Just because you meet opposition does not mean you are not in God’s will.
Just because you meet opposition does not mean that God is punishing you.
2. Abram didn’t’ consult God about going to Egypt. 10
3. He lied. 12
Sarai was actually his sister – deceptive. – “I didn’t lie”
People lie to make themselves look better than they really are.
People lie to avoid making themselves look bad.
People lie because they are worried about what other people think of them.
If you have to sin to survive you have failed to trust God.
When the lips lie its because the heart is dry.
Lying usually comes from a selfish heart.
Lying many times gives you immediate positive results.
Our plans are no substitute for trusting God. Our schemes are inadequate to accomplish what God would have if we would have simply trusted Him.
He makes is selfishness sound noble.
4. He used his wife for selfishness sake. 13
Selfishness and Humility do not live in the same place.
He was thinking of himself more than his wife.
Men don’t sacrifice your wives on the alter of your selfishness – Give your life for her.
The Lord opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Why did he act this way?
It was not because he lost his salvation
Abram acted this way because he was still a sinner. He had trusted God, but he was still a liar; a sinner.
What is our only Hope?
1. God to the rescue.
The Lord intervened – The praise the Lord moment.
His hope did not come in his own goodness. Abram didn’t confess. His faith was falling apart and would have crashed, but the Lord hit ALT CNT DLT and rebooted his system.
He got caught. Praise the Lord!!!
Our faith does not stand on our ability to keep it.
Our faith stands on God’s intervention.
God intervened to call Abram and God intervened to keep him.
Here is a small segment of the sermon It’s about God.
1. His work in Abram
Sometimes when we look at the story of Abraham we look at how great he was. When tend to make the story about him and by default his God. The story of Abram is not mainly about him, but God and his choice to bless Abram. If God would not have acted, then we would not even know who Abraham was.
2. His work through his people
It’s not even about what God is doing in one person, Abram, but about God’s gracious plan for a people he is choosing to be His.
3. His work in the world for all time.
The story is even much bigger than God’s choice of Abram and his descendants. It is a prophecy of Jesus. Jesus is how God is going top fulfill the promise “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It’s about God’s call of Abram.
1. It’s a call from his people.
God called Abram to leave everything he had ever known. God called Abram to leave is people who worshiped idols.
Sometimes we must get out from under the influence of those around us so that we begin to grow. God called Abram to leave because he was calling him to be different. He was calling him to godliness.
2. It’s a call to God.
It is not just a call away from something, but its mainly a call to God. There is no way of going toward God in obedience without leaving behind the old way of life.
3. It’s a call to action.
God’s call of Abram was not a call that simply needed a verbal recognition, “Yes, Lord.” It was a call to do something. Abram could have said, “Yes, Lord” and not done anything, but that would not have been answering the call. He had to act in order to follow God. It is no different today. The beginning of believing is leaving.
Why did God call Abram?
1. Was it because Abram was a righteous man already?
He came from an idolatrous family – Joshua 24:2-3, 14 – Laban still had god in Gen. 31
He was even the most righteous man at the time – Melchizedek, Job?
God’s choice was not based on Abram’s goodness in the past.
2. Was it because God saw that Abram was going to be a righteous man in the future?
Some people will acknowledge that it wasn’t because Abram was good in the past, but then they say that it was because God looked into the future and saw that Abram was going to be a good person.
First of all we see that he was a liar after God called him. 12:13, 20:2
Later he failed to trust God to provide a son by is wife so he slept with his wife’s servant.
So, God’s choice was not based on Abram’s goodness in the future.
We know that the Bible teaches us that we are not saved by work past present or future. Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-5
Abraham is called upon as an example in the New Testament more than once to show that we are not saved by works. Rom. 4:1-5, Gal. 3:7-9
3. Then why?
Because of God’s merciful decision alone.
Rom. 9:15-16 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion,but on God, who has mercy.
Abram would have never met God if God had not come to him.
God called Abram. Abram did not go looking for God.
It’s about God’s promise of blessing.
God is the only one who can truly say “I will.”
God’s promise is unconditional.
consider the obstacle to God fulfilling the blessing he promised.
We must understand the blessing of God.
Until a person has a right understanding of the blessing of God they will always choice sin over God. They will love the so called happiness of sin rather than Jesus.
Do you think that leaving the sinful life behind for God is going to be a loss for you? Not at all! It is like leaving the fire of Hell for the beauty of Heaven. It’s like leaving a roach infested one bed-room apartment for a mansion. It’s like leaving homelessness to go live with the King.
