Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Equipped 2026: "Abram's Call and Covenant (Gen. 12-14)" by Brian Collins

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Equipped 2026: "Abram's Call and Covenant (Gen. 12-14)" by Brian Collins · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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we love you we are in all of your glory and power your majesty we're grateful
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for your love for us we're grateful that you have heard and answered prayers in
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times past that you've allowed us to be here today we're grateful father that we
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can hear the word preached and proclaimed in truth and clarity we pray
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that our hearts and minds will be open in this next hour that we would give
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attention to your word and that we might grow thereby we pray your blessings on
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those that are less fortunate those who may not be able to be here those whose
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life situations are such they may be struggling or suffering and we pray
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father for blessing for them help us to take the things that we hear and learn
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today and this weekend and to share them apply them to our lives and tell all
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that will hear us the good news about Jesus we pray for the speaker that he
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would speak and preach with boldness and honesty and humility that we might
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hear and receive with meekness and grafted word is able to save our souls
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we thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name we pray amen good
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afternoon I want to take this moment to thank the leadership of this
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congregation for putting this on and for the invitation to be here and I just
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want to say that you guys know how to do this this is my first time here and
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I didn't really know exactly what to expect but you guys do this first class
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all the way from the time we got here until until now just very well done and
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I really appreciate the work that you've put into it on the front end to pull our
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lessons together and and as well as put us up for the for the night and just all
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the various things that went into this I really appreciate what y'all done and
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thank you for the opportunity to be here if you would be turning it to Genesis
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chapter 12 is where we'll take most of our lesson this afternoon I don't know
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how many of you in the audience are actually members here at the Lehman Road
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congregation as Kevin mentioned he and I have have gotten acquainted with one
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another over the last year and a half or so with he and his family visiting
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the Gulf Shores area but I have another connection to this congregation and that
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is my aunt and uncle are regular members here Linda and Roger Taylor I don't they
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they couldn't be here this afternoon I don't think and but I was able to get in
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town and to spend a few hours with them yesterday and that was good I used to
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come to Bowling Green as a as a child and spend a week with my cousins their
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children and my sister and I are the same age as their two children and so we
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would spend at least a week each summer with them and one one summer would be up
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here or they'd come and spend a week with us in Hopkinsville I am originally
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from Hopkinsville haven't lived there since 1983 been spent most of that time
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in Alabama and now South Alabama but what I ask you once again turn to
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Genesis chapter 12 with me I want to begin by reading this afternoon here in
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verse in chapter 12 beginning of the first verse now the Lord said to Abram go
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from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I
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will show you I will make of you a great nation I will bless you and make your
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name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless you I will bless
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those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you
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all the families of the earth will be blessed so Abram went and as the Lord
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had said to him and lot with went with him Abram was 75 years old when he
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departed from Haran and Abram took Sarah to be his wife and lot his brother's son
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and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had
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acquired in Haran and they set out to go to the land of Canaan when they came to
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the land of Canaan Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem to the
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yoke of Morah at that time the Canaanites were in the land and the Lord
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appeared to Abram and said to your offspring I will give this land so he
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built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him from there he moved
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to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel
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on the west and I on the east and there he built an altar to the Lord and called
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upon the name of the Lord and Abram journeyed on still going toward the
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negative I'm gonna end there you know the the exposition was given to me of
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chapters 12 through 14 I will say a few things about 13 and 14 and passing I'll
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mention a little something about chapter 15 but not to go over into the next
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lesson but our focus really is going to be here in these first nine verses of
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chapter 12 now if we go back a little bit just to kind of establish where we
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are and get pick up a little bit of the context in Genesis chapter 5 we are told
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that Noah was ten generations removed from Adam and that's to me a key point
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of course we read in Genesis 6 8 that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord
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not only did he himself find grace in the Lord because of that his family was
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chosen to restart the human race there in the mountains of Ararat God took Noah
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and his family from where they had been from there and we'll just call it a
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comfortable lifestyle a comfortable abode and move them to those mountains
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of Ararat and of course we know that this was at the end of the flood that
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the flood was coming and Noah had done all the preparations for the flood and
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that there would be nothing left recognizable of that home that he had
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left so there would have been no reason it wouldn't have mattered where God put
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him down on the earth because he was going to have to start over and it would
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be his family that would be starting over for the human race you'll also
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notice that one of the defining characteristics of Noah was that he did
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everything that God asked him to do Genesis chapter 7 verse 5 Noah was
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obedient now when we read about Noah's lineage in Genesis chapter 9 Abram you'll
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notice was ten generations removed from Noah I think that's interesting I find
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that fascinating that like Noah before him Abram had a heart that was tuned and
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turned toward God and God was going to bless him for that and although it does
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not tell us that Abram found favor in the eyes of the Lord in the same way
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that he did Moses or Noah we know that that was true that Abram had found favor
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in the eyes of God for the fact that he was chosen from that line of Shem that
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we noticed from the previous brother the Noah's son that he was going to
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father God's chosen people again you know it's an interesting comparison and
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I don't want to get too far afield I don't want to speculate too much but you
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know about assigning much of a deeper meaning to that but just the fact that
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these two men ten generations removed from one another were similar in the
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fact of their obedience now I won't I don't think it's too bold for me to say
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that these two men Noah and Abram were archetypes these were the examples of
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what God was looking for in men that he would bless and is there anything
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different about God today don't you think that that's exactly what he's
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looking for in men and women today he's looking for people regardless of what
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generation you are you know we name our generations right my grandfather was
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actually both of my grandfathers were of the greatest generation my father is a
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my father and mother were boomers okay and we've got I'm of that generation
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that has that nasty letter X you know but whatever we decide to name the
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generation whatever generation you consider yourself to be from God is
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looking for men and women who will be obedient whose hearts and minds are
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tuned and turned toward him and you when you think about it that's exactly what
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Jesus was like right John chapter 6 verse 38 tells us that Jesus came not to do
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his own will but the will of the Father who sent him so Jesus is looking for
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men and women who want to do what God commands and we know that God was about
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to do just what he did with Noah to Abram he was going to move him from
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where he was to a place that he deemed to be more suitable more appropriate and
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we'll get into that in just a minute but again a little more context when we
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look at Ephesians the fourth chapter the fourth verse Paul talked to the
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Ephesian church and later to us about our call that's what we're talking about
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today Abram's call in his covenant we have a call we received a call Paul told
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us about in Ephesians 4 for we need to keep our call in the back of our minds
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as we think about Abram and his call the term church itself the name when you go
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back to the original language what we translate church was a word ecclesia
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being out and Kaleo the verb to be called out or to call out to call you
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put those together and you get the called out or the called out ones you
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and I as the church the people we are the ones who've been called out of the
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darkness of this world into the marvelous light of a Savior Jesus Christ
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we're the called out ones we've received a call when I was a student at Heritage
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Christian University you know yesterday last week right fellow this morning was
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talking about being 42 you know plus yeah I will I'm not if he was 42 I'm 35
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plus but yeah back when I was at Heritage Christian University a little
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further along long ago than I like to think about that it seems like yesterday
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to me I was one of the assignments that I had in dr. Steven guy's class on
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homiletics was to do a five to ten minute videotaped speech of our call to
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preach how were you called to preach the gospel I know that a lot of people are
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uncomfortable with that terminology and that idea but you know if we are all
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called by the gospel we're called out we've received a call I think that most
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of us as preachers do feel that we were called in a way to preach the gospel and
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I had the opportunity not just to present that but to hear my classmates
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and their ideas about how they were called to preach the gospel and it was
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an enriching experience do you know I knew where that was coming from for me
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but I hadn't heard other people's perspective of it and so it was a good
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enriching experience to hear that not only was I called like you were out of
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darkness and into the light of Jesus Christ I was further called to preach
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the gospel I believe that and I'll tell you that it wasn't I never heard an
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audible voice whispered in my ear you need to preach the gospel it wasn't like
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that at all as preachers when we talk about our our call to preach we talk
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about it in Elijah like terms it's that still small voice but it's not really a
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voice it's just this thing that will not allow you to rest until you are
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completely engaged in what you know God is calling you to do you can't do
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anything else successfully until you're engaged in that again it's not an actual
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human voice it's just that thing that will not let you rest now if you'll turn
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with me really quickly I want you to see this and this was a different kind of
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call Isaiah chapter 6 hold your finger there at chapter 12 we're gonna at
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Genesis 12 we're gonna go back to that but Isaiah tells us in the first six
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verses about seeing a vision of the temple this was Isaiah's call he saw the
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Lord high and and lifted up and the foundations of the thresholds shook with
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the voice that called him and he thought he was undone because he was a man of
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unclean lips and in verse 8 it says that he heard the voice of the Lord
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asking whom shall I send and who will go for us and then I said here am I send
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me I'll let you read the rest of that because you know when Isaiah describes
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that he begins to ask questions what have I signed up for sometimes that call
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and following that call can be uncomfortable it'll call you from a
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place of comfort to a place that's not so comfortable and I envision that in
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the life of Noah and in the life of Abram being called by God to leave that
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comfortable life and go to something that's uncomfortable how comfortable
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would it have been for Noah in the middle of nowhere to be building a boat
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when he wasn't anywhere near water and it had never rained people thought he
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was crazy how comfortable would it be to go from
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Haran to an area of cursed people the Bible talks about a lot of different
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calls and as I said I was I was given assigned the exposition of chapters 12
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through 14 but to me the heart of 12 through 14 is chapter 12 verses 1 through
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9 and you'll know why in just a minute and that's that's where I'm focusing
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for the time that we have because I believe that in that call in those
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verses there are four things that are really appropriate that are relevant for
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those of you who are sitting in this in this audience so you know we love Bible
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knowledge and Bible knowledge is indispensable but it's not just about
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knowing it's about applying you know you can know a lot without knowing how to
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apply it I want you to know how to apply it how does what what does Abrams
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call and his covenant what does that mean to me as a modern Christian living
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today that's what I want you to be able to go home with today and so the first
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thing that I think that you can really hang your hat on today is that call that
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initial call get up and go I call it God's prompt you know somehow some way
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God prompted you you probably had a friend who introduced you to the truth
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of the gospel you were probably searching for it in some way and when
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you heard repent each one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the
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remission of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit you
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probably it may have clicked for you when you saw when you saw all of those
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other examples in the in the in the book of Acts you realize that I've got
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to obey the gospel you were called through the gospel
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Abraham heard the voice of God it is call was an audible voice the voice of
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God as the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 you know there was a
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time when God spoke directly to the fathers this is what we're looking at
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right here he is the father one of the fathers and God spoke directly to him
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and I want you to notice there in verse 1 of chapter 12 God said go I got a lot
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to say but the first word to Abram was go and then when you look down in verse
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4 you see it says Abram went simple formula when you answered the call of
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God it was be baptized for the remission of your sins and you you went you went
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into the water and came up out of the water we'll talk more about that in a
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minute in Romans chapter 4 Paul talked about and I don't have time to read it I
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wish I had time to for us to read through Romans 4 and really develop it
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in connection with this idea of Abram's call because Paul was using Abram's call
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in Romans 4 to help us understand that Abraham believed God Genesis 15 6 and
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it was accounted to him as righteousness you see this was a righteousness by God
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saying go and him going God looked at that and said that's righteous when God
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accounts it to you and says that's righteous there can be nothing else so
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this was a righteousness Paul describes in Romans chapter 4 as a righteousness
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that Abraham was clothed with he was given that righteous it was accounted
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that righteousness it was accounted to him by God again Paul is using that Old
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Testament account and applying it to the Christian life calling you and I to
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obedience if you will believe God if you will obey God God will account that to
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you as righteousness not because of something you've done but because you
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obeyed the voice of God simple formula Jesus said said this curious thing in
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the Sermon on Mount Matthew chapter 5 verse 20 he said unless your
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righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never
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enter the kingdom of heaven little side note here there are two other accounts
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that I can think of right off the top of my head in 1st Corinthians 1st
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Corinthians chapter 6 in Galatians I believe it's verse 5 where it says that
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same phrase will not inherit the kingdom of God folks we better listen to
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that we're living in a world that tells everybody that as long as you believe
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you know all roads lead to God that's impossible Jesus refuted that John
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chapter 14 I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father
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except through me unless your righteousness except you know that just
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blows my mind how can we be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees
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they thought themselves well when you think about what their righteousness was
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what was it it was self-righteousness the kind you see from people burning
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things in the street burning down cities today that is self-righteousness scribes
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and Pharisees only had self-righteousness stinging stunning
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self-righteousness they rejected the command of God the will of God for
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themselves by rejecting John's baptism the only righteousness that exceeds that
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of the scribes and the Pharisees is that that is accounted to you by God himself
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the righteousness that Christ clothes you with when you make that simple
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decision to obey the voice of God to obey the call of the gospel initially
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with your baptism and then perpetually throughout your life by continuing to
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obey the voice of God by continued faith and obedience so I'll sum it up like
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this Abram trusted the voice of God so much imagine this just you put yourself
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in these shoes Abram trusted the voice of God so much that he picked his family
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up and he moved them you think about that come at home one day saying honey
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Sarah I heard the voice of God today and he said to move ladies are you ready
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you're ready to follow that your husband comes home said God told me to
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move I know you're gonna think he's crazy okay do you think that Sarah had
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it any different but she went with him he trusted the voice of God so much he
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picked up his family and their belongings and he went exactly where God
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told him to go where God showed him that tells me this this is the practical part
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when your husband comes home and says that that he's heard the voice of God
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he's you know he's been called to preach you're scared to death you don't know
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where that call is gonna take you those of you who are married to preachers in
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this audience today you know what I'm talking about he came home one day and
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said I've got a priest the word I can't do anything else point being here there
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is no reason to fear when we follow the voice of God from the scriptures no no
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reason to fear following the voice of God second thing I want you to go home
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with today is God's promise God made several promises to Abraham here and
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each one of these things you notice were things that God bound himself to in
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Abraham's favor and every one of them begins with I will now that is a future
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statement isn't it when you say I will do something it's not you know when I
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was a kid my father when he would say son it's time to take out the trash my
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father meant right now okay now I was not a good kid because I did not I rarely
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ever went right then my response was I will do it when I'm ready you see that
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that's a different that's different isn't it but God is making these future
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promises I will I will show you where to go Abraham trusted God so much he picked
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up his wife and his children and his family and his belongings and everything
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and he went I'll show you where to go that's not enough information for most
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of you where are we going whenever I'm going somewhere and my son is going with
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me and well my wife too they want an agenda I don't work that way I don't
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write down agendas I say we're going and we go sometimes the wind takes us where
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it will that's the adventure right some people just have to know where and you
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know there are elements to the rest of the story where Abraham was that way too
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Abraham is going to get himself into a lot of trouble because he's trying to
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force God's hand he's trying to he can't get God to tell him when he's going to
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get this air and so he assumes that Ishmael is going to be the air he
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assumes that he's gonna you know make it happen for himself I don't have time to
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talk about those things the other speakers will I'll show you where to go
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verse 2 I will make you a great nation man how bad his head was about to explode
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what does that mean you're gonna make me a great nation if somebody told me
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I'm gonna make you rich wealthy I mean it would just blow my mind how you gonna
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do that how you gonna take this raw material and make it into a billionaire
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and you see what I'm saying but he says I will bless you I'll make your name
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great I will bless those who bless you as it cursed those who curse you all the
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families of the earth are gonna be blessed in you and the bit mean I would
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be drawing a blank here how in the world is that gonna happen and the big
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question in Abraham's mind was when okay when when and Abraham's actions
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throughout the rest of Genesis where he's mentioned you can tell that the big
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question in Abraham's mind is when I need to know I'm getting old and I still
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don't have an air when God when is it gonna be in verse 7 he says I will give
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this land to your offspring and it tells us there that God was speaking
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directly to Abraham at that point and you think about each one of these few
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these promises future in orientation each one of those promises originated in
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the mind of God think about how generous that is think about the generosity of
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God here I am gonna do these things for you God thought of everything he with
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held nothing he was gonna give it all willingly he was gonna willingly hand
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all this over to Abram simply because Abram when God said go he went now let
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me ask you something when you look at that list I'm gonna show you where to go
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I'm gonna make you a great nation I'm gonna make your name great I'm gonna
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bless the people that bless you I'm gonna curse the people to curse you I'm
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gonna fight your enemies for you and I'm gonna give this land to your
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offspring which one of those things would not be a motivating factor for you
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to do what God said let me ask you which one of these things is God left out he's
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got a land prepared for you he's got blessings for you he'll fight your
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enemies for you which one of these things isn't true of God's people today
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he's showing us he's in the process of showing us where to go maybe not
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physically sometimes he's making of us a great nation I all those things apply to
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us still and Abram was about to go to the land of Canaan that cursed son of
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Ham and they eventually inhabited that land because of God's curse God was
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going to dispossess those cursed people so the Israelites would inhabit that
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land Abraham Abram it said pitched his tent with Bethel to the west are Bethel
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to the west and I on the east after building that altar he continued going
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in the direction that God was moving him now the application of that in Jesus
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Jesus fulfilled God's will so that you could have that land we call it a
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heavenly home heaven being our promised land every that the promise to Abraham
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is still being fulfilled in Jesus Christ you can think about it that way third
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thing that I want you to go home with today is we see God's power in this
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God's power God demonstrated his power over the Egyptians long before the book
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of Exodus generations before what we read in Exodus we learn about a famine
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that Abram needed to escape and so he went into Egypt and I think it's
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interesting that Abram does the the very same thing that caused the Israelites to
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go and become slaves in the land of Egypt generations before that ever
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happened Abram devised a plan before he ever arrived in Egypt you can read that
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in verses 10 through 20 of chapter 12 you know this is where he were going to
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Egypt and he tells Sarah tell them that you're my sister because you know she
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was a beautiful wife I believe that my wife is beautiful and it is not a
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burden to me that she is that she is beautiful but to Abram we find that he
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does this twice once here and later in another chapter he tells Sarah you are
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beautiful and that beauty is a burden and they're gonna come and they're gonna
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take you and they might kill me and it happened just like Abram said she was
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beautiful he knew that the Pharaoh was going to want her in his harem and so
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she claimed to be a sister because Abram said they won't kill me if you're my
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sister the king wasn't you know if she was coming in his harem he wasn't he was
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not gonna have a rival for her and it's interesting that to me and I don't have
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time to you know go into a big explanation about this and talk about
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this deeply but it's interesting to me that how willing Abram was to sacrifice
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her to save his own life why would he let his own wife go into the king's
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harem just to save his own skin I don't know the answer to that but as I said
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this is exactly what occurred she was seen and she was praised to the Pharaoh
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and taken into the harem but it went south it went downward very very quickly
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God afflicted Pharaoh and his house it says with great plagues prefiguring
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there interesting how this whole event prefigures what's going to happen to the
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descendants of Abraham generations later and of course just like the Pharaoh
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in the time of Moses sent the Israelites away Pharaoh sent Abram and his wife
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away with all that he had that was it's prophetic I don't think that we think
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about this like that but when you really look at this this is prophetic of what's
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going to happen generations later and then fourth we're running out of time
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the fourth thing I want you to go home with is that you see God's presence here
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like I said I'm going to mention to you chapters 13 through 15 Abraham and Lot
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they become so successful this is chapter 13 they become so successful
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with flocks and herds that they've got to separate and lots choice of land I
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wish I had more time to talk about this you know Abraham takes him up and he
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shows him the land and he says you know you just pick we've got to divide we're
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both successful we're going to have to we're going to have to part ways you go
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one way I'll let you choose first you choose what you want and I'll go the
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other way and of course we've I've been told this since I was a little kid in
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Sunday school that Lot looked out at that Jordan Valley and he saw the best
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land and he saw an opportunity for himself and he chose what was of the two
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choices he took the better of the two but when you know the rest of the story
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you realize that that was a fateful decision because Lot was just thinking
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about that green grass in the valley in the Jordan Valley he wasn't thinking
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about Sodom and Gomorrah and the kind of people that he would ally himself to for
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a time and it was going to bring him to his end and you notice that when Sodom
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is destroyed and Lot is fleeing into the hills and his wife becomes a pillar
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of salt he's left with nothing but these two daughters and the worst thing that
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you can imagine happens and then the story of Lot ends right there we don't
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hear anything more of him anymore we don't learn anything more about his life
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he becomes a footnote in history Abram took the lesser and yet you got the
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power of God the presence of God made Abram prosper on that not so good land
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but more than that every statement in the promise of God to Abram every action
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Abram took by faith by moving by separating from Lot by going and
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rescuing Lot chapter 14 and being blessed by Melchizedek to chapter 15
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where the covenant is actually sealed in the separating of those animals and God
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passing through the midst of them the sealing of that covenant every one of
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those things demonstrate the fact even though it doesn't come right out and say
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it God was with Abram you say well why are you making such an emphasis of that
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what's so important about that God's presence every one of us in this room we
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pray I'm hoping that you pray for this we pray for God's presence in our lives
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God be with us when we do XYZ whatever your prayers are we ask for God to be
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with us and God would continue to say those very words to each successive
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generation to remind them of God's presence in their obedience he said to
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Isaac I'll be with you to Jacob to Joseph to Moses and Joshua I will be
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with you and that was what firmed them up that's what gave them the courage to
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go and do what God called them to do God continued to say this to Gideon and even
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to Saul I will be with you Jesus said it multiple times to his disciples I
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will be with you Paul said it to the church at Corinth to the church at
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Philippi because that is comfort that is the comfort that you and I that we're
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looking for we want to know God's presence in our lives we want to know
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that God is with us when we travel we want to know that God is with us when
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we're raising our children we want to know that God is with us when we go on a
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mission trip we want to know that God is with us when we start a new business
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we want to know what that God is with us no matter what we're doing if we are a
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child of God we want to know that promise we want to know that presence
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that God is with me today that's our comfort is that children have promised
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through Jesus Christ that God is with us because with when God is with us we
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can't be defeated that's what Paul said in Romans 831 if God is for us who can
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be against us now I could have added a fifth point here and I was probably wise
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not to but when you look at this you see God's providence don't you that's
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something we talk about that's another thing that we want we want to know that
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what when we're fulfilling when we're when we're answering the call and we're
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going about our lives that God is with us and that he is going to deliver us he
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is going to show us where to go providentially and providentially every
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day that we wake up and we have a roof over our heads that we have the power to
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stand up on our own two feet that we have the the ability to step our foot in
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any one direction that we have nourishment and sustenance we know that
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that is God providing that is providence great blessings come from doing the will
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of God he's called us to go just as he called to Abel but that call to us is
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found in Matthew 28 18 through 20 it's found in Mark 16 15 15 16 go go make
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disciples go preach the gospel God has promised us salvation through our Savior
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Jesus Christ there is nothing for us to fear in doing the work of God his plan
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when we sit when we look at the plot the plan of the promise and the covenant of
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Abram we see that God's plan is always what's going to come to fruition that's
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what's always going to be done it's going to come about by his power no
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matter our missteps no matter our mistakes no matter our questions no
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matter our wondering what's happened what's going to happen next you've made
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all these promises they're all future-oriented when Lord his plans
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being done we can be confident of that I appreciate your time and attention this
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morning this afternoon