Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240417 - When We Strive Instead of Trust - Genesis 16

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#20240417 - When We Strive Instead of Trust - Genesis 16 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word, recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co To learn more about the many resources
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available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church.
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App. Now let's open our Bibles and
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study God's Word. Amen.
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Genesis 16, the title of tonight's message, is When we
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strive instead of trust. When we strive instead of trust.
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Now that instead word is important because striving and
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trusting aren't mutually exclusive all the time, right?
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We can strive and trust. There are times, Biblically,
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when we're called to do that. I think of the Apostle Paul who
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he was encouraging Timothy in his gifting and he says, hey
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Timothy, give yourself entirely to your calling so your progress
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may be evident to all that's that's striving while trusting.
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We give ourselves, we pour everything into our gifting,
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everything into serving. There's a there's a healthy
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striving there. I think of Ephesians where it
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says we ought to strive for unity, that as we trust the Lord
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as we're walking in fellowship, you're going to actually have to
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try really hard to maintain unity with other believers.
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We strive for unity so there is striving and trusting together,
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but if we're honest, most of the striving that we do, and I'll be
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honest, I I actually struggle with this guys.
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I need this sermon tonight. I needed it this last week.
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I'm like I think this was for me Lord because I I'm a striver.
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But more often than not when we do strive it's typically to
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replace trust isn't it? We strive instead of trust.
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And tonight in our text we're going to see the results of
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that. There's a lot of phrases that we
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see in the world that that are meant to motivate us.
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But they they tend to lead to this thinking.
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Grab the bull by the horns, right?
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Take control. God helps those who help
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themselves right? These kinds of things or there
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was one that I heard things do come to those who wait, but only
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that which is left behind by those who hustle.
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So you better hustle, right? Get out there for first place,
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right? And I I like I appreciate good
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motivation, like motivation is important, right?
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We should be motivated. But I just want to say that this
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kind of thinking, where we're just striving, taking matters
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into our own hands, it's not really conducive to a life of
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faith. It's not.
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In fact, it'll get you into trouble more often than not.
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And I'll just say right out of the gate that the safest place
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for your life to be is not in your own hands.
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It's in God's hands. Amen.
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A few summers ago, just to illustrate this point that I am,
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I do struggle with striving. A few summers ago, in fact, it
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was 2021. It was, you know, the gyms were
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still closed down, Everything was in lockdown.
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And so everybody was bolstering their own home gyms.
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And I wanted to put up a pull up rig in my backyard, so I had to
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dig some fence posts. And so I thought, I'm going to,
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I'm going to work smarter and not harder.
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So I'm going to, I went to Home Depot and I rented an auger.
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Now if you don't know what an auger is, it's like a giant
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drill, OK? It's got this huge motor with a
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bit on it, like this big with these big bars that most of them
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they have 4 bars so two men can handle it and mine probably
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should have had two guys handle it.
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But I was like I think I could do it with just myself.
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So the and the other thing about augers is if you if you don't
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work smarter with them, you'll end up working harder anyways if
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you don't kill yourself in the process.
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Apparently there's a lot of auger accidents throughout the
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year. So anyway, I get this auger and
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I'm going to town, and the first, like, 10 inches of soil
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was nothing. It was a breeze.
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I'm like, thank you. I'm so glad.
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I was smart and rented this thing.
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And I'm like, laying into the throttle.
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I like Tim the Toolman Taylor, right.
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And and for those of you who know like the southwest desert,
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there's this infamous layer in the ground called Kalichi.
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It's where it's about 12 to 18 inches deep.
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It's where all the calcium sediments collect.
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And it's like a layer of concrete.
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So I hit the Kalichi and I'm like, oh, wow, OK, this is the
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augers not doing anything. So you know what I did?
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I grabbed the bull by the horns, baby.
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I like, I grabbed that thing. I'm, I'm leaning on it with my
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body weight and right on the side of the auger there's a
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picture of an idiot like me leaning over it with a big with
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a big X through it. And I didn't.
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I hadn't. I didn't see the picture till
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after the fact. And sure enough that Auger bit
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it. It bit right into into the
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Kalichi and the top of that thing started spinning like
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crazy on me. And I don't know if you've ever
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had like a traumatic car accident or something where it
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happened so quick, but it was like slow motion for you.
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So I could not let go of that thing and it was pulling me
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around and I just remember getting flung around and it
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pulled my arm so hard. I thought it was if it wasn't
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dislocated, I was. I was thinking for sure, I'm
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going to need surgery. Things are torn in there.
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It hurts so bad. So I was leaning over, just
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writhing in pain and my wife comes rushing out.
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Angela and and our kids, we have 5 kids.
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And so she come, they come running out and she's like, are
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you OK? Are you OK?
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I saw what happened and I was like, oh, it just hurts so bad.
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And so my kids and my wife, they pray, they laid their hands on
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me and they prayed for me and cool, cool testimony of prayer.
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Like just a few hours later I had full mobility in that
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shoulder. And well, I have like a full
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youth group praying for me when my kids pray for me.
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So that's a lot of faith. Five kids, it's a lot of faith
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working in the room. And I just remember that Sunday
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morning I was leading worship and I was raising my hand in
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church and it dawned on me like, whoa, my arm is fine and it's
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not supposed to be fine right now.
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So it was it was an amazing moment of prayer.
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But what I, what I learned from that experience was you don't
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take control of the auger, right.
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You let the auger do the work and it's it's the same is true
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for a life of faith. You can't take the bull by the
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horns. In a life of faith, you have to
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allow God to do his work in his time.
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It's not about taking charge. It really is not, despite how
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often we're tempted to. So tonight we're going to jump
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into the account of Abram. He's not Abraham yet.
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And Sarai, whose name's yet to be changed to Sarah.
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Abram was called by God to a new country with the purpose of
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making him a great nation. And where we're entering into
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the story, it's it's been 15 years since God promised to do
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this. 15 years. That's a long time to wait.
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He doesn't even have a kid yet, let alone a family big enough to
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call a tribe. No nation to be seen yet, right?
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And again, a reminder that God's timing is seldom our timing.
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It's often a lot slower. So he's he's entering this
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discouraging point. He had to actually wait 25 years
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before the Son of Promise would come, so he's he's discouraged.
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But it was also discouraging for his wife Sarai, for reasons that
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we'll discuss in a moment here. And we'll see this
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discouragement, this delay in God's promise to cause Abram and
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Sarai to strive rather than trust in him.
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And we'll see the difficulty it brings to them and to their
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maidservant Hagar. There could be a subtitle to
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this that says the pain and sorrow that happens after we
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strive, and we're going to see the result of that in this
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chapter. So let's jump in verse one of
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Genesis 16. It says.
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Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children.
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She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
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And Sarai said to Abram, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me
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from bearing children. Go into my servant.
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It may be that I shall obtain children by her.
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And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah I probably pretty easy.
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Oh, you want me to do what now? Oh, OK.
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Now just to talk a little bit about the difficulty and
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discouragement Sarah I was facing.
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It can be a difficult thing in our day and age for a woman to
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struggle with infertility. Angela and I have walked with
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several friends, couples through infertility, and it's just
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heartbreaking. These friends we love.
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We know some folks here. Some of you I'm sure have maybe
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gone through a season of that or are still in that season.
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It's a very painful and God loves you and he, he knows what
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he's doing in your life and I wish I knew the answer why.
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I wish I could tell my friends why they couldn't have kids, but
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someone else could have kids who didn't even want kids.
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It's just a hard thing to deal with.
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It really is. It's a big question mark, and so
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it's difficult in our day and age.
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It was even more, believe it or not, more difficult for Sarai,
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because in her day and age, a woman was highly valued by her
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ability to have kids. It wasn't right.
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But largely in that culture, a woman's value was found in her
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ability to bear to bear children.
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Riches weren't merely measured by gold.
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They were also measured by how large your family was.
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And so if you could not bear children, you were considered to
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be an unprofitable wife, maybe even cursed.
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You walked around people maybe assumed you were a Sinner and
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God was punishing you. I mean, there was just a lot of
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of difficulty that a woman who could not bear children what
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they carried. And so Sarah's walking around
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with this cultural stigma that everyone's thinking something's
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up with her. Maybe maybe there's a a certain
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sin in her life, or, you know, the judgement she must feel and
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just the inadequacy that she must have felt like.
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But she reaches this point of real discouragement and this
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cultural stigma and this expectation on what life should
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look like and this feeling of inadequacy or a desire to meet a
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need LED Sarai to start thinking the way Eve thought in the
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garden. You remember the story of Eve.
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Eve left the will of God in order to meet a felt need that
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she had in that moment, she disobeyed what God's command was
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so that she could meet a need that she had in this moment to
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be satisfied in a way that maybe she, she thought, would totally
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just fill her up and satisfy her.
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And sin never does, by the way. Or that expectation.
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Even if it's not a sinful thing like desiring children, it's
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still not going to fulfill you, like God will fulfill you.
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It never does nothing. Nothing in this life can fulfil
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us like God fulfils us. And so she compromises and she
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says, hey Abram, I got an idea, let's let's take care of
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business. And Abram, just like Adam,
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listens to Eve and says, OK, yeah, we've got this need.
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I know what God's word says. I know kind of how to honor him.
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But we're going to do it this way.
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We're going to, you know, take take the bull by the horns,
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which is just another biblical example, Husbands, as to why you
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should never listen to your wives, you know what I'm saying?
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Can I get an Amen? No, no, you don't know Don't
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Amen. I'm just kidding.
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That's bad. That's bad advice.
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What it shows you ladies is how much influence you have in your
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family, how much influence you have over.
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And your ability to encourage or discourage within your home is
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huge. God has called us men to be
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responsible for the spiritual condition of our home.
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As I when I die and I stand before God and Angela, and we go
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to be with the Lord, which will hopefully happen together,
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right? Sweetie?
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Only you know because of the rapture, not because of anything
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crazy, right? And we stand before the Lord.
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Guess who God's going to come to 1st for the account of the
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spiritual condition of our home? Me, whether I believe that or
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not, whether I like it or not, whether I walk in that role or
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not, Men, we are responsible first and foremost because
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that's what God said. But women, you have a tremendous
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responsibility as well because especially if your your husband
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truly loves you and he's giving you his heart, you have this
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ability to build him up and discourage and encourage him in
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the things of the Lord or really discourage him.
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We make ourselves open and vulnerable to our wives, and our
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wives have that ability to, in a lot of instances, to even lead
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us down the wrong path because we're so vulnerable to them.
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We love them, right? And for those of you who are
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single, think about how important this is this principle
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within a relationship and pray about that as you pray for a
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spouse. And what you see in marriage is
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that one one spouse has certain strengths that the other spouse
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lacks and vice versa. And the way marriage is designed
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is that we would be compliments to each other, that we would
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strengthen the other where they are weak.
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And in most cases, I'll say to speaking in general terms, in
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most cases it's the man who deals with sexual temptation,
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right? Men struggle with sexual
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temptation, and we need our wives to help keep us in that
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that pure thinking right in that lane.
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And Sarai opens the door rather than and do it.
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Rather than protecting Abraham's purity, she kind of opens the
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door to sexual temptation. And in most cases, not all
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cases, but in more often than not, the wife struggles with the
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need for security more so than the man.
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The wife struggles more so with the need to feel valuable, more
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so than the man, as far as like making a home.
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And Abram we see here fails to assure Sarai of her value,
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despite the fact that she couldn't have kids of her place
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within God's calling on Abram's life.
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He he let her down by not assuring her giving her that
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security that she was hungering for.
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In fact, I heard it said one time.
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It was so good that Sarai's biggest mistake was believing
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she was not a part of God's plan for Abram's life.
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She believed God had great plans for Abram, but maybe she just
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wasn't supposed to be a part of it.
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But guess what? Your spouse is always included
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in God's plan for you. Do you know that?
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It's always included? Even if you feel like there are
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setbacks in your calling because of your spouse, The setbacks are
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from the Lord you. Your calling is is for you as
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much as it is for your spouse. And they had life lost sight of
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this, and they'd made themselves vulnerable, susceptible to this
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temptation. Verse three, it says.
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So Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan.
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Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and
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gave her to Abram, her her husband, as a wife.
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Now as you watch this relationship play out, you'll
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see that Hagar isn't actually treated like Sarai.
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And I'll have to say, like, this was a big fail in Abram's life.
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But Abram was a faithful husband.
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He loved Sarah. He really did put her first.
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He kept her first, as you read throughout the book of Genesis,
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he really cared for her, which was was was a great thing to
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see. But polygamy was very common in
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those days. And so this was really more of
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commentators, we'll say how this was really more of like a
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surrogate parenting thing where she wouldn't be exactly his
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wife. But this was just you couldn't
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you couldn't go through like artificial insemination and have
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someone else carry your child. If you were infertile, like we
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do today, you couldn't do that then.
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So what you would do is you'd you're there would be this
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scenario that was set up where the husband would impregnate the
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the the surrogate parent. So it wasn't.
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I'm trying to paint the picture that Abraham wasn't necessarily
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married, in love with Hagar and now had two wives.
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But polygamy was very common. And as you read through things
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like this, especially in the Old Testament, for you people who
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are growing and your ability to study the Bible for yourself, I
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want to give you an important principle that that helped me a
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lot as I was growing in my understanding of the Scriptures.
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And that is, certain texts in the Bible are descriptive,
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certain texts are prescriptive. So there are some Christian
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sects who will say, hey, Abram had many wives, David had many
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wives. Guess what?
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I think it's OK to have many wives.
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It's actually not. It's not prescriptive, it's
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descriptive. God is describing what is
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happening in this day and age. He's not saying you should go
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out and do it, but remember that principle.
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As you work your way through the scriptures, ask yourself that is
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this something God is prescribing for my life, or is
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this a bad example I'm supposed to learn from?
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Wherever you see polygamy pop up in the scriptures, it's often
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followed by drama, heartache, broken families.
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Just as we'll see here in in this chapter, verse 4, it says
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lost my verse four, OK, it says. And he went into Hagar, and she
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conceived. And when she saw that she had
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conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
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And Sarah. I said to Abram, my wrong be my,
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the wrong may, the wrong done to me be on you.
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I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that
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she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt.
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May the Lord judge between me and you.
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So now this wedge is set between their marriage, it's it's been
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violated. And they they know right away
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this act of intimacy with another person.
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It it hurt things. It harmed things.
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Even if it was just a medical procedure, a surrogate parenting
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thing, it harms things. Sexual sex is designed to bring
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a husband and wife together. Anything outside of that, as fun
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as it may be, as pleasurable as it may be.
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It's destructive. It's very destructive.
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So they're sensing this. Sorry, I'm using this new app
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and series, wanting to record my my message as well here, So
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verse 6. But Abram said to Sarah, I
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behold your servant is in your power due to her.
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As you please. Hey, you're upset with her.
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Take it out on her. Don't take it out on me Then.
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Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her.
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So as this drama now unfolds, just try to put yourself in
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Sarai's position right out of desperation.
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She makes this mistake, but guess what?
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Now it's confirmed her. Her feelings of inadequacy are
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through the roof now because it's confirmed she was the one
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keeping them from having children.
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How difficult, how heartbreaking, for her to to see
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this happen. And now her, her maid servant
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has now been elevated almost to equal standing as her and is
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like, who are you now to tell me what to do?
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It's complicated, all the relationships involved, and
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again, sex outside of marriage typically will do.
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That complicates things. It it wrecks.
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It wrecks relationships and what it did is it changed the maid
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mistress relationship to this very unhealthy sister wives kind
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of relationship with jealousy and competition.
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And now there's strife in the home and and they can't, they
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can't live like this. Now we're going to shift gears
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and we're going to see how striving leads to suffering.
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There's a neat shift in the scriptures here that we're about
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to enter into where it goes from God dealing with Abram to God
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dealing directly with this maid servant, Hagar.
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Hagar. It's pretty amazing.
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And before we get into this, it I just it comforts me to know
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that even though my striving can make a mess, that God is not
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afraid to enter into that mess. That's what we're about to see
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here. It says the Angel of the Lord
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will come to Hagar. And for those of you who are
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Bible scholars, you know that the Angel of the Lord.
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Representing God is a Christop, what's known as a Christophany,
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A preincarnate appearance of Jesus.
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This is Jesus showing up to minister to this hurting lady.
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Psalm 34 says that the Lord is near to the broken hearted.
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God sees the broken hearted and he goes after them.
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This is Jesus's heart. This was His ministry.
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And so as we watch this interaction here between God and
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Hagar, let's learn a few pointers about how God views our
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suffering and how God works in in the midst of our suffering
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Verse seven, it says the Angel of the Lord found her and I
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just, I just love that Right out of the gate the Angel of the
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Lord pursued her. She didn't run away looking for
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God, She didn't run away trying to find God to solve her
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problems. She was just in pain escaping,
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and God pursued her. God chased after her.
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The Bible says that we did not come to Jesus on our own, but
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the Father pursued us, right? The Father went after us.
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That grace chases after us and calls us into the family.
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And I'm so thankful that the Father pursued me, that the
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Father pursued you. This wasn't your you're not here
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because you're a genius and you like figured out life secret.
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You're here because God, God chased after you.
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God opened your eyes and your heart to that need.
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So the Lord founder by spring of water in the wilderness, the
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spring on the way to Shure and he said Hagar, servant of Sarai.
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Where have you come from and where are you going?
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Where, where are you at Hagar? Just look around.
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Where do you think you're going? What kind of pain, What kind of
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circumstances are you running away from?
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God wants to know he's he's he's interested.
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As Hagar is, in the midst of her pain, God shows up like never
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before in her life. And this shows us that God's
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never closer to us than when we're experiencing suffering.
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You know that he's never closer to you.
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Now, I'll be the first to say that it doesn't always feel that
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way when we're suffering. It doesn't.
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But that's the truth. That's the truth of the matter.
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In fact, Paul in Philippians chapter three, he wrote, I long
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for the fellowship of the Suffering, the fellowship of his
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suffering. And I'm I'm convinced that when
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Paul wrote that he wasn't asking for more suffering, he had
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plenty of suffering already. Paul was desiring the fellowship
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that accompanies the suffering in Christ because he knows Jesus
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is close to us in our suffering. He's close to us in our pain.
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Again, that's Jesus's ministry, to bind up the broken hearted,
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to to to pursue them. And so in our seasons of
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suffering, when when you're feeling alone in darkness, in
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grief and pain, it feels like God is far from you, but the
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reality is he's right by your side.
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That God grieves with us as we grieve, that God's heart breaks
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when his children are hurting. And that's that's something
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intellectually, that we should come to understand, but it
23:38
doesn't always satisfy us emotionally in that in that
23:40
moment. So let me just encourage you and
23:42
tell you that it's true that God loves you right where you're at,
23:45
right in your pain right now, and he's by your side.
23:49
Whether you feel like it or not, whether you're mad at him or
23:52
not, He's there and he loves you and he cares.
23:56
And we see that in in the life of Hagar here.
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And Hagar? What's amazing is through this
24:01
difficult circumstance, Hagar becomes one of the few people in
24:05
all of scripture to be able to see the Angel of the Lord face
24:08
to face. This serving girl from Egypt who
24:12
probably shouldn't even have been in the picture.
24:13
She gets to meet God face to face and talk to the Angel of
24:16
the Lord. What an amazing privilege.
24:18
And it's in the midst of her suffering that she experiences
24:20
this. So she said, I'm fleeing from my
24:23
mistress Sarai. And the Angel of the Lord said
24:26
to her, return to your mistress, submit to her.
24:30
And the Angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely
24:32
multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for
24:36
multitude. And the Angel of the Lord said
24:39
to her, Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.
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You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to
24:47
your affliction. I'm going to bless you, Hagar.
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I'm going to turn this difficult season into a blessing.
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Verse 12. And he shall be a wild donkey of
24:55
a man. That's a lot more vulgar in the
24:58
old King James version, by the way.
24:59
It's a wild donkey of a man. Is is.
25:02
I don't know. I wonder how she took that.
25:04
Like, oh, are you warning me or blessing me here?
25:06
What's going on here? His hand would be against
25:09
everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell
25:14
over and against all his kinsmen.
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So God is basically saying, look Hagarp, I'm going to bless you,
25:20
this is going to work out for your good, I'm going to take
25:23
care of you personally. But you need to go back to this
25:25
difficult situation. I don't like hearing that from
25:29
the Lord, right? We want to.
25:31
We want to get out of the hard situations.
25:33
We want to run from the hard situations.
25:35
But God so often uses the hard situations to develop us, to to
25:40
mature us, and even to bless us as he's going to bless Hagar.
25:44
We want to run away, but God says Hagar, I'm sorry, you're
25:47
going to have to press into this difficult situation, go back.
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Now I I do want to clarify just because there are lots of people
25:57
who deal with codependency and even find themselves in abusive
26:00
relationships, and they look for reasons to stay in those
26:04
relationships. This is not what's happening.
26:08
Sarah is being sent back by God himself with the promise that
26:11
God will take care of him to a husband and wife who fear the
26:15
Lord, right? God's not saying go back to that
26:18
abusive relationship. Now he's sending her back and
26:21
he's going to take care of her. And Abram and Sarah actually
26:23
take care of Hagar very well for years to come until God finally
26:27
says, OK, it's time for them to go their own way, but God takes
26:31
care of it, so it's not like that.
26:32
So if you do find yourself in a situation like that, this is not
26:36
a sign from God that you stay in the relationship.
26:38
God will not call you to stay in an abusive relationship.
26:40
And I'll just say right now, if you're tuning in online, if
26:43
you're in here in this room and you're in a in a a relationship
26:46
where you're being sexually abused, physically abused and a
26:49
lot of instances verbally abused, you need to get help.
26:53
You need someone else who can see the situation from the
26:55
outside to come alongside you and assist you.
26:58
And I I would encourage you to to set up an appointment with a
27:01
pastor. OK.
27:02
So just I just want to clarify that's not what's happening
27:04
here. This is a very different
27:06
situation. God promises that bless Hagar
27:09
with a son, he'll become a great nation.
27:13
He turns Hagar's difficulty and the to the source of perhaps her
27:17
greatest blessing, which is how God works in our messes.
27:21
Verse 13, it says. So she called the name of the
27:23
Lord who spoke to her. You are the God of seeing for,
27:28
she said. Truly.
27:29
Here I've seen him who looks after me.
27:32
Therefore the well was called Beerla.
27:34
Hey Roy, It lies between Kadesh and Bered, in case you were
27:39
wondering where that was. Now you know exactly where it
27:42
is, right? You guys got that down between
27:43
Kadesh and Bered, so you can go find that if you wanted to.
27:47
But another covering comfort that I see here in our suffering
27:52
is what what Hagar was impacted by and that is that God saw her
27:57
and God sees you. God sees me and my suffering.
28:00
He doesn't turn a blind eye to us.
28:02
He sees it all and he he cares. And this is something to
28:06
remember because it's what made the difference for Hagar.
28:09
It could be the difference for you and your perspective between
28:13
between defeat and perseverance is just simply understanding
28:16
that God understands what you're going through, that God sees.
28:20
She just talked with the God of the universe.
28:23
She was just prophesied over this amazing promise about a son
28:26
that she would bear. But you know what?
28:28
She walked away with her big thought.
28:31
Her big blessing was, wow. God saw me.
28:35
God. God sees me.
28:38
God really does care about me. And this is a reminder to you.
28:43
He does. He sees you right where you're
28:45
at, and he cares. You're going through a difficult
28:48
time. And guess what?
28:49
The enemy loves to tell you. Hey, man, See, God doesn't care
28:52
about you. Life wouldn't be this hard if
28:54
God really loved you. Where is God in all this?
28:57
And like most of the things the enemy says, he's lying to you
29:00
because God does care. God does see you in your season
29:05
of suffering. Know that God not only sees what
29:08
you're going through, he's not only with you in the suffering,
29:12
even though you don't feel it sometimes.
29:13
But understand this. Listen to me now.
29:17
God actually has personally experienced your suffering.
29:23
The Bible tells us that on the cross, as Jesus was dying, it
29:26
says he bore our grief. He carried our sorrows.
29:33
And you might think, well, Sean, I don't know that you've
29:36
suffered to the degree that I've suffered.
29:38
I think you're maybe are speaking from an experience and
29:41
that's I might maybe I haven't experienced A suffering.
29:43
You have. But guess what?
29:45
My job is not to fix your suffering.
29:47
My job is to point you to the one who has experienced it on
29:51
your behalf and just to remind you of that Jesus is the only
29:56
one in the universe who can say I know exactly how you feel with
30:02
that difficulty you experienced with the loss of that loved one
30:05
that you felt. Jesus knows exactly and he
30:09
cares. He sees, He knows and he cares.
30:14
And I'm so thankful for this text because we were reminded of
30:17
that promise. Let's keep going.
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Verse 15 It says in Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram called the
30:25
name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.
30:28
Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
30:33
Now Ishmael becomes this, this Ishmael they created.
30:37
I like to say like when, when when we make something in the
30:41
flesh or we're striving, it's an Ishmael, right?
30:44
This literal Ishmael becomes a point of contention for
30:47
centuries. In fact, scholars believe
30:50
Ishmael was the father of the Arab nations and to this day you
30:53
had the Arabs fighting with Israel.
30:56
The contention from this mistake has continued on throughout
31:00
history. Unfortunately, there are
31:02
consequences to when we strive, and that is another one that we
31:07
bring things into our lives. Adversary room for the adversary
31:10
to come alongside and to to war with us as Ishmael did all his
31:16
life with with Israel. But Abram and Sarah, they they
31:20
show us this amazing example of what happens when we turn to
31:25
striving instead of just trusting God, just waiting on
31:29
God. And so I want to end this by
31:32
just sharing 3 takeaways with you guys.
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If you guys are taking notes, you want to write these down.
31:37
That when we strive rather than trust, number one, we make hasty
31:43
decisions. We get ahead of God.
31:46
When we strive, we get ahead of His plan.
31:50
And really guys, we we shouldn't obtain.
31:53
We cannot. We should not obtain what God
31:56
desires for us sooner than He desires it for us.
32:01
Does that make sense? We shouldn't strive for the
32:04
things God wants for us before He wants to give them to us.
32:08
Because the when of God's promise is just as important as
32:14
the what. We get so fixated on the what.
32:18
We have to get, the what. We have to get that thing, that
32:20
blessing, that promise. But the when is just as
32:24
important as the what. Proverbs 20 verse 21 says an
32:29
inheritance gained hastily will not be honored in the end.
32:34
You get that blessing from God before he wants it from you, and
32:36
it's going to be a curse. It's going to hurt.
32:41
When we get ahead of God, we receive half baked promises and
32:45
gain things that we're not prepared for, right.
32:48
We can't get ahead of the Lord. So this is what I have
32:51
underlined. Striving fosters haste, while
32:56
faith fosters patience. Striving fosters haste in your
33:02
life angst, while faith will foster patience in your life.
33:10
Secondly, when we strive for superficial results, we
33:15
typically sacrifice foundational values.
33:20
We want superficial, so we sacrifice foundation to get
33:24
something temporary. We see in this story a husband's
33:29
faithfulness, a wife's love and accountability, a boss's
33:33
integrity, A mistress's respectability, a young girl's
33:39
purity, all sacrificed to meet a superficial goal, a superficial
33:45
need. But the reality is, guys, God
33:49
will never, ever, ever call you to sacrifice your character in
33:53
order to obtain his promise for your life.
33:56
This is not going to happen. That's not how God works, right?
34:00
So this is what I have written down.
34:02
Striving, Foster's compromise. While faith fosters integrity,
34:10
the deep you are in striving the easier it is to compromise,
34:15
whereas the the deeper you are in trusting, the easier it is to
34:19
walk in integrity. And then thirdly, lastly, when
34:24
we strive, we put ourselves 1st and we hurt others, right?
34:31
We chase after that goal and that goal becomes the priority
34:34
above other people. Sarah I put herself 1st and
34:39
allowed her husband to be tempted.
34:42
Abram put himself 1st and took the opportunity to gratify the
34:45
lusts. Both put themselves before Hagar
34:48
and she suffered lifelong consequences.
34:53
Pastor Robert Furrow in Tucson, who I sat under for a long time.
34:57
He often says this. He says God is more concerned
35:00
with the way that you treat others than he is with what you
35:03
accomplish. And that's always stuck with me,
35:07
and I'm still trying to live that out as best as I can.
35:09
But God, because I struggle with striving.
35:12
God is more concerned with how you're treating those around you
35:15
than He is with what you're accomplishing.
35:18
And so this is what I wrote down.
35:20
Striving fosters selfishness, while faith fosters love.
35:28
Strife leads to selfishness. Trusting God leads to loving
35:32
others. That's the fruit that these two
35:34
produce. So in closing, I just want to
35:36
ask you, as we look to the scripture, what does your life
35:39
look like right now in the season?
35:40
What kind of fruit are you bearing?
35:43
Are you kind of in this season where you're feeling very
35:45
desperate, you're feeling tempted to strive to take
35:48
matters into your own hands? Are you?
35:51
Are you kind of living out more of an angst and a haste in your
35:55
life? Like you have to make things
35:56
happen where you're putting your goals and before the way you
36:00
treat people and you're you're compromising things that you
36:05
know to be foundational to your character.
36:07
Or are you? Are you?
36:08
Is your heart at ease now? I didn't, I didn't ask.
36:13
Is your are your circumstances easy?
36:14
I said, is your heart at ease? Because when you, when you trust
36:19
the Lord and you're pressing into faith and you're reject,
36:22
you're rejecting the temptation to strive, There's a piece that
36:25
comes with that. And so these are the fruits.
36:29
Where are you at today? What is your life looking like?
36:32
Are you bearing these fruits? The fruits of striving, The
36:35
fruits of faith? Maybe it probably a combination
36:38
of both, right? If we're honest, if we're all
36:40
honest here, and if it's been revealed to you tonight that you
36:44
have been operating in strife like tonight was a word for you,
36:48
then I I want to encourage you may Or maybe you've already
36:51
you've made that mistake, you got your Hagar that you're
36:53
you're living with, and you're wondering how is God going to
36:56
bless this? This chapter of failure in
37:00
Abram's life is followed by grace upon grace for Abram.
37:05
God still blesses Abram. God gives him Isaac.
37:08
God gives him a great nation. He makes him the Father of
37:11
faith. He made.
37:12
He he calls the Paradise. He goes to Abraham's bosom.
37:15
Abraham is in heaven with the Lord today, right?
37:19
Grace upon grace. So even when we strive, even
37:23
when we fail in our striving, there's still grace for you to
37:28
come back, to straighten up and walk down God's will for your
37:32
life together. Amen.
37:34
And I think that is the greatest reminder, because every single
37:36
one of us would raise our hand if we were like I I got some
37:38
Ishmaels in my in my life. There is grace for us.
37:42
So Hallelujah, Thank him for that.
37:45
Let's all stand together and let's pray as we close this out.
37:52
Father, we do thank you so much, God, that Lord, you instruct us
37:56
in your word. And tonight, the message to
38:00
resist striving, Resist that, that hastiness, Lord, that's not
38:04
from you, Lord. So thank you for helping us.
38:05
Just recognize that tonight, I pray, even in this moment, Lord,
38:09
all the things that have popped up into people's hearts and
38:11
minds as we've covered this subject, God, that you give them
38:15
real clarity on how to handle the situation.
38:18
I pray that as we've tried to take matters into our own hands,
38:21
Lord God, we would have the faith just to release our grip
38:25
and to trust you with it. Jesus, that's the best place for
38:28
it to be. God.
38:30
I pray for the men and women standing before me right now,
38:32
that you would anoint them to walk in faith, to live lives,
38:36
trusting in you, that they would be filled with joy and
38:40
excitement even in the midst of the waiting.
38:44
The temptation for impatience. God, that they would find that
38:47
patience and that contentment in you before the blessing happens,
38:52
before the promises fulfilled. God, that by the power of the
38:55
Spirit they would receive that joy in this moment.
38:57
Right now, Lord God, I pray for those who are in a season of
39:01
suffering, as Hagar was, that you would meet them this moment
39:05
right now, God, that your Holy Spirit would fill their hearts
39:09
with a joy, that you would trade the garment, you give them
39:14
garments of praise for their spirit of heaviness.
39:16
Lord, that this reminder would be a refreshment to their hearts
39:20
tonight, Jesus and I pray for those who don't know you, who've
39:25
been striving their whole lives, that they would have the courage
39:28
to take the next step. And with every head bowed, every
39:32
eye closed, I just want to talk to you right now.
39:33
If you're in here and you've made your way in here, you, you,
39:36
you haven't been walking with the Lord.
39:39
You've been striving. You thought, this is, this is
39:41
what the world says you. You go out and you obtain at
39:44
whatever cost, because this is all there is.
39:46
Well, this is not all there is. The Bible says there is a
39:49
hereafter and we will have to answer for our lives.
39:54
The Bible says that in Christ there is abundant life.
39:57
You do not have to strive for what this world tells you, what
40:00
is a happy life. But you can receive abundant
40:04
life in a relationship with Christ.
40:06
You can receive that refreshment from the Lord simply by turning
40:10
to Him. And maybe some of you are
40:13
wondering if God sees you. And tonight it was confirmed
40:15
just like Hagar. He does.
40:17
He sees you. And so I'm going to give you an
40:19
invitation. If you want to receive Christ
40:21
tonight for the first time, then simply raise your hand.
40:27
Raising your hand doesn't save you.
40:28
God bless you. I see your hand in the back.
40:30
Raising your hand is not what saves you.
40:32
But we have to allow the faith inside our hearts to affect our
40:36
bodies. And so this is an act of faith
40:38
to say yes, I want to receive the Lord.
40:40
Anybody else? Just raise your hand up.
40:46
If you're downstairs in the in the coffee shop area, you can do
40:49
it. Or just raise your hand right
40:50
where you're at. We have servants down there who
40:51
are, who are looking for that as well.
40:54
And if you're watching online, you can you can receive the Lord
40:56
right where you're at. All right, awesome.
41:04
Well guys, let's let's pray a prayer with the the individual
41:07
in the back. I can't see and we're going to
41:11
lead you in this prayer. This prayer doesn't save you.
41:13
But this this prayer is a response to God as we receive
41:17
faith in Christ. And so church, repeat after me,
41:20
let's let's pray with him. Say dear Heavenly Father, I
41:23
confess that I have sinned and I know my sin separates me from
41:28
you. But I also know I can be
41:33
forgiven by the death of Jesus on the cross.
41:40
So I invite you to come into my life, to turn away from my sin,
41:48
and to walk in your will in Jesus name.
41:53
Amen. We pray that you've been
41:55
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
41:58
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
42:00
Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
42:10
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42:13
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42:18
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42:21
Be blessed as You Worship Jesus this week.