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July 4th 2021
Thrive: Free To Thrive
Happy July 4th! Happy Independence Day! Happy Freedom Day!
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
1 Peter 2:15-17 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/1pe.2.15-17.esv
*We must use our freedom for good, and the ultimate good is God’s purposes. If we do not, we will lose it.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
Galatians 5:1-3
Quote
“You won’t get more than you’re living for”
- Alison Kraus, Too Late To Cry lyric
*Freedom is unto the purpose of righteous living. Righteous living leads to a thriving life. Freedom abused unto unrighteous living will actually destroy you, your family, your nation, and the whole earth.
Last week Pastor Rollan shared about the miraculous birth of Isaac.
We learned that “We will thrive in every season when we embrace the perfect timing of God”.
Focus: God wants you FREE so that you can THRIVE
The Thrive Series Goal:
Receiving
Becoming
Doing
Receiving all that Christ purchased for us to become.
Becoming all that God created us to be.
Doing all that he tells (commands) us to do.
Look into Genesis 21:8-21
*Through faith in God, Abraham was free to thrive.
When we separate these three: Faith, Freedom, and Thriving we miss the blessing and goal God has for us. The most work together for each of them to be complete.
What we need to know as we read the scripture:
Time Period
This was about 14-16 years after Hagar ran away from Sarah due to abuse. God told Hagar to go back and submit to Sarah. God also promised to Hagar (that regardless of Sarah) 1) that he sees her and her situation 2) He will bless her Ishmael as she cooperates with God’s big picture plan.
Definitions and Context
Isaac: “he laughs”. Important because the more we look at the situation concerning Isaacs birth and God’s promise to bless the world through him…it can seem a little absurd without the eyes of faith and cause us to ‘laugh’ or ‘mock’.
Weaned: Isaac is probably between 2-4 years old now. He has graduated from needing Sarah’s milk to eating food. Today we see this as a milestone. To the people of their time it was a cause of celebration. There was a high infant mortality rate and Isaac made it! Party time! Plus, all of Abraham’s and Sarah’s “eggs” were in this one “basket” with no other options for a lineage…than possibly Ishmael.
Ishmael: “God listens, God hears, or God obeys”. He was 14 - 16 years old when Isaac was born.
Hagar: She is the Egyptian slave of Sarah who upon duress from Sarah bore Ishmael to Abraham. Hagar dishonored Sarah. Sarah abused Hagar in return, so Hagar ran away. God told Hagar to return and submit to Sarah. Now, the next generation (Ishmael) is laughing in mockery at Sarah’s son Isaac, repeating the same offense.
Sarah: Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. Her name means “Princess”. Sarah is Abraham’s wife, Hagar’s boss and Isaac’s mom.
Mt Sinai: This is the location in the desert where the newly formed nation of Israel received the law of God through Moses. This is also where they tested God by crafting and worshipping a golden calf. The laws was meant to guide them and be pursued by faith…but ended up becoming death to them as the pursued it in pride or forsook it all together.
Scripture
Genesis 21:8-21
https://my.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.21.8-21
'And 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, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman 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 in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put 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, “Let me not 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? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And 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 took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. '
Isaac is weaned.
Ishmael mocks Isaac. (Generational sin duplicating his Mom Hagar)
Sarah is stirred up and tells Abraham to cast “the slave woman” out with her son.
Sarah’s request displeases Abraham because of his son Ishmael.
God corrects Abraham saying obey Sarah and do not be displeased about Hagar (the slave woman) and Ishmael (the boy).
God calls Hagar the “slave woman” and not wife though Sarah had given her to Abraham as a wife. God calls Ishmael ‘the boy’ rather than son.
*God renews our mind by His word. Every subtlety matters. We can hang on His every word.
Abraham must have been confused about the promise of God, regarding where his descendants would come from. But Sarah, his wife, knew God’s plan.
Abraham knew God’s heart.
*You can know the love of God, love God, and have saving faith…yet still be confused about God’s plan to bring about His promise.
Abraham did know God’s heart of compassion though, just as he had interceded for Lot in Sodom.
*You can intercede for others showing God’s compassion and always be correct.
HARD TRUTH: Just as the mocker was dismissed from the family of promise, so those today who mock Isaac’s descendant Jesus Christ will be cast out of God’s eternal family as well.
Yet, God promised to prosper the slave woman’s son (the mocker) into a great nation simply because he was Abraham’s ‘offspring”. This confirms to Abraham what God had already spoken to Hagar 14 or so years earlier about Ishmael.
*Compassion is always a part of God’s plan. This is why like Sarah we speak the truth, and like Abraham we do so in compassionate love.
*Sometimes God will prosper your mistake, but that doesn’t mean that He is bringing about His promise through that prosperity. Do not be deceived.
God brings about his promises despite our mistakes, not through our mistakes. Jesus died because of sin. Yet, He works all things out for good.
We are to choose and act on his path to the promise, like Abraham did.
Q: What hard choices are you in the throws of making right now? Are they a path to prosperity but not the path to God’s promise of eternal life? (True prosperity and thriving)
Abraham obeyed God and Sarah by sending them away early the next morning. Abraham sent them with bread and water. (Showing God’s compassion and playing a part in God’s ultimate plan for Ishmael and his descendants: showing them mercy until they one day come to Jesus Christ for eternal life. This is God’s long game and must be our too when we are given mercy and give mercy)
Abraham had a history of 24 hour obedience. This is why he the father of faith: he acted quickly when God spoke.
*Delayed obedience is disobedience.
Hagar and Ishmael wander aimlessly in the desert of Beersheba.
When the water ran out she put Ishmael (teenager) under a bush and went about 100 yards away to cry about the boys certain death. Ishmael was about 16 years old and about to die of dehydration wondering in the dessert!
Q: Parents, is your heart broken for your teenagers search for identity? Their trials? Your teenager needs you! Your prayers and intercession matter! Ishmael was about 16 years old and about to die of dehydration wondering in the dessert!
Though Hagar cried, God listened to the voice of the boy.
Q: Young people and teenagers: God is there for you! He hears your cries! He has a plan for your life…and your parents are a plan of bringing it about. So listen to them!
God comforted the mother reminding her of His promise to make Ishmael a great nation. Now she could go and encourage and comfort the boy.
God opened Hagar’s eyes to a whole well full of water! He didn’t make a well, he showed her a well. She was so despondent that she could not see the provision available with in eye shot until God encouraged her.
*God opened her eyes to what was already their and that He made available to bring about his plan for her family. Parents, God has given you what you need. Let him show you.
You have to survive on God’s Word before you can thrive on God’s Word.
God gave them enough bread and water through the compassion of Abraham to last them until intervened and gave them a well.
From here she gave the boy water and found a way to help him settle in Paran and train as an archer. She went back to her people in Egypt and found Ishmael a wife.
Supporting Scripture
*(We use the New Testament to interpret the OT)
Galatians 4:21-31 ESV
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
To be free and to thrive, is to be free from sin and made alive by faith in Jesus Christ, who is Isaac’s descendant according to the flesh, and God’s son according to the promise. Like Abraham, we must put all our eggs in the basket of the promise.
Romans 9:6-9 ESV
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Today, by faith, you can become a child of God through his promise to break the power of sin in your life, forgive you of sin now and when needed in the future, and give you eternal life through repentance and faith in his son Jesus.
The Gospel is this:
Stop trusting in your self or anything else for thriving, for eternal life.
Jesus, the Son of God, lived the perfect life for you.
Jesus died the death that your sin demanded of you; for you.
Jesus rose from dead by the power of God as a proof that his payment for your sin is complete and that he can fulfill his promise to give you eternal life.
Pray with me today.
*Don’t’ eat the seed that God gave you to plant and tend so that the next generation can thrive.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021