Praise the Lord. Thank you for that. Turn in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Genesis, the very first book of your Bible. Find, if you would, verse number 12, Genesis chapter number 12. You come to the record of a man by the name of Abraham. Man who lived a life for God. Abraham's one of the best known individuals in the Bible. And whenever you think of Abraham, you think of a man of great faith. That's what comes to my mind. I think of a man of great faith. There's times when you think about the great men and women of the Bible that somehow we feel like they're larger than life. that somehow we can't just attain to who they are and somehow that they're on a different plane. But you know the reality of it is that they are men and women of like passions just like you and me. You know what that means? That means they have the same weaknesses, the same frailties, the same problems, the same issues in their life that you and I have in our lives. And Abraham was a man of great faith, but you know what? When I read his life, I understand he was also a man of great failure. You know, there's times that we as the people of God, like Abraham, will have times in our life when faith fails, and that's what happens in Genesis chapter number 12. And we're going to learn some lessons about when your faith fails. Look, if you would, verse number 10 of Genesis chapter number 12. The Bible said that there was a famine in the land. You know what? That is a national disaster. You know, what we're going through right now is a national disaster. You realize it's a national crisis. That was what was going on in the life of Abraham. I mean, it infected the entire lives of every person living in the land of Canaan. It impacted Abraham. and his family, and all the people that pertained to Abraham. And notice what he did. And Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. He was just going to wait out the crisis in Egypt. He figured that things were better down there than they were in the land of Canaan. Look at verse 11. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon." Now you need to realize that at this time, Abraham's 75, Sarah's not far behind him, and the Bible said that she was a beautiful woman to look upon. Therefore, he says, verse 12, it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee, they shall say, This is his wife, and they will kill me. But they'll save thee alive. They're going to kill me for you. Verse 13, Say I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. Boy, there wasn't a whole lot of concern for his wife, was there? And notice verse 14, and it came to pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt, The Egyptians beheld the woman, Sarai, that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake, and he had sheep, and oxen, and heasses, and menservants, and maidservants, and sheasses, and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? So I might have taken her to meet a wife, and now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had." Let's pray together as we look at lessons when faith fails. Father, I pray You'll speak to us tonight. Challenge us from the Word of God. Lord, there's no doubt during this pandemic, this national crisis, this time that has so affected our lives, there are Christians whose faith is faltering and failing. Lord, like Abraham, we're looking for an out. a way out rather than a way through. Father, I pray that you'll help us tonight. I pray you'll speak to our hearts. I pray you'll challenge us. Lord, it doesn't have to be a crisis. It can be a personal crisis. It can be a family crisis. It can be anything that comes into our life that would affect us to the point that would cause us to lose faith in you. And Lord, I pray that You'll teach us lessons tonight about when faith fails. And we're sure to thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Well, when you come to Genesis chapter number 12, Abraham and Sarai have taken a giant leap of faith. They have left home and family, land, possessions, whatever they had there. They packed up what they could carry and they journeyed a thousand miles to a new land. When they come to chapter number 12, we find them enjoying their new life in Canaan. and they're journeying through it. They're seeing all the different sites. No doubt it must have been exhilarating in this adventure as they travel the length and the breadth of the land of Canaan. But however, their new life in a new land brought with it new challenges. challenges they hadn't counted on when they left the earth, the Chaldees. And you know what? You're going to find that it wasn't long in the journey that Abraham was faced with a crisis in his life, and here this man of faith actually faltered and his faith Isn't that interesting? I mean, when you and I think of this giant for God, we think of Abraham, we just believe that, hey, I mean, he had such great faith in God that no matter what came, boy, I tell you, he would just stay strong. But the reality of it is, this father of the faithful actually had a time in his life when his faith failed. And the Bible teaches us that he's going to leave the land, the place of blessing, to go down to a place called Egypt. He's going to allow this situation, this crisis in his life, to dampen his faith, to affect his life to the point that he's actually going to move away or drift away from God. Now listen, when you and I face crises in our lives, Satan, wants to tempt us in order to break us. Did you know that? He wants us to fail. God allows the situations into our life to test us. That's what's happening. God is testing the faith of Abraham. He's wanting to stretch his faith, grow his faith. He's wanting to take Abraham to new heights. hides spiritually through this situation. He wanted to stretch him as a man of faith. And you know what? There's times that when you and I face crises and God allows these tests like Abraham's facing to come in your life, in my life, the idea that God wants to stretch us. He wants to grow us. He wants to build our faith. But Satan takes that same test, turns it into temptation, not in order to build us, but to break us. He's not there to stretch us and help us to be better. No, he's wanting to defeat us and cause us to drift away from God. He wants us to fail. And that's exactly what you find happening in the life of a man by the name of Abram. Now I want you to notice first of all the cause of his failure. You find it in verse number 10. Notice the Bible said, And there was a famine in the land. Now can I remind you that God told him, He said, Abraham, you're going to be blessed. When you get here, I'm going to bless you. And this is going to be the place of blessing. perform promises in your life, and Abraham, I'm going to do some great things for you in that land. But you know what, folks? Just as we said, when we start out on the journey of faith, there's going to be challenges along the way. There's going to be upsets in life. There's going to be things that's going to take us and we think we're going in an upward trajectory and suddenly, I mean, we sort of get a curveball, so to speak, and things cause us to detour or deviate if we're not careful from the walk of faith and the journey of faith. And so, no sooner had Abram gotten into the land and started this life of faith when the famine struck the land. I mean, think about it. There's no irrigation in Canaan. The land, dependent upon the annual rains, the early rains and the latter rains to water their crops and the pastures, suddenly hit a dry spell, and days began to pass without rain, and then the days turned into weeks, The weeks turned into months, and the hot Middle Eastern sun had baked the earth, and the pasture had dried up, water became scarce, the crops died, and the drought had led to a famine. And notice, if you would, in verse number 10, the Bible said in the last phrase, the famine was grievous in the land. That means it was severe. I mean, it was harsh. It was difficult. And you know what? Abraham, at this moment in his life, he's a little bit confused. He's saying, Lord, I thought you were going to bless me, and now I'm facing adversity and hardship and difficulty. And in that moment, Abraham, instead of allowing his faith to grow and to build, he allowed a situation to break it and fail. Now here's what's interesting, and I want you to understand this. We're talking about faith failing. We're not talking about losing salvation. We're not talking about a person getting saved and then losing it. That's not what we're talking about at all. You see, salvation is not dependent upon me. That's dependent upon God. God's the one who does the saving. God's the one who secures us. And God's going to be the one who sees us to heaven. But yet, between here and there, God wants to grow me as a Christian. He wants to grow my faith. He wants to strengthen my trust in Him. He wants me to learn to walk with Him and trust Him in life so that He can bless me even more. And that's what He was desiring for Abraham. I want you to notice where the famine came. The famine was so unexpected. As a matter of fact, it was in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, the place of blessing. As a matter of fact, it was the place God sent him. Did you know that? It's interesting. that you never read of Abraham facing a famine in either Ur or Haran. When he was where God wanted him to be, doing what God wanted him to do, that the famine came. And you know what? If we're not careful, our thinking will be wrong. You see, for some reason we think that doing the will of God eliminates us from adversity. That just because we're a Christian doesn't mean that we're not going to go through or experience trials or hardships. And you know what? just as God allows the sun to shine on the saved and the unsaved, and just as God allows the same rain to water the crops of His children as He does those who don't belong to Him, so when adversity comes in this world, you know what? There's times that we go through it right alongside our unsaved neighbors, and people around us, and co-workers, and you know what? God's wanting us to show a different reaction and response to the upsets of life. Hey, it's just natural for the lost man, the unsaved man, to respond wrongly when harsh times or difficult times or adversity comes. But friend, listen, you and I ought to respond differently. And God is allowing Abraham to face a bump in the road to show Abraham what was in Abraham so that Abraham could be different to those around him. You know what? God allows some hardships to come into our lives, some bumps in the road, so to speak, to show us what's in us. Do you realize that during the upsets of life what's in comes out? Matter of fact, if I've got a bottle of liquid right here and I flip that bottle of liquid over, I turned it over, do you realize what's in that bottle is going to come out of the bottle? And you know what, friend? Here's reality. The upsets of life will show what's inside of us and sometimes we're not going to like it. Did you know that? We're not going to like it. And you know what? If we're not careful, this little upset right here has shown us some things about ourselves. Did you know that? There's probably some things that's come out of our lives that's not very Christ-like at times. Some things that may be shown that may be some anger, may be some resentment, may be lashing out at some things, may be some upsets, may be some attitudes that shouldn't be there in our lives. And so God uses the upsets of life in order to build us, to bring what's in us out of us, so He can purge it out of our lives. And that's what's going on here. You see, just because we're where God wants us to be, doing what God wants us to do, doesn't mean that things are not going to come up in our lives that will challenge our faith and stretch us to the limits. And at this point, that Abraham is stretched to the limits. You know what he thought? I must have missed something. I must be out of the will of God. And that's not really always true. Abraham was right where God wanted him to be when the famine came, when he was in the famine. It came in the land of Canaan. But notice not only where it came, but when it came. This famine came on the heels of a great victory in Abram's life. Let me give you a principle. You ought to jot it down. Oftentimes, severe testing will follow a time of great blessing. Can I say that again? Oftentimes, severe testing will follow a time of great blessing. Matter of fact, the worst thing that happened to Abraham came on the heels of the best thing that happened to Abraham. And I just want to remind you that on every mountain is a valley. and the height of the mountain will determine the depth of the valley behind it. And when you and I get on a high spot, I mean we're getting on a mountaintop, listen, just remember there's going to be a valley on the other side and the higher the mountain, oftentimes the deeper the valley that we're going to go through. And you know what? That's true in the life of a Christian. That's true in the life of a Christian family. And let me just go a step further. That is true in the life of a church. Listen, in times of great victory in a church, there's going to also be times of testing that's going to follow that. And so we understood where the famine came. The land of blessing. We know when the famine came. After a time of great victory in Abraham's life. And then thirdly, I want you to notice why the famine came. The famine was to be God's tool in Abram's life, as we've said before, to build his faith. To teach him to look beyond the circumstances and to continue to trust God even during the challenging times of life. You know what God was saying to Abraham? Press on. Press on. Hey, you may be facing some adversity. Hey, everything may not be going your way. You may not understand everything that's going on in your life, but Abraham, press on. Press on. Stay doing what I want you to do. And Christian, let me just tell you something. Right now, in this moment, I want to challenge you to press on. Keep going. Don't get discouraged. Don't drift from God. Don't listen. Don't begin to lash out. Be what God wants you to be during this time. How important that is. God didn't want Abram to trust in what he saw around him, but to trust in the God who had brought him there to sustain him and see him through. And folks, let me just tell you. You and I don't need to be getting confused in this chaotic world and somehow get the idea Alright? That God's punishing us. Now hey, God might be trying to get our attention. God might be chastening and purging some areas in our life. God might be trying to bring some things out of us that He wants to get out of our lives so He can put good things in our lives. God wants to build us so He can bless us. But listen, God is saying, listen, I want you to trust me. I want you to depend on me. I want you to know that I'm the one who brought you here and I'm the one who can see you And friend, let me just tell you something. It's God who will bring us on the other side. Amen? Hey, listen, I'm thankful for leaders. I am. I know we want this to happen that day, but I just want to tell you something. There's one greater than leaders and that's God. And friend, listen, leaders can make decisions. I'm praying for God to give them wisdom, aren't you? But listen, God's greater than a virus. God's greater than an upset. God's greater than a lost job. God's greater than a health issue. He's greater than a family crisis. Hey, our God is greater and He can see us through. Dear child of God, don't give in. Don't give up. Press on. And that's what God wanted Abram to do. But just like Abram, there's times that we fail to press on. And instead of growing our faith, we fail in our faith. You see, it's the testing of our faith that strengthens our faith. I want to show you a verse. Hold your place. Turn to I Peter chapter 5. Would you turn there? I believe I Peter chapter number 5 is a principle that's illustrated right here in the life of Abraham. Look if you would, I Peter chapter 5 and find verse number 10. Would you look there? Give you just a moment in your Bible to find it. If you can't find it, just jot it down. You can come back to it a little bit later on. I Peter chapter 5 verse number 10. but the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, saddle you." Friend, listen. It's not on the mountain that faith grows. It's in the valley. It's not on the mountain that our life is built. It's in the valley. It's not in the victory times that we really see the major growth in our life. It's when we're pressing on through the difficult times of life that God is stretching us and growing us and purging us and building us. Listen, when we face the challenges of life, The question we need to ask is not how can I get out of this, but what can I get out of this? God, how can you change me through this? How can I be better rather than being broken or bitter or upset in my life? Hey friend, God wants our faith to soar. He doesn't want it to fail. Let's just press on in difficult times. So we see the cause of his failure. Then I want you to notice, secondly, the course. of his failure. You're going to find that one failure led to another failure, and so on. You're going to find failure after failure after failure. First of all, he's faithless. Notice verse number 10, and Abram went down Now I'm going to talk about that just a little bit more here in a moment, but it's interesting that you're going to find something in verses 8 and 9. We're going to look over at it again over in chapter 13 that you won't find during this difficult time in Abraham's life in verses 10 through 20. You say, Preacher, what is it? It's called an altar. You're going to find in verses 10 through 20 not one time did Abraham ever consult God. Not one time did he say, God, do you want me to go down to Egypt? Not one time did he say, God, would you give me direction and wisdom? Not one time did he seek to not lean on himself, but to trust in the Lord with all of his heart, not to lean to his own understanding. In all of his ways, he acknowledged the Lord and let Him direct his path. He didn't do that. And friend, let me just tell you something. You and I are going to fail when you and I fail to trust in the Lord, when you and I start leaning to our own understanding, when we start making the decision rather than letting God direct our paths in life. And listen, you can just take what we're going through right now out of that equation. That's true of every circumstance and situation along the journey of life as a child of God. And so he became faithless. Did you notice that? He failed to believe God. He left the altar that he built unto the Lord, the place where he met with God, the place where he worshipped God, the place where he drew close to God. And friend, let me tell you, in a hard time, when he left the altar, instead of drawing close, he began to drift. And I'm just going to tell you, right now, what's going on in our lives will do one of two things. It will either draw us close to God or it will cause us to drift from God. If we're not careful, we'll get distracted. If we're not careful, we'll absorb ourselves in the television and we'll just start binging on TV rather than spending time with God. We'll start binging on social media. We'll start binging in these different outlets to try to distract us and cause us to forget What's going on? Listen, there ought to be some times that we need to be drawn close to God and we ought to have an altar in our life because we'll either draw close or we'll drift away during a time of crisis in our lives. And Abraham began to drift away. Notice his faithlessness led to fearfulness. Look at verse number 10. Again, and Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there. Why? For the famine was grievous in the land. Now you have to think about Abraham. He's a man with flocks and herds. Matter of fact, I believe he's watching helplessly as the crops dried, the grazing land dried up, the water became scarce, and he was faced with the possibility of losing his wealth and even death. But instead of responding in faith, Abraham reacted in fear and he pushed the panic button in his life. And if we're not careful, we'll push the panic button. Or better yet, the eject button. He just thought, in his mind, he said, I'm just going to eject myself out of this situation. It's bad here in Canaan. I'm going to slip off down here to Egypt and I'm not going to live there permanently. I'm just going to go here for a little while, and then when things get better, I'm going to come back." Do you know that many a person has drifted away from God with the idea they're just going to sojourn a while. They're just going to go out here for a little while. They let something in their life get more important than God. And they began to drift away. And they were just going to sojourn. It wasn't a permanent decision. But yet, during that drifting moment, they got away from God and many never come back to God. Did you know that? Now I'm thankful that's not what happened in Abram's life. But there's many a Christian that through a crisis in their life, they let things get them out of church. And I'm just going to tell you, right now we've been out of this place right here for going on about five weeks now. And if we're not careful, I know that I'm getting texts all the time. Preacher, can't wait, we're back. Can't wait till we get back. Can't wait to get back. But here's the danger. The longer we're away, the easier it is for some Christians to drift. And I want to just challenge you. Boy, now's the time not to drift, it's time to draw close. It's the time to say, not get used to sleeping in or staying away. And I'm probably preaching to faithful people right now, probably am. But I just want to challenge you, even faithful people like Abraham can have a time when their faith fails. and they drift away from God, and there's times they never come back. Did you know that? And Abraham, rather than trusting the Lord, he leaned to his own understanding. He devised a strategy, a plan on his own. He left Canaan to go down in Egypt to wait out the famine. Abraham compromised his faith and stepped outside the will of God. Friend, I'm just going to tell you, there's going to be some Christians at the end of this crisis that will never come back to the house of God. They've gotten used to doing other things. And I just want to challenge you tonight. Be careful. I don't know how long this is going to last. I'm praying a couple weeks and we're back here again. I don't know what it's going to look like in a couple weeks. I don't know how, when things begin to lift, what it's going to look like. I have no idea. I know we as a staff and as your pastor, we're already making plans of what that might look like and how we're going to respond to it. And how as a church that we're going to do everything we can to meet needs. And we have pressed overtime in trying to minister to our congregation because every one of God's sheep are important to God. And I just want to tell you right now, hey, I just want to challenge you. Don't let this time cause you to get distracted and get away from God and never come back. Or just get convenient to watch online. Now hey, I'm not beating anybody up. This is the only way you can watch. I understand that. But at times it can get convenient. I got my coffee. I don't have to make the trek. I can remember I was in a grocery store here, I don't know, it was a couple years ago, and a person I'd never met before in my life said, Pastor Broyhill. And I turned and that person, they said, you don't know me, I watch you every service. I said, wonderful. I said, I'm so glad you do. I said, we'd love to have you visit with us at church. Well, I'd love to, it's just too far to drive. I said, I understand. I said, where do you live? And they told me where they lived. And I thought, well, I've got half a dozen members that drive from there. And I told him, I said, well, listen, I began to name families that lived in their community. I said, they're here every service. I said, you know, really, it's not that far away. Well, we just think it's too far. It's just easier for us to watch at home. Let me just tell you something, Christian. Don't let this down the road to become a substitute for coming together as a church family. Now, I'm not beating this up. I'm challenging us tonight. I'm warning us about a danger that Satan can creep into our hearts here in a few weeks when it's going to be time to come back. And I'm afraid there may be some Christians still going to be sitting on the sidelines because it's got convenient for them. And let's not let it get convenient. Let's get a greater hunger to be back in this place worshiping God because there is no substitute for the assembling of God's people together. Listen, I just want to tell you, this empty church, it's draining on, it's wearing on me. I can't wait till people are back. I'd love to preach to people rather than chairs. And so I'm just visualizing in my mind all of you sitting around where you are watching. It encourages me. But I'd much rather hear an amen than look at it after the service. You know that. I'm thankful for it. Boy, after this morning's service, I loved every amen, every hand, hallelujah, every clap, every emoji, smile, heart, whatever. I tell you what, it blessed my heart. But it's nothing like being in the house of God and hearing, Amen! Praise the Lord! And loving on each other and loving God and worshiping Him as a church together. Hey, let's not let this cause our faith to fail and us drift on the Lord. I hope you'll hit your emoji right there. I hope you'll say amen. I hope you'll just say, preacher, we're going to be committed to God. It's not being committed to the preacher. It's not even being committed to Calvary Baptist Church, as great as that is. Friend, it's being committed to God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and saying, Lord, what's important to you is important to me. Abraham's faith went south. He went down to Egypt. You know, Egypt is due south. If you look at a map of the Middle East, you'll find Egypt is due south of Cain in the land of Israel. Abraham didn't just go down geographically, friend. He went down spiritually. Whenever you and I leave the altar, whenever you and I leave God, we're going down. Did you know that? Egypt, this is the first time it's mentioned in the Bible. And did you notice there's a negative connotation? It's a type of the world. It's not where Abram belonged. Not one time, as I said earlier, did Abram consult God about the matter. He didn't spend any time at the altar. He failed the test. He missed God's best. He didn't press on. And Abram, Abraham traded the promises of God for the provisions of Egypt. I'm just going to tell you, it was evident that God didn't want Abram in Egypt. You'll see that later on down in his life. But here's what I want you to notice. When we finish up, you're going to see that when you get out of the will of God, life gets complicated. It just does. It gets complicated. So faithlessness led to fearfulness which led to falsehood. We find that in verses 11 through 16. Abram got closer to Egypt. Suddenly remembered, my wife is beautiful. I know Abraham's problem. My wife is beautiful. And so I understand that problem. Sarah 65. She's stunning to look at. She's evidently a very gorgeous woman. Unfortunately for Abraham, the Egyptians didn't believe in divorce. Murder, yes. But divorce, no. And Abraham became fearful for his life and he says to Sarah, listen, I want you to lie for me. And tell them when we get there, and you tell everybody, when they ask us about our relationship, you're my sister. Now here's the issue. Abraham told a lie that really wasn't a total lie. It was sort of a half lie. We call them little white lies. Let me just tell you, any deception is a whole lie. Let me just say that. And he thought it was a little lie. It was just a little deception, but no, it's a big deception. And his intent was to deceive Pharaoh. You say, Preacher, why was it a little lie? Why was it a full, I mean ugly, dark, terrible lie? Well, it really was, but not to Abraham. And you know what? There's times you and I, we sort of justify some of the things we say too, don't we? And we think, well, I'm not really being totally dishonest. You know what? We're just not telling all the truth. And a half-lie is a whole lie. And you're going to find that if you look on in the life of Abraham, Genesis 20 verse 12 won't turn there. You're going to find that Abraham and Sarah were actually half-brother and sister. And he married his half-sister. And it was legal during that time in the world's history. And here we find that he put his wife in jeopardy in order to save his own skin. And they had no sooner gotten into Egypt than what Abraham feared would happen happened. Everybody started noticing Sarah. Some folks said to Pharaoh, you hadn't seen this new lady that's come into the land, I'm telling you. When you see her, you're going to want to marry her. And so Pharaoh took Sarah into his harem to be his wife. Now, no marriage has taken place, no consummation. She was a bride-in-waiting. They had to go through a purification process to marry the most powerful man in the world who's Pharaoh at that time. And then to add insult to injury, Abram prospered as a result of the lie. Look at verse 16. And he, Pharaoh, entreated Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen. He asked his men servants, maid servants, she asked his camels. Wait a minute. What's going on? It seemed like Abram did a wrong thing and got rewarded for it. Can I tell you that when you and I make wrong decisions and we step out of the will of God and we haven't really consulted God and it seems right in our own eyes, that a lot of times we'll get a false confirmation because when we step out it seems like everything's going okay. Everything's going my way. I mean, everything's smooth sailing. And Abraham's thinking, he's looking around, and Lot, and boy, here comes the mules, and here comes the donkeys, and here comes the camels, and here comes the servants, and all of these things. I mean, boy, there's silver and gold, all kinds of stuff coming his way. See, what that was was the dowry. Pharaoh was paying Abraham for his sister. Abraham had sold his wife. I can imagine Lot saying to Uncle Abram, here comes another herd of sheep. Wow! I want you to look at that herd of cattle and look over there at them camels. Boy, look at those men servants and look at that pile of gold. Wow! I can see, after a while, Abram going, Oh my! What have I done? Have you ever been like that? What have I done? Oh my! Can you imagine the despair he must have felt? And then there was failure. Look at verse 17. You see how it snowballs? I mean, oh, what tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh. You see, our sin has a way of finding us out, doesn't it? And Abram's sin is going to find him out because the Lord is going to protect Sarai because the promise of Messiah is going to come through Abraham and Sarah. And God supernaturally and sovereignly protects Abraham and Sarah by plaguing Pharaoh in his house with not just some plagues, but great plagues. I mean, it's bad. It's terrible. Matter of fact, you're going to find that Pharaoh begins to connect the dots. He didn't have these plagues before Sarah came. He now has the plagues after Sarah came. And he begins to realize that something's not right. Now let me just make a little side note here. I want you to jot it in your notes. God is fateful in spite of our failure. Did you know that? God could have let Abram get in further trouble, but He didn't. He's going to rescue him right here. And He's going to keep him from greater damage. And I just want to tell you something. It's amazing how at times that God is faithful. Well, it's not really amazing. It's just who He is, isn't it? But God's faithful at times in spite of our failures. No, He's faithful all the time in spite of our failures, isn't He? And so here's what happens. Abraham's arrested. He's hauled in before Pharaoh, and the shameful truth is dragged out of him. And here this man of God has lost his testimony before the Egyptians. I mean, friend, his failure has led to where he can't say anything to Pharaoh or anybody else about God. You realize that when you and I begin to allow our faith to fail, if we're not careful and we keep going down that road, it'll come to the point we'll lose our testimony with those to whom it means the most. And I'm going to show you that here in just a moment, okay? Pharaoh is going to rebuke Abram for his deceit, restore his wife, expel him from the land. It's amazing that he begins to go back and he takes with him everything that he acquired down there in Egypt. But you're going to find that a momentary compromise can lead to monumental consequences. You see, sin not only complicates our own lives, it also complicates the lives of others. Abram's sin affected Pharaoh. It plagued his house. It caused him to look down on Abram's faith in God. Sarah lied. It affected Sarah, his wife, because he lied and put her in jeopardy. Lot, his nephew, was exposed to the world. Do you know what we're going to find in just a few chapters? That Lot's going to drift away from God and his whole life's going to go up in smoke because of the failure of Uncle Abraham affected nephew Lot. It took him down into Egypt and he brought Lot out of Egypt, but he never got Egypt out of Lot and it destroyed his life. Isaac's going to do it. He's not even born yet. You're going to read later on in Genesis that Isaac's going to do the same thing that his daddy did and lie about his wife. Isn't that amazing how oftentimes the sins of the parents are repeated in the lives of the children? I tell you what, that's one circle I want broken. Amen? And you know what? It affects you and me tonight. You say, Preacher, how does that affect us? Because there was a handmaid that came along with this deal and her name was Hagar. And a little bit later on, Sarah's going to give Hagar to Abraham to bear a child for her. And Ishmael's going to be born. And Ishmael's the father of the Arab nations and all the trouble in the Middle East and all the trouble that affects everybody around. All of it started right there with the failure of Abram's faith. Isn't that amazing? Well, in the final minutes we've talked about the cause of His failure. We've talked about the course of His failure. And just remember, one failure leads to another failure that leads to another failure. Hey, instead of us giving in to self, let's give in to God and press on in faith. Amen? And then number three, I want you to see the conquering of His failure. Say, preacher, I don't see any conquest here. Well, I want you to notice, Abraham failed, but he's always going to fail forward. He didn't stay in Egypt, he came back. He came back all the way to the land of Canaan, but he didn't just come back to the land, he came back to God. Look at chapter 13 and verse number 1. And Abram went up. You know what? Anytime you're leaving God, you're going down. Anytime you're drawing to God, you're going up. Have you noticed that? And Abram went up. It's more than just geographical, folks, it's spiritual. He and his wife and all that he had and a lot with him into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold, verse 3, and he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel. You know what Bethel means? That's house of God. You know what he said? Boy, I've drifted from God. I need to get close to God. Can I encourage you as I said earlier? There are times that God allows life. to bring upsets, but they're designed to bring us to Him, not cause us to drift from Him. And suddenly Abram starts doing what he should have done at the beginning. He spends time at the house of God. the place where his tent had been at the beginning. Now let's look at some things. First of all, he conquered his faith in repentance. Abram remembered what it was like at the beginning when he was in fellowship with God, walking by faith, and the joy of the Lord in his life, and now he's repented of where he was and what he did, and he's come back. And you say, Preacher, how do you know he repented? There was a change in his direction. Instead of going away from God, he's now going toward God. And you say, Preacher, where is God? Friend, He's the place where we leave Him. Did you know that? Whenever you and I drift from God, God's not doing the drifting, it's you and me. And we just need to go to the point of our failure. and change our mind and get right with God, to confess the failure and to get right with God and start going in the right direction. Secondly, there was a renunciation. He renounced His dependence upon Himself. He renounced Egypt. He turned His back on the world and everything that it had to offer. Friend, let me just tell you, we need to have the world behind us, the cross before us, and you know what? There's no turning back. Amen? No turning back. No matter what comes, no turning back. He returns. He's back where he was at the beginning, at the first. He is weary of the world. He wanted to be back in the land of promise. He wanted to get back into the place of blessing. Notice, under the place of the altar, verse number 4, he went back to where he left God. I believe it was there that he got right with God. He was restored to fellowship and revival took place in his life. You know what? Abram is going to be a changed man. Notice the Bible said there, Abram called on the name of the Lord. Could I just encourage you tonight? You say, preacher, I'm just going to be honest with you, my faith's been faltering. I mean, I haven't been handling all this like I should. I haven't been responding in every way I should. Well, you know what? Here's some steps to get that right. Why don't we confess that to the Lord? Why don't we tell God what's going on in our lives and beyond? He already knows it. Why don't we just tell Him about it? Why don't we renounce any self-will, self-plans, any strategy that we work on our own? Why don't we go back to where we were at the beginning? God, I've left my Bible reading. I've left my prayer time. I've left my worship of You. I've not been walking with You like I should. Let's go back to where we are. Let's go to the place of the altar. Let's make sure that that altar is in our life. Let's make sure there's restoration taking place. And friend, let me tell you, when we do, revival is going to well up in our lives. You see, we get the idea that revival is something different than what it is sometimes. Now I realize there's revival on national scales where entire geographical locations are changed. I mean, you're seeing unbelievable things take place. And you say, Preacher, is that going to happen in America? I have no idea, but I sure am praying for it, aren't you? But here's what I do know. You can experience that in your own heart right now. I can experience it in my heart, our lives, our family, this church. We can have revival through all of this. Let's ask God to revive us again. Let's ask God to draw us close. Let's ask God to make the altar real in our lives. Let's get serious in our walk with the Lord. Could we do that? Now, I'm not saying that we aren't, but you know what? Chances are I'm talking to somebody that you've drifted. Chances are there's somebody saying, Preacher, God's dealing with my heart right now. You realize there may be another person saying, Preacher, I haven't done that. I'm standing strong. But you realize as time goes on, Satan can play with your mind. He can wear you down. And people of great faith like Abraham can fail. And you know what? I don't want my faith to fail. I want to press on. Don't you? Let's press on. Let's press on. That's what God wanted Abraham through the adversity, through the crisis, through the hardship, through the confusion, through all of it. God said, I want you to press on, Abraham. Press on. And dear child of God, hey, the lesson when faith fails is press on. Keep trusting God. Keep walking with Him. Keep Him central in your life. And I'm going to tell you what, the blessings are going to come. You see, as I mentioned all the way back at the beginning of this thing that one of my favorite phrases in the Bible is, it came to pass. You know what? That famine came to pass. It came, but it passed. And this too shall pass. And the crisis is in your life and my life will pass. They will. But you know what? I sure don't during that time to want to have drifted from God. I want to have stayed faithful to God. Don't you? Don't you? Hey, my faith can fail. Your faith can fail. Anybody's faith can fail. Let's press on for the Lord. And if it has faltered and failed, let's just follow those steps. and let's return and let's be where God wants us to be so that we can know His blessing in our lives and we can let God do what He wants to do in our lives and be everything God wants us to be individually, as families, as a church. Let's do that as a nation. Amen? Let's bow our heads in prayer. As heads are bowed and eyes are closed, why don't you make a little makeshift altar right there in your living room.