Grace in Gerar

Well this morning we look to complete chapter 20. It's been a while since we've done a chapter in a go

But we started out Genesis with that as our prerogative We want to try to keep an eye on the bigger storyline of what

God is doing What's being unfolded not only about the Lord and his character, but also the

Lord's redemptive plan and purpose in history Last week we considered lots legacy

We remember the distant smell of salt and brimstone that would have wafted toward the tents of Abraham Reminding him that though God was indeed a friend to Abraham.

He was also a consuming fire and a holy judge And as Abraham continues to know more and more about the character of the

Lord this knowledge This understanding of the Lord continues to shape Abraham begins to shape and mold

Abraham's own character. This is what we call sanctification in the Christian life

The more we behold the Lord the more we look unto Jesus The more we lay hold of the means of grace and understand more about who he is and what he's done the more

We are made to be like him Yet as we'll see this morning That does not always go smoothly consistently

Does not always go from strength to strength It is not without its stumbling and its failure

We said last week as believers. We should never become so comfortable with failure That we lose sight of God's holy wrath that we tremble under the hand of God that We take to heart his warnings and we are we guard against being presumptive about our safety

Remember we don't identify ourselves as lot scarcely saved as we said we identify ourselves with lots wife

Always prone to look back We remember Paul's great warning God is not mocked and I realized perhaps last week was a was a heavy sermon maybe the past two weeks as we considered

God's wrath poured out upon the cities of the plain and And one of the things that we love about expository preaching of course is that you you're forced to grapple with the text you're forced to engage the text as the whole counsel of God and That means all the warps and whoops.

That means when it's in season and when it's out of season and So beautifully we have this great contrast emerging where we've seen

God's judgment so heavily in chapter 19 We turn to chapter 20 and in many ways we see

God's profound grace And so we see these themes they're yoked together throughout scripture

The ferocity of God's judgment and the extravagance of God's grace

And so as believers as we said last week at the same time we should never be so fearful meaning terrified

That we lose sight of God's long -suffering love his designs patient designs

To renew his mercy to his people every morning without fail Because he cannot deny himself

And so perfect love casts out fear what we're going to see this morning is God's covenantal commitment

Genesis 1929 we got a preview of this and it's going to help us understand Genesis 20 it came to pass when

God destroyed the cities of the plain that God Remembered Abraham and sent lot out of the midst of the overthrow and so we said that's a covenantal remembering

It's not that God had somehow forgotten Abraham. And then he said, oh, what am I doing? I forgot I had to save lot

I just remembered Abraham. No, this is a way of saying God looks to his covenant God stood upon the covenant

He had established with Abraham and out of that covenantal commitment. He delivered lot

Now the same dynamic is at play when God delivers Abraham and Sarah this morning in chapter 20

We see that beginning in verse 1 with Abraham's sin We read Abraham journeyed from there to the south that would be the

Negev a literal region called the south in Hebrew I think better translated a be Abraham journey to the

Negev That's how Moses audience would have understood it and dwelt between between Kadesh and shore and stayed in Gerar We don't know we don't have recorded what exactly prompted

Abraham to move out from the the great terebinth trees of Mamre Perhaps he had witnessed the destruction of Sodom and his heart was so heavy.

He couldn't bear to see this scene of Destruction knowing what had happened to so many of his relatives through lot and he decided it was time to leave

That that could be it may be that as Abraham is now heading south heading to a city

It's the same time that lot is leaving the city of Zoar and heading into the mountains

There's this whole dynamic as we've seen of the wilderness as opposed to the city throughout

Genesis There's this great theme The city is almost always a sign of trouble and that's setting up a biblical

Storyline of the coming of the city of God Remember Abraham is the one who's looking for the maker and builder of that city yet to come

But here he's heading like lot into a city that I think seems to provide for him

The city called Gerar was in the western part of the Negev Negev is south It's another way of talking about an arid land or a dry land

It's a desert land so to speak but there are fertile plains like a patchwork in certain sections of it and that's where Gerar a royal city near the

Settlement of what would later become the Philistines and so it's it's toward the

Mediterranean It's a fertile plain and we forget that Abraham is a sojourner

He's given to us and presented to us as a wanderer as a pilgrim. And so unlike lot

He did not establish a home between the Terebinth trees so much as he pitched his tent there for a really long time

But remember he's a he's a very wealthy man. He has This was decades ago 318 servants 318 male servants able to fight and that was back then

How many more servants does he have now and how much more cattle does he have now? he's a very wealthy man with a very large retinue and When the rain rainy season is is dried up and he has these herds that need to be led to pasture

It's it's time to move on. He lives in a tent. He lives like a Bedouin So his name Sarna speculates it may be that a lack of rain

Prompted him to move south to find a place that he could bring his animals to pasture Now keep in mind.

We're heading into Genesis 12 memories here There was a famine in the land and that prompted him to head down to Egypt to find safety and security in Egypt and it seems to be the same dynamic here if we can speculate and I think this is a good speculation if we can speculate that He felt it was time for the sake of his flocks and his possessions to find a better place to provide for them

Then we should realize this transition is going to also bring with it testing

These kinds of transitions these kinds of circumstances in the Christian life Allow God the opportunity to test our faith.

So he deprives us of something. He takes away something He brings us to a new circumstance or a new challenge and our red flags go up.

God is going to be testing me God wants to show wants to show me his work in my life.

Have I been here before? How am I going to handle it this time after so much more of his grace being wrought into my life?

Hopefully Abraham would be able to see that Oh, I remember last time we we had a big move because the going was tough and we needed some provisions

That didn't turn out very well. I better be on guard. I better really make sure my heart is solid before the

Lord I better avail myself of good counsel and means of grace. I don't want to stumble and fall and so that's that's instructive for us as Christians, isn't it when we get to these places in our lives where a

Circumstance comes our way or when we make a transition we expect that God is going to test us

And Abraham between verse 1 and verse 2 It almost reads nonchalantly

Completely utterly fails this test Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife she is my sister and Abimelech king of Gerar sent out and took

Sarah So just like Egypt the same dynamic here When Abraham moved into Gerar, he immediately lied about Sarah He said she is my sister and as we'll see later on this is a scheme that he had worked out

This was his old alibi his old excuse this was just what he said to people who inquired about Sarah if those people happen to have armor and Swords and a lot of power in a land that was foreign

And so once again, we have this dynamic a pagan ruler in this case Not Pharaoh, but Abimelech took

Sarah into his royal harem Now as readers of Genesis we go

That's an interesting marriage What's conspicuously absent here in Genesis 20 is what was there in Genesis 13?

Sarah was so profoundly beautiful She was irresistible and all the men of Egypt were groveling after her and of course

Pharaoh Being the the top dog in Egypt was able to secure her into his royal harem

But we've been reading Genesis. She's well past the age of childbearing That's not a very good prospect for a royal harem

The whole point of gathering many wives is you want as many offspring as possible? well, she's self -evidently past the point of childbearing and We don't read that her beauty was so desirable that the men of Gerar were groveling after her.

So why? Does this king of Gerar take Sarah into his royal harem?

Well, some ancient rabbis said that part of the promise that was given right at the tent

No, Sarah, you did laugh this time next year I will come and you shall have a son that part of that promise was a rejuvenation a miraculous rejuvenation of her physical body

So that she could not only sustain the pregnancy but nourish the child afterward And so the ancient rabbis saw this as maybe

Evidence they speculated it could be that she was so rejuvenated to her former beauty in preparation for God's fulfillment of his promise

That's possible. But scripture does not say that I think it's far more likely That a

B Malek does what many other rulers would have done not just at this period in ancient history But even well through some of the great ancient empires even through the

Roman Empire you secure your own power and your own stability by Marrying or intermarrying with foreign foreigners, especially wealthy powerful foreigners

And remember Abraham appears very wealthy and very powerful Perhaps there was some renowned about this man who delivered the

Sodomites from the hand of Keter Laomer This is a powerful man and God goes before him

And so perhaps there is something of this display of I need to secure an alliance with him

And therefore I will marry his sister I will take his sister his elderly sister into my harem so that we have this compact

Remember that in the next chapter there's actually going to be a covenant that Abraham cuts with a

B Malek and so already we see these dynamics of power and Establishing a relationship and marriage was used in the ancient world among rulers and elites to establish this kind of solidity

I think that's far more likely So he was happy to take Sarah and his understanding

Abraham's sister that he would have an alliance a certain Security, you wouldn't have to worry about Abraham being up to no good

He wouldn't have to worry about there being some instability or Abraham joining forces to undermine him

And so that's what how marriage was used. We see this in Genesis later on. We'll see this with Solomon Most likely this is why

Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter to secure some sort of alliance. This is why Roman Emperors often married and divorced women much older It's why

Cleopatra so famously married multiple men across many decades It it wasn't the former beauty so much as the power the stability that could be offered through marriage

Abraham said of Sarah his wife. She is my sister He lied

Lying was the sin that Abraham typically succumbs to When he was in this situation filled with the dread of what might happen to him otherwise and so this is a deceit that's fueled by the fear of man and This fear of man is for Abraham an utter lack of faith

He has just seen the Lord By the tent had a feast with him heard the promise within the year your wife will have the son of promise and Look at faithless

Abraham now say you're my sister and now she gets taken away into the harem again a complete and utter disaster

Though the promise is less than a year off this is coming off the heels of a promise that within a year would have flooded

Abraham's life with the Miraculous power of God the fulfillment of all of the promises that began initially when he called him out of her of the

Chaldeans But out of this fear of man, he willfully Endangers the arrival even the fulfillment of this promise.

It's as if he bargains it away. I'm so worried about my own neck I've forgotten the promise of God.

In fact, I'm willing to completely jeopardize that promise So more than just the promise from the picnic the picnic promise

God also said Abraham I'm going to bless those who bless you. I'm going to curse those who curse you

He also forgot that He could have walked in there like Untouchable. I remember seeing this video of Vladimir Putin Remember Vladimir Putin, of course was a former

KGB officer. I can imagine the kind of training he had He probably was not a pencil pusher and he he was on some

Recording for television was a live television recording. Of course. He's got bodyguards everywhere and This group of protesters rush at him and they literally get within two he turns around and they're rushing at him

They look like they're about to tackle him and he does not even flinch he literally just turns them and kind of just stares at them coldly while his

Security completely devours them and like tackles them to the ground and they get hauled off probably never to be seen again

That could have been how Abraham walked around Gerrard completely unfazed untouchable

Do what you want if you bless me my God the maker of heavens and earth he will bless you you curse me

It's not gonna go well for you God is my shield. God's my very great reward.

What shall man do to me? Therefore I will not fear That's how he could have walked around Gerrard, but he lost his faith in God's promise

He lost sight of God's presence and now he began to panic He really felt that now man could do much to him and that God was not going to secure him not be his shield not

Protect him though. God had already delivered him from the hands of Caterleomer in his armies.

He's completely thinking I have to fend for myself And the only way I can do that is by lying. So Sarah, please do what we've always done say you're my sister

Abraham in other words tries to be his own shield Now we can sympathize with that because that's very common for us to do isn't it we try to be our own shield

We fend for ourselves when it seems like there's no way God's Word can come to pass It's too difficult

It's too hard. The circumstances are too extreme God himself could sympathize with my plight with my position surely surely

I'm the gray area of his word applying here. Surely. I'm the exception that proves the rule

Surely anyone would understand given where I am in my life and where we've been and what we've been through and what my health is

Like surely God would understand why we cannot do this We try to become our own shield we try to be our own provision and so one example of this

Someone's rather lonely rather isolated I Had I had a very close friend very very close friend and a brother someone who would rebuke and exhort

Someone who would often point things out in my life and encourage me to repent. I remember taking a week to go up and do some street evangelism and in New Hampshire and Vermont and Maine with him and It was just glorious would pray every night and throughout the day would have times of devotions together

We've got on the street pass out tracks sit on the benches try to talk to these crusty New Englanders about the

Lord But he was a very lonely man very lonely and I could see in his heart this wrestling

Okay, Lord, I've given you my life now. I've turned from my former ways Lord Don't you owe me a relationship now?

Don't you owe me the desire of my heart a wife? want to have a marriage Lord and and He became clouded in his judgment where he was so desperate for a relationship that he began to doubt

God actually would give him this desire that God would lead him and be faithful to him And so he began to turn a blind eye and he began to build a relationship with someone who really was not

Equally yoked to him It's really not someone who loved the Lord had a pretense to it But it was clear to anyone within three feet after five minutes.

This was not a Christian God. I'm I'm so alone and I'm so despairing

This is the only chance I have I Know what your word says. I know what my friends are counseling me.

I know what pastors no, no, no God will work this out. It'll be okay. She'll come around At at root is

Lord, I don't trust you I Don't believe your word. I don't believe you'll provide for me.

I don't believe you're enough for me Lord, I can't be faithful here. I have to provide for myself and then maybe you can work that out

And so he ran off. He's no longer walking with the Lord today last time I saw him asked if we could meet he gave me a fake phone number

We say Lord You don't care about me.

You wouldn't allow this to be in my life right now You've given me promises. You said there'd be a way out

You said you'd be an ever -present help in a time of need Lord You promised to deliver me and to help me

Lord. You seem to be moving and now you seem so distant Lord You don't care about me. And so like Pharaoh we harden our hearts against God.

We begin to doubt his goodness or Lord All I've ever done is try to follow you and now look at my look at my life

Look at my reputation. Look at what people say about me Look how people view me Lord and you're not doing anything about it.

And so I'm gonna vindicate myself. I I won't be patient I'm gonna be bitter I'm gonna lash out because I'm tired of waiting on you in humility becoming a

Rad for everyone else to stomp on Lord. We we do this. We try to become our own shield We try to fend for ourselves provide for ourselves

Abraham has been walking with the Lord for 25 years He's had triumphs of faith when

God said go circumcise all of your household all that dwell within your tent He wasn't like oh, it's kind of a hiding, you know, can we negotiate this a little bit?

He just did it. That's faith That's that might be one of the most shocking examples of faith in Genesis as far as I'm concerned adult circumcision in Genesis 18 when those

Angels visited him. He was so generous He rushed around to prepare this great feast and and then when God said shall

I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? And he told him of the destruction that was going to be poured out upon the cities Abraham stepped in his way.

No Lord. He began to intercede and so we see this great triumph of Abraham's faith

He's been a model of faith as soon as he was called out of or of the Caldeans dwelling in a tent

Not not allowing his heart to be like lots heart pandering after the things of the world But here is this triumphal failure

He completely lacks faith and the New Testament says he's the father of our faith

He's the father of all we who believe and you realize boy, that's true in more ways than one, isn't it?

He really is the father of our faith Because our faith is prone to wander our faith does stumble and fail and falter there's many ways and times in our lives where we we fend for ourselves and we try to become our own shield and As Greg alluded to we we don't think that God's the watchman for us

We think it's up to us. And so we're gonna make it happen Even it's even if it's a little dodgy on what

God shows in his word He's like me. He's prone to wander Lord.

We feel it. Abraham's a lot like me Look at Abraham here

Are you dealing with old sins Abraham should have known once this trying time came and it was time to move, you know,

Sarah, let's get on our knees We know what God has promised and we're about to head south and last time we traveled things didn't go so well

Let's get on our knees. Let's fast before we go. Let's let's drown ourselves in prayer Let's ask for a lot of people to pray for us.

We know this is going to be a real time of testing Are you dealing with old sins?

Are you aware of old patterns? Recurring sins as we see here They have this they have this effect not just on our relationship with God, but on all of our other relationships think of what these kinds of times did to Sarah's feelings for Abraham how that war like a burden on their marriage this great man of faith

Willingly sending her into a harem to be used as property from some tyrant

Think about the destructive Seeds that he brought into his marriage because of this recurring sin, you know later on in Genesis when we get to Genesis 26

We're gonna see he passes this sin on to Isaac. Isaac will do the same thing sin

It's it's never just about us in our individual relationship with God. It always has collateral damage

And so Abraham's sin is now affecting Sarah and it's affecting his whole household

It's affecting a be Malek and that whole nation. It's affecting that whole people group.

It's affecting his progeny It's affecting the accomplishment of God's promise all of that because of this pattern of sin that Abraham has not dealt with Are you dealing with your patterns of sin?

Are you dealing with habitual sins in your life? Well, we sometimes refer to as the foxes in the vineyard.

They they trip us up. They so easily as Hebrews says entangle us Sometimes they're very hard to identify

Because we use the language and the concepts of the world to try to identify them We attribute to our personality our upbringing that which

God says is sinful and it may well be our personality But it's a sinful trait within our personality and therefore we need to repent of it.

We need the Lord's grace to purge it. Oh I've always had a temper.

I've always been a hothead I grew up in a house, you know I should have seen my father my mother if they could really get into it

And so, you know, this is just kind of what I grew up with. This is what I'm like That's nice, but you're a

Christian now That can't fly anymore. That needs to be repented of you need to see that recurring pattern and all of its destructive power.

Oh Well, you know We've always we've always been a very Prideful family,

I suppose we've always really put all of our emphasis on our great achievements and our great goods and our worldly ambitions

That's okay. If that was part of your lifestyle then it cannot be a part of your lifestyle now. You're a

Christian Are you dealing with sin? Are you identifying and rooting out sin? What easily entangles you when you identify it according to God's Word you begin to pursue the

Lord toward it Lord Help me to see this help me not to excuse it not to allow the Circumstances to be something to hide behind help me to take action

Lord. Let me see your power at work in my life Lord you also realize that When you think you've conquered an old sin an old habit something that was recurring and then you've experienced that deliverance as Paul says in 1st

Corinthians 10 12 Don't think you stand I Don't think you stand

You're always just one step away from falling right back into a pattern that you thought was dead

And you thought was dormant and usually when you fall back into it, it's far worse far worse

The chains are that much stronger the enemy is not as willing to let you out

The guilt is so much stronger Therefore the the deadening effects of sin and conscience all of that is at play

So don't think you're standing lest you fall. I Know there's Christians in this room that there's certain recurring things that were part of their former life or even maybe their early life in Christ and they finally repented and the

Lord gave them deliverance and I haven't even thought about that in 20 years When you hear yourself saying something like that,

I would never I haven't thought about that in 20 years 1st Corinthians 10 12 But I could do it tomorrow

Could fall right back into that, you know, here go. I by the grace of God Abraham had been faithful to God In all of these spectacular ways.

He had shown great faith, but he's still so vulnerable If the circumstance is just right and that's very instructive to us.

We can be on the mountaintops of faith We can think now that I've seen this I'll never stumble.

I'll never doubt. I'll never struggle again beware Abraham's last vision of where he had pitched his tent was the cities that God had destroyed

You would think that would have instilled Something of the fear of God that would have prevented him from stumbling like this in Genesis 20, but it doesn't but it doesn't and And you and I know what that's like We might not have physically seen something on the scale of Sodom and Gomorrah But surely if we're

Christians there's been times where we have trembled at the Word of God trembled at it where we felt like we could lie down like the reports of Under Edwards preaching and Enfield when he preached sinners in the hands of an angry

God, maybe you've had something of that experience Was that experience that profound encounter with the reality of God's holiness and his judgment upon sin?

Was that enough to turn you back from sin even just later that week? So don't be too hard on Abraham see yourself in Abraham, but notice secondly, even though Abraham's faith is faltering

God's faithfulness is not even though Abraham's faith is faltering God's faithfulness is not

Genesis 20 verse 3 God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him

Indeed you are a dead man Because of the woman whom you've taken

She is a man's wife So God here in verse 3 intervenes on Abraham's behalf

I kind of titled this God's rebuke and you're expecting God's rebuke to come to who?

Abraham You know Abraham lied saying this is my sister and now

God's gonna rebuke. Okay, let him have it Lord I can't believe he messed up like this. All right, Lord. Let him have it

All right, Abimelech you're a dead man wrong guy Lord. He was the one that was lied to you should be rebuking

Abraham He's the liar Abimelech sort of the victim here. He doesn't know it's not right for him to take it

It's not right for him to have this plurality of wives But Lord, you know if anyone's gonna be rebuked it surely it's going to be

Abraham But God is intervening on Abraham's behalf God in his grace is preventing the

Consequences of Abraham's sin and that reminds us that God's grace is often intervening on our behalf

Preventing us from the consequences of our own sin. I'm sure if you give some time to consider it

All of you here who walk with the Lord can have a testimony of how the Lord in his grace

Delivered you from the consequences of your sins That though there should have been some effect in your marriage because of your life in your children because of your life

Certain consequences to your health because of your life That God in his mercy spared you of the consequences of your sins

God in his grace intervenes on our behalf because of his covenantal love

And so even the problems that we create even the messes that we make so often

God restrains us from the full consequences of it and where he brings a consequence into our lives

He even allows that to be part of his loving chastisement part of his faithful correction

He does not turn the consequences of his people sins upon their head as judgment

For the judgment of their sin as to the guilt of it was dealt with on the cross of Jesus And therefore the consequences are restrained unless the consequences are meant to train correct or rebuke

This is extravagant grace it's as shocking to us as It is here that a bimelech is the one getting rebuked

Notice that God comes to a bimelech in a dream There's a few instances in the

Old Testament where God does Come in dreams to his people, but those are relatively rare More often than not

God comes to dreams and those who are not his people Non -israelites, he comes to Pharaoh.

He comes to Nebuchadnezzar. He comes to hear a bimelech a

Modern -day counterpart to this interestingly enough is that God seems to do this often to Muslims Especially Muslims living in parts of the world where there's no access to the gospel

No access to to Christian revelation whatsoever where maybe there's believers in Iran, for instance or in Saudi Arabia and You'd be executed if you ever made any efforts to evangelize people with the

Christian faith And it seems that there's Muslims that are brought to faith in the

Lord Initially by some dream some revelation I know of at least three testimonies to this and what strikes me about those testimonies is

They never depend upon the dream as a basis for their assurance They say they're very private about it and very secretive about it.

They don't want to come out as oh, I had this great dream It's usually a very traumatic experience for them

And if you get them to admit it It was a dream that led them to this openness to I need to know who

Jesus is And then they find the word or they find someone who can share with them Something about Jesus and from there on they become devoted followers of him

We have a modern -day counterpart to this that God often does not work in dreams in the lives of his people who have access to his word and his presence, but He will often do it to reach those who do not

God warns Abimelech in the strongest terms. You are a dead man That that's a completed action in the

Hebrew verb. It's a complete you're dead You're dead Doesn't say you will be

I'm warning you you better not go through he says you're a dead man. You are dead That's how strong the threat is.

You're a dead man. This isn't this isn't someone for you to take This is a man's wife. You're you're a dead man.

Now think of the terror of that the terror of that You are a dead man, and it leads

Abimelech to cry out in protest verse four and five Lord, will you slay a righteous nation?

Also? Did he not say to me? She is my sister and she Even she herself said he's my brother.

Yeah, I was lied to I'm the victim here in the integrity of my heart And the innocence of my hands.

I've done this so that's his plea. That's his testimony Lord, I was lied to by him and by her

I didn't do this I didn't steal in the integrity of my hands in the innocence of my heart.

I have done this essentially He's making the same plea that Abraham made in Genesis 18

Do you remember when God said that he was going to destroy the cities on the plain? Do you remember what Abraham said

Lord? Would you slay a righteous people? Lord, would you slay a righteous nation?

And The answer to that began this negotiation. No if there's even ten righteous

I will spare it notice that Abimelech is acting a lot like Abraham here Lord Would you slay a righteous nation in other words that the question is how am

I the one that has to face the guilt of this? Lord, will you slay a righteous nation? And then he puts it on them.

Did she not say did he not say? So he's protesting about his blamelessness his integrity his innocence now.

We realize as good Calvinist. He has nothing of this He has no blamelessness. He has no innocence

He has no integrity in the ultimate sense of things But he's using it in a more narrow way as to this.

I have integrity as to this I've acted innocently we find the psalmist using the same narrow Concept where they protest their righteousness or their innocence in terms of what they're suffering

So Abimelech is not saying he's perfectly righteous. He's not saying he's perfectly blameless He just says as to this

I acted in integrity. They lied to me. I'm the victim notice verse 6

Yes God says Yes, I Know you did this in the integrity of your heart.

You see God affirms that as to this you acted in integrity Yes, I know that you did this

For that's an explanatory for I also withheld you from sinning against me

Therefore I did not let you touch her And so now we have even more revelation given to Abimelech It's not that he's this stand -up guy and with integrity he did not compel himself upon Sarah It was rather the sovereign power of God Restraining him from the sin that he would otherwise do

I know you did this in the integrity of your heart for I withheld you from sinning and So God is at work restraining evil in the world

We have an example of that here turning back sins that people are capable of for the purpose of his own glory in other words

Sarah is preserved from all that Abimelech would otherwise do because God's promise must come through her and Sarah's Savior must be the promised seed that ultimately will be in the bloodline

She delivers the seed of the serpent crushing woman Now notice what the

Lord says I Withheld you from sinning against me. That's interesting, isn't it?

He doesn't say I withheld you from sinning against Sarah. I Withheld you from sinning against Abraham.

He says I withheld you from sinning against me It's just recognition that every sin is

Ultimately a sin against the Lord the most offended party when it comes to a sin is

God himself It's the basis of David's great psalm of repentance Against you only have

I sinned it's this recognition Lord you alone are The one that must avenge sin all guilt stands before you because you are the creator

You are the judge you are the one who is holy So even though there's real sin that could have been committed against Sarah God frames it in terms of Abimelech's Responsibility toward him.

I restrained you from sinning against me sins always ultimately the act of sinning against God no matter how personal or outward or Neighbor oriented the sin is it's always at first an offense against God.

That's very important to understand If we lived the

Christian life in light of that if we lived the Christian life Not as though well,

I you know, I guess I'm a little gossipy toward this person or I guess I'm kind of yeah Begrudging to this person.

I'm a little irritable toward them or I have a lack of love toward this person. I feel bad I don't want to sin against them

Usually that's not enough to sway us Because then we think but they kind of have it coming to them or well

They did this and of course, I'm gonna respond like that and people agree with me about this person In other words, if we're only ever thinking of sin in a horizontal way

It's gonna be very hard to have a shock factor or to see something repulsive about sin

But when you recognize that every sin is first and foremost a vertical offense

That it's not just about this person and what they're like and what they did and how you're gonna respond. It's about God and Whether you will offend

God That's the issue If you approach the

Christian life in this way, it should radically change the way we treat each other the way we love our neighbor

God is the most offended party when it comes to our sin Lastly notice verse 7

God says here that Abraham is a prophet Abraham is a prophet.

It's the first time the word prophet is used in Scripture. It's here in Genesis 20 and so we begin with an understanding of what a prophet is a prophet to us means a

Disclosure of God's revelation, right? And there's a sense in which

Abraham is discloser of God's revelation Certainly anytime anyone asks him about who he is and where he's from and why he's here.

He's disclosing something of God's revelation That's more of a testifying or a testimony here

God says he's a prophet and we understand that a major definition for a prophet is one who intercedes

One who intercedes So here God is going to refer Abimelech to Abraham as a prophet for the sake of Abraham interceding restore the man's wife for He is a prophet.

He will pray for you and you shall live So we have to have a definition of prophet as one who intercedes

Now I say that because I hope there'll be some application about how this relates to the church and often we talk about the church having a prophetic stance in the world the church being

Prophetic in the world or having the mantle of a prophet We don't mean the church as a disclosure of revelation pure and simple

We also mean the church as an interceder the church interceding for a wicked world the church praying for and asking

God's mercy upon the Offending world in that sense. The church is a prophet like Abraham And the church like Abraham is a failure messy stumbling

Unstable in many ways and yet that intercession is effective Look at Abraham's testimony beginning in verse 8

Abimelech rose early in the morning called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing and the men were very much afraid

And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him what have you done to us? How have

I offended you that you've brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin that great sin by the way is adultery

Thank God at this period in time adultery seems to have been seen as a great sin as a reproach upon any people

In our in our day and age. It's losing some of that shock, unfortunately

You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done and Abimelech said to Abraham What did you have in view that you've done this thing?

You notice this repetition in verse 10 It's it's a way of intensifying the narrative. He's not being casual about this.

He's he's wild -eyed. What have you done to me? Wow, you know if I didn't just have the dream

I had I would kill you How dare you threaten me? How dare you bring this reproach to me?

But I can't touch you because I'm gonna I'm a dead man if I touch you It's meant to emphasize that and Abraham now has to put together some kind of response.

Can you imagine the shame he felt? the shame he felt and Gerard brings

His wife out to him and his wife meekly humbly goes by his side tear -stained face

How his heart would have been in his feet who would have felt that the nausea of disgust

How could I have done this thing? What have I done what have I become how could

I have lapsed this far? It's just like Egypt all over again And so he fumbles out a response.

I thought Surely the fear of God is not in this place It's not an amazing thing to say it gives you a little window into how he was rationalizing this scheme as They're approaching

Gerard. You can see him going. Oh This this place is gonna be like Sodom It's gonna be like more and we know how wicked that place is

We know the outcry and I don't know what they're gonna do to us. I don't know what they're gonna do to you They're gonna kill me and take you

And so he begins to rationalize it. There's no fear of God in this place. I mean, it's one thing

I would not lie if we were going to you know, Idaho But surely there's a fear of God in Idaho But there's no fear of God in this place and therefore we have to be our own shield but to protect ourselves

Instead of realizing what he's saying Where's your fear of God Abraham? You're going to lie because you say there's no fear of God in that place.

Where's your fear of God? You're willing to lie. Where's your fear of God Abraham? He's worried about a lack of fear out there.

He should have been concerned about a lack of fear in here I'm not fearing God. It's better that they do what they must do.

God will judge I must fear him fear God keep his commandments. This is this is all that he requires.

This is the substance of life But instead he allows the fear of man to become bigger than God he allows his concern for the outcome of his actions to cloud the outcome of what

God might do and So this is part of his response. I Still kill me on account of my wife, but indeed now another justification

She is truly my sister She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother.

She's my stepsister and She became my wife and it came to pass When God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to her

This is your kindness that you should do for me in every place wherever we go. Say of me. He's my brother

That was a wrong thing for him to ask She should have said

Abe I love you. I Want to do any kindness I can for you But I'm not gonna lie for you

I'm not gonna sin against God for you. So God is now using a pagan king a pagan king

To confront his prophet to confront his man of faith to confront righteous

Abraham Righteous Abraham is being exposed and shamed and Prosecuted as it were by a pagan godless

King Abraham said I thought surely there's no fear of God in this place and yet notice what we read at the beginning in verse 8

The men were very much afraid when that dream came now, there's now there's not just a fear of God like a reverence

There's a terror. We're all dead men because Yahweh is going to judge us

Abraham had feared these men more than he feared God and he uses these excuses these Rationalizations this white lie this half lie.

Well, technically it's true Yeah, technically it's true, but you're not using it that way. You're stretching that technicality in order to deceive you're just lying the motive is what counts the heart is what counts a

Technical lie is a lie. A white lie is a lie a Half lie is a lie a half truth is half lie

He's lying He's a liar. It's what Scripture says liars have no inheritance in the kingdom of God One whose life is habitually given over to lying they have no inheritance in the kingdom.

It's amazing to me how Far someone can go being caught in a web of their own lives and how hard it becomes to admit to them that they're a liar

I know no one here. No one. I don't think anyone would even know but I know someone Never met someone that so definitively could be called a liar

Whose whole way and approach to life is lying lying about everything Lying so much that you're lying about things that don't even need to be lied about and you begin to question

I know that's a lie, but I don't know the motivation you just lying to lie now just pulling stuff out of thin air

I Forget the Puritan who's said it it was sage advice. He said if you if you struggle with lying

Using little white lies or half lies to try to give yourself a better appearance a reputation to prevent some consequence

He said as soon as it comes out of your mouth and you feel that twinge and you're kind of going on It's done now. He says no. No, no, it's not done now

Immediately expose it Sam. I'm sorry. What I just said to you is a lie. So you'll be so humiliated so embarrassed

That you'll stop lying if you if you make that a habit you'll stop lying. I'm sorry. I just lied to you

And people are kind of like, okay I'm sorry. I just I had to tell you the spontaneous confession

If only we had that kind of sensitivity to sin notice also that he compelled his wife to lie

Does that does that sound like Ananias and Sapphira? There's this scheme they work out together and you always wonder who was really

Maneuvering who was pulling the levers here? No matter they but they both face the same judgment And so even submissiveness is no excuse for sin, right?

Even submissiveness is no excuse for sin fear. God keep his commandments and I think

Sometimes a wife is kind of happy to go along with something that I know this is kind of wrong My conscience is perking me, but hey, you're the leader.

I'm just gonna I'm going along with you You know, you're the one that's gonna get struck by this not so God puts a spouse in our life as a as a means of grace as A splash of cold water.

You can't do this. What are you thinking? You can't do this Sometimes Alicia to me is is is that I love her so much for it

She's just well, I hope you're not thinking that Okay She's like a watchdog a bulldog

We need that we need that encouragement that transparency in our relationships Notice that we begin to sympathize with Abimelech even more

We're frustrated with Abraham. We see all of his excuses amounting to nothing but a lack of faith fueled by a fear of man

But we're sympathetic to Abimelech in a lot of ways and we can't forget that God said no I restrained

Abimelech We can't forget that unless we become too sympathetic, but notice there is this dynamic

Abraham is acting like we would expect Abimelech to act Abimelech is acting like we would expect

Abraham to act. It's a very sad thing when Someone who's not a believer who has no testimony of salvation

Someone whose life is in rebellion against God acts the way That a Christian should act and a

Christian acts the way we would expect them to act Let's say that's a sad tragic display to the world

Abimelech confronts Abraham about this sin Abimelech the pagan king confronts the prophet notice that God will often do that in our lives.

God will use wayward people Godless people to expose sin in our lives

He will do that to humble us He will do that to to bring us low

So we never puff ourselves up in our own self -estimation that we see just how far we can fall and how easily that Pressure or that circumstance can bring us to our knees

But despite all that Though we're sympathetic to Abimelech though Abimelech has integrity

Though Abimelech is acting like Abraham should despite the fact that Abraham is this is this knotted mess of failure

This man who allows his wife to go into a harem this liar who gets caught in his own lies

He can only hang his head in shame. He he doesn't even seem very repentant He just seems to be fluttering with excuses still and though he's this failure, isn't it amazing?

That this man of integrity still must go through him

To receive blessing it is Abimelech nevertheless

Who needs Abraham's intercession? Though though Abimelech has the integrity here though in many ways

He's the victim though Abraham is the guilty sinner though. Abraham is the failure Abimelech needs

Abraham Abimelech must go through Abraham. There is no other intercession that will do

God has said you must go to him He's a prophet if you want to be delivered if you want to be spared if you want to be cleansed

You must go through him. You must go through my Failing stumbling son because he's my son and so we see this intercession

Verses 14 through 16 Abimelech took sheep oxen male and female servants gave them to Abraham And he restored

Sarah his wife to him and Abimelech said see My land is before you dwell where it pleases you

Do you notice that he came in afraid that everything would be stripped from him

How much of my possessions will the king of Gerard take? What will I be left with?

Will I even be allowed on the land? Will he just plunder me utterly and I'll be cast out on my own the most

I can do is sacrifice my wife Maybe that will build an alliance and he'll at least me allow me to dwell in the land

And then I don't know what will happen He's just so consumed by a theory can't even think a year ahead a year ahead to God's promise

But what does God do? Does he allow Abraham to be plundered? Is there a raid on his servants as his wife and and all of his protection and all of his possessions?

Carted off as he punted out of the land No He's added to Here's more cattle.

Here's more servants now pick any part of my land you want and set up shop

It's all yours This is utter blessing. This is beyond Abraham's wildest dream times are tough.

That's why we're here I'm expecting to get stripped away and now I get blessed now I get more and Abimelech said to Sarah behold

I've given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Indeed. This vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody

Thus she was rebuked What's the rebuke there? If rebuke is a thousand pieces of silver.

I want to be rebuked by the king of Gerard What's the rebuke? Well, the thousand pieces of silver would have been a token a bride price

He's saying here's your bride price back Right. I have not violated her.

I you know, you can have her back. Nothing has happened in the eyes of all She is returned to her honor to her place with integrity

So he does that as an outward display of the fact that though she was taken as a bride now She's being returned and here's the full amount

This is an extravagant bride price that it calculations very over time for how to calculate pieces of silver which would relate to a shekel a

Conservative estimate is this is 25 pounds of silver Thus she was rebuked.

Well, what does that mean? I think it's in this little exchange behold He says to Sarah he looks at her eyes.

This would have stung Sarah to behold. I've given to your brother a thousand pieces of silver

Words, I I know he's your husband But he doesn't say I've given to your husband.

He says it's a rebuke. I've given to your brother I must have stung for Sarah my brother my husband a

Thousand pieces of silver It's given to cover the offense and so we see

Abraham sinned But Abraham is blessed God keeps

Abraham from the consequences of sin not sparingly but abundantly

Not only does he prevent the consequences. He returns blessing upon Abraham and who's the one that suffers a

Beamelech though a beamelech acted in integrity for what he knew. He's the one facing judgment

He's the one that is a dead man. So to speak it almost seems unfair We almost questioned

God said will you slay a righteous? How about you just you know deal with the offender here? It's Abraham not a beamelech

But we remember this covenantal commitment We remember

Genesis 19 God remembering Abraham I've committed myself to bless him and to bless those who bless him and to curse those who curse him

Whatever my servant does I've committed myself by my word by my honor to bless him and so Blessing I will bless him.

So as a result of his failure Abraham somehow Incalculably becomes wealthier more established more secure

God is abundantly gracious to Abraham when the direct result of Abraham's sin

Should have been punishment should have been stripping away should have been worse than he hoped to gain moving to Gerar all but for God's Covenantal commitment

Abraham would be ruined Sarah would be ruined and the promise would come to nothing

But all because of God's covenantal commitment Abraham is blessed

Sarah is blessed and the promise is sure Do you know that it is the kindness of God that is meant to lead you to repentance?

This was not to be the parade to a new dwelling place in Gerar I Guess we better start messing up more, huh?

Why don't we go tell a few more lies and see if God's gonna bless us? That's Roman six, right? Shall we sin that grace may abound?

No This would have been a lot like Egypt a lot of new servants a lot of new cattle Some camels like we said the

Ferraris of the ancient world a lot of silver now you know, I don't know the poor servant had to carry 25 pounds of silver and Then a lot of humility and sorrow a lot of humility a lot of repentance

Would you bless me still my god? Would you bless me still?

Surely there were sodomites that wouldn't have done what I just did Surely there were sodomites that would have acted with more integrity than I just did and that's without the revelation

Without the promise without the feast I shared with you and you would bless me still How do you think

Abraham would have responded to that kind of blessing? It couldn't have been with this triumphant boast It couldn't have been with this jubilation

It must have been with contrition And shame in a tenderness toward the

Lord a real searching of a soul How could this kindness be shown to me still and I think that's what

Paul's after in Romans 2 for it's this Kindness of God that is meant to lead you to repentance There's not a

Christian here that shouldn't think of the ways that God's kindness is meant to bring you to repentance

Do I still deserve to have these things that I have to live the life that I live A life packed in with so much undeserved mercy

How could I still be receiving this kindness Lord? Unless you're leading me to repent more and more to see you as more gracious than I imagine you to be

More loving and constant to see your fierce covenantal commitment despite all my failures to never doubt that your purpose is to bless

And when you bring famine in the land or when you bring a trial Lord, I'll never doubt I'll never doubt your purpose to bless because you filled my life with good things

There's not a covering over of Abraham's sin here at all it really is a

Presentation of his weakness his failure and yet he's still a father of our faith

Now things that are recorded about Abraham in the New Testament don't include chapter 20 you know

Romans 4 doesn't talk about Genesis 20, but Of course anyone who was being taught about Abraham would understand the context of Abraham's life of faith

And we realize that just like Abraham When we think we're standing we're prone to falling when we think we're past that it will never come back

We stumble right into it when we think that well now surely I've been taught enough and I'm aware enough and I'm secure enough

And then all it just takes is some trial some health some some tragedy some depression

To go back on all that you thought could never happen again, but look at God's covenantal commitment

If that doesn't motivate you To fight the good fight of faith to resist sin in your life to chase out the foxes in the vineyard

I don't know what will Look at his graciousness. Look at his covenantal jealousy It's all meant to lead you to this kind of repentance to to encourage you on the way.

Keep conquering Don't don't lose heart. Keep advancing in your life. Look at the God who serves

He remains sovereign over us even when we're doubting him. His care is sovereign. He restrains those who would wound us or hurt us

He remains gracious even when we sin Who could imagine serving a God like this who blesses our failures?

Who pours out blessings upon us despite our stumbling and this is the God we worship and the

God we enjoy the God we come to Know and all of that goodness and kindness and abundance is meant to lead us to more and more humility more and more repentance

We read the last verses of our chapter verses 17 and 18 Abraham prayed to God and God healed

Abimelech his wife and his female servants and they bore children For the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife because of Sarah Abraham's wife

God used sinful Abraham to pray for Abimelech it was sinful

Abraham's prayer that brought healing to Abimelech and his household and arguably his kingdom

It was sinful Abraham's prayer that God used to restore life and a generation to come in Abimelech's family

It was sinful Abraham's prayer Remember in Genesis 19 that delivered Lot from Sodom So even though his faith is faltering

God uses sinful Abraham to bring blessing to the world Abimelech must have been shocked by all of this

You can imagine him around the banquet table some months later

You know some relative or something comes to visit him and he's telling about it. I don't even I still don't know what happened

All I know is I was lied to and I take this elderly woman into my care into my harem

This should be a good situation Then God comes to me in a dream says he's gonna kill me Says I have to go to the guy who lied to me so that he can pray for me so that he won't kill me

That's all I know you make sense of that. I don't know it must have been shaking his head

But Abraham is a prophet Abraham now has a testimony Abraham would have had an opportunity to tell

Abimelech You must understand why God called me out of her of the caldines and why he came to you in that dream and why he

Won't allow this to happen to Sarah. You must understand though. I failed and I've doubted but please please hear this he came to us and said within the year a child is coming a child of promise and I know what the the faithful of old have said this child

Will be a means of delivering those who are in the bondage to sin. This child will be a serpent crusher

And so it's not because of my failure It's not because of my faith. It's not because of my success

It's because of his promise his covenantal commitment king of Gerar. You must know It's not really about me

It's really about him. It's really about his covenant and his promise and Oh King that you would humble yourself and cry out and become part of that covenant in his sovereignty

God protected Sarah in His sovereignty God protected Abraham in his sovereignty God protected his promise despite our failures our stumbling as as wild as they may be

God Sovereignly keeps his promise And so though we are sinful

God will use our intercession our prophetic stance in the world as a means of blessing, you know, like I know

There's many people in the world who say the church The church. I don't want to go to the church.

It's full of hypocrites It's I know Christians. I grew up in a church that people are there are worse, you know

I have a group of friends. They might not believe in God, but they're authentic. They're genuine We all love each other and support each other and we just want each other to have the best life and I'm not going to A church,

I'm not gonna be judged and by a bunch of people whose lives are in some ways worse than mine No, I'm not going there.

I have integrity. I'm authentic. I'm not gonna go to the church Point them to Genesis 20

No argument the church is full of hypocrites The church is full of sinners The church is full of people who have all sorts of catastrophic failures in the very moment you'd expect them to have the greatest success

No one's arguing that But God said you will not be cleansed

You will not be healed You cannot be saved Unless you come to church

Because church is where you're gonna hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done on the cross to save sinners like you and like all the sinners who come to church every week and So you might feel like the church is the last place you want to be just like a beam elect thought

Abraham's the last person I want to go to But it's the one place you must

And that ought to encourage our hearts brothers and sisters that our father in the face faith was also a failure

And though we as a church we as God's people

We as the faithful often fail often feel badly often fail miserably

God's promise will not be swayed will not be turned aside The consequences of our sins will be restrained and the blessing will be poured out on our heads all because of God's covenantal commitment

I'm looking at a tie. I Have so much left and I'm just gonna pass over it.

We've had so many long weeks So let me try to tie this up There'll be another day where I'll have five points about the fear of man today is not that day

Spurgeon said sometimes the Lord leaves his children Withdraws his divine and flowings of his grace

Permits them to begin to sink in order that they may understand that faith is not their own work.

It's at first the gift of God And they must always be maintained and kept alive in the heart by a fresh influence of the

Holy Spirit Recognize in these times when you're heading south because the going is tough

But these are the times that God is going to test you and he may test you by bringing your hearts low Allowing that opposition to seem really fierce those those situations to come to just fill you with dread and anxiety

For you to start to think I need to become my own shield. I need to fend for myself I know what

God's Word says, but I've just got to make things happen Be aware that God is testing you and wants to show his faithfulness to protect you and provide for you.

Don't don't lose sight of that Remember also that when and where you fail

God's mercy will not abandon you When and where you fail not as a license to sin we always have to be careful

We can easily qualify this and make it a very different point, but that's not the point I want to make Christian only

Christians Christians when you fail God's mercy does not abandon you

His promise is sure not because of your success or your failure. His promise is sure because of Christ's blood

So in our ongoing battle with sin, even the sins we fully well

No We should not commit but we do commit those Roman seven dynamics in our lives the sins that were even ashamed to admit the habitual sins that still in many ways

Have those chain marks over our flesh sins that damage us and the people that we love and people beyond that even those failures even those sins even those struggles will not prompt

God to abandon us and to to make his mercy forsake us and Therefore we ought to keep hard and we ought to strive.

We ought to resist sin We have to turn to the one who's able to keep us from stumbling. We ought to depend upon the grace that he provides

And when you do that, you'll find that these sins actually become in a very strange way They actually become part of the way that God blesses your life

Because they keep you so low so dependent upon him So that he even allows the sins and the failures

To be these milestones in your life as a testimony of his grace to you. It's a lot to wrap our minds around Why would

God if God's able to restrain the sin of Abimelech? Why can't he restrain my sin? If God can sanctify

Abimelech in that instance, and I'm crying out to him to sanctify me. Why won't he? I've been walking with him.

Why won't he deliver me? I've been plagued by this and he knows it doesn't he care for me? We say yes, but in his mercy which has not abandoned you though You feel it in his mercy

He desires you to see more and more and more of him and so he will not heal you that you might go away and never

Turn to him. He'll allow you to see your flesh for what it is To live your life in prayer and repentance to turn to him and see his marvelous care and the grace that can never be extinguished to you

The Scottish Covenanter James Fraser This is a journal entry. He said Lest you think

I'm going somewhere weird with this. This is this has Puritan backing to it Remember James Fraser the

Covenanters faced such extreme persecution in Scotland in the 17th century

And this is what he said I find advantages by my sins I find advantages by my sins

I May say as mr. Fox. That's John Fox of the book of Martyrs.

I may say as mr. Fox My sins have in a manner Done me more good than my graces

Grace and mercy has abounded where sin has abounded and I'm made more humble

More watchful More zealous against myself To see a greater need to depend more upon him and to love him all the more you see in that way

Those those failures in the Christian life become means of blessing and When you're feeling and you're brought low and that shame is exposing you and you have nowhere to turn but to God and repentance know

That you're a breath away from 25 pounds of silver In other words, God will flood your life with blessing and we began the service with this

For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place

With him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble

To revive the heart of the contrite ones if we are faithless brothers and sisters, he remains faithful He cannot deny himself.

Let's pray Father we thank you that indeed so often we are faithless and Always you are faithful and we recognize it is not because of us of what we deserve but only because of your commitment because you cannot deny yourself and Therefore Lord, how great is

The reward because it's sure it's established not on our efforts

Whether good or bad not on our successes or our failures, but it's established Upon what you've done in and through your son

Jesus our Lord We thank you Lord that in the greatest failures of our lives

Lord. You have a design of grace When our lives belong to the Lord Jesus when we submit to him and surrender to him

Lord and I pray Lord that if there's an Abimelech here this morning

In other words someone who feels that they've had some integrity some success someone who's perhaps curious

About the faith, but not not subject to it someone who? Has not actually entered into this covenant who's not found this presence in this mercy

We pray that you would make an Abimelech into an Abraham even this morning we pray

Lord as as We see in our father in the faith, we pray Lord that you would help us

To put aside these sins that so easily entangle us to recognize the habitual sins the foxes

To see the patterns of sin to be more aware and on guard when our lives face trials or circumstances to see that you are a

God who tests us in order that you might prove the work that you're doing in us and That proving comes as a result of bringing us low of humbling us

Lord of bringing us to repentance For indeed the Christian life is a life of repentance. I Pray Lord if there's a brother or sister in a in a dry place in a dry season who's despairing

Who's beginning to doubt strengthen their resolve Lord? Let them see your purpose to bless even in the midst of their failures

Lord might they they see your loving kindness your fierce Covenantal commitment poured out to them

Lord It's unimaginable to think of the glory that awaits us Lord and and the awe that ought to melt us before you and fill us

With a fervent desire to be renewed after your own image to walk in holiness Lord to put aside lawlessness

Help us Lord to see these things Help us to find your grace at work in our lives your mercy renewed every morning

Lord Prevent us from having these catastrophic stumbles

This poor witness and testimony to the world Even as we're thankful Lord and we rejoice that despite our failures you still use your sinful failing people as The means to bring blessing and the revelation of Christ into the world