But tonight I would like to take a passage from the Scripture, and we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter 11. It's a passage about an incident that happened. And I want you to think about the title of the message which is, One Command, Not Obeyed. in the book of Genesis. What many times does your mind go to when we say go to the book of Genesis? We're talking about one command not obeyed. Those of you who are in the anthropology class know there was just one command given to Adam and Eve. one. So, it's like hide God's Word in your heart, it's just one command. And it didn't work out so well for them. But that is not the command we are going to be looking at tonight. So, there are a few things that I would like to say beforehand by way of introduction. When you have one command not obeyed, it's good for us to remember not to underestimate the effects of our sin, even if we think it's just one of those little white lie type sins over here. You know we say, what harm can come from this particular sin? Have you ever done that? Anybody besides me? You know what's the harm of doing this? And so don't underestimate the effects of your sin, and realize that choices and decisions are You can almost finish the statement. Choices and decisions have consequences. Our choices matter. We cannot just arbitrarily make choices and think that everything's going to be okay when they are in reality. disobedience to the commands of God. And so in Genesis chapter 11 where we will begin we're going to take a look at the command that we're talking about. And it's in Genesis chapter 11 and it begins with some introductory remarks in verses 31 and 32, some descriptions. And it says, Abram his son." Now remember Abram is his name before it was changed to the well known name of Abraham. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. And they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and fifty years. Tira died in Haran. And so now we come to chapter 12, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, and these are all in the imperative, the command form, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. So the command is pretty easy there. look at it what's the first place He's supposed to get out of? Get out of thy country, and get thee from thy kindred, and then third, and from thy father's house, and then it's unto a land that I will show thee. So the definition of kindred is important because how many of you know what kinfolk are? Whether you like them or not they are related to you. so that's the definition. So Abraham's responsibility with the name Abram was to depart from the country, his country, his kindred, and his father's house. So let's look in chapter 12 and verse 4 and the Bible says, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. And next four words everybody, with him." Verse 5, And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot tell me if this is very descriptive or not, "'And Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.'" So far everything seems ok, right? notice any problems? Raise your hand if you noticed any problems as we were reading the passage. Alright. And it becomes apparent, pretty evident as we go along. Genesis chapter 13 verse 1, and Abram went up out of Egypt. So this is the next chapter up. He and his wife and all that he had, and next three words please, lot with him into the south. Genesis 13 verse 5, "'And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.'" All right, raise your hand if you think you know what the one command, not obeyed, is. Raise your hand if you can see it already. OK. All right, so we move on. And as I mentioned at the beginning, choices and decisions have consequences and results. So we want to look at result number one. Genesis chapter 13, and verse 6, and I want to ask the question, see if you think this is just a coincidence as we read this. Genesis chapter 13, verse 6, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, or because their substance," and we're talking about the combined substance of Abraham and Lot. Their substance was great so that they could not dwell together. was not enough land to pasture those flocks and those herds. I have a question, was there any problem with the pasture land? Was the problem with the pasture land? No. But what was the problem? The problem was there was somebody there that should not have been there. Just a coincidence I'm sure, right? And so I want to give an illustration that may help us in the New Testament. I'm going to remember about Jesus going to the wedding at Cana. At the wedding at Canaan what was the problem that they had? They ran out of wine. Alright, they ran out of grape juice. Alright, we'll just say it just the way it is. They ran out of juice to drink. And so the problem was of course that they underestimated the number of people. were going to come to the wedding. That's why you run out of stuff at a wedding. You run out, anybody had that problem, you run out of stuff. And it's like we didn't know that everybody that was invited would actually show up. And so there were too many people. The wine was okay, but there was just too many people. Now how many would say that was Jesus' fault that there was was too many people. No, that was not his fault. And it wasn't really his to fix. His mom said, you know, kind of like do something. And he said, well, wait a minute. And then she just turned to the servants and said, whatever he says to do, you do it. And so Jesus steps in. Now was He under any obligation to make up for the wine that was lacking? Any obligation at all? No, He was not obliged to do that at all. in that particular instance He stepped in and He took care of the lack of wine by providing what I believe would probably be more than enough, more than enough for the wedding. So, what about this particular situation with this, there's not enough land to pasture, not enough land. Could God have made the land sufficient for all of those flocks and their herds? Could God have done that? And of course the answer is, of course He could. But God was under no obligation to do that. Now you might be making personal applications at this time, and the personal application would certainly be this, when we have some man-made problems God's under no obligation to bail us out. One preacher I know said, there's no problems like homemade problems. get ourselves into situations and we say, God help, and sometimes He does, but He's not under obligation. And in this particular case He was not obligated to do anything about that result. Not enough land to pasture, and He did not. It's almost as though He has said to Abram what He may have said to you sometimes. You got yourself into this problem, you can fix it yourself. you ever been there? Anybody brave enough to raise your hand? Yeah, have you ever been there? Me too. And so the idea is God knew that there was not going to be enough pasture land for all that cattle and those herds, but He chose not to make it sufficient for Now, it may be, just maybe it's possible that that lack of pasture land was one of the reasons why Abram was commanded by God to separate from his kindred. Would that be a possibility? Is that a possible reason? The answer is, yeah, it's a possible reason. So, God is not the author of confusion. He didn't call them out into that area and say, oops, I forgot, not enough pasture land for these people. Nope, it was not God's problem. God's not the author of confusion. So, the disobedience of Abram at least one result. And so that's where it stops, right? If you've read the passage before, yep, too bad not enough pasture land. after all they are God's children, they are God's people. Abram is there with his brother's son. And they all get together, but unfortunately they don't get along because there is result number two, and that is strife among friends and relatives. Notice in Genesis chapter 13 and verse 7 there is really an incorrect response to their problem. was a strife, Genesis 13 verse 7, there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And then there's a statement here that almost sounds almost like it's out of place. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. Anybody have an idea why that might be in this passage of Scripture where it seems like maybe it's out of place? But have you ever noticed there's strife among friends, God's people, and the world's out there listening in and watching what's going on. There's no reason to put here the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land, except for the fact that, hey, are other people around when we make decisions and we are facing the results. And if a problem involves another Christian we have to be very careful that we solve the problem for testimony's sake, amen? That's what we need to do. So, God's sovereignty is shown in this particular passage. all right we have strife among friends and relatives. And so what is God doing? He's saying you had a choice at the beginning to obey, but really didn't do it completely. And so what happens many times have you noticed that God puts us in a place where we have to be willing to obey what God wants us to do. And I'm trusting that the Lord will help us as we move on to result number three, which is just that, forced obedience to the original command. So, what was the original command? Get thee out from thy kindred. Whose responsibility, everyone, was that to get thee out from thy kindred? Abram. That was his responsibility. But notice what happens in Genesis chapter 13, and as we look at this forced obedience to the original command. In Genesis 13 and verse 8, And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for or because we be brethren. Anybody have a guess what that Word is defined, brethren. How about kindred, relative, kinship. That's what the word means. Seems like we've seen that word before, kindred. And so he continues on, is not the whole land before thee then there's this you, the word you understood. You separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. Can we put two and two together here? What did God say? Get thee out from thy kindred. What did Abraham say? You separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. That's why the question comes up, why in the world would Abraham at this point not say, hey, I leaving. This is where I'm heading. You can go wherever, whatever direction you want. I'm heading this way. I'm going to separate myself from you." And you say, well what difference does it make whether He says, you separate thyself, or Abram saying, I'm going to separate myself from my kindred because that's what God's original command is. Because what God tells us is must be obeyed correctly, not according to what we think will work. Because perhaps Abram was saying, all right, all right, I made a mistake. I need to separate. And possibly, when you think about this, why in the world would Abram say, I pray thee, separate thyself. If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Why in the world did he give the choice to Lot? And you might say, perhaps, Abram may have known by now that he was a contributing factor to the results that they were seeing. Right or wrong? He was a contributing factor. In fact, in blaming people you would normally say, he's the primary responsible person for this situation. But he may have thought that it was the right thing to do to give Lot the choice. But we find out that Lot was in no spiritual condition to make the right choice. And so we move on to result number four. Lot chooses by sight instead of by faith. Is that one of our natural tendencies? good to me." How many times have you heard that coming out of your own mouth? Looks good to me. I think this would be ok. What do you think hon? And since your hon maybe wanted it to begin with, yeah, I think it's good too. Good idea. Let's go ahead and do it. It looks good, and that's exactly what we see here. We find out that Lot was actually pretty greedy, and you can tell by what we see in Genesis chapter 13. verse 10, And Lot lifted up his eyes, be nice if the rest of the passage said, "'And prayed to the Lord his God, and asked Him, Lord, Thou who knowest all things, please guide me in the direction I should go.'" But that's not what we see. What we read is, "'And Lot lifted up his eyes, and like many people in the world,' it says, "'and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, and the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." So verse 11 says that, then, after he looked it all over, then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and then notice what it says, and they separated themselves the one from the other. little details, folks, make a lot of difference. In fact, they make the difference between life and death. In verse 12 it says, "'Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.'" I made a notation for myself. You know, we can place people in our lives, we can place people in a position to choose that should not be in a position where they have to make a choice. That's exactly what happened. Okay, I botched up, but Lot, you go ahead and you choose what you want to do now. I did not do what I was supposed to do. not do what I was commanded to do, but I want you to do what you think is right, even though I did not do what I knew God wanted me to do." It's kind of a tough situation to be put in. Now we know from this point there is quite a bit of transition, and quite a bit of results that come about. As a result, Lot ends up getting involved in a regional war that Sodom and Gomorrah and several of the kings in the area that are fighting against each other. Sodom and Gomorrah lose. And guess what happens to Lot and his family and everything he has? It's all taken captive. They're basically prisoners of war. So, would that have happened had Lot stayed back where he had been before? And Abram would have just separated from him. Lot was in the wrong place at the wrong time, folks. And sometimes we can put our relatives in a position where they're not even supposed to be. can put other people, we can put other friends, and so forth. So, he gets involved in this regional war. And then another result is Abraham ends up taking his armed servants to physically rescue all of the prisoners that were taken from Sodom and Gomorrah, which would include Lot and his family. And so, as a result of this original command not obeyed, here he is risking the lives of all of his servants to in order to rescue everybody else. So God tells Abraham after that, because I know that you are eventually going to have children and you're gonna raise them up in the way that they should go. He tells angels that. He says, I'm gonna tell Abraham, Abram, what's gonna happen. And God tells Abram that he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And so you have a lot of these results that are going on. The angels show up at Lot's house, and what happens? The Sodomites, the Sodomites of the city, up, and since there are angels in the house the Sodomites say, and if you know the terminology you know what I mean, we want to know those men that are in your house. And we know exactly what they meant when they said that. And so, Lot made a statement that is really kind of scary in Genesis chapter 19. And he was in a position that he would not have been in, this would not have even happened had there not been that one command that was not obeyed. So, if you'll notice in Genesis chapter 19, Lot is having a discussion with the Sodomites, and in verse six of Genesis 19, and Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, next Next word, brethren? I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. And you think, you know he's got the right answer. Don't do this. But then he says, Behold now, I have two daughters, which have not known man. He was saying, I have two virgin daughters. Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. So, his whole thinking processes have been affected. He had his tent facing towards Sodom, and then he ended up being in the gate. He was one of the persons who was making decisions for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, how they could be improved in other ways. And so, all of these things have happened, and unfortunately Lot has already given his daughters the idea that illicit sexual relations are ok if there's a good reason. Lot had a good reason, he wanted to spare the angels. And by the way, could the angels have taken care of themselves? they could have. And they smote all the men of the city with blindness. So, what the girl should have said was, well thank you Lord and we will not go down the path of illicit sexual relations. Unfortunately, the result number five is Lot loses everything. We know that Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed. All of Lot's possessions are of Lot's flocks and herds were destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. Several of his children died in Sodom and Gomorrah. All of Lot's servants died in Sodom and Gomorrah. everything, including his wife, when she turned to a pillar of salt." So Lot lost everything except his two daughters, and he obviously lost them morally, what they did. In Genesis chapter 19 and verse 30 it says, "'And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him.' Why? "'For he feared to dwell in Zoar,' one of the cities of the plain that was far away. But the angel said, "'We'll spare that city.'" spare it. So, but he feared to dwell in Zoar even though he originally did. And so he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. That's result five. Wouldn't it be nice if that was the end of the story? Ok. He at least escaped from Sodom. And so everything is going to be ok except for one thing result number six which is called incest. Genesis 19, verse 36, sparing the details, thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And you would think, well it can't get any worse than that. But I want you to remember that these are all results of one command. beginning of the story, at the beginning of the message, didn't sound that bad enough for everybody to pick up on it at the same time. But now you realize there was one command given to Abram, not obeyed. if you would have told him at the outset, Abram you will not believe the ramifications, the results of you not obeying this one command. Now we can come back and just say, we need to be very, very careful about the commands of God that may not seem that important. They may seem like just a little command. Just a little. That should be allowed. As Lot said, this Zoar it's just a little city, just spare that one for me. But when we move back to the idea of incest, what was the result of that then? When we go on to the next result, result number seven, Genesis chapter 19. result is the grandchildren of Lot. You say, well of course his daughters having children would get you grandchildren. So, the grandchildren of Lot. And your grandchildren today are produce your enemies of the future." Do you know that's what we find here? In Genesis chapter 19 and verse 37. The kindred, your kindred today may produce your enemies of the future. You say, well I don't see that. Well, notice Genesis chapter 19 and verse 37, And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name, everybody? Moab, the same as the father of the, everybody? Moabites unto this day." Verse 38, and the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Banamai, the same as the father of the children of Ammon unto this day. So we have the Moabites and the Ammonites, and of course they were a great influence on the nation of Israel, weren't they? Just bringing them up to spiritual heights and so forth. Well we can fast forward to the book of Ezra chapter 9 and was dealing with sin in Israel. And in Ezra chapter 9 and verse 1 we move into this part of the story where it says, "'Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me.'" And here's where we enter into the next result. Saying, "'The people of Israel, and the priest, and the and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands." What were the people of Israel doing? It tells us, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the what? Ammonites, the what? The Moabites. And then in the same batch with the Egyptians and the Amorites. Wow. Let's see, I made a decision. It affected my children. It affected my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. And now the very people that came from the lineage of Lot, up being abominations that they present back to the nation of Israel. Wow! Does it get any worse than that? From the time this was written unto this day the people who occupied the land of the Ammonites and the Moabites are thorns in the side of the nation of Israel today, 2025. about the results, long-term results of just one command, not obey. I trust that all of us realize this is just one of these instances that most people pass over. We read it and it's like, oh, wow. He like something's not right here, and things just went downhill from there. And it affected most of history. Most of history has been affected by this one thing. Now what did I call it? A contributing factor. That's just one thing. look at Scripture we see all the different things that the nation of Israel did wrong, and so forth. But this is just one thing. So, when we think about this for some you may need to pray that God will change a curse in your family into a blessing. Can God do that? Are you justifying your disobedience to some command that seems insignificant to you tonight? I'll say it again. Are you justifying your disobedience to some command that seems insignificant to you? Abram didn't appear to be belligerent. He just didn't take it as seriously as he should have. It wasn't like Abram was ignorant. The Bible tells us, for God had told Abram, this is what you're supposed to do. Well, how much do we have in the Bible it basically tells us, and the Lord said, do something. We looked at some of it this morning. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. That does seem relatively simple and easy to understand. But how many people are really obeying that command? Every day you try to be spiritually aware of opportunities that God may give you. And obey that command, because you're very concerned about obeying the commands of God, big and small, etc., etc. Well, the reality is that all of us may be suffering under a curse that is affecting our progeny, our children, grandchildren. Some of you may be put it bluntly, some of you may have relatives whose lives are falling apart at the seams. They are hanging on by a thread. And you could say to yourself, I remember way back when, when they started they made one wrong turn in the road, and everything went bad from there. seems like there is nothing but tragedy that has befallen that particular family. Some of you know how that works. You may have relatives yourself where everything has gone downhill, and it seems like there is a curse on some of your friends, and some of your relatives. And you might ask the question, is there anything that we can do here? Perhaps you're dealing with the results in your own life of maybe one or more commands that are not obeyed. Fortunately, from God's Word, I have good news for you. My opinion is not going to be any good news, but I'd like us to look at Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one in the New Testament. Many times we wish for curses to be turned into blessings, and at least we have several things in the scripture. where curses are turned into blessings. Curses that have occurred because of wrong decisions. Would you agree with me? It's better not to make the wrong decision to begin with, going into a life, rather than just praying that a curse will be turned into a blessing after it's already wreaked havoc in our lives. know the Ammonites and Moabites had a terrible influence on the nation of Israel. In fact the Ammonites and Moabites at different times were not even allowed to live within the congregation of Israel. They were banned for years from even being part of the But in Matthew chapter 1 we find something that perhaps will give hope. And when you see the spot, and when I read the spot that may give hope just say, Amen. We'll see how many people do that, alright? Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat Phares, and Zarah of Thamar. And Phares begat Ezram, and Ezram begat Aram. And Aram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Neachan. Neasson begat Salmon, or Solomon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rakehab. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. And Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king. And David the king begat Solomon of Hur that had been the wife of Uriah, or Uriah the Hittite. Anybody notice anything? It's right there in verse 5. And Simon begot Boaz of Rakeb, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, the Moabitess. So, Ruth, a Moabitess, ends up being not only in the lineage of King David, but in the lineage of King Jesus. Amen? So there may be some traumatic things happening in either your life or the lives of some of your relatives. You can give a warning to them, and you can also give hope that the curse can be turned into a blessing. But remember, there are results for even one command. not obeyed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your word. We're thankful for the warnings that you give us in your word. And Lord, we would ask that you'll help us to be forewarned and be forearmed for decisions that we have in our lives, and help us not to be as Abram was in the Old Testament, and take lightly Things that we know the Holy Spirit of God, who dwells within us, is leading and guiding us to do, perhaps in direct obedience to your word, help us not to be negligent in obeying what we might think are the small commands. I thank you for this day, the opportunity that we have had to meet together and to hear your word taught and preached. And I ask, Lord, that you would help us as we enter a time of, perhaps, reflection and response to what we've heard. I ask that you would bless our response. May it be pleasing in your sight. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to ask you to just stand quietly for just a moment. I think it's pretty obvious from the topic, I don't have an idea at all about what the Lord may be speaking to you about. But if the Lord does speak to you at all, then it's always good for us to respond correctly. So with heads bowed and eyes closed, we want to have a verse or two sung of response time, really. I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thy Lord, Lord. Jesus, thank you, Lord, all to you I owe. He washed in white as snow, He washed in white as snow, Lord, now indeed I find Thy power, and I no more Can change a rubber spot than melt a heart of stone Jesus made it all He walked in white as snow for nothing good would come of it. Jesus made the earth all to Thine own. He washed it white as snow And when before the throne I stand in hymn of plea Jesus died, my soul to save My lips shall still repeat Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe. Sin has left the crimson stain. I think you may be seated for a moment. I believe Brother Wayne is gonna come and lead in dismissal prayer, including praying for the folks that are in need tonight. As you look back on that message, And as we look at ourselves, there were generations who suffered because of a bad decision of a granddad, a dad, a predecessor of the children. I'm praying, Lord, forgive me. Doesn't it bother you that it might be some of your kids, your grandkids, I make a decision and it's the wrong decision. I make a compromise on God's instruction and they suffer. So anyway, we're here. I told you we'd like to have, I'd like to have a word of prayer for those that are sick. And Brother Mark Watkins' mother has been in a nursing home, some kind of a rehab facility. She's been at his home. Now she's got COVID and he and his wife probably have it also. There's others, I don't know all. Brother Ronnie? Could you say anything about your situation? I can't hear you. Pray for Miss Debra. I couldn't hear that, brother. I'm sorry. If we need to relay it, we can, but just remember, not only them, but there's some here, some that are not here because of just physical hindrances. So could we have a word of prayer, please? Brother Daniel, would you lead us as we pray? And as we pray, he's leading. Brother Tim gets up there and leads the singing. We all sing with him. He's leading. Let's all pray. Can we pray right now? Most gracious and heavenly Father, it is my pleasure to be here this morning to greet this meeting. We are thankful for all the people here to take praise of one another. It is a pleasure to pray for so many others who have been in this morning and in this therapy. Lord, all of them are battling with their own issues, with their temper, with their being. There are so many who are starving. Lord, we're glad you know who they are. We know that So we know that we are faithful. So we pray for Brother Mark Watkins and his mother. We pray that you pray for him and for the church and for the country, the church, and for everybody. Lord, I just pray that you come and stand with the members of our church. When you said, what is room you know of, right? There are so many that are that straightforward. When they come to our church, not only the physical, but also the spiritual. We thank you, Lord, for them. We're mighty thankful that you can come through your life, and know the grace, and know the humility, and know that you hear our prayers. Thank you for everyone here tonight, and I pray that through the Father that you help us all to remember Amen, we're dismissed.