We're here in Genesis 21.
We're not going to finish the whole chapter here today.
And this is not a complicated sermon.
It's pretty basic, but I'm pretty excited about it.
I think there's a great truth here that can be learned.
And the name of this sermon is
How to Deal with Difficult Situations.
If you remember from last week,
Ishmael and Isaac basically have this duel.
I mean, Isaac is just a young child, a young baby.
But Ishmael is mocking Isaac.
And then basically Sarah and Hagar
have a problem as a result.
And then basically Hagar and Ishmael
are basically sent away.
And then God says, listen to the voice of thy wife
and cast out the bond woman and her son.
And so basically we left off last week
and they're being sent out basically in the wilderness.
Now in our modern day, if you were kicked out of a house,
maybe you have a car or you have a means for transportation.
I mean, you have more of a means to survive than back then
because they're basically just sent out in the wilderness.
Here's some water, here's a little bit of food,
some basic items to help you survive for a week
and you're just gonna have to figure it out, right?
So this is not a very easy situation.
And that's why I said how to deal with difficult situations.
There is no doubt that they're in a very stressful
and difficult situation where you don't know
what's gonna happen.
It's not safe for a woman to be out in the wilderness
by herself and trying to find food and a place to live
and things such as that.
It's gonna be a very difficult situation
and that's what we enter into here in Genesis 21.
The Bible gives us some principles
how to deal with a difficult situation.
So verse 14,
And Abraham rose up early in the morning
and took bread and a bottle of water
and gave it on to Hagar,
putting it on her shoulder and the child and sent her away.
And she departed and wondered
in the wilderness of Beersheba.
So wondering in the wilderness,
this is not a packed city where there's a lot of people
and you can stop and get help.
She's just out in the wilderness, right?
Of course, in Pampanga, especially now,
it's a lot more populated
so we don't have this situation as much here.
But I'm sure in the past when there was less people,
you know, there's areas where there's very few people
and that's what's going on here.
She's out in the wilderness
and she's gonna have to figure it out, right?
No map or anything to figure this out.
It's just gonna have to work out.
Now, of course, God helps them and protects them.
But obviously, if any one of us was in that situation,
I think we'd be very afraid, get very nervous.
It would be hard to stay confident.
The first thing we need to do
when dealing with difficult situations
is to control our emotions, control our emotions.
Verse 15, and the water was spent in the bottle.
What that means is there is no water left.
I mean, if there's one thing you need,
one thing you need to survive, it's water, right?
I mean, you're going on a journey in the wilderness,
you need water to survive.
You're not gonna be able to walk a long distance
out in the heat and survive very long without water.
You're gonna run out of energy.
And what takes place is they're given water,
but eventually it runs out, right?
And so they have no water left.
And so here she is with her son, no water,
don't know where they're gonna get water from.
And of course, if you don't have water,
you don't wanna keep traveling
because you're gonna get dehydrated, right?
So the water is spent in the bottle
and the situation went from being difficult
and a bit scary to we better plead with God,
what are we gonna do, right?
We're gonna die.
What can we do to survive?
The water spent in the bottle
and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
Now, when it says she cast the child under one of the shrubs,
the shrubs would indicate a shaded area.
So basically she's putting her son in an area
where he can get a little bit of shade, right?
This is only sort of related,
but I read a book on how to survive in the desert.
And what it talks about in the desert is,
let's say you get stranded in the desert,
you get a flat tire and your car's stuck
and you're stranded in the desert.
What you do not wanna do is during the day,
try to find people and figure out the situation.
What they say is stay in a shaded area until nighttime.
And that's when you try to hike to town or something
because you're gonna get extra dehydrated
during the day, right?
Just imagine in the heat of the day,
just in March right now, walking for hours and hours,
I mean, you're gonna die, right?
So what they say is, go to a shaded area
and then basically at nighttime,
that's when you try to find a town or you try to find help.
But people don't tend to do that
because they lose control of their emotions.
They get into a difficult situation,
they're like, man, I gotta figure this out now.
When in reality, they're better off
controlling their emotions, be calm, think about it.
You don't wanna rush into doing something
when you're really emotional
because you're liable to make a dumb decision.
And what it said in that book is,
that is how people die in the wilderness
or die in the desert, is they try to do it during the day
in the heat of the sun when they should really just
stay underneath the shrubs,
stay underneath the cactus with a little bit of shade
and just wait and then basically just go at nighttime
to try to find something.
And so when she puts her child under one of the shrubs,
the reason why she's doing that
is she's gonna give him some shade
and I believe she's going to try to find water for them.
Because this is a mom that loves her children, right?
She loves her son Ishmael
and she would rather that she died than her son basically.
She cares about her son more than she cares about herself,
which that's the heart of a mom, right?
Caring about her kids
more than she cares about her very own life.
And this is something you see throughout the Bible
where moms have an attachment to their kids
that it's not the same as with fathers.
Obviously fathers love their children,
but you see that moms will oftentimes go above and beyond
and you see the fact they really care about their children.
This is how Hagar feels about her son.
So she starts off doing pretty well in verse 15.
You run out of water, puts her child in a shaded area
and then she's going to try to find the water.
But then she kind of loses control of her emotions
in verse 16.
And she went and sat her down over against him
a good way off as it were a bow shot.
For she said, let me not see the death of a child.
And she sat over against him
and lift up her voice and wept.
So in verse 16, she gives up, right?
That's what we're seeing in verse number 16.
She gives up, she's crying, she's weeping,
she's lost control of her emotions.
Now, I'm not saying this to blame Hagar
because this is a difficult situation
and we'd probably do something similar, right?
We just kind of give up and say, we're not going to make it.
But in verse 15, she's very wise.
And then verse 16, she just kind of gives up
and she's just like, what am I going to do?
And you know what?
She kind of loses control over emotions there in verse 16.
Now, go to Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16.
And let me say this, there's a famous expression,
don't cry over spilt milk, right?
At least in America, that's a very famous expression.
Is that famous here?
Don't cry over spilt milk or no, not so much.
What that means is if the milk already spilled
on the ground, you can't change that.
Basically, if a disaster's taken place
and you can't sit there and cry and whine about it
because it already happened, right?
Maybe here in the Philippines,
don't cry over palabok on the carpet
or something like that, right?
And it's just like, and I've seen that happen.
You have the kids there at the table
and then the kids accidentally spill like spaghetti sauce
in the ground, you're like, oh man.
But here's the thing, it already happened.
Crying about it's not going to change anything.
I mean, the best reaction is clean it up as soon as possible
so it doesn't soak into something
and cause a bigger disaster.
Nobody wants that to happen,
but don't cry over the palabok that went on the carpet, right?
Don't cry over spilled milk
because the milk already spilled
and you can't put that milk back in the bottle.
Once it's spilled, it's spilled, right?
Or how about for anyone who's ever had this happen,
you know, you have a computer or cell phone
and water spills on it or something spills on it.
Well, if you sit there and cry about it for 30 minutes,
say bye-bye to your cell phone or computer.
Nobody wants that to happen, but when it happens,
you got to rush and figure out how to deal with it, right?
And so basically, you know,
when something bad happens in your life, you know,
of course I'm not saying there's never a grieving time.
I understand we deal with difficult things,
but you know, at the end of the day, you know,
crying about it, you eventually have to just be logical
and think about it and realize, okay, what's the solution?
What am I going to do?
You got to control your emotions in difficult situations.
Easier said than done.
I'm not saying this is easy.
I'm not saying I don't struggle with this,
but it's what we need to do in difficult situations.
Proverbs 16, verse number 32.
The Bible says, here's an example of one emotion.
It says, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh the city.
And what the Bible's saying here is it's easier
to basically win a military victory
than basically just control your own attitude, right?
And what the Bible's saying is you need to be very careful
not to quickly get angry about things.
Something bad happens, you just lose your temper,
you yell, you scream at your kids, scream at your wife,
scream at your husband,
and you just completely lose control, right?
And the Bible says, those that are slow to anger,
they're better than the mighty,
better than the person that wins a big military battle.
Why?
Because it's easier to win a big military battle,
win a fight versus someone,
then control your own emotions, right?
Obviously, one of the requirements for being a pastor
is not to be angry all the time and lose your temper
and be a brawler and things like that.
But the truth is all of us sometimes lose control
of our emotions and when you get angry,
it's like you just kind of blow sometimes.
And once you get angry, it's kind of like the logical thing
would be to just think about it, calm down,
give yourself a break.
But what we normally do
is just try to burn the house down, right?
Just try to cause this major fight and just go to war.
And our emotions just take control of us, right?
One of the great examples is obviously
when it comes to in marriage,
when a husband and wife get into an argument.
And look, realistically, every husband and wife
do argue from time to time, right?
Every single one of us that's married,
we've had times where we've gotten disagreements.
And you know what?
It's very easy to lose control of your emotions
in those situations.
And one of the worst things is in today's world,
I don't, my cell phone's over there
so I can't give this example.
But basically, you know, one of the worst things now
is with your cell phone because, you know,
the fight could be over, you go to the other room,
but they've got, you've got Facebook and Messenger
or whatever and you can say whatever you want
and just cause more problems.
And honestly, you'd be better off,
just leave your cell phone behind,
just walk to the other room,
do whatever to calm down and not just blow everything up
because it's just gonna get worse, right?
I mean, anger is something when you get out of control,
it's just like you can't contain it.
You know, when I played soccer, you know,
I played soccer, you know, all my life growing up
and everything, and you know what?
When people get red cards,
which means they get kicked out of the game,
it's almost always because they lost control
of their temper and then they just took
a cheap shot on somebody.
So for example, they just, you know, tried to injure them,
and they just like kick them on the knee or whatever
to try to injure, because they lost their temper.
And you know, when I had teammates that did that,
because I never got red carded in my entire life.
I got two yellow cards, but I never got a red card.
And the reason why is because I just controlled my anger.
And you know, when I got angry,
I just got control of my emotions.
I never got kicked out of a game,
even though I played year long, you know,
for over a decade playing soccer,
because there's no benefit to getting kicked out of a game.
You lose your temper and then just shove somebody
to get rid of your anger.
You got kicked out of the game,
now your team's down a player, you're gonna lose the game.
What good is that?
And what players will do is try to bait somebody
into shoving them or something.
They'll try to say something to them
and get them to fight or whatever,
so they'll get kicked out of the game.
And I had teammates that would get kicked out of the game
and I would be angry at my teammates.
It's like, what are you doing?
Like, what's the purpose of doing that?
Can't you just control yourself?
I remember this guy we had on our team,
a very talented player, but man,
he had a problem with anger.
And I remember one time he got mad,
he just started running at the opposing goalie,
trying to like, because he did some kickboxing too.
He was a soccer player and kickboxer.
And he was like going to town,
just kicking the other goalie.
And it's like, what are you doing?
Right, and it's like, of course kicked out of the game.
And it's like, we're down a player.
It's like, man, just control yourself, right?
Same thing takes place in basketball sometimes
where a guy loses their temper,
takes a cheap shot on the opponent,
gets kicked out of the game.
It does no good.
You got to control your emotions.
Anger is one example, right?
But obviously there's other emotions as well.
Obviously sadness is something
that it takes place in our lives,
but we need to try to control that as best we can.
Because if we allow that to basically overrun us,
then we're going to be destroyed, right?
We cannot let emotions run our lives.
And see, when you come to emotions,
it's something dealing with the heart.
And basically your heart wants those emotions.
It wants to act on those emotions,
but you got to use your brain.
You got to basically get control of yourself.
Now, of course, there's a time to be angry.
There's a time to be sad.
There's a time for various emotions,
but we can't let those control our lives though.
Other emotions that control it,
people get bitter and it just destroys their life, right?
People get envious, it destroys their life.
They get covetous, it destroys their life.
And here's a woman who's kind of a mixture
of fear and sadness.
She's afraid and as a result, she's very sad.
And these emotions have now taken a hold of her
and she has given up.
And I'm not trying to be too critical on her
because she did a good thing.
She put her child under the shrubs
and it's a difficult situation.
I don't blame a woman, especially out in the wilderness,
but she's now lost control of her emotions.
And you know what?
The first thing you need to do in a difficult situation,
in a storm of life, in a scary situation
is you don't lose control of your emotions.
You got to think logically about the situation.
She's in a mode of, I need to survive.
We could die.
You cannot lose control of your emotions.
You got to think logically in these situations.
Go to Genesis chapter 12.
Genesis 12, let me give you another example.
Because I'm kind of showing Hagar as a bad example,
let me just show Abraham and just show you
this is not just something that women would struggle with,
it's something that men struggle with as well.
All of us can lose control of our emotions.
All of us can allow difficult situations
to cause us to basically panic
and make the wrong choices.
Genesis 12 verse 10.
And there is a famine in the land
and Abram went down into Egypt to adjourn there
for the famine was grievous in the land.
Abraham has a difficult situation,
worried about money, what does he do?
Well, let's just move to a wicked area where there's money.
Bad choice, right?
What he has is a difficult situation.
Look, if a major famine took place in the Philippines
and half the people lost their jobs,
that's a scary situation, right?
I mean, if you lose your job
and then there's no jobs opening,
it's like, that's a scary situation.
And the easy thing to do would be
lose control of your emotions and just get depressed
and just sit there and just complain
and wallow in your misery every single day.
Being on the smart thing would be,
okay, well, let's think of a solution.
Let's think of how to make money to survive, right?
You cannot give up in situations like that.
Abraham though, he basically does.
He moves to a wicked area because there's a famine.
Verse 11, and it came to pass
when he was come near to enter into Egypt
that he said unto Sarai his wife,
Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon.
Therefore it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee
that they shall say, This is his wife,
and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
Say I pray thee thou art my sister
that it may be well with me for thy sake
and my soul shall live because of thee.
Well, once again, Abraham has a difficult situation.
You're going to a wicked area, you're afraid,
and what does he do?
He panics and tells his wife just to pretend to be his sister
because he's making a bad decision
in a difficult situation.
You got to control your emotions
and think logically in difficult situations.
Go to Job 1, I'll show you one other example.
Job 1, Job 1.
Job chapter 1.
Some of the things we see highlighted in the Bible
are financial situations can cause people
to basically lose control of their emotions
and not think logically.
Fearful situations where you can basically
lose control of your emotions and not think logically.
For example, let's say you're in a grocery store
and somebody comes in with a gun
and is telling everybody give me your wallets and everything.
One thing people might do when they panic
is just try to run out of there or whatever,
but it's probably not the smartest thing to do.
You want to just get out of that situation.
It's not always the smart thing to do though.
You got to think logically
and figure out what is the best idea.
And sometimes you got to just wait out the situation.
Sometimes it's not going to fix itself in a couple seconds.
You got to wait it out for some time period.
Job 1, obviously Job goes through a difficult situation
and he does a good job.
Verse 20, then Job arose and ran his mantle
and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground
and worshiped and said,
naked came I out of my mother's womb
and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord
and all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.
So Job, he has a great reaction to this situation.
And in the next chapter, he has a great reaction as well.
Loses all of his money, loses his kids
and loses his health.
Pretty much everything that you have,
you know, that's important to you, right?
I mean, loses everything except his wife
and then his wife actually gets mad
and she loses control of her emotions.
And she says, curse God and die, right?
Look, I'm not trying to blame his wife
or blame Hagar or blame Abraham.
When you're in difficult situations,
you make bad decisions,
but that's why you preach a sermon about it.
That's why the Bible is giving wisdom
on how to deal with difficult situations.
Step one is just control your emotions.
You got to use your brain.
You cannot let your emotions control your decision-making.
Go back to Genesis 21, Genesis 21.
Genesis 21.
Point number one, control your emotions.
Not too complicated, very easy to understand,
very difficult to actually do though.
Point number one is just control your emotions.
Point two, pray to God.
Pray to God.
Once again, not complicated,
but this is what the Bible shows us.
Pray to God.
Genesis 21, verse 17.
And God heard the voice of the lad.
Now the lad is referring to Ishmael, right?
And God heard the voice of the lad.
And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven
and said unto her, what aileth thee, Hagar?
Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad
where he is.
I mean, you're catching what it's saying in verse 17.
God heard the voice of the lad.
God heard Ishmael.
What that means is Ishmael prayed to God.
Guess whose voice God did not hear?
The voice of Hagar.
That's what you're seeing in verse 17.
You see, Hagar gets emotional, she loses control,
and she does a good job to start.
Then all of a sudden she just kind of gives up
and God doesn't hear her voice.
But you got Ishmael and God says, you know what?
I heard the voice of Ishmael.
I heard him pray.
God heard the voice of the lad where he is.
And so God heard the voice of Ishmael
and Ishmael in the difficult situation,
he actually got a hold of God.
And look, when we're in a difficult situation,
what we need to do is actually pray to God.
Talk to God about it.
Now look, of course we should have a daily walk with God.
We're praying to God all the time.
But the idea is this,
sometimes when we have difficult situations in life,
instead of going to God and asking for guidance
and asking for help,
sometimes we just try to figure it out on our own.
And basically God's kind of like our last resort.
But in this situation, it says God heard the voice of the lad.
You say, why?
Because obviously Ishmael was talking to God.
And God said, you know what, I heard that.
And then God honors that because of Ishmael's voice.
And this is what you see oftentimes throughout the Bible.
For example, when the children of Israel
were basically in bondage for so long in Egypt,
the reason why they weren't let out of bondage
is because they weren't crying out to God.
Because the Bible says when they cried out to God,
a deliverer gets sent, Moses.
Same thing throughout the book of Judges.
They basically are in bondage,
they cry out to God and God sends a deliverer, right?
That's the template you see throughout the Bible.
So look, God wants to help us in our situations in life.
He wants to help us in difficult situations.
We have to actually pray to Him though.
We can't just go with our own logic
and try to figure things out on our own.
We have to actually ask God to help us
and guide us through situations.
Go to Proverbs chapter three, Proverbs three.
Proverbs chapter three.
And in Proverbs chapter three, famous verses here,
but notice what it says in Proverbs three verse five.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not onto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him
and He shall direct thy paths.
Now, the Bible says to trust with all thine heart
and of course, when it comes to a person getting saved,
they've got to trust in the Lord with all their heart,
but this has nothing to do with salvation, this verse.
That's not the context.
Sometimes you tell people that salvation is just believe,
just trust on Jesus, trust in the Lord.
And when they hear that, they think,
yeah, I got to trust Him with all areas of my life
and let Him guide me and walk the walk.
It's like, no, no, no, no.
It's a one-time thing for salvation.
But you can believe on Jesus and get saved.
It doesn't mean you're allowing God to guide you
in all areas of life,
because our faith is actually very small.
I mean, if we had faith as a grain of a mustard seed,
we could move mountains, the Bible says, right?
And so the reality is that oftentimes
we do lean on our own understanding.
We trust our own mind and our own brain.
We don't let God actually guide us.
And you know what?
All of us can be guilty of this,
but it really amazes me when you talk to Christians in 2022
and I use the term Christians lightly,
but I mean, when you hear situations come up,
you never really hear people quoting the Bible
to determine what they believe
or what to do in situations.
Because if we really believe the Bible has all the answers,
you would think if you have a situation,
it would be like, what does God say about this?
Is there a verse in the Bible that gives the answer?
But yet people oftentimes don't use the Bible
as their guide to figure things out.
We lean on our own understanding.
And you've got Hagar in the wilderness
and what she's doing is leaning on her own understanding.
I'm out of water.
I don't see any water.
What am I gonna do?
I'm gonna die if I keep going.
And really she should have just stopped
and just prayed to God and say, God, help me, guide me,
help me in this situation.
And the indication is that Ishmael actually did cry out
to God and actually talk to God.
Whereas Hagar, once she lost control of her emotions,
she just kind of gave up, right?
Go to 2 Kings 19.
Let me give you another example.
I'll read you this story in 2 Kings 19.
When you have difficult situations, what do you do?
Well, number one, you gotta make sure
you control your emotions.
Don't just lose control.
And number two, you need to pray to God.
And the reality is that if you do control your emotions,
you're probably gonna pray to God
to ask for help in situations.
Because I know personally for myself,
when I lose control of my emotions,
I don't stop to pray to God.
I just kind of get mad or get upset or whatever.
I don't think about it.
But when I do control my emotions in difficult situations,
then you know what?
One step of control my emotions, the reaction is,
okay, God, I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to handle this situation.
Please help.
Please help fix this situation.
Please help guide me.
And so you control your emotions and then you pray to God.
Obviously these things kind of go hand in hand.
Pray to God to help you control your emotions.
Control your emotions and pray to God
in difficult situations.
Second Kings 19, verse 10.
Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah,
saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee,
saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered
into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands by destroying them utterly,
and shalt thou be delivered.
Here's an example where basically Hezekiah king of Judah
is being threatened by Assyria,
and Assyria rules the world at this time.
So basically they send somebody to Hezekiah
and basically say, Hey, we're just going to take your land.
You can't deliver yourself.
You know, none of the gods have delivered anybody.
And you know what?
We Assyria have destroyed everybody, right?
I mean, just imagine if a really powerful nation
just kind of decided we're going to invade the Philippines.
What are you going to do about it, right?
Just imagine if the US or China or Russia
or one of these nations just said,
Hey, nobody's delivered themselves from the United States.
And they just came here and said, we're going to take over.
Well, I mean, that'd be a pretty scary situation
because logically speaking,
we're not going to win that battle, right?
You're not going to beat China in a one-on-one battle.
Of course, in today's world,
other nations could get involved.
So I understand that.
I'm just saying though, like on an individual level
to understand this story, just imagine that Assyria,
the world empire comes to you and says,
Hey, we're taking over.
Be like, what do I do in this situation?
It's a difficult situation, right?
Verse 12, have the gods of the nations delivered them
which my fathers have destroyed as goes in
and Haran and Razaph and the children of Eden,
which were in Thalesar?
Where's the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad
and the king of the city of Sepharvam of Hana and Ivah?
And Hezekiah received the letter
of the hand of the messengers and read it.
Here's a difficult situation,
but notice Hezekiah's reaction.
And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord
and spread it before the Lord.
And basically here's this burden that Hezekiah gets
where they're going to be destroyed by Assyria.
He gets this letter threatening them.
And then all of a sudden he just kind of spreads it
before the Lord.
And he's going to pray to God,
like, how can I deal with this situation?
God, we need your help.
Can you please step in in this situation?
And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said,
O Lord God of Israel,
which dwells between the cherubims,
thou art the God even now alone
of all the kingdoms of the earth.
Thou hast made heaven and earth.
He says, you're above all these kingdoms.
You're the one who's giving Assyria this power.
You're allowing them to have this power.
You control Assyria.
And He said, Assyria is threatening us right now,
but you're above that.
You're more powerful.
Lord, bow down thine ear and hear,
open Lord thine eyes and see,
and hear the words of Sennacherib,
which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
And He says, Assyria is mocking the true God.
They're mocking us.
They say, they're going to take over.
God, can you help us?
Because logically speaking,
there is no way they would beat Assyria in a fight.
It's not a possibility.
It's impossible.
Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria
have destroyed the nations in their land.
I mean, Assyria was the world empire
and have cast their gods into the fire
for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wooden stone.
Therefore they have destroyed them.
Now therefore, Lord our God, I beseech thee,
save thou us out of his hand
that all the kings of the earth may know
that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.
Then Isaiah, the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah saying,
thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
that which thou hast prayed to me
against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard.
Basically the same thing as in Genesis 21, right?
I mean, you got a difficult situation
and then Hezekiah prays to God, God hears that, right?
He sends the prophet to tell Hezekiah,
I heard that message and he does deliver them.
And he basically supernaturally delivers them from Assyria
when you read that story.
You say, does prayer work?
Well, I mean, it worked in these stories, right?
I mean, it worked for Ishmael, worked for Hezekiah, right?
I mean, prayer works, right?
Anyway, oftentimes, you know,
we don't have simply because we don't ask.
It's like, man, you know,
why can't God bless me in this area,
but you've never actually prayed about it.
It's like, well, just pray, right?
And it sounds very basic,
but that's what the Bible says in the book of James
that, you know, you have not because you ask not.
And the reality is that, you know,
and I'm being honest with myself as well,
that the prayer life is one of the more difficult things
of the Christian life, it's difficult.
And part of the battle is just having the faith to pray
because, you know, oftentimes we pray
and what kind of goes through our minds
is it doesn't really make a difference.
But obviously it does make a difference, right?
We see this in the Bible,
it makes a difference for Hezekiah,
it makes a difference for Ishmael.
But what we oftentimes do is try to just figure it out
on our own, we don't take the time to pray,
it's not worth the 15 minutes in the morning,
and then you go about your day, you don't pray,
and then you have the same problems,
the same mistakes happen over and over and over again.
It's like, why?
Why is God not blessing my life?
Why do I have all these problems?
I have all these difficult situations.
Are you worried about it?
Look, and I understand you can pray to God
and still have difficult situations, I understand that.
But, you know, at the same time,
even more of a reason to pray to God
because He can help ease those burdens
through those situations, right?
We need to make sure we're actually praying to God.
And look, this is not a complicated sermon.
It's a very basic sermon.
But you know what?
The Bible just kind of outlines itself in a sermon
here in Genesis 21, and what we see is
you gotta control your emotions in difficult situations.
You gotta pray to God.
Go to Genesis 21, Genesis 21, Genesis 21.
Point number one here tonight is control your emotions.
In a difficult situation, in a scary situation,
in a fearful situation, you gotta control your emotions.
That could be a scary situation,
it could be a financial burden you have,
it could be sadness, it could be anger.
I mean, whatever the situation,
whatever emotions are arising,
you gotta be able to control your emotions.
I mean, emotion is not a bad thing, right?
I mean, even the Bible, Jesus wept.
It's not wrong to cry, but of course,
you can allow sadness to overcome you
to the point where it's too much, right?
Anger's not necessarily a bad thing.
I mean, there's a time to hate, there's a time to be angry,
but sometimes your anger can just basically take over
and then you're gonna cause harm to yourself.
You need to control your emotions.
Number two, you need to pray to God.
Number three, we find here in verses 18 and 19,
notice what it says in verse 18.
Arise, this is God speaking to her,
lift up the lad and hold him in thine hand,
for I will make him a great nation.
So in verse number 18, what God tells her is,
you know what, I'm gonna make a great nation out of him.
It's like, you don't have to worry, right?
You know, you're gonna survive, you're not gonna die.
There's gonna be a great nation coming out of him.
But then verse 19's very interesting,
and God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.
Now catch what's being said here.
It doesn't say God created a well of water.
Look, I understand God can create water out of nothing.
God could create water out of a rock.
But that's not what's happening in this story.
The well is already there
and her eyes were basically closed to it,
she just didn't see it.
I mean, because if you're in the wilderness,
you have all these directions
and she just kind of missed the well that's there.
But the well was actually right there.
And it's just like, Ishmael gets a hold of God,
and then all of a sudden God tells Hagar,
you know, basically don't worry,
a great nation's coming out of your son,
and then all of a sudden God opened her eyes
and she saw a well of water.
But the well was already there.
And see, in life, point number three,
realize the answers are oftentimes right there,
but we don't see it.
We miss it.
Why is it we miss it?
Well, probably because we don't pray to God.
We let emotions control us, we don't pray to God,
and we're trying to figure out
what's the solution for this situation?
And it's right there, but we're blinded to it.
And if we just pray to God,
God, can you help me through this situation?
There's the well of water.
There's the solution.
What do I do in this situation?
I don't know what to do.
Pray to God and then boom, your eyes are open,
it's right there.
When you pay attention in this story,
the well is already there.
And look, I understand that if the well was not there,
God would have created a well out of nothing.
I understand that.
But the well is actually already here in the story.
It's just her eyes didn't see it.
And of course, that makes sense
because if you're out in the wilderness,
I mean, you'd assume there might be trees
and various things.
You're not gonna catch everything.
And of course, it's very easy to get lost
if you're kind of going in circles
trying to figure something out or whatever.
So it's not shocking she missed the well,
but it was actually right there.
It's like God had actually given provision
because he wasn't gonna let him die in the wilderness,
but she didn't see it.
And she would have seen it if she just prayed to God.
And then all of a sudden, her eyes are opened,
there's the well of water,
and the answer was right there in front of her eyes
the whole time.
And look, in our lives,
oftentimes the answers to our problems
are really just right there,
and yet we completely miss it.
Goes completely over our head,
and if we just prayed to God,
God would open our eyes that we could see,
and there's the answer right there.
And God opened her eyes,
and she saw a well of water.
And she went and filled the bottle with water
and gave the lad drink.
Because obviously, you know what?
You need water to survive,
the water's spent, they're gonna die,
fills the bottle with water,
and now you know what?
They're okay for their journey.
They have enough water.
Go to 2 Kings chapter six.
2 Kings chapter six.
Look, I don't know what everybody in our church
is dealing with.
We obviously all go through a lot of ups and downs,
a lot of difficult situations,
a lot of problems,
and various different things in our lives.
I mean, I would say probably all of us
are going through at least one difficult situation always.
It's not like your life is just 100% smooth,
no problems.
We go through trials.
We go through difficult situations.
And you know what?
Oftentimes, we don't know how to deal with it.
But what the Bible's showing us is
the answers are oftentimes right there.
And really, the key to unlocking and getting the answer
is just pray to God and say,
God, this is why we don't lean on our own understanding.
We pray to God and trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
And basically, the way that looks in this story is,
God, I'm in the wilderness.
We're out of water.
I don't know what to do.
Can you please help us?
Can you step in?
And then it's like, boom.
The well of water's right there.
I was there the whole time.
2 Kings 6, verse 11.
Therefore, the heart of the king of Syria
was sore troubled for this thing.
And he called his servants and said unto them,
will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?
And one of his servants said,
none, my lord, O king,
but Elisha the prophet that is in Israel.
Telleth the king of Israel the words
that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
It's always the prophet's fault, right?
And he said, go and spy where he is
that I may send and fetch him.
And it was told him saying, behold, he is in Dothan.
Therefore, sent he hither horses and chariots
and a great host.
And they came by night and compassed the city about.
So basically, Elisha is blamed for this situation.
And all of a sudden, throughout the night,
they're surrounded by this enemy army.
And basically, they want to destroy Elisha.
They want to basically, you know,
kill him or arrest him or whatever.
And they surround the city at nighttime.
And they compass the city about.
And when the servant of the man of God
was risen early and gone forth,
behold, and the host compassed the city
both with horses and chariots,
and his servant said unto him,
alas, my master, how shall we do?
And see, if you pay attention in the Bible,
every great prophet of God and every great man of God
is never really by himself.
And when they are by themselves like Elisha,
they get depressed very easily.
But even him in 1 Kings 19,
he actually has his servant there,
but it says he leaves his servant.
So even in these stories, John the Baptist,
he wasn't a solo man preaching in the wilderness.
He had other guys that were soul winning and with him.
Here we see the servant of the man of God.
The focus is on Elisha, but the indication is
you're not gonna serve God successfully on your own.
You need other people to be successful.
And you've got the servant of the man of God.
He rises up early in the morning,
and the first thing he sees is
they're compassed about with an enemy army
trying to destroy them.
Now look, I cannot be 100% for sure,
but as I've said in a few sermons before,
what I believe the indication is
is you've got the servant of the man of God and Elisha.
And I believe that Elisha woke up early just as well
because he's already awake.
But the first thing he did was read his Bible
and pray to God and have his personal time with God.
And the servant of the man of God,
the first thing he sees when he wakes up
is this enemy army.
And what I believe the indication is
is that we should try to rise up early
and read the Bible before we get started on our day.
And the reason why I think this is because
any of us in our flesh would be scared
of a situation like this.
If there are a million people surrounding you
that wanna kill you, you're gonna be scared.
But if you put off the old man at the beginning of the day,
which I believe Elisha did,
and just pray to God and read the scriptures early,
you're walking in the spirit, you're not gonna have fear.
You say, why?
Because being filled with the spirit gives you boldness.
Right, I mean, you're confident you don't have much fear
when you're filled with the spirit of God and doing right.
People are afraid when they're not serving God.
But when you are serving God,
you really just don't get that afraid in most situations.
You have confidence.
The servant of the man of God, he's a good guy,
but he wakes up and he's like, what shall we do?
How shall we do?
What are we gonna do?
They wanna destroy us.
And what you're seeing is a man
who loses control of his emotions,
doesn't pray to God about the situation,
trying to figure it out on his own and get scared.
I believe Elisha probably woke up, read the scriptures,
did his prayer time,
and maybe he already saw the situation, maybe he didn't,
but he prayed to God and then, you know what?
Because he's not even afraid.
Verse 16, and he answered, fear not,
for they that be with us
are more than they would that be with them.
I mean, how do we have more than them?
It's like, what are you talking about?
And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee,
open his eyes that he may see.
Same terminology from Genesis 21.
This is why cross-referencing,
you can learn a lot in the Bible
when you cross-reference these words,
where basically, in Genesis 21,
basically, her eyes are closed to the solution.
It's there the whole time, but she doesn't see it.
And Elisha says, open his eyes that he may see,
and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man.
Of course, I'm not saying,
it's not saying his eyes were closed,
I mean, but opening just,
it's like the answer was there, but he couldn't see it.
It's like he was blinded to it.
And it's like, take away the veil,
so to speak, so you can see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
So basically, in this situation,
God, you know, obviously loves Elisha.
I mean, Elisha is doing great things for God.
There's serving God, God's not gonna let him die.
We understand there are martyrs sometimes in the Bible,
but in this situation,
Elisha is basically the most righteous man
that there is at this time, and God protects Elisha.
And he was always planning to protect him,
and the servant of the man of God,
he thinks in his own understanding,
doesn't pray to God about the situation,
his emotions take control,
but the answer was actually there the entire time.
And he just couldn't see it.
And look, in our lives,
oftentimes the answers are just right in front of us.
We don't see it, though.
Go to Proverbs 4.
Proverbs 4.
And you know, the Bible uses terminologies
of walking in darkness,
and a safe person can walk in darkness.
And you know what?
Darkness is basically away from God,
but as you get close to God,
you know, you're drawing close to the light.
Of course, light is something that allows you to see stuff.
Right, I mean, if it's dark, you can't see.
If it's dark, you know, you don't know where you're going.
Right?
And we can even be a safe person,
have the Holy Spirit of God inside of us,
but when we're walking in the flesh,
walking in the old man,
walking in darkness, not reading the Bible, not praying,
we're essentially just walking in darkness.
We know not of what we stumble sometimes.
We don't even know what we're falling over or whatever.
Right?
But if you're actually serving God and reading the Bible
and memorizing the Bible and praying to God,
you're not in darkness.
See, a person can be saved but walk in darkness,
and they just can't see.
They can't see the solutions.
They don't know what to do.
Proverbs 4, verse 18.
But the path of the justice is as the shining light
that shineth more and more onto the perfect day.
You see, as we draw closer to God, the light is brighter.
Right?
Now, in an earthly sense, if there's a room that's dark,
you see no problems, you don't see anything going on,
but as it gets brighter, you start seeing problems,
you start seeing everything.
The brighter it gets, the more you see.
Right?
And for us, spiritually speaking, you know,
if we're not serving God and we're walking in darkness
and walking in the old man,
we know not of what we stumble.
Right?
We don't know all the things that are out there,
but if you're serving God and praying to God,
your eyes are opened, you're walking in the light,
and then you can figure out what to do
because God's actually guiding you.
But if you're not doing that and not serving God
and not praying to God through these situations,
you're gonna basically try to figure it out in darkness.
Look, it's better off just spend the time to pray to God,
and He can help fix a lot of your solutions,
a lot of your problems, give you the solution,
and you won't be stumbling in darkness.
Go to Genesis 21, we'll close up.
But you know what?
Oftentimes, we just allow our hearts to lead us,
allow our emotions to lead us,
and just whatever the heart wants,
we're just gonna kinda go after it and just trust that,
and it causes problems in our lives.
Genesis 21, verse 20.
And God was with Alad, and he grew
and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer,
and he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran,
and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
So we see here that they're in a difficult situation,
and you know what?
I'm not trying to be too critical of Hagar
because she didn't start off bad.
I mean, she was in the wilderness,
she put her child under the shrubs, give him some shade,
but eventually, she kinda loses control of her emotions,
and one thing you need to do in a difficult situation,
in a scary situation, is control your emotions.
Another thing you need to do, pray to God.
And here's the thing, if you do those steps,
the answers are probably gonna be revealed to you.
They're probably actually there the entire time.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic,
and I ask you to help all of us in our lives,
whether we're going through a difficult situation now
or we will be in the future, God, help us
in those situations to control our emotions,
help us to put you first and to pray to you
and serve you and do right, and I do believe
that the answers are gonna be revealed to us
if we follow those steps, God.