Promise Keeper

Good morning. Wasn't that a great video?

I mean, Tiffany said all that fun, fun, fun. It looked a little bit like torment,

torment, torment with ice baths. Woo, it's intense.

And the stories are just a tiny portion of what's in their heart and mind still and what they share.

Thank you again. Let me double down on the thank you of supporting camp and

being involved with it in all the different ways that are needed, so thanks.

We're gonna be in Genesis chapter 12 in just a few minutes, where our main focus

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

is going to be on keeping a promise.

You can see that in today's title, Promise Keeper.

But I want to start with us on the playground.

Well, at least mentally in our minds, let's start there. Remember the slides

and the swings and the seesaws?

It's there on the playgrounds in those early years where pinky promises begin to get made.

It's there where the overly confident promises come with cross my heart,

hope to die, stick a, you guys have said that kind of stuff on the playgrounds there.

Like maybe adults, we should consider putting that kind of language in our paper

contracts promises that we do today.

That might change some things hope to die and it's on the playgrounds that promises

are made with fingers crossed behind our back signaling I have no intentions

of keeping this promise I do not mean it.

As the years go by, playgrounds are replaced with conference rooms,

kitchen tables, weddings, and the promises keep coming.

Some of them kept, some of them not.

Trusting a promise becomes a harder and harder thing to do as life goes by.

Look at the musicians. They sing song after song of broken promises.

A lot of them somehow make it to the top of hits on the radio.

One in the 80s sings, you make me promises, promises.

Why do I believe? You make me promises, promises you knew you'd never keep.

Country music basically stays in business because of broken promises.

But as the jadedness of broken promise keeps deepening, the idea that a promise

is made to be broken becomes believable and more of the norm.

And by the time one makes the big promise to love, to cherish, whether rich or poor,

healthy or sick, for better or worse, till death do part, but first sign this

prenuptial just in case this promise doesn't work.

Just in case we split, you can't take my stuff.

In our conscious core, we know that promises are meant to be kept,

but that's often not the case.

Now, instead of telling you a depressing story of a promise not kept,

and sadly I could share a lot of those in my own life, I want to tell you a

happy story, a time of a big promise that I did keep seven years ago.

It was not an easy promise to keep. And honestly, if I did not keep this promise,

I do not know what my life would be like other than to say miserable.

If this promise was not kept, without a doubt,

there would be a daily, if not hourly reminder from my kids that I,

dad, made a promise and I did not keep it.

And I promise you I would hear liar, liar, pants on fire.

Seven years ago, when Krista, my youngest daughter, and baby of the family was six,

I, in somewhat of a flippant manner, made her a promise that immediately got

strong backing from the other five kids still living at home.

So the promise went from one little naive girl to now five piranha-like older siblings.

And they were ruthless to me and reminded me of the promise.

You see, up until then, and through eight kids with two now moved out,

the Davisons with children had never had a family dog.

And somehow, the baby of the family was able to get me to make a promise that

by the time she was eight, she would have a pet dog. We would have a pet dog.

Now, I made this promise fully aware that my bride, my wife sitting right over

there, was not 100%, but 1,000% against having a dog.

You talk about a bad promise. This was a stupid promise.

If you were here two weeks ago, you'll understand this. This was a nimrod of a promise.

I was stuck, big time stuck.

She was six when I made the promise. That gave me two plus years to figure it

out, how to keep this promise and still have Sherry love me.

Like you are laughing, but it had its moments, I'm telling you.

We have been like 27 years without a house pet, and now the clock is ticking.

And so, and I said, I gave two plus years because I clearly made known that

the promise was when she was eight.

And technically she is still eight when she's eight and 364 days, that's still eight.

I'm trying to buy time. And I am

happy to report I have a happy life and a happy wife and a promise kept.

Piper has been mostly a fabulous addition to our house.

And the truth be known, Sherry the naysayer and Piper have this really,

really close bond that started on day one when she came home.

Promise kept.

Thank you. And I'm still married. That's amazing.

In our series today, How It Started, part 12 from Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

our attention will continue to follow Abram's life, and we will watch and learn

about him and other people around him.

Most of our time this morning is going to be on a story of his life.

But it's as we finish the story that God, keeping his promise,

comes to the forefront and clearly becomes the most important thing for us to grasp.

Not just grasp, but to value and to cherish for our own lives.

Now, most of you would nod your head in agreement when you hear God is a promise

keeper. We just sang a great song about it.

God is a promise keeper, right? Most of you would agree that.

Yeah, I believe that. I know that.

However, in this story before us today, the circumstances of God keeping his

promise might come as a surprise to you.

So let's pick up from last week when God calls Abram, the Lord told him to move

away to a new place, move away from your father and other relatives,

and Abram does as God asked.

While God was telling him to move, he was also making some momentous,

life-changing promises to Abram as well.

Here it is on a slide. I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who treat you with contempt.

And all the peoples, all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you,

including us today, thousands of years later.

What incredible promises from God to Abram.

And once Abram reached the land of Canaan, God told him, this is it.

This is the land that I'm going to give you and your offspring.

And in response, Abram builds an altar and worships God.

Now, grab and turn in your Bible or look up on your device or use the screens

here to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Little side note, if you didn't catch, first, grab your Bible or second,

turn in your device or third,

use the screens behind me that was intended to be a subliminal message.

Like the kind that they do when you go to the movies or buy your Pepsi and popcorn

before the movie starts.

Having your Bible is best. A device with the Bible on it is still really,

really good. And screens are helpful and okay.

And I will say, if you do not have a Bible, if you need a Bible,

in the coffee corners, there are free Bibles.

Like coming to church, there are great deals. Get one of those.

Genesis 12, starting at verse 10.

There was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for

a while because the famine in the land was severe.

Abram is called by God, given promises from God, but he is not exempt from the hard things of life.

Maybe someone needs to hear that today because no sooner is Abram given a promise,

this is your land, than in the very next scene that we come to this morning,

the land is in a famine and he is leaving the promised land for Egypt.

Now, what the author Moses rarely, if ever does, is comment on whether an action

like this, like Abram leaving Canaan and moving to Egypt because of the famine,

is that a good move or a bad move?

Like, it'd be nice to have that comment right there.

It would be nice if we had something like a Willy Wonka gold egg tester.

Are you familiar with that? in the movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,

Wonka has these special, he's got these special flock of geese.

And every time a goose lays an egg, that golden egg rolls down the track,

lands on this soft pillow, and then a machine will determine if it's a good

egg and they keep it for distribution or it's a bad egg and down to the furnace

it goes to get destroyed.

It would be nice to have something like that when we come to these verses that

leave it up to us to determine, is this a good move or a bad thing?

Good, bad, I don't know. There's a famine in the land.

Moving his family to Egypt for food and survival sounds like a good decision.

However, by doing so, he's leaving a land God promised to give him and leaving

a land that God promised would supply all of his needs and his family needs

and the coming Abrahamic nation's needs. So why pack up and leave?

So we are left to fill in the blank if this is a good move or a bad move on Abram's part.

What Abram does next though, does not require a Wonka egg tester to know if

it is good or bad move. Look at verses 11 and 12.

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

look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you,

they will say, this is his wife.

They will kill me, but let you live.

Now, no doubt this is a stressful situation from Abram, but sometimes we come

to some verses and there's just a little bit of fun in them. And this is such a verse.

For those of you who hope to be married men one day, keep this in your pocket.

For those of you who are married in the crowd, how many of you guys,

you married guys, can relate to Abram in that every day you live in danger because

of the beauty of your wife?

Yeah, yes, sir, right? Guys.

If danger is brought on my life by being married to a beautiful woman, my life is in danger.

So guys, if you can relate to Abram and me, later today, if the two of you don't

have a plan in place, the two of you need to work out a plan to ensure your

safety because of her beauty.

Get a plan.

Just don't use Abram's plan because it stinks.

Abram's wife is apparently knockout gorgeous and Abram's plan is verse 13.

Please say you're my sister so that it will go well for me because of you and

my life will be spared on your account." Oh, wow, that's right.

Technically, Sarah is his half-sister. If you don't know, Abram and Sarai had

the same father, but a different mother.

Technically, Sarah is his half-sister. So technically, he is half-right.

But as the saying goes.

Do you know it? A half truth is a whole lie.

Because the motive behind the truth intends to mislead and be deceptive.

And that's exactly Abram's plan.

He figures telling the Egyptians that Sarai is his sister has much better odds

of keeping him alive than telling them that she's his wife.

Now, there's a sermon or two here, honesty, lying, integrity,

or leading as a godly husband, but that's for another day.

Don't you wish the next person to speak would be Sarai?

Like, not one word is mentioned from her. What does she think of this plan?

Was it, oh, Abe, you're so sweet, thinking I'm so beautiful,

but yes, yes, we got to keep you, got to keep you a well. We got to keep you alive.

Like you are God's man. He's promised a lot of things to you.

Whatever it takes, even if it's my life.

Was she the martyr rule?

Or was it more of Abram?

Of all the dim-witted ideas you've had, this one takes the cake. This is a rotten idea.

You're always and only thinking about yourself.

I've got a bad feeling about this one, Abe. I don't like it at all.

And she pulls out the woman's intuition card.

If she did, he should have listened. Right, ladies?

So we don't know if she is heels dug in mad or submissively on board with this plan.

Husbands, what would your beautiful wife's position be on Now that would be

a great community group icebreaker question.

Nonetheless, that's his plan. It's a plan that is centered on the wellbeing

and safety of him, regardless the danger it might cause to his wife.

And despite it being a lie.

Sir Walter Scott hits the nail on the head when he says this in his poem.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Well, here's what happened. Verse 14, when Abram entered Egypt,

the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

Abram is right. See, see, Sarah, I told you.

He's spot on right about this first part. The Egyptians, they were like high

school students on the first day of school.

You better believe while everyone is getting their locker put together and checking

out their schedule where they need to be, what's really going on is checking out the girls 101.

Like school is in session.

I've heard this kind of thing was happening this week, even at a local VBS with

middle school students. Like this is a real thing.

And girls, don't gasp at the thought because y'all be doing the same thing as

well, checking out the boys.

I have seen a many first days of school in my life.

And year after year, it never changes. Just like the Egyptians.

The pretty ones are noted and identified. Abram was right.

Perhaps he was not expecting Sarah's beauty to be so potent and so vital that

it leads to what comes next.

Verse 15, Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh.

So the woman was taken to Pharaoh's household.

Oh, the plot thickens. The tangled web gets tanglier.

Might be a word.

You got this? All of the hopeful Egyptians hoping to get their chance to court sister Sarai,

get their hopes snubbed and snuffed out by Pharaoh's specially assigned be on

the lookout for beautiful women officials.

They catch one glimpse of beautiful Sarai and they hightail it,

making a beeline back to Pharaoh's headquarters because of her new beauty.

And just like that, she's married to the guy and added to the harem.

Like it is super doubtful that Pharaoh is this bachelor guy just waiting for

the right lady to come by. No, that is not the case at all.

Pharaoh would have had a lot of wives. He would have had many concubines and

he would have continually be adding to them as the pretty ones were identified.

Now, I have said before in the past, beauty cannot be the only thing to consider

when it comes to a relationship, but something has to get the ball rolling.

Maybe it's worth mentioning, not bad, Sarai, not bad at all.

Turning the head of Pharaohs and all these Egyptians at the age of 65,

very impressive. She's 65.

Abram's 75 at this time. Basically, she is at the halfway point of her life.

She dies at the age of 127. So maybe

that's encouraging for some of you middle-aged ladies. That could be.

Careful.

But really, would Sarah be in this situation if Abram would have told the truth

about Sarah being his wife? And the answer is, we don't know.

But what he did was wrong. If you know the story of King David and Bathsheba,

you know that as a king, he had Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, killed so that he

could have Bathsheba as his wife.

So it wasn't out of the possibility that pharaohs and rulers would have done

something of the same thing.

Did pharaoh sleep with Sarah? Oh, things are getting a little spicy now.

We don't know. It doesn't say.

But one thing we know for certain is that Abram put his wife in a terrible situation

because he was more concerned about his own neck than hers.

Fear has wrecked his faith. And that probably could be another sermon for another day.

Like if you don't know this story was in the Bible and you're thinking, this is crazy.

What kind of husband could do a thing like this? Well, brace yourself because

Abram does the exact same thing in Genesis chapter 20, only a different place and a different guy.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

And apparently this kind of thing runs deep into his DNA genes because the soon

coming son, Isaac, does the same sort of thing with his wife, Rebecca.

That's in Genesis 26. Like you can't make this stuff up.

But perhaps the biggest shock to Abram in all of this comes in verse 16.

He, that's Pharaoh, treated Abram how?

Well, because of her. And Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys,

male and female slaves, and camels. Wow.

Maybe this is like a wedding endowment gift, or maybe it's just a gift of kindness

from Pharaoh to Abram, like saying, thanks, Abram, from bringing your sister into town.

And Abram, an already wealthy man, gets wealthier.

The rich get richer, they say. And in ancient days, acquiring flocks and herds

and getting not only male donkeys, but female donkeys, which were better.

They were more trainable, easier to ride. and then getting male and female servants

and to top it off, camels?

Having camels represented being the elite of the elite of wealthy people.

This would be what separates the wealthy people of today.

Like people who have really nice vehicles, they have a house downtown and a

condo on a beach, good stuff, right?

From those though, who have all of that same stuff, plus a private jet,

a yacht and their own island to sail it to.

This idea here of having and riding on a camel communicated,

I am loaded and richer than you.

You can check out the camels, drivers in the parking lot as we go.

So in this story, we've got a married couple coming to a new town,

lying about who they are.

She gets swept away to be another man's wife while the real husband cleans up

with all kinds of additional wealth given to him by the guy he's deceiving. He's deceiving.

Where is Hollywood and reality TV show?

Genesis 12 has a story for them and a massive twist is still to come.

Look at the first three words of verse 17. But the Lord.

That's the reason for the massive twist. But the Lord.

One of the reasons, a great reason to have your Bible with you on Sunday morning

is because when you come to a phrase like this, it can be highlighted,

underlined, starred, fireworks coming out from it.

Because anytime you come across a phrase like, but the Lord, but God, but Yahweh,

something divine or spectacular or magnificent or miraculous or different or

unexpected or all the above is about to happen.

And here it comes, verse 17 through chapter 13, verse two.

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

So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, what have you done to me?

Why didn't you tell me she was your sister? Why did you say,

why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

Why did you say she's my sister? So that I took her as my wife.

Now, here is your wife, take her and go.

Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him. One probably being don't kill him.

And they sent him away with his wife and all he had.

Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he, his wife, and all he had,

including the things that Pharaoh gave him and the camels.

And Lot was with them.

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

Now we're going to get to the but the Lord twist in a

minute but how did Pharaoh know the plagues

were because Sarai was at his house and

again the answer is we don't know maybe Abram let something slip in a conversation

he had with the Egyptians downtown maybe everyone in Pharaoh's house suffered

the plagues except for Sarai.

That sounds reasonable. Like if everyone in the household breaks out in chickenpox

and there's Sarai standing with a pretty beautiful face, like Pharaoh could

have probably put that together two and two of, oh, and we don't know the kind of plagues.

Like I just used chickenpox as an example, but how ironic that here it is just

a small sampling of the big plagues that are still to come for Egypt in the book of Exodus,

with Moses, the guy writing this story.

Actually, this story has lots of strong similarities to both the Garden of Eden

way in the past and still to come in the exodus of the Jews leaving as slaves from Egypt.

I will say personally, I am captivated by the parallels when the Bible does this kind of thing.

They are not only neat, they are also not accidental.

Like there is too much similarity for it to be coincidence. so much so that

I wanted to make a chart for you.

I don't want to take a long time, but I want you to see this existing part that

we have. Is that a chart? Yes, right here.

So in both of these stories of Eden and in Egypt, both are tempted by food.

In the Eden, it looked good. In Egypt, there was a lack of it.

Both have poor husband leadership.

Both fell with deception. In the garden, it was the serpent to the couple.

But now in Egypt, it's the couple deceives Pharaoh.

Both of them, the ruler, ask questions once they get found out.

God, what have you done, Adam? Pharaoh, why have you done this, Abram?

Both have man's lousy excuse being about his wife.

Adam, God, the wife you gave me. She made me eat it. Abram, God,

you made her too beautiful. I just had a lie.

And then it just keeps going on here. They both result in being sent out.

And we're gonna see this, we saw

in the Garden of Eden, that the very next story there was Cain and Abel.

And here we're gonna see next week, God willing, that there's gonna be a problem

between Lot and Abram, all because of this.

If a person sees this story and thinks, maybe it does pay off in the end to lie and deceive.

And a person concludes that the end justifies the mean, that person will ultimately

be negatively impacted by the story.

Because the story doesn't end here. We are just stopping here today.

At this point in the story, it seems as if Abram's lying, deceiving ways end

with him getting safely out of town with more money, with more possessions, more resources,

and his beautiful wife back at his side.

Boy, Abram, what a hustle.

The story isn't over. The next chapter, chapter 13, and then there is a doozy

of a situation in chapter 16.

These are just two of the things that come as costly consequences because of

Abram's deceptive waves here in chapter 12.

Go ahead and read ahead. Read about Hagar, the Egyptian servant who Abram gets pregnant.

Watch the news this week. Connect the dots to this massive consequence that

is a result of Abram's life here, this lie in Genesis 12.

His lie had consequences then. It's having consequences today.

It's going to have consequences in the future.

However, if one looks at this story, where we are at this point,

and you focus in on, but the Lord, here's the twist.

The person can ultimately be positively impacted by this story.

Because now the twist or the shift is taking place.

No longer are we focusing in on the good or bad deeds of people.

No longer are we looking at their morals like they have them or they don't.

No longer are we gonna focus on a rich guy and his wife riding camels.

Like certainly there are applications to get from these,

but but the lord shifts

all the attention all the attention to him god and what he is doing and that's

when a person realizes this story is about understanding and believing no one

and nothing derails the promises of god.

The story is about God keeping his promise to Abram despite a famine and a Pharaoh and Abram himself.

This story is about God blessing Abram despite Abram.

He lies, but the Lord blesses him with materialistic gain.

And that might cause some of us to go, huh?

This story is about God protecting Abram despite Abram.

He lies to a powerful ruler, no less. He could have been killed for a stunt like this.

But the Lord, keeping a promise, gives him safety.

Oh, this story is about God cursing Abram's enemy despite Abram.

Abram is responsible for his wife being shacked up with another man.

But God, but the Lord sends plagues, inflicts plagues. Oh.

God does not keep his promises to Abram because Abram deserves them.

Far, far, far, far, far from it.

Which brings us to us.

God has provided his very own promises to us.

And for a person that might be here, for people who might be thinking right

now, whatever promises God has made to me, that ship has sailed.

Like my life is too messy, too messed up, too much baggage.

Those promises are long gone by now. No, that's not the lesson that you learn from this story.

The lesson you learn from this story is you are just like Abram and you need

your own, but the Lord moment.

Matter of fact, every one of us is like Abram.

No one deserves these promises. We all need the, but the Lord, but God promises. Yes.

And so I wanna end us with looking at some of that. Look at this,

salvation comes through the but God promises, Romans 5, 8.

But God proves his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Peace and joy in the midst of health problems. Health problems,

y'all, come through the but God promises.

Psalm 73, 26, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is my strength and my

heart and my portion forever.

Faith, your faith over fear, anxiety, and unknown circumstances comes through the but God promises.

2 Chronicles 20, 15, do not be afraid.

Do not be dismayed for the battle is not yours, but God's.

Let the promises of but the Lord and but God impact your life for salvation

and everything else that is happening because no one and nothing can derail his promises.

God is way maker, promise keeper. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

This story is, I use the word crazy.

It is crazy to me to think that such a thing like this happens and it just shows

really how pitiful people, us,

mankind is and how depraved we do things and how shallow our faith can be,

when we try to take things into our own hands.

And so I would ask, Father, that as we spent this time together,

that you would do what you need to do with each and every one of us.

That as you reveal the truth.

That it would show,

the weaknesses that we have, the sin that we have, the failed promises that we have.

And in a greater and bigger and stronger and better light, show that you have

no weaknesses, you have no sin, and you keep all of your promises all of the time.

And when we are faced between believing a lie and believing your promise,

that by the strength of the Holy Spirit, we will put our trust and our faith in you and the promise.

When circumstances look so bad.

Daniel alluded to some of those this morning, the things that are happening

in Texas, the wars that are happening across the world, when things look hopeless,

at the lowest, darkest points of life,

give us the promises of your word that we would cling to them,

that we would taste your word and see that it is good,

and trust you with every detail of our life and most importantly,

the salvation that we need.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

From 1 John chapter two, verse 25, and this is the promise that he himself made

to us, eternal life. That's good news.