Weak Faith

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Well, I want you to turn with me this morning to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

We're in our second month of our series on can God trust you?

Can God trust you?

And we looked at in January, the month of stewardship.

And boy, did God really teach us those four stewardship lessons.

By the way, if you need a worship guide, raise your hand.

We've got the outline on the back.

If you do not have a worship guide, please raise your hand.

We'll make sure you have one.

Everyone has one.

And also don't forget all our regular attenders, please fill out the little information sheet, put it in offering so we'll have a record of uh of your attendance.

But not only that, we want you to put your prayer requests on there.

I'm telling you, God is answering so many of our prayers around here.

It really is unbelievable.

In fact, uh, one of the things that we're praying for, we've been praying the last couple of Wednesday nights.

Uh Rosemarie and Iville walked out and we prayed right under the canopy last Sunday.

That afternoon, they sold the house.

We're praying for the house now.

Amen.

So it is just getting exciting.

God is answering our prayer time.

We're praying, and we pray uh for about an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays from six to seven.

Then we pray on Wednesday night, all of us together in here.

That has been such a sweet time.

And if you have not uh uh made a Wednesday night, you need to start uh trying to work it out where you can.

I know if you gotta work, you gotta work.

I understand that.

Ox is in the ditch, you gotta get him out.

But uh we have snacks, uh something a little to eat between actually pretty good pizza, sandwiches from 6 to 6 30.

Then we get started right at time, and we try to have you out of here by eight o'clock.

But part of the time, our young people, we all come together and sing a couple of worship songs, and then we divide up and we pray together and we memorize scripture together.

It's been awesome.

I'm telling you, it's really been awesome.

So if you can make it, we'd love to have you.

I'm teaching right now on uh really discipleship out of my book.

The first six chapters that we give everyone that makes a decision.

I think I'm on my fourth lesson, and then I've got one and two more.

And then Susan's gonna be teaching the next series on spiritual gifts.

That's gonna be very exciting.

And you know my wife, she's a phenomenal teacher.

And uh I've had several say, you know, she's better than you.

I know that.

Don't tell me, please.

I've been living with her 30 plus wonderful years, so I do understand her abilities, and she's been teaching me uh all that time.

We've been looking at this month, we've called it the faith month, walking by faith.

And we looked at that last week.

Walking by faith.

And we said that we live in the school of faith.

Our whole life, if we're saved, we're in the when you get saved, here's what happened: you enroll in the school of faith.

And guess who's the dean of that school?

The dean of that school is Father Abraham.

Abraham is the dean of the school of faith because he was the first one God called out of Ur to learn to walk by faith.

And let me just say something.

It is a learning process, just like your educational process.

It really is.

I wish, wouldn't you really love it if you got saved and all of a sudden you're totally mature?

Oh, wouldn't that be, wouldn't that be heavenly?

Well, I thought about that and I knew you were going to respond that way.

But the only problem with that is the more mature you get, guess what?

The more battles you fight.

Hello.

Hello, the tougher it gets because God used you in a greater way.

But now the, but hey, you said we'll say, well, blah, blah, blah, blah, bless God.

I just stay back there.

I won't mature.

No, no.

That's miserable.

You know, when you let me tell you what happens when you sit there and not grow.

You wander in the wilderness.

You're going around in circles, not going anywhere, not doing anything.

So it's a lot better to mature, and the more you mature, the more God can trust you.

Guess what?

The more God uses you.

And it's exciting to be used by God.

But again, the school of faith is a process, it's a learning process.

In fact, Peter put it this way: that we are to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3.18.

So we're looking at Abraham.

You know his name's Abram here, and you know what happened.

He's called out of Ur.

God tells him to leave his family.

He didn't listen totally.

He brought them with him.

He brought his tarot daddy.

And what happened?

They end up, they come out of uh Ur, and then they get to Quran, and there they end up staying for 15 years till his dad dies, and then God gets his attention again in the second call, and then he calls him to get on to Canaan, which is Israel, the promised land, and he makes it, and he's there.

Man, he is he's excited because he's finally being totally obedient, not half-hearted obedient or half-obedient, and he's there and he's building an altar, he's worshiping God.

I mean, he's he's taking on the Canaanites, and he's hey, endured the Canaanites, and he's just excited.

He's walking by faith, he's living by faith, and man, just going on with God, and then all of a sudden, bam! A severe test comes.

A major test.

In fact, the scripture calls it unbelievably.

The scripture calls it kabade, and it the word here is used grievous, which means a great, heavy, hard, severe, huge, very weighty trial.

So let's pick up the story in verse uh, well, we see in verse 10.

He's in Canaan, and now there was a famine in the land.

So Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land, and it came about when he came near to Egypt that he said to Sarai, her name had not been changed to Sarah yet, his wife, see now I know that you are a beautiful woman, and it will come about when the Egyptians see you that they will say, This is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Please say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.

And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful, and Pharaoh's officials saw her, praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and uh male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

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

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

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

Why did you say she is my sister?

So that I took her for my wife.

Now then, here is your wife.

Take her and go.

Amen.

Now, the the really the main emphasis here is really the grace of God.

Hello.

You said, now wait a minute, God's grace was not in his disobedience, I know, but God's grace was in his salvation, his deliverance.

If I'd have been Pharaoh, I'd have killed him.

Hello! Hello, and you would have too.

And by the way, he had the power to do that.

Hey, he'd have just killed him, said, You lying, deceitful, manipulative thief.

Thief.

Yeah, he stole from Pharaoh.

He deceived Pharaoh.

Hey, he could have killed him and taken Sarah anyway.

Hello.

And that's kind of what they did back then.

So, we see a tremendous picture of the grace of God.

And Pharaoh, he said, and Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Now, in the first part of Genesis 12, we see Abraham walking by faith, living victoriously.

Now, in the second part of Genesis chapter 12, we see Abraham walking in the flesh.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

In fact, remember the verse, 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we walk by faith, we walk by sight.

First part of the chapter, he's walking by faith.

Now, second part of the chapter, he's walking by sight.

In other words, weak faith that we looked at last week.

Weak faith.

And so, and remember I used the illustration, weak faith is trying to walk one foot in the world and one foot with God.

And Abraham was trying to do that.

He's walking with God, but all of a sudden there's a major problem that comes up.

Now, bless God, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to take charge.

I'm going to go back to the world for help and to solve my problems.

So we see this.

What an unbelievable picture.

So the first thing I want us to look at in our outline is about this weak faith is there was a famine in the land.

A famine in the land.

The famine, look at verse 10, was the factor which showed Abraham's weakness.

Amen.

It showed his weak faith.

Now here's the point I want you to understand.

When trials, well, two things.

First of all, you got to be very careful after you've had a great victory with the Lord.

Jordan's recently gotten saved.

And I told Jordan we were having lunch this past week.

I said, Jordan, you listen to, you couldn't pick a better message to listen to today, because here's what exactly happens to every one of us after we get saved.

Here's what happened.

We're on the mountaintop.

We had a victory.

Okay?

I meant we're we're going.

And then next thing you know, bam! You think Satan's gonna let you be a vibrant witness?

Not if he can help it.

So what does he do?

He just, the first opportunity, um, remember the wiles of the devil, the what?

Traps of the devil, the tricks of the devil?

Okay, what does he do?

Bam! He sets that trap, and next thing you know, you're just going, woo! I'm I'm hey, I'm worshiping God, and boom, there you go, bam, right in the trap.

You have a severe test.

Now, watch this.

Now, let me give you, let me give you a good example.

What happened to Moses and the people of Israel?

Hey, they had a fantastic victory.

They were delivered from the Pharaoh.

And they were going, hey, to the promised land.

They were going out.

God had delivered them.

Next thing you know, the army starts coming down on them.

What do they do?

Ah, Moses, you let us out here to kill us.

It'd be better off we're back in Egypt.

Hello, sound like Baptists to me.

Hello, first problem.

We start blaming and complaining.

Hello.

Hello?

And then what do he do?

No, you stand still.

You just, I bet he turned around and said, hush, you complainers, and watch God.

Amen.

And you know the story.

He parted the sea and they walked across, and then the army's coming after him, and he drowns the whole army.

Amen.

Well, hey, now they're back.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, yeah.

We're sorry, Moses.

And the next thing you know, they don't have any water.

Ah, Moses, you let us have any forest to perish.

Read the story, it's there.

And then they just had a fantastic, kill the whole Pharaoh's army.

And now, and they can't get any water, they're complaining and blaming.

Then he strikes, hey, he strikes a rock, gets all the water.

Oh, he's a Moses, you're the greatest thing.

Then next thing you know, they're hungry.

Ah, Moses.

Hello?

No food.

So what does he do?

He gives them.

I'm gonna, when I get to heaven, I'm gonna talk to some of those Israelis.

I mean, if you gave me a honey bun every morning with coffee, I'd be a happy camper.

Hello?

Amen.

I'd be a happy camper.

Amen.

That's what manna was, sweet bread.

Then they say, ah, that's the way that's all we get.

Then he gave them white meat, gave them quail.

Oh, oh, thank you, Moses.

And then they're complaining again.

Then I'll then they get them, then they're up on the mountaintop, and then all of a sudden the Amorite, hey, the Amalachite's army comes down, attacks them, then they're complaining again.

You see what I'm talking about?

After every great victory, there came a severe test, and they found it.

They failed it, folks.

Amen.

So we see this right here.

Now, let's look at something.

Troubles, I want you to write this down somewhere.

Troubles always test our dedication to God.

Woo! That's good.

Troubles always test our dedication to God.

Faith has to be tested before it can be trusted.

Psalm 66, 10 says, God will test us, He will refine us as silver is refined.

Amen.

Job said in Job 23, 10, God, you've tested me, and you know that the way I come and my way will be as gold.

Amen.

That's good.

Now, with that said, I want you to see something.

It always, trials always exposes our level of faith in where we are.

Always.

Always.

Now, I want you to look at something about the severe trial.

First of all, look at the sight.

Put in your, there it is, the sight of the famine, verse 10.

Notice where it was.

Look at what it says.

There was a famine.

There was a famine in the land.

There was a famine in the land.

Now notice where the famine came from.

It came from the very place God had told Abraham he ought to be.

God said you're supposed to be in Canaan.

He was in Canaan.

Now, God had told him earlier, you remember in the early verses, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to give you the land, I'm going to prosper you, you're going to be a blessing, and you're going to be a blessing to other people.

And your enemies, hey, those that bless you, I'll bless, and those that curse you, I will curse, curse.

So here he's already promised him, if you go to Canaan and do what I tell you, I'm going to bless you.

So he's in Canaan, where he's supposed to be, and guess what?

One of the severest trials comes right in the middle of the will of God.

Woo! See, here's what happens with most young Christians.

And here's what happens with a lot of us Christians.

Here it is.

We see God bless us, and He delivers us from salvation.

I meant from sin into salvation.

He starts blessing us, and the next thing you know, bam, you lose a job, bam, you got cancer, bam.

There's a major trial, and all of a sudden you start questioning the will of God.

Jesus.

Hello, all guilty.

All of us are guilty.

Can we get an O me?

We start questioning the will of God.

And we see that right here with Abraham.

But not only do we start questioning the will of God, notice the second thing here.

We start questioning the promises of God.

God promised Abraham that he would give him the land and that he would protect him and that he would bless him.

So now we see Satan brings a severe, unbelievable trial, which begins in Abraham's mind to start questioning why would God do this?

I know I'm supposed to, I'm I'm in God's will, so something's wrong here.

Why would he be, you know, allowing this severe trial to come when I'm doing what he tells me to do?

Because God wants to refine you and get the dross out of you.

Can I get an amen?

Remember the illustration I gave about the silversmith and the gold, the guy that purifies the gold?

I said, how do they know when it's ready?

When he looks into the furnace and he sees the gold and he sees his reflection of himself in that silver or in that gold, he knows it's ready to bring it out.

What a beautiful illustration.

I'm about to have a running spell.

What a beautiful illustration.

The more we grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ, and we begin to look into the Word of God, and we begin to see Christ as who He is, and Christ begins to look back at us, and we see our Christ-likeness.

Wow.

What a beautiful analogy.

So here we see it.

He's questioning God's promises, he's questioning God's will.

I got good news for you.

There hath not failed one word of all of God's good promises.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had do.

Romans 4 20 and 21.

1 Kings 8 56.

So the will of God is challenged.

By the way, here's a few verses.

Psalms 138, verse 8.

Psalms 138:8

I memorized it this week.

God will perfect and perform that which concerns you.

Is that not good?

Amen.

And we can be confident of this very thing that he which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1, 6.

Faithful is he that's called you, who also will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5, 24.

So we see it.

Success.

Now watch this.

I wrote this.

Here's the problem.

The world looks at outward circumstances, okay?

For success.

God doesn't look at outward circumstances.

God looks on the heart.

The faithfulness.

The Lord sees not as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 16, 7.

Amen?

So we see a tremendous truth right here.

And we see it.

We see it right here.

Let me show you what the promises of God and what Peter said, what our trials do.

Look at 1 Peter.

I believe it's 1 Peter 1, 7.

Gary.

1 Peter 1.7 says, listen to this.

Peter describes the trials of our faith as being much more precious than gold.

Did you hear that?

Much more precious than gold.

And remember what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.17, and I put a star here, for our light affliction, hey, which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding what?

What?

Reward and glory bestowed upon us by God.

You cannot be more like Christ than when you're going through a severe trial.

Amen.

I'm telling you.

That's the truth.

And so we see that.

Notice the second thing, though, about this famine, the season of it.

Look at the season of the famine.

And I'm not going to deal along.

When did it come?

Right after a victory.

You got to be careful.

Remember Elijah on Mount Carmel?

What a great example.

Remember, hey, he just killed 450 prophets of Baal.

Remember the great story in 1 Kings 18 there?

He says, Who are you going to serve?

Choose.

And hey, by the way, that was a bunch of Baptists there, too.

Yeah, they were Baptists.

You know why?

They're waiting to see who's going to win.

Before they took the side.

Hello.

Just a thought.

Finally, Elijah said, Who are you going to serve?

Is it going to be God or is it going to be Baal?

Choose you this day.

Whom are you going to serve?

You got to serve somebody.

And you remember the fire fell?

I mean, man, he's on top of the world.

I mean, he just took on 450 prophets of Baal.

They're cutting themselves, they're dancing and bleeding and all this, and nothing's happening.

Nothing's happening.

And then all of a sudden he gets up and he says, Okay, God, it's time.

You're going to be magnified.

You're going to be glorified.

And hey, he started praying, and all of a sudden, the fire.

Went phew.

And hey, consumed the wood.

Now, wait a minute, you say what's so important about that?

That's hey, they had just drowned, hey, drowned the wood in 12 huge barrels of water.

And last time I recalled what wood don't burn.

Amen.

Amen.

About that time, boom, they they started following him.

And then guess what?

Oh, he's he's excited.

He's he's just jumping up and down.

They're having a spell.

They're just you know, whoa, God, God, God's so awesome.

And all of a sudden he gets a letter from Jezebel.

One Jezebel woman.

Don't tell me some women can't make some trouble when they want to.

Hello.

Amen.

I better go on before I get in trouble.

I'm going, ladies, I promise.

I'm getting next.

She writes him a letter.

She writes him a letter.

It says, Hey, before the sun sets, I'm gonna do to you what you did to my prophets.

And you know, instead of standing up and saying, Bring it upon, honey, bring it upon.

If God be for me, who can be against me?

Amen.

He turns around and runs into a cave.

Goes and hides.

Just whip 450 prophets, and now one Jezebel runs him into a cave.

Hello.

Bible's full of great stories.

Amen.

Hey, why?

Right here, the season of the trial.

When did it happen?

Right after his greatest victory ever.

Somebody say that's good.

Thank you.

Not about the Jezebel, but about the principle.

Ladies, I love you.

I won't be fed for a month.

Now notice the third thing.

Notice the severity of this famine.

The famine in verse 10 was grievous.

It was heavy.

It was weighty.

There's a verse I don't think it said, but I want you to write it down.

1 Peter 4 12 says, Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials.

All right.

I got a short.

Shouldn't have been talking about those ladies.

Sorry, Lord.

Hey, but now notice.

Hey, can it not strange concerning the fiery trials that are going to try you?

Did you hear that?

Fiery trials.

Severe trials.

And that is exactly what we see here.

Abraham didn't have just a little trial.

It was severe.

Let me tell you why.

Let me tell you what a famine was to him.

He had over 318 plus servants.

Okay?

Plus his family.

I meant any kind of shortage of food and hundreds and hundreds of animals.

Any shortage of food could have wiped him out just like that.

He could have lost his family.

He could have lost his servants.

He could have lost his animals.

He could have lost his wealth.

He could have lost his business.

He could have lost everything.

Just like that.

So let's not give him such a hard time.

Amen.

I mean, he's looking for anything and everything to help him.

The only problem was he's looking for anything and everything but the right thing.

And that's to be still and know that he's God.

When trials come and you don't know what to do, here's what you do do.

You stand and you depend totally on God.

You don't waver, you don't turn to the world, you turn to the word.

There's a big difference.

He turned to the world instead of the word.

And that was his major problem.

But it was tough.

Now, there were two reasons.

Two reasons that this famine came.

Two reasons.

No doubt.

Every major trial, the heavy trials come for I think two reasons.

Number one, some of the, I don't know if I've been studying that anyway.

I don't know if the little subpoints are there.

That's just you got the main point, but write it somewhere.

Number one, number one.

Why did the severity of our problems come?

Number one, to develop our faith.

That's good.

I think I have James.

Do I have James up there, chapter one?

Look at there.

My brother, what does it say?

Count it all what?

What?

Count it what?

You mean to tell me I'm going to count it joy when I'm losing?

I have no food to feed my whole clan?

You mean to tell me I'm going to count it all joy when I lose my job?

You mean to tell me I'm going to count it all joy when I have a tragedy?

You mean to tell me when you see where I'm going with that?

Count it all joy when you fall into that word there in the King James's divers, if you got another interpretation, it means a multitude or a variety of trials and temptations.

Now watch verse 3.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith, what?

Worketh patience.

Oh, mercy.

You know, I really have good patience.

I really do.

As long as God answers my prayer by tomorrow, I'm okay.

Boy, I'm just and I know what you're saying.

Well, I'm gonna pray for patience.

Don't you do that?

Because the Bible says tribulation worketh patience.

You're praying for tribulation.

I may get it, but I ain't asking for it.

Amen.

Grow up.

Oh, I thank you.

I had I had a good comeback there, but I didn't.

All right.

But let patience have her perfect word that you may be perfect and tire, wanting nothing.

Amen.

Amen.

Faith.

It's just to develop our faith.

And notice the second thing it does.

Not only does it does it develop our faith.

Benji, I have no idea.

It's right there.

It's in that, it's in that little thing.

I'm all right.

All right.

Now, here it is.

It develops our faith, but here's the second thing it does.

It brings, it it puts on display God's glory.

Amen.

It puts on display God's glory.

Listen, the more severe the trial, hey, the more potential God can display his glory.

Isn't that good?

Because, see, when he delivers you, he shows out.

Now let me show you this.

I think, and by the way, a while ago, you had verses in there, without faith, it's impossible to plead God.

So that's one reason he's developing our faith.

But now watch this on the glory.

In Exodus chapter 14, in verses 13, I believe it is Exodus 14.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

This is so good.

Verses, uh, I was given the illustration about him being at the water, and watch what he says.

And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still.

And that's what, hey, this is what we need to do when a severe trial comes and we don't know what to do, we just stand still.

Amen.

Psalms 46, 10.

Be still and know that I'm God.

Just stand still.

Don't make a stupid mistake.

Don't make a dumb decision.

Just be still and seek God's counsel through the word and through godly people.

And that's what we do.

Stand still and see the salvation, the deliverance of the Lord, which he shall show to you this day, for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today.

Ye shall see them again no more.

Forever.

And the Lord shall fight for you.

And ye shall hold your peace.

Abraham did not have to go down to Egypt.

God would fight for him.

God had already fought for him with the Canaanites, and God would have provided for him just like he brought the manna.

Amen.

Amen.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Now, let me tell you another thing.

Remember, let's go to the New Testament.

Remember Mary and Martha?

The brother died?

Go to John 11.

Well, this is good.

Oh.

And then you remember Mary, uh, Martha runs out, meets him, and said, said, uh, hey, Jesus, if you'd have been here.

Now there, there she is.

Now, don't get too hard on Martha.

Because we're just like that.

We get in a situation and we make the wrong decision, then we try to blame God.

Hello.

Uh-oh.

Oh me.

And the reason we do, we've made a bad decision, but we don't want to take responsibility for the bad decision.

Sounds sound familiar?

Sounds like America.

Sounds like politicians.

Oh, hello.

Let's don't go there.

Amen.

You with me?

So anyway, she says that, and Jesus said, No, Martha, you don't understand.

In fact, if you remember, he was only, he is only about four hours from them when he got news that uh Lazarus was sick.

And what did he do?

And the disciple said, Let's go, Master.

He said, No, no, no, no.

Just wait.

Just wait.

I got a purpose.

But don't you care?

He's your best friend.

Just wait.

I know what I'm doing.

Isn't it amazing how we are so impatient that we really want to tell God what he really needs to do?

Oh my.

I'm preaching to me.

I know none of y'all are guilty.

I'm preaching to me.

I'm preaching to me.

Amen.

And then she runs back and says to Mary, Mary, the Lord wants to see you.

Mary comes just weeping.

Thank you, Master.

Thank you, Master.

Thank you.

Your brother died.

He wept with her.

He wept with her.

But after the weeping, I think he eases her up and he looks her in the face and he says, Mary, where is he?

See, when you get still and wait, God will pick you up from all those problems, all those distresses, all those defeats, and he will look you in the face and he'll say, Danny, I'm here.

Amen.

I'm here now.

Doesn't matter if I wasn't there then or yesterday or the day after, I'm here now.

Amen.

And he said, Roll away the stone.

And he took the stone away from the place where the dead was laid.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

He was giving all the glory, all the glory picks us up and he takes care of the problem.

Amen.

Amen.

Boy, that's good.

And that's what we see right here.

Number two.

The forsaking leaving the land.

Abraham did not react well to the famine.

Left Canaan, went down to Egypt.

Now watch this.

Write this down.

I wrote this for me personally.

When my faith fails, when my faith fails, I always leave my Canaan.

In other words, when my faith fails, I get out of the will of God.

Wow.

When my faith fails, I get out of the will of God.

When your faith fails, you quit coming to church.

Hello?

When your faith fails, you quit reading your Bible.

When your faith fails, you quit praying.

When your faith fails, you start blaming others.

Hello.

We all are that way.

So we see what a tremendous insight he tells us here.

Many are the failures of most of us when we get out of the will of God.

Now, there's two reasons for that.

Why do we allow ourselves?

Hey, one, we start doubting the will of God we said.

Two, hey, we start doubting God's promises.

But I let me show you what I saw here.

Two favorite excuses.

Excuse number one.

The situation ethics excuse.

A favorite excuse for Abraham's sin and for our own his circumstances.

Letting circumstances be our guide instead of the word of God being our guide.

Can I get a no-me?

He hey, he allowed the circumstances of the famine to guide him instead of the word of God to guide him.

Now watch what he did.

And because of that, he turned to the world.

Now watch what it says.

It said that Abraham turned and went down to Egypt.

Now watch.

Anytime in the Old Testament, listen to me, Egypt is a symbol of the world.

It's a symbol of humanism.

It's a symbol of secularism.

It's a symbol of greed.

It's a symbol of self-sufficiency.

All and and yes, definitely ungodliness because of the multiplicity of what?

Worshiping many gods.

So we know that anytime, and by the watch this, anytime you get out of the will of God, you've got only one direction as a Christian to go, and that's down, down, down.

Ask Jonah.

Hello.

Three times in those two chapters, Jonah went down, down, down till he ended up in the belly of the fish.

Amen.

So we see a tremendous, beautiful example.

Abraham failed to let the word of God determine his actions here.

Romans 10, 17.

Faith, you know it, accord it with me.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing.

And John 7, 17, Jesus said, You shall do my will when you know my doctrine.

When you know my word.

You'll do my will.

So again, Abraham had gotten out of the will of God.

And Isaiah 55, 11.

You love this one.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, God says, What?

What does it say?

It shall not return unto me void, but it shall watch this next phrase.

Accomplish that which I please.

God sent Abraham to Canaan.

God's word said that he would provide for Abraham in Canaan.

There was no need for Abraham to turn and go down to Egypt.

None whatsoever.

None.

None.

But he did.

Why?

Another reason.

Here it is.

And this is the biggie.

And by the way, let me give you my definition of situation ethics.

I came up with my own definition.

If you like it, write it down.

If you don't, ignore it.

Situation ethics is the judging of conduct, okay?

By circumstance or circumstances instead of principles.

Let me repeat that.

Here's what situation ethics excuse really is.

Situation ethics is the judging of conduct by circumstances instead of by principles.

And those principles being God's word.

Here's the other excuse: self-preservation excuse.

Another very popular excuse is self-preservation.

If we stayed in Canaan, Abraham says, I risk the chance of losing everything, losing my family, losing my service, losing my animals, losing, hey, losing my wealth, losing everything.

I mean, this is a severe situation.

So if I stay here, I'm in trouble.

Can I tell you something?

Every time you get out of the will of God, you end up in more trouble.

Hello.

Every time, you're gonna see it in a minute.

Every time he got out of, hey, God's trouble into his own trouble.

That's one thing you don't want to do.

When you're in trouble, you want God with you.

Amen.

See, when he was in Canaan, it was God's trouble.

Boy, this is good.

When he was in Canaan, it was God's problem.

When he went down to Egypt, it was his problem.

Hello.

Hello.

I'm gonna stick with him.

I won't building this church to be God's problem.

Because I would totally mess it up.

Amen.

Does that make sense?

Self-preservation.

Now, how do we know that?

Oh my.

Oh my.

Self-preservation must not have priority over the word of God.

Now, and I'm going to show you that self-preservation now.

Look at the third thing.

The failure in the land.

Because Abraham was trying to protect himself and he was allowing the circumstances to dictate what he was doing.

Look at verses 11 and 13.

When he was come near to enter into Egypt, he said unto Sarai, his wife, Behold, now I know that thou art a beautiful woman to look upon.

Therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife.

And they will kill me.

But they will save thee alive.

Say thou art my sister, that it may be well with me.

Now watch this.

Boy is he not cunning.

Now watch this.

Now watch this.

Watch what he says here.

But it will be well with me for thy sake.

Now he wants her to commit adultery, commit all kind of ungross sin, so that it will be good for her.

So that she won't be killed.

So that he won't be killed.

I know what Susan said.

She'd say, Well, you dying, sucker.

I ain't doing that.

Amen.

I ain't gonna do that.

I ought to tell that.

Oh, thank you.

Candy, I ought to tell that story about what No, I'm not doing that.

It is a cute little joke, though, about the doctor, and the wife said you gotta kiss him every day and fix him supper and tuck him into the bed.

The husband said, Well, what did the doctor say, honey?

She looked at him and said, You're gonna die.

A great failure that occurs that we see when Abraham totally left Canaan.

Watch this.

Galatians 6, 7.

Very important.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man soweth, now watch, that shall he reap.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall reap of the flesh.

Now watch, corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

Let us not be weary of well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not, if we stick with God, and let God, hey, let it be God's problem instead of doing what we want to do, and it becomes our problem, then we're in trouble.

Amen.

So that's very important.

We understand it.

And by the way, look at Isaiah 31.

That's not three.

That was my fault.

Can you put it's Isaac, Garrett, it's Isaiah 31, verse 1.

Isaiah 31:1

Verse 1.

That was my fault.

Tabaku couldn't read, and I said three.

It should have been one.

Now, can you put one up there?

Well, anyway, here's what it says.

God tells to the Egyptians, I mean, to the nation Israel, don't go down to Egypt.

Because down in Egypt, you're going to find nothing.

Oh, yeah, you see their greatness, you see their wealth, you see their horses, you see their chariots.

But I'm here to tell you it's headed to nothing but destruction.

And that is exactly what the world does.

We look at the world, we see all this outward success, and oh, everybody that's you know living for themselves and for the world, they're looking like they're so successful.

That's only outwardly, but inwardly they're dying.

And they're headed to one pl hey, one one way, one way, they're headed to destruction, total destruction.

To man, but the ends thereof, destruction.

Now, what's the cause of the failure?

Here's the cause of the failure.

One, forsaking the land.

Two, fearfulness.

He's afraid he's gonna get killed.

Hey, God's not given us, squirt it with me.

God's not given the spirit of what?

But of what?

And a love and a sound mind.

Stick with God.

Don't go the world's way.

Stick with God's word.

In fact, watch this.

This is so good.

Where Abraham saw Egypt as supplies and success and a place of security and a place of safety ended up being a place of darkness and destruction.

Is that not the counterfeit that Satan uses with sin?

Absolutely.

What does he say in Hebrews 11?

Sin's fund for a short while, but then you pay?

Hebrews 11, 25.

Amen.

Moses said, I'm not going to endure the pleasures of Egypt.

I'm going with God.

So that is so true.

And then notice this he was fearful.

And then the third thing, he was faithless.

Hey, he left, he became afraid, and he didn't depend on God.

He didn't depend on God.

Now notice the character of this failure.

Look at verse 13.

Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister.

Now, before you give him a hard time and say he was a total liar, which he he was.

By the way, half truth is still a lie.

Can I get an amen?

There's no such thing as half truth.

It's either the truth or it's a lie.

Can I get an amen or no me?

But Abraham decided, he said, I got a plan here, and my plan's gonna be you're gonna tell him you're my sister.

Now let me tell you how he justified it.

Because truly she was his half sister.

They both had the same father, but they had different mothers.

So she was a half-sister.

So he justified it.

Boy, is that not how I I can be the best at that.

How you can get a little truth in the wrong and you justify it.

Hello, Pastor Danny?

Don't can you go a different direction?

We get a little truth and then we justify the wrong.

Hello.

Guilty.

But God, you know.

And isn't it something when we say, but God, you know, like he doesn't know?

Like Adam.

Hello.

You ever done that?

You ever said that?

Well, God, you understand.

Like he doesn't understand.

Oh, mercy.

That's what sin does.

Deceitfulness, then disloyalty.

Look at verse 13, 15.

Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister.

The woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Abraham was being disloyal to his wife.

Instead of saying, If God be forced, honey, I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna protect you.

He said, No, he was like Elijah.

He turned and ran.

I mean, he's fixing to allow his wife, this beautiful woman that he loved, that God had given to her and promised her a child as a concubine to Pharaoh.

Folks, that's it's about as low as it gets.

Well, it got lower though in Sodom with Lot when he offered his daughters to the homosexuals.

Hello.

By the way, where did Lot learn that?

Hello?

You okay out there?

Dads?

Listen to me.

We are the most influential person in our family's life.

What we do, they will do.

Not what we say, but what we do.

That's another story.

But now watch this.

But not only do we see the disloyalty, we see, hey, we just see all this unbelievable stuff.

And remember what Philippians 2.4 says.

Look not every man on the things of others, but every man on the things.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others.

That was not what Abraham was doing.

Now watch.

Here it is.

The consequences of the failure.

Watch this.

Fixing her.

This is awesome.

First, look at verse 15.

The woman Sarah was taken into Pharaoh's house.

That's defilement.

He defiled Sarah.

It could have been adultery.

It could have been a sexual abuse.

It could have even been her death.

Unbelievable.

But now look, look, look what happens.

Look at the deceit.

Defilement, then deceit.

Look at verse 16.

He entreated Abraham well for his sake, and he had sheep and oxen and asses and men's servants and maidservants and she asses and camels.

Hey, let me say this right here, right up front.

Especially teenagers, listen to me.

There are gains in sin.

There's gains in sin.

But they're very short terms.

There's short-term pleasure, there's short-term riches, short-term everything.

But Satan does a masterful job in getting us to realize that there's gains in sin.

Okay?

Abraham prospered.

Now it would be easy to look at Abraham and said, Whew, you know, Abraham didn't do too bad by disobeying God.

Oh, but let's go on with the story.

Let's go on with the story.

Because what comes next, not just the dividends, but the discomfort.

Look at the discomfort.

And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house and the great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife, verse 17.

Wow.

Wow.

Now wait.

It gets worse.

Look at, hey, the next thing, verse 18, 19, we see disgrace.

Pharaoh called Abraham and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me?

Why didst thou not tell me that thou, hey, that she was thy wife?

Why says thou she is my sister, so I might have taken her to be my wife?

Abraham got a good denouncing and a good confrontation with the lost king.

It's a sad day when the world or a lost person has to get in our face and tell us how bad we've been.

Amen.

O me.

Man.

And then look at the fifth thing, verse 1920, the dismissal.

Take her and go the way.

And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away and his wife and all that he had.

Now, he's embarrassed.

Now, what he escaped from, he thought, a famine, he's being sent back into the famine.

You can run, but you can't hide.

You think you're running away from the problems of life, the problems you have, only to run into worse problems.

Hello, you with me, church?

You don't run.

You stand and you do what's right.

And if God before you say it with me, church, who can be against you?

You go with God.

I don't care how bad it gets you, just when you've done all you can do, just stand, and when you've stood, stand.

That's it.

That's the key.

That's the key.

And then I close.

Last thing with this story.

The flight back.

The famine was a test of faith when Abraham fell miserably.

When in Egypt, Abraham failed even more miserably.

Lying about his wife, deceiving Pharaoh.

It would just.

And by the way, let me tell you what happens.

Once you sin and you get out of the will of God and you sin to justify it, your sins get worse and worse.

Amen.

They get worse and worse.

It just goes down, down, down.

Sin added upon sin.

That's what Isaiah said about Abraham.

Sin upon sin.

Now, watch this.

Look at verse 1, chapter 13.

Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, Abraham, and they sent him away and his wife and all they had.

And Abram went up out of Egypt.

Abraham was forced out of Egypt because of his lying, his deceitfulness, his cunningness.

Now, what does this say?

Sin will always bring shame.

You with me?

Sin will always bring shame.

Always.

Always.

You can be sure your sins will find you out.

Numbers 32, 23.

Can I say something since I've been a Christian?

I've never gotten away with anything.

Yeah, that is.

Because God loves me and my wife will kill me.

But I've never gotten away with anything.

Amen.

Amen.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Hey, how can you get away from everything or anything when the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good?

Amen, Sizar.

Say it.

Say it again.

The eyes of the Lord in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15, 3.

Amen.

That was good.

Abraham, now here it is, and I'm through.

Abraham went up and went out.

That's how you repent.

Let's look at the repentance.

He went up.

What does that mean?

God picked him back up through the circumstances and said, You getting out of here.

I'm sending you back where you need to go.

He used this shame to bring repentance to Abraham.

Now, and they get back.

And I know what you're saying, but what about the riches?

You read there when you look at, he brought the riches with him.

Now watch this.

Let me help you here.

He brought his, hey, he brought the riches in verse 2, and Abraham was very rich in cattle and silver and gold.

Now here it is.

It's not closed.

It may look like Abraham prospered in a bad situation, even though he was deceitful.

But let me just tell you something.

That's not true.

Because what Abraham brought with him out of Egypt, watch this.

Don't you miss this.

Listen to me.

It followed him the rest of his life.

He made one of the most major wrongs that he could have ever done by going down into Egypt.

Because when he came back out of Egypt, he brought a lady named Hagar, a servant.

She was one of the servants that Pharaoh gave to Abraham.

And she, later on down, again, Abraham, they messed up again.

He was God had promised him a child, and Sarah was barren, was not going to have a child.

In fact, when God told Sarah she's going to have a child, she laughed at him.

And so Sarah this time goes ahead of God.

Okay?

I wonder where she learned that from.

Yeah, really?

Where'd she learn that?

Okay?

What's happened?

She says, Go into my concubine.

Hagar had become a very close servant to Sarah.

Thank you.

And he had a child.

Ishmael, who became the descendants of the Arabs.

And now the Israelites and the Arabs have been warring ever since, and they are war until Jesus comes back.

That was a major, major, bad decision.

Lot, later on in Genesis, Lot becomes maybe the mayor in Sodom and Gomorrah.

He goes to Sodom when they and by the way, let me tell what else happened.

All this extra wealth and extra service caused conflict because Lot and Abraham get mad at each other and they have to separate.

So Lot, guess where Lot looks?

Lot did just like Abraham did.

He said, Oh, the plains over there in Sodom are watered like the plains of Egypt were.

There's plenty of food and all.

I'm going to choose Sodom.

I'm going to pitch my tent over here.

I'm going to go over here and I'm going to pinch my tent right there.

And it's going to be there.

And that tent's going to dwell there.

And it's going to dwell there.

And it's going to dwell there.

Now, watch this.

Watch.

Don't you miss this?

Please don't miss this.

Don't you dare miss this.

He looked just like Abraham.

And he chose just what Abraham chose.

And you know what it ended up costing him?

It ended up costing him his whole family.

His wife was turned to stone.

Everything, everything, everything.

Where did he learn it?

Don't ever think that a major d wrong decision doesn't hurt.

Can I get an old me?

Praise God, verse 4.

And he went on his journey and he came back to the altar.

And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord when he got back to Canaan.

He got back to worshiping the Lord.

My people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.

Then when I hear from heaven, forgive, hey, forgive their sin and heal their land.

Amen, church.

Are you with me?

You believe that?

Let me ask you this morning.

Let me ask you this morning.

Are you walking by faith?

Or are you walking by sight?

Wow.

Wow.

I don't care what you're going through this morning.

Listen to me this morning.

I don't care what you're going through.

You stick with the word and you stick with God.

Don't let Satan manipulative take you out of the will of God.

Can I get an Amen?

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day, and again, God bless you.