Look to the Stars Part 8

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Intro:

Last week kids in service

Plans for beginning of August

Recap:

Genesis 16 NIV

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” 13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

pray

The obvious problem: Abram father of many, Sarai mother of none.

Expound

Sarai states that “the Lord has kept me from having children.”

They believed very deeply in the fact that the way the Lord blessed a woman was by giving her many children

subsequently, they also believed it was Lord’s cursing if you were unable to have children

I’ve always just thought that Sarai didn’t trust God and so she took matters into her own hands but that’s not exactly the case here

Sarai didn’t necessarily have a lack of faith in God she just didn’t have a clear understanding of His plan

We find ourselves in similar situations like this too right?

It’s not that we always have a lack of faith in God we just can’t see clearly the full picture

And so we get impatient and we pick up the paintbrush and start making strokes on the canvas

A lot of times, it’s not that we don’t trust God, it’s just that we trust ourselves a lot more

And we think that when it comes to the canvas of our lives that we can paint a much better picture.

And we trust ourselves until we create a mess

But you know what happens, our Good Father is there waiting on us to hand back over the paintbrush of our lives

Sarai thought that well I know my husband is going to be the father of a great nation and people but maybe I’m not the birthing mother so she picks up the paint brush

Now what she does seems like to us a crazy, completely foreign thing

But during this time, this is what they did. It happened quite a bit.

In fact, they would form this covenant or contract with one another.

So Sarai would now get a son, something she’s always wanted

And Hagar would be elevated to a position equal with Sarai. She could now not be sold or given away. She must be treated fairly.

But naturally what happens is, Sarai feels cursed from God and since Hagar gets pregnant she is blessed by God in Sarai’s eyes.

So now Sarai becomes angry.

She’s painted a picture that she does not like.

She runs to Abram who becomes cowardly and leaves it in her hands.

Sarai begins to mistreat her and Hara flees.

An angel then appears to her and tells her to go back and makes her a promise

That her son too will have descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.

She’s to name her son Ishmael and we see that he is going to be wild and hostile toward everyone and everyone hostile towards him.

Wren wanting to short cut riding a bike

There are no shortcuts in the kingdom of God

We live in the microwave culture

We want things and we want them now

If I can’t heat it up in 30 seconds then I don’t want it

I don’t have the time

I don’t have the energy

We’ve become so busy that we only want God if He will do it in a hurry

You and I are bound by time

We speak in terms of seconds and minutes and days and weeks and years

But God is not defined by time

He operates outside of space and time

We see Scriptures like:

Psalm 90:2 NIV

2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:4 NIV

4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8 NIV

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

God does not operate like we do.

He doesn’t move like we do

He doesn’t decide like we do

He move and does and works in His perfect timing

But we don’t like that

We want to try to force His hand

And if He would just hurry along

There are no shortcuts in the kingdom of God

If you are up on a mountaintop, there are no shortcuts

If you are down in a valley, there are no shortcuts

If you are somewhere in the middle, there are no shortcuts

And when we choose to hurry God, we delay what He has for us

It’s through the process of waiting and trusting God that we get a clearer picture of His heart

Here, Sarai decision to shortcut the plans of God is something that her, Abram, her son, and the nation of Israel have to live with forever

But there is hope here, even our digressions and failures are not unproductive

Although we can not shortcut what God has for us, we also can not stop it.

We can not mess up enough to thwart the plans of God

You are not powerful enough to mess God up

God in His sovereignty and providence does not waste even one of our moments

When we put our faith in Jesus He is working all things for our good

Even when we can’t see it and we can’t imagine how there could ever possibly be any good to ever come from this, God is bigger

And He promises us that He is working it for our good.

I think what happens often is we think of our journey with the Lord as this smooth straight track that we need to be on

And when we mess up we’ve fallen off God’s track for us and we’ve got to find our way back on

But our lives track looks more like the roads and highways all crossing in Atlanta.

We must just remain on the road. And trust that God is going to use wherever we are for His glory and our joy

A lot of times we are so concerned about the destination that we miss out on the journey and when it comes to the kingdom of God what is most important about our faith is not where we are going but what we are becoming

Our vision here is to intentionally equip each other to become more like Jesus

What is most important in your journey is that you are becoming more like Jesus

And your journey to that is going to look much different than mine and mine yours

But this is what we are after. We are after Jesus and becoming more and more like Him.

And here is what I know.

When Wren finally kicked off and started peddling and riding that bike after all the work and struggle to get there

The joy on her face was unmatched

And i don’t believe she would have felt the same had it come easy

The struggles of this life are often difficult depressing and damaging

They hurt, they sting, and they cause us to wonder and question

But oh how they make us marvel all the more at the goodness of God

Through the struggles God’s goodness becomes that much sweeter