Black History Unmasked: Abraham: Called Out: Leaving Comfort for Covenant

WEBVTT

00:00:10.602 --> 00:00:14.235
Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host,

00:00:14.235 --> 00:00:19.925
Connie Morris, and this is Faith on the Go, where you take the word with you

00:00:20.285 --> 00:00:23.738
on your drive to work, while you're getting ready in the morning,

00:00:24.426 --> 00:00:26.870
or even in those quiet moments before prayer.

00:00:27.549 --> 00:00:33.702
Real life, real word, and real growth, all while you are on the go.

00:00:34.161 --> 00:00:40.157
Before we get into today's word, let's take a moment to center ourselves with a familiar prayer.

00:00:40.703 --> 00:00:42.514
The prayer of Jabez.

00:00:43.118 --> 00:00:46.659
Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory.

00:00:47.181 --> 00:00:54.972
Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

00:00:55.564 --> 00:01:00.719
Father God, we come before you this day asking that you would indeed bless us,

00:01:01.293 --> 00:01:04.805
not just with what we have, but in who we are becoming.

00:01:05.508 --> 00:01:10.375
Enlarge our territory, Lord. Expand our capacity, our mindset,

00:01:10.375 --> 00:01:12.948
our ability to receive what you have for us.

00:01:13.564 --> 00:01:20.129
Let your hand be upon us, guiding us, covering us, and leading us in every decision we make.

00:01:20.844 --> 00:01:25.970
And Father, keep us from harm, physically, emotionally, and spiritually,

00:01:26.429 --> 00:01:29.436
that we may walk in peace and not in pain.

00:01:30.051 --> 00:01:35.426
And Lord, just as you heard Jabez when he cried out to you, hear us now.

00:01:35.961 --> 00:01:42.863
Your word says that you granted his request, and we believe that you are the same God today.

00:01:43.252 --> 00:01:47.615
So we come boldly before you, knowing that you hear us, knowing that you see

00:01:47.615 --> 00:01:52.638
us, and knowing that you respond to the prayers of your people.

00:01:53.415 --> 00:01:58.797
Have your way in this moment as we sit, listen, and receive your word.

00:01:59.226 --> 00:02:01.473
In Jesus' name, amen.

00:02:13.201 --> 00:02:16.265
Hello, welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host,

00:02:16.265 --> 00:02:19.813
Connie Morris, and this is Black History Unmasked.

00:02:20.028 --> 00:02:23.087
It's our introduction to the story of Abraham,

00:02:23.767 --> 00:02:26.575
And so hopefully you've been strengthened, you've been encouraged,

00:02:26.575 --> 00:02:31.405
and you're ready to cross the finish line after our long water break moment.

00:02:31.725 --> 00:02:36.532
And as I was studying the armor of God, God began to speak to me.

00:02:36.956 --> 00:02:41.725
But today we're going to talk about Abraham. Abraham was one of the guys that

00:02:41.725 --> 00:02:46.165
I really loved because Abraham started his story when he was older.

00:02:46.165 --> 00:02:47.823
I think he was 75 years old.

00:02:48.073 --> 00:02:51.695
And so a lot of times we look at our life and we think that we're going to be

00:02:51.695 --> 00:02:56.435
62 or 72, whatever it is, and we're going to get our little Social Security.

00:02:56.435 --> 00:02:57.396
We're going to chill out.

00:02:57.796 --> 00:03:02.585
But if you notice in the Bible, God, you just get warmed up at 50.

00:03:02.864 --> 00:03:05.586
You're just getting started at 60. Amen.

00:03:05.877 --> 00:03:09.835
So I want to encourage those Joshua and Caleb who think that you have to be

00:03:09.835 --> 00:03:16.324
21 to seek after God, to follow up to God, to do His purpose and His will. And that's not true.

00:03:17.288 --> 00:03:21.648
You feel like you have to because you look around everybody younger than you,

00:03:21.769 --> 00:03:26.325
but I'm going to tell you the world needs some older women to step into the

00:03:26.325 --> 00:03:31.185
game because we've been there. We've done that. So let's get started.

00:03:32.009 --> 00:03:36.381
Hopefully that you have been strengthened through any podcast that I put on

00:03:36.624 --> 00:03:40.821
and helping that your relationship grow closer to God.

00:03:41.025 --> 00:03:44.825
Amen. So we're going to start. And I want you to think about it too.

00:03:45.305 --> 00:03:48.945
Where is God calling you out as we continue this story? I want you to think

00:03:48.945 --> 00:03:51.015
about where God is trying to call you to be.

00:03:51.294 --> 00:03:55.065
This is Black History at Mass, where we look beyond the traditions where we

00:03:55.065 --> 00:04:00.355
were handed down, beyond the images we were shown, and beyond the interpretation

00:04:00.738 --> 00:04:05.289
that may have shaped how we understand the Bible, history, and ourselves.

00:04:05.615 --> 00:04:08.407
Today, we're going to begin a new journey into the life of Abraham.

00:04:08.749 --> 00:04:13.595
But before we get to Genesis 12, before we hear God says, Get Thee Out.

00:04:13.746 --> 00:04:17.124
I want to do a little background because Abraham...

00:04:17.587 --> 00:04:22.267
Did not just show up out of nowhere. Remember, he was 75 years old when he was caught.

00:04:22.615 --> 00:04:25.587
So he didn't just show up on a scene. He has a history.

00:04:25.941 --> 00:04:29.686
And so I want to go through his history. Some of the history is not in the Bible,

00:04:29.918 --> 00:04:33.232
but I want to show you where it is in the Bible and where it picks up.

00:04:33.737 --> 00:04:39.409
Because sometimes it takes us, as we get older, to get all the junk out before God can really use us.

00:04:39.749 --> 00:04:42.879
You understand that? Being young and powerful on fire for God,

00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:44.250
that's absolutely wonderful.

00:04:44.523 --> 00:04:49.019
But having raised your kids, finish your career, and then God calls you to another

00:04:49.019 --> 00:04:52.308
career, but it's following him as being obedient to him.

00:04:52.586 --> 00:04:57.549
That is a powerful thing, right? And so we're going to get into Abraham because

00:04:57.549 --> 00:04:59.869
Abraham has a history. He has family.

00:05:00.509 --> 00:05:04.929
There's nations. There were already kingdoms. There were already migrations

00:05:04.929 --> 00:05:08.263
of people. And Africa was already part of the biblical world.

00:05:08.681 --> 00:05:13.308
So before we study Abraham, we need to understand the world Abraham came out But, uh.

00:05:13.889 --> 00:05:17.047
And there's another reason Abraham is important.

00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:22.109
This story is not only about history, but it's about being called out by God.

00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.820
Before Abraham became the father of a great nation, before the covenant was

00:05:26.820 --> 00:05:32.570
fully revealed, before Isaac was born, God first called Abraham to leave.

00:05:32.715 --> 00:05:36.389
We see this pattern is very important throughout Scripture.

00:05:36.709 --> 00:05:40.836
God often calls His people out before He brings them in.

00:05:41.109 --> 00:05:45.271
So if you feel this inkling in your heart that God is calling you out,

00:05:45.561 --> 00:05:50.030
calling you to walk in some places where you say, I don't know what those places

00:05:50.030 --> 00:05:54.234
are, don't sell yourself short because he calls you out first.

00:05:54.518 --> 00:05:58.320
He calls you away from all the distractions, all the friends,

00:05:58.320 --> 00:06:03.261
all the foes, all the people that are around you where you're listening to them

00:06:03.510 --> 00:06:08.304
and you're being molded by them and not being molded by God.

00:06:08.571 --> 00:06:12.815
You know. So God called Abraham out of his country into a promise.

00:06:13.134 --> 00:06:18.474
But Abraham did not know that at the beginning, right? First thing God tells you is you got to move.

00:06:18.788 --> 00:06:22.030
You know, when he tells you got to move, you might get a little bit about what

00:06:22.030 --> 00:06:25.930
God wants for you to do, but you have to move to get the rest.

00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:30.682
So he called Abraham out of his country into a promise. He called Israel out of.

00:06:31.205 --> 00:06:35.931
Egypt into covenant. And throughout the scripture, God continues calling his

00:06:35.931 --> 00:06:42.021
people away from old ways, old loyalties, idolatry, fear, and everything that

00:06:42.021 --> 00:06:44.272
competes with obedience to him.

00:06:44.405 --> 00:06:50.216
But before we get to that call, we need to understand where Abraham came from.

00:06:50.344 --> 00:06:56.511
Go with me to Genesis chapter 9, verses 18 and 19. And I'm going to read that.

00:06:56.511 --> 00:07:02.281
It says, And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem and Ham and

00:07:02.281 --> 00:07:05.058
Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan.

00:07:05.377 --> 00:07:10.910
These are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth spread.

00:07:11.241 --> 00:07:15.561
So we see here, we're going back to Genesis, we're going back to Noah's sons,

00:07:15.561 --> 00:07:22.682
because that is where everything begins, right? So we're back to the story, back to the beginning.

00:07:22.932 --> 00:07:27.271
We won't go into a lot of detail about the history of Noah, because we covered

00:07:27.271 --> 00:07:30.571
that in great detail earlier. So you want to know about NOAA.

00:07:31.011 --> 00:07:34.001
You probably have to go back and listen. We're going to talk about Abraham.

00:07:34.332 --> 00:07:38.935
But did we know that Abraham was part of Noah's story?

00:07:39.341 --> 00:07:44.868
Isn't that interesting? When you study genealogy, you get to know where people come from.

00:07:45.152 --> 00:07:50.032
So after the flood, Scripture presents humanity moving forward through the families

00:07:50.032 --> 00:07:52.345
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

00:07:52.652 --> 00:07:57.662
These family lines became important because Genesis 10, we read that before,

00:07:58.028 --> 00:08:03.013
will show us how their descendants developed into peoples and nations.

00:08:03.367 --> 00:08:09.352
But first, Genesis 9 records an event involving Noah and his sons.

00:08:09.526 --> 00:08:14.182
So Genesis 9, verse 20 through 24, we've covered that before,

00:08:14.182 --> 00:08:18.129
but I'm gonna just do a quick brief intro, re-intro to you, for you.

00:08:18.431 --> 00:08:22.407
We see here it says, Noah plants a vineyard, drinks a wine, becomes drunk,

00:08:22.698 --> 00:08:25.014
and lies uncovered in his tent.

00:08:25.322 --> 00:08:30.244
Ham sees his father naked and tells his brothers. Shem and Ham respond differently.

00:08:30.534 --> 00:08:36.055
They took a garment, walked backwards, and covered their father without looking upon him.

00:08:36.397 --> 00:08:40.802
Then Noah is awakened. And then when he is awakened in Genesis 9,

00:08:40.802 --> 00:08:44.791
25, it says, and he said, curse be to Canaan.

00:08:45.093 --> 00:08:49.302
Now stop right there. Notice what scripture actually say. It does not say curse

00:08:49.302 --> 00:08:52.762
be him. It says curse be Canaan. We talked a lot about that.

00:08:53.156 --> 00:08:57.586
We talked about how Noah was in his drink. He was drinking his wine.

00:08:57.905 --> 00:09:02.192
You know, we talked to Drake had enjoying his own supply. He was in his own

00:09:02.192 --> 00:09:04.671
tent. He was uncovered in his tent.

00:09:04.886 --> 00:09:10.762
And so we talked a lot about when your mom or dad is in their room and we do

00:09:10.762 --> 00:09:14.447
not go walking in their room without knocking on the door.

00:09:14.900 --> 00:09:18.488
Because they are in their privacy. And so they have the right to be undressed

00:09:18.488 --> 00:09:20.188
or whatever they want to be.

00:09:20.461 --> 00:09:25.198
But we see here that Ham saw his father naked, and then he went and told his

00:09:25.198 --> 00:09:28.648
brother. We went to a lot of detail about why did he wake up?

00:09:28.648 --> 00:09:33.288
Why did he curse his, not his immediate son, but his grandkids?

00:09:33.288 --> 00:09:35.149
And we covered that in great detail.

00:09:35.420 --> 00:09:39.938
So we won't go back to that. You know, so we know that Ham was not cursed.

00:09:39.938 --> 00:09:43.785
It was a curse of Canaan, because that distinction really matter.

00:09:44.110 --> 00:09:49.805
For generation, this passage was twisted into what became known as the curse of him.

00:09:50.066 --> 00:09:55.628
It was used to claim that black skin was a curse and that African people had

00:09:55.628 --> 00:09:58.582
to be destined by God for slavery.

00:09:58.906 --> 00:10:04.810
But Genesis does not say that. There is no curse of black skin in this passage.

00:10:04.961 --> 00:10:10.783
There is no declaration that African people were created to be slaves.

00:10:11.985 --> 00:10:16.988
There is no statement that black people were inferior. Those ideas were placed

00:10:16.988 --> 00:10:18.933
into the biblical text later.

00:10:19.195 --> 00:10:23.268
And this, not even in the biblical text, but when you don't read your Bible,

00:10:23.268 --> 00:10:28.639
people can tell you what they want you to know, but you're not confirming it.

00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:34.973
So you begin to believe the lie. Okay, so let's continue. And so they don't put it in the text.

00:10:35.205 --> 00:10:39.825
They just actually let you believe that it's in the text because nobody's reading their Bible.

00:10:40.151 --> 00:10:43.796
And this is exactly why we are doing black history at Mass. Why?

00:10:44.214 --> 00:10:49.228
Because I want you to read your Bible. Sometimes we have to separate what scripture

00:10:49.228 --> 00:10:54.178
actually says and what people have taught us that what scripture says.

00:10:54.178 --> 00:10:58.882
So if you don't look at your Bible, how do you know that that's a good thing? How do you know that?

00:10:59.021 --> 00:11:04.519
How do you know what's true or false if you're not actually picking up your Bible?

00:11:05.314 --> 00:11:10.751
Right? So now we go to Genesis 10. We cover Genesis 10 in its entirety over

00:11:10.751 --> 00:11:14.579
and over and over and over again. So I'm going to give you a brief synopsis here.

00:11:14.875 --> 00:11:19.188
So in Genesis 10, it talks about the nations and the nations came from who?

00:11:19.449 --> 00:11:23.983
Noah's kids, Noah's son, what Ham, Shem, and J-Path.

00:11:24.290 --> 00:11:28.681
And so Genesis 10 covers that whole genealogy and we covered that already,

00:11:28.681 --> 00:11:29.759
but we're going moving on.

00:11:30.066 --> 00:11:33.551
And instead of reading every name, I want us to follow the important family

00:11:33.551 --> 00:11:36.291
lines and pay attention to where it leads.

00:11:36.591 --> 00:11:41.371
So Genesis 10.1, now these are the generations of the sons of Noah,

00:11:41.371 --> 00:11:43.058
Shem, and Ham, and Japheth.

00:11:43.424 --> 00:11:48.341
And unto them were sons born after the flood. Genesis begins showing us how

00:11:48.341 --> 00:11:50.395
families develop into nations.

00:11:50.703 --> 00:11:54.349
It's almost like a map of the ancient world.

00:11:54.592 --> 00:11:58.736
Scripture first gives us the descendants of Japheth, then moves to Ham.

00:11:58.991 --> 00:12:03.611
And this is where we need to pay close attention because in Genesis 10.6 it

00:12:03.611 --> 00:12:08.930
says and the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizraim, and Putt in Canaan.

00:12:09.272 --> 00:12:12.575
These names matter. Cush, Mizraim, Putt, and Canaan.

00:12:12.952 --> 00:12:19.121
Cush is associated with the regions of Egypt especially ancient Nubia and areas

00:12:19.121 --> 00:12:21.933
connected with modern Sudan and Ethiopia.

00:12:22.182 --> 00:12:27.622
Mizraim is a biblical Hebrew name associated with Egypt. Putt or Putt.

00:12:28.110 --> 00:12:35.245
Is associated with North Africa, and Canaan is connected to the land Abraham will eventually enter.

00:12:35.506 --> 00:12:42.483
So before Abraham ever appears in the biblical story, Africa is already there. Egypt is already there.

00:12:42.745 --> 00:12:46.268
Cush is already there. North Africa is already there.

00:12:46.553 --> 00:12:52.718
Canaan is already there. And Africa is not some late addition to the Bible story.

00:12:52.979 --> 00:12:58.556
Africa is part of the biblical landscape from the early chapters of Genesis.

00:12:58.725 --> 00:13:04.756
Then scriptures introduce the descendants of Cush in Genesis 10, 8 through 10.

00:13:04.953 --> 00:13:09.274
I know that's called 10, 8 through 10. And let's read it. We've heard it before,

00:13:09.274 --> 00:13:10.631
but let's pay attention.

00:13:10.915 --> 00:13:15.292
And Cush beget Nimrod, and he became a mighty one in the earth.

00:13:15.605 --> 00:13:18.856
Verse number nine, he was mighty hunter before the Lord.

00:13:19.164 --> 00:13:25.014
Wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. Verse 10.

00:13:32.494 --> 00:13:36.608
Notice that the sentence of Cush is connected with a kingdom,

00:13:36.828 --> 00:13:40.637
with cities, with political power, with civilization.

00:13:40.956 --> 00:13:45.397
That matters because the sentence of Ham are not introduced simply as slaves

00:13:45.501 --> 00:13:47.591
or servants. We see people.

00:13:47.887 --> 00:13:51.399
We see names, nations. We see kingdoms. We see cities.

00:13:51.774 --> 00:13:56.406
We see civilization. Then Genesis moved into the descendants of Canaan.

00:13:56.523 --> 00:14:02.519
And suddenly we began recognizing names that will become important later in the biblical story.

00:14:02.955 --> 00:14:07.164
Through Genesis, it started to mention the Ives, the Jebusites,

00:14:07.164 --> 00:14:08.620
the Amorites, and the Hibbites.

00:14:09.003 --> 00:14:13.525
And there's many more. These are people of Abraham and his descendants, Will Conor.

00:14:13.850 --> 00:14:22.128
So we know that right away, once you know the story of Noah and what happens, that that lineage...

00:14:22.657 --> 00:14:30.122
I think it was Canaan, has the ites in his story. We cover the ites also.

00:14:30.406 --> 00:14:35.179
And so Genesis 10 even mentions places like Sodom and Gomorrah.

00:14:35.179 --> 00:14:37.860
And we know that is part of Abraham's story.

00:14:38.260 --> 00:14:43.166
So before Abraham ever walks onto the scene, God is already showing us the people

00:14:43.398 --> 00:14:47.059
and places that will become part of his story.

00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:51.193
Then Genesis turns to Shem. Let's look at Shem.

00:14:51.489 --> 00:14:57.159
Genesis 10, 21 through 22. And it says, unto Shem also the father of the children

00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:03.999
of Eber the brother of Japheth and elder even to him were children born 22,

00:15:04.539 --> 00:15:09.539
and the children of Shem, Elam and Ashur and Aphrax and Luz And.

00:15:10.419 --> 00:15:15.905
Then it's here, it says, Scripture identifies Shem and begins listing his descendants.

00:15:16.032 --> 00:15:17.971
Among them is Arafaxab.

00:15:18.290 --> 00:15:24.647
Remember that name because Genesis 11 is going to follow that family line directly to Abraham.

00:15:24.984 --> 00:15:32.106
Genesis 10 ends by saying, in Genesis 10, 32, it says, These are the families of the sons of Noah.

00:15:32.356 --> 00:15:36.609
After their generations and their nations, families became nations,

00:15:36.609 --> 00:15:41.725
nations occupied lands, people developed languages, and civilization grew.

00:15:41.928 --> 00:15:47.577
And now, out of all the nations and all these families, Scripture begins narrowing its focus.

00:15:47.786 --> 00:15:52.080
Let's look at Genesis 11, the lineage of, I'm not going to read all those,

00:15:52.446 --> 00:15:58.315
but we'll know in Genesis 11 verses 10 to 26, we see the line of Abraham.

00:15:58.616 --> 00:16:03.599
Let's see how far I want to go with that because it's so powerful to read the lineage.

00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:07.243
I want to try it. Let's try it. So we got verse 10. It says,

00:16:07.533 --> 00:16:09.454
these are the generations of Shem.

00:16:09.727 --> 00:16:17.012
Shem was a hundred years old and beget Arafax two years after the flood. and Shem lived after.

00:16:17.494 --> 00:16:21.685
He begat Arafax 500 years and begat sons and daughters.

00:16:21.982 --> 00:16:26.579
And Arafax lived 5 and 30 years and begat Salah.

00:16:26.904 --> 00:16:34.306
And Arafax lived after he begat Salah 403 years and begat sons and daughters.

00:16:34.549 --> 00:16:37.533
And Salah lived 30 years and begat Eber.

00:16:37.881 --> 00:16:43.286
And Salah lived after he begat Eber 403 years and begat sons and daughters.

00:16:43.657 --> 00:16:51.830
And it goes on and on. And I want to pick it up where it talks about Sarah and Abraham. Let's see.

00:16:52.494 --> 00:16:58.566
Let's start at number verse 24. And Nahor lived nine and 20 years and begat Terah.

00:16:58.920 --> 00:17:05.416
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah 119 years and begat sons and daughters.

00:17:05.671 --> 00:17:08.951
And Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram.

00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:12.747
Here we go with Abraham, verse 26, Genesis 11, 26.

00:17:13.107 --> 00:17:18.367
Nahor and Haran, so those are his brothers. Now these are the generations of Terah.

00:17:18.692 --> 00:17:24.799
Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. So now we see Lot in the picture.

00:17:25.118 --> 00:17:31.840
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity in the Ur of Shaldees.

00:17:32.043 --> 00:17:38.051
And Abram and Nahor took them wives and named the Abraham wife Sarah.

00:17:38.527 --> 00:17:46.049
And named Nahor wife was Milcah, and the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

00:17:46.351 --> 00:17:50.373
In verse 30, But Sarah was barren, and she had no child.

00:17:50.722 --> 00:17:55.870
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haram his sons,

00:17:56.068 --> 00:17:59.534
and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife.

00:17:59.800 --> 00:18:05.705
And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan.

00:18:06.018 --> 00:18:08.212
And they came into Haran and dwelt there.

00:18:08.537 --> 00:18:14.180
And the days of Terah was 205 years old, and Terah died in Haran.

00:18:14.476 --> 00:18:20.122
So when they introduced Abraham, it always says Abraham was from the Ur of Shaldee.

00:18:20.122 --> 00:18:22.463
So now we have a little bit of history.

00:18:22.817 --> 00:18:27.592
Genealogy, I tell you, you have to read the genealogy to understand where our

00:18:27.592 --> 00:18:31.780
Bible characters come from and how they are linked together.

00:18:31.961 --> 00:18:35.972
So after Noah, after he finished doing what he needed to do,

00:18:36.472 --> 00:18:41.802
years later, Abraham comes on the scene. And we see Abraham and his family and

00:18:41.802 --> 00:18:44.335
his father and his wife and his brothers.

00:18:44.579 --> 00:18:48.271
So they're all on the scene. And then Lot is in that mix too.

00:18:48.899 --> 00:18:52.446
Isn't that interesting? And so these are the generations of Sham.

00:18:52.701 --> 00:18:55.894
From Sham becomes Arafax, Arafaxah.

00:18:56.254 --> 00:19:00.611
From Arafaxah came Salah. And it goes on and on. I want to read that again.

00:19:00.611 --> 00:19:04.903
So we see here that generation after generation, the Bible story is narrowing

00:19:05.106 --> 00:19:09.570
until we finally arrive at Genesis 11, 26.

00:19:09.895 --> 00:19:16.661
And that's where we see where Abraham, Nahor, and Haran is introduced into the story.

00:19:16.661 --> 00:19:21.901
And there he is, Abraham, after Noah, after the flood, after the nations,

00:19:21.901 --> 00:19:26.608
after Cush, after Egypt, after Canaan, after Babel. Come on now.

00:19:26.904 --> 00:19:31.223
After generations of family history, Abraham finally enters the story.

00:19:31.327 --> 00:19:36.807
And this is where things become deeply personal because the next chapter begins

00:19:37.005 --> 00:19:40.656
with God telling, calling Abraham his man.

00:19:41.148 --> 00:19:45.943
But I always want you to read the genealogy because the genealogy tells us where

00:19:46.262 --> 00:19:48.091
our characters come from.

00:19:48.346 --> 00:19:52.140
The one that God calls out, he tells you where they come from.

00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:55.725
Here we go in chapter 12, verse 1.

00:19:56.073 --> 00:20:01.210
Now the Lord has said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy

00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:07.120
kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

00:20:07.445 --> 00:20:13.210
And I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee and make thy name

00:20:13.210 --> 00:20:15.113
great, and thou should be a blessing.

00:20:15.345 --> 00:20:18.828
Let's take a pause here. God is calling Abraham out.

00:20:19.235 --> 00:20:24.920
Remember, he just met God, and God began to talk to him about what he is going

00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:32.250
to do with him. And this is our covenant with the Abrahamic covenant is found in Genesis 12.

00:20:32.598 --> 00:20:37.740
And so I want to read that to you so you can understand, to get your faith stirred

00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:43.533
up, so that you know that when God calls you out, he's not going to get lost on the journey.

00:20:43.806 --> 00:20:49.089
He has some things in store for you. Now the Lord has said unto Abram,

00:20:49.367 --> 00:20:54.836
get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house

00:20:55.137 --> 00:20:57.082
into a land I will show you.

00:20:57.448 --> 00:21:01.260
First of all, God does, he calls you out. And the first thing he does is separate

00:21:01.260 --> 00:21:06.713
you from, look, your country, from your kindred and from your father's house.

00:21:07.014 --> 00:21:11.153
So he separates you from the things that are very familiar to you.

00:21:11.438 --> 00:21:16.447
This is the season where God wants to separate you from things that are familiar to you.

00:21:16.755 --> 00:21:21.060
And so we like to settle and be comfortable, but God wants us to begin to get

00:21:21.060 --> 00:21:25.330
uncomfortable because where he's going to bless you, he can't bless you around

00:21:25.330 --> 00:21:28.504
all your family, right? You are a special one to him.

00:21:28.771 --> 00:21:33.230
Let's continue in verse 2, chapter 2. It says, I will bless thee and I will

00:21:33.230 --> 00:21:35.807
make thee great and thou should be a blessing.

00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:40.096
And I will bless them that bless thee. This is what he says.

00:21:40.357 --> 00:21:44.304
Call you out. He said, I will bless you and I'll make your name great.

00:21:44.606 --> 00:21:48.180
And thou should be a blessing. So when God blesses you, it ain't for you.

00:21:48.180 --> 00:21:51.741
It's for the people he wants you to bless. Verse 3.

00:21:52.060 --> 00:21:55.670
And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.

00:21:55.670 --> 00:21:59.496
And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

00:21:59.862 --> 00:22:03.850
How are you going to be blessed? Through this process of being blessed,

00:22:03.978 --> 00:22:05.847
you're going to bless others.

00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.341
You're going to bless families. You're going to bless nations.

00:22:09.562 --> 00:22:13.248
So God did not create you to be broke.

00:22:13.579 --> 00:22:17.259
I did a couple of podcasts on you're not broke.

00:22:17.503 --> 00:22:24.156
And so number four, so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him.

00:22:24.347 --> 00:22:29.480
And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran.

00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:35.191
Abraham took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substances

00:22:35.363 --> 00:22:39.316
that they had gathered, and the souls they had gotten in Haran,

00:22:39.641 --> 00:22:45.394
and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.

00:22:45.632 --> 00:22:49.463
And Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Sikkim,

00:22:49.736 --> 00:22:55.448
unto the plain of Morah, and the Canaanite was then in the land.

00:22:55.663 --> 00:23:01.926
Verse 7, the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said, unto thy seed will I give this land.

00:23:02.054 --> 00:23:06.600
And there, listen to this, this happened before he even started his journey.

00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:11.670
God blessing him because he knew in his heart, God knew that Abraham was going

00:23:11.670 --> 00:23:16.305
to leave. But look at the blessing that he had to believe for, will I give this land?

00:23:16.543 --> 00:23:21.275
And there built it, he an altar unto the Lord who appeared to him.

00:23:21.507 --> 00:23:27.788
So God spoke to him, he built an altar, and his faith was started right there.

00:23:28.061 --> 00:23:32.379
God speaks to us, we write it down, and we just believe it from there,

00:23:32.652 --> 00:23:36.633
right? So before God tells Abraham everything he is going to give him,

00:23:36.854 --> 00:23:40.668
first he tells him he has to leave. He has to get thee out there.

00:23:41.061 --> 00:23:44.260
Of the country. Leave your country.

00:23:44.603 --> 00:23:48.610
Leave what's familiar. Leave your kindred. Leave your father's house.

00:23:48.610 --> 00:23:50.413
Go somewhere I will show you.

00:23:50.622 --> 00:23:52.280
Abraham's journey begins with

00:23:52.280 --> 00:23:57.879
a call, and that call required faith before Abraham had all the details.

00:23:58.146 --> 00:24:00.189
God did not hand him a complete map.

00:24:00.491 --> 00:24:02.660
He just gave him his word. Go.

00:24:03.040 --> 00:24:07.608
And Abraham had to decide whether he trusted the one who was calling him more

00:24:07.886 --> 00:24:09.994
than he trusted and what was familiar.

00:24:10.278 --> 00:24:14.280
That's so good for me right now. It's probably speaking to someone out there

00:24:14.280 --> 00:24:19.665
too, that God wants us to trust more in him, more in the unfamiliar,

00:24:19.949 --> 00:24:24.268
more in the voice than what you see and what you're comfortable with.

00:24:24.413 --> 00:24:29.140
That's one reason Abraham is so important to study because the story becomes

00:24:29.140 --> 00:24:31.060
a pattern we see throughout scripture.

00:24:31.455 --> 00:24:36.580
God calls his people out before he brings them in. He caused Abraham out of

00:24:36.580 --> 00:24:39.162
his country and into a promise.

00:24:39.528 --> 00:24:42.849
He caused Israel out of Egypt and into a covenant.

00:24:43.261 --> 00:24:45.739
He causes people out of adultery.

00:24:46.199 --> 00:24:52.091
Into worship. He calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

00:24:52.242 --> 00:24:54.419
Sometimes God calls us out of places.

00:24:54.639 --> 00:24:56.776
Sometimes he calls us out of relationships.

00:24:57.066 --> 00:25:01.135
Sometimes he calls us out of old thinking. Sometimes he calls us out of fear.

00:25:01.344 --> 00:25:05.501
Sometimes he calls us out of traditions. Sometimes he calls out of traditions

00:25:05.855 --> 00:25:10.679
that we have accepted because someone told us that this is what we're supposed to do.

00:25:11.091 --> 00:25:14.361
You know what? I remember, and you probably remember too, that when you first

00:25:14.361 --> 00:25:17.302
started going to church, when you first started believing God,

00:25:17.592 --> 00:25:22.132
you'll believe everything that they say about God. You just listen and you just absorb it.

00:25:22.445 --> 00:25:26.101
And then as you get older and you read your Bible, remember we always listen

00:25:26.101 --> 00:25:28.512
to the preacher and we hadn't picked up our Bible.

00:25:28.767 --> 00:25:33.218
We find out, wait a minute, that was not all the way correct.

00:25:33.346 --> 00:25:36.457
That was good, but not all the way correct.

00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:41.357
And we have to go back into our word and we have to study the Bible.

00:25:41.618 --> 00:25:46.491
And especially if you are persons into traditions because sometimes they'll

00:25:46.491 --> 00:25:49.901
tell you that's how cults are formed too when we get so.

00:25:50.461 --> 00:25:55.201
We take the bible and we go well women can't wear pants they always got to wear

00:25:55.201 --> 00:25:59.611
dresses so you see those type of people they can't wear makeup you know and

00:25:59.611 --> 00:26:01.637
you take in one part of the word of god

00:26:01.979 --> 00:26:05.869
you didn't read all of it and you just started to believe just that section

00:26:06.147 --> 00:26:10.362
and then you formulate your story around that i mean everything you're biased

00:26:10.698 --> 00:26:14.271
about what everything else is doing, that's wrong, that's wrong because this

00:26:14.271 --> 00:26:15.685
is how I believe the Bible.

00:26:15.946 --> 00:26:18.640
And honestly, you never picked it up.

00:26:19.045 --> 00:26:24.261
To study it. Sometimes he calls us out of environments that no longer match where he has taken us.

00:26:25.065 --> 00:26:32.141
And sometimes he calls us out of the version of ourselves that can no longer go where he is leading.

00:26:32.501 --> 00:26:35.461
Let me stop. Let me stop right here because he's speaking to me.

00:26:35.781 --> 00:26:38.941
I hope he's speaking to you. Sometimes he calls us out of tradition.

00:26:38.941 --> 00:26:41.265
How many people know it's hard to break a tradition?

00:26:41.567 --> 00:26:46.571
You know, I have my sisters, they love to have Thanksgiving and they love to

00:26:46.571 --> 00:26:50.191
have the same thing and they want the same people to cook it.

00:26:50.191 --> 00:26:54.286
They want the turkey. They want the dressing. And some people like that. That's tradition.

00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:56.805
We got to have it the same way. We don't want to mess it up.

00:26:57.136 --> 00:27:01.008
Me, myself, and I, sometimes for Thanksgiving, I might want a fish fry.

00:27:01.921 --> 00:27:05.321
Sometimes for Thanksgiving, I might want a burger, a meatloaf.

00:27:05.321 --> 00:27:06.656
I want something different.

00:27:06.929 --> 00:27:10.601
I might want prime rib. I want something different. I don't want a turkey because

00:27:10.601 --> 00:27:14.429
everybody's having to Turkey, you know, and that's just a small tradition,

00:27:14.719 --> 00:27:18.893
you know, but sometimes God may call us to break that tradition

00:27:19.212 --> 00:27:24.785
because we are doing it because someone told us, but we don't really know why we're doing it.

00:27:25.081 --> 00:27:29.741
Right. And sometimes he calls us out of environments. They no longer match where

00:27:29.741 --> 00:27:31.888
he has taken us. And I went through a.

00:27:32.499 --> 00:27:35.953
You know, every time I get the word of God, I try to share it with you.

00:27:36.121 --> 00:27:42.524
And we talked about, I did a little mini series on what if, and I was enjoying where I was at.

00:27:42.791 --> 00:27:47.051
I was just having a great time. I'm working. Work is work. So you're not going

00:27:47.051 --> 00:27:50.071
to always have fun. You're not going to always like what you got to do.

00:27:50.221 --> 00:27:53.089
So what I've learned over the years, I don't complain.

00:27:53.374 --> 00:27:57.037
I just do what I got to do. And I said, this is what I got to do, Lord. I'll do it.

00:27:57.396 --> 00:28:00.851
And I'm settling in, getting comfortable. And then the Lord says,

00:28:00.851 --> 00:28:03.027
what if this job is temporary?

00:28:03.329 --> 00:28:07.701
And I was like, are you serious? I like this job. Out of all the jobs that you

00:28:07.701 --> 00:28:10.571
say are temporary, why this particular one, right?

00:28:10.951 --> 00:28:14.931
You know, all the other ones, I didn't hear him say that because he knew I was

00:28:14.931 --> 00:28:17.111
going to figure out that I'm going to move.

00:28:17.111 --> 00:28:22.221
But whenever God sees us trying to get comfortable in somewhere that's not his

00:28:22.221 --> 00:28:26.089
best, yeah, he gave you that job, but is that the best?

00:28:26.246 --> 00:28:28.922
You know, but we don't know because we'll get comfortable.

00:28:29.218 --> 00:28:32.086
I talked to people and they said, Connie, you change jobs every day.

00:28:32.382 --> 00:28:35.267
I don't change jobs every day. Take your note. Don't say that.

00:28:35.557 --> 00:28:40.151
I said, I move when he moves. I never get comfortable. I learned that in this

00:28:40.151 --> 00:28:44.363
place of Nebraska where there's nobody, I don't have anybody to just say,

00:28:44.688 --> 00:28:47.655
you know, I think this or that. I have to follow what God says.

00:28:47.916 --> 00:28:52.381
When God wants to speak to me, he speaks to me in my dreams or he can speak

00:28:52.381 --> 00:28:56.252
to me in the morning. It just depends on when he wants to talk to me.

00:28:56.583 --> 00:29:02.463
I can sense he's trying to talk to me now. So it's like he knows when to get our attention.

00:29:02.765 --> 00:29:06.933
And so when he takes us out of environments and he gives you a heads up.

00:29:07.421 --> 00:29:11.151
Before I moved to Nebraska, I had a nice condo.

00:29:11.591 --> 00:29:16.621
It was nice. Everything was comfortable. I was about to do a repaint because

00:29:16.621 --> 00:29:18.471
I've been there a long time and get some new carpet.

00:29:19.145 --> 00:29:22.280
All of a sudden, the place got smaller and smaller and smaller.

00:29:22.674 --> 00:29:24.270
I'm like, Laura, what are you doing?

00:29:24.665 --> 00:29:29.599
All of a sudden, God says, it's time for you to move. It wasn't hard for me to go. Why?

00:29:29.872 --> 00:29:35.056
Because I knew that that That started not to feel home anymore.

00:29:35.387 --> 00:29:38.991
You know, that environment was not home anymore, you know. And sometimes he

00:29:38.991 --> 00:29:44.454
cuts us out of a version of ourselves that can no longer go where he is going.

00:29:44.727 --> 00:29:50.538
What is that version of yourself that you know you can't take it to the next level?

00:29:50.863 --> 00:29:55.420
You know, we might have been through a lot of things and God has gave you so many skills.

00:29:55.768 --> 00:29:59.802
Then he says, I'm going to utilize every bit of that skill set, you know.

00:30:00.006 --> 00:30:03.861
And understand this, that the call may not look dramatic. And God may be calling

00:30:03.861 --> 00:30:06.873
you out of different things. I remember our attitude out of resentment,

00:30:07.146 --> 00:30:09.775
out of fear. It all goes together, right? Out of complacency,

00:30:10.170 --> 00:30:12.045
out of a job you have outgrown.

00:30:12.266 --> 00:30:16.061
How many of us are in a job that we have outgrown, but we're not going to go

00:30:16.061 --> 00:30:21.158
because we're so close to getting retirement, but we're outgrowing it. We're bored.

00:30:21.436 --> 00:30:23.681
We don't even like going to work anymore. How about this one?

00:30:23.681 --> 00:30:26.324
Out of a relationship that keeps pulling you backwards.

00:30:26.446 --> 00:30:29.691
Out of a mindset that says you cannot become anything different.

00:30:30.010 --> 00:30:35.321
For what you have always been. He may be calling you out depending entirely

00:30:35.321 --> 00:30:40.674
on what you see. Stop looking at what you see so you can learn to trust what he has spoken.

00:30:40.871 --> 00:30:44.407
And sometimes the most difficult thing that God is calling us out of.

00:30:45.691 --> 00:30:51.540
One of the difficult things about God's call is that he does not show you everything at once.

00:30:51.859 --> 00:30:55.696
Abraham was told one thing unto a land I will show you.

00:30:55.975 --> 00:31:01.851
Not a land he already knew, not a destination that he can completely plant.

00:31:02.413 --> 00:31:08.141
A land God will show you. That means sometimes obedience comes before explanation.

00:31:08.141 --> 00:31:13.495
Sometimes you will have enough light for the next step, but not enough to see the whole role.

00:31:13.820 --> 00:31:18.591
That is faith. And that is where someone listening today can find themselves.

00:31:18.955 --> 00:31:22.619
You know, something is changing. You know, God has been dealing with you.

00:31:23.012 --> 00:31:26.661
You know, there's something you need to release. You know, there's a place where

00:31:26.661 --> 00:31:31.061
you have become too comfortable. You know, there's an old way of thinking that

00:31:31.061 --> 00:31:33.312
cannot follow you into your new season.

00:31:33.607 --> 00:31:36.391
And you keep asking God, where are you taking me?

00:31:37.031 --> 00:31:38.461
I've asked him, where are you

00:31:38.461 --> 00:31:43.261
taking me? But perhaps the first question is not where he's taking you.

00:31:43.469 --> 00:31:47.214
Perhaps the first question is, what is he calling you out on?

00:31:47.469 --> 00:31:52.441
I knew when I was told to do Abraham that it was going to be more than just

00:31:52.441 --> 00:31:59.595
Abraham because we have to understand that the Bible, even though it tells you a story about.

00:32:00.310 --> 00:32:05.218
Person. He's really talking through us through that person. So my question to

00:32:05.218 --> 00:32:07.921
you is, what is God calling you out of?

00:32:08.234 --> 00:32:13.900
Before Abraham could walk into a promise, he had to respond to the call to leave.

00:32:14.074 --> 00:32:18.476
God tells Abraham, and I will make thee great nation. I will bless thee.

00:32:18.754 --> 00:32:20.089
I will make thy name great.

00:32:20.368 --> 00:32:23.462
And these should all families of the earth be blessed.

00:32:23.729 --> 00:32:29.398
Now the statement becomes even more powerful because when we just read Genesis

00:32:29.398 --> 00:32:32.059
10, we already see the families of the earth.

00:32:32.222 --> 00:32:37.899
We saw Shem, Ham, J-Path, Cush, and Ms. Rain, Canaan, the nations, the lands of families.

00:32:38.305 --> 00:32:43.908
When God chooses one man and says, through you, I'm going to bless all those

00:32:43.908 --> 00:32:45.155
families. Think about that.

00:32:45.370 --> 00:32:48.632
Noah was called to recreate everything, right?

00:32:48.882 --> 00:32:51.187
Everybody comes from Noah after the flood.

00:32:51.605 --> 00:32:54.073
Because he destroyed everything. God's destroyed everything.

00:32:54.073 --> 00:32:55.430
So everyone comes through Noah.

00:32:55.732 --> 00:32:59.314
And now we have Abraham coming through Noah. And think about this.

00:32:59.557 --> 00:33:03.093
That means that Abraham's story was never meant to stop with Abraham.

00:33:03.441 --> 00:33:08.369
The promise was bigger than one man, bigger than one family, bigger than one nation.

00:33:08.671 --> 00:33:13.283
God was beginning something through Abraham that will eventually reach out towards

00:33:13.283 --> 00:33:15.897
the nations and reach out towards you.

00:33:16.176 --> 00:33:19.839
And that's why studying Abraham matters. We are studying covenant.

00:33:20.210 --> 00:33:24.146
Faith, obedience, promised in the beginning of Israel's story,

00:33:24.489 --> 00:33:28.123
but we're also studying something every believer has to face,

00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:29.591
every believer must face.

00:33:29.823 --> 00:33:36.789
What do I do when God calls me out of what I know and asks me to follow him into what I cannot see?

00:33:36.993 --> 00:33:40.011
Abraham had to answer that question, and so do we.

00:33:40.197 --> 00:33:45.781
Before we go to the next part of the story, I want to just talk about this.

00:33:45.921 --> 00:33:48.289
What might God be calling you out of?

00:33:48.562 --> 00:33:52.382
Is he calling you out of fear, unforgiveness, an old way of thinking?

00:33:52.637 --> 00:33:56.133
Out of a place where you have become comfortable but no longer fruitful?

00:33:56.133 --> 00:33:59.522
Out of relationship, habit, or environment that keeps pulling you backwards?

00:33:59.800 --> 00:34:05.843
Or maybe he's calling you out of believing that where you are right now is all there will ever be.

00:34:06.143 --> 00:34:10.823
Sometimes we spend so much time asking God to show us the promise that we forget

00:34:10.823 --> 00:34:12.670
to listen for the instruction.

00:34:12.978 --> 00:34:17.253
Abraham's instruction was simply, get thee out. The promise came after the call.

00:34:17.253 --> 00:34:22.177
And your next season may begin the same way, not knowing every detail,

00:34:22.410 --> 00:34:27.213
not having every answer, but with being willing to say, God,

00:34:27.213 --> 00:34:30.473
if you are calling me out, give me the faith to follow you.

00:34:30.728 --> 00:34:33.793
As we continue this series, we're going to look at Abraham's world.

00:34:34.189 --> 00:34:37.202
Where he came from, where he traveled, the people he encountered,

00:34:37.573 --> 00:34:42.026
the connections in Egypt, his relationship with Canaan, the covenant,

00:34:42.345 --> 00:34:44.887
promises, his failures, and his faith.

00:34:45.189 --> 00:34:50.384
And what his story reveals when we remove the assumption that we have something,

00:34:50.384 --> 00:34:55.348
that move the assumption that has sometimes been placed over the biblical text.

00:34:55.673 --> 00:34:59.847
We're not here to force Abraham into our modern category or black and white.

00:35:00.178 --> 00:35:04.270
We're here to uncover the world scripture actually describes.

00:35:04.613 --> 00:35:09.628
Because Abraham lived in a world of nations, cultures, kingdoms, and people.

00:35:09.878 --> 00:35:14.538
And Africa was already part of that world. So as we begin the story of Abraham,

00:35:15.049 --> 00:35:16.837
I want you to think about yourself.

00:35:17.150 --> 00:35:20.244
What is God calling me out of? Am I willing to go?

00:35:20.584 --> 00:35:25.585
Am I willing to go? What is God calling me out of? Am I willing to go?

00:35:26.102 --> 00:35:31.825
I want to continue with the story of Abraham before we, this is still the introduction.

00:35:32.139 --> 00:35:35.164
I think we covered a lot of this already. Just double check and see if I need

00:35:35.164 --> 00:35:38.391
to cover anything else. We already know, let's just start here.

00:35:38.600 --> 00:35:40.841
Noah's connection, Noah's family connection.

00:35:41.241 --> 00:35:44.194
Might have already spoken this, but this is a refresher. You know,

00:35:44.194 --> 00:35:48.613
we know Abraham, Cain comes through Shem. Egypt comes through Mizraim.

00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:56.682
Canaan came through the son of Ham. and Cush comes through him. So we understand that.

00:35:57.065 --> 00:36:00.850
We understand the African connection. Africa appears in the Bible way before

00:36:00.966 --> 00:36:04.449
Abraham come on the scene, but yet he's still connected to what?

00:36:04.751 --> 00:36:07.677
A black family. So Abraham connection is real.

00:36:07.985 --> 00:36:11.004
And we see, and we want to keep it wearing the scripture, right?

00:36:11.004 --> 00:36:13.712
We want to unmask those things that we have.

00:36:14.025 --> 00:36:18.450
We go too fast. We're going to slow it down and we're just going to study Abraham.

00:36:18.654 --> 00:36:21.306
But I want to continue just a little bit about.

00:36:21.911 --> 00:36:25.283
The covenant connection, because that's where we come in. You know,

00:36:25.585 --> 00:36:28.915
we understand that Abraham was going to be the family and God was going to give

00:36:28.915 --> 00:36:30.995
him many, many kids, right?

00:36:30.995 --> 00:36:37.984
Many, many things. And we also know Ishmael is part of our family in a sense, right?

00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:42.750
And so we know that God calls him to be the father of many nations.

00:36:42.907 --> 00:36:46.076
And we look at the scriptures that tell us that Genesis 9, 9,

00:36:46.308 --> 00:36:51.545
of them was the whole earth overspread. That's Noah. Noah filled the earth with

00:36:51.545 --> 00:36:53.716
his genealogy. Isn't that understanding?

00:36:54.070 --> 00:36:57.309
Isn't that cool? So let's kind of close this out with this.

00:36:57.628 --> 00:37:01.745
Abraham's story begins way in the beginning, before Abraham even came on the

00:37:01.745 --> 00:37:03.944
scene. It begins with Noah's family.

00:37:04.141 --> 00:37:10.259
Abraham comes to Shem. After Africa entered the biblical family map through

00:37:10.543 --> 00:37:15.768
people such as Cush and Mizraim in Egypt, Canaan also comes to him.

00:37:16.069 --> 00:37:21.095
So when Abraham later encountered Egypt and Canaan, scripture is showing different

00:37:21.095 --> 00:37:24.005
branches of Noah's family interacting again.

00:37:24.220 --> 00:37:29.142
So think about that. So Abraham, I don't know if he probably knew of Noah.

00:37:29.605 --> 00:37:32.074
We're all related. So he probably knew something about Noah.

00:37:32.645 --> 00:37:37.426
And so interesting. So he gets to meet Canaan, who is Noah's son.

00:37:38.935 --> 00:37:43.097
So this prepares us for our next episode from Shem to Abram,

00:37:43.295 --> 00:37:45.094
where Abraham's family originated.

00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:49.756
Who was Abraham before God called him and where did his family come from?

00:37:50.405 --> 00:37:54.707
We're going to get into more scripture, the topic. Hope you enjoyed the introduction.

00:37:54.707 --> 00:37:59.445
It's only 40 minutes, and then we're going to dive right into it on our next episode.

00:37:59.874 --> 00:38:04.913
The title of that one is From Shem to Abraham, Where Abraham Family Originated.

00:38:05.232 --> 00:38:10.130
We're going to continue our journey through Genesis 12, 15, and 17.

00:38:10.415 --> 00:38:13.410
So you want to get a head start? Go ahead. I'm your host, Connie Morris.

00:38:13.822 --> 00:38:17.587
This has been the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. And I thank you for joining

00:38:17.587 --> 00:38:21.061
me. Look forward to seeing you again on the next episode.

00:38:21.415 --> 00:38:25.107
Bye-bye. Before we close today, I don't want to take for granted that everyone

00:38:25.107 --> 00:38:27.330
listening knows Jesus personally.

00:38:27.714 --> 00:38:32.127
If you have listened to this episode or any other episodes and felt something

00:38:32.127 --> 00:38:37.245
stirring in your heart, maybe you know about God, but you're not sure you truly know Him.

00:38:37.431 --> 00:38:41.617
Maybe you grew up in church, walked away, got hurt, became tired,

00:38:42.005 --> 00:38:44.337
and never fully surrendered your life to Jesus.

00:38:44.737 --> 00:38:49.167
I want you to know this. God loves you. He has not forgotten you.

00:38:49.167 --> 00:38:51.108
He is not waiting to shame you.

00:38:51.264 --> 00:38:54.260
He is calling you home.

00:38:54.417 --> 00:38:58.422
The Bible says in Romans 10, 9, if you declare with your mouth,

00:38:58.643 --> 00:39:05.909
Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

00:39:06.101 --> 00:39:08.527
Salvation is not about being perfect.

00:39:08.765 --> 00:39:11.655
It's about surrendering to the one who is perfect.

00:39:11.970 --> 00:39:19.382
Jesus died for your sins, rose again, and made a way for you to be forgiven, restored, and made new.

00:39:19.591 --> 00:39:23.011
So right where you are, you can pray this prayer with me.

00:39:23.167 --> 00:39:28.328
Lord Jesus, I come to you today with an open heart. I believe you are the Son of God.

00:39:28.723 --> 00:39:35.190
I believe you died on the cross for my sins, and I believe that God raised you from the dead.

00:39:35.346 --> 00:39:39.500
Today, I confess that I need you. I repent of my sins.

00:39:39.800 --> 00:39:46.265
I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me, and make me brand new. Jesus, come into my heart.

00:39:46.590 --> 00:39:50.380
Be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, and my King.

00:39:50.780 --> 00:39:55.727
I surrender my life to you. I give you my past, my present, and my future.

00:39:56.012 --> 00:39:59.954
Teach me how to walk with you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

00:40:00.226 --> 00:40:04.180
Lead me in truth, healing, obedience, and love.

00:40:04.500 --> 00:40:07.040
From this day forward, I belong to you.

00:40:07.420 --> 00:40:11.428
In Jesus' name, amen. If you pray that prayer from your heart,

00:40:11.579 --> 00:40:15.909
I want you to know that heaven has heard you. This is not the end.

00:40:16.234 --> 00:40:21.134
This is only the beginning of your walk with Jesus. Find a Bible-believing church.

00:40:21.302 --> 00:40:23.137
Begin reading the Word of God.

00:40:23.409 --> 00:40:26.474
Pray daily and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grow.

00:40:26.759 --> 00:40:31.513
God is not looking for perfection from you. He is inviting you into relationship,

00:40:31.827 --> 00:40:35.373
transformation, and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

00:40:35.571 --> 00:40:37.486
And remember, you are loved.

00:40:37.730 --> 00:40:41.649
You are not forgotten. And God still has a purpose for your life.

00:40:41.980 --> 00:40:44.870
Thank you for listening to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

00:40:45.068 --> 00:40:49.532
Until next time, keep walking in truth, faith, and freedom.

00:41:00.495 --> 00:41:03.672
Family, thank you for spending time with me today.

00:41:03.944 --> 00:41:07.609
To every woman listening who has ever felt hidden, overlooked,

00:41:07.609 --> 00:41:10.057
or pushed aside, hear me clearly.

00:41:10.336 --> 00:41:14.870
God has not forgotten you, and neither have I.

00:41:15.264 --> 00:41:20.036
Now let's go before the Lord and close this out with a word from God.

00:41:20.447 --> 00:41:24.877
Because someone out there needs this reminder today.

00:41:25.139 --> 00:41:29.138
Jeremiah 29, 11, verses 11 through 14.

00:41:29.561 --> 00:41:34.419
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you

00:41:34.419 --> 00:41:38.316
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

00:41:38.611 --> 00:41:43.359
Then when you call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you,

00:41:43.628 --> 00:41:48.939
you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

00:41:48.939 --> 00:41:54.999
I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity.

00:41:55.429 --> 00:42:01.336
Father God, we thank you for your word, that it is true, that it is living, that it is for us.

00:42:01.481 --> 00:42:06.529
You said you know the plans you have for us, plans to prosper us and not to

00:42:06.529 --> 00:42:09.434
harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.

00:42:09.725 --> 00:42:14.032
So today we receive that, not just in our minds, but in our hearts.

00:42:14.252 --> 00:42:17.968
When we feel overlooked, remind us you still see us.

00:42:18.264 --> 00:42:23.482
When we feel forgotten, remind us you still have a plan. And when we feel hidden,

00:42:23.807 --> 00:42:26.019
remind us you are still working.

00:42:26.309 --> 00:42:29.473
Your word says that when we call on you, you will listen.

00:42:29.798 --> 00:42:32.991
So we call on you now. Hear us. Strengthen us.

00:42:33.235 --> 00:42:37.577
Guide us. Help us to seek you with our whole heart, not halfway,

00:42:37.774 --> 00:42:39.731
not sometimes, but fully.

00:42:40.032 --> 00:42:44.404
And as we seek you, let us find you in every season, in every place.

00:42:44.922 --> 00:42:50.141
Even the hidden mind. Restore what was lost, renew what feels broken,

00:42:50.453 --> 00:42:54.878
and remind us that nothing in our lives is wasted in your hand.

00:42:55.284 --> 00:43:01.470
Lord, we trust you, we believe you, and we stand on your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

00:43:01.783 --> 00:43:05.859
This is Diary of a Black Woman podcast, and I'm your host, Connie Morris,

00:43:06.126 --> 00:43:08.871
and I'll see you on the next episode.