If you have your Bibles, let's open up to Genesis 21. Genesis chapter 21, and tonight we're gonna deal with maybe a little heavy topic, but in the life of faith, we have to come to those places in life as we live by faith to where we trust God, even through difficult things and difficult decisions. And we have Abraham here in Genesis chapter 21 that's gotta make some pretty big decisions here, big choices. Genesis chapter 21 we'll pick it up in verse number 9. Now for the sake of context the first 8 verses the Lord blesses Abraham and Sarah just like He had said and they have Isaac. And Isaac is born and he's the promised heir to the blessing of Abraham as the scripture has told us. And he grows up some in verse number 8 he's weaned and But then notice and pick it up in verse number nine what takes place next. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy bond woman. And all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. I'm gonna preach to you tonight a little bit about faith in this aspect, faith to let go. Faith to let go. Now, previously, some things had taken place with Lot. And I preached last time a little bit about some things with Lot and how Abraham prayed for Lot. And so when you think about the message last time with Abraham and he went out and he prayed and asked God to spare Sodom if there's 50 righteous and 45 and 40 and 30 and 20 and finally 10. And of course, Abraham, prays that prayer and God sends those angels in there and they rescue Lot, they pull him out because of Abraham's prayer. So as a prerequisite, let me say this, just because you have to let go of somebody in your life, because now the new word now they talk about with relationships, sometimes with men and women, they'll call it a toxic relationship. They come up with all these little words now. You say, well, I've got to get out of this thing, or maybe it's a friendship, or maybe it's somebody you're hanging around at work, or whatever it may be, even a family member like in this case here, that doesn't mean you stop praying for that person. So I think when we think about Lot, you have to consider Abraham, he rescued him one time with the sword, he rescues him the second time with supplication, he prays. And God blesses him and pulls Lot out of that, and God does answer Abraham's prayer. Now I don't know how long it took before Abraham knew that, because he's standing there looking out and he sees the smoke rising from Sodom and Gomorrah and those cities of the plain, and he's thinking, man, the Lord didn't spare it because there were not 10 righteous. But little did he know, God did answer his prayer and he pulled Lot out of that place. And so the prerequisite is this, just because you have to have faith to say, okay, I'm letting go, doesn't mean you stop praying for that person. And let me say this also, some are easier to let go than others. I mean, Lot's a nephew. And yes, he loved Lot probably as his own son. He had a great connection to Lot whenever he was supposed to leave his family's house. He didn't leave a lot behind, he took a lot with him. And he had a tight bond with Lot, but there'd already been some friction there. Remember how they had to separate? And he said, okay, Lot, you choose whatever place you want. And Lot went down towards Sodom. And so he saw this progression with Lot. So I think it was a little easier with Lot. Let me give you these, and I've preached this before. It's a good way to kind of see the progression of what Abraham saw in Lot's life. When Lot made that choice, first of all, he saw the plain of Sodom. He saw it with his eyes. The next thing he did is he selected it. He chose it. And then he slanted towards Sodom. The Bible says he pitched his tent towards Sodom. He just kind of had to put his house where he could see the sun set right over Sodom every evening. And then he settled in Sodom. The Bible says he dwelt in Sodom. And then he sold out to Sodom. In Genesis 19, the Bible says he sat in the gate. What does that mean? That means he was part of the community. He was on the city council. Sitting in the gate was what the rulers did and they would hear the controversy. So he had become, he had amalgamated himself into the community. He thought he was gonna win them by some ecumenical church movement. Let's join everybody together and we'll turn these Sodomites upside down. He didn't influence anybody. And so Abraham saw some of that. He didn't see probably the part in Sodom, but he saw the progression, and so it might have been a little easier for him to deal with Lot. But Ishmael here, that's his firstborn son. And God says, kick him out. Kick him out. Kick him on the side of the road, and when he holds that little sign asking for money, don't give him any. Now, just two points and a million sub points, but number one, there has to be faith to face the problem. And he had to face his identity as far as Ishmael's identity here. He had to recognize him in truth. Now, Ishmael had a religious cover. I mean, previously, back in chapter number 15, he was circumcised. So Ishmael is part of that Abrahamic covenant in some ways, and God does bless the descendants of Ishmael for Abraham's sake. He's got a religion, but circumcision didn't help him. You know, religion can't reform you. Maybe it can reform you on the outside, but it can't regenerate you. And you can have somebody, and they can become religious, but they can still be a scallywag. They can still be a scoundrel, and Ishmael was. Some people try to make holy that which is profane. And our society's good at doing that. But we just have to call it what it is. You see this a lot of time with young people, and it doesn't matter how many times you say it. I'm not being mean to you young people, but it just goes in one ear and out the other. You say it and then you just see the cycle so many times you get tired of repeating yourself because you're tired of listening to yourself. But you'll see a young girl or guy most of the time is a young girl and and she falls in love with somebody that's not in church. Or maybe he comes to church a little bit because she goes to church. And then he hangs around just long enough to get married and then he don't want to go to church no more. And then she winds up connected to some guy that cares nothing about God. All he cared about was trying to get her, and once he got her, he's done. And so you see that type of thing, and then the idea is, well, I'll just get them to come to church, and we'll put them on the prayer list, and we'll get them to come, and they're gonna come to church, and then I can make him better, and I'll do some things for him, and then he'll change. He's not gonna change. Those formative years, once you get 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, that's pretty much your personality for the rest of your life. And this idea of trying to change everybody and trying to make holy that which is profane is not going to work. Esau is never going to be Isaac. Never. He's not the promised child. And no matter how close he might be. And so Abraham's got to deal with this identity thing. He's got to see his religion and then he's got to see his wrongdoing. Look what he does in verse nine. He's mocking Isaac. When Isaac is born, the true nature of Ishmael is revealed. Now I could preach this, I'm not preaching it specifically with the old nature, but I've got a message where I deal with that. Esau, I mean Esau, Ishmael is definitely a type of the old nature because he's the old man. In other words, he comes up first. He shows up before Isaac comes. Isaac's a type of the spirit, Ishmael's a type of the flesh. And so Ishmael's older than Isaac. And he mocks Isaac when he shows up. When a person gets saved, the flesh just mocks him. The flesh makes fun, the flesh says, okay, we'll see how long this is gonna last. We'll go to church a little bit, but I'm still gonna keep doing what I've always done. That's the flesh. And Ishmael mocks Isaac, and no matter how many excuses Abraham wants to make, remember, Ishmael's like 13 years old when Isaac's born. No matter how many excuses you wanna make, He is mocking the promised seed here. And so he's gotta face his identity and he's gotta face his involvement. Now notice what the Lord says in verse 12. He says, don't let it be grievous because of the lad and because of thy bondwoman. Notice his relations. He's gonna lose his mother as well as losing the son. And so everything connected to him is gonna have to go. And so it takes faith to see this. It takes faith to believe what God's saying. And also, let me just say this, it takes faith because of how the word of the Lord is coming to Abraham. Notice how the word of the Lord comes to Abraham in verse number 10. Wherefore she said unto Abraham. You see that? God uses Sarah. She called him Lord, first Peter, little L, but he also listened to his Sarah. because she was speaking the truth and God verifies it, verse number 12, he says, hey, you need to listen to your wife. When have you ever heard a preacher preach that message? But you know, sometimes, I know the man's the head of the house, I get all that, but sometimes you're Sarah, got it right, sometimes Christy'll say, listen to your Sarah. And when she says it like that, I'm like, okay, I'm listening. I'm listening. And so God is trying to get Abraham here to understand what all this involves. It's not just saying goodbye to Ishmael, it's saying goodbye to Hagar. And so this has to be done because Isaac can't have first place if Ishmael hangs around. And when you think about your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you have These people, let's just, because we're dealing with relationships, and you can fill in the blank, whether it, I don't know what relationship it may be in your life or who it may be, fill in the blank. It may be your flesh. Like I said, you can preach this certainly in relationship to Ishmael being a type of the flesh fighting against the spirit. But here's the thing, Isaac, Jesus Christ, the spirit, is not going to have first place as long as Ishmael is around. And as far as relationships go, you know good and well there's some people, if you hang around and you keep hanging around them, Jesus Christ is not gonna have first place in your life. They are going to bring you down instead of you bringing them up. And so that's why Ishmael's gotta go. You can't give him place because when you give him place, he wants the preeminent place. There's all kind of types of this through the Bible. This is the one we're preaching about tonight, but there's Adonijah in the Bible. He seeks to get a toehold on that throne and overthrow Solomon. There's Esau and Jacob. There's all these struggles, and you'll find that God puts that to show us you can't get any place because they'll want first place. Ishmael's gotta go. You gotta let go of faith to face the problem. That's a tough, tough deal for Abraham, but I believe he had the faith to listen to what God had to say through Sarah here. And God verifies his her words in verse number 12. Notice the second point here. Nice and quick, quick and painless. Faith to face the problem, but faith to follow through with the solution. The commands in verse number 12. He says, let it not be grievous. Cast out the bond woman verse 10. It's not an option, it's that's God's will. It's a command. Faith to follow through, it takes faith to follow through with this. I mean, can you imagine Abraham? I mean, here he was at 75 years of age, he was given a promise. 10 years go by, nothing happens, and then him and Sarah come up with this idea to have a surrogate mother so they could have Ishmael, and then they get Ishmael, and even back in chapter number, I think it's 17, I'll give you the reference. Yeah, in 17, 18, when Abraham's talking to God, Abraham says, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. I mean, this is his firstborn son. I mean, he taught him how to fish when he was five years old. God says, get him out. See, it was all about the flesh from the very beginning, and God is not going to bless that. He's not going to bless, and you have to have faith to face it, and you have to have faith to follow through with the solution. The command, verse number 12, actually verse 10 and 12, and then the comfort in verses 11 and 12. In verse 11, it's very grievous. I cannot even imagine this scenario. But it's gotta be grievous, not just to Abraham, but we see a little bit later if you keep reading, it's definitely grievous to Hagar and to Ishmael. But this thing is, when you think of grievous, I think of grief. Something that weighs on you. If you've ever gone through periods of grief, what'll happen is you'll eventually get so tired when you go through tragedy or trauma or or grief to where you do fall asleep, but then you either dream about the grief, or when you wake up, you have a few minutes, and then all of a sudden it hits you again, and then your stomach starts churning again. And then you're right back in it again. You're grieving. And it's hard. It's hard and it's horrible. But the Lord says, let it not be grievance. Now the inside of this is beyond, I think, Our human capability and our psychological advice that we can get from others can't even lead this. Certain words people try to give you comfort for, you know, those things can just only go so far. But this is God speaking. And we have to, as spiritual beings, we have to take comfort from God's words and allow his words to have healing. He says, let it not be grievous. Now, why would he tell him that if he could not alleviate that grief? And let me say it just a little bit further. Look at how this thing's worded here. Let it not be grievous in thy sight. In other words, Abraham, you can control this. You ever had someone go through sorrow, maybe you've been through it yourself, and maybe a friend finally got up beside you and said, look, quit wallowing in your sorrow. Stop it. You're making a choice to stay there. Let it not be grievous. What does that mean? That means it's a choice, Abraham. You can either live by faith and say, okay, I'm the one that made this mess to begin with. And God told me to do this, and by faith, I'm gonna follow through with the solution. Because if you don't follow through with the solution, you know what you're gonna do? You say, well, I just don't wanna deal with the problem. I just don't wanna deal with the problem. I just wanna sweep it under the rug and act like it's not here. Oh, everybody's okay. Nobody's mocking. Nobody's being mean to Isaac. It's not a big deal. You know, I know he spit in the teacher's face, but you know, he's just a little bit high-strung. No, you better deal with the little rascal. You better do something before this thing gets out of hand. But a lot of times people just don't want to face it. And then the next thing you know, you're in a big mess and it's your own fault. So what does he say? He says, let it not be grievous because there's responsibility on your side. And that responsibility comes whether or not you're going to exercise faith and what the Lord told you to do. You didn't exercise it before when you produced an Ishmael, the works of the flesh to try to produce something spiritual. But now it's time to exercise faith and believe God and follow his commands. And if you follow his commands, you can receive his comfort. I mean, Jesus said it many times. He said, over in John, several times, John 14, John 16, he said, let not your heart be troubled. Well, I'm just so worried. I'm just so, well, Jesus says, okay, let not your heart be troubled. Well, I just can't help it. Well, why all the, you ever read Proverbs a day? Some of you do that? I do it. Proverbs a day keep the devil away a little bit. But you read those Proverbs, all of those verses on character traits, that you say you can't help. Why does he tell you to change if you can't? Why does he say, present everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be minimum to God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mind. Did he lie? Or maybe you're not bringing it to him in the right way with thanksgiving. prayer and supplication and presenting it to him. So a lot of times we just wanna fall back to that old excuse and what it is, that's the ruined human nature bleeding through. And human nature's always gonna make excuses for itself. Instead of saying, you know what, I just need to have the faith to follow through. Faith to face the problem, faith to follow through with the solution. The command, verse 12, the comfort, verses 11 and 12, and then the confronting. Keep reading down, look in verse 13. He tells him, and also of the son of the bondwoman, will I make a nation because he is thy seed? And Abraham rose up early in the morning, verse 14, and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto Hagar, and put it in on her shoulder and the child, and sent her away, and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. The confronting. Do it quickly, do it specifically, and do it conclusively. He sends her out. Now you'll notice if you do a comparison with Hagar's life back in chapter 16, what I preached the other night, when Hagar leaves, she's running from her problems and the Lord says, hey, you need to turn around and go back under your mistress. She's with child at that point. And she says, you turn around and go back. Here, whenever she leaves in chapter 21, and she goes and the Lord comes to her, notice he doesn't tell her to go back. Notice another thing, keep reading down, if you will, in Genesis 21, look at some things about this. There's some intel here. They leave and it's hot and she's upset and they're running out of water. Verse number 16, let me not see the death of the child. Verse 17, God heard the voice of the lad. The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said, what aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Rise, lift up the lad. Hold him in thine hand for I will make of him a great nation. God opened her eyes, she saw a well of water, she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad drink. God was with the lad and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, just like was prophesied by the way, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took him a wife, look at that, out of Egypt. Ishmael has too many connections with Egypt. So what is Egypt spiritually? Egypt's the world. Look, I know you have to rub shoulders with the world. I understand that. I know family dynamics are such, just like I was preaching Sunday night, I guess, some about Abraham and Sodom and all that. And now you're getting more and more family members that are Sodomites. So now the pastors and the churches are just really wanting to tiptoe around this because they don't want to get somebody mad because just because your grandkid or your son or your niece or whoever that, you know, is so nice, turns out to be one, you don't think it's that bad of a deal. Yeah, it is a bad deal. Just like a drunkard. Just because you know somebody that got drunk and abused alcohol, it's still a sin. Just like fornication, just like adultery, just like murder. Well, you know, my son's on death row and he served his time. Yeah, he's still a murderer. And the Bible says if somebody kills somebody, they're supposed to be put to death. That's just Old Testament and New Testament. Laws of government, of course, change. God's view towards sin has never changed, but what happens is you get soft because you get so close to Egypt. And because you love the person, like I told you before, there's a lot of nice queers. You meet them in the stores all the time, you know. Some of you ladies like to get your hair cut by them. I don't know why you want a weirdo touching your head. I say that, but hopefully none of you do in here. You say, well, they're the best chefs, and they're the best hairdressers. Yeah, they're sickos. See, what happens is, you know, it started off years ago when we were kids. They had the little sitcoms, you know, where they just made fun of it, and then they bring it on into the stuff. But what happens is, in the illustration with this, it might not have to be that situation, but it's similar. It's somebody that's connected to Egypt, and you're closer and closer and closer to Egypt because of that relationship. God says, okay. Well, it's family reunion. I can't make it to church Sunday. We're having a family reunion. Oh, really? Family reunion on Sunday? Okay. We'll see, we'll just see. And I know everybody, well, it's not a big deal. Look, I know, I don't harp on church attendance. You know that, I'm talking to the Wednesday night crowd. I get that, I get that. But we'll see how it plays out in the judgment seat of Christ. It's a little too close to Egypt. And the story of Ishmael, of course, is the story of the Arabs, according to them, you know. But when Abraham confronts, he does it quickly, specifically, and conclusively. And it had to be done. And Abraham had faith to follow through with what God gave him. Let's just close with a verse in the New Testament, and we'll be done I told you it'd be quick and painless. 2 Corinthians 6. You ever try to drive with, you're supposed to just drive with one foot, unless you have a stick shift, but you ever try to drive with the foot, right foot on the gas, left foot on the brake? You ever push both of them at the same time? It's not gonna work. You can't go forward if you're pushing both of them at the same time. So here's Abram in his life, and he's at Abraham at a point where he's got to go forward. He's got the promised seed. God has set these blessings up, but there's Israel. We're not going to get to Genesis 22. We will Sunday night, but you'll never get to that place of faith in your life, which is the pinnacle of Abraham's faith, I believe even more so than him having faith to believe God's going to give him the children. His justification is finalized in Genesis 22 when he has the faith to take Isaac up there to sacrifice him. But he never can get to the place of sacrificing Isaac until he gets rid of Ishmael. And it's not Ishmael on the altar. We are to mortify the deeds of the body, but that's not the same type of sacrifice as taking Isaac to the altar. We're supposed to kick Ishmael out. Ishmael's got to be kicked out before you can ever get to the place where you can sacrifice Isaac. And so a lot of times we don't have the consecration that we're supposed to have in our lives because we can't get rid of Ishmael. He keeps hanging around. We keep feeding him. We keep feeling sorry for him. I'll give you some more beans. You go in the cupboard and you bring him more food out and he's got his little halt standing there holding his little sign. You feel so sorry for him. Gotta go. What did I tell you, 2 Corinthians 6, we'll close with this. 2 Corinthians 6, look in verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Now you'll notice the context has to do with fellowship. Now certainly you have to have some type of interaction with unbelievers, workforce, family. I mean, you can't get away from unbelievers. This has to do with fellowship, communion. Verse 15, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord. almighty. So that's a new testament application for this type of separation faith to let go. Lord, thank you for the scriptures tonight. I pray that you'd help us. I know it's