Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6

C.I.: The Problem of Impatience

Today we are beginning a new series of lessons (Mission Statement). – Our series is about “children” and it will focus on the children of one family. – We will look at the generations of Abraham's children for our lessons.

•  The Three “C”s of Impatience, (Genesis 16:1-16)

•  The Causes of Impatience, (vs. 1-2)

•  #1. Unmet Desires: “Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar,” ( v. 1 ).

•  Sarai desperately wanted children. – A woman's ability to bear children was her primary purpose

•  ( Gen. 30:1 ), “Rachel said, ‘Give me children, or else I die.”

•  ( v. 23 ), “Rachel conceived and bore a son and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach.'”

•  These desires have been around from the beginning ( Gen. 3:6 ) – and still looms before us today.

•  Eve desired something she believed she needed – without considering the consequences!

•  (AP) Atlanta, 2004: “4 out of every 10 births in the U.S. is of a child born out of wedlock.”

•  14,100 children being raised by homosexual couples, “Adoption & Foster Car Analysis and Reporting System (2004).

•  #2. “Stinken Thinken” : “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children,” ( v. 2a )

•  Sarai is blaming God for her situation – this also is not new, ( Gen. 3:12 )!

•  God may have kept her barren – but she had forgotten His promises!

•  ( Isa. 55:8-9; Jer. 29:11 ), “My thoughts are not your thoughts…” – “I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity – to give you a future and a hope.”

•  Today, how many of society's/individual problems – caused by this kind of impatience??

•  Young people want what they had at home – go deeply into debt to live like their parents.

•  “Government must take care of me from womb-tomb” – huge budget deficits by entitlements

•  1 st Century Xns & 2 nd coming… ( II Thess. 3:10 ), “…if someone does not work, neither….”

•  #3. Worldly Plans: “Please go into my maid, perhaps I will obtain children through her.”

•  We hear this same sort of thing today: “God helps those who help themselves.”

•  ( Mk. 4:26-27 ), “The Kingdom…is like a man who casts seed upon his soil; and goes to bed at night and get up by day, and the seed sprouts & grows – how, he himself does not know.”

•  We are called to do God's (not our) will – and leave the timing up to Him.

•  Out of Sarai's “worldly strategy” – came the Arab race!!! – Thus, simple solutions to divine situations will usually cause long-term problems!!!

•  The Consequences of Impatience, (vs. 3-6)

•  A Collapse of Faith, ( v. 3 ), “After Abram had 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.”

•  How often do people lose faith in God's plan – and seek to help Him – w/a plan of their own?

•  ( I Sam. 8:5, 7 ), “‘Give us a king…like all the nations!' … The Lord said, ‘They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”

•  ( Micah 2:11 ), “If a man walking after wind & falsehood – had told lies and said, ‘I will speak out to you concerning wine & liquor,' – he would be a spokesman to this people.”

•  ( II Tim. 4:3-4 ), “The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine….”

•  ( Heb. 6:12 ), “Be imitators of those - who thru faith [doing God's will God's way] & patience - inherit the promises.”

•  Sinful Behavior, ( vs. 4-7 ), “He went into Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived her mistress was despised in her sight. [Hagar's Spite] – And Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done me be upon you. – I gave my maid into your arms; but when she saw she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.' [Sarai's Scorn] – But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Behold, your maid is in your power; do what is good in your sight.' – So Sarai treated her harshly and she fled from her presence.” [Abram's Abrogation]

•  Today we find impatience on the one hand – leads to various sins on the other…

•  Impatient for: Money – Stealing; Sexual Intimacy – Immorality; Comfort – Laziness…!

•  The Cure for Impatience, (vs. 7-16)

•  Get with God, ( vs. 7-9 ), “Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. – He said, ‘Hagar, Sarai's maid, where…?' She said, ‘I am fleeing the presence of my mistress Sarai.' – Then the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress & submit….'”

•  When we are in pain due to impatience (ours/others) – we need to turn to God for help.

•  Has our own impatience brought about our problems & hurts? ( II Cor. 13:5; Acts 3:19 )

•  Or has the impatience of others caused our problem, ( Mt. 5:44; I Cor. 13:4 ), “Love your….”

•  Accept God's promises, ( vs. 10-12 ), “The angel said to her, ‘I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count… behold you are with child, you shall bear…

•  Ishmael = God hears! God heard her at the spring & He is promising to continue to hear her.

•  We sing, “Standing on the Promises” – do we?! – ( Mt. 28:20 ) – do we need to race ahead?!

•  ( Rom. 8:31 ), “Since God is for us – who can be against us.”

•  Patiently Obey, ( v. 15 ), “So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.”

•  Hagar repented and returned as instructed (and God blessed her with a son) – and Sarai & Abram received her back (thus, they too repented of their own impatience).

•  When we are impatient (family: spouse/children, at work/school, at church) – we must also repent & obey God.

•  ( I Pt. 3:20-21 ), “Those who were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, 8 persons, were….”

•  ( Mk. 16:16 ), “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved.”