Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 4, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 3: The Patriarchs, Part 1

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February 4, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 3: The Patriarchs, Part 1 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me here today.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray as we begin.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you for this time, and we just pray that you would give us insight and understanding that you want us to see.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And we pray these things in the name of Jesus.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Today we are looking at the patriarchal era, and we will be looking at this for several weeks.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: The term patriarch means the leader of a clan or a family or a tribe.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites trace their ancestry back to the patriarch Abraham.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Today we will see how Abraham became the father of the nation of Israel.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: The book of Genesis spans a period of around 2,350 years.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: The first 11 chapters, which describe the creation, the fall, the flood, and the tower of Babel covers a period of 2,000 years.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: The last 39 chapters of Genesis concerns Abraham and his seed, and it covers 350 years.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God gave more detailed information about Abraham and his descendants than he did about the origins of the universe.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: The line of descent from Abraham down to Moses is interesting as well.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, Jacob has Levi, Levi has Kohath, Kohath has Amram, Amram has Moses.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: So Moses is the great, great, great grandfather of Jacob, who himself was the was the grandson of Abraham.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: The term God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is repeated over and over in Scripture.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really sure why it doesn't continue with Levi and Amram and Kohat.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't know why that is.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: But perhaps it's because he gave those specific promises to these three leaders.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: The term, um, the names are very important in scripture in the Old Testament times, and they have significant meaning.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: This is certainly true for Abraham.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: When we first meet him, we discover that his name is Abram, which means exalted father.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Later, God gives him the name Abraham, and that means father of many nations.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: As we look at the patriarchs in the next three weeks, we are going to see the struggle that they have to believe God's promises and to act on those promises, and the challenge that they have to walk by faith and not by sight.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: And you've probably already seen this as you've been reading through.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Chuck Swindahl says, throughout his life, Abraham learned a lesson which we would do well to learn.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Following God doesn't have to be complicated.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Neglecting to follow God is what complicates life.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to see that lesson up close and personal for the next three weeks.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty crazy.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Abraham and his descendants learn firsthand that it is always safe to trust God in times of famine and feasting and in times of blessing and bondage.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: But we also see that those lessons do not come easily to them.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: God chose Noah to save eight people, and now he chooses Abraham and his descendants to be his special people in order to carry out the promise that he made in Genesis 3:15.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: In order to accomplish this, God makes a covenant promise with Abraham.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: And these three covenant promises God makes to Abraham are the promise of the land, the promise of descendants, and the promise of God's blessings.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: He is going to bless the world through blessing Abraham.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: God was determining to be faithful to one family so that all the families on earth could be blessed.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: The Messiah was going to come through this family line that God chooses, and all the people of the earth will be impacted by Messiah.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: One of the things we will clearly see is that all the patriarchs have this propensity toward scheming.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Through them, we see this tension between scheming and working things out for themselves versus walking by faith.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: And you've probably already seen that temptation that they have to take matters into their own hands.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: We'll see it today as well.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Another truth that we will see over and over is that God's relationship with man is not based on man's worth or strength or power or beauty or deeds.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on those things.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: His relationship with man is based on his faithfulness and man's faith.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that it is not built on those other things, that it's just the relationship is built on faith.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to be all of those things in order for God to use us.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: What a comfort that is.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: I love this quote by J.I.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Packer, and it's a it's a lengthy quote, but it is so good.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: I wish we could have time to unpack it, but we don't.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, What matters supremely, therefore, is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it, the fact that he knows me.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: I am graven upon the palms of his hands.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I am never out of his mind.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: My knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: He knows me as a friend, one who loves me.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: And there is no moment, there is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention, his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, of you in love, and watching over us for our good.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: There is certainly great cause for humility, and the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow man does not see, and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God, and the thought that for some unfathomable reason he wants me as his friend and desires to be my friend and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing quote.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: And as we read through the Bible this year, we are literally going to see that how much this is true in the lives of the people of Israel.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: It's so true.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: He sees everything about us, and he's not disillusioned about who he's choosing, he's not disillusioned about Abraham when he chooses him.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: God had to choose someone to bless so that Messiah could come through that family, and he chooses Abram.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: First, he had to make a call to Abram.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: So God told Abram to leave his family, his father Tara's home in the land of Ur in Mesopotamia, and to proceed to the land that he would show him.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: But Abram brings his father along on the journey, and then he settles in Haran.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get all the way to the promised land.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And this was probably disobedience on Abram's part.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Haran was the last outpost of civilization before you got to the Arabian desert, and it was the caravan route between the east and Damascus and Egypt.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: The city worshipped the moon god and goddess, and so did Ur.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: So these people are coming from a pagan land and pagan mindset.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: We see God's command here for Abram to leave.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Before God called Abram, he lived in a pagan land.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: His family were idol worshipers.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: He was coming from a pagan culture and a pagan mindset.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's important.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: How do we know he's coming from that?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Because of these verses in Joshua.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Joshua is talking to the Israelites and he says, Long ago, your forefathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the river where they worshiped other gods.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: That's where Abraham is coming from.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: He did not know this God who is calling him to take this radical step of faith.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: He really didn't know him.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: He was in the process of discovery through these whole events, all of them.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: God is telling him to leave your country, your people, your tribe, your father's household.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Leave everything that is safe and familiar.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Leave it all.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: So we need to understand this choice that Abram is making.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Abram's not some uncouth nomad who's just wandering around.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: He is a prosperous merchant.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: He has lots of people and possessions, even as he starts out, and we see that in these chapters.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: He's got a whole retinue of servants and slaves.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Yet Abram's told to leave for the wilderness where he has no land, no connections, and no prospects.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: What kind of person would follow a call like that?
10:50
SPEAKER_00: This call must have been very compelling.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: I am sure that God spoke audibly to Abram to call him to leave.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the day that Abram came home and told Sarah I, well, pack up all your stuff.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Uh, where are we going?
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, I don't know for sure, but we'll we'll know it when we see it.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, what what what are we going to do if we don't know where we're going?
11:19
SPEAKER_00: How are we going to ask for directions when we're when we're lost?
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Or how are we going to know where to go if we don't even know where we're going?
11:30
SPEAKER_00: And Abram's reply is, we won't get lost.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: God will tell us whenever we get there.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And Sarah is like, God?
11:40
SPEAKER_00: God who?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: She didn't know this God any more than Abram did at the beginning of this journey.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: She has to leave her family and all of the things that are familiar to her as well.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And Abram's no spring chicken at this point.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Abram is 75 years old when he leaves Haran, and Sarah is 10 years younger.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: She's 65 years old.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Abram didn't know where he was going when God called him.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: And if he was going to take God up on this and this offer and obey him, it was going to take some action.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: And the action was actually packing up the household and heading out.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he does.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Those were the steps of actions that the Abraham's faith required for him to pack up and head out.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: God gave a promise.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: God gave Abram a promise.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: And the essence of that promise is one word.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And we see it in these two verses.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I will make you a great nation.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: I will bless you.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: I will make your name great.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: You will be a blessing.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I will bless those who bless you.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: I will curse those who curse you.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: In you, all the families of earth will be blessed.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: We know at this point that Abram and Sarai are childless.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Yet God says, I will make your name great.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn about God from this sevenfold blessing?
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Again, we see that God speaks.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: We saw that last week, we saw that the first week.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: We will continue to see this because God communicates with his people.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: God chooses certain individuals to work through to accomplish his will to benefit millions.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: It is his sovereign right to choose whoever he wants to use and to place in certain positions.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: And in the New Testament, we see this principle too: that we are blessed so that we can be a blessing.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: We are blessed to be a blessing.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Number three, God wants to bless his people.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: God is for us.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He is for us.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And number four, God has the power to do what he determines to do even when it seems impossible.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 12, 5 through 7, he took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: So in Haran they accumulated even more wealth.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: And they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Morek in Shechem.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: The Lord appeared, appeared to Abram, and said, To your offspring I will give this land.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: So he built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: What did Abram do?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: He built an altar.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 12, 8 and 9.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: From there he went on toward the hills of east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: After he moved to Bethel, what did he do?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: He built an altar.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Why is Abram building these altars?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: In this new walk of faith that Abraham is learning how to take, he's learning how to worship God appropriately.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: He built an altar where he sacrificed a clean animal on it.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: He would have knelt before the altar with his hands raised toward heaven as he is beseeching God.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: These are the things that Abram's doing at this altar.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: These are worship.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: This is worship of God that he is developing.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: He's calling on the name of God Yahweh.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: So obedience through sacrifice of the animal, prayer, praise of Yahweh was involved here at the altar.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: And that shows us that Abram is coming to God, God's way.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And God's way is through the shedding of the blood of the innocent on behalf of the guilty.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: He's learning how to appropriately come to God in worship.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: God had met him in this place.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: God has appeared to him.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: And Abram's response is action, which leads to worship.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Action of building the altar, which leads to worship of Yahweh.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever made that connection between your personal encounter with God in your home while you're reading the word and worship?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: You really should.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Worship is one of the spiritual disciplines that we will see throughout this Bible study.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And we will either worship God or we will worship something else.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: But worship is an attribute that we just have, and it affects whatever we decide to worship, affects not only us, but our descendants that follow us.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: We see a great example of that here.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: God spoke, Abraham heard, and was impacted by what he heard, which led to an act of worship.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: Now we move on to Genesis 12, 10.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And there were now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Is there any evidence in those verses that Abram sought God about this decision?
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Or that he built an altar or that he prayed and asked God, should he go to Egypt?
18:00
SPEAKER_00: No, there isn't.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: There isn't in the whole context of this verse.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: There's not any evidence that suggests that this move was God directed.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: It seems like he just decided, okay, there's a famine here, so I'll go there to take care of all these people.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: But this will end up to be a huge, huge lesson to Abram.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And that lesson is don't take your walk into your own hands.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Things will not go well when we do that.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't for Abraham either.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: What we are about to read are the first words that are recorded that Abraham says.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: So what are these important words that Abraham says?
18:47
SPEAKER_00: As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, I know what a beautiful woman you are.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: When the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Then they will kill me, but will let you live.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Now think with me for a minute.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: God, the creator of the universe, called Abram to leave, told him to leave, gave him a sevenfold blessing, has spoken to him audibly, has appeared to him, and told him to go to the promised land.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: But what happens the moment he steps outside and out from under the will of God and he elevates his reasoning above the wisdom of God.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: He takes things into his own hands.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's a lesson for us.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: When you step out of faith, you begin to scheme.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see here.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: You begin to figure out how you can make things work.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: And we are probably all guilty of it.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm terribly guilty of it.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: We will see this bent towards scheming and trickery from all of the patriarchs.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: They all have to learn to walk by faith and that and not the scheming and taking things into their own hands.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: We see Abram take these things into his own hands, and why does he do it?
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Because he realizes that his 65-year-old wife is going to attract too much attention.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And what's even crazier than that is that she attracts attention again when she's 90.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: When she's 90.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: But look at the emphasis in these verses.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well and my life will be spared because of you.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Who is Abram thinking about here?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: Right?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking about himself.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: So not only is he scheming, but he is also selfish.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: What is the underlying emotion that he has here?
21:13
SPEAKER_00: It starts with F and it ends with ear.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Fear.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: He is afraid.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Fear is motivating him to take action that God doesn't want him to take.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Is the walk of faith without fear?
21:30
SPEAKER_00: No, it is not.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Anytime God calls you to do something significant, fear is just naturally going to be involved.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: But we have to have enough faith to overcome that fear.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: When I first set out with the first year that I wrote this Bible study, I was totally terrified.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know if it would all work out.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: And I just every time I got to that roadblock of fear, I just had to say, God, here it is.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Is.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: You take it.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: I can't figure it all out.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: And he did.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: As we walk in faith, we learn to trust the faithful one who calls us.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: And when we trust him, our fears are swallowed up with faith.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 12, 14 through 20.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: And she was taken into his palace.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, men servants and maidservants and camels.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: So Pharaoh summoned Abram.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: What have you done to me?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: He said.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Take her and go.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: This is not a great moment in husbanding.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Sarai ends up getting stuck in Pharaoh's harem, and God has to intervene.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: It was, to be honest, a half-truth.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Sarai was his half-sister, but Abram wanted her to lie to protect himself.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: His scheming was very deceptive.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Sarai obeyed Abram, which put her in a dangerous position.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: But what did God do?
23:50
SPEAKER_00: God supernaturally, powerfully protected her.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: The promise had been given to Abram and Sarah.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: The offspring of the blessing was going to come from Abram and Sarah.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: What does this tell us about God?
24:10
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that He has the desire and the ability to protect what is His.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: The desire and ability to protect what is His.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: And that even if you are in a bad situation, God can bring good from it.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are watching, who are women and who are married, we need to realize that when we submit to our husbands, we are ultimately submitting ourselves to God.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: It's a military term.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: We are to line up in rank.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: In Christ Jesus, we are all equal.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: We are all equal.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: But all through Scripture, we have very detailed instructions about the roles of husband and the roles of wives.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: If God forbid you are ever in a situation or a dangerous position because of something that your husband asks you to do, please realize that God can protect his own.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And this is a vivid example of him protecting his own.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: You are under God's authority.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: You are under his protection.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Your husband is under God's authority.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: But if your husband steps out of line, just know that God is willing and ready to step in and to protect you.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Just as he did with Sarai and Abraham here.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: However, if, God forbid, you are ever in a dangerous position by something that your husband asks you to do, realize that he can protect you.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: If a husband asks his wife to do something that is unbiblical or unscriptural, that's totally different.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Women are not obligated to go against Scripture.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: And even if a husband demands it.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, we don't have more time to go into that, but I want us to look at 1 Peter 3, 1 through 6.
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SPEAKER_00: Wives in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
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SPEAKER_00: For this, for this is how the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
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SPEAKER_00: The word gentle here literally means controlled strength, controlled strength.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: The word quiet means tranquil and peaceful.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: And then look at the verse six again.
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SPEAKER_00: What did it cost her to go into Pharaoh's harem?
28:08
SPEAKER_00: That was a scary, um, uncertain time for Sarai.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: She really, that would have been very terrifying.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Fear spawns control.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Fear spawns control.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Abram's fear motivated him to take matters into his own hands.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: His fear motivated him to take control.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: What did Abram almost jeopardize?
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Because as a result of his foolish actions, he could have easily lost out on the blessing since he lost out, lost his wife to Pharaoh for a time.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: He could have lost the blessing.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: God supernaturally protected Sarah, which supernaturally protected the promise.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: I like what Angram Lotz says in his story.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Failure in my life almost always begins with a famine of God's word and prayer.
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SPEAKER_00: Without them, I'm left to make my decisions based on my own logic or circumstances or feelings or the counsel of others.
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SPEAKER_00: Isn't that true?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, Abram was blessed with a great amount of possessions because of Sarai.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: But Abram's wealth and possessions were not the blessing.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: The son was the blessing.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: So here are some of the results of Abram's disobedience in going to Egypt.
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SPEAKER_00: He grieved God.
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SPEAKER_00: He weakened his own faith.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: He became a poor testimony to his nephew Lot.
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SPEAKER_00: He caused Pharaoh and his whole household to be afflicted.
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SPEAKER_00: He acquires Hagar, a handmaid for Sarai, who ten years later down the road will cause great sorrow.
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SPEAKER_00: He provided a bad example for his unborn son Isaac.
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SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of consequences, and I'm sure there's even more than those.
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SPEAKER_00: And that just shows us that when we deviate from God's plan, we can get in a mess, and generations of our descendants can be affected.
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SPEAKER_00: Genesis 13, 1 through 4.
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SPEAKER_00: So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.
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SPEAKER_00: Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
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SPEAKER_00: From the Negev, he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had been earlier, and where he had first built an altar.
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SPEAKER_00: There Abram called on the name of the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: What did Abram do?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: He went back.
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SPEAKER_00: He went back to where he had last heard from God.
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SPEAKER_00: And that is a lesson for all of us.
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SPEAKER_00: When your faith is wavering, or when you do something that just is a failure or a sin, stop and go back.
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SPEAKER_00: Go back to where you first heard from the Lord or where you last heard from the Lord and camp yourself there so that you can take it in and get yourself centered again.
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SPEAKER_00: Do you think Abram learned a valuable lesson there in Egypt?
31:51
SPEAKER_00: One would hope.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: One would hope.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: So now let's look at the separation.
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SPEAKER_00: Because they've gone to Egypt and because they've acquired even more herds and people and servants and slaves.
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SPEAKER_00: They're in a predicament.
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SPEAKER_00: Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had herds and flocks and tents, but the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together, and quarrelling arose between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's.
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SPEAKER_00: So Abram said to Lot, Let's not have any quarrelling between you and me, or between your herds herdsman's and mine, for we are close relatives.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Is not the whole land before you?
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's part company.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.
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SPEAKER_00: If I if you go to the right, I'll go to the left.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan to toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.
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SPEAKER_00: So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: The two men parted company.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
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SPEAKER_00: Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, look around from where you are, to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west.
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SPEAKER_00: All the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
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SPEAKER_00: Forever.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
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SPEAKER_00: Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.
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SPEAKER_00: So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: There he built an altar to the Lord.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Lot chose what was pleasing to the eye.
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SPEAKER_00: Lot chose for himself, and he chose selfishly.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: What is Abram's response to God?
34:21
SPEAKER_00: He builds an altar.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: He builds an altar where he worships God.
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SPEAKER_00: Lot pitched his tents toward Sodom.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long he stayed outside the city, but eventually we find him inside the city.
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SPEAKER_00: And because he's living there and some kings attack, Abraham has to go rescue him.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food.
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SPEAKER_00: They also carried off Abraham's nephew Lot and his possessions since he was living in Sodom.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
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SPEAKER_00: During the night Abram divided his men to attack them, and he routed them.
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SPEAKER_00: He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions together with the women and the other people.
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SPEAKER_00: Genesis 15, 1 says, After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
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SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, Abram.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: I am your shield, your very great reward.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: Interesting words here from the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: What was Abram afraid of?
35:46
SPEAKER_00: He had just taken 318 men and routed four kings and their armies.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Why was he afraid?
35:54
SPEAKER_00: He was afraid because in the ancient Near East, they all of them practiced retaliation.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: So he is thinking these kings are going to come and retaliate and wipe us all out.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: So fear is what we see here.
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SPEAKER_00: I think that we are seeing that Abram has a stronghold of fear in his life.
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SPEAKER_00: But God in his graciousness addresses Abram's fears.
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SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, Abram.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we step out on faith, there can be fear.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: And we like Abraham need God to calm our fears.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: That's what we saw with Peter and Jesus.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: When Peter gets out of the boat to walk on the water to Jesus, he's got great intentions, but then he sees all of the circumstances and he starts to think.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus first appears to them, he says, Do not fear, fear not, for it is I.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: He was coming to them.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: We need to realize that Jesus is with us.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: And when the circumstances start to bring us down, we need to realize that Jesus is with us.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: 365 times it tells us in Scripture, do not fear.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: There's a do not fear for every day of the year.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Abraham was also afraid of the future.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: We see this, um, we see this in, sorry, let me go back, I think.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: Let me go back.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: But Abram said, I'm still not there, am I?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Sorry about that.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And Abram said, You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Then the word of the Lord came to him.
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SPEAKER_00: He took him outside and he said, Look up at the heavens, Abram, and count the stars, if indeed you can count them.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: What a great verse.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Because Abram believed, he was credited with righteousness.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: This event in Abram's life occurred at least 13 years before the rite of circumcision, which we'll look at next week.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: But it and also 400 plus years before the law was given, before Moses and the law was given.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: Belief is the essential element here that brings about righteousness.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Abram asks for a sign, a supernatural verification that God will fulfill the distant promise, and God responds by making a covenant with Abraham, and that is the Abrahamic covenant, and we will look at that in more detail next time.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Just like God blessed Abraham, he blesses you and he blesses me.
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SPEAKER_00: And he blesses us so that it will benefit others, so that it will be a blessing.
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SPEAKER_00: No matter how he has blessed you, it is so that you can bless others.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: Lot experienced the blessings of God just like Abram did.
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SPEAKER_00: He experienced that.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: But what did Lot do?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: He held on to the blessings, and the blessings became a bondage to him until he ultimately lost them.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: If we hold on too tightly to the blessings, they will trap us just like they did Lot.
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SPEAKER_00: And we might end up worshiping the blessings more than the one who gave us the blessings.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things that we learn about God and man from this lesson?
40:05
SPEAKER_00: We learn that God is powerful.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: He is so powerful.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: He brings serious disease on Pharaoh and his entire and all of his people.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: We see that God protects those who are his own, even supernaturally, if need be, that God is merciful, he is merciful to Pharaoh, Abram, and Sarai.
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SPEAKER_00: And that God speaks.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: God can get the attention of important people and powerful men like Pharaoh.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn about mankind?
40:37
SPEAKER_00: We learn that man easily slips into scheming when faith is absent, that a submissive woman's greatest protector is God.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: A man that man is easily deceived by the appearance of things.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Lot looked and chose.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Next week we will continue to see more ways that God builds and expands Abraham's faith and trust in him.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: I am so grateful that God doesn't gloss over the people that he uses in Scripture.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: He really does, he paints a very true and vivid picture of these people.
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SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that he does.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: That gives great comfort to know that he doesn't expect us to be perfect.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: These people were not perfect.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: They were normal, ordinary people that experienced God doing extraordinary things through.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that God shows us the good, the bad, and the ugly in them.
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SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, that we see that God uses them despite their failures.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: That's such a comfort.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: We need to know that.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: And that He still wants to use us, even knowing all the bad things about us.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: How comforting to know.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: To know that the God who sees all the good, the bad, and the ugly still loves us and has a great plan for us.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much for that.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that you didn't paint these people as superheroes.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: You painted them as normal, everyday people who turn to their own resources and their own scheming and all of that, God, because we do that so often and you know that about us.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: And so you give us great examples of scripture and how these people overcame.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: So, God, thank you.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for what you've shown us today.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for what you're going to show us in your word this week.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: And I just ask you to bless my sisters and my brothers who are watching this and who are part of this.
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SPEAKER_00: Keep them faithful, Lord, in reading your word every day.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Draw them closer and closer to you so that they will love you more and more.
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SPEAKER_00: And I pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: God bless you, and we will see you next time.