Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe. It is a blessed day at the cafe today. Thank you for joining me. If you're new to the program, we are simply a 15-minute Bible study going from Genesis to Revelation, verse by verse, really trying to dig deep into the scriptures, pulling out what it meant then, what it means now, and what it means to us. I learned that from the great Adrian Rogers. That's a great way to study the Bible, what it means then, what it means now, and what it means to us personally. And this one is a loaded passage, Genesis 22, 15 through 18, and we're looking a little bit at this idea, this principle here, as we kind of wrap up and move further into Genesis 22, getting close to wrapping up Genesis 22, the next couple episodes. Today, we're looking at this principle of like how God calls us to do hard things, and then they really benefit us without us understanding it. Verse 15, the angel Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, "By myself have I sworn, say it to the Lord, for because that was done this thing and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." And so here we have the second appearance of the angel, the first appearance of course is when the angel stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, and the second appearance is this affirmation that, "Hey Abraham, you did good, you did something that was really hard to do, and because of it you're going to be very blessed." And so what we're going to do now is look at this concept in our lives. Imagine you had a man that walked into a store, and he asked the store owner to leave and give him the keys to the safe, and the store owner asks why, and the man says, "Because I think today I want to be the owner," and the store owner does not leave, but instead calls the police. The police come, and the man is adamant he wants to run the store today. My question for you, who would be arrested in the scenario, who would be found guilty if someone were arrested, if someone were tried? It certainly wouldn't be the store owner, it would be the man that was acting improper, right? But is that not how we live? Is that not how we live as Christians, often trying to tell God what we want to do, and often saying, "God let us run the shop," and God is calling us conversely to live for him, to follow the biblical example of living for him, and then we'll be blessed by having the things that we desire, whether it be authority or riches or prosperity, whatever it is, like these blessings to Abraham, we'll have them, and I say that in the sense of not here on earth necessarily. I'm far from a prosperity preacher, you know that, if you've been listening any moment of time, you'll have them in heaven, because true riches are found in Christ, and you'll have them in earth, because the most valuable, richest thing you can have in earth is simply your Bible. You know, I got my kid James Bible down there, and I can't exhaust it. I read it every morning and every night, sometimes in the afternoon, in addition to studying for this work, and I can't exhaust it, and no matter how many times I read it, it keeps delivering truth, and godly principles, and the character of God, and encouragement, and wisdom, and so again, you will truly be rich in this world through simply being obedient to God, and yet people can't find time to get into God's Word, they can't find time to live as God calls them to live, and we've gotten to the point in the modern society today, where things have gotten really topsy-turvy with COVID, with the church, and sadly the corruption of the church, and what I mean by that is, go back and research what church was like around the time of Jesus, research what church was like immediately after the ascension of Christ, you know, these first saints, how they worshiped, they were like in caves and stuff, they were in people's houses, they were in small groups, they were not they were not past or led, and they really weren't, from what I can understand, there was multiple people in there speaking in praising God, there were testimonies, communion wasn't a little cracker, and some juice, it was a meal, I mean again, you look at the original church, and you look at church today, and then just are asking yourself the question, where did they come up with this? Not of it is not necessarily biblical, now I'm not against a good Bible-believing church by any means, but at the same time, if your benchmark for Christianity is attending church on Sunday, that is totally not, I think, the benchmark God would have you to have, the benchmark God wants you to have is belief, and obedience, and what comes from it, right? So instead of telling him how to run the program, we say, "God, what's your program, and let me do what you want me to do?" And then we follow the biblical example, I'm going to give you some scripture on this right after the breaks, so stay tuned. Hey, it's break time around here, thank you for listening to KJV Cafe, if you haven't already, visit kjvcafe.com for more information. So Hebrews 3, 1 through 6, "Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath build the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is build by some man, but he that built all things is God, and Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm under the end." So the writer of Hebrews is writing to the Hebrews, you guessed it, the Jews, the Israelites, and they would have held Moses in a very high regard. He wrote their penitoc, or their Bible essentially, right? He wrote these books in the Bible, so they held him as a prophet in a very high regard, and the writer of Hebrews, I believe to be Paul, is saying, yes, he was very faithful, but how about Jesus being the house owner, right? He is the apostle and the high priest, okay? And he is, he built all things, John 1 tells us, you know, all things are made by him without him, not anything is made, the word was in the beginning, the word was with God, the word was God. We understand that God is God the Father and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one, the three in one God, and Jesus is the mediator for us here today, and he is, as we understand it through Scripture, the creator of all things, amen? And we see that he was obedient, right? He was obedient to God. Consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, that's Hebrews 3-1, Hebrews 3-2, who was faithful to him that appointed him. Faithfulness, faithfulness is what God is after, obedient. So you say, Brother Clark, how do I grow my faith? The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and the hearing, the word of God. So to grow your faith, simply spend time in God's word. I'd like to think I have a good bit of faith. There are many challenges I've faced in my life where I have counted on my faith. I will say there were times that I was in a situation that would be considered very dangerous, and I simply turned to God. I had faith. My faith comes from spending time in God's word. Yes, God gives man, women, different faith, different measures of faith, but all of us can grow our faith by studying his word. And so we get into his word, we grow our faith, and then we live obediently to him. The other way to say that would be faithfully, right? It's kind of like the word faith is what? Like trust, right? You trust. You trust God. You understand that he is God, that he is sovereign. Amen? That he is obedient. You know, and God, and you say, how's God obedient? Jesus Christ was obedient in his earthly ministry. Christian means Christ-like. So if we looked at Jesus Christ as our example, we were looking at an example of God, the obedience. You understand? That might be one reason why God has chosen to be in three parts, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, because we receive the Holy Spirit and dwelling with us when we're saved. We are saved by Jesus Christ to God the Father, amen? And so the three in one God may have chosen to have Jesus come to earth so we can understand the idea of obedience. And I know that that can be a little confusing because how can you be obedient to yourself, but God in this earthly ministry time of Jesus spoke to this. I didn't come to do my will, I came to do the will of the Father. The idea that thy will be done, not my will. Jesus speaks to the Father. God the Father, I know you always hear me, but let me pray out loud so they can understand, right? He is always speaking to the Father. He's obedient to the Father. And so when we live for God, we are to be obedient to Him. And how can we be obedient to God if we don't understand His principles? How can we be obedient to God if we don't care to ever pick up His book, right? How can we receive the tremendous blessings that Abraham received if we can't find time to be faithful to Him? Now, I know Abraham's Old Testament, I know Old Testament was different. The New Testament, all this, I get it. But the entire Bible is the character of God and it paints a picture of godliness very clearly. That's why in Hebrews 11, the Hebrews Hall of Fame, Abraham has mentioned as well as being justified by faith. So he's actually used in the New Testament as an example for us to understand that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone. And Jesus Christ alone. And that once we're saved and born again, we are then called to live as God would have us to live faithfully and obedient to Him. Now listen, this can go both ways. Faithfulness to God isn't always like, hey, running down every ministry opportunity there is and just living wild for God. It could be, be still and know that He's God. It could be, you know, oftentimes that's the most challenging part for me as a Christian is to not do stuff, you know, to have that idle time and say, okay, God, I'm just going to pray. I'm just going to seek your will. I'm not going to go jump ahead, right? Us guys, we like to plan stuff. We like to check stuff off lists. Okay, we like to do lists. We like to plan stuff. We like to accomplish stuff. That's just how God made us. And sometimes God's saying, no, just be still, no, just be patient. We see this in the, in the picture of Abraham, we see this in the chosen child coming so late at 100 years old, improbable. And God's saying, trust me, trust me, I have this promise, I have this promise same with the Canaan land, right? Abraham didn't see the Israelites in multi millions. He didn't see that. The Israelites were a very small people. Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, Jacob kind of limps in with his sons, the 12 tribes, well, 11 of them, because one of them is already over there, limps in to Egypt, because of the famine, because the starvation gets over there, and says, okay, we're a small people group. And God says, no problem. Joseph has, I've made him very powerful on and on. And then the Israelites, they multiply, God blesses them. And then all of a sudden, by the time they live, leave Egypt, they're a great powerful people. That's why I believe Pharaoh didn't want him to leave so bad is they're very profitable to him as slaves, as bond servants. And now when they go occupy, if you get into Joshua and so forth, they go occupy the Canaan land. They're a mighty, mighty people. They're outnumbering people at this point. The battle of AI, there was a few thousand there of the opponent, and yet the Israelites had many tens of thousands. And they're a mighty people. And we think of the time of David, and great prosperity, and think of Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, and the Solomon's temple that David helped plan. And Abraham didn't see these things on earth, but he believed God that they would happen. And oh, friend, the best is yet to come. Amen. The best is yet to come. I haven't seen the millennial kingdom. I haven't seen Christ rule and reign on this earth, but I've read about it in my Bible. I understand it will occur that one day he literally will rule from his mighty throne out of, as I understand it, Israel out of the throne of David, Amen. He will literally be in control, be in charge, Amen. And one day we'll be in heaven with him for any eternity, Amen. And we will praise his name for what he's done for us forever and ever and ever, and give him glory and praise. And we'll lay our burdens down and our stresses down and our allergies down and our and our problems down and all these things. And we will go to be with him. I believe it. I haven't seen it, but I believe it. That's the posture God's calling you to today. And when we read Genesis 22, you can't help but get excited for what you're seeing here with what God is telling us about obedience and blessing and how they go hand in hand. And we see the same idea there in this passage in Hebrews, right, in Hebrews 3, 1 through 6, that Jesus Christ, he has built all things. And Christ is a son over his own house. Amen. We are his house, those that believe. We have to hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And so obedience here also is simply standing firm, holding fast, not giving up, staying on the firing line for Christ until that great and wonderful day. Thank you for listening. Tune in next time. Take care. God bless and amen. Thanks for listening to KJV Cafe and we'll see you at the cafe tomorrow.
