Genesis 12:10-20 NKJV Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. (11) And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. (12) Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. (13) Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” (14) So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. (15) The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. (16) He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. (17) But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. (18) And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? (19) Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” (20) So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
- We now come to our second sermon on the events of the life of Abraham.
- Of course he is not called Abraham yet, God has yet to change his name, but they are two in the same men.
- Our first sermon on his life focused on his calling… do you remember how God called Abram?
Genesis 12:1-4 NKJV Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (2) I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (4) So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
- So Abram was with his family in this land called Haran, when God call’s him out of the land, out of Haran, and away from his family.
- With him he brings his wife, his nephew Lot and they head out to this land that God has promised them, the land of Canaan.
- We also talked last week about how important it is to understand OUR relationship with Abraham, and we talked about the three things to remember as we read about the many promises, blessings, and prophecies that God gives to Abraham… now we don’t see those promises in full swing in this section of scripture, so I will save you the recap of that teaching… suffice it to say that if you are born again scripture says that you are a child of Abraham and his promises are your promises.
- So, God call’s Abram out of Haran to a land promised to Him called Canaan, and God gives Abram a special blessing and promise of protection, while also telling Abram that he would be a blessing to all people.
- Now in todays Scripture we read two very distinct events in Abrams life, one leading to the other… first we read that there was a Famine in the land of Canaan, so Abram moves to Egypt where there is food…
Genesis 12:10 NKJV Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
- This was a great victory of faith, as we will talk about in our first point…
- But then we read of this odd event where Abram deceives the Egyptians, trying to hide the fact that Sarai is his wife…
Genesis 12:12-13 NKJV Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. (13) Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
- This was a great failure of faith as we will talk about in the second point this morning…
- The victory and the failure that we read about this morning all stem from this same question… a question that is talked about over and over and over again in scripture… and one that deserves being asked and answered in our own life…
- The question is the Title of today’s sermon:
- Whom should we fear? We are going to talk about this question, we are going to answer this question, and we are going to also talk about who we should NOT fear… let’s kick it off with prayer…
- The first point this morning will be a reminder for many of you, and new for some of you… but it is absolutely foundational to the faith… We Should Fear the Lord.
Point One – We Should Fear the Lord
Genesis 12:1 NKJV Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
Genesis 12:10 NKJV Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
- Abram is called by God, the booming audible voice of God… leave everything you know behind and come to a land that I will give you.
- Abram responds in faith, not knowing the future, no GPS to show the way, no AirBNB’s to rent, no Wikipedia page about what Canaan was like for Him to study…
- He just goes, He just does precisely as God told him too…
- And then he gets to the land and immediately there is a sever famine… Wow, thanks God!
- And it is not like God is trying to punish Abram, in fact all we see between the call of Abram and the famine is obedience, well except for the Lot situation which we will get to in another sermon, but all we see is obedience, faith, and worship. In fact in verse 7 God reaffirms the blessing and calling to the land of Canaan…
- And yet, even in his faith and obedience, Abaham gets to the promised land and there is a severe famine.
- Now at this point a weaker man would begin grumbling at God, much like the Israelites did in the wilderness…
Exodus 16:3 NKJV And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
- How easy would it have been for Abram to say “Oh Lord, that I would have died in the land of Haran, at least there was food there, and my father to help take care of me! You must have brought me into this land of Cannan in order to kill me with hunger!”
- But Abram didn’t say that… Abram knew He was called by God and trusted in the Lord…
- And I would take it a step farther and say: Not only did he trust the Lord, but Abram FEARED the Lord.
- Now before I explain why I think Abram feared the Lord, let me explain what it means to fear the Lord.
- First and foremost, lets be clear, the fear of the Lord is a GOOD thing.
Psalms 25:12-14 NKJV Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. (13) He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth. (14) The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
Psalms 34:9 NKJV Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.
Proverbs 1:7 NKJV The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 9:10 NKJV “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
- So, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, we as saints are called to fear the Lord and promised to be provided for, and those who fear the Lord will prosper and know the secrets of God.
- That sounds like some pretty good stuff… I would like those things…
- But it seems so… contrary… to suggest that we should fear the Lord… doesn’t it?
- I mean, God is my shepherd, my provider, my protector, my strong tower… why should I fear Him? That seems the OPPOSITE of what I should do…
- And that dear friends, is because English is dumb sometimes… You should fear the Lord, yes, but you should not be AFRAID of the Lord.
- I was explaining this concepts to my daughter earlier this week as we go through Proverbs together…
- In our house we discipline our children fairly strictly, the Bible says that a good father disciplines the children he loves… I love my children so I discipline them…
- But I try not to let my discipline be a surprise… so often times I will say things like “Hannah, if you don’t go brush your teeth right now you are going to be grounded” or “Ezra, if you don’t pick up your room before dinner you are going to lose screen time”.
- Now, my children are not afraid of me, I am their provided and protector, I am their daddy… but they would do well to fear me.
- Ezra learned very early on that when daddy says something, He means it, so if I say “Clean your room or lose Screen time” Ezra knows that he will lose screen time.
- Hannah is still learning this, and I explained to her “You would do well to fear me in those moments of discipline… to fear that I will indeed do what I said I will do, and ground you… then let that fear drive you towards obedience.”
- So in that sense, fear is not “I am afraid of you”, instead, fear is “I believe you”.
- And this means it is so important as parents to be consistent… we need to not lose our cool and do things we later regret… and we also need to not be soft and go back on disciplines we issued. If you are grounded for a month then you are grounded for a month, even if in two weeks I feel bad for you.
- You see if you are someone who loses their cool… one moment you are awesome and everything is fine, and the next moment you are beating your kids with a ruller… well then your kids will be afraid of you… because they don’t know what to expect.
- If you don’t follow through with discipline, on the other hand, then your kids won’t fear you… you are a push over.
- But if you are level headed and consistent, then your kids will not be afraid of you, they will know exactly what to expect if they disobey, but they will fear you, knowing you are a man or woman of your word.
- God is consistent! We don’t need to be afraid of Him… He will never leave us or forsake us… but we should fear Him… God will discipline us when we disobey.
- And how much more should we fear God, I have the authority to spank my children… God has the authority to end my life! WHY WOULD I WANT TO MESS WITH HIM?!
- So I fear God, but I am not afraid of God… I run to Him, never from Him… because He is my strong tower, my Daddy, my comforter… but I never try to anger Him… because He is a Just Judge, a Jealous God, a Righteous Avenger.
- So to answer the question: Whom shall I fear? The answer is GOD! God is whom I shall fear… and that is exactly what Abram did. Abram feared God.
Genesis 12:1 NKJV Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
Genesis 12:10 NKJV Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
- So Abram is in Canaan, and there is a sever famine… He knows he can’t stay there, at least not now… so he has to make a decision…
- And here is the big thing, here is the fear of God in Abram’s life… Abram doesn’t go back home… He doesn’t return to his Father’s house.
- In fact, the land of Haran, Abrams home, was to the North East of Canaan… and Egypt, on the other hand, was to the South West of Canaan… Abram went the OPOSITE DIRECTION OF CANAAN!
- He could have gone back to where he remembered being comfortable, he could have gone back to his fathers house… he could have gone back to a land that had so prospered him before… BUT NO!
- God called me out of that life and I AM NOT GOING BACK!
- In Fact, I am going the opposite direction… God called me out of the North East, so I am heading South West.
- Some of you need to learn, especially new believers… Abram was a new believer at this time… when times get tough, DO NOT RETURN TO YOUR OLD WAYS…
- Satan wants to tempt you, he wants to say “See this following God thing is not what it is all cracked up to be… go back… go back to your friends you used to do drugs with… go back to the bar you used to get drunk at… go back to those shows and games and books that are full of filth… at least you weren’t starving then!”
- NO SATAN! I AM NOT GOING BACK! In fact, just to spite you I am going to go FARTHER AWAY from what God called me out of!
- And what did Abram find when he went father away from where God called him out of? He found FOOD! He found blessings! He found comfort! He found provision!
- Saints when you go farther away from sin, even in times of famine, drought, or depression… when you go farther away from sin the result is blessings, and provision, and comfort!
- FEAR THE LORD! NOT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
- FEAR THE LORD! DO NOT FEAR YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES! FEAR THE LORD.
- And so, Abram get’s to Egypt and then a new fear creeps in… the fear of man…
Point Two – We Should Not Fear Man
Genesis 12:11-13 NKJV And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. (12) Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. (13) Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
- So Abram had an implied fear of the Lord when he went to Egypt…
- It did not explicitly say he feared the Lord and thus went to Egypt… but it would have been so easy for him to go back home when he saw there was a famine in this land promised to him…
- Instead he went to Egypt, and I think that is because he feared the Lord…
- Here, on the other hand, the fear is not implied, it is explicitly stated that Abram feared for his life.
- He feared that the Egyptians were going to kill him.
- Clearly Sarai was a gorgeous woman… because Abram knew that the Egyptians would want her for themselves and would thus murder Abram…
- So Abram, afraid for his life, comes up with this deception… Don’t tell people you are my wife, tell them you are my sister.
- And of course, we later learn that it is true that Sarai is Abram’s half sister… but the point of this charade was deception… and it was clearly sinful.
- Abram let the fear of God drive him to blessings and provision… but let the fear of man drive him to sin…
Matthew 10:28 NKJV And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
- Point two this morning is that you should not fear man… you should not fear death.
- What man can do to you… what harm may come from something… This should never be a key motivator for a Christian.
- There are far to many Christians who don’t fear God enough and fear man far too much.
- Far too many Christians who don’t fear God enough and fear death too much.
- And if this is you then you need to deal with it now… because there will come a day where you must chose Death or Denial… Christ or Life…
- What if being a Christian meant that you couldn’t eat… you couldn’t buy food, sell goods, or trade and barter… would you still chose Christ… because Revelation says that there will come a time where you must deny Christ and get the mark of the beast, or you wont be able to buy sell or trade…
Revelation 13:16-18 NKJV He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
- Are you ready to live that kind of life for Christ?
- Of the original 12 disciples, 1 committed suicide, 10 were martyred, they were killed in horrible ways because they taught about Jesus, and 1 was boiled alive in a pot of oil, but survived and was then exiled.
- Are you willing to live that kind of life, die that kind of death for Christ?
- Or do you make excuses? She is not my wife! She is just my sister!
- This man was also with Jesus… “No woman, I was not with Him:
- You are a disciple of Christ… “No man, I am not!
- Certainly this man was with Jesus “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about”.
- If they outlaw praying, will you only pray in secret? Or will you open the windows and pray for all to see?
- It’s not a far out question, in March of 2023 a woman, Ms Vaughan-Spruce, was arrested for PRAYING SILENTLY outside of an abortion clinic in the UK.
- PRAYING SILENTLY. When question she could have said “I was just contemplating the value of life”… but no, she was honest… knowing it was illegal to pray in front of an Abortion clinic… she still fessed up… and went to jail.
- Are you prepared for that?
- What about if the government makes it illegal to go to church?
- They have done it before, they can very well do it again.
- When Covid hit and they shut everything down we all wondered what to do…
- When the government shut down churches we thought “Is this persecution or just precaution”… then the news broke… November of 2020 in California… Strip clubs were allowed to operate and churches were forced closed.
- They even aggressively went after churches that remained open… all while protecting the “essential service” of strip clubs.
- That’s when we knew, this was persecution, plan and simple… and I have since vowed to never listen to the government again when it comes to gathering to worship…
- But pastor… it was wisdom to not gather…
- NO! Wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord, not the fear of the government and not the fear of disease…
- Wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord, and the Lord says “Do not forsake the gathering of the brethren.”
Proverbs 29:25 NKJV The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.
- So today’s message is very simple church, fear God, not man…
- And that brings us to our conclusion… even in when we fail, God never does.
Conclusion – Even When we Fail God, God Does Not Fail Us.
- So to answer the question “Whom should I fear” the answer is God, and God alone…
- But what happens when you fail, like Abram failed?
- Well to conclude todays message let me encourage you “Even when we Fail God, God does not Fail Us.
Genesis 12:17-19 NKJV But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. (18) And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? (19) Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”
- Abraham failed miserably. He fell into sin… and what was the natural consequence of his sin…
- Well if it ran his course, some Egyptian was going to marry and sleep with his wife…
- BUT GOD INTERVINED.
- Even in Abram’s stupidity, God intervened, cursed Pharaoh, and made it clear it was because of Sarai, that she was Abram’s wife.
- GOD INTERVINED.
- Why? Because God promised to protect and bless Abram…
- And that has not changed… even in Abram’s failure… God remained God.
- Maybe this is you… maybe you have been called by God… but for one reason or another you have fallen into sin.
- Maybe you have returned to your old ways…
- Old friends, old habits, old addictions, old sins
- Maybe you have allowed fear of man and death to dictate your life…
- Maybe, this morning, you are wondering if you have messed it all up… if God has forsaken you…
- Let me assure you, God did not forsake Abram, and God has not forsaken you.
Deuteronomy 31:6 NKJV Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
- Repent, turn back to Jesus, be forgiven, and walk in the blessings of God…
- Leave what God called you out of… leave it behind… fear God, not man… and God will bring you back into a place of blessing.
Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God. Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids. 2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404. www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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