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You're listening to The Bible Guys,
a podcast where a couple of friends talk

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about the Bible in fun in practical
ways. Hey, everybody, welcome back

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to the Bible Guys. We are
excited because today's Friday, and everybody loves

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Fridays. Friday, Friday unless somebody's
listening like on Saturday. Oh, well,

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you know, Tuesday, but don't. Most people listen to the podcast

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in real time. There's a lot
of people that are catching up, are

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there. They found out that we've
got like a good jillion episodes, and

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so they are going back and catching
up too. Listen to another day.

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Well, if you like catch up, there you go. But I would

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say the majority of our people are
waiting with baited breath for it to be

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released at six o'clock in the morning. Yes, and by the way,

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we are baited breath. We are
not going to do what made Chris mad

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today. It's we're taking a break
from that we did last week. I

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know, which is what makes Jeff
Matt this week is that we're not here,

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is that we're not doing what we
made Chris Man this week? Yeah.

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Yeah, But instead, why don't
you read the instructions on the side.

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Yeah. So the instructions for this
one are, let me pull it

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up here, this is how well
do you know them? So in today's

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passage, we're talking about the birth
of Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael and all

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these things, and so I'm going
to have to also try to figure out

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my friendship and relationship with you.
Yeah, that's it. So how much

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do you know about me? Chris
is going to ask me three to five

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questions about himself, and I'm going
to have to see if I can answer

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any of them if I really know
you. So I have put together some

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softballs here where I think I'm gonna
start off with an easy give me a

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yes, give me an actually,
how many? How many? How many

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questions are we can get? I
have five, okay, this first one,

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and these are worth two hundred and
fifty thousand points apiece. No,

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no, no, actually they're worth
one point a piece. One point okay,

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which is even worse. That's hardcore. I know, that's worse.

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It's hard to make it up.
So this is sort of a two parter.

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The first one should be easy,
what is my favorite dessert? Kind

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of dessert, your favorite just category
of dessert? Ice cream? Yeah,

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the ice cream. That's that's not
the full question. The full question is

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because I knew you knew that.
What is my favorite flavor of ice cream?

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Yes, it's an old man flavor. It's a is it maple nut?

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No? Is it? It's one
of those though it's you are correct,

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it's an old man flavor. Yes, it's not butterscotch. It's what

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you just said. I know,
butter pecan. Yes, I knew I

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was getting there. Yes, so
I started with the nut right, right

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right, and then got to the
butter and then but okay, here's another

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one that you might know. How
many hold ones? Do I have two?

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That's correct, Yes, I have
two, old one. I remember

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that. Okay. Now here's a
little harder one. Okay, I think

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I've told you the story, maybe
only once or twice. What city did

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I get engaged to my wife at? Pittsburgh? Yes, yes, okay,

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I knew that one. Yeah.
I think I've only ever heard that

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story one time. Did you struck
me as funny that I'm gonna take my

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wife to fan Because I didn't say
I took my wife to Olive Garden to

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get engaged, So Fancy's place.
I knew so for a boy from Youngstown,

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the fancy place was Pittsburgh. That's
right back in the in the nineties,

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early nineties, yes, early nineties, before the city turned around,

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which is like a rusty steel city. It's exactly right. But did you

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go to a pretty place, like
a pretty park? Yes, ye,

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yes, of course, where the
water meets and all that. Yeah,

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all that, yep, ye,
right off the right, off the three

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rivers, the whole thing. Okay. So okay, now this one here

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is I'm not sure I've ever told
you this number, but we've heard on

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the Bible. Guys, how many
sets of stitches you've had in your lifetime?

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Yes? How many sets of stitches
have I had? Oh? Boy?

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None? Two? Two? Okay, one on my chin when I

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fell off my bike when I was
six, and then one also on my

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chin when a dog bit me and
I had to go get some stitches up.

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Okay, I knew that story.
Yeah, I knew that story.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's it. Just too I feel

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like I failed you, Chris.
And how many how many of you had?

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I've had stitches twenty one times?
Twenty one times? Right, so

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big difference between the two. But
I haven't had any stitches in like ten

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years. This was the last one
I had. Okay, all right,

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now this one's actually a hard one. So these are getting progressively harder.

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Right, So you know all of
the Marvel movies, right, I'm not

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I'm not including I'm not including after
Endgame, Okay, okay, So all

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the way from Captain America, so
in that in that stream story, which

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is called Phase one, yes,
phase one, Okay, So in Phase

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one in Captain America, all the
way through Endgame, which is my absolute

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favorite Marvel movie. Oh my goodness, this is a tough one. It

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is a tough one. It wins
over all the other Marvel movies, all

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the other Marvel movies. I'm going
to say, what's the Scarlet Johansson movie?

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What is that? Black Widow?
Black Widow? That's what I'm gonna

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say. Not even close, No, not even close. That's my wife's.

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Is that your wife's favorite? Maybe
that's I remember it coming up at

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dinner one time. That's my wife's. And here's the reason why my wife

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actually appreciates the heroes that don't actually
have the powers, right, she's more

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impressed. That's the that's the conversation
I'm remembering. Yes, yes, I

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no power. Okay, So,
but I forgot because because oppos between Batman

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and Superman. You love Superman because
of the superpowers, that's right, and

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you don't like Batman because it's just
a rich guy with gadgets. I should

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have known that, So can I
can I hit reset on that one,

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which, by the way, let's
be clear, I don't mind Batman,

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it's just that you're a Batman hater. Stopped. But they don't get to

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go backwards on this one. Yeah, they make him out to be more

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than he is capable of doing.
He's capable of every bit of that,

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and no, no he's not.
Okay, okay, No, then I

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don't know, I don't know.
Pick the most outlandish, over the top

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movie of all of them, Endgame, Close, Infinity Wars, Infinity Wars.

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Okay, yeah it is. It
is because I think that in our

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lifetime, and perhaps maybe the lifetime
of every listener, regardless of how young

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they are, they will never ever
probably see another film company accomplished what Marvel

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accomplished, which was to do ten
years of incredible movies and then make one

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make one movie with all of those
stars in one movie. Yes, and

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not only that, but to actually
put ten years of movies and somehow make

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it one story. They tied it
together with Infinity Stones. Right. Well,

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the reason why it was so difficult
for me is I couldn't think.

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I don't think zach Efron's in g
was just is in the Marvel universe.

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That's what I was trying to figure
out. Sorry about that Endgame or excuse

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me? And between the two,
between the two, Endgame was slightly the

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better movie, and or excuse me, in Findity words were slightly the better

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movie. And I would just say, I would just say it was so

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amazing. I just I get superhero
movie is amazing. More superheroes is more

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amazing. All the super superheroes is
most amazing. That's essentially your your philosophy

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on this. That's a part of
it, Yes, but it's the accomplishment.

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It is. It is the it
is the wonder of seeing the thirty

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characters and you you know, the
depth and the awesomeess of every single one.

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I'm sorry I missed that one one
epic epic moment. Yes, okay,

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are you gonna let me redeem myself? Is there another one? No?

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That's it. That's fine, it's
it. That's all fine. But

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you got three out of five?
Okay, what was the other one I

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missed? You missed? Uh?
How many stitches do I have? Oh

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yeah, that's I knew about the
dog bite. I didn't know about the

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bicycle thing. Yeah, okay,
well there you go. I kind of

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just know you a little bit.
I've been vaguely paying attention. Mostly,

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I'm only listening to figure out when
you're done talking so I can tell you

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a more amazing story. That's nothing. Let me tell you about this one.

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Bridy Rian says. We just wait
for the lips to stop bothing soon.

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You say, you mean you see
the difference. Yeah, So the

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fact that I got any right,
it's pretty amazing. That's really funny.

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Okay, So yesterday we paused in
our system or in our process here of

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what we were going to cover.
We were supposed to talk about this topic

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yesterday, but instead we went and
did the Sodom and Gomora thing. And

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then today we're coming back and we're
continuing on. In Genesis chapter twenty one,

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we're going to talk about the birth
of Isaac and how Hagar and Ishmael

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leave. Yes, right, So
here's what it says in verse when it

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says, the Lord kept his word
and did for Sarah exactly what he had

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promised. That's one of my favorite
phrases in the Bible. God keeps his

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word and does what he promises.
Right. She became pregnant, and she

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gave birth to a son for Abraham
and his old age. And this happened

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at just the time God said it
would, and Abraham named their son Isaac.

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Eight days after Isaac was born,
Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.

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Abraham was one hundred years old when
Isaac was born, and Sarah declared,

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God has brought me laughter. All
who hear about this will laugh with

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me. Who would have said that
Abraham to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a

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baby. Yet I have given Abraham
a son in his old age. And

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then in verse eight, it says
when Isaac grew up and was about to

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be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge
feast to celebrate the occasion. But Sarah

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saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and her Egyptian servant Hagar, making

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fun of her son Isaac. So
she turned to Abraham and demanded get rid

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of that slave woman, and her
son. He is not going to share

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the inheritance with my son Isaac.
I won't have it. This upset Abraham

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very much because Ishmael was his son. But God told Abraham, do not

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be upset over the boy and your
servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you,

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for Isaac is the son through whom
your descendants will be counted. But I

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will also make you a nation of
descendants of Hagar's son, because he is

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your son too. So Abraham got
up early the next morning, prepared food

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and the container of water, and
strapped them on Hagar's shoulders. And then

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he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness

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of Yoursheba. When the water was
gone, she put the boy in the

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shade of a bush, and then
she went and sat down by herself,

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about one hundred yards away. I
don't want to watch the boy die,

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she said. She burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying,

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and the Angel of God called the
Hagar from heaven, Hagar, what's wrong.

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Do not be afraid. God has
heard the boy crying as he lies

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there. Go to him and comfort
him, for I will make a great

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nation from his descendants. Then God
opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well

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full of water. She quickly filled
her water container and gave the boy a

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drink, And God was with the
boy. As he grew up in the

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wilderness. He became a skillful archer, and he settled in the wilderness of

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Paran. His mother arranged for him
to marry a woman from the land of

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Egypt, a man alive that one
sinful time costs so much pain all these

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years later, and you know,
there's just there's so much in there,

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the idea of I can't even imagine. I can't even fathom it. She's

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wandering the it says, it's so
plainly, and you've been in the wilderness

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of be she but too, it's
just so brutally difficult. It's like it's

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like there's only like four sentences that
summarize this unbelievable thing, and we could

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just we can just breeze over it. Yeah, but do you can you

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put yourself on a spot where you
have to be you have to be so

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convinced that you're gonna die. And
by the way, if you're gonna so

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convince you're gonna die, how dehydrated
are you oh, if you set the

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boy down and then walk an entire
football field away and say, I just

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don't want to see him or hear
him. I know he's going to die.

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I just can't bear myself to be
there when he does. That means

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that you are on the brink of
death. And so she's wandering in the

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wilderness, runs out of water,
and then I'm telling you it is just

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it's this thing where my brain,
I just got to be very honest and

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transparent. My brain goes toward,
why God would you allow that to happen?

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When God, you're the one that
said to Abraham, hey, don't

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be afraid, listen to whatever Sarah
tells you to do. And so then

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what they did is loaded They loaded
them up with food and water. They

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send them off, and so you
know, Hagarth is thinking to herself like,

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okay, you know God, God
said this is okay. God also

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said that I'm going to be,
you know, the mother of a great

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nation and great descendants through my son. And the next thing, you know,

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she's absolutely convinced that she's going to
die. And I'm thinking to myself

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like, why why would that even
be necessary? Right, And to be

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honest, with you. Sometimes it
makes me angry, makes me angry that

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she has to even go through that, like, why would that even be

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necessary? Right? And there's a
part of me that thinks that God,

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somehow, you know, he allowed
certain things to happen. We know this

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for a fact. He allows certain
things to happen because it's a foreshadowing of

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Jesus coming. He allows things to
happen, you know, the story of

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Joseph, the story of Melkezedek.
You know, even job in some ways

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was to serve as an example for
all of us, right, And I

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think that sometimes the Old Testament stories
play out the story of Jonah and the

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whale, right, you know,
and so Jesus uses it as an example

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for his purposes of his death,
barrel and resurrection. So these stories happen,

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these hardships happen. But there's a
part of me that thinks, these

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poor people, you know, they're
going through, you know, all of

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these different things, and I mean
even the delivery of the Ten Commandments,

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right, the plagues, the passover, right, all of it pointing to

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Jesus. And we understand the significance
of it. It's wonderful, it's great,

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But my heart goes my heart goes
out the Haggarder and her son,

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man, it really does. Yeah. So one, we live in these

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modern times in the West, we
live with such abundance and comfort that we

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forget how brutally difficult life has been
for the thousands of years humanity has been,

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you know, on the Earth for
one and currently for some people around

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here. So this happens to be
a story. All of that is.

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You know, a couple weeks ago
we talked about the curse on the planet.

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Right. It wasn't supposed to be
hard. It was supposed to be

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enjoyable, right, right, And
it was hard because life is really really

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hard because of sin. Sin caused
it. In this situation, she's banished

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because of Abraham's sin with her and
the jealousy now that that has created in

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Abraham's marriage, and the fact that
they were mocking the promised one of God,

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Isaac who ultimately represents eventually Jesus,
right, that's what he represents.

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And so is that mocking I think
is a bigger deal than the one sentence

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covers in there. For one,
the other part of it is there,

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you know, I find myself sometimes
getting angry at God's decisions either now in

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my everyday life or you know,
for instance, my wife, her best

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friend several years ago, died of
cancer, and I remember being so mad

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because I didn't know a nicer person
than Tracy. Honestly, she would pray

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for you quickly. I mean,
she was just so quick to say,

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Hey, let's pray about that.
She was in the word. She was

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incredibly generous, She was selfless in
serving others, Such a kind person.

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Never if you wanted to say something
bad about somebody, she would always find

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a way to make something. I
think she would say nice things about the

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devil, right if you want to, she oh, I don't think he

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really meant it. Right. She
was just that person. And I was

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when she was dying of cancer.
I was so mad at God thinking,

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you know, uh, jel Anne
was my executive assistant and she cancer,

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same person, such a wonderfully good
person. I remember thinking, God,

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I got a whole bunch of people
that I could suggest, if you want

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to take them out, take them
out, not her. She's great,

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right, And I remember it was
during that time with well, when Tracy

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was fighting cancer, I was mad
at God that I literally you mentioned this

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the other day that you kind of
had this moment when God said I'm not

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done with you. Yeah, I
really had this strong impression that God literally,

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in this phrase, won't go away
from me. Is your morality superior

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to mine? Right? Is my
sense of goodness superior to because that's what

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I was questioning. I was questioning, is my morality, my sense of

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good superior to God's sense of good? And he has different plans than we

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have, and he has different priorities
than we have. So the curse is

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water is hard to find. Life
is extraordinarily difficult. It wasn't supposed to

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be this way. Disease happens,
the blessing, the mercy is here.

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She is Hagar kind of has a
habit of running away from problems. Right.

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She ran away from Abraham before,
and God met her and wouldn't let

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her do it cent her back.
This time, she runs away from her

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dying son. God meets her there. You know, he keeps meeting her.

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She's causing some of her own troubles, but God keeps meeting her there.

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So in both of these things,
which is more extraordinary? Which would

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you want to live your entire life
in ease and never have an encounter with

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God, or would you want to
have two encounters with God in your lifetime?

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Yeah, well the God the God
choice. Yeah, yeah, I

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mean that's that's the right Sunday School
answer. But I think about that that

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Hagar has had two more physical personal
encounters with God than I have. M

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Yeah, right, yeah, it's
it's it's it's such a desperate moment,

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you know, and then all of
a sudden, it says God opened her

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eyes and she saw well. I
also tried to interpret how what does that

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mean? Does that mean that she
perhaps didn't see a well and it was

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there the whole time, or did
God perhaps do the you know, supernatural

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realm. Well, you know,
I think I think it was supernatural.

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She bay that region has a lot
of wells. That's probably why Abraham settled

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there and Isaac stayed there in that
area. There's a lot of wells there.

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But I I don't think it.
It doesn't say she missed a well,

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right right, It was that God
let her suddenly. I think it

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was a miracle. God met her
when she was running from her problems,

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not able to face the difficulties.
God shows up in the middle of that

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brokenness and says, here, let
me, let me take care of you.

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Yeah, only that he promises to
bless her son. And here the

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whole world still, you know,
the Ishmaelites still have impact on the planet.

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So we spent all of our time
reacting to Hagar and Ishmael. But

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let's not overlook the fact that Isaac
is finally born. Well that's the whole

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point of his passage, right right, So we're broken harder for Hagar here,

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but yeah, the whole point of
the passage is God followed through on

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his promises. Yeah, and you
said at the beginning, you said,

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one of your favorite phrases of the
Bible. The Lord kept his word and

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did it for Sarah exactly what he
had promised. Yeah, So it is

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a great Yeah, it's a great
observation right there. That's a strong sentence,

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and it's it's so weird. So
so Ishmael is thirteen years old.

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This is thirteen years after Ishmael was
born, and so you have this young

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teenage boy and then now you have
this brand new baby, and Abraham's one

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hundred years old, Sarah is ninety
years old. And so Sarah just thinks

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it's funny. So she laughs in
derision. You know a couple of times

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when the Bible says, hey,
you know, when the angel said,

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hey, you're going to have a
baby, she said right, and they'd

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say, hey, why is it
Sarah? Oh? I didn't laugh,

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right, but she was. She
was laughing. She thought it was silly.

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It was. It was an absurd
an absurdity that was almost incomprehensible.

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And one year later now she's laughing, going, I just can't believe God

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did this. Right, the joy
going from being dismissive and derisive to just

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pure joy and not onely that but
like any woman who would hear that she

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had a baby at ninety would laugh, right, they'd be like that is

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crazy, but laugh with a joyful
kind of boy, right, like that's

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so sweet and I can't believe it? But wow, who would have ever

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known? Yeah? You know,
and we always think that too, you

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know, whenever circumstances play out,
you know, we can't see the future,

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but we get there and we say, who would have ever thought?

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You know, we have we have
those kind of comments, you know,

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and and you know what all of
life is that way? But the but

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the answer to that question is God
would have God would have thought? God

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would have God, you know,
would have predicted it because God knows.

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And so there's all these moments in
our lives where we look back and we

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see God's faithfulness, And wouldn't it
be great to just know what God knows?

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And and and if you know what
God knows, that everything's going to

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work out and God's going to be
faithful, you know what, that's really

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called trusting his promises. That's right, that's what that is. So if

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we have the ability to look into
the future and know what God knows and

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everything's going to work out, it
is literally the same as if just assuming

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that God is going to work it
out and that we're going to trust his

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promises. That's really good. So
my dad, so my mom and my

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dad had two more sons, some
Mark and I are five years apart.

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And then when I was nineteen and
again when I was twenty, my two

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youngest brothers were born. I was
in college. Wow. Right, And

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so at my church, my pastor
called my dad Abraham all the time.

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He was like fifty two or something
when the boys were born, Wow,

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and he called him Abraham all the
time. They tease him, but that's

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half of Abraham's age, right,
it's so bizarre. And that's why God

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waited to that moment, is there's
just no human way that this could have

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been manufactured, right, It was
only God's way. And by the way,

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your dad's age when he had those
kids is our age now, yeah

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right when. By the way,
the thought of Liz having a child and

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myself having a child together, yeah, makes me want to take a nap

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right now. Yeah? Yeah,
My dad was very very young and virile

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when he was our age, so
my mom is substantially younger than my dad.

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My mom was like fifteen years younger
than my dad, So okay,

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at least makes sense for her,
right right. So well, hey,

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it looks like that is our time. So so God keeps his promises.

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And even when you're trying to run
away from your promise or from your problems,

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Good will meet you there. Yes, so we will see you next

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time on the Bible, guys,