Intro:
1. Helen Keller, who of course was blind and deaf, said:
"I am looking forward to Commencement day [talking about graduation from Radcliffe College]...The question now is, what shall I do with this education, and these opportunities.
I feel that I could impart to a child afflicted like myself, the power to see with the soul, and understand with the heart. All his needs and difficulties would be intelligible to me, since I know the darkness he sees, and the stillness he hears.
The road he must travel, I have traveled. I know where the rough places are, and how to help him over them."
2. Hagar is going to experience some rough places, but Jesus knows where she is, and He is going to help her get through the coming storm.
3. Hagar's Helper.
Trans: Gen. 16
I. FIRST, HAGAR WAS UNATTACHED. 16:1
A. Sarai's Need.
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children - her real need was to trust in God's promises.
Life is like walking into getting stuck in quicksand. Quicksand is, just sand and water. The problem is, that the water loosens up the sand so that the sand is not compact and there is nothing to stand on.
The problem is, when a person gets stuck in quicksand, the harder they try to get out, the faster they go under.
The solution is someone standing outside the quicksand, throwing you a rope - you just hang on, and he pulls you out. Until that person comes all you have to do is relax, quit fighting it, and trying to pull yourself out.
God has told us life has it's quicksand moments - he has promised to pull us out before we go under! Abram and Sari are up to their neck in quicksand!
The problem is their are struggling and trying hard to get out - trying Elizer and Hagar. Just wait! In God's time-table he will pull them out and they will have little Isaac.
B. Hagar's Name.
And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar - her name means "to flee." She was rightly named - (1) She apparently had fled with Abram and Sari when they left Egypt; (2) She is about to flee from Sari; and (3) later she will flee again (21:9-10).
She was Unattached to say the least...She didnt seem to belong anywhere!
There is a Cemetery called Locke Hill Cemetery, one grave marker on the grave of Grace Lle-wellen Smith, has this engraved on her stone:
"Sleeps, but rests not.
Loved, but was loved not.
Tried to please, but pleased not.
Died as she lived - alone."
Many people feel unattached - they don't seem to fit in with anybody. I never fit in too well myself. I am called a Yankie; I have been called by fellow pastors a "half-bred" because I did not go to a Southern Baptist Seminary; a liberal for not preaching out of the KJ's Bible; of making light of sin, for teaching the Grace of God.
II. FURTHERMORE, SHE WAS UNASKED. 16:2
So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai - who is missing in this conversation?
A. Sarah's Persuasion.
1. She did believe in God's Sovereignty.
"The Lord has restrained me" - and He had! Eph.1:11
2. She believed in the authority of her Soceity.
"Please go in to my maid" - it was acceptable in that soceity, for a man, whose wife was unable to have children, to take on a secondary wife, in order to carry on the family line.
But just because soceity approves of something, that does not mean that God does. In our soceity the homosexual is honored; Abortion is legal; government has taken the place of God.
Trans:When will we learn that God doesn't need our help to bring about His promises to us?
Chuck Smith, "Sarah suggested the use of Hagar the handmaiden as a means by which she could help God fulfill His promise of a son...Many times I have put myself in the position of God's little helper. I give Him opportunity to work. I give Him a time-deadline.
Here we find Sarah saying, "Look, Abram, lets give up. It's not going to happen. Let's help God out." But the minute God needs my help, He's in big trouble!
The opposite is true. I need His help continually, but He never ever needs mine."
B. Abram's Permission.
he heeded her voice - he should have listen to God's voice, which clear said a child would come out of their bodies!
C. Hagar's ImPut - none!
Think how she must have felt - nobody sought out her opinion! What she thinks, feels, or wants is never taken into consideration.
Trans:Have you ever felt unasked? On your job, in your home, among your friends - nobody cares what you think!
Chuck Swindoll's wife Cynthia struggling with depression for years. She writes:
"Depression, black as a thousand midnights in a cypress swamp. Loneliness that is indescribable. Confusing regarding God. Frustration with life and circumstances. The feeling that you have been abandoned, that you are worthless. The pain is excruciating."
Hagar felt like that, so did Job for that matter - read Job 3...
III. THIRDLY, SHE FELT UNLOVED. 16:3-4
God created sex to be an expression of marital love, not a one night stand, so as to produce an offspring for another woman!
Hagar was not treated as a wife, but used and abused for Abram and Sarah experiement. Like Leah who was made to get into the wedding bed with Jacob - when he thought it was her sister Rachel.
"30 Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years. 31 When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. 32 So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, "The LORD has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me." 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, "Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." And she called his name Simeon." Genesis 29:30-33
Rita Hayworth, "You know, I always thought if I got good reviews, I'd be happy, but life is so empty. It's never what I wanted, ever. All I wanted was, just what everybody else wants, you know - to be loved."
IV. FOURTHLY, SHE FELT UNWANTED. 16:5-6a
Sarah is acting like a jerk! Abram is acting like a wimp! Poor Hagar is just aching!
Nobody wanted Hagar - she felt her life was meaningless.
Nixion once whispered to H. R. Haldeman, "You know, Bob, there's something I've never told anybody before, not even you. Every night since I've been President, every single night before I've gone to bed I've knelt down on my knees beside my bed and prayed to God for guidance and help in this job.
Last night, before I went to bed, I knelt down and this time I prayed that I wouldn't wake up in the morning. I just couldn't face going on."
Most of us have felt like that - poll numbers are down; everybody rejoicing when your gone and out of the way...
Trans:Unwanted; Unasked; Unattached; and Unloved.
Hagar felt like what would happen if Fed Ex and UPS were to emerge - they would be FED-UP!
V. FINALLY, SHE WAS FINALLY UNDERSTOOD. 16:7-16
Angel of the LORD - a preincarnate manifestation of the Second Person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ.
A. First, he Wanted her.
He found her - You only find someone if your looking for them! God wants the Unwanted!
Adam and Eve had sinner - but God still found them!
The prodigal son still smelled of the pig pen - but the Father was him a long way off.
Israel rejected her Messiah, but God still wanted them!
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" Matthew 23:37
He said, "Hagar" - he knew her by name!
I remember the movie Jingle all the Way [Turboman] - and the end of the movie this boys father is dressed up like his favorite action toy, Turboman. He doesnt know it's his father.
He say is to pick someone out of the parade - he points to this little boy and says "Jamie!" Jamie said, "Wow! He knows my name!"
God knows your name! You might feel like Moses who was out in the desert for 40 years - nobody wants him...but God does and from the burning bush said, "Moses, Moses!"
B. Next, he Asked her something.
where have you come from? Finally somebody is interest in Hagar! The Unasked is now being asking something.
God does not ask for information, but to show us that He is interest in our lives. He cares and wants us to know He cares!
You go through the gospels and you will be amazed at how many times Jesus asked his disciples questions. It must have made them feel wonderful too know that Jesus cared about what they thought!
C. Then, he Attached her. v.9
Go back and be united with Abram again...
She now belonged somewhere - for now she knew that it was God's will for her to be a part of Abram family.
We are also attached - we are "bone of his bone; and flesh of his flesh." We are part of God's family. 1 Cor. 12:
The other day my battery was dead, and I was trying to take off the battery so I could take it down to Auto zone to see if the battery was any good. I had a wratched wrench, and big can full of ends that went on it...finally I found just the right size and attached it! It belonged! I saved it, put it in a special place because it was needed.
You are attached to Jesus, you have a gift that we all need, a perfect fit - your special and you belong.
D. Finally, she was Loved. 10-16
10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram - what is love? It is expressed by God giving - Jn. 3:16
1. He gave her a Promise. vv. 10-12
I wear helping hand suit coats, but they make tailor-made suits. Ron Dunn said a member of his church was a tailor. He measured Ron and in a few weeks he was wearing a beautiful, 100% mohair suit-coast.
On the inside of the suit were stiched these words - "Made exclusively for Ronald Dunn."
God has measured you - he has promises exclusively made for you! That's love...
2. He also gave her His Presence - Himself. 13-16
He was personally involved in her life - He sees! He is with us and in us and intimately involved in our lives.
Gideon was told, "The Lord is with you." Jud. 6:13
Job came to realize that God had not abandoned him, He was there all the time! Job 42:5
He doesnt love us because of our worth, but because of what He has made us in Christ - take a hundred dollar bill. If you ask someone if they want it - anyone who say, "Yes, I would love to have it!"
If you wade it up or throw it in the dirt and step on it - it doesnt matter! That hundred dollar bill is still loved!
Peter Kreeft was asked what was the answering to suffering. He said: "It's not the Answer - it Jesus Himself. It's not a bunch of words, it's the Word. It's not a tightly woven philosophical argument; its a person. The Person. The answer to suffering cannot just be an abstract idea, because this isnt an abstract issue; its a personal issue. It requires a person response. The answer must be someone, not just something, because the issue involves someone - God..."
Con:
1. Do you feel Unwanted? Unasked? Unattached? and Unloved?Come to Christ! And you will find a Helper who wants you; is interested in you, will give you a sense of belonging and love you for time and eternity.
How can he do that? Because He died to pay for your sin and gives you His righteousness.
2. Two lost hikers survived 3 nights in the Mountains of California - they felt like Hagar out in that wilderness.
After they stumbled on the campsite of a man who disappeared a year ago.
Brandon Day and Gina Allen were rescued when searchers spotted smoke from a fire the couple started, using matches from a backpack they found.
Brandon thanked rescuers and said he and Allen were grateful to the backpack's owner John Donovan, a retired social worker from Virginia, who disappeared in the area in May 2005. Day said, "I want to thank him for helping save our lives."
Donovan was an experienced hiker who was last seen May 3, 2005. Friends assumed Donovan was injured and died during a snowstorm, which hit the area shortly after he was last heard from.
Chris Hook, a longtime friend of Donovan said, "Even in death, he was helping people."
Jesus Christ comes to us in our wilderness of sin, and based on His death offers us Himself and His help.
Johnny Palmer Jr
StrugglingThruScriptures.ning.com
