Latest / Scripture Unscripted / Genesis chapter 18

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Genesis chapter 18 · Scripture Unscripted

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  Genesis chapter 18, let us pray our God King, forever worthy to
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  be praised. You are the most high God.
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  You're the only God. You're the only uncreated.
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  Every other God is an idol. So, Lord, we break down all the
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  idols that we have formed in our own minds.
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  Lord, we breakdown all the images, God, that we have built
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  up within our own self. God, I pray that you'll help us
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  to kick them out and pulverize them in the mighty name of Jesus
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  into dust. God, we crush the head of
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  opposition under our feet. In the mighty name of Jesus, we
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  rebuke all opposition. Father, I pray for mental
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  clarity. God, I pray for a place of
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  peace. Lord, I pray that we can step in
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  to the holiest of holy places. God, I pray that we can step in
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  and dine and Sup with you. God, we want to see you rightly
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  cover us with the train of your robe.
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  Father, I pray you'll gird up our loins and let us stand in
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  your holy presence. Father, we will not shrink back.
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  Lord, we are resolute in our witness.
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  Father, for you are worthy of all of our adoration, You are
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  worthy of all of our attention. You are worthy, King Jesus.
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  You are majestic, You are beautiful.
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  Your face is beautiful, Father, eyes like fire and hair like
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  wool. God, we hear your voice, the
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  many sound of the multitudes, God reverberating across the
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  pages of scripture, inspired words breathed by the Holy
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  Spirit. We thank you for allowing us to
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  hold them in our hands, God, help us to hide them in our
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  hearts. Father, I pray that you'll
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  continue to show up and show off and blow the pictures off the
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  wall. God, I pray that you'll wreck us
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  with your presence. God, I pray that you'll ravish
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  us with your love. God, I pray that you'll continue
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  to visit us. God, continue to show us your
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  glory. God, come and get your glory.
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  Father, in your Saints that are sold out unto you.
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  Lord, I pray that we can stiff arm all the cares and the snares
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  of this world. I pray that we're not entangled
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  by the affairs of this world. God, I pray that we'll run the
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  race well. God, I pray that you'll help us
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  to take the torch and pass it to the next generation.
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  Lord, we pray generational blessings upon our family.
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  God 7 generations God and beyond, we pray that there will
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  be those attached to us, Lord, that love you, that love the
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  way, God, that love Yeshua. Lord, we pray for the
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  government. God, we pray for law
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  enforcement, We pray for the military.
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  God, we pray for righteous judges, we pray God for the
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  teachers. Lord.
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  We pray that you'll raise up men and women unto yourself, Lord,
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  that propagate the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to
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  Revelation. God, help us to put the 10
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  commandments back in the courthouse.
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  God, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus for prayer to you, the
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  only way back on the lips of teachers and children.
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  Lord, I pray in the mighty name of Jesus for those that are
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  caught up in the justice system. God, free the captives.
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  God, I pray for truth to be revealed.
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  Lord, I pray that you'll help us, God, to be your hands and
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  feet, to go into the darkest place it's got, and to witness
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  for you regardless of the outcome.
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  Well, we count our lives as nothing, for You are worthy to
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  be praised, worthy of all honor, of all due benevolence.
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  Father, it is you, and it is only You that we are here for.
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  Hide me, Father. Hide my words, God.
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  Hide all of my own theology and doctrine.
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  Break it all down, God. Any kind of selfish motives,
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  Lord, Break it down, Father, and I pray that your glory will be
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  revealed. Your plan for the ages, Lord,
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  Your eschatology and your prophetic message spoken through
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  the revealed will of your Word, God, to the ends of the earth
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  for all people groups, all nations.
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  God, I pray that you'll continue to call the elect unto yourself.
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  God, elect more. Father, I pray that you, Lord,
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  will come and teach and bind the enemy God from off of this time.
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  He has no place here. Shut the mouths of lions.
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  Crush the head of the serpent or let us walk amongst the fiery
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  stones and on the water. God, I pray for the indwelling
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  of the Holy Spirit filling us completely and totally and
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  utterly overflowing into the highways and the hedges and the
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  byways. God, let us be your mouthpiece
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  today, your hands and feet today.
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  Give us the mind of Christ today, for we love you.
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  Hashem, we love you. Ruakadesh, we love you, come and
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  get your glory. Show us your paths.
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  Lord, we acknowledge you this morning, so continue to push us
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  into grander and greater measures of your love and mercy,
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  your kindness and long-suffering.
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  God, it is in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, holy and precious and
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  powerful, an amazing and awesome name that I pray.
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  Amen. Well, let's start in verse one.
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  And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he
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  sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
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  Look at how Abraham here is just expectantly awaiting any kind of
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  visitors. Look at how he sits in the tent
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  door and he is at peace. Look at how he is just in his
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  calling. He's walking in the steadfast
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  obedience. He is a man of righteousness and
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  faith. Verse 2 And he lift up his eyes,
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  and he looked, and lo, three men stood by him, and when he saw
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  them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself
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  toward the ground. You can see the customs of the
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  day was to show hospitality to strangers.
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  We can see a couple things about angels here, how they can
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  manifest within the human body. And some have entertained
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  angels, unaware they did not even know it.
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  And that is the call for us to remain hospitable.
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  We are not to let our faith grow cold, friends.
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  Jesus said when the Son of Man returns, will he even find faith
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  on this earth? And because of the increase of
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  evil, the love of most will grow cold.
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  And we are called to keep our love hot, friends.
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  Keep your love burning friends. And hear Abraham.
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  He's ready to receive. He counts it all as joy to
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  receive these messengers. Verse 3 And said, My Lord, if
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  now I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by, I pray
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  from your servant. So he had an inclination that
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  this was much more than just three random visitors passing
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  through for little, little water.
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  I pray be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under
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  the tree. So here Abraham is doing all
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  that he knows how to do and what to do in order to find grace and
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  favor within these visitors. Countenance within these
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  visitors meaning of coming to Abraham.
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  And verse 5. And I will fetch a morsel of
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  bread and comfort you your hearts.
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  After that you shall pass on, for therefore are you come to
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  your servant. And they said, So do as you have
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  said. So they received his worship,
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  they received his hospitality. They said, Go on and do what it
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  is that you have proposed to do in your heart. 6 And Abraham
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  hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready
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  quickly. 3 measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes
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  upon the hearth. So here this is simple bread
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  making. This would have been like naan
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  inside of the tandoor, as it's made quickly and stuck between
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  the hearth and baked quickly. 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd
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  and fetched the calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young
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  man, and he hasted to dress it. So he took this young little cow
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  and he dressed it quickly, and it would have been like a nice
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  veal dinner, friends. And he took butter and milk and
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  the calf which he addressed, and he set it before them, and he
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  stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
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  Now look at how the resurrected body of Jesus Christ on the
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  beach whenever Peter ran to him and he was eating the fish.
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  Look at how the resurrected body of Christ is able to eat.
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  You know that we are going to eat in heaven, but we will not
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  have to eat to survive like we do here.
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  There will be this beautiful marriage supper of the lamb that
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  we will be invited to, and it'll be amazing when we drink of the
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  fruit of the vine with our Lord Christ. 9 And they said to him,
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  Where's Sarah, your wife? And he said, behold, in the
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  tent, they already knew where she was, but they're drawing
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  things out of Abraham. This is God's way of maturing,
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  his faithful maturing those that he is, that he has called.
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  And that is what you're going to see throughout this chapter, is
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  that God's going to ask questions through Christ.
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  This is a Christophany. This is Jesus Christ before his
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  Incarnate birth in Bethlehem. This is him coming upon the
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  scene and he has his two angels with him and he's asking Abraham
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  questions. And it is not as if he doesn't
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  know. He already knows.
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  He's just drawing things out of Abraham and developing the
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  character within Abraham. And that is the same that he did
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  in the garden when he said, where are you after they had
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  eaten the forbidden fruit. And he said, I will certainly
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  return unto you according to this time of life.
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  And lo, Sarah, your wife shall have a son.
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  And Sarah herded in the tent door which was behind him.
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  So here they said, nine months I will return, and you will have a
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  son. And imagine in the last chapter,
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  friends, that God had already visited Abraham through Christ,
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  and he's told him in one year from that time she would have a
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  child. And then here nine months later
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  or three months later, he visits him.
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  It's a very short amount of time.
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  He was a year. And then here three months
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  later, he visits him and he tells him that in nine months
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  she will have a child. 11 And Abraham and Sarah were old and
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  well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after
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  the manner of women. She had already gone through
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  menopause. She had already went through the
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  changes. It was physically impossible for
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  a woman of her age to ever bear a child. 12 Therefore Sarah
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  laughed within herself, saying, After I'm grown old, shall I
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  have pleasure, my Lord, also being old?
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  So they were both old friends, they were ancient.
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  And here you can see that she laughs within herself. 13 And
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  the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I
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  of a surety bear a child which I'm old?
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  So here Jesus Christ heard the confines of Sarah's mind and
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  emotions, and he knew that within herself she laughed. 14
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  Is anything too hard for the Lord at the time appointed?
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  I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah
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  shall have a son. This is the key verse.
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  This is the hinge point of this chapter.
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  Friends, is anything too hard for the Lord?
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  We must bring this into our current situation that we find
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  ourselves in. There is nothing impossible for
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  our God and it is impossible for us to please God without faith.
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  And we must have the faith of a child in order for God to be
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  pleased with us and in order for us to enter into the Kingdom of
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  God. And that is what you need to
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  understand. It is nothing is too hard for
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  God. He literally can do anything
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  that he pleases, which he can reverse diseases, he can regrow
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  limbs, friends, he can have you to raise from the dead.
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  It can cause you to be caught up to meet him in the clouds.
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  There is nothing that is impossible for our God.
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  And he tells them, in nine months surely they will have a
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  child of their own. 15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I did not
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  laugh, but she was afraid. And he said, no, you did laugh.
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  So here again this gentle rebuke of our Lord.
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  This is the nature of Jesus Christ.
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  You see that there is no lying to Him.
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  There is no deceiving Him. He knows everything.
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  He knows all the things that are done in the secret place, good
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  or bad. Everything is naked and laid
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  bare before a holy God who sees it all.
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  And we must go ahead and confess and repent the things that are
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  holding us back from Him, and quit trying to operate in
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  spiritual pride, and quit trying to cover up our tracks, and quit
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  trying to hide from a holy God who already sees everything.
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  Friends, just confess it and repent it and allow the Spirit
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  to come in and to fill all of the empty places where you kick
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  out the idols that don't belong, and be filled with the Holy
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  Ghost today. 16 And the men rose up from there and looked towards
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  Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
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  This was the custom of the day. Abraham would have escorted them
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  away from there. 17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham
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  the thing which I am going to do?
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  So here is the Lord Jesus Christ having compassion, knowing that
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  Abraham is going to spring up and be a mighty nation and be
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  the light of the world, and point the entire world and all
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  people groups and all languages, and all continents towards
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  Yahweh everlasting. The God of Abraham, Isaac and
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  Jacob, the God of Israel, friends, is the maker of
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  everything seen and unseen, the only uncreated, and that is who
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  we attach ourselves to. And here he is seeing that
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  Abraham is going to be the father of the faith, and he's
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  saying, I will not hide what I'm about to do.
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  I'm going to develop him. 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely
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  become a great, mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth
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  will be blessed in him, every single person, no matter their
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  nationality, must come through the Jewish Savior.
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  It does not matter the background does not matter, the
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  language, does not matter the skin tone, it does not matter
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  your preferences. Every single blood bought, born
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  again believer who's going to bust heaven wide open must come
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  through the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 19 For I
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  know him, that he will command his children and his household
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  after him, and they will keep the way of the Lord to do
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  justice and judgment. And the Lord may bring upon
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  Abraham that which he has spoken of him.
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  He chose him, and he knows the beginning from the end, and the
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  end from the beginning. He is the alpha and the Omega.
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  He lives outside of time, and he knows that Abraham is going to
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  finish well regardless of all the hiccups along the way. 20
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  And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is
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  great, and because their sin is very grievous, so he gives him
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  the reason. It is not a knee jerk reaction.
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  This is not God just desiring to destroy.
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  This is because he loves so much that he cannot bear to see his
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  creation torn apart. 21 I will go down now and see whether they
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  have done all together according to the cry of it which has come
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  to me. And if not, I will know.
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  He already knows, friends, but he's revealing all of this to
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  Abraham. And you remember in the book of
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  Job where Satan has access to the throne room, and he comes in
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  and he asks him where he's been. And he's been to and fro all
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  over the earth. And they're bringing all kinds
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  of accounts here to God Almighty.
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  And you can see here that he goes down himself because he
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  does not want to just take it on the messengers and what they
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  have to say. He's going to lay the eyes upon
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  it himself, and he already sees it anyway, friends.
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  But He's giving us the facts and the truth that He doesn't do
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  anything out of emotion. It's all done within the
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  parameters of justice. It's all done within the
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  parameters of a long-suffering God who gives us plenty of space
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  and time to repent and to turn it around and to do the right
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  thing. But He will only put up with us
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  for so long before the judgment comes. 22 And the men turned
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  their faces from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood
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  yet before the Lord. So the two angels go on as
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  they're going towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham stays and
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  speaks with our Lord Jesus Christ, a preincarnate Christ,
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  the Christophany here in Genesis 23.
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  And Abraham drew near and said, will you also destroy the
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  righteous with the wicked? So here we see this intercessory
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  prayer and this is what he's after.
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  This is what God is after. He's wanting to develop this
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  intercessory prayer that Abraham is to model for us.
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  And we are not just to just put it in the Lord's hand and walk
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  away. We are to pray fervently for the
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  wicked. We are to pray fervently for our
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  enemies, friends, love them and pray for them and do not wish
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  evil upon those that are caught up in evil.
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  People are never the problem, it's the spirit behind the
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  people that we war against. Never forget that 24 what if
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  there be 50 righteous within the city?
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  Will you also destroy it and not spare the place for 50 righteous
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  that are in it? So here he's going into this
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  discourse, this dialogue with Jesus and he's saying, are you
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  going to destroy it? If there are 50 people there
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  that are righteous 25 that be far from you to do after this
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  manner to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the
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  righteous should be as the wicked that be far from you.
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  Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
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  So here Abraham is pricking Jesus heart and he's saying that
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  you will surely do what is right.
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  You're the maker of everything. You are the embodiment of
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  everything that is right and righteous and good.
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  And he's saying I know your character and there is no way
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  that you would destroy the righteous amongst the wicked.
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  And this is a beautiful picture of what happened with Noah, and
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  it's a beautiful picture of what is going to happen to Lot.
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  And it's a beautiful picture of what will happen to the church
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  friends. This is God's character, His
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  immutable character, His unchangeable character on
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  display for you to see. God rescues those that are
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  living right and they're doing the right thing and those that
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  belong to Him. And in Revelation chapter 3,
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  verse 10, it says that He will keep us from the hour of
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  temptation that is coming to test all the inhabitants of the
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  earth, and we will be caught up to meet Him in the clouds. 26
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  And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom, 50 righteous within the
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  city, I'll spare all the place for their sakes. 27 And Abraham
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  answered and said, Behold, now I have taken it upon me to speak
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  to the Lord, and I am just but dust and ashes.
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  This is the model that we saw back in Job when he just puts
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  his hand over his mouth and he says, I've said too much.
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  When God speaks, we cannot even start to say a single word.
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  It is nothing but silence. And here Abraham musters up
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  enough courage to speak unto the Creator of it all, who knows
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  everything, and he's trying to bargain with them and he's
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  trying to get him to reveal his true nature.
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  And it's always congruent with Scriptures is that God is love.
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  28 Well, what if they're lack five of the 50?
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  You'll destroy it for the lack of five.
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  And he said, if I find they're 45, I won't destroy it.
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  So here we go, this back and forth. 29 And he spoke to him
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  yet again, and he said, but what if there'd only be 40 there?
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  And he said, I will not do it for 40's sake.
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  So there they go back and forth and he's saying, what if there's
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  fifty? OK, I won't destroy it.
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  What if there's 45? OK, I won't destroy it.
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  OK, but what if there's 40? He says I will not destroy it.
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  30 And he said to him, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, I will
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  speak, What if there shall be only 30 found there?
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  And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. 31 And he said,
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  Behold, now I have taken it upon me to speak to the Lord, What if
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  there shall be 20 there? He said, I will not destroy it
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  for 20 sake. 32 And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I
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  will speak yet this once. What if 10 shall be found there?
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  And he said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake.
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  Perhaps Abraham thought within himself that Lot, his wife,
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  their two daughters, and their fiancees was going to be enough
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  with any of the ones that they were in Sodom and Gomorrah with
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  evangelizing to make up for the 10.
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  Let's see how the story goes. We'll end on 33.
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  And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left, communing
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  with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place.
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  So we don't see the Lord in the next chapter.
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  We don't see him going into Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  He came to share this meal with Father Abraham.
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  He came to let him know what he was going to do.
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  He came to develop the character of intercessory prayer.
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  And we can see here a beautiful gem mine of theological truths
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  for us to spend a lifetime uncovering about God and his
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  goodness and his justice and juxtaposition.
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  Friends, I hope you've been blessed by this amazing chapter
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  in God's Word. I know I sure have.
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  I'm praying for every single one of you.
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  I love you. We'll see you back here
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  tomorrow. God bless you.