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All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. Go ahead and take your seat. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two. It's going to be song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. Go ahead and take your seat. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two. It's going to be song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. Go ahead and take your seat. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. Go ahead and take your seat. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. All right, well, welcome to Faith Ward, everybody. We'll begin tonight by turning over to song number two, Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His Name. Glory to His name. All right, so, by the way, I'll open the word of prayer, for the Lord to again thank you for your time and to come together in the middle of the week, I pray that you would meet with us this evening, you give us ears to hear and hearts to understand, and bless the service in Jesus' name. Amen. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So it's song number 100, Day by Day. So if I could get a couple guys to help get the baby shower decorations out. My wife kinda wants to look over those, see what's available. So if someone can help her with that, I'd really appreciate it. After the service, of course. And then also, don't forget the RSVP if you're planning on coming, ladies. It does help. It's not necessary, but it certainly makes things easier for us to plan on our end. All right, it's good, count up the soul winning, going back to Monday. If there's anything from Monday to report. What's that, three day? And then Tuesday to Wednesday or today. All right. Rafa, did you want to lead us in the next song? More about Jesus. You know more about Jesus? That's why you're here, to know more about Jesus. Right. Of course you know more about Jesus. More than you started. Song number three, 23. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. More than you started. Verse 12. Verse 1. Verse 2. Verse 3. Verse 4. Verse 5. Verse 6. We met in Genesis chapter 12. We're getting in Genesis 12 a little bit of the back story to the events that led up to the end of Genesis 11 if you remember there. Get over there. But Terah, Abram's father, had previously died after they had left Urb and Chaldees. You can just back up a little bit there. It says in verse 27, Now these are the generations of Terah, Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in the land of Urb and Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives, in the name of Abram's wife of Sarai, in the name of his wife Milcah. And the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarah was barren, she had no child, and Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's daughter, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, and his son Abraham's wife. And they went forth from the land of Urb and Chaldees into the land of Canaan, and they came into Haran and dwelt there. And the days of Haran were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. So if you catch that there, you see Terah, Abram's dad, taking all of them with him. Can you hear me now? Alright. So, what you see, and then that's of course what the events are there, but then this week when we get to chapter 12 verse 1, you get a little bit of the back story into why all that took place, right? And if you look there again in verse 1 it says, Now the Lord said unto Abram, excuse me, the Lord had said unto Abram, so this is speaking in past tense. He's saying this is something he's already spoken, okay? Meaning this is something that he spoke before he left with Terah into Haran, okay? He said, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house. So it's a pretty explicit command, pretty detailed. It wasn't just, hey, get into the land of Canaan, however you feel like getting there. By whatever means, take whoever you want with you, it doesn't matter. The Lord was really specific when he said, Get thee out of this land unto the land which I will show thee, and from thy father's house. Real specific. Now if God's telling him to get away from his father's house, it kind of stands to reason that would include his father, right? I mean, I'm pretty sure the father would be considered part of the father's house. It's the patriarch, it's the head of the family, right? So when you kind of put the ending of chapter 11 and verse 12 together and kind of consider the way things played out, the call for Abram to leave and to go into the land of Canaan, that land that God was going to show him, came before the events that lead up to the end of chapter 11. Okay, everybody following? So basically what you have taking place is Abram being given a very explicit call to leave his father's house and his kindred, and then when he expresses that in some way, it's just kind of assumed that, you know, hey, I'm leaving, God's called me, I'm going to this land, that every, you know, Terah, his dad, just says, Well, hey, we'll go with you. And Abram, for whatever reason, decided to just kind of go along with the thing. Just said, You know what, Dad, that's fine. He didn't stand up and say, Hey, no, actually, you have to stay here. God told me to leave my father's house and my kindred explicitly. We don't get a lot of the background as to why Abram kind of just let that happen. And we made application last week about the fact that Abram had to, you know, he had to learn to live his own life. He had to step out of faith because I don't want to preach everything I said last week at the end of the sermon. But what we see taking place is Abram's leaving with Terah, Terah's intention is they're all intending to go to that land. But when they get to Haran, that's where they kind of stop. And again, we don't get a lot of detail as to why. Did somebody get sick? Did they get comfortable? Whatever it is. For whatever the reason, although they all intended to set out to go with Abram all the way to the end, when they get to Haran, which is not the land of Canaan, which is not the land that God intended to show him, they just park it. And it's not till his father dies that he then moves on in the journey. His dad had to die before he was willing to go to the next step, to that next level, right? To follow through on what God had told him. God had to, I don't know if God killed him or if Terah was just old, but Terah had to be taken out of the picture completely before Abram was ready to move on. Now, you know, that tells us some things about Abram, right? One, that Abram is a flawed character, like every character in scripture outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the people we read about, all the great men of God, all the leaders, all the great men of faith, the prophets, all of them, were as, as a set of Elijah, men of like passions, meaning that they can succumb to the same flesh as we. They have the same temptations, the same trials, the same shortcomings, the same faults, just like us. These are not perfect people in the Bible, which is what makes the Bible so relatable. You know, because we're not putting these people on a pedestal. And even in this chapter, you see, again, Abram, you know, at fault again when he's going down into Egypt. I want to get ahead of myself, but, you know, he, we see another one of his, his faults. And his faults is that often Abram would fault, he would, he would falter at faith. And of course, we, you know, we might want to, we should be careful to level criticism over that because some of the things that were promised to him, you know, if they were said to us, we would probably be kind of doubting too. You know, how, how likely would we be to just pack up everything and leave everything we're familiar with and leave our life behind and just go be a stranger in a strange land? You know, some people can't even, you know, do much less than that, okay? For instance, you know, some, God's will is that people are in church. That's the will of God. To not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. And that's, that's just a clear-cut command. Okay? That's why I'm here tonight. You know? Well, you're the preacher. Yeah, but, you know, I'm preaching because I'd be here anyway. You know what I mean? And I get it. That's not the only reason why I'm preaching. But, you know, if I wasn't behind this pulpit, I'd be out there in that pew. You know, and I got years of consistent church attendance to back that up, okay? Because that is an explicit command. And yet people struggle even just to get that right in their Christian life, okay? So we got to be careful when we, you know, want to level criticism at Abram. Oh, what's the matter? You had a hard time leaving your family and leaving Ur the Chaldees and your nice little life that you had going on there. And go into some strange land you didn't even know where and be a stranger wandering about. You know, obviously it was a fault. It was, he did falter. You know, but nonetheless, he did end up stepping out of faith. It's just that sometimes when we're stepping out in faith, when we're walking in faith, sometimes we stumble. It's not always a straight path. Sometimes it's two steps forward, one step back in the Christian life. We make progress, you know, we have a setback. The important thing is that you don't quit, is that you don't give up, that you do not throw in the towel when we have setbacks. If we're expecting just this, our Christian life to just be this straight path, just this upward trajectory all the way to glory, we're in for a rude awakening. It's just not the way the Christian life works. There's setbacks, there's growing, there's things we have to learn and continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we're called to be patient with one another, that's why we're called to be forgiving and kind and to help one another along in the Christian life and not level criticism and blame. We've got to be careful with Abram, okay? We do see, and with all of these great men of God, we do see that they are flawed characters. But, you know, Abram had a hard time maybe stepping out in faith and going thousands of miles away to, you know, and it didn't get on a plane, people. You know, there was no Amtrak. It was all by foot, maybe some pack animals. You know, it was a long arduous journey and into a bunch of strange people that he didn't know and who knows how he's going through a much more dangerous world and yet, you know, today people struggle with even more basic things than that. So that's kind of where we're at in the story of Abram. This is the beginning of that story. What we see first of all is that he struggled to leave that place, you know, not so much leaving, but he was only willing to go if his father went with him or maybe his dad insisted and he just didn't have the spine or didn't have the understanding to stand up to his dad or was just out of it, who knows, right? The Bible doesn't give us that details, but there was a reason for it. That's why it says, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation. Now if God's telling you that, that's kind of a hard one. You know, if God came to me and said, I'm going to make a great nation of you, I would struggle with that, right? And I've already got five kids, right? I may say, well, there's a chance, you know, I guess it could happen. I will make thee a great nation. I'll make, you know, many people will come from you and I will make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing, right? You're going to prosper, be a blessing to other people. If God came and told me that, I'd say, I would struggle with that, right? And here's the thing, I don't have a barren wife. Abram does. That's what we learned in the first chapter. So God's telling him not just to leave his kindred, he's also telling him, hey, you're going to go be a great nation and he's already well on in years and his wife is barren. We know these details from the end of it. It's actually pretty big. That's why Abraham is the father of faith. That's why he is considered a man of faith. Even though when you read the story and the details and you kind of put things together, you see these little falters, you see these little missteps, whatever you want to call it, these little shortcomings. But nonetheless, he tried, you know, and of course it came true. So remember that when we're getting into the story of Abram, where he all started. You know, it started with him just, you know, stepping out in faith and believing a very, you know, a very large promise. You know, a very, you know, it would be hard to believe, right? It took a lot of faith to take God up on this, right? Now I want to point out verse three here. It says, and I will bless them that bless thee and I will curse him that cursed thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now, some people, you know, I don't know that I would be necessarily saying that this is the Abrahamic Covenant. I believe that comes later in Genesis chapter 22. It's kind of hinted at there where he's saying in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed, right? Because if and if you would go to Galatians three, because I do want to make a point here on this on this verse where he says, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. That latter half, you know, I guess I would consider, at least in my opinion, maybe this isn't theologically sound, you know, with the popular opinion out there, what exactly is the Abrahamic Covenant? You know, the fact that all families shall be blessed in Abraham, right? Because of Christ that would come through him, okay? That's later reiterated in Genesis 22 when Isaac is offered. He says that in blessing I will bless thee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, right? So he's saying through you all nations will be blessed. I'm going to make a great nation of you and we know that that is the Abrahamic Covenant that he was going to be a blessing in the earth. The first half of verse three where he says I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed thee, I personally believe that was specific to Abraham, okay? Now the principle that God blesses those that bless his children is true and curses them that curse his children is also true, okay? But I believe that first half of verse three where he says I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that cursed thee, that is given specifically to Abraham. The latter half of the verse where he says Anishah all nations of the earth be blessed is what we would consider the Abrahamic Covenant, okay? Because there's kind of two different things that he's saying there, right? I'm going to bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee and Anishah all nations of the earth be blessed, right? Kind of two distinct things. And it's important to understand that because a lot of people want to ascribe the first half of verse three where he says I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you, they want to just say oh that's a reference to Israel now. Now anybody that blesses Israel is going to be blessed and anyone that curses Israel is going to be blessed or is going to be cursed. I wish that were so. I'd be cursing even more than I am. But some people want to apply that to a bunch of Christ-rejecting, Christ-hating, Bible-denying, so-called Jews today. Adopted Judaism centuries ago and then took over some dirt in the Middle East and called themselves Israel, right? Which say they are Jews and are not but do lie but are the synagogue of Satan, right? They want to apply the first half of verse three to them. And I'm not just saying about Israel. People run on this as a political platform. Is it CPAC or whatever? Is that the one? You all know what I'm talking about. You'll have politicians get up, hey we got to bless Israel. We got to send them billions of dollars in aid because you know Genesis 12 verse 3 so you can see this is an important verse. It's important to make that distinction. What is the Abrahamic covenant and what isn't? The Abrahamic covenant is that in Abraham of his seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed in Christ. And it's not saying that people can reject Christ and then we have to bless those people that hate Christ. That mock Christianity. That scoff at the name of Jesus. Like why would you bless those people? Well I mean Genesis 12 verse 3. Well that's a misappropriation of that verse my friend. That's a misapplication. And that's I believe specific to Abraham. Because you see it kind of play out even in this chapter. This was a promise to Abraham specifically. The Abraham covenant you know that's the latter half. It's reated in Genesis 22 elsewhere. Look at Galatians 3 where you are. Did I have you go to Galatians 3? Verse 7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. Look we could park it on this point and just start looking at scripture that talks about this. The fact that they that are of faith are the children of Abraham. John the Baptist saying think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Saying that your lineage, your genetic lineage, your descendancy means nothing. It means nothing. It's all about faith. He's saying they that are of faith these are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached the gospel unto Abraham saying in these shall all nations be blessed. So the Abrahamic covenant when we really narrow that down to what it is that he promised Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed that is something that the Bible in the New Testament the Gentiles to the heathen to the non-Jewish world of that time these terms the Abrahamic covenant these other covenants what they mean by that and then to understand what the Bible actually blessed so that verse 9 they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. So do you see the stipulation there to be blessed? What's the prerequisite to being blessed with Abraham? You have to be of faith. This is not complicated. This is crystal clear doctrine. Multiple times in the New Testament. And yet today you have even bad pray for Israel. They want to bless the Jews over there today when they're not of faith. So we got to bless them. They're not of faith. They're not the children of Abraham. One that's not the Abrahamic covenant. And two you know we don't have to worry about blessing people that curse Christ. OK. That have called upon the wrath of God down upon their own heads. Well that sounds anti-Semitic. Well you know they're the ones that when they crucified Christ said his blood be upon us and upon our children. God said OK. So when you adopt a Christ rejecting religion like Judaism you know you are calling the wrath of God upon your own head. If not in this world and in eternity in hell. Because you're not of faith at that point. OK. This is an important distinction to make because today you know we have people throwing around these terms like Judeo-Christian religion. That's not one religion folks. It's not the same thing. Judaism and Christianity are worlds apart. Oh we all believe in the same God. No we don't. Oh they believe the Old Testament. No they don't. Look at verse 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon come on the Gentiles. It really is. It's not the blessing and the cursing. It's the fact that we who's that actually for. That Abrahamic covenant. It's on. It's come. It's for the heathen in Galatians. It's for the Gentiles in Galatians. That we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. OK. Now I'm going to move. I'm going to make another point here in verse 3 again. And if you would go over to Matthew chapter number 10. Matthew chapter number 10. This is an important thing to understand too. Is that God does bless those that bless his children. And he does curse those that curse his children. It's true. I believe that. Because that's what the Bible teaches you know and. I know it's anecdotal but when you see it play out it's kind of like yeah well there you go it's packed up. And shouldn't surprise us this is what the Bible says. He did say I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. Now I believe that's real specific to Abraham but that principle is there too. That God blesses those that bless his children. Look at Matthew 10 verse 40. He that receiveth you receiveth me. He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. Right. If someone receives you a Christian it's like receiving Christ. Right. We go out knock doors and try to preach the gospel. When people receive us and give us an ear. It's like they're you know we're preaching God's word. It's like them giving Christ in here. Not that we're Christ in any way shape or form. But we are preaching the words of Christ. We are his ambassadors. Verse 41 he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in only the name of a disciple. Only in the name of a disciple. Barely I say unto you she'll in no wise lose his reward. You know what that reminds me of? Of God blessing people for blessing his people. I mean that's pretty clear isn't it? Whosoever shall give one of these little ones a cup of water in a prophet's name. Excuse me in the name only the name of a disciple. Shall in no wise lose their reward. There's a reward for that. You know. Obviously it's kind of cryptic exactly how that's going to play out. I don't know. You know maybe if someone doesn't get saved but gives the soul winner a bottle of water maybe hell won't be as hot for them or something. I don't know. It's possible right? You know the servant that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes. There's varying degrees of punishment for people. So maybe God will take it easier on people or maybe give them another chance. Or try to you know engineer things and make it happen again. So hey you know at least they're open. They're receptive. They're not you know being malicious or standoffish. They're open to maybe receiving it another day. Right? They might say hey you know this guy didn't want to hear the gospel but he was kind at the door. He was nice. Maybe even offered us a drink. You know maybe that guy is going to get God's going to make sure that guy gets another chance down the road. Right? Who knows? It just shows it just it seems to me reading this that God blesses those that bless his people. And the same is true today. It's like Jacob. When Jacob left we know we'll be reading that in a few chapters where Jacob leaves Laban. Right? His father-in-law takes all of his abundance with him. All of his flocks and his children. And Laban catches up with him and Jacob says to Laban you know I know that for my sake God has blessed you. Right? I'm paraphrasing there. But that's what he told him. He said you know you've got all this increase in abundance because of the fact that I'm with you. Right? You know that's a true thing. When God's people are doing right those around them benefit. Okay? I mean it just works out just practically without even God getting involved half the time when you think about it. You know the Bible says that we ought to labor as unto the Lord. Right? Not as men pleasers with eye service but as unto the Lord. And even if we serve the froward, even if we serve people who maybe take advantage of us, you know, God is going to still give us a reward. Right? But you know if we're hard workers as we ought to be the company's going to profit. Right? I mean that just stands to reason. You don't even have to be a Christian for that to happen. Right? But God could you know even on top of that bless that company even more. Hey there's you know a Christian in there, he's working hard. I'm going to bless this company for his sake. I mean that's what he did with Jacob and Laban. That happened. God blesses those that bless his children. Okay? And you know this is something that applies to us today. And if you would go over to Matthew chapter number 25. Matthew chapter number 25. Cause he also says he will curse them that curses you. Right? I will bless him that blesses you and I will curse him that curses you. Right? And I won't read all of Psalm 105 but it says The seed of Abraham, his servant, ye children of Jacob, is chosen. He is our Lord, our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He suffered them, no man to do them wrong. Talking about Israel coming out of Egypt. He reproved kings for their sakes. Saying touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm. Right? So the principle is there. You know the blessing and the cursing that is given specifically to Abraham. But the principle is there. It carries on. It carried on through Israel. Right? And God said he suffered no man to do them wrong. And he's saying touch not mine anointed. Now we today are God's anointed. And not just the prophets, not just the preachers. The Bible says he which establishes us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God. This is 2 Corinthians 1. Who hath also sealed us and give us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. God hath anointed us in Christ. So if you're in Christ you are his anointed. Right? So touch not mine anointed is something you can apply to you too. And look I believe in this one because I've seen this play out. You know when people attack a man of God and they go after a preacher or a pastor. You know to whatever degree they do. You know sometimes that comes back on their own head. But I've even seen it played out when people go after members of a church. You know when people go after somebody and attack a church member. Right? And I remember this happening. You know some bozo online. You know being very public about a church member's past. Wicked thing to do. To dock somebody. And to dredge up old sins. It's wicked. Okay? That's not how God treats us. It's a very unchristian thing to do. When people have done wrong and paid the price and have repented. It should be forgiven and forgotten. It should never be brought up again. Right? God's not going to do that to us when we get there. Well yeah I know I saved you. But boy before you got saved man. Remember how wicked you were? Right? Remember when you did. It's like yeah I know I feel bad. I've been you know. I feel bad about that. You know it's like well yeah I know. You should. You know it's wicked. That's how God treats us. Right? And I've seen people do this to church members. You know people outside of our church. Attack church members. And those same people literally die under. Very suspect circumstances. Like literally murdered. Like literally had their head bludgeoned in. Like closed head injury. Cracked skull. Kind of stuff. When I saw that happen. I said well touch not mine anointed. Do my prophets no harm. You curse God's people. God's going to curse you. Right? I've seen it play out. You know and this is something I have to remind myself. And this is something that we should be reminded of. Is that we do not have to take vengeance. We do not have to avenge ourselves. In fact the Bible tells us not to in the New Testament. To avenge not ourselves but rather give place under wrath. Right? I might have to do a little bit more of that. Than maybe the average person. Because of the fact that when you're in leadership. You already have people kind of coming after you from time to time. You're already getting. And look I'm not saying people are. You know I'm under any grave threat of physical danger. You know I'm not fearing for life and limb up here. But people can turn on you. Right? I mean people that I've literally baptized. Have turned around. And eventually were calling me false prophet. Calling me all kinds of bad. I can't repeat the things they were saying. And it was funny. It was like they just kind of went from one person to the next in our staff. You know first I was a false prophet. And then it was like I don't want to talk to him. But I'll talk to Chris Segura. And then Chris Segura. Brother Chris became a false prophet. And it's like well I don't want to talk to those guys. But I'll talk to Pastor Anderson. And eventually Pastor Anderson became a false prophet. So it's like. You say oh I mean I don't even go into everything that was said. But it's just like. You know I could get mad about that. Or I could you know really my reaction was like. I hope this guy is okay. Like I hope he. God doesn't have to. And I don't know that God's going to come down on somebody for calling me names. I'd like to think I could take that. I'd like to think my skin's a little bit thicker than that. Right. And you know but that's what I remind myself of. Is that you know. And if somebody's really going after somebody. If I see someone attacking. Some other anointed one. Some other pastor. Some other prophet. Some other. You know layperson in the church. I just remind myself of that. Like God's keeping track. You know some idiot wants to go online. And start talking smack about yours truly. It's like. You know and other people it's kind of. Kind of makes me worry for them. To be perfectly honest. Does it make you mad? No it kind of worries me. Like what's God going to do to them? You know. And people think that they're getting away with it. God sometimes lets things go. And lets things go. And lets things go. And then eventually it just. It's all of a sudden. It's just. It comes out of nowhere. And it might be. So much further down the road than people anticipate. So. Anyway. I know I'm kind of ranting right now. But look at Matthew 25 verse 31. This is another parable. That speaks exactly to what I'm talking about. That God blesses those that bless his children. And curses those that curse him. He said when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him. And he shall sit on the pond the throne of his glory. And bore for him shall be gathered all nations. So you shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. And then shall the king say unto them on his right hand. Come be blessed and my father inherit the kingdom. Prepare for you from the foundation of the world. For I was unhungred and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying Lord when saw we thee unhungred. And fed thee or thirsty and who gave thee drink. When saw thee a stranger took thee in or naked and clothed thee. Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee. And the king shall answer and say unto them verily I say unto you. And as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren. You have done it unto me. God takes note of how people treat his people. And it's as if they're treating him that way often. That's how he feels about it. And you know you can read the rest of it. I'm going to move on for the time. But you know the opposite is also true right. Because then he curses the other ones and tells them to depart in everlasting fire. So we have no need to avenge ourselves. If you would go over to Romans chapter number three. Romans chapter number three. Romans chapter number three. That's why it says in Romans twelve. Dearly beloved avenge not yourselves. But rather give place unto the wrath. For it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay sayeth the Lord. He didn't say I might repay. No God will repay. And look even if God suffers long with the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction in this world. Eventually they're going to get what's coming. I mean go ahead and read Matthew 25 all the way to the end. You know eventually the goats end up in the lake of fire. I mean everyone's got it coming. No one's getting away with anything in this world. So we don't need to avenge ourselves. Look at Romans chapter three. And so I'm making all this point to say this is that. You know don't give this away to a bunch of Christ rejecting Jews. Let's not give this away to a bunch of people who hate God in the Middle East. You know that drives me nuts when I hear pastors and preachers get up and say that. It's like oh you're just second rate. All you Gentiles are just an afterthought in God's plan. You're just a rebound when Christ was rejected. You're the rebound girlfriend or whatever. Right God just settled for you. But you know we need to really bless those people. But you know we need to really bless those people over there and give them. Let's give them all the precious promises that we have in Christ. Let's take all these things that have been granted unto the people of God. Those that are of faith and let's just ascribe it to them. Let's just go ahead and give it over to them. When they don't even want it. It's like hello the Jews passed on Christ. You know back in the you know at the turn of the you know the millennia. Two millennia ago. They passed on it. They said no thanks. When he was there in their presence doing the works. When they were being preached unto by the apostles. They passed. They said no thank you. So why would why are we two thousand years later trying to still you know give it to them. They're like we don't want it. You can keep all your promises. You can keep Christ. You can keep all that. They don't want it. But it's just it's so mind boggling to watch pastors try to just no no this is for you. It's not for them. And they don't want it. You know meanwhile God's people need to be told that. Hey you're the anointed. You are the people of God. You're the chosen generation. You are the peculiar priest. You're the priesthood. The holy priesthood. You're the peculiar people. Ye which are of faith or that have faith. Ye are the children of Abraham by faith. It's you. Me and you are the children of Abraham by faith. Why would I give that away? As a pastor I would say oh you know yeah God loves you but you know he really loves these people that. That spit every time they hear they say his name. They say Jesus and they have to spit on the ground in disgust. That teach blasphemous things about God in their books. Things I don't care to repeat from the pulpit about our Lord and Savior. Why would why would a pastor in a Baptist church get up and take that away from God's people and try to give it to them. Makes no sense. You know the Jews had an advantage. I don't know where I had you go. Romans 3 what advantage verse 1 half the Jew. Or what profit is there of circumcision. Much every way chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God. Look they had an advantage. When they had back in that in Paul's day because they had the New Testament. They had dibs on the Messiah so to speak right. Hey if the Messiah shows up the Christ shows up you know he's coming to us first. That's what Christ did. He sent his apostles first to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and then unto the Gentiles after they rejected him. He would have gotten there eventually but it was just they were given priority because chiefly unto them were committed the oracles of God. They had the scriptures. They should have known of all the people that should have known it was Christ it was them. He came unto his own and his own received him not. It's talking about the nation of Israel at that time. He came unto them and they said no hard pass right. So why are we trying to why are Baptist preachers trying to give it to them even today. It's ridiculous. Go back to Genesis I got to move off this point but in Acts 3 verse 25 I'll read to you. This is Peter and John in the temple Peter preaching. He says ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God hath made with our fathers. Saying unto Abraham and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you from his iniquities. I mean they went to the Jews at that time and said here's your chance and obviously a lot of them did get saved. But you know by and large they rejected him and eventually God scattered that nation into all corners of the earth. And there's no way of knowing who's of what tribe anymore. All these people that want to claim some kind of Abrahamic you know descendancy are a bunch of frauds. Okay you know the real irony is is that you know the Palestinian people probably genetically have more in common with Abraham than the so-called Jews today. I mean and I'm just shooting from the hip on that one don't quote me on that. But wouldn't it kind of stand to reason the people that remained in that region probably had more to do with the ancient Israel than the people that left were dispersed throughout Europe and the rest of the world for centuries. You know and mixed with all those nations. I mean who would really have more of a pedigree. It would be the people that stayed there right. But I mean it doesn't matter. Either way even I don't care how I don't care if you're if you're you know you can trace your lineage all the way back to Abraham. Even if you could if you reject Christ it matters nothing. The flesh profiteth nothing. It means nothing. Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father. It doesn't matter. OK. And all I'm trying to get across tonight is hey verse 3 is a great promise. I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse and curse them that curse you. We don't need to avenge ourselves. And you know we'll we'll be blessed. You know that's available to us. And you know we are the ones that have inherited this promise. Right. We are blessed in Abraham by faith. Let's not give it away to people that don't want it to begin with. Verse 4 so Abram. Yes I will finish the chapter tonight. So Abram as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him and Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. So he's already you know an older man. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and their substance they had gathered and the souls they had gotten in Haran and they went forth in the land of Canaan and in the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land of the place of Sychem under the plain of Mori and the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto thee will I give this land and there builded he an altar and the Lord who appeared unto him. So Abram's back on track. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's still got Lot with him. You know I don't want to get ahead of myself but that was kind of a hang up that we'll see you know God had to take care of Lot too. But notice when the Lord appears on him it says he built an altar unto the Lord when he's there in that land and then it says in verse 8 He removed from thence unto a mountain in the east of Bethel and there pitched his tent having Bethel in the west and Haon in the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord and he called upon the name of the Lord and Abram joined it on going still toward the south. So Abraham you know the Lord's appearing unto him Abram excuse me and he's built a couple altars right. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing for the most part. He's still got part of his father's house with him in Lot right. He's still there but nonetheless Abram is the Lord's appearing unto him making his promises. Abram's still stepping out of faith. He's building some altars. Everything seems to be going pretty good. But then notice verse 10 and there was a famine land and the Lord came to Abram and said unto him go down into Egypt and I will help you to survive. Nope. Abram makes this decision on his own and Abram went down into Egypt right. Well what about the altar. What about all these altars you're building you know. So again you know there's this another lapse in faith that he has and this is the Christian life. This is what it means to live for God. It's not just going to be you know just every day better and better and better and better. I mean we should strive for that. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm not trying to give anyone an excuse to go backslide or something and say well you know Abram went down to Egypt in a famine. Kind of a different circumstance. You're not a you know 70 something year old man being told hey take your barren wife I'm gonna go make a great nation of you thousands of miles away. OK. I think we can give Abram a little slack here. OK. But this is the Christian life. It's steady by jerks. Right. If you don't know what that means you kind of got to think about it. I'm steadily making progress very jerkily along the way. Right. It's steady by jerks. Right. Two steps forward one step back kind of thing. That's kind of what's going on here that you know that's part of that's just part of the Christian life. People falter. People make mistakes and it came to pass when he was coming here to enter in Egypt that he took. He said unto Sarah's wife behold now I know thou art a fair woman to look upon. Now this always is kind of mind boggling how a man could take his wife and be like pretend you're not my wife. Right. Therefore it shall come to pass the Egyptians shall see that they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me. But they will save me alive. Right. This is the same guy that's been building altars unto the God that's been appearing unto him. OK. Now I do not believe that Abraham is yet is saved in the story yet. He's meeting with God. God's appearing unto him. He's being obedient but I don't believe that he's a saved man yet. OK. We'll get to that. And you know here he is building altars and then the next step things go a little wrong. Things don't go exactly the way you planned. A little famine pops up and it's like back to Egypt. Go back down into Egypt. Get out of land that I was supposed to be in. Get out of God's will. And oh yeah now and now I'm afraid that the Egyptians might kill me for my wife because she's so beautiful. So we're just going to pretend that you're not my wife. Not like well maybe we shouldn't have gone. Right. And this is just kind of you know this is kind of a picture of when people get out of the will of God when people stop living for the Lord. And they stop building the altars in their life and they stop worshipping God. They'll end up doing very strange things and making very poor decisions. And God will let them. God lets this happen. You know obviously he puts a stop to it before it goes too far. Right. Because he's trying to preserve that promise that's made to Abram that you know he would have a son in his old age of his wife Sarai. But I mean you say why would you make a decision. Well you know when you start making one bad decision the next one doesn't sound so bad. Oh famine in the land. Let's go to Egypt. Bad decision. God didn't tell you to go there. Well since I've already made that bad decision you know I'm a little worried here let me just pretend that Sarai is my sister. My sister my wife's my sister and let other men another man take her. Even worse decision. Right. But you don't jump you know you didn't jump over the first bad decision. Right. And this is how it works with sin. This is how we end up people end up in bad places in life. They make one little bad decision and they go I already made that one. Then they make another bad decision that's a little worse. And then another one that's a little worse and another one. And then they're making really bad decisions with their lives. And it came to pass it says verse 14 that when Abram 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 to Pharaoh's house and he entreated Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen and and he servants and men servants and maid servants and she asses and camels. So you know he loaded him up with a bunch of goods. Right. Not worth it. But notice verse 17. This is why I think verse 3 was very specific to Abram. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. Right. You say well wait a minute he's blessing Abram not when he's taking his wife. Right. I mean that's kind of even if he's doing it unbeknownst to him he's doing it in his innocency. But you know God trying to preserve the seed of this woman. So his promise would come true. And so he's plaguing Abram's or Pharaoh's house. Right. So God curses Pharaoh as promised. Verse 18 and Pharaoh call Abram and said what is this that thou hast done unto me. So he blames him. Why did not tell me that she was thy wife. So he kind of figures it out. He's like I'm being plagued. And it was ever since you know ever since I took that you know this babe into my house. I think you know I gave that guy a bunch of oxen. And the things haven't been going so well. I wonder if this is that guy's wife. He kind of figures it out. Or maybe she came clean or I don't know. Why said a style she is my sister so I might have taken her to meet the wife. Now therefore behold thy wife take her and go thy way. And give me back everything I gave you. Right. There was no refund though. So he gave back Sarah. And he's like and take everything I gave you for her. Right. So God kind of made it out work together for good. Right. But it's kind of a weird story. Right. And so you know it's like the Bible has people doing weird things. Right. You read the Bible you'll see these weird stories. And sometimes you can be kind of like well it makes sense. I mean that guy. You know sometimes some characters would be like well yeah but that guy was wicked. Of course they do something weird. Of course you know Balaam is going to talk to the ass. Right. He's a false prophet. Right. You know weird stuff like that happens. You're kind of and you're like well that makes sense. But in the life of Abram. Like you read right out of the gate you read this weird story about the father of our faith. The father of faith. Abraham. The great patriarch. You know and it's like you read a story like this. And you know what. But it just shows you. In every great person in every every person's life. People falter. People stumble. People make mistakes. No one's perfect. Abram included. And Pharaoh commanded the man concerning the sin away and his wife. And all that he had. Right. So you know there's a lot going on here in the beginning but this is just the beginning. There's so much more that goes on in the life of Abram. There's so many great lessons that we're going to learn from him. And tonight you know hopefully we got out of this is the fact that we are the children of Abraham by faith. This promise came true. You know don't be dismayed. Spoiler alert. Abram falls through. Things work out well. You know if you don't know the story. Which I doubt is anybody in this room hopefully. You're not going to leave here tonight wondering like how's it going to turn out. Boy is this Abram guy going to get together. He does. Right. You know it's like the rest of us. But these promises came true. And we're evidence of that fact today. You know we are the children of Abraham by faith. And God will bless those that bless us. I believe that he will curse them that curse us. Us. God's people. You know those we who are Jews inwardly. Right. Those of us who are whose circumcision is the heart. Right. God's flesh is praises of God and not of men. OK. Not outwardly. You know we are the children of God. We are the Israel of God. Why. Because we are the children of Abraham by faith. That's why we get to inherit these promises. Let's not give it away to a bunch of people that don't want it. Don't deserve it. And it doesn't even apply to them. They're ours. Let's go ahead and close the prayer. Dear Lord again thank you for the promises that we have in the word of God. We are your people and Lord thank you that we are your people through Christ through his shed blood through his sacrifice. Not by any merit of our own not by any works of righteousness which we have done Lord but by your mercy. You've saved us and you've anointed us and you called us your people. We are heirs with Christ. And Lord we pray that you would help us to realize the fullness of that and everything that it entails. And Lord help us to continue to endeavor to live for you and Lord even we have setbacks. We can look to like to men even like Abraham the father of our faith or who himself faltered at the beginning. And was not a perfect man but was consistent Lord and move forward and did not give up Lord and continue to try to strive to please you and to live by faith. Help us to do the same we ask in Jesus name Amen. All right we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go. If you're going to put the song of the 389. Sing this possible song of the 389. We're going to get that song of the 389. Sing it out on the floor. There is no sign of you out in the fields in the country. Far from the shepherds holy. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Great. Okay. Great. Great. Oh. Oh. Great. Oh. Love and time, love is the master, speaks to me, calls my machine, my enemy. Bring him in, bring him in, bring him in, bring him into the fields of sleep. Bring him in, bring him in, bring him into the fields of sleep.