Decision=Action=Consequence

And that problem was all because of a decision, where one brother decided to follow what God had told him and he offered a lamb. But the other brother was disobedient, and that caused a great schism between those two brothers. And you know that story. And then the flood, because people were disobedient and there were consequences. So when you get to chapter 12, now we’re introduced to a very special person in God’s economy special. There’s nothing unique about Abraham that any one of us had we met him back at the time. We would not have said, now there’s the finest guy walking in sandals. Near as we can tell, there was nothing significant about him. 

God chose him, and this is how redemption works. We don’t choose him, but he chooses us. And so from Genesis 12 onward, the whole redemptive plan is open piece by piece. And it’s in Genesis we are introduced to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. And what’s so interesting is this is the only religious document, the only religious book that tells the truth and nothing but the truth. Other religious books hide failures. They only tell you how rosy and how wonderful it is. Those books kind of follow the pattern of today’s politics. Vote for me, and you’re all going to get a brand new two slice toaster. Everybody’s going to be equally the same. They don’t tell us that the toast is gluten free. And once you put it into the toaster, it turns to cardboard. And so this book tells us everything, the patriarchs, how when they were faithful, they experienced success.

But it also tells us that the patriarchs fell into disobedience, and there were consequences because of bad decisions. So I want to read with you. No, before I even do this, this is Genesis 12. I just want to remind you that that was the Lord who called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. That’s quite likely that was either Iraq or Iran, because we cannot clearly, clearly figure out, not we, but archaeologists. They think they know where Ur was. It was a center at the time, but it’s been lost in the sands of time.

And so the Lord told him, I’m calling you away from your people, from your family, from everything that you know. He says, I’m calling you away from your father’s house. But if you just slow down and you read of Abraham’s response, he was obedient in that he said, OK, OK, I’m going to follow the Lord. And we honor him for that. And the Lord honors him for following. But it’s so interesting. Leave everything behind, and I’ll show you where to go. And he took as much as he possibly could. It’s in the record. And you didn’t leave his father behind. It took Tara with him. And Tara was, I guess he was having difficulty with the travel. 

They were about to travel over 300 miles. And if you weren’t outfitted with a two-hump camel, you’re going to have to go on foot. And they stopped in a place called Heron. And the record shows us that they stayed there for quite some time. The Lord said, I want you to go to a place that I’ll show you. But they stopped in Heron for a time. They made a decision to stop.

That was another thing that just kind of makes me wonder. He said, leave your people, leave everything behind. But Abraham took his brother, who was now deceased. He took his brother’s son along with him. Lot. I just want to just run this by you really quickly. The decision to take along with him resulted in a great deal of trouble. You’ve heard of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, it turns out, was a very unique and profitable businessman. But there were character flaws in him. He chose to live down among that crowd of the Sodomites. And he also showed his character when their flocks had grown to such an enormous number that even the men that they’d hired to work for them and looking after the father, they got beating up each other. We don’t know how bad the fighting got. And so Abraham and Lot sat down and said, you know what? We’ve got all this property that God has promised us. So let’s divide. So it was Abraham said, you choose. And Lot, you know, it was God that led Abraham. Lot should have said, well, I’ll take the floor and you take the bed. But no, Lot said, I want the best of everything. 

So Abraham ends up with scruffy countryside compared to what Lot ended up with. But God blessed Abraham in spite of all of that. So while Abraham was a great man of faith, he almost did everything right to the letter of the law. But I want to remind you, every one of us is capable of doing the same thing. Every one of us is capable of doing the very same thing. So by the time we get to Genesis 12, we’re going to get introduced to the patriarchs, their successes, their failures, their disobedience. It’s all laid out for us. And there’s good reasons for us to take lessons from that because we need to learn that when we’re obedient, there’s blessing. And when we’re disobedient, there are consequences. So let me read, if you will, from the King James Version. Here I am trading spectacles.

If I drop this, oh, an arm just fell off. No, both of mine are okay. But okay, they offered me a warranty when I picked these up at the shopper’s drug Mart. Do you want to buy a warranty? They were $1. 99. The warranty was $5. Do you want to buy the warranty? No. If these break, I’ll come back and buy another pair. And I’m due to go back and get another pair. So Genesis 12, Abraham journeyed going on still toward the south.

He’s in the promised land. I’m taking to a land that’s going to flow with milk and honey. I’m going to provide for you, Abraham says, you and me, Lord, let’s go. But there was a famine in the promised land. And Abraham went to Egypt to live there, for the famine was very, very troublesome. People were most likely dying. And it came to pass when it came near to enter into Egypt that he said to Sarah, his wife, now look, I know that you’re beautiful. Sixty-seven years of age, we believe she was. You need to know that in that time of history, 67 was midlife. It was mid. She lived to be 127.

So she was very fair to look upon. And she was a different color than the people of Egypt. We believe that from archaeological historical writings. So she’s going to have fair skin and the Egyptian men would favor her more than their own women. He said, look, I know that you’re a good woman to look at. So when we get to Egypt, let’s tell them, this is my sister, because if they think I’m your wife, they’ll kill me for you. In my research, I’ve discovered that in Egypt, there was no such thing as divorce. But you could probably get away with killing somebody. So he’s saying, they’ll kill me for you. So there’s one way for us both to stay alive.

I am asking you, tell them you’re my sister, so that it may be well for your sake and my soul shall live because of you. So he puts the onus on her. You have to tell the story. Verse 14, when it came to pass, that when Abraham had come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld Sarah that she was beautiful. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and they commended her to Pharaoh. You’ve got to see this gal. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Decisions have consequences. Just remember that when the Lord told Abraham, I’m going to make you the father of many nations. The Lord included Sarah in that promise.

Through this woman, the two of you, you’re going to be blessed. But when they arrive there and Abraham was right in his assumption, she was fair to look upon. You’re my sister. During his sister, she was fair game. And so who does she go to? The man who had the most authority. The man who had the most power. She ends up in the Pharaoh’s house. I’ve done a lot of digging here. There’s nothing really, you know, there’s nothing totally definitive but the majority of those that I’ve read.

I’ve done a lot of work on this. But strongly believe that she didn’t just go and live in his house. What would be her position in the house? She was in his harem. And being in his harem, she was a candidate for marriage to the Pharaoh. There are a few who would believe that he may have taken advantage of her, but the majority who know historical records will tell you the women who were in the harem all had to go through a very lengthy time of purification. You see, the Pharaoh was regarded almost as a God. And you don’t want this God to get all messed up and sullied with something that’s tainted. And so we don’t know, I guess we could dig and find out. I don’t care to know about it, what process would have gone through.

But without a doubt, she was a part of the process. She was going through purification. And I guess Abraham every once in a while had to ask for an appointment with one of the Pharaoh’s harem. Like we don’t know how this works, but we do know something else and it’s worthy of our reflection. He came to pass when he came in, they saw her and she was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And he treated Abraham well for her sake. So it’s not hard to figure this out. Those trying to impress Abraham with blessing Abraham with all kinds of goodies. And I’ll tell you what those goodies probably amounted to in a few moments. But why would he treat Abraham with such benevolence and such kindness?

He wanted Sarah. And Abraham accepted the gifts, look what the Lord has given me. He ended up with sheep, how many sheep? It says that by the time Abraham left Egypt, he was extremely wealthy. He was probably richer than any other Arab sheik of the time. If you were an Arab sheik, you would probably have as many as 200 tents. We talk about homes. A tent was a home. Abraham probably when he left had a couple of hundred tents. That meant he had all people living in all of these tents. He would have also had over a thousand sheep and or goats. He would have probably had as many as a hundred camels.

And it goes on to say that when he left Egypt, he was lagging down with a lot of gold and a lot of silver. Was Abraham in Egypt according to the plan of God? There’s no record in this story that the Lord said, leave the promised land. If you stay here, you’re going to starve. And I can’t do anything about it. Come to the promised land. I’ll take care of you. But a famine comes. And Abraham makes a decision. His own decision was we’re going to go to Egypt. Why did they go to Egypt?

Because the Nile was a place that got more rained than the average place of that part of the world. And then there was the Nile. So even if rain didn’t come, there were ways to look after your flocks. There were ways to keep your gardens going. There was a way to stay alive. So that’s where he headed. But he was out of the will of God. I want you to notice this with me. You know that Abraham got into a lot of trouble going on down the way. I already mentioned the trouble that he had with Lot. He had to go into prayer and be sage the Lord.

You remember, he said, Lord, what if there’s a hundred people in that in Sodom and Gomorrah worth, okay. What if there’s 50? Would you back off? It was a lot of trouble that Abraham got into because of Lot. So he got into trouble over the Lot. He should have left Lot back in the ear of the Chaldees. But he brought him along and just got him into trouble. You make a decision, you act on it, and you have to pay. So every difficulty that Abraham got into now going forward is either due to taking a lot with him when the Lord said, leave your family behind. Walk away from them, here’s what I want you to do.

Every difficulty he had during his entire lifetime either was hinged on his decision to take Lot with him or his decision without counsel with God to go to Egypt. Can you prove that, David? Probably can. The first thing he does is he gets his wife to lie for him. Not a good idea because when he says lying is okay, as long as the outcome is worthwhile, what other lies is she liable to tell? We have no record that she ever did. But friends, you don’t get somebody to conspire with you. Little Abraham, man of faith, man of God. He, Daddy Abraham, Isaac might have asked, how did you and mom ever survive in Egypt? I’ve learned things about down there.

How did you ever saw? Well, son, we told a little, just a little white lie and that’s how we survive. Oh, so I guess lies are okay. He goes down there and he says, this is my sister and that decision brought consequences. The Pharaoh says, your sister, she’s a fine looking lady. I’m invited her to come in my house. Abraham’s thinking, if I say no, he’s going to be upset with me. He’s going to be upset. Why won’t you let me? You’ve come to live among us, you’re going to live here and you’re not going to allow an Egyptian to marry your sister. I’m going to offer you the world.

Your sister could have everything. No, I don’t want that. The Pharaoh would have said, there’s something stinky about the plan. So Abraham, because of his decision to move to Egypt, now has to go along with the Pharaoh. And the challenge is this, remember that she’s supposed to give birth to children. How many children? Like the stars of heaven. But here she is in the house of Pharaoh. What Abraham is doing is he’s gambling the promise that God made to him. He’s testing God. He’s pushing God to the limit and how did God respond? He sent disease to the house of Pharaoh.

God was angry. Was he angry with Pharaoh? No. He was ticked off with the man of faith. Look what you’re doing Abraham. You’re here, not according to my will. You made a decision and now we’ve got a mess on our hands. I want you and Sarah out of here. He’s a wealthy man and you could have said, look at all the wealth that God has provided for us, Sarah. But meanwhile, the Pharaoh is winking at her, sending her little gifts, giving her diamonds and necklaces and treating her like, hello.

And he’s making suggestive comments to her. I already have 50 wives, but if you come along, you’ll be number one with me. I don’t know. You know, it’s, and so the problem just continues to roll ahead where they’re there. So, so the Pharaoh gets ticked off and somehow or other, he figures out and we don’t have it. It’s not recorded for us, but Pharaoh had it figured out. Maybe a dream. We don’t know how this came about, but Pharaoh suddenly realized she’s not your sister. She’s your wife. How did, how did Abraham justify saying, she’s my sister? How do you even justify saying to Sarah?

It’s not a total lie. It’s just half a lie. It would be half a lie because Abraham’s father was Sarah’s father. They just had different mothers. You sort of are my sister, you’re my half sister. Now, this really troubles us. This troubles us because we say, wait a minute, that this doesn’t work. But at the time, and in Egypt, and even with Abraham, I remember they didn’t have the Mosaic law. They didn’t have any of these things. This kind of thing of marrying your half sister or whatever, God says, you stop that. That’s going to create problems.

So to them, it was a legitimate thing. And so it was a legitimate thing that Pharaoh had in his mind. It’s okay if I take your sister in because she’s going to be better off and never, maybe your God brought you here and her, maybe this is your God’s plan. We don’t know. Here’s an interesting thing. There’s record among the Jewish theologians and historians. They know that the Pharaoh also gave to her to satisfy her and make her feel proud and embraced. He gave to her some handmaidens, some servants. We don’t know how many. Are you ready for this?

One of those servants’ name was Hagar. And the Jewish theologians and historians will tell you there’s good evidence that Hagar was the daughter of the Pharaoh. And when the Pharaoh said to Abraham, get out and take Sarah with you, it’s brought me nothing but trouble. Then she probably said, what about my handmaidens? You’ve said, take everything. And the concept is this, take my sister, she’ll be better off with you. I don’t trust all the men who would take my daughter. They could use her against me. She’s safe with you. They could threaten to kill her if they were knocking off each other like crazy, these

empires. And so he most likely said, take my daughter with you. Now, this is a concept we’ve never considered, but I’ve dug into it. Not only in Egypt, but in many parts of the world there, you’ve heard about the word concubai. I never understood this before until I dug. But a concubine would be a person who would live in the master’s house. She wasn’t likely hired. She would be purchased because trading of slaves, you know, when one country conquered another, they would take people for themselves. They’d take the men to be their gardeners and to watch their chariots and Saturday mornings put on their cut off jeans and mow the grass.

So they would take these people from these conquered lands and they’d make them their own slaves. So once they’re your slave, if the man of the house decided that, well, I like this slave girl, he would talk to his wife and say, you know, we were hoping to have 10 children. How would you like Martha here to maybe bear some of the problems of bearing children? And it was a normal thing and the wife was obligated to say, okay. So when Hager goes with them from Egypt, and she was in Egyptian, there’s no question about that. She came from Egypt that this is not made up, polka, pocus. So it’s not surprising that Sarah said to Abraham, why don’t you? Why don’t you take my servant that we got from the Pharaoh’s house? Why don’t you take her and why don’t we get our family started with her?

This horrifies us, but not if you come to understand how things were done in the past. But it’s not okay because the Lord said, I’m going to take care of you. Because Abraham was thrilled with it all until there was a famine. And Abraham was thrilled with the fact that he’s going to be the father of many nations until Sarah’s womb was barren. And so to solve the food problem and the famine problem, he made a decision and they went to Egypt, told a lie, and Sarah almost got locked in in the Pharaoh’s house. So then how would Abraham and Sarah ever bear children? He was testing God. So now they come up with a plan. They go against the plan and the will of God. And so that was a decision that was made.

And so we don’t want to see Abraham as a dirty old man. You know, today in today’s culture we’d say, this is icky, but at the time it would have been normal. Many of the men would have had a wife and then at times it didn’t call him a concubine. If you were a concubine, you were still a slave, you know, in a servants’ attitude. But they would actually at times perform a wedding and they wouldn’t marry. And it was Sarah who said to Abraham, why don’t you take Hagar and make her your wife? And so he did. He made a decision. He’s going to help the Lord. We need to learn. We need to learn these lessons.

There was a time when I was pastoring an independent church. I won’t even mention the province. I never know who’s listening. And the church abounded. We were now two Sunday 

morning services, packed capacity. We had youth, like tons of youth. Things were going so well. And the board came to me and they said, we need to get you some help. And we’ve got a man for you. We’re going to bring him in from another city. I interviewed the fellow and I felt there was something amiss. No, no, no, we’re going to bring him in.

You need help. You need help. I told them to talk to God about what I want, the relationship, what I want. I’m not a PAOC church. So they insisted. And so I smiled and I said, well, if this is what you want, that’s fine. Because of things don’t go well. And going back to the mission field anyway. I was so uncomfortable pastoring. And it was only pastoring because they put the heat on me. He’d left his office door open and he’s talking about me to somebody.

To this day I don’t know who it was. And he said, this guy’s not a pastor, he’s an evangelist. Do you know he had a water baptismal service last Sunday? And he never went near the baptismal font. He had his deacons, he had all kinds of people were baptizing, claiming that if you led this person to the Lord and you discipled them, you should complete the discipleship system. And you can baptize him. He said, that’s not what pastors do. He said, six months and he said, this church is mine. I’m going to see to this guy out the door. I called him in my office the next day.

I crept out, didn’t say. I called him in my office the next day. I won’t call him Ted. Fictitious name. I said, Ted, I was here last night. You were eavesdropping. I said, you were loud and you thought you were alone. I said, you think you’re a better pastor than me? You want my job? I don’t care. I don’t own the chair. I don’t own the pulpit.

I know I’m an evangelist. And I know that I’ve got to get back to Africa. I’ve made p- I’ve got to get back there. So, and you know that. You know I’ll be on my way. But you just have to hurry it up, don’t you? Well, you caught me and I feel bad. Can you forgive me? I can. And then I called him in on another day. I wasn’t letting up on this. And I said, I said, you know, God was going to bless Abraham and Sarah with family.

I said, they should have left alone. They should have let God work out the miracle, which he did. Because Sarah in her very old, old days, wonder of wonder she bore a child. Glad day. But I said, they jumped the gun. And I said, they went ahead with Hagar. I said, if you ever thought about the problems that came out of that decision, out of the relationship with Hagar came a son who was not a son of promise. I said, look at when God said to Abraham, take your son, your only son, to Mount Moriah and offer him there. I said, God did not regard Ishmael to be his son. And what happened as a result of Ishmael?

The women got fighting because Hagar accepted the privilege. I’m going to give Abraham a son. And the moment she was pregnant, she starts teasing Sarah. She gets away with it because she’s not a slave. She’s not a hired hand. She’s properly duly married to Abraham. And so Hagar starts acting up and teasing her. Whereupon you know the story. Hagar gets kicked out with her son Ishmael. Anyone want to guess where the Ishmael’s got to? There’s a history package there from the line of Ishmael came a certain individual we don’t know him personally.

His bones dried up a long time ago. His name is Muhammad. Hello? I can’t say any more because the government doesn’t allow me to say such things. We’ve lost our freedom. But because of the decision of Abraham and Sarah, an action was taken and the consequences are still raging like fire and the whole world right now is watching the consequences. The consequence began when he left the Promised Land and went to Egypt not believing that God could supply fabricating a lie which ended up with Sarah in the Pharaoh’s house. And the whole plan of God was about to go sideways. It was already in trouble. But God rescues the situation, sends disease, Pharaoh paid for Abraham’s failure.

He comes and he says, get out. Can I take Hagar? Yes. She feels like a sister to me. Yeah, you can take Hagar and she’d be better off with you anyway. One decision after another. And then we have the Ishmael problem. And those two boys were never friends. When Ishmael saw Isaac, you read it for yourself. Ishmael was heartless toward Isaac. He was jealous of Isaac because you see, this was Abraham’s son by Sarah. And Isaac was getting blessed and there were certain things that were happening in their

household through the prayer life and whatever. It was no secret to Ishmael. I am not going to be the one that’s cherished. And it says, you know, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, he realized he was not going to be named in that tribe. He was not going to get the blessing. He was born first, but he was going to be treated like he was born last. And he didn’t like it. And he’s still struggling over it. When we help God, I need to finish the story about that fellow. I reminded him of this story. I reminded him also that God was dealing with Jacob.

I said, do you think that Jacob got the line, the promised line simply because he tricked Esau? I said, I don’t. I said, God can do anything. You could have fixed it. You could have fixed it. I said, it was God’s plan to bless Jacob all along. But Jacob couldn’t wait for God. So we, so we discover that it’s a dysfunctional family, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Isaac believed in God, but it was a dysfunctional home because his own wife, Rebecca, betrayed him and helped Jacob to go in and trick Daddy into the blessing.

You see, when we start with lies, when we start with lies, it continues on and the lies are adored and they’re passed on. Decisions have consequences, my dear. Pastor, you feel pretty harsh today. I have paid for my own decisions and I have doubtless paid for others’ decisions. I warned that fellow. I said, if it’s God’s will for you to pastor this church, why don’t you just sit down and let God do it? Oh, okay, brother, okay. Now I saw all the signs until one day I called a board meeting and I said, you wanted him. You got him. I’m out of here.

No pastor, no. Everybody loves you. You’re the preacher. You’re the guy. You’re the guy. I said, no. You wanted him. I said, let me tell you something. This is a board meeting. I pointed out I said, this guy is out to take my chair and I said, I’m going to tell you what? Nobody ever wins a church war.

There’s going to be blood in the aisles. I said, all the people have got saved under our ministry here. I said, they’re going to bear the brunt of this. I said, a bad decision was made and you’re going to live with it. And I laughed. The church voted on that fellow within three weeks. He did not get the vote. And that afternoon he met with over a hundred people from that church.

He’d already organized it. He had a big buffet set up in his house. He already had a place booked. He knew he wasn’t going to get the vote.

So he formulated his own. He ripped the church in two. Decisions, consequences. One more consequence. He suddenly died six months later. He calmed down with a cancer that killed him within three weeks. Was that the Lord? Look what the Lord did in Egypt over the Pharaoh’s house. If it’s God’s will, God will make it happen. If God has a plan, God has an architectural design for your life. And if you have to lie your way through it, Pastor, you’re calling us liars, no, we’re all prone to kind of kind of squeak the little thing in there.

We’re all prone. Beloved, tell me. When did we do something out of the will of God and really get away with it? There’s always consequences. They tried to teach me this when I was a little boy in Sunday school. Be careful, little mouth. What you say? There’s a father up above looking down with tender love, but be careful, little mouth. Be careful, little hands. What you touch? Another line. Be careful, little feet where you go.

God made a covenant with Abraham. And because Abraham believed it, because Abraham believed that God honored that faith. And here’s what you remember also this morning. This man whose life had a lot of failures. God chose him. He did not choose God. And when God chose him, God saw the last chapter and every chapter in between. And in spite of the future failures of Abraham, God said, you’re my man. You’re my man. When God makes a choice, he does not recant. When Abraham started failing, I don’t see God walking up and down the hallways of heaven ringing his hands.

But he’s watching and he knows. Abraham at times as much as gave up on God, but God never gave up on him. Lord, Peter said, if you’re going to die, we’re all going to die. We’ll fight for you. We’ll do this. We’ll do that. Peter the devil’s after you. He wants to shift you like wheat. And within hours, Peter is cursing God and saying, Jesus, and Jesus saw it all. Wonderful little song, kind of a little bit of a diddy to it. It says, when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. The eye that he saw from the cross, I need to humble myself and say, the man he saw is not the man that you see today. What do you mean, Dave? My clothes cover me up fairly well. I can put on a nice smile. I can do all kinds of things. Masters have ruined their own lives and they’ve destroyed churches. God chose me. I did not chose him. He chose you and God doesn’t invest in junk. With all of Abraham’s failures, God continued to bless him. 

It was an error for him to go to Egypt, but because he let Pharaoh believe that he had a chance with Sarah, that Pharaoh blessed him with herds, with gold, with silver, and when Abraham left, he was probably one of the richest men on the planet. And somebody could have said, well, there you go. Even if you step out of the will of God, look at the good things he had. Is that to say that had he stayed in the promised land throughout the famine and depended on God for how about manna in the morning and quail in the afternoon? If he’d stayed, isn’t it possible that God could have blessed him with all of these things had he stayed? Don’t get your eyes on the blessing that came upon him, having cooperated with the Pharaoh. Keep your eyes on this. He owns a kettle on a thousand hills. He owns all the gold mines. Your father’s in the oil business, whole oil, holy oil.

And nobody even from Ottawa can shut off the pipeline that delivers that oil. We are truly blessed. And we all mess up. So there’s a couple of lessons to learn. If God makes you a promise and you know that you know that you know that it’s a promise for you, rely on the promise. And whatever you do, don’t help him. Don’t help him. Let him do what he’s going to do. And secondly, you will fail. I won’t take a vote now. How many of us in you gave your heart to Jesus have failed at least once?

Or how about 70 times seven? We’ve all failed. And yet here you sit. Here you sit. And you love to sing the song, amazing grace. You know what? That song is actually the theme of every day of our lives because it’s his grace that keeps us going through our failures and our disobedience. Let us not comfort ourselves with the fact that God never forsook Abraham in spite of his failures. Let us not take comfort in that and say, well, it’s okay if I fail. Abraham failed.

Look what God did for him. Dear Lord, don’t go down that path. I know you wouldn’t think of it, but yeah, I’m not going to tell you any more stories. But I’ve faced some horrendous things in churches where trouble came and it didn’t have to. It did not have to happen. It did not have to happen. So I hope it’s okay that I have shared this with you this morning. By the way, Lot was a very smart businessman. He also had huge herds. That’s how come Abraham had to say, well, let’s divide up whatever. I want you to know that Lot also was a father. And as a father, remember Abraham probably had no business taking Lot with him.

But he took him anyhow. Leave your family. Leave everything. Trust me for everything. But Abraham took him. And you know how Abraham paid for that? Lot was the father of the Moabites and the Ammonites who became long-standing enemies of the Jewish people. The Christians are acted upon and then the curtain falls and there’s consequences. Help us dear Jesus. Help us dear Jesus to walk the line. Walk the line.

And please know, there’s nobody in this church needs to abide by that statement more than the guy with the fancy tie on this morning. Never never think that David’s talking down to us. When I prepare these messages, I prepare them from my heart. I’m guilty. I’m guilty of helping God. And I’ve paid the consequences. And I’ve had to beg forgiveness more than ye all. We’ve all been there. Would you like to stand? Facing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost.

But thank God I am found. I was blind. But now I see through many snare, just toils and snares. I have a ready come. And His grace has brought me safe thus far. And His grace will lead me home. And with all of our failures, our moments of disobedience, how we’ve disappointed ourselves so many times. Lord Jesus, I pray if there’s anyone in this house who’s still harboring a decision. They’re still harboring it. They’re still paying the price, so to speak. Dear Jesus, I pray that that person even today will experience glorious freedom to say,

Lord, I’m talking to you right now from a position of rebellion. I know I made a mistake, but Lord Jesus, I surrender it all to you right now. All to you I freely give. Wash me afresh and make me clean. I surrender all to you, Jesus. And if we pray a prayer like that, then we’ll be able to sing a song like this. When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no last days to sing God’s praise. And when we first begun, thanks be to God, mercy and grace. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. If there’s anyone in need of prayer this morning for a malady, any kind of a challenge whatsoever, I’m not going to go to the door this morning. I’m going to step down here and I’m going to wait for you in case you want to come. And if there’s somebody out there in this morning, you’re troubled in your body and your spirit, just right now believe with me as I pray. I’m going to be here, Jesus, whoever’s listening in right now and is going through a struggle. It might be a struggle that actually relates to what I just shared this morning or maybe it’s a physical challenge or some kind of Lord Jesus.

I just, on their behalf, I beseech your face. I ask Lord Jesus that you will intervene. You will intervene and you will change things for the good.

I ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.

I’m waiting here for you as people find their way out and you’re saying to one another,

God bless you.