The Father's Heart

A Father Who Sees

This morning we are starting a series titled The Father’s Heart.

For the next few weeks we will be rediscovering the God who runs toward us.

Many people know about God, but few truly know the Father’s heart - His compassion, patience, justice, mercy, and relentless love.

God is a Father who sees us in our pain, pursues us in our running, and speaks hope into our wilderness.

Many people deal with the pain of being unseen.

One of the deepest wounds people carry is not hatred, but invisibility.

Many in churches feel overlooked:

Single parents

The rejected spouse

The one caught in someone else’s bad decision

As we go through this series, we need to see that God sees everyone, and as His people we are to see and help everyone feel seen, welcomed and loved.

This morning we are looking at Genesis 16, and the story of Hagar, a woman the world ignored - but God did not.

Before Hagar ever saw God clearly, God saw her fully.

In Genesis 15, Abram who we better know as Abraham seeks God because he has no off spring, and says in Genesis 15:3

Genesis 15:3 NASB95

3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”

Abraham was going to consider a son born to one of his slaves as the heir to all his possessions.

But God response to Abraham and tells him to look to the sky and count the stars and that his descendents will be as many as the stars in the sky.

God promises Abraham to have all these descendents, but yet Abraham is in his old age and Sarah his wife is past child bearing age.

As we come to chapter 16 of Genesis, we see a plan to rectify this problem.

Look with me at the beginning of chapter 16 as we see the plan that Sarai, Abraham’s wife comes up with so that Abraham can have children.

Genesis 16:1–2 NASB95

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Pray

I. A Father Who Sees the Overlooked

God promised Abraham descendants so many that he would not be able to count, but he did not have any children at that time and he was up there in age.

Sarai his wife decides to allow Abraham to take her servant in and lay with her that they may have children through her.

Genesis 16:3–6 NASB95

3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.

A: Hagar’s Position

Hagar is a foreigner as she is an Egyptian

She is the servant of Sarai

Hagar is a woman with no power or voice.

Hagar is used as a solution to someone else’s impatience.

B: Human Systems that Fail

This was Sarai’s plan not God’s

Abraham was passive as he just went along with the plan.

With this human plan Hagar becomes collateral damage.

Truth:

God sees people that others use, ignore, or exploit.

Application:

You may feel like a background character in someone else’s story - but God sees you.

II. A Father Who Pursues the Hurting

Genesis 16:7–9 NASB95

7 Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”

Here we see that an angel finds Hagar in the wilderness.

A. God finds her

Sarai gets jealous of Hagar and begins to treat her badly, so Hagar takes off into the wilderness to escape the persecution from Sarai.

Hagar is running, but God is searching.

B. God Calls Hagar by her name

Hagar, Sarai’s maid

Many times we feel unseen, we have been persecuted, and we feel abandoned, but God knows:

Your name

Your situation

Your pain

You are not alone, God is with you, just turn to Him.

Truth:

The Father does not wait for broken people to find Him - He goes after them.

Application:

God meets us not after we clean up, but in the wilderness.

III. A Father Who Speaks Identity and Promise

Genesis 16:10–12 NASB95

10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

In verse 9, Hagar was told to go back and submit to Sarai’s authority, surely not what she wanted to hear.

Now she is given a promise

A. A Surprising Promise

God tells Hagar to return and submit to Sarai, and then promises multiplication and legacy - not erasure.

Hagar bears a son and is to name him Ismael

Ishmael means God hears

Ishmael becomes a living reminder of God’s compassion

B. God Gives Meaning to Pain

Hagar’s suffering is not wasted, but her son becomes the father of many descendants the Arab people and who the Islamic people come from.

God redeems what others intended for harm - Sarai in her jealousy persecuted Hagar, but God took her offspring and multiplied it.

Truth:

The Father’s heart speaks hope where the world speaks finality.

Application:

Your story is not over just because it is painful right now.

IV. A Father Who is Seen by the Broken

Genesis 16:13–16 NASB95

13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Now we see Hagar’s response to the promise that God has given.

A. The First Name Given to God by a Human.

Hagar calls the name of the Lord, “You are a God who sees” which in Hebrew is El Roi

This persecuted servant that is an Egyptian gives God the first recorded name given by a person.

This is not who we might think of when thinking a the person who gave God a name.

B. From Being Seen to Seeing God

When we realize God sees us, our view of Him changes.

Truth:

Encountering the Father turns wounds into worship.

Conclusion:

The Father’s Heart on Display

Hagar leaves changed - not because life is easy, but because she is seen.

God the Father who seen the persecuted maid - Hagar - in the wilderness:

Sees your tears.

Knows your name.

He has not abandoned you now or in the future.

The cross of Jesus proves forever what Genesis 16 reveals:

The Father sees, pursues, and redeems.

For those who feel unseen: God sees you

For those in the wilderness: God is with you

For those running: The Father is pursuing you