Jeff Schreve - When Fear Calls the Shots
Summary:
In this message from Genesis 12, the preacher examines how even the great man of faith, Abraham, allowed fear to overpower his trust in God during a famine, leading him to flee to Egypt instead of staying in the Promised Land. The core idea is that when fear calls the shots rather than faith, it results in bad decisions, scheming and deceit, and a compromised testimony that harms others. Yet God’s grace remains, as Abraham’s return to the land and altars shows that repenting, leaving the «Egypt» of fear-driven choices, and recommitting to trust God restores fellowship and puts faith back in control.
Introduction: Ann Landers and the Problem of Fear
If you have your Bible, please turn to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12, I ran across a name I had never heard before, but I found out this person was very well-known in the latter half of the 20th century. Her name was Eppie Letterer. She was an author, she had a radio show, and she had a column in the newspaper that was read by millions of people. We don’t know her as Eppie Letterer; we know her as Ann Landers. Ann Landers was so popular that many people read her advice and opened up to her to see what she had to say.
It was said that in her heyday, Ann Landers was just a pseudonym, a pen name. It was started in 1943 by a lady named Ruth Crowley, who wrote in the newspaper to give advice, and she just came up with that name, Ann Landers. Well, she was Ann Landers for a number of years, and then Eppie Letterer took it over in 1955 and was Ann Landers until 2002. Interestingly, her twin sister was Dear Abby, and so Ann Landers was asked the question regarding how many letters she received in her heyday. She was getting 10,000 letters a week from people asking her for advice.
A reporter asked her if there was any overarching theme that she observed from her readers. When all those letters came in, was there anything that really overshadowed all the issues? She responded that there was one issue that was the top issue: the issue of fear. She said people are afraid—they’re afraid of losing their health, afraid of losing their wealth, afraid of losing their loved ones—they are afraid of life. Wow!
Did you know that the Bible is very clear about the fact that we as human beings struggle with fear? The Bible is clear about this because God often says in His Word, «Do not be afraid. Do not fear. Don’t be afraid here; don’t be afraid there.» Great men in the Bible had to hear God tell them, «Don’t be afraid.» Moses had to hear from God to stop being afraid. Jeremiah had to hear from God, «Don’t be afraid.» Joshua, who took over for Moses, was told, «Do not tremble or be afraid.» I mean, he was so scared he was trembling, and God had to tell him he didn’t need to be afraid. Even the great Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians, «I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.» When he was in Corinth, Acts chapter 18 tells us that the Lord came to him in a night vision and said, «Do not be afraid any longer, Paul, for I have many people in this city. Go on speaking and go on teaching, and no one is going to harm you.» Hey, great men in the Bible struggled with fear! David, who had the courage and bravery as a teenager to go up against Goliath, I mean, you would think that if anyone in Scripture never dealt with fear, it was David. But David dealt with fear! He says in Psalm 56 verse 3, «When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.» He doesn’t say, «If I ever get afraid, God.» He says, «When I am afraid, ” because fear came to him just as it comes to you and to me. Fear is something we will constantly wrestle with, and the Lord says, „I haven’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.“ God wants us to walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, „We walk by faith, not by sight.“ Now, I think a big enemy of the walk of faith is fear. You know, when you start to walk by sight, sight tells you a story that fills your heart with fear. Fear and faith tend to fight one another, and the big issue is, who is going to win between fear and faith?
We’re in a series called „Fear No Evil.“ David, in Psalm 23, says, „Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.“ Why? „Because You are with me.“ The valley of the shadow of death is a scary place, and if I have to walk through there alone, I’m scared to death! But I’m not going to fear because You are with me. God wants to speak to us concerning our fears, and He wants us to rise above our fears. He wants us to walk by faith and not by fear. But what happens to a person who loves God, who wants to walk with God, and who wants to please God? What happens to that person when they lose the battle with fear, and fear takes over and starts calling the shots? That’s our subject for today—when fear calls the shots.
Abraham’s Call and Obedience
Our subject is a man known for his faith—he’s called the father of all who believe: Abraham. And Abraham’s claim to fame is his faith. But Abraham had a time in his life when fear began to call the shots, causing all kinds of havoc and disruption in his walk with God. Let’s look at his story in Genesis chapter 12. The Scripture says now the Lord said to Abram (remember, before he changed his name to Abraham, his name was Abram). Abram means „exalted father,“ and „ham“ means „father of a multitude.“ Abraham was married to Sarai; her name would get changed to Sarah. But he was married to Sarai, and they had no children. The Lord came to him; he was living in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans. The Lord said to him, „Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.“ Wow! What a word from God! What a promise from God! So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. When the Lord spoke to him, he was in Ur of the Chaldeans; they went up to Haran, which is a halfway point between Ur and the promised land that God had told him about. So he was 75 when he departed from Haran.
In verse 5, Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is the land of promise; it’s the land of Israel. In verse 6, Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Morah. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, „To your descendants I will give this land.“ So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev, the south country.
Abraham, I think we have a map of his journeys. There we go! There is Father Abraham. If you see on the map, he’s over on the right side—the Ur of the Chaldeans—and he obeyed the call of God. He went out not knowing where God was taking him, saying, „Go, and I’ll show you when you get there.“ So he went. He gets to Haran and sojourns there for a while, and then God has to call him again and say, „Hey, this isn’t it! You need to keep going.“ So he comes down into Canaan; he goes through Canaan, builds two altars, is worshiping God, goes to the Negev, which is the southern part of the promised land, and everything is going great—until verse 10, where it says, „Now there was a famine in the land.“ So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. Fear began to call the shots in this man of faith. You know, in every person’s heart, when we deal with fear, there’s faith and fear. And listen, fear’s okay as long as your faith is greater than your fear—as long as you walk by faith and not by fear. But if fear becomes greater than faith, you’re in trouble, and that’s what happened to Abraham.
Result 1: Making Bad Decisions
So we’re going to look at three results—three things that take place when fear trumps faith. The first result: you start making bad decisions. What happens when fear takes over? You make bad decisions. Now, God had called Abraham to the promised land, to Canaan, and He said, „This is the land I’m going to give your descendants.“ Now, Abraham doesn’t have any descendants; he doesn’t have any children. His wife, Sarai, is barren. And so, in that promise, „I’m going to give this to your descendants“ would mean that he’s supposed to receive a descendant. Abram means „exalted father, ” and Abraham means „father of a multitude.“ When God changes his name to Abraham, it’s because he’s going to have a multitude come forth from him. God had given him so much, but then all of a sudden he hits a snag in the land of plenty—the land of promise.
You know the land of Canaan, the land of promise, was also called „the land that flows with milk and honey.“ It’s a great place. God comes there—it’s a great place—but something happens in verse 10: there’s a famine in the land. A famine in the land? And the famine was severe, the Scripture says; it is heavy, it is difficult. Abram thinks, „Man, there’s nothing to eat here! There’s a famine here, and I need to make other arrangements.“ His heart begins to fill with fear, and he makes a terrible decision to take his wife and his nephew Lot and go down to Egypt.
Hey, what happens when fear is in control? You start making bad decisions. You let circumstances dictate your actions. The circumstances in his life were, „Hey, this isn’t good here right now in the land of plenty.“ It’s kind of ironic that in the land of plenty—the land flowing with milk and honey—there isn’t any milk; there isn’t any honey right now because there’s a famine in the land. He’s getting nervous! Now, I’ve never lived through a famine, but people who have lived through famines, no doubt, would say, „Yeah, that’s scary!“ You know, people who lived through the Great Depression always had this fear—they didn’t want to give up anything because they had this fear of going back to having nothing.
I was in Odessa some years ago preaching at my friend’s church, Byron McWilliams, at First Baptist Odessa. I remember it was during the oil boom, and he said, „You know, there are no houses here for sale.“ And he said, „This business is booming, but there are no houses.“ I was like, „Why aren’t you building any houses? I mean, if it’s going to be good times, this is the time to build!“ He said that the contractors didn’t want to come in and build because in the oil business, it’s feast or famine. „We’re in a feasting time right now, but if you come and gear up, saying, ‘I’m going to build all these houses, ’ and then the bottom drops out of the oil market, then you’re stuck holding the bag.“ Everyone was afraid to spend a lot of money on construction. I can understand that.
In Abraham’s case, he thought, „Man, there’s nothing here, and my circumstances begin to dictate.“ Listen, we walk by faith, not by sight! You can’t let circumstances dictate your actions because circumstances say things aren’t good. Then fear jumps in and says, „That’s right, it’s not good!“ And then you started projecting, „I’m not going to have anything here, ” and that causes you to make a move. Well, he wasn’t supposed to do that. This was a test of his faith. Listen, faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted, and God was testing him. He was to be in Canaan, so are you going to stay there and trust me, or are you going to take matters into your own hands? Sadly, Abraham took matters into his own hands, letting circumstances dictate.
You know, when it comes to fear, we need to remember this little acronym: FEAR. It stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. That’s fear: false evidence appearing real. Now, the circumstances are what they are; that’s not necessarily false evidence. But how you interpret the circumstances becomes false evidence. You’ll see that more as we go along in this story. But not only do you let circumstances dictate, you start moving away from God’s will for your life. We’re talking about when fear is on the throne—when fear calls the shots. Now, we struggle with fear, but Abraham wasn’t struggling with fear; he gave up. He let fear take over. Fear said, „This is what we’re going to do.“ So now, he’s going to go down to Egypt.
Now, from where Abraham was in the Negev to get to Egypt, it’s about 150 to 200 miles. It’s not like it’s just going to take a half day to get there; I mean, it’s going to take a long time to get there. And the Scripture often talks about going down to Egypt. Now, we looked at the map, and we see that Egypt is down; on the map, Egypt is in the south. The Scripture always points out the fact that you go down to Egypt. You know, when you’re up at Haran, where he was at the start of Genesis chapter 12, you’re up in Haran. Well, everything is down on the map. Jerusalem is down on the map. But did you know the Bible never talks about going down to Jerusalem? It always talks about going up to Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem is elevated, but it’s always— even if you’re up in Galilee, which is in the north—when you’re going to Jerusalem, you go up to Jerusalem. But when you go to Egypt, you always go down. Down to Egypt. Down to Egypt. Down to Egypt. Thirteen times in the Old Testament it talks about going down to Egypt—never up to Egypt.
Now, what’s the significance there? Anytime you leave where God wants you to be, you’re going down! And Egypt in the Bible is a picture of sin. It’s a picture of the world. It’s not a good place; it’s a bad place. It’s where God’s people are going to be enslaved for over 400 years. It’s a picture of the lost state. It’s a picture of being under the thumb of Pharaoh, who is a picture of the devil, and you’re enslaved to sin. It’s not a good place. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 31 verse 1, „Woe to those who go down to Egypt to look for help.“ That’s exactly what Abram did; he went down to Egypt to look for help.
We read in the verses in Genesis 12 about Abraham building an altar. And when I use those names, Abram and Abraham, it’s the same person obviously. We just know him better as Abraham. He builds an altar twice in his journeys in the land of promise. He goes down to Egypt; there are no altars in Egypt. He’s not building an altar to God in Egypt; he’s not in the will of God in Egypt. Why? Because fear is calling the shots!
So that’s the first result: when fear is on the throne, you start making bad decisions.
Result 2: Scheming and Practicing Deceit
Secondly, the second result when fear is on the throne—you start scheming and practicing deceit. You start to scheme; you’re not trusting anymore. You’re scheming. Look at what Abraham did. Verse 11: „It came about when he came near to Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife, ‘See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman, and it will come about that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife, ’ and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.’“
What’s Abraham doing? He’s scheming! He’s planning; he’s being deceptive. He wants to deceive the Egyptians and wants his wife to come in on a plot that says, „You’re my sister, not my wife!“ Because, „Hey, Sarai, my life is in your hands! If you don’t do this right, I’m going to die!“ Hmm…what happens when fear is on the throne? You start to lean on your own understanding. You know the Bible tells us not to do that. Proverbs 3:5 says, „Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.“ Listen, it’s okay to have understanding; it’s a good thing to have understanding. But don’t lean on it! Don’t lean on your own understanding; lean on the promises of God, lean on the Word of God, lean on what God has said, and trust in Him. Abraham didn’t do that; he started calculating things.
„Well, I can’t stay here in the Promised Land. Why? There’s no food here! This is supposedly the land of plenty, but there’s nothing; there’s not plenty here for me! So we’re going to go down to Egypt.“ Listen, Sarai, on our way to Egypt, „Man, you’re good-looking!“ She was good-looking! She was 65 years old, and there wasn’t any Estée Lauder house or the bed anywhere. I mean, she was just like, „Man, how do you look so youthful?“ She looked great! It says in verse 14, „When the Egyptians saw her, they said she was very beautiful.“ She was good-looking! And Abraham said, „You know, they’re going to take one look at you, and they’re going to want you for themselves! They’re going to find out you’re married, and they’ll say, ‘Let’s kill Abraham! ’“
So he’s thinking through all this stuff; he’s planning his funeral as he’s walking to Egypt. Not good! Don’t lean on your own understanding! The Scripture says, „When fear gets going, that’s what you do. You believe the lies of the devil and forget the truth of God.“ I mean, Abraham, weren’t you the guy that God gave all these promises to? Weren’t you the one that He’s going to make a great nation of? I don’t read anything in the early verses in Genesis 12 where God says, „And Abraham, you’re going to go to Egypt and die.“ That’s not in the promise from God! But he started to believe the lies.
Have you noticed how easy it is to believe the lies? You know why that is? It’s because the truth of God doesn’t match up with our feelings, and it doesn’t match up with our circumstances. So God promises something, and we look at the circumstances and say, „Hmm, circumstances don’t say that’s going to happen.“ My feelings sure don’t say that what God promised is going to happen! My feelings say they match up with the circumstances. The circumstances look bad; the circumstances say there’s a famine. I’ve got to save my skin! And on the way to Egypt, the circumstances say, „Hey, she’s good-looking!“ I mean, put two and two together, Abraham! You’re no dummy! They’re going to tell you you’re walking to your death, so we need to come up with another plan.
You ever had that experience where your mind starts going crazy with fear, and you start to project all the things that could possibly happen in a given situation? About 22 or 23 years ago, I was working in sales—maybe 25 years ago, working in sales—and I had a little lump on my arm. Didn’t think much of it; you know, it showed up when I would lift weights or something like that. It would show up, kind of stick out. I thought, „What is that?“ And Debbie saw it, and she said, „It’s about the size of a pebble or something, ” and she said, „You need to get that checked out.“ I said, „Do you think I need to?“ She said, „Yeah, you need to get it checked out. Make sure it’s not anything, you know, that could be a problem.“ So I was like, „Okay.“
I remember calling the doctor; I’m driving in my car. I called the doctor, set an appointment, and I’m driving in my car. The devil was in my car with me, and he was speaking to me, you know how he does. He whispers in your ear, and fear was taking over. I’m having this conversation—not what the devil, where I’m hearing his voice, but just an internal conversation. The conversation goes kind of like this: „Hey, Jeff, I think this is bad. You think this is bad, this lump on my arm? You think it’s bad?“ „Yeah, I think it could be really bad.“ „Well, what do you think? Hey, and the voice said to me, ‘I think it’s cancer.’ So you think it’s cancer? That thing on my arm, you think it’s cancer?“ „Yeah, I think it’s cancer.“ „What do you think the doctor’s going to do?“ „Surgery!“ I said, „What else?“ „Chemo!“ I said, „Good night! You think I’ll lose my hair?“ I was going through all this stuff, and then I started thinking I was having surgery, and then I was having chemo, and then I had a vision—not lying, not making this up—I had a vision of the graveside and my three daughters and my wife crying at the graveside because daddy’s dead from this thing in his arm. And I’m thinking all this, and it’s happening in my head as I’m driving down the road. I was so filled with fear and sadness, and you know what? This lump in my arm—there’s nothing! I went to see the doctor, you know? Yeah, they tell people, „A lot of those—cut it out, no big deal!“ He said, „I’ll send it off, but we don’t need to. I mean, it’s nothing!“ I was like, „Wow, great! I live another day!“
But that’s how our minds do! We do that when we get scared! At night, you know, you wake up in the middle of the night; you hear a noise, and all of a sudden you start thinking, „Oh no! Freddy Krueger’s out there! Jason from Friday the 13th! Somebody’s out there!“ You start putting everything together. It’s nothing! But that’s kind of how fear works. We start to believe the lies and forget the truth of God. Listen; you know why a quiet time is so important? Because you fill your mind with the truth, and you remind yourself of the truth. Poor Abram needed to go back and see God’s promises, but he wasn’t thinking about the promises of God—he was just thinking about potential danger!
All that fear and the devil was at work, and his emotions were getting all riled up, and as he’s walking to Egypt, he’s thinking, „I could die as we enter Egypt.“ Listen, you believe the lies, you forget the truth, and then you rationalize and justify your actions! Rationalize and justify. Look what happened. So he says to his wife: now, ladies, think about this; this is your husband, and he’s saying, „Hey, please say you’re my sister.“ And if Pharaoh takes you—that’s too bad for you! But we’ll save my skin!
Then it says in verse 14, „It came about when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful, and Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh.“ The woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house; therefore, he treated Abram well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. Hey, it’s going pretty good. But the Lord struck Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham’s wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, „What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was my wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister, ’ so that I took her for my wife?“ Hmm, serious business there!
Abram thought, „Well, I’ll just go with this lie.“ But when Pharaoh found out about it—because the Lord struck his house with plagues, and he knew something was up—then he wants to know from Abram, „Hey, what’s the deal here? Why did you lie? Why did you deceive me?“ You know, Abram doesn’t answer him in Genesis chapter 12, but we get the answer in Genesis chapter 20 because Abram does the exact same thing in Genesis chapter 20 when he goes to another place, to a different king, Abimelech, king of a place called Gerar, and he tells Sarai, „Say that you’re my sister!“ And God almost killed that king! He said, „And the king said, ‘Lord, I didn’t know! He told me it was his sister; I didn’t know that it was his wife! ’“
So he wanted to know from Abram, „Why did you tell me she was your sister?“ This is what Abraham said in verse 11 of chapter 20. Abraham said, „Because I thought surely there is no fear of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife.“ Besides, „She actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.“ She’s my sister! Was that true? Yeah, kind of. She’s his half-sister! So he can say, „You know, I’m not really lying; I’m kind of telling a half-truth.“
See how his brain is working? See how he’s scheming to try and set himself up? Why? Because fear is calling the shots! When fear is on the throne, you and I start to rationalize and justify our deceit, and we end up walking in deceit because we’re not walking in the light. We’ve gone down to Egypt spiritually; we’ve gone down; we’ve gotten away from God and His Word and His promises and living in the light and walking in the light and abiding in Him. All of a sudden now, we’re getting into some bad territory, and then we have to start massaging things. We have to start working on things, and we have to start cutting corners. We have to start chiseling here and chiseling there, and we rationalize and justify our actions. Let me tell you something: when you start to rationalize, all that means is you’re telling yourself rational lies. Rational lies! You know in your heart that you’re being deceptive! Abraham knew that he was being deceptive! Well, she is my half-sister! But I’m trying to deceive you.
Adrian Rogers says, „You can deceive with the arching of your eyebrows if your intent is to mislead a person, ” and that’s what Abraham was doing. He had no care or concern for his wife! She was going to be part of Pharaoh’s harem, okay? Just so long as things go well for me!
Result 3: Losing Your Testimony
What happens when fear trumps faith? You start making bad decisions; you start scheming and practicing deceit; and thirdly, you start losing your testimony for Christ.
Abram was in a bad way because he’s God’s man! In you, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed! Abraham is big time! The Jews look to Abraham, Christians look to Abraham, Islam looks to Abraham as the father of their faith. Abraham is a big shot; this isn’t just some backwoods preacher somewhere—this is a prophet of God! God is going to do everything through this man and through his family. He is the father of the Jewish race, and everything comes from the Jews. Jesus came from the Jewish race. And here he is, a man who’s supposed to shine for the Lord, a man who’s supposed to be a testimony for the Lord, and now he’s down in Egypt where he’s not supposed to be, and he’s lying and scheming, getting Pharaoh into serious trouble with God.
Pharaoh hadn’t done anything wrong! Just as it says in Genesis chapter 20, when the king Abimelech said to the Lord, „Lord, I didn’t know that that was that man’s wife! He told me it was his sister!“ He said, „I have operated in the integrity of my heart in taking her to be my wife.“ And God says, „I know you did that; that’s why I didn’t let you touch her! You didn’t sleep with her, because if you had, I ought to have killed you! I didn’t let you do that!“ And so here is poor Abram getting Pharaoh into serious trouble and causing all kinds of difficulty in his family. Then Pharaoh calls him out, and Abram didn’t have a leg to stand on. He didn’t have any way to be a witness to Pharaoh; he became an abomination to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said, „Take your wife; take your things, and get out of here! I don’t want you here anymore!“
You know, it’s a terrible thing when we as Christians allow ourselves to become so fearful that we start to walk by sight and not by faith, that we start to scheme, that we start to lie, that we start to deceive, that we start to live apart from where God wants us to live. We’re not walking in the light; we’re walking in the darkness! It’s a terrible thing! Yes, it is! And that’s our calling from God. The Lord says, „You shall be my witnesses!“ Now listen, if what Ann Landers said is true (and I believe it is true), the number one thing that people talk about is fear that people deal with: fear! Now, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have a promise from God—a birthright from God—and that is peace. Jesus said, „My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be fearful. You trust Me, and I will give you peace.“
So Isaiah 26 verse 3 says, „For You will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You.“ We have that from the Lord! No matter what is going on in life, we can have peace—a peace that surpasses understanding. Paul talked about it in Philippians chapter 4. Now, the world is looking at Christians, and one of the big things they’re looking at is how do you handle trouble? What do you do when life is crashing all around you? Do you freak out, or do you have a peace that passes understanding? Because that draws people like a magnet! They say, „I don’t have that! You have something I don’t have!“ Abraham wasn’t able to be a witness to Pharaoh because fear was on the throne! And Pharaoh could say, „Why? I have it; you don’t have anything that I don’t have! Get out of here; you make me sick! You’re a hypocrite!“
Because you’re the one who’s supposed to be the banner of what it means to follow God, and you’re not! The standard; you’re not an example! It’s kind of like with Jonah. Remember when Jonah was running away from the Lord? The big storm, and the sailors are all freaking out; they’re like, „What do we do? We need to find out what’s caused this!“ Then he tells them that he’s fleeing from the Lord, and they say, „Jonah, how could you do this?“ What’s the deal here? He put those guys’ lives at stake because he refused to trust God and walk with God. Abraham did the same with Pharaoh!
Listen, your witness is compromised when you let fear call the shots! And then your loved ones are affected. This is the one that hurts the most! Your loved ones are affected. Ladies, you can probably answer this the best: how do you think Sarai felt when Abraham was ready to give her over into Pharaoh’s harem to save his own skin? No doubt, she didn’t feel very good about that. She didn’t feel very safe and secure with her husband. As a result of that, there’s another family member—his name is Lot. Lot is Abraham’s nephew, and Abram was the older believer. Lot is the younger believer, and Lot is looking to Uncle Abraham and saying, „Hey, you know Abraham’s hearing from God, so I’m going to follow the prophet of God.“ Lot put his faith and trust in Yahweh God, but he didn’t have a relationship with Him like his uncle did.
When Abram went down to Egypt, Lot came with him, and Lot liked Egypt! Lot had a taste for Egypt! Abraham ended up getting Lot out of Egypt, but he never got Egypt out of Lot. We read in Genesis chapter 13 when there is a range war between the cowboys of Abraham and the cowboys of Lot, and there’s not enough grass and alfalfa and Mejia to satisfy all their flocks and herds; they have to separate. Abraham says to Lot, „This is it; Lot, you choose! You go left; I’ll go right! You go north; I’ll go south—you just choose!“ And Abraham, the Scripture says, lifted up his eyes and looked out toward the east—the land of Sodom! And it was well-watered everywhere, like the land of Egypt. He said, „Man, that place looks like Egypt, and I really like Egypt!“ Abraham got Lot out of Egypt, but he never got Egypt out of Lot!
That wrecked and ruined his life! You know the story of Lot—he lost everything! The Bible closes in Genesis 19 on the story of Lot, and he’s up in a cave, and his two daughters are impregnated by Lot because they got him drunk, and he slept with them! He’s lost everything, and his life is ruined. Why did that happen? A big part of it had to do with his uncle who took him down to Egypt!
Listen, moms and dads, I’m not trying to heap guilt on you by any stretch of the imagination, but we as parents need to be very careful with the decisions that we make and the actions that we make! We need to be very careful that we don’t let fear call the shots in our family because it affects your kids! And it can affect them for a lifetime! You know one of the reasons why I don’t drink? I haven’t had a drink since 1984! When I was with my kids, I never wanted them to not only see dad drink; I wanted them to know that dad doesn’t drink! You say, „Why is that?“ Because I don’t want them to drink! I don’t want them ever to say, „Well, Dad can do it; it’s no big deal for Dad!“ And Dad can handle it, but maybe they can’t handle it!
Hey, Abram could handle Egypt! He could get out of Egypt and go on with life, but Lot couldn’t! So I’m taking somebody who has a predisposition to gambling, and you say, „Hey, let’s go on a big trip to Las Vegas, and we’ll have a big fun time!“ That person gets stuck in Las Vegas, and they can’t ever leave in their heart, and it wrecks and ruins their life! I don’t want to do that with my kids! Janet Mayo told me something years ago I’ve never forgotten, and she said, „You know the best advice for parents? Mom, Dad, when you have kids—one word: behave! Behave! Start being the example! Be the parent that you want your kids to be, and don’t get tied up in things that are going to hurt them!“
You start losing your testimony for Christ!
The Solution: Return to Faith
So what do you do? Alright, what’s the solution? When fear calls the shots, how do you…? I’m struggling with this thing called fear, Jeff, and I don’t want to do what Abraham did. I don’t want to go down to Egypt. I don’t want to wreck and ruin my kids or wreck and ruin my life or ruin my testimony! So what do I do? You do what Abraham did! You leave the darkness! Genesis 13 says, „So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot with him.“
You can’t get right with God in Egypt! You’ve got to get out of Egypt! The prodigal son couldn’t get right with God in the pigsty; he had to leave the pigsty and go back to his father. Abram had to leave Egypt so he could go back to the promised land! And that’s what he did—he left the darkness! You repent and get right with God! Look what it says in Genesis 13:3: „And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel.“ Bethel means the house of God! To the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai—the place of the altar which he had made there formerly—and there Abram called on the name of the Lord!
He got right with God! He got right with God! And the promises of God were still true for him, and the God who had made those promises received him back from Egypt and forgave him and cleansed him. Abraham quit letting fear call the shots and put faith back in the driver’s seat! And he said, „Lord, here I am! I want to worship You! I want to obey You! I want to trust You! I want to be where You want me to be!“
You repent and get things right with God, and you walk in the light! You walk in the truth! Listen, I don’t know where you are today, but I know if you’re like me, fear is something that is constantly there! Let me encourage you: If you find yourself in Egypt today, leave it! You can never get right with God; you’ll never experience the things God wants you to experience! You can’t be the Christian God wants you to be in Egypt! You have to leave! You have to get right with God! You have to say, „Lord, I’m going to start trusting You with all my heart because You promised to take care of me! You promised to work even when I can’t see You at work! And God, Your promises are true, and I’m going to walk by faith and not by fear!“