As Pastor Mike continues his teaching series through the book of Genesis, he'll be reminding you how God will always enable you and empower you to obey His Word. God doesn't command you to do something without giving you the power to accomplish it. Sure, He will ask things of you that require you to take a step of faith, but He's faithful to meet you where you are and help you succeed. As you abide in Jesus the Vine, you'll bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide you and empower you!

It's been said that when you choose to obey God, you can simply leave the consequences of your obedience up to Him. When you choose to tell the truth even though lying may seem to help you, you can have faith that God will work it out for good. When you choose to stand up for righteousness' sake, even though it may mean persecution at work or school, you can have faith that God will have your back. Today, Pastor Mike will be challenging you to obey God, and watch Him bless you abundantly in the long run.

After many failures, Abraham eventually learned how to trust the Lord even when there were great difficulties. As Pastor Mike continues his teaching series through the book of Genesis, he'll be reminding you that you're still a work in progress, just like Abraham was. The Bible says that the righteous may fall 77 times, but they get back up each time. Even though you have salvation, you're still not going to be perfect, and you're going to have to have faith in the grace of God, and get back up!

The Word of God has a way of bringing you face to face with your true spiritual condition, like a supernatural mirror. Today, Pastor Mike will be explaining how it's easy to become blind to your spiritual condition when you're not spending time in God's Word. The Word of God is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. The Bible is what helps guide you according to the path of righteousness, and helps you become more like the Lord. It's foolishness to neglect the reading and hearing of God's Word.

As Pastor Mike continues his teaching series through the book of Genesis, he'll be challenging you to get back to the place of genuine worship if you've gone astray. If you've backslidden back into the world, remember those first works you did when you first got saved, and return back to your first love. If you feel distant from God, it's not because God moved away from you, it's because you moved away from God. The Holy Spirit convicts and draws you to the Lord, and it's the devil that condemns.

Sometimes it can become tempting to run back to your old ways and to become conformed again to the pattern of the world. Abraham is considered the father of our faith, yet he made the serious mistake of going back into Egypt and relying on the world, rather than trusting and having faith in God. Today, Pastor Mike will be reminding you that no matter how hard life gets, it's always better to go through life with the blessing and peace of God. Don't allow the circumstances of this life to derail you from following the Lord!

Pastor Mike shows us that there are many lessons we can draw from the story of Abraham. Today, he reminds us that Abraham didn’t do anything to earn his blessing from God. God chose to bless Abraham, purely out of grace. This theme is recurrent throughout the Bible – the Old Testament is full of stories of people who don’t deserve God’s grace, but He gives it anyway. The same is true of us under the New Covenant of Christ; we don’t deserve God’s blessing, yet He makes it available to all through Christ.

Today, Pastor Mike reminds us that Abraham’s life was marked by faith. Abraham was human-like and made plenty of mistakes. But when God instructed Abraham to leave his home, family, and everything he knew and go to a new place, Abraham obeyed. And this was before he even knew where he was going! He didn’t know all the details of his calling, but he trusted God’s promise to bless him. Like Abraham, we often don’t have as many details as we’d like. But we are blessed when we believe God anyway.

The Bible is filled with stories of the successes and failures of people. And today, Pastor Mike reminds us that there are many lessons to be learned from these stories: we can learn from both the successes and failures of biblical characters. Furthermore, these passages teach us about the character of God. This truth provides hope for us, as we are reminded that God is faithful to us even when we fail, and He always keeps His promises. God blesses us and even empowers us to become more like Christ.

Today, Pastor Mike shows us how the life of Abraham is an encouragement to all of us, no matter where we are in our spiritual journey. He reminds us that Abraham did not earn God’s grace by merit – in fact, Abraham’s life was marred by some really bad decisions. But, just as God chose to show grace to Abraham unconditionally, He offers the same thing to us today through Jesus Christ. And just like Abraham had faith and became known as a friend of God, we too can have a friendship with Christ.