and water, and gave the boy a drink. 00:40:28.660 --> 00:40:33.380 And God was with the boy, and he grew up, and he lived in the wilderness, and he became an expert with the bow. 00:40:33.420 --> 00:40:38.280 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:41.180 I love this. 00:40:41.200 --> 00:40:42.600 God's caring for her. 00:40:42.640 --> 00:40:43.740 Sometimes we do this as people. 00:40:43.780 --> 00:40:44.940 We get such and such. 00:40:45.260 --> 00:40:50.720 This a place of despair that all we see is what's happening inside of us, right? 00:40:50.780 --> 00:40:53.200 The world just shrinks and we just feel our pain. 00:40:54.380 --> 00:40:59.910 But God is a God who lifts our head, who gets us, gives us the privilege to look beyond us, to know that there's hope. 00:40:59.940 --> 00:41:07.040 As long as you're with the Lord and God provides for her and provides for His Son, and not only not only cares 00:41:07.040 --> 00:41:09.240 for him in the moment, he also talks about their future. 00:41:09.420 --> 00:41:11.400 But here's the unfortunate part of Hagar's story. 00:41:12.600 --> 00:41:14.200 This is where her relationship with God ends. 00:41:15.740 --> 00:41:19.440 For some people, we're not truly interested in a walk with God. 00:41:20.080 --> 00:41:24.600 What we're interested in is for God to meet my needs so I can go on and live the life that I want to live. 00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:27.660 And this is exactly what Hagar does. 00:41:29.260 --> 00:41:30.880 Hagar has the provision of the. 00:41:32.660 --> 00:41:34.740 She leaves God in that provision and that's it. 00:41:34.740 --> 00:41:35.440 There's no relationship. 00:41:37.060 --> 00:41:38.320 She's not interested in the Lord. 00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:40.720 She's just interested in what the Lord is going to give her. 00:41:42.180 --> 00:41:44.100 And guys, can I encourage you this morning? 00:41:45.340 --> 00:41:47.760 That what God wants in your life is your heart. 00:41:48.640 --> 00:41:52.740 God's desire is for a relationship in you and with you. 00:41:53.540 --> 00:41:55.900 It doesn't matter if you're 90 or 100. 00:41:56.260 --> 00:41:59.500 It doesn't matter the regrets or what you might be holding on to. 00:41:59.700 --> 00:42:03.700 God desires for you to take your next step with him and for us. 00:42:04.460 --> 00:42:08.340 Sarah and Hagar become that picture in Hebrews chapter 11. 00:42:08.520 --> 00:42:10.200 Abraham and Sarah are people of faith. 00:42:11.540 --> 00:42:18.640 But the Bible goes on and reminds us in Galatians chapter four, Paul uses Hagar and Sarah as this picture of a life of faith or a life 00:42:18.640 --> 00:42:19.660 of just living. 00:42:20.580 --> 00:42:24.840 What I mean by law living is doing what you think is important for your own identity. 00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:31.840 In fact, the book of Galatians is written to the Jews who think that their salvation is up to them based on how they live. 00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:31.940 Right? 00:42:31.940 --> 00:42:32.640 The purpose of the law. 00:42:32.640 --> 00:42:35.880 They need to live out the law in order to demonstrate their salvation. 00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:37.090 It's all about what they do. 00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:39.100 But Sarah was one of faith. 00:42:39.100 --> 00:42:40.140 It's not about what they do. 00:42:40.140 --> 00:42:41.820 It's about what God has done for them. 00:42:41.900 --> 00:42:45.150 And she wants to walk in that relationship because of who God is. 00:42:45.800 --> 00:42:52.940 And Paul uses that in Galatians four, talking about Sarah and Hagar, he says in verse 24, now this may be interpreted allegorically talking about 00:42:52.940 --> 00:42:53.700 their story. 00:42:54.180 --> 00:43:00.840 These women are two covenants, one talking about Hagar from Mount Sinai, bearing children. 00:43:00.940 --> 00:43:02.620 For slavery she is Hagar. 00:43:02.620 --> 00:43:04.560 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. 00:43:04.780 --> 00:43:08.740 She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 00:43:08.980 --> 00:43:12.200 But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. 00:43:12.200 --> 00:43:18.760 Talking about Sarah, that God's called you to trust in what he has provided and to walk in that relationship. 00:43:19.620 --> 00:43:26.920 And so for all of us, we have that place of deciding is God just simply a relationship with him, just simply about what I get and moving on 00:43:26.920 --> 00:43:27.820 to do what I want? 00:43:27.820 --> 00:43:32.540 Or is it about truly walking with the Lord because of what he has done for me at the cross? 00:43:33.180 --> 00:43:40.460 You know what's interesting about this story is we still know, or at least claim that we know where Hagar's 00:43:40.460 --> 00:43:41.510 well exists. 00:43:42.580 --> 00:43:43.100 Hagar's. 00:43:43.100 --> 00:43:45.380 Well, you could well, it still exists. 00:43:45.380 --> 00:43:46.540 You can't actually visit it. 00:43:46.540 --> 00:43:49.100 If you were to try to visit it, you would be killed under Sharia law. 00:43:49.340 --> 00:43:56.110 But we know we know where, uh, Hagar's well, is or at least claim to know where Hagar's well is. 00:43:56.300 --> 00:43:59.980 And it's in the town of Saudi Arabia. 00:44:00.020 --> 00:44:02.180 It's in a town in Saudi Arabia, in the city of Mecca. 00:44:03.440 --> 00:44:10.900 And just so happens that after Paul wrote Galatians for an unknown to Paul, about 500 plus years later, there 00:44:10.900 --> 00:44:13.320 would be a man born in Mecca named Muhammad. 00:44:14.060 --> 00:44:21.320 Muhammad would create a religion in which over a billion people follow, and in where Abraham's Well or where Hagar's 00:44:21.320 --> 00:44:22.020 Well is. 00:44:22.040 --> 00:44:22.570 It's called Zamzam. 00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:26.970 They built the most sacred mosque to exist there. 00:44:27.300 --> 00:44:31.600 In fact, millions of Muslims travel there every year to worship there. 00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:39.240 And the bottom right, you see that little underground passageway that goes to Hagar's well, on the top right, you see people drinking water from 00:44:39.240 --> 00:44:39.580 that. 00:44:39.640 --> 00:44:43.600 Well, it's considered to Muslims today the most holy water that they can drink. 00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:45.760 but here's what's interesting. 00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:53.240 One of the things that uh, Muhammad taught was the story of Abraham, that what people were truly 00:44:53.240 --> 00:44:56.360 to follow was not the way of Isaac, but rather the way of Ishmael. 00:44:57.280 --> 00:45:03.820 And so the claims for them today is that they should continue after the path of Ishmael following the five pillars of Islam. 00:45:04.720 --> 00:45:07.000 I don't want to draw any conclusion for that for you. 00:45:07.040 --> 00:45:08.900 I just want you to recognize one. 00:45:08.900 --> 00:45:16.040 There's archaeology of the Bible, which is incredible, but to understand, we all have a place, a decision 00:45:16.040 --> 00:45:18.840 to make and your faith journey with the Lord. 00:45:19.680 --> 00:45:26.840 In Galatians chapter four, Hagar was a picture, a picture really, of what not to do, but for you and for me. 00:45:26.940 --> 00:45:34.300 God has provided a way that deliverer came through through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, that you would have the opportunity 00:45:34.300 --> 00:45:35.880 to walk with him. 00:45:37.140 --> 00:45:37.870 God is a promise. 00:45:38.520 --> 00:45:43.300 Fulfiller what is the next step God calls you to in your relationship with him? 00:45:44.020 --> 00:45:49.850 Not to worry about the challenges that walk would bring, but let God handle the challenges. 00:45:50.240 --> 00:45:52.230 You enjoy the relationship.