Genesis 12 Part 2

Here we are again. We are getting into the good stuff today. Gonna be tons of application and things for you to go home with tonight. Prayerfully challenging things. Revealing things. Things that make mhhmmm. I have extra into 13 just in case we get there. I pray ya’ll understand the thrill of me getting to teach like this. I just love those moments when the Holy Spirit comes in and something you may have read 14 times just becomes fresh. It is a huge blessing to me.

Let’s see where the Lord takes us tonight.

Genesis 12:10 ESV

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Stop.

Yep, I am going to get it first verse. This verse right here has so much. Can I for a moment dispel a bit of a misnomer in the church.

Lack of trouble doesn’t mean God’s will.

Peace about it…doesn’t mean God’s will.

I get so tired of those phrases. I just had a peace about it. Sometimes you having peace about it is just you not wanting to deal with situation. I just had peace about leaving my job, because my boss stunk. Maybe God wanted you to learn how to deal with stinky people. I just had peace about leaving church cuz I wasn’t getting fed. Maybe you so full of the crap you eat all week there isn’t any room to get the word in.

Oh boy ok. I hit something here. Yes Holy Spirit.

A shepherd job is never to feed the mature sheep. The babies may need fed because they need the milk. But mature Christians should be feeding themselves. A shepherd or pastor is to present the food. The bread of life which is Jesus. It is your job once the food is presented to actually eat. We have a system. When food comes in. It is broken down by chewing. Which is the meditation. Then you swallow and it is broken down by the stomach and processed through the system. what you ate today isn’t coming out today. What you ate yesterday is coming out today to make room for what you're eating today.

You have food that comes in. Sustenance, minerals, and vitamins. But waste comes out. Things you can’t use or don’t need. Some of yall so clogged up with the waste of your youth or the waste of the past to get the nutrition of the day.

So you come to the table here at church and the pastor gives you the food that you are to take in and chew on and digest. But you back away from the table saying I’m full that’s good they need to eat this over there but I am good. Or you back up because what is being served isn’t as palatable as you want. It doesn’t taste as good. We want sermons that speak on destiny and and promises and future because we want to eat what we are focused on. US. We want 7 ways to a healing. 40 points to a breakthrough. Instead of just saying God, I will eat what you serve because you know best. There is a reason ice cream and pizza are comfort foods and greens and ham hocks are soul food.

It is apparent just by the number of people that show up on a sunday verses a wednesday. I don’t need that on wednesday. that stuff is boring. It is too deep for me. Can’t nobody say when they leave here they don’t understand what is happening. Cuz i will stay here till you do.

Ok enough on that

Abram gets his land assignment and immediately there is a famine in it. God what are you doing?

FAITH UNTESTED IS USELESS

Yes I am going to allow the trial because i want to see where your faith really is Abram. So as soon as he gets to the land the famine. You ever gotten to a place or a thing that you believe God has called you to only to find out how hard it is. Then you start to wonder, did I really hear God on this. Was that really you?

1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So I must plant at least the thought that if you you land in a place in which God has called and trials don’t come or trouble doesn’t come, you might want to check with the Lord.

God tells us throughout the entirety of scripture there will be difficulty.

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

CS Lewis said Suffering is God’s megaphone.

Suffering is used to awaken a sleeping world. Let me ask you this, if everything were going perfect in my life and I never had problems then you hear me say how much I love God. You know what youd say. well yeah probably. Not a big shocker there mister has everything he wants. But if you see me and things are going terribly, my bank account is negative, I am struggling to get by, just lost a loved one, and one of my kids isn’t serving the Lord yet you now hear me say that. You see I am even more devoted to him and point people to him. The more things get harder the more you praise him. then you look over at me and say he aint acting like I would act. He has something that I don’t have. He has a hope that I don’t know anything about. before you know it they wanna come talk about it. That is the entire Job story.

but 95% of our prayer life is about getting out of trials. It is about help me with this. Get me through this. Take care of this. You know what I wanna start doing. What I really wish I had the faith for. When my bank account goes negative, laugh at it. Because I know who God is. And I know I am doing everything that I am supposed to. I am paying tithe, I am budgeting, not frivolous spending just have kids that needs 8,000 dollars for some event or function every month. lol But right now I start listing all the bills to god. I start talking about strain. How I wish it wasn’t like this. Why does he allow this for us. Why can’t you just provide before the bills are do. Let me win the lottery. I am sure that God even in all of loving mercy gets tired of us being the whiners from saturday night live to him all the time. We have got to..we…understand that He is god and He is provider and He is always present and he loves us and he is for us and he has a plan for us that may include things we don’t like so he can get results he wants because He created us. TRUST HIM

I am not saying don’t pray but what would happen if 95% of your prayer life was actual praise instead of complaints or request. When I go through the Lords prayer, you know what I see, 4 lines about us. The rest are about him and others. And if we really wanna get into, there is nothing in that prayer about me. Everything he prays is for the collective of the body. Don’t let me get started on that cuz yall really wouldn’t like me then. But look at it

Our father who art in heaven praise

Hallowed be thy name praise

Thy kingdom come praise

thy will be done praise

on earth as in heaven praise

Give us this day or daily bread request

and forgive us of our trespasses request

as we forgive those who trespass against us requirement for the previous

lead us not into temptation request

deliver us from the evil one request

for thine is the king and the power and the glory forever amen praise.

OK not gonna make 13 here we go

And, just for the record this is the first time we see famine. This is definitely the first time Abram has ever experienced it. So what does he do?

He went down to Egypt. Abram. Didn’t God just tell you that this was your land? Didn't he just say, I will bless you and make you great blah blah blah. So you can’t even go 4 verses before you begin to bail on God. Know that Egypt is while a real place, always a symbol for the world or the world systems. So Abram leaves what God has ordained to try and go do it on his own. To follow what the world says instead of what God says.

By the way, this running to Egypt becomes a problem for his descendants also. They run to the thing that is supposed to save them and it ends up being the thing that enslaves them.

Running to the world will always enslave you. Everything the world offers if not kept in its proper place will enslave you. Money, drugs, alcohol, fornication… the list goes on and on.

so right out of the gate, God test abram and he fails it. He fails the test. If we do not understand that being apart of God wills is going to mean testing then we will fail also. I wish it weren't the case. I would love to say I will increase or perfect your faith by giving you everything you ask for. But he would then have some spoiled rotten kids. The great news that just because Abram failed this test, God is still merciful.

But anyone catch where he went. He went to Egypt yeah but Moses throws in a word here. He went down. It is always a step downward to trust the world more than you trust God. Wow all of this in the first verse.

Ok next verse

Genesis 12:11–13 ESV

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

What a fantastic guy! I mean he is so brave and upstanding. First of all he comes with a compliment. Obviously Abram married up. But the whole purpose of the compliment is because he is afraid for his own life.

Abram seems to be doing a lot of things out of fear rather than faith. Every step he is taking right here is all out of fear.

Faith moves to hope and love while lack of faith moves towards fear and restlessness.

So he says tell them you are my sister. Which remember isn’t a lie but it just isnt the whole truth. Notice besides faith what else is missing. A love for his wife. He don’t care what happens to her he just don’t want to die. Women listen to me if your boyfriend won’t lay down his life for you, call him on the phone and say this just isn’t gonna work out. If your husband won’t lay down his life for you, you better go to the gun range yourself. You should’ve vetted him out a little better lol But I can only imagine what Sarai was thinking.

So he is right now leading his family in fear. Let’s see what happens.

Genesis 12:14–16 ESV

14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

So Abram just pimped his wife out. I mean can we call it what it is? Abram makes money off of his wife being taken into another man’s house. We don’t know how long. We don’t know all that went on but we know, Abram makes a lot of money for the brief time she is there. No mention of her feelings. No recognition of what she might be going through. Maybe she was treated well also. I would assume so. But I don’t know about y'all but if some dude came to me and was like your wife is going to come live with me and I’ll pay you 10 million dollars my wife is going to have something to say about it and I know it would be, id rather live poor with you than rich with someone else. Ain’t that right babe thank you. I don’t even need her to answer. lol

But Sarai does it because she respects her husband. By the way ladies, I want you to take note of this. Application for you and your husband. Even though her husband was wrong and we don’t know if she thought so or not, she still did it. Now I am going to give caution but hear me out. We know looking back this was a stupid decision based on fear. She might have felt that way or she might have thought it to be a good idea. Even though it was the wrong thing, God still blessed them. Because he is a good good father. Even if your husband may be making the wrong decision, God can still turn it around for you if you will follow in obedience to GOD by submitting to your Husband.

You see what i mean. Don’t fight your husband in every step and complain about him being no good and don’t listen to you and never hears what you have to say. Did you listen to what he said. You could actually be wrong. He might be hearing from the lord and you aren’t. So the bible requires you to submit so do that. Then pray behind the scenes but don’t be back biting and complaining about your husband. That is not obedience and you could be costing your family and trying to blame him.

Now let me balance that, if he is doing something sinful, you are not supposed to participate. Men what kind of sin are you letting your wife participate in?

But the truth is here is Abram trying to do it on his own and let me tell you. God does not share his glory.

We in the men have been going through a study and boy has it be powerful. I pray that you are seeing changes in your men ladies that have been coming. If not it may be because God is just breaking things off of them and they are making bonds with other men. Any way in this study Rick Burgess talks about his greatest trial to date the death of his 2 year old boy in their swimming pool. Whole story behind it but here is the point and Rick tells us this. Rick is big guy go getter I can do it all. Very charismatic. I mean the whole thing. So he would not depend upon God on the day to day life because he would say like all of us in this room if we are honest, I don’t want to bother God with the day to day. I’ll go to him when it gets tough but I can handle it. Then this trial and he got so broken that he couldn’t tie his shoes to go to work. He just sat there in the chair slumped over balling his eyes out. But what happened was when he said, I am done. I can’t do any more. God said finally, the death of Rick. Now I can work. Watch what I will do. You and I spend so much time trying to do everything ourselves that we don’t put on the field the very one that make the changes happen. He will break you.

But we don’t want to preach this. We don’t want to talk about God having to break us and to reshape us. We just want God to get us out of hell and leave us alone. Can you imagine God looking down and Abram and saying oh my goodness. There he goes again. He is gonna try and fix this himself. If he would have just listened to me in the first place. But God is so gracious. I am just tired of missing out on all that He could be in my life if I would just let him. How stupid we must look to God when we question him or try to get him to do things our way.

So everything is going Abram’s way right now. Look at verse 16. I want you to underline a part in it. This is really going to come back and bite them in them the rear. But the enemy will keep you fed or as we say fat and sassy as long as you stay with him. But if you are with him you are against God.

So what does the Lord do?

Genesis 12:17–20 ESV

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

Someone who took notes last week. There were seven things God said to Abram. One of those was a command for Abram to do. What was that? He was supposed to bless others. What has he done to this nation or to these people. He has brought a plague on them. Wow so you get out of the will of God and you bring curses instead of blessings. Sin is never personal. Sin always matters.

And who is leading all of this. The man. Men’s ministry has to be the most important thing we do. Because of Abram he brought judgment on the house. It is the man. This is not about the children nor is it about the women. If a great kids ministry or women’s ministry done the trick, this place would be packed with men. But in almost every church it is overrun with women and with kids and no men. Start fighting for the men. Not saying we shouldn’t have a great kids or women’s but if you have those two things and send them back to a home with a heathen man he will undo it all.

Don’t you love the lack of details that Moses gives right here. I mean what did God do and or say that would have led Pharoah to this conclusion. What was the plague like? Did the flies come? Was it the frogs? Water into blood? This is my brain. God did you wake him up in the middle of the night and say fool stop taking people’s women or I am gonna knock you down. Or did you say thus saith the lordeth, the lasteth woman you tooketh is his wife. Letteth her goeth noweth. Like I just wanna know.

But whatever he did. He said, if Abram won’t listen then I will talk to someone else. So he goes to the world and uses them to get the believer back in check. Boy how many times has that happened. Just listen to him. God is not going to get it wrong. He isn’t going to fail.

So God get’s him out and talks to everyone in the kingdom via the pharoah. Don’t touch this man or this woman. Let them go with whatever I ahve given them and don’t take a thing. So they do.

Ok let’s see how much of 13 we can get into.