Monday 123024
Don’t let me or my writings influence or scare you in any way, instead, allow me to be used as a vessel to open the Word, just a little bit, and hopefully, together we are going to read and study His Word, and let God teach us what He wants us to hear.
Since the beginning of this study, our vision has been that we are ONLY going to follow what is found in the Holy Bible, that pertains to us, and we realize that it’s ONLY from our own effort that we put into this study, that we’re going to take anything away for our own use.
The verses we are going to study tonight:
Genesis 11:8-9, 31-32, 12:1a, 2, 17:1, 5, 21:2-5, 22:2; Matthew 17:20.
The tower has just been destroyed.
Gen 11
vs8 ‘…So the Lord separated the people from one another. They went to live in different lands all over the earth. They stopped building the city for themselves…’
vs9 ‘…That is why people called the city Babel. It was because the Lord confused all the people of the world, and he gave them different languages to speak. From that time, the Lord separated the people from each other so that they lived in different places all over the earth…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
In vs8, the last sentence, in fact, the very last two words from the EASY version explain the reason God destroyed the tower and separated the people ‘…for themselves…’
‘…for themselves…’ this was the problem that God had … man at that time, in that place, they were doing what they wanted instead of doing what God wanted them to do.
So, today in our man-made churches, what do you think God would think? Man today in these churches have their own Sunday service, they have the service printed out on their paper, and most times God’s Word is not even mentioned in that service except maybe a few verses. These churches are celebrating Sunday worship, the way they want to celebrate their service. This church, as well as all the people that attend that church have all forgotten about what God wants for and from us.
We no longer use the writings of Paul, even though Paul is the apostle that Jesus chose to teach the Gentiles.
I’m a Gentile, in fact the majority of those man-made churches today, and all their congregations of people, all of them, are Gentiles.
In essence, these people on Sunday morning are having service for themselves, they basically have the same problem as those men building the tower, they were building it for themselves.
Genesis 11 ends with the family line of Noah’s son, Shem and the chapter ends with the introduction of Abram.
Genesis 11
vs31 ‘…Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there…’
vs32 ‘…Terah died there at the age of 205…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
We begin Genesis 12:1a ‘…The Lord said to Abram…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
Other than Noah, Genesis 12 shows us what FAITH in God the Father, really is.
Abram is our greatest example of FAITH, and we are shown what can result from FAITH if we keep it in God our Father.
Many places today speak how money is the evil for all men but back in the time of Abram, wealth didn’t seem to affect how much God promised him.
Genesis 12:2 ‘…Abram was a very rich man, with sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as silver and gold…’ GNT (Good News Translation)
His nephew Lot was also very wealthy. But back in Genesis 12, the wealth from that time period didn’t seem to affect men the way it does today in the 21st century.
Matthew 19:24 ‘…And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
We can be wealthy and still get into heaven, but the problem comes when we put the value of our wealth, another words, ‘HOW RICH ARE WE,’ in front of asking how we’re going to get into heaven. Too often today, people are putting a higher value on our earthly wealth instead of worrying about what we need to get into heaven.
Abraham was the first Hebrew patriarch and is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to the Bible, he was called by God to journey to a new land, where he founded a new nation.
Historians debate over the reality of the man, Abram. Many unbelievers question the time periods, and it raises the question of facts, and this is the point I have tried making these last few years.
There is so much UNBELIEF from so many today in the 21st century, that maybe these people that are questioning our past need to start having people from today questioning their questions to see if these questions are even feasible.
There are certain people that will argue between black and white, and their answers will all come out grey just so they won’t admit one way or the other. They raise a question using another question. They can ask questions; they can come up with proposed ideas from the questions they raise but they never seem to come up with an answer.
In Genesis 15, Abram is promised a son, an err to carry on his line.
Genesis 17:1 ‘…Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
Genesis 17:5 ‘…No longer shall you be named Abram, but your name shall be Abraham;
For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
So, Abram had his name changed to Abraham and he finally had been promised a son by God.
The thing is, Abraham had to believe that God could give him a son at the age of 99. This is our problem today, that ‘believing’ isn’t taught. We find our world teaching money, how we need money to live, how we need money to go one step further.
Genesis 21
vs2 ‘…So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him…’
vs3 ‘…Abraham named his son who was born to him, the son whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac…’
vs4 ‘…Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him…’
vs5 ‘…Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
It should be recognized that Abraham MUST be an important figure in this book of Genesis. We first heard of Abram, back in chapter 11 and here we are in chapter 21 and his 1st son is just born and Abraham is 100 years old.
Genesis 22:2 ‘…Then He said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you…’ NASB (New American Standard Bible)
It seems at every turn in Father Abraham’s life, he was tested, once again by God, to see if Abraham still believed Him. He commanded Abraham to offer his ‘ONLY’ son up to God in a sacrifice.
Can you imagine what would go through your mind if something like that happened to you today? Ask for something, every day of your life and then when it does finally come, ask yourself, what would you do?
In the Bible, there is nothing that has been done that God didn’t previously already know about. He already knew the outcome.
There is nothing that ended up differently than the way that God had originally intended. There has to be some unseen message right here regarding Abraham that has been overlooked for centuries.
We have to ask, how is it even possible for one person to have so much FAITH in God. Maybe God is allowing Abraham to have so much faith just to teach us all we need is a little, like a mustard seed.
Matthew 17:20 ‘…Jesus replied, you could not do it because you do not trust God very much. I tell you this: You may believe in God only a little bit, like a very small seed. Even then, you could say to this mountain, go away from this place and move to that other place. Then it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you to do…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
There is so much in these other books that were written for the Jew that a Gentile can read and use in their life.
When Matthew writes what Jesus said in one of His speeches, when it is dealing with FAITH, all of us can take something away from these writings.
Jesus came for the Jewish man, the House of Israel. But Jesus also came to teach ALL mankind about faith and how we were going to need that FAITH one day in our life.
It all depends on what are we going to put our faith in? Is it going to be in a worldly possession? Is it going to be in a world leader? Is it going to be in a man-made church or a human denomination?
Are we going to place our faith and trust in solar energy power storage banks or in underground bomb shelters for the belief of future wars.
Have you ever noticed a scientist speak on how a rock formation was formed over 100 million years ago and then, take a step back and look at the picture real close, in 100 million years, not one rock fell from this supposed rock formation? In 100 million years not one event happened that made any change.
We cannot go one – twenty-four-hour period without something happening today whether it’s a rainstorm, a flood, a fire, a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake or anything else that happens naturally in this world that we live in.
Okay we need to close tonight; Abraham was just told by God to take his son and offer him as a sacrifice.
The amount of FAITH that must have been present is unfathomable for us today.
Jesus came to this earth for the Jew, but it was through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that has been our promise of Everlasting Life after we die.
Throughout today, just imagine what you have just attained, you would freely give up if you were asked to give it up.
Can you just imagine.
We’ll see you tomorrow morning. Keep your Bibles open and continue to study the Word that God has given us. It is through your study of His Word that is going to prepare you for what is going to happen in your life.
I love y’all. Remember, the day is coming when Jesus is going to return and teach us the true meaning of what is involved in this word LOVE.
Be safe.
Jesus, I pray that those ears and eyes, either listening or seeing this message today would be opened to the very fullest and allow Your love to come inside their lives and comfort them. Teach us Jesus. Protect us. We love You. Amen
InHIM. ><)))o>