What Have You Encountered?

Good morning church. Thank you John and praise team

for leading us in worship of the one true God this morning.

And as we continue in our worship, I would ask that you

turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 20.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

You know that we're continuing in worship when Pastor Kyle gets

up here or anybody else. It's a continuation of worship,

right as we open God's Word to look at it.

For the last several months, we've been in this sermon series

answering the call. We began the with the account in

Genesis. When God calls Abraham to leave

his home, his family, his country, to go to a land that

God will show him. God tells him that he will make

him a great nation, descendants without number, that he will

bless him, that he will make his name great, that he will be a

blessing to all the families, all the nations of the earth.

And these are all God's vow, his promise to Abraham.

These things are going to happen.

You can count it and Abraham's initial response in Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 is to obey the Lord and go forth.

But answering God's call did not eliminate difficulty.

We've seen this. Part of the difficulty came

because Abraham took his his nephew Lot with him.

Remember, part of the difficulty came simply because of the

nature of God's promises to Abraham.

And part of the difficulty became came in because of the

fulfillment of the promise. The faith becoming sight did not

happen immediately, no, far from it.

But the question at each stage of the journey was whether

Abraham truly trusted in God's promises in spite of all that

made the pathway difficult and messy.

At times. God's ways are higher than man's

ways, and he was. God was making a plan of

redemption, a way for redemption, a way for salvation.

And what we see is the unfolding of God's solution to everything

that has taken place since the Garden, when the first man and

woman chose to rebel, disobey God, rebel against him, and

bring in disruption, disharmony, futility, curse, and death.

And this redemption would ultimately be fulfilled in the

offering of God's own Son, Jesus Christ, many generations down

the line. And for this redemption to take

place, God was working in and through the call upon Abraham's

life. But this story, this story of

God and his call to Abraham, is actually our story too.

Because through it God is revealing all sorts of things

about himself, revealing more about who he is, His character,

His Holiness, his righteousness, his faithfulness, and so much

more. But He's also revealing more

about who we are as His creatures.

He made for His glory, not for our glory.

He wants us to see Him just as He is, and He wants us to

understand who we are just as we are.

And through understanding who He is and who we are, our call to

follow Him becomes more and more clear.

Notice I didn't say easier clarity.

Simplicity does not mean easy clarity.

And simplicity does not mean we're not affected by the chaos

and the confusion and the complexity that surrounds us.

But we're citizens of another Kingdom, right?

So this brings us to our text for today, Genesis 20.

Now you may notice that we're skipping a little bit at the end

of chapter 19, verses 30 to 38. This Hallmark ish story account

of the daughters of Lot scheming to take things into their own

hands to preserve their family. I heard a few chuckles.

Maybe you don't get the Hallmark reference I've got.

I've got ladies in my house that love Hallmark, but this is not a

Hallmark story. But when Pastor Kyle asked me to

preach a couple months ago, he said I'm going to be in at

Genesis 20. So that's what I study for.

Well, in the weeks, the past few weeks, it's taking him a little

longer. So he's going to get up here

potentially and tell you next week I offered to Pastor Steven

to preach that wonderful story at the end of Chapter 19.

I mean, he just said no. But actually that's not the

case. However, he will return us back

to he's got a word from the Lord to give us next week at the end

of chapter 19 and then we'll move forward to chapter 21.

But we're we're in chapter 19 this week and before reading the

passage, I want to us to reflect upon our own lives for a moment

as we enter our our study of this passage.

If you are a believer in here, you've answered God's initial

call on your life to die to yourself and follow him.

But I want you to think about how God has called you into

something in your life, maybe recently, maybe not so recently,

that has become for you somewhat of a faith journey through His

Word perhaps, and through the counsel of godly friends and

family members, you became convinced that God was directing

you down a particular path into a particular relationship to a

particular job or career or educational journey.

And maybe to devote much of your time and resources and energy to

something, maybe to an area of service in the church or in the

community, maybe to a move, geographical or otherwise.

And you feel or felt that God has promised a blessing of some

kind if you follow that particular path in obedience to

Him. However, as you wait and wait

and wait, not only for the blessing, not merely for the

blessing, but as you wait for clarity on the journey, as you

walk the path and encounter various obstacles, you know

what? You you become distracted, you

doubt, you fear, man. You live in your own thoughts.

I call that you live in your own head.

Anybody else have that problem? I do that.

I live in my own head sometimes, and you wonder as a result of

those things, you wonder if God is really faithful, if what you

think He called you to is truly the way.

I ask you to put yourself in this place because I think

that's where Abraham has been in these chapters we've been going

through. So let's read Genesis chapter

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

20. I'm going to read the whole

passage. I'm not going to make you stand.

I usually do that, but I'm not going to today.

We still have a while earlier and it's a long passage, but I'm

going to read through the whole passage.

Genesis chapter 20, starting in verse one.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

This is the word of the Lord. Now Abraham journeyed from there

toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and

Shur. Then he sojourned in Garrar.

Abraham said of his wife. She is my sister.

So Abimelech, king of Garrar, sent and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to

him, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman you have

taken, for she is married now Abimelech had not come near her.

And he said, Lord, will you slay a nation?

Even though blameless? Did he not himself say to me,

She is my sister? And she herself said, He is my

brother? In the integrity of my heart and

the innocence of my hands, I have done this.

Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that in the

integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you

from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you

touch her. Now therefore restore the man's

wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you

will live. But if you do not restore her,

know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called his servants

and told all these things, and they're hearing, And the men

were greatly frightened. Then Abimelech called Abraham

and said to him, What have you done to us?

And how, if I sinned against you, that you have brought on me

and my Kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that

are not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham,

What have you encountered that you have done this thing?

Abraham said, Because I thought surely there is No Fear of God

in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my

father, but not the daughter of my mother.

And she became my wife. And it came about when God

caused me to wander from my father's house.

And I said to her, This is the kindness which you will show to

me everywhere we go. Save me, he is my brother.

Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female

servants and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife

to Sarah. To him Abimelech said, Behold,

my land is before you, settle wherever you please.

To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother 1000 pieces

of silver. Behold, it is your vindication

before all who are with you and before all men.

You are cleared. Abraham prayed to God, and God

healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids so that they bore

children, for the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the

household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

This is the word of the Lord. You may recall that Genesis 20

is not the first time that Abraham has concealed that Sarah

is his wife. I mean, he actually said that is

the case. But back in Genesis 11, you

recall Abraham's father takes him and his family away from the

ancient Mesopotamian town of ER, modern day Iraq toward Haran.

And this begins a 13 mile journey between the events of

chapter 12 and where we are in chapter 20.

Look at that. I got you a map.

Y'all like maps? I got you a map this morning

mapping it out. So between those events, this

long journey in chapter 12, God's promise comes to Abraham

for the first time. Abraham with his family and Lot

with him, take all their possessions to set out for the

land of Canaan all the way to Shechem, right under #3 There he

proceeds from Shechem further to the mountain of Bethel, before

continuing on to the Negev or the South country.

And remember, a famine comes on the land.

Here we are in Genesis 12. Famine comes on the land.

So Abraham and his caravan go further South Down to Egypt to

sojourn there and to find food. And this is where we see Abraham

deceiving Pharaoh and the Egyptians by saying that Sarah

is his sister. Abraham fears that the Egyptians

will see how beautiful Sarah is and will kill him many years

earlier. So in chapter 20, here we are

again. Same movie.

We've seen this before, with an eerily similar scheme to conceal

that Sarah is Abraham's wife. But a lot has happened since

that time, no pun intended. A lot.

A lot has happened lot, a lot happened with a lot, but much

time has passed since that first time.

First lie about Sarah, and it's this point.

It's this point that is of utmost import as we seek to

understand the events of chapter 20.

More about that in a moment, but let's just walk through the text

together starting back in verse one and make some observations.

The 1st 2 verses give the background for the whole chapter

as we had, as he has been doing for years.

Abraham, I got another map for you I think in a moment.

But Abraham journeys once again from the oaks of Mamre near

Hebron. This is where he had looked down

upon Sodom and Gomorrah couple of chapters earlier, and they

were they were destroyed by the Lord.

And he travels S toward the Negev again and settles in the

Philistine city of Girar, located between Kadesh and Shur.

Now we're not exactly sure where Girar is, it's somewhere in that

location, but in chapter 10, we actually learned that Girar is

the southernmost border of Canaan.

So he is down the southernmost part of of the promised land.

In verse 2, we're told that Abraham begins saying that Sarah

is his sister. He actually has been saying this

for a while, but undoubtedly he's saying this many times as

he comes into the city of Gerar. And ultimately word gets to the

king. So what does the king do?

Well, the king takes Sarah into his household.

We're not told the reason that he takes Sarah in.

We are told back in 12 it we're explicitly told she was

beautiful. But this is probably about 1520

years later, something like that at least.

So we don't know what the real reason is.

Maybe it was just to form an alliance with Abraham and his

clan. Regardless, Sarah is again, she

finds herself in the household of someone who's not her

husband. And as we move into verses 3 to

7, we see God once again intervening to show grace to

Abraham and Sarah and preserve His promises to them.

This is another butt of the Bible, verse 3.

But God, OK, but God, he always comes in and intervenes by His

grace. God first reveals here the truth

that Abraham has hidden from Abimelech, and then he shows his

grace and his mercy to Abimelech.

The text doesn't tell us how much time passed between

Abimelech taking Sarah into his household and this dream that

comes from God. But it can't be very long

because remember back in chapter 17 and 18, God reveals both to

Abraham and to Sarah that in one year he's going to return and

she is going to have a child, right?

So it can't be long. But in verses 3 to 5, God speaks

to Abimelech and Abimelech answers starting in verse 6, God

responds to Abimelech's words. And I want you to look at the

nature of this conversation. Not a color there.

Y'all like color. Hopefully this is helpful and

not distracting for you, but notice the mirror like structure

where concepts are repeated in reverse order.

In literary terms it's called a chiasm, but they're repeated in

reverse order. See how God in His grace answers

Abimelech's concern here. OK, so you've got God coming in

verse 3 to Abimelech in a dream of the night and then jump down

to verse 6. If you can see it about midway

down, then God said to him in the dream.

So all this is being communicated to Abimelech in

this dream. But look at the red.

God starts off and he says behold, you're a dead man.

And then you go to the end to the red.

You're matching up colors here. Verse 7 the universe 7 he says

you and you and your family will live you and I think it says in

your family I got a typo there but and he will pray for you and

you will live no typo. He will pray for you and you

will live. You're a dead man, but you will

live. God answering by grace.

Look at the purple the woman whom you have taken she is

married. This is why you're a dead man

Abimelech cause the woman you have taken into your household,

she's married. Then jump down to the purple

below in verse 7, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet

and this is the way that you're going to live.

How do you reverse this woman who you've taken you restore the

man's wife, the green. Now Abimelech had not come near

her. What is God's response to

Abimelech Now Abimelech saying like he, he's saying I didn't

come near her and and that's part of his defense.

But God says I, I didn't let you touch her.

And then the blue is what Abimelech says, Lord, I hadn't

even come near her. We all know what that means,

right? I didn't come near her.

Lord, will you slay a nation even though blameless?

And God's response in his grace and in his mercy, he says, I

kept you from sinning against me.

So Abimelech here presents himself as one with a clear

conscience. And the Lord agrees with his

assessment. But we also see how God is in

control here. We've seen this throughout the

whole narrative of Abraham's journey.

He is sovereignly working. God is to bring about His

purposes for Abraham and for Sarah and for the redemption,

His redemption plan for the whole world.

But we see in verse 7 that God gives the choice to Abimelech.

I've got it under underlined here.

He gives the choice to Abimelech.

He says that there's a possibility of avoiding

judgment. If he would restore Sarah to

Abraham and if Abraham, God's prophet, intercedes on his

behalf. When verse 8 we see Abimelech

response to the dream, what does he do early the next morning?

He calls his servants and tells them all these things.

What are all these things? The whole dream, the, the

scheme, everything. Everybody knows, OK, the truth

about Abraham and Sarah, all that God is revealed in the

dream. This is like getting a call at

your workplace, getting a call when you show up.

Everybody's called to a meeting in the meeting room, right?

Nobody likes that call. You don't know what in the world

is taking place. But early the next morning he

calls this meeting. And notice the response of the

men. Now, perhaps they know they've

heard about God's judgement up the road on Sodom and Gomorrah

that recently happened. Regardless, they are terrified.

They're terrified about what, about what's going to happen if

restoration does not take place, what this God of the Israelites

would do to their king and to their nation in judgement.

So God has brought the truth into the light.

That's a whole nother sermon. But you know, God always brings

the truth into what? The light.

And he brings the truth into the light.

In verse 9, Abimelech calls Abraham and begins interrogating

him. His first question, What have

you done to us? It's probably rhetorical, as

everyone knows, all parties know what's been done.

OK, it's like you. When I tell Melinda, my sweet

Melinda, I think she's back there somewhere.

What have you done? I know exactly what she does.

She put grass in the lawn mower gas tank.

That's what she did. I love you, honey.

That was 2 days ago. I know exactly I'm looking at

it. This is the same thing Abimelech

says. What have you done to us?

Resembles God's question to Adam and Eve in the garden, right?

He says, what is this you have done?

Does he know what they've done? Yeah.

Well, Abimelech goes on. He goes on to ask what he had

done to Abraham, that this would be done to him, that this whole

Kingdom would be put in jeopardy.

What is clear here, that is that Abimelech believes that Abraham

has sinned against him and his whole Kingdom, and he clearly

denounces the sin. Did you see what he said?

You, Abraham, have done things to me that ought not to be done.

But verse 10, verse 10 is Abimelech's most important

question. This is why I entitled the

sermon this. He says, Abraham, what have you

encountered that you have done this thing?

Your translation of God's word may say something different.

It may say something like what was your reason for doing this?

What made you do this? Abraham, what did you have in

view that you've done this thing literally from the Hebrew, the

the Hebrew term means see. So some translations, some of

yours may say, what did you see, Abraham, that you would do this?

I love the King James Version. In this case, it said, what

sawest thou that thou has done this thing?

Young people in the room, this is not about wood and an

instrument to cut wood, OK. It's about seeing what sawest

thou that thou has done this thing.

It's believed by many scholars and historians that wife

stealing was common in ancient times and This is why Abraham

lied about Sarah being his sister.

Perhaps that that's the case, but what seems clear by

Abimelech's questions is that he genuinely does not understand

why Abraham has acted in the way that he does.

From his perspective, he might merely be asking Abraham if he

had an experience that he didn't lie about his wife and his wife

was taken and he was killed. Well, obviously that didn't take

place 'cause he's still alive. But have you, Abraham?

Maybe Abimelech's thinking, maybe you haven't lied about and

you've been punished or persecuted for this.

Maybe that's Abimelech. But I believe this question that

Abimelech's asking to Abraham is a hard question.

And, and it's not merely from Abimelech, king of Gerar, it's

from the king of kings, the Lord himself, from God himself.

Abraham, what have you encountered that you've done

this thing? And as readers of God's Word,

which we are, we should ask what Abraham has encountered.

And we go back to all that has happened, all that has been

revealed to us since Genesis 12 and God's initial promise to

make Abraham into a great nation and bless him.

Remember, after that first lie about Sarah, God sends plagues

upon Pharaoh's house and ultimately expels Abraham and

his household. Then in God's Providence, he

text Abraham from settling in the land of Sodom, which Lot

chooses, and God restates to Abraham his promise of land to

at the end of chapter 13. In chapter 15, God promises

Abraham a son that's going to come actually from his own body,

even though he's really, really old.

And, and I just thought of my brother who's here, he's a lot

older than me. That's what I thought.

Sorry brother, I just thought of it.

You know, even though Abraham is really old and his sister's

really old, God tells him in Genesis 15.

Got me off track. God tells me in Genesis 15, I'm

going to give you a son from your own body.

And he makes a covenant with Abraham that that further

ensures the promises he's already given him.

God gives military victory to Abraham with his 318 trained

men. He rescues his nephew Lot from

the wicked kings. God blesses Abraham's son

through Hagar when he and his wife take matters into their own

hands in the midst of these events in chapter 1713 years.

In chapter 1713, years after Ishmael is born, 13 years, God

changes Abraham's name to Abraham.

Abraham means exalted father. Abraham means father of a

multitude and Sarah's name to Sarah, both of which have the

basic meaning of Princess, but the latter probably signifies A

broader, more universal Princess, a mother of nations.

Abraham, what have you encountered?

In chapter 18, God promises Sarah that her womb is going to

be opened and she'll have Abraham's child and his name's

going to be Isaac. And we know her response.

What was her response? You're funny, God, she laughs.

And Isaac's name, What does it mean?

He laughs another sermon. But God always gets the last

laugh. By the way, this is a high point

in the journey in chapter 18 when God asks Abraham, Hey

Abraham, is anything too difficult for the Lord?

Abraham, what have you encountered?

Abraham, have you encountered anything too difficult for your

God? In chapter 18, also verses 17 to

19, we hear of God's secret deliberation within Himself, the

Holy Trinity, about whether to reveal to Abraham his impending

judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. This is what it says, the Lord

said. Shall I hide from Abraham what

I'm about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and

mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be

blessed. For I have chosen him so that he

may command his children and his household after him, to keep the

way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so

that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about

him. Well, God does tell Abraham

about his judgement, and he reminds him that he's his

prophet. And Abraham intercedes for the

cities. Throughout all of this, God

continually over and over and over again blesses Abraham.

He blesses his house. He gives him possessions.

He gives him servants, He gives him men, He gives him wealth.

Yes, it's been a long time, around 25 years, since that

original promise. We've not arrived to the

fulfillment of the promise, but all that Abraham has seen and

encountered is God's faithfulness.

That's it. Throughout all of this, what

have you encountered, Abraham, that you have done this thing?

What have you seen that you have done this?

After reflecting on all that God has taken Abraham through, we

may not have much compassion for Abraham and this second lie in

chapter 20, but we haven't let him respond yet.

So look again at verse 11. I'll give you a hint.

What he says in verses 11 to 13 doesn't help.

Rather than looking inward, he actually puts a charge against

the king and his Kingdom. His first problem in verse 11 is

Abraham said, because I thought his first problem is what he

thought. Sure, yes, you're in my first

problem too, Kyle Smith. That's your first problem in

situations. I only pick on you because Danny

Hobbs sat right there and I just wanted to keep it right there.

You know, he sat right there in the first service.

That's our first problem. His thoughts are his own.

They don't reflect the reality of what has happened.

And in these thoughts, he assumed, incorrectly that the

king and his Kingdom have No Fear of God and he would have

him killed. Are you catching the irony here?

Abraham's fear that the men of Gerard don't fear God actually

evidences his own lack of fear of God, and that he doesn't

trust God. I'll say that again because some

of you are still asleep. Abraham's fear that the men of

Gerard don't fear God evidences his own lack of fear of God and

that he doesn't trust God. In verse 12, it sounds like

Abraham's trying to argue on a technicality, A loophole.

After all, they share a father and hence she is his half

sister. Now, there's a longer discussion

about whether Mosaic law and later Jewish tradition and

writings actually allowed this. But regardless of that, what's

clear is that Abraham is attempting to absolve himself of

guilt, and his words reveal that he's right in his own eyes

before Abimelech. Now in verse 13, look at it.

I have to be honest, I'm not even sure.

I'm not even sure how to take this third excuse that Abraham

gives. He seems to be saying, this has

been my modus operandi for a long time.

Look, Abimelech, I didn't simply just decide to do this when I

got to Garrar, which actually is not true because he's already

said he greatly, he feared that they didn't fear God.

He thought that they assumed that they didn't fear God.

But anyway, Abimelech, I didn't simply just decide to do this

when I got to Garrar. This is a scheme that we decided

way long ago. A long time ago, we decided

this. Don't you understand?

I told Sarah to do this. I lied now to you because that

was our plan from long ago. Would any of you accept that

from your children, mom and dad? You don't understand.

I didn't just decide to lie to you me and sis I3 days ago we

came together and decided to lie to you and that was just best.

It's been the way we've operated the whole time.

You know in verses 14 to and following we see Abimelech's

response to God and his command back in verse 7 to restore Sarah

to Abraham. Remember back in verse 7 says

God gives him the choice and not only does Abimelech restore

Sarah to her husband, he offers sheep and oxen and servants to

Abraham. Further, he offers land to

Abraham whatever land he chooses in the Kingdom, something

Pharaoh didn't offer back in chapter 12.

Abimelech also tells Sarah in verse 16 that he's given 1000

pieces of silver to Abraham to vindicate her or cover any

offense and clear of her of any guilt or culpability.

Interestingly, he says he has given it to her brother, and I

don't know if that's a final jab at the scheme or it's a sign of

partial acceptance of Abraham's somewhat bad excuses of his his

defense. But regardless, Abimelech's

response is clearly one driven by fear of Israel's God and a

desire to honor this prophet of God and his wife.

And then finally, in verses 17 to 18, Abraham intercedes on

behalf of Abimelech and his wife and his maids, and they bore

children. And these verses again recall

back to verse 7 that restoration is going to happen through this

prophet. The irony of the story is that

Abraham's actions bring about both the curse and the blessing

for the Philistine curse for obtaining Sarah, resulting in a

barren household, and blessing by Abraham's intercessory prayer

for Abimelech resulting in the healing of the women in the

King's household. The implication is that the

King's family will multiply greatly.

The preservation of Sarah and the blessing on the families of

Gurar illustrate again the surpassing grace and mercy of

God, and He ensures His promises will come to pass.

Look at one other thing, chapter 21, verse one.

We'll get there in a couple of weeks, but all this sets up

what's going to happen in chapter 21 when what God has

promised to Abraham back in chapter 12 comes to pass.

Verse 1 of chapter 21. Then the Lord took note of Sarah

as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age,

at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. 25 years

of waiting, being tested, failing at times, but growing

into obedience as they experienced God's provision and

faithfulness at every encounter. Don't turn me off at this point

finishing up. But this is where we come back

around to the reality that this is our story.

Church. The Lord is faithful.

He will bring about what He said, what He promised.

It will be according to his time frame, exactly according to his

plan, with no detail left out, nothing that's out of place.

The best of all possible plans to bring himself glory like no

other plan would do, and the best of all possible stands for

His children. You see, He never forgot His

promises to Abraham and Sarah. Things never slipped out of his

hand. He never absconded control.

He never left them. He was there, He was faithful.

He was, He is because He is the same yesterday, today, and

forever. He is the great I am.

He is the God over all creation and He is the same to you and to

me and He always has been. Every step of the journey of

your journey. So wherever you are in your

journey that you thought about earlier in the sermon, and

wherever you are in the journey at this moment, the question

comes to you from the one who called you, from the one who

knows you, from the one who loves you.

And he's carrying out his plan for you.

And he says to you and to me, what have you encountered?

And I would love to be so bold to you to proclaim this morning

that what you and I have encountered at every step in the

journey is the faithfulness of God we've encountered.

What we've encountered is only that which should give us full

confidence that God is working, that His promises are true, that

He's good, that He's faithful to bring about that which He has

called us to. As John and Praise team come up,

I want to give you the opportunity to voice your answer

to this question to God himself. You might do it where you are.

You might come down to the altar.

I don't know. But the question comes to you

and me this morning. What have you encountered from

me? And again, I'd be so bold to

proclaim this morning, God has never been unfaithful to you and

to me. He never has.

What have you encountered? And maybe you need to voice that

answer this morning. And you know the answer from all

of us who are as children, we should come and get on our knees

and answer by saying not like Abraham did and and provide

excuses. No, our answer should be I'm

sorry, Lord, you've only been faithful.

That's it. And I realize that this sermon

has been directed primarily at believers in the room this

morning. But I know that there are people

here, young people, people of all ages, who've never accepted

the initial call to follow God, to come to God through Jesus

Christ, his Son, who he gave. To die on the cross for our sins

in our in our place. He paid the death penalty for us

through his Son Jesus. And I'd encourage you, if you've

never made that decision, do it today.

Don't wait. We don't know how much longer we

have. Do it today.

Don't leave here. I'll be out there.

If you don't feel comfortable coming to me up here, I'll be

out there. But let's do, let's do business

with the Lord answering that question.

What have you encountered from God?

What have you encountered?