All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 17.
We're continuing our series on the alphabetic characteristics.
So we are on the letter O. We're
going to be looking at obedience.
And of course, there's a lot of great characters
in the Bible that exhibit obedience.
The name that really kind of comes to my mind is Abraham.
And that's who we're going to look at.
So we're going to look at obedience
through the life of Abraham.
And let me just give you a definition here of obedience
from a dictionary.
It says, compliance with an order, request, or law,
or submission to another's authority.
Now, when it comes to this idea of obedience,
we don't have to obey every single thing
that every single person tells us.
So if you meet some random person on the street,
hey, don't go soul winning anymore.
It's like, well, you're not my authority,
so I don't have to listen to you.
But here's the thing.
When you do have an authority and they tell you
something to do, you do have to obey it unless they're
asking you to sin.
And the reality is that every single one of us,
we have at least some situations in life
where we have an authority over us.
Here are some examples that we can think of.
Obviously, wives to husbands.
That's one of the things the Bible mentions.
Obviously, children to parents.
If you're a child, your parents are your authority.
Obviously, employees to bosses.
If you have a boss at work, they tell you what to do.
How about being citizens of a country?
There's laws in this country that we have to abide by.
How about in a church?
Church members to the pastor, obedience
to the pastor of the church.
What about if you were to just walk into a grocery store,
walk into a Robinsons, Pure Gold, Subwana, LBC,
or whatever?
They have basic rules.
During the days of COVID, a lot of those places,
you got to put on not just the face mask,
but the face shield.
It's like, well, that's the rule.
You just kind of do what they say.
It is what it is.
All of us have authorities.
And even if you cannot think of any area where you have
an authority, one obvious authority that all of us
have is God Almighty.
And so all of us have authorities in life
that we're expected to obey.
And a great example of this in the Bible is Abraham.
Point number one, there is a difficulty with obedience.
There is a difficulty with obedience.
The difficulty is in the fact that you don't always
like the orders.
You don't always like what the authority says.
In this example, Abraham is a grown man.
He lived longer than any of us will, because he lived 175.
The ages were still kind of dwindling down.
But he's 99 years old.
This is over half of his life.
It would be like if we're in our 50s or something like that,
and he's being told to get circumcised.
That's a little bit embarrassing for a grown man.
That's something where it's kind of like, I really don't want to do this.
It's not something that you would be excited to do.
But wait a minute, God's his authority.
And God tells him to get circumcised.
It's like, hey, get circumcised.
Make sure everybody in your house gets circumcised.
I said in verse number 14, and the uncircumcised man's
child who is flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised.
That soul shall be cut off from his people.
He hath broken my covenant.
So God looked at this as a very important matter.
He says, hey, you know what, I told you to do it.
I expect you to do it.
Go to Genesis chapter 22.
Genesis 22.
But you have to just realize that your authority is not always
going to tell you what you want to hear.
Sometimes they're going to have instructions,
and you're not going to like it.
You're not going to agree.
You're not going to like it.
But it is what it is.
I mean, if you have an authority,
they tell you what to do.
According to God's word, we're meant to obey the authority
unless they're asking us to sin or do wrong.
Another great example is Genesis 22 of obedience
to what God says.
And notice what it says here in verse number 1.
And it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham.
And he said, behold, here I am.
Now, when it says God did tempt Abraham,
it's not saying that God is trying to get Abraham to sin.
It's not like God says, well, here's a bottle of Red Horse.
Are you going to drink it?
Here's this woman.
Are you going to give in to the temptation?
No, no, no.
God doesn't tempt us to sin.
The Bible says, let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God.
For God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man.
But the word tempt in the Bible has multiple definitions.
And one of the definitions is to test.
He's not tempting you to commit a sin like tuxo.
There's a temptation.
I really want to do this.
What he's saying is he's testing
the obedience of Abraham.
And notice what it says here in verse number 2.
And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah,
and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.
Now, look, here's an example when an authority gives you
something to do that you do not want to do.
There is no normal father or mother in this room,
I mean, unless you're a reprobate.
There is no normal father or mother
that would be excited about this commandment.
There is no normal father or mother
that would want to do this.
And I'm just being honest with you.
I believe that if God had come to me
and given these instructions, I would have just flat out
disobeyed.
That's what I believe.
Now, I mean, hopefully I would be obedient.
But I'm just thinking, man, this is.
And this is why this is like the ultimate example
of being obedient, because any parent in this room,
it's like, no, I'm not going to do it.
I mean, in fact, this is really
one of the passages in the Bible,
perhaps the biggest that atheists will mock the Bible,
because it seems so extreme that no parent is
going to want to do this.
No one is going to want to sacrifice their child.
But God tells Abraham, I want you to offer up your son
as a burnt offering.
And that's what his authority says to do.
And what do you have to do?
You got to do what your authority says.
And God is directly telling him, I want you to do this.
What am I saying?
Here's what I'm saying.
There's a difficulty with obedience.
Here's the thing.
The things that your boss or your authority
has told you to do are not as difficult
as what Abraham had to do.
I'd be very surprised if anybody
would come to me after the service and say, pastor,
I had a much more difficult thing than Abraham.
I doubt that's the case.
There are things that seem extremely difficult to us,
and we don't want to do them.
But the reality is it's nothing compared to what
Abraham was asked to do.
There is a difficulty with obedience.
You say, why?
Because your authority is not always
going to tell you things that you want to hear.
That's just the way it is.
Go to Genesis 17.
Genesis 17.
Is there any child that always agrees
with what mom and dad say or are always excited about what
mom or dad say?
No.
I mean, if you raise kids or you have young kids,
you know that sometimes your kids do not want to listen.
What's really interesting is when,
and this is really funny when the kids are very young,
but they're old enough to understand.
I think toward Ezra is kind of at the age
that I'm thinking where basically you tell them no,
and you see inside of them, they're just like,
I should listen to mom and dad,
but I really want to do this, right?
And sometimes they'll have that look on the face like Ezra.
And you say, why?
Because sometimes you don't want
to obey what your authority or boss says.
That's just the way it is.
There's a difficulty with obedience.
But here's the thing.
I get it.
It's difficult sometimes, but there is a duty of obedience.
It is our duty to do what our authority says,
unless they ask us to do wrong,
unless they ask us to sin.
It says in Genesis 17, verse 23,
And Abraham took Ishmael's son
and all that were born in his house
and all that were bought with his money,
every male among the men of Abraham's house,
and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin
in the selfsame day as God had said unto him.
And Abraham was 90 years old and nine
when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
And Ishmael, his son was 13 years old
when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised
and Ishmael, his son, and all the men of his house
born in the house and bought with money of the stranger
were circumcised with him.
Look, it's certainly embarrassing
being 99 years old and getting circumcised.
It's also embarrassing getting circumcised
at the age of 13 as well.
And let me just say this, because I'm
going to go a bit off topic on this.
But let me say, not all traditions in a country
are correct.
Getting circumcised when you're,
I don't know what the age is here.
It's not as a baby though.
It's like, that's not what the Bible teaches.
And number one, let me say this,
that it is completely up to you
what you do with your kids.
I'm never going to tell you what to do.
What I am going to say is that
as I'm memorizing through 1 Corinthians right now,
one of the verses is, circumcision is nothing
and uncircumcision is nothing
but the keeping the commandments of God.
And it's not saying getting circumcised
is the commandment of God.
It's saying, hey, you can get circumcised or not.
What matters is keeping God's commandments.
Because this is not something that's a command
in the New Testament.
You see this many times.
And I'm not against you deciding to circumcise your sons.
You can do whatever you want.
I don't think it's an unhealthy practice
if it's done the biblical right way.
It's also not a commandment though.
There's nowhere in the Bible that commands you,
you must circumcise your sons.
Now in the Old Testament, it was a command.
But I will also say this,
that when they got circumcised,
they got circumcised at what age?
Eight days old.
Not eight years, eight days, right?
Eight days old, you say why?
Well, look, I'm not an expert at this.
But from my understanding,
you have a higher amount of vitamin K at that time
at eight days old,
which it helps with,
vitamin K is useful when it comes to clotting.
So it's the safest time to get circumcised, I believe.
And all that shows me is science is really doing
their best to finally catch up to the Bible.
Say a thousand years later, it's like,
oh, that's why, eight days.
But here's the thing,
did Abraham have to understand why?
No, he didn't.
Because it's your duty to do what your authority says.
You just do it whether you understand or not.
Now this is something that's very tough for children.
It's something that I noticed
that sometimes your kids,
you'll ask your kids to do something,
and their response before they do it, why?
And my response, it does not matter why.
Do what I said, and I'll tell you why afterwards.
Look, I do believe in giving your kids reasons
for why you do things.
But it's not that, well, wait a minute,
I wanna first find out why I'm supposed to do this,
and then I'm gonna decide if I really wanna do it.
But that's the way that people are.
That's the way that people are to bosses,
or wives are to husbands, children are to parents.
It's like, no, you just do what the authority says
unless they're asking you to sin
whether you understand why or not,
whether you agree or not,
because there's a duty of obedience.
And what you see with Abraham is
he just does what his boss, God, tells him to do.
So do whatever you want with your kids,
but if you're gonna circumcise your sons,
I would recommend doing it at a very young age.
I believe it's much safer.
And also, it's a lot less embarrassing.
I mean, I'm glad we didn't have this tradition in the US.
It's done as babies.
But I can imagine it being
one of the most embarrassing things
that all the men in our church,
it's like we grew up in this tradition.
I mean, I see many men that are laughing around the room
like, yeah, we've all been through it, right?
And just because you had to go through it,
don't force your kids to do it
where it's like, hey,
I had to go through the initiation.
You gotta do it too because I had to, right?
I would say it's the safest time.
And I'm being dead serious about that.
The scientific reason is,
vitamin K is supposed to be more prevalent in your body
at that time than any other time.
Of course, if you have kids,
one of the big things they push today,
which I'm not really for, is the vitamin K shot.
But I would say the vitamin K is at its peak
at eight days old according to scientific research.
So if you're gonna have your kids circumcised,
you wanna do that,
well, do it the way that God told Abraham to do it.
Do it at eight days old, right?
That's what I would highly recommend that you would do.
Go to Genesis chapter 22.
And so Abraham gets circumcised,
his son gets circumcised,
all of his house gets circumcised.
It's kind of interesting that Abraham
was a man that was respected.
You say, why is it that Abraham was able
to get everybody in his house
to get on board with what he said and do what he said?
Because this is not something
that anybody's gonna wanna do.
Well, here's the thing.
If Abraham shows a lot of obedience to his authority,
you know what it's gonna do?
It's gonna help others learn
this idea of obedience as well.
Let me help you out, moms in this room.
If you wanna get your kids to be very obedient,
here's a good secret.
Show obedience to your husbands.
Right?
Because here's the thing.
If you're telling your kids, hey, do what I say,
and yet your kids go up in a church like this
and they know, they know that wives
are to submit to husbands
and they see you being bossy and rebellious
and not obeying and disrespecting your husband,
guess what?
Don't be surprised if you reap what you sow.
Don't be surprised if your kids
are obnoxious and rebellious to you.
You say, why?
They're learning that from you.
That's where they're learning it from.
And you know what?
Do yourself, save yourself a lot of headaches.
If you just learn to be obedient to your husbands,
you know what you'd find?
You'd find that your kids would naturally learn
from your example to be obedient to you.
You would do yourself a lot of favors.
It would really help you out
just to learn to be obedient to your own husbands
and your kids would naturally follow the example.
Genesis 22, he said, well, what's your proof of that?
Okay, here's my proof.
If you have multiple kids, you know this is true.
That when you teach your first child obedience
and respect, it's a lot easier on the second child.
A lot easier.
You say, why?
Because they learn it from their kuya or atte.
I know that for a fact.
Where it's like they look at the example
of their older brother or their older sister,
here's the reality.
People learn by example.
And if they see the example of obedience
from a godly wife, you know what?
Your kids are gonna naturally do.
They're gonna understand the concept of obedience.
And if you wanna get your kids to obey God,
then they need to see you being obedient.
These things work together.
Not, well, do as I say, but not as I do.
It's like, man, never smoke.
Yeah, your kids are gonna end up smoking.
That's the way it works.
And if you want your kids to be obedient,
you better learn to be obedient as well
to the authorities that you have.
Genesis 22, verse three.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning
and saddled his ass and took two of his young men
with him, and Isaac his son,
and claved the wood for the burnt offering,
and rose up and went under the place
of which God had told him.
So Abraham gets a very difficult instruction from God,
and he does it, doesn't argue.
There's no indication of him arguing.
He rises up early in the morning.
Look, I'm an early riser,
but this is probably one of those days
where I'd be like, I'm just gonna sleep in today.
But he rises up early in the morning
and just follows God's instructions.
Verse four.
Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes
and saw the place afar off.
And Abraham said unto his young men,
abide ye here with the ass,
and I, the lad, will go yonder in worship,
and come again to you.
Now notice in verse number five
that Abraham says to the young men with him,
because not just Abraham and Isaac, he brings others.
He says, abide ye here, right?
And I and the lad, I and Isaac, will go yonder in worship
and come again to you.
You see, Abraham knew that they were gonna return.
Isn't that exactly what it says?
Abraham says, you stay here, and I and the lad,
you know what, we're gonna return to you.
Now I don't think that Abraham fully understood
or knew what was gonna happen,
but you say, well, how would Abraham know this?
Because Abraham was promised
that there was gonna be a blessing through his son, Isaac.
Did he understand fully what was gonna take place?
I don't think that he did,
but he's like, hey, you know what?
God told me he's gonna bless me through to my son,
Isaac, I don't understand how this is gonna work.
I'm just gonna do what God said and trust in God.
And guess what?
They came again, Abraham and Isaac,
they came back to those men that they left there.
Verse number six,
and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering
and laid it upon Isaac his son,
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife,
and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake on Abraham his father and said,
my father, and he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold the fire in the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
My best guess,
because I don't know if the Bible specifically says this,
is that Isaac is thinking,
maybe he had asked his father before,
and Abraham said, I think God's gonna provide a lamb,
you know, because he asked,
where's the lamb for a burnt offering, right?
Verse number eight,
Abraham said, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,
so they went both of them together.
Now in the King James Bible,
as a church, we are King James only,
we believe the King James Bible is perfect,
every word, now here's the thing about this,
it's not just every word,
you can't just switch the order up of those words.
Because in other versions,
it doesn't say God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering.
Now what is Abraham saying prophetically?
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
What is he saying?
God's gonna die, right?
That thou, my God, shouldest die for me.
God will provide himself a lamb.
But it doesn't say that in other versions.
It says in other versions,
God will provide for himself a lamb.
Instead of God will provide himself a lamb.
See the Bible's saying God's gonna be the lamb.
And of course we know Jesus Christ,
God was manifest in the flesh, was God in human flesh,
and he was the lamb of God that died
and paid for our sins.
God provided himself as the lamb, he was the lamb.
He didn't just provide a lamb, he was the lamb.
Now of course we understand the Holy Trinity,
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost,
one God that exists in three persons,
and God the Father sent God the Son
to be the savior of their world.
We get that, but we understand Jesus Christ
is God in the flesh.
And he provided himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together.
Now, Abraham makes a statement,
and I don't know if he realized
he was being prophetic with that statement,
because this statement can be taken
multiple different ways.
Because you could read this,
say God will provide himself a lamb,
and say okay, God will provide a lamb for himself,
but you can also read it as
God will provide himself a lamb.
And I think that's the reason why
the Bible wrote it exactly like it did.
Verse nine, and they came to the place
which God had told him of,
and Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order,
and bound Isaac his son,
and laid him on the altar upon the wood,
and Abraham stretched forth his son,
and took the knife to slay his son.
Now, there's difficulty with obedience,
because you don't always want to do
what your authority tells you,
but there is a duty to be obedient
to what your authority says.
Look, I've worked a lot of jobs before,
and I've had a lot of different bosses,
and you do not always agree with what your boss says.
Sometimes they ask you to do something,
you're just thinking.
But you know, there's a duty of obedience.
Go back to Genesis 17, Genesis 17.
For number one, there's difficulty with obedience.
Your authority will sometimes give you things to do
that you do not want to do,
that you don't agree with,
that are not easy things to do.
We certainly see that with Abraham
in these two examples that I'm showing you
of instructions that are not easy to do.
There's a difficulty, but here's the thing,
there's a duty of obedience.
It's our duty, it's our command,
it's what we must do,
because if you have an authority,
they make the rules, you don't make the rules.
That's just the way it works.
Well, I will obey if I feel like it.
No, you obey unless they're asking you to sin.
And you know what, I like what Pastor Jimenez says,
you know, he uses this as an example of raising kids.
It's like, obey right away with a smile on your face.
Because if your kids have a bad attitude,
it's like, well, I'm gonna do it,
but I'm gonna have a bad attitude the whole time.
That's not good enough.
It's like, you learn to have a good attitude.
You learn not to be disrespectful to mom and dad
when they give you instructions.
And look, it should be like that in all areas.
If your authority tells you to do something,
you should be willing to obey
and do it with a good attitude.
And Abraham, we have a great example
of a man who does something
that I probably would not be able to do,
and he obeys with a good attitude.
He doesn't complain,
he just does what his boss, his authority, God said.
Genesis 17, verse one.
Point number three, there's a decree from obedience.
What is the decree, what is the promise
that's given if we are obedient?
Genesis 17, verse one.
And Abram was 90 years old and nine,
and when Abram was 90 years old and nine,
the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him,
I am the almighty God,
walk before me and be thou perfect,
and I will make my covenant between me and thee
and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abraham fell on his face,
and Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him,
saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee,
and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram,
but thy name shall be called Abraham.
For a father of many nations have I made thee,
and I will make thee exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee,
and I will establish my covenant between me and thee
and thy seed after thee and their generations
for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee
the land whereon thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession,
and I will be their God.
So God has this great promise
that he's gonna give to Abraham,
but it's contingent upon what?
Obedience.
Right, you see that in Genesis chapter 17
where he has this instructions of what to do,
and he's gonna reiterate later on
where it's like, I expect you to obey.
And the same is true in our lives.
There is a promise God will bless our lives
if we're obedient.
So if we're not obedient,
the contrary is gonna take place.
The opposite will take place.
Right, I mean, it's true also
for the Jews in the Promised Land
where God's like, this is your land.
I'm giving it to you.
It belongs to you if.
There's a contract.
You must fulfill your end,
and part of that is, hey, obey.
Do what I say.
It was not just, hey, you get this land
no matter how wicked you become.
No, you're expected to obey
if you want me to give you this land.
That's the way that God operates.
We're basically, he's like, hey,
I will bless your life if you do what I say,
if you're obedient.
Go to Genesis 22, Genesis 22.
I mean, I want God to bless my life,
and I'm not talking about a financial blessing
because I would say that's what the world
would think of.
You know, man, my life is blessed.
What they mean by that is I have a nice job
and I make a lot of money.
You know, that's one way that God can bless you
and you can be blessed,
but you know what?
There's things that are far more important
than material finances, right?
We just talked about that in the last sermon.
I mean, I could say that I would much rather,
you know, I value my health quite a bit.
I wouldn't want to just get up all the money
in the world, but your health is going to be destroyed.
I'd be like, no deal, right?
There's a lot of things.
I mean, you know, kids growing up and being godly,
it's like, yeah, you know,
you want your kids to be godly.
That's a far bigger blessing
that God would bless your family
in those ways than just material gain.
And look, I think we would all say
we want God to bless our lives.
What's the secret?
What's the magic formula?
Here's the magic formula.
O-B-E-Y.
Obey.
Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
It's so simple, you know what I mean?
It's like, the answers are so simple.
The answer to start living a godly life,
well, just start spending time with God.
The answer to God bless you, just obey what He says.
It's that simple.
But isn't that the way that we operate with our kids?
If your kids want something from you,
but they're disrespectful and rebellious,
you're going to be like, no.
It's like your kids are being rude,
and then they say, hey, Dad, can I have a Dutch meal?
No.
Why?
Because they're having a bad attitude.
But if your kids are being godly and obedient,
and they have a good attitude, you know what?
You do want to give them nice things.
And guess what?
It's the same way with God, if we would be obedient
and have a right attitude also.
Genesis 22, verse 11.
And the angel of the Lord called onto him
out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, here am I.
And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything onto him,
for now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou is not withheld by son,
thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold, behind him, a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram
and offered him up for a burnt offering
in the stead of his son.
Now let me ask you, does Abraham offer a ram or a lamb?
A ram.
Different animal.
Because Jesus is the lamb of God.
He's being prophetic.
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And he has a ram, but I want you to also notice here
in this passage, in verse number 13,
where it says, and Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, behold, behind him a ram.
Notice it says, caught in a thicket by his horns.
Now why does the Bible mention that,
caught in a thicket by his horns?
It's trying to put a picture inside of your head.
You know what that picture is?
The crown of thorns that was upon the head of Jesus.
That's the picture.
And by the way, it's like they try to make it seem like
it's almost like a hat with just a little bit of pain.
No, no.
I mean, it was really in there,
causing Jesus to bleed quite a bit.
And you know what, if you literally got caught
in a bunch of thorns like this ram,
yeah, you're gonna start to bleed.
It's gonna be very painful.
And the picture is of Jesus Christ.
And of course you have the picture
of Abraham offering his son.
You would have to be blind not to see
the correlation to Jesus Christ here
in Genesis chapter 22.
In the Old Testament, God's like,
yeah, this is the plan that God the Father
is gonna send God his son.
It's very obvious when we're reading this
in Genesis chapter 22.
And by the way, it says a burnt offering.
You say, well, what does that picture?
The fact that the soul of Jesus was in hell
for three days and three nights
after he died physically?
Yeah, his soul was not left in hell.
But when Jonah set out of the belly of hell, cried I,
he wasn't literally in hell.
He was speaking prophetically.
Now, of course, I would imagine,
I mean, this has never happened to me.
Maybe it's happened to you.
But if you spend three days inside of a whale's belly,
there's probably a lot of resemblance to hell.
It's probably very dark, I would imagine.
I'm not an expert on whales.
I'm just assuming.
And it would certainly make sense
with what the Bible says.
It would probably, I would assume there's stomach acid,
so it'd probably be pretty painful.
It'd probably be kind of the worst thing ever.
I don't really look at myself
as being afraid of the dark,
but if it's 100% dark,
yeah, that would get pretty scary pretty soon.
I mean, imagine if the whale is eating other fish
and then a fish comes and hits you in the face
or whatever, it's like, that would be kind of scary.
And so why does it say burnt offering?
Well, because of the fact Jesus Christ,
his soul was in hell for three days and three nights
after he died physically.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You say, well, how does that make sense?
Well, because if we die in our sins
as an unsaved person,
where do we go to pay for our sins for all eternity?
To hell.
So if Jesus was taking our place,
I'm probably not gonna get crucified.
How is he taking my place?
Because of the fact he took the punishment
of hell upon himself.
It says here in verse number 14,
and Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh,
as it is said to this day,
in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
And the angel of the Lord called on to Abraham
out of heaven the second time and said,
by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
for because thou hast done this thing,
it has not withheld thy son, thine only son,
that in blessing I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed
as the stars of heaven,
as the sand which is upon the seashore,
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth
be blessed.
Why?
Because thou hast obeyed my voice.
That's why.
Because of obedience.
Why was Abraham greatly blessed by God?
It was not simply because he was saved.
It's because he was obedient,
because he did what God said.
And the decree or the promise of obedience
is that God will bless our lives.
Now, it doesn't mean that I'm gonna be
the father of many nations,
but it does mean that God is gonna bless my life
if I do what he says.
Bible says when we meditate on God's word day and night
he's gonna give us good success,
he's gonna bless our lives.
That promise is to us today as well.
It's also interesting in verse number 17,
where he makes this comparison,
because he's saying, in multiplying,
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven,
of the heaven as the sand which is upon the seashore.
Now, if you go to the beach
and you pick up sand in your hand,
how many grains of sand do you have in your hands?
Tens of thousands, maybe?
I mean, a lot.
There's a multitude of grains of sand.
I mean, who even knows the number?
I mean, it's insane how much there actually is.
And you can get that's a great promise.
Well, of course, it's true with the stars of heaven also
because how many stars are there?
There's a great multitude of stars.
Of course, we know that today,
but did you know that all of the famous astronomers
just a few hundred years ago,
they thought there was thousands of stars?
You look at all of those people,
they're trying to count the exact number.
I think in the 1500s,
I don't have the exact time in front of me,
but you go back less than 500 years,
they didn't realize there was this great multitude of stars.
You say, why?
Because you don't see a multitude of stars
if you just look up at the sky.
They thought that there was just like
thousands of stars or whatever.
It's like, well, if we would follow what the Bible said,
what do you see?
Once again, that science has to catch up
with the Word of God.
Because the Bible said thousands of years ago,
it compares it to the grains of sand,
and it's a great multitude, right?
Turn your Bible to Genesis 26.
Genesis 26.
Now, here's the thing about this, though.
I don't necessarily think that the people,
all the people that lived back then
were completely ignorant of these things,
because what you're gonna find is that people in the past
actually had a lot of education.
Now, there's certainly times where there's dark ages
and people are illiterate,
but there have been many cultures in the past
that have built amazing things that we look at today,
and we'd be like, I don't know how they did that.
I wish they could teach us the secrets.
What we're doing today is building on past achievements.
Could somebody thousands of years ago
have just made an iPhone?
Well, no, but the thing is,
we're just building on earlier things.
I mean, in my mind, I'll be honest with you,
before we started, you know, planes started to fly,
I would have never thought that was possible.
To me, that's like one of the greatest inventions
you can possibly think of.
I mean, you told me, we're gonna take this vehicle
and it's gonna be like a bird that just goes through the air.
I would have probably laughed at you hundreds of years ago,
and then, of course, they made that discovery.
To me, that's a more magnificent achievement
than just like building a little bit on what was the past, right?
And obviously, there's great achievements today as well.
I'm just saying, I don't think that everybody
was just really stupid that lived during those days.
Genesis 26, verse one,
and there was a famine in the land
beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham,
and Isaac went on to Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, unto Gerar,
and the Lord appeared unto him and said,
Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of.
So join in this land, and I will be with thee,
and I will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed
I will give all these countries,
and I will perform the oath
which I swear unto Abraham thy father,
and I will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed
all these countries, and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,
because that Abraham obeyed my voice
and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws.
Why?
Because Abraham was obedient.
I mean, you see this great promise,
this great blessing, by being obedient,
and so instead of trying to always figure out why,
we should just say, you know what,
God says it, I'm gonna do it.
Look, I'll be honest with you,
when I got saved, I mean, I was a college student,
and guess what?
I mean, I didn't go down the road of sin
that a lot of people do before they get saved,
because my parents are very strict,
but it's not like I was just listening
to psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
It's not that just I was memorizing the Bible
and reading the Bible and meditating
on God's word before I was saved.
No, I was worldly, right?
I watched all the wrong movies,
listened to all the wrong music,
and I was worldly, and to be honest,
I knew nothing about the Bible when I got saved.
I could have quoted zero Bible verses.
I would not have been able to quote John 3.16
when I got saved.
Anyway, as I got saved, when I got saved
and I started to read the Bible
and I started to go to church,
I learned a lot of new things,
and there are a lot of things that I read
and I saw, thus saith the Lord,
and in my mind, I did not understand why.
I didn't get it.
You say, why?
Because the truth is that as you're learning new things,
you don't always have enough knowledge
or experience to fully understand.
Does a child understand why they can't just
eat ice cream every day for breakfast?
They don't get it.
They don't understand.
We understand as adults.
So you're gonna get cavities.
You're gonna have horrible health.
I mean, it's gonna destroy your body.
We get that, right?
But kids don't understand this.
But if parents say something to kids,
guess what?
Kids just obey.
Do what your parents say.
And it's the same thing with God's Word,
and there are many things.
I just started to do what God said,
and I was just like, I don't really get it.
And then a few years down the road,
it's like, I got it now.
It makes sense.
I get it now.
It makes sense.
It's all fitting together better.
I mean, wouldn't you say that's true in your life,
that you start listening to this sort of preaching,
you come to a church like this,
you're learning all these new things,
and sometimes you're like, I don't understand why.
It doesn't make sense to me.
And then six months later, it's like,
all right, I was wrong.
Makes sense.
I get it now.
And so we should just obey and do what God says,
even if we don't fully understand it.
Now, I do think that we should strive
to understand things,
but don't just have this attitude.
I'm not gonna do it until I fully understand it.
Well, I mean, I know you say
read the Bible every day, pastor,
but I don't really understand why it's so important,
so until I understand why, I'm not gonna do it.
You're not gonna understand why until you start doing it.
I don't really know why that we all need to go sowing.
You're not gonna understand until you start doing it.
I don't know why I should be in church every week.
Well, you're not gonna understand until you start doing it.
That's the way it works.
Once you start doing it, all of a sudden,
oh, I get it now.
It makes sense.
So maybe just do what God says.
Be obedient and trust that God's gonna bless you,
as he said, and then it's gonna start making sense.
Go to Genesis 12, Genesis chapter 12.
Look, I think it's something we should really think about
because probably for most of us,
we have situations in life
where we're an authority
and situations in life when we're not an authority.
And here's the thing.
If you want those underneath you to be obedient to you,
you need to set a good example
with the authorities that you have.
I mean, if you're a husband and you come home from work
and all you do is complain about
what your boss is asking you to do,
I'm not gonna do it, okay.
I'm glad you get to have your pity party.
Your wife's not gonna obey you either
because she's learning from you.
That's the truth.
And I mean, I have areas in my life,
I'm not an authority.
And so the thing is, if I want my wife and my kids
to be obedient to me and respectful to me,
but I'm being disrespectful to my authorities,
they're more likely to be disrespectful to me.
It's just common sense.
And so I'd say to all of us,
yeah, there's a difficulty with obedience,
but you know what, you're gonna help yourself
if you learn to be obedient with a good attitude
because those that are underneath you,
they're gonna see your example.
They're gonna learn from your example, right.
Point number one, we saw the difficulty with obedience.
Point number two, we saw the duty of obedience.
Point number three, we saw the decree
or the promise of obedience.
But point four with Abraham,
I wanna show you his discovery of obedience.
And what I mean by that is that Abraham
was not obedient at first to God,
but he discovered or learned how to be obedient, okay.
Genesis 12, verse number one.
Genesis 12, verse one.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred
and from thy father's house
unto a land that I will show thee,
and I will make of thee a great nation
and I will bless thee and make thy name great,
and thou shalt be a blessing,
and I will bless them that bless thee
and curse them that curseth thee,
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So God tells Abraham, I want you to leave your country,
your kindred, your father's house.
I want you to separate from them
unto a land that I will show thee.
Verse four, so Abram departed
as the Lord had spoken unto him,
and Lot went with him,
and Abram was 75 years old
when he departed out of Haran.
Now if you're only reading Genesis 12, one through four,
you're gonna be like, I don't get your point, Pastor,
because he obeyed.
Well, that's what it appears in Genesis 12.
He eventually obeys,
but keep your finger here in Genesis 12
and go to Acts chapter seven.
He eventually obeys, but he does not obey immediately.
Now where did he depart out of when he finally obeyed?
Out of Haran, H-A-R-A-N, right?
He departed out of Haran,
that's when he obeyed and did what God said.
Acts seven, verse one.
By the way, this is also why we use the New Testament
to shed light on the Old Testament.
Sometimes we read things in the Old Testament,
and you know what?
We don't necessarily have the full picture,
but the New Testament sometimes
gives us extra information,
and Stephen makes it very clear in Acts chapter seven.
Acts seven, verse one.
Then said the high priest, are these things so?
And he said, men, brethren, and fathers harken.
The God of glory appeared under father Abraham
when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran.
Now obviously the spelling is different here.
C-H-A-R-R-A-N, but I'm pretty sure you can see
it's similar to H-A-R-A-N.
Same place.
Here's the thing.
Why does the Bible specifically,
why does Stephen specifically mention this?
Why does the Bible make it a point to mention this?
That God appeared unto him in Mesopotamia
before he dwelt in Haran?
Because it's trying to prove a point here.
Verse number three, and said unto him,
get thee out of thy country.
When did he say that to him?
He said that unto him in Mesopotamia.
Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred,
and come into the land which I shall show thee of.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans
and dwelt in Haran, and from thence,
when his father was dead, he removed him into this land,
wherein he now dwelt.
So God gave the instructions in Mesopotamia,
and guess what?
Instead of going and doing what God said,
he goes to Haran first.
He was told to leave his father's house,
but it's when his father dies
that he actually does what God says.
And so what you're seeing in the Bible
is that God gives him instructions,
I want you to go to this country,
leave your kindred, leave your father's household,
and guess what?
He did not do what God said at first.
What does he do?
He goes to Haran with his father and the family,
but God said, I want you to separate.
Now, why would God tell him to separate from his father?
Well, because all indications
are his father was not saved.
His father had idols.
His father was not godly, right?
I mean, if you're around people that are ungodly,
what's gonna be the result in your life?
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
And so the fact is that his father was ungodly.
I mean, imagine if your father was a Hindu.
And he's a very devoted Hindu
that has his little, I can't remember the name of it,
devotion table or idol table, whatever it's called, right,
where he goes to every morning, pulls back the curtains,
and he's praying to these false gods every day.
Do you really think that that's the environment
that you wanna be around day after day?
No.
And so God tells him, I want you to leave.
Why?
Because your father is ungodly.
He's worshiping false idols.
Go back to Genesis 11, Genesis 11, Genesis 11.
Now say this to all the kids in this room.
You know what?
If you have parents that set a godly example,
you oughta praise God for that.
Because a lot of people do not have that in this world.
I was not raised as an independent fundamental Baptist.
I believe different things now.
But I can also say that I've never heard
either one of my parents ever say a curse word,
smoke a cigarette, they did not drink.
I had a good example growing up from my parents.
And you know what?
I remember, I'll give you this example.
I used this yesterday.
I remember before I was homeschooled in middle school,
I was in public school.
And so I was in public school up until the sixth grade.
So first through fifth grade, I was in public school.
And the teachers wanted to show a PG-13 movie in our grade.
But the kids are not 13 years old.
So they had to get parental improvement from the parents
to let a PG-13 movie be shown.
And let me just say this.
I don't watch PG-13 movies.
But here's the thing.
Of course, I did in the past.
And a lot of PG-13 movies are pretty garbage.
And I'm sure they're a lot worse now.
I remember that the movie that every girl loved
when I was a kid was Titanic.
It's like, oh, if I could just have a love
like Titanic or whatever.
It's like there was complete nudity in that movie.
And yet it was labeled PG-13.
It was not rated R.
So just because it's PG-13 by the world standards.
Look, if you have to be 13 years old
before it's appropriate, it's probably not appropriate
no matter what your age is.
But I remember just about every parent in the school
signed the papers.
Yes, we'll let our child watch this PG-13 movie.
I don't remember what the movie was.
And I knew my parents were not gonna do it.
So I was debating, should I just be dishonest
and then just do a fake signature?
I didn't do that though, right?
Because I was afraid I would get the rod
if I did that, if I got caught.
So I came to my parents.
I begged them, please, please.
They're like, no, you're not gonna watch that movie.
I didn't care about the movie.
But I said, every single child in that school,
their parents are gonna sign it.
You were gonna embarrass me to the entire school.
And my parents said no.
I didn't push them on it.
I accepted it.
I was just really worried about getting embarrassed
or whatever or the kids finding out
that it was my parents that stopped it.
You know what I think?
20 years later, praise God I had parents
that actually cared.
Because a lot of parents will let their kids
do whatever they want.
I mean, isn't that what you see?
I mean, I'm amazed as I see as we go out
and go soul winning and a lot of people
just let their kids do whatever.
I'm thinking, man, they have a lot of faith.
I mean, I have concerns of what could happen to my kids.
I mean, you're concerned about them getting hit
with a car or a motorcycle.
You're concerned about wicked evil people in this world
or there's dogs running the streets.
And I'm not saying keep your kids in a plastic bubble.
But I'm just saying, as a parent,
it's like, yeah, I have rules and guidelines
and things I expect my kids to follow.
You say, why?
Because I care about them.
That's the way it works.
But you know what's a lot easier as a parent?
Just letting your kids do whatever you want.
Whatever they want.
You don't have to deal with it.
And look, if you have parents that actually give rules
and instruction, they set a godly example,
you gotta praise God for that.
You know what's interesting about that story?
Because I was not raised independent fundamental Baptist,
but there was one other kid at the school
whose parents said no.
And it was actually one of my best friends
and I thought I was gonna be the only kid,
but his parents also said no as well.
He was not raised as an independent
fundamental Baptist either.
Did you know that he's also
an independent fundamental Baptist today as well?
And he wasn't even raised.
I mean, his parents are also very strict.
I don't even know that his parents
would have claimed Christianity
or maybe just kind of passively,
but he is also, and I haven't talked to him since,
and I remember just being shocked
as I saw like he's an independent fundamental Baptist.
And it's just like, you know what that shows me?
That if you have a godly and a good example
of your parents growing up,
and this is outside of being taught
the salvation by grace through faith,
but just having that godly example
is gonna make it much more likely
that you're gonna end up correct.
But sadly, the contrary is also true.
You say, well, pastor, I know my kids
are gonna turn out right
because they come to this church.
Don't rely on just my preaching
for your kids to turn out right.
Because they won't.
It's not just, well, they might.
No, no, they won't.
If you are not good parents to your kids,
it is extremely unlikely
your kids are gonna turn out right.
Anyway, to me, I mean,
obviously we look at personal examples as a big thing.
I find it a big coincidence.
Two different people,
neither raised independent fundamental Baptists,
neither raised Baptists,
and they didn't just become Baptists.
They became independent,
old-fashioned fundamental Baptists.
To me, that's a big coincidence,
but I just look at it with strict parents,
and it actually worked.
Now, you need the balance of nurture and admonition
because if you only do one,
well, you're gonna have an improper balance.
You're gonna provoke your kids to wrath,
but if you give the balance of nurture and admonition,
you're gonna do a good job as a parent.
That was one of the most comforting things to me
before my son Zeph was born
because it starts to get overwhelming
when your first child's being born
because before you're gonna have a child,
it seems so easy.
And then as the day is coming,
it's like, oh man, am I ready for this?
It's like, God, can you just delay it
for three months, right?
It's like, am I really getting ready for this?
What am I gonna do?
I mean, you have a lot of questions that come up,
and my question in my head,
so I'm like, okay, so when I spank my child,
what do I do after that?
Things that you don't think about
until you're starting to come to the moment,
and things that you learn
from other godly people at church
that give you a good example
and can teach you these things,
questions that you have.
This is good both for men and women
to get instruction from other godly people at church
that have been down that road.
But I believe you provide nurture and admonition
your kids are gonna turn out right.
And I know from a personal example in my life,
because I'm not just saying my parents were great parents.
They were.
Every single Saturday,
unless it was during the wintertime,
my dad would always take me out to play sports,
whether it be play baseball, soccer, football.
Is there anything godly about playing basketball?
No, but it's just a matter
of just spending time with my dad.
And see, when you see a father
that loves you physically,
it's gonna make it a lot easier for you to understand
and love your heavenly father.
You really are, as a father,
the first example to your kids,
you're basically an example to kids of God.
Now, obviously, all of us fail as fathers, right?
So don't misunderstand my application,
but you're their authority that will discipline,
but you also love your kids.
And if you do a good job,
it's gonna help your kids understand
their heavenly father as well.
But Genesis 11, verse 31,
"'And Terah took Abram his son,
"'and Lot the son of Haran his son's son,
"'and Sarai his daughter-in-law,
"'his son Abram's wife.
"'And they went forth with them of Ur of the Chaldees
"'to go in the land of Canaan.
"'They came unto Haran and dwelt there,
"'and the days of Terah were 205 years,
"'and Terah died in Haran.'"
Well, here's the thing.
The Bible says that Terah took Abram his son,
and he brings him to Haran.
God tells Abraham,
"'Separate from your father's household,'
and then his father brings them to Haran.
He doesn't obey.
He disobeys.
Now, the Bible in Genesis 12 highlights his obedience,
and he does obey eventually.
He does not obey right away with a smile on his face.
You say, what's your point?
Here's my point.
You can discover or learn how to be obedient,
because in my opinion, when I think of characters,
this is just the first name that came to my mind,
and the Bible speaks about it many times
about the obedience of Abraham,
because he obeyed.
He did what I said.
I know Abraham.
He's gonna teach his whole household
to do and obey and do right and follow him.
The first character I think of with obedience is Abraham,
and what's interesting about that,
as much as the Bible highlights his obedience
through difficult things that he's asked to do,
he starts by not actually being obedient,
because it's a hard thing to separate from your family,
and I'm not saying everybody's in a situation
where they have to separate from the family.
The situations are not the same.
I mean, you could have a godly example from your family,
but you could have an ungodly example,
and I'm pretty sure when your father is worshiping idols,
then it's probably not the best situation
to be around all the time, right?
One other thing to note that's interesting to me
in this passage, just as food for thought,
is in verse number 31, and one of our online listeners,
a friend of mine, he messaged me about this,
because I mentioned this briefly in a sermon recently,
my thoughts on this, and he mentioned this verse,
and I had also thought of this verse before as well
for this point.
I personally do not believe that,
and I could be wrong,
because I don't necessarily think
it's two plus three equals five.
I don't believe that Abraham and Sarah
were half brother and sister.
The Bible never actually says that.
The only one who ever says that is Abraham.
He gets caught in a lie, and then he says,
no, I'm not lying, because she's my half-sister.
Oftentimes, people get caught in lies,
and they use another lie to cover up,
but you say, well, why would you say that, though?
Well, I would find it odd that in verse 31,
if Terah is the father of Sarai,
I find it weird that it would mention
the daughter-in-law of Terah,
and not tell us it's his daughter.
That, to me, would be strange.
I'm not saying, and look, I'm not dogmatic on it,
because I don't know if you can be 100%,
but for me, I would find it very strange
if the Bible highlights this is his daughter-in-law,
and it's actually his daughter as well,
and the Bible never tells us that.
The only word we have for that is Abraham.
And you know what, here's the bottom line.
At the end of the day,
there are some things in the Bible people can disagree on.
You don't have to agree with me.
I know some pastors that agree with me,
some that disagree, so it's kind of like,
well, I mean, Abraham was telling the truth.
Maybe he was telling another lie
when he got caught in a lie,
where he's like, I didn't lie.
She is my sister.
She's just through my dad, half-sister.
I don't think so.
I could be wrong, but anyways, go to Romans 6.
But Genesis 11, verse 31,
is probably the biggest reason or verse
why I would say, yeah, I don't actually think
that that was his half-sister.
Look, if you know a verse that just clearly refutes
what I just said and I'm unaware of it,
I'm happy to learn.
The only place I know of is when Abraham says
that, you know, she is my sister.
I don't know of a verse in the Bible
that would actually say that she is,
other than just Abraham saying it.
And whether it's true or not, here's the thing.
In the Bible, characters lie.
Godly characters lie also.
You can't necessarily always assume
that what they're saying is correct.
Now, obviously, when they're showing,
like, you read the epistles, it's just the word of God.
You know, God used men, but these are the words of God.
Everything is true.
Everything is correct.
But the Bible also records people saying things
and doing things.
Not everything they do is correct.
Not everything they say is correct either.
But here's the thing about obedience,
because we saw these points.
We saw the difficulty with obedience.
Sometimes it's difficult.
We saw the duty of obedience,
where you're expected to do what your authority says,
whether you agree or not, whether you understand or not.
We saw the decree from obedience,
the blessing that God says.
And you know, we should be reminded of that
when we do not want to obey,
that God promised He's gonna bless me if I'm obedient.
I'm just gonna trust in the promises of God.
And we see that Abraham discovered how to be obedient.
But you know, you might be asking,
well, you know, why is it so difficult?
Because there are things that you probably hear in sermons
and you hear them preached,
and every time you hear it preached,
you're thinking, I gotta make this change.
And then two months later, you hear it again,
man, I gotta start doing this.
And then two months later, it's like, man.
And look, there's things that I've fixed in my life
over the last 20 years,
but there are things I'm still working on too.
Paul spoke about that when he preached the word of God,
that he was basically preaching on things
that he was guilty of.
I'm doing the things that I say not to do,
that I don't wanna do.
I also am guilty sometimes.
I preach things and I'm struggling
with some of the same things that you struggle with.
Obviously, we're all sinners.
We're all trying to get better.
But what's really the key?
How do you fix it?
Because you're trying in your willpower
to obey and overcome certain things,
and yet it's not working.
Romans 6, verse 16.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin unto death
or of obedience unto righteousness.
Verse 17.
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin,
but notice this,
but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
You know what the secret is to actually obeying?
It's gotta actually come from the inside,
from your heart.
Because if you just try to do the willpower,
because every time in a sermon,
and look, most of my years being saved,
I was not the one doing the preaching.
I know how it works.
You hear those sermons,
and you're like, I need to start doing that,
and it seems so easy
when you're listening to the sermon.
And then you go home,
and it's like, it's a completely different story.
And you struggle, and you fight against it,
and you're trying to overcome,
and it's not working.
But the Bible says obey from the heart.
And the key is really fixing the heart,
doing what's right on the inside,
and it's gonna be a lot easier.
You say, well, how can I really fix my heart
to wanna do what's right and to obey?
Well, there's really only one answer to fix the heart,
and that is get to the thing
that actually gets to the heart.
The word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
The word of God is a way to get to the inside,
and it is the medicine.
It is the vitamin.
It is whatever you wanna call it
that fixes the problem inside of your heart.
And obviously, I'm speaking spiritually.
I'm not talking physically,
but the Bible uses a physical example
because when you think of surgery,
like open-heart surgery,
they go to the inside of your body.
Well, the word of God has a way
to get to the inside of you and fix what's wrong.
And what you find is as you read the Bible
and you memorize the Bible
and you have a walk with God,
a lot of things that you used to really struggle with,
you don't really struggle with that much anymore.
It's just very easy to overcome those things.
You start to just much more easily
be able to conquer the things
that you're struggling with in life.
Now obviously, we're never gonna be perfect.
We're obviously also trying to get better,
but the secret is not trying to get this magic willpower
to overcome all of these obstacles and sins
and problems in your life.
The secret is to actually get to the root of the problem.
And the root of the problem is reading the word of God,
memorizing the Bible, spending personal time with God.
It actually gets to the heart.
Now, I think great preaching,
I think that godly and good preaching,
sermons, whether it be from this church
or another pastor,
if they're a godly preacher, I think that's great.
But you know what will really fix your heart
more than my preaching or preaching from anybody?
It's actually just one-on-one,
you with God, open up the Bible,
read the Bible, set aside all distractions.
30 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day.
If you have more time, more time than that,
just spend time away from everything,
away from your cell phone, away from your computer,
away from all distractions, spend time with God.
And you know what's happening
as you're spending time with God?
It's fixing your heart.
You don't realize it, but it is.
It will fix the problems that you have in your life.
I mean, the answer is so simple,
and yet we struggle so much with this, right?
But the secret to being obedient
is obeying from the heart,
and the secret to fixing the heart
is actually getting to the root of the problem,
and that's called we need the word of God
to fix our heart.
Let's go to the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today,
and just the great example we have
in the Bible of Abraham,
who was very obedient through difficult things,
and help all of us to learn to be obedient
to any authority that we have, God,
any authority that tells us what to do,
whether we agree with it, whether we don't agree,
and unless they're asking us to sin,
God, help us just to be obedient
and have the right attitude about it, God,
and we trust in your promise
that you'll bless our lives if we do what you say, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.