Worship Guide
May 17, 2020
Opening Scripture Reading – Psalm 98:1-3
All read together:
1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Singing — He Hideth My Soul
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.Refrain:
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand.A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away,
He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day.When clothed with His brightness transported I rise
To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I’ll shout with the millions on high.
Prayer
Leader prays:
Savior God,
We marvel in the mighty works you have done;
in creating and sustaining the earth by the power of your hand.
in saving and redeeming your people from their sin.
We rest in your promises you have made to us;
that you are working all things together for our good;
that you are preparing a place for us;
that you will come again to us;
that we will be your people
and you will be our God forever.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Scripture Reading – Psalm 56:8-11
all read togeteher:
8 You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears In your bottle.
Are they not In your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
In the day when I call.
This I know, that God Is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
In the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
Singing — Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor
Christ the sure and steady anchor,
In the fury of the storm;
When the winds of doubt blow through me,
And my sails have all been torn.
In the suffering, in the sorrow,
When my sinking hopes are few;
I will hold fast to the anchor,
It will never be removed.Christ the sure and steady anchor,
While the tempest rages on;
When temptation claims the battle,
And it seems the night has won.
Deeper still then goes the anchor,
Though I justly stand accused;
I will hold fast to the anchor,
It shall never be removed.Christ the sure and steady anchor,
Through the floods of unbelief;
Hopeless somehow, O my soul, now,
Lift your eyes to Calvary.
This my ballast of assurance,
See his love forever proved.
I will hold fast to the anchor,
It will never be removed.Christ the sure and steady anchor,
As we face the wave of death;
When these trials give way to glory,
As we draw our final breath.
We will cross that great horizon,
Clouds behind and life secure;
And the calm will be the better,
For the storms that we endure.
Christ the sure of our salvation,
Ever faithful, ever true!
We will hold fast to the anchor,
It shall never be removed.
Offering
To give online with a credit card, click here and follow the instructions. Before clicking “Submit,” pray the prayer below.
To give by mail, place your gift (no cash please) in an envelope, and address it to the following address. Before you seal the envelope, pray the prayer below. (If you want to give in cash, please visit the church office.)
Calvary Baptist Church
PO Box 7728
Greenwood, IN 46142
At Drive-In Worship, you can give online or place your gift in an envelope, then slide it into the offering box on your way out after the service.
Sermon — Genesis 16
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Home Bible Study
What bothers you the most about Abram and Sarai's actions in this story?
Point 1: God Condemns Abram and Sarai’s Actions
Outside this story. A reader of Genesis, from having read chapters 1-4, would already have enough information to know that Abram and Sarai were very wrong in this story. How is this story different from God’s design for marriage and procreation in Genesis 1-2? How is it like Cain’s descendant Lamech in Genesis 4?
Within this story. The writer (Moses) uses at least five storytelling moves to condemn Abram and, more sharply, Sarai.
In v3, Sarai “took” Hagar and “gave” her “to her husband.” This is a deliberate echo of the most tragic moment in human history, when Eve “took” the fruit and “gave” some “to her husband.”
Sarai’s words to Abram in v5, “I gave my servant to your embrace” are much more crude in the Hebrew, literally, “I put my servant in your lap.” That’s supposed to make us uneasy and highlight Sarai’s crudeness through the story.
Sarai “dealt harshly” with Hagar in v6. Moses uses this same word, which means “abuse” or “mistreat,” for the way the Egyptians abuse the Hebrews in Exodus 1:11-12. Since his original audience has the bitterness of Egyptian slavery in memory, we can be confident he was comparing Sarai’s actions to their cruel Egyptian slave masters. If that weren’t enough, Exodus 22 outlaws abuse of foreigners using the same word.
God’s silence condemns Abram and Sarai here, rather than excuses them. A common story pattern in Genesis is for God to keep silent in the first half of a story while something very bad happens, and then for God to show up and deal with it in the second half. This is what happens in the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Today’s story fits that pattern, likening their treatment of Hagar to the Fall and the Tower of Babel.
In v2, Sarai’s says she wants to have a child through Hagar. The last two verses repeat three times that the child is Hagar and Abram’s, never mentioning Sarah. This is repeated three times to drill in how poorly it worked out for Sarai.
Aside from a sharp condemnation of abuse among God’s people, the first half of the story gives the church three warnings to keep us from abusing those under our care. Before looking at them, read 1 Corinthians 10:6-12 and ask how we are supposed to read tragic stories like this one.
Warning 1: Don’t fall into the world’s sin patterns. Concubinage was somewhat normal among the wealthy and powerful in the Ancient Neat East. That means Sarai and Abram didn’t scheme a new way to have children, but fell into the sin patterns of the world around them. They didn’t notice the evil in their actions because they were used to seeing it around them. This reminds us that if we compromise and fall into the world’s sin patterns, we will put ourselves at risk of abusing others without noticing it.
Which of the world’s sin patterns do you think the church is most at risk of falling into?
What disastrous consequences do you foresee if the church falls into them?Warning 2: Don’t become enslaved to what the world is enslaved to. Sarai’s motive was plan in v2: she wanted a baby. The Ancient Near East was known for its obsession with having children. Sarai’s enslavement to the same desire is what lured her into abusing Hagar. This warns us not to become enslaved to the world’s obsessions like sexual “fulfillment,” material success, and “perfect” children.
Which of the world’s obsessions do you think most often enslave Christians?Warning 3: Don’t lose faith in God’s promise. In v2, Sarai declares God’s promise of many descendants void. Her alternative plan never would have happened if Abram and Sarai had continued trusting in God’s promise. Similarly, some churches have covered up abuse out of fear that exposure might hurt the church’s mission. The same lack of trust in God to accomplish his purposes through adversity leads to abuse in both cases.
Given these three warnings, how should our church work to stay holy?
Godwilling, next week’s sermon will give comfort to those who have been abused, from God’s words to Hagar in verses 7-14.
Benediction
Leader:
May we/I delight and trust in the promises of God.