"FALSE ASSUMPTIONS"
(Text: Gen. 20:1-18)
10/15/1995
By: Larry L. Schoonover)
INTRODUCTION:
We all make assumptions and form opinions about things each day - and from these assumptions we take action and make decisions.
Have you ever made an assumption about something that proved to be false? Have you ever made a false assumption that proved to be detrimental?
[Illustration:]
One day while working in the oilfield we were "breaking out" and removing old, abandoned pipelines. These were old "flow lines" and "gas lines". Natural gas has a tendency to dry out the threads of pipe and this, coupled with their age, make screwing the pipe apart very difficult. It was necessary to break the threads loose before screwing them apart with our pipe wrenches. This is done by striking the coupling a number of times with a 3 lb. hammer. The process of striking the coupling we called "warming it up".
While beating on the coupling of one connection I heard a hissing sound. I assumed that I had broken another pipe lying directly beneath the one I was working on and there was gas leaking, thus making this hissing sound. So, in order to locate the problem I began to dig and poke and beat around on the
ground in the vicinity of the noise.
Much to my surprise, my assumptions were completely wrong. That hissing sound turned out to be the noise emanating from a bumble bee nest! You see, bumble bees nest underground.
Well, this nest of bees poured out of that small hole in the ground like a whirlwind and came after me with a vengence! At that time I had a large, scraggly, awful looking "afro" which those bees tried to light into. They chased me across the field and over the hill. When, after a few minutes I tried to return, they put me over the hill again! This happened not once, not twice but about three or four times. And, all the while, my co-workers were standing by laughing until the tears rolled down their cheeks. - [Larry L. Schoonover]
** My false assumptions were dangerous and led to a situation that could have been easily avoided and was totally unnecessary.
Sometimes the assumptions we make have devastating results don’t they? Therefore, we must be careful about the assumptions we make in life - especially the assumptions we make as Christians.
Let’s examine some of the assumptions made by Abraham, the result of those assumptions, and see perhaps if there is not a lesson in them for the Church of God today.
Abraham Assumed That He Could Live WHERE He Wanted (1)
1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Why would I list this as a "false assumption"? Preacher, are you about to suggest that I don’t have the right or the freedom to choose where I live? - To put it simply, yes, I am.
I believe every aspect of our life belongs unto God! This means then that:
1. Our career belongs to God.
a) I am convinced that one of our greatest problems in the typical American Church today is that we are too quick to assert and too concerned about our "rights" and our "freedom to choose" and less concerned about what is right and who should do the "choosing".
i) There would be a lot fewer Church fights, hurt feelings, and incomplete tasks if we were more concerned about what God wants us to do instead of what we feel we have the right to do!
ii) The work of God would progress much faster and better if we were less concerned about our "liberties" and more concerned about the affect of our choices upon others!
(1 Cor. 6:12)
12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
(1 Cor. 10:23-24)
23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.
(1 Cor. 8:9)
9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
b) If Christians would seek God in their career - life would be much more pleasant, their life would take on new meaning, and their Christian service would be much more effective.
2. Our family belongs to God.
a) Do you know why there are so many Christians with a miserable family life? In large part it is due to the fact that they have purposely excluded God in the choice of their spouse!
(1 Cor. 6:14)
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
b) Do you know why we have raised such an ungodly generation - a generation of infidels? It’s because as parents we have refused to be godly parents, raising our children in the fear of the Lord!
3. Our residence belongs to God.
a) Do you believe God has a plan and a purpose for your life? If you do, then why is it that we don’t consult Him when we make such critical, long-term, life-changing decisions as career, family, or residence? If God has a plan for us - then it is critical that we be where God wants us to be!
b) God’s plan for Abraham was to give him the land of Canaan. But how many times do we find Abraham drifting off into foreign regions - and in those places God had not called him to, getting into trouble?
i) From Ur of the Chaldeans - to Caanan
(Gen. 12:1-5)
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
(1) Abram was from Ur - not Haran. What happened here? He partially obeyed the Lord. He left his homeland but did not proceed to Canaan. Neither did he leave his family as he was instructed to do. He takes his father (Terah) and his nephew (Lot) along with him. It was not until his father died in Haran that Abram proceeded into Canaan.
(2) From Canaan Abram travels into Egypt (Gen. 12:10-13). There was a drought in Canaan - but couldn’t God provide for his needs? On his return from Egypt he brings back Hagar and later has a child with her - whose descendants are to this day totally committed to the complete eradication of the State of Israel!
(3) From Canaan Abram travels into Gerar (our text: 20:1).
* Question: "How much trouble could Abraham have avoided, not only for his own life but for his descendants even to our own day, if only he would have sought the mind of God and obey His Word - rather than assuming his life was his own to do with as he pleased?"
* Instead - Abram assumes he can live where he wants and does not submit to the Lordship of Jehovah.
Abraham Assumed That He Could Live HOW He Wanted (2-9)
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.
4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
1. Isn’t it amazing how Christians excuse sin in their life?
a) I suppose there is no one here who believes in the security of the believer more than I - that’s clearly what the Bible teaches. However, the phrase often used, "once saved always saved" does not mean that you have license to live any way you want to! Get that idea out of your head! Such thinking is ungodly and unbiblical!
b) Let me make it very clear to you today that when you accept Christ as your Savior He will change your "want-to"! Your desires will no longer be the same. Yes, you will sin - for we are all sinners, but in Christ you have the power to choose not to sin!
(Rom. 6:11-14)
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
c) It is wrong to assume that you can live in sin unaffected! Just look at sin’s effect upon Abram’s life:
i) It became easier each time as evidenced in the repetitive nature of his choices. He was repeating the same old sin (living outside the land God had given him and lying about his relationship with Sarah out of fear for personal safety). He had become comfortable in his sin.
ii) It had serious consequences upon those around him.
(1) Upon the king - God was about to bring judgment in his life. (3)
(2) Upon Sarah - his sin placed his precious wife into an awkward, immoral, potentially dangerous situation.
* It is the fool who declares, "I can do what I want. It’s my choice - it’s my life. No one is affected but me." - Wrong! Your choices always affect someone else - and doubly so if you are a child of God.
2. If you feel that you must make an assumption about sin - then assume that God will not tolerate it! That is not an "assumption" - it is a "fact"!
(Heb. 12:5-11)
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
a) The message is pretty clear in these verses, isn’t it?
i) God chastens (instructs) and scourges (whips/judges) His children who live in sin.
ii) Anyone who can live habitually in sin, or comfortably in sin, and do so without the correction of God in their life is lost and doesn’t know the Lord at all!
Abraham Made Assumptions About OTHER’S SPIRITUAL CONDITION (11)
11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.
1. Abraham falsely assumed that God couldn’t speak to these people. wrong again! God, in fact, used this foreign king to speak to Abraham about his sin!
a) Do not be so foolish as to put "God in a box" by assuming He cannot or will not do a particular thing. The Lord is sovereign - He can do what He wants, with whom He wants, any way He wants, at any time He wants!
b) It was not only foolish but really quite arrogant of Abram to think within himself, "Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place;." Such foolishness and such arrogant spirits persist in the Church of God today!
i) How many times have we been guilty of not inviting a person to Church, or not witnessing to a person, or not praying for a person, or not seeking to minister to a person - based solely upon assumptions we have formed about them because of how they look or what their past has been?
ii) In such cases, are we not doing as Abram and saying within ourself, "Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place"?
2. It is dangerous for you and I to assume.
a) That God won’t convict a particular person of their sin and draw them unto Himself in loving kindness.
i) Is that any of our business? No! We should not presume to know the mind, the will, the way, the purpose, or the timing of God in anyone’s life!
ii) It is in fact the "business" of God to, "Seek and to save that which was lost". (Lk. 19:10)
b) That a person is saved - and thus never ask the question.
i) I must confess that I have done this many times in my life, for which I am ashamed and will one day give an answer for.
c) That your work for the Lord is a failure.
i) It’s easy to feel this way in ministry - regardless of what ministry you are involved in.
ii) We have developed the inexcusable habit of judging the worth and the success of something in external, humanistic, measurable terms and methods.
(1) For instance, we use numbers quite heavily, sometimes exclusively, in our assessment of ministry. The fact is that what God is doing in a person’s life may not come to fruition for a long time yet, or what He is doing may be of such a nature that it is impossible to measure through any means - much less put on the "tally books".
iii) Let me ask you a question, "When you feel that you have failed in the thing you have been doing for the cause of Christ - how do you know that it was a failure?"
(1) For example: Is a sermon a failure when no one makes a public decision during the altar call? I might think so - but really, how do I know such a thing?
d) That you are too young or too old to serve God.
i) One of the greatest kings who ever reigned was Josiah. Josiah was only 8 years old when he ascended to the throne!
ii) One of the greatest leaders to ever walk the face of the earth was Moses. Moses was 80 years old before he was called to lead the people out of Egypt and was 120 years old when his ministry was
completed.
Conclusion:
Copyright c Larry L. Schoonover, 1995
All Rights Reserved
