Lesson:  What Does God want from us?

 

Author:  Mark Stusek

Date:      2/24/08

 

What does God want from us when we have been abused, insulted, misled, or embarrassed by others?  Each of us have felt the sting from this type of experience.  You may be surprised what God wants a little slave girl to do.  You might be very surprised at what God wants from us.

 

I.                     The cost of insignificance (Genesis 16:1-4)

 

1.      Hagar understood the meaning of insignificance.

2.      She was a handmaid/slave woman trapped in a time when her gender and class were stripped of their rights, dignity and freedom.

3.      Her rights – her body belonged to Sarah and Abraham.

4.      Hagar’s ace card was she could make babies; however, no one asked her if she wanted to sleep with this old man or make babies with him.

 

Question for the women: What would go through your mind if placed in this circumstance today?

Question for the men: Have you ever felt that God broke his promise to grant your heart’s desire?  (Psalm 37:4). Think of Abraham.

 

(Genesis 12:1-5, 7).  Clearly Abraham and Sarah felt this way.  Share your experience.

 

5.      Genesis 16:5-6 – When Hagar became pregnant, she all of a sudden became somebody and she could do something her mistress couldn’t.  Sarai’s plan backfired when she thought she would raise a family through Hagar.  The dysfunction was too much, so she sent Hagar packing.

 

II.                   When Hope Emerges (Genesis 16:7-8)

 

1.      Your crisis at home, work, school or with others signals the end of life as you know it, or does it?

2.      What appeared to be the end of Hagar’s life was in fact the real beginning (are you listening?)  Hagar, or you or I may have been out of sign and mind to others but not to God.

3.      The Lord found  Hagar – he pursued her!  He asked her some questions.

 

4.      Listen up:  When Hagar felt most alone and felt like she belonged nowhere, The God who up to this time only spoke to important men, appeared to her (Hebrews 13:5), a slave girl who was pregnant and out of wedlock.

 

5.      God demonstrated to her he cared because he asked her probing personal questions, and God called her by name, something Abraham and Sarah never did.

 

6.      God said what? (Genesis 16:9)  He gold Hagar to go back to Abraham and Sarah.  “My ways and thoughts are not your ways and thoughts”.  Hagar was to return to her master and tell him that God had named their son Ishmael.  How was Hagar able to obey in light of all that had occurred to her?

 

-          God’s eyes were fixed on her

-          She was not alone

-          She mattered greatly to God

 

Genesis 15:5-6, 16:10, 21:18

 

Question:   What was the significance of the Lord’s promises to Hagar in light of His promise to Abraham?  Even though Hagar and Ishmael were not a part of God’s original plan, they would still receive God’s blessing. God used Hagar to show mankind he cares and wants to be involved in our lives.

 

God simply doesn’t -just know everything – but He knows you and me by our first name!  He is intimately acquainted with us (Psalm 139).

 

Summary:      What does God want from us?

 

            Obedience Yes!  But more so, he wants us to bring to Him the broken pieces of our lives.

 

            God is near to us when our hearts are broken and our spirit crushed (Psalm 34:18)

 

A broken and contrite heart God does not despise. (Psalm 51-:17)

 

 

Credits:

In Touch – April 2003 – Broken and Victorious

 

In Touch – November 2006 – The God Who Sees Me