This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Well, on this second Sunday of Advent, let's turn to the not Christmas story. Genesis chapter 16. This is so far from the Christmas story, I don't even know what to say. Genesis chapter 16, this is God's holy and inspired word. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I will obtain children through her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. After Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar, the Egyptian hand, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. He went into Hagar and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done me be upon you. I gave you my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, behold, your maid is in your power to do with her what is good in your sight. So Sarai treated her harshly and she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to shore. He said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarai. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. The angel of the Lord said to her, further, behold, you're with child, you'll bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He will 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 to the east of all of his brothers. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are a God who sees. For she said, have I even remained alive here after seeing him? Therefore, the well was called Be'er Lahai Ro'i. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son. And Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him, thus the reading of God's holy word. Have you ever messed up in life? Okay. Have others ever messed up in life in a way that has messed up your life? Well, Genesis chapter 16 is about Abram and Sarai messing up. Messing up, we would say, big time. In fact, Genesis chapter 16 is the story of the fall all over again. And so I noted last week that Abram actually reflects the offices of prophet, priest, and king. I'll tell you today that Abram here reflects our first father, Adam, and Sarai, our first mother, Eve. But Genesis chapter 16 is not only about people who know how to mess things up, Genesis chapter 16 is also the story of grace to one who is outside of the covenant people. The reason we sang number 42 today, El Shaddai, is because it's the only hymn I'm aware of that mentions Hagar, but not by name. To the outcast on her knees, he is the God who really sees. So this is a story of grace and mercy to a woman who is outside of the covenant, but beyond that she actually is a proud Egyptian handmaid named Hagar. And just as our Lord Jesus went and tenderly ministered truth and grace to the Samaritan woman at the well, so the Lord himself tenderly and truthfully ministers grace to Hagar, also near a well. This chapter contains incredible drama. But the drama is so dramatic because it emerges out of the context of divine promise and renewed faith and the hope of fulfillment. In a sense, that's what makes chapter 16 so striking to us, so stunning to us, is that right on the heels of this magnificent passage in chapter 15, we now have this sordid story about two people of faith acting in anything but faith. And so verses one through six, this is really easily divided. One through six, tension in the tent. Seven through 16, mercy in the wilderness. We begin with tension in the tent, verses one through six. Now let me just say that if Abram and Sarai had actually gone to Sunday school, and benefited from level two of the IBCD counseling on marriage, they probably could have averted this terrible tragedy. And so let me just remind you, if tension in the tent sounds familiar to you, get to Sunday school. Listen to the lesson from this morning. It was absolutely magnificent, and if you missed it, you missed something that could have really helped your marriage. There, that's the advertisement for free. Now, what makes this first part, Tension in the Tent, so stunning is that Abram has just come off of this mountaintop experience. There's no way that Abram is not on cloud nine after what happens in chapter 15, where Abram splits the animals, the covenant ritual, and God himself passes through those split animals by himself. Does not does not walk through those with Abram remember it is a it is an oath of Self-malediction in other words if I fail to keep the covenant may what happened to these animals happen to me in other words It is imposing a curse on Oneself for failure to keep the covenant and God does not make Abram walk through those pieces with him He walks through by himself in a sense demonstrating that this covenant is a unilateral covenant based on God's divine grace, God's faithfulness will be what upholds this covenant, and Abram sees this with his own eyes, and we go from the mountaintop experience to now a test. By the way, have you noticed there's this pattern in Genesis? And it goes mountaintop experience, test, failure, failure, reminder of the promises. That's the way it works. Now the crisis this time is not with Abram wondering how the promise is going to be fulfilled, but with his wife. She's wondering how the promise is going to be fulfilled. And the text tells us what we already know all the way back from chapter 11 in verse 30, which is this. And Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. We saw back in the genealogy in chapter 11 in verse 30 that Sarai, Abram's wife, was barren. Now, there's gonna be this emphasis throughout the text. Wife, maid. Sarai is going to be identified as Abram's wife over and over again. And this passage starts out just as famine was a threat regarding the land promise. Obviously barrenness is a threat to the seed promise. And so you can imagine here they are. They, by the way, we're going to find out 10 years now, 10 years, 10 years. Think 10 years ahead from where you are right now, how old will you be? Some of you will be eaten by worms 10 years from now. Maybe buried right out there. Now, 10 years, in some ways that's a long time. Waiting for God? Waiting for God to fulfill His promise? Here they know that they have this promise that they're not only gonna have a son, they're not only gonna have seed, but they're gonna have a multitude of descendants that no man can number, and yet, if I could put it this way, month by month goes by. And you could imagine Abram every time, No baby, no baby. Month by month, year by year, no baby. Well, Sarai comes up with this idea, and the text tells us that she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. Now, a point of interest, where in the world did Hagar come from? Oh, wow! Hagar actually, in all likelihood, comes into Abram's entourage and extended family back in chapter 12, verse 16. In all likelihood, Hagar was probably one of the gifts that Pharaoh gave to Abram as Abram gives up his wife. You think that might still be a sore spot with him? Every time Abram and Sarai go back into marriage counseling, they always go back to that time in Egypt. Hagar, though, is not only a sore reminder of Abram's dismal failure in Egypt, but she's also, if you will, a plot thickener. So, Sarai says, the Lord has prevented me from bearing. Now in one sense, if she's acknowledging the sovereignty of God over the womb, that's one thing, but that's really not sort of the sense you get. What you get here is this level of complaining, and so 10 years have gone by, and you know, perhaps Sarai has gone through that time of life where all hope of bearing children is now faded. 10 years in the land, no child. And so as she stands there looking at her infertility, she doesn't look at her infertility in light of the promise with the eyes of faith, like, wow, I bet God's really getting ready to do something big. Rather, she's looking at it through the eyes of her own human sight and understanding, and she's going to come up with a plan of her own because the bottom line is that she blames God. Sometimes our complaints are not all that well-veiled complaints against none other than God himself. Now, here's her really bad idea. She says, take my maid, I will obtain children through her. Now, to be sure, this would have been a relatively socially acceptable practice in the land of Canaan, but the fact is, is just because something's socially acceptable doesn't mean that it's acceptable in the eyes of God. In fact, a lot of stuff that's socially acceptable is flat out reprehensible in the eyes of God. And so here's Sarai and she says, you know, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. Here is Hagar. She's obviously in that age of fertility. And this is similar actually to Abram's suggestion that God use Eleazar as the heir. This is just more sordid. I was struck this last week, I was reading Calvin's Institutes, and he says this, and this is not, he's not thinking or talking about Sarah and Hagar, he says, what after all do we gain by vainly trusting in our ability to plan, order, undertake, and implement our cherished schemes when we lack both sound understanding and the power to accomplish anything at all? These things I maintain we lack from the outset, yet we stubbornly insist on going our own way until we come to utter ruin. This is bound to happen to all who believe they can do anything in their own strength. Well, the tragedy of the text is this little expression. And Abram listened to his wife. Now you don't know how many sermon ideas I had go through my mind on that little text. So this week I was really, really sick and Ariel said, you need to stay home and rest and get better and not go to work and infect everybody. Then she looked at me and she said, but I know that you take great pride in never listening to your wife. Well, that's right. Look what happened to Abram. I mean, it's a bad idea. By the way, that little phrase, Abram listened to his wife is the exact same phrase that you have in Genesis chapter three and verse 17 where Adam listened to his wife. You see what trouble you can get into. And so Bruce Waltke says, like Adam, Abram agrees to his wife's faithless suggestion. And so I just want to say at this point, as you're reading the text, you want to say, wait a second, Abram, why do you think this is such a good idea? Don't you even want to stop and pray about this? And Abram probably said, well, honey, that's a great idea. Now, verse three tells us, after Abram lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. By the way, gave him as his wife is a euphemism. Okay, so euphemism for the sexual relationship that is about to ensue. And you have to wonder this, you have to ask if maybe after living a full decade, 10 years among Canaanites, if that had not made this option maybe a little more palatable to Abram and Sarai, because we are in fact influenced by our culture, are we not? And yet this very language that we see is when, Sarai gives Hagar to her husband, it is the very same language that we have in chapter 3 and verse 6 of Eve giving to Adam the forbidden fruit. Now, Hagar conceives Verse four tells us that when she conceived, she saw that she'd conceived and her mistress was despised in her sight. And so here's fertile Hagar and now her belly starts showing. That little baby's growing inside and what do you know? Hagar gets woman of the year. The New Living Translation puts it like this, but when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt. The idea of treat with contempt is the idea of to treat as insignificant or to treat as contemptible. Here's Sarai, or here's Hagar, and you know what? She just, she simply has pride over her new maternal status. Now imagine, imagine what was going on inside of Abram's tent. In the morning, Hagar wakes up and walks by Sarai and kind of slows down and rubs that belly. At dinnertime, Hagar says, oh princess, it's Zariah's name, right? Excuse me, Mrs. Princess, can you hand me the potatoes? I'm eating for two. And the tension grows. And she's rubbing Sarai's nose in her own barrenness and look how fertile I am. Should have been a member of Grace Community Church. It's not surprising though, Solomon would write many years later, under three things the earth quakes, and under four it cannot bear up. Under a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he's satisfied with food, under an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maid servant when she supplants her mistress. Well, Sarai's not gonna take this lying down, she begins to complain, but the amazing thing is that she actually shifts the blame, not just to God, but now to Abram, and Abram just kind of shrugs off the responsibility. Notice this, verse five, Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done me be upon you. Jerk. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me. Now this is, if you're married, this makes perfect sense. Logically, you're like, where is this argument coming from? Right? I mean, as one old Scottish commentator, Robert Candlish, says, alas, had she forgotten that all she complained of was but the fruit of her own device, and that as she had sowed, so she reaped. But now it's all Abram's fault. May God judge between us. And Abram, being the man of the house, said to Sarai, yes, dear, whatever you say. Behold, your mate is in your power to do to her what is good in your sight. The passivity here is actually striking. Here's an opportunity for Abram actually to step up in integrity and righteousness and actually to bring clarity to the situation. And instead, all he does is just passively says, well, you know what, she's your handmaiden after all. Do whatever you think is right. I mean, far be it from me to kind of step in and tell you what to do in this moment. And then the text tells us something that's startling, but again, understanding human dynamics, completely understandable, Sarai treated her harshly. Now, the idea of treating harshly, by the way, is the idea to torment, to humiliate, to oppress, or to subjugate. Here's the thing that Moses doesn't want us to miss. It's the very same word that he used in chapter 15 in verse 13 of what would happen to the children of Israel in the land of Egypt for 400 years. For 400 years, Abraham's descendants would be subjugated and oppressed. And now, in a peculiar reversal, we have one Hebrew woman treating one Egyptian woman in the very same way that the entire Egyptian nation would treat the nation of Israel. Well, Hagar takes off. She flees. Verse six, she fled from her presence. And so here she is, she's pregnant and she heads out on her own. And where is she going? Well, the text tells us in verses seven through nine, that the angel of the Lord finds her by a spring of water on the way to shore. Where is she going? She's going back to Egypt. This is an exodus in reverse. She's going back to the land of her family, the land of her God. She's going back to where it is comfortable, but she's really in no condition to try to go all the way back to Egypt. She's fleeing back to Egypt and she stops by a spring of water, by a well, which in all likelihood probably had a sign that said something like this, next services 240 miles. There she is. And the angel of the Lord appears to her. Now, presumably, as she lived with Abram and Sarai, she heard about the Lord. She heard about this great God that they served, who had called them out of Ur the Chaldeans. She no doubt had heard, as it were, in a sense, the gospel many times. And so, when the angel of the Lord appears to her, she knows who this is. I would suggest to you, by the way, that the angel of the Lord is what we would call a theophany. That is an appearance of God Himself. But I would go even farther and say that it is more than just an appearance of God. It is an appearance of the Son of God before the incarnation. The angel of the Lord is none other than the pre-incarnate second person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he is. And so here's this proud Egyptian handmaiden who has had enough of this treatment. She's taking matters into her own hand. She's going back to where she's going to feel comfortable. And then the angel of the Lord appears to her. God sends his messenger to go and to rescue her. And then they have this marvelous conversation. Verse eight, he said, Hagar, by the way, the only time in the Old Testament where a woman is addressed by name, by God himself. Hagar, Sarai's maid, remember who you are, Hagar, Sarai's maid. Where have you come from and where are you going? Now, I don't think that he asked this because he was actually puzzled by her whereabouts. He asks her these questions because these questions are conversation starters. These questions are the same kind of question of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and saying, Adam, where are you? This is to draw in Hagar into a conversation with the living God. And she says to him, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. Now, do you think she felt absolutely justified in doing what she was doing? Absolutely. Make no mistake about it. She got pulled in to Abram and Sarai's mess but she helped complicate the mess too. That's how things work, okay? You're never dragged into a mess and then yourself become mess free. And the angel doesn't say, that's right, stand up for your rights. Good for you. Stick it to the man, in this case, the woman. How dare she treat you like that? Instead, the angel of the Lord gives her counsel. Candlish again says, in the wilderness, the fugitive meets with a better friend. Now what does he tell her to do? He says in verse nine, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Literally, it's return and humble yourself before her authority. What the angel of the Lord is actually telling Hagar to do is to repent and to go back to the place where she belongs. Now I'm sure that she could have mounted all kinds of arguments as to why this was really a really terrible, terrible idea, but instead she receives what she hears from the angel of the Lord. And it was, again, striking to me this week, thinking about this text, how often times do we find ourselves being brought into a mess created by other people. We ourselves contribute to it, but in our own sense of self-righteousness, we're picking up our marbles and we're going to go back to where we're comfortable. We're out of here. And you know what God says? God says, go back. Go back. What do you think you're doing? You think life is mess-free? You think you're innocent, you're righteous? As you're sitting there trying to identify all of the specks in everybody's eye, there's a gigantic log in your own, and God says, listen, submit. Humble yourself. Go back to where you belong. Quit acting like you're 10. Then the angel says, Further to her, verse 10, I will greatly multiply your descendants so they will be too many to count. By the way, we know that the angel of the Lord is God incarnate himself because he speaks as God incarnate himself. He doesn't say, God told me to tell you this. It is, this is the promise that I'm making to you, which by the way, is the exact same promise that he had made to Abram. And so here is this amazing interaction now. And Ken Matthew says, it's striking that Hagar is the first woman to receive a birth annunciation and the first woman to receive direct promises from the Lord himself. And so first promises, multiplication of descendants, And so here she is, she is an Egyptian, she's outside of that chosen line, as it were, and yet the angel of the Lord tells her that in her submission, when she returns, she would enter into the very blessings of Abraham himself. And although Ishmael is not going to be the son of promise, Ishmael will still be a son of Abraham. And Ishmael will still be blessed in certain ways. And then, verse 11, and the angel of the Lord said to her further, behold, you are with child and you will bear a son. She knew she was with child, but now she knows she's gonna have a son, and then notice this, and you shall call his name Ishmael. Isn't that? Isn't that stunning? We're familiar with that language, and you shall call his name, well, you shall call his name Emmanuel, you shall call his name Jesus. I mean, we're used to that in, like, with follow it up, you shall call his name with something that's really great. And now it's, you're gonna call his name Ishmael. So notice, it's the angel of the Lord that actually gives Ishmael his name. And the name means, God hears. God hears. the angel says why he's giving this name notice because the Lord has given heed to your affliction in other words God has heard your misery and so you're going to name this child Ishmael which means God hears because every time you call out Ishmael you're gonna be calling out God hears you're gonna be making the very proclamation that is Coming to you in the wilderness at this place that there is a God who has heard you in your affliction And there is a God who has heard you in your misery Now there's a prophecy Verse 12 He'll be a wild donkey of a man and His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him and he will live to the east of all his brothers. Now let me just say a few things about this prophecy. He'll be a wild donkey of a man. Now that doesn't sound very good to us. If I said to you at lunch, you are a wild donkey of a man, Steve Nugent, I'm wondering if Steve would have the look that he has right now, which is why are you calling me a wild donkey? Actually, there's nothing immediately derogatory about a wild donkey of a man. And the reason is, is because in the ancient Near East, there was something that was somewhat commendable about wild donkeys, and that is that they were absolutely free and independent and were under nobody's control. The idea is is that is that her son Ishmael would live an unconventional nomadic independent life, not necessarily bad in and of itself. But then the next part tells us that he's going to be hostile towards others. In other words, Ishmael is going to exhibit some of that same defiant spirit that his mother has already exhibited. And in turn, everybody's hand is going to be against him. He's going to be a man who will be the head, as it were, of a people group who will be hostile towards others, living by his own rules, and as a result infringing on the neighbors around. And he'll live to the east. I've already noted multiple times, living to the east is not good. Cain went to the east. Now let me just say one thing about this, and that is it is a profound mistake to think that Ishmael is the father of all Arab nations. That's not true. That's not true. The Arab peoples, and there are many Arab peoples, actually come not only through the line of Ishmael, those who would probably have settled in the northern part of Arabia, but the rest of the Arab peoples probably come through the line of Jocton, who is in the line of Eber. So it's a mistake to think that somehow this is just a statement regarding all Arab people. And since this is a pretty relevant situation for us today, let me also just tell you that not all Arabs are Muslims. And not all Muslims are Arabs. In fact, for 2,000 years. there has been a wonderful tradition of Arab Christianity. So, before you go taking the prophecy regarding Ishmael and turn it into some Muslim thing, be careful. Be careful. I would remind you that on that last day there will be people from every nation, every tribe, every tongue. Some from the sons of Ishmael. Now, verse 13 has got to be absolutely just so heartwarming. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. By the way, can you remember one time in the Bible where somebody names God? It doesn't happen. This is the only place where a human being actually attributes a name to God himself. And so here she is, Hagar, and what does she do? She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God who sees. For she said, have I remained alive here after seeing him? And so here, you have to understand, this is absolutely astonishing. You're a God who sees. You're a God who sees me. She's marveling that the God of heaven, that the God of Abraham, that El Elyon, God most high, notices her, an outcast, notices her, an Egyptian handmaid, on the run, a fugitive. She is marveling over the fact that God sees me. He knows my name. He hears every cry. He sees every tear. And then she not only marvels that God sees her, she also marvels that she's remained alive after seeing him. In other words, she recognizes fully and completely that she doesn't belong in his presence. She has the reaction that every human being should have entering into the presence of divinity. And that is a sense of, I am astonished that I'm alive. God has seen her and she has seen him and she remains alive. What is amazing about this is that there's no resistance, there's no defiance in a sense that that once proud, defiant antagonist has been humbled before God with the reality that this God will take care of her because he sees her and she marvels at it. And then she names the well. Ba'er, Laha'i, Ro'i, the well of the living one who sees. What a great story of grace. Then verse 15, this is the aftermath. So Hagar bore Abram a son. I've been present for the birth of two children. The thing that runs through my mind over and over and over again is, thank you, God, you did not make me a woman. Thank you, God, you did not make me a woman. Then, Lord, relieve her of this pain. This looks like it really hurts. How thick are tent walls? Not very thick. There's Hagar giving birth. You think Sarai's okay with this? Oh, let me just tell you that that tension has not been resolved. She bears Abram a son. Now, if you really want to be amazed, you will read this next part slowly. and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Why is that astonishing? Well, because that's the name the angel of the Lord told Hagar that the boy was gonna be called. I have no doubt that when Hagar went back, there she was, pardon the bad pun, but just totally haggard. And she, can't help it, haggardly walks into the tent and just tells Abram and Sarai, I'm sorry. Please take me back. Belly's out to here. She says, I met God. Abram says, really? What did he say? He said, I'm gonna bear a son and his name's gonna be Ishmael. God hears. And on that day, Abram walks in and the nurse is standing there ready to fill out the birth certificate. And she looks at Abram and says, what's his name? His name's Ishmael. One commentator says that Abram named the boy testifies to the fact that Hagar related to him all that God had done for her and said to her for Abram to give the boy the name Ishmael would have been a lesson in itself. Think about it. Do you think they know Ishmael means God hears? Amen, they most certainly do. And so every time Abram says, Ishmael, come here, it's time to take out the trash. He say, come here, little God hears, reminder. Every time Sarai said, Ishmael, I told you not to touch that. God hears, God hears, God hears. Now the verse, or the passage closes with, Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. 86 years old. Here, let me just spell it out for you. Time is slipping away. But what a lesson. What a lesson. By the way, it's a lesson that Isaac would learn, and he would learn it well, and not go the route of his father and mother, but he would pray to God for his barren wife. Well, what a passage. As I said at the beginning, this certainly is not a nativity story, is it? When we try to help God out, which by the way, looks like all kinds of things. Sometimes it just looks like a simply going our own way and doing our own thing. We try to help God out. It's just our unbelief kicking in. And let me just remind all of us that nothing good comes from it survives. Scheming parallels Eve's in Genesis three. And Sarai, what she's doing is she's taking the promise and the power of life into her own hands. Sarai's scheme and Abram's passivity make a huge mess of things. And then Hagar's pride stirs the mess up even more. And yet, here's the amazing thing. God shows mercy to Hagar. He calls her by name, shows concern for her, and then sends her back to where she rightfully belongs. Now on the one hand, the tension in the tent is unresolved, right? There's still going to be no child, no fulfillment yet. But here's what stands out about this passage. You have two people, God's people, people of faith, who because they acted in unbelief made a real mess of things. and their mess involved somebody else, who added to the mess by her own arrogance and foolishness. I just ask you, do these steps sound familiar to any of you? What does God do? Does he take Abram's route and says, wow, I cannot believe you people. You go sort it out yourselves. I'm done trying to help you. How many times do I have to tell you? How many times do you have to try on your own to do what only I can do and then I have to come along and tell you? So, bye-bye. Aren't you glad that God doesn't do that? Aren't you glad that God doesn't just say, well, you know what, I don't know what more I can do with you. You have serious mental issues. Rather, what he does is he appears. He appears, he appears to Hagar in the wilderness and he sees Hagar's distress, which is in fact in part her own fault. in part the fault of others and he sees her, he hears her, he's concerned, he calls her by name, calls her to repent and then blesses her with promises of her own and she marvels at his care. That he would actually hear her and take care of her, she marvels at the mercy shown to her in the wilderness. She in turn calls him by a special name and memorializes that name in her son and in the name of that well. And so maybe you're sitting here this morning and you have made a mess of things. You've made a mess of relationships around you. You've made a mess of your marriage. You've made a mess of things at work. Maybe others made the mess first. But it doesn't matter. Because a mess is a mess, right? Maybe you think that God has finally thrown up his hands with you and says, well, you know, you got to get out of this one yourself. Be a big boy, be a big girl, get moving. I tell you today, nothing could be further from the truth. He sees and he sees And he cares. He cares for you. And the only proof I need is the old rugged cross. He sent His Son just as He sent Him to Hagar at the well to redeem a people who were in a mess from which they could not save themselves. He is the God who sees. Everyone in this room, He sees. He knows you by name. He knows your mess and he cares. He is the God who shows mercy in the wilderness. Let's pray. Father, we love your word. We are so glad that you don't whitewash the sins of your people and candy coat your truth. You give it to us in the raw realities of human fallenness and divine faithfulness. And so, Father, we thank you for Genesis 16. We thank you for the mercy shown to Hagar. Father, what a precursor to the mercy shown to us. We thank you, Father, that you have given us your own son, our rescuer, our deliverer, the one who saves us from our sins. Blessed be his holy name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.