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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. Good morning.

[0:14] If you turn your Bibles to Genesis 15, before we get going this morning, just a couple kind of housekeeping items.

[0:27] One, you may have noticed the sound being a little poppy, inny, and outy here, and we are moving our soundboard back.

[0:37] We're upgrading our soundboard and our whole situation back there. But in the meantime, we have some temporary cables patched together, so apologies if anything explodes or blows your eardrums out while I'm up here.

[0:53] So that's one. Two, Jeffrey, as he mentioned, will send out that email. Email is one of probably the major ways that we communicate. There's not yet a Bethel Slack channel, although I advocate for that, for those of you that are Slack users.

[1:07] So if you do not get the emails, and you would like to get the emails, see me or Jeff or Kurt or somebody like that, and we can get your email added to the list so you stay in the loop on all things Bethel.

[1:24] And then just kind of a third thing, we've got a handful of new folks here at Bethel, which we're excited about and appreciative of. And you may have noticed that it's not the same person that speaks every week.

[1:37] One week it might be Dave, one week it might be me, it might be Frank, etc., etc. We just kind of believe in the New Testament church, as outlined in the Bible, that there should be a couple folks that teach.

[1:51] So we have a couple different folks that teach, and we all take it pretty seriously when we study a passage. But that's just kind of something we do. It might be a little different than other churches. So if you've noticed that and wondered, hey, what the heck's up with that?

[2:05] That's what the heck is up with that. So with that in mind, let's go to Genesis 15. And we are studying, we're kind of in a 12-week study of the book of Genesis. And we're kind of looking at some of the major characters in Genesis.

[2:21] And specifically, we're looking at them as how do these characters relate to us as a New Testament church? Like, what lessons can we learn from their lives that still apply to us today? And I'll tell you, the lesson today certainly has applied to my life.

[2:35] And I'm going to give you a real personal example of it. And it's kind of crazy to think something written, you know, 6,000 years ago is still applicable. You know, but it is because the Word of God is living and active.

[2:46] And so anyway, that's the plan as we're still going through Genesis. So we are on Abraham. And we're actually spending four weeks on Abraham.

[2:57] And you might think, that's a lot of Abraham. Well, it is a lot of Abraham. This is week number three. We've talked two weeks about Abraham and kind of his covenant that God made with Abraham.

[3:07] Today we're going to talk about Abraham and his two sons. He had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. And we're going to talk about how they relate to us as Christians today.

[3:18] And then next week we're taking a break. Jacob is going to give us an update on his trip to Africa. And then we're going to have one more on Abraham, his account with Isaac. So Abraham and Isaac.

[3:30] So why Abraham so dang much? Well, if you look in the New Testament, Adam, who is, you know, a prominent figure in Genesis, he's brought up nine different times in the New Testament.

[3:41] And I actually got to cover Adam. And remember, we said that Adam, how he relates to us nowadays, is he was kind of an example of Christ.

[3:51] Right? Through Adam's disobedience, sin spread to all mankind. We have this idea of like universal sin. And that came from Adam's disobedience. Whereas in Christ, in Christ's obedience to the death on the cross, we have this offer of salvation extended to all mankind.

[4:11] Right? And so Adam was kind of this picture of Christ. And so that's how that relates. So anyway, Adam is mentioned like nine times in the New Testament. Jacob, who we're going to talk about in a couple weeks, he's mentioned like 26 times in the New Testament.

[4:23] But almost all of those references, outside of Romans 9, almost all 26 of Jacob's references come in like the genealogies. Because Jacob begat this guy who begat that guy.

[4:36] So Jacob, he's in there 26 times, but really, just really, maybe three or four times in Romans. And then Noah, he's brought up three times in the New Testament. But old Abraham, anybody want to venture a guess?

[4:47] How many times he's brought up in the New Testament? What did he say? 40? 40? 70. 72 times in the New Testament, Abraham's brought up. So Abraham's pretty dang important, I would say.

[4:58] So that's why we're spending four weeks on Abraham. So today, like I said, we're going to look at Abraham and his two sons. And kind of how that all went down in Genesis.

[5:10] We'll look at the story itself. A couple different passages there. And then we'll jump into the New Testament. We're going to go to Galatians and see how his two sons and the story of his two sons relate to us today.

[5:23] And I think there's two real good ways that the story of Abraham and his two sons can relate to us. So let's pray real quick, and then we'll jump in. So, Father God, just thank you for this day.

[5:35] Thank you that you love us. Thank you that we can meet together. And Lord, just thank you that we do have beautiful weather. And thank you that the snow came in the middle of the week so we could still get together today.

[5:48] And Lord, I pray you just bless this time as we study your word. I pray that we would all gain a few new things from it, Lord. So we're thankful for this, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

[5:59] Amen. All right, so Genesis 15. We're going to start in verse 2. And what I want to do is just kind of read a couple of these passages out of Genesis.

[6:15] It's a little bit of reading up front, so bear with me. But this kind of just tells you the story of Abraham and his son. So it says this. But Abram said, Genesis 15 to, Lord God, what will you give me seeing that I go childless?

[6:32] In the air of my house is Eliza of Damascus. Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir.

[6:45] And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, Look toward the heaven, count the stars if you're able to number them.

[7:00] And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And Abram believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. So kind of what happens here? Well, Abram is talking with God, and God is talking with him.

[7:14] And he says, I don't have any kids. You're saying you're going to give this to me as like an inheritance, but I don't have any kids. There's no inheritance to pass on. There's no offspring. And God says, No, I'm going to give you kids.

[7:25] And it's going to be someone that comes from your own body. So if we go into the next chapter, chapter 16, you'll see Abraham and his wife Sarah, they kind of come up with this scheme, if you will, to do it on their own.

[7:41] They're going to take matters into their own hands. So it says this. It says, Now Sarah, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.

[7:51] And she had an Egyptian maidservant or slave whose name was Hagar. Some say she was horrible, but that's another. Hagar the Horrible?

[8:02] Come on, people. No one has heard of Hagar? Okay. Goodness gracious. So Sarah said to Abram, See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid.

[8:13] Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarah. And Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.

[8:28] So he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in Sarah's eyes. So the things have escalated here.

[8:40] God says, Abram, I'm going to give you some kids. Abram says, I don't have any kids. The Lord says, I know I'm going to give you some. Abram, and Abram and Sarah kind of take matters into their own hands. Sarah gives Abram her slave, this girl named Hagar.

[8:57] Abram goes into her that she conceives. And now he has a son, and this son's name is going to be Ishmael. And so my question to you would be, is there ever a time where you thought maybe God had something for you, or you thought the Lord was going to provide this or direct you in this path, and you decided to take matters into your own hands?

[9:20] And my follow-up question would be, if so, how did that end up for you? We see here that Hagar was despised in Sarah's eyes.

[9:31] So let's keep going. We'll come back to that thought. In chapter 17, we get a little bit more clarity on God's promise to Abraham about children.

[9:44] It says this in verse 15 of chapter 17. Then God said to Abraham, I think that's kind of a cool line.

[10:10] It says, He's saying, Lord, isn't this good enough?

[10:32] Isn't what I did good enough for you? The Ishmael. You know, I did that. Isn't that good enough? And God said, No, Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.

[10:45] I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. So we get a little more clarity. God says, Hey, I'm going to give you a child.

[10:58] Abraham says, I'm going to try to do it on my own. God says, No, I'm going to give you a child by your wife, Sarah. So the picture is starting to take shape here a little bit more. And of course, Abraham tries to intervene and says, Well, Lord, I don't need to do it your way.

[11:12] We did it my way already. What about Ishmael? And then you get to chapter 18. And this is the last one. Then we'll take a little break from the reading. But 18, verse 9. Kind of a side note here.

[11:29] These three men come and visit Abraham. And one of them is actually the Lord Jesus. And then presumably the other two would be angels or something. And Abraham has a servant go kill a calf and give it to the men.

[11:41] And so literally Abraham is sitting there eating steak with the Lord, which is like super cool. Because I really like steak. And I really like God. And I think that would just be a cool deal.

[11:53] But anyway, so they're eating together. And in verse 9 it says this, Then they, the men, said to him, Where is Sarah, your wife? So he said, Here in the tent. And he, that's Jesus, said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life.

[12:10] And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And it says Sarah was listening in the door of the tent which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age.

[12:21] And Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child since I am old?

[12:36] And here's the line. Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you according to the time of life. And Sarah shall have a son.

[12:53] So Abraham is childless. God says, I'm going to give you a child. Abraham says, I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to force my hand. I'm going to go into this other woman and I'll have a child with her.

[13:05] And God says, no, that's not what I want. I want your wife Sarah to bear a child. And he said, well, but I already did it my way. Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God says, no, I want it.

[13:16] I want it with Sarah. But Sarah's old and I'm old. Well, is anything too hard for the Lord? And so I'd ask you a question again. Has there ever been a time in your life where maybe you think, I think this is what the Lord has for me, but I'm just going to plow ahead and I'm going to do it myself.

[13:32] And I would tell you in my life, there has certainly been something like that. And I'll tell you, it is a deeply personal thing to me, but I will share it with you.

[13:46] You know, my background is in healthcare. I was a physical therapist. I did that for like six and a half years, something like that. And spent a long time getting to that point in life. That's an advanced degree, whatever.

[13:57] And hated every minute of it. Could not stand it. Did not enjoy it one bit. It did not challenge me, my brain, or my competitive edge at all. Was killing to me.

[14:10] So anyway, in the fall of 19, so October of 2019, it was like very obvious to Lydia and I that I needed to pivot out of that.

[14:23] Into what? We weren't sure. But not that. That wasn't it. And so on my own, I kind of started pushing every single direction.

[14:35] Which way could I go here? What are my options, right? And there's nothing wrong with using the wisdom that God gives you. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that. But you definitely need to yield yourself to the Lord.

[14:48] And probably more so than I did. So in 2020, well, so then in 19, kind of through 2020, I got an MBA. I thought I'd go the administrative route.

[14:59] Got several interviews in like healthcare administration. None of them worked out. But we traveled for a little bit, which was awesome.

[15:10] Came back. And when we came back, it was the, let's see, December, mid-December of 2020. And coming back, it was like, I am not going to take another therapy job.

[15:22] Like, death first. Like, literally death first before I take another therapy job. And so tried a bunch of admin jobs. Tried a bunch of different sales jobs. I thought maybe sales would be the ticket.

[15:32] And got a handful of interviews, sales related. Got one that was just absolute shoo-in. Like, should have got the job.

[15:43] I was four interviews in. One of the physicians who I knew really well happened to be at the facility that day. Talked with him for like 30 minutes right in front of the HR manager. Like, had just interviewed with this guy.

[15:53] And now I'm having lunch with like one of my real good buddies who's one of their big clients. Like, perfect shoo-in. Put it on a tee. Knock it out. Like, couldn't have gone any better.

[16:04] Right? And then get an email. Yeah, we're going another direction. It's like, well, son of a gun. And so we get to February. So we've gone through January. And February 1, I started with St. Luke's in a therapy job, which I did not want to take.

[16:18] Which was the perfect job for last year. That was the perfect job for me. It paid very well. I had a lot of flexibility. I was kind of in charge. I could do basically whatever I wanted all day.

[16:29] But I still hated it. Like, it was just not. It's just not what the Lord had for me. I know for a fact that's not what God had for me. It was just not good for my soul. And so we're in February.

[16:40] I just accepted this job, which was, like, crushing to me. Lydia gets COVID. It's right on her birthday. It's right on Valentine's Day. She's actually here at Valentine's dinner, which is on Friday.

[16:50] And you should all come, too. But she had COVID. And I remember sitting in the Schnucks at Grasso Plaza in my truck. I was getting hers from, like, Gatorade.

[17:00] Or I don't even know what I was getting her. Something because she was sick. And I was just beyond ticked. Like, if you've seen the cartoons where they, like, bend the steering wheel in half. Like, that was me in my truck.

[17:11] Just pounding on the steering wheel. Just mad at God. Like, God, why can't I figure this out? Like, what do you want me to do? Which I probably should have asked back in October of 19. Right?

[17:22] Not in February of 21. But, God, I've figured everything else out. Why can I not figure out this stupid career thing, you know? Well, so then a little more life goes on.

[17:32] And Will Linder, who's in back there, who is in the medical sales business, says, Hey, you know, it's probably good you didn't get a job at that company that I was at.

[17:44] He's like, that company's terrible. Everybody that works there hates their life. You know, it would have been a terrible job for you. I'm like, wow, thank you, Lord, like, for not allowing me to get my way. That Ishmael might live before you there, right? And I ended up actually getting a sales job on the side in addition to the therapy job.

[17:59] And, man, I can talk to people. I can make jokes with people. I can small talk anybody. And I absolutely hated sales. Because when I'm small talking people and joking with people because I want their money, it changes something in my brain.

[18:12] And I hated it. And David and Will and Jeff, I applaud you guys for not having that gene in your head that I have. But it wasn't for me.

[18:25] And so it's like, okay, what do we do? And is anything too hard for the Lord? You know, and of course my buddy Will reaches out. And he's like, dude, you have talked about software with me any time that we were together for like 10 years now.

[18:40] Why don't you do it? I'm like, well, dude, how do I transition out of healthcare, which is all I've ever known, into software? Like, how do you do that? And he kind of lays out the steps. And it's like, oh, well, 12 weeks of training unpaid.

[18:52] Like, how am I going to afford that? I've got three kids or two, I guess, and one on the way at that time. And the Lord just provides all this mystery nursing money for Lydia. Like, no one seems to know where this money in nursing is coming from.

[19:05] But, hey, we were able to take advantage of it and able to make the transition. And nowhere in my wildest imagination would that have been the path that I would have chosen, right? But that's what the Lord had for us.

[19:17] And it's been awesome. It's been a great transition. I thoroughly enjoy doing it. Like, it is for sure what I was built to do. It's the way my brain was wired was to do the software. And I would have never have ever thought that or known that, you know.

[19:28] But is anything too hard for the Lord? And so that would be my thought to you guys is if there's something the Lord has on your heart and you're not sure what the route is to get there, yield yourself to him.

[19:41] You know, submit yourself to him. It talks about in the Psalms, it says that the heart of the leader is in, or the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.

[19:53] And I think a lot of times we use that verse as like God's sovereignty, that God's hand can direct the king any way he wants, the king's heart. But I think it's more so an intimacy with God thing, that the king should be so intimate with God, that his heart should be so close to God's heart and so in line with God's heart that all God has to do is just give him a little nudge and he can direct the king where he needs to go.

[20:15] And so, man, that is what I would tell you guys is get into the word of God. Get into prayer with the Lord daily. Renew your mind daily with him. Have fellowship with him so that your will and his will line up and that he can direct, you know, your heart wherever it needs to go.

[20:32] So that's what I would tell you is that there's nothing too hard for the Lord. You can try with all your might to do it your own way. You know, that Ishmael might live before you and it's not going to work until you submit to God.

[20:44] So that would be the first point I have. And then if you'll flip over to Genesis 21, we're going to kind of finish this story off here of Abraham's two sons.

[21:07] And then we're going to look at just another way that that relates to us as a church and New Testament believers. So, so, so far where we're at is Abraham had no kids.

[21:19] God told him, you're going to have kids. Abraham forced his hand and had Ishmael on his own. God said, no, you're going to have it through Sarah. And then here we are in chapter 21 where Sarah has Isaac.

[21:31] And so chapter 21 verse 1 says, The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

[21:51] And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son when he was eight days old, as God had commanded. And Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.

[22:04] And Sarah said, God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me. She also said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have born him a son in his old age.

[22:15] So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. Sounds like Abraham and I could get along. He's throwing feasts, he's cooking steaks. He seems like a good dude, honestly.

[22:28] And so it's all good, right? Isaac is born, Abraham has his child with Sarah. Everything's okay, right? Well, not quite. Let's read 9 and 10 here. It says, And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, that's Ishmael, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.

[22:46] 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.

[22:58] You know, who would have thought that giving your husband another woman to sleep with, have a kid with, and then keeping the kid around would cause problems, right?

[23:10] I mean, like, you know, Jerry, Jerry. Like, it just kind of seems like that is destined to be a problem. And so now it is a problem.

[23:21] Isaac is born, Sarah has her own son. Well, I don't want this son of a slave around my kid. He's not going to share in the inheritance with my son. Why would we split that up like that? And so they cast him out, and it goes on.

[23:35] God actually kind of blesses Hagar. But we won't get into that too much. So the point is, Abraham had a son with a slave woman, Hagar, on his own, of his own device, his own scheme.

[23:48] And then he had one by promise of God through Sarah, miraculously, at 100 years old, and she was 90 years old. And after Isaac was born, they cast Ishmael out because the son of the slave woman is not going to be co-heirs with the son of Sarah.

[24:10] And so how does that relate to us? Well, go in your Bibles to Galatians. You know, we've got four, two, and new at the house.

[24:21] So we've got our four-year-old Lily, and she's a little singer. And when you have a four-year-old who's a singer, you learn all kinds of songs.

[24:32] I didn't know the Cubbies, the Awana Cubbies. I was an Awana Cubby. I didn't know that they had their own song. But now that Lily has joined the Awana at Fenton Crossing, I have learned that the Awana Cubbies have a song.

[24:46] I'm not going to sing it for you. It is a bit over the top. But you learn these things. And one song I remember learning when I was in Sunday school was Father Abraham.

[24:57] Does everybody remember that song? You end up nodding your head and spinning your arms and turning in a circle. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. And then it said, I am one of them, and so are you.

[25:09] And I remember even as a little kid thinking, was that true? Like, are we, I thought Abraham was like, you know, circumcision, and the Jews, like, are we really sons of Abraham?

[25:22] And I would say the answer is yes. So Galatians chapter three, verse seven says this. It says, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

[25:38] And then it clarifies a little bit more. It says, In the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations, Jew and Gentile, shall be blessed.

[25:55] So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So if you are a believer, it says those who are of faith and then it specifically says that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

[26:09] Those who are of faith, including the Gentiles, are blessed with believing Abraham. So I guess the answer to that song, yeah, we are the sons of Abraham, right? It says that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

[26:23] How does that happen? Well, we are sinners. Christ died for us if we approach him by faith. You know, it is by grace, through faith, not of works, so that no one can boast.

[26:33] We have salvation. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So in a way, we are all sons of Abraham. That's kind of an interesting thought.

[26:44] And how does that apply to us? Well, you see, the Galatians, they had this problem. They kept going back to the law. They received salvation, but they wanted to go back to the law. It said that they wanted to observe like the feasts and the days and the months, and they wanted to kind of put themselves back under the law.

[27:01] And so Paul lays out, it's awesome, chapter 3, 4, and 5, he lays out how salvation could not come through the law and that really the point of the law was to point us to Christ, that the law, he says, was a tutor.

[27:15] It was an example that, hey, we are sinful and we need a Savior. That was the purpose of the law. The law was not to save. But these Galatians, after they were saved by faith, they kept putting themselves back under that law.

[27:30] They kept returning to it kind of with this form of legalism. And if you want to look at that kind of on your own, like chapter 3, 10 through 14, chapter 4, like 7 through 9, all of those verses kind of talk about these Galatians wanting to go back underneath the law, which is obviously not what the Lord had intended for them.

[27:57] And I'll just read one of the verses, Galatians 4, verse 7. It says, Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

[28:09] Well, I mean, what do those words remind you of? I mean, Abraham, right? You're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir. Well, this slave boy, he's not going to be co-heirs with me, with my son, Isaac.

[28:22] So the Galatians, they were putting themselves back under the law. And this is what kind of the culmination of Galatians here.

[28:34] Paul uses Ishmael and Isaac as just black and white, perfect example of why the law and grace just can't coexist. Because if the law was necessary for salvation on top of God's grace, then it would be works-based, right?

[28:52] Then the cross wouldn't be powerful enough to save us. It would be the cross plus some kind of work. And that's not what the gospel is. It says not of works so that no one could boast.

[29:03] And so let's look just at the end of Galatians 4 here where he uses Isaac and Ishmael as an example of this. That salvation comes only by faith.

[29:15] So verse 21 says this, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, which he, again, is talking to the church in Galatia there because they were wanting to go back under it.

[29:27] Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written, Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman and the other by a free woman. He who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh.

[29:41] I'm going to do it on my own, God. I'll go to Hagar. And he of the free woman was born through promise. These things are symbolic.

[29:53] For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which is the law, that's where Moses received the commandments of God, was at Mount Sinai. The one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.

[30:09] For this Hagar, Mount Sinai, is Mount Sinai, sorry, in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children.

[30:20] But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. So if you are of faith, you were born in a sense of freedom. If you were under the law, which the Jews were putting themselves back under the law, then you were in bondage.

[30:38] So in verse 28, it says, Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who is born according to the flesh then persecuted him who is born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

[30:55] 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 free woman. The law and grace cannot coexist.

[31:07] So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. And then here's the key verse. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

[31:28] You know, the cross really levels the playing field. It makes kind of everyone equal on the same page. It's not of works. You know, it's by faith and that faith is in something greater than yourself. It's the cross.

[31:39] And so, at the cross all men are equal, right? There's no sense of well, I'm better than you because I did this or I, you know, I went on this pilgrimage and I fasted and I did that.

[31:51] Doesn't matter at the cross. And what that does is that frees you up, man. That just totally frees you completely up. It says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.

[32:04] Don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back under the law. You know, I think here at Bethel we do a good job of keeping ourselves free from legalism.

[32:15] I think we work pretty hard at not being under that. But, you know, the church, even the churches I grew up in, there's a heavy sense of legalism. You know, you must do this.

[32:25] You must not eat that. You must not, you know, drink alcohol. That's a great example. There's a lot of believers that would say it is a sin for you to drink alcohol. It's like, yeah, I don't think that's scriptural. I think we have freedom on that.

[32:36] Now, I think you need to be careful not to, you know, drink a gallon of Jim Beam every night. I think there's a problem there. But Christ has set us free. You know, the thing Paul goes back to is the meat sacrificed to idols.

[32:50] People were convicted about, well, this meat was sacrificed to idols. And Paul says, it's just meat. Just eat it. You have freedom to eat it. I'm out of time, but I want to talk a little bit about liberty.

[33:07] There's some really good passages in Romans, in 1 Corinthians, and in Peter where it talks about Christian liberty and how do we live as Christians with the liberty that we have in Christ.

[33:19] Because obviously, we're free, right? But that doesn't mean we should go, like, rob banks and kill people, right? That's not the liberty we have. We're not to, you know, go out and intentionally do bad things, although I guess we would be free to do so, right?

[33:37] That's not the idea. Anytime you see Christian liberty, just the two points I would tell you. We are not to judge one another. So if our brother does something that we think, you know, I don't know if I would do that, don't judge him because God is going to judge his actions.

[33:53] That comes from Romans 14. It says, we are not to judge your brother. Each of us will give an account of himself, it says. So not to judge and then two, whatever you decide to do, let your decision be based out of love for your brother.

[34:08] So if your brother has a problem with something, it's better for you to just abstain for that time out of love for your brother. It says in Corinthians, I'll never eat meat again if it was going to cause my brother to stumble.

[34:21] And it says, why would you destroy for the sake of food that which Christ died for? And so the two things as you approach any Christian liberty item, whatever item that might be, think about, if your brother does something, you're not to judge him.

[34:37] And then two, whatever you do, do it out of love for your brother. If the musicians want to come up, I'll just read these two more out of Galatians here that kind of summarize things pretty well here.

[34:50] it's verses 13 and 14 of chapter 5 there. It says, you brethren have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.

[35:03] That would be like the robbing banks and killing people, right? Don't use that liberty you have as an opportunity for the flesh. Don't use it, as Peter says, as a cloak for vice. But through love, serve one another.

[35:17] So enjoy the freedom you have, but don't sin with the freedom you have. Don't use it as a cloak for vice. Don't use it for evil. And in fact, use it as an opportunity to love one another. And then it says this, for all the law is fulfilled in one word.

[35:31] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So you know, Isaac and Ishmael, they have some good lessons for us. You know, it's a lesson on you can try and do things your way, but it'd probably be better if you listened to what God had to say and did it his way, if you yielded yourself to him.