chapter number 12 And so just to give you all an idea of some things coming up, so praise the Lord for it. I know this, and I know I've said it several times, but I thank God for the services we had over the course of the last week with watch night service and then New Year's Day. It was an encouragement for me if it wasn't an encouragement for anybody else, amen. So I thank God for that and just thank God for his goodness to us. Alright, Genesis chapter number 12 and this is somewhat of a familiar passage of scripture that we have here and so God's kind of burdened me about this thought throughout the week this week and hopefully I can get that burden across to you this morning but here in Genesis chapter number 12 we have the story of Abraham being instructed by God to leave his country and to go where God led him to go and we know the story of Abraham there And we might be singing Father Abraham here in a minute, by the way. If we need a mid-sermon wake-up, we might just do that, amen, where you wave your right arm and your left arm. But that's the context of the scripture that we have going on here. And I want to give you a sermon along the lines of obedience this morning, and how important this word is in our life, and we see it carried out throughout the life of Abraham, amen. So Genesis chapter number 12, we're going to read verse number 1 all the way down to verse number 5. And then we're going to jump over to chapter number 13 and read a few verses there, so just hang on for just a minute. But in Genesis 12, verse number 1, the Bible says, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. and thou shalt be a blessing. Amen. Verse number four, the Bible says, So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abraham was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarah 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. And let's jump over to Genesis chapter number 13 and we're going to start reading in verse number 1 and read on down through here. I don't know how many verses we're going to read yet but I just want to get some context for the message here. In chapter number 12 we see where Abraham deceived Sanballat there, deceived about Sarah being his wife and told him that he was his sister. And we come to chapter number 13, verse number 1, the Bible says, And Abraham went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and lot with him, notice that phrase, and lot with him into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. And he went on his journey from the south even to Bethel, and to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Look at verse number 5, the Bible says, and Lot also which went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled them in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. That's an idea we need to grasp today, by the way. We're too busy fighting one another half the time that we can't get anything done. Verse number 9, the Bible says, Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou wilt depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. We're just going to read all the way down through this chapter. The Bible says, And they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said unto Abram, After that Lot was separated from him." Notice that, after that Lot was separated from him. Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. Verse number 18, the Bible says, Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. Father, I want to thank you this morning for your mercy and your grace, Lord. I thank you for your goodness in our lives, and I pray, as we sang a minute ago, that we would be willing to take Jesus every time and to understand that you are all that we need. Your nail-scarred hand takes care of us, Lord. And as we look at these scriptures this morning, and God, try to give what you've laid on our hearts today, may you guide my mind and my heart and my mouth in what to say, Lord, that would be pleasing to you and be a help to our people, Lord. And ultimately, we pray that everything that's said and done would be for one purpose, and that is to bring glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to give you the glory for it. and even so come Lord Jesus in your precious name I pray these things amen. So here once again we have a familiar passage of scripture in the Bible where God has instructed Abraham to get out of his country and to leave his kindred and to leave all he had ever known And we see an odd thing here that when Abraham asked God where it was he was to go, that God's response was, I'm gonna show you which way to go, you don't have to know right now, but as you go, I will show you which way it is that you should go. And here we see a great truth and a great picture for you and me, and that is that we should trust God no matter where He leads us, no matter where we end up, God is trustworthy. Amen, and if you read through the life of Abraham and you read through the life of God's children throughout the Bible, the common theme and the common thread that you will find about the Christian life and about being a child of God is that it is always every day of your life, no matter where you are, it will always be a life of obedience. Obedience, amen. The Bible does say that God desireth obedience better than sacrifice, amen. And the reason that I think of when I think of that is this. Sacrifice is on our terms. but obedience is always on God's terms, amen? Listen, I can decide when to sacrifice, I can decide when I'm gonna do what I wanna do, but to obey God many times is gonna go against what I think, it's gonna go against my own intellect and my own plans to obey God, but I'm here to tell you today that you're always safe, amen? You're always in the right place when you're obeying God and what He has told you to do, amen? Now I want you to notice about obedience that it is what God told Abraham to do. It's what God told him to do. And this is the first point that we're going to spring off from this morning. In the life of obedience, I don't really, Brother Jay, I don't know what the title of the message is right now. Maybe we won't have a title. But the first point to do with obeying God is that you must listen to what He has to say. Look at verse number one again. He said, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country. Do you know that he never would have known what to obey if he did not listen to what God had to say? And this is where obedience starts in the life of a Christian, by listening to what God has to say. Can I say this morning that you will never go wrong listening to God. He'll never leave you astray. Amen. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. But the first step to obedience in the life of a Christian is by listening to what God has to say. The preaching that we're doing this morning, my prayer is that God would move me out of the way and that God would speak through me so that God might speak something to your heart and that you would go out into this world and into your life and listen to what it is that God has to say to you. You say, what's the first step to obedience? It's listening to the Word of God. Amen. How am I going to know what to obey if I don't know what He said to obey? Amen. And one of the main sins of Christians today is we just simply don't know what it is to obey anymore. We're unfamiliar with the Word of God. It seems like constantly today, when I have conversations with Christians, that they hardly ever know what to do. And I'll tell you what that's a symptom of. It's a symptom of not being in the book. Amen. I may not get any amens right there, but I'm telling you it's the truth. If you're going to obey, you're going to have to know what God said. And you're going to know what God said by cracking open the pages of this book every single day of your life and letting God speak to your heart so that you might obey what God has to say for you to do with your life. Amen. And we'll get into the message here. Listen to God. There's nothing more important in your life than listening to what God has to say. The first way that you're going to listen to what God has to say is you're going to have to stop listening to what everybody else has to say. Amen. Stop listening to what everybody else has to say. We live in a day and age today where the moment that anybody has a question about whatever they're going to do, and I'm talking about even when it's as small of a thing as trying to figure out what to wear. I'm gonna get on a stump here and some people are probably just gonna, you know, balk on me here. But I mean, I'm looking at Facebook and I see somebody put a post on Facebook asking everybody else what they should wear today. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, my goodness, if you're a grown adult and you don't even have the sense to decide what clothes you're gonna put on. God help your soul. But the principle of it is this, it's not that they don't know what to wear, they care about what everybody has to say about what's going on with their life. And this is the problem that we have as Christians today. We care much too much about what everybody else has to say about our lives, and we don't care enough about what God has to say about our lives. And if you're ever going to know what to obey, if you're ever going to know how to listen to God, you're going to have to get to a place where you stop listening to everybody else. Now let me give this caveat to the message. I'm not saying never seek advice and never seek counsel about things. The Bible said that there is safety in a multitude of counselors. But I am talking about constantly be worried about people's opinions and what the world has to say about your life more so than what God has to say. Amen. As a pastor and as a preacher, I'm starting to learn that when I stand behind the pulpit and preach, I'm not up here to give you advice. I'm not up here to give you life lessons. I'm here to give you the Word of God so that God might speak to your heart and instruct you in your heart and speak to you about what it is He has for your life. And here's the truth about it, what God has for your life may not be the same for what God has for my life. And constantly worrying about what everybody thinks and what everybody says, Christians have less assurance today than they ever have. And I'm starting to dig in a little bit, may step on some toes today, but we're seeing a word pop up among Christians today that you used to not see as much. And it's the word anxiety. Anxiety, amen, I talk to Christians about things going on in their life and they say, well I can't do that, I have anxiety too bad. Amen, some people that's riding on the church bus, amen, but anyways, I like making that joke, it's a funny joke, Brother Kevin don't like getting on the church bus, amen, it puts him out of control to where he can't decide to go home anytime he wants to. Amen. But that's not what I'm talking about. You see, there was a time in Christians' lives, listen, we all have anxiety, we all have worries, we all have things going on, and as a Christian, it is our responsibility and it is also our privilege to take those things and to give them to God. and then let God speak to you and give you a peace that passeth all understanding, amen? And Christians that are constantly filled with anxiety and constantly worried about what everybody has to say, it's a surefire sign that whatever it is, you have not taken to God and you have not allowed God to speak to you and to give you peace about whatever it is. I mean, I know there's medical incidents, I understand all that, that's not what I'm talking about. But I'm saying today that Christians are more fearful and fretful than we've ever been, and it's a sign that we're not listening to God. And we're too worried about listening to everybody else. Amen. You know, I wasn't worried one bit about whether they were going to let Kevin McCarthy as the House Speaker. I wasn't worried about it one bit. Amen. I didn't even see it till the day after, because I'm not worried about all that. And the more you pay attention to all that, I'm here to tell you, the more anxiety you're going to have. But do you know what will bring you peace? When you open the Bible to the book of Philippians chapter number 4, and you begin to read verses like, My God shall supply all your need, according to the riches of His glory, amen. When you start reading verses like, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me, God begins to speak to your heart, and you stop listening to what the world has to say, and you start listening to what God has to say, and peace and joy will flood your soul. Why is it? It's a life of obedience, and it starts with listening to God. How do you listen to God? Stop listening to everybody else. Amen. Can I give you the assurance that God knows more about what's going on with you than anybody else does? Amen. Now, if you have a problem with your car, it's probably good to go get the opinion of a mechanic, and I'm doing that right now. But I'm talking about in the deepest parts of your life, listen to God. How are you gonna listen to God? You're gonna have to, at some point, Maybe first thing in the morning before getting your phone out and seeing who followed you and who liked you and all that kind of stuff or doing a be real. I've been let in on be real now. I'm not going to get on that. Open the book and say, God, speak to my heart. You know, it doesn't matter how many people like you, it doesn't matter how many people, all that kind of stuff, it ain't gonna give you any more joy, any more satisfaction, and it's just gonna leave you wanting more. But I'm telling you, God fills your needs. This life of obedience is a life of listening to God. How are you going to listen to God? You're going to have to stop listening to everything else for a little bit. I think of Jacob in the book of Genesis, chapter number 32, and the key part of that encounter that he had with the angel of the Lord, which we know was Jesus Christ himself, the beginning of that chapter said that Jacob was left alone. And when he was left alone, God came to where he was, and they had a wrestling match, and his life was changed forever. But it started with that truth of being left alone. You know what our problem is today? We're never alone. God can't get through to us, and God can't speak to our hearts, and God can't influence the way we think because we've just got too much around us, we've got too much going on, and we're never alone with God. Amen. Maybe tomorrow morning you just need to wake up, open your window pane in your bedroom, take this whole wicked device and sling it as far as you can, shut the window, sit down at your chair or wherever it is, get the Word of God open and get by yourself and let God speak to you. Stop listening to what they have to say. Amen. You know, Christ told his disciples, if the world hated you, know ye that it hated me before it hated you. The world ain't gonna have anything good to say about who you are if you belong to Jesus Christ. And if they do agree with you, and if they do like you, you probably need to start doing a checkup on your Christian life. Amen. Well, I'm trying to stay off of rabbit trails here. You gonna listen to God? You wanna listen to God? You wanna hear what He has to say? Stop listening to everybody else and listen to what God has to say. Second of all, I'm sorry Mary, I'm getting into some points within my points here, so just get the pencil and hang on, whatever you need to do. Listen to God, how you gonna listen to God? You're gonna listen to God by stop listening to everybody else. Second of all, to listen, this is important, you're gonna have to submit yourself. You're gonna have to submit yourself to hear what God has to say. It takes submission. Can I tell you, as a man in America in the year 2023 now, what the hardest thing for me to do with my life is? It's to submit to God. Amen. You say, what do you mean? I mean not take control of a situation and let God have control of a situation. Submit myself so that I might listen to what it is that God has to say to my life. And if you're never willing to submit, you'll never hear what God has to say. Amen. And one of the main problems that we have today is simply that we're not willing to submit and we're not listening to what it is that God has to say. We come to church and we're thinking about what we're doing this week and what we're doing next week and the trip here and the trip there and if you're me, I'm thinking about what I'm gonna eat for lunch and I'm not listening to what God has to say. I have not submitted myself. And if you're gonna listen, you're gonna have to submit. Amen. I have a problem with listening, amen. Sometimes me and Miss Anne will be going down the road, and we'll be driving, and I'll hear some faint noise in my right ear. I don't really understand what it is. I can't hear exactly what it is. But then out of nowhere, I have the mind to look over at her, and she's looking at me. Does anybody else go through this? And then it dawns on me, I'm probably supposed to have an answer right now. And I don't have a single clue, not even one inkling or iota of what she just said. And she's been talking for five minutes. And at that point, I know I've missed my chance. And then I hear the ever-so-convicting question, are you listening to me? Yeah, I'm listening, but I don't know what you said. And then I say, well, tell me what you said. No, I ain't telling you now. Does anybody else ever go through that? You say, I know it's funny, but you see, whatever she was telling me was important to her, and I wasn't listening to what she had to say. Well, that quiets it down a little bit. You know what our problem is? We're not listening to what God has to say. And in our circles in particular, we're so settled on the truth, we're so settled on all these things that we hardly ever open our ears and our minds and our hearts up to listen to what God has to say. And you know what? You know to sit under preaching? is to submit yourself. Oh man, that's hard to do. Amen. I was listening to a preacher the other day and he was talking about authority. I hope this is helping somebody this morning, amen. But you're going to have to submit yourself if you're going to ever listen to what God has to say. He said that God will never put you over what He's put under you until you get under what He's put over you. Amen. You say, what are you trying to say? Submission. You know what our problem is? What our problem is today? We have a problem with authority. Amen. But if you're gonna listen to what God has to say, you're gonna have to get under some authority in your life. It's good for you, by the way, this is why it's so important to not only attend the church, but to be a member of a church. Because it puts you under submission and under subjection to something that is greater than you are. And can I tell you today, I heard this in a message the other day and it was so good, that there is safety in submission. There's safety in being willing to get under some good godly preaching, amen. There's safety in subjecting yourself to authority. There's safety! And the illustration I heard was in one of the Alabama storms in the 90s, probably 1998, there was a family that was huddled under in their basement, and I remember my papa used to do this. Everybody else is in the basement, and there's a little set of stairs that leads up outside, and everybody else is in the basement, but he's standing on the top steps, wanting to watch the tornado go by. And I don't know how smart that is. I really don't know how smart it is. I guess if it would have come too close, we would have lost Papa and all that kind of stuff. I really don't know. But in this story, this is a true story. This guy had an old home camcorder and he was trying to record the tornadoes as it was going by. and buddy the closer it got the wind started rattling and the shutter started shaking on the house the house started to move amen and all you could see was a black cloud of dust that was that tornado coming by and he's buddy he's holding on with that camera trying to get this video footage and his kids are in there and his wife's in the basement and he leans down and he and he yells back to his kids y'all get under something I know that's a bad illustration, but you know what? There's safety in getting under something. I mean, you know what I'm trying to do most of the time when I stand to preach? I'm trying to lift my voice up and say, y'all get under something! Get under the grace of God. Get under the mercy of God. Get under the voice of God. Submit yourself and listen to what it is that God has to say. Amen. By the way, when it comes to submission, you know you haven't submitted until you disagree. Amen. You haven't submitted until you disagree. And when you disagree with somebody, you have an opportunity to submit or to exhort yourself. Amen. When it comes to me, pastor, in this church, amen, thank God for the opportunity. Things can be all rosy, things can be peachy, until you disagree with something I do or say. Oh, buddy, then it ain't the same story anymore. Is this making any sense? But submission doesn't take place until you disagree with something. Man, and we live in a world today where as soon as we disagree, we're out. Amen? This life of obedience with the Lord, the first thing you're going to have to do is you're going to have to listen. You ever have conversations with somebody that won't listen? Buddy, it drives me nuts. You can talk for five minutes and the only thing they're thinking of is what they're going to say next. And you know this is how we treat God a lot of the time. We get down, Lord, this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and God's sitting there saying, when are you going to let me talk? We won't obey because we won't listen. Amen. First of all, this life of obedience is a life of listening. And it's your choice. We tell our kids, all right, get your listening ears on. Anybody got their listening ears on to what God has to say? Listening, listening. I mean, I could go down the list of the things my wife wants me to do, and there's probably a long list. Actually, I can think of a few things right now. But you know, number one on her list, maybe not number one, I don't know, but somewhere near the top, there's gonna be, I want you to listen to me. And I would say, if God had a list near the top, there would be, listen to me. Would you listen to God? You're not gonna know what to listen to if you don't know what he has to say. First of all, if Abraham was going to live this life of obedience and fulfill all these promises that God had for him, he was going to have to listen. Notice in verse 1 of chapter number 12, again we'll get our second point here. The Bible says, 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 show thee. First of all, if Abraham was going to live this life of obedience, he was going to have to listen. Second of all, if he was going to live the life of obedience, and if you're going to live the life of obedience, you're going to have to leave some things behind. leave some things behind. God called Abraham out and he said listen Abraham this is what I want you to do and if you're going to do what I'm telling you to do there's some things that you're going to have to leave back there. Amen, is anybody getting this this morning? He said leave your country, leave your kindred, leave all these things that you love the most so that you might obey what it is I have for your life. And so that you might see me do what I want to do with your life. And I'm here to tell you today, Christian, if you're going to obey what God has to say, there are some things that you're going to have to leave behind. It may not be a family, it may not be a mom or a dad, but there's gonna be things in your heart and in your mind and in your past that you're gonna have to leave behind to obey God. He said leave it behind. Can I tell you today that a lot of Christians are hindered by things that they haven't left behind? Not only that, not only hindered, there's a lot of Christians today that are just flat out defeated because of some things they can't leave behind. Can I tell you, one day we're going to leave it all behind, by the way. The cares of life will burst like bubbles, we'll leave it all behind, amen, all that sort of stuff. But in this Christian life, if you're going to obey God, there's some things you're going to have to leave behind. Now what we're going to see with Abraham is a problem that he had because of something he didn't leave behind. I pointed this phrase out just a few minutes ago in these passages of scripture In verse number 1 of Genesis chapter number 12 God told Abraham, he said, leave thy country and he left this phrase in there also He said, leave thy kindred Leave your kin, folks. Leave them there. I know it's hard, I know it's difficult, but you've got to leave them back there to do what I want you to do. And if you notice, when Abraham left, it said that he did as God told him to do. We read it a minute ago, we don't have time to read it again. It said that he did what God told him to do. And then we see the phrase, he took Lot with him. And I can't find it explicitly, but if you read down through chapter number 13, remember what we read a minute ago? The strife that was between Lot's men and Abraham's men, and all the problems that it caused. If you read chapter 12, verse number 1, you see where God told Abram to leave him back there. And Abraham made the choice that I can't leave my orphaned nephew behind. I'm taking him with me, even though it's what God told him not to do. Abraham did what he thought was best for Lot, and it ended up being worse for both of them. Is this making any sense to anybody? You say, what are you trying to say? Sometimes to obey God, you've got to leave some things behind. And I heard a great message back there in the summer on this subject. And this was, I can't claim this as my own, so it just, I wish I would have thought of this or seen it. The message for this, there's a lot of Christians today who are carrying a lot on their back. Did you get what I said there? You're carrying a lot on your back. Say, what is that? That's things that God never intended for you to carry. God never intended for Lot to go with Abram, and it caused him a bunch of problems. And if he would've just listened to what God had to say, and left behind what God told him to leave behind, I think he would've saved himself and Lot a lot of heartache and trouble. Gali, you read through the story of Lot and what happened to him and Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, I don't know what would've happened, none of us know, but I do know this, I don't think God ever intended for Lot to go with Abram. And there's some things that probably you're carrying today, some things that you have on your shoulders, some things that God maybe even told you to leave behind a long time ago. I'll say this, I think there's a lot of Christians carrying a lot of bitterness. Something that they just will not leave behind. I know Christians that have been bitter at somebody for years and years and years and years and years, and they're the one being killed by it. The other person doesn't even know. There's a lot of Christians today that are carrying a lot of bitterness. Amen. I don't know if this is helping anybody or not, I don't know. But can I exhort you, put it under the blood. Whatever it is, put it under the blood and move on with your life. Leave it behind. This is why Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. And I'm telling you today, you better leave behind what God told you to leave behind. You better leave behind that bitterness. And I'll tell you this also, there's a lot of Christians that are carrying a lot of burdens. A lot of burdens, we're just burdened down by everything in the world, all of our responsibilities, and we don't have any time to listen or obey what God has to say. I know this is probably stepping on some toes and digging in this morning, but my goodness, we live a life of obedience. If you're going to obey, you're going to have to listen to God. You're going to have to leave behind some things. Leave behind the bitterness, leave behind the brokenness, amen. Leave behind the burdens, leave behind the bad memories, amen. Leave all that stuff behind. If you carry that stuff with you, you will never be able to obey what God told you to do. Amen. Every time you pray, that thing's gonna come up. Every time you go to do something for God, that thing's gonna come up if you don't just leave it behind. All right, last of all, you're gonna have to listen to God. You're gonna have to leave some things behind. And then you're gonna have to just leave it in God's hands. Leave it behind, maybe this is what I should say, and let God have it. You see there's a lot of preaching happens to where the preacher gives the invitation to people in the pews and says you need to come down to the altar and you need to bring your bitterness and you need to lay it on the altar and you need to lay your burdens on the altar and you need to lay your bad memories and your past on the altar and you need to lay it on the altar and people come and they lay these things on the altar, they wipe their eyes, and they clear their nose, and they wipe the snot off their nose, amen, and they lay these things on the altar, and then they stand up from the altar, and they go to go back to their pew, and they say, wait, hold on just a second, and they turn back and they go, and they pick it all back up, and they carry it back to the pew, to the seat. Why? You can bring things to the altar all you want. I witnessed this. I'm about to be done, everybody, so just bear with me. I witnessed this with my own eyes. I was in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Brother Charlie got to preaching in a big way, and you know, when he gets to preaching in a big way, he says a lot of things that most people don't say, man. One thing he got on was beards, and I was sitting there with a beard, all right? Brother Sean's got a beard. Brother Charlie don't like beards. Well, guess what? He can preach about it all day long. I mean, it doesn't bother me at all. He's one of my best friends in the world, and he's my pastor. He was my pastor my whole life, nearly. And he is preaching about beards. And I amened him, sitting there with a beard. I'm not trying to be a rebel, understand that. Trying to make a point here. And there was a grown man there, and he comes walking down the middle aisle like this. And you might not know where I'm going with this. And he lays something on the altar, doesn't pray, and goes back to his pew. When church was over, I noticed by looking at him that he was goateeless. And I looked at the altar, and there was a pile of hair. And I'm just sitting, listen, I know it's funny, but I'm telling you, we need a wake-up call. The man didn't have enough contact with God that he could sit there and in five seconds, and you know what? I ain't gonna tell you stories about this man, but I know this. He may have left it on the altar, but he didn't give it to God. You know, you can leave stuff on the altar and not give it to him. I'll tell you what the best thing you can do is, who can take care of things far better than you can, just give it to him. And if I could have told Abraham, although I probably would have done the same thing Abraham did, now if we could tell Abraham, listen Abraham, just do what God told you to do, it's gonna save you a lot of heartache. Do what God said, it's gonna save you a lot of trouble. After it happens, Lot goes to Sodom, and all this conflict happens, I think that Abraham was probably under some conviction. You notice in verse number 13 of Genesis chapter number 13, after that happens, the Bible points out that Abraham got down and he built an altar. And you know what I think a lot of God's people need to do today? You need to listen to what God has to say. Leave some things behind, and then let God have it. Find you an altar somewhere, and do business with God. You see, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. but to trust and obey. Let's bow our heads this morning. Ms. Astor, you mind coming to play a song of invitation?