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We're in a series here, a series of teachings here called name dropping. And I'm excited about us continue to explore the names of God. I want us to go to the book of Genesis, chapter number 16, beginning at verse number 11. We're spending the majority of our time in this series in the book of Genesis and Exodus. There's going to be one lesson I teach, the Book of Judges. But the names of God revealed the nature of God. And part of our theme this our theme this year is all in. And we're going all in on God. And hopefully this series is reintroducing us to a God that we already know, but we're exploring him and hopefully experiencing him in a deeper and greater way. Genesis 16:11 says, 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 your misery. Now he'll 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 in hostility toward all his brothers. And 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. I want to stop the reading of scripture there. And the title of today's teaching, I believe in some sense is a sentiment God wants to express to you and I. Here's the topic of the teaching. I see you clap your hands if you're glad he's looking in your direction. 12:30. I want to start this sermon with a statement that many of you may find startling. Some of you will find surprising, others of you may even find saddening. The statement for my note takers is as follows. How far you and I go and how much you and I grow is greatly dependent on how we handle being mishandled. I've been getting that same poor response all day long. Let me say it again. How far you and I go and how much you and I grow is greatly dependent on how we handle being mishandled. In other words, every follower of Jesus that is passionately pursuing human flourishing will have to wrestle with the reality that being used by God makes you a candidate to be used by people. Your spiritual formation and your personal metamorphosis will make you a magnet that attracts all types of people who want a person like you but won't become a person like you. So they use people like you. So they are attracted to you because you're loyal, but they won't become a person of loyalty and they are attracted to you because you're generous. But they won't become a person of generosity and they're attracted to you because you passionately prioritize God. But they won't become a person that practically and passionately prioritizes God. Therefore, they continually and consistently be benefit from what they refuse to become like. And ultimately their refusal to undergo a divine evolution makes you a person they love and exploit at the same time. I am articulating the inevitability of being mishandled. I am not articulating this truth in order to create paranoia. I am articulating this truth in a way that is consistent with a pattern and template I see in the New Testament by Jesus. It is not intended to create paranoia. It's intended to create preparedness. It's intended to deliver you from deception. It's intended to rescue you from naivety because naivety makes you vulnerable. Jesus himself refused to allow his followers to operate in their assignment without giving them the gift of reality. So he says to them In Matthew, chapter 10, verse number 16, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. He loves them enough to give them perspective that they will need for their purpose. He is saying to them that navigating throughout the reality of this life will require you to have engagement with individuals whose value systems, attitudinal dispositions and relational practices are wolf like and predatory. That you on the job, you in the church, you in your home, you with your friends, you with your family, at some point or another are going to run into someone who is wolf like and they get to be a wolf. And you don't come on here because he didn't say. He didn't say. He didn't say, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. So become a wolf. Give me the text. He says, I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves. You don't get to match the energy. You set a different standard. I feel a little Pentecostal here. Too early. But give somebody a high five and say, hold the standard. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. They going wolf and you could go bear, you could go lion. They went low, you could go lower. But hold that standard. Somebody's watching. Hold that standard. Your witness is at stake. Hold that standard. You got too much to lose. Hold that standard. It's a setup. It's a trap. You're being baited. Hold your standard. Jesus is not communicating this truth to create cynicism toward humans. What he is doing is painting a full comprehensive picture of reality where he is letting you and I know at one point or another you're gonna run into some wolves. And those who refuse to accept this reality are individuals who will spend the majority of their days on this planet being held captive by cynicism, wrestling with resentment and trapped in a toxic soul that produces toxic cycles that show up in every sin season of their life. And the enemy wants us on this hamster's wheel of hard heartedness because he knows you cannot become a better person while being a bitter person. But we coming to get that bitterness out of you today. I feel the Holy Ghost in here. I said we calling you out of that today. You are way too blessed to still be mad. You are way too favored to still be upset. You've made way too much progress for you to still be trapped in that cycle of pain. Come on out of there. He is painting a picture about the reality. Painting a picture of the reality that you and I will become victims of. Casualties of somebody else's imperfection. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. He is. He is articulating the inevitability of this reality. He is giving us a truth and the word. You shall know the truth and the truth. Reception. Free. That Greek word for truth. Check it out. It means reality. You shall know reality. I'm. I'm. I'mma give you truth. That's reality. The way the world really works. The. The way things really are. And when you get delivered from deception of what you think life is like, you get free. Can I contemporize and Danielize what Jesus is saying? People are going to people. That's it. That's all I got. You. You. That's it. People are going to people. But I got some good news. I said I got some good news. I said I got some good news. People are going to people. But God don't you. That's my role right there. But God is going to God. People are going to do what people are going to do, but God is going to do what God is going to do. And as long as God continues to do what God is going to do, he will override, overrule, redeem and redirect what people do. I was reading Genesis 16 and it shares and shows me that even when people are peopling, God is God. And so he will make sure I'm in the text already. He will make sure I'm good even when people aren't good to me. I felt the Praise right in the middle section, right there. That just set somebody free right there. He will make sure I'm good even when people aren't good to me. What I'm articulating is postured in the position in the pages of this passage here in Genesis 16, it exposes us to this experience that Abram, whose name hasn't been changed to Abraham, and Sarai, whose name hasn't been changed to Sarah. This text exposes us to an experience they have managing what I call the middle season. I need a church to say middle season. Come on, say it again. Say middle season. Yeah, the. The. The middle season. The middle season for them represents the time between God, between God making a promise and fulfilling it. Got me. He promised them a child, but he hadn't fulfilled the promise. So now they're confusing delay with denial. So there's a delay which produces desperation, and the desperation drives a decision. I'm in the text. Time is ticking. Sarah was thinking, I was already old when you gave me the promise. Now I'm older. So the delay is creating desperation, and the desperation is driving deceit. Pastor, where you see that? I see it in the text. Well, in Genesis 16, verse 2, it says, so Sarai said to Abram, the Lord has kept me from having children. See, that statement right there shows me desperation because that statement is contradictory. That's the Lord, isn't it? Is that all caps? What did I teach you that meant Yahweh, Jehovah? That's a covenant keeping God. So this Sarah is saying, the Lord has kept me from having children. Now, Sarah, you didn't have an expectation for children until God told you he wanted to give you one. You weren't expecting one until he created expectation by giving you a word. So now you didn't even have expectation for this. He gave you expectation for this when he gave you a word. And now, now you're using the word covenant keeper God to suggest he won't keep his covenant. Isn't it amazing how time will make you question what you thought you heard? In another chapter, She said, the Lord has kept me. But that's not a situation. That's her interpretation. So she's got desperation not from her situation. She got desperation from her interpretation. It's not the situation, it's her interpretation. It's not what's happening. It's what the devil's telling you it means. So the desperation she's feeling is coming from the story she's telling herself about her situation. So she gets desperate, so she makes a decision And I don't know about you, but some of my worst decisions. Come on here. Some of my worst decisions have been made in anxiousness and impulsiveness and impatience that is tied to me forgetting that Yah keeps his word. I feel like running in here. I said I feel like running in here. It may take longer than I think, but before the dust settles and before it's all over, God will do just what he said. He is not a man that he should lie. He is not the son of a man that he will change his mind. He will do just what he said. So you got me. So. So. So here. Here's something that's interesting. Now, somebody say middle season. Come on, say middle season. All right, here it is. We don't like middle seasons. I don't at least. But we need middle seasons, Pastor. Why? The answer's in the text. Cause in verse three, it says so. After. No, excuse me. Verse two, it says so. She said to Abraham, the Lord has kept me having children. Go sleep with my slave. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Abraham didn't even pray about it. He agreed. Praise the Lord. Amen. All right. He agreed to what Sarah says. Don't miss it. This is why middle seasons are necessary. Because middle seasons are mirrors that expose issues that stay hidden when you get what you want. It's some stuff in you that only get exposed when God set you in a season when you don't get what you want. And he's got to get that stuff out of you, out of your life before Isaac come into it. Did you hear what I just said? Isaac hasn't been born yet. And there's some stuff God wants to get out of us in the middle season so that we can properly manage and steward what's coming to us in the next season. He got to get it out. He got to get it out. He got to get it out. He got to fix that attitude. He got to get it out. He got to deal with that hypersensitivity. He got to get it out. He's got to deal with that competitiveness. He's got to get it out. He's got to deal with that people pleasing. He's got to get it out. He's got to deal with that neediness. He's got to get it out. He's got to deal with that overextension. He's got to get it out. He's got to deal with that mama wound. He's got to get it out. So I got to get this out before Isaac come Because you're going to fumble Isaac, if I don't fix this. This, you going to hurt Isaac if I don't heal you. I got to get it out. So they're probably wondering, why is he making me wait so long? He said it don't take this long to get Isaac in your life, but it does take this long to get this stuff out. It's not always God holding things up because of what's coming in. Sometimes he's holding stuff up because what needs to come out. So are y' all okay? I said y' all okay. Here it is. Here it is. Middle seasons are schools that shape us into a version of ourselves. We couldn't be without it. So notice what happens in the text. So after Abram had been Living in Canaan 10 years, Sarai took his. Took his wife. Sarai, his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave to her husband to be his wife. Now this is a teaching ministry. Does that make sense? So this is life, change, change, church. So we are about change. If a person doesn't want to change, they're not gonna like change church, right? Because this isn't just about learning. It's about changing. Because you're not deep if you memorize it. You deep if you can do it. I don't care how much scripture you quote, can you do it? I pray. Prayed all night. And you got up and didn't speak to anybody when you got through praying. So at this church, at this church, we don't run from complexity. We see in scripture, we see something in verse three. And if we're going to be intellectually honest, we can't just run past it. It's two things in verse three we got to deal with. It's not what I'm talking about. But we just can't ignore verses because it's a teaching ministry. Give me verse three. Again, give me verse three. Sarai took Sarah, his wife, took her Egyptian slave and gave her to her husband to be his wife. So Hagar wouldn't a one night stand for Abraham. That's his wife. So you see, don't y' all scared? Don't get scared. You see polygamy and slavery right here in this passage. Is it there? See, we ain't running. This a teaching ministry. We not running from it. Slavery and polygamy right here in this text. I didn't write it. That's right, I didn't write it. So the question don't run from it. Don't run from it because it's a teacher Ministry. The question is the Bible teaches monogamy, and it teaches against slavery. So how. The Bible, very. Just in case y' all don't know, the Bible very clearly teaches against slavery. The book of Exodus prohibits something called man stealing going into places and. And stealing people. It prohibits man stealing and the selling of those you stole. God so anti this that there is a book of the Bible whose first few chapters are dedicated to how God literally liberates a people who've been enslaved. Moses leads Israel out of Egyptian slavery. So is the Bible contradicting itself? Two things I want to tell you. Number one, in this cultural context, there were different expressions of slavery, one being something called indentured servitude. Well, I voluntarily, for a period of time, said, I will work for you in exchange for what we agreed upon. Jacob himself engaged in this when he agreed to work for Laban in exchange for Rachel. Well, pastor is not indentured servitude. That's employment agreement. Okay, fine. That's your. That's okay. I'm. I'm not mad at that argument. I'm not mad at that argument. Here's my other argument. Just because something is seen being done by people in the Bible doesn't mean it is authorized or endorsed by the Bible. Come on in here. I said, come on in here. Here's the way we describe it in certain academic settings. It is. It's descriptive passages in Scripture and prescriptive. Descriptive is it's describing what someone did. Prescriptive is. It's prescribing what you should do. God is assuming you and I have enough sense to know the difference between the Bible describing what somebody did and prescribing what you should do. Cain killed Abel. Should you do that? Abraham went to a foreign land. He was so afraid they were going to kill him that because his wife was fine. When they asked him, she with you? He said, that's my sister. I need my. I need my sisters here now. Come on, sisters. I need you to help your bishop right here. You with a man. And somebody else walk up now. This your man? And somebody else walk up and say, she with you? He say, nah, that's my sister. Come on. Why y' all quiet on me? Now, some of you, you. You detecting when you calling and it's Voice changing. Nah. FaceTime me. FaceTime me. You. Yeah, you don't even sound right. FaceTime me. Your voice not even that deep. Why you talking so long? FaceTime me right now. David did some things we should do and some things we shouldn't. Do. Samson did some things we should do and we shouldn't do. Solomon did some things we should do, we shouldn't do. Peter did some things we should do and we shouldn't do. Because some things are descriptive and other things are prescriptive. Are y' all all right? Yeah. Because when I first read that at the other two services today, people started getting excited. Say, now, wait a minute, Pastor. I can have a few of them. I love the Bible. That's why I come here. Cause you teach the Bible. Bishop. Say, I'm all in. I'm all in, Pastor. I promise you I am. I'm all in. Here's a larger point I've done. I got five minutes. Here it is. He's he. Verse four. Says he slept with Hagar. She conceived. This is the part of the narrative we got to talk about now. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. He says mistress that she's talking about her boss, Sarah. So this is part of Hagar's story we don't talk about a lot. When she gets pregnant with a person, she also gets pregnant with pride. Did you hear what I just said? Now Sarai feels like she gave her too much too soon and created a monster. Have you ever felt like you had to wrestle with a monster you made? She gave Hagar something she shouldn't have given her. And when you give people things you shouldn't have given them, you make monsters. Come on and say amen. Some of us know we made some monsters in our house. We made some monsters in our business. We made some monsters in our family. We made some monsters out of our friends. Too much too soon. So Hagar starts acting funny. She start walking around the house different. She's sitting in Sarah chair. We should not excuse Hagar's behavior. We should not endorse Hagar's behavior. But if you're going to be objective, I want you to understand Hagar's behavior. Abraham, first of all, at this point is 85. And I'm. I'm sure she was thinking she was going to have to marry somebody older than her, but she probably wasn't thinking 85. So there is a wedding union and physical intimacy that she don't get a say. So in this woman traumatized. We're not excusing the behavior. We're not endorsing the behavior. But what you expect. I don't get to pick who I'm with. And if I did pick, I wouldn't pick. Am I making sense? And it's interesting. Boy, I don't have time. But if I had time, Look at verse six. Verse six says, this is interesting. This is interesting. I mean, verse five says, then Sarai said to Abram, you are responsible for the wrong I'm suffering. So now she won't even own her own contribution. Now that she knows she's pregnant, she despises me. Watch her now. She bring God in. It made a Lord judge between me and you. You ever met anybody? They've been messy the whole time and then want to put God on the end of their messiness. God got it. God need to get you. So now she playing victim. So now Sarah's playing victim when she was an accessory, a contributor to the trump. And isn't it like people judge, highlight, broadcast your reaction, but then silent on their contribution. They just went off on me. They shouldn't have went off. But what? What did you say? Tell that part here. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. Y' all tired? Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. So the Bible says Sarai let a wolf turn her into one. Y' all see the loop? Did you catch that, Pastor? Where you see it? Abram said, do with her whatever you think is best. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar. So Hagar was mistreating Sarai. So instead of holding the standard, Sarai matched the energy. She let her pull her into her behavior. She let her pull her into her stream of thought and consciousness. And it got so unbearable because Sarai has power. It becomes so unbearable that the Bible says. So she fled from her. She runs away. She ends up near a stream or spring in the desert. And the Bible says an angel finds her there and says, hagar, where have you come from and where are you going? She says, I'm running away from my mistress, Sarah. And then the Bible says the angel of the Lord said to her, go back to your mistress and submit. This passage. This passage should not be interpreted as God requiring you and I to subject ourselves to abuse, to live without boundaries. This is not the message God is sending in this situation. The message God is sending to us in this narrative is this. There are some realities that you will not be able to run from. That sometimes when you change your job, you running, you leaving one Sarai to another. And sometimes when you change the friendship circle, you're leaving one Sarai to another. In other words, you will not be able to run away from wolves. So he's trying to teach Hagar. How to live with a reality that is uncomfortable but inevitable. Good God Almighty. Here it is. You will never be able to completely eliminate people's tendency to handle you unjustly. So the angel says in verse nine. Let's read it again. Go back to your mistress, submit to her. In verse 10 the angel says, and I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. Verse 9 says, Go back to your mistress and submit to her. And verse 10 says, and I will increase your descendants so much they will be too numerous to count. Many people want verse 10, but they won't do verse 9. Good God from Zion. Sad. Listen to me. This is a powerful picture of what we call restorative justice. So when we think about God acting justly, very often we associate God acting justly to retribution, meaning God doing something to them. When God behaving in a way and acting in a way that is just is. Is often times restorative. It's not what he does to them, it is what he does for you in spite of what they did to you. It is God making sure you're good even though they haven't been good to you. Did you hear what I just said? Cuz them losing doesn't make you win. So watch what she says. I'm done. Tario. Because some of us don't. We don't we don't we not making a connection to Hagar. Some of the fellas not making the connection to Hagar because they don't see themselves in Hagar because they think I'm a male, she's a female. But Hagar represents all of us in here. Yeah, Hagar represents those of us who've been victims of exploitation. This is when people got what they wanted from you without consideration of you. That's Hagar. She represents those of us who've been victims of un. Underappreciation is when people feel entitled to what you have done when you were never obligated to do it in the first place. That's Hagar. It's when we are victims of manipulation is when someone used their power, their position, or your pain. I call them pain predators. When they discern you're vulnerable and hurt and they slide into your life in an attempt to use your pain to pivot you in a direction that benefits them and not you. That's Hagar. Here's what happened. Her exploitation, her under appreciation and her manipulation was a situation that God used to give her a revelation of God that she hadn't seen before. See, hard times don't just lead us to education, they lead us to Encounters. Hard times don't just lead us to learn new things about God. Hard times often lead us to new encounters with God. So her being exploited, her being manipulated, her being underappreciated was a situation that God used to give her a revelation of him. Look at verse 13. She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God who sees me, for she says, I have now seen the one who sees me. This name of God she gives is El Roy. It is the God who sees. It is the seeing God. And because he's the seeing God, he will see to it that I am good even when people are not good to me. And I'm done. I need two minutes. Nobody moving. I want to pray for you because I sense what can happen in a teaching church is that we can come with our notes and we need to. I love that people post their notes. I watch that. I love that. But God wants to give you more than education. This series is an invitation. He's inviting you not just to learn that he's the God who sees. He's inviting you to experience him being the God who sees. And that invitation is an invitation out of resentment and bitterness. Cuz you can be saved and salty. You can be a prayer warrior, end in pain. You can be called and chosen and a cynic. You can be righteous and still carry resentment. You can still be mad about what you made it out of. I know I'm in the Holy Ghost right there. I felt the witness of yes, I. You can be mad at about what you made it out of. You made it out. But when you think about the fact you had to go through. Run your pressure right back up. It's just. But I can't be a better person and a bitter person at the same time. You need this revelation. He sees they forgot, but he sees. And they use you. But he sees they got what they needed and acted like you didn't exist. But he sees. They exploited, but he sees. And the one who sees will see to it that I'm good even when they not good to me. Listen to me. So now you no longer testify they destroyed my life. You can't. Even if you destroyed it for a season. My Bible says he redeems my life from destruction. You, you don't have the last say because he's a God. Oh, Pastor. They took so many years from me. Well, my Bible says he restores the years that the locust and the caterpillar and the canker worm has stolen from you. He will take the years you got left. And he will do so much in the time you got left. It makes up for the time you wasted. You can't destroy my life. The God that sees will see to it that I'm good. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, Says the Lord. He sees ease. Look at me. You can't be used by God without being used by people. You don't sign up to be used, don't. Don't voluntarily agree to be used. But you cannot avoid being used cuz you can't avoid wolves. And the Bible's clear, wolves don't always look at wolves, sometime look like wolves you don't know. You been with one until you got bit wolves in sheep. But he sees. And as your pastor, I want to ask you something. How long you going to keep carrying this? Look at me. They don't even care. They don't even care. Some of them are so self deceived, they don't even think they wrong. Don't even know how wrong they are. How long you gonna keep holding your healing up, waiting on their apology? I can't be a better person, staying a bitter person, can I? Can I just share one thing with y'? All? Two minutes. We done. I'm about to pray. Has anybody read the rest of this story? Does Abraham or Sarah apologize? Does Hagar ever get closure? Because sometimes. What you call closure is a want, not a need. And if it was a need, God would give it to you. So you got to move on without closure. You got to move, you got to move on. Being able to say, I don't know what happened with I don't know, wouldn't y'? All? I don't know. But y' all were like sisters. Y' all like. And I refuse to keep torturing myself seeking an explanation from people who don't even know why they did what they did. But he sees and he will see to it that I am good even when they haven't been good to me. Let me extend this and I'm going to pray a little prayer over you. And then I'll give, we'll dismiss so some people can have some ministry time with the Holy Spirit. Because some of you need to sit in this for a minute. Because some of you, your deliverance from this has to be supernatural. You tried all the other stuff. You don't read the books and journals and then you're still mad. Sometimes God's got to do it. Go in the soil of that heart and pull up that bit of root and you walk out of here saying, I'm I'm free. I have seen the one who sees me. And you guys do. You do know being free, it don't mean you don't feel it at all. Sometimes that may happen, but that doesn't mean you don't feel at all. Here's what it means. It means that the wound. Listen to me. Excuse me. The pain from the old wound no longer governs your mood or determines your direction.