let's open the bible today to genesis chapter 16 genesis chapter 16 as we are continuing our study in the book of genesis if you're visiting with us we've been working through this book and we come today to chapter 16 first book of the bible let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord Genesis chapter 16. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, behold now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be upon you i gave my servant to your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived she looked on me with contempt may the lord judge between you and me but abram said to sarai behold your servant is in your power do to her as you please then sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her the angel of the lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness the spring on the way to shore and he said hagar servant of sarai where have you come from and where are you going she said i am fleeing from my mistress sarai the angel of the lord said to her return to your mistress and submit to her the angel of the lord also said to her i will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude and the angel of the lord said to her behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son you shall call his name ishmael because the lord has listened to your affliction he shall be a wild donkey of a man his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen so she called the name of the lord who spoke to her you are a god of seeing or she said truly i have seen him who looks after me here i have seen him who looks after me therefore the well was called beer lahai roy it lies between kadesh and bread and hagar bore abram a son and abram called the name of his son whom hagar bore ishmael abram was 86 years old when hagar bore ishmael to abram may the lord bless the hearing of his word everything about who we are as sinners fights against the calling of god upon our lives to live by faith you realize that as sinners what we struggle with everything about who we are we fight against this great calling that god has given to us to live by faith in his promises there's a reason, Jesus said. If you have faith as of a mustard seed, you will move mountains. He was not so much talking about the quantity of faith as he was the quality of faith, believing. It is a great work of God. It is a great gift when God gives to someone to believe him, and that person then learns throughout the course of life to trust him in every single circumstance, His promises, what the Lord has said, and to not waver in that. But we should never think that that comes easy. It never comes easy. In fact, the Bible is showing us that the heart of the Christian in the warfare into which he has been enlisted has to do with this, understanding this, the struggle to live by faith, because we are constantly, everyone here is constantly fighting against it. You don't want to do it. and at times we often don't even see that what we're doing and the choices we're making are contrary to living by faith. Well, that's what Genesis 16 is dealing with. That's what Genesis 16 is helping us to understand today. The Lord is showing us that there is a crucial difference between living by faith as opposed to living by sight, and the consequences, the consequences of living by sight are devastating to life. And today the Lord opens a door into the life of Abram and Sarai to show us how easily that we do this, maybe not even realizing it, making a mess of our lives, and then we're always wondering why is everything going wrong? Why is everything against us? Why is life always going bad? That is Genesis 16. And yet again and again, as we will see, which is overwhelming and I hope that it really has begun to set in for you as we study Genesis, here is the Lord again and what do we see Him doing? Well, we stand in awe again over His love and commitment to His promise, how strong it remains. It does not waver. He fulfills it, even showing you today how far He will go to clean up the messes that we make. Even when we throw it all away. And that makes Genesis 16 a glorious display again of God's grace and love. So let's look at this today. You'll notice in Genesis 16 that the text is pointing to us a very serious challenge for Abram and Sarai. A very serious test again. Here's another test. Here's a test they're undergoing and facing. And the text draws our attention to the barrenness of Sarai. Notice what it says. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had born him no children. There's the problem. There's the issue. And verse 3 tells us that they had been in the land now for 10 years. Do you see the test? Nothing's happening. It's going nowhere. We've signed up. we made the commitment, we've left all, and what is this? We're not moving. God made that promise 10 years ago, and he keeps rehearsing this promise to us. He keeps saying this promise to us. God had taken Abram out. God had, remember, Abram had been struggling with the promises in the last chapter, and what a glorious display Genesis 15 was of reassurance and assurance as the Lord himself swore an oath two immutable things god made a promise and then he swore an oath passing through the pieces you'll remember doing the unimaginable as those pieces were split open and the rows were made remember the lord had passed through assuring abram that what he said in his promises back in chapter 12 they will come to pass and he'll fulfill everything that needs to be fulfilled to accomplish it 10 years now in the land 10 years no land no seed canaanites are multiplying they're growing i don't have one son one son now we've seen this test repeatedly and it should be starting to set in for us what the lord is is doing here do you see the test god had spoken in the last chapter what did abram say okay i believe and right then and there god justified him. He was declared righteous once and for all. It was over. There was no further wrath for Father Abram. He was acquitted before the throne room of God forever. That's what the beauty of the doctrine of justification announces to us. It's done. It's over. You're free. You're set free. no condemnation 10 years passes do you see the challenge god had spoken he's believed but what happens when nothing is moving anywhere it's just not going i've um believed this for so long he thinks and what of it this is this was always one of my fears about ministry going in. One of my fears about ministry was that I would preach all of these glorious things, that I would every week stand up and say, God loves you and He's got promise after promise for you. He's got a wonderful, wonderful home reserved for you in heaven, resurrection, forgiveness. I would announce all of these things, strength, victory, power in Christ jesus but what happened when that day comes when there's an awful tragedy in the life of the congregation and then in light of that present suffering and present reality everything that i've been saying and then i have to come back and repeat that is clouded by the present suffering and the present reality which makes no sense in terms of everything that i've been saying that was a fear for me that was a struggle for me what would i do in that kind of circumstance and there are many who go through life believing and then something goes wrong and you have a very difficult time squaring the goodness of god and the promise of god with the present circumstance now put yourself in sarai's shoes here for a moment to be barren was thought in that world to be cursed i mean that's the worst thing that could happen to a woman at that time and it should be an encouragement for all those who can't have children and who struggle with that and i've seen a lot in the course of my ministry that that this was a real struggle for all of the godly women especially the ones that we see the promises made through we see this come over and over and over in the scriptures with hannah and here with sarai and notice here how this is going put yourself in her shoes god has been saying to my husband now for 10 years that i'm going to have a seed as of the stars in the heaven and the sand on the seashore i'm 75 years old a little past the flower of youth by the way what do you do at a time like this well you've got two options you've got two options test wait upon the lord trust in the lord with all your might lean not on your own understanding we say this over and over we we hold these verses out over and over wait i say on the lord be of good cheer be patient Wait, I say, on the Lord. There is a way of faith. Seek the Lord. Go to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. Or do it yourself. That's Sarai's plan. She constructs this plan to get the job done. Verse 1 tells us that Sarai, when she was down in Egypt, had acquired from Pharaoh an Egyptian maidservant named Pagar. And in verse 2, Sarai begins the great plan. She says to Abram, Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant that it may be that I shall obtain children by her. What do you have here? Did you catch who she just charged? The Lord has withheld. I'm bitter. This is a bitter woman. the lord has prevented me and you stop and you realize in the course of life that bitterness is a a very destructive sin it develops in people it's a fruit that develops when life takes a turn or something happens or a twist or a turn of life that happens in life when it doesn't go according to plan. And when things have been mapped out, as we're used to mapping out, and it doesn't go to plan or things happen, this is what happens. Bitterness begins to take root in the seat of the heart, and I have seen bitterness destroy people. The sort of default way of dealing with this, the thing that begins to happen is, is then you respond by taking things into your own hands, And that's exactly what happens here. Sarai devises a well-schemed plan. Abram, you see Hagar? You go to her and we will obtain the seed through her. It's a fascinating word there for obtain. And as the whole sentence reads, we will build the family through her. It's architectural word. It's a construction word. we are going to construct the family ourselves it's still on my mind so i apologize but as i go i remember driving through linden all the time and off off to the right was this giant store and it was called the do-it-yourself center darcy tried to keep me out of that place because everything i did myself was a disaster do-it-yourself center we are all little do-it-yourself centers and our society has trained us to think this way and i want to get into the spirit and mindset of people and exactly how society trains us to think i mean what is the common axiom what is the little phrase we always say if you want something done right you do it yourself we would never think that somebody else is the captain of the ship we're made in america we've learned and been taught that success and prosperity and happiness is a consequence of our own hard work and human ingenuity and our great skill to be all that we can be the best we build our lives that way we we think that way the way we want the the way life's going to go the number of children we have we're going to have we have that mapped out the size of house the design everything defining how we're going to live right down to the kind of church that best suits us to the very recreations that we like how we're going to spend our money what we're going to do in the future how we're going to spend our time we are little do-it-yourself centers i was in the mood i guess this last week to listen to the top 23 songs of overcoming obstacles and adversity and hard times and challenges and not giving up. I don't know if you ever feel like doing that. It's a very interesting thing to do. The song that stood out to me was Mariah Carey. I don't listen to Mariah Carey, but hero. There's a hero if you look inside your heart. You don't have to be afraid of what you are. And there's an answer if you reach into your soul. And the sorrow that you know will melt away. And then a hero comes along with the strength to carry on, and you cast your fears aside, and you know you can survive. So when you feel like hope is gone, just look inside you and be strong. And you'll finally see the truth that the hero is you. Hero lies in you. That's the spirit of our age. I think she stole that from Sarai. That was Sarai's number one song. Here's the problem of all of this. The principle upon which Christianity operates. The way of God's calling is directly contrary to everything you've learned in your American way of thinking. Everything. Our society says, your home is here. Build it. God says, I have a home set for you in heaven. Our society says, have it right now. You can have everything you want right now. Charge it. God says, delayed gratification. Be patient. Instant delayed. Our society says, live for the glory now. Live it up now. Eat, drink, and be merry. God says, all of the good gifts he has and those sort of things. Ultimately, what your pursuit should be is Him, and He has set aside treasures in heaven for you. My favorite movie growing up was Field of Dreams. Remember the catch line? If you build it, He will come. That's American Christianity. You see what Scripture shows? This is not just an American problem. This is a human heart problem. And Abram, last week, was justified, and we are justified once and for all. We set out then, we go out in the Christian life, we're going to live the Christian life, we're going to follow Jesus and everything, all of these promises that he's made to us in a land that he's prepared for us, a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness shall dwell. And we set out, and what do you think your struggle is from that moment on? A retreat from faith. A retreat to try out and test out living by sight. so here's the building plan culturally what sarai proposed was acceptable i mean one of the legal codes from mesopotamia reads if a man's wife has not born him children but a harlot from the public square has born him children the children which the harlot has born him shall be heirs now here's the thing the situation was culturally acceptable everyone would have understand that this was a culturally acceptable plan that had been accepted and by and large by the culture but there's one problem the lord didn't accept that plan and what a message today for what the culture buys into and how we're getting sucked into it and what we tend to now begin to justify because it's a cultural norm see it god from the beginning said no one man one woman and god had said in the last chapter abram the seed will come from your own body that means sarai because they're one flesh so this is the situation now we turn for a minute to abram Abram, what I call the pragmatist. Just a few chapters ago, this guy was slaying kings. This guy was taking down six kings and kingdoms. Ketolat Omer, he plundered the wealth of mighty nations. He stood up to bear a king of Sodom. But his greatest challenge, his wife? Abram's no match for Sarai. In an ironic twist, the first time Abram was tested with regard to the land. Think about the twist here. With regard to the land, what did Abram do? He runs down to Egypt and he dumps off his wife in the arms of Pharaoh. Well, now Sarai returns the favor. Now tested with the promised seed, so the two tests, land and seed, Sarai is now dumping off her husband into the arms of another woman. You think this is a little dysfunctional? No man could write this, could they? No man would ever tell this is the skeleton you keep in the closet. You never announce this. Sinners would never say, hey, down in my family line, guess what happened? We'd never want anyone to know this. So Sarai is proposing that Abram do the very thing that Abram did to her in Egypt. Abram should have said, no, no, honey, we can't do this. We can't do such a thing. Remember what we learned in Egypt. You know, the Lord is the giver of life. The Lord is the one who we should go to. We should not try to take things into our own hands. We should learn a lesson. We should seek his face and be patient and wait upon the Lord. But with no leadership, cowering before his wife, you read, so Abram heeded the voice of his wife. Not one word in the text from Abram. In the last chapter, what did God say? I will. A seed will come from your own body. Sir, I knew that. She didn't like how the plan was unfolding and so she gets bitter and she gets angry and she starts her own plan. Have you figured out what you have here? It's Genesis 3. God had made a statement in Genesis. Remember what the devil came along to Eve to say? Has God really said? Has God really said Eve? And Eve, no, no, no, no, no. There's a hero that lies in you. You can be much greater than what this God's holding you back for. Eve devises a plan, doesn't she? She grabs the fruit and she takes it to her husband. And what do you read of Adam saying anything? So Adam partook of the fruit and ate. Abram heeded the voice of his wife. Remember the consequence we studied? The consequence would be that this would produce shambles in the home. And there would be conflict in the home. There would be great tension. She would desperately try to control her husband. And the husband would be passive in leadership. and the family would be characterized by a world of conflict. You've got the whole thing played out again right here. That's exactly what goes on in our text. All was well until a baby bump appeared. And Abram is pleased. The sun is coming. And Hagar is now feeling that she's the one blessed. Abram's affections and all of this is now set upon her and there's bitterness now. There's conflict. Sarai is looking at the growing baby in the womb and looking at Hagar's attitude and her own husband's satisfaction with another woman. And now you've progressed from bitterness to rage. Think of Abram's house for a moment. You know there's a proverb for a reason. Better to dwell alone on a rooftop than in a house with a contentious woman. Now Abram's got two. Not good. And Sarai said to Abram, listen to this, may the wrong done to me be upon you. Whoa. I gave my servant to your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked upon me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me. Abram, this is your mess. Look what you've done. Look what you've created. I gave and this plan backfired. I gave you the opportunity and lo and behold, this woman now despises me. The Lord judged between us. What a scary statement. Look at the web of sin in the home. Confusion, anger, discord, fights, bitterness, envy, intimacy with her own husband, sacrifice. Another woman in the picture. the whole house is set ablaze a web of conflict has broken open let me describe this using the words of proverbs proverbs 30 verse 21 under three things the earth trembles under four it cannot bear up so in other words whatever he's about to say this is the worst of situations here they are number one a slave when he becomes king number two a fool when he's filled with food number three an unloved woman when she gets a husband number four a maidservant when she displaces her mistress wow the scripture has unraveled for you and exposed for you an ugly mess i mean this is an ugly mess you understand now a little bit why the apostle paul would say god justifies the wicked who's the honorable one here it's not abram it's not sarai it's not hagar And I believe the text has now set it up to introduce to you the character of your God. Isn't it amazing who shows up in all of this? The first time like this? He sees all of this unbelief. And it's contrary to everything he has called Abram to. And what do you expect? What do I expect? We know what this should deserve. After the fall, he cursed. And the same event has now occurred with Adam and Eve and Abram and Sarai. Same thing. And I believe the Lord is now provoking and having us think a lot about what grace really means. Grace is the most difficult concept for the sinner. If anyone acted like this in our society, if anyone acted like this in our church, there would be a mess, wouldn't there? There would be serious repercussions. There would be a lot of fighting and bitterness and no mercy as people take sides. This would be ugly. And we would shake our heads at this soap opera. And now you understand where this one is set. It's right after what? Genesis 15. And in that scene, what did the Lord say? The seed will come from your own body. I'm going to fulfill what I say, and it's grace to you, Abram. Abram was asleep. What that meant was none of this would hinge on Abram's faithfulness. Do we understand that? None of this would hinge on Abram's faithfulness. And what we're seeing right after that glorious event last week is a lot of unfaithfulness. he saw Abram saw why the horrors of Genesis 15 why God would have to put his son through that you think well why does God have to do that why does God have to to put his son through that because look at Genesis 16 and it's overwhelming because the apostles would testify to the truth that no matter how bad we would stumble and fall along the way he would fulfill his word of promise to us when we believe nothing can separate us from that fulfillment now let me go back to this abram i will bless you and you will be a blessing to all the nations not starting off well my benediction and love i have decided to lavish upon you i am blessing you well what if i throw away my wife it can't change what i'm doing i'll go get her for you lord i have failed i didn't leave all and come abram come to me what if i fail believing you along the way and what if i really make a mess of life and i screw up royally and i take things into my own hands and i don't lead like i should in the home and i go into sarai's servant hagar i will still bless you your name will be great do you understand grace you say i don't know that makes me really uncomfortable and now you understand how good your god is when you study this where does all of your affection where does all of your desire where does all of your amazement fall on the lord what god is like the lord our god who is what god in the pagan nations is like this what does the lord do with this mess who's the real casualty here who's the one here of reckless abuse and on the part of great father abram and sarai it's hagar she's no innocent but she is she was used she is an egyptian slave girl who was a nobody who had been shown no mercy, no kindness, fleeing back to Egypt, almost lost forever. One pastor called Hagar a soulless baby machine. And verse 6 tells us that Sarai treated her harshly. Harshly, and she flees. She flees to the way into the wilderness. Sure, that's almost back to Egypt, into the middle of the wilderness. she's totally alone and then you come to verse 7 who shows up the angel of the lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness the spring on the way to shore and he said hagar servant of sarai where have you come from and where are you going she said i'm fleeing from my mistress sarai the angel finds her who is this he speaks with the authority of god he knows Notice what she's going to say? You see. You see everything. Throughout the Old Testament, it's generally received and understood and believed. He shows up in Joshua. Remember? And when he's justified, this is the pre-incarnate Christ showing up, coming after an outcast, greatly abused, not loved. According to God's law, had committed adultery. There she is at the well in the wilderness. And there are two things that overwhelm me about the Lord this morning. And the first is this. There's a reason I had to sing Psalm 146. He cares for the oppressed. Do we think about this enough the poor and the oppressed the lord executes justice for the oppressed he gives food to the hungry the lord sets the prisoners free the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord's watches over the sojourners he upholds the widow and the fatherless any fatherless here today i can't get away from this thought god said abram you will be a blessing to all the nations so what does he do he raises up a nation the lord makes a promise to hagar in the most unexpected twist we would never expect this i will surely multiply your offspring so they cannot be numbered for multitude a nation will come from you behold you shall have a son so hagar bore abram a son verse 15 abram named his son whom hagar bore ishmael abram was 86 years old when hagar bore ishmael to abram notice what the lord said though behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son you shall call his name ishmael because the lord has listened to your affliction this nation would be a terrible thorn in the side of abram it would be represented in scripture as a nation that is a nation of being in bondage and paul picks that up and teaches us through this of what bondage looks like but i believe the passage is showing us something else though that god would fulfill his promise that abram would be in the fullness of time a blessing even to this nation how so the whole scene is repeated in the new testament you say where is this scene repeated in the new testament john 4 jesus comes out one day to samaria and there's a woman at the well alone she was an outcast of israel stuck in a web of adultery running from her life christ meets her by the well both of these women were outcasts both shut out from israel if you will both adulteresses in god's eyes both this man says both of them said this man has told me everything that i have ever done he sees one day when jesus came he applied that his work would be this the spirit of the lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He appears to those who are alone with His Word, neglected and unloved, who live in sin, who've been under its grips in power. Are there any here today? And Christ is represented as going outside to the borders of Egypt to bring back a woman into the tents of Shem. The Lord Himself in the fullness of time would come from the body of Abraham and all over the place, it is said in the Old Testament, He would gather the outcasts of Israel. Isaiah 56, the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will yet gather others to Him besides those already gathered. And he's already showing us this in Genesis 16. It's overwhelming because this mess in the household of Abram would cause a lot of grief. And it shows us today the agony that we produce for ourselves when we choose to gratify our own flesh and we choose to live by sight and we reject the ways of the Lord and will not follow Him. Building our lives without the Lord. Constructing life without Him. Retreating from the life of faith. Stop and think today of what the text is showing you. There's a reason the Lord says to all of us, trust in the Lord with all your heart. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Wee not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your path. And what an amazing message that I can say today even when we blow it. even when we royally mess up. God is stronger. Grace prevails. And He will fulfill what He promised. Fulfill what He promised to you. I close with this. If you don't respond to that, if you don't respond to that kind of love, if that kind of love doesn't restrain your life, if this doesn't wake you up out of sleep, If this doesn't move you to look to him by faith, then what more is there that he could do in his vineyard than that he has done for you? What more can he say? Promise an oath showing you he'll clean up the mess. He went to the depths for you. Believe him. Trust him. He's got a good path for you. a good fulfillment that he's shown us already today in his son and a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness shall dwell live then in the enjoyment and i say that live then in the joy and enjoyment of his guidance and peace live by faith no matter what he puts before you let's pray to him this morning oh lord our god we bow the head humble broken to the dust overwhelmed again to see the sheer goodness of god your relentless love your pursuing grace your care for the outcasts and the poor for the oppressed and that when you said to abram he would be a blessing to all nations we see that fulfilled in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. You are the faithful one. Only we ask along the way, Lord, that you would give us strong faith to believe, to trust you, to not have to go through the messes, the hardships that we create for ourselves. But if we do, and if it's appointed, then we oh lord ask that you would lead us in the right path and make the messes that we have made into blessing that the name of jesus would not be scorned or mocked or run through the mud but that that name that is given above every name that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that jesus is lord forgive us all of our sins and thank you oh lord for directing our way before you today and the power of your word. We pray these things in confidence in Jesus' name. Amen.