"Boundaries"
Leading up to The 10 Commandments
Part 4
1.God wants us to help him. [Represent Him to the world]
2.God does not want us to help him by doing things our own way.
“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… 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. 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 [Jesus] found Hagar near a spring in the desert… and 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.” … 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael …16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”
(Genesis 16:1-16)
Looking at their family tree, we see that Hagar and Abram bore Ishmael (which led to the Arab/Islam Nations) and Abram and Sarai bore Isaac (which led to the Jewish Nations).
1. God wants us to help him.
2.God does not want us to help him by doing things our own way.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes…”
-Proverbs 3:5-7
“… everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
-Romans 14:23
“… faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word…”
-Romans 10:17
Whenever we follow our own wisdom & sinfulness
we will end up fighting.
1.Sarai should not have blamed God for her being barren.
2.Sarai should not have offered Hagar.
3.Abraham should not have listened.
4.Abram should have been Lovingly-firm with Sarai about her jealousy and Hagar about her flaunted her pregnancy to Sarai.
Q: Where can you…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes…”
-Proverbs 3:5-7
“… he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes…”
-Proverbs 3:5-7
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