Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
A Word to the Weary and the Overwhelmed
In Genesis 16, we see a woman who is weary and overwhelmed. The Bible says that Hagar was a servant to Sarai, the wife of Abram, and Sarai began to treat her very harshly because of the contempt in her heart for Hagar. Hagar finally reaches the point where she cannot take any more of her cruelty. She has reached the breaking point where she feels overwhelmed by her dilemma and she flees to the wilderness.
I believe that there are many believers who feel this way, weary and overwhelmed by very difficult problems and situations. The difficult circumstances that they have found themselves in are pressing in on every side and they feel so overwhelmed by it all.
WE SEE IN THE SCRIPTURES THAT SOME OF THE MOST GODLY SAINTS AND SPIRITUAL GIANTS IN THE BIBLE FELT THIS WAY:
In 1 Kings 19, we see that Elijah is under a very severe attack by the powers of darkness after being used by God to bring a spiritual victory to the nation of Israel. Like Hagar, he feels overwhelmed and he flees into the wilderness, and there he requests to die. 1 Kings 19:4b — “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” In a time of great weariness in the call of God, Jeremiah says “I will not make mention of Him, or speak any more in His name.” In the Psalms, David writes, “O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly and be at rest.” These were three men of God, mightily used by God, who had come to that place of feeling absolutely overwhelmed by the battles and their circumstances.
HAGAR WAS AT THIS PLACE NOW, FEELING ABSOLUTELY OVERWHELMED BY DESPAIR AND HOPELESSNESS.
I love the way the Lord dealt with her; He knew how she was feeling and He was very gentle with her. First of all, God had waited until she had refreshed herself before He began to speak to her heart. He waited until she had come to a well and drank, reviving her spirit. Genesis 16:7 — “And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” The Bible says that the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. Some theologians say that this is the Lord Himself, while others believe that it is an angel. If it is an angel, it is still the Lord speaking because angels are messengers of God doing the Lord’s will. Here we see the Lord waits for Hagar to come to a well of water in this wilderness, and there she drinks and is somewhat revived, her heart now prepared to hear the Lord speak to her. The truth that I see in this is that sometimes in very difficult situations we can feel so overwhelmed, pummeled by our feelings and emotions, and God knows before He can speak to us, He needs to provide for us a well to refresh our hearts. God knows when our hearts are ready to hear what He has to say, and He will wait until our hearts our ready to hear Him speak. In order to prepare the heart to hear, He will provide a well, something to revive our spirits, bringing a calm and a comfort to our hearts so we can hear the word of the Lord. What is this well that God provides? In Genesis 16, this well could represent many things; God has many ways that He can bring life to His people, refreshing them, but the well the Lord has set before us in this message is a call to come back to the simplicity of the Gospel.
What is the simplicity of the Gospel?
- The simplicity of the Gospel is to know that God saved us for no other reason but because He loves us. God passionately loves each one of His children, and the reason why He saved us is because He desires to be a loving heavenly Father to us. Romans 8:15, 16 — “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” This is the heart of the New Covenant: God desires to be a loving Father to His children. Sometimes it can be so easy to forget this simple truth, to become so busy with life and so busy in our Christian walk and service to the Lord that we somehow forget why we are saved. We are saved because God loves us!
- The simplicity of the Gospel is to love the Lord with all our heart, and walk with Him in that simplicity each day of our lives. It is to guard our hearts from any other affection that would seek to remove Him off the throne of our hearts, and keep the Lord first place in our love and affections.
- The simplicity of the Gospel is to keep our lives simple. Sometimes we can clutter our lives with so many things that are not really important and in time these things can create frustration and confusion. We need to simplify our walk by letting go of those things that distract from our relationship with God and allow Christ to be the true affection of our heart once again. Sometimes we can be walking in the perfect will of God, serving Him in the place that He has called us, and yet try to take old dreams and ambitions and cram them in somewhere. When we do this, it brings such a clutter to our lives and clutter brings so much frustration. Then, when we find ourselves in difficult situations, these frustrations only add to the turmoil and we find ourselves overwhelmed. Beloved, this is the well that God is setting before the weary and the overwhelmed in this message, a call to come back to the simplicity of the Gospel, and if we do this, we will find the life and the joy and the peace of God refreshing our hearts again.
AFTER HAGAR IS REFRESHED IN HER SPIRIT, THE LORD BEGINS TO TALK TO HER:
Genesis 16:8a — “...Hagar, Sarai’s maid...”. In these three words God is speaking into her life two very powerful truths:
- First, He is telling her that He knows her by name, and He knows where she is at. He is telling her that He sees what is going on in her life; He sees the cruelty and the mistreatment that she is suffering at the hands of Sarai. We need to know that no matter what we are going through, God sees and cares, that He is not unseeing or indifferent, but His heart is inclined to us.
- Secondly, He is reminding Hagar of her place. When the Lord addresses her as Hagar, Sarai’s maid, the Lord is saying, “Hagar, you are Sarai’s servant and that is your place. In good times and in hard times, it is where you belong and you cannot leave your place.”
So often when we are feeling overwhelmed we want to run from the will of God, but we have to know in our hearts where God has called us to be and what God has called us to do, and know that even when it gets difficult, it is still God’s ordained place for our lives. We have to know that when God plants us somewhere, in the hard times His grace is sufficient to sustain us. In Genesis 16:8, the Lord speaks two very heart probing questions to Hagar:
Genesis 16:8a — “...Whence camest thou?...” When the Lord asks Hagar this question, He is not asking her the location where she is coming from; He already told her that He knew her name, where she was coming from, and the cruelty and injustice that she was suffering. God is asking her a very thought provoking question, that question being, “Hagar, what are you leaving behind?” The answer is obvious; she is leaving behind the knowledge of God. As Sarai’s servant, she is in a place where she sees Abram’s walk with God, and how God is revealing Himself to Abram. Through Abram, she is learning God’s ways, His faithfulness, and how personal He is in the lives of those who walk with Him. By being so closely acquainted with Abram and Sarai, she is coming into the knowledge of God. Beloved, here is my point: in those times in our lives when circumstances are very hard and difficult and we want to just run away or quit, God asks the question, “What will you lose if you runaway or quit?” The answer is obvious, the intimate knowledge of God. You cannot separate knowing God intimately from His will; it is only as we surrender to His will, whether it be times of great blessing or times of great suffering, that God opens up the eyes of our hearts and lets us see Him in a very personal and intimate way. We also have to remember, there are things about God’s heart that we can never know without going through the dark and difficult times. God allows His people to go through dark times because He wants them to see and experience His heart in a way that only difficult times can reveal.
The Lord also asks Hagar, “...Whither wilt thou go?...” Again, this is a heart searching question. Where was she going? Genesis 16:7 — “And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” She is in the land of Shur which is located next to Egypt. Hagar was an Egyptian, so we see she is on her way back to Egypt, back to her people. The angel is asking her this question, “Hagar, if you runaway and go back to your people, where is it going to take you?” The answer is back to her people’s false gods and idols, but what the angel is saying is this, “Hagar, after coming into the revelation of the one true God, where else can you find true purpose and meaning? You can never worship the idols of Egypt and have peace and contentment in your heart, because you know it is all vanity. Only the knowledge of the true God and growing in that knowledge can fulfill your heart.” At this point Hagar is beginning to understand that there is nowhere she can run and find purpose and fulfillment of heart and that there is nothing she can fill her heart with that can possibly take the place of knowing God. Beloved, if you are feeling weary and overwhelmed and feel like fleeing God’s perfect will, what will you go back to that can possibly take the place of God and His presence in your life? What can possibly take the place of growing more and more intimate with God?
After speaking these heart probing questions, the Lord gives her instructions. Genesis 16:9a — “And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress…” His first instruction is to tell Hagar to return to her place. Whether she is in a time of great blessing or experiencing great difficulties, it is still the place of God’s planting and she needs to stay there. Then the Lord goes on to say, “…and submit thyself under her hands.” What we have to understand about this is that God is not just telling her to submit, He is telling her how to put an end to all of Sarai’s cruelty. Because Hagar is at a place now where she can hear the Lord speak to her, God is now giving her a word in season to meet her situation. In Ecclesiastes 10, we get an understanding of what God is really speaking to Hagar. Ecclesiastes 10:4 — “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offenses.” In other words, a humble spirit puts to rest a lot of strife. This is a word for Hagar’s situation; God is telling her how to put an end to so much of Sarai’s mistreatment. The reason why Sarai became so cruel to Hagar is because when Hagar became pregnant with Abram’s child, the Scriptures say that she became proud and began to lightly esteem Sarai, that she treated Sarai as inferior to herself. In the wilderness, God was telling Hagar, “If you return, and humble yourself to Sarai, quit being proud and esteem her higher than yourself, you will see her cruelty end.” Beloved, here is my point: The circumstances that are overwhelming us may not be the same as Hagar’s, but if we are feeling weary and overwhelmed God does have a word in season to speak to our hearts. In this message, God is saying, “Come back to the simplicity that is in Christ, and then you will begin to hear my word and direction to your heart. When we are overwhelmed, sometimes our emotions scream so loud, but when we come back to the simplicity of the Gospel and find that well in the wilderness, that is when we will begin to hear a clear word saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isaiah 30:21).
GOD GOES ON TO COMFORT HAGAR WITH THE ASSURANCE OF MERCY AND BLESSING.
Genesis 16:10 — “And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” God spoke to her that He was going to give her a child, and she would love this child and it would be a great blessing to her life.
Today, you may be in a very difficult place right now, but as you submit to Him and stay in the place where He has planted you, He has so many blessings to pour out on your life. I once heard someone say, “Following Christ has a cost, but the goodness of God so outweighs the cost.” How true! God is so good to His people!
Genesis 16:12 — “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him;” In other words, God is telling Hagar that this child is not going to be easy to raise; there is going to be difficulties and hardships. Here is another wonderful thing about the Lord, His honesty. He does not just tell His people about the blessings, but He knows that His people will go through great trials and tribulations and He tells His people there will be great adversity and hardships in their lives. In God’s word to Hagar, God is reminding us again that His path is not always easy, but He will walk with us each day, and be faithful to us in all things.
LET US END THIS MESSAGE WITH A QUESTION: WHAT IS THE NAME OF GOD THAT HAGAR WILL CARRY AND TREASURE IN HER HEART FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE?
Genesis 16:13a — “And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me...” The name of God that she will treasure in her heart for the rest of her life is, “The God who sees me.” This speaks about how personal God is now to her. In these words she is saying, “God not only sees Abram, but He sees me. He is not only Abram’s God because now I see He is my God also. He does not just walk with Abram, and protect and provide for Abram, but He walks with me, protects and provides for me. God does not just keep His promises to Abram, but because He is my God, He keeps the promises that He has made to me.” What a wonderful revelation Hagar received in this wilderness, that God is her God and she belongs to Him! Then she goes on to say, “Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?” This is not really a question, but a statement. What she said is, “In this place I have seen Him that sees me.” This is the truth God is revealing: When we come back to the simplicity that is in Christ, loving Him, and walking with Him and surrendering to Him each day of our lives, God will open the eyes of our hearts to see Him in such a fresh way. When we drink from the well of simplicity, and hear His word that gives us guidance in the difficult situations we are in, we will then find that God has used our difficulties to again reveal His faithfulness and bring us even deeper into an intimate relationship with Himself. God be praised!