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Good morning. How are you all doing today?

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Great. How are you?

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I'm doing great. Thank you so much.

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If you are joining us here in our sanctuary for the very first time,

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we want to say welcome to all of you.

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If you're watching online for the first time, we want to say welcome to you as well.

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We're so glad you're here to worship with us here at Hosanna.

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I am Pastor Nathan, and today we're going to be looking at Abraham's first stumble,

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his first fall.

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Last week we looked at faith and obedience, the faith of Abraham,

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and how wonderful it is as an example to us to walk, to live a life of faith.

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Then right after that story, we get kind of a negative story about Abraham

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doing the opposite of that.

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It's just such a very real, relatable story because all of us that are believers,

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we've put our faith in Jesus Christ, we want to please God.

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We intend to honor God with our decisions and our lives,

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and yet, as Paul said, our sin nature still resides with us.

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So we still find ourselves stumbling at times.

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It's good to know that one of the largest giants of faith, Abraham, also stumbled.

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So that means we're all in good company.

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We're going to be looking at this testing that comes upon his life right after his great triumph.

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Through the first part of what we have about Abraham in chapter 12,

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is we see that he made this wonderful faith response to God's call.

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As God spoke to him there in Ur of Mesopotamia, God spoke to him,

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called him to leave everything, and Abraham believed God.

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He believed him. He said, God, you're real, right?

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There was this response to God, and so he ended up leaving his city with his family.

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They traveled from Ur up to Haran.

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Then we read about how that was a little bit of a delay in what God was calling him to do.

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So he was there until his father died, and then he continued to travel in pursuit of the,

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quote, land that I will show you that God said.

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Because Abraham didn't know where he was going.

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He was just fully trusting God, wandering and walking where God would lead him.

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When he finally got to Canaan, it was there that God appeared to him

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and told him that I'm going to give all of this land to your offspring.

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So he toured the promised land.

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He traveled from the northern part of it all the way through the southern part of it,

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and everywhere he went he was building altars and praising God

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and worshiping the one true God right in the midst of a pagan culture

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where the Canaanites were there worshiping their false gods

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with their false oracles and things of that.

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But Abraham didn't care.

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He said, God said this is going to my descendants.

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It's as good as mine.

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I'm going to live my life on those promises because they are as true now

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as they will be in the future.

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But even though it was his, even though God had promised it to his offspring,

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Abraham wasn't allowed to physically take possession of the land himself.

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But instead, according to Hebrews 11, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise,

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living in tents.

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But still, whether he was in tents or not, he knew based upon God's promise

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that the land was his.

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The land was for his descendants and his family, and God would honor his promise.

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Such an amazing story of walking in faith.

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Such an amazing story of trusting in God simply because he's God.

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Just believing that you are God Almighty, therefore whatever you tell me to do

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is true, is right, and I'm going to do it.

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And that's the example we have of him.

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As a believer in every generation, times of great faith victory are often followed

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by times of testing, times where our faith is challenged,

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our obedience is challenged.

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And today I want to look at the question, why does God allow that to happen in our lives?

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Why does God allow the trials to come?

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What does it teach us?

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That's what we're going to be looking at this morning, but first we're going to spend time

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praising God, celebrating him for who he is, what he's done.

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He is worthy, he is almighty, he is majestic, he is wonderful.

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And we just want to tell him that this morning, amen?

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Let's pray.

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Father, we love you so much.

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Lord, we know that you work in our lives really despite us, God.

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Despite the fact that we still have sinned natures with us, despite the fact that,

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Lord, often we're faithless when we should be faithful, and yet, God,

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you still move through us, you still work through us.

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God, it is a mystery to us in our human understanding why you love us,

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why you continue to love us when we stumble and mess up, Lord.

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But God, you don't ask us to understand it, you just ask us to receive it,

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and God, we receive it.

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We're so grateful to you.

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Lord, today I pray that you would speak to us, Lord, and encourage us

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through the story of Abram, God.

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Lord, it is such an encouragement that in your word, you don't paint the heroes

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of faith only as perfect heroes without ever fault, but Lord,

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you give us very clear pictures of both their successes and their failures.

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And Lord, that is an encouragement to us because, God, you don't wait for us

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to be perfect people to move in our life, God.

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You simply say, come to me as you are, trust in me, and then I will begin

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that work of changing you into the person I want you to be.

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And God, you do that through trials.

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You do that through circumstances that you allow in our life that we would learn

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who you are, learn to grow in our faith the ways that we need to grow, God,

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so that you would then be able to use us in all the ways you plan to use us, Lord.

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We thank you, God, and we just want to praise your name this morning.

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Lord, we love you so much.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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All right, we are in Genesis chapter 12.

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We're looking at verses 10 through 20 today, and as I said in the intro,

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you know, faith is something that is key to our relationship with God.

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Our whole salvation is dependent on the fact that we believe that God is real.

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We believe in what God did.

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And then as James says, if you have real faith, your actions will change,

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and your actions or your works will be an evidence and a demonstration of your faith.

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However, James does talk about faith being tested,

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and we're going to see that today in Abram's life in Genesis.

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Now, everybody's faith will be tested at one point or another,

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maybe not as dramatically as someone else, but it will be tested.

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And James said this in James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4.

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He said, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters,

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whenever you experience various trials.

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Now, that word whenever doesn't mean maybe it won't happen.

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It means it's going to happen, so when it does, he says, count it all joy,

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because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

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And let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete,

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lacking nothing.

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Well, here in Genesis chapter 12, verses 10 through 20,

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we're going to see Abram facing a great trial.

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You know, having traveled all the way from his homeland in Ur up to Horan,

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spending time there and then traveling down into Canaan,

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we saw a radical demonstration of faith,

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a really amazing example of just walking in faith, right?

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Abram went to a place that God said, I'll tell you when you get there.

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And it doesn't even record for us that God said, go north first.

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He just said, go.

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And so they went.

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And the entire thing was a step-by-step process of faith,

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of Abram just going, God's going to tell us, so we'll go that way.

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I think God wants us to go there.

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And then it happened just as he said.

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When they got to the promised land, God told them,

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this is the land that I'm giving your descendants.

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And so Abram had followed a God that he had only heard at that point up to Canaan.

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And then when he got to Canaan, he told us that the Lord appeared to him.

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So he got to see a physical representation of the Lord.

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And so after God spoke to him in Ur, appeared to him in Canaan,

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made the promises, Abram did this whole tour of the entire promised land.

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And everywhere he went, he built altars and worshiped and proclaimed the name of God.

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A beautiful story.

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We're like, whoa, exciting, heroic.

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But as James alluded to, a trial came.

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A trial came upon his life.

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And because we will experience them, this is a lesson for us.

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It was a trial that God allowed, whether Abram knew it or not at the time.

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I don't believe he really recognized this as a trial from God.

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And so anyways, when we look at this story, we go, okay, Abram,

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certainly this great man of faith, this hero of faith,

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will just soar victoriously through this trial, right?

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Because that's what happens, right?

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All the heroes of the Bible never make a mistake.

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And so we pick it up here in verse 10 of Genesis 12.

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There was a famine in the land.

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So Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.

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So the opening to Abram's trial here, his first big trial,

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comes through something that just happens in the normal course of life, right?

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We call that life happens.

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Has life ever happened to any of you in this room?

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Yeah.

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We refer to all kinds of things as life happening.

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There just seem to be natural occurrences, natural things that take place in our world,

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things we might not necessarily consider spiritual things.

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You get a flat in the tire. You get laid off from work.

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A famine is in the land, right?

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These are just natural things that happen.

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And famines were a fairly common occurrence.

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They were something that would happen in the world at that time.

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And famines even happen today.

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But even though it was a natural thing,

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it was something that God was going to use to refine his servant.

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And that's what God does in our lives today.

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The things that we might say, oh, that's just life happening, God knows.

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God is allowing it, and there's a purpose for it.

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And so as we face things that happen in our life,

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we always have to be people in a process of saying,

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okay, God, what are you teaching me through this?

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God, why is this happening?

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And not just why is this happening, but like, God,

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what is the point here that you want me to learn?

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What is it you want me to learn about you?

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What is it you want me to learn about faith through this situation?

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So it tells us here that as this famine took place,

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Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while.

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So he wasn't abandoning the promised land.

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He wasn't moving to Egypt permanently.

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He was just moving out for a time while this famine was there.

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I don't believe he was abandoning the promised land at all

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because if he was going to abandon the promised land and go,

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God, I'm out, I think he just would have gone back to Haran or back to Ur

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because that's where his entire life was prior to following God.

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However, he goes down to Egypt because that was simply the normal thing to do.

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In this time, people that lived in the land of Canaan,

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what we would call Israel today, and especially those in the southern part of Israel

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in the Negev Desert, when a famine would take place there,

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the place everybody went was down to Egypt. Why?

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Because the Nile was very fertile.

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There was never a famine there. There was always food.

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And so anytime there was a famine in the land of Canaan,

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people would go down to the Nile.

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And so the reason I'm bringing that up is because it was the natural thing to do.

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A natural occurrence had taken place,

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and the famine's response was the natural response.

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It was what everybody else did.

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So he goes down to Egypt, doing the thing that everybody normally did,

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and this is where his trouble begins.

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You see, the famine naturally created a fear of starvation.

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That's what famines do.

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They didn't have the local grocery store to go down to,

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but if they did have a grocery store,

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the local toilet paper would be sold out.

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It was a bad situation.

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So this fear, what am I going to do with my family?

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How are we going to eat? There was all this stuff.

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We know that when he left Haran,

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it said they had acquired a lot of people in Haran,

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meaning a lot of people that were a part of their family, if you will,

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servants, workers, that kind of thing.

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And so there was a lot of people for Abram to be worried about,

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and naturally he would be worried.

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But then also very naturally he reacted to his fear

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the way everybody else did.

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The point of that is he reacted to his fear

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without any inquiry to God as to what to do.

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We don't have any record here that he said,

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God, you called me out of Ur.

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You took us up to Haran.

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You brought us down into the promised land.

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I've walked this whole land and praised you

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because in the midst of all this pagan Canaanite worship,

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Lord, you've been with me. I trust you.

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There's a famine. God, a famine is nothing to you.

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What do you want me to do?

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That's not what we read.

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What we read is through this faith walk.

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He's like, praise God, praise God.

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And then a famine's in the land,

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and what he does first is what everybody else does.

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He responds to it naturally, not spiritually,

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and this is where his troubles are going to crop up here.

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I'm not saying that Abram was in sin

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by going down to Egypt, right?

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There's no reason to look here that he was, you know,

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denying God and walking away from God,

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but what he was doing is turning to his own understanding.

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He was turning to the natural understanding

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of what everybody else did,

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and in that picture, instead of denying God,

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he wasn't doing that. He just simply forgot about God.

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And don't we do that?

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Trial's hit, trouble's hit, right?

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We may be the most spiritual people.

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We're going to church, we're reading,

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we're praying all the time, and then a trial comes,

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and we forget about our awesome God,

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and the first thing we do is start appealing

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to our own experience, appealing to our own knowledge.

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We automatically go to the I will figure it out mode,

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and we forget about God.

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Now, there's nothing wrong with appealing to our knowledge

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and our experience, right?

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He's given us those things, and he gave us a brain to use

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to figure out problems, but he wants us to turn to him first.

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You see, my background is I was an IT guy.

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I used to fix computers and build computer networks

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and all that, and when God led me to serve here at Hosanna,

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one of the things that I was responsible for

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was all the technology.

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You know, if it used power, if it had an on-off button,

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I was responsible for taking care of it and fixing it,

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and I was just blessed.

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That was my background.

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I got to use it to serve God's church,

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and so one day, Pastor Gary, our founder, called me,

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and he said, hey, my laptop's broken.

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I need you to come take a look at it,

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and so I fixed laptops hundreds of times.

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So I go to his house, and I figure out what the problem is.

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I'm like, yep, that's the problem.

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I identified it. I know how to fix that.

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I start going through all the steps to fix the problem,

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but it's not working, and I'm getting frustrated.

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I'm like, I know how to do this, right?

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Why isn't it working?

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Pastor Gary walks up, and he goes, what's wrong?

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I'm like, it's not working,

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but I know what I'm doing here,

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and he goes, did you pray yet?

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And I'm like, Pastor Gary, you know,

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I know how to do computers.

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I don't need to talk to God about it, right?

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This is what's going through my head.

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Meanwhile, I'm going, oh, wow, yeah,

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my boss just told me to do the spiritual thing.

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I work at the church. Why didn't I think about that?

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And he goes, yeah, did you pray yet?

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And I was like, okay.

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So I laid my hand on the laptop, and I said,

295
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God, you know what's wrong.

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I think I know what's wrong, but the fix isn't working.

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Can you please fix this laptop?

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Amen.

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The very next thing I do, it starts working.

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And I'm like, and Pastor Gary just smiles.

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He goes, hmm, and walks off.

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I was like, okay, I got the lesson.

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I learned.

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It's not about our knowledge and experience.

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That is a tool God gives us.

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It's about building the habit of going to Him first.

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Saying, here's a challenge.

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God, let me go to you first.

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Here's a thing that I am absolutely confident

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I know how to fix it, but God, let me go to you first.

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You see, this is what Abram didn't do here.

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And so instead of, you know, going to God first,

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he did what a lot of us do.

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We start to make plans, we start to figure it out.

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And then we go, oh, oh yeah, God, bless my plans.

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00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,000
Well, this is what goes on as we see here, verse 11.

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When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai,

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look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

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When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.

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They will kill me, but let you live.

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Please say you're my sister, so it will go well for me

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because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.

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So the problem, the trial, the test here that Abram is walking into

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didn't come necessarily from the famine.

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The famine was the natural thing God used to push Abram into Egypt.

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The problem came from the fact that Abram's wife was of legendary beauty.

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She was beautiful.

328
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She was just a knockout, right?

329
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Now, before you cancel me, I'm not saying it's her fault for being beautiful,

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and that's what caused the problem, ladies, okay?

331
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So don't go there with that.

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It's just the reality that she was a very, very beautiful woman,

333
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and he was worried.

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00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,000
He was worried that someone was going to try and come take her

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because that would happen.

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People would go kill the husband, steal the wife.

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And so he's worried about this.

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And it wasn't just him with husband glasses thinking, my wife's so beautiful.

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No, the Egyptians thought so, too.

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00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,000
In verse 14, we're going to see that even the Egyptians were like,

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wow, she is beautiful.

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So the worry about what would happen as they crossed from Sinai into Egypt,

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it was something playing vividly in his mind.

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Obviously, he had contemplated ideas and come to the conclusion

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that they're going to murder me.

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And there's a lot of other possibilities, too,

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because we're going to see in the rest of Abram's story,

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and this was something that then came to be a part of Jewish culture,

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that hospitality was very important.

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People came to your tent.

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You would bring them in. You would make them some food.

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You would be very hospitable.

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And so I imagine that going through Abram's mind is,

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what if they're not as hospitable as we are?

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It's speculative, but it's possible.

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00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:02,000
What if they do to me what so many other cultures do, right?

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00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Just kill me and take my wife?

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00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,000
And he's like, man, my wife's hot.

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00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000
Of course they're going to kill me and take her.

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So, wife, I want you to tell them you're my sister.

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Now, this was a well-known custom at the time,

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00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,000
not the telling you're my sister thing, but the reason behind this.

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It was a well-known custom at the time called fratriarchy.

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Fratriarchy was simply this.

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00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:29,000
In that culture, the women didn't have the rights that men had.

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There wasn't any equality there, right?

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Very different than our culture today.

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The fathers basically had full authority over his kids,

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and the daughters especially.

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He was the one that dictated everything they did, where they can go,

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and who they married.

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It was a very arranged marriage-focused culture.

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And so, as a young woman would grow up,

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and it would come time for her to get married,

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the father would evaluate what was going to be best for the family,

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what union would be best for the family,

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and then he would arrange the marriage, negotiate for that,

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00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,000
and then she would be married off.

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00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,000
Well, the custom of fratriarchy said when there was no father,

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00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:13,000
the eldest brother would be the one who assumed legal guardianship over his sister,

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00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:18,000
especially regarding arranging and negotiating a marriage on her behalf.

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And so, even though it doesn't say it here,

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00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,000
I believe it's very likely that Abram's thinking was,

384
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,000
look, if you tell people you're my sister,

385
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,000
anybody that wants to negotiate with me to marry you,

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because if they knew I was your husband, they'd just kill me,

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00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000
but if they knew you don't have a husband,

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they would negotiate with me, your brother, for that marriage arrangement.

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And hopefully, maybe that would give us time to escape.

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00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,000
Hey, she's beautiful, I want to marry her.

391
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,000
Cool, come back next week, we'll negotiate.

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00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000
Pew, and they're out of Egypt.

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00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Don't know if that's exactly what happened, but I think it's very likely.

394
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:58,000
And so, in Abram's mind, what he was doing was protecting God's plan.

395
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:03,000
You see, this deceptive ploy, this wasn't new to Abraham.

396
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,000
This wasn't a snap decision he made on the way to Egypt, right?

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00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:11,000
It wasn't like, do-do-do, my wife's beautiful, I've got to figure something out.

398
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:17,000
It was something that he had premeditated, because in Genesis chapter 20, verse 13,

399
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:23,000
when Abram engages in this exact same deception with King Abimelech,

400
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000
and Abimelech comes back to him and says, look, God is judging us,

401
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,000
why did you lie to us and tell us it was your sister?

402
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:37,000
Abram says, when God had me wander from my father's house, that was when he left Haran.

403
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:44,000
I said to her, show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me he's my brother.

404
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:51,000
So this plan to kind of lie, and I'll show you why he maybe thought it was a kind of lie,

405
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:55,000
was hatched when they left Haran, before he got to the promised land,

406
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,000
before he got there and God appeared to him and everything.

407
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,000
He already had this, I'm going to do this just in case.

408
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:06,000
Now, the decision to deceive was premeditated.

409
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,000
It wasn't a rash, quick decision in the moment on the way to Egypt.

410
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,000
Now, there may be some cultural nuances to this that I'm aware of.

411
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,000
I looked and I couldn't find anything.

412
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:23,000
But what Abram says to Abimelech certainly sounds to me like, if you love me, you will do this.

413
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:29,000
He says, show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say you're my sister.

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00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:36,000
Now, again, I love how the Bible highlights the rough parts of God's people.

415
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,000
I think this is very clear manipulation on Abram's part, trying to manipulate his wife.

416
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,000
Show me your loyalty, okay, by saying this.

417
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000
And of course, in those times, because the husbands had ultimate authority over their wives,

418
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000
it was like, okay, I'm going to do it.

419
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,000
Now, I'm not saying that she was necessarily afraid and all that stuff,

420
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,000
but this is a clear manipulation on Abram's part.

421
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:01,000
And then on top of that, we see his reasoning for telling her to do this was very self-centered.

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00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:09,000
He said in Genesis, tell him you're my sister so that it will go well for me

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00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:14,000
and that my life will be spared on your account.

424
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000
What about her life?

425
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,000
Somebody steals her away, you know, lie to me so that you don't get taken.

426
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,000
He doesn't even say that.

427
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:27,000
Lie so that it goes well for me, so that my life is spared.

428
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:32,000
And I believe to Abram, he was like, this is a fantastic idea.

429
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,000
How wise am I?

430
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,000
Probably patting himself on the back, you know.

431
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:42,000
I mean, there's a real possibility that he's going, look, I came up with this lie

432
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:47,000
because God told me that it's through me, my offspring, my descendants

433
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:52,000
are going to bring blessing to the whole world and, you know, my wife's barren.

434
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:56,000
And if he was going, well, you know, okay, God's going to do a thing,

435
00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:02,000
well, I'm protecting God's plan by making sure that people don't steal her.

436
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,000
I'm making sure that God's plan follows through.

437
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,000
And then on top of that, it's very likely that Abram was going,

438
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000
well, it's not a total lie, right?

439
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:17,000
It's a partial truth or partial lie, depending on your point of view,

440
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,000
because Sarai was indeed his half-sister.

441
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,000
We read that back earlier in the chapter.

442
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,000
Now, something that was very culturally acceptable at the time

443
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:32,000
is that families could co-mingle that way closer together.

444
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,000
Today, we say don't do that for, you know, certain generations and families.

445
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,000
We stay away from that because of, you know, genetic malformation and stuff,

446
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,000
but early in the culture, this was okay.

447
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:49,000
And so it's his half-sister that he married.

448
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000
So I believe in his mind, he's like, I'm not really telling a lie.

449
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
I mean, she kind of technically is my sister.

450
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000
And, you know, I'm helping God in this, right?

451
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,000
So it's okay for me to do this.

452
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Has any of you ever experienced that type of rationalization in your mind?

453
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:12,000
It's not really what God said not to do, kind of, sort of.

454
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:16,000
You know, and there's some people that espouse in certain situations

455
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:21,000
where it's like it's okay to not tell the whole truth, you know, in things.

456
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,000
And, you know, and there's nuances to that.

457
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,000
But for me, I just kind of like, look, just tell the truth,

458
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,000
the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and let God sort it out.

459
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,000
That's how I try and live my life, right?

460
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:38,000
And so even though he might have been right on a technicality,

461
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:43,000
the fact that he knew that the intention behind this was deception

462
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,000
tells us that it was wrong.

463
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000
There was nothing right about what Abram was doing here.

464
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Even though he was aware of his intentional deception,

465
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,000
and even though Abram said, look, I know this technically isn't true,

466
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:58,000
I'm not doing anything wrong, right?

467
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,000
And that's exactly what we do in this type of situation,

468
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,000
these types of situations where we think these things.

469
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:09,000
Well, well, we try and rationalize a way to do the thing that we clearly know

470
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:14,000
in our heart is not right, but we think we find loopholes.

471
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:18,000
Now, regardless of where you stand on that,

472
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:23,000
what we do know is that this natural response of Abram,

473
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:27,000
which I think is a very cunning snake oil salesman type of behavior,

474
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,000
wasn't an act of faith.

475
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,000
That's the issue.

476
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,000
It wasn't an act of faith.

477
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
It was as if Abram, who had been spoken verbally to by God,

478
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000
who saw God visibly, the God who had made all these promises,

479
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,000
the God who had led him all the way to Canaan,

480
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,000
promises to his descendants, all these wonderful things that Almighty God

481
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000
had already done in his life, it was as if in that moment,

482
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,000
God didn't exist.

483
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,000
It was as if in that moment where he could have been like, you know,

484
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,000
I had this plan to lie, but let's not do that.

485
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,000
Let's just trust the Lord.

486
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,000
It's as if in this moment where instead of going to God and going,

487
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,000
God, I have this issue, my wife's beautiful,

488
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,000
and I'm afraid they're going to take her, what do you want me to do?

489
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,000
He forgets all of that and just comes up with his own natural planning

490
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,000
and goes forward with his lie.

491
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:21,000
It's as if God didn't exist to him in that moment.

492
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,000
And when we find ourselves in those types of situations

493
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:28,000
and we do this kind of half-lie thing, well, we're in the same place as Abram

494
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,000
because right here, God was not directing Abram.

495
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,000
Abram was directing Abram.

496
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,000
And when we're trying to find loopholes in God's Word to get what we want

497
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,000
or to get out of certain situations, who's in the driver's seat?

498
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,000
It's us.

499
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,000
We're figuring out things based upon our own limited understanding,

500
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,000
our own limited knowledge, and we think that, well, we got this.

501
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,000
Our plans are going to be great.

502
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,000
God, it's okay. I can handle it.

503
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
So we see this great man stumbling here,

504
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,000
but in his own eyes possibly thinking he's doing a perfectly okay thing.

505
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,000
And then verse 14, we see this story continue.

506
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:09,000
When Abram entered into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

507
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,000
Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh,

508
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000
so the woman was taken to the Pharaoh's household.

509
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,000
He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds,

510
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:26,000
male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

511
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:30,000
So the average Egyptian likely would have come to him

512
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,000
and tried to negotiate for her hand in marriage, right?

513
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,000
That was how things were done in that culture.

514
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,000
And so Abram was kind of like ready for that.

515
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,000
He was thought about that.

516
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,000
He goes, look, I'm going to do this thing.

517
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,000
You lie. They're going to think I'm your brother,

518
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,000
and we'll negotiate and we'll be fine.

519
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:52,000
But what it doesn't appear that he thought about was Pharaoh.

520
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,000
Maybe he thought there was no way Pharaoh would get involved.

521
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,000
I don't know. It doesn't say here.

522
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000
But he obviously didn't account for Pharaoh because Pharaoh is not going to negotiate.

523
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000
Pharaoh is the ruler of the land.

524
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:03,000
He's the king of the land.

525
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,000
He's not going to come and say, hey, can we barter with this?

526
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,000
How absurd.

527
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,000
Pharaoh is the most powerful ruler in that land.

528
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,000
Of course he's going to take what he wants.

529
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000
And he took Abram's wife.

530
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,000
Now it appears that Abram hadn't considered that.

531
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,000
And so what happens here is now they're in Egypt.

532
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000
The thing that Abram was afraid of happened, or at least part of it happened.

533
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,000
They were wowed by her beauty.

534
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:34,000
But then without any negotiation, she simply was taken into Pharaoh's household.

535
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:40,000
So I can imagine Abraham thinking in this moment, how awesome is that?

536
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,000
He came up with this wonderful plan.

537
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,000
This half-truth, half-lie.

538
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,000
And it didn't work.

539
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,000
It didn't work on this man, Pharaoh.

540
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:55,000
Now we're typically aware of the fact that, like we see stories throughout the Bible

541
00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:01,000
when people do the wrong thing, consequences come after that that are kind of negative consequences, right?

542
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,000
What happens to Abram here?

543
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000
He becomes extremely rich.

544
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,000
Look at that.

545
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,000
He got all this wealth.

546
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,000
His wife is gone.

547
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:21,000
As a man, he's probably struggling with the, did she kiss him?

548
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Is she in his arms?

549
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,000
Guys struggle with that type of thing.

550
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,000
What's going on over there?

551
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,000
Is he forcing himself?

552
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,000
And just freaking out about that.

553
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,000
And then Pharaoh's like, oh, here, bro, here's all this wealth.

554
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,000
Well, Abram, you wanted things to go well with you.

555
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,000
How's it working out?

556
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,000
How do we know this is wealth, right?

557
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,000
It tells us there that he got male and female donkeys, right?

558
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000
That detail, obviously you go, oh, well, so he could breed them, right?

559
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:53,000
That's true, but one of the reasons female donkeys were a sign of wealth is because

560
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,000
female donkeys were easier to control.

561
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,000
They were more dependable for riding.

562
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:04,000
And so they were considered a very, very valuable mode of transportation to have.

563
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:09,000
If you had female donkeys, it was like you had the Lambo and the Ferrari and the Bentley, right?

564
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,000
That's kind of the idea of having female donkeys.

565
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,000
And he had a bunch.

566
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,000
Then it says that he was given camels, plural.

567
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,000
And you go, what's the big deal about that?

568
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,000
Well, it's understood at the time that this was happening, that we understand this happening,

569
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:32,000
camels had been recently introduced as a domesticated animal in the cultures in the local area.

570
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,000
And what that means is that camels were rare.

571
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,000
That you didn't have camel in every corner, right?

572
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:44,000
They were rare, and at this time they were mostly a prestige symbol for the wealthy, right?

573
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,000
It was like having that $30,000 handbag, right?

574
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:53,000
It does the same thing as the $10 bag from Target, but it has a certain brand on it,

575
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000
and so therefore it's a symbol of wealth.

576
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:59,000
And he didn't just have one camel, he had camels, plural.

577
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:06,000
Now, this meant that he was wealthy, incredibly wealthy.

578
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:14,000
So, faithless, deceitful Abram, lavished in luxurious things

579
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:19,000
while his beloved anxiously spent days in Pharaoh's harem.

580
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:26,000
Is anybody else reading this story so far and going, I don't quite understand?

581
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:31,000
He did the bad thing, and he got blessed.

582
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:41,000
He did something that looks like a faithless act, yet it seems that God is blessing him in it.

583
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:47,000
We have to understand, and this theme has been coming up all the way through Genesis,

584
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,000
that our relationship with God is not transactional.

585
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000
I've said this before.

586
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000
Our relationship with God isn't a, hey, if you do a good thing today, I'll do a good thing for you.

587
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,000
You did a bad thing today, I'm going to do a bad thing to you.

588
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,000
That's not how our relationship with God works.

589
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
What we've seen over and over is that God saves people because they have faith in him,

590
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,000
not because of what they did or didn't do, they have faith.

591
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:16,000
And then when they do obedient things, we understand that those are a result of the faith.

592
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,000
Those aren't the things that earn the faith.

593
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:25,000
I think one of the most important things to understand in this world in our relationship with God is God loves you.

594
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,000
God saved you because you believe in him.

595
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000
You believe that he is real.

596
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,000
You believe that he is God.

597
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,000
You believe that what he says is true because he said it.

598
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,000
And when he said, I came and died for your sins, it's absolutely true.

599
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:45,000
I count on that, and God says, great, through that faith, you're my child.

600
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,000
And so we enter into our salvation relationship with God this way.

601
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:54,000
And then for some reason we turn into this, well, God's happy with me today because I did good.

602
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,000
He's not happy with me today because I did bad.

603
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:04,000
And I think a lot of the reality here is what we're going to see in this story is there is us doing good and bad

604
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,000
and obedience to God and how God responds to us and the discipline that we do get

605
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:15,000
and what God is going to do blessing us or not blessing us because he's so chosen and has a plan on our lives.

606
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:18,000
And to learn that these things aren't always connected.

607
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,000
That we could do something bad and God could still bless us.

608
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,000
And we're going to see this in Abram's life.

609
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:31,000
That God blessing him with all this wealth here was a part of the plan he had for Abram's life all the way through to the end.

610
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:40,000
That this wealth set him up to do so many things as a part of following God's plan to have his line ultimately end up in the Messiah.

611
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,000
But God blessing him doesn't then say, oh, his lie wasn't that bad.

612
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,000
You guys understand?

613
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:52,000
And so we can't get caught up in going, oh, I did something I know is bad, but you know what?

614
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:53,000
My day went really well.

615
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,000
Maybe it's okay to do that thing.

616
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,000
Don't get caught up in that.

617
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
But here we see that Abram is blessed.

618
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,000
And there was nothing he could do about the situation anyways, right?

619
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:13,000
The one of, if not the most powerful ruler on earth had his sister.

620
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:19,000
Now Abram could probably die in a ridiculous rescue attempt, right?

621
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,000
Going against Pharaoh and all his people.

622
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,000
And some might go, oh, how romantic, right?

623
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000
He could do that.

624
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:36,000
Maybe Abram could rationalize, well, she was barren.

625
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:46,000
And so maybe God's given me all this so I could go and maybe my next wife will be the one that my descendants will come through.

626
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:52,000
But we can't forget through all of this and all the speculation that Abram was now God's child.

627
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Abram was a believer.

628
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,000
God was his father.

629
00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:02,000
And so what we're going to see here is the way a father responds when their kids get themselves into bad situations.

630
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:11,000
Parents today, when your kids get themselves into a bad situation, do you look at them and you say, I don't know you, you're disowned, you're no longer part of my family.

631
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,000
No, what you do is you step in.

632
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:21,000
And sometimes you step in and you have to rescue them from their own decisions and then discipline comes after.

633
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,000
And this is what we're going to see God do right here, verse 17.

634
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:30,000
But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram's wife, Sarai.

635
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,000
So that word Lord there, that's that covenant name Yahweh.

636
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:42,000
That's the name that God uses of himself when he wants us to focus on the fact that he's personally involved in our lives, personally connected to us.

637
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:49,000
And so it's Yahweh, the personal intimate God of Abram who made promises to him simply because Abraham believed in him.

638
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,000
I have faith in you.

639
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,000
God said, cool, you believe me, you're my kid.

640
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,000
I'm going to do these things in your life.

641
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:59,000
We see that God now stepping in to help, to course correct.

642
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:04,000
Or really to keep Abram from permanently messing up his own life.

643
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:10,000
You see, if Abram did leave, that wasn't what God planned for his life.

644
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:21,000
If Abram didn't learn the lesson that half lies are still lies, it would be very difficult for the rest of his life walking with God.

645
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,000
It would be incredibly difficult for Sarai whom God loved as well.

646
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:33,000
You see, God had to step in here because God wasn't about to let Abram mess up or interfere with his promises.

647
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:40,000
When God chooses to promise something to someone, he's going to follow through.

648
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:48,000
Even if you're a knucklehead and you keep messing up along the way, if God has promised you something, he's going to fulfill his promise.

649
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,000
We could bank on that.

650
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,000
This is what it says in 2 Timothy 2.13.

651
00:37:53,000 --> 00:38:01,000
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

652
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,000
Don't you love that verse?

653
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:09,000
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

654
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:18,000
If God makes you a promise, can you mess up that promise and cause God to go, oh well, never mind, I'm not going to do it?

655
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:23,000
No.

656
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:28,000
So when you read through the Scriptures and you see all these promises God makes to his children,

657
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:34,000
I will never leave you, never forsake you, that I will not put you in something that is more than you could bear,

658
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:40,000
but I will always provide the way of escape.

659
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:44,000
All of it.

660
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,000
We tend to get into this transactional thinking, right?

661
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:51,000
Oh man, I messed up. Am I still saved?

662
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:53,000
I didn't do the right thing. Am I still saved?

663
00:38:53,000 --> 00:39:00,000
Does God still love me? Is he still going to bless me?

664
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,000
And we have to get out of that type of thinking.

665
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,000
When it says here that he struck Pharaoh's household with severe plagues,

666
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:16,000
it's some type of skin disease, boils, leprosy, something where it was just very gross and uncomfortable.

667
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:21,000
And God is striking Pharaoh here because he's not about to renege on his blessings to Abram.

668
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:27,000
It's like he said to Abram, look, I said I will bless you, I'm going to bless you.

669
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:33,000
So many times in my own life where I'm in the mire of my own faithlessness,

670
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,000
where I've let God down, I did the thing I didn't want to do, I said the thing I didn't want to say,

671
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:42,000
I treated someone the way I know I shouldn't treat them, and I'm like, oh, I'm such a horrible person,

672
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
and you know, it's just terrible.

673
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,000
Then God still blesses me in those moments?

674
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:55,000
I don't know about you, but when God blesses me in moments of my faithlessness, I want to cry out, why?

675
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,000
Why would you do that? Why would you still bless me?

676
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000
And his answer is the same every single time.

677
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:10,000
He says, you're my kid. I love you. I promised to bless you.

678
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:17,000
Discipline will come, yeah, okay? But don't connect your disobedience to my promises.

679
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,000
I made a promise I'm going to fulfill my promises in your life.

680
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,000
And we come to the idea of like, but I don't deserve it, Lord.

681
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,000
I don't deserve your blessing. I'm a sinner. Look what I've done.

682
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:34,000
And he went, yeah? I didn't die on the cross for you because you deserved it.

683
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,000
I didn't make promises to you because you deserve it.

684
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:41,000
I did those things because I love you.

685
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:46,000
You're my creation, and I care about you so much.

686
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:51,000
I died for you because you couldn't save yourself no matter what.

687
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,000
And the more we get that into our head and our heart,

688
00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:00,000
I think it radically changes our relationship with God.

689
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:08,000
It is so humbling to be in a place where you realize I was so faithless right now

690
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000
and God is still being faithful to you.

691
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:15,000
And to receive that, so humbling.

692
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000
But it keeps us in a place where we understand who God is and who we are.

693
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,000
And when God's made those promises, we get saved, we put our faith in Him.

694
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000
It's like, okay, in that moment you didn't do anything.

695
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:31,000
There was no action, no work you did. You simply put faith in me and I saved you.

696
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:37,000
Everything from that point forward here on earth is simply a working out of that reality.

697
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
God says, through the blood of Christ, I see you spotless and blameless.

698
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
And we're like, you see everything, God, really?

699
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
He's like, no, through the blood of Christ. You trust me? I see you as spotless.

700
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:55,000
So the rest of your life is going to be working out your life as you conform to my image

701
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,000
and to become that person that I see you are.

702
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:02,000
And then, yes, one day we're going to leave this earth, have new glorified bodies

703
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:07,000
without sin at all, and we're going to be in paradise, heaven with God forever.

704
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:12,000
But here and now we're working that out. You will stumble, you will fall, God says,

705
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000
but I will never cast you out.

706
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:20,000
Why won't you cast me out, Lord?

707
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,000
Because he loves you.

708
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:30,000
Because when you put your faith in him, you trust in him, God knows that.

709
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,000
You believe in me, he says. You trust me in your heart.

710
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:38,000
I believe that when our spirit is made alive and we have that sinful nature

711
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,000
and that born-again spirit living at the same time,

712
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:47,000
God knows that our born-again spirit has the full intention to honor God and to glorify him.

713
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:51,000
That's what our spirit wants to do.

714
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:55,000
But from time to time, we yield to the flesh.

715
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,000
That was the same thing Paul dealt with in Romans.

716
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:04,000
Paul the apostle struggled with sin.

717
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:10,000
Now, God looks at us in that time and he says, look, I get it.

718
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:14,000
That sin nature, when that sin nature that still resides in you,

719
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,000
post-salvation rises up and you'll yield to its influence,

720
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:24,000
that doesn't change the fact that I love you.

721
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:30,000
And because you trust in me, you've put your faith in me, I saved you.

722
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:34,000
It is finished, I said on the cross.

723
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,000
Now let's get up and keep walking.

724
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:40,000
But I stumbled, I died for that, let's keep going.

725
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,000
And through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, he works and works and works in us

726
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:48,000
that we become stronger and more mature and we become,

727
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:55,000
just we grow in our faith to where we start choosing the obedience more than we choose the sin.

728
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,000
Back to Abraham's story.

729
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,000
Verse 18.

730
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,000
So Pharaoh sent for Abraham and said, what have you done to me?

731
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,000
Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

732
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:10,000
Why did you say she's my sister so that I took her as my wife?

733
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:14,000
Now, here is your wife, take her and go.

734
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:19,000
Now there's some speculation here, but there was something that caused Pharaoh

735
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:24,000
and the people in Pharaoh's household to get the story out of Sarai

736
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,000
and caused them to send for Abraham.

737
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:27,000
Something happened there.

738
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:30,000
Speculatively, this is what I think may have happened,

739
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:37,000
that as Pharaoh and his whole household was touched with this plague, Sarai was not.

740
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:44,000
And somebody went, hmm, Sarai, what's up?

741
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:51,000
And Sarai might have went like, well, let me tell you what happened.

742
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,000
And then Pharaoh was like, what?

743
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,000
Go get Abraham.

744
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:59,000
Speculative, I know, but possible.

745
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:04,000
So they send for Abraham and then Pharaoh just kind of rebukes him.

746
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:08,000
You know, here's where we are in this story.

747
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:15,000
Because of Abraham, because of his half-lie, Pharaoh, who is not a child of God,

748
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,000
who doesn't know the Lord, who's a pagan idolater, is now able to stand

749
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,000
in the moral high ground before the believer

750
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:27,000
and accuse Abraham the believer of the one doing wrong.

751
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:29,000
It's Abraham here that appears to be the sinner

752
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,000
and Pharaoh who appears to be the innocent saint,

753
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:36,000
at least in the eyes of the culture.

754
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:43,000
When we choose to do the things without God's input according to our natural way,

755
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:47,000
when we choose to try and find the loopholes so that we can get what we want,

756
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:50,000
we blow our witness.

757
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:55,000
God has called us not just to be His children, but He wants to shine through us.

758
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,000
He wants people to see Him through our lives,

759
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:04,000
and when we're doing things that we shouldn't be doing and twisting things,

760
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,000
people aren't going to see Christ in us.

761
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,000
Before I was a Christian in high school,

762
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:15,000
the number one reason I wasn't a Christian was Christians.

763
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:19,000
Because we'd be at a party somewhere doing all manner of drugs and alcohol,

764
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,000
and that person's trying to tell me about Jesus, and I'm like,

765
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:27,000
bro, you're doing the same thing I'm doing right now.

766
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,000
Why would I want with you what you got?

767
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,000
I still get to live my life this way.

768
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:36,000
So yeah, go ahead and be a Christian, that's fine.

769
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,000
But don't tell me you're any different from me.

770
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:44,000
But when I met Christians who were truly different,

771
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:48,000
not without sin, but really cared about standing for righteousness,

772
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:53,000
really attempted to say no to sin and stuff, that caught my attention.

773
00:46:53,000 --> 00:47:01,000
Of course, the thought in that moment was, oh, you think you're better than me?

774
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,000
And somewhere along the line, someone told me one day,

775
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,000
no, I don't think I'm better than you.

776
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:10,000
I just have the ability to say no to those things because I know they're bad.

777
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:15,000
And that just didn't make sense to me, but I started thinking about it.

778
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,000
When you're the person that is saying, God, I'm going to live for you,

779
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,000
not because I'm trying to earn salvation,

780
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:23,000
I just want to live in a way that glorifies your name,

781
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,000
so help me through the Holy Spirit.

782
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:28,000
When you find yourself in that position and you face situations,

783
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,000
and life happens, and you go, well, I could do this, or I could do this,

784
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,000
and you say, wait, hold up, before I even make any decision,

785
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:36,000
let me go get God's counsel.

786
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,000
Lord, what do you want me to do in this situation?

787
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,000
How do you want me to respond?

788
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:44,000
We get in the Word, we get counsel from others because the Bible tells us to do that.

789
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:51,000
And then we go, okay, now based on God's input, I'm going to make this decision.

790
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:56,000
Your witness is going to be powerful, really powerful.

791
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,000
People are going to see you have something they don't have,

792
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,000
following someone they're not following,

793
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:07,000
and somehow getting answers that they can't get.

794
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:13,000
And that's when people start to go, what's up with this Christian thing?

795
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:16,000
Tell me more about that.

796
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,000
But that wasn't the case in Abram's life here.

797
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:24,000
Pharaoh stood in the place of the victor, if you will.

798
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:27,000
Now again, Pharaoh was still wrong.

799
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:31,000
He shouldn't have taken another man's sister.

800
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:35,000
But in that culture, it was a completely normal thing.

801
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:38,000
However, it was still wrong.

802
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:42,000
But Pharaoh says, look, here you go, take your wife, get out of here.

803
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,000
And so Abram is kicked out of Egypt.

804
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:48,000
We have no record of Abraham even saying a word to Pharaoh.

805
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,000
I mean, Pharaoh's rebuking him, reproaching him.

806
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:54,000
How dare you do this?

807
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,000
Abraham didn't say a word.

808
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:59,000
What could he say, right?

809
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,000
Pharaoh's like, dude, why'd you lie to me?

810
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:06,000
Look at my whole household, our flesh is falling off our skins.

811
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:07,000
We've got these boils.

812
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,000
What did you do?

813
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:10,000
Why did you do this?

814
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:15,000
And Abram's like, what do you say?

815
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,000
What do you say?

816
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:24,000
So we have record of him saying nothing because he had culpability.

817
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:28,000
And the way this story ends is instead of Abram going into Egypt

818
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,000
and Egypt having the opportunity to hear him proclaim the name of the Lord

819
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:35,000
and to watch him build altars and worship the one true and only God,

820
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:41,000
instead of that what we see is he let his selfish self-preservation lead him

821
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:46,000
into doing what he thought was right based on his own understanding,

822
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:51,000
and we see that nobody there heard the proclamation of the name of the Lord.

823
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,000
No altars were built in Egypt.

824
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:59,000
And so Abram's lack of trust in God in relying on his own deceptive prowess

825
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,000
instead of God's promises,

826
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:07,000
we see this great man of faith reduced into this tiny schemer.

827
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:14,000
And it's a sad picture, but it is a true picture.

828
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:19,000
And it is a true picture recorded here so that we get the lesson from this

829
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:22,000
that God was trying to get into Abram's life.

830
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,000
Now before we get to that I want to ask the question,

831
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,000
why did Pharaoh kick him out instead of punishing him?

832
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:31,000
By all rights, Pharaoh had the right to do whatever he want with him, right?

833
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,000
Throw him into the dungeon, kill him.

834
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,000
But he says, get out of here.

835
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,000
It doesn't tell us why.

836
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:45,000
It doesn't tell us whether they were still suffering from the skin condition or not.

837
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:51,000
But what I believe is that Pharaoh never again wanted to be on the receiving end

838
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:54,000
of the power behind Abram.

839
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:58,000
That there was power behind Abram.

840
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:04,000
Now the sad part of this is that the witness of that power was one of just great fury.

841
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:08,000
And it's going to strike you with boils and all this stuff.

842
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:11,000
And I believe Pharaoh's like, I don't care to know what it is.

843
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:13,000
I don't want to have anything to do with it.

844
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:16,000
Get out of my country.

845
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:20,000
And then later on in Abram's life we're going to see that those riches that he gained,

846
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:23,000
they weren't the blessing that you would think they would be.

847
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,000
They caused all kinds of trouble.

848
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:28,000
But this brings us to the end of chapter 12.

849
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:32,000
And we don't see any like, oh, and they lived happily ever after on this, right?

850
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:34,000
It's just a record.

851
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:35,000
A bad record.

852
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:38,000
A kind of negative record of what took place there.

853
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,000
Now having combed through this failure on Abram's part,

854
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:46,000
we have to still all agree that Abram is a great man of faith.

855
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:47,000
Why?

856
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,000
Well, if you continue reading all the way through chapter 22 of Genesis,

857
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,000
you will see that very clearly.

858
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:57,000
And then if you go into Hebrews 11, what we have recorded in Hebrews 11 is his faith,

859
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,000
not his errors.

860
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:04,000
That means when you're God's child, God's not keeping a record of the wrongs.

861
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:08,000
They have all been paid for by the blood of Christ.

862
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,000
What he sees is the good.

863
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:17,000
He sees you spotless and blameless.

864
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,000
But why did God allow this trial in his life?

865
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:26,000
Was it so that he could, you know, snicker evilly as Abram's sinful character shined through?

866
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:28,000
I knew it.

867
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:30,000
You're a bad person, Abram.

868
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:34,000
No, it was because he wanted to teach Abram something.

869
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,000
That's why God allows trials, to teach us something.

870
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,000
James touched on it.

871
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:39,000
Count it all joy. Why?

872
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:41,000
Because through the trial you're going to learn patience,

873
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,000
and you're going to build endurance, and you're going to build character.

874
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:49,000
And God wants to build all of this because there's something that he has in store for you past that

875
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:54,000
that you don't have the character for yet, that you don't have the endurance for yet.

876
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:59,000
And so he'll let you go through a trial so that you could learn.

877
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:04,000
And often we learn the hard way.

878
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,000
And so these things happen.

879
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,000
And in the situation we're like, oh, dang it, I did not do the right thing.

880
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:11,000
I didn't depend on God.

881
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:15,000
And so God might allow it again.

882
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:19,000
And we're going to see it again in Abram's life when he gets before Abimelech.

883
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:25,000
And then the hope in our life is that we do the right thing this time.

884
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:33,000
Because God wants to teach us and grow us and mature us so that he could get us to where he's taking us to.

885
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:38,000
But one of the big lessons here in Abram's life is that he stumbled because when the time of testing came,

886
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:41,000
he forgot about God and relied on his own understanding.

887
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:45,000
When the time of testing came, he leaned on his own methods.

888
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:49,000
It wasn't that he stopped believing in God.

889
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:52,000
It's just that he forgot about him in the moment.

890
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:54,000
In that moment, there wasn't a God.

891
00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:56,000
He forgot how great he was.

892
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:58,000
He'd forgot about the promises.

893
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:04,000
He'd forgotten of everything God had done in his life so far and leaned on himself.

894
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:09,000
And when he did so, everything fell apart.

895
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:12,000
God allowed it because he had greater things in store for Abram's life.

896
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:17,000
But Abram had to learn that decisions made out of fear,

897
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:25,000
decisions made without God's counsel, will often end up misrepresenting God and leading to more trouble.

898
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:27,000
The lesson for us today, right?

899
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:31,000
Those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, who trust in him.

900
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:34,000
The ones who say, God, I believe in you.

901
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:38,000
You are God, and so all of my life is yours.

902
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:42,000
One, expect trials.

903
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:44,000
One of the worst things you could tell somebody is,

904
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:48,000
you need to come to Jesus Christ because if you do, everything will be better.

905
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:50,000
How many of you know that's not true?

906
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:52,000
Right?

907
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,000
I tell people when I lead them to the Lord and have the opportunity to pray with them,

908
00:54:55,000 --> 00:55:01,000
I say, look, now everything is going to be worse than it's ever been for a little while

909
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,000
because the devil's mad.

910
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:10,000
And you're a brand new spiritual baby and he's going to do everything he can to take you out.

911
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,000
And that's why we say, hey, if you've given your life to the Lord today,

912
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:16,000
get our new believers packed because start worshiping, start praying, start studying

913
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:18,000
because you're going to need that.

914
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:22,000
Getting saved doesn't mean your problems go away.

915
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:25,000
It just means that when you leave this earth, you're going to heaven.

916
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:34,000
But it also means a God who loves you is walking with you every step of the rest of your life.

917
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:37,000
Trials have to be accepted.

918
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:41,000
Jesus experienced trials in Hebrews 2, 10.

919
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:43,000
It says, for in bringing many sons and daughters to glory,

920
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:48,000
it was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist,

921
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:54,000
should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

922
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:58,000
You see, Christ is the one through whom the whole world was blessed,

923
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:01,000
the promise given to Abram.

924
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:04,000
We see here in Abram's story this great man of faith.

925
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:06,000
He stumbles.

926
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:10,000
And we can't forget, he's just a man.

927
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:16,000
He's a human being used by God to bring God's promises to fruition,

928
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:19,000
to bring blessing and salvation to everyone on the world.

929
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:26,000
Now, that doesn't justify his disobedience, but he's not Jesus.

930
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:29,000
He was simply a part of the line that brought Jesus.

931
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:35,000
Abram's ultimate offspring, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, he did it all perfect.

932
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,000
You read through the Gospels, he didn't stumble when the trials came.

933
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:40,000
His faith never wavered.

934
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:43,000
He didn't even look to his own methods, his own experience, his own knowledge.

935
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:49,000
Instead, he relied on his Father in heaven for everything.

936
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:55,000
Now, where Abram was a great man of faith, Jesus was a perfect man of faith.

937
00:56:55,000 --> 00:57:02,000
Where Abram left his home in Ur to go to an unknown land in obedience to God's call, awesome.

938
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:08,000
Jesus Christ, the second part of the Trinity, God the Son,

939
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:11,000
left heaven in obedience to the Father's call.

940
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:15,000
Abram is known as both a man of great faith and great failure.

941
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:20,000
Jesus is known as the only one who has ever led a perfect life,

942
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:24,000
without fault, without failure, without sin.

943
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:28,000
And for those who have experienced the regenerating power of Jesus Christ,

944
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:31,000
the Bible says that we are in Christ, right?

945
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:34,000
We are in Christ, we are hidden in Christ.

946
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:39,000
And because we are in Christ, who is the perfect man of faith,

947
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:44,000
one, we're saved, two, we're empowered to live that life of faith now.

948
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:49,000
That when we're in Christ, it's like, okay Christ, tell me what to do.

949
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:53,000
And he'll do it. He's already given much of it to us in his word.

950
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:57,000
It's that one that Abram's faith pointed to, the one who all the promises point to,

951
00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:03,000
the one who filled all the promises, he's the one that enables us to live by faith.

952
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:08,000
And so when the trials come, because they will, don't forget about God.

953
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:11,000
Don't do the natural thing first.

954
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:15,000
Don't do the thing that everybody else is doing first.

955
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:19,000
That natural thing might be the thing you're supposed to do,

956
00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:24,000
but build the habit of saying, trial, God I need to come to you first.

957
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:27,000
God, you've done all these things in my life, I believe your word,

958
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:29,000
what do you want me to do in this situation?

959
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:33,000
How do you want me to respond in this situation?

960
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:38,000
Sometimes God will say, don't do the thing that you think you should do, right?

961
00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:40,000
Isn't that what he did in Israel's life?

962
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:42,000
Israel gets into the promised land, we're going to conquer,

963
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,000
swords and shields and battle, and he goes, yeah, okay,

964
00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:50,000
so the first town you come to, walk around it.

965
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:52,000
What?

966
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:57,000
You said conquest of Canaan, not square dance of Canaan.

967
00:58:57,000 --> 00:59:00,000
Walk around it.

968
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:02,000
Okay.

969
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:04,000
Walk, walk, walk, walk.

970
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:06,000
Seventh day, walk seven times.

971
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:08,000
Blow the trumpets.

972
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,000
All right.

973
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:12,000
Boom, the walls fall down.

974
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:19,000
Oh, we thought, okay, God your ways are higher than our ways.

975
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:24,000
And so when we trust God, when we turn to him,

976
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:26,000
instead of turning to our own knowledge first,

977
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:29,000
our own experience first, our own methods first,

978
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:33,000
but we go to him and we pray and we say, give me wisdom, give me knowledge,

979
00:59:33,000 --> 00:59:36,000
show me your way to handle this situation, this trial,

980
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:41,000
he will, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, sustain your faith,

981
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:47,000
help you to do the godly thing and to say no to the fleshly sinful thing.

982
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:51,000
And sometimes you're doing exactly the right thing according to your natural methods

983
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:52,000
and it's still not working.

984
00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:54,000
Why?

985
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:57,000
Because God is saying, have you prayed yet?

986
00:59:57,000 --> 00:59:59,000
Have you talked to me yet?

987
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:01,000
Trust me, come to me with everything.

988
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:03,000
That's what I'm training you to do.

989
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:07,000
That's what I'm allowing these trials for so that you learn that lesson.

990
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:09,000
Let's pray.

991
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:11,000
Father, we thank you.

992
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:16,000
We love you, God.

993
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:21,000
Yet, Lord, we know we need to love you more.

994
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:25,000
God, it's your perfect love that casts out all fear.

995
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:31,000
And so, Lord, when trials come into our lives and we may find ourselves fearful,

996
01:00:31,000 --> 01:00:36,000
when life happens and we see the natural things happening, God,

997
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:38,000
Lord, fear is a natural part of that, Lord.

998
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:39,000
We're scared.

999
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:40,000
What's going to happen?

1000
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:45,000
But, Lord, help us not to forget who our Father in heaven is.

1001
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:48,000
Help us to not forget who our faith and our trust is in.

1002
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:50,000
Help us not to forget that you came to this earth, God,

1003
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:56,000
and you clothed yourself with frail humanity and you lived a life for many reasons,

1004
01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:05,000
but one of them is so that we could learn from you how to deal with situations and circumstances.

1005
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:06,000
Lord, the Bible is very clear.

1006
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:10,000
We know we're going to stumble, but that doesn't mean we should.

1007
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:13,000
That doesn't mean we should seek it out.

1008
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:18,000
Lord, we want to honor you in every decision of our life.

1009
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:22,000
And, God, I know that you have plans for us as your children, Lord.

1010
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:26,000
You know the future of each and every single one of our lives.

1011
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:29,000
How are you going to use us to further your kingdom?

1012
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:33,000
And for some of us, it's going to be, we don't know, Lord,

1013
01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:38,000
but you know if we're not the people today, we need to be for that blessing

1014
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:42,000
you're going to bring into our life, that task you're going to put before us.

1015
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:46,000
And so, Lord, we do welcome the trials.

1016
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:50,000
Lord, help us to not be people who get so caught up in connecting

1017
01:01:50,000 --> 01:01:52,000
whether we did good or bad to those things, Lord,

1018
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:55,000
but to understand doing good or bad and how you discipline us

1019
01:01:55,000 --> 01:02:02,000
is not necessarily connected to you blessing and allowing things to happen in our life.

1020
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:07,000
And so, again, God, help us through your Holy Spirit to have more faith.

1021
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:12,000
Help us through your Holy Spirit to be more faithful.

1022
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,000
But, God, help us to never forget that when we are faithless,

1023
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:20,000
you are still faithful, for you cannot deny yourself.

1024
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:26,000
We love you, Lord. We need you, Lord. Use us, Lord.

1025
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:29,000
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

1026
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:43,000
Well, God bless you guys. Let's worship.