Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.cccharlotte.org/sermons/47896/let/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] A Pastor's Reflections Let Genesis 21-12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman. [0:16] In all that Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. John 14-1 Let not your heart be troubled. [0:27] You believe in God, believe also in me. Philippians 2-5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. [0:39] So often, we end up holding on to things that are so much less than what God would have for us. In Genesis 21, Abraham had just had the shock of his life. [0:52] His firstborn son, whom he loved very much, was about to be taken from him. For the last few years, Abraham had experienced what it was to have two sons. [1:04] And now, the life he had become so accustomed to was about to be drastically changed. What Abraham assumed was a workable situation was never what God had intended or could allow to continue. [1:18] Ishmael was not compatible with the son of promise. Would God really ask me to give up something that means so much to me? Would God really ask me to distance myself from a relationship that I have become so comfortable with? [1:33] Would God really ask me to let go of something that looks and feels so right? He did with Abraham. However, the ask of God is never to my hurt and never to my detriment and never to deprive me of anything. [1:53] God's removals are always to make room for greater blessing and further fulfillment. What Abraham thought was something he couldn't live without, God saw as something that couldn't be lived with. [2:05] 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9-10 But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. [2:21] But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Do not try to guess the plans of God, but never fight against them once they are revealed. [2:35] Like Abraham, you must choose to believe that God has prepared great and marvelous blessings for your life and that he alone knows the environment that is needed for them to flourish. [2:48] Let God take from you what only he knows would otherwise result in a detriment to your life. Let God lead you in ways you would have never chosen for yourself. [2:59] And let God give you something so much greater than the thing he has asked you to release. Let God and experience the blessing that will follow. [3:11] Father, if left to myself, I would have chosen so many things that would have been to my own hurt and detriment. It is only your intervening grace that has shown me a better way. [3:23] Thank you for your word that so clearly and faithfully redirects me back into the blessing of your ways. let not my way get in the way of Yahweh. [3:35] Amen.