January 14, 2026 - Genesis 12 & Psalm 12

Genesis 12 & Psalm 12 challenge us to trust in God even when the future is uncertain. God is the one who holds the future! 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Scripture Reading
• 2:47 Abram’s Call And Obedient Faith
• 5:20 Promised Land Amid Enemies
• 9:10 Doubt In Egypt And God’s Intervention
• 13:30 Psalm 12 And True Safety
• 17:20 Trusting Pure Words As We Launch

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis twelve. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and in him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the Oak of More. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord, and Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negab. Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful, and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house, and for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

SPEAKER_01: 2:47

Psalm twelve Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone, for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts. Those who say, With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us, who is master over us, because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan. I will now arise, says the Lord. I will place him in the safety for which he longs. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them. You will guard us from this generation forever. On every side, the wicked prowl as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

SPEAKER_00: 3:50

Tyler, I don't know if I could think of a better chapter to be reading in the middle of the week that we are preparing to have the very first service of Compass Bible Church South Valley. I mean, this is like uh it's not, but it feels like a church planning passage, right? Where God goes to Abram and says, Go to a land of which I will tell you, right? Go down there, go, go down there. And what I love about that is he doesn't even specify where he's to go, at least in the command. He just says, Go. And I I feel in some sense that we can relate to that, right? At Compass South Valley, where we are in the process of going to plant a new church, to uh in a new location, to reach new people, uh, to have new ministries, potentially new friendships, certainly new new life groups. There's just a lot of unknown. And I just found myself kind of identifying with what Abram's going through here, where God just says, Hey, you need to pick up and you need to go. And how does Abram respond? He responds with obedience. In verse four, it says, So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. And so I think this is such an encouragement for us, Tyler, where we just the simplicity of God's called us to do something.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

Let's go. Yeah. So so often, Pastor Jose, we want to have all the details laid out in front of us to see what's going on, to feel a sense of comfort and confidence, and even a clarity for like what's next, so I could follow this game plan, knowing all the steps from A to Z, where we just need to be leaning in and listening for the details that God's going to give us along the way, just one step at a time. And yeah, and how how comforting it is that God is gonna grow our faith through that, and and God's gonna just prove himself faithful time and time again as he chooses to provide for us in the ways that he does.

SPEAKER_00: 5:47

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think just the the beauty of the simplicity of we know what we've been called to do, we know the work ahead of us. Let's just go, let's let's do it, let's respond like Abram. So Abram went as the Lord had told him, maybe that's simple for us, right, as a church, where we know, hey, we've been called to make disciples, we've been called to make this sacrifice, and hopefully you feel that that sense of calling. If you're a part of Compass Bible Church, South Valley, the launch team, and you're anticipating uh just the work that God has placed before you, the work that God has placed before us to make disciples. And would there just be this simple obedience? Let's go. Let's let's respond. Let's let's live it out in faith. And and I think even from this passage specifically in Genesis 12, what I love is right there, kind of uh towards the the beginning, it says in verse 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem to the Oak of Moray. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Now you you need to remember in the history of Israel, the Canaanites were enemy number one, right? Uh, so it's not uh this is this is you're in enemy territory. I was trying to think of a football illustration. Who's I don't know, like enemy number one. Enemy number one? Yeah, you're the sports guy to be to BSU.

SPEAKER_01: 7:03

I don't maybe it's probably not the University of Hawaii, it's not the Rainbow Warriors.

SPEAKER_00: 7:08

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 7:08

Uh who could it be? I don't know. I just nothing came to my mind.

SPEAKER_00: 7:11

It was that was a flaw. But but that's the point. Is that Abram is in enemy territory, and in the midst of enemy territory, what does he say? He says to your offspring, I will give this land. I mean, imagine that. I'm gonna root, I'm gonna rip the rug out from under your enemies, and I'm gonna give you their land. And I think what we see here is Abram being promised enemy territory, literally, like the Canaanites are enemy number one, and God says, That land belongs to you. That is your inheritance. And I thought about that from the perspective, kind of a gospel perspective, in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. It says, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And so I just thought about the promise that we have as Christians. I mean, it's it's certainly fair to say that we live in enemy territory. We're surrounded, it feels like, at times on all sides, by the wicked, by those who shake their fists at God, for those that say in their heart, there is no God. And what are we promised? In the midst of enemy territory, we are promised to inherit the earth. We are promised a hope that is unfading, undefiled, kept in heaven for us. And I love that, just that sense of confidence. And I think part of hopefully Abram's motivation to obey is he's he's seeing the provision of the Lord even in the midst of his enemies. And for us today, even though we live in a wicked world, we we know that we have been promised uh enemy territory, so to speak. We've been promised to inherit the earth. And I think that's something that should motivate just that simple obedience that we were talking about. God said something, he's called us to a specific kind of task and a specific kind of work. Let's go and do it, let's be confident because even in the midst of our enemies, think about we've been meditating on Psalm 23 as a staff the last uh two weeks, just to kind of get a hearts oriented for the work we have ahead. And how does that Psalm end there? You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And I still I just love that that it seems like sometimes the Lord in the scriptures and even in my own life, the Lord does his best work in the presence of uh the thing that seems most unlikely, right? Great opposition, great opposition, right? The Canaanites are there, how are they gonna leave? And of course, we know the whole story about the promised land and people getting scared, the spies, and we know that whole story. But the the point is that God does his best work uh in the sense of just the from our perspective, against the backdrop of this is this isn't gonna happen, this is impossible. I'm sure Abram's thinking, how in the world are the Canaanites gonna give up this land? I I can't just go to them and ask for the deed, they're not gonna hand it to me. Uh, but there is this promise and this provision of literally enemy territory. And I hope that's that's an encouragement to you. We are promised uh to inherit the earth. We're promised uh an inheritance that can never be taken away. Um so that's why even Jesus talks about in the gospel of Matthew that we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. You know, we're moth and rust. They can't they can't destroy, they can't, thieves can't steal it. It's not something that can be taken away from us. God promises us, promises us enemy territory, and I think that's a great encouragement for us in the midst of just the work that we have uh in front of us.

SPEAKER_01: 10:19

As I was thinking about Abram and the way that God interacts with him, God pursues Abram, God leads Abram, he promises Abram, and then ultimately He will He will deliver step by step, faithfully, uh all along the way, and as a result of that, uh we could look back and see the full timeline of Abram and Abraham's life and and worship God for his faithfulness to him. We we see the promises declared, the promises fulfilled, and and we see even early on, we we see uh a wonderful response from Abram. He constructs altars and he sacrifices, he's he's worshiping God as as he leads him along. And that's that's encouraging to me to to remember uh we don't have to have it all figured out. We we can we can worship with a little bit of uncertainty in our hearts, we can worship with a little bit of uh the unknown before us and and say, God, you're the God who keeps his covenants, you're the God who um who who is the good shepherd, you will lead us all the way.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

Yeah, and I think you know we're talking about Abraham's faith, we're talking about his obedience, and and sometimes in our minds we can distance ourselves from the biblical characters and we can start to feel like, okay, all right, well, I'm not Abraham, right? I'm not Paul, I'm not, I'm not these great heroes of the faith. I'm not gonna be uh if there was ever another Hebrews 11 written the Faith Hall of Fame, I'm not making it inside of that. Uh well, okay, the scriptures kind of cut us off at the knees there because right after we see simple obedience, right after we see worship of the Lord, what do we see? Well, Abram's uh he's overcome with doubt, he's overcome with anxiety. Um and just like my sister, yeah, just like his forefather Adam, he he throws his wife under the bus. Or when Adam said it was the woman you gave me. Now Abram's like, it was the sister. Oh no you gave me uh and so we see this sense of okay, Abram's he's he's thinking ahead. And how often do we do this, Tyler? Well we forecast the future and we go, Well, if this happens, then this is gonna happen. And if I say this, then this is gonna happen, or if I do this, that's gonna happen. To this tailspin of doubt and anxiousness, we we spin. Down the rabbit hole we go. And so uh that's what happens to Abram. He starts to think, well, if they know you're my wife, they're gonna murder me. So and then he has the audacity to say, Tell them you're my sister uh for my sake, right? You're you're helping me out, you're sparing my life, putting that pressure on your wife, right? Like, if you don't do this, I'm gonna die. Uh and he just he showcases doubt ultimately in the protection of the Lord because God had already told him that he was gonna be a blessing to the nations. In order for that to happen, he's got to be alive. And so he's already doubting the promises of God. And I just want to encourage you uh to not let uncertainty of the unknown, uncertainty of uh what's tomorrow, don't let uncertainty or fear undermine your trust in God's promises. And that's what we see, unfortunately, here with Abram is that his anxiety, his uncertainty, I don't know what's gonna happen. Uh, I'm he's forecasting the future, but and of course we know only God knows the future, but because he's so confident that he can tell what's gonna happen, he ends up doubting the promises of God. He ends up sinning and lying, putting his wife in a terrible position. And so, an encouragement for us as we step into planting Compass Bible Church South Valley, don't let the uncertainty of what's gonna happen undermine your trust in God's promises. Because Tyler, I know uh neither of us know what's gonna happen, right? If I know something for sure, it's that I don't know. I don't know how things are gonna work. One thing is for sure. I yeah, I don't know how this this is gonna, I don't I don't know how we're gonna grow. I don't know who's gonna come. I don't know any of that. And there's no way for me to know. So I can forecast, I can think about the future, I can make my calculations, and and what ends up happening when we do that is we start to trust in our own ability to tell the future rather than the one who holds the future. And so we need to have this simple, obedient trust in the Lord. He's faithful to his promises. Whatever happens at Compass Bible Church South Valley, whatever happens in your life as an individual, you need to trust in the promises of God. And all of scripture really is just a grand narrative of how God is so worthy of our trust. He showcases that time and time again. And of course, he's gonna showcase that, even to the knucklehead Abram, throws his wife under the bus, literally throws her to the wolves, throws her to the Egyptians, and God is faithful. God intervenes, right? He rescues her out of that. Uh, it says, but the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with the great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So God intervenes. He he uh is even protecting and providing for Abram and his wife in the midst of his foolishness. What a comfort that that is. We're gonna we're gonna be giving into anxiety at times. We're gonna give in to uh the flesh. And what a comfort to know that God doesn't just throw us to the side uh when we when we uh struggle in those areas and when we fail to trust him, he's still faithful, he still pursues us, and that's a great comfort to me.

SPEAKER_01: 15:32

Connection and a transition, Pastor Josiah, to Psalm 12 is uh we all we all want a good thing that God provides, and and that is safety ultimately, safety in him, by him, through his son, um in in life forever with with God. And um there's there's not a lack of vile, there's not a lack of unfaithful people in David's time, in Abram's time, and in our time. Um and and our desire is uh our desire is to to be people that um that that don't have flat flattering uh lips, that don't have uh a double heart uh as we speak. And at times our our flesh can can tempt us to um to say yes to to one thing and no and no to another, and our yes is not our yes, and our no is not our no. And uh we find that ultimately in the flesh, we we try to create any way possible to create a sense of safety for ourselves. Uh and that and that's a heavy thing because we in those times we we long for a good thing and we're going about it in in the wrong way. And um ultimately it's the it's the Lord that keeps us, though as we look at the life of people who are uh suffering for the gospel in the New Testament, we look at uh look at Paul's life, surely he was thinking, God, put me into the safety that that I long for. I I want to be safe, I don't want to be shipwrecked, I don't I don't want to be snake bitten. Uh I want to be 40 lashes less one. I don't want to I don't want to be on the brink of death time after time, but uh we we want to be in the position where we're looking to God and realizing our ultimate safety, the thing that we long for is what he provides in Christ. And that and that happens ultimately at the end of our life or when he chooses to call us home.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Yeah, I mean that's what we see in verse six. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them. And man's gonna change his minds. We're gonna man, man's gonna change his mind, we're gonna be fickle, we're gonna uh we're gonna struggle with those things, we're not gonna follow through on our commitments, or whatever the case may be. But it says, You, oh Lord, will keep them, you will guard us from this generation forever. And again, this is just a call to be confident in what God has said, be confident in what God has revealed in his word, and move forward with that simple, obedient faith that Abram started with. Yeah, Lord, I'm gonna go. I don't know exactly where I'm gonna end up, I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I know you're calling me to go, and so I'm going to I'm going to obey. And we can obey and we can have confidence because the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined and a furnace on the ground purified seven times. And I hope that for our church we would be anchored by this truth. As we start something new, as we venture into the unknown, as the uncertainty of what God has called us to and how all the specifics will work out. The words of the Lord are pure words. We can trust them. The Lord will keep them, he will guard us, it says in Psalm 12. So I hope that's a great encouragement to you as we prepare for Sunday the 18th, our very first pre-launch service. I pray that we'll just have a simple obedience and a confidence in the promises of God. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.