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liberty bible church 3~/18~/07 P.M.
By Tom Zobrist
“the dangers of trusting your heart”
Genesis 12:10-20
introduction
Illus. of the clip from “The Astronaut Farmer”
That illustrates a theme that is prevalent in our world today.
Believe in yourself; follow your dreams; you can do anything you want to do.
That concept makes us all feel good and movies like this give us goose pimples, but it’s not really true nor is it the best advice.
Proverbs 28:26 says, /“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”/
What does that mean, /“whoever walks wisely?”/
That’s the question we want to answer tonight.
To do that, we will examine the dangers of trusting your own heart and see one of God’s best fall into that trap.
OPEN to passage.
*Prop.
*In this passage, we see the dangers of trusting your heart.
Open in PRAYER.
PREVIEW the passage.
Last time, we saw Abram called of God and he obeyed in faith.
READ 1-9 to get the context.
The NT talks about Abraham being a man of great faith; however, he had his moments of trusting in himself more than in God.
But, God’s promises were still honored.
And, through these failures, Abram learned to have even more faith when he would need it most.
Note the similarities here between this situation and the Nation of Israel in their sojourn in Egypt.
The famine, the descent to Egypt, the danger to the males, the plague on Egypt, the spoiling of Egypt, the deliverance, and the ascent back to the promised land.
So, what was it that could cause Abram to falter?
First…
i.
Abram followed his plan instead of god’s vs. 10-13
Illus. of you’ve heard it said that “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
That’s what happened to Abram.
The going got tough and he left.
The problem was, God didn’t tell him to.
He took matters into his own hands.
a.
He left His new life
1.
Last time God asked him to leave his home country.
All that was familiar.
It took faith to do that.
And faith would keep him in the promised land.
But Abram struggled here.
V 10 2.
From a human level, this may look like a good decision, but it wasn’t God that was leading him.
He was using human logic to solve a tough problem rather than trusting God in faith.
This lead to another problem.
b. he followed the culture
V 11- 1.
This would have been a cultural norm.
When in enemy territory, husbands were killed to get their beautiful
13 wives, but brothers courted to get the same.
Abram did this more than once, as did Isaac.
2.
Sarah was his half-sister.
Cf.
Gen. 20:12
3.
This was a plan Abram concocted long before now.
Cf.
Gen. 20:13 He had yet to understand just how God could protect and provide.
*Trans.*
ABRAM FOLLOWED HIS PLAN INSTEAD OF GOD’S.
This would prove to be a problem.
Last time, Abram was commanded to be a blessing.
If he obeyed, others would be blessed.
Unfortunately…
ii.
disobedience leads to curses rather than blessings vs. 14-20
Illus. of Fairness- “A socialist once came to see Andrew Carnegie and soon was railing against the injustice of Carnegie having so much money.
In his view, wealth was meant to be divided equally.
Carnegie asked his secretary for an assessment of everything he owned and at the same time looked up the figures on world population.
He did a little arithmetic on a pad and then said to his secretary.
“Give this gentleman l6 cents.
That’s his share of my wealth.”
You want unfair, check out what happens here.
Abram lies and…
a.
The guilty is blessed
V 14 1.
It happened just as Abram planned before he left his home originally.
Sarai was very beautiful and noticed immediately by the Egyptians.
V 15- 2.
Abram was indeed treated well for his “sister’s” sake, but this could have cost him his wife and perhaps even
16 the promises of God.
Fortunately, these promises were unconditional and God rescued him, in spite of his foolishness.
b. the innocent is cursed
V 17 God intervenes to deliver Sarai from Pharaoh’s harem.
These plagues are not defined as they are in the case with Abimelech.
Cf. Gen. 20:17-18 Nonetheless’ Pharaoh’s house is plagued.
c. a royal rebuke
V 18- 1.
Abram is not a very good testimony before this pagan.
Half truths are really lies and they can cause problems
19 for a lot of people.
Abram gets a scathing rebuke from this Pharaoh and only by God’s blessing gets off the hook and gets his wife back.
V 20 2.
Pharaoh makes sure that Abram leaves the country so that no problems come his way.
Later, Abram’s descendants would cause big problems for Pharaoh’s.
It’s easy to see how this event foreshadows later events for the nation.
God’s faithfulness is seen in spite of Abram’s deceitfulness.
conclusion
So, what are the dangers of trusting our own hearts?
What does it mean to walk wisely?
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