June 24, 2025 • 31 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everybody, thank you for tuning into pray dot com Radio.
My name is Mike Kai, the senior pastor of Inspired
Church in Hawaii. Be sure to check out my channel
on pray dot com and for more messages and other
great content. You can also head over to www dot
mike ki dot tv for leadership resources, podcast information, and
(00:23):
ways to connect from Hawaii to wherever you are listening from.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I hope you enjoy this message right here on prey
dot com radio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You know we're gonna continue our series on faith and
we are. I want you to turn in with me
in your Bible is to Genesis chapter twelve. Genesis the
twelfth chapter, and we're going to continue on this journey
that Abraham is on. Father Abraham had many sons, not
yet though it took a while for that to happen
with the spiritual sons. But as we look at faith,
it's really important, then we understand how important.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We are people of faith.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Okay, So now when they say that the faith community
thing all of us into a lot of different religions
or isms, hell right, Okay, do me a favor today
today hot knife through butter, let me preach easy or
a butter knife through two dollars steak which one you want?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Right? Okay? Hot? Knife through better?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So when I say amen, all right, okay, So when
we look at they throw us all into the faith community.
We're not necessarily in the whole faith community, although we
are people of faith. When you give your life to
Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, and now all
of a sudden you're filled with faith, it took faith
for you to believe that a God that you can't
you and I cannot see exists and believe that this
word of God that we are reading was truly the
(01:37):
inspired word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And that takes a level of faith. Say amen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So as we step out in faith and believe these things,
not only we are people who have faith, but we
are people.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That need faith now more than ever before.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Because what's happening in this world is a spirit of
fear has gone throughout the earth, and the spirit of
fear has settled upon different parts of our world. We've
got to be careful. Able tells Us in Hebrews chapter eleven,
verse one, that faith comes by hearing. No, it doesn't
say that faith comes by hearing, by hearing the word
of God. But faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not yet seen. So
(02:10):
I have faith because I believe something that I cannot
yet see. But I trust in God. And faith is
my substance. It is my substructure of what God is
building upon.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And so when I believe, then God brings the tile.
Then God brings the two by force. Then God brings
the plywood.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Then God brings what I believe, the substance of things
that I am hoping for, but the evidence of things
that I still cannot see, but are becoming more crystal
clear the further I go down the road. And so
as a result of we having faith, not just being
people of the faith, think about this for a moment,
said con Timothy. Chapter one, verse seven, is the thing
(02:49):
that God wants us to have in opposite to the
spirit of fear, it says, So God has not given
us a spirit of fear.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Didn't come from God. That doesn't come from God.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
A spirit of fear comes from the enemy, Satan, our adversary.
And so God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
And so if God has given us power, love, and
a sound mind. The enemy wants to bring a spirit
of fear. And so when you and I were watching
this pandemic originate out out of Asia, let's see China specifically.
(03:25):
I don't want to throw out any theories on how
that was started, because they're just theories in my own head.
But when you think about this for a moment, when
that was coming, we are already watching it. We were
watching it in October, we were watching it close in November,
we were watching it in December, and by March we
already knew that this is coming, and so we shut
the church down and.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We did what we needed to do.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
But what I went along with that was a spirit
of fear that came along with that.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And so it's okay to be fearful and you have fears.
It's natural for us to be fearful. That's where that
fight or flight thing happens inside of us, where we
are defending, we are doing whatever we need to do.
But then there's a difference between being fearful and having
a spirit of fear. When the spirit of fear comes,
it is sent by Satan, it is by the enemy.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And so what I.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Don't want to see happen to us or into this
world is where that spirit settles upon different parts of
the earth, and especially over Hawaii where now what leaves
first is power. This is Pentecast Sunday. Throughout the world,
we're celebrating Pentecast Sunday, and this is the day that
we should be celebrating the power of the Holy Spirit
(04:28):
poured upon the Early Church in the Festival of Pentecost.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
The power.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
We need power, and so when the spirit of fear comes,
the first thing to go is power.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Power. We become power less.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So we're not praying for miracles, we're not believing for
the healing of the stake, We're not believing for.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Things that we used to do. We're not praying in
the spirit, not praying in.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Tongues because we've lost our power because of the spirit
of fear. But God has not given us the spirit
of fear. The second thing to go is love. Love
is gone. I mean we are people of love. The
Bible tells us that we are love. That's what we do.
In First John, John talks all about love and what
happens is when the spirit of fear comes and settles
upon different cities, then love is gone, and thank God
(05:05):
that we still fight for love in Hawaii. Allah is
a part of the DNA of the people who live here.
Think about this for a moment. But still, I mean still,
Hawaii is a great place. It's a great place. We're
still really good people, all of us together, we're great
people together. It's rougher in other cities. But when you
watch the love go and the hate come in, because
that's what happens. Love is replaced by hate when a
(05:28):
spirit of fear comes. Have you been watching this? Wait,
you're seeing this right throughout the earth online. You've seen this, right, Okay,
power is gone, love goes, and then a sound.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Mind goes a sound mind when a spirit of fear comes.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
But when the Spirit of the Lord comes, sorry, when
the Spirit of the Lord comes, it's a whole nother
it's a whole nother thing. And when the spirit of
the Lord comes, we prophesy, we have faith to heal,
(06:05):
and the Spirit of the Lord does all these things.
And so what does this have to do with Abraham. Well,
Abraham was called.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In Genesis chapter twelve to become a great nation. God
said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you.
I'll curse those who curse you. I'll make you into
a great the original man. When God started a reset
in Genesis chapter ten with Noah and the arc, and
then humanity starts to grow again, and then they become
like God, and they want to set up a huge
tower called the Tower of Babel, and God scatters him
(06:33):
because they only spoke one language and they went throughout
the earth. You know, the people had one unified language
back in the day. They only spoke one language. Not
sure what the language they spoke, but it was just
one language, whatever it was. And they only spoke one language.
And after that scattering of the people through the Tower
of Babel, not what begins to happen is they inhabit
and they find their own people throughout the earth, and
they begin to speak their languages. It's kind of like
(06:54):
what's happening on the internet right now. We're finding people
who are speaking our language. Where subscribing the people were
speaking our language. We are following the echo chamber of
people who are speaking our language. Interesting times. And when
you look at what's going on, the spirit of fear
can come. But the Abraham, God picks this man who
is selfless. God picks him to start out of one man.
(07:16):
That's start a nation out of one man. But we've
got a problem. The problem is his wife is not
able to conceive. So if his wife is not able
to conceive, then God is going to have to provide
a miracle. And so he says, out of this one man,
a nation shall come. And the nation did come. So
in Genesis chapter twelve, they settle in the land of Canaan.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
They settled in the land of Canaan.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And now that says in verse ten, it says that
at that time a severe famine watched this online. A
severe famine was struck the land of Canaan in Honolulu,
this Honolulu medi Lani, forcing Abrahm to go down think
about this for a moment, down to Egypt, where.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
He lived as a foreigner.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And he lives in a foreigner in Egypt, and he
was approaching the board of Egypt. Abram said to his
wife Surai, Look, you are a very beautiful woman.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You are.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You're a hot honey. You're really hot. You're like hot hot,
that just hot, hot hot.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You're Middle East hot. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And and and she was, because Abraham's like eighty something
years old, and his wife's in their sixties.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, and she was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
She was in her sixties and hot, beautiful anyway, saying,
moving right along, I'm just like my wife.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Funny, look at me with me. Sleep. The more you sleep,
the more beautiful you become. There she's saying. Stop.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
She's go like this, stop stop, okay, moving right along,
all right, awkward moment here we go.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So please tell them that you are my sister. Let's
kill him so that we can save it.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
So please tell them you're my sister, and then they
would spare my life and treat me well because of
their interest in you. And sure enough, when Abram arrived
in Egypt, everyone spoke of Sarai's beauty. Everybody talked about her,
and when the palace officials saw her, they sang her
praises her. They got to the palace and to Pharaoh
and their king, and Sarah was taken into his palace.
(09:00):
And then Pharaoh gave a bram many gifts because of her.
So he took her because of her sheep. He gave
her sheep, goats.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Billy goats, billy goat, goot, makadan bila, but.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Cattle male and female donkeys, and male and female servants
and camels. But the Lord sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh
and his household because of Sarah and Abram's wife. So
Pharaoh summoned a brahm and accused him sharply.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
What have you done to me? What have you done?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
He demanded, Why didn't you tell me that she was
your wife? Why did you say she's my sister, but
you say she's just a friend. And why did you
do that and allow me to take her as my wife? Now,
then here's your wife. Take her and get out of here.
And Pharaoh ordered some of the men to escort them,
and then Abram, Abram was sent out of the country
(09:54):
along with his wife and.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All his possessions. So he was deported out of the
country and sent away.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
When we look at all of the different things that
Abram interesting, Abram is the promise of the faith.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It's going to come through you.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He settles in Canaan, in the land of Shechem, and
things are going good, and then a famine of biblical
proportions hits. What do you do when when you are struggling?
What do you do when you face trials? How do
you do when you face temptations and what do you
do when you face tests? I'm glad you asked. If
(10:31):
you are new to Inspire church. This is how I roll.
This is I joke around a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We have fun.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think the Bible should be interesting, and I think there,
you know, I need a pen. Please, there are there
that would help.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
People might say that they're tired of the gospel, but
people are tired of tired presentations of the gospel.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
That will help me. Melvin, thank you so much, appreciate it.
So here we are. Are you guys ready? Okay, glad,
glad you ask here? It is number one. First one
is trials. Every single one of us is going to
go through trials.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Somebody's when you look at the trials that you and
I go through, it's because we are human. This is
common to all humanity. Every single person is going through
a trial. You're either in a difficult trial right now
with people that I love and are near to dear
to our heart right now going through difficult trials. You
people right now who are struggling in their own lives,
people who are either coming out of a trial, people
(11:25):
who are heading for trials. Every single person is going
to go through some level of trial. So when you
go through the trials that you're going through, Abraham was
going through those trials. But John Jesus said in John
chapter sixteen, verse thirty three, he said, I.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Have told you all this so that you may have
peace in me. Here on earth.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart,
because I have overcome the world. You're all gonna go through.
We're all going to go through it. But Jesus said,
you're gonna go through trials. As a matter of fact.
The trials are these attacks that we are under. And
because we have an adversary, and his name is Satan.
He is the devil, and he is real. But God
is stronger, of course than Jesus has already overcome him death.
(12:01):
Where's your victory? Where is your sting? We are already
better than this. But when you think about this, you're
going to be under attack. And so people sometimes people say, oh,
I just gave my life to Jesus, and all of
a sudden, I'm under attack, And so I never thought
it was going to be this hard.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Exactly, that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What happens is now, all of a sudden, you have
made an allegiance with God, and as a result of
that allegiance, the enemy is not happy.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So he's taking the gloves off.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Doing everything and throwing at you the kitchen and the
sink at the same time, and absolutely trying to destroy
your life, because the Bible says in John chapter ten,
verse ten, that the thief comes to still kill and
destroy me lelani. But God said, I have come life
that and you would have it more abundantly. But now
you're under attack. So you gave your life to Jesus.
(12:42):
Come on, how many of us you realize I gave
my life to the Lord, And now all of a sudden,
I got all this drama, I got all these problems
and all exactly exactly because now you chose the right side.
Before that, maybe you were indifferent before that, maybe you
had no religion, or before that, maybe you had a philosophy.
And now that philosophy you realize is compared to being
alive in Christ. And you stepped over to this side,
(13:03):
and you said, I'm on this side. I'm with Jesus.
Now I'm with Jesus.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I'm going to have it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I'm forgiven. And the devil wants nothing to do with that,
so he's going to do everything that he can to
discourage you. One of my good friends, Andrew Denton, says,
under attack, right on track. If you're under attack, you
ride on track. But if you're under attack for making
a bad move, then you need to get on track.
(13:29):
Under attack right on track? Well, would happened to me
when when we came pastors? Of course, we already was
doing what we're doing. And some of you understand this.
Some people would say to me it says like, oh wow,
did you like you must have so much prayer support?
I do. I have a lot of prayer support. I
have a lot of people praying for us, and I
thank the Lord for that because we need it. But
they don't think that we get trials. We get trials.
(13:51):
As a matter of fact, new levels bring new devils.
You heard that before, New levels bring new devils, and
that's exactly what begins to happen. But you know what
that doesn't does? That should not make you shrink back
or I'm afraid of the fight. I'm afraid of the fight,
so I don't want to I'm not gonna engage. I'm
not gonna grow on my faith in Jesus guard. No,
(14:11):
then you'll be playing right into the enemy's hands. All right,
here's number two, Number two, temptations. We're all gonna go
through temptations. However, there's always a way out of that temptation.
The devil is the father of that temptation. God will
never tempt you. God will never send a temptation towards you.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Can I get that? Can I make that very clear? Honolulu?
Why Kelly? God will never send a temptation your way?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
One Corinthians ten thirteen says this, no temptation has overtaken
you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond what you
can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also
provide a way out for you.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
God to always provide a way out the same way,
the same way that he provided a way out for
Joseph when Joseph was being pursued by pot Ofph his wife.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
When that was going on, he provided a way of escape.
The question is do you want the door of escape? Yes,
you do, right, Here's number three. Third one is this
number three? The tests? The tests, and all of us
are going to go through different levels of testing. The
Bible says in James chapter one, verse two to four,
considered pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
(15:17):
trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance, that perseverance finish
its work, so that you may be mature and complete
and not lacking anything as a result of the testing
that you are going through. Our seniors, our students who
are going through right now, that is the testing. God
is building a perseverance in you that you never thought
(15:39):
you actually had. You have this resiliency that you did
not know that you possessed, that was in your skill
set and in your two shed and God has used
that for his glory and for your purposes. That's why
this will not be your first crisis. This might be
your first, but after this you are stronger, You're more resilient.
Three things. In Abraham he leaves Canaan. He's out of
(16:01):
Canaan because there's a famine. So what is he looking for.
He's looking for the best place to go to.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So what does he do? He goes down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Egypt, Biblically, before Jesus's time was always considered a place
that you would go down to. You go down to Egypt.
They went down to Egypt. Anytime that you're going down
to Egypt, it's not a good thing. Egypt is a
picture of the world, is us giving into the world system.
And Abraham, for some reason just could not stay put.
We don't know if he heard from the Lord. We
(16:30):
don't know if he inquired of the Lord. The text
doesn't tell us anything about that. But what we do
know is that he made probably the best move that
he could make at that time with the information that
he had, and with the information that he had, he
was no longer around a constant water source, which happened
to be the Euphrates River up here on the map.
What he did was he needed to go south down
(16:51):
to the Nile Delta, where it always has water and
it is always overflowing and is considered the bread basket
of the world at that time. And so Abraham he
takes his family there. But he's not just going by himself.
It's not just three people. It's not Abraham and Sarai
and his nephew lot Ah. They have hundreds of people
who are with them, who are looking at him for
their livelihood for their support. So he has to take
(17:13):
all of the herds, the flocks, everything that they got,
and they got to go to Egypt. But when he
gets to Egypt, now all of a sudden, three things
in his testing come up.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The first one is pressure. He's got pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Pressure, the pressure to make a move, the pressure to
make a decision, the pressure to make sure that he
doesn't leave them in the wrong place.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Where do I go? What am I doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Can you imagine the pressure of making sure that none
of his animals, his flock dies, his pay people are
still eating, and people are still employed. He is under
a tremendous amount of pressure. The Bible says in verse
ten that at that time a severe famine in the
land came to Canaan, forcing Abraham down to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Think about the pressure. A lot of us are under
a lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
You're under a lot of pressure to make decisions, new jobs,
old ja working things out together, trying to figure out
how are you gonna feed people, how are you gonna
make things work? Is a lot of pressure. A lot
of people have capacity for pressure. You got this plate
spinning here, and that's plate spinning there. You got irons
and fires man. You you have capacity for more pressure,
but it's still pressure.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Pressure.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Were a lot of us were under pressure, under pressure.
Some of me is going like, oh, I thought he
was going doom, doom. Stop collaborate and listen. Ice is
back with a brand new addition. Something grabs hold me,
tighten me when I stop.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Hey, if you don't know, you better ask somebody. Think
about this. I went eighties and then I went to
nineties from David Bowie, I went to Vanilla Ice. Ice Baby,
I'm just on a roll. I just can't stop. It's
something about the eight thirty, something about the eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'm just trying.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
I'm just trying to I'm sure, I'm just trying to
trying to keep you, try to keep you engaged. Think
about this for a moment. It's the pressure. Not only
is the pressure, but then then it goes to the people.
It's the people problems, the people challenges. Pharaoh is his
number one people problem, but he's gonna have more than that.
He's gonna have people problems from his nephew loves, He's
gonna have people problems from his wife says, why why
(19:18):
did you let Pharaoh take me, and why did you
take all those animals? You traded me for animals. She's
gonna be upset, disappointed, her upset. People problems, as a
matter of fact, not only just people problems, but his
own personal situation. We should add another p it's personal.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He goes from trusting to scheming, He goes from confidence
to compromise, He goes from selfless to selfish.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Hold on, no, listen to this. He goes from blessing
and he goes to judgment.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now, all of a sudden, plagues come upon Pharaoh and
his family in the nation, because he would lied said,
this is my sister, technically his half sister, or truly
his wife.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And you and I are going through tests. When you
think about the third one of the fourth one is possessions. Possessions,
it's the things. It's the things, and the things have him.
And now what he begins to he gets blessed, right,
he gets blessed. Look, look he's getting all these his servants.
(20:21):
He gets male and female donkeys, and male and female
billy goats. You know, he gets all these things. Look
at him, Look at he's getting blessed. He's getting blessed
from the wrong source. He's getting it from Pharaoh, and
he's compromised so many different of his values as the
result of doing this while he's in Egypt. That's why
Egypt is. Going down to Egypt is not such a
(20:42):
good idea. And as a matter of fact, the possessions
will bring more problems.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
The more problems. We got peas like crazy, let's add problems.
Earlier I said it was personal, so we got five peas.
Now the pressure the people, Now it's personal. Now it's
the possessions. But now what man, He's got problems, and
the problems that Abraham has at this point in his
(21:10):
journey and in his life at this moment happens.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Because of the decision that he made to go down
to Egypt. But now he gets all of this. Here,
here's the personal, here's the people, here's the problems that
he's gonna have. He's gonna get tripped up because now
all of a sudden, he's.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Gonna have all this.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And in Genesis chapter thirteen and fourteen go ahead and
read it as homework this week, he and his nephew
Lot start arguing because there's no more room for both
of them. Lott would have nothing if it wasn't for
his uncle Abraham, he would have nothing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He brought him on as a mercy move. He brought
him on as a mercy move back in Iran.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And now his nephew is thinking, like my herdsman and
your herdsman. They're arguing in the fields because there's not
enough room. And so as the nephew, what should he do? Uncle,
I mean, defer to you, where do you want to go?
They've got a problem.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And what does he do?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
He ends up picking the planes of Sodom, which he
shouldn't have picked. And he was looking at the planes
of Zoar. And while he's looking in that direction, a
lot wants to go there.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
But now all of a sudden he's got all these stuff,
and the stuff just created more problems.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Not saying God doesn't want us to have more, what
I'm saying is God doesn't want them.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
More to have us. And if it is creating all
of this drama.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
And stress, then you have to ask yourself is this
really worth it? Or is this really God's plan? Maybe
it is, and you just have to learn how to
manage your relationships and financies. Maybe you got to get
your integrity right. You have to your sbs that your nobi.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
No, don't scheme, don't manipulate, play it up front, another
to the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Table, above, over, above board, right, all.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Those things and keep it coposthetic and with integrity, and
live your life in that fashion rather than trying to.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
You're gonna run into problems. And he is a lot
like that at this moment.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
And you know what, when you look at Abraham and
you can't blame him, But when you're looking now later on,
what's gonna happen down the road.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
He's gonna have to rescue his nephew lot. If you
know the story, the king.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Of Sodom says, you can take your people and you
can take all the possessions. He said, no, no, no, no,
I've already learned that lesson on somebody making me rich man,
And no, learned it from Pharaoh.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Not letting it this time.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Just give me the people, you can have the stuff. Sorry,
I mean that that's a new Zealand thing I was
doing right here. Sorry for all my kiw we friends,
I love you guys. Think about this for a moment,
watch this. Now you're gonna have one more problem later
(23:40):
on in Genesis, they can't get pregnant Fast forward to
episode number seven, season three. They can't get hopeye. It's
not happening. They get frustrated. They take things into their
own hands. It says, look, you're the Egyptian maid servant
that was given to us by Pharaoh. Let's have a
(24:00):
child through her. Go ahead acceptable in that culture. Abraham says, well,
if I'm a host, and they end up having Ishmael.
When Abraham and Sarah, okay, I'm gonna wrap this up
(24:28):
through Hagar. When really God's plan all along was with Isaac.
And now we got problems in the Middle East to
this day between the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
and then us with everything in the offspring of Ishmael
(24:50):
in the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Said that last week. I want to say it again,
that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Okay, pressure people, possessions, it's personal, and then you got problems.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Are you following me? Think about this?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So now here's lessons from Abraham's detour in Egypt that
you and I could We could take these lessons.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Number one, find direction at the altar. We've got to
find direction at the altar. Go with me to Genesis
chapter thirteen. Genesis chapter thirteen and he's out of the country.
He leaves, and he's taking everything that he owns and
everybody that's his. Then Genesis chapter thirteen, Verse one, Hold
Altla watched this, It says, so Abram left Egypt and
traveled north into the Negave. He leaves Egypt, and he
(25:34):
travels north into the Negive along with his wife and
lot and all that they owned.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And from the Negive they continued traveling by stages toward
Bethel and I where they had camped before. And this
was the same place where Abram had built the altar,
and there he worshiped the Lord.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Again. Let me say that one more time, because I
got thrown off here.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Verse three, at the end last.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sentence period says before everybody, say before, this is where
he was before.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
And then when he goes to where he was before.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Verse four, this was the same place where Abram had
built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Again. Say again, say before, and again before and again.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So we have to do what we did once before
and start worshiping God again the way that we once did.
And what you'll find through Abraham is he will pitch
a tent and then build an altar. He will pitch
his tents, then he will build his altars. He will
pitch his tents, then he will build his altars. He
will do what he wants did before, and he will
(27:00):
end up doing it again. And if I could talk
to Abraham, I'm going to go to heaven. We're all
going to go to heaven. We're going to see him.
We get how, don't know how it's going to be, like, hey,
can I see Abraham. Abrah's like, who you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You the guy that threw me under the bus in
your church twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
You're the guy.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
A lot of people did this already, so just take
a number, Mike, But you're the guy. And I would
have to say, you know, I apologize, I'm sorry. But
the evidence showed that you wasted time in Egypt, that
you didn't have to go. You didn't have to go,
And I understand that you didn't have a Bible, that
(27:42):
you weren't brought up in a godly family, and I
understand that I would say to him, I understand that
that what you went through was unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
God restarted and started with you.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
But man, I just needed to teach our people that
you can't give into you, then you can't give into
the Egypts. Well, I just needed to blow off some steam, Abraham,
I would say, Abraham, I apologize, but this was a
lesson that they needed to learn.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I need to learn too. Is number one.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I've always got to stick with my altar. Number two
that I can't always go back and you can't always
go to Egypt in your life. That it's just me time,
not hurting anybody.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I understand that you were in charge of hundreds of
people and the pressure that you were under to find
yourself a water source, to be able to go to
places that you've never.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Been so that you can continue your family. I get
freaking out and making moves.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Understand that you probably had a hundred opinions of what
you should be doing. But at the end of the day,
God still held you and kept you and fulfilled everything
that He meant to fulfill in your life. And God
will do the same thing for you. That if you
felt like I've forgotten, I've made a mistake and I
need to go back again, or maybe I wish I
didn't done the move that I made and shouldn't have
(29:08):
sold that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
We should have kept that. We should have bought that
when we had a chance.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Still kicking myself, brought my family down here, thought there'd
be a land of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
And it's been a struggle or whatever, or like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
God will take your situation Romans eight, verse twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And God will work it out for the good of
those who love him or called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
God can take whatever has happened, and he can still
use it.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
For his glory, I promise you, and he does that.
Can we pray?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Father, We just thank you for your word that is strong,
for your word that is true. We thank you, Lord
for the example of Abraham's life of people of faith.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
The Father, I pray that as things like fear begin
to descend upon the earth, that we've been leveraged by
groups and by people who are behind the scenes that
we don't even know who's pulling strings behind kings and presidents.
We're not even sure. Lord, But as those things have
been leveraged and the fear has come in like a flood, Father,
I pray that the people who are faith in God
(30:06):
would have faith in You now more than ever before.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Father, we pray against the spirit of fear.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We pray for power of love, a self mind, and
the self discipline in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And Father, we pray right now, in.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
The name of Jesus, that you would continue to pour
out your spirit on Pentecost Sunday over every person online
and in this building here today. And God, we give
you all the praise and the glory for all that
you're doing. And Father, I pray that you make us resilient. Father,
I thank you, Lord, that the tests only make us better.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Father. I thank you for the trials that are drawing
us nearer to you.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Father, we thank you that we are overcoming the temptations
in our lives.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And God, we give you all the praise and all
the glory in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And everybody said Amen.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Hey everybody, thanks again for tuning into pray dot com Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To find more of my messages, podcasts, and.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Leadership resources, go to pray dot com or head directly
to my website at mike Kai dot tv mike Kai
dot tv for curated content. Once again, this is Mike Cott,
senior pastor of Inspired Church in Hawaii. Thank you so
much for joining me on pray dot com Radio, Aloha
and God bless
Speaker 3 (31:17):
H
Hey everybody, thank you for tuning into pray dot com Radio.
My name is Mike Kai, the senior pastor of Inspired
Church in Hawaii. Be sure to check out my channel
on pray dot com and for more messages and other
great content. You can also head over to www dot
mike ki dot tv for leadership resources, podcast information, and
(00:23):
ways to connect from Hawaii to wherever you are listening from.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I hope you enjoy this message right here on prey
dot com radio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You know we're gonna continue our series on faith and
we are. I want you to turn in with me
in your Bible is to Genesis chapter twelve. Genesis the
twelfth chapter, and we're going to continue on this journey
that Abraham is on. Father Abraham had many sons, not
yet though it took a while for that to happen
with the spiritual sons. But as we look at faith,
it's really important, then we understand how important.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We are people of faith.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Okay, So now when they say that the faith community
thing all of us into a lot of different religions
or isms, hell right, Okay, do me a favor today
today hot knife through butter, let me preach easy or
a butter knife through two dollars steak which one you want?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Right? Okay? Hot? Knife through better?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So when I say amen, all right, okay, So when
we look at they throw us all into the faith community.
We're not necessarily in the whole faith community, although we
are people of faith. When you give your life to
Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, and now all
of a sudden you're filled with faith, it took faith
for you to believe that a God that you can't
you and I cannot see exists and believe that this
word of God that we are reading was truly the
(01:37):
inspired word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And that takes a level of faith. Say amen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So as we step out in faith and believe these things,
not only we are people who have faith, but we
are people.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That need faith now more than ever before.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Because what's happening in this world is a spirit of
fear has gone throughout the earth, and the spirit of
fear has settled upon different parts of our world. We've
got to be careful. Able tells Us in Hebrews chapter eleven,
verse one, that faith comes by hearing. No, it doesn't
say that faith comes by hearing, by hearing the word
of God. But faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not yet seen. So
(02:10):
I have faith because I believe something that I cannot
yet see. But I trust in God. And faith is
my substance. It is my substructure of what God is
building upon.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And so when I believe, then God brings the tile.
Then God brings the two by force. Then God brings
the plywood.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Then God brings what I believe, the substance of things
that I am hoping for, but the evidence of things
that I still cannot see, but are becoming more crystal
clear the further I go down the road. And so
as a result of we having faith, not just being
people of the faith, think about this for a moment,
said con Timothy. Chapter one, verse seven, is the thing
(02:49):
that God wants us to have in opposite to the
spirit of fear, it says, So God has not given
us a spirit of fear.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Didn't come from God. That doesn't come from God.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
A spirit of fear comes from the enemy, Satan, our adversary.
And so God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
And so if God has given us power, love, and
a sound mind. The enemy wants to bring a spirit
of fear. And so when you and I were watching
this pandemic originate out out of Asia, let's see China specifically.
(03:25):
I don't want to throw out any theories on how
that was started, because they're just theories in my own head.
But when you think about this for a moment, when
that was coming, we are already watching it. We were
watching it in October, we were watching it close in November,
we were watching it in December, and by March we
already knew that this is coming, and so we shut
the church down and.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We did what we needed to do.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
But what I went along with that was a spirit
of fear that came along with that.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And so it's okay to be fearful and you have fears.
It's natural for us to be fearful. That's where that
fight or flight thing happens inside of us, where we
are defending, we are doing whatever we need to do.
But then there's a difference between being fearful and having
a spirit of fear. When the spirit of fear comes,
it is sent by Satan, it is by the enemy.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And so what I.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Don't want to see happen to us or into this
world is where that spirit settles upon different parts of
the earth, and especially over Hawaii where now what leaves
first is power. This is Pentecast Sunday. Throughout the world,
we're celebrating Pentecast Sunday, and this is the day that
we should be celebrating the power of the Holy Spirit
(04:28):
poured upon the Early Church in the Festival of Pentecost.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
The power.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
We need power, and so when the spirit of fear comes,
the first thing to go is power.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Power. We become power less.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So we're not praying for miracles, we're not believing for
the healing of the stake, We're not believing for.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Things that we used to do. We're not praying in
the spirit, not praying in.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Tongues because we've lost our power because of the spirit
of fear. But God has not given us the spirit
of fear. The second thing to go is love. Love
is gone. I mean we are people of love. The
Bible tells us that we are love. That's what we do.
In First John, John talks all about love and what
happens is when the spirit of fear comes and settles
upon different cities, then love is gone, and thank God
(05:05):
that we still fight for love in Hawaii. Allah is
a part of the DNA of the people who live here.
Think about this for a moment. But still, I mean still,
Hawaii is a great place. It's a great place. We're
still really good people, all of us together, we're great
people together. It's rougher in other cities. But when you
watch the love go and the hate come in, because
that's what happens. Love is replaced by hate when a
(05:28):
spirit of fear comes. Have you been watching this? Wait,
you're seeing this right throughout the earth online. You've seen this, right, Okay,
power is gone, love goes, and then a sound.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Mind goes a sound mind when a spirit of fear comes.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
But when the Spirit of the Lord comes, sorry, when
the Spirit of the Lord comes, it's a whole nother
it's a whole nother thing. And when the spirit of
the Lord comes, we prophesy, we have faith to heal,
(06:05):
and the Spirit of the Lord does all these things.
And so what does this have to do with Abraham. Well,
Abraham was called.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In Genesis chapter twelve to become a great nation. God
said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you.
I'll curse those who curse you. I'll make you into
a great the original man. When God started a reset
in Genesis chapter ten with Noah and the arc, and
then humanity starts to grow again, and then they become
like God, and they want to set up a huge
tower called the Tower of Babel, and God scatters him
(06:33):
because they only spoke one language and they went throughout
the earth. You know, the people had one unified language
back in the day. They only spoke one language. Not
sure what the language they spoke, but it was just
one language, whatever it was. And they only spoke one language.
And after that scattering of the people through the Tower
of Babel, not what begins to happen is they inhabit
and they find their own people throughout the earth, and
they begin to speak their languages. It's kind of like
(06:54):
what's happening on the internet right now. We're finding people
who are speaking our language. Where subscribing the people were
speaking our language. We are following the echo chamber of
people who are speaking our language. Interesting times. And when
you look at what's going on, the spirit of fear
can come. But the Abraham, God picks this man who
is selfless. God picks him to start out of one man.
(07:16):
That's start a nation out of one man. But we've
got a problem. The problem is his wife is not
able to conceive. So if his wife is not able
to conceive, then God is going to have to provide
a miracle. And so he says, out of this one man,
a nation shall come. And the nation did come. So
in Genesis chapter twelve, they settle in the land of Canaan.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
They settled in the land of Canaan.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And now that says in verse ten, it says that
at that time a severe famine watched this online. A
severe famine was struck the land of Canaan in Honolulu,
this Honolulu medi Lani, forcing Abrahm to go down think
about this for a moment, down to Egypt, where.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
He lived as a foreigner.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And he lives in a foreigner in Egypt, and he
was approaching the board of Egypt. Abram said to his
wife Surai, Look, you are a very beautiful woman.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You are.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You're a hot honey. You're really hot. You're like hot hot,
that just hot, hot hot.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You're Middle East hot. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And and and she was, because Abraham's like eighty something
years old, and his wife's in their sixties.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, and she was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
She was in her sixties and hot, beautiful anyway, saying,
moving right along, I'm just like my wife.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Funny, look at me with me. Sleep. The more you sleep,
the more beautiful you become. There she's saying. Stop.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
She's go like this, stop stop, okay, moving right along,
all right, awkward moment here we go.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So please tell them that you are my sister. Let's
kill him so that we can save it.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
So please tell them you're my sister, and then they
would spare my life and treat me well because of
their interest in you. And sure enough, when Abram arrived
in Egypt, everyone spoke of Sarai's beauty. Everybody talked about her,
and when the palace officials saw her, they sang her
praises her. They got to the palace and to Pharaoh
and their king, and Sarah was taken into his palace.
(09:00):
And then Pharaoh gave a bram many gifts because of her.
So he took her because of her sheep. He gave
her sheep, goats.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Billy goats, billy goat, goot, makadan bila, but.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Cattle male and female donkeys, and male and female servants
and camels. But the Lord sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh
and his household because of Sarah and Abram's wife. So
Pharaoh summoned a brahm and accused him sharply.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
What have you done to me? What have you done?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
He demanded, Why didn't you tell me that she was
your wife? Why did you say she's my sister, but
you say she's just a friend. And why did you
do that and allow me to take her as my wife? Now,
then here's your wife. Take her and get out of here.
And Pharaoh ordered some of the men to escort them,
and then Abram, Abram was sent out of the country
(09:54):
along with his wife and.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All his possessions. So he was deported out of the
country and sent away.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
When we look at all of the different things that
Abram interesting, Abram is the promise of the faith.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
It's going to come through you.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
He settles in Canaan, in the land of Shechem, and
things are going good, and then a famine of biblical
proportions hits. What do you do when when you are struggling?
What do you do when you face trials? How do
you do when you face temptations and what do you
do when you face tests? I'm glad you asked. If
(10:31):
you are new to Inspire church. This is how I roll.
This is I joke around a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We have fun.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think the Bible should be interesting, and I think there,
you know, I need a pen. Please, there are there
that would help.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
People might say that they're tired of the gospel, but
people are tired of tired presentations of the gospel.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
That will help me. Melvin, thank you so much, appreciate it.
So here we are. Are you guys ready? Okay, glad,
glad you ask here? It is number one. First one
is trials. Every single one of us is going to
go through trials.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Somebody's when you look at the trials that you and
I go through, it's because we are human. This is
common to all humanity. Every single person is going through
a trial. You're either in a difficult trial right now
with people that I love and are near to dear
to our heart right now going through difficult trials. You
people right now who are struggling in their own lives,
people who are either coming out of a trial, people
(11:25):
who are heading for trials. Every single person is going
to go through some level of trial. So when you
go through the trials that you're going through, Abraham was
going through those trials. But John Jesus said in John
chapter sixteen, verse thirty three, he said, I.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Have told you all this so that you may have
peace in me. Here on earth.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart,
because I have overcome the world. You're all gonna go through.
We're all going to go through it. But Jesus said,
you're gonna go through trials. As a matter of fact.
The trials are these attacks that we are under. And
because we have an adversary, and his name is Satan.
He is the devil, and he is real. But God
is stronger, of course than Jesus has already overcome him death.
(12:01):
Where's your victory? Where is your sting? We are already
better than this. But when you think about this, you're
going to be under attack. And so people sometimes people say, oh,
I just gave my life to Jesus, and all of
a sudden, I'm under attack, And so I never thought
it was going to be this hard.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Exactly, that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What happens is now, all of a sudden, you have
made an allegiance with God, and as a result of
that allegiance, the enemy is not happy.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So he's taking the gloves off.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Doing everything and throwing at you the kitchen and the
sink at the same time, and absolutely trying to destroy
your life, because the Bible says in John chapter ten,
verse ten, that the thief comes to still kill and
destroy me lelani. But God said, I have come life
that and you would have it more abundantly. But now
you're under attack. So you gave your life to Jesus.
(12:42):
Come on, how many of us you realize I gave
my life to the Lord, And now all of a sudden,
I got all this drama, I got all these problems
and all exactly exactly because now you chose the right side.
Before that, maybe you were indifferent before that, maybe you
had no religion, or before that, maybe you had a philosophy.
And now that philosophy you realize is compared to being
alive in Christ. And you stepped over to this side,
(13:03):
and you said, I'm on this side. I'm with Jesus.
Now I'm with Jesus.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I'm going to have it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I'm forgiven. And the devil wants nothing to do with that,
so he's going to do everything that he can to
discourage you. One of my good friends, Andrew Denton, says,
under attack, right on track. If you're under attack, you
ride on track. But if you're under attack for making
a bad move, then you need to get on track.
(13:29):
Under attack right on track? Well, would happened to me
when when we came pastors? Of course, we already was
doing what we're doing. And some of you understand this.
Some people would say to me it says like, oh wow,
did you like you must have so much prayer support?
I do. I have a lot of prayer support. I
have a lot of people praying for us, and I
thank the Lord for that because we need it. But
they don't think that we get trials. We get trials.
(13:51):
As a matter of fact, new levels bring new devils.
You heard that before, New levels bring new devils, and
that's exactly what begins to happen. But you know what
that doesn't does? That should not make you shrink back
or I'm afraid of the fight. I'm afraid of the fight,
so I don't want to I'm not gonna engage. I'm
not gonna grow on my faith in Jesus guard. No,
(14:11):
then you'll be playing right into the enemy's hands. All right,
here's number two, Number two, temptations. We're all gonna go
through temptations. However, there's always a way out of that temptation.
The devil is the father of that temptation. God will
never tempt you. God will never send a temptation towards you.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Can I get that? Can I make that very clear? Honolulu?
Why Kelly? God will never send a temptation your way?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
One Corinthians ten thirteen says this, no temptation has overtaken
you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful.
He will not let you be tempted beyond what you
can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also
provide a way out for you.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
God to always provide a way out the same way,
the same way that he provided a way out for
Joseph when Joseph was being pursued by pot Ofph his wife.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
When that was going on, he provided a way of escape.
The question is do you want the door of escape? Yes,
you do, right, Here's number three. Third one is this
number three? The tests? The tests, and all of us
are going to go through different levels of testing. The
Bible says in James chapter one, verse two to four,
considered pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
(15:17):
trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance, that perseverance finish
its work, so that you may be mature and complete
and not lacking anything as a result of the testing
that you are going through. Our seniors, our students who
are going through right now, that is the testing. God
is building a perseverance in you that you never thought
(15:39):
you actually had. You have this resiliency that you did
not know that you possessed, that was in your skill
set and in your two shed and God has used
that for his glory and for your purposes. That's why
this will not be your first crisis. This might be
your first, but after this you are stronger, You're more resilient.
Three things. In Abraham he leaves Canaan. He's out of
(16:01):
Canaan because there's a famine. So what is he looking for.
He's looking for the best place to go to.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So what does he do? He goes down to Egypt.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Egypt, Biblically, before Jesus's time was always considered a place
that you would go down to. You go down to Egypt.
They went down to Egypt. Anytime that you're going down
to Egypt, it's not a good thing. Egypt is a
picture of the world, is us giving into the world system.
And Abraham, for some reason just could not stay put.
We don't know if he heard from the Lord. We
(16:30):
don't know if he inquired of the Lord. The text
doesn't tell us anything about that. But what we do
know is that he made probably the best move that
he could make at that time with the information that
he had, and with the information that he had, he
was no longer around a constant water source, which happened
to be the Euphrates River up here on the map.
What he did was he needed to go south down
(16:51):
to the Nile Delta, where it always has water and
it is always overflowing and is considered the bread basket
of the world at that time. And so Abraham he
takes his family there. But he's not just going by himself.
It's not just three people. It's not Abraham and Sarai
and his nephew lot Ah. They have hundreds of people
who are with them, who are looking at him for
their livelihood for their support. So he has to take
(17:13):
all of the herds, the flocks, everything that they got,
and they got to go to Egypt. But when he
gets to Egypt, now all of a sudden, three things
in his testing come up.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The first one is pressure. He's got pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Pressure, the pressure to make a move, the pressure to
make a decision, the pressure to make sure that he
doesn't leave them in the wrong place.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Where do I go? What am I doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Can you imagine the pressure of making sure that none
of his animals, his flock dies, his pay people are
still eating, and people are still employed. He is under
a tremendous amount of pressure. The Bible says in verse
ten that at that time a severe famine in the
land came to Canaan, forcing Abraham down to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Think about the pressure. A lot of us are under
a lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
You're under a lot of pressure to make decisions, new jobs,
old ja working things out together, trying to figure out
how are you gonna feed people, how are you gonna
make things work? Is a lot of pressure. A lot
of people have capacity for pressure. You got this plate
spinning here, and that's plate spinning there. You got irons
and fires man. You you have capacity for more pressure,
but it's still pressure.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Pressure.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Were a lot of us were under pressure, under pressure.
Some of me is going like, oh, I thought he
was going doom, doom. Stop collaborate and listen. Ice is
back with a brand new addition. Something grabs hold me,
tighten me when I stop.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Hey, if you don't know, you better ask somebody. Think
about this. I went eighties and then I went to
nineties from David Bowie, I went to Vanilla Ice. Ice Baby,
I'm just on a roll. I just can't stop. It's
something about the eight thirty, something about the eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'm just trying.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
I'm just trying to I'm sure, I'm just trying to
trying to keep you, try to keep you engaged. Think
about this for a moment. It's the pressure. Not only
is the pressure, but then then it goes to the people.
It's the people problems, the people challenges. Pharaoh is his
number one people problem, but he's gonna have more than that.
He's gonna have people problems from his nephew loves, He's
gonna have people problems from his wife says, why why
(19:18):
did you let Pharaoh take me, and why did you
take all those animals? You traded me for animals. She's
gonna be upset, disappointed, her upset. People problems, as a
matter of fact, not only just people problems, but his
own personal situation. We should add another p it's personal.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He goes from trusting to scheming, He goes from confidence
to compromise, He goes from selfless to selfish.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Hold on, no, listen to this. He goes from blessing
and he goes to judgment.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now, all of a sudden, plagues come upon Pharaoh and
his family in the nation, because he would lied said,
this is my sister, technically his half sister, or truly
his wife.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And you and I are going through tests. When you
think about the third one of the fourth one is possessions. Possessions,
it's the things. It's the things, and the things have him.
And now what he begins to he gets blessed, right,
he gets blessed. Look, look he's getting all these his servants.
(20:21):
He gets male and female donkeys, and male and female
billy goats. You know, he gets all these things. Look
at him, Look at he's getting blessed. He's getting blessed
from the wrong source. He's getting it from Pharaoh, and
he's compromised so many different of his values as the
result of doing this while he's in Egypt. That's why
Egypt is. Going down to Egypt is not such a
(20:42):
good idea. And as a matter of fact, the possessions
will bring more problems.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
The more problems. We got peas like crazy, let's add problems.
Earlier I said it was personal, so we got five peas.
Now the pressure the people, Now it's personal. Now it's
the possessions. But now what man, He's got problems, and
the problems that Abraham has at this point in his
(21:10):
journey and in his life at this moment happens.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Because of the decision that he made to go down
to Egypt. But now he gets all of this. Here,
here's the personal, here's the people, here's the problems that
he's gonna have. He's gonna get tripped up because now
all of a sudden, he's.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Gonna have all this.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And in Genesis chapter thirteen and fourteen go ahead and
read it as homework this week, he and his nephew
Lot start arguing because there's no more room for both
of them. Lott would have nothing if it wasn't for
his uncle Abraham, he would have nothing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He brought him on as a mercy move. He brought
him on as a mercy move back in Iran.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And now his nephew is thinking, like my herdsman and
your herdsman. They're arguing in the fields because there's not
enough room. And so as the nephew, what should he do? Uncle,
I mean, defer to you, where do you want to go?
They've got a problem.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And what does he do?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
He ends up picking the planes of Sodom, which he
shouldn't have picked. And he was looking at the planes
of Zoar. And while he's looking in that direction, a
lot wants to go there.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
But now all of a sudden he's got all these stuff,
and the stuff just created more problems.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Not saying God doesn't want us to have more, what
I'm saying is God doesn't want them.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
More to have us. And if it is creating all
of this drama.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
And stress, then you have to ask yourself is this
really worth it? Or is this really God's plan? Maybe
it is, and you just have to learn how to
manage your relationships and financies. Maybe you got to get
your integrity right. You have to your sbs that your nobi.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
No, don't scheme, don't manipulate, play it up front, another
to the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Table, above, over, above board, right, all.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Those things and keep it coposthetic and with integrity, and
live your life in that fashion rather than trying to.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
You're gonna run into problems. And he is a lot
like that at this moment.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
And you know what, when you look at Abraham and
you can't blame him, But when you're looking now later on,
what's gonna happen down the road.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
He's gonna have to rescue his nephew lot. If you
know the story, the king.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Of Sodom says, you can take your people and you
can take all the possessions. He said, no, no, no, no,
I've already learned that lesson on somebody making me rich man,
And no, learned it from Pharaoh.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Not letting it this time.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Just give me the people, you can have the stuff. Sorry,
I mean that that's a new Zealand thing I was
doing right here. Sorry for all my kiw we friends,
I love you guys. Think about this for a moment,
watch this. Now you're gonna have one more problem later
(23:40):
on in Genesis, they can't get pregnant Fast forward to
episode number seven, season three. They can't get hopeye. It's
not happening. They get frustrated. They take things into their
own hands. It says, look, you're the Egyptian maid servant
that was given to us by Pharaoh. Let's have a
(24:00):
child through her. Go ahead acceptable in that culture. Abraham says, well,
if I'm a host, and they end up having Ishmael.
When Abraham and Sarah, okay, I'm gonna wrap this up
(24:28):
through Hagar. When really God's plan all along was with Isaac.
And now we got problems in the Middle East to
this day between the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
and then us with everything in the offspring of Ishmael
(24:50):
in the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Said that last week. I want to say it again,
that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Okay, pressure people, possessions, it's personal, and then you got problems.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Are you following me? Think about this?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So now here's lessons from Abraham's detour in Egypt that
you and I could We could take these lessons.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Number one, find direction at the altar. We've got to
find direction at the altar. Go with me to Genesis
chapter thirteen. Genesis chapter thirteen and he's out of the country.
He leaves, and he's taking everything that he owns and
everybody that's his. Then Genesis chapter thirteen, Verse one, Hold
Altla watched this, It says, so Abram left Egypt and
traveled north into the Negave. He leaves Egypt, and he
(25:34):
travels north into the Negive along with his wife and
lot and all that they owned.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And from the Negive they continued traveling by stages toward
Bethel and I where they had camped before. And this
was the same place where Abram had built the altar,
and there he worshiped the Lord.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Again. Let me say that one more time, because I
got thrown off here.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Verse three, at the end last.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sentence period says before everybody, say before, this is where
he was before.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
And then when he goes to where he was before.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Verse four, this was the same place where Abram had
built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Again. Say again, say before, and again before and again.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So we have to do what we did once before
and start worshiping God again the way that we once did.
And what you'll find through Abraham is he will pitch
a tent and then build an altar. He will pitch
his tents, then he will build his altars. He will
pitch his tents, then he will build his altars. He
will do what he wants did before, and he will
(27:00):
end up doing it again. And if I could talk
to Abraham, I'm going to go to heaven. We're all
going to go to heaven. We're going to see him.
We get how, don't know how it's going to be, like, hey,
can I see Abraham. Abrah's like, who you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You the guy that threw me under the bus in
your church twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
You're the guy.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
A lot of people did this already, so just take
a number, Mike, But you're the guy. And I would
have to say, you know, I apologize, I'm sorry. But
the evidence showed that you wasted time in Egypt, that
you didn't have to go. You didn't have to go,
And I understand that you didn't have a Bible, that
(27:42):
you weren't brought up in a godly family, and I
understand that I would say to him, I understand that
that what you went through was unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
God restarted and started with you.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
But man, I just needed to teach our people that
you can't give into you, then you can't give into
the Egypts. Well, I just needed to blow off some steam, Abraham,
I would say, Abraham, I apologize, but this was a
lesson that they needed to learn.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I need to learn too. Is number one.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I've always got to stick with my altar. Number two
that I can't always go back and you can't always
go to Egypt in your life. That it's just me time,
not hurting anybody.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I understand that you were in charge of hundreds of
people and the pressure that you were under to find
yourself a water source, to be able to go to
places that you've never.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Been so that you can continue your family. I get
freaking out and making moves.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Understand that you probably had a hundred opinions of what
you should be doing. But at the end of the day,
God still held you and kept you and fulfilled everything
that He meant to fulfill in your life. And God
will do the same thing for you. That if you
felt like I've forgotten, I've made a mistake and I
need to go back again, or maybe I wish I
didn't done the move that I made and shouldn't have
(29:08):
sold that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
We should have kept that. We should have bought that
when we had a chance.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Still kicking myself, brought my family down here, thought there'd
be a land of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
And it's been a struggle or whatever, or like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
God will take your situation Romans eight, verse twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And God will work it out for the good of
those who love him or called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
God can take whatever has happened, and he can still
use it.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
For his glory, I promise you, and he does that.
Can we pray?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Father, We just thank you for your word that is strong,
for your word that is true. We thank you, Lord
for the example of Abraham's life of people of faith.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
The Father, I pray that as things like fear begin
to descend upon the earth, that we've been leveraged by
groups and by people who are behind the scenes that
we don't even know who's pulling strings behind kings and presidents.
We're not even sure. Lord, But as those things have
been leveraged and the fear has come in like a flood, Father,
I pray that the people who are faith in God
(30:06):
would have faith in You now more than ever before.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Father, we pray against the spirit of fear.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We pray for power of love, a self mind, and
the self discipline in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And Father, we pray right now, in.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
The name of Jesus, that you would continue to pour
out your spirit on Pentecost Sunday over every person online
and in this building here today. And God, we give
you all the praise and the glory for all that
you're doing. And Father, I pray that you make us resilient. Father,
I thank you, Lord, that the tests only make us better.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Father. I thank you for the trials that are drawing
us nearer to you.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Father, we thank you that we are overcoming the temptations
in our lives.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
And God, we give you all the praise and all
the glory in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And everybody said Amen.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Hey everybody, thanks again for tuning into pray dot com Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To find more of my messages, podcasts, and.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Leadership resources, go to pray dot com or head directly
to my website at mike Kai dot tv mike Kai
dot tv for curated content. Once again, this is Mike Cott,
senior pastor of Inspired Church in Hawaii. Thank you so
much for joining me on pray dot com Radio, Aloha
and God bless
Speaker 3 (31:17):
H
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