Genesis 21:8-12 NKJV So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. (9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. (10) Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” (11) And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. (12) But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
- God keeps his promises… that is what Pastor Jared preached last Sunday… God keeps His promises.
Numbers 23:19 NKJV “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
- Now of course that sermon was based on the promised son that Abraham had.
- God promised Abraham an heir and when Abraham was 100 years old his wife Sarah gave birth to his son Isaac.
- But Abraham was not always a man of such great faith, though he certainly grew into being a man of unbelievable faith and trust in the Lord… there were however some failures in Abraham’s walk with God.
- And in the scripture we just read from Genises we see one of those failures mocking the fulfilment of God’s promises.
Genesis 21:8-9 NKJV So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. (9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.
- Abraham has two sons, but only one was through his wife Sarah… the other… well the other was a massive lapse of judgment and lack of faith from both Sarah and Abraham…
- 16 years before Isaac was born, Abraham heard the promise of God that he would have an heir, a son that would turn into a nation.
- But Abraham and Sarah did not trust that God could give Sarah, who was passed the age of child bearing, a son… so they came up with a plan… have Abraham sleep with his Egyptian Maidservant Hagar.
- He did so, and she bore Ishmael… a child not of promise, but a child of Egypt.
- Now, let me just a get a little theologically deep with you for a moment… can you guys handle it?
- We celebrate Passover at CLC every year, because it reminds us that God freed us from slavery.
- Now as Christians we know that the slavery we were freed from in Egypt represents the slavery that we are freed from in Christ… we are freed from the slavery of sin.
- Thus, Egypt, big picture wise… represents the bondage of sin.
- So in a sense, as we talk about Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael we are talking a child of promise, and a child of sin… a child of the freedom, and a child of slavery… a child of the Spirit and a child of the Flesh.
- And what we see in Genesis 21:9 is we see the child of the flesh mocking and persecuting the child of freedom.
Genesis 21:9 NKJV And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.
- And so begins, well it really had begun all the way back in the garden… but here in such clarity… here begins the historic struggle between bondage and freedom… between faith and failure… between the Promises of God and the ways of man.
- What was supposed to be a huge celebration, a feast celebrating that the child of promise had been weaned… has now been soured by the scoffing of a 16-year-old Ishmael.
- I wonder how much of our joy, how much of our celebration, how much of our freedom is tainted by the scoffing nature of our past failures, and sins, and bondage?
- Saints, if you are born again, if you are truly saved… then you are a child of promise, a child of freedom… and it is good this morning, the first Sunday of 2025, that we remind ourselves of that.
- We are Children of Promise, Children of Freedom. That’s the message today! Let’s pray over it then get into it.
- This morning I have two points, and the second point is going to leave us on a high note, a positive, blessed, promised filled start to 2025! Sound good? Here are our two points this morning:
- Children of Freedom
- Point One: The Flesh Mocks the Spirit, Bondage Mocks Freedom
- Point Two: Walk in the Spirit and Be Free from the Flesh
Point One – The Flesh Mocks the Spirit, Bondage Mocks Freedom
Genesis 21:8-10 NKJV So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. (9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. (10) Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”
- You know ever since we started preaching through the book of Genesis I have been harping on the fact that Genesis is the foundation to the rest of Scripture…
- It is what holds everything else up… in Geneses we see the first prophecy of the Gospel, we see the workings of Jesus, we see the covenants of God starting through Abraham that continue in us.
- Time and time again we read parts of Genesis that are quoted in the New Testament, like pillars of support that reach up from the foundations of Genesis to the ornate ceiling of the New Testament…
- So here we have yet another pillar… Because Paul references these events in the book of Galatians.
- I did not come up with this theme of children of Freedom, Paul did… and he was using it to teach the Galatians an important lesson.
- And before we get to the greater point that Paul makes, we need to understand this simple fact… the flesh is always going to mock the spirit… it is always going to scoff at the celebration of the Spirit… it is always going to persecute the Spirit… let’s read what Paul has to say about this in Galatians.
Galatians 4:22-23 NKJV For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. (23) But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise,
- Hey, give me an amen if you have been born again according to the Promise!
- Amen! Let’s skip ahead now to verse 28
Galatians 4:28-31 NKJV Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. (29) But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. (30) Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN.” (31) So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
- We are children of freedom… we are children of promise… but there is another child… another who lives with us that wants to rain on our parade…
- Who want’s to ruin our celebration, our joy, our blessings, our freedom…
- There is this flesh that sticks around even after we are born again, even after we have received the promise… and it just wants to tear us down and destroy us…
- Our flesh sees us rejoicing in Christ and says “No no no, I don’t want you to have that fun! I don’t want you to have those blessings! I don’t want you to have that freedom… come back to me, the child you knew at first… do things my way.”
- Now if you have no idea what I am talking about, let me just make it plane for a moment.
- The Bible describes two forces working inside of a Christian… the flesh, which represents bondage, and sin, an ungodly desires… and the Spirit, which represents holiness, and joy, and peace and love and everything good from God.
- When you are born again the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you and gives you a new way to live… a life of freedom.
- Before you are born again the only life you know is a life of slavery to sin… slavery to the flesh…
- So we have the Spirit, given by God when we are born again, and the flesh… that enslaves us from the time we commit our first sin until we accept the ransom payment of Christ Jesus…
Galatians 5:19-23 NKJV Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
- Peace, Love, Joy, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control…
- What if 2025 was a year FULL of these things?
- Full of love and joy and peace… LORD LET THIS YEAR BE FULL OF THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT!
- And I believe the Lord is doing a New Thing in 2025 in CLC… and part of that New Thing is the revival and restoration of the Joy of our Salvation… that we would be SO FULL OF JOY… all of us as a church… that we would be so full of the Joy of the Spirit… like the moment we got saved… that the joy would be contagious and spread to others and people would be saved because of it!
- And with joy and peace and love comes celebration! I think we need to celebrate MORE as a church! Celebrate what God has done, celebrate what God is doing… celebrate what God will do!
- We need to Celebrate like Abraham Celebrated! “God gave me this child that He promised… and now he is weaned and ready to start growing up into a boy with his own thoughts and callings and personality! LET’S CELEBRATE WITH A HUGE FEAST!”
- And we church need to celebrate our own Isaacs in our life!
- “God has given me an amazing wife! Hallelujah! He has given me wonderful kids, THANK YOU JESUS! He has given me an amazing church, and great friends, and provision after provision! THANK YOU FATHER!”
- Even as I suffered from a bad cold that caused a terrible headache this week, I found myself altering the way I thought about it “Thank you Jesus that I get to be in a heated home while I recover from this headache… thank you for giving me a bed to rest in while I recover… thank you for always providing for me and being with me… if I have to have a headache, this is the way I want to have it!”
- Man I think we need to celebrate more! “I am 103, I have arthritis on joints I didn’t even know existed… but I have son and he is weaned! LETS CELEBRATE WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE!”
- But church here is what you need to know… the flesh is always there lurking… wanting to persecute your celebration… wanting to persecute the Spirit inside of you.
Galatians 4:28-29 NKJV Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. (29) But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
Galatians 5:17 NKJV For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
- This past Wednesday night I was ministering to a young woman who was so downcast… I asked her how I could pray and she said “I am just battling doubt… I feel like I doubt that I am saved… doubt that I am baptized in the Spirit… doubt that I can pray in tongues…”
- I asked her “What is the greatest miracle you have ever seen?”
- She began telling me of all the things God has miraculously delivered her from.
- I said “Your problem isn’t doubt… your problem is that your flesh is trying to get you to forget the victories of the Spirit”
- Ishamel is saying “Stop celebrating like that! Stop praying in tongues… stop believing for miracles… stop going to church… WHAT HAVE THEY EVER DONE FOR YOU! Don’t you remember how much fun we had together… how much fun we had with the sex, or the drugs, or the alcohol, or the greed… don’t you remember! Stop celebrating with the child of promise, forget about him… come back to me… come back to bondage.”
- Man, every time I have a big victory in my life there is the flesh… there is Ishmael… scoffing, and mocking and persecuting.
- I get delivered from depression… and my flesh says “Are you really delivered… I mean you have been depressed for so long… maybe this is just a fluke…”
- I start getting closer to my wife and the flesh says “Yeah… but what about these other women… wouldn’t you like to get close to them?”
- When God gives miraculous financial provision my flesh says “You don’t deserve that, you are just going to waste it… might as well waste it on things that satisfy your flesh…”
- When I see breakthrough in the church and my flesh says “YOU ARE NOT HOLY ENOUGH TO BE TRUSTED WITH THIS CHURCH… YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW IT UP… YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL…”
- When I should be celebrating, time and time again, it seems to me like my flesh likes to come in and scoff…
- So then I find myself with two voices inside of me… the voice of freedom saying “Celebrate what the Lord has done” and the voices of bondage saying “Come back to me, you don’t need the promise! You can have all the sin you want!”
- And must make a choice… do I listen to the scoffer, the flesh who mocks the Spirit… or do I celebrate with the Spirit and cast off the flesh?
Galatians 4:30 NKJV Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN.”
- Now that brings me to point two this morning… Cast Out the Flesh and Walk in Freedom
Point Two – Walk in the Spirit and be Free from the Flesh
Genesis 21:8-10 NKJV So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. (9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. (10) Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”
- Now the question must be asked “How do I cast out the flesh? How do I cast out my own personal Ishamel? My own personal Haggar?”
- Because Haggar represents Egypt and Ishmael represents sin… and the flesh is the embodiment of sin in our life… the question really becomes “How do I cast out sin in my life… the sin that entangles me, and mocks me, and slows me down and robs my joy… how do I cast that out?”
- Well the Galatians had this same question… and they came to the conclusion that they must become legalistic… That if they forced themselves to follow every single law that God and the Jews had placed on them, then and only then would they be able to be free from sin… But they were putting the cart before the horse…
- Here is the takeaway… and I am going to explain this… but let this sink in “When we walk in the Spirit we are free from the flesh”
- We do not have to be free from the flesh in order to walk in the Spirit… instead we must walk in the spirit in order to be free from the flesh.
- Let me say that again because it is so important…We do not have to be free from the flesh in order to walk in the Spirit… instead we must walk in the spirit in order to be free from the flesh.
- The Galatians got this wrong… they thought in order to be free from the flesh they must follow the law perfectly… they thought perfect obedience was the key to walking in the spirit with Christ…
- But the opposite is true… walking with Christ is the key to living an obedient and holy life…
Galatians 5:16-18 NKJV I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
- The Galatians put the Law before the spirit… and in so doing they put Ishmael before Isaac… they put bondage before freedom!
- Instead of celebrating Isaac they would spend all of their days, all of their energy, all of their efforts trying to rebuke, and scold, and correct Ishmael…
- NO! Don’t waste your time and energy on the child or bondage… Just cast him out and get back to celebrating the child of freedom, the child of promise!
- The more you celebrate Isaac the farther Ishamel get’s away… but if you focus all of your attention on Ishmael, then you end up neglecting Isaac.
Galatians 4:21-31 NKJV Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? (22) For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. (23) But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, (24) which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— (25) for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— (26) but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (27) For it is written: “REJOICE, O BARREN, YOU WHO DO NOT BEAR! BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR! FOR THE DESOLATE HAS MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.” (28) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. (29) But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. (30) Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN.” (31) So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
- Listen church… I don’t desire to be under the law… I desire to walk in Freedom…
- And because I walk in freedom naturally I end up casting out the flesh… I follow the law now better than I ever have before… not because I am under it… but because I am FREE!
- You know why I don’t look at porn?
- Because I don’t want to look at porn any more… I love delighting in my wife!
- You know why I don’t steal movies and computer programs online anymore?
- Because I don’t want to steal anymore… I have more than enough provision from my father in heaven!
- You know why I don’t gossip anymore?
- Because I don’t WANT to gossip anymore… I know who I am in Christ, I don’t need to tear other people down.
- The more I walk with Christ, and celebrate Christ, and grow with Christ the more and more my desires conform to His desires… the more and more my heart conforms to His heart.
- Walking in Legalism leads you to think “I can only please God if I follow His law perfectly!”
- But legalism doesn’t get rid of Ishmael… because Ishmael is there to remind you that you are not perfect… just like the law is there to show us that we need a savior.
- Walking in the Spirit leads you to think “I can’t believe God would love someone like me, I don’t deserve it but MAN am I grateful to be child of promise! I AM SO THANKFUL FOR MY FREEDOM”.
- Walking in the Spirit gets rid of Ishmael… because you are so focused on celebrating all that God has done you don’t want Ishmael standing in the corning raining on your parade…
- “Bro get out of here! I am celebrating what God has done!”
- Sin I don’t need you, I am celebrating what God has done.
- Drunkenness I don’t want you ruining this party…
- Lust I don’t need you raining on my parade…
- Doubt, why are you trying to bring me down… look at what God has done!
- Unreasonable Anger… come on bro, it’s a party, what is there to be angry about?
- Gossip? Yo, go find another water cooler, we are here to celebrate Isaac.
- I am going to live my life with Isaac! I am going to live my life celebrating the promise! I am going to live my life walking in the Spirit… walking in Joy and love and peace and kindness and patience and gentleness and goodness and gentleness and self control…
- Ishmael there is no room for you in house anymore, so you can get to steppin.
- There is no more room for sexual immorality, those no more room for impurity and filthy parties…
- I have all I need in the Spirit! I don’t want idolatry and witchcraft; I don’t need to focus on unjust hatred or divisiveness.
- Envy and fits of rage are things of the past…
- I care more about others than I care about selfish ambition… I just want them to know about Christ…
- I don’t want to tear people down, I want to build them up like Christ built me up…
- So I am going to celebrate what Christ has done for me… not with drunkenness and sinful living… but with joy, and peace, and love, and all the fruit of the Spirit…
- And Ishmael, I said it before I will say it again… if you don’t like it, and you want to stand in the corner and scoff while we celebrate… well then I guess you can get out and find somewhere else to live… because as for me and my house, we LOVE to serve the Lord!
- So let me wrap this thing up by talking about diets… seems fitting for the new year.
Conclusion
- Every new year there seems to be a lot of people who make a resolution to lose weight.
- And I have noticed that some people make that resolution EVERY year.
- Why is that? Why are people not losing the weight they say they are going to lose?
- I will tell you… it is because legalism doesn’t fix things…
- I recently had a conversation about diets with a dear friend of mine.
- He said “Bro you have to stop counting calories and do this new diet!”
- I was like “But I like counting calories”
- And he said “Listen… I know how it is… low energy, hungry all the time… then comes the cheat days… first it is one cheat day a week, then it is two… then it is a week of cheat days… and even when you are not cheating you are sneaking snacks here and there… it doesn’t work! You have to stop that!”
- I said “Huh… because I have lost 96 pounds over two years by counting calories… seems to work for me!
- “But how‽ Don’t the cheat days ruin you?”
- “Cheat days? I don’t have cheat days… and I really don’t feel all that hungry most of the time… Cheating would suggest I don’t like the way I am living… but I like eating less calories then burn… I don’t need to cheat. It’s not a diet for me, it is a lifestyle… and even when I am hungry or low energy I just remind myself of how miserable I was when I was fat… how low energy I was then… how gross I would feel after the fifth trip to the pizza buffet at Pizza Ranch. I don’t want to be fat Christian anymore, so I don’t live that way anymore… It is not a diet, or a list of rules that need to be cheated… it is just the way I live my life… and I love it… plus you can’t argue with the results!”
- I don’t want you to leave this sermon and think you have permission to sin… you don’t… Jesus says “Go and sin no more”.
- But I want you to leave this sermon not wanting to sin anymore…
- If you desire to sin, and the only reason you are trying not to sin is so you can make heaven one day, then you need a heart change…
- Because you are taking matters into your own hands, trying to earn the promise of heaven with good living…
- When Abraham took the promise into his own hands he got Ishmael…
- Instead, trust God and His promises… love Him, Serve Him, Chase after Him…
- Have a heart change, ask for a heart change, seek a heart change… so that sin is something you hate… so that you simply want to live for Christ and everything that hinders that is something you cast out… I think you will find it easier to keep that resolution…
- Gospel Call
Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.
Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids
2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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