The life and faith of Abraham. Part 11 – Oops! I did it again. Genesis 20.

Well, in um April 2000, Britney Spears

released a successful pop song called

Oops, I Did It Again. It's a song about

how she led a guy to believe she was in

love with him, but she wasn't. And she

Did It More Than Once, hence Oops! I Did

It Again. That's a line that uh if it

had been written 4,000 years ago,

wouldn't have been out of place on

Abraham's lips. Although of course the

gravity of his failing would seem to

demand more than a lighthearted oops.

But he had done it again. A very similar

scenario had played out when he visited

Egypt about 25 years earlier. In fact,

some scholars suggest that perhaps this

is an account that is is is not a

separate one, but it's just a repeat and

maybe the book editors have got a bit

muddled up and put it in twice. But

actually on closer inspection you can

see there are a number of differences uh

between that account and this occasion.

So that we can see it was a different

occasion. And we see by Abraham's own

admission in verse 13 that this was his

and Sarah's own practice. There was this

was their agreed practice. Wherever they

went they felt threatened. This is what

they did. So what we have here is a

repeated failure to trust God. So let's

begin in our first point. A

disappointing move.

The opening words of chapter 20 are a

bit obscure. From there

Abraham journeyed and we're left

thinking from where? Um probably memory.

Uh the good news translations takes

takes the liberty of inserting uh memory

into the text though it's not actually

there but it's probably where where they

had been. He'd spent a lot of time in

that region. They built an altar there.

So chapter 13:18. So Abraham moved his

tent and came and settled by the oaks of

Mamry which are at Hebrron. And there he

built an altar to the Lord. It was ma at

memory that the Lord had appeared to

Abraham and graciously restored Sarah's

flagging faith. It was at that place

that he had promised this time next year

Sarah will be with child. you'll have a

child and you'll have Isaac. And it was

there that Abraham had prayed for mercy

for Sodom. So, it's a fair assumption to

say it was from that place, his home,

the place where he was used to

worshiping the Lord, the place of

sacrifice

and meeting the Lord in special ways.

It's from that place that Abraham moves

away from. And we observe a similar

pattern in the earlier parallel account

back in chapter 12:8. Abraham had

settled in another place, a place east

of Bethl. He built an altar there as

well. He worshiped the Lord there. And

then this famine hit and he traveled to

Egypt and the whole disastrous affair

unfolds there. After they've been found

out, it would all come to light. Uh, and

he gets Sarah back. Then in chapter

13:3, he traveled back to where he' come

from, back to the altar, back to the

place of worship. And we noted when we

looked at that passage, uh, his journey

which resulted from a lack of faith took

him away from the promised land, away

from worship. But once he's been

restored, he came back and he enjoyed

renewed worship, renewed fellowship with

the Lord again. And I do have to wonder

if something similar is happening in

this passage again.

It had this amazing encounter with the

Lord. He literally whined and dined. the

Lord and his angels. He'd received

promises from the Lord. And the Lord had

shared his very thoughts, his plans with

Abraham.

Abraham was allowed to plead for mercy.

And the Lord heard and agreed, yes, he

would save Sodom, the whole place, if 10

righteous were found. But as we saw last

week, there was only one righteous man,

Lot. So whilst Lot was saved, Sodom and

Gomorrah were judged. And you have to

think, how did that affect Abraham? As

he woke up, as he saw the smoke rising,

did he even know if his nephew Lot has

was still alive when he saw that? What

was he thinking?

Perhaps he felt disillusioned.

Perhaps he felt disappointed. Perhaps he

even felt disappointed with God that

this had happened.

That is speculation. But what we do know

is right after this has happened, he

packs up his bags and he leaves that

place, that special place. He heads back

in the direction of Egypt. Doesn't go

all the way, but he moves verse one to

the NB. That was a hot, dry, parched

area. And we might want to see some

spiritual significance in there. Perhaps

perhaps it is.

He goes from the place of meeting with

God to this dry parched land.

And I I wonder if that is the same for

us when things don't turn out in the way

that we thought they would, in the way

that we hoped,

when things are tough,

when things aren't going our way, we're

struggling, things are hard, what what

is the natural inclination?

Some people take a break from church,

don't we? Oh, I can't I can't face

going.

Can I urge you don't do that?

When things are tough,

that is precisely when we need to be

meeting with the Lord and his people all

the more. Because it's when times are

tough, we're struggling. We can't pray

for ourselves. We can't cope. Our

thinking probably isn't very clear. We

need to be amongst God's people who can

come alongside us, love us, help us,

support us, and pray for us. Retreating

from church and from God and his people,

it doesn't help.

Well, certainly what follows

in this account would tie in with him

moving away from the Lord, a distancing

from the Lord. is still technically in

the promised land, but it is moving away

from that safe place into a place that's

potentially dangerous, the land of the

Philistines.

Some habits are good, aren't they? Like

going for regular exercise, that's a

good habit if you're in that um that

habit. Some habits really don't matter

at all. Whether you have your coffee at

10 or 11, it's not a big deal, is it?

But some habits are bad, like eating

lots of sweets.

It's been 25 years since his disastrous

escapades in Egypt, but his old habits

haven't been left behind. Despite his

growth in faith and his growth in

experience of the Lord, when he gets

into a tight spot, Abraham falls back

into his old habits of self-rust and

lack of faith. And that can be the same

for many of us. We can think we we've

come so far in our Christian walk. You

know, we we look back and we think,

"Yeah, I'm I'm I'm much more mature than

I used to be."

And we think we've conquered that

particular sin. We can strike that one

off the list. I'm I'm I'm really feeling

quite holy now. You know, I I I think

I'm doing all right. And then suddenly,

there it is out of nowhere. Oops. You

did it again.

How utterly disheartening that can be,

can't it?

Just when you thought you had outgrown

that sin, the lustful desire reemerges.

Your lack of mercy strikes again. The

pride slips back in. The half truth

slips out or the anger erupts like a

damn burst.

Um, there's a quote that might appear on

the screen. It was by a British pastor.

I'd never heard of him. uh but it was it

featured in a commentary and I thought

it was quite helpful. A guy called Alan

Redpath once said, "The conversion of a

soul is the miracle of a moment. The

manufacturer of a saint is the task of a

lifetime." I think that's quite helpful,

isn't it? [laughter] The the conversion

of a soul is the miracle of a moment.

The manufacturer of a saint is the task

of a lifetime.

And that's not to excuse our sin and our

failings.

But although we are new creatures in

Christ, we will find that there is this

old man. The old flesh is still there

with us. The roots of sin go deep like

bindweed in your garden. You think

you've got it all, but it comes back.

And that's why we are to put to death

sin. Not tolerate it, not play with it.

That's why we put on our spiritual armor

daily. Not just on special occasions,

not just for Sunday. I'm going to

church. I need to, you know, look like

I'm I'm holy. That's why we seek the

Lord and we keep close to the Lord and

we ask for his help and his strength at

all times. And that's also why we need

to be realistic with ourselves. If you

know

that you struggle with a certain thing

or you have historically struggled with

a certain thing, it's wise to take

precautions against it. Don't give

yourself an inch for you will take the

mile.

We'll just have to try and filter out

the uh exciting music coming from next

door.

Uh the point I'm trying to say is we can

be particularly vulnerable to old sinful

ways, especially at times of stress or

or when we began to wander away from a

day daily close walk with the Lord at

those pressure points. We can revert

back to old habits.

Here when Abraham's in danger, he

reverts back to his old sinful way of

doing things. rather than seeking the

Lord's help, rather than relying on the

Lord, he tells a halftruth and he falls

back into [music]

deception.

But I suppose it's only fair to ask, did

Abraham actually have any reason to

trust God? I mean, had God given him

given him any reason to trust him

anyway, or are we being a bit unfair on

him? But he did. God had given Abraham

many promises about the future. He just

promised Abraham and Sarah would have a

son this time next year. So Abraham

should know if he's believed that he is

safe until at least this time next year,

isn't he? Because he's God's promised

him a son.

So he did have reason to think, "Yeah,

God is not going to let anything happen

to me at this point." But not only that,

God has said back in chapter 15:1, "Fear

not Abraham, I am your shield."

So Abraham actually had good reasons to

trust God. But in the face of fear,

Abraham's faith fails. He heads off in a

disappointing direction away from God,

back to his old habits.

And there's just a reminder there. Don't

move away from God in difficult times.

Move towards him. Seek him. Make him

your refuge and your help. The Psalms

are full of it, aren't they? You are my

refuge. Suddenly, when the hard times

hit us, we forget that and we go, "Whoa,

I need I need a refuge." He is our

refuge.

But as sad as Abraham's move is, I do

wonder whether it's actually a little

bit of a comfort for us. For

who of us

has not done this

again and again and again? Who of us

have not failed time after time?

If the father of faith could mess up in

some way, in the same way and yet God is

still merciful

and still so full of grace. I know we we

don't want to downplay sin. We'll see

that the mess that sin makes. Yet to

know if if we sin even repeatedly that

that [music] doesn't mean it's game

over, that God has given up on us. That

is a real comfort for those of us who

have fallen

again.

Do not have to despair if you've fallen

again. There is still grace. Christian,

your sin does not get the last word.

So Abraham is heading in a disappointing

direction away from God and away from

faithfilled actions. He's gone back to

the old halftruth and it gets him into

the same old problems as we'll see in

the next point, a nighttime encounter.

One of the big arguments people make

against God

is if he is good

and loving and all powerful, why is

there so much suffering in the world?

And that's not an easy question, is it?

We would probably struggled with that to

some degree ourselves. Not not quite

understanding why things are as they

are. Why doesn't God do something? It's

it's a hard question and we we have to

there's no quick easy answer. There are

answers, but there's no quick and easy

answer. It needs to be carefully

unpicked and thought about. There's many

different factors that are involved in

the answering of that big question, most

of which are beyond the scope of this

morning. But one of the answers is is

that God allows suffering because it's

the way he lets us know things are wrong

in the world. So when we move away from

God, we move away from truth and

righteousness and life and goodness

and we are alerted to that by the things

that happen. So pain alerts you to an

issue. If you've got a thorn in your

foot and you're treading on it, pain,

it's painful, but that that's a good

thing in that it alerts you to there's

there's something wrong and you need to

deal with it. As CS Lewis said, pain is

God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

But in that question about God and

suffering is the assumption that God

isn't actually doing anything. He's just

sitting there letting it all happen. And

I think that is also a wrong assumption.

God is not completely inactive in the

world and suffering in in all the things

that are happening. As our passage

clearly shows, God does in fact step in

and restrain people and situations.

So the sin that we see talked about in

the Bible, the sin that we see in our

world, it is horrific. It can be

absolutely unthinkably awful. And yet

God doesn't always allow things to be as

bad as they could be.

He does work behind the scenes to

restrain evil and sin. But the thing is,

unless he specifically reveals that to

us, we are often completely unaware of

what God is doing in the world or in our

lives. Putting the brakes on, stopping

that, stopping that, stopping that

because we don't see, we don't see

everything. We don't have all the

answers.

So, Abraham had stopped at Ger.

Apparently, that was an important city

on the border between Canaan and Egypt.

It had a king whose name or perhaps uh

something title was Aimilec. Uh and by

this point Abraham was a tribal leader.

He had a reputation of being wealthy and

powerful. He was a powerful military

figure. He's moved into the area and no

doubt he had a reputation that preceded

him. And so when Abraham comes visiting

Aimilec is keen to form some kind of

alliance with this man. this man who has

a almost princely status

and treaties and alliances were often

cemented by marriage. Unfortunately, as

we know, Abraham didn't have any

daughters or sons at all. But thankfully

for Aimilec, Abraham did have this

sister. Okay? And that explains why even

when Sarah is 90 now, Aimilec is still

keen to take her as his wife. So even if

we take into account the idea that in

those days the the lifespan of the

patriarchs were was stretched out. They

lived for a lot longer than than we do.

So by this point Sarah even if we say

well she's more akin to a woman in her

late 50s by modern standards she is

still ah I'm going to get into trouble

here but she's still quite old. Let's

say that she's way beyond childbearing

age and Aimilec had a wife and a harim

and so he didn't actually need her. Um,

additionally, unlike in Egypt, there's

no mention made of her outstanding

beauty. Um, here I'm sure she was still

a fine and handsome woman. Um, but this

seems to be much more of a politically

motivated marriage. And if she was still

highly attractive, well, that's just a

bonus. That's the the cream on the

cherry on top, isn't it? So, Aimilec

takes her for his own and Abraham and

Sarah play along.

And you have to think, what were they

thinking

by their sin? Once again, they

jeopardize all of the Lord's promises to

them. Do you see? They've just been

promised this son, and now they're

giving her away to be the wife of

another man.

Now, God does allow us to sin.

God does allow us to choose ways which

take us away from him. People,

Christians included, often have to live

with the consequences

of unwise and sinful choices.

But from the passage, we see that God

does at times intervene. This is one of

those times that we clearly see God

intervenes in a special way to prevent

this sin coming [music]

to to its full fruition.

So why doesn't God do anything about all

the bad things in the world? Well, the

answer is sometimes he does.

We just don't necessarily know it all

the time. But here we do. Here we're

told clearly what's going on. So God

appears to Aimilec in a dream. And that

might get us thinking, well, does God

still um speak through dreams? Well, he

can. And there are reports of God

appearing to people or Jesus appearing

to people in in their dreams even today.

So, I wouldn't want to say that never

happens. But we do have to be aware it's

certainly not common place even in the

Bible. It's rare. Okay. Um, and if God

speaks in a dream, it seems to me that

people know there is something

significant in that dream. They know

something has happened. So if you are

dreaming something and you're thinking,

"Ah, maybe this is from the Lord, I

would suggest if you have to ask the

question, it probably isn't."

When people receive dreams from the

Lord, it seems clear the dream is of a

different order.

In norm normal circumstances, we have

God's word and that is God's revelation

to us. That is where we meet God, where

how we see God.

But there might just be rare occasions

when specific and urgent communication

is needed as is here. So verse three,

but God came to Aimilec in a dream by

night and said to him, behold, you are a

dead man because of the woman you have

taken, for she is a man's wife. And we

see in verse four, the relationship

hasn't been consumated. And so Aimilec,

he he acted in a with a clean

conscience.

But despite that, God is not happy about

someone taking another man's wife, even

in ignorance. Ignorance is is taken into

account.

But it doesn't nullify that a wrong has

been done.

If you break the law, even if you didn't

know it was a law, you've still broken

the law. And marriage is a serious

business. Our our culture devalues

marriage.

Tries to reduce it to a mere piece of

paper or just a temporary arrangement

that could be changed on demand. But

marriage is instituted by God when he

gave Eve to Adam. And in Mark chapter

Mark 10 · chapter mention

10, we see that a joining takes place

where God in some way joins two into one

flesh. I'm pointing this out so that

young and old here know marriage matters

to God. It's not just a private thing.

It's not just a human thing. It matters

to God.

So much so that in Aimilec's case to

keep Sarah would cost him his life.

That's what sin does.

It kills.

Just as God warned Adam, if you eat from

that tree, you will die. So here, if you

keep the girl, you will die.

Why? End of verse three, for she is a

man's wife.

If someone is married,

we need to be aware they are off the

market.

Stay away.

Even Aimilec knew this when he

challenges Abraham later on. He says

verse 9, "You did things that ought not

to be done."

Perhaps this all seems a bit harsh on

Aimilec. After all, Aim, he he didn't

know he was sinning by taking her. But

actually, what we see here is God's

grace, real grace to him.

God warns Aimilec in a dream. That is a

rare and and great honor in itself. God

appears to him in a dream. And at this

point, Aimilec is is ill. So, he needs

healing. verse 17 because of Sarah. So

he's in a is is not well but God doesn't

just leave him to die not knowing

he appears he tells him what the issue

is and what will happen and what what to

do about that. So, so that is that's

kindness. Aimilec, there's this

situation. This is what you've done.

This is the problem. That's what's going

to happen. And this is what you need to

do about that. That's grace.

It's the same for us. We have the

gospel. And at first, it doesn't seem

like good news. All people are sinners.

You think, "Oh, crumbs, that's hard,

isn't it?" And the wages of sin is

death. You think, "Oh, crumbs, that's

really hard." But the gospel is good

news because God has warned us. And like

Aimilec, he gives us the chance to

repent.

the chance to live.

And notice, God recognizes Aimilec's

situation

and he's been actively working in his

situation, restraining him from fully

sinning.

If you find yourself in a situation and

it's frustrating and this thing you want

so much just doesn't seem to be

happening,

the relationship that you you're pushing

for, the job that you think you you

deserve or should be yours, the the

house that you you dream about, the

opportunity that you're going for, and

you're you're pushing for it, and you're

pushing for it, and you think, "Why

isn't God giving me this? What, you

know, what's going on? What? What's the

problem here? Pause for a moment and

consider

just perhaps God could be intervening to

restrain you for your own good.

Perhaps there's things about what

whatever it is you're striving for that

you don't know, ramifications that you

haven't appreciated.

This isn't an excuse to shy away from

hard work and persevering and overcoming

obstacles and doing great things even

when it's difficult. But but Christian,

if it feels like the road is constantly

blocked, it would be wise to pause

and to seek the Lord about it. Because

sometimes, like with Balam's ass, God

sends things to get in the way and

prevent certain actions.

So in grace, Aimilec had been warned and

and now it was time for a response, time

to take action. And we'll look at that

in our final point, a daytime encounter.

Well, clearly this dream would have been

shocking to Aimilec.

It hadn't occurred to him that what he

was doing by taking Sarah was was wrong

at all. But with the threat of death

hanging over him, it's hard to imagine

how Aimilec got any sleep at all that

night.

Maybe that contributes to why he got up

early in the morning. He didn't want to

delay over this important matter. It

needed to be dealt with. And do you know

that reminds us of Abraham in his better

moments? Do you remember a long time ago

now? We thought about how Abraham was

given the command to circumcise all all

the men in his camp. And we remember we

saw there um we might have been tempted

to to just delay that bit. We'll just

yeah let's just think about that. Let's

uh take a few days to you know plan that

one out. But actually we read early in

the morning he did it straight away.

Likewise we're going to see when he's

told to take his precious only son Isaac

off to sacrifice in Genesis 22:3

Genesis 22:3

in the morning that there's no delay.

He's straight at it.

That's Abraham in his better moments.

Aimilec here, he knows the Lord has

spoken and he's quick to obey.

And there is a challenge there, isn't

there? Because how often we tarry over

these things.

If the Lord is clearly speaking to you

about something,

don't delay.

Take action. If the Lord is calling you

to repent from some sin

and you you know it but you you're

finding it hard, don't delay. If the

Lord is challenging you about your

prayer life

or your Bible reading or your attitude

to something,

but you keep making excuses,

don't delay. If the Lord is convicting

you that you really should be serving

him in some way, doing something, you

hear the call for, you know, I don't

know, volunteers or whatever, and you

think, yeah, I probably should, but and

then you you kind of make your excuses.

Why are you delaying?

Aimilec knows he needs to act and so he

does. He shares the situation with his

servants or advisers and they take God

seriously. Why? Because they're afraid.

They realize we are dealing with a being

a power that we can't fight against.

Which is interesting because Aimilec

confronts when Aimilec confronts Abraham

later and asks him why you why have you

done what you did? Abraham says it's

because he thought there was no fear of

God in that place and he was afraid of

the people,

not God. Do you see that? The irony

here, the pagans fear God, and God's

chosen man fears the people, not God.

I suppose we could make a little link

back to the spotlight next Sunday

evening. The idea of living to please

people. It's it's powerful actually. If

we don't understand what's going on,

that can be our master.

It's important to recognize these

things.

If Abraham had feared God more than

people, he wouldn't have lied. he

wouldn't have got himself into this

situation. A Christian, perhaps your

spiritual life is stalled because you're

too busy fearing

people, what they might say, what they

might what might happen. We're trying to

please people. Keep that person happy.

Keep that. I've got to do that because

that person expects me to do that.

When what we should be doing is looking

to our God, beholding him, delighting

ourselves in him, saying, "He is my God.

He's my reason for living. Yes, I've got

to love these people and serve them, but

first of all, it is God. God first.

But to make matters worse, it wasn't

that Abraham came along to his people

and and had a reason to actually fear

them. He just assumed. He made the

assumption. He made a rash and incorrect

judgment about Aimilec and his people.

And that maybe is a warning for us, too.

Just because someone isn't a Christian,

it doesn't mean they don't have any

morals.

doesn't mean they are completely

corrupt.

If if if that's our thinking, we're

going to get very confused when we go

out into the world and we discover h do

you know what? There's someone who isn't

a Christian, but they're actually better

behaved than some Christians I know. And

we think, how do I deal with that?

You know, all people are made in the

image of God. And though every aspect of

that has been defaced and is marred and

is affected by sin. So every aspect of

our being is affected by sin. And yet

there is still something of God about

all people. We have a conscience. We

have a moral sense.

And so we shouldn't be surprised when we

see morality and other good things even

in those who don't know God.

Morally it's obvious who comes out on

top here. It's Aimilec, isn't it? All

the way. Which is shocking really. You

know what's at the heart of Abraham's

failure is he he's not fearing God. He's

not trusting God. He's underestimated

his God. He thinks God is not going to

be able to look after him. He can't

trust himself to God. He knew the

promises of God, but he chose not to

trust in God when he found there was

disappointments or confusion. Confusion.

God did things he didn't like or didn't

understand. and he's like, "Well, I I

don't know how to deal with that. So, I

don't know if I can trust God." That can

be the same for us.

God's all right for the spiritual stuff,

but for the real stuff, you know, I

don't think I can really trust God.

And when he doesn't trust God for the

real life issues, but chooses to sin

instead, that's when it goes wrong for

him. And when we don't trust God, when

we won't follow him because we think

it's a bit scary, a bit dangerous, when

we take the shortcut, that's not actions

that come out of faith.

They come out of unbelief.

It's embarrassing. Abraham, this great

figure of the Bible, has been shown up

by Aimilec, who has comparatively little

knowledge of God. And when Abraham gives

his excuses, they all seem rather weak.

And all he can do is assure aim. Oh, you

know, this isn't personal. Verse 13, we

do this everywhere. Well, great. Thanks

for, you know, letting us know.

But even after Abraham's weak excuses,

Aimilec acts with grace. He honors

Abraham. Presumably, he does that for

the sake of the God who for some reason

has chosen Abraham. Aimilec can look at

this situation and go, "Well, I'm not

that impressed with Abraham, but I'm

impressed with his God, so he honors

Abraham because of his God."

Verse 14, he blesses him and showers

Abraham with animals and slaves. He

allows Abraham to live anywhere he wants

in the land. He returns Sarah. Aimilec

even seems to think more about Sarah's

honor than her own husband does. He

gives this generous gift of a thousand

shekels which is so much money that it

would have taken several lifetimes to to

earn that amount. Now we're looking at

that and thinking I don't know really

how that vindicates Sarah but apparently

in that culture in that context it did.

That was to vindicate her so everyone

would know she is innocent. She did not

sin here.

It's funny. It's like this pagan king is

showing Abraham this is how to live a

godly life. This is how to live a

gracious life. I don't know if Aimilec

was saved, but he certainly had some

sort of life-changing encounter with God

and affected what he did.

But I can't help but think right at this

point, Abraham's feeling seriously

red-faced and rebu rebuked.

After all, he is the recipient of all

these amazing promises to God. He knows

kings are going to come from him. But

right now, this Canaanite king seems to

be more in line with God than he is.

Oops.

But it's it's true, isn't it? God

chooses to save us. If you're a

Christian here, God chooses to save us

not because we are better than other

people, not because we were morally

superior, not because we had it all

together. and he looked at us and said,

"Oh, they're a thoroughly decent person.

I'm going to save them." He chooses to

save us because of his grace.

And in grace, God still allows Abraham,

despite his failings, he still allows

Abraham to bless Aimilec.

Abraham may have failed, but he's called

upon to pray. And God graciously hears

the prayer and heals Aimilec and his

family. And despite it all, God still

blesses Abraham through Aimilec.

I don't know what lapses in faith

you have

had in this last week or two.

I don't know how many times you've gone

back to your old ways recently.

I don't know what mess you have made of

everything.

Perhaps you've trodden some pretty

shameful paths. Perhaps you've done

things no Christian should do.

And yet there is no situation that God

cannot redeem.

There is no situation that God's grace

cannot penetrate.

And God is working throughout this whole

episode in grace upon grace.

He warns Aimilec about the danger and

the sin he's in. Amazingly, he calls his

Aimilec to bless Abraham. Despite

Abraham's certainly not deserving any

blessing, he graciously answers

Abraham's prayer, reaffirming to

Abraham, despite your failure, Abraham,

despite you doing these stupid things,

he graciously answers his prayer. And

and by that is saying, I'm still your

God. I will still hear you. I will still

answer you. It's not that we should ever

take our sin lightly, you know, Britney

Spears style. Oops, I did it again. No.

When we we've seen that when we sin, it

it messes things up. It hurts people. It

hurts us. It's against God. We've seen

the warning God gives. Sin deserves

death. But when we sin, that doesn't

have to be the end. For those in Christ,

despite us not deserving it, there is

grace upon grace. How amazing that God

doesn't treat us as our sins deserve.

How amazing that in Christ we have every

spiritual blessing.

How amazing that God sets his love on

sinners like us. Was Abraham worthy?

No. Are you worthy?

No. But how gracious God chooses to set

his love upon us. How gracious that God

chooses to use imperfect people like us.

And in Christ, he even blesses us

richly. This is God's amazing grace.

Let's just be quiet before the Lord for

a few moments. [snorts]

Father God, perhaps there are some of us

here who have heard you calling to us,

Lord. Perhaps we are in places we know

are not good. Perhaps we have [sighs]

walked away from you a little bit.

Perhaps we're frustrated with you in

some way. Father, I pray that you would

bring us back to that close walk with

you. I pray that you would show us grace

even this morning. I pray, Lord, that we

might be aware of you calling to us,

Lord, with those open arms of a loving

father beckoning us to come back. Lord,

we pray that we would not stay away,

that we would not drag our heels, that

we would not love our sin more than we

love you. Oh Lord, I pray that we would

be a people who come joyfully, happily,

humbly before you with gratitude and

thanks in our hearts for you are God and

in you there is life and peace and hope.

So Lord, we come to you now Lord not

claiming moral superiority but claiming

your son. He is our only hope. We thank

you in Jesus name. Amen.