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1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.
Reflections Sunday Message Recap:
“Don’t Be a Punk: God is with You!”
Pastor Louis H. Straker, Jr.
July 25th, 2021
Judges 6:11 - 16
Bullying
You have to handle your giants
Fight, flight, of freeze our natural response to traumatic situations. (Your body automatically sends hormones). Heart rate, lung capacity, hearing, seeing , all increase. Which you choose is determined by the system your body chooses to use.
The system you’re under matters.
You got to tell life, I’m coming for you as much as your’re coming for me.
Stand up to your bully.
Be confident (Philippians 4:16)
Stay connected (Proverbs
Simple language (Be straightforward)
Set limits (Colossians 3:2)
Act quickly, and consistently (James 4:7)
Strike when the iron is cold (Attack your bully when they least suspect it, and be consistent)
Stop hiding, God is with you. You can ask for a sign.
If you’re going to have revival you need to tear down the idols. (A noun, person, place, thing or thought) that you esteem higher than the will of God. These things make you forget the power you have in God. Revival in coming through the church.
Not everybody in the crowd is ready to fight. So sometimes you have to test people. Sometimes God has to decide who is qualified to be in the fight.
Don’t look for the numbers. but look for the God of the numbers. God will give you everything you need as you go, you don’ have to have it before hand.
ICE BREAKER:
[SIDEBAR: Genesis 19:36 - 38; Ruth 1:3 - 4] Even though your family line may be less than stellar, you can choose to connect yourself to God, and His people, and become a conduit for great blessing for yourself, and others.
INTRODUCTION:
Abraham was a man of faith, and God rewarded his faith by promising him a homeland to call his own and a son to inherit the land. But Abraham was also a man of fear. In this story, fear got the best of him - again!
If you feel like you’ve heard this story before, you have. In Genesis 12:10 - 20, Abraham, fearing for his life, lied to Pharaoh about Sarah. He said she was his sister rather than his wife. God revealed Abraham’s deception then, preventing Pharaoh from doing anything rash. In the end, Abraham left Egypt with more resources than when he had arrived.
[NOTE: Years later, Abraham, finding himself in a similar position - this time with the King Abimelech - decided to pull the same stunt. Apparently, even though Sarah was ninety years old, she was still quite attractive.]
Genesis 20:1 - 3
1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
Question #1: What does it say about His attitude towards marriage?
Genesis 20:4 - 7
4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 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.”
Question #2: When have you been saved from making a really bad decision?
LESSON: Before anything could happen between Abimelech, and Sarah, God revealed the true nature of her relationship to Abraham. In this narrative for the first time Abraham is called a prophet. I think God calling him a prophet now is intentional, in spite of his sin, he was still God’s spokesperson.
LESSON: Once again Abraham is failing to act uprightly, and it is an unbelieving king, who is more virtuous, and does the right thing. Abraham, the prophet, should be humiliated for being rebuked by a heathen king.
Genesis 20:8 - 18
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 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.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” 14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Question #3: When have you seen one person’s bad decision cause negative consequences for other?
COMMENT: How does this story highlight the need for accountability in our lives?
LESSON: Abraham’s actions were probably more dangerous than he realized. Think about it, the Lord had just promised to open Sarah’s womb and let her conceive. The promise of a child they had been waiting on for twenty-five years, was on the cusp of fulfillment, but Abraham nearly threw it away. God himself had to intervene dramatically, threatening death to Abimelech’s and closing the wombs of his entire household to keep the covenant He made with Abraham intact.
Question #4: Why do you think God waited twenty-five yours to give Abraham the son He promised?
Genesis 21:1 - 7
1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
The faith shown by Abraham, and Sarah naming their son Isaac, as God had told them (Genesis 17:19). Remember the name Isaac means “he laughs.” But whereas the laughter of Abraham and Sarah previously had been one of scoffing and doubt, now it transformed into the laughter of joy.
LESSON: Even in our fear and doubt we must continue to serve God, and watch Him turn our tears of sorrow into tears of joy, your cries of pain and anguish into shouts of praise. Only hold on to the promise of what He has called us to be, and even when we feel unworthy, and mess up, or have a make a misstep God’s word is sure. And if needs be He will dramatically intervene to bring His will to pass.
[NOTE: Sometimes we are looking for God’s audible voice, or for Him to do the miraculous in our lives, when as with Gideon, from pastor’s message, or Abraham that we are studying here God is concerned about His spiritual agenda, which is to save as many for his kingdom. So protecting us even in our foolish thoughts, motives, and selfish acts, God still covers us. (Like Adam and Eve with the animal skin, to how Abraham lied again to Abimelech)
Question #5: Which of your family relationships cause you the most stress? What have you found helpful in settling disputes in your own relationships?
Genesis 21:8 - 13
8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”
LESSON: Clearly, the tension between Hagar and Sarah had not fully dissipated, it seems the feud passed from mother to son.
[Please take this as a lesson: We have to be very careful how you talk about friends, and family in front of your children we never know how they will internalize those messages. And we have to be willing to call out this behavior when we see others doing it.]
LESSON: While God shared Sarah’s concern that Ishmael not be coheir with Isaac, He did not share her animosity toward Ishmael. He reassured Abraham that he would also make a nation of Ishmael because he is Abraham’s offspring (Gen. 21:13)
LESSON: This should let us know that if we feel like outcasts, the black sheep of the family, the one with the less than stellar family history, or checkered past. God still has a plan for us because we are connected to the community of faith. We should never count ourselves unworthy of the blessing of God.
Genesis 21:14 - 21
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
LESSON: Remember Ishmael means “ he hears” and just as before, God heard, and provided a well, meeting their physical needs, and renew the promise to make Ishmael a great nation, giving them spiritual hope for the journey ahead. Again God shows compassion for a single mother in distress.
Genesis 21:22 - 34
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
LESSON: The need for a treaty indicates Abraham continued to be blessed, and increased in the land necessitating a new covenant with King Abimelech. So, in return for flocks, and herds Abraham would retain the the rights to the well in Beer-sheba (21:30 - 31) which means “Well of the Oath.”
CLOSING: The symbol of planting a tree is an important one, as it signified that Abraham intended t coexist in the land with the other nations. This tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba (21:33) would be a sign of peace, security, and appropriate kind of godly compromise. The tree would be a symbol of longevity, as Abraham anticipated that he (and his descendants) would stay on the land. this is why he refers to God as the Everlasting God (21:33). Abraham was doing what all believers should do: pursuing peace with his unbelieving neighbors without compromising his kingdom principles.