"Hey, man, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe. It is a blessed day at the cafe. Amen. I don't have any coffee right now, but I would love some. Okay, maybe, maybe you could just bring it to me. No. All right. Silly me. I'm just kidding. But hey, one day I could see one day. Instead of being in the home office, I could see being in the actual cafe recording this. That would be really cool that we could get some background noise of the different machines and stuff and cups clanking around. That'd be very cool. But hey, Lord knows maybe one day. All things are possible with God. Amen. Hey, if you knew the program, check us out online, kjvcafe.com. Today, we are looking at Genesis 24 or three, excuse me, wrapping it up here. Lord willing today, if not definitely tomorrow. And we've been speaking on this idea of like why this chapter involved what it did. And there's so many themes that have really emerged here in the last three episodes. I think it's been, I think we're on the fourth one focusing on Genesis 23. Some of them being, you know, Sarah being 127, Isaac being 37. The idea that Abraham was so humble, and we're gonna get into his humility in a little bit. The idea that he insisted on buying the land, so it proved that it was his, which is relevant even today as people still fight over that land. The Israelites specifically, the Palestinians, the Muslims, you know, if you want to get further, just zoom out a little bit, you know, maybe Iran and the rest of them fighting over that land, Lebanon, fighting over it. And God shows us here that Abraham literally bought land there, that it's his land. Not only did he promise the land, but God said, go ahead and do it the earthly way as well. And I think we talked a lot about how, you know, Jesus, again, showing, say, show me a penny and talk about how Caesar's do what Caesar's do and God's do what God's do. And as in, you know, give to God what he is do from Matthew 22, 15 through 22. I think one thing I thought of between the last episode and this episode is this also kind of helps people understand if you really biblically literate, you understand that like a a theocracy is not what the Bible's advocating, right? The Bible isn't saying take Caesar's image off and put mine on there. It's not advocate advocating this theocracy. It's advocating a love for God and a suffering through as a sojourner as Abraham was of life so that we one day will be under God's kingdom, right? We're currently living in the enemy of God's kingdom, the little g God of this world, the devil, the prince of the power of the air. This is his kingdom. That's why you see some ungodly wicked person with a shelf full of awards and a bank full of money because we're living in the devil's world. We're just passing through, right? This isn't our world. So to say that this is going to be a world, you know, wide, you know, everybody living for God, you can't legislate sin out of man's heart. Only God can convict man of sin. And that happens through his word. And it's the spiritual versus the earthly and carnal. And so just another little reminder here through all of the things that we see in Genesis 23 that we also see that the way I don't think we're seeing something where Abraham saying, no, I demand you give me the land because all of it is mine. Anyways, I've been promised it. And now you all obey me. It doesn't say that, you know, God gives man free will for a reason. God's sovereign, like he didn't have to do it, but he allowed it. He made things to be this way. He allowed man to from the garden fall into sin and then all the way now till now they're still fighting over the land. So Lord, help us. But let's get to our theme, our last theme from this chapter, which is biblical humility right after this break. So stay tuned. Hey, it's break time around here. Thank you for listening to KJV Cafe. If you haven't already, visit kjv cafe.com for more information. So if God himself were to show up at your door and promise you everything you could see was yours and your families, how easy would it be for you to then go humbly to a group of people that thought it was theirs and ask if you could simply buy it. That might be kind of hard being that God himself had promised it to you, right? Abraham had this beautiful precious time with God himself. God showing up, you know, through the three angels and all the other encounters with God that Abraham had. He had direct conversation with God and God making this promise. And yet just as he had dealt with lot very kindly and humbly and let lot pick where he wanted to go, he comes to the people, these Canaanites, these sons of heath or children of heath, which are from the line of Ham down to Canaan. There we have these folks and says I'd like to buy this land. It's very, very humble, very, very humble, very typical of Abraham. And it's what again, even today gives the Israelites proof that it is theirs. So John 3 30 comes to mind, he must increase, but I must decrease. And if we look at John 3, we see that there's, you know, there's a lot in John 3, of course, John 3 16 and very famous for that and the Nicodemus visiting with Jesus. But if we look at the latter verses here, and let's see, I'm going to see where my note says to start here on John 3 30. And there it is 20 verse 22. There it is. For any longer of me trying to find it, I would like to pause it, but you know, pause the recording, but I found it quick enough. So 22, after these things came Jesus and his disciples in the land of Judea, and there he teared with them and baptized verse 23. And John also was baptizing in Anon near Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized for John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness behold the same baptized and all men come to him. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. So that shows God's sovereignty. Verse 28, ye yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am, that I am sent before him. Verse 29, he that hath the bride is the bride groom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth adherothim, rejoiceseth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice, this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. Okay, so we have here John describing that Jesus is the bridegroom, that he is the friend of the bridegroom. And the believers, by the way, this is just extra are the bride of Christ, right? And so John is saying, I'm deferring to Jesus. Yes, I'm baptizing and there's one baptizing over here, but God gave him the power to do that. And I'm just happy he's here. Like I'm just happy that he is here. He's the Messiah. I'm nobody. He must increase. I must decrease, right? And so God's order of importance when it comes to humility is this idea that there is the co-equal Trinity, the three in one Godhead, right? That we would worship him, right? And specifically the person of Christ for what he did for us, then others, then ourselves. Matthew 22, 37 through 39, Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Friend, this is humility in Scripture. The idea, as we just talked about, so, so cool that God linked this up, we just talked about the idea, give to Caesar what Caesar's and God what's God's and the last episode, I think it was. And here we have what is God's to love him with all your heart, soul, and mind. And if you love God that much, you're going to be devoted to him. I love my wife and so I'm devoted to her, right? You love God all the more, you're devoted to God. You want to live for God. You're not thinking about self, you're thinking about him, right? You are arranging your schedule around him. You are seeking him. You are praying to him. You are believing him. You are zealous for the things that he cares about, right? You walk closely with him. And then you look to others and you treat others as you would yourself. And how do you treat yourself? I don't know about you, but I treat myself quite good, amen? You know, I don't try to treat myself bad, Lord willing, you know, I try to treat myself as good as I can. We are to walk humbly as Christians. We are to look to others and prefer others above our own needs. You know, think about in our lives. You know, if Jesus is first, then our lives will be dedicated to Christ and not ourselves in personal time of worship and praise, spending time with God in service to God as a bond slave, as a soldier for Christ, in crucifying the desires of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves. No, you not your own selves. How the Christ that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates, Christ is living within us, amen? Now, here is the truth. God is good. He's loving. He's perfect. The Bible says he won't withhold any good thing from those that love them. Amen. Something to that extent. I'm paraphrasing, but guess what? When we live for him, it looks to the world like a sacrifice and a heart thing. And sometimes it can be, but certainly it's the best way to live. So when we live for him in what looks like a sacrifice, we're the most joyful. When we live for him, what looks like it's really hard, we are at peace. We have obedience. The Bible, we have obedience. We have peace through obedience. Excuse me. The Bible speaks to the idea in Isaiah that that will keep him in perfect peace. His mind is stayed on thee who trusted the need, that idea that we have peace. We have a promise of peace from God as we keep our minds on God. Think in your own life practically. Oftentimes you feel turmoil. When what? When you're thinking of God? No, oftentimes it's thinking of work, a co-worker, a peer, a peer at school, a teacher, a parent, a relative, you know, a situation here, a health situation, a finance situation, whatever kind of situation. That's typically what brings the fear and anxieties and so forth. What brings peace? God, you know, and who's the pervert, the devil? What does he do? He goes and makes things look holy and look fun, look like entertainment that often bring great turmoil, you know? I mean, look, if you walk into a Hollywood movie, you might leave with sweaty palms and, you know, all kinds of things, higher blood pressure. I always took our kids to a movie one time years ago and my son was crying during the brief use and he looked at me and said, don't worry son, I'm close to tears too. You know, it's hard out here. I mean, living in the world is tough. That's why we have peace in God and through God and with God. I'm a sports fan, but, you know what? I'll turn off the game and just have to get into scripture to calm down, to settle myself, to know that, hey, I need to live for him. What does this have to do with humility? This puts us in a place like John was. He had disciples. He was baptizing. He was seeing God move, okay? He had all kinds of reason to be puffed up. He had all kinds of reason to think of himself and yet he described this idea of him having to decrease and God increasing, right? And we know that Jesus says that John was the greatest to live among those that have been born of women, that he was the greatest human to live, John the Baptist. Of course, Jesus Christ being fully God and fully human is the greatest to live, but that said, I mean, John the Baptist has quite a compliment. He was humble. Abraham, very humble, not going and taking this land in a mischievous way, in a hateful way, in a demanding way. He said, let me just buy it from you. And if you'll just hear me out, you know, and by the way, you know, what is it about humble people? We're drawn to them. Are we not? We love to compliment and praise them because of their humility and and they're just again disciplined, however you say it, their faith in God, all of these things. And so it's godly to be humble. The Bible speaks the idea that when we're humble, and when we live as God calls us to live, that he will lift us up, right? He resists the proud, cast down the proud. He hates a proud look, but he will lift up the humble. He probably even says he'll exalt them. He'll lift them up. He'll raise them up. And so as we live for God, we will be humble. And that is a byproduct of living for God. And a lot of people, they want to wake up and say, I'm going to be humble today. The better way to do it is to wake up and say, I'm going to seek God today and that humility will come out. It will naturally be a byproduct of seeking God. Abraham sought the Lord and the byproduct of him seeking the Lord was his humility. As we seek the Lord, a byproduct of us seeking the Lord and living for God, turning to him sincerely, departing from sin, repenting of sin, getting away from sin, living for God, the best that we can, right? We know our conscious convicts us of what's evil and sinful. We get rid of those things. We pray to God. We ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. We turn to God. We live for God. And a byproduct of that will be great humility. That's just it just comes about. We don't have to choose it, right? It just comes about. It's a byproduct of spending time with God. Another one would be ministries. The callings of God, all these things come out from simply seeking God and devoting yourself to God. Make that choice today and watch as these great fruits of living for the Lord emerge in your life. You will absolutely love them there and it all comes from simply seeking him. Thank you for listening. Next time, we'll get to the next chapter here. Tune in then. Take care. God bless and amen. Thanks for listening to KJV Cafe and we'll see you at the Cafe tomorrow.
