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

The name of the sermon is the difficulty of staying in God's will the difficulty of staying in God's will and We will finish the entire chapter, but i'm going to look at a lot of other scripture here today And let us just start here in verse number one the bible reads And sarah was in 107 and 20 years old These were the years the life of sarah and sarah died in kirjeth arba the same as he brought in the land of canan And abraham came to mourn for sarah and to weep for her and so we see that canan is mentioned here Which is basically, you know the land that god had given to his people, but it also kind of symbolically represents being in god's will When god's people were not in his will they were out of the land and when they were in his will They're actually in the land Okay And we'll look at that here tonight and abraham stood up from before his dead and spake unto the sons of hath saying I am a stranger and a sojourner with you Give me a possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight And what we see in this chapter is this land is very important to abraham to be able to Bury his wife sarah. Okay now go to genesis chapter 11 genesis 11 genesis chapter 11 See oftentimes we think really hard and and meditate on you know how to get in god's will and of course That's an important thing and that's a great thing But sometimes people have this idea that once they get in god's will and once they start serving god, it's going to be forever That's not always the case Sometimes you can get in god's will you get excited you're serving god But then things get in the way you backslide you fade out for various reasons and you know Sometimes it's easy to get in god's will but what's difficult is just having that pattern of staying in god's will day after day Week after week month after month year after year many people come to a church like ours Will come to it through the years and they start loving god and serving god and they're excited But it's hard to stay in god's will sometimes it's easy to get on board with the church like ours Get on board with soul winning get on board with reading the bible But then eventually you just kind of fade out of it. It's hard to stay in god's will now We're going to look at a lot of characters and the first one we're going to look at is abraham And for abraham the thing we see that gets him out of god's will in the bible is sudden fear Sudden fear pops up to abraham and he gets out of god's will because of sudden fear and i'll explain that in a second But notice genesis 11 verse 31 genesis 11 verse 31 And terra took abram his son, which we know is abraham before he was renamed And lot the son of heron his son's son and suriah's daughter-in-law, which is sarah His son abram's wife and they went forth with them from ur the cowdies to go into the land of canan And they came on to heron and dwelt there and the days of terra were 205 years and terra died in heron Okay, so terra dies in heron before they get to the land of canan now go to genesis 12 Let us look at verse number one Genesis 12 verse 1 now the lord said unto abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred from thy father's house Onto a land that I will show thee now. This is something that the lord had said past tense, okay before His father was dead and I don't have time to go to the book of acts to to you know Use more cross cross references to prove that but basically the lord appeared to abraham and he said, you know I want you to leave your country. I want you to leave your kindred. I want you to leave your father's house Well, of course his father was still alive when he said that okay But abraham didn't really actually listen to what god said and he starts to obey god's will once his father dies He actually never really separates from his father But he actually allows his father to take him to a location which was not where god told him to go But see after that takes place That's when he's actually going to go in god's will verse two And I'll make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shall be a blessing And I'll bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed Now I want you to realize that we are saved we understand salvation by grace through faith But when it came to abraham, you know being used mightily by god It was not simply that he was saved He was expected to obey if he was going to be used greatly by god the same thing is true for us today We are saved by grace through faith right as easy as believe on the lord. Jesus christ, right? No works involved However, if we're going to be greatly used by god, we have to obey and god's promises given to abraham He had to actually obey what god said, okay verse four So abram departed as the lord had spoken onto him and lot went with him and abram was 75 years old when he departed Out of heron and abram took sariah's wife and lot his brother's son and all their substances that they had gathered And the souls that they had gotten in heron and they went forth to go into the land of canan And into the land of canan the king so in verse five of genesis 12, he's going into the land of canan He's following god's will he's doing what god says and he is in god's will in genesis 12 verse 5, right? God told him to go to canan. He obeyed he's there now see as I said Sometimes it's easy to get in god's will But actually staying in god's will is something that's very hard Now in our modern day when you're talking about a location a physical location. God wants you to be it's no specific country No specific city, but what it is is the house of god, okay God wants you to be at a bible believing church regardless of what country or location you live in You need to be part of a good church But for abraham, he told him I want you to go to canan verse six And abram passed through the land on the place of cisham onto the plane of mora and the cananite was then in the land And the lord appeared onto abram and said onto thy seed Will I give this land and there builded he an altar onto the lord who appeared onto him? So god tells abraham I will give this land to thy seed your offspring your children the generations that come through you They are being given this land. I am giving it to you And he removed from thence onto a mountain on the east of bethel And pitched his tent having bethel in the west and hay on the east And there he built it an altar onto the lord and called upon the name of the lord And abram journeyed going on still toward the south Verse number 10. Here's the sudden fear 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. You see abraham was told to go to canan He eventually followed what god said after his father passed away. He goes into canan things are okay He figures i'm being blessed by god. He said that we're going to have this land. It's going to be given to our descendants Everything's great. There's a famine sudden fear comes. Where's my money? Where's my food going to come from and he immediately leaves to egypt now did god tell him to go to egypt? absolutely not Now I was I was actually shocked a couple years ago because I preached in manila And I was talking about this verse and several people after the service came up to me and they said Man, that makes a lot of sense They said we were always taught at our old baptist church that god had blessed abraham going to egypt because he got rich there And I was like what I was like i've never heard that before The money was actually a curse to abraham when you see this story. That's why lot had to go to sodom and gomorrah But I want you to realize god told him to go to canan. He did not tell him to go to egypt now Yes, there's a famine. Yes, there's sudden fear that's coming I understand that as a guy that needs to provide for his family. You can be afraid in a situation like that Right. I mean husbands at our church could attest to that sudden fear comes up with finances. Sometimes you're worried How am I going to pay the bills? How is this going to work out and sudden fear comes to abraham a great man of god and he flees to go to egypt Which is a wicked location As I said in today's world There is no country that I would say it would be a sin to live in but you need to be part of A bible believing church or or if you don't have that in the country You need to be part of a soul winning ministry. You need to have some like-minded brethren with you But what we're seeing here is that canan was a place god said to go and abraham goes into egypt now Why does he leave to go to a wicked location sudden fear comes up and he makes a bad choice He's afraid of finances and he goes to a wicked area go to proverbs three proverbs three proverbs chapter 3 I mean god told abraham that i'm going to bless you I'm going to bless your descendants, but he never said you're never going to have financial problems Right. I mean there's a lot of churches these health and wealth prosperity gospel churches where if you're right with god No health problems. No wealth problems. God's is going to bless you and everything's going to be great Well, look all of us can say that's not true Right. I mean when you're serving god, sometimes there's problems that take place I was just thinking about this this the other day when when specifically talking about our church here in pampanga I was just thinking man Our church members have gone through a lot in a couple years like major things have happened to many church members Many major events. I was thinking for a church this small I was like major Events have taken place right big things have taken place in in multiple families like major problems And obviously we go through various storms, but just major things have taken place and this idea Well, if you're right with god, you're never going to have any problems that's never found in the bible I mean, i'm pretty sure we have the entire book of jobe that would disprove all of that But yet there's a lot of churches today that preach. Well, I mean if you're having problems you must not be right with god Isn't that what jobe's friends told him Well, I mean all these things are happening to you. You must have committed a wicked sin You must have done something terrible. Otherwise, god wouldn't allow that to happen to you. Well, that's not true Right with abraham. He was told he was being blessed by god But abraham when there was a famine he doubted the promises of god because he was afraid about his finances Or proverbs three proverbs chapter three verse 25 be not afraid of sudden fear Right. That's what abraham was. He was afraid of sudden fear and what sudden fear is is something that comes out of nowhere Something you do not expect right? It's not something you plan for It's not something you're prepared for but basically out of nowhere You're in a fearful and scary situation and the famine takes place with abraham sudden fear comes and he is afraid of it And then he flees into egypt because of his fear the bible says god hath not given us the spirit of fear Right and look realistically all of us get afraid sometimes But that is not of god when we're getting afraid about things like this. We're supposed to fear the lord god We're not supposed to fear all these other things that can take place many people live their lives just in a spirit of fear a constant state of fear and they allow that to affect all of their choices and look i'm not trying to To rip abraham because obviously he was a great man of god He did great things but these men are in the bible. These women are in the bible for examples for us today And sometimes they do great things Sometimes they do wrong things in genesis 12 verse 10 abraham does the wrong thing Sudden fear he gets out of the will of god now go to genesis 22 Genesis 22 Genesis 22 And let me just prove to you again, I mean we talked about genesis 22 recently I think last week we referenced this story But I want you to see that, you know This is often repeated to abraham that basically if you do my will if you obey my voice, I will bless you Right and god repeats this over and over again one reason he has to repeat it over and over again Is because abraham gets out of the will of god and he kind of has to remind him Hey do what I say obey my voice and i'm going to bless you and then he gets back in the will of god And sometimes he's out of the will of god. Sometimes he's in the will of god when he went to egypt He was out of the will of god genesis 22 verse 15 And the angel of the lord called unto abraham out of heaven the second time and said By myself have I sworn saith the lord for because thou has done this thing and has not withheld thy son thine only son That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven And as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Why? Because thou hast obeyed my voice now look, let's not misunderstand anything when it comes to salvation It's just by believing this is not about spiritually being saved But what god's saying is I will bless your lineage bless you and your offspring if you obey That was always the promise in the old testament It was always the promise when you see the jews later on in the old testament You have to obey to get these spiritual blessings. You have to obey to get these promises Now go to genesis 26 genesis 26 So And see for abraham it was sudden fear that gets him out of the will of god Something kind of scary comes up and he just out of nowhere sudden fear and then he gets out of the will of god Because of the sudden fear and look as I said sometimes it's easy to get in the will of god But staying in the will of god is a difficult thing to do What about his son isaac for isaac? I wouldn't necessarily say it was sudden fear I would say it was more like a slow decision to leave god's will basically slowly backsliding Notice what it says in genesis 26 verse 1 and there is a famine in the land Beside the first famine that was in the days of abraham and so Like in the days of abraham where there's a famine isaac had a famine Okay in his day and isaac went on to abimelech king of the philistines on to garar And the lord appeared on him and said go not down into egypt dwell in the land Which I shall tell thee of and What i'm saying a slow decision to leave god's will or slow backsliding what you're seeing is isaac already kind of is drifting away Before verse two and then god stops to warn. Hey, don't go down to egypt And what he's basically telling him is hey don't go all the way to egypt and get completely out of the will of god Like your father abraham, right? So basically he starts to head down that road and then god basically is warning him Hey do not head to egypt Okay, and see sometimes people have sudden fear that comes up and they immediately leave god's will but sometimes it's not a sudden thing But just kind of a slow steady Backslide that takes place where you're basically instead of all in You're half in And half out and you used to be all in Right and once you get to the state of being half in and half out eventually What is probably going to happen is it's going to be heading this direction of being all the way out eventually, okay verse number three and he says so In this land and I will be with thee and will bless thee For unto thee and under thy seed I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I swear unto abraham thy father And i'll make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven and will give unto thy seed all these countries And in thy seed shall all all the nations of the earth be blessed Because that abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws What you're seeing is god is basically telling him don't go down to egypt So join in this land and you can see that isaac's just kind of slowly departing Kind of slowly fading out and as I said, sometimes it's easy to get in the will of god But staying in the will of god can be difficult and canan represents being in god's will in god's land Okay in our modern day, I think the most accurate thing would be say a local new testament church A church that's serving god and doing right because you're not going to spiritually thrive outside of church You need church, right? And so if you fade out of church, then you're basically out of the location that god has for you And i'm not specifically telling you this specific church, but i'm saying that wherever you live you need a good church that you're going to Right turn to genesis 27 genesis 27 For abraham it was sudden fear that caused him to leave the location He was meant to go for isaac We see a slow backsliding where god basically warns him so he doesn't fade all the way out like abraham did With jacob the son of isaac it was sin. So we have sudden fear with abraham slow backsliding with isaac and sin for jacob Notice what it says in genesis 27 verse 41 And isa hated jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him and isa said in his heart the days of mourning for my Father at hand then will I slay my brother jacob and these words of isa our elder son were told to rebecca now On a side point I think verses 41 and 42 are very interesting because at the end of verse 41 It says and isa said in his heart Right, this is something he says in his heart where basically he wants to kill his brother, right? But here's what's funny Verse 42 and these words of isa her elder son were told to rebecca He said it in his heart and yet somehow rebecca heard it You say how's that possible because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if inside your heart you're thinking I really want to kill my brother eventually It's just going to kind of come out You're going to tell it to somebody and then eventually it goes to your mom and then that's how she finds out So this is something that I believe isa meant to keep in his heart this hatred He had for his brother because he has every intention to kill his brother So you don't want him to know about it, right? But he says this in his heart according to verse 41 and then yet these come out of his mouth According to verse 42 because rebecca actually heard it. Okay, and she sent and called jacob her younger son and said unto him Behold thy brother isa is touching me doth comfort himself purposing to kill thee now Therefore my son obey my voice arise flee thou to laven my brother to heron so jacob is leaving And this symbolically represents leaving god's will But if you go to the root cause of why jacob left it was because of his own sin I mean, yes, jacob was the one who was the promised son I mean he was going to get the blessing but he lied in order to get it It's wrong Right, he deceived his brother what he did was wrong and even his mom knew it because she said let this sin be upon me Well, she can say that all she wants but if two people partake in a sin, you're both held accountable Right, and so she could say let this sin be on me, but it ends up passing upon jacob as well He pays for his actions. He's a deceiver to his brother. Guess what? Laban deceives him later on you say why well you reap what you sow Right You're a deceiver. You're going to have people deceive you that's the way it works I'm, not saying jacob was a bad guy, obviously He was a great guy, but i'm just saying it was sin that caused this was the root cause of why he left god's will Verse 44 and tarry with him a few days until thy brother's fury turn away until thy brother's anger turn away from thee and he forget And he forget that which was done to him then I will send and fetch thee from thence Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And rebecca said to isaac i'm weary of my life because of the daughters of heth if jacob take a wife the daughters of heth such as these which are of the daughters of the land what good shall my life do me now go to genesis 28 genesis 28 Genesis 28 Genesis chapter 28 And isaac called achive and blessed him in charge of and said unto him thou shalt not take a wife the daughters of canan Arise go to pedanaram to the house of bethel thy mother's father and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of laban Thy mother's brother and god almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful multiply thee that thou mayst be a multitude of people And give thee the blessing of abraham to thee into thy seed with thee that thou mayst inherit the land where in the outer stranger Which god gave on to him now Obviously, you know, he marries a woman and she's a godly woman she's a godly woman, you know it it well, I mean I he marries two women jacob, but Anyways, what i'm saying is though that he the promise was given in canin, right? That's where he's told to go. That's where his father was told to go. That's where abraham was told to go now He's leaving right and because he's a deceiver. It's not just that laban deceived him and changed his wages He deceives him with his wife or wives as well And all of this happens the root cause is the sin of jacob and what you see is that jacob is leaving the will of god Okay, he's leaving canin his father's telling him to do this But he's basically out of god's will and his life gets all out of order now go to genesis 35 Genesis 35, let me let me prove this to you genesis 35 And when you're reading genesis what you see is that abraham initially is told that you know what I want you to go to this land I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give it to your descendants and yet we're looking at abraham and isaac And jacob and you're seeing them all over the place Moving from place to place and look the promise of god was in that specific location As I said in today's world, I don't believe there's a specific country You have to live in to be in god's will but the place would be a local church A good church you need to be a part of and that's where the blessings are going to come That's how god is going to bless your life when you're part of a good church Abraham was told you need to be at this location and he's there but then he leaves god's will right His son isaac is there but then he starts to slowly fade out of god's will slowly leave the area And then we see jacob because of his sin and he is also leaving the area as well, right? genesis 35 verse 27 And jacob came onto isaac his father on the mammary onto the city of arbor, which is hebron where abraham abraham and isaac Sojourned and so hebron that's where he's supposed to be and the days of isaac were in 104 four score Years and isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered onto his people being old and full of days in his son's esa And jacob buried him now go to genesis 37 genesis 37 genesis 37 And jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger In the land of canan and it's kind of like it's it's about time right Because he's out of the area now He's finally back in you're seeing this with abraham and isaac and jacob and these are people in the bible That were pretty good people and what you see is they get in god's will they're in god's will they're at that location They're serving god they're doing right and because of sudden fear because of slow backsliding because of sin we see them Out of god's will right go to genesis chapter 37. Look at verse 26 verse 26 verse 26 Don't worry we'll eventually get to genesis 23. Okay. I know i'm spending a lot of time on canan Genesis 37 verse 26 And we see with abraham we see with isaac we see with jacob what about jacob's sons genesis 37 verse 26 And judah said unto his brethren what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother in our flesh And his brethren brethren were content Then they're passed by midianites merchantmen and they drew and lifted up joseph out of the pit and sold joseph to the ishmaelites For 20 pieces of silver and they brought joseph into egypt and so For jacob's sons and this is not joseph, but it's his brothers. It's basically spiked and what happens is Joseph goes to egypt and eventually they're going to go as well when there's a famine and that whole story and everything like that but What you see is the the children of israel are basically In bondage for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years They're not in the location. God originally had for them and it's because they're bouncing in and out of the locations They're supposed to be abraham was told dwell in this land and i'll give it to your descendants And then of course isaac's there for a little while then he starts to fade out Jacob's there. He leaves he comes back and then his sons eventually are gone as well later on. Okay Now turn in your bible to genesis 15 genesis 15 genesis 15 Genesis Genesis chapter 15 And let us go back to the promise he originally gave to abraham and notice what it says in genesis 15 This is what he says is going to end up taking place and he said unto abram Nova surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs And shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years And also that nation whom they will shall serve will I judge and afterwards shall they come out with great substance? What the bible says is for 400 years? They're going to be in bondage, right? abraham was given a land and it was given to his descendants as well and what they were told is This is yours if you Obey what I say Do what I say and what you see is with his lineage They will do what he says and then they kind of fade out and then they're kind of out of god's will And look the same thing is true for us in 2022 Sometimes it's very easy to get in god's will you're excited, you know, you're at church things are great, but then storms come Sudden fear comes you start to slowly backslide the excitement fades away Sin takes place in your lives. And these are the sorts of things that can get us out of the will of god Okay, now go to genesis 23. We'll go through the chapter now genesis 23 and i'll be quick genesis 23 And you know what the reason why this is so important to abraham is because god said You know what? I want you to dwell in this area i'm going to bless you i'm going to bless your descendants and you can see later on the chapter how he He values the importance of this location. And of course at this time abraham is a much older man His wife has passed away And he's getting to the point of dying himself and you know what I would imagine That when you get toward the end of your life You start to think of how foolish you were for all the mistakes you made Right, you know i've heard this said before in a sermon. I think it makes makes a lot of sense I don't think anyone comes to the end of their life and they're like man. I wish i'd watched more television Right. I mean there are so many I mean I could have been on instagram more Right so many posts on instagram. I could have seen there's so many things on on facebook or you know It's like what people are going to say at the end of their lives is I wish I did stuff with eternal value Isn't that what solomon thought? I wish I had gotten more people saved because if I was very clear once you go to heaven It's too late to get anybody saved You can't do anything to get anybody saved at that point or people are going to say when they come to the end of their Life man, I wish I had spent more time with my kids I wish I had a better relationship with them instead of focusing on these things that don't matter That's what people talk about when they come to the end of their life Abraham's coming to the end of his life and he remembers that god promised him dwell in this location and yet abraham Kind of fades out a little bit Right and here's the thing in our lives It's very easy for us to fade out and get out of the will of god as well It's hard to stay in the will of god and keep serving god year after year year after year Month after month month after month because sometimes you're going through good times things are great, right? Church is fun. It's exciting. You like the preaching and the fellowship everything in life is going great But then you start having problems in your life and it's very easy to just kind of get out of church during those time periods That's actually when you need to be in church when you're having problems, but generally when people go through problems That's when they fade out of church What takes place is that when people are not in church? If they go through problems, sometimes they actually look for a church to fix their problems But unfortunately what also takes place is when people are in church and they go through problems Sometimes that's when they fade out of church. Okay, genesis 23 verse 5 Genesis 23 verse 5 And the children of heath answered abraham saying unto him hear us my lord Thou are the mighty prince among us in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead None of us shall withhold from the a sepulcher But thou mayest bury thy dead and abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land even the children of heath And he communed with them saying if it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight hear me And intrigued for me to ephron the son of zohar that he may give me the cave of mack below which he hath Which is in the end of his field for as much money as it is worth He shall give it me for possession of a burying place amongst you What we're seeing is abraham wants a fair price for the land. The people are very respectful to him But abraham wants to pay a fair amount. He doesn't want to rip them off He says if i'm going to buy it, I want to pay a fair price And ephron dwelled among the children of heath and ephron the Hittite answered abraham in the audience of the children of heath Even of all that that went in at the gate of his city saying nay my lord hear me The field give I thee and the cave that is there and I give it thee in the presence of the sons of my people Give I at thee bury thy dead and abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land We talked about recently, you know, basically Try to have a a good testimony and a good relationship with the unbelieving world Obviously, you don't want to get yoked up with the unbelieving world But you want to be able to have at least a good testimony and and you know That's what we see with abraham here. We presume these people are unbelievers, but you know, he's handling the situation Well, and they're actually very respectful to him as well verse 13 And he spake unto ephron in the audience of the people of the land saying but if thou will give it I pray thee hear me I will give thee money for the field take it of me and I will bury my dead there And ephron answered abraham saying unto him my lord hearken unto me the land is worth 400 shekels of silver What is that betwixt me and thee bury therefore thy dead and abraham hearkened unto ephron and abram weighed to ephron the silver Which he had named in the audience of the sons of heth 400 shekels of silver current money with the merchant verse 17 In the field of ephron, which was in makpali Which was before mammary the field in the cave which was there in And all the trees that were in the field that were in all the borders round about were made sure On to abraham for possession in the presence of the children of heth before all that went in at the gate of a city And after this abraham buried sarah's wife in the cave of the field of makpali before mammary the same as hebron In the land of canin so once again, we're talking about this land and this is what god had promised him, right? He had promised this land will be given to you. And so abraham is taking real value in this land at this point in his life And of course earlier in his life, you know when he faded out of god's will from time to time, you know It's not that it was intentional It's just things came up and he made bad choices and he got scared and look These are things that could happen to any of us Any of us could have a situation come up that scares us and then we get out of god's will And if any of us could slowly backside out of god's will Any of us could allow some sin in our lives that would cause us to drift out of the will of god and get out of the will of god verse number 20 And the field and the cave that is there in were made sure to abraham for possession of a burying place by the sons of heth Now the way we understand this story today, as I said, there's not a specific location Where you need to live to be right with god I said, you know in the sermon, you know this past weekend about how that land was special that was given to israel back then God said I will bless that land It'll be flowing with milk and honey, it's going to be a great land back then it was actually a little bit different But he said this is yours if you obey what I say And because they didn't obey there's nothing special about israel today now there's cool historical sites You read the bible you want to see these things in person. I understand that But there's nothing special that god is blessing about that land today In our new testament day if you want to be in the will of god It comes to you being part of a good church and what i'm saying staying in the will of god Largely what i'm saying is staying involved in church not fading out of church, but also still reading your bible Still praying still going to church still going soul winning and look sometimes it's going to be exciting Sometimes it's not but you have to decide to stay in god's will whether it's exciting or not Let's close in word of prayer dear heavenly father Thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see This chapter in the bible and help us try to apply this to our lives and help all of us in this room To stay in your will ask you to help all of our church members to just Stay in your house and continue to be faithful to church, you know through the years whether we're going through good times or bad times Including me my family god