FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION, IT’S A LIKLIHOOD

GENESIS 11:24-32

Pastor Rick Jackson

The likelihood that you and I will fail is so great as to not be in question. The question is what will we do with our failures? Do we have to become a failure? Does failure mean God cannot use us? The answers to these questions and more can be found in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. In this case, let us look at the life of Abram, later known as Abraham.

I. FAMILY FAILURES

1. Abram’s Failure by Disobedience [Gn. 12:1-5, Lk. 14:24-35]

2. Abram’s Father’s Death [Gn. 11:31-32, 1 Cor. 11:30-32]

3. Abram’s Further Disaster [Gn. 12:1, 4; 13:7, 12; 14:12; 19:14]

II. FEAR FAILURES

1. Fear Caused Abraham to be Led by Circumstances [Gn. 12:5-10, 13:1-4]

2. Fear Caused Abraham to Lie for Cowardice [Gn. 12:11-20]

3. Fear Caused Abraham to Lay with Hagar for Convenience [15:1-6, 16:1-5

The… first son of Abraham, a son born to Abraham and his wife’s handmaid, Hagar. This was a “birth of convenience”, so that there would be a “son” to carry on the family line into the next generation and those to come.

Abraham and Sara were not willing to wait on the Lord to fulfill His promise of a “son” born of a Biblical marriage, Genesis 2:24. The result was that the new male child would be one that would be a “wild man” as the Lord indicates to his Mother, verse 12.

The birth of “Ishmael” would be the beginning of a nation that would be a “people” that would also “raise their hands against others”. By the way, the Bible tells us that Ishmael would “father one nation”, Genesis 17:20. Ishmael did not “father” the “Arab world”, as many have been taught down through history.

In Genesis 10 we see that many of the Arab-world nations were in existence over 500 years before Ishmael was even born. There are several such nations listed as “sons” of Ham, Noah’s son. In Genesis 10:6 it speaks of “Cush”, which is modern-day Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.

“Mizraim” is today Egypt and “Phut” is the Arab nation of Libya. These few nations that I’ve listed are all Arab nations today and were in existence 500 years before Abraham ever came on the scene, much less Ishmael. Neither Abraham, nor Ishmael were the “father of the Arab world”.

Genesis 25:18 indicates that Ishmael went to “Arabia” to live with his family of twelve sons that would be born to him. The only nation that Ishmael fathered was modern-day Saudi Arabia. If anything, Ishmael “fathered” the Islamic world. Mohammad said that he was “a direct descendant of Ishmael.” – Jimmy DeYoung

III. FAILURES FAILURE

1. You Can Fail and Not Be a Failure [Gn. 12:1-3, Jonah 3:1, 1 Jn. 1:9]

2. You Can Know Faith is The Victory [Gn. 18:19, 22:12; Lk. 17:5-10, 22:32]

3. You Can Obey & Be a Friend of God [2 Chronicles 20:7, James 2:23, 4:4; John 15:14]