And they joined battle with them in the veil of Sidon.
Now in this story, you know, Abraham is going to take the side of Lot, obviously.
And he's taking the side of Lot who's living in Sodom and Gomorrah.
And just reading this chapter alone, you can tell the leaders of those countries aren't godly.
I mean, it's not like at this time in Sodom and Gomorrah is a godly place. It wasn't.
Right? And, you know, oftentimes when wars take place, people feel like they need to take a side.
Like one side's right and the other side's wrong.
Honestly, usually both sides are wrong when a war takes place.
Usually none of the leaders of those countries are godly. Right?
And this is definitely true here in this story.
And so Abraham's going to join battle on the side of Sodom and Gomorrah to help out Lot.
And it says here in verse number 9,
With Chedoramor the king of Elohim, and with Tidal king of nations,
and Amorphal king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Elisar, four kings with fire.
And a veil of Sidon was full of slime pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there,
and they there remained fled to the mountain.
Now when it talks about the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fleeing and falling there,
falling can either be a term for dying or to be basically destroyed.
And it's going to kind of come to play later on when one of those kings is alive,
whether or not that was the same king and he didn't actually die,
or whether or not that was basically, you know, the second person in command who becomes the king.
We'll look at that later on.
But it says they fled and fell there.
So Sodom and Gomorrah and their side are the losers of this battle, okay?
And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their victuals and went their way.
So basically they take everything from the opposing side,
and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son who dwelled in Sodom and his goods and departed.
So Lot ends up being captured because of this battle.
And verse 13,
And there came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew.
So basically once Lot gets captured,
somebody escapes and it tells Abraham,
hey, this is what took place, right?
And the Bible is making it very clear this is Abraham.
It says Abram the Hebrew.
And it goes to him and says,
hey, this is what took place because obviously he knows that, you know, Abraham is his uncle.
For he dwelled in the plane of Mamre, the Amorite,
brother Reshkol and brother Anar,
and these were confederate with Abram.
When you talk about being confederate,
it basically means like joining together.
So these are people that were the friends of Abram,
people that, you know, he knew they were on his side.
So they basically go to Abram saying,
hey, your nephew was taken and we need help, okay?
Now point number one in this sermon is preparation.
Preparation.
Notice what it says in verse 14.
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive,
so somebody comes to him and says, hey, you know what?
Your brother was taken captive.
Now when it says brother, it could be referring to spiritual brother.
I kind of look at it more as like a kinship
because even though it's his nephew, it's not technically his brother.
Oftentimes the terminology of brother or sister is used for anyone within your family in the Bible.
But he says he heard that his brother was taken captive.
It says this, he armed his trained servants, okay?
Now I want you to notice it does not say he trained his servants.
It says he armed his trained servants.
What the Bible is indicating is they were already prepared.
They were already trained.
You see, if somebody comes to you and says, hey, there's this battle, we need your help.
Oh, wait a minute, I need about six months to prepare.
I mean, you don't have six months.
You got to already be ready for the battle.
And what it says is Abraham, he armed his trained servants.
So he finds out there's a battle.
It's like, all right, we didn't know there was going to be a battle, but we're ready to go.
Here's your weapons.
Let's go to war, right?
He armed his trained servants stating that they were already trained, they were already ready to go.
And you know what?
In life, we need to be prepared for situations that are going to rise and not just say, well, I'll just figure it out once this situation comes up.
Well, that's not going to cut it usually.
And it says he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them on the dam.
So the idea is this, that those that were born in his house.
And, you know, at this time, he doesn't have children.
Right. I mean, obviously, Sarah at this time is still barren.
Hagar has not given birth to Ishmael.
So there's no children by physically, genetically, biologically his actual children that are born.
But he still had the attitude.
Everybody in my house, I'm going to basically take responsibility and make sure they're ready to go.
OK.
Obviously, Abraham is the leader of his house as well.
And obviously, he's got a lot of money because he has three hundred and eighteen servants.
OK, he's got obviously a lot of money. He's got a lot of people underneath them.
But he took responsibility that they were trained and ready to go.
So what are some areas in life where we need to make sure we're prepared ahead of time?
Well, it says he armed his trained servants.
And the first thing he makes you think of is go to Proverbs 22.
Proverbs 22, where the Bible tells us to train up a child in the way he should go, using the same terminology.
And of course, we cross reference with the Bible.
He armed his trained servants.
And one thing the Bible mentions about training is training our children.
Right.
Proverbs 22, verse six, Proverbs 22, verse six.
And it says in Proverbs 22, verse six, train up a child in the way he should go.
And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
See, the idea in Proverbs 22, verse six is that we train children at a young age to prepare them for when they're older.
Right.
But if somebody is thirty five years old and they're not prepared for life, you know, in many ways, it's just going to be too late.
In most ways, it's going to be too late.
They need to be trained and prepared ahead of time.
Right.
You can't just expect someone who is born and grows up and we never teach them the ways of God and then expect that when they're twenty five years old, they're just going to be the godliest person.
Right.
It's like, well, you know, once they become a husband and a father or, you know, wife and, you know, mom, they're going to be great and they're going to be a really spiritual person.
Nobody can train them ahead of time because life is difficult.
It's a lot of battles in life.
There's a lot of potential pitfalls of sin and dangers.
It's a hard world to live in, just spiritually speaking.
But not only that, even, you know, in a financial sense, but it's a difficult world.
And if kids are not trained at a young age, it's like, you know what?
It's going to be too late for them when they're older.
They're going to limit their options.
Right.
Obviously, number one, when it comes to training is training our kids to be God.
If I screw up everything, my kids love God and their soul winners when they're grown up, then I didn't really screw up everything.
Right.
Because that's the number one thing by far.
But at the same time, you know what?
There are many areas of life we want to train and prepare our children for things in the future.
And one of those things is just being educated.
Obviously, when it comes to most of us in this room, our kids are are very young, even younger than the point of starting homeschooling.
Right.
So obviously, this is something that would be looking towards the future in terms of being actual actually in school.
But it's important that kids get educated.
Right.
You think of Daniel, the Bible.
And you know what?
He was trained and ready to go in all of these different disciplines.
Now, one thing that I think some people make a mistake in the Christian realm, so to speak, is they get the idea, well, we're raising our kids to be Christians and Godly.
So it's okay if they're not educated.
Well, I believe that would be a foolish way to look at it.
Because if we want them to be successful, they need to be educated and intelligent.
Right.
It's going to help them in a lot of areas.
I mean, if they're educated, it's going to help them understand the Bible better.
It's going to help them with work better.
I mean, it's like our kids should be educated kids.
We should teach them not just the ways of God, but also just simply to be educated.
And here's the thing.
If we don't teach our kids and they don't learn how to do math and reading at a young age, they're probably not going to learn it when they're like 25, 35 years old.
Right.
We got to teach them at a young age.
And the sooner, the better.
When we're able to teach them things and they can learn and know these things.
And when it came to Abraham and his household, he armed his trained servants.
He didn't say, oh, wait a minute.
I didn't expect there to be a battle.
He said, you know what?
I don't know if there's going to be a battle, but we're going to be ready for one just in case.
Right.
Go to problems 30.
Problems 30.
Now, the reason why we wouldn't train our kids is because, well, it takes work, obviously.
Right.
That's the reason why probably a lot of people don't, because it obviously takes work because if you're training, you have to actively be teaching.
And of course, when we teach our kids things, a lot of times, you know, if it's new to them, they make mistakes.
They mess up.
Right.
You know, you tell your kids to do something and then, you know, maybe they try and they mess it up because they're not sure.
You get them to start throwing things away.
And then all of a sudden you're not looking.
They start throwing away things that are.
No, no, don't throw that away.
Right.
That's my shoes.
Because they're trying to just clean up and they're trying to figure things out.
But it's just like, you know, obviously it takes work to train our kids.
But the reality is that if we don't do it, when they get older, you know, it might be too late for them in many years.
We want to be prepared as soon as possible for the things of life, not just the things of being a godly person, but in all areas.
Not just our children.
But another thing is that the Bible mentions this financially.
Notice what it says in Proverbs 30 verse 25.
Proverbs 30 verse 25.
The answer are people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summers.
The Bible says the answer are people not strong if they prepare their meat in the summer.
Now, when it says not strong, I don't believe the Bible is referring to them not physically being able to lift a lot.
Because the answer actually supposedly the strongest animal in the world, pound for pound, being able to pick something up.
But the answer are very small animal.
I mean, they're not a big animal.
What the Bible says is this.
They prepare their meat in the summer.
So basically they prepare ahead of time.
What's interesting with ants is ants have a very short life.
A very short life.
And I'm not sure with every just variation under the ant family or whatever.
But, you know, a lot of them live less than a year old, right?
They live very short lives.
They don't live long lives.
So a lot of the ants are preparing for something that they're not even going to be alive for.
Because they live very, very short lives.
Many of them live less than a year old.
I don't know about all the different types of ants.
I just think of black ants and red ants.
I think small ant, big ant, black ant, red ant.
Those are kind of the four variation.
Big black, small black, big red, small red.
I'm sure there's like hundreds or whatever that they classify them under.
So I'm sure there's some that live longer than that.
But I know a lot of them live a very short lifespan.
And yet they're preparing for something they're not going to be around for.
But obviously they're preparing for the other ants and they're kind of like one colony together.
But kind of the idea is this, if I was trying to tell us.
Is we should prepare for potential difficult times in life.
And the idea is this.
Don't just spend every single amount of money that you have, right?
I mean if your salary comes in, you say, well, wait a minute.
I got 5,000 pesos.
I got to make sure I spend it all.
I got 500 left over.
Let me just buy something, right?
Well, that's the wrong attitude to have because you never know when you might actually need money, right?
And the idea is that we should be preparing ahead of time for potential difficult times.
And of course it's easy to say now, but this would have been helpful for people maybe a couple of years ago.
I mean before the coronavirus hit, a lot of people struggled financially.
They weren't expecting it.
Nobody was, right?
We don't know what's going to happen though.
I mean if Mount Pinatogo 2.0 takes place again, I mean it could affect a lot of us financially, right?
Obviously we don't hope for that.
We don't expect that.
I don't think that's going to take place.
I'm just saying there's any manner of things that could take place in our lives.
And you know what?
We should save up extra money.
Now I can border on the point of being too stingy where I never spend money on anything.
And obviously there's a balance.
But what I'm saying is this.
We shouldn't just spend everything we have either.
If you're blessed to be able to save up money, then save up money.
You can use it for something valuable down the road.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
1 Timothy 3.
So when it comes to preparation, one thing is we should prepare our children.
Another thing is we should prepare ourselves financially.
Another aspect is when it comes to spiritual leadership, one of the things the Bible mentions when it comes to being prepared
is that if somebody's going to go into the ministry, they need to make sure they're prepared for it.
It says in 1 Timothy 3 verse 6,
Now I don't know in this room if anybody has the desire to be a pastor or one day.
But when it comes to being a pastor, one thing the Bible mentions is not a novice.
Now what does it mean to be a novice?
Well a novice means somebody who's a beginner.
It's not saying that someone's sinful if they're a novice.
I mean everybody, when they first start something, they're a novice.
Your first day in a new job, you're a novice.
And what does it mean to be a novice?
Well it means that you're new and it probably means you're going to make some mistakes.
There's probably things that you don't know.
There's probably things that you know you're going to learn.
Whenever you start a new job, there's always things that you just don't know.
How are things going to work? How can I do my job better?
And so there's nothing wrong with being a novice.
But there'd be something wrong with someone being a pastor that's a novice.
Meaning they don't know the Bible.
They don't have any experience preaching.
They don't have any experience running ministries or organizing things or managing things.
If somebody has no experience, you know what, they're going to fail.
But also what the Bible says here in verse 6 is they're probably going to fall into having pride.
They'll get lifted up full of pride simply because they're not prepared.
Now it doesn't mean that that person's a sinful person.
And it doesn't mean that that person couldn't be a great pastor one day.
What the Bible's saying is they shouldn't be a pastor too soon.
They need to make sure that they have some experience.
Now in a lot of Baptist churches here in the Philippines,
many people that are pastors so to speak,
number one, they're not always married.
Which that's obviously unbiblical.
In the context, I don't want to go into it for sake of time and I've talked about that recently.
But that's a large part of your training is just being married.
You learn with a family, a wife, and kids and everything like that.
But many of the Baptist pastors, not even being married,
many of them haven't even read the Bible cover to cover.
And even those that would qualify in terms of being married with multiple kids,
many of them have not read the Bible or very, very little.
And I know this from just stories that people have told me,
especially the Church of Manila, people told me at their old churches
that they've had pastors say they've never read the Bible cover to cover.
And it's like, I can't even imagine if that was true about a pastor,
why would you say that?
Why would you stand up and say, you know what?
I've never read the Bible cover to cover.
It's just like, I don't know why I didn't say that.
But one of our members, he said that the pastor asked that in church
and he was the only one who raised his hand as having read the Bible.
And then he was shy so he took his hand down because he was embarrassed
because he didn't want to look like he was arrogant or whatever.
But it's just like nobody in the church had read the Bible.
But unfortunately, it's true oftentimes with people that are pastors.
They very rarely read the Bible.
And you know what?
It manifests itself when they try to preach sermons
because they don't really have anything to preach.
And they've got to fill their sermons with lots of stories.
They've got to shorten the sermons.
People aren't learning anything because if you're going to be teaching,
then you have to have information.
You have to have something that you're teaching people.
You have to be able to say something where people are like,
hey, you know what?
I haven't heard that before.
I'm learning.
But unfortunately, with many churches,
the people that are the pastors and the leaders are novices.
They don't have experience preaching.
They don't have experience reading the Bible.
They don't have experience memorizing the Bible.
And then unfortunately, what would end up happening is
they can easily get lifted up full of pride.
Right?
Now turn in your Bible to Acts 8.
Acts 8.
Acts chapter 8.
And I would say this is probably true with most people that become pastors.
You kind of feel like you're ready before you actually are ready.
I would say before I started the church in Manila,
like many years before, I felt like I was zealous.
I read my Bible.
Started to memorize.
I felt like, man, I'm ready.
And honestly, I wouldn't have been ready at all.
And then as years went by and I actually gained more experience,
you know, the more knowledge you have,
you start realizing that you actually don't have all that much knowledge.
Right?
It's like when you first get excited and zealous,
it's like, all right, I know a lot.
I'm ready to go.
And then as you start learning more, you start realizing,
oh, wait a minute.
There's a lot of areas that I don't have that knowledge.
Right?
And so what the Bible says is somebody who's going to be a pastor,
they need to have experience.
They cannot be a novice.
Another aspect of being prepared is preaching the gospel.
Notice what it says in Acts 8, verse 26.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying,
Arise, and go toward the south, and in the way that goeth down from Jerusalem,
to Gaza, which is desert.
And he arose and went.
Now, you see here with Philip,
he's told to go and preach the gospel.
He's told to go, and immediately he arises and he goes.
Right?
He's prepared.
He's ready to go.
When it comes to being prepared to preach the gospel,
there's kind of a couple aspects you can look at.
One is prepared because you have the words to say to get somebody saved.
One is just that you're prepared as in you're ready to go.
Where basically if an opportunity comes to preach the gospel,
you take it.
And here's an opportunity.
And he arose and went.
And behold, our man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for worship,
was returning and sitting in this chariot, read Isaiah the prophet.
Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join the south of this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him.
And so what you see here is this,
that Philip is prepared in the aspect that when he's told to go,
when he has the opportunity, he arises, he goes.
And it says he ran thither to him.
So he's rising, he's ready to go, he's excited.
And when we go out soul winning, we need to be ready for those opportunities.
When we go door to door and somebody walks by us that's maybe 18 years old,
that's a good opportunity to get somebody saved.
We need to be ready to take those opportunities.
But then it says this, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said,
understandest thou what thou readest?
And he says, how can I except some man should guide me?
And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
Now, this person says, I don't understand.
I don't know what I'm reading.
How can I understand this? I need somebody to guide me.
What if Philip said, well, you know what?
I need to pull up a sermon on the gospel so you can listen to it.
Right? It's not going to work.
And he needs to actually know what to say to this person.
Now, when it comes to preaching the gospel with most people we talk to,
we don't have to have extra information other than the basics of explaining internal security.
It's a free gift.
But at the same time, we do run into people that need a little bit more than just,
you know, the basic Romans road with internal security.
They need a little bit extra, right?
If you were to talk to somebody who's of a faith that does not believe Jesus is God,
you know, if you're a new soul winner, it's going to be very, very hard to get him saved
because the first thing you study is not usually how to explain Jesus is God, right?
But if somebody doesn't believe Jesus is God, we would have to explain that to them.
And so when it comes to soul winning, we need to make sure that we're actually prepared to preach the gospel.
And I would say this, I believe that most Baptists that are saved,
if somebody came right down before them and said, what must I do to be saved,
and they were ready to get saved, they would not have the ability to get them saved.
And I hope that's not true.
But unfortunately, I think that is true.
Now, of course, they would know what the gospel is, but it's one thing to know it's faith alone.
It's another thing to explain faith alone.
That's completely different.
When I first got saved, I knew I was saved.
I knew what it took, but I did not really know how to explain it.
And the first couple of times I tried, I tried with family members,
and it's just like, you know what, I'm glad.
I kind of wish I had that recorded so I could hear what I said
because I'm sure it would have been super muggalo.
But what I'm saying is this, that when it comes to preaching the gospel,
it's not good enough just to be saved.
You have to actually study and know what the Bible says,
know what verses we're going to use, know how to explain them,
and be ready to do that.
Go to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5.
I think probably over half the battle is just the preparation,
just being ready for the battle.
And if you're not prepared, then you're going to be in trouble.
Just imagine if I got this sermon, I have all my notes,
I looked over my notes, I wrote this sermon.
But imagine if I just printed out some random sermon
five minutes before the service from another godly pastor.
Let's say I just, Genesis 14, I just saw what another godly pastor said,
and I just pulled it off and say, all right, what am I preaching on tonight?
It would be a disaster.
Say why? Because I wouldn't be prepared.
I wouldn't even know what it said. I'd just be trying to read stuff.
I'm sure I'd make mistakes. I'd be all over the place.
Over half the battle is just simply being prepared.
Me preaching this sermon right now, this is like 5% of the battle
of actually preaching a good sermon,
because most of it is just being prepared and knowing what you're saying.
You've got to know what you're talking about.
And if you don't, then it's not going to be good,
because you're just not prepared.
Another thing we need to be prepared for are the devil's attacks.
Notice what it says in 1 Peter 5, verse 8.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
And the Bible says the devil is as a roaring lion
that he walks about, seeking whom he may devour.
And kind of the indication is this,
that a lion will pick battles that he can win.
A lion will not pick a battle with an elephant, for example,
because he's not going to be able to devour an elephant.
And kind of the indication is a lion appears to me
to be an intelligent sort of animal.
What I'm saying is, as a lion roars about,
it kind of looks for the kill and looks what it's going to be.
Or another thing is this, not just an animal that's too big for them,
kind of the indication would be a lion's not going to go after an animal
that's a long distance away that's really fast.
You say, why? He's going to take a lot of energy
and he might never be able to catch that animal and get them, right?
The lion is going to basically kind of go secretly and quietly
and look for the kill that he can get.
What I've read about lions online,
because this verse has always interested me,
is that they're very good at deceiving the animal that they're going to kill.
And they basically will kind of go hidden
and they'll sometimes even roar
and basically trick the enemy into thinking
they're coming from a different direction or something like that.
But they'll basically try to get close
and then once they're ready, boom, they attack, right?
But they're not going to attack something that they cannot devour.
What the Bible's saying is the devil's the same way.
The devil walks about, he roams about.
Isn't that what the devil said to God in Job 1?
He's like going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down in it
and he's just looking for who he can devour, who he can destroy.
And the indication is this,
there are some people the devil can destroy
and some he can't destroy.
Now in terms of our salvation,
well, that's obviously correct.
We understand that.
At the same time, you know what?
Living a godly life, that's completely different.
And what the Bible's saying is the devil kind of walks about and says,
You know what? I want to get people to stop serving God.
Who is it I can devour?
So if the devil comes across someone
who is basically not going to quit serving God
and is just, you know, zealous and everything like that,
then the devil's going to be like,
You know what? I'm not going to go after this one.
I'm going to go after somebody else.
You say, Why?
Because the devil says, You know what? I can devour this person.
This one, you know what?
It's going to take up too much energy, too much time.
It's just not going to work out for me.
Verse 9, Who resists steadfast in the faith
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world.
So the Bible says this,
The devil is walking about trying to destroy us.
What does the Bible say to us?
Resist the devil.
Right?
The Bible says resist the devil and he will flee from you.
The Bible says we need to be ready to resist the devil.
Well, here's the thing, though.
You need to be prepared for when the devil does attack.
You can't say, Well, when the devil attacks,
then I'll make sure I'm spiritual and I'm not going to give in to sin.
You need to make sure you're building yourself up spiritually
before the attack comes.
Because if you're not,
then when the devil does come and you're weak and you're wounded,
you're probably going to be destroyed.
Right?
Go to Matthew 7.
Matthew 7.
See, I think all of us just naturally kind of have an arrogant look of ourselves.
Like, we kind of have this idea.
Well, if the devil comes after me, I'll resist.
I'll be perfectly fine.
But if you don't prepare yourself, you're not going to be.
Right?
You have to actually be prepared.
Otherwise, it doesn't magically happen.
Things take place when you actually put in the time and the effort.
Right?
I mean, isn't it true that many people in this world,
they start coming to church, they start listening to sermons,
and then they kind of fade out
because their family, like, mocks them or criticizes them.
Well, they're not prepared for the spiritual battles.
Right?
That's why we need to make sure we're reading our Bibles every day
and we're serving God and praying to God and memorizing the Bible
and doing these things,
just simply being prepared for the things that are going to come.
Matthew 7 is a great example of this as well.
Matthew 7, verse 24.
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings in mind and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat upon that house,
and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
The Bible speaks about, in verses 24 and 25,
the person that is prepared for the storms of life that are going to come.
And the person that is prepared,
when the storm comes, they're not going to fall.
When the devil attacks, they're not going to fall.
Verse 26.
And everyone that heareth these sayings in mind and doeth them not
shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat upon that house,
and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Now, there's no difference between verses 24 and 25 against verses 26 and 27.
The exact same things happen.
The only difference is one was basically founded upon a rock,
built his house upon a rock, and the other didn't.
Kind of the indication would be one Christian wakes up in the morning
and reads the Bible for 30 minutes a day.
The other one wakes up and is on Facebook for 30 minutes a day.
Well, which one of those is going to last during a spiritual storm?
Which one of those is going to last when the devil attacks?
The person who's actually reading the Bible because they're building their life upon the rock.
Go back to Genesis 14.
Genesis 14.
And so what the Bible showed us is that Abraham armed his trained servants.
They were not expecting a war.
They had no idea a battle was going to come,
but they were prepared just in case.
And so when the battle does come, guess what?
They just got armed, which means they took up their swords,
their arrows, or whatever, and they just went out to battle
because they were already trained and ready to go.
Point number one is just preparation.
Point number two is preparation.
Point two is a partnership, a partnership.
Notice what it says in Genesis 14, verse 15.
So what it says about Abraham is he divided himself against them, he and his servants.
So basically, you've got 318 of his servants, you've got him,
and they basically divide into sections to fight the battle.
And what you're seeing is a partnership to win this battle.
It is not one person, Abraham, destroying the enemy.
That wouldn't be possible.
What you're seeing is 319 people that are going out and winning this battle,
and they divide up to fight the enemy.
Now, there's many analogies that we can make from this,
and I don't simply want to just restate as I talked about Saul winning earlier,
but obviously Saul winning is a great example of this
because you're not going to get a lot of salvation from one person.
If you're going to get salvation in a church, you need a lot of people Saul winning.
And we truly divide up in the groups when we go Saul winning
because one person cannot knock all of these doors.
It's not even humanly possible in that amount of time,
and so we go out of Saul winning and we divide up.
I mean, today in the park, there are less people than normal, right?
That was definitely true.
I was surprised when I got there, and I'm looking around like,
there's nobody here.
I kind of figured we're getting close to Christmas.
There would be more people.
Apparently, I was wrong.
I remember just getting there, though, and I walked for quite a bit.
The first group I saw, I started walking up to them.
They saw me.
They quickly got on their bikes, and they got away, right?
They obviously didn't want to talk, right?
But then as I was walking around the curve and I talked to someone,
then later on I talked to someone, and it's just like, you know what?
Even though there were less people in the park than normal,
there's no way one person could have talked to everybody
that was ready to hear the gospel.
There was plenty of people to talk to, even though it was less than normal, right?
And it's just like, you know, I don't know how many salvation we got tonight,
but obviously we got more as a team than anybody would get as an individual
because it's just not simply possible.
And look, even if theoretically you could gather everybody in one circle
or one person preached in them, you would get less people saved
because preaching to large groups is just far less effective
than preaching individually, and we have to basically divide ourselves
to fight the battle.
It's not a one-man show when it comes to soul winning.
When it comes to partnership, go to 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 3.
One of the big areas where it's a partnership is when it comes to the family.
A family is a partnership.
A family is a partnership, and when I say a family,
I'm referring to husband, wife, and the children of that family.
Now, it's a little bit different if, you know,
I'm not talking about, like, several generations.
I'm saying, like, in one, you know, household, one family.
And notice what it says in 1 Peter 3, verse 7.
1 Peter 3, verse 7.
Likewise, the husbands dwell with them according to knowledge,
giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel,
and as being heirs together of the grace of life,
that your prayers be not hindered.
And see, the Bible refers to it, and I preached on this verse on Saturday.
I talked about, you know, what the weaker vessel is referring to,
which I believe is more referring to emotionally in this case.
But the Bible says, though, as being heirs together of the grace of life.
I mean, just think about this.
I mean, on an extreme level, let's say you have a marriage,
and one person is an independent Baptist,
and the other one is a Muslim, okay?
I do know somebody who's married to a Muslim, okay, an independent Baptist.
Not in West Virginia, not here in the Philippines.
But how successful do you think that family is going to be at raising those kids to serve God?
When one's a Baptist and the other one's a Muslim, probably not that successful, right?
Or what about what's probably more common is Baptists marrying Catholics.
That happens a lot, right? Baptists choose to marry Catholics.
Well, how successful are you going to be?
I mean, it gets to the point where the kid reaches an age,
and then the one parent's like, well, you know what?
I think that we should do an infant baptism, right?
I don't know what age they do that at the Catholic church,
but it's just kind of like, or, you know, the first, you know, Holy Communion
or all these different things.
It's going to be a disaster, right?
I mean, even on the level of two people that are saved,
they need to be like-minded in their beliefs,
but they also need to just be on the same page of what they're doing
because the Bible says being heirs together of the grace of life.
And the indication is that when you get married,
two become one, the Bible says.
And if you're not together, then it's just going to be a disaster, right?
And that's what the Bible says.
It says that your prayers be not hindered.
Now, go to 1 Corinthians 12.
1 Corinthians 12.
Another aspect is not just within the family,
but another aspect is within the church.
And I talked about it in terms of so many,
but just the Bible directly speaks about this being a partnership.
Notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12.
For as the body is one and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body being many
are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free,
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
So the Bible speaks about how,
just as a physical body has many members or body parts,
you have your fingers, your hands, your arms.
I mean, you have many body parts.
In a church, basically you have many parts or members of that church.
And the idea is that each member
is going to be a little bit different than another one.
Verse 15.
If the foot shall say,
because I am not the hand, I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say,
because I am not the eye, I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now have God sent the members,
every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased it.
So the Bible indicates that
God basically sent the members in the body,
referring to the local church body.
Basically saying that, you know what,
if you're a member of our church
and you say this is my home, this is my church,
it means God has you here for a reason.
You're a part, you're a member of this church body.
Now there are some things that we all do.
I mean, soul winning is something for all of us, the Bible says.
But in terms of individual skills, we are different people.
We have different skills.
We have different abilities.
There are things that I can do,
there are things that I cannot do, right?
I can do the song leading, I can't play the keyboard.
I can't play the guitar, I can't play the others,
instruments that we have, right?
And it's just like there's, especially as the church grows
and there's more ministries and things like that,
people will serve different functions and different roles.
Now obviously the goal would be that whoever you are,
that you find your place, you find a way to fit in
and really provide and help be a blessing to the church, right?
Because God has put you here for a reason.
There's many members and many, and the idea is this,
go down to verse 27.
The idea from earlier in 1st Corinthians
is the foot could not say to the hand,
well, I don't need you, because they need each other, okay?
And I don't know if this is the best illustration,
but I like to make like in things
to like, you know, exercises and working out.
And a lot of the workouts that I choose to do
are like full body workouts.
And what that means is pretty much your entire body
has a part to play in it to be successful.
But you think of any exercise,
I think of like a one-arm snatch,
and basically one-arm snatch is you have it on the ground
and you eventually like raise it up, you know,
but your whole body goes into it.
Now at the very end, it's just basically your hand
holding the weight above your head.
But for that to take place and be successful,
every part of your body is involved.
It's a major, you would think it's just your arm,
but really like your legs, it gives you a big-time workout.
Your back has to be in its proper place,
your feet and everything, your shoulder, your back,
all of it works together to eventually basically raise it up.
And if they don't work together,
let's say, for example, you do the exercise
and partway through, you know,
you get like some sort of pull in one of your muscles,
it's going to come crashing to the ground
because one body part or one member was out of place, right?
And so when it comes to a church, there's many parts,
many members, and we work together
to make the church successful.
It's not a one-man show, right?
It's a team effort.
Now, obviously, since I'm the one that's primarily front and center
because I preach the sermons, people oftentimes look at it
and like whenever you look online, if you look at a sermon,
sometimes people say,
man, brother Stuckey, you're doing a great job.
But the reality is the great job is the team effort.
It's not one person.
Abraham was not going to win that battle by himself.
He needed all the other members in order to be successful, right?
That's the way it works. Verse 27.
Now here the body of Christ and members in particular,
in particular, and the indication is you're there for a reason.
And God had set some of the church,
first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles,
then gifts of healing, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues, are all apostles,
are all prophets, are all teachers,
are all workers of miracles, have all the gifts of healing,
do all speak with tongues, do all interpret,
but covet earnestly the best gifts,
and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
And this doesn't give a comprehensive list
of every single function that a church would have,
but it's listing a lot of different things.
And what the Bible's trying to show you is this,
that you know what?
You're gonna have different members
and different people in a church,
and no one person does everything, right?
But that's why God places people inside of the church
to get everything done,
because one person is not gonna get everything done.
Go to 1 Kings 10, 1 Kings 10.
I mean, you think of working at a company.
Let's say, for example, you have a major company
and somebody's the CEO of a company.
Now, you would say with a company,
if somebody's the CEO, they're the top doc, right?
I mean, they own the company.
They're kind of the one running the show.
But what happens if they show up for work,
and you know what?
The cleaning crew and the janitors didn't clean anything,
like the night before, and then they show up to work,
and you know what?
The electricity's out or whatever.
The electrician doesn't fix it or whatever.
I mean, they're gonna show up to work.
They can't get on their computer.
They can't get anything done, even though they're the CEO.
It's just like, well, even though they technically run the show,
they need people that are doing different things to get things done.
At a company, you can't just have one person
if the company grows and everything.
Now, in a church, our church is not a huge church at this time,
so we don't have a ton of different ministries.
But as the church grows,
there's gonna be more and more ministries,
and you need more and more people to volunteer to do things.
Even being a small church, though, we do have some activities,
and you know what?
Having people volunteering to help get stuff done,
it's a great help, and without that,
it'd be pretty hard to do that, right?
1 Kings 10.
And 1 Kings 10 is kind of the perfect chapter of the Old Testament
to kind of really give you the picture of what an ideal church should be like.
And notice what it says in 1 Kings 10, verse 1.
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
she came to prove him with tough, hard questions.
So she basically is testing Solomon, giving him difficult questions to answer.
And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train,
with camels after spices and very much gold and precious stones.
When she was coming to Solomon,
she had communed with him of all that was in her heart,
and Solomon told her all her questions.
There was not anything hidden from the king when she told her not.
When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom
and the house that he had built,
ask yourself this question,
because the Bible tells us that Solomon built a great house, right?
Did he single-handedly build that house by himself, though?
I mean, realistically, he probably didn't do a lot of the building.
He was probably doing more of the managing and overseeing and saying,
this needs to be done, this tall, things like that.
I mean, Solomon was a very educated person.
I mean, he was knowledgeable in just about everything.
So he probably had the knowledge and the ability,
but even still, you have multiple people helping with this.
It would be pretty difficult for one person to build a house without any help,
because many of the things that you have to get done,
you kind of need a couple people working together to get it done, right?
I would say that probably very little of this house, if any,
did Solomon actually physically build himself,
but it was a team effort.
And it says, in the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants
and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers,
it is the sin for which he went up unto the house of the Lord.
There is no more spirit in her.
Look, I really don't believe that Solomon cooked all the food
and put all the tables out and set them and got them prepared.
I think that the sitting of his servants, there were servants, there was ministers.
I think they were all involved in getting this job done.
It impressed her that his servants were sitting there listening to Solomon for wisdom,
which he would liken it to like a church service,
as people are listening to the preaching and learning.
But they were also servants they were helping, right?
And so it's the same thing with our church.
There's a time for the preaching.
There's a time for the song leading.
There's a time for the scripture reading.
And then there's also a time afterwards of fellowship,
but even with fellowship, there's things that have to be done.
And then, you know, then of course we go out and we preach the gospel.
I mean, there's many things involved,
but one person is not going to be able to successfully do that.
There's just things that need to get done.
There's people that need to team up to get this done.
And she said to the king,
it was a true report that I heard mine own land of thy accent of thy wisdom.
How be it?
I believe not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it.
Behold, the half was not told me.
Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants,
which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom.
He said, rather sexy, how are these people happy
if they're just listening to Solomon's wisdom
and then they're just working and serving?
Well, the Bible's given us a template that that honestly will give us happiness
when we just basically are, you know, working hard to serve and do things,
but also just like listening to wisdom
and, you know, in our personal lives on days off from church,
we're just reading our Bible,
but then we're, you know, working and focusing on things.
But, you know, when you actually focus on accomplishing things and working hard,
it actually gives you a sense of accomplishment.
And the result was that they're happy.
And, you know, there's a lot of people in today's world
that would look at us as a church and as Christians
and they'd say, man, you guys live really sad lives.
You guys live pretty miserable lives.
I mean, you go to church all the time
and you read the Bible and everything like that.
I look at my life and I can't imagine doing anything else, right?
I'm just like it brings me joy to just come to church
and fellowship and the preaching and soul winning.
And don't misunderstand me.
There's times when I don't feel like going soul winning
and I want to rest,
but then when you actually do it, it gives you that sense of excitement.
Right?
Go back to Genesis 14.
Genesis 14.
Happiness is found in being in God's will.
And Genesis chapter 14, verse 16.
And it says,
and he brought back all the goods
and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods
and the women also in the people.
So they get everything back.
He armed his trained servants.
They're ready to go.
They go out, they fight the battle, they divide
and together they bring back everything.
Together they win the battle.
Okay?
So we see number one, preparation.
Number two, we see a partnership.
And number three,
the Bible is going to talk about the possessor of objects or money
and I'll develop that here in a second.
Look at verse number 17.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him
after his return from the Sodom and Cheddar of Amor
and the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba
which is the king's name.
Now, it mentions the king of Sodom here.
And if you remember what I said and talked about earlier
that the king of Sodom and Amor, they fell
and usually that's an indication of dying.
So there's a couple of possibilities
and I am not dogmatic on what this is referring on
on which of these is correct.
It could be that the one king died
and this is the backup person to become king
if something happens to the head person.
The same thing exists in countries today.
The president dies, then the vice president takes over.
Right? Things such as that.
It could be that there's things known as like a dual monarchy
where there's basically multiple kings
or somebody could be referred to as like a king in the Bible.
There's sometimes in the Bible
I think it refers to somebody as a king
but I don't believe like they're the head king
but in a certain point they get labeled a king
but they're kind of like the king, head king in waiting.
And so sometimes you see in the Bible
that kings would oftentimes go and fight battles
and sometimes they would leave their kingdom.
They'd put somebody as the king in charge
but if they would come back then they would once again take over.
There's different possibilities.
I would say probably this is just like the backup king
that basically the other king might have died
or it's possible that that king didn't die
and he fled, maybe just the king of Amor died.
Not a hundred percent for sure.
But I will say this that the name of this servant
is the son of God versus the devil
because whoever the king of Sodom is
he's basically a representative of the devil.
Okay?
And what we're going to see here the rest of this chapter is
we're going to see the son of God in the Old Testament versus the devil.
And I'm not saying it's literally the devil.
I believe it's a picture of the devil.
I'm not saying he was, you know, filled as a devil
but he's basically doing the work of the devil.
He's a picture of the devil.
And it says in verse 18,
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine
and he was the priest and the most high god.
So we have the king of Sodom and we have Melchizedek.
Okay?
And Melchizedek is the king of Salem
and this other one is the king of Sodom.
Now, what does it mean to be the king of Salem?
Well, go to Hebrew 7.
Hebrew 7.
And let's look at a little bit of Melchizedek again.
Hebrew 7.
And in Hebrew 7, verse 1, the Bible says,
For this Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high god.
So once again, you're seeing it mentions, you know,
the king of Salem, priest of the most high god,
who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.
So it's giving you kind of more insight on what took place here.
And it says in verse 2,
To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all.
And so we see a tenth part, ten percent, is given to Melchizedek.
And so in our modern day, the way we give to God is through the local church.
What the Bible says throughout is a ten percent thing.
Abraham literally gave to Melchizedek,
which this, I'll prove to you in a second,
is the son of God in the Old Testament.
And it says,
First being by interpretation king of righteousness,
and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace.
So we see in verse 2,
that righteousness comes before peace.
And this is kind of the pattern of God in the Bible,
that righteousness and purity and holiness precedes peace.
God is a god of peace,
but you don't basically sacrifice purity and righteousness and holiness for the sake of peace.
Right?
And it says in verse 3,
Without father, without mother.
Well,
if you're without father, without mother,
without mother, that's not a normal person.
Right?
Now you say brother Stuckey, but he does have a father because he has God the father.
But this is the son of God in the Old Testament,
and here's the thing,
he wasn't born of the Virgin Mary yet.
Okay?
So physically speaking on earth,
he had no physical father, he had no physical mother.
Now of course 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ was born,
he was born of the Virgin Mary.
But in the Old Testament, whenever Jesus appears,
you would say he's without father and without mother,
because he has not been physically born yet here on earth.
Okay?
Now spiritually, obviously God is his father,
but not physically.
He wasn't born like we were or like Abraham or Lot or anyone like that.
And it says without father, without mother, without descent,
meaning he didn't descend down from anyone,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life.
I mean because he is the beginning.
Right?
I mean in the beginning was the word the Bible says.
But made like unto the son of God,
abided the priest continually.
So you see that this is the son of God in the Old Testament.
Now this shouldn't be shocking to us because
the son of God appears in the Old Testament several times,
especially in the book of Genesis.
I mean we saw all the way back to the book of Genesis early on that,
you know, when Adam and Eve sinned,
you know, they heard him walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and he's talking to them.
How do you know that's the son of God?
Well here's how you know because
no man has seen God at any time referring to God the father.
Okay, and you can't see God the father face-to-face in this.
So when Abraham is seeing someone, he's seeing the son of God.
In a couple chapters when Abraham is going to get visited,
he gets visited by the son of God.
Not God the Holy Spirit, not God the father, but God the son.
Right?
Now of course 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary,
and that was his actual mother.
Okay, because he was all man and all God.
Okay?
But before that in the Old Testament before he was physically born,
he had no father or mother physically earthly speaking.
But we do see Jesus appear in the Old Testament.
The son of God comes from time to time, especially the book of Genesis.
I mean Jacob is wrestling with God.
I mean he's not wrestling with God the father or God the Holy Spirit
because no man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father,
he hath declared in the Bible says.
So it's referring to the son of God with Melchizedek.
Now consider how great this man was.
Under whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
Okay?
Now go to Psalm 76.
Let me show you one other thing about Melchizedek and we'll go back to Genesis then.
But Psalm 76.
So there's no doubt Melchizedek was not a normal man.
Okay?
He actually was the son of God in the Old Testament
because the Bible is very clear he had no father or mother.
Okay?
Now if you just read the Old Testament, you know, you probably wouldn't realize that
but the New Testament sheds light and the Old Testament gives us a lot of information.
And remember what it said he was the king of Salem.
What does that mean he's the king of Salem?
Well Psalm 76 verse 1.
In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel
and Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion.
Now here it says Salem also and it's mentioning Judah
it's mentioning Israel, it's mentioning Zion.
Salem is short for Jerusalem.
J-e-r-u-s-a-l-e-n.
So when it's saying the king of Salem it's saying the king of Jerusalem
because right here it mentions Judah, it mentions Israel, it mentions Zion.
It's referring to Jerusalem when it says in Salem also is his tabernacle.
So the Bible said Melchizedek is the king of Salem.
Salem and Jerusalem are the same.
It's short for Jerusalem.
Usually the Bible would use the word Jerusalem
but there are times it uses the word Salem.
Go back to Genesis 14.
So basically we have this battle so to speak
between the king of Sodom which represents the devil
and the son of God.
Okay.
And it says here in verse 19
And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram
the most high god and possessor of heaven and earth
and blessed be the most high god
which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand
and he gave them tithes of all.
We saw the tithes was mentioned in Hebrews as well.
And the king of Sodom said unto Abram
Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.
And remember it says Abraham and his men
they went out and they recovered everything
but they didn't just recover everything
in terms of what belonged a lot.
They recovered everything.
Right.
They won the battle and basically
a lot of the goods they got didn't belong to a lot.
They were just the goods or the you know
Think of goods.
You know, you're thinking of like their animals
their livestock, you know
things of wealth, things of value
everything that they possessed, clothes
a lot of these things are very valuable back then
and the king of Sodom says to Abraham
well here's the thing, you know what
let me have the people
and I'll let you have the goods.
And basically what he's saying is
I'll let you have the people, just let
you know, let me have the people
and I'll let you have the money.
Okay.
So basically he makes an offer to Abraham
because Abraham won this battle
and he's saying well here's the thing
you don't have to give me back my money
just give me the people and you can keep the money.
Right.
And I want you to realize that the devil
makes the same bargain in the world
in 2021 as well.
Where he basically says, you know, give me the people
you can have the money.
Right.
Now there's many ways that this applies
but obviously we talked a lot about
raising kids and one of the big things is
when it comes to raising kids
I mean we can make a choice
of whether or not we're going to raise our kids
or whether or not we're going to search after the almighty dollar.
Right.
We kind of have that choice in our lives
where basically we could choose to forsake our kids
and just make more money.
I mean isn't that possible for every single person in this room.
If we chose to make more money
we could absolutely make more money.
But we'd have to make some pretty serious sacrifices.
And what's interesting about this story
is kind of a continuation from the last couple of weeks
if you remember Abraham made some really foolish choices
with money just a couple chapters ago
where he basically dives into Egypt
which was honestly a terrible terrible decision
for his family and his future
and it has major major repercussions.
Now we're going to see the culmination of that
when it comes to Hagar in a few chapters
and Sodom and Gomorrah
but I kind of feel like Abraham was already
kind of realized he made a big mistake.
I kind of feel like a lot of that worldliness
has already come in and he's already in his head
saying man I made a big mistake
and I think what we're seeing is a man
who learns from his mistakes
and he's like you know what I'm not going to sacrifice
you know my kin my family and the people
for the sake of money right.
He says no it's not worth it
the people are more important to me
than the money.
Now when it comes to the issue of money
it's always a sensitive topic and it's a difficult topic
because obviously there's a proper balance in life.
I mean if all of us just said you know what
I don't want to forsake you know my family
so I'm just going to quit my job
we're just going to sit at home and trust in God
for the sake of money.
Well you know I wish it worked that way
but it doesn't.
I wish I could spend more time with my kids
but there's things that got to get done right.
For all of us you know we've got a balance there
and of course sometimes at jobs you can work overtime
and make more money and stuff like that
there's decisions to make but we need to make sure
that at the end of the day we realize
the people are more important than the money right.
The kids are more important than the money
and Abraham says no it's like you know what
I'm not going to give you the persons
and take the goods and take the money
it's not worth it to me.
He says I'm not going to do that
but the devil offers that
and look this same offer exists in many different forms
in 2021 where the devil says you know what
I'll give you any money that you want right
just give me the people.
Verse 22 and Abraham said to the king of Sodom
I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord
the most high God the possessor of heaven and earth
that I will not take from
a thread even to a shoe latchet
that I will not take anything that is thine
lest thou shouldst say I have made Abraham rich.
Save only that which the young men have eaten
and the portion of the men which went with me
ain't our eschol memory let them take their portion
and Abraham says I don't want to take a sin from you
I don't want to take a single peso from you
because I don't want you to be able to say that you made me rich.
Now I'm not saying this is literally the devil
but the way Abraham talks to the king of Sodom
it's like you are a wicked reprobate evil person
I want to have nothing to do with you right
I mean it seems pretty obvious that Abraham's like
you know what you're the scum of the earth
and the indication is Abraham looks at this
as dirty money right
it'd be like making money in a sinful way
it's like hey I'll give you a lot of money
you just gotta do this sinful thing or whatever
Abraham's like I don't want to have anything to do with this
I'm not going to let you tell people
that you made me rich
and obviously he looks at the king of Sodom
as being a pretty wicked person
even though he helped them win that battle
doesn't mean he liked the king of Sodom
he knew the king of Sodom was a really
rotten scoundrel
a terrible person
whether this is the same king of Sodom
or whether or not
you know this is the one
that is basically the next in command or whatever
he looked at Sodom and he realized
Sodom was a wicked place
and I'll tell you this
I mean we don't necessarily know for sure
I'm not really trying to read into the story
but I'm just kind of giving you my thoughts
I feel we get the indication that
there was already a knowledge
that Sodom and Gomorrah was wicked
even before this
like I believe that when Locke made the choice
to basically go to Sodom and Gomorrah
like he knew it wasn't the godliest choice
but he was doing it simply for the sake of money
because Abraham seemed to have this attitude
toward the king of Sodom
you are a wicked person
you're some sort of reprobate
I want nothing to do with you
and look it's only five chapters later
that you get Sodom and Gomorrah
so whether or not this king
was actually Sodomite himself
it's just like you probably had an idea
you know there's a lot of problems with Sodom
right
and he said like I am not going to make that sacrifice
and so just go back to Genesis 12 real quickly
I had some other notes
we're not going to go to it for the sake of time
but go to Genesis 12
Genesis 12
and I just mentioned this
but I just want to show you the change
Genesis 12 verse 10
and there was a famine in the land
and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there
the famine was grievous in the land
so as I just mentioned
in Genesis 12 verse 10
Abraham basically chooses money
okay there's a famine
and he goes down to a wicked wicked area
and this choice
negatively affects his family
I think he learned his lesson from this
and then in Genesis 14
we see a man that you know realizes
you know what I made a terrible choice
I'm not going to do that again
it's not worth it
the money is not that important
I mean one thing Abraham has already lost
which probably he didn't want to was Lot
right
I mean Lot
he's already gone from him
and Lot's living in this wicked area
we're already seeing basically the result of Lot living there
I mean they're in a battle and everything like that
and so I think Abraham realized
you know what I made a wrong choice
I don't want to do that again
but you know one thing that we can take away
that's an encouragement is
even though we will all make a lot of bad mistakes
we can still learn from our mistakes
we can make terrible choices
and maybe there's going to be repercussions
but you know what we can learn from our mistakes
and we just have to be humble about it
and just not be stubborn
and just you know make new choices
I mean maybe in 2021 or 2020 or 2019
you made choices and they were the wrong choices
you come up to something similar
just don't have this attitude
well I didn't do anything wrong
just have the attitude
I'm just going to make the change
and learn from my mistakes
and that's what Abraham does
he chooses the people over the money
which is what he should have done in Genesis 12
so let's go to the Lord first
Dear Heavenly Father
Thank you for allowing us to be here today
and getting to see your work
and help us just to apply this to our lives
in all areas
and I ask you to just continue to bless our church
and all the things