Devotional Materials. Week Commencing Sunday 6th February 2022
Call to worship
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-39).
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7, 8).
Today we continue our series on the life of Abraham. We will see how obeying God’s ordinances, summarised in the 2 great commandments, please the Spirit and lead to life. God’s laws and ordinances are for our genuine good and the well-being of those we interact with. But to break these through selfish rationalisations is to invite heartbreak and destruction into one’s life and the lives of those whom God has called us to live with.
Opening Hymn
‘All my hope on God is founded’ MP 16 (Keyboards)
Joachim Neander
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AL9g6GbWYo
Opening Prayer
O Lord, we thank You for all Your blessings. You are the mighty giver who grants us your gifts of love. We thank you our Creator for making the earth to be our home. For the wonder of its life; for the beauty of landscape and sky; for the variety of seasons, animals and plants, for their intricate interdependence; and for making us to be part of it all. We thank you for the gift of life, with all its joys and responsibilities, its experiences and opportunities.
Thank you that You promise to be our guide. Thank you for the Scriptures- Your Word by which You guide us- illuminated by the Spirit. You have revealed to us those ways pleasing to You. Your holy ordinances given for our good. We affirm the truth of Your Word ‘For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.’ (Proverbs 2:6-8).
We would come to you in confession. We have at times not put our hope in You for our lives.
We understand You have called us to be good stewards of creation, and we thank you for human measures taken in obedience to this ordinance. For doctors and engineers, for seismologists and conservationists However we confess to you as sin the foolish notion that imagines Nature made itself and that equally silly conceit that imagines our hope is in us to ‘save the planet’, as though we were at the mercy of Nature and there was no God. We confess this fear as sin, for You call us to put our hope in You. Not In Nature, not in us. Our hope is to be in You. And Your promise is clear ‘as long as the earth endures seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’ (Genesis 8:22). By forgetting You and your promise we have allowed our lives to be paralysed by fear. For this we ask your forgiveness. Rather let our minds be renewed in trust in You and your promises that we might find your truth setting us free from such self-made prisons.
We also confess those times where we have become enamoured rather with the things this world prizes- selfish ambition, earthly glory, the ‘pride of man.’ We have made poor decisions based on pragmatism rather than principle, love of Money rather than love of God and love of our neighbour. We have given us the good gift of marriage where we might truly learn to love within the blessing of joy and delight, yours is also the gift of singleness which can bring its own contentment and opportunity. But we have skewed these good and loving purposes for us. We have harboured sexually immoral thoughts and lived for desire alone through feeding our minds on what is unclean and so inflamed the sinful nature.
We thank you for your wonderful redeeming grace which means that if we confess our sins You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not only that but even where we have gone wrong and in all honesty bring these things before You, You are so good and kind that You are willing to make good even out of where we went wrong. Such is Your grace and mercy. Praise God! Amen
Reading. Genesis 16:1-16.
16 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.
Hymns
Focus on the Lord’s redemptive love:
‘King of Kings, majesty MP 1000 (Guitar)
Jarrod Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RH--iXz2hM
‘At the foot of the cross’ MP 1023 (Keyboards)
Kathryn Scott
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u17GFs8rFBE
Prayers
God of love, whose compassion never fails; We bring before you the troubles and perils of peoples and nations, the sighing of prisoners and captives, the sorrows of the bereaved, the necessities of strangers, the helplessness of the weak, the despondency of the weary, the failing powers of the aged. O Lord, draw near to each, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Saint Anselm of Canterbury)
Merciful God, we entrust to your tender care those who are ill or in pain, knowing that whenever danger threatens, your everlasting arms are there to hold them safe. Comfort and heal them, and restore them to health and strength. Give skill, sympathy, and resilience to all who are caring for the sick, and your wisdom to those in research. Strengthen them with your Spirit that, through their work, many will be restored to health; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayers about the Outbreak: Church of England.). (Silent prayer.)
Eternal God, who by a star led the Magi to the worship of your Son; guide by your light the nations of the earth that the whole world may know your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for Epiphany, the Anglican Church of Canada).
Hymn
You chose the cross with every breath. MP 1139 (Keyboards)
Martyn layzell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woJoU0th21Q
Sermon. ‘Shortcuts cast Long Shadows.’
The Lord had promised Abraham that He would make him into a great nation, but as the years passed Abraham and Sarah remained childless. Abraham took his complaint to the Lord. In Genesis Chapter 15 we read how the Lord spoke to Abraham to reassure him. He promised that a son coming from Abraham’s own body would be heir. Not only that, the Lord told Abraham to look up at the heavens and count the stars- “if indeed you can count them” the Lord said, and then He added “So shall your offspring be”. Here again we have the promise of the Lord that he would make Abraham into a great nation. And this promise continues to be fulfilled. It speaks to all whom the Lord has credited righteousness- including us- all those counted as Abraham’s offspring because they have believed Christ for salvation.
Abraham believed the Lord.
In spite of God’s promise and Abraham’s faith, Abraham would still have to wait many years before Isaac would be born. It would take another 15 years from this point before Isaac’s birth, and Abraham had already waited 10 years since the promise was first given. Why the delay? God had decided to show His power by waiting until it was humanly impossible for both Abraham and Sarah to have a child before He would miraculously fulfil His word. (Hebrews 11:12). Further, we should consider God had the perfect timetable for the birth of Isaac. Their baby’s arrival was part of God’s plan for the salvation of the World. So it had to be the right time. According to God’s time and plan.
What was really required of Abraham and Sarah was to wait meekly and quietly for God to fulfil His own words. Hebrews 6 verse 12 reminds us it is through “faith and patience that we inherit the promises”. Instead we see in Genesis Chapter 16 how Abraham and Sarah failed to look to the Lord and trust His promise. This impatience began with Sarah, who proposed a short cut.
Sarah’s proposal was that Abraham sleep with Hagar, her maidservant. In this way the heir promised to Abraham would be provided. Sarah reasoned she could build a family through Hagar.
The idea of sharing her husband in this way must have been very distasteful to Sarah, and she would have known that God’s Creative purpose included only monogamous marriage between 1 man and 1 woman. We read that clearly in Genesis 2. But there were powerful motivations at work coming from within her and also from without- from her prevailing culture- which tempted her to disregard what was right:
Sarah would have felt the shame of her own barrenness. She believed she personally would not be able to have a child, and her proposal stems from deep disappointment, perhaps even a blaming of God; she says “The Lord has kept me from having children”
Sarah is also more concerned about having children through Hagar rather than a concern for God’s glory. Having an heir becomes the all-important thing to her rather than submitting to God’s will and purpose.
In addition Sarah rationalised that she might still somehow be acting in alignment with God’s will. God had promised Abraham a son coming from his own body. There was no explicit mention of Sarah in the promise.
Further, the prevailing culture approved of her proposal. According to the customs of the day Sarah was entitled to view Hagar as her own personal property. In effect Hagar would become a second but inferior wife. Any children Hagar might bear to Abraham would then legally belong to Sarah. This is why Sarah says she can build a family through Hagar.
Abraham was a strict monogamist, but his wife’s proposals persuaded him.
Ever since Adam disobeyed God by appeasing his wife, uxoriousness has been a perennial problem within marriages. The husband putting his wife first, despite what God requires.
I came across this joke ‘every morning I like to remind my wife who’s in charge by holding a mirror up to her face!’
Well it’s the Lord who is to be first in our marriages. The more husband and wife put Him and his word first in their lives the more they will be in unity. But if there is disagreement the biblical pattern is clear- the Lord has given the husband the responsibility of servant leadership. Paul for example writes in Ephesians 5: 22ff: ‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord…Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…’
However, neither Abraham nor Sarah were acting according to God’s word or trusting God’s promise by going ahead with this plan. They were acting according to expediency. Some would want to portray it as a heroic, self-sacrificial act on Sarah’s part. But the proposal was fundamentally misguided because it disobeyed God’s marriage ordinance. Genesis 2:24 states “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”. God’s laws are for our good, given because He loves us and intends what is best for us. When we are tempted to break His laws through subtle rationalisation we suffer the consequences. The temptation both Sarah and Abraham succumbed to promised happiness but actually brought about great distress to all concerned.
We look at their decision making here and we think how can they have got it so wrong? How could they countenance polygamy? But when we consider our own culture and how far we have moved away from God’s ordinance for marriage and family life we should not be surprised:
Consider the pressure on teenagers to have pre-marital sex and with that the expediency of abortion. Our society is blind to its young people’s true welfare. We exploit them. We promise them freedom and lead them into bondage. We do not teach them that God is their Creator, that He loves them and has shown us how to live. Instead they are mired and damaged from so early on that they become incapable of forming the lifelong intimate union on all levels-spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical with one person, envisaged in the Creation ordinance.
Consider the pressure for couples to cohabit. Cohabitation is justified as a good way to see if a relationship will work, perhaps with a view to marriage, depending on how well they get on together. However this arrangement is based on an inadequate understanding of love- the other is only accepted if they perform in a certain way. But marriage as God ordained it, is commitment from the outset. Couples who live together are more likely to break up than those who are married. Research suggests they are unwilling to work through their problems precisely because there is no long term commitment; it is easier to leave the current living arrangement and seek less fractious relationships with a new partner.
Adultery also counters God’s marriage ordinance. Adultery has been committed throughout history, though today it seems more rampant than ever because our culture has idolised Sex and condoned permissiveness. Certain television soaps and films glorify adultery and appear to promote it as inevitable. They portray it as therapeutic or harmless. In reality it destroys marriages and families.
Instead of encouraging the lifelong union of marriage the impact of “no fault” divorce on marriage has been devastating. The classic grounds for divorce were cruelty, desertion and adultery. The spouse seeking a divorce had to prove that the other spouse had committed one of these faults. Now marginal marriages are much easier to dissolve and couples who may have tried to stick it out and work out their problems-and so learn to love- instead opt for no fault divorce.
Consider too the call for total acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle today, free from criticism. Some have tried to align this activity with God’s will, arguing that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. However clear exposition of the marriage ordinance, the story of Sodom in Genesis 19 and the Mosaic Law’s condemnation of homosexual practise prove otherwise. Three New Testament passages: Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:10 are also decisive. The fact is Scripture never condones sex outside of heterosexual marriage- whether its premarital sex, extramarital sex or homosexual sex. God created man and woman for the union of marriage. This is His ordinance. One man, one woman in a life time union.
The fundamental problem is fallen men and women are influenced by the desires of their sinful nature. Romans 8:7 tells us “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God”. Through selfishness and disobedience we have legalised things in this Country contrary to God’s instruction. In pride we have thought ourselves wise with subtle rationalisation and self-justification- but in reality we have become fools.
And we Christians are not immune from these temptations. Although we died to our old sinful nature when we became Christians the Bible teaches we still must be aware of its attempt to influence us from within. Further we should be aware of the World’s attempts to squeeze us into its mould. Just because a practise is legal, and everyone it seems is engaging or approving of it, this does not mean it is in keeping with God’s will. Instead, as Christians we are to live by the Spirit. To live by the Spirit is to live by faith, trusting the Lord, trusting His promise- not disobeying His word, not taking matters into our own hands, but waiting patiently on His provision. We follow His word, including the Creation ordinance for marriage. We learn to love our spouse in the way He has loved us. Forgiving as He has forgiven us. Serving the other sacrificially, just as He gave up His life for us. We remain close to the Lord because we know we cannot love in these ways unless we know and rely on His love and power to do so. We can do nothing unless we remain in Him.
And if He says no to something for the time being we submit to Him, trusting His good purposes. We don’t idolise a desire as Sarah did. Instead we pursue those things that He says bring life. We grow deeper in our knowledge of Him and seek the Kingdom first. Then we are content in Him.
John Stott learnt this lesson- he put God first concerning his desire for a wife. He has gone to be with the Lord now, but on one occasion he wrote the following: “during my twenties and thirties, like most people, I was expecting to marry one day. In fact, during this period I twice began to develop a relationship with a lady who I thought might be God’s partner for me. But when the time came for me to make a decision, I can best explain it by saying that I lacked the assurance from God that He meant me to go forward. I’m now 76 and well and truly on the shelf. Looking back with the benefits of hindsight, I think I know why. I could never have travelled or written as extensively as I have done if I had had the responsibilities of wife and family.” He gives this advice to single people: “Pray daily that God will guide you to your life partner or show you if He wants you to remain single. Lead a normal social life. Develop many friendships. If God calls you to singleness, don’t fight it. Remember the key text: “Each person has his or her own gift of God’s grace” Stott was therefore content in the Lord.
Sarah and Abraham’s decision left them far from content. It led to war. Quite literally; the Arab- Israeli conflict began with this act.
The Bible says in Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”. Sarah and Abraham had begun with the Spirit when they put their faith in the Lord, but now having acted according to the sinful nature they experienced further dark expressions of that nature and intense conflict. War broke out in what was once a peaceful home. Sarah’s solution was to blame her husband and mistreat Hagar as she gave vent to her anger. She seems to have forgotten that she was the one who had made the proposal in the first place. Abraham’s solution was to give in to his wife and abdicate spiritual headship in the home; he allowed Sarah to mistreat Hagar and did not lead them to confess their sin to God or seek all round reconciliation. Hagar, having become proud and disdainful of Sarah, ran from her anger. However you cannot solve problems by running away.
Our society is also reaping the consequences of living to please the sinful nature. Rebellion against God’s marriage ordinance has not led to enlightenment. It has led to terrible relational conflict; a breakdown of love and commitment; broken relationships adversely affecting parents and their children. We have never known such degeneration on this scale before. But it is a reaping of what we have sown. It comes with the rejection of God, the rejection of God’s ordinance and the folly of thinking we know better. Yes, we have managed to engineer such social change in recent decades but in so doing we have paid a terrible price. George Macdonald was right when he said “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably”
Shortcuts cast long shadows. But God in His grace does not leave us to stew in the results of our folly. He is a God who shows mercy. He is the God who is prepared to take our sins and failures and forgive them. He redeems our lives and is prepared to work good out of our failure.
Look at His tender dealings with Hagar.
The Angel of the Lord met with Hagar. She didn’t know where she was going, she was reacting to what was happening in her life. But the Lord gave her direction and counselled her to go back to Sarah and submit to her. This would take a great deal of faith because Sarah had mistreated Sarah before and might do so again.
The truth is we are all prone to act like Hagar. If our situation is difficult and our cross heavy, we too are tempted to leave in a fit of impatience and wounded pride. We avoid the discipline and find ourselves more deeply burdened. No, we must retrace our steps. We must submit ourselves afresh to the Lord within the situation and be yoked with Him for His yoke is easy and His burden light.
The Angel’s instruction came with the promise of blessing. It had not been God’s will for this union between Abraham and Hagar to take place, but now that it had, He makes a gracious promise to their descendants. He promised Hagar a son, and even gave her the name for him- Ishmael. In addition the Lord promised to increase her descendants- they would become too numerous to count.
Ishmael means “God hears”. God had heard Hagar’s cry of distress. Ishmael would be a constant reminder to his mother how the God of Abraham- not her old gods in Egypt- had met her need. She even named the well where the angel of the Lord had met with her “well of the Living One who sees me”.
Hagar did return to Hebron, to Abraham and Sarah. She told them about her experience and it seems there was a time of repentance and thanksgiving on the part of all three of them. They resolved to live together as well as the situation would permit, and by God’s help. When the child was born Abraham- in obedience to the revelation received by Hagar- named him Ishmael and brought him up as his son. So, despite all their failings, the Lord did not give up on any of them. He remained with them. Despite Abraham’s failure the Lord would still bring about His first promises to Abraham. Ultimately the Lord redeemed a fraught situation and brought good out of it.
Conclusion
Romans 14:23 teaches “everything that does not come from faith is sin”. Be sure that your plans and purposes are truly in line with God’s word. People may agree with you and the law may defend you, but if God cannot bless you, don’t do it! Yes, obey God’s word in practical ways, but do not give in to expediency. Do not let the end justify an immoral means! Let God accomplish His will in His way and in His time. Sarah and Abraham tried to run ahead of God and created problems that are still with us today. Remember that once you live to please the sinful nature you give its dark manifestations more room in your life and this creates strife; you find yourself at war with God, at war within and at war with others.
Are you like Hagar at this time? More sinned against than sinning. Full of anger, anxiety and distress. Not knowing where you’re going in life. You feel continually let down. Life seems to be a hopeless, pointless existence for you. It doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to end that way. Look at God’s grace. He sees you. He is willing to meet your need. Cry out to Him as Hagar did and He will hear you and give you (and your children) a future and a hope
Or do you relate more to Abraham and Sarah here? You feel guilty because, like Sarah you have vented your anger on someone close. Like Abraham, you have treated someone cheaply. You have sacrificed someone to your whim. You are perhaps haunted by some form of sexual immorality from your past.
Romans 5:20 states “where sin increased, grace increased all the more”. God does not overlook sin, but God’s grace is greater than your sin and accomplishes God’s best even when you and I have done our worst. Abraham and Sarah had to learn to live with their mistakes, and so do we, but it’s Satan, not the Lord who wants to tell you that your act of disobedience- your shortcut- must become a permanent road for your life. God is never caught by surprise, what He cannot rule, He overrules. Like Abraham and Sarah you can confess your sin, accept God’s cleansing and then learn to live with His help and the hope He gives. You will still feel pain and regret from time to time but go with God in this and His grace will overcome.
As one writer put it: “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings”.
PTO)
Our final hymn reminds us of God’s redemptive love:
Hymn
‘Oh to see the dawn’ MP 1217 (Keyboards)
Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o5SSQlxNLs
Doxology
‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’ MP 557 (Keyboards)
Thomas Ken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiMZprhxZw4
Blessing
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore.