Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / But God...
Transcript
- 0:09Thank you Danny and Kathy, what a blessing man, God is so good.
- 0:13It's the one that we were made to worship, to know and love and
- 0:17all our needs be met by. And I am praise God for that
- 0:21reminder this morning. If you have your Bible, I hope
- 0:23you do go and make your way to Genesis chapter 12, Genesis 12
- 0:27as we continue in our series answering God's call.
- 0:30If you remember, if you need some catching up, God said to
- 0:33Abraham, go. And I Abraham went, right?
- 0:39So he said, God said leave house, home, country and
- 0:43kindred, go to the place. I'll show you.
- 0:46I'm going to bless you so that you will be a blessing.
- 0:49And he told Abraham, those who bless you I'm going to bless and
- 0:52those who curse you, I'm going to curse.
- 0:54God said go and Abram went. Then God shows up and appears to
- 0:59Abraham and says, hey, Abraham, here's the land.
- 1:03This is the land I'm going to give you.
- 1:04Abraham builds an altar there. He calls on God's name and he
- 1:10worships Abraham. It has made, I want you to think
- 1:14about it like this. Abraham has made the greatest
- 1:17decision of his life. He's answered God's call with a
- 1:23yes and no doubt, not only what is what was it the greatest
- 1:28decision of Abraham's life, but it was also no doubt the hardest
- 1:32decision of Abraham's life to leave house, to leave home, to
- 1:36leave country, to live, leave kindred your family to go to the
- 1:39place. God says, hey, I'm going to show
- 1:41you he doesn't know yet. God just says go.
- 1:44Abraham goes, it's the greatest decision of his life, but it's
- 1:47also been the hardest decision of his life.
- 1:50But so far things are going great.
- 1:55Things are about to change. You ready?
- 1:57I want you to watch chapter 12, verse 10.
- 2:01Now there was a famine in the land.
- 2:06So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine
- 2:12was severe in the land. In these days, people lived, how
- 2:19we like to say it, close to the land.
- 2:22Now, if you're not familiar with that saying, it needs some
- 2:24explanation of what does that exactly mean?
- 2:26What does it mean to live close to the land?
- 2:29It means to live in such a way where there's no middle man
- 2:33between the land and the food on your table.
- 2:38You are the farmer. You are the harvester, you are
- 2:42the rancher, you are the butcher.
- 2:45You follow me. You're the grocery store shelf
- 2:48stalker, you're the cook. There's nobody between you and
- 2:52the land. You're living your life directly
- 2:54dependent, close to the land. This is, of course, how life
- 2:58used to be. This is still how life is for
- 3:00many people around the world. This is exactly how life is for
- 3:03Abraham, right? So by the way, too, there's no
- 3:06freezers to store next year's food and there's no
- 3:10refrigerators to store yesterday's leftovers.
- 3:13Any tiny disruption in the food chain, food supply chain means
- 3:19immediate potential disaster. This is exactly what is
- 3:23happening here. Famine means no food.
- 3:28Famine means no food. Why no food?
- 3:29Probably because of no rain and no rain on that year's crops for
- 3:34those years. That year's animals means no
- 3:36food on your table. Immediate impact, even for the
- 3:40tiniest disruption in the food supply chain.
- 3:42All right, now you got to think when Abraham obeyed God and left
- 3:47house and home and country and kindred, you got to think
- 3:50Abraham had in his mind, God's going to take care of me.
- 3:54God's got me right? God is.
- 3:57Abram is trusting God, putting himself in God's hands, and
- 4:00believing God is going to be good to him and provide for him.
- 4:03And God can be trusted. All right, He's thinking, God's
- 4:06got me. But right now Abram is hungry,
- 4:10and it appears, at least in the moment, that he might have been
- 4:13better off had he never left. Now it's amazing how many, how
- 4:21many little hints of the future to come we get as Genesis begins
- 4:25to unfold. I want you to Fast forward with
- 4:27me just a little bit to the offspring of Abram leaving the
- 4:32land of Egypt into the wilderness.
- 4:35They get what? Hungry and they get thirsty.
- 4:40They left against God's got them.
- 4:41God's got their back, trust in God.
- 4:43But then they encounter difficulty.
- 4:45They get a little hungry and get a little thirsty.
- 4:48And wondering, had they been, would have they have been better
- 4:51off if they'd have never left, right?
- 4:53I mean. So this is a little
- 4:54foreshadowing of what's to come. Write this down in your notes #1
- 4:59answering God's call does not eliminate all difficulty.
- 5:04Answering God's call does not eliminate all difficulty.
- 5:09In fact, I can guarantee you that if you answer God's call,
- 5:14it will lead to times of difficulty.
- 5:17They won't put this on TV because it doesn't sell.
- 5:20I'm going to tell you what the Bible says.
- 5:21I can guarantee you that if you say yes to God's call, it will
- 5:26lead to times of difficulty. Why in the world would I say
- 5:30that? Because the Bible says it.
- 5:32James chapter one verse 2 through 4 is just one place
- 5:35among many. I could turn you listen to this.
- 5:38Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of a
- 5:44variety of kinds, various kinds here, you know that the testing
- 5:49of your faith produces steadfastness.
- 5:52And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be
- 5:56perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
- 5:59You see, as a Christian, hear me.
- 6:01As a child of God, God's will for you and for me includes
- 6:06various trials. Now you may be thinking, do
- 6:10what? Why, I'm not sure.
- 6:14I showed up this morning for the right reason, right?
- 6:16Maybe I'm in the wrong place. Why would why would choosing to
- 6:20answer God's call on my life, your life, lead to various
- 6:24trials? All right, Because the reason
- 6:27why is God grows our faith by testing it.
- 6:34God grows our faith by testing our faith.
- 6:37You see, faith works just like a muscle, and a muscle only grows
- 6:41stronger when it is put under what strain?
- 6:45When you put a muscle under load or under a strain, what you
- 6:48actually do is you're producing under that load or that strain,
- 6:51tiny microscopic tears in the fibers of your muscle.
- 6:57Your muscles are literally being torn under the strain, under the
- 7:01load, so that they can grow back stronger, so they can be more
- 7:05perfect or complete. This is exactly how God grows
- 7:09our faith. He puts it under strain.
- 7:11He puts it under load, He puts it under various trial so that
- 7:15the fibers of our faith are torn, if you will, weakened,
- 7:18perhaps momentarily or temporarily, so that they can
- 7:21grow back more complete, fuller, even stronger.
- 7:26Faith. Don't miss this.
- 7:29Faith is the most important muscle in the Christian life and
- 7:35God has committed himself to strengthen yours.
- 7:39Faith is the most important muscle in the Christian life and
- 7:43God has committed Himself to strengthening yours.
- 7:47In fact, God is actually promised in His Word to complete
- 7:52what He started in you. Philippians chapter one verse 6,
- 7:55the Bible says I am sure of this.
- 7:58Paul says that he who began a good work in you is going to do
- 8:01what he's going to bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
- 8:05Christ what God started in you. That all started by faith.
- 8:09God has said I am going to complete that project that I
- 8:13started in you and in me. It's a guarantee.
- 8:16And if you just want to kind of zoom up for a second and I can
- 8:18give you some fancy words for this, these are words you
- 8:20actually ought to know because this is what God is interested
- 8:23in doing in your life. You see, the moment you were
- 8:25saved, God did something called justification in your life.
- 8:30He justified you. He legally declared you
- 8:33righteous in his sight by covering you and washing you by
- 8:37the blood of Jesus Christ. You say, Kyle, what in the world
- 8:40does that mean, especially maybe if you're a new here or not a
- 8:43Christian here. Jesus Christ came and lived a
- 8:45sinless life and he died on the cross where he shed his blood as
- 8:49a sinless sacrifice for us. And then he went to the grave
- 8:53dead, and three days later, on the third day, defeated death,
- 8:56walked out a lot, life to offer forgiveness and life.
- 8:59So though we've sinned, we've done wrong.
- 9:01We've dishonored God, fallen short of the glory of God.
- 9:04Jesus in our place, did for us what we could not do, what we
- 9:07failed to do, and actually shed his blood, because God says he
- 9:10doesn't forgive without the shedding of blood.
- 9:12There has to be some death. There has to be a death.
- 9:14There had to be the death of the perfect one, Jesus, to pay for
- 9:17the sins of the world. So this is what I mean when we
- 9:20actually realize Jesus is the one and only way of salvation
- 9:23and forgiveness in life and we trust him as Savior in a very
- 9:27real way, in a spiritual way, the blood of Jesus washes us,
- 9:31our souls clean. And now God that looks at you
- 9:35and me washed clean, declares us righteous, covered by the blood
- 9:39of Jesus, and we stand in a right relationship with him.
- 9:43So God is first interested in you being justified.
- 9:45Have you been justified? Have you been saved, brought
- 9:49into a right relationship with God?
- 9:51If you have the second part, God's got you in the process of
- 9:54right now. It's not justification, but
- 9:56sanctification. The sanctifies to make holy.
- 9:59So God has you positionally righteous in his sight.
- 10:02Now God wants to make you practically righteous.
- 10:04You know the problem. You know my problem.
- 10:06I've been declared righteous in God's sight.
- 10:07You know what one of my problems is?
- 10:09I continue to do unrighteous things.
- 10:11I continue to talk in unrighteous ways.
- 10:14All right, so God is now interested in Kyle Walker
- 10:17practically becoming more righteous than in what he says,
- 10:20does, thinks, and feels. I am perfectly right in God's
- 10:24sight, in the right relationship.
- 10:25But now I need to be practically actually further transformed in
- 10:29my behavior, in my thinking, in my living.
- 10:32I'm positionally righteous. Now God wants to make me
- 10:34practically righteous because guess what?
- 10:36One day God's going to do with me and you.
- 10:37If you know Jesus, he's going to do what we call glorification.
- 10:40That means He's going to make you perfectly righteous.
- 10:42The day you see Jesus face to face, you got justification, you
- 10:46got sanctification, you got glorification.
- 10:48It's all about our faith being made complete.
- 10:50Our character conformed to the image of Christ and God has
- 10:53committed himself. What he started, He is going to
- 10:56complete. Listen, you need to know what
- 10:57I've just described is God's number one will for your life.
- 11:01It is God's number one goal for your life.
- 11:04It is God's number one plan for your life.
- 11:07God said he would do it. He said he'd use difficulty in
- 11:10trials to do it. So what do you do when you're in
- 11:13the middle of God's will and difficulty comes?
- 11:15The Bible says you count it all joy.
- 11:20Easier said than done, right? But how can you count it all
- 11:24joy? Because you can say look at God
- 11:26doing what he promised he would do.
- 11:29Look at God being faithful to his number one plan for my life.
- 11:34Look at God completing what He started that He said he would
- 11:39complete. Look at God preparing me for all
- 11:41eternity. Look at God getting me ready to
- 11:43see Jesus face to face. Look at God being faithful to
- 11:48me. Now that's not how we think, is
- 11:50it? But this is how the Bible
- 11:53instructs us to think, because this is exactly how God is
- 11:58operating in the lives of believers.
- 12:00Answering God's call does not eliminate all difficulty.
- 12:04All right? How many times, how many
- 12:07conversations have I had with many of you, right?
- 12:10And maybe you made a big decision and your whole life
- 12:12turned around and you chose to follow Jesus.
- 12:14And next thing you know, Pastor Kyle, Oh my goodness, this has
- 12:17happened. This has happened, this has
- 12:18happened, and this has happened. How often, right?
- 12:22Just because we answer God's call doesn't mean life
- 12:25automatically gets easier. Oftentimes it gets more
- 12:27difficult before it gets before it gets easier.
- 12:31Now listen to verses 11 through 16.
- 12:33The Bible says this. When he was about to enter
- 12:38Egypt, he said to Sarah, his wife, I know that you are a
- 12:43beautiful, that you are a woman, beautiful in appearance.
- 12:47Now guys, if you missed Valentine's Day yesterday, this
- 12:49is your moment right here. You ready?
- 12:51If you got your spouse, you ought to turn to your wife and
- 12:53says you are a woman, beautiful in appearance.
- 12:55All right, If you need to interrupt my sermon to do that,
- 12:57you go right ahead. All right.
- 13:00Abraham says, I know that you're a woman, beautiful in
- 13:02appearance, and when the Egyptians, but just don't say
- 13:04this, when the Egyptians see you, they will say this is his
- 13:08wife, Then they'll kill me, but they will let you live.
- 13:12Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of
- 13:15you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.
- 13:19When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptian saw that the woman was
- 13:22indeed very beautiful. And when the Princess of Pharaoh
- 13:25saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh.
- 13:27And the woman was taking into taken into Pharaoh's house.
- 13:30And for her sake he dealt well with Abram.
- 13:33And he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female
- 13:36servants, female donkeys, and camels.
- 13:39Abraham hears that the grocery stores are open in Egypt and the
- 13:44shelves aren't empty. All right, so there they make a
- 13:47move. Now we, we don't know.
- 13:49People speculate well, was this move right?
- 13:52Was this the right decision? The Bible just doesn't comment.
- 13:55We don't know. But obviously he's leaving the
- 13:58land God showed him he would give him and go into a different
- 14:00land where there's food for the sake of their survival.
- 14:03We don't exactly know if this was right or not.
- 14:05What we do know though is we can see a pattern even here as well.
- 14:10Fast forward again, there's so many flash forwards we could do
- 14:13in Genesis. Flash forward to the offspring
- 14:16of Abram that would come, the ultimate one to whom the
- 14:19blessing would come to all the families of the earth.
- 14:22His name starts with AJ is oh come on young, do better than
- 14:25that. Y'all with me.
- 14:26His name is Jesus. He would come through the line
- 14:28of Abram all right. Where would his mom and daddy
- 14:31flee to temporarily in Egypt? All right, now let's kind of go
- 14:37back to our earlier lesson. Mary and Joseph are smack dab in
- 14:42the middle of God's will. They're in Egypt because
- 14:45answering God's call on their lives did not eliminate all
- 14:49difficulty. They said yes, and life got
- 14:52harder before it got easier, right?
- 14:55This is all throughout the Bible.
- 14:57OK, They were smack dab in the middle of God's will, but it
- 15:00wasn't easy. Now, before entering Egypt,
- 15:02Abraham has this specific fear come over him due to the beauty
- 15:08of his wife. I want to make all kind of jokes
- 15:10here, but I just feel like we should just keep moving.
- 15:13Sarah was obviously a very attractive, physically
- 15:17attractive lady, which, by the way, Sarah is 65 years old.
- 15:21All right, so I'm going to keep moving.
- 15:25Abraham was afraid. Abraham was afraid that Sarah
- 15:30was so beautiful that an Egyptian is going to kill him to
- 15:34claim his wife. All right, I mean, this is
- 15:36pretty. Yeah, I'm just going to keep
- 15:38going. Abraham and Sarah are
- 15:41anticipating difficulty, but this time, y'all fear is driving
- 15:46their thinking and not faith. Do you see that before they even
- 15:51even encounter the problem in anticipation of what they think
- 15:54they're going to run into fear becomes the dominating force and
- 15:58it's driving their thinking that's driving their planning.
- 16:00It's driving their decision making rather than than faith.
- 16:04But I want you to remember, what all has God promised them?
- 16:10Name, offspring, nation, land, blessing, protection.
- 16:20Is any of that going to come about if they take Abram out to
- 16:26get his wife? Is any of that possible if Abram
- 16:29dies? No, no, it's not right.
- 16:34So what sense does it make to be afraid unless you don't believe
- 16:39the promises of God? Let me ask that one more time.
- 16:43What sense does it make to be afraid unless you don't actually
- 16:49believe the promises of God? But this, this is exactly what
- 16:56fear does. You know what fear does?
- 16:58It makes us stupid. I don't use that word lightly
- 17:02from the pulpit, all right? But it just does, right?
- 17:06It makes us lose our mind. It makes us live illogically.
- 17:11It makes us live irrationally. It causes us to lose our fate
- 17:16because you can't live by fear and fate at the same time.
- 17:21You can't do it. It's one or the other.
- 17:24All right. So Abrams in a jam and fear
- 17:28which is leading to fear in the temporary lapse of his fate
- 17:32because it's an either or thing. So what is Abrams fear driven
- 17:36plan? Sarah, we're going to say you're
- 17:39my sister, all right, instead of killing me, they're going to be
- 17:43nice to me because you look so good.
- 17:45All right, and the deal was Sarah actually was Abraham's
- 17:50half sister. So this isn't a total lie.
- 17:54The lie is not so much in what they're saying.
- 17:57The lie is in what they're not saying, all right, And by what
- 18:00they're not saying, the lie is actually in what they're
- 18:03denying. So sure enough, it goes down
- 18:06just like Abraham thought it would.
- 18:08Everyone notices Sarah is gorgeous and the king could take
- 18:12any woman he wanted in his domain and he never had enough.
- 18:16So sure enough, he adds Sarah to his harem.
- 18:19All right, so now one problem has led to another problem.
- 18:24This is what fear driven living will get you.
- 18:28You may get temporarily out of one jam, but just guess what?
- 18:31It's going to lead you to a bigger one.
- 18:34This is what happens when you make plans out of fear that get
- 18:37you ahead of God. You get yourself between a rock
- 18:40and a hard place that now Abraham's going to be unable to
- 18:43solve on his own. All right, so now Abram and
- 18:47Sarah, they're not hungry. Temporary relief.
- 18:50But guess what? Now the problem is his wife's
- 18:53living in another man's house. That's way worse, all right.
- 19:00Abram, out of fear for his own hide, has now exposed his wife
- 19:04to the possibility of adultery. All right.
- 19:07And now he's endangered all the promises God made to him, all
- 19:11the promises God made to him. Abram is put in jeopardy because
- 19:15he started making decisions out of fear rather than fate in the
- 19:18promises of God. So without wife, no offspring,
- 19:21no name, no nation, no land, no blessing.
- 19:24Fear solved one problem but just created a bigger one.
- 19:28Yes, it gave them temporary protection, but watch this, it's
- 19:32endangering God's best #2 write this down if you're taking
- 19:38notes. Fear, Fear can forfeit the
- 19:43blessings of God's call on your life.
- 19:47Fear. Fear can forfeit so many of the
- 19:52blessings of God's call on your life.
- 19:58So Abram has said yes to God's call on his life.
- 20:01Hallelujah. But now new difficulties have
- 20:05come. Things have changed.
- 20:07There are now new trials. There are now new dangers.
- 20:10There's now new threats. And Abram, who said yes to God's
- 20:14call, is now afraid. And when you and I are afraid,
- 20:19we have a choice. Fear or faith.
- 20:22The way I'd like to explain this.
- 20:25Is the reality is choosing to follow Jesus.
- 20:29Choosing to follow God is really not a one time 1 and done
- 20:35decision in life. Now let me try to be very clear,
- 20:38when you choose to follow Jesus and accept Jesus as your Savior
- 20:42for salvation, which I pray that you've done, and if not, you can
- 20:45actually do so right now because I explained earlier what Jesus
- 20:48has done for you, living for you, dying for you, defeating
- 20:51death for you so he could pay for your sin for you and offer
- 20:54you life. You can actually call on Jesus
- 20:56right now. Make the decision to say, Lord,
- 20:58I know that's what I need. You're the only way.
- 21:00Would you save me, forgive me and be my Lord.
- 21:02All right, that's a one time decision because you don't get
- 21:05saved multiple times. You don't get made alive more
- 21:08than once. You don't get born again more
- 21:11than once. OK, but once you choose to
- 21:15follow Jesus, the reality is every single day you wake up,
- 21:19you have a choice to make. You have a choice to make
- 21:23whether or not you're going to follow Jesus as your King, as
- 21:27your Lord, as your master. Quite honestly, every moment by
- 21:31moment of the day you get to make this choice whether you're
- 21:34going to die to yourself and what you want in life your way
- 21:38or if you're going to say no. I got to remember I've been
- 21:40bought with a price. I'm not my own.
- 21:42The Holy Spirit lives within me, is claimed me, I belong to
- 21:45Jesus. Then I'm going to walk by faith
- 21:46instead of fear. So following Jesus really is a
- 21:49day by day, moment by moment, not just once over and done
- 21:53decision. All right, and it's fear or
- 21:57faith, but it cannot be both. Can I just ask you some
- 22:01questions? How many fear driven decisions
- 22:06have you made? How many fear driven versus
- 22:10faith driven plans have you put together for your future?
- 22:15How is or is anything in your life right now being driven by
- 22:22fear instead of faith? Abram is falling for fear
- 22:27instead of choosing faith in his fear.
- 22:30His fear is actually ironically threatening to take out all that
- 22:35God has promised him. Isn't that ironic that it was
- 22:38out of fear that Abram's trying to preserve his life, but his
- 22:41fear is endangering everything God had promised him?
- 22:47This is how illogical, irrational fear is.
- 22:52This is what it does. All right, so Abram has lost his
- 22:57wife. Now the question is, will
- 22:58Abraham lose it all? Will his fear cause him to lose
- 23:02it all? In other words, let's put it
- 23:05like this. If God's promises are going to
- 23:07be true now to Abram, God's going to have to intervene.
- 23:12He's in a rock and a hard space. If, if the promises of God are
- 23:16going to get back on the railroad tracks, God is going to
- 23:19have to intervene. Abram has put himself in a
- 23:21situation where he can do nothing.
- 23:24Why don't you listen to the Word of God, verse 17 through 20?
- 23:28But the Lord, but the Lord. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh
- 23:34and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife.
- 23:39So Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done
- 23:43to me? Why did you not tell me that she
- 23:47was your wife? Why did you say she is my
- 23:50sister? So that I took her from my wife.
- 23:52Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.
- 23:55And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent
- 23:58him away with his wife and all that he had.
- 24:03Y'all answering God's call does not eliminate all difficulty and
- 24:07fear can ruin so many of God's blessings of God's call on our
- 24:12life. But now what we're going to see
- 24:14here in Genesis 12 is this phrase, but the Lord, but the
- 24:18Lord. Now, I, I don't mean to
- 24:20insinuate anything other than just trying to say this clearly
- 24:23without getting distraction, but when you read the word, but in
- 24:26the Bible, it is a big deal. All right, a big deal.
- 24:31I have heard it described like this whenever there's a butt God
- 24:34or a butt the Lord. What you're looking at is a
- 24:37shift from human weakness to divine power.
- 24:41Right there you are changing over.
- 24:43There's an intervention of divine power in the midst of
- 24:47human weakness. These are big deals in the
- 24:49Bible. Without the but gods of the
- 24:52Bible, we would all be lost in our sin without hope and
- 24:56separated from God. All right, praise God for all
- 24:59the but gods of the Bible. Every one of them is a
- 25:03manifestation of the grace and the kindness and mercy and the
- 25:06power of God in the midst of our fear, our unfaithfulness or our
- 25:11failure. And let me just tell you this.
- 25:13You ought to track all the but gods in your life, not just the
- 25:17Bible. You ought to track and keep up
- 25:20with all the but gods in in your life.
- 25:22And there are they are everywhere.
- 25:24Can I just share a few of mine with you to kind of brag on God
- 25:27from? I just thought about this this
- 25:28week, Kyle, if you had to sit in and and list out the but gods in
- 25:32your life, those moments when it would transition from human
- 25:35weakness to divine power, what would those be?
- 25:38The doctors. This is a story for another day.
- 25:41I've mentioned it here and there, but the doctors told my
- 25:43parents when I was born that I would not survive but God.
- 25:48But God, when I was a nine year old boy, I was lost in my sin,
- 25:53but God, All right. When we left Americus, GA, where
- 25:57I was born, we left a church where, unbeknownst to us, the
- 26:01pastor was in an adulterous relationship with the children's
- 26:04choir director. We moved to a church in
- 26:07Mississippi where the senior pastor sacrificially dedicated
- 26:11himself to training up young preachers.
- 26:14But God, y'all following with me.
- 26:16Y'all don't sound excited. This is exciting to me.
- 26:18I was headed down my own career path that I thought would serve
- 26:21me best, that I would like best, but God, all right, I was
- 26:25selfish and immature. I still struggle with that at
- 26:27times, all right, but I especially was in high school.
- 26:30There's no way things should have worked out between Lauren
- 26:32and myself. But God, when a new president
- 26:35came to Southwestern Seminary and wanted to bring his own
- 26:38team, I was going to be without a job, all right.
- 26:40But God, they said, Kyle, nobody will ever hire you.
- 26:43You have no pastoral ministry experience.
- 26:46But God, have you ever named the butt gods in your life?
- 26:50They are everywhere. The shifts from human weakness
- 26:53to divine power. Listen, without the but gods of
- 26:57your life and mine in the Bible, we're without hope.
- 27:00This is where God's faithfulness inserts himself on our behalf.
- 27:04All right, it says, but the Lord, verse 17, afflicted
- 27:08Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah,
- 27:12Abraham's wife. Not one plague, ladies and
- 27:15gentlemen, plagues. Can we do another little flash
- 27:17forward for a moment? The Bible is crazy interesting,
- 27:22right? We're going to get to these
- 27:24again with Abraham's offspring. When God says, let my people go,
- 27:29God's talking to Pharaoh again, God.
- 27:30Pharaoh says, no, that's what God's going to do.
- 27:33Human weakness to divine intervention.
- 27:35But God in the form of 10 mighty plagues from Almighty God.
- 27:39So the Pharaoh and all the Egyptians do.
- 27:41There's a God in heaven who intervened, right?
- 27:44So this is what God does here. Who knows what these plagues
- 27:47were? Who knows how they find found
- 27:49out? Maybe they started interviewing
- 27:50and interrogating everybody and Sarah was the newest arrival.
- 27:53It's got to be her. Who knows?
- 27:55We don't know how it how they found out, but he did find out
- 27:59that's because he had Abraham's wife in his house that these
- 28:02plagues had come Pharaoh not because of I want you to watch
- 28:06how this is so ironic things out of the Bible when you really
- 28:09study look close, start jumping off the page.
- 28:11Pharaoh out of fear of God does the right thing instead of the
- 28:16fear of man when it was Abraham's not fear of God, but
- 28:19fear of man that caused the very situation.
- 28:21But it's a Pagan who actually out of fear of God, does what
- 28:24he's supposed to do when Abraham didn't.
- 28:28Amazing, right? Abram was in a bind.
- 28:33But God and Pharaoh, out of fear of God gives Abram's wife back.
- 28:39Third thing to write down is God's call on your life
- 28:43ultimately depends on but God, if God's call on your life is
- 28:50going to be a reality, guess what?
- 28:52I'm going to fail at it at times and you are too and for it to
- 28:56continue into remain. I guarantee you it's going to
- 28:58depend on more than one, but God a shift from your weakness to
- 29:04his divine power. Let me explain it like this
- 29:07Romans chapter 3 verse 4 makes a little statement that I love it
- 29:11says this. Let God be true though everyone
- 29:15a liar. And what in the world does that
- 29:18mean? Paul is explaining the situation
- 29:22and answering this question. His question is this, does the
- 29:25unfaithfulness of the Israelites who were entrusted with the
- 29:30promises of God mean that God is unfaithful?
- 29:34Did the unfaithfulness of God's people mean that God is
- 29:37unfaithful? Paul says by no means, by no
- 29:41means. He says let everyone be a liar.
- 29:44God will still be true, right? God will still be faithful.
- 29:49God will still be fulfilling His promises.
- 29:51He cannot lie. He cannot be unfaithful.
- 29:53He cannot break his promises. Friends, that is good news.
- 29:58Aren't you glad God remains faithful despite our lapses in
- 30:03unfaithfulness to Him? I want to make a statement here,
- 30:08and I don't want you to miss it. You ready?
- 30:11Fear and unfaithfulness can cause you and me to forfeit many
- 30:18of the blessings of God, but they can never cause God to
- 30:23break His promises to you. I'm going to say that one more
- 30:27time. Fear and unfaithfulness can
- 30:30cause you and me to forfeit many of the blessings of God if we
- 30:34choose to walk in fear versus faith.
- 30:36But those things can never 'cause God to break His promises
- 30:41to you. Somebody here this morning needs
- 30:44to hear that. You want to know why?
- 30:47Because perhaps you've lived in fear and you might be living in
- 30:50fear right now because you've lapsed into unfaithfulness.
- 30:54Maybe you failed. Maybe you know, and you could
- 30:57count the blessings in your life you forfeited because of walking
- 31:01in fear versus fate. Maybe you assume you might as
- 31:04well give up. Maybe you think you might as
- 31:06well walk away. God can no longer use you want
- 31:08you or desire or God's will be done in your life and you are
- 31:11wrong. God is always true, no matter
- 31:14every man, a liar or unfaithful. God is always faithful to His
- 31:17promises. And what has God promised you?
- 31:20To start in you. What he started in you.
- 31:21To bring to what? To completion.
- 31:24To never leave you nor forsake you.
- 31:26That nothing could snatch you out of his hands.
- 31:31That he that he's going to complete, that he's going to see
- 31:35through, that He's going to be with you and never give up.
- 31:38But God, y'all just to review for a second, answering God's
- 31:43call on your life does not eliminate all difficulty.
- 31:46So let me say this, if you're in that spot right now where you're
- 31:50in various trials, what you need to hear and remember is this
- 31:55storm too shall pass, OK? And your faith will be stronger
- 32:02if you trust God. Don't run to fear the storm.
- 32:07I guarantee you will pass. All right.
- 32:09God's plan involves temporary trial for the sake of your long
- 32:13term, forever perfection. All right, this storm is going
- 32:17to pass. Second, fear can cause you to
- 32:21forfeit many of God's blessings. All right, when you are afraid,
- 32:26you've got to choose to believe the promises of God.
- 32:30The only reason you would walk in fear is if you actually don't
- 32:33believe the promises of God. You got to choose to believe.
- 32:36You got to go back to God's word.
- 32:38You've got to hold on as an anchor for your soul.
- 32:40All right. And God's promises are true no
- 32:42matter what your circumstances are.
- 32:45And God's call on your life ultimately depends on but God
- 32:49when you mess up and you will hear me when you mess up and you
- 32:53will ask God for a but God say God, I've failed, I've walked in
- 33:01fear, I've been unfaithful. But God, I need you now to shift
- 33:05me from my human weakness to your divine power.
- 33:07Without it, I won't make it. God, I need a but God final
- 33:12thing in your notes, you can write these blanks in.
- 33:15When you face difficulty in fear, walk by faith in the
- 33:19faithfulness of God. When you face difficulty in
- 33:23fear, walk by faith in the faithfulness of God.
- 33:27John and praise team are going to come out and here's what I
- 33:30want to invite you to do this morning.
- 33:32You may be in the room and you've never taken that leap of
- 33:36faith to trust Jesus as your Savior.
- 33:39Would you do so today? Why wait?
- 33:42Why wait? Today, the Bible says, is the
- 33:44day of salvation. The promises of God are true.
- 33:48Will you believe? Will you receive?
- 33:50I'm going to stand right here so that if you need to step out and
- 33:52speak to me, I'll wait to pray, to talk with you.
- 33:54We'll have encouragers that'll be close.
- 33:56Maybe you're in a storm this morning.
- 33:59Maybe that storm's been going for a while and you want to come
- 34:02and treat these steps like an altar before God, where you can
- 34:05come, stand or kneel and say, God, I need help believing this
- 34:08storm's going to pass. God, I need help believing that
- 34:11these trials are actually for my good, because God, I don't
- 34:14understand why, but God, I'm going to.
- 34:17I'm going to believe that you're using these for my good.
- 34:19Maybe you just want to come and kneel before the Lord.
- 34:23Maybe maybe you're walking in fear and you want to say, God, I
- 34:28want to give you this fear and I'm going to ask you to give me
- 34:31faith. God, I don't want to forfeit
- 34:33your blessings on my life. Or maybe you're to that point.
- 34:37You say God, if I don't get a but God, I've got no hope and
- 34:39you just want to come ask, come get on your knees.
- 34:42Say God, would you intervene trade out my weakness for your
- 34:45divine power? Father, I prayed that you would
- 34:47give us a yes in our souls to you this morning in every way,
- 34:51in Jesus name I pray, Amen. Would you stand with me, Church?