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Well, Meridy, we found out what you were introducing before day by day.

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What a lovely trio that was.

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When there are changes, usually accompanists are last to know.

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Right behind preachers.

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So thanks a lot.

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Would you open your Bible, please, to the book of Genesis and the twelfth chapter.

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We're going to talk this evening about one of the backsliders of the Bible.

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You say, what is a backslider?

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Well, a backslider might be defined as a true believer who slides back from a walk of obedience

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and fellowship with God.

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The noun backslider is used only once in the English Bible, and that is in Proverbs 14.14.

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The Hebrew word there comes from a verb that means to move away, to turn, or to draw aside.

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So you get the idea that is involved.

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Thank God that our position before God is an unchangeable position.

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It is for all of eternity settled between us and God, our position.

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But our practice is not so.

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The standing that we have before God can never change, but the state of our fellowship sometimes

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is sadly lacking, isn't it?

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It's true of all of us.

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So as we study Abram, we need to do this with tenderness and appreciation, even with some

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identification, not with heaping judgment, but with understanding of what he passed through

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in this occasion in his life.

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Now, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from

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your father's house to the land which I will show you.

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And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great.

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And so you shall be a blessing.

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And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse.

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And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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A marvelous statement from God to Abram regarding his call of grace in Abram's life and God's

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intention to use Abram.

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Up until this time, God has dealt with all of the families of the earth the same.

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Now God reaches down to the mass of humanity in the post-flood world and chooses out one

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man and his wife.

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And that is the strain, that is the family that he will now begin to work through to

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bring the Redeemer into the world.

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So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot was with him.

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Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai

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his wife and Lot his nephew and all their possessions which they had accumulated and

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the persons which they had acquired in Haran.

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And they set out for the land of Canaan.

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Thus they came to the land of Canaan.

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And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem to the oak of Moray.

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Now the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your

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descendants I will give this land.

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So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

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Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent

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with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

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And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

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And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.

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Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there.

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For the famine was severe in the land.

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And it came about when he was near to Egypt that he said to Sarai's wife, See now I know

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that you are a beautiful woman.

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And it will come about when the Egyptians see you that they will say, This is his wife

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and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

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Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and

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that I may live on account of you.

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And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very

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beautiful.

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She was 65 years old plus at this time.

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A very beautiful woman.

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And Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into

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Pharaoh's house.

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Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and

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male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

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But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's

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wife.

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Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me?

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Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

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Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife?

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Now then here is your wife, take her and get out.

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Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they escorted him away with his wife and all

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that belonged to him.

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So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev.

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He and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot was with him.

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Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

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And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent

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had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he

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had made there formerly.

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And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

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Holy Father we come to your word tonight with humility.

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We pray that the Spirit of God would be our teacher and the applier of these words to

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our own lives.

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May we observe important lessons in the life of this great servant of yours and see those

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lessons supplied to our own walk with you in Jesus name, amen.

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Abram proves to us that even the most godly is not immune to the sin of backsliding.

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I suppose that we can take some encouragement from that because we understand that all of

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us feel the gravity and the pull of the flesh.

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All of us feel the pressure that comes from sin that dwells in us.

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God appeared to Abram with promises.

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The Bible says that Abram believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

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He was saved.

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God led him forth into the land of promise and of blessing.

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In that place of obedience and blessing Abram constructed an altar for worship and fellowship

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with the Lord his God.

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It seems that Abram lived day by day trusting God for protection.

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For the Canaanites were very ruthless and wicked people.

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He trusted God for provision.

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He trusted God for direction.

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He continued traveling through the land and eventually went to the Negev which is the

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desert area of the south of modern Israel still today called the Negev.

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He was in the place of blessing.

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But it was there that his backsliding experience began.

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I'd like for you to trace with me this evening the cycle of Abram's backsliding.

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It seems to me that there are four steps that we can identify in the backsliding experience

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of this great man of God.

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The first step is the trial.

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There in the Negev there was a famine.

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It was not only in the Negev but throughout the land of Canaan.

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There was the appearance of an inadequate supply to care for Abram's large herds.

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God's promise hadn't changed.

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God had told Abram to go there.

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Certainly God was able to take care of Abram in the Negev even though there was a famine.

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If necessary, God would have supernaturally supplied for him.

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But God allowed this famine to come undoubtedly in part as a trial to Abram's faith.

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It was God's way of proving him and grooming him for even greater lessons of faith to come.

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Tests like this are common experiences to all believers.

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When God allows famines to come into our own lives, He does that to prove us and to test

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us not to make us stumble.

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Abram had taken a great step of faith in the Lord.

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He had left his homeland and journeyed ultimately to the land of Canaan where God told him to

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go.

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Inevitably tests will follow a step of faith.

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You can mark that down in your own spiritual experience that any time you take a step of

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faith in your life, that step is going to be tested.

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You're going to be proved to be sure that you really mean what you say in taking that

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step of faith.

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James tells us that we should count it all joy whenever we encounter these tests.

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Peter tells us that we should not think as strange concerning the fiery trials which

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test us as though some strange thing happened to us.

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Tests are a part of life.

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If we did not encounter them personally, if we did not encounter them as churches and

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as groups of Christians and lands, I say if we did not encounter them, something would

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be wrong.

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That would be strange.

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Tests come, trials come from the hand of God for our own good.

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However, sometimes backsliding periods in our lives can be traced back to these trials.

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Not that God intended them to be the initiation for backsliding, but we have caused them to

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be so.

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There may be some kind of a famine at the roots of a backsliding experience in our lives.

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Abram failed at this point, as we will notice in a moment, and he began to slide in his

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fellowship with God.

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Now the famine for you may be a loss of your job.

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That has been the trial for you, for it may be the betrayal by a friend that has cut you

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deeply and hurt.

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It may be the illness of a loved one that has become the famine-trial that God has allowed

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in your life, or some other disappointment that has been unspeakably hard for you to

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bear.

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Please keep in mind that whatever that experience has been, it has not been outside what God

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has allowed graciously to come into your life.

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If God had wanted to prevent that experience, he could have done it.

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But God allowed it to come to you through his loving hands as a trial for your faith.

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Thus it was with this famine for Abram.

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God intended to prove the faith of Abram, not to send him on a backsliding experience.

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From the trial, we observe the second step in his backsliding cycle, and that is the

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temptation.

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Not too far from the land of Canaan, in fact very close to the Negev, was the land of Egypt.

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In Egypt for some reason there was still plenty.

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Prosperity reigned there.

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It was not difficult for Abram to observe that that was the case, that where he was

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there was famine, but over there there was prosperity.

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It seemed like the logical thing to do to go to Egypt.

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There's nothing here, there's a lot over there, logical decision, go there.

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It seemed like the easy thing to do because it wasn't far and it was pragmatic.

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After all, his flocks and herds might starve to death if they remained there in famine-stricken

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Canaan.

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And so Abram made the decision to go to Egypt.

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In doing that, he left the place where God had sent him.

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He left the place of fellowship with God and he did it in unbelief, not trusting that God

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could meet his need there in the land of Canaan.

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At this point Abram got his eyes on the famine and off the Lord and his faithfulness.

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How many times have I done that?

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How many times have you done that?

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The test that we have passed through has seemed so severe that we have taken our eyes off

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the Lord and we concentrate on the trial that we're passing through and the result is that

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we forget God's faithfulness and ability to care for us.

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The journey that Abram made to Egypt was a spiritual journey as well as a geographical

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journey.

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Egypt in the Bible pictures the world and the old life out of which God has called us.

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It has that symbolic meaning in the Scriptures.

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How easy it seems at times for you and me to compromise God's will in our lives.

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The crisis that we face, that trial that confronts us at the moment makes it seem so logical.

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That seems like the only reasonable thing to do, to compromise what God has said and

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do this.

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And it's usually pretty easy to do that.

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The enemy of our souls makes sure of that.

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And it often seems so practical and pragmatic.

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We can apply this in so many ways.

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Take our daily quiet time for example.

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We run up and do a period in our lives when we're under a lot of pressure and it seems

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so easy to let it slip.

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It seems like the only reasonable thing that we should cut it back.

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It seems like the practical thing to do because we need the time.

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Or even take our attendance at church.

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Well after all this is the summer time.

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We've only got so many days with the kids in the summer.

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Seems like the easy, logical, the pragmatic thing to do to cut back on attendance during

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the summer or maybe year round.

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Maybe it's in the area of our giving and stewardship.

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But I can tell you this, that Satan will always come to you with a temptation to compromise

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the will of God in the time when you're passing through one of God's ordained trials.

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God does not tempt us to evil, but Satan does.

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And we see here Abram evidently responding to that temptation from Satan to compromise

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what God wanted in his life.

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The sad thing is that when we yield and compromise it takes us from the place of blessing and

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the fellowship as it did Abram.

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Isn't it interesting to notice in the text there's no evidence that Abram, number one,

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prayed when he was in Egypt?

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Up to this point several times it's specifically mentioned that he prayed and worshiped the

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Lord.

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It's also interesting to note that all the time that he was in Egypt there's no evidence

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that he heard from God.

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God had been speaking to Abram, revealing truth to Abram.

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He even appeared to Abram.

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In verse seven we see that for the first time in the Bible, God appeared.

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Now it is true that it says about Noah and it says about Enoch and we would assume it

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from Adam that they walked with God.

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It must have been some sense in which they were either aware of God's presence or God

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appeared, but it doesn't say that God appeared until chapter twelve and verse seven of Genesis.

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This is a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of God the Son to Abram.

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But when he was in Egypt there's no evidence that God appeared to him or that God said

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anything.

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I think that we learn something from this, that when you and I yield to the temptation

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to compromise what God wants us to do when we're passing through a trial, when we yield

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to that temptation it results in our prayerlessness and our lack of communication with God.

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It results in spiritual dryness in our souls and suddenly we wonder why God isn't saying

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anything anymore.

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We need to look carefully to see if there's been some compromise in our lives.

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I think it's a general principle of God's word that he's not going to say anything

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further to us if we have refused to obey the last thing that he said.

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The third step in the cycle of Abram's backsliding is the trouble he got into, the trouble.

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Just turn over to Proverbs fourteen with me a moment.

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As I said before this is the only verse in the scriptures where the noun backslider is

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used.

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In verse fourteen of Proverbs fourteen it says, The backslider in heart will have his

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fill of his own ways.

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Isn't that an interesting sentence?

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The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways.

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But a good man will be satisfied with his.

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The verse seems to indicate this, that both the backslider and the man who is obedient

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to God will have his fill of his ways.

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The latter, the one who is obedient will be satisfied, but not so the one who is a backslider.

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There will not be satisfaction.

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He will get filled up to here with his own discontent and grumblings, with his own compromise

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and disobedience, with trouble that comes into his life because of his backsliding.

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The backslider gets filled up with the fruit of his own life.

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I want you to know that we see that exemplified in Abram.

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Everything always leads the believer to trouble.

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Abram now was caught in a trap going back to Genesis twelve.

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As he journeyed toward Egypt he began to realize that when he got there he could face a problem.

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It was not uncommon for men of a land such as Egypt to observe beautiful women coming

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in with strangers and to take them as wives even if it meant killing their husbands.

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That is exactly what Abram anticipated.

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He asked Sarai to scheme with him to prevent that.

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He says, you tell them that you are my sister so that I can stay alive.

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Now of course it is half truth that she was his sister.

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She was a half sister to Abram.

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But a half truth is a half what?

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It's a half lie.

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And that is what Abram schemed with Sarai as he went into Egypt.

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You'll notice here the changes that came over Abram as he backslid.

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In the first place notice that his courage turned to cowardice.

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He's a man who took everything that he owned, all of his family that he was allowed to take,

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and he left Ur of the Chaldees, traveled for hundreds of miles through difficult circumstances

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to put it mildly to the land of Canaan which was notorious for its wickedness.

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I mean that took a lot of courage.

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And now he has yielded to temptation, he has compromised God's will in his life, and suddenly

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that courage has turned to cowardice.

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He's afraid he's going to be killed.

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Notice also that his generosity has turned to selfishness.

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Lot went along with Abram.

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Abram perhaps is a little too generous in that regard.

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We see that generally speaking Abram was a man who was more than fair.

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He can be called generous.

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We'll see that even next week in chapter 13 with Lot.

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He was a man who bent over backwards for other people, but not so when he was backslidden.

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His generosity turned to selfishness.

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Now his main concern is keeping himself alive.

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He wasn't concerned that Sarai was going to have to go live in a harem perhaps.

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His main concern was keeping his own skin together.

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And then we see a third change.

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His faith was turned to scheming.

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Faith and scheming do not coexist.

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Warren Wiersbie says that faith is living without scheming.

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We see his faith turn to scheming here as he begins to figure out a way in which he

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can keep himself out of trouble hopefully.

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It changed him and it affected others.

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It affected Sarai undoubtedly to go through this experience.

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Remember that Lot, his nephew who later caused him untold grief, was watching all of this.

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And it affected Pharaoh and Pharaoh's servants who were aware of what took place.

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Abram got himself into a heap of trouble.

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Sarai was taken even to Pharaoh's harem.

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It seems clear from the scriptures that she was never actually taken as wife to Pharaoh,

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but that was in preparation.

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That might have happened, except the Lord struck Pharaoh with great plagues.

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Now how it was that Pharaoh discovered that the plagues were the result of Sarai were

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not told.

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Perhaps God directly told him.

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Perhaps it was Lot who somehow indicated to Pharaoh who Sarai was.

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We don't know how that happened.

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But through some means, Pharaoh became aware of why these bad things were happening to

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his household.

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And so he called Abram in and rebuked him.

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Why have you done this to me?

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He said.

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Abram was in a lot of trouble.

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Who can measure the heartaches and the trouble of a backslider?

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Who can know the regrets, the frustrations, the feelings of loneliness and emptiness that

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come to one who is a backslidden believer?

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Well, I can tell you who can know.

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I can tell you one who can measure every bit of it, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He knows it all.

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He knows all of the trouble that we get into in our backsliding.

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God graciously intervened on Abram's behalf here.

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That brings us to the fourth and final point in his cycle of backsliding, and that is the

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turning.

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Isn't it interesting that God used a worldly man to rebuke Abram?

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Has that ever happened to you?

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Has that ever happened to you?

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I heard a dear friend of mine preaching in a Bible conference a couple of weeks ago.

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He shared an experience when he became impatient with a gentleman who was the gatekeeper, baggage

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handler, ticket taker, etc. for a small airline in Kokomo, Indiana.

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He said they called it the Kokomo International Airport.

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There was one airline that served it, and one man who was there on duty.

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One morning this friend of mine had to get from Kokomo to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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The place was socked in with fog.

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The plane was circling overhead.

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The pilot radioed in once.

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My friend heard it.

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He was going to try to come in.

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He heard the engines come in, and then heard them disappear.

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My friend went to the ticket agent, baggage handler, etc., and said to him, you've got

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to get that plane in.

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I've got to get in Grand Rapids in two hours.

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He said, well, the pilot is going to try once more.

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He went outside and listened.

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Here came the plane in once more.

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He heard the engines, and then the plane lifted up and went on.

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My pastor friend had not identified himself as a pastor.

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He went over to the ticket agent and let him have a piece of his mind.

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He had to get to Grand Rapids.

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He was to speak in chapel at 10 o'clock that morning and let the ticket agent know what

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he thought about his airline.

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The ticket agent said, you're a pastor, aren't you?

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My friend just wanted to die on the spot.

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The ticket agent said, God will take care of you.

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God did take care of him.

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Suddenly he remembered a man in his church who had an airplane, and it offered to fly

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him anywhere at any time if he needed.

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So he called his friend, and his friend was there in 20 minutes and flew him to Grand

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Rapids.

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God did take care of him.

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Have you ever had an experience where a worldly man has rebuked you?

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I have.

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God did that with Abram.

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It was Pharaoh himself.

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Notice that Abram lost his testimony.

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He might have had a positive influence on Pharaoh, but as a result, that Abram had no

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respect, or rather, Pharaoh had no respect for Abram, or for that matter, Abram's god.

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He was corrected by a man to whom he, Abram, should have been a witness.

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And Abram was broken by that.

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He doesn't say that Abram wept, but I can't help believe that he did.

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He was embarrassed and humiliated, and all of that prepared him for a deep repentance

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for his backsliding, because it says that he went up from Egypt to the Negev, and he

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went on, it says in his journey, to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the

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beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly.

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Notice what he did.

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In his turning, he went back to the place called Bethel, the last place where he had

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communicated, as far as the Scriptures tell us, with God, to the place where he had built

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an altar.

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And there he fellowshiped with God again.

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I think there are three lessons that we observe in Abram's turning.

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In the first place, the place to return to the Lord is where you left him in your backsliding.

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I don't know where that may be for you, but if tonight you are in a backslidden condition

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as a believer in Jesus Christ, I can't help believe that if you will meditate for a few

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minutes and ask God to show you, He will isolate for you that point where you left the place

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of blessing and compromise and went to Egypt.

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That my friend is the place you must go back to if you would be restored from your backsliding.

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The second lesson I see is that all the time that is spent in backsliding is wasted time.

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Abram did not hear from God.

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He did not pray to God.

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The time in Egypt was wasted time.

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It was only when he got back where he belonged that the clock began to move again in Abram's

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life and God's blessing was his.

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Then there is a third lesson I see and we all need to take heed of this.

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It is that we may well pay for our backsliding.

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You say, I thought God forgives backsliding.

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God does forgive backsliding.

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Praise God.

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If He did not, I would be in a lot of trouble.

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God does forgive backsliding, but we may well suffer consequences because of it.

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God forgives the guilt, but God does not often remove the scars in our lives.

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We bear those scars.

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God gives us grace for them as we pass through life, but the scars are there nonetheless.

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The consequences are part of our lives.

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They are there in part to help us remember not to do what we did again.

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You say what were the consequences in Abram's life?

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He came back exceedingly rich.

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It seems as though while he was in Egypt, his riches increased.

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There are those who tell us that when you are prosperous, that is evidence of God's

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blessing.

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I would like to suggest that is not always the case.

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Abram's prosperity multiplied while he was in Egypt and he was out of fellowship with

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God in that time.

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He came back exceedingly rich and those riches and the greatly enlarged herds and flocks

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in chapter 13 cause a problem between Abram and Lot.

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Then he came back from Egypt with something else.

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He came back with a servant by the name of Hagar.

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Hagar was the servant assigned to Sarai when she was in the harem in Egypt.

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How is that a problem for Abram?

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Because it is not too long in the record of scripture until Sarai suggests to Abram that

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in order to produce a seed which she felt she was unable to do, he should take to himself

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Hagar, her handmaid.

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From Hagar has come Ishmael and all the Arab peoples of the world.

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So you see there is a sense in which we can say that Abram's backsliding in Egypt is

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still bearing consequences in the world today.

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You see we can well pay for our backsliding.

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But thank God he does forgive and I may be talking to someone this evening who is at

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that point of turning.

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I hope that is the case with you if you are backslidden.

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I pray that God will bring into your life whatever is necessary to make you see that

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you have strayed from the place of obedience and fellowship, the land of blessing which

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God intends for you to inhabit where he wants to speak with you and hear you pray to him.

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I hope that you will see that you have left that place and compromised God's best, God's

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will in your life.

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You will return to that place where you left fellowship with the Lord.

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There are three distinctive marks in the life of one who like Abraham as he came to be called

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seeks a city whose builder and maker is God.

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Number one, there is worship.

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There is an altar in the life.

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There is a worshiping spirit, a heart that is lifted to God in sacrifice and praise.

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Wherever Abraham went as he was in fellowship with God there were altars that traced his

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journey.

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He was a man who knew what it was to worship God.

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Second characteristic and distinctive mark of such a man is a pilgrimage.

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Not only was there an altar but there were tent holes, tent peg holes wherever he went

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because you see Abraham lived as a nomad, as a pilgrim.

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He never did all of his life come to that city that God had promised him.

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Someday he will.

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But all of his earthly journey he was a pilgrim.

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He was a man who walked with God as a pilgrim.

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One who like Abraham is a man of faith and who seeks for the city whose builder and maker

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is God.

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He is a man who does not set his affections on things in this world.

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He does not allow himself to become too tightly tied down to the affairs of life.

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He is a man who lives in a tent and just moves before God directs as a pilgrim.

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And finally the distinctive mark of one who is like Abraham is prayer.

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Abraham prayed.

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He was a man who communicated with God.

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He was a man who depended upon God.

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And so it is with one who today seeks for a city whose builder and maker is God.

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My friend does worship, does a pilgrim attitude, does prayer characterize your life?

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If not I hope it will.

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Because those are the characteristics of a person who is walking by faith with God as

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did Abraham.

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Let's bow together.

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Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, and I wonder if there's some friend who's

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here tonight who would say, Pastor, there has come into my life a trial.

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There is, there has been a famine that has taken place.

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And when that famine took place I was tempted to disobey God, to compromise God's will

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in my life, to stop putting Him first.

462
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,920
And I yielded to that temptation.

463
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:27,540
And I've been a backslider and I'm in trouble.

464
00:38:27,540 --> 00:38:39,800
My life is filled with frustration, with defeat, doubts, and heartaches.

465
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,680
I'd love to pray for you tonight.

466
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:47,360
I'd love to pray that you might come even this evening to that turning point in your

467
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:49,580
life.

468
00:38:49,580 --> 00:38:52,240
Would you give me that opportunity to pray for you?

469
00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:54,400
Would you lift your hand and put it down?

470
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:58,560
What I've said describes where you are in your spiritual journey.

471
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:02,440
Put your hand up and put it down.

472
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:03,440
God bless you.

473
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:04,440
Yes.

474
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,440
Quite a number.

475
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,440
Yes.

476
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:11,440
Anyone else?

477
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:15,720
Before I pray.

478
00:39:15,720 --> 00:39:26,600
My Father I pray this evening will be the turning point for all of these.

479
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:35,040
I pray that you will bring to a culmination your gracious work in which you have been

480
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,960
seeking to restore your wandering children.

481
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:49,400
And may they come back to you tonight to begin walking again in fellowship with you as worshippers,

482
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:57,880
as pilgrims, as prayors, as men and women of God like Abram.

483
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:22,560
In Jesus' name, Amen.