1. FROM FAILURE TO DIRECTION
Genesis 15-17
OCTOBER 14, 2012
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, USA
Wednesday Nights for
Young Marrieds in the
Christian Life Center at
6:00 p.m.
Parenting Series
by Chip Ingram
BABY BOOMERS for FUN
commences
Saturday October 20th
Brandon Opry House
1000 Municipal Drive
off Hwy 80 across
from Sonny’s BBQ
5:00 - Meal begins
6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Opry
Sonny’s BBQ is laying the spread.
Cost: $15.00 per person (Includes chow and Opry ticket)
If you are not eating, tickets may be purchased at the door at the Opry for $5.00.
Tickets will be on sale at the 2nd floor kiosk today.
Duds: plaid and denim
If you have any questions,
please contact Patricia Jenkins at (601) 949-1941 or PJenkins@FBCJ.org.
Deadline to purchase tickets: Monday, October 15th!
CHILI COOK-OFF
Sunday, November 4
5:00-5:50 p.m.
Fellowship Hall East
More details coming.

2. Next Generation Leaders
Luncheon with
Oscar Miskelly
Thursday, October 25th
CLC—11:45 a.m.
Sharing nuggets from being a successful leader.
Make A Difference Day
Saturday, October 27
We Will Go Ministries
799 N. Congress Street
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
2 shifts: 8-12 and 12-4
601-949-1978
There will be light to heavy manual labor,
yard and garden work, and visiting neighbors.
Come join the Women’s Ministry - bring your work gloves and a smile.

3. FROM FAILURE TO DIRECTION
Genesis 15-17
OCTOBER 14, 2012
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, USA
Last week in John 4 we studied how Jesus moved the Samaritan woman at the well
from failure to her salvation and then how that resulted in many others being saved!
The next three lessons also deal with the question: Is there life after failure?
 Today we will see Abraham
getting impatient with God
and failing to wait on Him.
 The October 21st lesson deals with Miriam
being critical of her brother, Moses, and
after being disciplined by the Lord,
she was restored to a leadership position.

4.  On October 28th, we will study that tender passage of how Jesus restored Peter
after he had failed Christ so miserably by denying Him three times.
 All four of these people had life after their failures because God worked in their
lives to move them beyond those failures.
Focal Passages Today:
 Trust God (Gen. 15:4-6)
 Don’t Take Matters into Your Own Hands (Gen. 16:1-5)
 Refocus on God’s Plan (Gen. 17:3-6,15-19)
What This Lesson Is About:
 God has a plan for our lives, but we need to trust Him to work in us and through
us to accomplish that plan in His time.
 We do not need to take shortcuts
and take matters into our own hands.
 Like Abraham, we can learn to trust
God’s timing.
How This Lesson Can Impact Our Lives:
 This lesson can help us reaffirm our trust in God when we’ve missed His direction
and lost our focus on God’s plan.
 This is the story of Abram’s failure to follow the Lord’s plan.
 It teaches us the importance of turning to the Lord when we’ve missed His
direction.
Trust God
Genesis 15:4-6 HCSB
4 “Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one
who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said,
“Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to
him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:4-6 HCSB

5.  The first mention of Abram in the Bible is in Genesis 11:26.
Genesis 11:26
26 “Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” Genesis 11:26
 Abram (later changed to “Abraham”) is mentioned 312 times in 272 verses in
the Bible.
 He is arguably the most famous man of the Old Testament, and certainly one
of the most influential men of history.
 Joshua 24:2 describes Abram before the Lord called him.
Joshua 24:2b-3
2b“‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived
beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father
Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of
Canaan, and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,” Joshua 24:2b-3
 Abram was from a family of idol worshipers (moon worshipers) and was
probably an idol worshiper himself.
 Later, when Abram’s grandson Jacob went back to Abram’s relatives,
they were still worshipping idols.

6. Genesis 11:31
31“Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law
Sarai (“contentious”), his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the
Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan.” Genesis 11:31
 Abram’s story begins in Ur of the Chaldeans (Babylon/Iraq).
 It appeared as if Abram left home in order to go to a foreign land when in
reality he left a foreign land in order to go home.
 When a Christian dies, it looks to the world as if the deceased is leaving home
to go to a foreign place when in reality they are leaving a foreign place in
order to go home!
 The book of Genesis covers more than 2,000 years of history and more than 20
generations.
 Yet, it spends almost a third of its text on the life of one man - Abram.
 Abram is unique in the way he is called the friend of God (James 2:23);
 Abraham, Your friend forever (2 Chronicles 20:7);
 Abraham, My friend (Isaiah 41:8).
 We all know the value of having friends in high places.
 Abram had a Friend in the highest place!
 Men and women in the Bible are famous for many different things, but
 Abraham is great for his faith.
 Moses was the great lawgiver;
 Joshua a great general;
 David a great king, and
 Elijah a great prophet.
 Most of us know we can never be great in those things, but we can be great
people of faith.
 We can be friends of God.
 If you despair in knowing you do not have Abraham’s faith, take comfort in
knowing you have Abraham’s God.
 God can build in you the faith of Abraham, because He built it in Abraham
Himself.
 Because the name “Abram” means “Father,” it must have constantly amazed
those meeting Abram to discover he had no children.
 But his present lack of children will play an important role in God’s plan of
redemption.
 The Lord had promised to give Abram an heir, someone who would provide
him with descendants for generations to come.
 At this time, there was no sign that Abraham would be able to produce an heir.
 No one can overestimate the importance of children to ancient people.

7.  The contemporaries of Abraham and Sarah had no well-defined concept of an
afterlife.
 So, the best they hoped for was that after death, a person’s memory would live
on in one’s children.
 The worth of a wife was judged by whether she had borne a male child into the
marriage.
 Abram was concerned about his lack of an heir.
 The most eligible person to be Abram’s heir was a slave named Eliezer.
 God had promised Abram that his own son would be heir, not Eliezer, so God
took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able
to count them.”
 In ancient times, signs were used as a witness of a special covenant either
between God and mankind or between different peoples on the earth.
 In Genesis 9:13, God put a special sign in the sky:
Genesis 9:13
13 I have placed My bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between
Me and the earth. Genesis 9:13
 The constellations are also referred to as signs:
Genesis 1:14
14 “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day
from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.”
Genesis 1:14

8. Psalm 8:3-4
3 “When I observe Your heavens,the work of Your fingers,the moon and the
stars,which You set in place, 4 what is man that You remember him,the son of man
that You look after him?” Psalm 8:3-4
Psalm 19:1-6 A Davidic psalm.
1 “The heavens declare the glory of God,and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.
2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate
knowledge. 3 There is no speech; there are no words;their voice is not heard. 4 Their
message has gone out to all the earth,and their words to the ends of the world. In the
heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a groom coming from the bridal
chamber; it rejoices like an athlete running a course. 6 It rises from one end of the
heavens and circles to their other end;” Psalm 19 19:1-6 A Davidic psalm.
 If you could see the sky from only one location on earth, that location would be
the most popular spot on the planet.
 People would clamor to get there!
Psalm 147:4
4 “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”
Psalm 147:4
 The Bible teaches that God arranged the stars into recognizable groups that
we call constellations. Orion the Hunter
 The Bible mentions three of these:
Orion, the Bear (Ursa Major), and
“the crooked serpent” (most likely Draco)
in Job 9:9; 26:13; 38:31-32; and Amos 5:8.
 The same passages also reference the star
group Pleiades (the Seven Stars).

9.  There are also asterisms, smaller apparent star patterns within a constellation,
like the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major), the Little Dipper (in Ursa Minor), and
the Pleiades.
The Great Bear Ursa Major
 God is the One Who “fastens the bands” of
these constellations;
 He is the One Who brings them forth, “each in its
season.”
 In Job 38:32, God also points to the “Mazzaroth,” usually translated
“constellations.”
 This is thought by many to be a reference to the twelve constellations.
 God used the stars as an illustration of His promise to give Abraham an
innumerable seed (Genesis 15:5).
 Every time Abraham looked up at the night sky, he had a reminder of God’s
faithfulness and goodness.
 The final judgment of the earth will be accompanied by astronomical events
relating to the stars:
Isaiah 13:9-10
9 “Look, the day of the Lord is coming—cruel, with rage and burning anger—to make
the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it.10 Indeed, the stars of the sky
and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the
moon will not shine.” Isaiah 13:9-10
Joel 3:14-15
14 “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the Lord is near in
the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will cease
their shining.” Joel 3:14-15
 Astrology is the “interpretation” of an assumed influence the stars (and planets)
exert on human destiny.

10.  It is a false belief condemned by the Bible.
 God specifies astrologers as among those who will be burned as stubble in
God’s judgment (Isaiah 47:13-14).
 Astrology as a form of divination is expressly forbidden in Scripture
(Deuteronomy 18:10-14).
 God forbade the children of Israel to worship or serve the “host of heaven”
(Deuteronomy 4:19).
 Several times in their history, however, Israel fell into that very sin
(2 Kings 17:16).
 Their worship of the stars brought God’s judgment each time.
 To believe that stars can predict the future is to claim they have the power of
gods!
 It puts the stars in place of God and gives the glory of God to others.
 Intentionally or not, that is a form of idolatry, which God forbids.
 Astrology attempts to advise people how to act, based on the position of the
stars, etc.
 So people "trust their lucky stars" and "thank their lucky stars."
 Some people will read their horoscope everyday, but will go days without
opening the Bible!
 They seek guidance from some Occult source other than God.
 The stars should awaken wonder at God’s power, wisdom, and infinitude.
 We should use the stars to keep track of time and place and to remind us of
God’s faithful, covenant-keeping nature.
 All the while, we acknowledge the Creator of the heavens.
 Our wisdom comes from God, not the stars (James 1:5).
 The Word of God, the Bible, is our guide through life as stated in Psalm 119:105.
Psalm 119:105
105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”
Psalm 119:105
 After God took Abram outside and showed him the stars, then Abram believed
and it was counted unto him as righteousness.
The Gospel in the Stars
 Virgo = the Virgin
 Aires = the Ram, the sacrifice
 Gemini = the dual nature of Christ
 Leo = the Lion
Genesis 15:6
6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:6

11. 1 Peter 4:19
19 “So those who suffer according to God’s will should, while doing what is good,
entrust themselves to a faithful Creator.” 1 Peter 4:19
 Abram believed God even though he did not have all the facts both when He
told him to leave his “home” to go to a foreign land and now when He
promised him a son.
 What if God revealed to you as a five year old, everything that was going to
happen to you in your life time?
 We all have trusted God with our eternal salvation but do we trust Him with our
everyday lives?
 A little faith will bring your soul to Heaven but great faith brings Heaven to your
soul!
Focal Passages Today:
 Trust God (Gen. 15:4-6)
 Don’t Take Matters into Your Own Hands (Gen. 16:1-5)
 Refocus on God’s Plan (Gen. 17:3-6,15-19)
Don’t Take Matters into Your Own Hands
Genesis 16:1-5
1 “Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian
slave named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from
bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian
slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after
Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she
became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she treated her mistress
with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put
my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated
me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.” Genesis 16:1-5
 Three life lessons emerge from this portion of the story.
 These life lessons help us avoid temptations to take matters into our own hands.
 First, getting ahead of the Lord can become a bad habit.

12.  Abram had a history of taking matters into his own hands (12:10-20; 20:1-18).
 In each case, he got into trouble because he acted on his own instead of
turning to the Lord.
 The same outcome awaits us if we develop a pattern of launching ahead with
our plans, not waiting on the Lord to work out His plan.
 Second, waiting on the Lord can put tremendous pressure on us.
 Like Abram, we often grow more fretful about our unmet need as time passes.
 If we’re not disciplined, we’ll give in to the stress and begin to wonder if we
need to take action on our own.
 Before long, we’ll find ourselves pushing hard in order to make things happen
according to our own plans.
 At the same time, we’ll ignore the reality that God can be trusted to keep His
promises.
 Third, getting wise counsel can keep us on track.
 It can help us to keep on trusting God when circumstances seem to be pushing
us to do something on our own.
 A variety of Biblical proverbs affirm the value of getting the Lord’s guidance by
seeking the counsel of believers who have grown in godly wisdom (Prov. 11:14;
12:15; 15:22).
Proverbs 11:14
14 “Without guidance, people fall,but with many counselors there is deliverance.”
Proverbs 11:14
 Abram and Sarai’s decision teaches us the value of sharing our ideas about
how to solve our problems with mature Christians who can give us insightful
advice.
 Resentment, desperation, and terror
filled the home of a couple who
stopped trusting God and took
matters into their own hands.
 The sad outcome of Abram and Sarai’s plan demonstrates three key realities to
keep in mind as we face the challenge of waiting on the Lord to keep His
promises.
 First, we cannot rely on our own ideas alone when it comes to doing the Lord’s
work.
 Left to our own judgments, we certainly will make mistakes as we try to solve
our problems without the Lord’s involvement.
 Second, we must resist the temptation to blame each other when we carry out
our own plans only to see them fail.

13.  By contrast, we reflect wisdom when we turn to the Lord in repentance and
obedience.
 Once we turn to Him, we can express our renewed willingness to follow His
leadership.
 Third, we should not devise our own plans then expect the Lord to make them
work.
 When we live out God’s plan, we can expect Him to bless it.
 However, when we depend on the Lord to bless plans we’ve devised without
His input, we make a grave mistake.
 After Sarai’s plan failed, she wanted the Lord to get involved and judge Abram
for the role he played in its failure.
 When we see our plans falling apart, we also often find ourselves asking the
Lord to make things better for us.
 Oh boy, what a mess—and all because Sarai and Abram took matters into their
own hands!
 Recount a time when you took matters into your own hands.
 What did you learn?
Focal Passages Today:
 Trust God (Gen. 15:4-6)
 Don’t Take Matters into Your Own Hands (Gen. 16:1-5)
 Refocus on God’s Plan (Gen. 17:3-6,15-19)
Refocus on God’s Plan
Genesis 17:3-6,15-19
3 “Then Abram fell facedown and God spoke with him: 4 “As for Me, My covenant is
with you: you will become the father of many nations. 5 Your name will no longer be
Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many
nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful and will make nations and kings come
from you.
15 God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, for Sarah will be

14. her name. 16 I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and
she will produce nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be
born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?”
18 So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to You!”
19 But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him
Isaac. I will confirm My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his future
offspring.” Genesis 17:3-6,15-19
In Hebrew,
 Abram means: “exalted father” (of a son).
 Abraham means: “father of a multitude” (of many sons).
 Sarai means contentious.
 Sarah means princess.
 Abraham and Sarah named
their son “Isaac”, which means
“laughter”, to remind them of
the joy he brought them.
 The name also reminded them
that they each had laughed
when God told them they would
have a son (Genesis 17:17; 18:12).

15. Despite having taken matters into their own hands and having brought intense pain
upon themselves and others, God brought their attention back to His plan for Abram
and Sarai.
 What causes us to refocus on God’s plan?
Biblical Truths of This Lesson in Focus
 When we trust the Lord, we can be certain we have done what He requires in
order for us to be made right with Him.
 When we grow impatient with the Lord as He carries out His plan, we can get
ahead of Him and try to take matters into our own hands.
 “It is as dark a mile ahead of God as it is a mile behind Him.”
Jeff Wheeler
 When we turn to the Lord in humility and sincerity, we can count on Him to help
us renew our relationship with Him.
 When we realize we have failed to live out God’s plan, we can rest assured we
can turn to Him for a fresh start.
Perhaps you are in the midst of a period of time when you have taken matters into
your own hands or become distracted or in some other way lost focus on God’s plan.
 If so, go to Him now, reaffirming your trust in Him and committing to
refocus on His plan.
NEXT WEEK
HOW TO AVOID A CRITICAL SPIRIT