WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:10.880 After I came to faith, uh, when I was 17, after I came to faith, I started going to this Baptist church in my hometown in Georgia, and uh the preaching, to be honest, was just terrible. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.279 But I was a new Christian and I thought maybe it's me. 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:15.039 Maybe it's not him, it's me. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:16.399 Um, and it was just not great. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.920 It was doctrinally sound, theologically, it was right there. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:27.760 It was really good in those ways, but it um never connected with me, it never moved me, it never preached to my heart. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.920 And uh for many years I just thought like maybe this is just what preaching is. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:36.479 Maybe, maybe like you come to faith and Jesus is inspiring, but the preachers and their preaching isn't. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:40.880 Like maybe that's the way, maybe I haven't been to church, and so maybe this is just what it's like. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.439 You show up, the worship's okay, and the preaching's just terrible, and you just get used to that over time. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:01:09.680 Uh, but then I was visiting uh my parents in Tennessee, and uh I heard Larry preach uh in a young married Sunday school class, and I was like, it was like the words were jumped from the scriptures, jumping off the page into my heart, connecting to my life, and this 2,000-year-old text was connecting to a 19-year-old kid. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:14.560 And I was like, oh, so so there is something different with with certain people who preach. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.599 Like that's that's something completely different than I'd experienced. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:24.640 And uh, so much so that I started going, I was 19 and had no prospects, and I started going to a young marriage class at Bellevue. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:27.519 Uh, and I'd probably look like a sore thumb, somebody just sitting there. 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:34.400 But I was like, I need this preaching in my life, I need to hear the scriptures preached this way, they come to life when he preaches. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:41.439 Um, I've spent time basically following him around uh trying to do that and uh work for him in different spaces. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:48.640 Um, but I wanted that preaching in my life, and I'm grateful that even today we get to um hear preaching from Larry. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.680 And so if you do me a favor and welcome him to preach. 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:59.680 You all know I hate anything electronic, and uh that includes this. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:04.159 Uh so uh anyway, nothing I can do about that though. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:06.079 Uh I'm glad to be here today. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:08.960 Um happy to be with y'all. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:10.960 It's a joy of my life. 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:19.199 And um uh anyway, thank you, Colton, for allowing me the privilege of being here, and uh let's pray. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:36.159 Father God, we want to just pause and acknowledge that whether we realize it or not, we are hungry and thirsty and we need living water and bread that is uh from the bread of life. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:40.000 We're foolish and we need wisdom. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:43.840 We're broken and we need repair and restoration. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.280 God, we are in the dark in so many ways, and we need light. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:57.120 We're lost and going in wrong directions, and we need uh someone to show us the way. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:13.759 And we pray today that you would work in our midst and that you'd speak into our lives that which will help us move uh closer towards you uh and uh in ways that would transform us so that we're more like you. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.680 Lord, that's a big ask, but you're a big God. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:22.000 And so we just uh pray that you would do that and I ask it in Jesus' name. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:22.879 Amen. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:28.960 Um Colton asked me a while back if I would teach today. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:39.840 Now I'd been teaching uh for, I don't know, a year and a half, a long time, and so doesn't old preachers don't stop making new lessons. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.199 So every morning I get up before most of you, and I'm still working on lessons. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.560 So I I've got a zillion lessons that I would love to teach. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:52.719 And uh I was like, oh, what should I teach? 00:03:53.120 --> 00:04:03.120 And um I had two or three major contenders, but I felt like that this was the one the Lord wanted us to look at today and to think about. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:11.599 Um and I I want to talk to you and to be, I'll say this to you as I begin. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:25.519 This has been very difficult for me to prepare because I do not want to stand here and teach you to do something, challenge you to do something that I'm not doing. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:28.959 That's why you might think, well, Larry didn't ever teach on X, Y, or Z. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:30.959 There were reasons why I didn't. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:33.680 And I I wasn't there yet. 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:37.759 Okay, if I teach it, I have been trying to work on it. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:41.360 And this you'll see why, but this was a hard one for me. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:49.279 But I I have been diligently for the last month working on making this a part of my life. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:57.600 Not there yet, but I'm further along than I was, and I hope that God will use this in your life as He's been using it in mine. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:16.480 Um reading through my Bible this year, and I came to the life of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12, I don't know, through whatever it is, 25, give or take. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:33.680 And uh I've read about the life of Abraham and Sarah a zillion times, but something jumped out at me this year that uh I'd never seen before, and it really uh shook me. 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:48.240 It it uh caused me to pause and evaluate my own life and how I operate in this area that we're gonna talk about today. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.199 This was really new and profound for me. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:54.560 And uh let me let me just say this as we're getting into this. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:06:15.439 Um I want to teach you something today that I believe if you are a student of God's word, it'll help make the scriptures much more alive and meaningful and will bring out understanding of the scriptures that maybe you've never had before. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:35.439 And that has to do with this idea that the writers of the Bible, when they use certain words or phrases, they like to repeat them later on in the scriptures. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:50.560 The same writer, maybe Moses, uses a phrase or a keyword or a set of keywords, and then later on in another book that he wrote, he uses those phrases or keywords again. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:52.480 There's a reason. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:07:01.600 He wants you to read those keywords, key phrases, key ideas, and to look back at where he used them earlier. 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:05.759 Later writers of the Bible do the exact same thing. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:16.639 No one that wrote any book of the Bible after Moses was not profoundly and clearly aware of what Moses wrote. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:32.879 Nobody, none of the prophets, none of the New Testament writers ever wrote anything in the Bible that were not very aware of what Moses had written, what Joshua had written, what David had written, and so on. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:52.160 So when they use certain words, certain ideas, certain phrases several times, they're wanting you to look back at where those ideas, those words, those phrases originated. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:59.680 They love Bible writers love to repeat words and phrases in later stories. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:12.160 They do that for emphasis, they do that so that we will connect ideas at where we are in the scripture with those same ideas in the past. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:15.600 Let me give you one quick example that we're not going to look at today. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:20.240 Right out of the gate, Genesis 3. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:25.439 God puts Adam and Eve in the garden, tells them, I built this for you. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:27.199 This is a gift to you. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:29.360 I want you to enjoy this. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:35.200 You can eat of anything in this garden, but I want you to stay away from that one tree. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.960 That one tree will not be good for you. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:40.320 Leave it alone. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:41.519 Trust me. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:09:02.320 Then the Bible says this Adam and Eve, they saw it, they saw it, they saw it as good, as desirable, they took it, and they took it. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:11.440 They saw it, they saw it as beautiful, desirable, delicious, good, and they took it. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:15.200 And then the next thing that always, they died. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:17.200 They died. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:24.480 They saw it, they desired it, they took it, and they experienced death. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:26.639 Write it in Genesis 3. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.399 Throughout the rest of the Bible, you see those four ideas. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.120 The writers of the Bible go, oh, that's important. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:46.879 So you see, um Samson, he saw something, he desired it, he took it, and he experienced death. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:58.399 David, he saw Bathsheba, he saw her as beautiful or as good, he took her and he experienced death. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:08.000 So anytime you see that, those ideas, Saul desired, took and experienced. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:18.320 When you see those four ideas, the writers of that, whoever wrote that, they want you to go back to Genesis chapter 3. 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:25.679 This is this principle, this biblical principle that I'm explaining to you, it runs through the Bible. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:47.679 Anytime you see a sacrificial lamb, anytime you see anybody offering a sacrifice, when you see these themes or these ideas or these words in the scripture, always pause and go, is there an earlier example of that? 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:56.240 The writer that I'm reading now wants me to go back and connect those so that I can pull out meaning and application. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:58.080 I hope that makes sense. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:10:58.720 Okay. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:01.600 Um, so today we're gonna practice. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:03.440 We're gonna do one today, all right? 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.519 So that you can see this. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.399 Um, I'm gonna start with Genesis chapter 12. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:12.080 I'm assuming you know a little bit about Abraham and Sarah. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:16.159 Okay, if you don't, you need to go back and read a lot, okay? 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:18.080 But we'll just leave that alone for right now. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.120 But I'm assuming you know a little bit about Abraham and Sarah. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:31.919 And in Genesis chapter 12, Abraham and Sarah are given a promise from God. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:39.039 And the promise went like this I have a plan for your life. 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:43.440 I want to give you a family. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:50.720 And it's gonna start with a son, but it's gonna be a family, a family of faith. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:12:04.720 I'm gonna give you a land for that family to live in, and I'm gonna fill your life and that land with blessings beyond your wildest dreams. 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:21.200 But then I want you to take that life, that family, that land of abundant blessings, and I want you to then see that God doesn't want you to hoard, it's what Rainey was talking about a little while ago. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:22.639 No, no, no. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.000 I want you to be a blessing to the nations of the world. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.240 I'm gonna give them to you, but there's a responsibility that goes along with it. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:36.559 I want you to be a blessing to the nations of the world. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:46.480 So I'm gonna give you a family, give you a land, fill your life with blessings, and then make you a great blessing to the nations of the world. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:13:01.600 Very next thing we read is a drought comes to the lives and the area where Abraham and Sarah lived, and it drove them, right or wrong, it drove them down to Egypt. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:11.039 Egypt is one of those words that you always want to, when you see it anytime in the Bible, it's warning you to go back. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:15.840 Egypt's a very significant word, a very significant idea in the Bible. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.000 So is Babylon, so is Rome. 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:24.000 These are huge theological ideas that we're supposed to go back and say, where'd that come from? 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:25.360 Where did I see that before? 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:26.960 But anyway, that's another story. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:28.799 Um, so drought occurs. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:42.639 Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt, and while they're there, waiting on the drought to end back in the promised land, they buy and enslaved. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:43.840 Key word. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:52.480 The Bible says, they enslaved a Hebrew, uh, sorry, an Egyptian lady named Hagar. 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:54.320 Very important. 00:13:54.879 --> 00:14:04.960 They enslaved this lady, and that when the drought's over, they go back to the promised land and they take this enslaved woman with her. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:07.519 Now, read along a little further. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:09.519 Now we're in Genesis 16. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:12.240 Years have passed. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.600 God promised us a family. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:16.960 We don't have a family. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:17.759 What's wrong? 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:19.679 Why isn't this going well? 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:25.440 I tell you what, we're gonna create our own family. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.120 We're gonna help God out. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:36.960 We're gonna take this enslaved Egyptian and we're gonna use her to create a family. 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:43.360 We're gonna take her and use her to build our family. 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:44.879 The plan works. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:50.159 Abraham and Hagar have a child, the child's name is Ishmael. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:15:02.960 But the story goes on to say that once Sarah realizes, and Abraham's sort of following along, he's a weak kind of a felon. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:08.080 He sort of follows his old principle about if mama's happy, everybody's happy. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:09.679 If mama's not happy, nobody's happy. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:11.679 Well, Abraham would say, I live like that. 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:13.120 That I testify to that. 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:21.840 And so Sarah's not happy about Hagar and this baby, though this now this little boy, and he's anyway, that's a whole nother thing. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:38.399 So then it says that Abraham and Sarah became fearful, and they treat, here's the phrase, they treated the Egyptian and her son ruthlessly. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:41.200 It's a very key word. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:51.440 Abraham and Sarah, God's people, they treated the Egyptian and her son ruthlessly. 00:15:51.840 --> 00:16:01.440 Then you jump on over to Genesis 21, and lo and behold, if Abraham and Sarah just waited, God would have given them exactly what he promised, but they were impatient. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:06.799 And so Sarah finally gets pregnant and she has her own son. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:15.840 But once she has her own son, now the Egyptian and her son, they're just a bother. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.240 They're an annoyance, they're a hindrance. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:30.159 And so what the Bible says that they do is this they take the Egyptian boy and his mom and they cast her out. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:35.679 The implication is they cast them out to die. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:41.360 Oh, here's a bag of water, a couple of little old bags, little things of bread. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.279 But at the end of the day, we're sending you out into the desert to die. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:52.799 They cast the Egyptians out to die. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:58.159 Those of you that have read your Bibles very much, that wait, wait, wait a minute. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:01.840 Casting somebody out to die. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:14.319 I want you to notice the treatment that God's people used in the way they related to the Egyptians. 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:29.119 They enslaved, they used, they treated ruthlessly, they became fearful, and they cast the Egyptians out. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:34.559 Okay. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.559 Abraham and I want you to think about Hagar and Ishmael just for a second. 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:54.559 They had been bought, enslaved, used, treated ruthlessly, and then once they were no longer of value, to kick them out, to die. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:06.079 I want you to think about the pain, the wrong, the harm, the shame that Hagar and Ished me, I would have felt. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:07.359 Just like you and I. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.920 They're not robots, they're not immortal, they're not superhuman, they're regular folks. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.880 And when people treat them wrong, they feel wronged. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:16.559 Right? 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:17.680 Okay. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:26.720 That's what Genesis teaches us about Abraham and Sarah and their relationship with the Egyptians. 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:33.359 Now let's jump to Exodus chapter one, which was also written by Moses. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:47.519 Now another drought, Exodus chapter one starts with this idea, another drought has brought God's people, the Hebrews, down to Egypt again. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:58.000 And now in Exodus chapter one, the Bible says this the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:04.079 They use them and treat them ruthlessly. 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:11.759 They use them to build their own families and their own nation. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:31.920 But at some point they become fearful of the Hebrews and they take the Hebrew sons and they cast, or they treat them ruthlessly, and then they cast them out. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:37.440 They cast them into the Red Sea to die. 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:42.559 The exact same series of words. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:47.759 Moses used these words in Genesis 12, 16, and 21. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.680 Moses used the exact same words in Exodus chapter one. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:20:00.640 Enslaved, used, treated ruthlessly, became fearful, and cast them out. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:10.559 Now Israel is experiencing exact, they're reaping what they sowed. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:20.319 They treated people ugly, mean, ruthlessly, used them to their benefit, and then cast them out. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:25.200 And now they are experiencing the exact same thing. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:28.720 Egypt, I want you to think about the Israelites. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:40.160 How that would have felt to be used, treated ruthlessly, enslaved, to be people to be fearful of you, and then to be cast out. 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:55.359 But in both of these scenarios, Abraham and Sarah's treatment of Hagar and Ishmael, the Egyptians' treatment of God's people, the Israelites, in both scenarios, let me tell you what you don't see. 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:07.519 You see wrong done, but you don't see anybody going back to make it right. 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:23.119 What you don't see in the story of Abraham and Sarah, God's people, God's people of faith, a friend of God, what you see them acting horribly, treating other people wrongly. 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:30.960 But what you don't see is them coming back and going, Oh, we were crazy. 00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:33.119 We lost our ever-loving mind. 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:35.839 Why would we treat you like that? 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:51.119 We belong to the God that created the universe, who's promised us everything that we could ever dream of or hope for, but we used you, enslaved you, treated you ruthlessly, and then cast you. 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:53.039 I'm sorry. 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.200 Would you forgive me? 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.960 I wish I had not done it, but I did, and I can't undo that. 00:21:59.119 --> 00:21:59.680 What do I? 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.000 Need to do to make this right. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:04.799 But you don't see that. 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.880 When the Egyptians do it to the Israelites. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:19.119 Oh, you see them treating them terribly, using them uh to their own good, becoming fearful of them, and then casting them out into the sea. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:24.400 But what you don't see are the Egyptians coming back and saying, We're sorry. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:26.559 We wronged you. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:29.119 We treated you terribly. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:31.200 Would you forgive us? 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:35.279 And my point that I want us to see is this. 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:48.559 I wonder how Exodus 1 through 12, that's Moses, God appearing to Moses, saying Moses, the Egyptians, they've enslaved my people. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:49.680 They won't let them go. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:52.640 You've got to go down there and tell Pharaoh to let them go. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:56.559 And then I'm gonna, he's gonna be a hardhead, so we're gonna have to do some work on him. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:06.799 But eventually, I want you to lead my people out of slavery in Egypt and bring them back to the promised land where I that I created for Abraham and Sarah years ago. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:14.480 And then he goes down, they have the big conflict between Pharaoh and Moses or Pharaoh and Yahweh, however you want to see that. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.160 And all the plagues and the death of the of the Egyptian sons. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.359 That's a whole nother thing. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:29.759 People that kill people experience death. 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:32.319 Experience death. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:34.640 But that's a whole nother thing. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:39.119 What you don't my question was this. 00:23:41.119 --> 00:24:00.799 Wonder how Exodus or two, Exodus two through twelve, might have gone if Abraham and Sarah hundreds of years earlier had treated Hagar and Ishmael differently. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:04.480 They never forgot that. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.480 They never forgot how they were treated. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:12.640 And it was passed down from generation to generation to generation. 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:15.039 They never forgot that. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:17.680 Nothing was done to make it right. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:31.599 And that anger, that hate, that distance, that animosity, that unforgiveness, that bitterness, it just carries, it never goes away. 00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:33.519 It doesn't evaporate. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.839 Time does not heal wounds. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:43.599 It's one of those sayings that somebody's, I got a good idea, I'll come up with a saying, but it's stupid. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:45.680 Time doesn't heal wounds. 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:57.519 I wonder how Pharaoh is standing in front of his son's bed. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:24:59.359 He's dead. 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:08.000 All he can hear are the screams of the Egyptian moms throughout the nation of Israel because all the boys are dead. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:36.559 I wonder how that might have been written if Abraham and Sarah had demonstrated and illustrated and exemplified to the Egyptians this is what you do when you mess up, when you blow it, when you do wrong, when you treat people ruthlessly, ugly, mean. 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:52.799 Then I wonder how that would have been possibly rewritten if the Egyptians eighty years earlier would have said to the Israelites, we shouldn't have treated you this way. 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:56.960 We were wrong, we were stupid, we regret this. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:58.960 Would you forgive us? 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:26.319 All the pain, all the hatred, all the loss, all the destruction that maybe would have been avoided if somebody in the scenario, somebody in the story had owned the wrong they had done and just said, I'm sorry. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:31.279 I messed up, I blew it, I regret how I treated you. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:33.599 Will you forgive me? 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:37.119 I want to make this right with you. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:39.039 But nobody did that. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:50.559 And so you begin a journey in Genesis 12, runs through Exodus, and then for the rest of the Bible, Egypt is a thorn. 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:54.960 Anyway, you see the point. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:57.119 I gotta hurry. 00:26:57.359 --> 00:26:57.680 Okay. 00:26:58.079 --> 00:26:59.680 All right, you see the point. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:08.079 Jesus says in John chapter 17 that relational conflicts and offenses are unavoidable. 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:19.039 But then he adds this but serious consequences occur when those offenses are ignored. 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:23.440 Relational failure, wrong, and pain are going to happen. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:28.240 But most of the time, nothing's done. 00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:36.720 Nothing's done to repair, nothing's done to own, nothing's done to heal, nothing's done to make right. 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:40.400 We just ignore and we move on. 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:44.480 We pretend like it never happened. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:47.839 But it did happen. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:49.920 And people don't forget. 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:58.480 Time and silence do not heal wounds and conflict. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:01.599 The result? 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:15.200 We're left with relationships full of pain, division, distance, death with our family members, our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, and the people in our communities. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:38.079 Moses wants us to see the connection, to see the connection between what happens when relational wrongs occur and nothing is done, the impact that that has on the future. 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:41.839 Conflicts are gonna occur. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:29:05.680 But I believe Moses would declare, and I know the Lord Jesus would, when they occur, we must own them and we must address them, or they will continue to rob, kill, steal, and destroy into the future. 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:12.000 Proverbs 17 says, ponder this verse for a long time. 00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:22.319 Proverbs 17 says, relational conflict is like a dam bursting open. 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:28.400 So stop the conflict before it destroys you. 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:35.920 Relational conflict is like the bursting of a dam. 00:29:36.480 --> 00:29:39.839 So stop the conflict before it destroys you. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:41.759 Why do people build dams? 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:46.640 They're for the purpose of creating life. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:47.440 Right? 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:57.200 Where there's no life, where there's desert, where there's a lack of water, where things can't grow, where people can't get drinking water, they build a dam. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:29:58.880 They build a dam. 00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:02.559 You always build a dam for life, to create life. 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:14.640 But when that dam cracks and busts open, and that wall of water comes crashing down through that river valley, it destroys everything in its path. 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:21.759 That which was created for life creates death. 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:27.920 Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, would say, uh hello. 00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:37.519 God created relationships, husband and wife, parent and child, friends, co-workers. 00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:41.759 God created relationships to create life. 00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:53.440 But when conflicts occur and they will and they're not addressed well, they create devastation. 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:58.720 The very opposite of their original purpose. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:12.720 Jesus said in Matthew 22, there's only two things that really matter to him: loving God well and loving your neighbor well. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.400 And he came and he taught. 00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:18.960 And what he really taught is this. 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:25.359 I'm inviting you to be a part of something. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.680 A kingdom. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:38.960 We're citizens of a kingdom. 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:52.319 And in this king that we claim to follow in this kingdom that we claim to be a part of, in this kingdom, and according to this king, there's only one thing that matters: relational health. 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:58.319 We value relationships that are good and strong and healthy. 00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:00.960 We value that above all. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:06.880 We claim to follow this king. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:08.960 What's he like? 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:10.000 What's this king? 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:13.519 This guy that you claim to believe in and follow, what's he like? 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:19.920 Well, let's see, the first time we really get a good glimpse of him is in Genesis chapter 3. 00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:23.920 And the people that are a part of his family fail royally. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:27.039 So how's he acting? 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:29.359 I can tell you how he's acting. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:32.640 Adam, Adam, where are you? 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:36.000 He's not writing them off. 00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:40.400 He's not squelching, crushing them with his fist. 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:42.480 He's not dog cussing them. 00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:44.000 He's not punishing them. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:45.680 He's looking for them. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.480 He's pursuing them. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:50.799 What's this God like? 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:54.000 Oh, I know another example, and the Bible's filled with them. 00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:59.680 I know Hosea, he's this guy that represents God. 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:15.279 And this guy marries this woman who was badly broken and pours out his love on her, and then danged if she doesn't take that love and run in the opposite direction and make things worse by betraying her husband. 00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:18.400 But what does the husband in the story do? 00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:27.279 He doesn't write her off, cut his losses, have her stoned, which he should have legally. 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:36.400 He goes and he finds her and he says, Whatever you've done, I want to make, I'll make it right for you. 00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.000 I'll pay off your debts, I'll fix the wrongs you've done. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:42.079 Come home and let's start over again. 00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:44.079 Come on, let's start over again. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:45.839 What's this God like? 00:33:46.000 --> 00:34:05.519 Well, in Luke 15, the Bible would say that this God is this God that when uh God's now a shepherd, and he's got these sheep, and they are honory and cantankerous and hard-headed, and they're always going in the wrong direction and falling into ditches, and they won't cooperate. 00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:10.079 But what's the good shepherd doing when they act like that? 00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:23.440 He leaves the 99 nice ones and he goes to find the not head, and he puts that sheep on his shoulder and says, Come on, let's go back home and start over again. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:25.920 Come on, let's go back home. 00:34:27.119 --> 00:34:29.360 And what's this God like? 00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:43.039 Last time we see him in Revelation chapter 3, he's writing to this church, the worst of the seven churches, the absolute worst church of all of them. 00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:51.760 And what is what's God doing in his relationship to this terrible group of God followers? 00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:57.599 I'm knocking at your heart. 00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.719 I want to come inside and start over again. 00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:04.239 I want to, I want, I want to rebuild. 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:09.760 I'm in the restoring business, the recreation business. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:18.960 I'm not writing people off, I'm not denouncing people, I'm not casting people aside, I'm not starting over, I'm gonna go with the movers and the shakers. 00:35:19.119 --> 00:35:21.119 There are no movers or shakers. 00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:36.880 We're all those sheep, we're all these hard-headed church members, we're all these uh terrible wives like Gomer, we're all these, and what's God doing in his relationship with all of us? 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:42.400 He's pursuing, he's moving toward us. 00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:48.239 God will accept nothing less. 00:35:48.960 --> 00:36:01.119 God will pay whatever cost is required to create, to protect, and to restore healthy relationships. 00:36:01.360 --> 00:36:06.000 There's example after example after example of this running through the scriptures. 00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:08.079 I'll give you just one or two. 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:12.719 Abraham got this by finally Abraham gets this. 00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:15.599 In Genesis, I think it's chapter 13. 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:18.320 Abraham realizes something. 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:32.559 He's got this nephew named Lot, he's a real prize, and uh uh uh but what but Abraham and Lot have this conflict, they cannot get along. 00:36:32.719 --> 00:36:36.320 And so Abraham says, Hey, we need to make this right. 00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:41.280 We need to create a system where we are working together in unity. 00:36:41.679 --> 00:36:43.119 What do we need to do? 00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:50.639 He says, Lot, you pick the land that you like best, and I'll take what's left over. 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:54.880 It's all mine, but I'm gonna give you first dibs. 00:36:55.360 --> 00:36:57.599 Do you know why Abraham did that? 00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:04.719 Because he understood what most of us don't. 00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:12.000 Family survival depends upon family unity. 00:37:13.599 --> 00:37:19.039 Family survival depends upon family unity. 00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:22.880 And Abraham was willing to do whatever it took. 00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:28.079 Hey, but that's you'll not give that young whippersnapper first dibs on the best land. 00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:29.599 You deserve that. 00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:36.159 I'll take family unity over the best land any day of the week. 00:37:36.639 --> 00:37:41.440 And then the very last verse of that chapter tells us why Abraham felt that way. 00:37:41.920 --> 00:37:46.480 Because there were so many enemies living in the land. 00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:59.679 And Abraham knew if we're gonna survive as a family with all these enemies surrounding us, we have got to do whatever it takes to create unity. 00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:05.920 And I could give you, you could read 1 Corinthians chapter 6, that's one of the best examples, but I don't have time to go into that. 00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:31.840 Oh, that we had the passion to create relational health, to repair what is relationally broken, to strengthen what is relationally weakened, to give life to what is relationally dead. 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:33.920 But that's not where we're passionate. 00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:38.800 Go down to divorce court, see where you're what people are passionate over. 00:38:41.360 --> 00:38:52.800 We want to be right, we want to win, we want to get our way, we want to blame and justify and repay and rationalize and excuse and pretend and punish. 00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:57.840 And God says you can do that. 00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:09.440 But that you want, if you do that, you wind up with Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and the Israelites and the Egyptians get. 00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:41.679 John Gottman, he says this the difference between families that succeed and families that fail are how well they learn to deal with relational conflict. 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:45.280 Not avoid relational conflict, that's not possible. 00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:48.559 Relational conflict's gonna happen. 00:39:49.679 --> 00:40:06.000 But he can spend a few minutes with anybody, and he can tell you whether you are gonna make it or not relationally, based upon how well you learn to deal with relational conflict. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:18.000 And then he says this relationally successful people move toward one another rather than away from one another. 00:40:18.320 --> 00:40:23.440 They don't pretend, hide, withdraw, or stonewall. 00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:30.400 They do what is required to create relational health. 00:40:31.360 --> 00:40:33.119 And then he ends with this. 00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:38.480 What that means is they do two things a lot. 00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:51.920 They confess their wrong and ask forgiveness, or they confront that they've been wronged and they give forgiveness. 00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:53.199 I love that. 00:40:53.760 --> 00:40:55.599 I'm sort of confused on what you mean. 00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:58.159 Oh no, no, you know exactly what he means. 00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:00.880 This is so confusing and hard to understand. 00:41:01.039 --> 00:41:03.679 Oh no, no, there's nothing confusing about this. 00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:09.199 They confess and ask forgiveness a lot. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:15.199 Or they confront, you hurt me, you wronged me, and you shouldn't have done that. 00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:18.800 But I forgive you, and they do that a lot. 00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:23.760 That's what relationally successful people do. 00:41:25.519 --> 00:41:30.159 1 John chapter 4, this is my translation, but it's a good one. 00:41:30.559 --> 00:41:39.840 Here's what love looks like: not us moving toward God, but God moving toward us. 00:41:41.440 --> 00:41:48.960 And if I claim to be a follower of that God, I've got to learn to move toward people like God does. 00:41:49.920 --> 00:42:03.039 Psalm 37, 37 says this a wonderful, blessing-filled future awaits those who love and seek peace. 00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:09.280 You know what Jesus calls this? 00:42:10.400 --> 00:42:11.760 Peacemaking. 00:42:12.239 --> 00:42:13.679 Not peacekeeping. 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:15.280 That's what we try to do. 00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:16.960 We want to be peacekeepers. 00:42:17.599 --> 00:42:19.199 Terrible occupation. 00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:20.719 Ask the UN. 00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:22.719 It's terrible, terrible job. 00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:42.639 Jesus tells us that we will experience the life that God created us to have if we spend our lives trying to be peacemakers, moving toward healing relational damage. 00:42:43.119 --> 00:42:50.880 The problem is, living the life of a peacemaker, it's messy and it's costly. 00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:53.280 It hurts. 00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:59.519 We experience some setbacks and some failures and rejection. 00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:14.320 But it's the calling that God has placed upon the life of everyone who claims that the God of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament, the Savior of the New Testament, that's my God. 00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:16.639 That's my Savior. 00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:22.239 It's his blood that I'm claiming to wash away my sins. 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:23.519 I'm following him. 00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:30.159 If I claim that that's my God, then I've got to live a life of a peacemaker. 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:34.239 Somebody that moves toward people rather than away from people. 00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:40.719 Somebody that practices owning my wrong and asking for forgiveness. 00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:46.639