The Same Ol' Sins

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 109:1-15

Psalm 109:1–15 ESV

Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin! May his days be few; may another take his office! May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit! May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil! Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children! May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation! May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out! Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!

Scripture memory: Genesis 50:19-20

Genesis 50:19–20 “But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Scripture Reading (Micah): James 4:1-10

James 4:1–10 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Sermon:

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Well once again, and as always, good morning. I was glad when they said to me let us go and Worship in the house of the Lord. Well, if you have your Bibles, I would encourage you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 20 if you don't have your Bibles. It's been a while since I mentioned this. There are Pew Bibles right in front of you. You can turn there as well. It's important I just preached at Messi Valley Christian School earlier this week, and I told them what I've told you all before, but it Bears wearing again, Bears saying again.

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You should bring your Bible to church, and you should read and open God's word. I would hope you trust me. But. You should also read and understand and seek to know what God's word says yourself. Don't trust me just because I'm the dude standing up here in the Pulpit. Trust me because you've seen God's word, and you believe it to be. What it truly says? But, as I mentioned, we're in Genesis chapter 20, we're back to taking entire books for one week. We're going to take shorter passage next week, but we're back to taking one whole book Genesis chapter 20.

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And we're also back to Abraham in his life. We've been around. If you've been around for a while, you know, we took a a minor break. We did the Sodom and Gomorrah interlude into Abraham's life. And now Abraham is again the focus, the the main character of what is going on here in this text. We're back to looking at Abraham God's promises, Abraham's faith, and important for today. Abraham's failures. To get us up to speed for some context so we can remember the last time we heard from Abraham, not the last time we saw him the last time we saw Abraham. He was standing above the cities, watching the smoke rise from Sodom and Gomorrah. But the last time we heard from Abraham?

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He was. Interceding. For Sodom and Gomorrah with God, he was pleading. It's the famous. What if you find 50 righteous people? What if you find 45, 40, 30, 20? What if you find 10? Would you spare, and God says he will? Right before that immediately before he was pleading. The reason he was pleading with God is because he had a visit from one identified as the Lord and two other guests. They had prophesied over both Abraham and his wife, Sarah. That Sarah would have a child. Within a year. The one year from this visit one year from the visit of the the representative of the Lord and his two compatriots, one year after that, Sarah would have a child.

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And so we would think we'd come back to Abraham. His life is full of Faith. He's doing things right. I mean, we had the whole Sodom and Gomorrah narrative. It felt really long for us. It felt like. Well, five weeks long. In reality, everything happened over the course of. Well, everything Simon Warhead when it was 24 hours. The issue with lot and his daughters was sometime further down the road. But here we come back to Abraham. And we might think he's on another Victory. He's been interceding with God. He's seen God's Wrath and Vengeance. He's had this prophecy. Everything will be great, and Abraham will be doing everything the way he should be.

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So, what we might think? Genesis chapter 20, starting in verse 1.

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From there. Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negab and lived between Kardashian Sherman. And he sojourned in jarah. And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife. She is my sister. And abimelech, king of Gerard, took Sarah. But God came to abimelech in a Dream by night and said to him, behold, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken for. She is a man's wife. Now, abimelech had not approached her. So, he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not say did he not himself? Say to me, she is my sister.

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And she herself said it. He is my brother. In the entirety of my heart, and in the innocence of my hands, I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream. Yes, I know that you have done this and the Integrity of your heart. And it was I, who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now, then return the man's wife, for he is a prophet so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die. You and all who are yours?

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So, abimelech Rose early in the morning and called all of his servants and told them all of these things. And the men were very much afraid. Then abimelech called Abraham and said to him, what have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me, things that ought not to be done. And abimelech said to Abraham. What did you see that you did this thing? Abraham said. Well, I did it because I thought there's no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

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Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander for my father's house, I said to her, this is the kindness you must do to me at every place in which we come say of me. He is my brother. Then, abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham. And return. Sarah, his wife to him. And abimelech said, behold, my land is before you dwell, where it pleases you to Sarah, he said. Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver.

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It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are Vindicated. Then, Abraham prayed to God and God healed abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed. All the wombs of the House of abimelech because of Sarah? Abraham's wife. So are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open our time together with a word of prayer.

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Dear Lord of all goodness and Grace of all strength and mercy. The God Who holds all things knows all things. The God Who is Sovereign. We we come before you today. Grateful that you see fit to speak to us. Grateful that in your kindness, you move us towards repentance and goodness that you have washed us. You have cleansed us and that you now Empower us to walk. In the ways that you have called us. May we live lives worthy of the calling. We have received you work in our lives, Holiness, and goodness. Would you ask this morning that you would open our eyes to see give us ears to hear what you have said and done? I ask that you would speak through your word.

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To our hearts. May it take deep root and bear much fruit. I ask that you would speak through your servant this morning. May my words be your words. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen.

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So, in case we. Forget. This

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is not

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the first time. That Abraham has done this. This is not the first time he's tried this whole. Oh yeah, she's not my wife, she's my sister. Maneuver. He did it before when he was so journeying down in Egypt. And there Pharaoh took his wife. God stepped in. Saved Sarah, and at the end, Abraham receives blessings.

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Well, the same old sins are going to play out the same way, but I think this is important for us to see. And understand. So we start. With the sin.

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And what is? We could ask the sin. What in particular is the? Of Abraham. And to actually parse that out and to get particular as to what this sin is. It gets a little bit difficult, difficult. Because it turns out this is one of those sins that. Multi-Faceted in its Rebellion against God. And his ways. What is the sin of Abraham? Well, to start, it's lying. This is his wife. He admits, it's his wife. In verse 11, he says they will kill me because of my wife. I know you're my wife, he said of his wife. She is my sister, verse 2, Abraham said of Sarah, his wife. She is my sister.

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It was his wife. He knew it was his wife. She knew she was his wife. God knew that he was. She was his wife, Abraham, lied. The outset, his sin is lying. Indefinitely. Abraham lied indefinitely, that is. A sin. But there's more to this.

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At its foundation, we could ask, well, why did he lie? And why questions are important. We should ask why questions, so why did he lie? And he gives lame reasons, and that's actually what we'll talk about in Grace group. This week, we'll look at the just extraordinarily lame reasons that Abraham gives. But at its heart. Truly. The problem here is. He doesn't trust God. God, who has dealt kindly with Abraham, who has already blessed him God, who has already saved him and his wife in a situation exactly like this God, who has promised to bless him and keep him God who has given him a prophecy. You will have a child within a year.

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Abraham does not trust that God will uphold his end of the bargain here. The God Who covenanted with Abraham, The God Who himself walked through the torn in half carcasses of the animals, The God Who covenanted with this man. Abraham sits here and is, like, well, you know. We're going to garage it's dangerous and scary there. Let ready. We're gonna do the same maneuver we've always done. He doesn't trust God and. To put a more fine point on the sin of Abraham, he trusts himself. And his own schemes. Though, this scheme has already failed. And God has already shown himself faithful Abraham's go-to maneuver.

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Is to continue trusting in himself and not in God.

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And the end result is. His wife's in danger. Here's a third part of his sin that we should think through. Abraham had a duty and a responsibility to protect his wife and also God's promise. He has put both in Jeopardy.

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His wife is in danger of just not being his wife anymore. She has been taken she is into the courts of abimelech. And that's where she is. She's gone. It's going to be hard. For God's promise of Abraham to have a son in a year. To be. Oh, to be. Followed through on. If his wife is in someone else's? Harem. So he's put God's promise in danger, and he's put his wife in danger.

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Verse 2 the king of Guru are sent and took Sarah. So, because you didn't trust God because you did, trust yourself. All of these things are in Jeopardy. Because you didn't protect because you were so scared for yourself that you Abraham did not. This is a new testament thought, right? Abraham wouldn't have had this, but the truth is still behind it. He did not love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He's so scared of himself. They're gonna kill me. They're gonna hurt me. This is a selfishness. It's a lack of trust in God. It's lying. It's all of these things.

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And as Abraham sits there caught in this sin. Were then immediately shown. The intervention.

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In spite of Abraham's failings in spite of Abraham's sins, in spite of Abraham's shortcomings. God will still do what God has promised because God is God, and God will do as he Wills. And God said, I promise. And it does not depend on the ability or accuracy of Abraham to be able to follow perfectly. God is still going to follow through on his promises. And so any intervention God himself comes. But there's an interesting note here. There's lessons to be learned throughout this. Why does God intervene and with whom does God intervene and how does God intervene? It's good questions.

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Well, in verse 3, we read that God came. To abimelech. In a dream. God comes. The Pagan king of Gerard. Who has taken Abraham's wife? Though, as we will read. In this text, he is innocent. Though abimelech. His heart and hands are clean. God comes to. He intervenes by going to not Abraham, but to abimalid. In a dream, God comes to this Pagan King, and he says, you're dead. You're dead because you took someone else's wife. And abimelech is. Struck with the fear of the Lord. This important note here struck with the fear of the Lord.

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And in shock. No, I didn't.

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You go! Verse 5 did he not himself? Say she's my sister, and did she herself not say he's my brother? They both lied to me, I have, and this is an important like legal point we abimelech says. I have on the basis of two witnesses. Sure knowledge that she is his sister. She said it, and he said it. Two witnesses Proclaim this truth. I, I promise, God. In the Integrity of my heart and in the innocence of my hands, my hands sought to do no wrong. My heart was trying to be. Clean. Verse 6, then God said to him that dream. Yes, I know that you have done this in the Integrity of your heart, I know.

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And part of the lesson here. So, as you go through the life of Abraham, an important lesson that we need to start to understand that God has been doing throughout all of this, and this is what Sodom and Gomorrah was just a small part of in Abraham's life. God has been showing Abraham that he is the god of everywhere. That he is Sovereign over all things. So when he was in ER of the Chaldeans, God called him and said, you're going to go. And when he gets to Heron, he says, keep going. Because God is still Sovereign, and when he gets to the promising God says, I will give you this because I am God of this land, and when he goes down to Egypt, God protects Sarah to say I'm still God in Egypt, and now here, he's wandering in the Negab, and he's here in garage, so he's.

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Outside geographically of the quote, unquote, promised land, and God is still saying, I'm God. I'll still speak to King of himalek. I'll still be Sovereign over the whole world.

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There's no place that God is not Sovereign. And so he goes to King abimelech, he says. I know, I'm, I know, I know, the intentions, even of King abimelech's heart. I know that he is innocent from this. And here's our important note verse 6. And it was. Who kept you abimelech from sinning against?

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God says to abimelech. If you had slept with Abraham's wife, it was not her or Abraham. You were sinning against, but me. Because God has decreed, and God has. God is The Sovereign judge of all things, and so, if anything, wrong happens under God's purview. Ultimately, is it a sin against him, and God says, I kept you from sinning against me. I did not let you touch her. I didn't let you. God's still Sovereign. God was always intervening. This was always in God's plan that he would show his power and might, and also we'll see at the end. Use this as a vehicle.

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To pour out his goodness towards even more people. So, God intervenes. He comes to abimelech in a dream, he says. I know you're innocent. I didn't let you sin against me, but listen to this verse 7 give her back. Right now. Do not delay. Give her back. She is Abraham's wife. He is a prophet, give her back. He will pray for you. And you'll live. But verse 7, if you don't return her. You and all your servants. You're all gonna die. God's intervention is I've kept you from sinning, but if you continue down this path, it is death. If you continue down this path, you are a dead man. Return her. Now you have been warned.

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If you do not do this? Judgment will fall upon you swiftly and fiercely. You and everyone who's with you? So, God's intervention kept abimelech from sinning and God's intervention sent Sarah back and God's intervention calls abimelech Pagan living in Gerard. God's intervention keeps him. From continuing to sin. It stopped us in from ever happening, and it stops it from occurring in the future. God's grace restrains the sin, even of abimelech. So, in verse 8, abimelech Rises in the morning. He gets up okay. Well, that's a crazy dream, and he could have gone back to sleep. Like, so weird, crazy dream.

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Must have been the burrito. No, he calls the service. He's like, this is what happened. I had a dream, God said. I'm dead. By the way, if I don't return her, y'all are dead, too. And so they all show the fear of God, verse 8, and the men were very much afraid. And we hear they're, like, oh, we shouldn't. No, they are right to be afraid. They are afraid of God in his judgments. This is a proper view of the fear of God. Abimelech and his servants Pagan as they are they get it. And then we get.

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The chastisement. But, what's very interesting in this story? It's the same thing that happened in the live story. Abraham is going to be chastised. By the quote unquote Pagan. The one who is? Living outside of God's? Purview and not under his blessings, not under his covenants. Is going to come and chastise God's covenant. Person. Abimelech is going to chastise Abraham. Verse 9 abimelech called to Abraham and said, what have you done to us? You should have known better what in the world? How have I sinned against you? Abimele, that comes Abraham. What did I ever do to you that you would bring your God's judgment upon me? That's in effect. Exactly what he's saying?

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What have I done to you that you would cause me to do such a sin that God would threaten to kill me and all of my people and abimelech probably already knows the punishment. That's also been going on this idea that every single woman in his household cannot have a child that that is God's judgment upon abimelech. What have you done to me, Abraham, that this judgment has fallen? What did I do to?

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You have done things that ought not to be done.

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Is calling out? God's anointed. Verse 10 what did you see that you did this thing? What in the world? What would possess you to do this to me?

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What were hinted at here? Did abimelech has been good to? Abraham. He's let him live in his land. Let him Soldier in there. He's obviously had conversations with Abraham met with him. Such that Abraham was, like, yeah, this is my sister. Her name's Sarah? He's talked with Sarah. She's like, yeah, yeah, that's my brother Abraham.

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And so, abimelech is sitting there, chastising Abraham. What have you done to me? One of the lessons here that maybe we should learn is. Often God will use various different ways to reach and talk to and sanctify. His people. Sometimes for me. I'll be watching a movie. Maybe some, like, lame kids movie? And something will happen, and God will use that to be like, you know? Be more holy live a better life. Hey, I'm having you're having a conversation. With someone who is as Godless as the day is.

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And they say something, and you, you find that sting of conviction in your heart?

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This is scriptural principle. God will use a donkey to Proclaim his truth.

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So even abimelech can come and bring chastisement. Towards Abraham.

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In this story, and this is, well, again. We'll talk about in Grace group this week. Abraham doesn't really repent. He just comes up with lame excuses. His lame excuses to go quickly through this that we'll talk about later this week in detail are one. I didn't think you guys feared God. Really, abimelech shows he fears God when God comes doing a dream. He does what God commands, and then we read. In verse 8, the men were very much afraid. Abraham's like, well, I didn't think anyone around here feared God. It turns out only they feared God. Abraham was not fearing God the way he should.

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Attempt number two, an excuse. Well, actually, she kind of is my sister, because you know, she's my father's daughter, though. It's from a different mother.

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And ignoring, though you could dive into the weeds here, the difficulty of that relationship situation. And just for right now. For the sake of discussion, chalking that up to a cultural thing that is not great. But it's a cultural thing back then. You just said. In verse 11, she was your wife. And now, in verse 12, you're trying to say. But actually, she's also kind of my sister. So, he actually lie. It's a lame excuse. Verse 13. Also, just so you know when God calls us to wander? We've just been saying this to everyone. His excuse for sinning against abimelech is, well, I didn't sit against you. I just sinned against everyone.

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Again, these are three extraordinarily lame excuses.

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The correct response if I may? Would be to say. You're right. I apologize and repent. She is my wife.

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That's what he should have done. Instead, he. Wishy washy gives excuses. Which makes the ending so much more shocking.

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There's blessings.

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Abimelech takes sheep and ox and male serpents. Female servants gives them to Abraham. So, just like last time when Abraham went down to Egypt, his lie was the vehicle that God used somehow to bless him and lot so much that when they came back, the land could not contain the blessing. And here Abraham goes back and again God sees fit to bless Abraham, not because of his goodness. He's shown not in this text, not because of his Integrity. He's shown none in this text, not because he's worthy. He's shown no worth in this text. God blesses because God sees fit to bless.

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He gives to Abraham. All of these sheep and ox and male servants and female servants he gives to Sarah. A thousand pieces of silver. This is a huge Rich blessing. Why does he give this to Sarah? This is important. To prove she is innocent. And still clean. Throughout Abraham's life, there's been this important thought that that God's going to do it God's way and no one's going to mess up God's way of doing it. And so he's protected, and he's called. And he said, when, when Abraham tried, well, I'll try it my way. Let's go with Hagar.

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That's not the child of Promise. That's not my way. He goes down to. You guys says, no, I'm going to protect her. Because her child will come from you is ultimately the end goal.

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God says, no, Abraham. You will have a child with Sarah. And if abimelech had come and taken her as his wife? And not given this thousand pieces of silver, not proved her innocence. If, in nine months, Sarah had a child. Rumors might start. Well, wait, it wasn't. Nine months ago, wasn't she an abimele X? Maybe this isn't Abraham's? There can be no room for doubt. And so, God pours out this other blessing. It is a sign of Innocence verse 16.

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It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you before everyone you are Vindicated. There is no doubt the Thousand pieces of silver prove Sarah's innocence.

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But the blessings continue. In this story, it is not just Abraham, who is blessed verse 17, then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed abimelech and healed his wife and female slaves. So that they bore. The blessing is then poured out to abimelech because abimelech obeyed.

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And so here's the beauty of this whole story. Abraham gets blessed, even though he's he's wandering, and he's sinning, and he's failing. God blesses, and abimelech gets blessed because he obeys God. And so the ultimate lesson is. God will bless who he wants, how he wants when he wants. He can bless a bimelech. He can bless Abraham. He can bless Sarah.

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For, he is Sovereign. Ultimately, this is the lesson. That Abraham's life? He needs to learn and?

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He does learn. Abraham learns this lesson how do I know he learns this lesson because when God will later call Abraham? To offer up his son as a sacrifice, Abraham will trust God. So, it's going to take him some failures to learn. But he will. He will trust God. The God Who intervenes. In the midst of Abrahamson. The God Who brings trastisement, even through Pagan abimelech. Is The God Who blesses? He's the God who keeps he's the God who has called. Even when Abraham is?

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Flailing around in the same old sins. God is still good. Let's pray.