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Genesis chapter 13 if you remember there was a lot of verses in Genesis 12 I really didn't cover because I talked about two weeks ago obviously brother Raji preached last week, but two weeks ago I talked about separation, and you know I wanted to keep that theme in Genesis 12 But it leaves a lot of empty verses hanging so we're actually going to start in Genesis 12 at the beginning of the sermon So I'm going to look at the root cause and the name of the sermon is three potential curses of money Three potential curses of money, and we're going to look at the direct things the Bible shows us here in Genesis obviously There's a lot of different applications You can make but just the story of Abraham himself the sort of person that come upon notice what it says in Genesis 12 verse 10 and There was a famine in the land and Abram went down into Egypt to sejour there for the famine was grievous in the land now The Bible says there's a famine in the land and I want you to remember that God told Abram to go to this location He told him to be here He's in God's will and then once a famine comes up once there's little food You know money is scarce. What takes place well Abram. He goes to Egypt Okay, now the picture that's being given is leaving an area. That's godly to go to an area That's ungodly now of course There's no place in this world that is fully godly But Abram was specifically told to go by God to begin with and the best application in a modern-day sense Would be if you're part of a good church, and then you leave for some job to go somewhere where there is no good church That's the sort of thing that Abram is doing and I would always say that is the wrong choice to make Because we see Abram here obviously the story of the book of Ruth is all because of a little act who basically You know does the exact same thing and he knew the scriptures He knew what Abram did but he follows the same exact pattern which Obviously shows us any one of us to follow the same exact pattern in our lives and Abram basically leaves a godly area To go to Egypt, which is an ungodly area now notice It says he went down into Egypt to sojourn there the word sojourn is Different than just to live somewhere it needs to live temporarily or live with the intent of coming back Okay, many people take jobs and they'll take it for a time period obviously There's a lot of people that are OFW's that will plan to work for a couple years save up money and come back That's what would be the Bible word sojourning We're basically you say I'm going to live somewhere for two years three years four years Like with my wife and I moved here. We were sojourning in Metro Manila always planning to move down here That's what that word means when you're not making it your full home It's just kind of a temporary thing and so Abram has all the intentions to come back It's just he goes to Egypt for a time period the reason why does this is the famine was previous in the land So obviously he's doing this because of money that is his big concern. Okay? You say what's the main problem with this? Well, the main problem is when you make decisions fully based on money You're always making the wrong decision and things are going to attach themselves to you And as I said three potential curses, let's see number one Genesis 12 verse 11 The first thing we see attached to Abraham is we see him being filled full of lies lies Dishonesty, you know, this is a obviously a sin is attaching itself to him Genesis 12 verse 11 and came to pass when he was coming here to enter into Egypt and he said unto Sariah's wife Behold now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon The airport shall come to pass from the Egyptian shall see thee and they shall say this is his wife And they will kill me but they will save me a lot Say I pray thee thou art my sister that it may do well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee So here we have Abraham being dishonest and you know What do you believe that that that was actually a sister half sister or not? He's still being dishonest because he's not being fully up front when he's going to Egypt He's like just tell them that we're brother and sister because he's worried. They're gonna say well, here's a beautiful woman Then they're going to kill him and take, you know Sarai or Sarah, you know as theirs and she says just lie And you know what in life when we start to go down the wrong road Oftentimes, we'll see that we start to tell lies or have to cover things up and that's a sign right now, right? You know in your life that you're doing something wrong to start covering things up And he tells his wife just lie and say we're brother and sister now Good Genesis 20 Genesis 20. This is not an isolated event. I've heard a brand This was his besetting sin So to speak just pretending that his wife was his sister. That's what he's often doing up here in Bible But it says in Genesis 20 verse 1 and Abraham journeyed from this for the south country and dwell between Canis and Shur and so Jordan and Gerar And he who said of Sarah his wife She is my sister and then like King of Gerar sent and took Sarah and dropped down to verse number nine And Obviously everything gets found out that he was lying and it says in verse 9 They didn't like called Abraham and said what stuff done to us and what am I offended that was brought up being on my? Kingdom of great sin that was done things on to me that ought not to be done and then let's set on to Abraham What saw stuff that I was done this thing? And Abraham said because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place They will slay me for my wife's sake and yet indeed. She is my sister She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother and she became my wife As I said verse verse 12 whether he's being honest with that statement or not We really don't know but doesn't change the factor of dishonest to begin with in the situation You're you just pretending your brother and sister fully and you're not married verse 13 and it came to pass when God caused me to wonder for my father's house that I said under her this is my kindness which thou shalt show unto me and Every place whether we shall come and say of me he is my brother So this is not just something that was done once it was at least none twice But he also said at every place whether we shall come Say of me he is my brother and so Abraham just made this plan ahead of time Whatever goes to a new place and and he obviously is afraid he's like all my wife's attractive They're going to kill me for my wife's sake or something or going to an ungodly area I'm afraid what they're going to do and look, you know, there are areas of this world There are pretty ungodly You know, even just being open about being in a Christian. I mean, there's some Muslim countries I'd be afraid to enter right in certain areas of this world You know with our source of beliefs, it could be a dangerous place You can see where someone could be very fearful and then be dishonest and have to lie and cover stuff up and things like that But what you're seeing is that this originated in Genesis 12 and lies attached himself to Abraham Really the root cause is when he leaves a godly area to go to an ungodly area Okay, they go to Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs 6 Proverbs 6 Proverbs chapter 6 I mean, I'm sure Abraham's just thinking well if I'm going to an ungodly area like Egypt I mean, they've got much bigger sins in Egypt than just telling a little lie. So it's not that big of a deal We oftentimes justify our sins in our own mindset We'll say well, it's not as bad as what other people are doing or we'll say well, you know, I'm reading my Bible I'm going to church. I'm doing these things for God. So it's okay if I have this pocket of sin Well, you're gonna pay for any sins that you make in this life. You're gonna reap what you sow. Sin is never okay And so notice what it says in Proverbs 6 verse 16 These six things doth the Lord hate, gate seven are an abomination unto him. Now my personal opinion in verse 16 Some people talk about what's the six and what's the seven because seven things will be listed I think it's just using, you know, symbolic or metaphoric or symbolic language to show strong emphasis We're saying six things God hates, seven are an abomination I think all seven things he hates and are an abomination to sin. It's just kind of a sort of an expression Not really kind of how we would speak today, but I think that's what he's saying here He says this starting verse 17, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood and a heart that divides with wicked imaginations, feet that be swift and running with mischief a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren Two of those things are directly related to lying in this list of things that God hates And Abraham, yeah, he was a godly person. He did a lot of great things But right when he goes to Egypt, all of a sudden he's just lying immediately And it started because he went to Egypt to begin with Right? And it's a pretty bad lie when you're worried and you're saying, well, you know, we're just brother and sister It's like, well, what could have happened to Sarah, right? God's very merciful to believers when they do stupid things Right? And thankfully nothing did happen. Now go to Proverbs 12, Proverbs 12 Proverbs 12 Proverbs 12, verse 22 Proverbs 12, verse 22 The Bible says, Lying lips are abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are as delight Now when God calls something an abomination Right? Because oftentimes we quote where the Bible says a man putting on a dress is an abomination to the Lord Well, abomination is a very strong word Something God deeply despises and hates, and it says someone that has lying lips Now, of course, we know we've all lied before, right? Revelation 21, 8 is kind of our go-to verse to show us that To show people out sobering that we're all guilty, right? But if you make that a habit of your life, then everywhere we go just tell this lie, well that's a major problem, right? Now, what are some examples of how money and lies can be associated with one another? Because you say, Brother Succiac, I see a connection, but it seems like a bit of a loose connection Well, I mean, think about the politicians of this world Right? They run for office for power and money, those two things And they say a lot of things, are they going to do them? Probably not Why did they say them? For money and power? That's the exact reason why they do it I mean, people are always shocked a year into their term like, man, you know, he didn't do anything he said he'd do Of course he didn't! He's lying to get elected That's just the way it is Right? I mean, this is the way that most politicians are Now, I'm not going to stand up here and say that every politician is a wicked person Obviously the profession has a lot of wicked people But I'm sure that there are some honest politicians that are decent people here in the Philippines That actually care about the people of the Philippines The same way in other countries as well But there are certainly a lot of politicians that are full of lies And dishonesty And they do it for money and for power And money, they decide it's okay to lie as long as I get what I want I get money and I get power What about salesmen at jobs? Right? There's always a joke in the US about used car salesmen Like you go into a used car place and then they'll say, oh yeah, it's in great shape And sometimes they'll turn the dial so it looks like there's less miles on it It says only like 10,000 miles but it's got like 100,000 miles or something like that And then they're dishonest to make that sale Or you think of, you know, Bernie Madoff I don't know if you know the name Bernie Madoff But he was part of that big scandal from like a decade ago Almost 15 years now Where basically it was this big financial scam And it's not the only one that's existed But it's basically where he never had any of the money he said he had And he was just like stealing money from people and investing But it didn't even exist It was this big policy scheme that he was doing And eventually he got caught but he had stolen tons of money And there were people that were very rich Had 25 million dollars they invested to him And then all of a sudden overnight, oh they have zero dollars Right? And it's like they lost everything And they thought their money was secure And this guy was just a company that was able to do it for decades Just trick people And you know what, I don't really know how you pull off something that major But I did work in a field where you're dealing with numbers And interests and stuff like that And I can say there's a lot of dishonest things At jobs like that That I was thinking I didn't have to do them But let's just add 2048 to make it match Because you can't get the numbers to match what you want Well you do that one year I guess it's not that big of a deal But then you do it a second year And all of a sudden you're getting further and further off And then you can have a major loss If my old company has had a major loss over the last several years Because of something like this And it's very commonly associated with the financial schemes And stuff like that But how about job resonance? People apply for jobs and they say I've got this experience I graduated from this college Five years experience doing this And then all of a sudden five years being an electrician First day on the job The electricians do it themselves Right? And why are people doing it? Well they're doing it for money I think we're saying if I get the job It's worth it There's a lot of different ways you can connect to lying and money But really what it comes back to Is having a love of money More of a love of money than actually a love of doing what's right Because everybody knows it's wrong to lie Whether they're saved or not They know it's wrong But they choose to lie because of the purposes of money And you see that here with Abraham as well In Genesis chapter 12 Now Go back to Genesis 12 You say Father Stuckey Is that really that big of a deal that he told to lie? I mean everybody lies Well here's the thing though That same sin got passed on to his son Isaac Right? When you're reading Genesis Where did he learn that from? Well he learned that from his dad Right? And I mean the worst thing as a parent Is passing on your own problems Right? Because all of us know that we're adults We're not perfect There are several areas that I'm linked on and stuff The one thing I'm very scared about Is I don't want Zeph to know my weaknesses And then start doing the things that I still am trying to fix about myself You know what I mean? And I'm sure as parents Most all of us feel that way There's certain areas we're trying to get better Get more godly More spiritual Less worldly And it's just like the last thing you want to do is pass that on to your kids Right? But that's what happened with Abraham Because Well I mean he made his choice to go after money And it gets passed on to Isaac of that lie of saying She's just my sister Right? So number one We see that lies attach themselves When you chase after money Or it can be a curse as a result of money Another thing is The money itself Can be a curse You see brother Stuckey How can the money be a curse? Well Let's look at this story here Okay Notice what it says in Genesis 12 verse 16 And remember Abraham moves Where Abraham moves to Egypt For the purposes of money Because there's a family He's worried Because he doesn't have enough food Doesn't have enough money Moves to Egypt Genesis 12 verse 16 And he had treated Abram well for his sake And he had sheep And oxen And he-asses And men-servants And maid-servants And she-asses And camels I mean he had multiple Oxen, multiple sheep Multiple camels You know at least two Of all these different things I mean He's getting a lot I mean he gets Two men-servants Two maid-servants At least Right He's getting a lot Of all of these different things I mean He's getting rich Right He's getting a lot Because obviously back then Your money was not paid for money It was actually Something that you could trade Something of value So he's getting animals And he's getting servants I mean He's getting rich When he goes to Egypt He goes to Egypt For the purposes of money And he actually Gets what he wants He said Brother Stuckey It looks like God is blessing him Well hold on a second Look at verse 20 Verse 20 And let me just prove to you That he definitely keeps All of this Genesis 12 verse 20 And Pharaoh commanded His men concerning him And they sent him away And his wife And all that he had Never mentions anything In Genesis 12 About Pharaoh taking Back the stuff Because Pharaoh's afraid Right I mean God spoke to Pharaoh And said Hey You better be careful You better be careful You better be careful What you do And he's like Whoa Just take everything He leaves with All that he had So everything that he had But also all the stuff That he got in Egypt And he says in Genesis 13 verse 1 And Abram went up Out of Egypt He and his wife And all that he had And Lot went And Lot went Into the south And Abram Was very rich in Cattle and silver And in gold Isn't it very apparent That he got rich in Egypt Right He got cattle He got silver He got gold He got sermons He got all of these things He got rich in Egypt He got lots of money Now I had never heard This interpretation before But I preached on this Passage a couple years ago In Manila And then some of the Members told me afterwards Like wow That was really interesting I was always told In my Baptist church That you know He got all of that Money as a blessing From God Because God loved him And God was Blessing him And to prove The blessing Was effective And to prove The blessing Was the fact That he had All of this stuff And it just kind of Boggled my mind Because If you stop reading At verse 2 Of Genesis 13 Then you could look At it as a blessing But you gotta keep reading And see what takes place As a result of this money And you gotta realize That money is not Always a blessing Verse 3 And he went on his Journeys From the south Came to Bethel Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Onto the place Where his ten had been At the beginning Between Bethel and Haai Now the smart thing would have been to just get rid of a lot of the money that you know but nobody's gonna just burn money right I would never just burn my money say well I'm better off without some of this money nobody's gonna do that right I suppose you could have dropped off the Camels to a charity nearby or something but it's like nobody's gonna do that right well they have too much stuff Now to get a better idea also about you know the relationship between Abraham and Law and I don't want to develop this. We looked at it in the verses a few weeks ago. Lot's father had already died, okay? Lot's father was Aaron. And Aaron and Abram were brothers. So Abraham is the uncle of Lot, but it's really like a father-son sort of relationship. That's why you see Lot there with Abraham. So Abraham is basically like acting as his father, like acting like his leader. And I do believe that Lot respected and loved Abraham. We certainly see, I don't have time to develop it, but Abraham has a real love for Lot. You can see that through the book of Genesis, like he's worried about him, and in the praise of God he beseeches God on behalf of the situation because he wants Lot to be okay and everything like that. And they have love for each other because they're relatives, but it's not just an uncle and a nephew because sometimes you might not be that close to your uncle, or you might not be that close to your nephew, but a father-son relationship is a pretty strong bond. And Abraham was like the father on the lot. We don't know the exact age that his dad died, but his dad died at least a good bit before, okay? And I mentioned that just kind of in passing at the end of Genesis chapter 11. So Abraham in many ways is like a father on the Aaron, so you gotta realize that them separating was not an easy thing. The thing about, and I'm looking at this story and just trying to use logic and put myself in place of this story to get an idea of this. Obviously, I think it would have been more painful for Abraham that Lot separated in for Lot, because when you're young, you kind of want to make it on your own and prove yourself and everything like that, but they have to separate, and it's because of the fact they have too much stuff. Why did they get too much stuff? Because they went down the easiest. Now, of course, the end of that is Lot being in Sodom, which destroys his life. Now, I'm sure that Abraham didn't think about Lot going to Sodom and destroying his entire life, but that's exactly what took place. And those who have said the first seven, there was a strife between the hermit and Abram's cattle and the hermit and Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in the land. And Abram said on the lot, let there be no strife at prating between me and thee and between my hermit and I hermit, for we be brethren. And see, having too much stuff is actually causing them to fight and have strife, and Abraham is just, you know, he uses wisdom and says, hey, I don't know if there'd be any strife between me and thee, we're brethren, I love you, I care about you. He says it's not the whole land before thee. Separate that it's not by prating for me. If I would take the left hand, then I would go to the right, or if that would work for the right hand, then I would go to the left. So Abraham says, take which side you want, I'll take whatever else, you know, I just don't want to have any fighting between us, okay? Now, I don't believe that at this time, Abraham really thought of the money as being a curse, but this is exactly what you see. I mean, we get the benefit of looking at the end of the story and seeing everything that develops rather than just, you know, right this time. We see the end of what takes place. Then it says in verse 10, And Lot lifted up his eyes and he held the whole plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord liked the land in Egypt as thou comest on the Zohar. So Lot sees that Sodom and Gomorrah looks like Egypt. Now look, Egypt today is not really a powerful country anymore, but Egypt was the top dog, and I'm sure they were the most beautiful country of the day. They had the most amazing buildings and statues. I'm sure, I mean, they had probably every food you could imagine. They were the most blessed country in terms of just having a lot of stuff. And so Lot sees it, and of course, Let's just go to the area with more money, where it looks nicer, where there's all these activities, there's this fun and all this stuff that we can do. This would be our natural reaction as people to pick the area that looks nicer, but it actually is a very ungodly area. Now, another application you could make, turn to verse 26, verse 26. Another thing you can think about in terms of money, because it talks about, you know, families fighting over the issue of money. What about inheritance? Boy, that's like a World War III fight that takes place. You know, the parents die, and then the brothers and the sisters are never gonna speak to anybody, each other ever again because of the money, because they're fighting over that money. And in many ways, that money can be like a curse. I mean, you could look at, you know, people that win the lottery. Most people that win the lottery, their lives are destroyed within two years afterwards. I mean, you can look up every, I mean, this person wins $100 million a couple years down the road, divorced in a couple years. I mean, the one that's famous in the US won the lottery, and they said, you know what, he was a very respectable person in town, you know, and a good family man, very courteous and everything like that. And, you know, in less than two years, once he got that money, all of a sudden he's going to strip clubs and bars and living it up. He got filled full of pride and everything like that. And then all of a sudden, you know, he's not spending time with his family anymore. And then his daughter, or his granddaughter ends up doing drugs and she dies of an overdose at the age of like 17 or 18. This is a real story. And it's not really an isolated story because people who win the lottery, their lives are usually destroyed afterwards. And it doesn't cause them to be happy because they think I've got that money, I'm finally going to be happy. But then they realize they're not happy. And then all of a sudden they're searching after the happiness. So maybe if I buy this, maybe if I buy that, and it'll give you temporary happiness for a couple of days, a week or whatever, that new fancy car you buy is going to make you happy for a short time. That's going to faint though, right? And then they're going to realize this doesn't make me happy. Then they end up being miserable. And then they were actually more happy to begin with than they had a simple life. They were close to their family. They loved their family. They were trying to do right and be a good person. But fighting over inheritance is a very common thing. You see, money divides families when it comes to inheritance. And 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for he brought nothing into this world that is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be there with content. Now the Bible says that we should be content or happy if we have food and raiment, okay? Well, obviously all of us have raiment. And obviously we all have food because we're alive, right? Now it doesn't say that you have to get exactly what you want or go to the fanciest places. It says if you have food and raiment. It doesn't even say if you have a place to live, right? It doesn't mention anything about a house. Now, I've always had a house. I've always lived in a house. It's hard for me to imagine not having a house. But the Bible's saying, you know what? Having just food and raiment, you should be content. So if you have above that, you should really be thankful for how God has blessed you. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. For they that will be rich fall into temptation in this scenario. Now what does it mean that they that will be rich? It's those that seek money, they love money. It's not saying that if you have money. There's nothing sinful about being rich. I mean, Job was a great person and he had a lot of money. He lost it all and he got it back. But you know, he wasn't searching after money, okay? He wasn't loving money. He was obviously a hard worker and God had blessed him. And look, I think we should work hard in our careers and if God blesses us with money, I mean, that's a good thing. I'm not saying money's a bad thing. But if your life is about I wanna be rich, well then you're going down the wrong road. I knew somebody that I got saved in college. And his goal, I got saved when he was in high school. He was my friend's friend or friend's cousin. And then he went to college and you know, his goal was to become the next Donald Trump. This was before Donald Trump was a president. So what he meant was I wanna be rolling in dollar bills, y'all, right? That's what his goal was, was to be rich and powerful. And he just wanted to be the sort of person he could step out of this like really fancy car and just throw hundreds of dollars on the ground. Just be like, look at me, fancy suit and have everybody look at it and everything. And that's what his goal was. And you know, I mean, from what I understand, a couple of years ago he turned around his life. He started to just work a regular job. He was, I mean, he started to drink. I mean, this is the same person who's starting to get drunk and everything. His life's just getting destroyed. And it's just like, you know, the love of money's the root of all the income. That's what the Bible says. Verse nine, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Now what does it mean fall into temptation and a snare? Well, a snare is like a trap, okay? So just imagine the mouse that sees that piece of cheese or that peanut butter and he just goes for it and then whack. And then that mouse is probably dead, but at the very least stuck in the trap, right? Once you're stuck in that trap, you're not getting out. Now we use mouse traps to just kill them, okay? I don't want to deal with it, duh, just die, okay? I don't want to have to mess with you, you're still alive. But what I'm saying is if you get caught inside of a trap, you can't get out is the application the Bible is making. And it's true, if you go down that road, it's very hard to get yourself out once you get to it. And it says, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. So, you know, just imagine the imagery the Bible's saying. It talks about drowning men in destruction and perdition. Imagine somebody who's drowning, someone whose head is under the water, they're trying to swim, maybe there's a strong current, but not only that, but there's something that's drowning them. So they're trying to get up, but there's somebody like pushing them down, not letting them get, and look, if somebody's on top of you and you're under the water and they're sucking you down, it's very hard to find an incentive to get up unless you swim away and are able to get up. You're not gonna be able to power through it. I mean, they're pushing you down with a current or whatever. Just the imagery the Bible's saying that when you go after this, it can be almost like a permanent thing that's almost impossible to get out of. And it says, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some come in it after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Now, of course, this can apply to unsaved people, but I do believe the primary application the Bible's trying to give is to save people because he's trying to warn them that, you know what, this can destroy your life. This is true for an unsaved person or a saved person, but to save people, we're still capable of committing normal, natural sins like anybody else. We're still capable of just, you know, loving money, and the Bible says that will actually destroy you. It says, but thou, O man of God, flee these things. Now, if the Bible says flee these things, it doesn't just say don't do these things. I mean, flee basically means to run away, get as far away, make sure that you're not loving money. Flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereto thou art also called and hath professed a good profession before many witnesses. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith rather than just fighting after getting money and doing everything you can, okay? Go back to Genesis 13, Genesis 13. Genesis 13. Now, another area I think we can apply this and make an application, something that is difficult, is I think we need to be careful about not giving our kids too much. And what I mean by that is that, you know, I grew up and I had a nice life growing up. We were by no means rich, at least by American standards. We were right in the middle, and when I was younger, we were more toward the bottom part. I mean, we had a decent house, we had food, we were able to go on vacation, so we were doing fine. But, you know, my dad, when he was growing up, though, he was actually pretty poor when he was a kid. And so one of the temptations, and something I've talked to my dad about, is when you grow up with very little, you wanna give your kids everything you never had. And I'm not saying it's wrong to give your kids something that you didn't have, but I do think we need to be careful because one good thing you learn in life is just being thankful for something that's small. And, for example, I mean, I'm using an extreme example, but I think it would be a mistake for me if my son is 16. Hey, I just bought you a brand new house. Not that I could do that, but if I could, hey, here's a brand new house, 10 bedrooms, it's yours. That's gonna destroy a teenager, right? I mean, they're not ready for it. There's nothing wrong with giving them nice things that you didn't have. I mean, I like to be able to do nice things with my kids. I think it's great to take your kids out and do various things, but we also gotta be very careful not to just give them everything to the point where they're not thankful for anything, right? And it's a tough balance as a parent because obviously I think all of us wanna do nice things for our kids and want them to be able to have nice things. I mean, they can jump houses every other week here, right? A lot of nice things here. It's like, well, we just need to be careful because that could go inside their heart where they basically are no longer satisfied with this. Now they need something more and it can destroy their life. You gotta be very careful about that. One thing that is a curse or can be a curse of money is lies and dishonesty can attach itself to you if you search after money. Number two, money itself. Money itself can be a curse. Now, here's the thing. I think if you're a godly person and God blesses you with money, it probably means God feels like you can trust with money and your heart's not gonna turn away, that you're gonna be okay. But for a lot of people, it's not necessarily a good thing. Money can be a curse. It doesn't have to be. I mean, if you have money, it doesn't mean that you're gonna commit sins and quit going to church. But when you make sure you have the proper balance, we have to put God number one above anything. There's no comparison to that. God goes number one in our lives, right? And sometimes people will get a new job and then all of a sudden they just quit church, never go to church, never get some money anymore, they're too busy for church, they're too busy to serve God now and the money actually ends up destroying them rather than actually being a help to them. The third thing that we see in this story that can attach itself to you is sin and worldliness attaching itself to Abraham and his family. Obviously lies are a sin, but that's a specific thing the Bible mentions, but you see worldliness and sin can attach themselves to Abraham and his family. Because what it said in verse 10, we'll go back there, it says, And God lifted up his eyes and he held all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as it cometh unto Zohar. And the picture is that Egypt was obviously a beautiful place, but it was a very simple place. I mean, the Bible speaks about the idols of Egypt. It was obviously probably a place that had some pretty magnificent idols, right? I mean, there's some pretty, pretty magnificent looking idols in this world. Now, Philippines has a lot of idols, but some of these other countries in Asia, they have like monster idols, right? Like I looked online, like the tallest idols, there's so many tall idols of Buddha, and it's these crazy ones, like hundreds of feet tall and stuff like that. Well, Egypt was probably a land that had a lot of the stuff before it got destroyed by God at some point. There's still some remnants. You'll see like at their religious things that they went to, they have those giant, what do they call them, a sphinx at the front, or a lion in the front, or whatever. I mean, some pretty magnificent idols that they've got going on there, and it's just like, they were obviously a very rich and wealthy country, but they're obviously a very worldly country. Obviously, idolatry is a major sin, and it was very common in Egypt. But God said, you know what, it's like the land of Egypt. He obviously misses Egypt to some degree. He's like, man, I've got some more memories of Egypt. It's like, yeah, you know what, I'm able to live for God here, but I don't get to eat that T-bone steak again, right? When I was in Egypt, I got everything I wanted, and everything was done for me, and he says, like the land of Egypt. And then it says in verse 11, then Lot chose them all the plain of Jordan, and Lot, Jordan, and East, and they separated themselves one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. And kind of the picture that we're seeing here is that when Lot first gets there, he doesn't just dive in to Sodom, but he starts heading down that road, right? You're like, you're not gonna leave church here today. Like if you were to quit church today out of nowhere, or something like this, you're not just gonna dive into the worst thing ever from day one. It's very unlikely to happen. But if you start going down the wrong road, what's at the end of that road? And he pinches his tent towards Sodom. He's just kind of looking there, and Sodom obviously had some pretty nice things. I mean, it's probably a very wealthy area, because I mean, the Bible tells us that kind of the root cause of Sodom was they were rich, and they were very lazy, because they had everything Ezekiel says. So he looked at it, and it's probably pretty magnificent. Probably a lot of amazing things, and then he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and then he just kind of went closer and closer, and eventually, he's like the gatekeeper at Sodom and Gomorrah. When the angels come in the book of Genesis later on, he's like the gatekeeper. He's like right there at the beginning to like introduce people into town. And it's like, boy, you changed a lot in a couple chapters, didn't you lot, right? And he changes quite a bit in just a few chapters. He pitches his tent towards Sodom, which is the picture of deciding to live morally and sinfully. But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceeding them. And go to Genesis 16. Genesis 16. So we see that sin and worldliness attaches itself to a lot. And here's the truth. I mean, even if Abraham didn't go down a road like that, obviously, there's gonna be things that attach themselves to Abraham. When you're around that atmosphere, it's gonna affect you. I mean, if you just listen to the wrong preaching, or you're around the wrong crowd, it's gonna eventually affect you. It's gonna have an impact in a bad way on you. But if you remember, one thing that Abraham got in Egypt was he got bondmaids, right? He got handmaids when he was in Egypt. He got servants, both male and female, okay? Say, what's your point? Well, Genesis 16, verse one. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear no children. And she had a handmaid in Egyptian whose name was Hagar. Where did Hagar come from? Looks like she came from Egypt. That's one of the bondmaids that they got when they went to Egypt. So the root cause of Abraham and Hagar and having a concubine wife comes from going to Egypt, right? Here's the other thing about this. They go to Egypt. They bring back servants, bondmaids and, you know, bondmen, women and men. We don't know how many, but here's the thing. If you bring a bunch of worldly people around you who are unsaved and stuff, they're gonna have an impact on you. Think about it. Our church on Saturday had 100 people and 80 of them were Pentecostals and the other 20 were us. You know what? That's eventually gonna have an impact on us when we're around people that are not like us. Or let's say we just got, we filled this place with a bunch of Baptists that don't really love God. It's gonna have a bad impact on us, right? You're gonna be impacted by the people that you're around. That's just the way it works, right? So if you're around the wrong crowd and look, all of a sudden they bring back these bond servants and, well, they're gonna hear the Egyptians singing Egyptian music, which was the most famous music in the world at the time, right, the most powerful empire, singing Egyptian music. I'm sure they brought back various things from them. Anyway, I'm sure they brought idols with them. And you know what? Probably a lot of them look pretty cool. I'm just being honest. If the Bible says one of the sins of the flesh works in the flesh is idolatry, there is something appealing to the flesh about idolatry. Right, when I see, I mean, like in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that statue of Jesus sets like hundreds of feet in the air because they had the World Cup just several years ago in Brazil, and you know, there's this big shadow from this giant Jesus statue, and then they would show the statue from time to time. It looks magnificent. I mean, it's crazy how much time and effort and money they put in. You see these giant statues of Buddha, you're like, it's kind of like John in the book of Revelation where he marveled. He saw it and he's like, why are you marveling? Wherefore did it stop marveling? But idolatry does have an appeal to the flesh. That's what the Bible says, right? Idolatry is one of the works of the flesh from Galatians chapter five. And so what I'm saying is I'd imagine these things got brought back with these bond struggles. They brought back all these things from Egypt. Just I'll give you an example. When I was a kid, I thought the yin and the yang was like the coolest thing in the world. And you know, there's like these little things that I had gotten. I had no idea what Taoism was at the time, but I got all these Taoist things because I thought they looked cool, like the peace symbol and all this, the colors. I thought, these are cool. I had like a bunch of Taoist stuff in my room when I was like 10 years old. I had no idea, right? I'm sure my parents didn't know what Taoism was either. I just thought it looked cool. And I'm sure that as they bring back Egyptian artifacts, they're probably like, wow, that looks cool. That's amazing. The problem is that enters into your heart and it can actually change you. And I don't believe that Abraham would have ever done this if they didn't bring Hagar back. I do believe this whole thing affected him in a bad way and he ends up committing a sin. I don't think it would have ever happened. And so what we do know for sure though, and the application that God is definitely trying to show us is that Hagar came from Egypt and this is the result of going after money. It doesn't really seem like the money was a blessing to me. It seems like it destroyed a lot of lives, destroyed the life of God. It destroys the life of Abraham and Sarah. I mean, obviously this is something you're never gonna forget. I mean, there's obviously a child. I mean, there's obviously many chapters and we'll talk about Isaac and just about everything. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord have restrained you from bearing. I pray that going unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar from the Egyptian after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. I could be wrong. I mean, they weren't in Egypt necessarily for that long, but I imagine there was a lot of sexual perversion in Egypt that maybe made them think, well, you know what, other people are doing something far worse. So this is not that big of a deal. That's kind of the idea I get. I don't think Sarah would have had the suggestion unless she learned something far worse from somebody else. And if you learn something really bad and then you're like, well, I'm just doing this, you can feel justified. Verse four, and he went in unto Hagar and she conceived. When she saw that she conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maiden that I blest, and when she saw that she conceived, I was despised in her eyes, the Lord judged between me and thee. Now, let's look at a few more places. Go to Philippians four, and then we'll go back to our original text chapter. Philippians four. Now, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying here, though, in this sermon, because money in and of itself is not sinful. It's not wrong. There's plenty of people in the Bible who are blessed, and it doesn't mean that, and there can be kind of two extremes. The book of James talks about looking down on people that don't have much, but I've also seen the other thing in church is where people basically get envious of someone in church that has more than them, and church is a very unique place. It has people from all backgrounds, completely different, right? You know, the jobs I worked in secular work, everybody has a similar story. You get the same degree in college, you take the same classes, you make basically the same exact amount of money. Doesn't work that way in church, though, right? People come from all kinds of different backgrounds. What we have in common is our belief and love of Jesus Christ, but we can be very different from one another in terms of just, you know, the lives we lived. That's kind of the way it is with church. It's different. And so sometimes people can look down on people that don't have much. Sometimes people can look down on people that do have a lot and get mad at them as if they committed some sin. Well, having money doesn't mean that you sin, though. There's nothing in the Bible that says that. I would also say this, a couple things about this. If Abraham had had more money, then maybe he wouldn't have gotten so scared and left for Egypt to begin with. And I'm not saying that we should go after money. That's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying, though, is we should be smart with our money and save money and be wise because it could help prevent you from making bad choices. Especially with our sorts of beliefs. With our sort of church and our sort of stance, we believe a lot of different things than a lot of other churches. On Sunday, or on Saturday, I'm preaching on feminism as opposed to philosophy. And so that's obviously a big issue, but I've seen it before in our church at Metropolitan Hill where there's all these young guys from the church started, and they're like, all these different beliefs they're excited about, but it's just like, well, if you want to prepare, some of them were planning to get married in the future, if you're going to be a one-income house, you've got to make sure that you work very hard to get to that point because there's no way it's going to happen if you can't hold down a job for more than a couple of weeks. You're not going to be able to support a family of kids. I mean, kids are expensive. I don't know how Christabel eats so much. It's like, she's more than anybody in our household. She's always eating, man, super matakow, right? But it's just like, what I'm saying is this, you know, we should be smart with money. We should work hard. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with working overtime and getting extra money and working hard and being successful. I do think that at a young age, people should prepare themselves. So there's a balance in these things. Don't love money or search after. I mean, don't forsake the things of God to go after money, but absolutely work hard and be prepared because there's some certain times, especially in our world today, there are uncertain times in 2021. Who knows what's going to happen in the next 20 years? Philippians 4, verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of one, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, and I wrote to be content. I know both how to be abased, I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And Paul spoke about that he's learned to be content and the context is in regards to food or money and things like that. And of course, Paul was traveling all over the place preaching the gospel. That was basically what God had made on his heart and he had the ability with all the languages he spoke. Well, if you're going to new places, you don't necessarily have, you know, all the money in the world to do that. He had to work very hard to provide and he also, he had to learn to be content because Paul was used to probably a nice life, right? I mean, he was successful. He was probably used to a very nice life. Then all of a sudden he's like, man, now that I'm an evangelist, I go to certain places, I don't know where I'm sleeping at night. I mean, it was difficult. And the idea is this, that we can learn to be content. You say, well, I'm not content unless I have more, but you can learn to be content. The Bible says that you can learn to be content. Look, we see that because we go so many in every area of the earth. And you know, we go so many to some areas that are still pretty poor areas. And you know what? Oftentimes we see a lot of people that are very happy. They seem very content. See kids running around having a great time. They seem happy, right? And you know, sometimes people that have a lot of money though, they can be miserable, can be the exact opposite. Right, now look, of course, I think, I don't think there's any one of us that would say, you know what, God just please take away some of my money. That's not really our natural, and all of us would be like, I wish I could have a little bit more. That's kind of our natural inclination. Whereas if I was to say, you know, that giving either poverty or riches, being with food convenient for me. And honestly, in 2021, I don't think we're really poor by the standards of what the Bible would say is poor. We're not like, we're not like Elijah saying, well, I hope the birds come to get me food. I hope we're gonna get something, right? We're not at the point, down to our last amount of food, where basically Elijah's got to perform a miracle before they're able, we're not at that point. So obviously, you know what, it's tough because you're in the world and it's very easy to compare ourselves to other people, but that's just a foolish thing to do. It's gonna make you miserable. Verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthen it. The Bible says we do have the ability, and the context here is really about money that you can learn to be content. God can give you that ability, okay? Go to Genesis 13. Genesis 13. Genesis chapter 13. Anyway, honestly, preaching a sermon like this, I'm just going verse by verse through the text of what's being said, but a sermon like this is a good reminder for me because I've said before, if there's one area I feel like it'd cause me one day to backstop, and it'd cause me, I don't think it would be like the movies or the music. I don't think it would be that way for me. There's different things that could cause people to fall. For me, I feel like it would be something related to money because, especially as a guy who's been paranoid trying to provide for your family and stuff like that, but you know, this is a big, and look, we see in the Bible, this is something men started to struggle with, at least, at the very least. Abraham and Lomelach are two characters. It's like, obviously, all of us, at the very least, as men, need to be very careful to check our own parts and regards to this because this can certainly be an area that could cause us to just destroy our lives. We see that. Genesis 13 verse 14. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that law was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes and look for the place without art northward and southward, eastward and westward. For all the land which thou seest in thee will I give it and thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth so that the man can number the dust of the earth, and then shalt thy seed also be none. Rise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt and planted Abram, which is in Hebron, and built there an over-honored wood. One thing I like in closing in this chapter is you see the love of God for his children because Abraham did some really stupid stuff. In Genesis 12 and in chapter 13. But you know what, you don't really, you don't see God rubbing it in to him or making him feel like he's such a wicked person. It's kind of like he screwed up. He obviously learned. And you know what, it's like God's giving him another chance to discern. You know what, and that's one of the great things about being a child of God is that God is very long suffering with us. Sometimes I wonder, you know, I make mistakes in my life, like how does God even use me? It's just like, you know, I make mistakes, I screw up, but you know, God's very merciful to us. Obviously we're all sinners and God understands that. And it does show how we should try to do with our children be very long suffering when they make mistakes. But you know, I love that ending because Abraham really screws up his life. And you know, the thing is this, it's not only that God doesn't rub it in to him and he gives him another chance and says, hey, I'm still gonna use you in a great way. He also defends Abraham in this situation, even though Abraham is the one that messed up him. And so what you see is that God does not take the side of the heathen over a child of God, right? And you know, I guess one thing for us, we should never take the side of the heathen over God's children, even if God's children mess up. Even if they mess up and we know it, it's like, don't get on Facebook and social media and just say, oh, look at you. It's like, never take the side of the heathen over God's people. Let's go to the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, good to see you.