Hagar: The Suffering Servant (Genesis 16)

Shout out to Dallas y'all are shout out to miss Stephanie Carter first lady of the house um this is actually the location in the city of the first Glory um and so it feels it feels special to be back here in particular um to tonight um I I want to deal with the subject of suffering and I want to deal with the subject of suffering because it's a Common and Universal experience for all people uh whether you're a Christian or not a Christian suffering will come your way right but I don't think it takes much

thought to to see how much suffering is the reason either people stay or people leave God suffering either sanctifies or suffering either pulls people in the direction where they want they want the world because that suffering seems easier and so I I want to to talk Through a text that involves this concept of suffering but exalts the the presence and the purposes of God in the midst of it it's a text that a lot of people don't touch it's a text I ain't even want to touch but I'm glad that I did before we go

there I just I just want to talk about a young go a young boy named U Christopher Ward Jr you probably have never heard his name uh Christopher is not a podcaster Christopher is not an Influencer Christopher is not a basketball player or a painter christop Christopher is not a musician he doesn't have any visible or public notoriety Christopher is just a 12-year-old boy who since the day he was born he could not see because Christopher was born blind from birth it has affected every inch of his life he he cannot watch cartoons like the

regular kid he cannot go outside and play like the Regular he cannot interact with people even even his family his family Dynamic is affected by his inability to see them he lives with his mother he loved by his mother nurtured by his mother but he's he's never seen his mother's face until one day Christopher and his mother travel to Washington DC to try out this device called eite simply put eite is a device that once you put it over a person who is blind's eyes they are able to see the World digitally Christopher is in

the room with his mom is on YouTube y'all can Google it he's in the mom room with his mom and the doctor comes up behind his chair and puts the device on his eyes and Christopher starts to kind of survey the environment he looks to the left and he's like oh that's a wall That's not interesting and he looks up and he he looks to the right and he finally lands on his mama's Face and the first thing out of this 12-year-old boy's mouth is oh Mommy there you are you're so beautiful in the moment

his his mama starts to weep as any parent would because she's probably spent so much time praying for for her son being with her son grieving for her son that now she's reminded of the loss that she's had by the very fact that she's had a son that has never seen Her face this story between Christopher and his mother shows us that that it is it is one thing to be able to see it is a whole other thing to be see in the text before us we have a woman who is treated as invisible

she is talked about but not talked to she is called by her usefulness and never by her name she is used and abused until one day she she finds herself next to a spring of water spring being the Hebrew word for eye and next to the eye This unseen woman is finally seen Lord I pray for your word I pray that you would illuminate it so that we can understand it and I pray that you would Empower us to see you first and foremost most but that you would help us to see how we can

live in light of what we see we pray that you would Minister to your people help me to have humil humility love and Clarity we pray all this in your name amen turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 16 who brought like real Bibles with them look at y'all y'all better cuz you know we be we be looking at the Bible on our phone so much we don't know nothing verbatim we just be paraphrasing the mess out of scripture Genesis chapter 16 verse one say Amen when you got it now Sarai Abram's wife had borne

him no children she had a female Egyptian Servant whose name was Hagar and saraiah said to Abram behold now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children go into my servant it may be that 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 saraiah said to Abram May the wrong done to me be on 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 Sher 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 for she said truly here I have seen him who looks after me this text immediately Begins by telling us that there's a problem Moses the writer of this Narrative doesn't beat around the bush took a minute but you got there I thought it was clever but he gets straight to the point by establishing the problem and the predicament

that drives the way this narrative plays out which is that Sarai Abram's wife hasn't given him any babies that might not seem like a problem for some of us children ain't on everybody's agenda there are some saints that didn't had an IUD stuck up in there For about eight years now fallopian 2 just thirsty and those kinds of people would read this text and see that saran got babies and see nothing wrong with the narrative wouldn't even be able to discern the intent of the author sarai's childlessness is only understood as problematic when you read

four chapters before this one in Genesis 12 God calls Abram out of his country and tells him That he's going to make make him a nation to have a nation you need people to have people you need pregnancy in Genesis 15 God tells Abram that he's going to give him a son to have a son you need a woman who will conceive carry and deliver the son into the world but now in our text in Genesis 16 Moses tells us that there is a woman and she has a name her name is s but there's

a problem that this woman this this Sarai has not conceived and has not Carried and has not delivered a son or any babies into the world automatically creating the idea that now God's promise to Abram is being threatened and not by her body or Not by the flesh or Not by sin or Not by the devil but by sarai's own infertility there there are social and internal implications for being an infertile woman in this world as many of you could affirm there is an internal shame where you tell yourself Things like I am not woman

enough I am not wife enough I am not good enough because I remain childless there is external shame that we definitely experience if you are a part of religious institutions where people will say you obviously aren't praying enough or fasting enough it's like the Prosperity Gospel from others it it's it's like you you aren't doing all of the rituals and all of the things that you should be doing that's why you Remain childless putting the burden of barrenness on the woman instead of on the Lord who opens and closes the womb and Sarai Sarai felt

this the women in sarai's day had to carry intense shame from the community when they could not bear children in some instances not being able to conceive was actually ca for divorce and therefore what some women had at stake for being childless was not just just the loss of social status but Future security so so I think in sarai's mind what is being threatened by her childlessness isn't just God's promise to Abram but sarai's own stability so because of that like most of us she has to think through a strategy to fix this issue look

at verse one and two she had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar and Sarai said to Abram behold now you understand how dramatic that is behold now I'mma go home tomorrow and say press Then behold now these dishes so triumphant behold now like it's a prophetic word it's not behold now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children go into my servant it may be that I shall obtain children by her I I want to bring our attention to something about sar's conversation with Abram Sarai has a right theology about the Sovereign creativity

of God she says the Lord has prevented me from bearing children um she she understands that the The body is not ultimately the source of conception God is when I was reading a book while studying for this passage it said that when women get pregnant when women have babies is as if Genesis 1 and 2 is being replicated in the body it it's as it's basically to say anytime you see pregnancy God did it any anytime you see a baby God did it but here's here's the catch here's the catch for some of us that

makes us want to praise for some of us that's actually Discouraging for for for the people who have have been trying to get pregnant women who have been praying women who have been fasting women who have tried IVF have done all the spiritual and medical methods and the hopes that one day something will change so for me to then say that the reason that they are grieving to the degree that they are is because of God that doesn't feel good I acknowledge how that might land on you And so in light of that reality I

I want to lift up this really big word in the text that we might have missed and and I think that defining the word won't necessarily take away the pain of infertility but do think it can cultivate hope in God the word is in verse two I'll read it again and add an inflection on it and Sarai said to Abram behold now the Lord has prevented me from being children Sarai I love the Bible Sarai doesn't say God Elohim prevented me from bearing children which would have been true God as God means that he is

the source he is he is the creator of all things Genesis 1:1 in the the beginning God Elohim created the heavens and the Earth but that's not the word she uses she says the Lord prevented me from bearing children which is the covenantal name of God that we just got done singing Yahweh in Exodus 33 Moses asked God to see his glory you remember and the text says That the Lord proclaimed his name meaning he preached about himself and what did God say his name meant he said the Lord the Lord a god merciful and

gracious slow to anger an abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness the point I'm trying to make is that the nature of God as revealed in the name of God informs the restrictions of God I'll say it again the nature of God as revealed in the name of God informs the restrictions of God meaning God's name Explains his no if if if the Lord says no if if the Lord says not yet if the Lord says keep waiting if the Lord says maybe later even if it doesn't make sense his name has not changed neither has

his nature so even if it hurts it doesn't mean he's not still being good Sarai calls God by the right name and yet we will see that her behavior doesn't match her Theology look at the end of verse two behold now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children go into my servant it may be that I shall obtain children by her you see a whole sentence of the Bible can preach the words may be are intriguing to me because she just said that it's the Lord who has prevented her from having a child which

implies that it is the Lord who can give her one so I could see if she was like God has kept me from Having children we should pray we should fast we should go to church and ask the Believers to lay hands on us with all since it may be that I will obtain a child by him but she says it may be that I will obtain children by her misplaced hope will get you into all kinds of she is she is placing her faith and her expectation on somebody that cannot even create people in

your body she knows God's name she just said It but the confession of his name still doesn't trigger any faith she figured there had to be other strategies there had to be other possibilities for her to get this baby because the Lord isn't moving quick enough it's crazy how impatience has us do some of the Mindless things he promised he promised Abram a child 10 years ago and the baby ain't here yet so so it's time to take conception into her own hands it's kind of like when the husband ain't showed up Yet oh you

didn't think I would come for you surely I would when the when the husband ain't showed up yet and and we start to take you know the the the wife thing into our own hands we we try to come up with strategies and we try to think through ways to to to get the man that we want we try we start to do what the world is doing because it obviously is working for them and so we start to say things like modesty modesty don't work no more That's just that's patriarchy that ain't Bible and

so let let me show a little thigh thigh uh-huh uh-huh a little chess chess yeah yeah yeah yeah little butt butt uh-huh we we we we we even start we even start to consider the idea of being with men that don't even like your [Applause] God he might like gospel you know he listen in to jonath the MC reyolds and and Maverick City J Like do you understand how crazy that is for you for you to be so unconvinced of God's goodness as it relates to his timing in your life that you would be willing

to submit yourself to somebody that serves the devil that's crazy that [Applause] is be because what's what's happening is is that some of the strategies that we construct are a means of Expediting the process of God's promise we we don't Like endurance we we don't like waiting we we don't like but what if God is doing something in you in the waiting surely surely he knows better than you or do you think you know better than him is that what it is is that what it is is that you somehow presume that you know what

God like you know better than the Lord of hosts it can't be that's what we believe but maybe God has you waiting so you'll see that that's what's been in your heart this entire Time some God sometimes God has to make you wait so you can see what's in in here the thing is we we we can sing the songs we we can go to the conferences we can do the devotionals we we can we could we can know Leviticus and habek don't nobody read habc I don't even know how many chapters are in HCA

but we can know God's name and still doubt his nature if if God was the source of Sarai's Hope then she should have petitioned him in light of the promise that he already made the strategy Sarai puts into place is that she will turn her Egyptian servant into a concubine SL wife for Abram so that she can function as a as a surrogate mother meaning the child produced from Hagar and Abram's Union would legally be sarai's child and I want to briefly note that when Sarai says it may be that I will obtain children by

her in The English you can't read was actually being said the Hebrew reads it may be that I will be built up by her which is to say that in S sarai's View is not just a baby but also having the stability and the security and the the the the the the the the the the the security that comes like a house with having children so I I have to reiterate that because it means that in Sarah's mind it isn't just that she's asking for a child she's asking for Status and how does Abram respond

he is described as doing exactly what Adam did in Genesis 3 it's the same language Abram Adam listen to the voice of his wife meaning the word sin isn't in the text but this is a textual clue that sin is in the room look at verse three so after a 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 we Are introduced to Hagar In verses 1 and three and

we are given a description of Hagar she we learn who she is ethnically which is that she is an Egyptian and we learn who she is socially which is that she is is a slave so she is a subjugated Foreigner to be clear because we have people of African descent in the room we have to acknowledge that the word slave triggers us so much to the point that sometimes we can read Our Heritage into the narrative and so I have to Acknowledge that the kind of slavery that is happening in this text is not preil

War chadow slavery now this is Old Testament slavery but that isn't also to say that it was less egregious than New Testament or uh uh pre Civil War child slavery like like having a human being be a slave automatically is top tier sinful it it don't matter what culture is happening in so I just wanted to make a distinction there now with that said the Question must be asked how does a woman in Canaan acquire a slave from Egypt turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12 I love hearing the pages I remember when I

used to go to church with my mom I would be so embarrassed when they would say you know turn to John 2 and I'm like I just I don't know where that is Sir but that's okay verse 10 say Amen when you got it now there was a famine in the land so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land when he was about to enter Egypt he said to Sarai his wife I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance and when the Egyptians see you

they will say this is his wife then they will kill me you understand how dramatic that is huh it's like it's like when men when they got a cold and they act like it's co it's like you realize I had a whole Human in my body and I didn't even complain this much it's all right um verse 13 say you are my sister that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake interesting when Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful

and when the princes of pharaoh saw her they praised her to pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house and for her sake he he Dealt well with Abram and he had sheep oxen male dunke male servants female servants female donkeys and camels let's back up a famine happens Abram decides to go to Egypt to escape he comes up with a strategy for how to secure his life which is to have his wife say that she is his sister they go to Egypt they recognize theise Beauty and they take her take her take her

into Pharaoh's house mind you she is not taken into Pharaoh's house to say what's up real quick she she not she not taken in there to get some of y'all dry spaghetti that's not what that's not what she's doing just put more sauce on it and put the meat in the sauce I don't want the meat separate from the sauce what are we doing here it's supposed to be mixed in together and put some seasoning in it garlic powder onion powder basil Italian seasoning salt cuz I done seen some Tik toks where y'all just be

pulling out the jar and thinking that's sufficient that is not I'm getting distracted um she she's not she's not taking taken into Pharaoh's house this is not friendliness this is not love she is taken into Pharaoh's house and taken into a harm which is that that she is taken as as a woman who is about to be Pharaoh's concubine let me say it again she she is taken into a Herm and made to be a concubine of a foreign man which sounds very familiar to me now in exchange for Sarai Pharaoh gives Abram some gifts

some of which are female servants and it's most likely at this point that Hagar enters into the life of Sarai and Abram now coming back to Genesis 16 trying to round it out remember the predicament Sarai hasn't borne Abram any Children so she takes Hagar and gives her to Abram as a wife concubine as a strategy to secure her own life it ended up being God not even Abram that eventually rescued Sarai out of Pharaoh's house and so you think from that experience you think from that oppression you think that everything that she went through

that she would have a particular empathy for Hagar but she doesn't she doesn't Sarai even though she knows what it feels like for Someone to see your body as a resource or a tool for their own security you you because she even experienced that it doesn't matter because the strategy the strategy she has in mind is one she developed from what she's been through so Sarai decides to do exactly to Hagar what Abram did to her how often how often do you find yourself replicating old patterns with new people Where where the things you've been

through the the circumstances you've endured the the the things that have negatively shaped you have more influence on how you navigate difficulty than the spirit of of God in his scriptures trauma is a real thing but I think the trauma Obsession of our culture is making us more victim minded than we're able to see suffering is a part of life but but there there there there are times when What we've been through becomes the model for how we behave lately I've been I've been wondering and processing this myself I've been wondering if I am so

identified with my trauma that I've accidentally stopped identifying with Christ like I think I think God God is helping me I think somewhere inside of me I I don't be believing I'm a new creature all the time because I keep reaching into history and asking the old Jackie and All of her strategies to show up for me as if the new Jackie the new creature doesn't have access to all the resources she actually needs to overcome what if Sarai remembered that God didn't need her power to bring about his promise God didn't need her strategies

God doesn't need your manipulation to move mountains I know that worked when you were in the world but you don't need that in the Kingdom God God doesn't even Need your guard some of us have guards up because we think we are a better Refuge than God God doesn't need your guard to keep you from pain all he requires is Trust all he requires is trust Abram listens to the voice of his wife he goes into Hagar and she conceives I need you to Notice how at no point in this narrative does anybody actually involve

Hagar In conversations about Hagar nobody asked her if she wanted to marry Abram nobody asked her if she wanted to have sex with Abram I I know he's the father of many nations but he's 90 that's something I should consent to but I got like six jokes right here Nobody nobody asked Hagar do you want to carry his baby Hagar when you get pregnant with the baby and you carry the baby for 40 weeks and you go through Labor without any medicine do do you will you let us take your baby and give it to

they they don't even say Hagar's name the only reason you even know her name is is because Moses says it the the when Abram and saraiah when They refer to her they only refer to her position she is a servant and she is a slave the woman with a name that nobody says though has a human and therefore visceral response to her conceiving look at verse four when she saw that she had conceived she looked with contempt on her mistress contempt means to take lightly it's the same word we see used in 2 Samuel when

David was dancing by the ark and and everything and the text says That when his wife looked out the window she she despised him had contempt for him in her in in her heart it it Paints the picture that Sarah's position might have been elevated or there might have been some respect some reverence but now sarai's position in Hagar's mind has been lowered because this is what Sarah did that I don't think she knew she was F to do um you made your slave a wife and she is now not only a wife but she's

a wife that's pregnant with the Baby that you want and so now what you have given Hagar is power this is a very messy situation don't know if you've noticed that that could have been avoided if somebody didn't try to strategize their way around God's will so Sarai Sarai pulls Abram to the side to fix the mess that they both put themselves into in verse and the way Abram decides to remedy the tension is that he restores sarai's Complete authority over Hagar it seems that when she was given as a wife sarai's Authority was a

bit limited she didn't have a 100% Authority but now Hagar or Abram gives Sarai or a too many names Abram gives Hagar back to Sarai which means that she is now no long no longer a wife no longer a concubine but she is again a slave now I need you to see this he gives Sarai the Liberty he says it in the text to do to her as she pleases again the English don't really Give you the whole thrust of the Hebrew in the Hebrew it says do to her what is good in your eyes

if you know anything about the Old Testament if you don't read through judges once you know that anytime it says and they did what was right in their own eyes what they do e ev Everything everything wrong never right and that's what happens in this narrative the text says that Sarai dealt Harshly with Hagar meaning she abused her whether it was verbal abuse physical abuse emotional abuse or harsh labor the text doesn't say but we do know that whatever it was it was too much for Hagar to take so she does what any human being

does who is made in the image of God when they are Dishonored and being disrespected she fle look at verse seven the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness the spring on the way to Sher 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 the Lord the Lord said to her return to your mistress and submit to her the first time Hagar is called by her name and

invited into a conversation is when the angel of the Lord does it finally somebody asked Hagar about Hagar he finds her at a spring on the way to Sher sh is a place that you pass through on the way to Egypt so that means that Hagar has a a location in mind which is her native country which is simply to say Hagar wants to go home I love the question that the angel of the Lord asked he said Hagar servant of Sarai where have you come from and where are you going anytime God asks us

a question it is never beneficial for him He knows everything so the supposed curiosity of God is either functioning as a test or act of Revelation to Adam he said where are you to answer the question Adam would have had to confess where he was and why he was there meaning God God asked him to the question to create space for confession to Cain God said where uh where is Abel your brother to the disciple he said where are we to get Bread to Peter he said Do You Love Me God knows the answer to

every question he asks us so if ever he does it I need you to know that the answer you give ain't never for him it's always for you the thing about this exchange is it it shows how God wants to to engage with us in suffering so much so that the the all knowing god like we don't even like asking people questions when we think we know it all but God is willing to ask a question That he already knows the answer to just to invite this unseen woman into conversations with himself you might have

noticed that I began by calling the person that Hagar is speaking to the angel of the Lord as the text does and then just now I just attributed the conversation to God and that's because every time you see the word angel in scripture I need you to not assume that it means created being with a big belly and some um wings or something that's Disney Channel That's not Bible Angel all it means is Messenger so the context of the passage shows us what kind of messenger we're dealing with the context of this passage is that

in verse 13 it says so she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her so this means that this being is not merely an angel this is not the seraphim that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6 who were around God's throne with with wings over their Eyes and wings over their bodies and wings over their feet saying holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts it's it's not them it's him the the one on the throne who who is now becoming what the Bible calls or not the B theologians call a theophany he is

a a temporary manifestation of the person of God and he's revealing himself to a slave woman named Hagar the angel of the Lord asks Hagar where are you going she answers it it says no where you come from where are You come from she says I'm fleeing from my mistress Sarai she doesn't know the answer to the second question but God does he tells her the place she is going is that she is going to return to her mistress and submit this text used to make me feel away because I don't know if y'all been

walking through it with me Hagar ran into the Wilderness to escape abuse and God is sending her Back there's all kinds of questions that come up when you get to passages like this and and small note small note it is helpful to allow Jesus to determine the nature of God and read what Jesus says about God God into texts that seem to make God seem less than God let me explain in John Nicodemus or the Rich Young Ruler comes to Jesus and said hey how can I get eternal life he calls him Good teacher and

Jesus says why do you call me good only God is good which means that when I get to texts that make me question God's goodness I need to refer back to Jesus and what did he say God was and therefore if Jesus says that God is good if Jesus is telling the truth and he is then that means I need to presuppose goodness into every text and if I presuppose goodness I will find just a small note there's there's all kinds of questions that come up when we Think about this moment we we say to

ourselves why would God do something like that does does like why wouldn't he allow her to escape doesn't God know she was being abused doesn't God know she was being that she was suffering doesn't God know that saraiah was dealing with her harshly why does he even care and one way people have attempted to make sense of of God sending haar back to sah that they will say that God Was making provision for Hagar's life there's about 300 miles between Canaan and Egypt and so rightly so if she was pregnant even when I was walking

two inches and Pregnant I I felt like I was going to die and so 300 miles between Canaan and Egypt is a lot right there there there's the there's the strong possibility that she would not have made it I think that's a potential argument but it doesn't persuade me because Israel journeyed From Egypt eypt to Canaan same path over 40 years and they did not die because they ran out of food they they did not die because they ran out of clothes they they did not die because of the difficulty of the journey the only

reason they died on the same path was because they disobeyed God so that tells me that if God can keep Israel on the way out of Egypt into Canaan then God could have kept her on the way out of Canaan into Egypt I think the answer to Our concerns is a bit more simple than we are willing to embrace which is that sometimes God providentially allows us to suffer God providentially allows us to suffer I'm not ignorant to the diversity of pain in this room a room of women G guarantees that there will be people

who Have suffered women who have been abandoned by people they love women who have been sexually verbally and emotionally abused women who have miscarried once are more than once women who have had abortions and women who are thinking about one women who carry so much shame from the decisions that they've made women who have been diagnosed with cancer and Women who will be who will one day receive a diagnosis that God May heal or God may not I say that because I know that you know suffering but in this moment my my primary concerned is

not the universal experience of suffering my primary concern is how your vision of God is being affected by it about 10 years ago I read this book called night by Eli wisel it's it's a Memoir about his time in the oswit concentration camp and he describes this scene that has never left me since I read it and he talks about how the the Nazi party the gapo they they they cleared out the ghettos and they've put all the Jews on trains and they don't have any Clarity fully of where they're going they they have an

idea that they're going to a worker camp but they they don't know the depravity that is awaiting them they they don't know the Complete wickedness of the Nazi party and and the and the concentration camps that they constructed to to isolate or to to to murder all of these people so he gets on the train they're on it for a long time he's with his family and they get off the train and there's chaos and people are being separated by age and by ability and his mother and his sister go one way and he never

sees them again for the rest of his life and and him and his father go another way and in the middle Of the cha chaos he sees smoke and he's he's he doesn't understand where the smoke is coming from so so he traces the smoke to his source and he sees that it's it's a room where the sick and the elderly and babies are are being led into the room and being burned alive and so therefore the smoke is the result of their burned bodies and it's after that scene that he writes this never shall

I forget that Night the first night in Camp that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed never shall I forget that smoke never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent Sky never shall I forget those Flames that consumed my faith forever never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and My soul and turned my dreams to ashes suffering created a lens for

Eli that changed the way he viewed God the intensity of his pain made him a man that to the day of his death he did not believe that God existed and I think suffering in different degrees does the same thing for us it it becomes the way we interpret God our suffering becomes a hermeneutical tool where where we Interpret God through what we've been through instead of what Jesus has revealed and we end up our suffering can sometimes be so intense that we become our own false teachers we begin to say things about God that

the apostles would not affirm we begin to say things like he's not good he he doesn't love me he he doesn't see me we begin to talk about God like he is something other than holy but as Christians I get the tension the tension of having to deal with the Sovereign sovereignty the the fact that God has control over everything like the sovereignty of God and suffering that's a tension that we have to reckon with I've had to deal with it myself like when I think about how my mother she would often drop me off

at a family friend's house and and she was dropping me off because she had to go to work and I was Five she didn't know what was on the other side of the door but God did like she didn't know that the nephew of her friend had a spirit of perversion she she didn't know that she she didn't know that he had intentions for my body that came straight from hell she she didn't know that and God didn't tell her he didn't give her a dream he he didn't send her a word and he could

have he he could have given her a warning to keep Me out of but he he didn't he he let her drop me off with the assumption that her baby would be safe and he knew he knew that what the teenage boy would do to me would change my entire life he knew that that when he used my body to satisfy his lust he he knew that it would affect everything about who I am how I see myself myself as a mother how how I how I function as a friend how I handle and understand

affection the the way I view sexuality even the difficulties in Touching people sometimes and not feeling safe in your own body he knew that would happen and he did nothing he did nothing but the only way I've chosen to make sense of it all is not by understanding God through the lens of my circumstances but understanding God through the the the thing that happened on the cross because on the cross the crazy thing you see is that God's son suffers to he the Lord of Lords is verbally abused he the King of Kings is also

moed he he he the the one who created the heavens and the Earth is shamed and and humiliated and his body he his body is nailed to a tree where he hangs naked for hours meaning his suffering wasn't even quick We complain about the duration of our suffering but imagine being God the one who created time being submitted to the suffer like you historians say historians say that To speak of a crucifixion is to speak of a slave's death that that tells me that the Son of God decided chose willed himself to submit to a

slave's death and this is the King this is the god of Glory this this is the one who created heavens and earth this is the one who was sitting on the throne where the angel like this is the one who who did not just stay like a theophany he he didn't just stay a a temporary image in in Front of hear he became a human being to suffer and die like a slave and while he was there while he was there the one who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness

of God which means because he took my sin on himself the father saw him and judged him he judged him and Jesus said my God my God why have you forsaken me I understand Sinners I understand the wicked I understand they should be forsaken but me your son the Holy One The righteous one the good one you forsaken me God ask God a question and this time they both knew the answer which was love God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life

that means that suffering is Redemptive in Jesus's name I hope you understand what's Happening Here It it means that because Christ died and because Christ Rose it means That suffering does not have the power to keep me from God even if my sin cannot keep me from God because of what Jesus did how be it my my suffering cannot keep me from God that me means every difficult thing you have had to endure because of your Humanity because of your gender because of your size because of your weakness cannot determine how God feels about you

do you want to understand God's nature you want to understand God's nature look at the Cross you want to know what God thinks about evil do you see what he did to his son look at the cross do do you want to understand why why bad things happen to good people that all happen that actually only happened one time at the cross in Genesis [Music] 16 in Genesis [Applause] 16 the thing that makes Genesis 16 make sense is that God ain't telling Hagar to Do nothing that he wasn't G to come and do himself if

anybody body understands what it's like to submit to suffering Jesus does verse 10 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 yes the Lord tells haar to go back and to submit to Sarai and I have to say this as a caveat please do not read H how God is dealing

with Sarai and think that that means that God is calling you to submit to abuse there there is a difference between descriptive text and Prescriptive text this is how God is dealing with hagars who do not let a pastor do not let a leader use this text to tell you to submit to suffering God is a just God who cares about your life so if you are in danger this text is not telling you to stay there do you understand what I'm saying okay the Lord tells Hagar to go back and to submit to Sarai

but the beauty of this Passage I I'd love that the Lord led us to teach this passage because I think it redeems his nature he doesn't send her back empty-handed he sends her back with promises and some Assurance I hope you're okay with walking through the text are you okay okay God God promised her which is very similar the language to his promise to Abram in Genesis 12 which is that he will give she will not just give birth to a son but she will Give birth to a nation the ishmaelites if if children if

a child were were the means by which a woman was built up were the means by which a woman had security and status and stability if if one child did that imagine what God is saying she'll have with a nation he he is promising her Ultimate Security and ultimate stability through the son she didn't even ask God for she's also promised that her son will be a wild donkey of a man Now if when I was pregnant with my son and one of y'all prophesied that he would be a wild Dunkey of a man I

would think you want to fight because it's giv is given you think he gonna be ugly because why I don't think I've ever seen a cute Dunkey in my life because why why he got to be a Dunkey why not an eagle right Eagles are Majestic and they fly and like he can have Vision like that means He's a leader like but what God is promising is that he will be like a stallion meaning he will be free he will be antagonistic he he this nation will come against Israel in the future which is another

consequence of Sarai sin but he also will still be a man who is free meaning he will not be a servant or slave to anyone like his mother has had to Be Hagar has also given assurance ishmael's name serves as a reminder of God's awareness of Hagar why do you know what his name means his name means God hears the text says it you shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your I wish some of us were like the Hebrews naming our children things that Minister you know our M was naming

Us Britney and Jasmine and Ashley I know they got meaning it just don't hit the Same it's the Africans that got the godliest names in the world they names be meaning like the Lord rose from the dead on the third day Hallelujah am I lying I'm not lying you shall call his name ishmail because the Lord has listened to your Affliction listen to your it it's as if it's as if suffering has a sound because there there's no mention Of Hagar praying for deliverance anywhere in the text which isn't to say that she did but

what if she didn't and God still hurt her anyway what if God is teaching us that there are times when your suffering is so deep so visceral so present so so enduring that you don't have sentences or or verbs or or pronouns or or adjectives or Pro like you you don't have Syntax for what you're going through but God still responds anyway what did God what did God say to Moses before he delivered Israel out of Egypt do you remember he he says I have surely seen the Affliction of my people I have heard their

cry and I know their sufferings which means that God is a living being who has the the ability to take your pain personal so when when we say that God sees you we we mean more than God has the ability to have sight when we say that God hears you we we mean more than God has the ability to recognize Sound ways what we're saying is that God is not an idol he's not deaf he he can actually move he can actually think he can actually speak he can actually respond and therefore move towards you

and be actively engaged in everything that's happening with you does this make sense God sees you and God hears you God seeing you and hearing you and being alive does not mean that circumstances will be Easy what it means is that the hard things are not keeping you from the Living God he he he he is still a very present help in times not just prosperity in times of trouble I'm almost closed I I imagine that the meaning of ishmael's name also function not just as an assurance and as a blessing and as like you

know like good news for Hagar it also functioned as a warning to Abram and Sarai warning Jackie what do you Mean I'll explain if I like explaining if if God hears suffering surely God hears sin too so so imagine it if you can every time this little boy runs around the house and they say his name they are preaching about the nature of God God hears get off the steps God here startop messing with the blinds God here stop pulling the the dog's tail God like they they have to they have to constantly be reminded

that God is very much aware of How y'all treat her in this house how does all this land on Hagar look at verse 13 so she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her you are a god God of see it for she said truly here I have seen him who look looks after me earlier I mentioned how this text makes me feel or used to make me feel some type of way and what's funny is I think sometimes when we're reading narratives that make us feel a little weird we should probably pay

Attention to how the people in The Narrative actually respond to what's happening and maybe be influenced by how they're responding and our like she doesn't respond to God sending her back with contempt she doesn't respond with God sending her back even with with confusion she responds with praise she says you are the god of seeing we have two things happening here Hagar names God Elroy not Elroy like the one who Changes your tires with the thick callous hands that look like Polish sausages not him el e l space r o i which means god of

seeing I I want that to meditate in your spirit a bit that God can see there there's a dual meaning to her praise Hagar is praising God for seeing her and she is equally reflecting on the fact that she has seen him because it's a well-known fact in The scriptures that no one shall see God and live and it ain't even like she's Abram she she ain't the father of many nations it ain't even like she's Isaac or Jacob through whom the 12 tribes would come it ain't even like she's David like she going to

slay Goliath or be a woman after God's Own Heart it ain't like she Solomon the one who's gonna have all of this wisdom and be all wealthy and stuff it ain't like she Daniel like she over here interpreting The king's dreams and things it ain't like she Elijah or Elisha or Ahab or Hezekiah it ain't even like she Josiah like she over here introducing the law back and say she ain't Nehemiah she ain't building the wall but like she she she she's not even a part of ethnic Israel she is a gentile a gentile woman

a part of a nation that had more than one God but it wasn't Isis that responded to her suffering it wasn't Osiris that Responded to her praise it was the Lord of lords and the king of kings and Yahweh it was a lord of Israel who came all the way down into the Wilderness to meet with a gentile slave name Hagar this is this is what you call Grace this is Grace it is not just that God sees you it is that God allows himself to be Seen Joanie Eric and Tata was 17 when she

dove into the Chesapeake Bay she didn't realize that the water that she was diving into was shallow so when she dove into the water she landed on a rock broke her neck fractured her vertebrae and from that day forward she was paralyzed from the shoulders down that was 1967 in 2010 Joanie was diagnosed with stag three cancer she underw a masectomy chemotherapy and if you've ever had Anyone in your life endure cancer you understand that it's a it's a it's a evil disease for what it does to people in their bodies Joanie Joanie has been

suffering her entire life one day Joanie was in the car with her husband and she was feeling sick because of the chemo and they got into a conversation on suffering and this is what Joanie said in an interview that I watched with her she Said suffering is like a little splashover of hell that comes early she said suffering comes to wake you up from your spiritual Slumber and get you to appreciate the actual hell Christ rescued you from they they talk through that idea a little more and and Joanie being introspective said this she said

if suffering is a splash over of hell then what is a splashover of Heaven to which I would ask is it when Everything is easy is it when hope is high as Heaven is it when everything is rainbows and butterflies is it when Joy isn't hard to find and this woman who has hasn't been able to walk or run or swim or sit down without Assistance or use her hands freely who is now enduring cancer and chemo this is her response to her own question she says I think a splash over of Heaven is finding

Jesus in the middle of your hell there there's this hymn Called Blessed Assurance don't know if you've heard of it before and it has a portion of it that says perfect submission all is at rest I am My Savior am happy and blessed watching and waiting looking above filled with his goodness lost in his love that probably don't hit the same if you don't know who made it this was written by a woman named Fanny Crosby when when Fanny was six years old she she had or six weeks old she had a cold that ended

up messing With her eyes and she had inflammation and the doctor did a procedure that left her blind in her eyes from the day that she was born she was much like Christopher that we mentioned in the beginning who they are they were two people that had eyes but could not see that's significant when you realize that this is the same woman who wrote this word she said I am My Savior happy and blessed watching and waiting looking above filled with his goodness and lost In his love that tells me that Fanny maybe couldn't see

but she could still see Joanie might not have been able to use her limbs but she was still able to walk towards God and move towards God in the midst of her pain and that's what suffering does that is what suffering does when you respond to it how Jesus tells us pain open our eyes to see where the world refuses to look we see him who is high and lifted up we see him who is worthy to be praised we see him who will Never leave the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread in

our suffering Saints in our suffering you have to see The God Who has been seeing us in closing praise [Applause] God I I want to speak I want to speak to a specific group of People I was praying for Dallas we all were praying for Dallas because what we up here for if we goingon to pray that's crazy ministering without prayer it was wild I was praying for you and the Lord took me to 1 Corinthians 3 First Corinthians 3 Paul is talking to the church in Corinth and he says that he he wanted to

come and give them Meat but he had to give them milk and it was because even though they were in Christ they were still worldly the thing about worldliness is that it can hide churchy people know how to do worldliness way right because they go to church they go to Bible study they sing the songs they quote the script they're they're not they're not external erally Wicked but their hearts their ears Itch and I think God wants to grow some people up today people who have been babies for too long still selfish still self-centered still

irreverent in Behavior but not in speech and my concern is is that to whom much is given much is required meaning because you are in a place that has 27,000 Churches and many of you sit under solid and good teaching and many of you have been raised under solid and good Christians you know too much to live the way you do you will be held accountable for what you do with the information you have God when he died died for you he died so you can know him he didn't die for you to play church

he he died for you to know him he Hasn't given you his word as a means of entertainment he's he's given you his word so you can know him he hasn't given you a church so you can be in the in Crow he's given you a church so you can know him he hasn't even given you gifts so you can flex and feel good about yourself even even in Ministry he's given you your gifts so you can help other people know him he wants you to know him some of you sit under teaching all the

Time and your life is still the same you're still envious you're still Covetous and that's not to say that you aren't in Christ but it is to say if you are still walking in a way that is merely human you need to be concerned because we have to steward our life with God so you could play music to soften the people's hearts it helps I'm so Serious I want to preach the gospel to you again which is that in the beginning God made everything he made the heavens and the Earth he made the plants and

the Stars he made the Sun and the Moon he made everything and then he made two people made in His image the image of God means a few things but one preeminent meaning is that it means that they were made to reflect Him to to make him known to reveal his nature God gives them a law and says that they can eat from any tree in the garden that he placed them in meaning God gave them Endless Options endless access with one prohibition don't eat from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil the

the day you eat from that tree you shall surely die Satan comes embodied in a snake First instance of possession and starts to have a conversation with Eve the the first questions he he asked her one he didn't even introduce himself which should have told her already he's rude it's rudess in the it's rudess in Paradise that's in that's sin um he said did God really say you can't eat from the tree Satan is still playing that game with us where he he has us questioning God's Word all the time she starts to have a

conversation with the serpent and she says God he said that we couldn't eat from it and he also said that we couldn't touch it God never said she couldn't touch it so that tells you that she was already very unclear of the word of God which gave access to the enemy Scapes he says you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it you will Be like God knowing good and evil do you understand how compelling that is for us even today is that we will even listen to teachers that will

not call you God but Center you in their sermons therefore making you better than him they are reinforcing our narcissism and therefore making us feel sufficient within ourselves to do like and you wonder why you don't pray like you should because you don't think you need It that's the serpent Eve she eats the fruit gives to some to her husband and he eats and it says that the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths in the garden you see

the entry of arrogance this kind of deification of ourselves but you also see the entry of Shame and I think some of you have been a part of churches and institutions that Have shamed you so much that solid teaching about Sin scares you it scares you because you've had people use the word to abuse you and so you run from authentic gospel centered sin talking about teaching and it's it's because you're swinging the pendulum the other way Grace and Truth is where God wants to bring you When sin entered into the world man it it

made us terrible people ratchet the simple expression of Sin that we want to do what we want we don't really want God to get Glory out of our life out of our bodies out of our talents out of our gifts out of our relationships and so we live we live this life life an antagonism towards God but in his kindness he knew that there was nothing you could do to make yourself right with him it don't matter how many gospel songs you sing it don't matter how many conferences you attend it don't matter how even

some of You who know doctr who who who know all the things even that is insufficient to save you and you see even that in the garden when God shows up walking in the cool of the day what do they do they hide they hide behind the tree as if the tree could protect them from the Judgment of God we are still hiding behind creative things we're hiding behind our Ministries we're hiding behind our personalities we're hiding behind our job we're still hiding behind Made things as if they're a mediator but you need Jesus Jesus

Is God God In the Flesh who came to live a life that only he can live which is perfect which is righteous which is completely obedient to God's law and this Christ came with the intention to die for you he went to the cross and on the cross he took his sins on yourself he he took your self-righteousness he Took your pride he took your unrighteous anger he took your Envy he took your covetousness he took your evil he took your pornography addiction he took all your idolatry he took he took all everything you do

wrong he took it on himself and I said it earlier the one who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God and on the cross the Lord judged his son how he was supposed to judge you so that all who place their faith their belief Their trust their life in the Lord Jesus Christ can receive his righteousness the righteousness that he earned not you God says that all who put their faith in him will be saved but not only will you best be saved by putting your fa faith in

God you will also be Sanctified the gospel doesn't just save you it keeps you it keeps you some of us that meditating on the gospel a long time ago and so I want to remind you that this this is the good News and so as we worship the altar is open there's no power in the altar there's there's even no power in you coming to it if you don't come to it in faith but even in your chairs wherever you are however you feel ask for God to give you a heart for him again and

repent repentance is to turn from your sin it's not a feeling it's a decision You are deciding that everything you love and enjoy that God Don't Love and Enjoy is not worth it make the decision to turn from your sin and put your faith back in the one who died for you that's the good news that's really all I got to offer you and I hope that the Lord will meet you I pray Lord I thank you I thank you for your son I thank you for your word I thank you for your mercy that

you will preach the gospel to Us again and again again and again God help us believe help us trust give us the power to lay aside every weight and every sin that that entangles us so that we can run the race that was set before us we pray for those who are even now feeling shame God I pray that you would replace their shame with Godly grief God that their repentance Would be the repentance that you respond to that you would deliver them from ungodly fear irrational fear maybe they've heard messaging around your character that

is not actually true Lord I pray that they would remember that you love them that you see them that you want to know them that even if they're in Christ and not even living right you still Delight in them because they stand in the righteousness of their your son so God I pray that you would meet us now Through the worship that you would meet us now by your spirit in Jesus name amen