Near Disaster Averted Genesis 20:1-18

Last week you heard from Rob on the will of God and I trust that was a blessing to each of you. I listened to his sermon and really enjoyed it. And so that was last week. So we took a break from our sermon series through Genesis and two weeks ago We finished up the story on Lot.

We learned that Lot's life is primarily a story about what not to do. We saw that we are not to be fearful people. We are not to let others Influence us into sin and we are not to be known for egregious sins in our lives like a lot like a lot was.

Returning to Abraham After the Story of Lot

Today we are shifting the focus back to the life of Abraham. Two weeks ago We saw Abraham standing on the high hill as he looked down toward the smoke going up from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And what we are going to see is that he leaves that location to go to another. Following the life of Abraham has been quite an adventure. We've been with this guy a long time. We've seen him travel all over the place.

We have seen him do good things and we've seen him do foolish things. And his life has been like the wild thing roller coaster at Valleyfair, you know goes up and up and up. He's doing great. He's doing great also in crash.

He he goes down. Many ups and downs in his life and at times he has demonstrated faithfulness that is worthy of admiration. Other times you wonder why he is referred to by the Apostle Paul as the man of faith.

We pick up Abraham's journey again in chapter 20 that this sermon today is titled near disaster averted. And we will be looking at all of chapter 20 today, which is verses 1 through 18. If you're using a red Bible, it's on pages 17 and 18 in the pews.

Our proposition our big idea is the Lord is intimately involved in the affairs of sinful humans for his good purposes. The Lord is intimately involved in the affairs of sinful humans for his good purposes and we're gonna see two ways how in this text the first way how is he bears with believers as they fall into repetitive sins.

He bears with believers as they fall into repetitive sins and we'll see this in verses 1 and 2. So I'm gonna begin by reading verse 1 and we'll pick up where Abraham is now from there. Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and sure and he sojourned in Gerar.

Now in verse 1 says from there. What this means is that Abraham went back to Hebron after looking at the destruction in the valley region. Remember Hebron was his hometown. He then left Hebron to go south to the Negev.

The net the Negev was located in southern Israel. So he went from the Dead Sea. He went west and then he went south. And he went to a place That is still in the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is the promised land of the land of the Lord promised to Abraham.

So Abraham is still within the borders of the land by going to this region. But the question that arises here is why did he leave Hebron? We do not know for sure. But the reason may be that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was either such a such a traumatic event.

That he needed to leave town and sometimes people have they just need to go because something horrible happened. I just need a change of scenery or. The area may still have been smoky or spent or smelt like sulfur that he had to leave.

He had to evacuate because the smoke was was spreading west toward his home. Now what we are going to see in verse 2 is that Abraham commits a grave sin and He commits a sin that he committed many years before and what we're gonna see is that he did not learn his lesson, and we'll see this in verse 2 and Abraham said of Sarah his wife.

She is my sister and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took.

Sarah.

Now you might say Haven't we seen this before? The answer is yes, sadly we have. At this stage in the narrative Abraham is 99 years old. He committed the same sin with a different people when he was 75.

What we have to understand is that at this point in history there was a danger of a man's wife being ruthlessly stolen from him. These were savage times. Abraham would have been aware of this so you can see why he did what he did.

You might be able to remember earlier in Genesis 12 10 through 20 when Abraham went to Egypt with his wife Sarah. He was worried about the Pharaoh and the Egyptians stealing his wife. God punished the Egyptians by sending a plague on them, and it became known to the Pharaoh why the plague happened.

The Pharaoh took The wife of God's blessed man to be his wife and what Genesis 12 3 tells us is those who honor Abraham will be honored. Those who dishonor him will be cursed and so what happened to the Egyptians and Pharaoh is that they were cursed.

Because they dishonored Abraham. And what happened is the plague came upon them and. And this forced them to return Sarah to Abraham and then Abraham went back to the land of Canaan. The same sin that Abraham committed with with the Pharaoh is the same sin.

He commits in our text with Abimelech king of Gerar. This is how sin works. It has a Repetitiveness to it. At times as you fight your sin you are left scratching your head. Wondering why do I keep doing the same thing over and over again?

Some sins that we fight are a lifelong battle and the goal of the Christian life is to kill this sin little by little and day.

By day.

Rob talked about that last night God's desire or last week. He talked about this how God's desire is for you to grow little by little day by day. Into Christ's likeness. Romans 8 13 says but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

As you as you fight sin, you should not be discouraged. The Bible tells us that it will be a fight. Scripture would not give us all the commands to turn from sin and to put it to death. If the sin in our hearts was not there to fight it is a fight.

But it's a fight we can be successful in with the Holy Spirit. My old pastor once said the presence of sin is not the problem. It is the absence of repentance. That is the problem. So are you sorrowful for your sin?

Are you desiring to turn from it? Are you seeing progress in your life? The Bible teaches that those who continue in sin unrepentant the whole way through show that they are not truly believers. First John 3 9 says that no one born of God makes a practice of sinning.

What that means is that you're comfortable in your sin. You can stay there without feeling convicted. On the other hand believers still sin, but it is different. The believers life is a life of continual repentance turning from it.

Desiring to grow desiring to be more like Christ. And what repentance means is an acknowledgement of sin sorrow for it and turning from it. This turn is not a perfect turn, but you should see some progress of growth in holiness in your life.

So you would think that Abraham had learned his lesson like we would learn our lesson and never sin the same ways again. I mean, I'm scratching my head sometimes when I sin when why do I keep doing this?

But this is not the case. We all we know this all too well, and we should not be surprised to see Abraham commit the same horrible sin twice. Because we don't often learn our lesson just like Abraham doesn't learn his lesson.

And he does the same sin here for the same reason he did before when he was in Egypt. He wanted to protect himself in these ancient times. The wife would be stolen and the husband would be killed. By strangers in a foreign land so you can see why Abraham is telling the king of Gerar that Sarah is my sister.

They would take Sarah and leave Abraham alone by believing this lie that he told him. And that is what a sinner does in a situation like this. He is resorting to a sinful solution and not a godly one.

He's not trusting the Lord here to take to take care of him. What Abraham is doing here is just silly. The Lord had protected Abraham in chapter 12 by delivering him from the threat. So he should have known okay.

The Lord was was looking after me. I don't need to do that same thing again and Abraham knew that God was for him and protecting him. He and he just saw the power of God destroy an entire region as God brought judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

The root of Abraham's sin here is unbelief. After knowing all of this about God and seeing the work of God. How could he distrust him so much to make up his own foolish plan? That's how sin works. It's irrational it doesn't make any sense.

Sin makes people do things that make absolutely no sense and we know this from our own lives. You see people ruin their lives by committing a major sin and you look at what their life would have been like if they never sinned that way and You see how much better their life would have been how much trouble it brought upon them.

We look at look at the life of King David his sin with Bathsheba. Look how horrible it was. Look up look how much suffering he went through because of that sinful act He committed with her and what makes this sin worst of all is that God's promise of offspring is put in jeopardy.

Remember, he's been making this promise to Abraham long ago that this chosen child is gonna come from Abraham and Sarah and no other way. If that Bimelech takes Sarah as his wife and gets her pregnant the promise is over.

This child is supposed to come through Abraham not a foreign king. Abraham may have thought the promise could still happen because he would still be Sarah's husband, even though a Bimelech would not know it.

But Abraham should have known that God would not work with that deceptiveness. It's sad to see Abraham revert to his old sinful ways. But what we need to see here is that once again, the Lord is not done with Abraham.

He's not giving up on this promise. He's great promises that he's made to him. One of the major themes of Genesis that we have seen is the faithfulness of God. He stands by his people. He stands with this man of faith, even though he stumbles.

Abraham is still considered faithful and the Lord stands with him. And when we when we fall into sin as long as it is Accompanied by repentance which shows that we are true believers in Christ. As long as that is there the Lord stands with us.

Because if you're not a true believer You it may get to a point where the Lord just gives you over to your sin. Just like Romans 1 describes he just gives you over but if you're faithful if you are his he's not gonna neglect you.

He's not gonna give up on you. He's gonna stand with you and we have that encouragement and we see that right here. So we see the Lord is intimately involved in the affairs of sinful humans for his good purposes.

And the first way how we see in this text is that he bears with believers as they fall into repetitive sins. The Lord is intimately involved in the affairs of sinful humans for his good purposes. In the second way.

How is God is sovereign over the actions of believers and unbelievers and we'll see this in verses 3 through 13. This is the two-point sermon so Point point two is a little bit bigger than point one.

God's Sovereignty Over Believers and Unbelievers

Now in the account with the Pharaoh in chapter 12 the Egyptians knew that Sarah was Abraham's wife because plagues came upon them. This was how God made it known to them in Verse 3 we are going to see that the Lord makes it crystal clear to Abimelech that he had crossed a line.

This is what the Lord says to Abimelech in verse 3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him behold You are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man's wife.

The Lord comes to Abimelech in a dream and makes it known to him that he is in big trouble. God is threatening to bring judgment of death upon Abimelech because he took Sarah to be his wife. We need to remember That you do not mess with Abraham even when he does something very foolish.

Genesis 12 3 those who dishonor Abraham will be cursed. Abraham is God's chosen man. Abraham is the one with whom God has made an everlasting covenant. The Lord is 100 committed to him and God doesn't break his promises from the man.

Abraham is going to come offspring a nation and land and The most important aspect of the promise of God that he made to Abraham is the offspring promise. This is so important because none of these promises none of these forever promises are going to happen without the all-important offspring promise.

Because I ask you a question. Who is eventually going to come from this line of offspring? Jesus he's the one we're gonna be preaching all week to these kids Sunday through Thursday. Jesus is the one who's coming from this line.

From Jesus saving work on the cross would come the true offspring of Israel those Israelites who believe in their Messiah in the nations. That's us here in Eureka, Wisconsin. We are the nations the global church is mostly made up of the nations with some Jews who are also among that group and Jesus is the most important offspring that joins us all together.

He joins Israel the people of God in the Old Testament and the church together through this one man Jesus Christ. And when a biblical act takes Sarah to be his wife the offspring promise is threatened and the Lord tells of him.

Like you are a dead man. Sometimes you hear that in movies. You're a dead man. The Lord said that first, right? To a bimalic. Everything seems to come back come from the Bible even even things like this.

What we are going to see is that the Lord was sovereignly gracious to a bimalic. But before we see that we will see a bimalic defense in verses four and five. This is what he says to the Lord. Okay, now a bimalic had not approached her.

So he said Lord Will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me? She is my sister and and she herself said He is my brother in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands. I have done this.

When a bimalic addresses the Lord here, this does not mean that he knew him personally. A bimalic was a foreign King who is probably a polytheist and what that means is that he believed in many gods. So when the God of Abraham the only true God addresses him a bimalic probably just sees him as one of the gods out there.

It is important for us to understand how a pagan King would respond to a deity addressing. You're addressing him in a dream a Bimalic thinks about divine justice as he addresses God and he pleads innocence.

The king like all people had a sense of right and wrong. Romans 2 15 says that everybody has the law of God written on their hearts. Everybody Knows right and wrong to a certain point including this king right here and In verse 4 he said he had not approached her.

What this means is that he did not have sexual relations with her so a bimalic is saying I am innocent on that charge. In verse 5 he tells the Lord that he did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife. He thought she was Abraham's sister as they both told him this.

So he is telling God I am innocent of that also now in verse 6 We are going to read something very interesting. I've been like is innocent of the charge that he did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife.

But he has God to think that he did not cross the line by having sexual relations with Sarah. So we see this in verse 6. Then God said to him in the dream. Yes I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart and it was I who kept you from sinning against me.

Therefore I did not let you touch her. The Lord tells of him like that he knows that he was ignorant of the fact that Sarah was Abraham's wife. But the reason he did not have sexual relations with Sarah is because God kept him from doing it.

God was merciful to this king and this brings up an interesting discussion on the sovereignty of God. Now what does sovereign mean? That's not a word you probably hear every day. The word sovereign has the words reign over in the word we talked about this in our small group on Wednesdays.

What this is describing is God's governance over the universe his governance over the entire universe. God is sovereign over every detail that happens in all of history. Ephesians 111 says that all things happen according to the counsel of his will.

Even apparent random events are not random as Proverbs 1633 says it says the lot is cast into the lap. But it's every decision is from the Lord. That's in the Bible. The lot is cast in the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.

God is sovereign over this over the decisions that make that you make in your life. You have a free will in the sense that you willingly do what you want to do. No one no one's ever holding a gun to your head.

But God is over it all. God is writing your story, but you are acting it out. Psalm 139 16 says your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for Me when as yet there was none of them.

This is a great mystery. But this is what the scripture teaches. God is sovereign and we willingly make our own choices. I've been like willingly chose. Not yet to have sexual relations with Sarah and yet the Lord tells us in verse 6.

It was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore. I Did not let you touch her. The Lord was gracious in not letting a bit more I go down this path. And for those of you here today who know Jesus Christ is your Lord Savior and treasure, which I know that many of you in this room.

We need to be amazed at how gracious the Lord has been to us. He has led you to follow him and he has sent you down the good path the path of life. The the path the fullness of joy that that's what the path of life is the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

It is the Lord who has been gracious to you. Sometimes we think you know what if I just had this life out there, you know that these people look like they're so happy. They're doing but you but if you know Christ, you know what the Lord has been so good to you.

He's been so gracious to you. That's what we must understand. Your life could have turned out different. But it hasn't because the Lord has kept you from sinning in egregious ways and going down the wrong path.

We see the Lord sparing of him like by saying I did not let you sin in this way. After the Lord explains to him that he has been gracious to him. By not letting him defile Sarah. He commands him to do something that will spare his life and the life of his family in verse 7.

Now then return the man's wife. For he is a prophet. This is what the Lord saying to a bit like so that he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not return her know that you shall surely die.

You and all who are yours. The Lord commands a bit like to make things right now that he knows what he knows he is to return Sarah to him. To Abraham the Lord told a bit like something about Abraham. He told them that he is a prophet and he will pray for you.

This is the first time in Scripture that the word prophet shows up. A prophet was someone who God communicated with in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the Apostles were the ones who performed that function of God communicating with them that with them and then them communicating to humans.

We have already seen the continual communication the Lord has had with Abraham. One thing that a prophet was able to do was to intercede or to pray on behalf of people. After the Lord shared information with them.

We already saw Abraham do that with Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord told him I'm gonna destroy this place and Abraham said If there's anyone righteous, will you spare this place? We've already seen this.

And we'll see Abraham intercede on the on behalf of a Bimalic later on. At the end of verse 7 the Lord delivers a warning to this King if he does not return Sarah He will die along with his family. We already talked about the sovereignty of God that God is over every detail of our lives.

Yet the Lord holds us firmly responsible for our actions. We can never say God made me do it. James 1 13 through 15 says let no one say when he is tempted. I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts.

No one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin. The Lord is sovereign over a Bimalic actions yet. He tells him you better return Sarah to Abraham or you will be put to death.

This is called human responsibility. By feet by theologians this means that you are responsible for your actions whether your actions are praiseworthy or or deserving of punishment and This is true. While God is sovereign over everything.

And again how God's sovereignty and human responsibility work is a great mystery. But we see scripture teach to teach it consistently from Genesis like right here all the way to Revelation. And not only does the Lord sovereignly keep a Bimalic from sinning against Abraham's wife Sarah.

The Lord also uses a Bimalic to sovereignly rebuke Abraham. So we see the Lord's hand in this through a Bimalic words to Abraham in verses 8 through 10. So we'll see the Lord use a Bimalic to rebuke him.

So a Bimalic grows early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things and the men were very much.

Afraid.

Then a Bimalic called Abraham and said to him.

What have you done to us?

And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done and a Bimalic said to Abraham. What did you see that you did this thing?

This King is angry at Abraham and rightfully so Why do I say that the Lord uses him to rebuke Abraham? Verse 6 just said that the Lord graciously kept him from sinning to prevent him from getting Sarah pregnant.

The Lord restrains a Bimalic to preserve the promise of offspring through Abraham. Now, he uses him to discipline Abraham. Okay, so he's he's he's working through this man. We see that here and as a Bimalic says this he and his men were probably thinking about what could come upon them.

The people in this region knew what the God of Abraham did to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that is why at the end of verse 8 it says they were afraid as A Bimalic rebukes Abraham. He is clearly outraged that Abraham would put his people in this position put him and his people in this position and in the ancient Near East and What this place was called during this time laws condemned and adultery with the sentence of death.

So he knows that if he commits adultery he is deserving of death. Even though he didn't he didn't know personally the God of Abraham so a Bimalic tells Abraham that you have brought on me a great sin and He did something that ought not to be done.

And this is very likely a God-designed rebuke out of the mouth of a Bimalic. As commentator Ken Matthews notes one cannot help but think that the rebuke has a divine cast to it. Just as God choreographed a Bimalic's repentance.

Does the king speak unwittingly the words of divine correction to Abraham? Okay, so we see here the Lord used the pagan king to discipline his chosen man Abraham. Then Abraham gives his unconvincing response to to defend his actions in verses 11 through 13.

Okay, so now Abraham's gonna try to defend himself here of why he did what he did. Abraham said I did it because I thought There is no fear of God at all in this place and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides she is indeed my sister the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother and She became my wife and when God caused me to wander from my father's house I said to her this is the kindness you must do it me at every place to which we come say of me.

He is my brother. So Abraham gives two reasons why he lied to a Bimalic the king of Gerar and end the the Pharaoh back in chapter 12.

He thought.

This region he sojourned in was an immoral place where there was no fear of God. Okay, so he didn't think very highly of a bunch of godless people. I can't trust you. You know, it'd be like going to a Place in our world and just thinking okay, we need to come up with a plan here because this place isn't isn't good.

The second reason was that Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. So this was a half-truth as they share the same father, but not mother. Abraham told Sarah from the moment they became sojourners when the Lord called them all the way back in chapter 12 That they would protect themselves by telling this foolish lie.

And what is interesting is that Abraham hoped that either Pharaoh in the first case or the king and Gerar would not would not do. What what they did he was hoping they'd say okay and then let him go but what happened was okay.

Like, okay. Well, no, then they took him as their wife. So so the plan.

Backfired.

And at the root of this sin for Abraham is unbelief he did not trust that the Lord was going to take care of him and so he took things into his own hands and The Lord uses a Bimalic the king of Gerar to rebuke him for his foolishness.

Has the Lord ever used anyone in your life? To rebuke you. To offer correction. A number of years ago, I Was at a friend's house From my old church and he's a godly man and I was staying at his house for a few days and we had some other friends who came over to visit us and I Like to joke around with people like Mark knows this all too.

Well mark and I joke around quite a bit and sometimes it could go too far. It what happened was is that I took it too far with this with this other friend that we had and so when they left He told me in private.

He said Seth you went too far. You you poked at him too much you to the point where he actually felt like I was threatening, you know I was threatening him in some way. And so I considered what he said the correction that he offered and.

And I actually read. I sat down just to read my Bible and I was actually going through Proverbs at that time. And it was the Lord's providence. I opened up to Proverbs chapter 9 and this is what I read.

Verses 7 through 9 whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser.

Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. Then it's an amazing proverb. What the Lord taught me there was that wise men receive correction because it is an opportunity to grow in holiness and be wiser.

And so with my friend I could when I read that I was like, okay, I gotta apologize here. He's right. I did cross the line and this is an opportunity for me to grow so that I don't do these same things in the future so I called the the friend up and I apologized and he received the apology and I was so grateful.

The Lord showed me this and when wicked people are corrected as this proverb says. They continue in their wickedness because foolish people always think they're right. They always do even when they're mostly wrong.

There there's too much pride to ever admit that they're wrong. And so they keep going down that foolish path. Righteous people are humble people right because they're willing to receive correction to say, you know what?

I was in the wrong and I need to move down the path of holiness and We and as Abraham receives this correction here we can assume that he received it. Well, a large portion of the faith chapter in Hebrews chapter 11 would not be devoted to him.

If he didn't respond well to this and all correction he was a wise man who did foolish things from time to time and needed to be corrected and We too need to be corrected when we go down the wrong path.

And it was interesting that the Lord doesn't just use other Christians to correct us. Maybe you've had this experience and sometimes you can be corrected by an unbeliever. He might use someone and that's what it's really humbling.

It's like, okay. He just used this person to rebuke me. I mean at least use someone I could I respect right? But sometimes he does that. Because that's what he did here. He uses a pagan king to rebuke Abraham.

So we see the Lord's sovereignty. He is sovereign over the actions of this world good and evil and the red the reality of this ought to lead to great Comfort as we think about God's over every detail.

And this is so because everything is meant for our good for everyone who belongs to Christ. Romans 8 28 says and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose.

We saw that in the call to worship Jesus Christ. He used the wicked acts of The Jewish leaders and the Romans to bring salvation to the whole world. We see God bring about the greatest good through evil and this includes Correction that we receive that is meant to make us more like Christ.

God uses correction, even if it's from an unbeliever. For our good and we need we need to can we need to weigh it and consider is what this person says, right? Because it may be. The Lord is intimately involved in the affairs of sinful humans for his good purposes.

And the second way how this text shows this is that God is sovereign over the actions of believers and unbelievers. And what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna I'm gonna close out this narrative by reading the last five verses verses 14 through 18 and we're gonna see how this closes out and Before I read though I just want to want to emphasize this we ought to take great comfort in both of these truths that we saw today that he bears with believers as They fall into repetitive sins.

Okay.

So God is intimately involved with us through that and the second truth is that he is Sovereign over the actions of believers and unbelievers that this should bring us great comfort knowing that God is over both of these.

Okay, so let's let's close out this narrative. I read verses 14 through 18 and then I'll summarize it here quickly. Then I've been what took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah his wife to him and Abimelech said behold my land is before you dwell where it pleases you.

Dwell where it pleases just so to Sarah. He said behold. I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence and the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are vindicated.

Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves. So that they bore children for the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

Okay, so we see. Then Abimelech listened to the Lord by giving Sarah back to Abraham. He also gave male servants female servants sheep and oxen to him since and since Abimelech did this he avoided divine punishment.

A Bimilic had a life-threatening disease. That's what it said in in verse 6. He had a life-threatening disease that he was healed from and the wombs of his wife and female servants were opened. So the means by which this was brought about was that Abraham prayed for him in this prophetic role.

The Lord listened to Abraham's prayer and then answered it and he also told Abraham that there would not be any threat to them. They could live wherever they pleased and the king then gives Abraham and Sarah a thousand pieces of silver.

And what this means is that her shame is covered and they are vindicated. This sets the table for the legitimacy of the birth of the promised child Isaac. This money represents that there was no shame and no wrong done to Abraham's wife and This promised child will not come about through illegitimate means but through God's chosen man Abraham and.

And finally next week. It's been a long road here. We started in chapter 12 with the promise of this promised child Isaac. And next Sunday is when we finally get to see this promise come to fruition. The Lord is faithful and he's going to deliver on this miracle child.

I Look forward to that next week. Let's pray Father in heaven. I thank you Lord for your help in in in preaching and Lord I don't do this on my own strength. I do this with the strength that you supply and I just want to say thank you for that and in Lord I pray that the seeds that were sent out during the sermon that they would take root in people's hearts.

I Pray that that Satan would not snatch them away. I pray that they would not just drift away. But that indeed they would sink in people's hearts and the people would bear fruit as a result of the preaching of the word Lord, there's something flashy about this as we go verse by verse through the Bible.