The Patriarchs: Abram's Faltering Faith

Everywhere that God had promised him in the beginning, he's gonna deliver to him even though Abraham had goofed up and failed in his faith and said to Lot, you pick a piece, you can have it. God came right behind him cause Lot wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. I'm telling you this great truth. Sometimes when your faith falters, God will come behind you and clean it up. In the South, we would say, God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick. [00:21:05] (34 seconds)  #FaithRestored

But do you see how God continues to love his children and keeps calling them to himself? That's the beauty of the of the good news that God has come down to us. Actions and consequences. Abraham Abraham had it. And Sarai was thrown into the to the pain of it. Abram sold out his wife to save his own skin, and Sarai was the victim of of the whole thing. Sometimes when we live disobediently, we hurt those that we love the most. Don't do that. [00:39:01] (45 seconds)  #GraceAfterFailure

God selected by his divine election a person, not based on his his worthiness, but based on God's sovereign choice. Deuteronomy seven seven says that God did not choose Israel, Abraham, and his lineage because of any merit of theirs. They were not the greatest of nations, but the weakest of them. And God chose them anyway for what purpose? That they might shine a light to all nations of the glory of God and His divine kindness and grace. [00:00:40] (36 seconds)  #ChosenToShine

What was wrong? God said, leave your place. Leave your people and go to a place that I will show you. And what did Abram do? He packed up the whole crew. His father, even his nephew. He brought all of his sheep with him. Abraham was a sheep herder. He brings all of his wealth with him. God didn't say do that. He said, get out. Leave everything and go and I will show you. [00:26:00] (30 seconds)  #LeaveAndFollow

God knows that Abraham is in a bad spot. What spot is that? He had no scriptures. He didn't have the Holy Spirit. Abraham only had an encounter. The God said go, but he didn't tell him where he was going. He said get going. I'll show you I'll show you as you go. And he went. And so God reassured him at the level where he needed reassurance so that he could continue the journey. [00:24:11] (31 seconds)  #WalkByFaithNotSight

See, that's how it is with you. You think, oh, I'll just make an adjustment. I'll just take a little compromise. You would think going to Egypt and getting a bunch of cattle that increased your wealth would be a blessing, but in fact it became a relational curse. Anybody with you see what I'm saying? You can't have cows everywhere. You've gotta have you've gotta have grass so that they can eat it. [00:35:20] (29 seconds)  #CompromiseHarms

And there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there. Now here's another mistake. God said go to Canaan. He didn't say go to Egypt. Abram is faltering in his faith. Their actions and consequences is the name of the sermon, actions and consequences. The problem with faltering faith and the consequences of them, and that's what we want to be reminded of. [00:13:34] (29 seconds)  #DetourFromGod

And you resort to your own resources. You resort to your own mechanisms. That's what Abraham did. So he tells his beautiful wife, tell everyone, you're simply my sister. And that's what Abram did. Abram entered into Egypt. The Egyptians saw the woman was very beautiful. Verse 15. And when the princes of, when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to the Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house, into his harem. [00:16:01] (32 seconds)  #NoShortcutsInFaith