Learning Obedience and Humility

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast with Reverend Paul Cannings. Today we continue with our series Relationships, Marriage and Family. Taking us to Genesis 16, Pastor Cannings reveals the nature of God in the midst of the complications within family relationships. God overrules to bring about His destiny for Hagar and Ishmael. He keeps His covenant with Abraham, and He fulfills His destiny for Isaac as well. Right now we’re in volume two of this series and it’s titled God Sees You. Here’s Pastor Cannings now with the final message in this volume, Learning Obedience and Humility. Let’s listen.
Dr. Paul Cannings: What I love about Hagar is, I’ve seen this God. I come from many gods. This God works. I watched how He did not let Pharaoh touch this man's wife Sarah. I watched what happened to this powerful person that calls himself a god named Pharaoh. He gets sores. I’m watching this. This is the God I spend time with. Not all these other gods, just that one. Where are we today when life catches us at our worst? Are we so bitter that we miss church, close the Bible, stop praying, or do we still listen? That's when you know God is God, when we still listen. Watch what happens here. The angel said to her, "Return to your mistress." What? When God tells us to do something that does not make sense, that is not what you want to hear, do we still listen? If you want to be built up by God, God is not interested in what makes sense to you. He said our wisdom is foolishness to Him. God is saying, "When I speak and my word is right here and you heard the message and you heard what I got to say, do you keep bringing up what you think?" I may put you in places you don't want to be. I may tell you to do things you don't want to do. I may tell you that you have to keep that baby daddy in this boy's life and not be bitter and say he is not talking to this child. You are going to have nothing to do with this child. It is my child and you will have nothing to do with this child. No. What does this woman do? This woman goes back to the same Sarah. You would think she just stayed there for a few days. No, this is a 16-year journey. She goes back to Sarah. Ishmael is 16 years old. For 16 years she has to deal with Sarah's attitude. But this is his daddy. The child needs a daddy. Do I sit around and say no, this is not going to happen? I am not going to deal with this mess. I am out of here. Not Hagar. We talk a lot about Sarah. But in this story, Sarah is not the best person. The person in the story that works out well is the person you would think is the other woman. The woman with the baby mama drama stuff. She is the woman that's listening to God. Not Sarah. The baby mama drama woman is listening. God is not asking for you to be Sarah. He's asking for you to be a person who would listen to Him, turn your life over to Him, walk with Him, surrender to Him, and He could take a Hagar and make her a Sarah. He could take a Sarah and He could make her a greater person than she ever thought to be. When a person takes their life and puts it in the potter's hand, you don't know what God can do with you. God does not need you to be the best or the richest or the most powerful person in the world. He just needs for you to be a person who would listen. And it's over. I was on a train heading from Oxford, England, back into London, and it hit me. That's why I wrote that book, what inspired that book, Leaders in Heels. My mom was in a Hagar. She was not a Hagar. It hit me of how many people have come from my mother, who was a woman in Guyana, South America, a country that anybody talks about is Jim Jones, who messed up my country. Because it wasn't Guyanese that went down there and drank that Kool-Aid. It was Americans that drank that Kool-Aid, not Guyanese. Guyanese folks would say they don't know who you are talking about. Guyanese people don't do stuff like that. You are crazy. You drink the Kool-Aid. If you live, then I’ll drink it. But in a small little place called Georgetown, Guyana, she would sit eight kids on a bed and would teach them the scriptures. Who would have known that woman would sew nurses' dresses so her kids could be educated in the States or in England? That woman would say she wants to bring them to America now. She would go in the back room of somebody's kitchen when she had her own house, when sometimes she would hire a servant because she had eight kids and she wanted to sew to make sure her kids were taken care of. She would cut some money out of that sewing money to make sure food was on the stove so she could keep sewing. She's now in somebody's back room kitchen cleaning up their kids and their house to get this knucklehead to America. Who would have known that out of all of these eight kids, lawyers and servants would come? Priscilla Shier, Jonathan Evans, Pierre Cannings, Paul Cannings. Who would have known? Who would have known John Cannings, my brother, who has an after-school program in Nacogdoches, Texas? He takes all the kids flunking, puts them on a bus, and gets people to invest in the bus. Instead of the kids coming to the church center to be trained and get better in school, he would drive the bus into their community so their academics could do well, partnering with Stephen F. Austin students to make that work. It's not what the world defines you to be. It's what you choose to let God make you to be. It's just whether or not you choose to listen. All Hagar chose to do in the worst situation of her life was to listen. She went back for a 16-year journey and raised her son. When you start studying Ishmael and Abraham, he loved Ishmael. It was a burden to him to send them away. God had to send Ishmael away. He refused to do it when Sarah said to get this kid out of here. The Bible says God had to make Abraham do it. When she left again and was alone and broke again, God was the one who said not to worry about this. Your son will be a wild donkey in the wilderness. He will become great and powerful. Your son would have descendants that would be powerful because I hooked you up and I got my covenant done and you are going to be blessed. Her children today are Arabs with lots of oil that the presidents of the greatest country in the world go to and hold hands to create treaties with so you could drive with gas. Who would have known this Hagar would have descendants that powerful? All because she chose to listen. God sees. He tells us that. He says, "Beloved, behold, you are with child. I know you're pregnant. I got this." "You will bear a son. I know who he is already. Call him Ishmael because the Lord has given heed to your affliction." I've seen your affliction even though I’m sending you back to Sarah. She can't do things to you that she once did. He will be a wild donkey in the wilderness and would be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him. But they can't touch him. He will live to the east of all his brothers. I'm telling you the whole thing. Then she called the name of the Lord. This woman said, "I accept you, God." The word name means, "I know your reputation and I accept you, not just as God, but I accept you as Lord. You will be king of my life. You will be authority over my life. I know you want a relationship with me and you want to maintain a covenant with me. So, God, you are now the authority that leads my life." When she does that, it's over. He says to her it is done. I'm keeping this place as a place of memorial. I'll keep this place as a place of reverence before God because God met me here. God sees all my problems. He sees that I didn't try and hook up with this woman's husband. I was put in this mess. I didn't say I’m going to go get a baby. Boom, there comes the kid. I didn't say none of these things would take place. But I'm here. The Lord is still God. He still reigns. He is still powerful. He is still mighty. He is still in control. No matter how messed up my life looks, God still lives. It's not what you face, it's who you face it with. If you go on a basketball court, I may not be able to shoot a basketball well. But if LeBron is on the court or Steph Curry is on the court, and you have all these stars in the NBA on the court, all I have to do is be on the team. That's all God is saying. I don't need you to be Sarah. I don't need you to be Abraham. I don't need you to be somebody mighty. I just need you to stay on the team. Once you're on the team, you get the ring. Once you're on the team, you get the blessing. Once you're on the team, you get all that comes to the team. I just need you to stay on the team, Hagar. You could be a Hagar today. God is saying not to run and stay on the team. It may be hard to stay on the team, but God has your back. He knows what you're going through. He can keep you. He can watch over you. He knows everything that is happening to you. He can rescue you in the worst part of your life. All He needs for you to do is to trust Him, walk with Him, listen to Him, and obey Him. Be the best mother you could be and be the best father you could be. God, the bills are hard. I’ll provide for your needs according to My riches in glory. God, many nights I go to bed and I have so much anxiety in my heart. Pray. I can calm the anxieties in your heart. God, I've been in so much pain. The sufferings of this present time don't compare to the glory. I don't worry about where you are. Worry about making sure you’re where He wants you to be. The story is not about Sarah or about Abraham. Will you listen? Because God sees.
Guest (Male): There is not a time that God is not watching over us. What a powerful reminder from Dr. Paul Cannings. We hope this series has been a blessing to you. If you have questions about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or what benefit there is to having God watch over us, then give us a call at 281-260-7402. That’s 281-260-7402. You’re welcome to write us as well at Power Walk Ministries, P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 77092. In addition to being president of Power Walk Ministries, Pastor Cannings is senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston, Texas. If you live in Houston or you’re planning a visit, please stop by. The church is at 7350 TC Jester Boulevard in Houston. Sunday morning worship services are at 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM. And now remember, don’t allow bitterness to blind you to the goodness of God. Just like Hagar, let’s take time to include God in all of our relationship decisions and obey His leading. Goodbye for now.