Genesis - Part 38 | Pastor Paul McGee

I'm together. Hallelujah.

Amen. Do you still have times in your

life that you're filled with wonder concerning the Lord?

I don't want that aspect. I don't want that wonder to ever

leave me. Right?

Don't want to get calloused. So familiar that I'm no longer

all inspired by the Lord and His ability or even just what He's

done for me personally. Very easy sometimes to get

callous, just get in the mode of routine and and forget really

the sacrifice that was made. The hope that I would not have

had it not been. Amen for Him.

We stand where we are today only because of him and I still that

want that to strike me with wonder with all Amen of what God

has done Hallelujah. Just a few things tonight

concerning announcement wise Bishop and sister McGee ministry

appreciation is taking place the 17th through the 23rd of this

month. If you have any questions

concerning that, you can see Brother Reese Singer or Sister

Jennifer Cruise. All right, Either one of them

can help and direct you. Also, the 22nd and the 23rd of

this month, that's a Friday and a Saturday, is the Indiana

District Women's Esprit Conference.

And so if you're going, you probably already know you are

all right and you have a room and all that.

And Sister McGee, we'll begin with you about leaving time and

things of that nature as that approaches.

Also the 29th and the 30th of this month is a Haven Haven

Music Conference in Henderson, KY Haven across the church.

Brother Doctor Mason will be speaking on that Friday night.

And on Saturday, I think there's a, some of a feature of the

first absolute Church praise team that's going to be there as

well. If you have any questions, you

can see any of the Masons that I'm sure they can give you

further information. And then on the 31st of this

month is our fifth Sunday. Our guest speaker this month is

going to be Pastor Anthony Wilkes and his wife Lisa, a man

from VB Indiana going to come over and minister the word of

the Lord on that Sunday morning. Amen.

Let's turn to the book of Genesis chapter 20.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter #20 I'm, I'm going to probably read the first

8 verses and then I'll allow you to be seated.

All right. And then I'll continue reading

the rest of it because it's kind of just the story within itself.

It's a story within the story. The Bible has a lot of those

stories within the stories. It's a story within a greater

story of Genesis, which Genesis is a part of a greater story

called the Bible. It's amazing how Scripture works

like that. That's the reason why you can't

just pluck 1 solitary verse out of scripture because that verse

is a part of a story that's a part of a bigger story.

It's part of a grander story concerning the host Scripture.

In reality, you can take the Bible and pour it through any

verse, which is amazing. Amen Genesis chapter #20 I'm

going to read the first the first 8 verses the Bible says in

the Abraham and I know in case anybody lifts their hand like I

know school starts tomorrow, right?

This reason why we start like this is 830.

We try to get out by and I think we usually do it.

Amen. And Abraham journeyed from

thence toward the S country, and dwell between K dish and sure,

and sojourned. And Garrar and Abraham said of

Sarah, his wife. She is my sister.

If this starts to sound familiar, it's probably because

we've read something similar to this chapters back.

And Abimelech king of Garrar, sent and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him,

Behold, thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou has

taken, for she is a man's wife. And Abimelech had not come near

her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou

slay also a righteous nation, said he not To me she is my

sister, and she, even she herself, said, He is my brother.

In the integrity of my heart and innocence, in an innocency of my

hands, have I done this. And God said unto him in a

dream, Yeah, I know that thou didest this in the integrity of

thy heart. For I also withheld thee from

sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to

touch her. Now therefore restore the man

his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and

thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not,

know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.

Therefore, Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his

servants and told all these things in their ears, and the

men were so afraid. I'll pray, I'll let you be seen,

and I'll continue reading. I want to talk tonight about

God's faithfulness despite us. God's faithfulness despite us.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Jesus.

Another night, God, another time will become the center our lives

around your word. God, let your words speak to us.

God, we know it's relevant. God is the words of life, God,

and even speaks of you. Help us the Lord tonight.

Open our understanding to it. We'll give you the praise and

thanks for it in Jesus name. You may be seated.

I'm continuing with verse 9. All right, The Bible says.

Then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What has thou

done to us, and what have I offended thee, that thou has

brought on me and on my Kingdom a great sin that must have done

deeds and to me that ought not be done?

And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What solace thou that thou has

done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I

thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they

will slay me for my wife's sake. And yet indeed she is my sister.

She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of

my mother. And she became my wife.

And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my

father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which

thou shalt shew unto me at every place, whether we shall come

save me. He is my brother.

And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, the men servants and women

servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored him Sarah

his wife. And Abimelech said, Behold, my

land is before thee, dwell where it pleaseth thee.

And the Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brethren 1000

pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee a covering

of the eyes, and to all that are with thee, and with all other.

Thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God, and

God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maid servants, and

they bear children. For the Lord had fast closed up

all the wombs of the House of Abimelech because of Sarah,

Abraham's wife. Again, I want to talk about

God's faithfulness despite us for a little bit tonight.

I want to kind of take the overview, the bird's eye view of

this chapter, and maybe we'll get more down into maybe the

minor details, but just an overview tonight, if you will.

And I think it's important to note that as we go through the

book of Genesis, or as we have been through it thus far, that

not every year of Abraham's life is accounted for, right?

We don't have a story or a reckoning of every year of

Abraham's life in the Bible, but there are parts that are shared

with us, and that would be the same with almost any character

of the Bible. It's not like we have a daily

journal of their life, right? So certain information is given

to us and if it is, we got to ask ourselves the question why

the God deemed that this portion of this individual's life, why

was that shared with us all right?

What was their purpose? What was their importance in

this? And so when we look at chapter

20, evidently it's important for some reason that God would share

this aspect of Abraham's life with us.

And it's nestled between two chapters.

We've already been studying for the past several weeks.

We had studied a lot and everything that happened with

with Sodom and Gomorrah and this destruction and he and his

daughters in The Cave, all these things which seem to be at all

time low. The whole lot saga, right?

And then the next chapter, we're going to look at something we've

been waiting on for quite some time in the story of Abraham,

and that's the birth of the promised child.

We've had Ishmael being born that came from Hagar and

Abraham. But now that union finally

between he and his wife Sarah is going to produce a child.

And so that's a very high mark. So we have chapter 20 that's

between these these two and it's really what we see in chapter

20. There are some reflections there

and I'll point them out to you. But there are some reflections

there on Sodom and Gomorrah and that host situation that I think

influence chapter 20 somewhat. But there is also the story of

Abraham, who we said from the very beginning, the moment that

he left error of child DS and his family, his father, his

native country, that he's been on a journey of growth

spiritually, right? He's left a place who's his

father was a Pagan worshipper. He has left that and has turned

his devotion and attention to the one true Lord.

And so he's been on a trajectory of growth.

But as we've already seen in his life, you can be on a trajectory

of growth and still have doubts that arise in your life.

You can be on the trajectory of growth and still be imperfect.

And I believe that's what's highlighted it for one aspect

here in Genesis chapter #20 we are watching an ongoing process

of the imperfect spiritual growth pattern for Abraham.

Just because on one hand he prays and intercedes for over a

city doesn't mean that his life from that point on is going to

be without mistake or without flaw.

And I think anybody here can testify and look over your life

from the moment you come to the Lord and say it's not been

flawless or without mistake. All right.

And so this event that takes place in Genesis chapter #20

it's similar to something that we've already studied.

Some of it may sound very familiar.

It's similar to Genesis chapter #12 when Abraham went down into

Egypt because of famine. And it was there to Pharaoh that

he said, this woman is my sister, which there's some truth

to that because like his half sister.

But the real relationship that he had at that moment was that's

my wife. But he said the same thing

whenever he went down into Egypt.

But that was about 25 years ago. It's about 25 years ago.

This is like about 25 years later then that he's entering

into a similar situation. For that matter, we may have

called that deception then. And he's early in his experience

of growth of God. But even 25 years after growing

a little bit more in God, he's making a similar mistake.

I don't know if anybody can resonate with Abraham right

here. Have you ever made a mistake

again? There might have been years

between them, but you did it again.

And so this is where we find our dear character, Abraham.

And there's a lot of things that have changed in that 25 years

because in in Genesis chapter #12 we learn that Abraham is

going to be the father of a great nation.

The whole details about that are not there.

It's a very general going to be a father of a great nation.

As time goes on through Scripture, we have seen it.

It's got more defined. If we've been told they have

learned, both Abraham and Sarah have learned that this, in order

to have a great nation, you're going to have to have a child,

but Sarah's been barren, unable to have children.

Thus the Haggar, Abraham, Ishmael thing, all right.

But through the process of time, we've learned, Sarah has

learned, Abraham has learned more specifically that they

would have a son. They've even learned that his

name should be called Isaac. Matter of fact, just recently in

chapter #18 they have learned that according to the time of

life, it's been spoken to them that according to the time of

life, that God the angelic was going to return and she's going

to have a child's. So Isaac is basically on

schedule on the calendar. It's not just some generality.

Now we have all of these details of what's going to happen, how

his name's going to be something be called, he's going to be his

son, and it's going to happen within about nine months or so

of time from the moment that they had spoke to them.

Nonetheless, the Bible says that Abraham resorted to Gerard and

this is a geographic location that what will become a place

where the Philistines usually inhabit.

And as he comes to this place, he claims one more time Sarah is

my sister. As he's entering to the

situation both times, Abraham is trying to preserve himself.

He's got some doubts. He's trying to preserve himself

in Genesis 12 and 12 and they don't have that.

There's just a reference. But in Genesis 12 and 1225 years

ago, his reasoning, he said they will kill me.

Whenever he went down in Egypt, he said they will kill me, but

they will save thee alive. They're going to kill me, but

they're going to save Sarah alive.

That's what his plea was. Now in Genesis 2011, he says

they will slay me for my wife's sake.

So both times it's self preservation.

He's trying to protect himself. Now let's let's remember who

we're talking about. Your folks father Abraham, huh?

The one that Romans 411 says calls Abraham the father of all

who believe New Testament Scripture.

Galatians 39 calls him this man, the man of faith.

So many times people ascribe it's faithful father Abraham,

and we even have scriptural precedence.

This is the guy that we're talking about.

But what that proves to us that even a man of faith can have

doubts. Again, I've told you before,

there's a vast difference between doubt and unbelief.

Doubts, people are just kind of in a struggle.

Unbelief is just absolute. I do not believe doubt is a

struggling spot. But he doesn't just have it

once, but he has it twice and even more than that.

Look at this, Genesis 2013. We read over it, but you might

not have catch it, caught it. He says when God calls me to

wander from my father's house, He's talking to Abimelech.

Whenever I started this journey from her child ease, he says, I

said into her or into Sarah, This is thy kindness which thou

shew unto me at every place. If I say every at every place,

whether we shall come say of me, he is my brother.

So we have the episode in chapter 12 and in chapter #20.

But evidently the other places that they went, he said she's my

sister. She said he's my brother.

Self preservation. Ultimately it was for Abraham.

He's been doing this all along the journey since he left his

father's house. And it seems to have worked for

them. I mean, they've survived.

Here they are. It seems to work for them.

But let's not forget, even back in Genesis 12 when he did it in

Egypt, remember what his saving grace was there?

The Bible says that he plagued the House of Pharaoh and his

household and Pharaoh then released Sarah, his wife, and

told them to get up out of Egypt.

And so although it may seem like man, this has been working, we

got to see the the underneath side of this that also God has

been at work. Let's pause for a moment and

think that sometimes when we think that things have happened

by our own efforts and by our own devising, that there's

another often unseen side to it where God's been doing the work,

safeguarding, protecting, directing, correcting many

things in our life. Amen.

So Pharaoh, here's the thing. Pharaoh back in Genesis 12 could

have made Sarah one of his wives.

He could have abimelech in our story.

He may have very well have done the same.

And while that may seem insignificant, this is still the

birds that overfly here. OK, while that's may seem

insignificant, it matters whenever you consider we are on

the cusp of having the promised child born in about nine months

of time. Why is that important?

Is everybody OK? I got to do just a little review

for us to remember. If you'll remember, in Genesis

18, whenever the angels have come and the Lord has come and

Abraham starts going through all these modes of hospitality and

Sarah's making bread, and she made an exorbitant amount.

And we see later though she wasn't there to serve, but then

we hear the story of those angels asking Abraham.

The Lord says, where is Sarah? And he says in the tent, You'll

remember back that lesson. I know it's been a little while

ago, but that wording, that phraseology in the tent in that

day was a euphemism or was another way of saying that it

was that time of the month, which was peculiar because she

is a old post menopausal woman. But God had a promise that he

was bringing down the dusty Rd. It's in this moment that they're

going to talk about how a year from this time or, or according

to the time of life, we're going to come and visit the sun.

The amazing thing about this is what was happening inside of

Sarah. Her womb was being rejuvenated

for the purpose of being able to have a pregnancy.

She was starting to have something that biologically she

shouldn't have been having because she was past that time,

but God was. That's a reason why she has her

laughter and amusement over what's being said.

Not just the fact that she's old, but she knows what's taking

place right now in the tent. She's starting.

Her womb is be rejuvenated. It's being prepared for the

possibility of reproduction. But with all of that being said,

of all that being said, understand the significance of

her being taken by Abimelech right here in chapter 20.

Think what would happen if Abimelech did have sexual

relations with her. Then the seed that would come in

the next chapter would be under suspicion whether that was

Abraham's or that was Abimelechs and being they had never

children between themselves to begin with.

It would be slanted toward that was Abimelech.

Folks, that doesn't just taint the promised seed, but that

taints the seed of everything passed there all the way to the

line of Christ Jesus. It looks like this whole

unraveling of things, you know comes about with with Abraham

making some poor decisions, right?

Because Abraham's actions could have jeopardized the promise.

But what did God do? On the flip side, he speaks to

Abimelech in the dream and says that is another man's wife.

That's just not just some common that's not his sister and he

safeguards if you will, the promise God even says in verse

number six he told Abimelech in the dream for I also withheld

thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to

touch her, which is just another word of talking about sexual

relations. I I suffered you not to do that

because I don't need this child being under suspicion about

whose child it is. This is the promise.

See the one through which is going to come the.

Promise of you becoming a great nation.

This is the one. So what has God done?

God has guarded his covenant promise with Abraham.

He has guarded his covenant promise.

I said all that to say this, ladies and gentlemen, we can be

of the strongest believer sometimes and even revert to old

patterns of fear and inconsistency and try to self

preserve. A lot of times it happens when

we're under pressure. You ever noticed that

temptation? That's when you're under

pressure, failing and falling. It's when you're under pressure,

right? But Abraham had decades of

walking with God experience at this point.

Yet when he was under pressure again, he falls back on a human

strategy. And it nearly compromised the

promise for their lives. So that tells me, and this isn't

and this is, this is substantiated in Scripture, but

that tells me that spiritual maturity does not eliminate us

from being vulnerable. That's why New Testament tells

us, when you think ye stand, take heed lest ye fall, right?

That's the Scripture. But the encouraging truth that I

received from this is this is that God's purposes are not

always at the mercy of our failures.

What's that mean that while we can make decisions and sometimes

it, it causes the plans of God to be at risk from our

perspective and from our viewpoint, God concerning his

covenant faithfulness in Scripture and even in our lives.

Amen. God ensures that his promises

that he's made, they will come to pass because grace, the grace

of God, grace of God, doesn't just work in tandem with our

obedience, but it also sometimes works around our disobedience in

order to keep the integrity of the plan that God had in place.

Now that's the overview. Let's meander through some

details. When we look at verse #1 here's

Abraham previously, because he's left somewhere.

The Bible says he journeyed from thence.

He left Main Marine near Hebron. There in Genesis chapter 18,

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

where he had been, where he had his altar built, he travels

South and he goes to this region.

The Bible says says that he dwelt between Tadish and Surer

and he sojourned. He sojourned to Gerar.

So understand, we've seen this Abraham, he has flocks, he has

herds, he has livestock. He's a nomadic man.

He's going from place to place for grass and for the feeding of

his flock. And so it makes sense that he

would settle in the area Abbey that is just like a generality

area between K dish and between shur because he's going to take

his flock from place to place. You don't want them to over

graze just one single area, and so he's going to take them and

try to avoid that. But the Scripture tells us here

concerning the word of the Lord, that he even took them unto and

went unto Gerard. Someone say Gerard, he took them

unto Gerard. And Gerard is where he went to

sojourn. And this is very similar to his

trip to Egypt, because in Genesis 12 and verse 10, the

Bible says that Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn

there. And now he comes and sojourns.

And Gerard, as a matter of fact, the classic amplified Bible says

it like this. He lived temporarily in Gerard,

and that's what a sojourning should be, a visit, a temporary

stay. But he's currently the dwelling

between Kadesh and Shur, and where he is, the dwelling is

almost a picture of his life in essence, spiritually at this

moment, Kadesh means holy sacred sanctuary, sure.

On the other hand, means wall or barrier.

Sure is a desert area that's between Egypt and Canaan.

It's possibly along the north part of Egypt.

There's Egypt, there's Canaan, and there's this desert area in

between as a border or a barrier, which is sure.

And for it would seem like Abraham is between the holy and

the boundary, if you will, the sanctuary in that transitional

border zone that is the next step.

Egypt. He's not forsaking God.

He's not forsaking God, but he's also not walking in the full

bonus that he could be walking with God of faith as the man

that he's been known to be. So in essence, his geographic

location kind of mirrors his spiritual location of where he's

at right now. And Gerard, on the other hand,

is on the fringes of the promised land fringes again.

It's on the border, if you will. It's in that desert region.

And for fear's sake, Abraham has claimed Sarah as his sister

rather than his wife to the king of Gerard, which is Abimelech.

Because fear. Here's what fear I know happens.

Even in my own life, fear can sometimes come along and it

causes me to pull back and revert to some old defense

mechanisms. Even after deep encounters with

God, fear arises like muscle memory kicks in.

Protect. Protect at all cost sometimes.

So Abimelech takes Sarah, since he's under the impression that

it's not Abraham's wife, it's his sister.

Warren Wearsby said this. He said in that day a king had

the right to take into his harem any single woman who pleased

him. So without again, without there

being any children between Abraham and Sarah that no doubt

just concreted the fact that this is a eligible woman to be

taken. It seems believable that this is

only his sister. Now Sarah, here we go.

Sarah's around around 90 years old at this time.

We know, according to chapter 18, that her ability, some

people's already understanding her ability to have children has

already passed. It's a laughable concept. 25

years have expired since Genesis 12 and Genesis 20.

All right, Now, Pharaoh, he may have wanted Sarah in order to

add to his wives to have children in offspring.

What about her dear old boy Abimelech here?

What about Abimelech? Well, it was common.

It was common for people to take wives of other people for the

purpose of making alliances with those people.

You have that author out Scripture.

David did it a lot, Solomon did it a lot.

They married certain ones strategically so that they would

have an alliance with another nation or with another country.

And so here is Abimelech considering this woman who is

supposed to be the sister of Abraham, and he may have been

looking at an alliance with a nation different from him.

Nonetheless, the Bible tells us that God intervenes and he

protects his people. And here's the thing, God didn't

just protect his people from others.

And this is what I'm thankful for.

The Lord, the Lord sometimes also protects us from us.

Amen. Sometimes I am the enemy to

myself. So God revealed to Amalek, yes,

in a dream Sarah is a man's wife, he said, But thou art in

verse 3, but thou, thou art a dead man.

She is a man's wife. And yet the Bible tells us

Abimelech did not come near Sarah.

And whenever I talking about some reflections back on Lot and

Sodom Gomara, this is one of the things I'm talking about right

here because Abimelech said into the Lord, Lord, wilt thou slay

also a righteous nation. Remember what's just happened

God, if there's 10 righteous will you spare Sodom Gomorrah, a

wicked sinful city mentioned specifically stated as such in

Scripture and so Abem is like I've ignorantly done what I've

done. Will you destroy our whole

righteous nation over my ignorant deed that I've done See

everybody's remembering that that has not just happened too

far long ago to Sodom tomorrow and everything that shut down

there. He's saying is, is this going to

be the case here with me? And so Abimelech starts to

defend himself and and his defendant.

He says Abraham said it and Beau Sarah said it, that they were

brother and sister. And he begins to claim, hey, I

didn't know integrity. He said of of of my heart, the

innocence of my hands. I didn't do it.

And it's quite interesting to me that he states that the

integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, because

here is an outsider, someone that is a non Israelite and he

equates being faultless with a complete picture of holiness.

It was the psalmist David that said in Psalms 24 you can read

it, he says who shall ascend into the heal of the Lord and

who shall stand in his holy place.

This is just what it triggers in my heart as I read over it this

week. He that hath clean hands

exterior and pure heart interior, who have not lifted up

his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully.

It blows me on the water. He's an outsider, but he's doing

his defense that he's not at fault and he equates it with

both inward and outward purity. I'm just saying if that's the

case, what should that bespeak to us and how we live our life,

even how those who are not of our faith see us live and

interpret our lives. So God's still speaking to

Abimelech. All this has taken place in the

dream of him speaking to Abimelech in verse 6.

And God tells him, I know your integrity.

I know your integrity, He says, but I've withheld you from

sinning. Here it is folks.

It's both sides of the coin. We got to look.

I know your integrity, but there's a God factor in there

too. I kept you from sinning.

I kept you from touching her. I kept you from having any type

of relations with her. Again, a horrible suspicion

would have been cast had it happen.

And in that sense, notice verse #6 God even tells him,

Abimelech, had you followed through with all this, you would

have sinned against me. God, you would have sinned

against me. I'm telling you today, we need

to be thankful as a church family and individually of the

times that God has proactively blocked our actions that might

have caused us to stumble. Because I'm convinced in my life

and even scripturally convinced that there are times unaware to

me that God has kept me. God has kept me.

The thing is, it's not everything that we do or could

do is necessarily wrong, but there's some things that we can

do that can lead to sin. It's not just that everything

that you participate in, everything you touch, No, it's

not that it's all wrong. It's what can it lead you to?

What can it lead you to? And so God's protection,

sometimes, many times in unexpected ways, he's not only

shielding us from some outside harm, but again, he's shielding

us from our own poor decisions and the places that we put

ourselves. So Abraham has this oat pattern.

Yes, there's fear there, self preservation, all of that, all

of that is there. He has some potential to put the

promise in jeopardy. But God steps in.

He preserves both Sarah's purity and the credibility then that

that son that was born has come from Abraham and Sarah.

No doubts whatsoever. I think about another Scripture

when I'm thinking about how God has come alongside and helped

and aided and kept us from things at times, the psalmist

said in Psalms 19 and verse 12, he said who can understand his

errors? He says cleanse thou me from

secret faults. It seems even lately that

somehow I had a conversation with someone who's escaping me

right now. But tell me about, you know,

there are days that you just don't even know necessarily the

wrongs that you may have done in a day right to be able to just

emphatically stay XYZ and confess those particular things.

But this, this is a good good line of thought and and pattern

to follow. The psalmist is even saying

Lord, cleanse me, cleanse me from even my secret thoughts

that could even possibly be secretive to him, right.

I didn't know that my tone was misheard and I hurt someone's,

you know, feelings. I didn't know you understand

there's things that happen that cause offenses sometimes that

you don't even realize, but they're still there and still

valid for the one that happened to so cleanse me, thou Lord from

my secret faults. Verse 13, he says keep that thy

servant also from presumptuous sins.

It's those arrogant, proud in your face since he said keep

your servant from those God. I know I got so much willpower,

but I know this thing doesn't work without your power, right?

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great

transgression. So he's as he said, Lord, I need

you just as what's happened here in chapter 20.

I need your intervention in my life.

There are two sides to this coin and we don't always know the

other one has taken place. We just thought we just made we

just swab. Reality is we weren't.

Notice the Bible in verse 7. God tells Abimelech, he says

restore and I think it's not funny, but it's just things that

you catch in Scripture. He said restore Abraham's wife.

He doesn't say restore Abraham's sister.

He says restore Abraham's wife and the way that Abimelech was

going to handle this, you got to understand this is a life or

death situation with Abimelech. That's what God has told him.

This is a life or death situation.

And so Abimelech handles this properly, sister mind, because

he's not like a life and death situation.

I'll get to it next week. The Bible says early the next

morning he's gathering in other people, He's telling them about

the situation and he's going to make matters right.

And the Bible says when he shared it with others, they were

sorely afraid. They're terrified he's going to

make matters right because in one instance, it's just not life

and death for him. The Bible says it is life and

death. If you don't restore Sarah, it's

life and death for all that are thine.

This isn't just going to impact you.

This is impacting those people that are under your tutelage and

under your control. Everybody's going to die.

Amen. And so Abraham, here he is.

He tells God, tells Abimelech, he says this man that you're

dealing with, this is probably like, yes, he's taken aback by

this. He's a prophet.

And I'm going to have him pray for you.

And there's some really hard things to start to contend with

here. I'm in this situation because

that man deceived me. Now you're telling me he's a

prophet. He's going to pray for me.

Well, guess what? Welcome to the real world.

I know everybody and we get it all the time.

I can't believe so and so did that or that one did that.

They're supposed to be a Christian.

I hear it all the time and I understand that, and this is not

an excuse, but this is real. We're also fallible humans and

we're still prone to mistake until Rapture day.

The Bible says judge nothing before it's time.

Abraham, the faithful Abraham, the ones going to pray for this

guy, yet he also the one that deceived him.

Welcome to real life. I wish every day I was high on

the steed, but there's sometimes I'm underneath the steed.

You understand what I'm saying? There's days I get it right and

there's days I get it wrong. Amen.

So here's Abraham, he's not perfect, but what what's God

doing here? He is in this in between place

of K dish and sure right? He's in a teeter totter spot and

he's pulling Abraham back in to the aspect of his calling of

being the intercessor. Just did that over Sodom.

He's in a struggle spot right now.

What's he doing? He's being the gracious God that

he is and trying to redirect him and pull him back.

Pull him back to that place of being an intercessor and he

will, before it's all said and done here, do just that.

Be the intercessor. Amen.

For Abimelech. I'm thankful that God's calling

in our life just I'm talking about everyday life can still

operate sometimes when we've not acted perfectly there.

Mason, have you ever played the piano for service whenever you

might have done something wrong that day?

Wrong attitude. It's called grace.

Any teaching there ever taught a class whenever before you left

that morning for your husband, you had a bad attitude?

It's called grace. Amen.

Let me say like there's a big difference in making something,

making a mistake and making a lifestyle just for

clarification. All right, Just for

clarification, mistake like two different branches of the tree

there. OK, Amen.

But here's Abraham, his deception and danger to

Abimelech, yet God still trying to affirm him, affirm his role

as the intercessor, his sin, his mistake, his deception.

Yeah, it could have hindered everything, but God still trying

to shove his purpose here over on what is it?

God wants Abraham to fall more in love in his with his purpose

then he does his mistake. Abraham had proven just in the

last couple of chapters he interceded for Sodom and he

would do that for Abimelech. The the the contemporary English

version that I'm reading this year.

Use the phrase there out of the verse that says his or Abraham's

prayers. God speaking Abimelech his

Abraham's prayers will save you from death.

This is one of the first occurrences even in Scripture,

because we're just in Genesis, right?

This one, the first occurrence is in Scripture where a wronged

person prayed for the one who wronged them, that there might

be forgiveness, God pleading for God's forgiveness for them.

Abraham's prayer for Abimelech spared Abimelech and those under

him their lives. It restored their household that

you see in the last two verses of this chapter.

We restored their household. And it's a pattern though that

we see echoed all the way in the New Testament over Christ

admonishes us to pray for those that despitefully use you, pray

for your enemies. All those things that we read

of, I believe it is in Matthew chapter #5 he may along with the

Beatitudes and other things. It's found even there.

And so again, though Abraham's deception put Abimelech, put his

Kingdom at a disadvantage. Abimelech even tells him, calls

him on the carpet. He says, Abraham, you should not

have done this. As a matter of fact, I don't

know why you did this. And Abraham goes on.

He says, well, I wasn't, I was concerned that the people of

Gerard didn't fear the Lord. I thought, and this is the case

with Pharaoh and with Abimelech and Abraham's reasoning, if a

man was brother to a lady, then he was looked at somebody they

needed to wine and dine and give gifts to in order to get in good

then with his sister. But if a man was husband to a

lady, he looked like an obstacle that need to be removed in order

to get to the woman. So he was fearful about what

type of people these were didn't know if maybe they would see him

as a obstacle if he said I'm a husband and just want to get his

wife for some type of alliance. Then with the people.

Not only that, think again. Abraham has Sodom fresh on his

mind. I mean, they were a wicked

sorts. They weren't of the children of

Israel. And as we do still yet today,

Brother Trout, sometimes we want to take one situation, what

happened in one situation, and project that on every other

situation that comes down the Pike in our life.

We don't just do it with situations, we do it with

people. They hurt me.

So we go in self preservation mode with anybody else in our

life because we said, well, they're going to hurt me too.

We project 1 episode on other episodes.

We do it with places, we do it with people, we do it with

circumstances. But we cannot approach life like

that. Just because Sodom was corrupt

didn't mean that Gerard was going to be corrupt as well.

But that's what Abraham was assuming.

Amen. Right.

So we got to be careful not just do that.

You know what happens when we do that?

We we miss out on some good relationships, good

relationships, good people and scenarios that would been

helpful to us and we engaged in them and just not thought they

were just like the last episode. Genesis 12 we doing all right.

I'm glad you guys have time up there for me in Genesis 12 when

Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt, Pharaoh house plague of plagues

and before that ever happened, though point proven before that

ever happened before he ever realized that Sarah was

Abraham's wife. You know what he's doing?

Giving camels, masses and donkeys to Abraham.

Why? He thought that was her brother.

He's trying to get in good with him after he finds out.

Get out of Egypt. Don't leave a dust trail behind

you. Go and get out of here.

But when we look in this story, Abimelech, he likewise gives

gifts. But it's not before he

understands Abraham. It's after he understands that

Abraham and Sarah, our husband, wife.

So here's a man that's not trying to get in good.

He's trying to make compensation, reparation for

what had been done, taking this other man's wife into his house.

Hey, Dan. I know he was innocent at the

moment. Even claims, right?

Integrity, purity. I didn't know anything about it,

right? I was deceived, and under this

guise of deception, I did what I did.

But here's the fact of the matter, and this is a Old

Testament principle. You can find the Leviticus for

you can do something ignorantly, but after you learned the truth,

you're still required to make it right.

It is the story of Leviticus. Leviticus talks about that there

were sacrifices made for sins that took place unintentionally

or in ignorance. In other words, they didn't, and

they didn't realize it was sin, but whenever they learned and

came to the knowledge that it was, it was required of them to

go to the temple with the proper sacrifice for it.

Because although they were ignorant to begin with, they're

not now. And so here's Abimelech.

He did it ignorantly, but now he knows the truth of the matter.

So what he doing with his gifts? What is he doing with those

things that he's bringing? He's making right what he has

learned now was wrong. It's a big thing.

It's a hard thing because we want to go on the offense and

say, but I was ignorant. True, but you're not now, you

know what I'm saying? You like me just seeing some car

idly, you know, along the street that live thickly with the keys

in it and it's just probably abandoned and all that.

I just take to my drive. I'm going to take it as my car.

Hallelujah, man. You know, finders keepers,

losers, leapers. Find out a couple days from

then. It's my neighbor's car and they

just happen to leave the keys in and you know, so on and so

forth. Tell them, sorry, I found it was

on our street, it's mine now. Titled it in my name.

And no, I got to make it right because of the knowledge that I

now have. Can I tell you that long on this

Christian journey, when you come to Bible study Sunday morning,

Sunday night, there's going to be more knowledge come to you

from God's Word. And you're going to find

discrepancies in your own life that you didn't see when you

first started this journey. But now that you have the

knowledge, don't keep living the way that you have lived, because

we're held accountable for what we know.

You know, All right, Pharaoh, Abraham, Abraham and Sarah leave

Abimelech booms giving gifts totem whatever part of the land

he's not tell them to go. He said, whatever part of my

land you want to live in, go O forth, do it.

And then the Bible says Abimelech gave Abraham.

This is in verse sixteen 1000 pieces of silver.

He told Sarah, He says I've given, I've given and this is

almost like tongue in cheek. I think it's a little stab.

I take it as a it's kind of funny, he told Sarah.

I've given your brother this money.

Scholar Kent Hughes says 50 pieces or shekels was the most

that would typically be offered for a bribe.

Abimelech gives 20 times that amount, according to scholar

Gordon Weeman. He says the typical even Old

Babylonian labor received a wage of about half a shekel a month.

It's not much. So what we see here is an

Abimelech that's being very gracious and very generous.

But what this also means for us here in the Scripture is what's

being given isn't hush money. It's not a bride price, It's not

a wage for employment, but it's a public vindication for what

has taken place. This large amount indicates that

he is attempting to restore honor to Sarah, whatever injury

that may have been done to her by taking her into his home.

He is trying to restore honor. The Bible says this, and I had

to look at this because it's troubled me, right?

I'm reading all this in verse #16 and the Bible ends up with

the she was reproved. I'm thinking what's the deal?

So I looked up the word reprove there in the scripture and it

means this. The word reprove there means

that she was righted or set right.

What is that exactly what God had asked of him?

Restore her. Don't just give her back to Him,

but make her positionally seem as though there was no injury or

harm that the honor she had before this process.

She has after this process. Notice what the Bible says,

Abimelechs. He says covering of the eyes for

Sarah. The covering of the eyes is as a

spoken Abraham was a covering of the ice.

He was given the money and he was the covering of the ice to

Sarah and those with him and all the others.

There's you read in, in, in, in the verse #16 he's the covering

of the eyes. Because this, this money, this

covering of the eyes, it literally means a blind.

The money that was given to Abraham was to be a blind for

Sarah. In the English standard version,

it states it like this. It's a sign that money.

It's a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with

you. It's given that honor back.

Everybody is not going to look at you differently because of

that. I'm restoring your honor.

He meant it was going to repair how other people saw her.

For that matter, it would also help remove the suspicion of any

dishonor or impurity as first child comes from her womb.

It's basically a statement like this.

Let's put in modern day lingo. There's nothing to see here,

huh? There's nothing to see here.

Her honor's intact. Amen.

And so what's amazing to me, I'm just thinking about this.

It's covered in the eyes, this money that's given, the goods

have been given. She'd been restored.

But then this is like, you know, another step of addition She's

been given back. And it makes me think this, that

maybe sometimes restoration isn't complete until honor is

restored. It's not enough just to quietly

correct the wrong. Sometimes God calls us to take

steps that we got to openly vindicate the reputation

sometimes of those that we have hurt.

All suspicion removed in the eyes of others.

So Abraham prayed for Abimelech. Here it is.

I'm getting there, folks. Everybody doing OK?

Reese, you doing OK? You do you with me about it.

Everything all right? I know Brother Zach was in

Genesis last week. He chose that.

I didn't tell him to do that. Abraham prayed for the healing

of Abimelech. Notice he prayed for Abimelech,

his wife and his maid servants because the Bible says God had

closed up their wombs. It's quite the irony.

It's quite the irony. They took Sarah someone's who

womb who has not been open for years and since they took her,

God closed up their wombs. We'll let you suffer what this

woman has suffered all up to this time.

Just ironic. God had closed up their wombs,

but as Abraham prays, his prayer saves them from death.

Really in this mode for sure. If they could have no offspring,

a part of their community could have no offspring.

When the last person died, their their whole legacy is dead.

That's just the situation if they couldn't have children.

But God used this man Abraham, the same amazing to me the same

man who had endangered them is now an instrument for their

healing folks. Nobody can do that but God.

There's nobody that can do that but God.

Abraham endangered, but Abraham would be the instrument for

their healing. And so that tells me that I

serve a God, and I'm thankful that I do that.

I serve a God who can redeem my failures and can even turn them

into a blessing for people that I've wronged.

Only God, only God can do that you understand says resolve his

prayers. The Bible says the Lord opened

up their wombs man, that herald's all the way back to the

very beginning. You want to go back, Let's go

all the way back to Genesis 1 whenever we learned that he told

them be fruitful, multiply and it showed a direct correlation

then that God was responsible for the blessing of reproduction

between the man and the woman. Here again, he raises his hand

and he allows a womb to be able to reproduce again in the House

of Abimelech. Proof.

God can close them up. God can open them up.

And what that does for us, it sets us up for the next chapter

when a womb that's been closed for years is going to give birth

to the promised son, Isaac. Nothing but God can we just bow

our heads in this place right now.

Oh Jesus, Jesus, I have a faithful God tonight.

Despite me, despite some of my faults and failures and my

errors, He is faithful. He's faithful to his covenant

promise. He can work in tandem with my

obedience and he can work around and through many times my

disobedience. Hallelujah.

Sometimes he restrains others from harming the plan and

sometimes even with US unknowingly, he restrains us

from harming our own plan and platform that he has for our

life. God, I pray, O Lord, tonight we

need your spirit. God.

I know Lord Jesus, the life that we live as Christians, we have

our ups and downs. We have moments when we're

successful and there's other times when we're it's a failure.

I pray O God that help us through it all to remember to

see your handiwork, your hand of impression Lord, that is helping

and aiding and guiding and diverse reverting.

I pray, O God in our lives God, it never truly is just simply

all about us, but God. We are either working in concert

with you, Lord or otherwise. And even at that, sometimes when

we have a heart for you God, you can cause all things to work

together for the good to them that love the Lord and are the

called according to his purpose. I know God, we have times of

struggle and indifference and doubt.

Help us, O Lord, through those times.

Come alongside us, God revealed to us, Lord, our secret faults.

Lord, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

I pray, O God, we need your aid, Lord, in our daily walk.

Lord Jesus, every day, every day, every day.

God, for you have a promise. You have a purpose, God.

I believe it. Lord.

There's a promise and a purpose, God, for the people that center

the sound of my voice tonight, God, bring it to fruition.

Come what may, Lord. Nevertheless, the mountains of

the valley, this that must be traversed.

I pray, O God, come alongside us.

Help us, God, not to jeopardize it all.

Bring us back to our purpose during our times of struggle.

Reorientate us, the Lord Jesus, to what is important.

I pray God in our lives and will not fail to thank you and praise

you God for doing it in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray

Hallelujah, Amen, and the church say Amen.

Thank you Jesus, He is faithful, faithful to me, Amen.

There's no other announcements except Sunday.

All right, show up on Sunday, Amen.

Encourage someone before you leave tonight, the lovely name

of Jesus. God bless you in Jesus name,

Amen.