Father, we come to you this morning. We do want to recede on behalf of each of these requests. We pray more at the end of our service time this morning. Father, we just think of so many people who are ill, so many relationships that are broken. Father, during the Christmas season, Christmas is a time to celebrate reconciliation. We pray that you would restore those who are sick to good health. We pray that you would restore broken relationships. We do thank Father of Casey's brother Craig and his wife and just pray that this situation with their relationship kind of coming to a head as it were, would bring some results. Come back to fellowship with you and his wife would get saved. Father, we pray for all of us who have unsaved relatives. that we will be getting together with maybe during this Christmas season. We pray, Father, that you'll give us wisdom, grace, and boldness, that we would speak the word with truth, and love, and grace, and mercy, that we might hear of many coming to know Christ as Savior during this season. That's our desire, Father. That's why Christ came, to draw people to himself. We pray that you will give us boldness to present that message. You've given us the word of reconciliation, Father. You've given us the ministry of reconciliation. May we be reconcilers, bringing people to the Lord Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God. Thank you so much for that message, Father. Thank you now for your word. We look forward to enjoying studying it together, Father. We ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 20. We looked at this incident last week, the situation with Abraham and Abimelech. Abraham again saying of Sarah, she's my sister. Evidently, Sarah going along with that, that was a half-truth. She was his half-sister. Same father, different mother. I wanted to just have us talk about a couple things that we didn't talk about One thing I wanted to mention was, we talked about the fact that Abimelech talks to God when God comes and speaks to him. And he says at the end of verse five, in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this. God says, I know that, that's why I kept you from sinning, I didn't let you touch her. God looks at the intention to the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. That's true about choosing people for leadership. It's also true about our actions. God knows the motives, God knows the purpose, God knows the intention to the heart. He is the heart knowing God. Look at verse 16 with me. To Sarah he said, behold I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver, behold it is your vindication before all who are with you and before all men you are cleared. Why do you think that was important for Sarah's name to be cleared? Okay, because she's going to be pregnant here pretty quick and deliver a baby and they want to make sure that it's Abraham's, not Abimelech's. Okay, any other thoughts? John? I think even today society would probably look down upon her because of her being with Abimelech and not with her real husband. Because she was following the obedience of her husband, and that it wasn't hers as much as his. Okay. She was following the directions and the lead of her husband, and so she was, in a sense, blameless in this. But also, God had prevented Abimelech from having any relations with her, and God wants to make sure that it's publicly known that Sarah is a woman of integrity. And I think that's important. How can we communicate that to our teenagers? That it's important to be young men and women of integrity, especially in their physical relationship with each other. When so much of the world's emphasis is on don't delay, don't put it off, live for today. Have sex now. It's not that big a deal anyway. Oh, it is that big a deal. First Corinthians chapter six talks about when a man and woman come together, they are one body. The bodies are joined and there's a special relationship as a result of that. It's not the one flesh marriage relationship. Just having sex doesn't make you married to somebody. but it still creates a one body relationship that's significant. People diminish that they have, I guess the terminology now is hooking up. We're hooking up. And it makes it sound like something trivial, you know, like shaking hands, we're hooking up. Or we're gonna meet for coffee, we're hooking up. No, no, that's not what it means. It means they're having sex. And it is a big deal. Our culture is trying to play that down and diminish it. And I think it's important. It is important to Abimelech. It's important to this culture. It's important to God that Sarah's integrity be vindicated. Dan? Well, I think a lot of it, honestly, it starts in the home. And also, you have to I don't want to offend anybody, but you have to consider the influences that you allow your children to have. You can't ignore that because they're getting a great deal of pressure outside of our homes. I have some things I don't want to say, but I do want to say on how to maintain their integrity. But it's going to start with salvation. It's going to start with, when your kids are getting young as young adults, number one, I honestly believe this, they're not teenagers. That's a term that I think is illegitimate. It tells them that there's a time in which they can be, oh, you're not a child and you're not an adult. No, you're a child. If you look at how the Jews do it with Bar Mitzvah, now you're considered an adult. And you're expected to act like an adult. You're just a young man and a young woman. But you're not outside the umbrella of your home, and the concern and the care of dad and mom. And I think that is very important, and we need to pay much greater attention, I think, to the influences that we allow our children and young adults, because they can't work. What are they going to do? And that all happened around the time of the Depression. They all of a sudden started having beyond the eighth grade, for what reason? Get them out of the workforce. Well, I think it's some of those things. Another part of that is that we have changed from an agrarian to a rural, to an urban society. No, they couldn't get them into the factories. They had too many people coming into the factories. Too many men are out of work. So they started giving something to pull the younger men away. But it's all of that whole idea. Used to be kids were taught a good work ethic at home from the time they were big enough to milk the cows. They worked around the house and picked up those skills from their parents, working alongside the parents. Okay, second thing I wanted to mention was back in verse 7, God speaking to Abimelech says, Now therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not restore or know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours." Then 17, Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids that they were children for Yahweh had closed past all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Why do you think it was important? God had this conversation with Abimelech Abimelech said, in the integrity of my heart, in the cleanness of my hands, I have treated this woman. Nothing has happened. God says, I know that. I prevented you from that. Why didn't God just heal everybody immediately? Why did He have Abraham pray for the household of Abimelech so that the wombs would be opened and the judgment would be lifted? To show his power. Pardon? To show his power. Okay, his who? God's power. Okay, to show God's power. Well, it also, along with that, clearly distinguishes God from their false gods. Okay. Their false gods couldn't do anything for him. Okay, clearly distinguishes God. But God could have done that directly. Why have the intermediary of Abraham pray for Abimelech and his household? Karen? in a couple of chapters, al-Babilak and Abraham are going to have an agreement between them. They're going to actually have a covenant. He's having it in his land. It's important. The end of the next chapter, after the birth of Isaac. Because he was the cause of all the issue. It's interesting to me that Abraham is granted by God to pray for Abimelech, but it was Abraham's lie that caused any issues to begin with. Okay, it was Abraham's lie, his deception to begin with. So that needed to be reconciled. John? I think, personally, because God had chosen Abraham, he's a prophet, Abimelech was an unbeliever, God communicated with him. He was chosen. God was just showing his grace to Abimelech. Okay. My perspective, I think there are a couple of things. One, I think God wanted to exalt Abraham in Abimelech's eyes. because Abraham is God's chosen vessel to be the head of this nation that's going to become the nation of Israel who will be God's chosen people, God's covenant nation. And I think God wanted to exalt Abraham in Abimelech's eyes. I could have healed you directly, God said, but I'm not going to, I'm going to have Abraham pray for you. That would have been impressive. If I was Abimelech, that would have impressed me. But I think there's another issue, and that is, There is a break in the relationship between Abraham and Abimelech because of this sin. Abraham could confess that sin to God. Abimelech has talked to God about it. But I believe their human level horizontal relationship needed to be reconciled. And I believe that was the primary thing that was accomplished by Abraham praying for the household of Abimelech. Is that still true today? Are human level horizontal relationships important? I mean, if you sin against somebody and you confess it to God, isn't that enough? No. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. James 5, Donald. If you think your brother has something against you, actually, if you remember your brother has something against you, leave your offering there beside the altar and go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your offering. Is human relationships important, or is the vertical relationship with God so independent that it doesn't matter what our human relationships horizontally are? What does Peter say about husbands respecting your wives, living with your wives in an understanding way as with a weaker vessel, and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life? What's the rest of that verse? so that your prayers not be hindered." It's one thing to say, okay, I sinned against God. I confess that sin to God. I've been reconciled to God. You know, David confessed. He was immediately forgiven. Fantastic chapter. 2 Samuel chapter 12. But there was a horizontal issue that had to be dealt with. And that's why there were consequences to David's sin. and those consequences carried on through Absalom and that whole sordid story I think sometimes we don't pay enough attention to horizontal relationships and I think that's what God is trying to emphasize to Abraham and to Abimelech here was, yeah, the relationship between Abimelech and God was healed because he hadn't done anything to Sarah The relationship between Abraham and God was reconciled because he gets his wife back. But that relationship between Abimelech and Abraham needed to be reconciled. And that's important. Yeah, and I'm just looking at this, and you know, you look at verse 17. So Abraham prayed to God, God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female servants. Well, what got them all in this in the first place? Abraham. And it's not just that he's reconciling to them like he needs to, but I also think that it's a good point to stress here, too, is what you were just talking about. We have to make those relationships right. And so, Abraham, you caused this problem. Abraham, not only do you need to confess it, but you need to fix it. And sometimes we do need to fix those. I think it's a very important lesson. I think it's very important. And God says twice, both in verse 7 and verse 17, Abraham is going to pray for you and then you'll be healed. And I believe that was to reconcile the relationship. John? I have a question. Is that the first time you did that, Abraham? Did he do that again with Pharaoh? Oh, yeah. Back in chapter 12, he did the same thing in Egypt with Pharaoh. Now this is second time. Abraham has learned his lesson that God will take care of him. We talked about this last week. I believe Abraham was absolutely invincible until chapter 21. God had promised he and Sarah together were going to have a baby. And until that baby was born, I don't believe anything could have happened to Abraham. Because if he hadn't, If God had let anything happen to him, that would have nullified God's promise. How many of God's promises don't come true? None of them don't come true. I know a double negative. They all come true. I believe Abraham had nothing to fear from Abimelech. But Abraham was not operating in faith. He was operating in human wisdom and human tactics. in the flesh all the time. Karen? Is it in Hebrews where it says, insofar as it is up to you... Romans 12. Insofar as it depends upon you, live at peace with all men. If it's not in Romans, it probably doesn't count. Well, sometimes it's not possible. Yeah, that's true. And I appreciate that in Romans 12, because it recognizes that reconciliation requires two people. You can be as willing as you want to reconcile with somebody, and they may still refuse, and the relationship may still remain broken. That's sad, especially when those are two believers. The point is, you just make sure you're not on the other side. And as much as it depends upon you. So you may have been sent against, and then when they try to make it right, you need to keep going the extra mile to make sure you make it right. So whichever side of that relationship you're on, as much as it depends upon you, So you may go to somebody and they say, I'm not interested, and there's something you can do. They may come to you. You don't get to say, I'm not interested. You've got to make a racket. For your side, the door to reconciliation needs to remain open for your side. You can make the other guy walk through it, but you need to make sure that that door to reconciliation stays open. OK, well, we went maybe a little further down that trail And I had thought we would, but I think it was important, important. Vindicate Sarah's reputation and reconcile Abimelech and Abraham. Because, as Karen mentioned, at the end of the next chapter, they're going to be signing, cutting a covenant with each other. Okay, chapter 21. Verses 1 through 3, finally, at long last, First one, Genesis 21. Then Yahweh took note of Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had promised. Underline that. God did exactly what he said he was gonna do. He fulfilled the promise that he made. Let that verse jump out at us every time we read it because God has given us promises too. How many of those is he gonna keep? Every one of them. And let this example be a reminder to us of God's absolute faithfulness to his promises. So Sarah conceived. Why? Verse one. Verse two flows from verse one. If there wasn't a verse one, verse two wouldn't happen. Yahweh took note of Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham. In his old age, at the appointed time of which God has spoken to him. When was that? Think about the promises. Go all the way back to Genesis 12. Let's just kind of trace these promises. Genesis 12, verse 2. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." There's the first promise to Abraham that he's going to have a family. Go to chapter 15. Start with me in verse 1. After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abraham in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abraham. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. Abram said, O LORD Yahweh, what will you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? Abram said, Since you have given me no offspring, one born in my house is my heir. Then, behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. God's promise to Abram. Go to chapter 17. Verse 1, Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly. Multiply you exceedingly? What do you think that means, Abram? Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold my covenant with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. How many times does God have to say, I'm gonna give you children? Verse 15, 7th verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and indeed I will give you a son by her. Now they've already had the Ishmael thing with Hagar back in chapter 16. I will bless her and indeed I will give you a son by her, then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall come from her. And Abram fell on his face and laughed, said in his heart, will a child be born to a man 100 years old and Sarah who is 90 years old bear a child? Really? God said so. Verse 18, Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God said, no. Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Verse 21, my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. So now, the promise is not only Abraham, you and Sarah are gonna have a child, but it's gonna be next year. Now, God has finally stated the time. Chapter 18, verse 9. This is in that scene where God and two angels are outside the tent of Abraham. And they said to him, where is Sarah, your wife? He said, they're in the tent. He said, I will surely return to you at this time next year. And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? And Yahweh said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too difficult for Yahweh? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." Sarah shall have a son. So, it says, Sarah conceived, chapter 21, verse 2, bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Why do they doubt? How many times does God have to say, Abraham, you're going to have a kid. Abraham, you're going to have a kid by Sarah. Abraham, you and Sarah are going to have a kid. Abraham, next year, you and Sarah are going to have a kid. Abraham, next year, about this time, I'll be back and you're going to have a kid by Sarah. We're not much like Abraham, are we? What promises of God for us do we have a hard time accepting and believing? Jacob? Grace. How is that? The fact that there's nothing we can do to lose our salvation. We fight against it. We feel like we have to contribute something. I've mentioned this before, the most common counseling subject I have dealt with in almost 48 years as a pastor has been the question of somebody worrying that they had lost their salvation. It's so prevalent. What other promises seem hard for us to accept? Karen. Forgiveness. How many times have we confessed our sin to God, and God has forgiven us immediately, instantaneously, just like God did for David in 2 Samuel? If you haven't underlined that in 2 Samuel chapter 12, after Nathan the prophet goes and talks to David, and David says, I have sinned, and Nathan says, you're forgiven. If you've never underlined that, go do it now. That's more important than what I'm gonna say for the next three minutes. That is so important. You are forgiven. David says, I've sinned. Nathan says, you're forgiven. Just like that. Isn't that making light of sin? Isn't that treating sin lightly? Isn't that being flippant about sin? Okay, so many of you are turning. Verse 13, 2 Samuel 12, 13. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Yahweh. And Nathan said to David, Yahweh also has taken away your sin. You shall not die. It's one of the most mind-blowing verses in the Bible to me. That forgiveness can be that instant, that easy. He didn't have to do anything. He didn't have to somehow bring Uriah back to life. He didn't have to somehow restore Bathsheba's integrity. He confessed, he was forgiven. Put a note out there next to that verse, 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John? At the same time, we do confess our sins. Was it David's part of his He just didn't walk. The baby died. There's consequences. There are consequences to sin. You've probably heard the example of dad talking to the son, and they go out, and, son, every time you sin, I want you to come drive a nail in the board of this fence. And he drives dozens of nails in the board, and all of a sudden, then, after a while, he starts driving fewer nails. And after a while, the dad says, okay, now, every time you don't commit that sin, go pull one of those nails out. And after a while, all the nails are pulled out, but there's still those holes. Sin leaves a scar. There are consequences to sin. So is this making light of sin? No, it's not. It's exalting grace. How many times will God forgive a sin if you commit it? Every time. And what's the penalty that you have to go through in order to get that sin forgiven? Just confess it. Just confess it. There may be horizontal relationships with other people that you need to restore, but as far as your relationship with God, you can be instantaneously, perfectly forgiven every time, because the blood of Christ was sufficient for every sin that we ever had or ever will commit. That's exalting grace. One last one, and then we'll close with prayer. I think some people have a hard time really believing that Jesus is coming back. I mean, it's been 2,000 years and He hasn't come back yet. Remember 2 Peter chapter 3, where are the signs of His coming? People say, everything continues on as it was, the principle of uniformitarianism, the evolutionists and geologists love that. Nothing is going to happen. God's not going to intervene. Boy, that's not the way I read the book of Revelation. So which is correct? The doubts of the world around us, or the prophecy and promises of God? Jesus said, I will come again and take you to be with Myself, and where I am, there you may be always. He's coming back. And I believe it's very soon. Yeah. That doesn't mean he's going to come back over here physically. It means he will come back. He will come back and take us away physically. That's the rapture. He will take us away physically. We'll talk about that maybe another time. Okay. A couple of you, please. I have some very important prayer requests and some important thanksgivings to offer. A couple of you, please.