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Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000048S
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00:06 Sermon #S026 - I'll Take it From Here - (Part 1)
00:20 Pastor Snell: Today, we are beginning a new teaching series entitled "Family-ish". 00:27 And we are going to be looking over the next couple of weeks at God's plan for a family. 00:31 How many of us want God's blessing over our families today? Do you want His blessing over your marriage? 00:36 Come on and say Amen. Do you want His blessings over your children? Let me hear you say, Amen. 00:40 [Congregation: Amen] 00:42 Listen, if you are single and you want Him to bless your walk until... let me hear you say, Amen. 00:45 [Congregation: Amen] 00:48 Even if you are mourning or grieving, there is a word in this series that I believe is going to help 00:51 and bless you along the way. And so today I am going invite you to go with me into your Bibles to Genesis 16 00:56 and hear a message that is really near and dear to my heart. 00:59 Genesis 16. We are going to begin together from verse number one, and then we are going to peek over to Genesis 21, 01:06 which is where we will land. And so we will have a good bit of reading for this morning's session. Genesis 16, 01:12 and will begin there at verse number one. When you get there, say "Pastor, I'm here." 01:21 Genesis 16:1. Anybody remembers the story of Abraham, Sarai, and Hagar? 01:32 [Congregation: Amen] 01:33 Yes, it is a trip. 01:36 [Congregation: Laughing] 01:38 The Bible says, "Now Sarai, Abraham's wife had born him no children. 01:45 And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abraham, "See now, 01:52 the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid and perhaps I shall obtain children by her". 02:01 And noticed that there was no disagreement. 02:05 [Congregation: Laughing] 02:07 In the story, the Bible says that "Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abrams's wife, took Hagar, her maid, 02:17 the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. 02:26 So he went into Hagar and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes." 02:37 Then Sarai said to Abram," My wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace, 02:45 and when she saw that she conceived I became despised in her eyes. 02:50 The Lord judge between you and me". So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is where in your hand do to her as what?" 03:02 [Congregation: You please] 03:04 "...you please." And Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her presence. 03:09 Now the Angel of the Lord found her by the spring of water in the wilderness. 03:13 By the spring on the way to Shur. And he said to Hagar, Sarai's maid. "Where have you come from? 03:20 And where are you going?" She said," I am fleeing the presence of my mistress Sarai." The angel of the Lord said to her," 03:27 Return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand." 03:31 Then the angel of the Lord said unto her, "I will multiply your what?" 03:36 [Congregation: Descendants] 03:36 "...descendants." How? 03:38 [Congregation: Exceedingly] 03:40 "...exceedingly. So that they shall not be counted for multitudes". 03:43 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, "Behold you are with child, and you shall bear a son and you shall call his name, 03:50 what?" 03:51 [Congregation: Ishmael] 03:52 "...Ishmael because the Lord has heard your affliction." 03:56 Everybody, notice there are some traits he gives about Ishmael. "He shall be a wild man. 04:02 And his hand shall be against every man. And every man's hand shall be against him. 04:08 And he shall dwell in the presence of all of his brother." And now go over to Genesis 21. 04:16 We will begin together at verse number 8. When you get there say "Pastor, I'm ready." 04:20 [Congregation: Pastor, I'm ready] 04:22 Genesis 21:8. Again, when you get there, I'll wait for just say "Pastor, I'm ready." 04:29 [Congregation: Pastor, I'm ready] 04:31 All right. So fast forward about 15 years. The child that was promised, Isaac, has been born. 04:36 Abraham has been able to manage it to a point but he can not manage it no further. Bible says, 04:43 "So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. 04:51 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham's scoffing. 04:59 Therefore, she said to Abraham, "Cast out this bond woman and her son. 05:04 For the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son namely, Isaac." 05:11 And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son. 05:16 But God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of your bondwoman. 05:24 Whatever Sarah has said unto you, listen to her voice for in Isaac, your seed shall be called. 05:30 Yet I will make a Nation of the son of the bondwoman because he is your seed." 05:38 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and skin of water, 05:42 and putting it on her shoulder he gave it to the boy and the boy gave it to Hagar and sent her away. 05:50 Then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up, 05:59 and she placed the boy under one of the shrub. 06:02 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance about that of a bow shot. 06:09 For she said to herself, "Let me not see the death of the boy." So she sat opposite of him and lifted up her voice and wept. 06:19 And God heard the voice of the lad. 06:24 Somebody out there shout hallelujah! 06:27 [Congregation: Hallelujah!] 06:29 Then the angel of the Lord called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, 'What ails you, Hagar? 06:34 Fear not for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise and lift up the lad, and hold him with your hands, 06:43 for I will make of him a what? 06:46 [Congregation: Great nation.] 06:47 "...great nation." Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, 06:53 and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. 06:57 And so God was with the lad. He grew and dwelled in the wilderness and became an Archer. 07:03 He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 07:11 For emphasis, I am going to read verse eighteen, "Arise, lift up the lad hold him up with your hands, 07:18 for God says I will make of him a great nation. 07:22 Today, with God's help and your prayers, I want to talk for a little while under the subject: I WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE. 07:32 Let us pray together. 07:33 Father, in this little while would you say much? Father, 07:39 there is something that you want to say to us in the way we parent, 07:43 in the way we date, in the way that we marry, in the way we teach our children about you. 07:50 And so father, I sense a spirit of anxiety over this service, Lord. Would you cause it to be broken up? 07:57 Father, I ask that you would allow your spirit to be made so dense, that it would smother all rivaling principalities. 08:05 So Lord, would you hide Me In the Shadows of the cross, that Jesus alone might be seen, that Christ alone would be heard. 08:14 And at the end of our time together may Jesus alone be praised. We ask this in the name of him who is altogether lovely. 08:21 It is in the name of Jesus, that we pray. Let God's people say together Amen. 08:27 You may be seated in the house of the Lord today. 08:31 Again, talking under the subject: I WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE. 08:38 Church, when I was pastoring in Lexington Kentucky, I once got an invitation to preach in a small town called Kings Mountain, 08:50 Kentucky. Now to be clear, this city was not on the outskirts of Louisville or Lexington. 08:58 This city was all the way out in those Kentucky sticks. And when I first got the call to go, 09:05 I was a little bit nervous because Kentucky is a very red State, and I am a very dark, man. 09:13 [Congregations: laughing ] 09:15 But whenever God calls, the inclination is always to say yes. So I put the address in my GPS, 09:23 and it begins to guide me to my destination. My guide tells me where I am supposed to turn. 09:29 The guide tells me when I am going the wrong way. The guide tells me if I need to turn around. 09:36 I do not have much anxiety because my GPS is there to guide me. 09:41 But have you ever been going down a country road when the GPS loses its signal? 09:48 [Congregation: Answering] 09:50 All of a sudden, the icon that was on a street starts buffering. It is like you are nowhere. 09:56 All of a sudden Siri suddenly goes quiet. Now I am determined to make it to my destination. 10:03 But I have got now a lot of anxiety because I have nothing to guide me. 10:09 I have to guess where I am going because I have no one to guide me. 10:14 I have to rely on the advice of strangers because I have got nothing to guide me. 10:20 I have got to keep starting over because I have got nothing to guide me. And I almost miss out on my assignment 10:28 because I have got nothing guiding me. And how many of us understand that a child's father is to serve as the spiritual GPS, 10:38 or the compass to guide children to their destination? 10:42 [Congregation: Clapping] 10:44 But the problem is, in our time, we have fathers that do not have enough signal strength. 10:49 So the kids have to make the journey by themselves. And so our children have to guess which way to go 10:56 because we do not have anyone guiding us. Some of our girls have to take the advice of strangers 11:03 because they do not have anyone guiding them. There are some that keep having to start over 11:08 because they do not have anyone guiding them. There are some that will not make their destination 11:14 because they do not have anyone guiding them. 11:17 And as we look at the Story of Abraham, it is a call to our brothers to make sure that we do not leave our kids buffering, 11:26 because we don't have enough signal strength to make sure that we guide them onto their destination. 11:34 And this is a word of encouragement to the men that are handling their business and doing the hard work of being a priest. 11:42 But I also want to give a word of admonition to the brother who is on the verge of leaving their posts. 11:50 You got to make sure that you do not allow your freedom to lead to their bondage because children need somebody to guide them. 12:00 [Congregation: Clapping] 12:01 Are you hearing the word today? 12:02 There is somebody saying, "Pastor, did you make it to your assignment?" 12:06 I'll let you know how I made it then. When I got down the way, I eventually pulled into this country gas station, 12:14 and I asked the owner of the store, "Have you heard of such an SDA church?" 12:20 He says "I have never heard of it." And so he says you can get on the internet, 12:25 and go to MapQuest in order to get to your destination. I got my phone and I say "What's the password?" 12:33 And he says, "So many people lose their signal. 12:36 I leave the network open so anybody can log on and get to their destination from here." 12:43 Can I say to anybody that's been left behind by mother or father, Jesus has said, "I am going to leave an open network. 12:52 I am going to make the password accessible so that when they stop guiding you, 12:57 I will take it from here and make sure you make it to your destination." 13:04 [Congregation: Clapping] 13:04 [Congregation: Amen] 13:06 Are you hearing the word today? Friends, as we go back to this text, 13:09 I want to quote something that the wise man Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, he says, "There is nothing new under the sun." 13:24 He says, "What has been will be again." And he says, "What has been done will also be done." 13:32 And it's crazy friends because the longer I live, the truer that statement begins to ring in my life. 13:40 In fact, when we talk about the things that are plaguing families in our time, we act as if these things are new. 13:48 But the Bible says, "There is nothing new under the sun." 13:52 In other words, we act like homosexuality is a new thing, but it is as old as the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. 14:01 We act as if human trafficking just started, but how do you think the slave got into Naaman's house to help her 14:10 become aware of Jehovah? We tend to act like threesomes or multiple partners is a new thing, 14:17 but remember how Lot slept with his two daughters so that he could impregnate both of them. 14:24 In fact, we think baby, mama drama is new stuff. But it is as old as Abraham's Sarah and Hagar. 14:35 In other words, this is an old story that could be on the Maury Povich Show. 14:41 In other words, you got a man who gets an African woman pregnant. 14:47 [Congregation: Murmuring] 14:49 But because he's connected to somebody else, he can't commit to the boy's mama. 14:55 What arises as a dispute over child support or the birthright, he has got to abandon the African woman 15:05 and she has got to raise the African boy by herself. There is no nothing new. Are you all hearing the word? 15:11 [Congregation: Clapping] 15:12 [Congregation: Amen] 15:13 Friends of mine, I need you to know that the only difference in our time, 15:17 is that some things that were outliers then have simply become commonplace and way too systematic. 15:25 Do you realize that 72% of African American kids are born outside of the union of matrimony or wedlock? 15:34 Do you realize that less than 38% of our kids will grow up in a home where there are two parents? 15:42 It's amazing how 50 years ago a first-time grandmother would hit that mark around the age of 45 or 50. 15:50 But now, grandmothers are routinely 33 and 34. And the ones that are supposed to tell you how to figure life out, 15:59 are still at a place trying to figure out life for themselves. 16:03 The problem friends are that there are some cycles of recklessness 16:08 and brokenness that are affecting the prosperity of our homes. Are you with me today, friends? 16:16 [Congregation: Amen] 16:18 I need you all to get it today, that the first thing that this story teaches friends of mine, 16:21 is that you can't keep two women happy at the same time. 16:26 [Congregation: Cheering] 16:27 Can I say this to the brothers in the church? That the more women you are trying to juggle, 16:33 the more women you are trying to entertain, the more women whose affections you are calling out, 16:40 the more soul ties you have connected become the noose that the devil uses to strangulate your soul. 16:49 Are you all hearing me today? 16:50 [Congregation: Clapping] 16:50 [Congregation: Amen] 16:52 And see, I need you all to get this thing, friends of mine. 16:53 That there are some of us who actually believe that the Bible promotes polygamy. 16:59 The Devil is a lie. What the Bible actually describes is the practice of an ancient custom that the people of Israel borrowed 17:09 from the foreign nations. In other words, when you read the stories of polygamy, 17:14 what it actually teaches is that the joint does not work. 17:20 In other words, read the stories of polygamy. So whether it is Hagar and Sarah stressing out old Abraham. 17:27 Whether it is Peninah and Hannah stressing out Elkanah, or whether it is Leah and Rachel fighting over Jacob's love, 17:37 one of the things that become clear is that God did not promote polygamy, God just works with sinful humanity wherever it is. 17:47 [Congregation: Clapping] 17:48 [Congregation: Amen] 17:50 In other words, friends, I need you to get that the blueprint for how relationships work was given at creation. 17:55 Are you all with me today church? 17:56 [Congregation: Clapping] 17:57 [Congregation: Amen] 17:58 In other words, when God created marriage, he pre-agreed one woman for one man. 18:02 He didn't create Adam and give him 15 women like in an episode of The Bachelor. 18:08 In other words, he knew that Adams's peace would be in commitment that his joy will be in monogamy. 18:17 That his prosperity will be in oneness. See? We are so messed up, church. That when we hear words like commitment 18:25 and monogamy and fidelity, those words are boring in our minds. 18:31 Somewhere along the line, in our culture, we begin to glorify the idea of pimp life. Somewhere along the line, 18:40 we begin to exalt the ladies' man and the womanizer. That's what gets to play in our culture. And by default, 18:48 we begin to castigate the young brother that treats a woman with respect and value so much so that we say, 18:56 "Nice guys finishes last." And let me just say you got to be careful what you celebrate, 19:03 because whatever you celebrate you recruit. 19:06 [Congregation: Clapping] 19:08 [Congregation: Amen] 19:10 In other words, you got to be careful, whatever you glorify because whatever you glorify, you multiply. 19:17 Understand that men will always gravitate to whatever is celebrated, and whatever we celebrate as a people, 19:27 that is what we begin to recruit as a people. 19:30 In other words, we have glorified jail life. That is why we have multiplied jail life. We glorify thug life, 19:38 and as a result, we have multiplied thug life. We have glorified baby mama drama, and as a result, 19:44 we've multiplied baby mama drama. We've glorified the side piece, and as a result, 19:50 we have multiplied the side piece. That is why in this church, we are not glorifying street life, 19:57 we are not glorifying thug life, we are not glorifying baby mama drama. 20:01 In this church we are going to glorify marriage, we are going to glorify education, we are going to glorify husbands 20:09 and virtuous women because what you have multiplied is going to be the thing that has been glorified. 20:17 [Congregation: Clapping] 20:18 [Congregation: Amen] 20:19 Are you all hearing what I'm saying? 20:20 [Congregation: Clapping] 20:20 [Congregation: Amen] 20:22 Can I just say to my young brothers in this place today what the culture will not tell you, 20:25 is that the more women you have attached to you, the more curses and stresses and drama you bring to your own soul. 20:34 [Congregation: Murmuring] 20:39 I don't want to say this wrong, one woman requires enough. Come on and say Amen, husbands. 20:45 [Congregation: Amen] 20:46 [Congregation: Clapping] 20:48 I mean you barely have enough to give to the wife you have got. You know you ain't got no extra to give to no other woman. 20:53 Come on and say Amen, all of you here today. 20:55 [Congregation: Amen] 20:56 [Congregation: Clapping] 20:58 That is why the word teaches when a man becomes an adult, he has to leave his father 21:04 and mother's house and be joined unto his wife. And those two shall become one flesh. 21:11 The reason the boy cannot bring his wife to his mama's house is because you can not keep your wife 21:18 and mama happy at the same time. You can not keep your baby mama happy at the same time. 21:25 You can not keep your wife and mistress happy at the same time. 21:29 You just ask God for strength to keep the one God has given you happy. Let the church say Amen in this place. 21:36 [Congregation: Amen] 21:37 [Congregation: Clapping] 21:38 Let me say to all the pimps in the room, 21:40 I need you to know that the baddest guy on the 'block is not the one that can get a bunch of women happy for one night. 21:46 It is the brother that can keep that same woman happy for an entire lifetime. 21:51 [Congregation: Amen] 21:52 [Congregation: Clapping] 21:54 You can get it right by accident on one night, but when you have been married 30 years, 21:57 and 40 years, and 50 years, and she's still smiling, that is how you know you are the man. 22:04 Are you all hearing me today? 22:06 [Congregation: Amen] 22:08 [Congregation: Clapping] 22:09 [Instruments: Piano playing] 22:12 And so the word says, Genesis 16:4, go back there with me if you don't mind. Genesis 16:4. When you get there just say Amen. 22:21 [Congregation: Amen] 22:23 So the Bible says, "He went into Hagar and she what? Conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, 22:29 her mistress became despised in her eyes. So then Sarai said to Abraham, 22:34 "My wrong be upon you. I gave my maid to your embrace, and she saw that she had conceived, 22:40 I became despised in her eyes. May the lord judge between me and you". 22:45 So Abraham said to Sarai, "Indeed, your maid is in your hand, do to her as what? 22:52 [Congregation: You please] 22:53 "...you please." 22:55 See? The second thing this teaches us today, friends and young people, hear me on this. 22:58 It teaches that love can never begin below the waist. 23:04 [Congregation: Amen] 23:08 [Congregation: Clapping] 23:11 I am going to stand in it here for a minute. 23:14 [Congregation: Clapping and murmuring] 23:16 Now again I do not really know how much say Hagar actually has in the matter. 23:21 In fact, some scholars believe that Hagar was a willing participant because if she went along with it, 23:28 that having Abraham's baby would give her a beeline to access to the birthright. But when I look at the text it 23:36 becomes clear that Hagar is treated like property, 23:39 as she has been handed over from a jealous woman who wants children at all costs. Are you with me here today? 23:47 Now another thing I need you to get about this, friends of mine, is that most folks don't get pregnant on the first try. 23:54 [Congregation: Murmuring] 23:56 In other words, I need you to get that this is not just a one-time occasion. 24:01 And what happens is there is a relationship of sorts where Abraham keeps visiting the tent, 24:08 at least, for a month and a half or until that first cycle is missed. Are you all hearing what I'm saying? 24:14 In other words, I need you to get, beloved, that there is a familiarity that has developed. 24:20 He has shared Hagar's most intimate space. And because he wants her to get along, he does not go in like a monster. 24:28 So that in the heat of the moment, he expresses attraction for Hagar. He expresses value for Hagar. 24:37 He tells Hagar if I had only met you first, he tells Hagar "I want you to have my baby." 24:44 He tells Hagar what his other woman is not providing. And noticed as soon as he gets what he wants. 24:53 The word says, that he is done with her, and he tells Sarah "Do with her whatever you please." 25:02 Now, friends, I need you to get this even though Hagar doesn't necessarily ask for this, 25:08 and patriarchs and prophets Ellen White says that after a while, Hagar begins to develop an attachment, jealousy, 25:16 and expectation towards Abraham. 25:19 The problem is that she thought a physical interaction was going to change the emotional makeup of the relationship. 25:29 In other words, for her at some point, it got emotional. But for Abraham, it was always transactional. 25:39 In other words, I need some young sister to understand the nature of a man. 25:44 Just because he is into you that means that he is into you. 25:48 [Congregation: Clapping] 25:51 [Congregation: Amen] 25:53 In other words, just because he is in that means he's all the way in. I got to hear what I'm saying. 25:58 In other words, a physical interaction is not going to create an emotional connection 26:04 and you can't trust the things said in the heat of the moment because stuff said in the heat of the moment, 26:10 is done binding as soon as the moment is over. 26:14 [Congregation: Clapping] 26:17 [Congregation: Amen] 26:20 See? In other words, your boy Abraham is mad because like when Hagar is getting all turned up, 26:26 he's like you breaching the contract. In his mind, he's saying, "We was all grown folk here. 26:31 We all knew what we were getting into." In other words, "We knew it was just supposed to be a transaction 26:37 but now you didn't get your feelings caught all up in this thing and now you're making me the bad guy?" 26:44 Are you all hearing what I'm saying? 26:46 And this is why beloved I need you to understand that intimacy outside of a committed relationship, 26:52 I meant committed marriage is always dangerous. Because guess what? Somebody's going to always get hurt. 26:58 It's always going to mean more to one than it does to somebody else. 27:03 Somebody's going to always misinterpret the nature of the relationship and what Abraham, as a man does not understand, 27:11 is that even though his mouth has said, "We're not committed." That the very act itself creates commitments. 27:18 [Congregation: Clapping] 27:21 Thank you so much for joining us for the Breath of Life Television Ministries Broadcast with Pastor Debleaire Snell. 27:27 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Part One of " I'll Take It From Here". The first message in our series entitled 27:35 "Family-ish". Join us next week for part 2, You won't want to miss it! 27:40 Hi. I'm Debleaire Snell. Have you ever been in a place where as soon as you start believing big, 27:46 praying big and thinking big, someone told you that you need to be more realistic. 27:53 It was unrealistic for Jesus to say, I'm going to lay down my life and in three days I'm going to pick it up again. 28:00 I would encourage you to put down your commonly held beliefs. And it's time for us to get unrealistic. 28:11 (Breath of Life Theme Music) 28:44 [END] |
Revised 2022-12-20