(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 20, and the sermon is about siding with spiritual leadership. That's kind of the theme that's found in this chapter of siding with spiritual leadership. And we got three points here tonight, but our points are going to kind of, the verses kind of bounce around because the three points are not just equally in order, kind of verses here, verses there. So the first point that we have here from this chapter is like struggles, like struggles. And what I mean by like struggles are basically like besetting sins, things that you struggle with all the time. The same struggle you have, the same sin that you keep doing, something that you're always struggling with. And these can be different for different people. For example, some people, smoking is a major problem for them. And they try to quit smoking, but they just keep smoking and smoking and smoking. And it's their like struggle. It's the thing that they really struggle with. For other people, it might be the wrong music. It might be that you cannot stop listening to bad music. And you know what, somebody else might have another struggle that's, you know, their besetting sin or like struggle, whereas you don't struggle with that. And what I'm saying is all of us, we have something. And Abraham, we see his like struggle here in this chapter. Notice what it says in verse number one. And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. Now, as I've said before, sojourning means to live somewhere temporarily. So if you decide to sojourn somewhere, it's kind of like, well, I'm going to be here for a couple of years and maybe to save up money or whatever, or to flee from a wicked government or whatever. But you're planning to go back at some point. And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, she is my sister and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. And so Abraham goes to this town. He goes to this location and he says, you know what, my wife, he says, we're just brother and sister, right? He just lies, right? Now, look, this is not the only time that Abraham does this, right? There's one other specific time that is mentioned, but go down to verse number 10, verse 10. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, what sawest thou that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wife's sake. So Abraham lies about Sarah being his sister. And the reason why is he's afraid they're going to put him to death and then just take his wife and then the king's going to marry his wife and he'll be dead. That's what his fear is. Look, it's always wrong to sin. Now, obviously Abraham's afraid that he's going to this location. He says, well, I'll just lie. But you know, what he did was wrong. What he did was a sin. He lied and there really wasn't any danger. Like God would have protected him. He wouldn't have harmed him. Okay. I mean, he would have been okay, but he lies and says, she's just my sister because he's more concerned about himself in that moment than he is his wife, basically. Verse number 12. And then he says this, 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. And so Abraham says, well, you know, I didn't really lie though, because you know, she, she is my sister. And he says, you know, we have the same father, just not the same mother. She's my, you know, wife and my half sister. Now, let me just say this on a side point. I actually don't believe that's true. I could be wrong, but this is the only verse in the Bible that says that Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister. And it's out of the mouth of someone who just lied and is covering up what he did. I think he just lied again. And the one reason why I believe this is because it talks about Sarah being the wife of his son, right? When it talks about the father, but never says that's his daughter. You would think the Bible would say that's his daughter, right? Abraham's father. You think they would say that at some point, the only time we ever see that their brother and sister is when Abraham says this in Genesis 20 verse 12, he could be lying. I mean, he just lied earlier in the chapter, right? Isn't it true that sometimes people get caught in a lie and then they do another lie that's like not quite as bad. I could be wrong. I just know that people are very dogmatic, their brother and sister. This is literally the only verse that would come to that conclusion. And it might be true, but quite honestly, a lot of times people in the Bible lie, just like people do today. We're going to see later on that Abimelech is, he also lies, you know, or he's wrong on something later on in this chapter. And look, sometimes you see people do stuff in the Bible and say things, it doesn't mean they're telling the truth. Because, you know, I remember when I first got saved and first started reading the Bible, whenever somebody said something, I just automatically assumed it was true. Now, of course, when somebody is speaking scripture or on behalf of God or whatever, I mean, obviously they're telling the truth because it's the word of God and it's perfect. But then many times people will say things in the Bible and they're just lying. Now I could be wrong. Maybe they are brother and sister, like half brother and half sister. Maybe they're not though. This is the word of Abraham who had just lied. And I believe he's probably still in fear for his own life. So he's trying to say whatever to get out of it. I could be wrong. But verse three, and it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said unto her, this is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me, at every place whither we shall come, say of me, he is my brother. This is not a one-time event. It's not a two-time event because we saw this earlier in Genesis. And we'll look in a second. He said at every place we come, just say, you know what, he's my brother, right? So basically he's saying, well, you know, I'm going to these other nations and heathen people. I'm afraid for my own life. So everywhere we go, just say we're brother and sister, and then I will probably be okay. Right? Now turn to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12. Now here's the thing. Abraham was a great man of faith. Right? I mean, he sacrificed his son or was willing to sacrifice his son, believing that things would work out. Not necessarily knowing exactly what was going to happen, but it worked out. Right? He was a man of great faith. The Bible highlights that. And yet we see his like struggle where he has no faith and he's completely in fear. And say, what I want you to realize is no matter who it is in this world, they could be the best Christian in the world, but I promise you they have some sort of struggle, some sort of sin that they struggle with. And then other people that might not even be as godly might not struggle with it. There's a lot of people that would have come to town and just said, yeah, this is my wife and just trusted in God and had faith. But those same people probably wouldn't have been willing to sacrifice their son and actually believe that God would protect their son. Right? Like he does with Isaac. What I'm saying is all of us in this room, you might have an area or areas where you're really good and really spiritual. Be very careful not to be lifted up because I promise you, you have areas that you're not that spiritual. Areas that you struggle with. I'm up here saying that honestly, I have areas where, you know what, I'm not right with God. Things that I could get better, things that I could improve. You know, obviously I'm not perfect. Right? And what the way it works is that different people can struggle with different things. Now, of course, the more spiritual you are, the less you're going to struggle with certain things and you're going to get more spiritual. You're going to get more godly as you go to church and read the Bible. But you're never going to be perfect and they're going to be our areas in your life that you are weak at. Genesis chapter 12, let's see the other instance of this. Genesis 12 verse 9, and Abram journeyed going on still toward the south and there was a famine in the land and Abram went down into Egypt to Sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land. So Abraham leaves due to there being a famine in verse 10 and he's basically in fear that there's not going to be food. Now what he does is he leaves a righteous location to go to a wicked location. What he does is wrong. Okay? In Genesis chapter 12 verse 10. Now look, this is a like struggle for a lot of men struggling with financial things. But the burden of providing for your families, that is something that men definitely struggle with. It's a big burden providing for your family. I understand why Abraham leaves, but what he does going to Egypt is wrong. And you know, even he himself knows it because he goes to Sojourn there, he doesn't want to live there permanently. I mean who wants to just move to a Muslim country because it's got more money than our country. I don't. I don't want to be in fear of my life for what I believe or have to water down just to preserve my life. And he goes to Egypt because there's a famine. Verse 11, and it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt that he said unto Sariah's wife, behold now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee that they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will save thee alive. So Abraham leaves because of a famine, goes to a wicked location, and he's afraid it's a heathen people, people that don't believe in our God, people that don't have the same morals, they don't have the same commandments, they don't have the same standards, and they'll probably just kill me for my wife. So just I'll lie and say that she's my sister. This is a like struggle of Abraham. This is something he struggled with where he went to new locations and he was afraid for his life and he just said you know my wife's my sister. Verse number 13, say I pray thee thou are my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee. And it came to pass that when Abraham was coming to Egypt the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. Now turn your Bible back to Genesis 20. Genesis 20. Now one thing that we can see in both of these chapters with Genesis 12 and Genesis 20 when Abraham lies about his sister and then about his wife being his sister and everywhere he went he said the same thing. What you see is that when Abraham is in a journey he's going to a new location he seems to struggle with his sin. Right? That's when he's saying this. One thing you can take away is this. You know one thing I've learned in life one of the most most important things to become successful in life is just having a basic routine. Right? When you have a basic routine you wake up at the same time you do your Bible reading at the same time you know it's pretty easy to be successful you're just in the habit your alarm goes off you read the Bible right you do your prayer time and you know what just consistently it's pretty easy but isn't it true that when your routine kind of gets out of shape a little bit because of circumstances sometimes it's hard and you miss your Bible reading because you wake up at a different time your routine's a little bit different I mean I can say this that the day of the week that I struggle the most with my routine are Sundays because I leave at 7 45 in the morning to go to Manila to preach and I'm used to waking up early and I usually have plenty of time I wake up really early I read my Bible I pray I memorize my Bible and I still do that on Sunday but sometimes I find that I didn't get all my reading done and I've got to read it later because when your routine's a little bit different and you don't have the same time frame it's a little bit harder right and so one of the most important things that we can do is just be consistent with a habit of our lives we're basically at this time I do this at this time I do this not that you wake up and say well you know I'll just do this at some point or do this at some point Abraham was a very successful person but when he's in a journey when you're on the road traveling you're leaving early right you're not going to bed at the same time you don't have as much free time you know I mean things are a little bit you know out of order and what's the result well he finds himself getting into trouble it's very important just to live our lives by routine now as I said all of us probably have a like struggle or besetting sin that we struggle with for some people for a lot of people it is music bad music causes a lot of people not to serve God people listen to the wrong music and they just can't shake it and I mean I and look I'm not naive you know you might think that everybody at our church just doesn't struggle with the things that I preach on but I'm sure that's not the case because I know I know when I first started going to church I kind of felt like everybody else is super spiritual but I'm not because I knew I struggled with various things even though I knew it was right and I knew it was wrong I mean it was tough for me and then what I've come to find over the years is you know we're all sinners we all have like struggles we all have things that we struggle with I don't know if music is the thing for anybody in this room but I know that for me when I first got saved that music still had a hold of me and I would feel guilty about listening to this hard rock music but it's what I was used to and you know after I got saved a lot of the music I listened to they used the Lord's name in vain you know some of these hard rock bands and you know what what I would do is I'd put it on silent for like those five seconds you know because I'd listen to the song but I'd feel guilty hearing the Lord's name in vain so I'd turn off the volume and then a couple seconds later I turn it back on because I wasn't ready to get rid of my music but I was like well I don't want to hear the music Lord's name in vain and look I'm not suggesting that you do that what I'm suggesting is just get rid of your bad music but it was tough right I mean you first start getting rid of your bad music and what happens you find yourself just singing the lyrics without even realizing it right you're at the grocery store and you hear a song come on the radio that you know and you like and you're just singing every single word you don't even think about it and then you realize well wait a minute what I'm singing about is sin you know you shouldn't even speak about these things and yet here I am singing it without thinking about it for a lot of people it's music for a lot of young men pornography is a major like struggle that people struggle with I mean it's said that 75 percent this is a statistic in the U.S. but 75 percent I think was a statistic of men that that's part of their regular routine from basically teenagers to young adults just addicted to pornography now look let's just use common sense if somebody's addicted to pornography and they get married they're still going to struggle with that after they're married it's not like they're just going to cut it out and now their peers can be and here's the thing if they're struggling with that after they're married talk about major marriage problems coming as a result of that sin because you can only hide things for so long I mean if you live in the same house as somebody eventually you know your spouse is going to know what you're up to she's going to know or he's going to know what your weaknesses are right I promise you that you know what other people at our church don't know what your life struggle is but your spouse does right I mean that's reality and you can only hide these things for so long but many people are addicted to pornography many people are just lazy that's their life struggle they just can't be motivated to do anything there's a lot of young men in today's world that don't work they play video games all day long they sit around and they're not doing anything and it's a big struggle in 2022 with people with this video game generation and all these gadgets some people it's alcohol some people they can't go without drinking every single week and for me drinking has never been an issue but you know for other people it's something they struggle with and here's the reality if they get saved today they're still going to struggle with it after they get saved right I mean this this Calvinistic idea and this work salvation that says you're just going to magically fix all your problems when you get saved is ridiculous people that are lazy before they're saved are lazy after they're saved people that are drunk before they're saved are drunk afterwards people addicted pornography before they're saved are addicted afterwards now I do believe they will feel more guilty about it you got the Holy Spirit inside really making you feel terrible about the things that you struggle with but it's going to be a battle for them and what I'm telling you is this all of us have some sort of struggle some sort of sin that we're trying to get rid of all of us can become better all of us can improve in areas of our lives Genesis chapter 20 point number one we talked about like struggles point number two let's talk about the length of sin length of sin and what I mean is how long lasting the sin is and how it affects people for years and years to come Genesis 20 verse 3 but God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him behold thou but a dead man for the woman which thou has taken for she is a man's wife and so God appears to Abimelech in a dream and he says basically you're a dead man you're going to be killed because you've taken a woman that you're planning to basically you know have as your wife this woman belongs to another guy right now I want us to realize a couple things in chapter 20 Abraham is wrong for lying Abimelech is not innocent and what I mean by that is it's not like he's marrying this woman I mean I'm sure you know he probably has several wives right I mean especially during these time periods and he just basically says well I have a woman here's a woman I like her I'm going to marry her no matter what she thinks it's not like Sarah says hey you know I want to marry you but basically Abimelech sees this woman here's the king he's powerful she's going to be my wife right it's not like he says hey you know we have a lot in common you know we've been talking for a while we have an engagement you know we're planning to do things right no he sees a woman he lusts after and he says boom let's get married right and she really has no say in the matter so look he's not innocent right what he does is wrong you can tell he's a lustful guy and everything but he has not yet at this point done anything with her okay I don't believe this is a good guy personally Abimelech verse four but Abimelech had not come near her and said Lord wilt thou slay also a righteous nation now Abimelech says that Gerar where he lives is a righteous nation is that true I mean ask the leader of of ask Vladimir Putin if Russia is a righteous country you know what he's going to say it's a righteous country ask the leader of any country ask the leader of North Korea we're a righteous country we're more righteous in all these other countries they're wrong I mean everybody thinks that they're they do what's right in their own eyes everybody thinks I mean of course he thinks his nation is righteous and here's another example how you can't just take people's words for things as a fact this is not a soul-winning bible-believing country that he lives in they're not going by the God of the Bible and this is why Abraham's afraid of this country because he knows that they don't have the true God look every country around the world they think they're a righteous country right just because he says it does not mean it's true now I'm sure he thinks they're a righteous country he feels justified in what they do look many countries around the world today they say well we support the LGBT and we accept everyone which means we're more righteous than other countries that don't accept it Baptist churches are like that just accept everyone accept pedophiles and people that whatever their sin is doesn't matter accept them all and you let they feel like they're more righteous than a church like ours it actually practices church discipline and has standards and says there are sins that will get you kicked out of church there are certain things where you're not welcome at church according to the word of God but they would say that they're more righteous than us because of the fact they're more loving right just because Abimelech says they're a righteous nation doesn't mean they are a righteous nation go to Genesis chapter 10 and I'll prove it to you Genesis chapter 10 Genesis chapter 10 Genesis chapter 10 and it says in Genesis 10 verse 19 and the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon Now look at this word Gerar in Genesis 10 verse 19 and look at all the groups of people that they're surrounded by Sodom and Gomorrah. Adma and Zeboim are the also the other ones that were overthrown as well that were nearby Sodom and Gomorrah but they were also wicked and seeming to be like kind of halfway in between a normal country and Sodom and Gomorrah it talks about the Canaanites and verse 19 I mean the Canaanites aren't godly I mean this country is linked right there with all of these wicked countries so do you think that Gerar is actually a righteous country I don't believe so every country in the world thinks they're righteous every country thinks that they're right I mean all the Muslim countries they think they're righteous countries because they believe in Islam and Muhammad and they would say that we're unrighteous in non-Muslim countries are unrighteous because they have the wrong religion but wait a minute they're the ones with the false religion right India is known as the most spiritual place on the planet and you know they think hey we are the spiritual haven of the world it's a wicked country but they would say that they're righteous they would say they're spiritual they'd say look at us you know we're religious you know we're different than any of the other yeah you're different that doesn't mean that you're righteous right so what I'm saying is just because this king says that he's in a righteous nation it's like look what you were doing wasn't righteous you're not surrounded by anything righteous but sorry if it if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it's a duck I don't believe that they're a righteous nation I don't believe Abimelech is a good guy either go to Genesis 20. Genesis 20. The word Gerad appears 10 times in your Bible and the majority of times I mean you can just tell it's not a righteous country you look at what it's surrounded by there'd be nothing to say it's a righteous country except the king of that country who says they're righteous Genesis 20 verse 4 and it says but Abimelech had not come near her and he said Lord would thou slay also a righteous nation setting not onto me she is my sister and she even she herself said he is my brother and the integrity of my heart and intimacy of my hands have I done this now what he says in verse 5 is correct Abraham did say this is his sister he did this being ignorant of the fact that they were married he had no idea they were married it's not like he was told their brother and sister but he secretly knew they were married he had no idea he's not lying about that right I don't believe he's righteous because he shouldn't have married someone he just just met like that but what I'm saying is he's not lying about this in verse 5 and God set him onto him in a dream yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart so God says you know what I'm aware of the fact that you had no idea she was a married woman for I also withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I thee not to touch her and so God says I did not allow you to touch her meaning that God came to him in a dream and said hey I'm stopping this right now because of the fact something very wicked would have taken place and look judgment was upon this country even though he does this ignorantly because it would be a very wicked sin and he was not aware of it but this is reality I mean she is a married woman verse 7 now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and if thou restore her not know that thou shalt surely die thou and all that are thine drop down to verse number 17 drop down to verse number 17 so Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants and they bear children for the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife I mean notice that the curse on society and the curse in the country comes as a result of this action and God closed up the wombs of all the women and what that means is God prevented any women from being able to have kids so basically you know of course married women you know want to have kids and want to have a family and then God did not allow any women to actually get pregnant because of this sin that this king was involved in and he had fast closed up the wombs and what you see here is that the actions you do in life affect other people whether you realize it or not look if you're a husband and a father in this room right now look if you live a sinful life and just do things that you know are wrong but it's like well this is just my like struggle and I'm not going to fight against it realize something that you're affecting your wife you're affecting your kids now you might not realize it but even if they're not aware of what you're doing you are affecting them it's going to cause you not to be a good husband it's going to cause you not to be a good father I mean wives moms if you have something that you're really struggling with and you're not fighting against it it's going to affect how you raise your kids it's going to affect the relationship with your husband right whether you realize it or not the actions you do affect other people if you're a member of our church and you backslide you get into serious gossip and bitterness and all these problems it's going to affect other people this church it's going to cause problems at our church it's going to cause fights at our church the actions you do affect other people even if you don't realize it because people have this idea well if I drink alcohol I'm only affecting myself I know I shouldn't destroy my liver and my kidney and and and cause all kinds of problems in my life but I'm not affecting other people yes you are you are affecting other people based on how you live your life so the question is are you affecting people in a good way or a bad way is your life a benefit to other people is it a blessing to other people or is it a curse to other people I mean is it better off that you're not even alive because if you're living a sinful life and not serving God you're actually harming other people that's what the Bible teaches and what Abimelech was going to do I mean it affected the entire country we see the length of sin you know not only the time frame but the length in terms of how far it spreads out to the entire country go to second Samuel 12 second Samuel 12 second Samuel 12 Bible says for none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself meaning none of us live our lives completely isolated from everybody else the way you live your life it affects other people second Samuel chapter 12 and here's a great example and chapter 11 is when David and Bathsheba commit adultery the famous story chapter 12 is when David gets rebuked by the prophet Nathan second Samuel 12 verse 1 and the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came on to him and said unto him there were two men in one city the one rich and the other poor the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nursed up and it grew up together with him and with his children it did eat of his own meat and drink of his own cup and lay in his bosom was onto him as his daughter there came a traveler on the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come on to him but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him so basically in this parable or story that Nathan tells David you've got a rich man and you've got a poor man and all this poor man has is this one little ewe lamb right and basically would be like if somebody was rich and had a lot of money and they could do anything with their money i mean they had all the money in the world but instead they went to a poor person's house and just stole something and it's like what are you doing you have a lot more money than them right i mean i mean obviously stealing is always wrong but wouldn't it be pretty crazy if somebody who's rich stole from a poor person generally you'd expect a poor person to rob from a rich or robbed from a business or something like that you wouldn't expect a rich person to go in somebody's house who's poor and just steal the only thing they have i mean they only have one chair in their house and you know a rich person just goes in and steals that chair it's like what are you doing right and so of course David hears this and David's angry about this and David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity and Nathan said to David thou art the man now this is an interesting story because David was a man after God's own heart and you know what he has a son born i mean basically around a year has gone by well over six months because he has a child born and he commits this wicked sin and it's almost to David he doesn't even realize he's under the wrath of God and it's kind of a scary chapter because of the fact any saved person could go down this road where you get so desensitized to your sin and you grieve the Holy Spirit that you just kind of look over your sins or think that God doesn't even care it's kind of a scary thing because you know a long time goes by right and David's not even aware and then basically Nathan rebukes him and see this is why you need a church that's willing to rebuke you because otherwise David would have just kind of gone on and not realized it not realized that God was really angry with him what he said in verse six was he shall restore the lamb fourfold now if you look at the life of David he actually did get a fourfold punishment as a result of this action and what I believe that fourfold punishment is and there's a lot of major things that happen in the life of David as a result of this but there's four things that kind of line up perfectly and what you see is that he had four sons die at a very young age his baby that was born was a male child died right he had Amnon the one who raped his daughter Tamar Amnon was killed by Absalom at a very young age I mean obviously outliving your children is not something anybody wants to do right Absalom died at a young age right basically at the hands of Joab and then after Absalom when you get to first kings Adonijah rises up when David's older and tries to usurp the throne from Solomon and Adonijah gets put to death by I believe it's Benaiah at the because of what Solomon's decree was because Adonijah wanted to marry Abishug which had been the basically the concubine of David when he was alive but basically Adonijah gets put to death as well right after David dies basically so he has three sons died a very young age in his life and then right after he dies another son dies Adonijah and look that's a fourfold punishment nobody wants to outlive their children right obviously you just generally expect that as a parent you're going to outlive your kids but for David he had son after son after son die and of course you know with with Absalom he's like you know oh my son Absalom he's grieving as a result of that he had a fourfold punishment and even outside of the fourfold punishment a lot of things happen as a result of his sin what am I saying what am I saying well what I'm saying is if you commit major sins you've got a major punishment coming right this sin because of this this this sin that David commits the length of this sin affects a lot of people it doesn't just affect him I mean the sons that he had died they had moms as well it's not just David was a father and there was no mom no I mean moms had their children's die and it was as a result of David's sin it also caused David not to be a good husband not to be a good father and you see that a lot of his kids grow up and they don't love God they don't serve God because of David and even Solomon Solomon was warned by his mom Bathsheba in Proverbs 31 give not thy strength unto women but but it's really hard to have a major impact on your kids when you are also very guilty of that yourself and she gave great advice but at the end of the day Solomon went down the same road that his parents went down and to even a bigger degree than his father David did because Solomon married like a world record for wives right turn to Genesis 26 Genesis 26 and she realized we see with David and Solomon that you know what if a father really struggles if he has this like struggle this besetting sin very likely it is it will pass down to the son and we see that also in Genesis chapter 26 verse 1 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 on to Gerar I mean you almost feel like you're reading the same chapter but it's his son Isaac that is the one there's a famine and he goes to Gerar and then once you again you see Abimelech now let me say this as a side point I do not believe this is the same Abimelech because a lot of time has gone by if this is the same Abimelech he's probably a hundred years old at this point he's 80 years I mean he's he's an old man I mean it's possible but I think most likely this is his son that's also called Abimelech because it was very common especially for kings that you would name your son with the exact same name that you had because you wanted that lineage and you see that in history now I can't prove this to you I don't know 100% but I'm pretty sure this is but I'm pretty sure this is probably just his son or even a grandson that is going by the same name because he was called the same name as his dad but you still see the same exact thing that Isaac's doing so I mean it makes sense Abraham's son Isaac it's probably Abimelech son Abimelech as well as time has gone by but what you see is that Isaac does the same thing there's a famine goes to a wicked area and the Lord appeared on him and said go not down into Egypt dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of so God warns them don't go all the way down to Egypt it's going to get worse and worse for you so join in this land and I will be with thee and will bless thee for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries and I'll perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham my father go to verse six and Isaac dwelled in Gerar and the men of the place asked him of his wife and he said she is my sister for he feared to say she is my wife lest said he the men of the place should kill me for Rebecca because she was fair to look upon now I do believe this is a wicked area so they have a valid fear I don't believe it's a righteous nation but you see Isaac committing the same exact sin that his dad did and you say why because there's a big length to sin your sin will pass down to the next generation I can say that that probably the biggest motivating factor for me in my life right now to try to get more right with God is because even though I might struggle with something I don't want my kids to struggle with it right I mean I can feel as a father that sometimes I have areas where I know I'm not fully right with God I could make changes but you know it's it's just like I'm really not that motivated to make it on my own but as I see my kids get older and they pay attention to everything that mom and dad do it's like well I need to make sure that I'm setting a good example I don't want it to pass down to my kids right I want my kids to be in a better place than I was and just really have the greatest opportunity to serve God and to do right and the reality is all of us have like struggles all of us have besetting sins anyway it's a scary thing because there's a major length to that sin that will pass on to generations and affect other people go to Genesis 20 Genesis 20 we see that Abraham had like struggles he had things that he struggled with we see the length of sin you say brother Stuckey this is a very depressing sermon well the good news is we have a long-suffering savior right we have like struggles we have things that we struggle with all of us do and there's a big length of the sin where we're really causing harm to a lot of people because of our sin but the good news for us is we have a heavenly father that is a very long-suffering savior and we see that in Genesis chapter 20 Genesis 20 verse 8 therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their ears and the men were sore afraid then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him what has thou done unto us and what have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done it's a very interesting story because you really don't see God rebuking Abraham Abraham's the one that did wrong now I don't believe Abimelech's innocent as I said but Abimelech is more innocent than Abraham in this situation and you say brother Stuckey well why would God side with Abraham over Abimelech well the same reason why Baptist churches should side with Baptist churches against this wicked generation I mean you got Baptist pastors that stand up and preach hard against sin and they get persecuted and look here's the reality sometimes Baptist pastors that stand up and preach the truth maybe I wouldn't say things exactly like they did maybe I think they're a little bit more extreme than I would be but I'm not going to side with a wicked world against them I'm not going to side with the LGBT against the Baptist pastor and God's like I'm not going to side side with Abimelech over Abraham you say why because he's a wicked king why would you side with a wicked person and God says no you're not Abraham's a man of God he's not perfect he's got struggles but I'm a long-suffering savior that's my child and this Abimelech is a wicked person you know why the big reason is that God withheld Abimelech from sinning against him because he's a long-suffering savior that loved Abraham and Sarah and said you know what I don't want to destroy their marriage I don't want to allow anything to happen because yeah Abraham really screwed up but you know what I do love that man he loves me he serves me he's a friend of mine he wants to do right and yeah he's got his struggles but you know what I'm not going to side with a wicked person against him right and what this sounds very basic but you know honestly this is what we see in 2022 now look we have not been majorly persecuted at our church in the Philippines and it could come in the future especially the way the world comes but you know many of my friends in the ministry in the U.S. have been very very majorly persecuted when we were a Verity Baptist you know what we got majorly persecuted for preaching against the homos we got protested by you know 500 sodomites I just surrounded our church and protested us I remember somebody at the church said something to me we were having a conversation and and he's a good friend of mine and he made a comment where he's like yeah he's like you know maybe pastor could award it a little bit differently but he's like I don't understand why people are siding with you know the sodomites over a man of God right you know what sometimes sometimes I hear pastors say things and you know what they're probably sometimes more extreme than I am on certain things and maybe I wouldn't say it the same way but I'm not going to be like well ha ha you got what you deserved and that's what you see a lot of people doing it's and I just wonder with these people I mean you're a saved person oftentimes it's saved people and then they're just like all right you got what you deserved that's what you got kicked out of your place it's like that's what you get you got everything you deserved because you know you're you're because of your attitude and everything it's like and they're saying this about pastors that preach the truth that do lots of soul winning they got over half their church soul winning doing great things for God running multiple churches trying to get ministry started doing so many marathons all across the country and then all of a sudden you find something you disagree with and then you rip them apart I don't get it look I hear my friends in the ministry preach things and sometimes I think you know what I don't agree with their interpretation of a verse and I'm sure if they heard my sermons there'd be verses where they say I don't agree with what brother Stuckey said though but you know what they're not going to publicly rebuke me and neither would I publicly rebuke them and say well you know what they're wrong about this what's the purpose of that why would you do that against someone who loves God and is doing right just because you disagree on something and and here's my point this is not my opinion it's what you see in the Bible in Genesis 20 Abimelech is a wicked king now you don't necessarily realize that by just quickly reading over this but you see it as a wicked country and you see that he is not a good guy right he just immediately sees this woman boom she's my wife he's not a righteous guy Abraham is a righteous guy but he had a like struggle he got afraid when he went to a wicked country which just kind of shows well you shouldn't have gone to the country to begin with but God sides with Abraham because he is a man of God you know we haven't really had this issue so much with our church I mean we kind of did but not really is more associated with Manila but you know in the future I'm sure we will have issues at our church where you know if people get kicked out of our church and you know one of the sad things is you know it's very difficult to kick somebody out of a church it's not fun it's not fun to deal with that problem and you know at times that we have had to do that I just remember in the weeks prior saying man I hope this person will just get right I hope that you know because kicking someone out is never fun I mean charity believeth all things you want to give them another chance it's kind of like you know Paul where he talked about to the church of Corinth he didn't want to rebuke them right he didn't find it fun and you want them to get right and you pray for them you pray for them you pray for them and it's like it just gets worse and worse and eventually you got to deal with it and then what happens is sometimes people side with the person who got kicked out of church it's like what are you doing I mean in the Bible what you see is God sides with spiritual leadership and look I understand that spiritual leadership can commit sins that can get them disqualified from the ministry and of course we understand that I'm not saying that if your pastor you know commits murder it's like well you know what he's a man of God stick by him obviously there's sins you can commit where you'd get disqualified from the ministry I'm just saying though you know what God is actually very long suffering with people that are his children and people that love him people make mistakes you know what many times God is just long suffering says you know what I'm long suffering yes they did wrong but especially when you're talking about godly versus ungodly saved versus unsaved man of God versus a wicked king it's not hard to see which side you should be on right it's pretty obvious God sides with spiritual leadership verse 14 and Abimelech took sheep and oxen and men servants and women servants and gave them on to Abraham and restored him Sarah's wife and Abimelech said behold my land is before thee dwell where it pleaseth thee and unto Sarah he said behold I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver behold he is to thee a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee and with all other thus she was reproved and you can see that you know God basically blesses Abraham he basically looks over this sin now go to Lamentations 3 we'll look at a couple more places and then finish Lamentations 3 and look honestly this is as a saved person this is one of my favorite attributes of God just the fact that he's long suffering right sometimes I feel like Peter in the bible where if you remember before Peter was really deep into the ministry you know he's on he's on a ship and then basically they're toiling all night they've caught no fish and then God says to him you know what cast down thy nets plural right and then Peter says well we've been toiling all night we've caught nothing but at thy word we'll cast down the net singular so he doesn't actually do what Jesus said because Jesus said the nets plural and he only cast down one net and then all of a sudden the net is not strong enough to hold all the fish and it breaks and it's kind of like well you should have done what Jesus said and Peter says to Jesus depart from me for I am a sinful man now here's the thing what Peter says isn't really correct because we all make mistakes and just get up and and and get things right but you know I certainly understand how he's feeling because sometimes I feel like that sometimes I feel like I make so many mistakes I have so many things I need to get right I mean sometimes you go to bed you feel bad about things that you need to be making changes but you know the great news is we wake up in the morning and God says you know what I'm the God of second chances I am a long-suffering savior I mean he forgives us for a lot of things that we don't deserve to be forgiven for and you know what I certainly understand how Peter feels because sometimes I feel like man I'm in the ministry so I shouldn't struggle with anything right I mean I preach sermons I preach against these things I should be but you know the reality is I'm a sinner and I have like struggles just like everybody does things that I'm working on as well and look maybe you're new to our church or maybe you know you let me just just promise you this that everybody at our church has things that they struggle with right don't feel like well I can't be in church because I have things that I'm struggling with I feel like I need to just skip church until I get right with God how are you going to get right with God by skipping church if you want to get right with God be in church right look when people first start coming to church you what there are things in their lives they're going to be making changes if they're going to get on board with God we understand that when I first started going to church there was a lot of things where you know what I was a very different person than I am now and we're all trying to grow and change and everything like that what it says in Lamentations 3 you you you you you you you