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Summary: God wants to be master and Lord of our lives, but, God will still be God, no matter what I do!!

God will still be God, no matter what I do!!

Have you ever walked into a meeting and notice someone say, “Well, now that he’s here we can finally get started.” Or, have you waited to get an important paper signed or stamped and knew you couldn’t do anything else until you got that paper signed or stamped?

Apparently, Abraham thought that way about God! Reading these verses, and earlier verses when Abraham took a detour through Egypt and did the very same thing there, gives me a visual picture, an acute realization that Abraham, though righteous, was still a common man, just like you me. A common man with faults, emotions, feelings, and sometimes wrong opinions of God, and God’s sovereignty in all things.

The Bible tells me in James, chapter 5, verse 17, that, “Elijah was a man just like us.”

Aren’t you tired of listening to “bigger than thou” opinions? Do you hear people talk about others, and how ‘they can do, and do, and do’ so much better than you? Hey, those other people are no different than you! They are no better than you, in God’s eyes, and have no special worship formulas that can take them into a deeper spiritual relationship with God.

Abraham believed, that since he was not in the specific area that God had visited him before, he told Abimelech, "I said to myself, ’There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’

And, you know, it works both ways. Not only can we have a ‘higher’ relationship with God like Elijah, who was a man [person] just like us, but we also have the same basic human traits that Elijah, Abraham, and Moses had. Meaning, we can fall just as hard, or make the same seemingly brainless mistakes that were made in some of these people’s lives.

Abraham actually believed that God was not capable of protecting him from the people of Gerar. Abraham believed that, since there was no worship or fear of his God in Gerar that ultimately God was not there or capable of providing him the same protection that he received in the great plains of Mamre (Genesis 18).

Chapter 20 of Genesis is yet another chapter in our lives that let’s us know that

God will still be God, no matter what I do!!

I. What I do

II. What He does

III. What They do

IV. What We should do.

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I. What I do

1. My Actions

Verse 1 of Genesis 20 starts without any fanfare, and, without any mention of God. It seems that Abraham simply chose, probably of his own accord (we don’t know), to move from the great plains of Mamre. To search for a better place even though God had told Him in previous verses that the place he was at was his.

So many times we become like Abraham. We don’t see any great ‘super’ natural evidence of God’s working in our lives and we begin to wonder if God is still there, at work in our lives.

When we begin to wonder, then we begin to wander, then we begin to waver. We begin wondering if God has left, or is taking a nap, or has chosen to depart, leads us to begin to wander spiritually, mentally, and physically. We wander from church to church, or ministry to ministry, or thought to thought. Wondering and Wandering. Back and forth we go until we begin to waiver in our faith. We begin to waver in our dedication and our commitment to God.

Abraham had just witnessed the destruction of two cities. He saw the rising of the smoke from the distance as he sat under the trees that overlooked the plains. He saw God’s prophecy against those two cities carried out before his eyes. But some time has passed since that catastrophe; some water has flowed under the bridge. Abraham probably got busy with the herds and the crops and the harvests, and the household, and the servants, and, He probably hasn’t really spoken to God in some time. He probably hasn’t seen God face to face, like in Genesis 18, and he’s beginning to wonder if God is still going to carry through with His promises. Or, maybe God will need his help to accomplish all that He needs to accomplish. After, all there’s a lot to do, and God shouldn’t be concerned with the little, boring, and mundane areas of his life. He’s wondering, and wondering, and pretty soon, he begins to wander

He begins to wander spiritually. He begins to wander physically. He begins to wander mentally. Seemingly more important things other than God are occupying his mind, his thoughts, and his actions.

Abraham moved on from there. Have you moved on from there? Have you moved toward a ‘less Christian’ life? Does seemingly more important things of your life other than God occupy your mind, your thoughts, and your actions.

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