Untamed grace
Notes
Transcript
Intro
At 33 years old, if it hasn’t happened, it never will. Sorry. Time to move on and accept the next chapter.
This was a comment someone made on a video about having a career in music. There’s this idea out there that there’s a very small window of opportunity for anyone who wants to be a musician. Basically, you’ve got your until the end of your 20s, possibly even only your mid 20s before the ship has sailed. If you reach the ripe old age of 33, that’s it, you’re never going to be successful. Time to give up.
Sounds harsh doesn’t it? Brutal. I mean, I know our culture idolises youth, but 33 isn’t old, is it?
This video that I was watching went on to point out that there are plenty of exceptions to the rule and plenty of people earning a living from music who might not be super stars, but are nonetheless ok.
But there’s something intuitively right about the whole idea isn’t there? At some point, at some age in our lives we may realise that the life we thought we would have is starting to slip out of our grasp.
In his memoir ‘This is going to hurt’ the author Adam Kay talks about the moment he realised he wasn’t going to have a career as a doctor. He said ‘I didn’t know who I was anymore.’ Everything in my life had led up to this point. Everything else had been sacrificed and now it was looking like the dream was over, he became increasingly desperate.
At some point in our lives, we may find ourselves watching the future we thought we would have fading into nothing.
And when that happens, it can feel like life is over.
And for those of us who are Christians, it can make us question whether God will come through for us, or even whether he cares about us.
How do we handle the death of our dreams?
Scripture context
Today we’re picking up where we left off in the book of Genesis last year, way back in June. And if you can’t remember where we got up to, to briefly recap
We saw that God created the world for us to enjoy together but human beings tragically doubted God’s intentions and decided to go it alone - to disasterous consequences. Mistrust, violence and death spread out from that one decision but we also saw that God doesn’t give up on humanity. Instead, God promises to restore his creation, to reunite with people - and this plan will all hinge on one family - the family of Abraham.
The trouble is, while this couple Abram and Sarai had been given a dream of countless children, when we find them in Genesis 16, it seems like the dream is over.
1 God’s grace can’t be tamed by schemes
1 God’s grace can’t be tamed by schemes
Sarai has heard God’s promise to Abram. But after waiting for years, she is starting to conclude that this is a fools errand. At 65, giving birth would’ve been miraculous. If it hasn’t happened by 75, it’s just not going to happen.
Sarai can see her future slipping away from her and in her desperation she comes up with a scheme to try and force God to make the dream a reality. Look at vv. 1 and 2
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Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Explain
You can hear the desperation can’t you. Cause let’s face it, this is a pretty desperate plan. Voluntary surrogacy is one thing, but what Sarai is proposing is abusive.
She must have a child, and if God won’t give her one via her body, she is willing to break rules she once honoured, to harm others, and even herself in order to get one.
Her dream of children has become an obsession and it leads her to treat Hagar as if she is just a tool. Here Abram, try this womb.
It’s horrific.
But it get’s worse, because when her scheme succeeds and Hagar ends up pregnant, she realises wait a second what have I done. I’m not Abram’s only wife, and his other wife has his only child, which means even if I were to have a child now, he’d be the second born which means that I’m worse off than when I started.
Her scheme has backfired. Her future is now even more threatened than when she started.
In fact, in verse 10 it seems like God is giving her dream to her rival. Hagar is promised more offspring than can be counted’.
Why does it go so badly for her?
Wanting a child is a good thing.
The trouble for Sarai is that this good thing has become something that she is willing to do anything to get.
She has pinned all her hopes for life and security and happiness on having a child. This child is her functional saviour. Her everything.
And it leads her to treat everyone around her - Hagar, Abram, and even God as just a means to this one goal.
She tries to tame God’s grace, but God resists her because, his grace is free and cannot be tamed by our schemes.
Sarai is right in verse 2 to say that God is the one who creates life. But he is not a life vending machine.
He will not be treated as one. He will not accept the currency Sarai is offering - Hagar.
This is the real issue - Sarai has made an idol out of having a child and it leads her to sacrifice her integrity, her marriage, and her servant in order to get it. And the most tragic part of all is that even after all that sacrifice, she comes up empty handed.
Ultimately that is why God opposes her - it’s because he knows that any good thing that gets turn into an ultimate thing will only disappoint and destroy us.
Application:
For those of us who are parents, this is really important.
Because there is always a possibility that we will approach parenting as if they are the key to our future happiness, our reason for being, our everything. We, like Sarai can so easily act as if they are our property, a means to an end.
No doubt we all know of stories of overbearing or suffocating parents who ironically produce the very thing they fear - children who can’t wait to get away from them.
But what God is showing us here is a better way. God is graciously reminding us that our children, and our futures don’t belong to us. They aren’t our possessions, they are a gift from him.
As Paul David Tripp God calls us parents to be his ambassadors to our children.
Because every child is God’s possession for his purpose not ours - as we’ll see in what happens with Hagar and Ishamel in a moment. And our job, as ambassadors is to represent the message, methods, and character of the one who sent us.
This doesn’t just apply to parenting. It’s possible to bring an ownership mindset into all of our relationships. To people who work for us, or the medical staff who help us, the cleaners or gardeners or person at the checkout as our possessions.
Our inability to let God secure our lives and our futures makes it easier for us to talk at other people rather than to listening to them. To act like owners rather than ambassadors. It makes us all more demanding than patient. More likely to go find punishment more natural than grace. To be more able to see and be distressed by the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are about our own.
Transition:
The only way to receive the life we really want is to trust him to provide it for us. God’s life-giving grace can’t be tamed by our schemes.
But neither can it be tamed by human failure
2 God’s grace can’t be tamed by human failure
2 God’s grace can’t be tamed by human failure
State
If we step back for a moment and recall what the point of God’s promise to Abram and Sarai was, we see how badly they’ve failed.
Back in Genesis 12, God promised to make Abram a great nation and bless him…so that he would be a blessing to others and through his family, every family on earth would be blessed. This was never about playing favourites.
They were abmassadors. The whole point was to make people sit up and wonder, where’s all this blessing coming from? Abram and Sarai must have friends in high places. Which is exactly what happens throught the story of Genesis.
Except here.
What would Hagar have thought about Abram and Sarai’s God? What message would she have heard?
Hagar was a slave, taken out of her homeland, given to her mistress’ husband not because he wanted her, not because she wanted him, but just because she happened to possess a functional womb.
She would’ve heard the message: God cares about us and not you because we are the special ones. God made a special relationship with us and promised us a life, a future, a bright future, but it’s ok if we use you to get it. God’s fine with that. God’s ok with you being objectified, treated as just a collection of body parts, just a baby generator.
And just in case we’re tempted to wonder, maybe this kind of forced surrogacy thing was culturally ok back then, have a look at verses 2-4 again.
Notice the words
Abram listened to his wife, Sarai took Hagar, Sarai gave Hagar to Abram. Abram went in to Hagar.
Where have we heard this before? It sounds like Genesis 3. It sounds like the fall. The moment where human beings gave up trusting God and instead decided to try and secure blessing for themselves.
Abram and Sarai’s home was supposed to be a new Eden, but this time without the fall. Instead, they repeat the mistake, and completely misrepresenting God.
Illustration - get example of someone walking away from church because of failure of christians
Sadly, this is a common story. Many people have been let down by God’s ambassadors. The very ones who were supposed to be representing him as the God of grace and love and mercy and kindness instead sent the message that he doesn’t care - at least not about me.
It’s tempting to think that there is no hope for such people.
But the story of Hagar shows us that human failure is no obstacle. God’s grace cannot be tamed.
God told her she was so much more than a collection of body parts.
Look at vv. 7-8
After she runs away
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The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
Explain
Notice how God names her. When no one else has? Abram and Sarai studiously avoid her name. But God calls her by name. Notice how God invites her to tell her story. ‘Where have you come form and where are you going’
Unlike Sarai and Abram, the angel invites Hagar to speak. She is affirmed as a person. She is heard. She is not property but a human with dignity, made in God’s image and likeness. Seen and known and loved.
Where God’s ambassadors, the ones who were supposed to bring blessing to all families fail, God himself comes and ministers.
And as a result, Hagar now knows who God is.
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So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”
And the son, the life, the future God gives her is to be called Ishmael which means God has been attentive to your humiliation. In other words, God hears.
God’s grace can’t be forced, it can’t be secured by schemes, but neither can it be stopped by the failure of his ambassadors.
Illustration - Sister, God sees you [Wendy Alsup]
The author Wendy Alsup is a single mum a few years ago was really sick. She says, I had no one to watch my children so I could call an ambulance in the middle of the night. I lay in my bed thinking I was dying, but I was too sick to react. I felt utterly alone in the world facing death.
But as I lay near death on my bed, God reminded me to call a friend in town who kept weird hours. I caught her awake, and she came over to my house, called an ambulance, and watched my boys while I was in the ICU for the next two days. I was too weak to fully grasp how God had seen my affliction and cared for me and my children when I felt I was about to be snuffed out. But later, I marveled at the God who really did see me, who really did hear my prayers.
And she concluded, that just like Hagar, we may sit on the precipice of what seems like utter destruction, God is real and God is here. And sometimes, like Hagar, God gives us a glimpse of the One who always has his eyes on us...But even when we don’t yet see God in the midst of our suffering, Scripture reminds us that God is there. His eye on us.
Apply
Brothers and sisters, God sees you. God is listening to you.
Even when it feels like no one else is. Even when everyone around you seems to see through you, treats you as an object, a means to an end, as their property to do with what they will.
If that’s you today, God says, tell me your story. What’s going on for you. Let me hear it.
I see you, I care about you.
I’ll listen. Hold on. Trust me.
Transition
Ultimately though, God isn’t just the God who listens, he’s the God who gives life, even when it seems like all life has dried up.
3 God’s grace can’t be tamed by death
3 God’s grace can’t be tamed by death
State
When we next meet Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis 21, things have only gotten worse.
Sarah demands Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness.
Now, Hagar and her son aren’t just objects, they scapegoats. Sarah thinks that if they leave, all her troubles leave too.
Everything seems hopeless for Hagar.
Hagar is tempted to think that maybe this time, she is beyond God. Despite being the only woman in the Old Testament who is promised a great nation, despite naming God, she feels like maybe now he has closed his eyes.
Some of us, like Hagar have been here. Some of us have felt God reassuring us in the past, only to later find our lives falling apart - that’s what the wilderness is.
And yet the wilderness, the place where life seems over, is the very place where God not only meets her and speaks to her and reassures her, but more than that, it’s where his life-giving grace is poured out for her.
Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
Explain
When we feel like life is not just hard, but that it is falling apart, when all of our hopes and dreams seem to have failed and when we cannot see a future, this is where God comes to speak life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
That’s what Hagar’s story tells us.
Do you hear echoes of another son who was treated as a scapegoat? Another son who was sent out into the place of death? Another son who people thought that if they just got rid of him, all their problems would go away? Another son whom God would not abandon?
This is who God is. God is the one who is scapegoated, who willingly goes out into the wilderness, the lifeless place, and from there causes life and blessing and abundance to flow.
John’s gospel records that water flowed from Jesus’ side at his death, just as water flowed out of the tree where Ishmael had been placed to die.
I don’t know how hopeful you feel at the moment. Whether you feel a bit like Sarah, like you’ve been waiting all your life for your life to start. Or like Hagar, like life has just been constant struggle.
Perhaps you feel like you are in the wildnerness right now, a place far from life and seemingly far from God.
The beautiful news of the gospel is that God’s life-giving grace cannot be tamed. It can go anywhere.
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