Worship Focus 

 Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church

April 19, 2015

 
Scripture Passages

  

 
Questions for
Reflection
 

Recall the moments of greatest despair in your life. Who were you able to be completely transparent about your struggle?

 

How did your faith play a role during that season?

 

How was your relationship with God impacted?

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Sermon Series ::
Life's Challenges, God's Questions  

Sunday's Message :: What Troubles You?

 
The Rev. Debbie Whaley, preaching

 

�Tonya Christner on CreationSwap We begin our new sermon series by listening to the probing questions that God asks us when we find ourselves facing unimaginable challenges. What can these questions reveal about God's character? What do they expose about our human vulnerabilities? How do they invite us more deeply into our dependence on God?

 

Getting real with God is an essential step in deepening our relationship with God. Join us at 7:50 a.m., 10 a.m., or 5 p.m. as we explore together this vital connection between God's empathy and our human authenticity.


Blessings,

Debbie

 

P.S. If I haven't met you yet, please introduce yourself to me. And if you have a name tag, please grab it as you come into worship. If not, look for the tables in Trinity Court & the folks there will quickly assist you in making one. Or click here to send a request to the church office for a permanent name tag.


Theme for the Day
 
Many of us feel like we need to park our difficulties at the door when we come to church. We think that happy people are the ones who are most faithful. So we hide our struggles, revealing them only to our closest of friends. We wonder, "Is there anyone in the church who wants to "get real" about what is really going on? For that matter, does God really want me to get real?" Maya Angelou says, "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." And sometimes that song is one of lament. 
Scripture Passages

Genesis 21:1-21 
   

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." And she said, "Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring." So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.          

   

Genesis 16:1-16         
   

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl 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!" But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai." The angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her." The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude." And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin." So she named the Lord who spoke to her, "You are El-roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?" Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.