ABRAHAM WENT OUT
NOT KNOWING
WHITHER HE WENT
Sermon THE WAYS OF GOD .docx
June Estelle Cash
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( Typed up by June Estelle Cash
Sept 2, 2024)
SERMON – THE WAYS OF GOD
Wm. Henry Cash, Jr (1927 – 2012)
Date preached – July 31,
BIBLE TEXT: Psalms 103. 7 – 14
7. He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel.
8.The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger
and plenteous in mercy.
9.He will not always chide: neither will he
keep his anger for ever.
10. He hath not dealt with us
after our sins; nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities.
11.For as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great
is his mercy toward them
that fear him.
12. As far as the east
is from the west, so far hath he
removed our transgressions from us.
13. Like as a father pitieth
his children, so the LORD
pitieth them that fear him.
13/ For he knoweth our frame;
he remembereth that we are dust.
INTRODUCTION: God wants to do great
things for us.
We are to follow the ways of the LORD
according to Scriptural principles
if we want God to bless us and
use us for His glory.
God has often given
us a vision
to do something great.
Discouragement comes along and
our vision dies. Very often
during the death of our vision,
we are tempted to follow
unscriptural methods.
When we follow
the ways of the LORD,
we can expect Him
to supernaturally fulfill
the vision that He gave to us.
THEME: We can expect results
when we follow God’s ways.
LET US CONSIDER:
some Scriptural illustrations of this truth.
I. ABRAHAM
A. Abraham had a vision of being a
father of a great nation.
Genesis 12. 1 – 3.
12.1 Now the LORD had said
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father’s house,
unto a land that I will shew thee:
12.2 And I will make
of thee a great nation, and
I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing.
12.3 And I will bless them
that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee,
and in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.
This is illustrates Faith to us
as Abraham obeys God.
Hebrews 11.8 - 10
Hebrews 11. 8 By faith Abraham, when
he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed,
and he went out, not knowing
whither he went.
Hebrews 11. 9 By faith he sojourned
in the land of promise,
as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him
of the same promise:
11.10 For he looked for a city
which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God.
B. Death of a Vision -
Sarah was barren
and too old to have a child.
Genesis 16.1
Genesis 17. 15 - 19
1. God has a need for us
to have a Death
of a Vision so that
He can illustrate His Ways to us.
Psalm 95.10 Forty years
was I grieved with this
generation, and said,
It is a people that do err in their
heart, and they have
not known my ways.
2. Death of a Vision means HOPE:
anticipating
and expecting God
to work out His revealed Will
to us when
it seems humanly impossible.
C. We must consider
Satan’s building program
during the Death of a Vision.
1. Satan tempts us to work
in the energy of the flesh
– doing it “my way”
instead of God’s way.
II Corinthians 11.14
God tells us “Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light.”
Choosing to do
something because I want it –
no matter
how good it seems – is still not God’s Way.
2. This is pictured to us as an illustration
– through the birth of Ishmael
to Hagar and the conflict that came
as a result of not following God’s ways.
Abraham
and Sarah
were learning a big lesson.
D. SUPERNATURAL FULFILLMENT
of the ORIGINAL VISION -
1. God gave Abraham and Sarah a son
in their old age.
Genesis 21.1 - 3
Genesis 21. 1 And the LORD
visited Sarah as he had said:
and the LORD
did unto Sarah
as he had spoken.
Genesis 21. 2 For Sarah conceived,
and bare Abraham a son
in his old age, at the set time
of which God had spoken to him.
Genesis 21. 3 And Abraham
called the name of his son that
was born unto him, whom
Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
2. This reveals God’s LOVE –
Divine Love reproduces
His character in us.
II. JOSEPH
Notice -Joseph also
was born of a Barren Woman – Rachel.
A. BIRTH OF A VISION -
That he would be a great leader, and
that others would
bow down to him.
God gave him the dreams –
and he received it.
Genesis 37. 1 – 11
Genesis 37. 1 And Jacob dwelt
in the land wherein his father
was stranger, in the land of Canaan.
37. 2 These are the generations
of Jacob. Joseph being seventeen
years old, was feeding
the flock with his brethren,
and the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah,
and with the sons of Zilpah,
his father’s wives;
and Joseph brought unto his
father their evil report.
37. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children, because
he was the son of his old age:
and he made him a
coat of many colors.
37. 4 And when his brethren saw
that their father
loved him more than all
his brethren, they
hated him,
and could not speak
peacably unto him.
37. 5 And Joseph dreamed a dream,
and he told it his brethren;
and they hated him yet the more.
37. 6 And he said unto them,
Hear,, I pray thee, this
dream which I have dreamed:
37. 7 For, behold,
we were binding sheaves in the
field, and lo, my sheaf arose,
and, behold,
your sheaves stood
around about, and
made obeisance to my sheaf.
37. 8 And his brethren said to him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us?
for shalt thou indeed have
dominion over us?
And they hated him yet
the more for his dreams.
37. 9 And he dreamed yet
another dream,
and told it his brethren,
and said, Behold,
I have dreamed a
dream more; and,
behold, the sun and the moon
and the eleven stars
made obeisance to me.
37.10 And he told it to his father,
and to his brethren:
and his father rebuked him,
What is this dream that thou hast
dreamed?
Shall I and thy mother
and thy brethren come to bow down
ourselves to thee to the earth?
37.11 And his brothers envied him,
but his father observed the saying.
B. Death of the Vision
1. He was sold as a slave in Egypt.
Genesis 37. 27 - 28
Genesis 37.27 Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,
and let not our hand be upon him;
for he is our brother and our flesh.
And his brethren were content.
37.28 Then there p
by Midianites merchantment;
and they drew and life up Joseph
out of the pit, and sold
Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for twenty pieces of silver:
and they brought
Joseph into Egypt.
2. He was later accused falsely
and put into prison.
Genesis 39. 6 – 23
Genesis 39. 6 And he left all that he
had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not
what he had, save the bread
which he did eat. And Joseph
was a goodly person, and well favored.
39. 7 And it came to pass after these
things, that his master’s wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph;
and she said, Lie with me.
39. 8 But he refused, and said
unto his master’s wife,
Behold, my master wotteth not
what is with me in the house, and he hath
committed all that he hath to my hand.
39. 9 There is none greater in this house
than I; neither hath he kept back anything
from me but thee, because
thou art his wife: how then
can I do this great wickedness,
and sin against God?
39.10 And it came to pass as
she spake to Joseph day by day,
that he hearkened not unto her,
to lie with her, or to be with her.
39.11 And it came to pass about this time,
that Joseph went into the house
to do his busines; and there was none
of the men of the house there within.
39.12 And she caught him by
his garment, saying, Lie with me:
and he left his garment in her hand,
and fled, and got out.
39.13 And it came to pass,
when she saw that he had left his
garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
39.14 Then she called unto the men
of her house,
and spake unto them, saying, See,
he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to
mock us, he came unto me
to lie with me, and I cried
with a loud voice:
39.15 And it came to pass when
he heard that I lifted up my voice
and cried,
that he left his garment with me,
and fled, and got him out.
39.16 And she laid his garment by her,
until her lord came home.
39.17 And she spake unto him, according
to these words, saying, This Hebrew servant,
which thou hast brought unto us,
came in unto me to mock me:
39.18 And it came to pass,
when I lifted up my voice and cried,
then he left his garment with me,
and fled.
39.19 And it came to pass, when the master
heard the words of his wife,
which she spake unto him, saying,
After this manner did thy servant unto me;
that his wrath was kindled.
39.20 And Joseph’s master took him,
and put him into the prison,
a place where the king’s prisoners were bound:
and he was there in the prison.
39.21 But the LORD was with Joseph,
and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour
in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
39.22 And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph’s hand
all the prisoners that were in the prison,
and whatsoever they did there,
he was the doer of it.
39. 23 The keeper of the
prison looked not
to any thing that
was under his hand;
because the LORD was with him,
and that which he did, the LORD
made it to prosper.
C. Temptation to yield to our own ways
instead of yielding to God.
1. Joseph could have yielded to Potiphar’s wife.
2. He could have exposed her or could have blamed her.
D. The Supernatural Fulfillment of His Dream
1. He was allowed to interpret
the dreams of the Butler, the Baker and later,
even the Pharaoh of Egypt himself.
2. He became the Prime Minister of Egypt.
3. Through Joseph, his father, his brothers
and the nation of Israel was saved. For this
look at Genesis 42 - 50 chapters.
III. THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST
A. THE VISION – The vision of establishing
and being a part of the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 6.33 Luke 5.10
The time is fulfilled; and the Kingdom'
of God is at hand;
Repent, and believe ye the Gospel.
Mark 1.15
At first they dreamed of the Kingdom –
but they discovered Jesus telling them
that to Follow Him was to
leave everything else.
Again and again,
He prepared them
Taught them
Telling thom I will be taken
Handed over to the Gentiles
Suffer and die,
and be buried and
will rise the third day
When he died, their vision seemed robbed
of all they had wanted.
When they saw He was gone
they remembered His words,
but they were so sas,
they forgot he said,
I will rise on the third day .
But They were mourning Jesus
and waited together in the Upper Room.
Who Else
but Jesus showed Himself in that room?
Consider that The Temptation we face today
Is when our VISION dies – to
Give in
Give up
Give out.
On the contrary we Have a God
who has told us “If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done. John 15. 7
The LORD JESUS CHRIST arose
from the Grave and conquered Death itself,
and has defeated the devil’s power,
and we need to realize that as
we walk in the ways of God
we can too like
Abraham, Moses, Joseph and the Disciples
find God’s Supernatural ability
and His Divine Love Mercy and Grace
to place us in the center of His Will
fully finding
He will keep His promises to us.
I John 5. 4
And this is the victory that overcometh
The world - even our faith.
Jesus said He will come again to take us to Himself
That where He is we may be also