April 11, 2021 ”Abraham’s Very Bad Plan and Abraham’s Very Good God.” by Pastor Kevin Dibbley

This week's message was called "Abraham's Very Bad Plan and Abraham's Very Good God." One of the realities for us as Christians is that we make bad decisions, and then we make things worse by attempting to justify those choices. Do you ever do that?

In Genesis 20, Abraham and Sarah stick with the bad plan that Abraham concocted when they left Ur of the Chaldees to head to the land God was calling them to. That plan was that if someone ever asked if Sarah was Abrahams wife, she would say that she was his sister. Fear leads us to make bad decisions. Guilt leads us to make bad excuses. What we do after we get caught in a sinful choice is almost as critical as the decision we make in the first place.

What Genesis 20 teaches us is that there is no ground of justification for any of our bad choices. There is no way out of our sin and guilt except in the righteousness of God that comes by faith. Martin Luther wrote, "Every week I preach justification by faith to my people because every week they forget it." Oh, isn't that true? Let's investigate why we need God to justify us when all our attempts at self-justification fail.