Abraham and Lot — Bill Randles

I'm going to look at two short chapters of the Bible today, from the life of Abraham, we've gone through Genesis, and last week we came to the part about Abram. Now we had church last week. We canceled the picnic, though.

Abram After Babel: God’s Covenant With a New Nation

We talked about Abram. You've got to understand, what's the big deal about Abram? You know, Abram is like the root of everything going on geopolitically these days. It's all about Abram, really, believe it or not.

Everyone claims to be children of Abram, the Moslems, the Christians, the Jews. He's a huge and significant person, but how do we understand Abram? Listen, as I was bringing out last week, you can't understand Abram without the context of the story of the Tower of Babel.

Okay, right after Tower of Babel comes Abram. Well, what happened to the story of the Tower of Babel? Basically, that's where God just gave up on the nations themselves and left them to their own devices.

He scattered the world, divided the languages, because the nations of the world had united in total apostasy against God, and so that was it. He scattered them and left them, as Paul would say later, to their own devices.

And then he chooses a man, a man who lived in Iraq, Abram, and basically what he's doing is, I'm going to make a new nation. I no longer deal with the nations directly. I'm going to deal with them through this new nation.

I'm going to make a brand-new nation from scratch. Now, when God wants to make a nation, He doesn't take a 20-year-old couple, a young, virile man and a young, fertile woman. He picks a man that's in his seventies and never had children, and a woman who's past childbearing age, too, and he says, now there's someone I can work with.

And he says to Abram, who was a moon worshiper at the time, see, as it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end, okay? Allah is the moon god, okay? He goes into the moon-worshipping people, and he picks out an idolater, a moon worshiper named Abram, and he says to him, I am the living God, and I will bless you and make you the father of many nations.

In fact, he says, if you leave your father's house and leave your idols and leave your family and follow after me, I will bless every family in the face of the earth through you. What a promise. The man doesn't even have children.

He says, your seed is going to be so many, there'll be like the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky, and he says, I'll bless every family in the world through you. That's a huge promise. Now, that promise has been fulfilled.

Every family on earth has been blessed through Abram's seed, because God brought the Lord Jesus Christ through Abram, and he's blessed everybody. That's what Cheryl's talking about today, people, tribes you never even heard of, ancestor worship, animists, Muslims, every family in the earth has been touched by the seed of Abram, and Abram himself was barren.

Abram himself was totally fruitless. Abram was past child-bearing years, but God brought about a whole new nation through Abram, and so therefore he actually changed his name to father of many nations.

We talked about how, you know, Abram obeyed God. He went out on his pilgrimage. It keeps on saying in the Bible that everywhere Abram went, God says, come with me, I'll show you the land I'll give you, and he went to Israel, but it wasn't called Israel at the time.

It was Canaan. Everywhere Abram went, he'd do two things. First he'd put up an altar out of stone, and second, he'd pitch his tent, okay? That's your priorities there, all right? What's lasting? He never built a house.

He never dug a foundation, okay? He lived in a tent. The thing that was lasting in his life was the altar, or the spirituality, or the worship, and even building an altar is a confession, I'm a sinner, and I need a substitute to take my place.

That was what the eternal thing about Abram was, and the temporal thing is his house, okay? Now, exact opposite priorities of the world. He follows God, but one time, he's in the promised land, and we talked about this last week, I'm not going to reiterate, but one time, he slipped, because he's in the promised land, and he's following God, and God says, I'll give you this land, but he doesn't own one square inch of it at the time.

The land is inhabited with Canaanites, people cursed of God, people that were doomed, people that were totally immoral. It was a bad, bad place to be, and Abram's going from place to place out there, but a famine hit the land at one point.

And then we come, in Genesis 12, to the first mention of the country Egypt, is in Genesis 12. When the famine hit the land, Abram took his family down to Egypt, and the first mentions in the Bible, Genesis is full of first mentions, and first mentions in the Bible, the way something's mentioned first, it sets the character of that place from then on.

So Egypt will always be a symbol of reliance on the world, okay? And I read a scripture last week, woe to those that go down to Egypt, woe to the rebellious children who go for help in Egypt. Abram went to Egypt.

You know, you think he could go to Egypt, kids, adults, you think he could go to Egypt and be alright? We'll just wait out the famine in Egypt. Well he did get food in Egypt, there's plenty of food in Egypt, actually Egypt was the most civilized place on the face of the earth, in a manner of speaking, it was the most advanced society at the time.

And so he went down to Egypt, but you can't just touch Egypt, you get all kinds of snares and traps in Egypt. For example, at the border, Abram's looking at his wife, and he realizes that even though she's passed childbearing years, she's beautiful.

And Abram knew that the Egyptians would just take your wife from you, if they could. It's just raw power. So he says to his wife, in fear for his own life, tell him you're my sister. I'm going to tell him you're my sister.

That way I can spare my life. See when you go to Egypt, things rise up that you don't know how to deal with. They got a different value system, see what I'm saying? Well, he tells him that she's his sister, and then the Pharaoh gets word that this beautiful woman has come in, and she's just with her brother, she's unattached, so he takes her.

He takes Abram's wife. Now, the reason that this is important in the Bible, this story is told, it has to do with the seed. The seed, remember the promise in Genesis? The seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head, but he shall bruise his heel.

Well, Abram is the one carrying that seed at the time. Now, Abram was supposed to have the seed, Jesus was supposed to be born through Abram and Sarah, alright? But now Pharaoh has Sarah, and if Pharaoh has children through Sarah, that's a direct attack on the seed of the woman.

But even though Abram didn't protect Sarah, God protected her, and God protected the seed. That night, the Pharaoh was plagued, and woke up, and realized the reason for the plague. He didn't touch Sarah, but he realized the reason for the plague is because Sarah was not Abram's sister, but his wife.

So he calls Abram before him, and he rebukes him. Sometimes believers get rebuked by the world. Why did you do this? Why did you lie to me? I could have been guilty of adultery. The world is rebuking God's man, because God's man compromised, fell into sin, went down to Egypt, and then the Bible says the Pharaoh loaded him up with all these goods, and sent him out.

Out of Egypt. Remember the Bible says, out of Egypt I've called my son. And that became like a prophecy of what would happen 400 years later. Children of Israel would go into Egypt, come into back captivity, and come out with all the spoil.

Returning to Bethel and the First Love

That's where we start in Genesis 13. I wanted to bring you up to date. Two things. What happens in Genesis 13, and what happens in Genesis 14, are connected together. There's a continuity. Genesis 13, it says in 1 through 4, Abram went up out of Egypt.

That's what God's calling you to do. He and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him in the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, and silver, and gold. And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. So what does Abram do when he gets kicked out of Egypt, and bears the reproach of a backslider and a compromiser? He goes right back to where he was at the beginning.

He goes right back to his first love. He goes back to where he heard the word at the beginning, and he calls on the name of the Lord. Go to your first love. And that's what this first four verses are saying.

He repented. He went back. He was willing to, we talked about this last week, he lives between Bethel and Ai. Bethel means the house of God. Ai means ruin, okay? What's that saying? That's the believer's position.

I live between the house of God and the ruin. What's the ruin? My old nature, my flesh. What's the house of God? Heaven. How do we know there's part of me that's heavenly, and there's part of me that's earthly?

There's a part of me that's living, and a part of me that's dying, and I live right in between for the time being. It's my promised land, but I don't own one inch of it yet. I'm waiting. So, Abram goes back to where he belonged in the first place.

And it said that he had Lot with him, and Lot came back, verse 5, but what I want to point out is Lot was with him, but wasn't with him. Lot came back, but didn't come back. There's a physical leaving of Egypt, and there's a moral and spiritual leaving of Egypt.

Abram left Egypt. Out of Egypt, God called Abram. He left. He went right back and set up the altar again and went back to his first love. Lot left Egypt physically, but he didn't leave it morally and spiritually, as you'll see.

Lot’s Materialism and the Division of the Land

Verse 5, Lot also, which went with Abram, what's it say about him? He had flocks and herds and tents. Lot didn't come back. All it says about him is what he had. And then the story says, the land wasn't able to bear them that they might dwell together, for the substance was great so that they couldn't live together.

And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And what the reason it says that is twofold.

Number one, if there's a division in the body, in the family of God, the unbeliever sees that. Someone prayed about that this morning, that there be no division. The unbeliever sees the division. It becomes a denial of Christ.

But also, the unbeliever sees the division becomes a vulnerability, okay? We can divide and conquer, okay? So the Perizzite and the Hittite, because they could see this, Abram gets together with Lot and says, Lot, we shouldn't have this problem.

They're watching us here. And basically he says, Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we're brothers. Isn't the whole land before you?

Separate yourself, I pray thee, from me. If you take the left, then I'll go to the right. If you depart to the right, then I'll go to the left. He says, listen, you look out there, and you go one way and I'll go the other, or if you choose the other, I'll go the other.

And Abram gives the choice to Lot. And Lot takes a look at the landscape. And to the east, he sees just an oasis, fields of grass, perfect for grazing, especially in the valley that's at the bottom of the Red Sea, where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were.

But it was so green and so perfect for, quote, business. And then he looks to the west, and he sees semi-desert, scrub country. Now, if Lot had been a spiritual person, he would have given the choice to his elder, his superior, his uncle, the man God called.

No uncle you choose. But because Lot had Egypt in him, even though he wasn't in Egypt anymore, because Lot had been inwardly seduced by the fallen values of the world, it says he immediately chose for himself.

That's what, literally how it puts it, verse 10. Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, and it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you come unto Zohar.

Looked just like the land of Egypt. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves, the one from the other. So there's a separation that happens. Not everyone that's in Christ is in Christ.

Not everyone that's Christian is Christian. And sooner or later, something comes out where there has to be a separation. You can't help it. There must be a separation. And this is the separation. Lot goes one way.

He went his own way. And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain. And look at verse 12. He pitched his tent toward Sodom. What you see when you read Genesis closely is first he goes toward the valley, then he pitches his tent toward Sodom.

And next thing you read, he's in Sodom. And the next thing you read, he's in the city government of Sodom. He's part of the leadership. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen overnight. It's subtle.

It's an inward seduction. It's a buying into the false values of this fallen world. And it says in verse 13,. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said unto Abram after that Lot was separated from him,.

Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which you see, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. Notice that?

I'll give this land to your seed forever. You have phony Christian leaders actually saying Israel has no right to the land. God told Abram, forever! It's yours. I'll give it to you. And when I do, it'll be forever.

I'll make thy seed as the dust of the earth. So that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, in the breadth of it.

For I'll give it to you. Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Hamri, which is in Hebron, which means fellowship. And there he built an altar to the Lord. He goes back to the dry, scrubby, empty land.

Lot goes to the rich, watered, fertile plain. Abram goes back to his tent out in the middle of nowhere and the altar that he builds to worship and confess that he's a sinner in need of redemption. And Lot goes toward Sodom.

Now, not everything about Sodom would be what you'd consider negative. There's probably a lot of good business opportunity there, and there's merchant marts, and there's commodities training, and you can get your wool sold right away and probably get a better price.

And there's great restaurants, and there's wonderful theater and plays and new styles. Abram's a pilgrim who looks for a city whose builder and maker is God. But Lot's been inwardly seduced, and he's headed toward the city of man.

Now listen, this is not just a history lesson. And these things aren't put in the Bible just to satisfy our curiosity. Each one is picked out by the Holy Spirit to speak to us, upon whom the end of the world has come.

What does it say? The end of the world will be like the destruction that comes on Sodom and Gomorrah. The end of the world will be like the days of Lot. And the same dynamic you got happening there. You got a backslider getting filled with his own ways.

Genesis 14 and the First War in the Holy Land

But when Abram chooses the unseen, then the promise to him is deepened and broadened. Then the promise is expanded, and Abram is enriched that way. Now, we go to Genesis 14. It came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariot, king of Elessar, Chedorloamer, king of Elam, entitled the king of nations, that these made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shinam, king of Adma, and Shemeber, king of Zebulun, and the king of Balaam, which is Zoar.

Now, I want to bring a point out. Everything you read in Genesis, one of the significances of everything is if it's a first. This is the first recorded war that there was. The first recorded war. Now, like I say, when you read Genesis, I always think revelation.

Genesis is like revelation. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end. The first recorded war was where? In the Holy Land. Who are the participants? Well, it says that Amraphel was the king of Shinar.

Shinar is Iraq. Babylon. Ariot, the king of Elessar. Chedorloamer, the king of Elam. Elam is Persia. Entitled the king of the nations. The nations. All the nations come down to the Holy Land. All the nations come to war against Israel.

The first recorded war has the nations coming in to make war in the Holy Land. And the last recorded war is going to have all the nations of the world go down to the same place. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end.

If you hold your finger in Genesis and look with me in Zechariah chapter 12. It's prophetic. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.

Even he wants you to think Genesis. Behold, I'll make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about. Immediate neighbors of Jerusalem tremble with rage and fear. When they shall be in siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

That's what you have going on there right now. A siege. But then he broadens it. In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it should be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

In the end, all the nations will come down. All the peoples of the earth. Did you know that most of the work the UN has done since its founding in 1948 has been resolutions condemning Israel? All the nations.

Zechariah 14. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. Verse 2. For I'll gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city should be taken. The house is rifled.

The women ravished. Half the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

And his feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a great valley, and half the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Revelation, Armageddon, and the Nations as Beasts

If you go to the book of Revelation, chapter 16, it's the first recorded war, but it becomes a shadow and a picture of the last war. A world confederation comes. And the people they fight in the Holy Land, they're not Christians, they're not faithful to God.

The king of Babylon and the king of Persia come down to fight against the king of Sodom and Gomorrah. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. The leaders of Israel are called the king of Sodom, in Isaiah 1.

In Revelation, Jerusalem is called Sodom and Egypt, the city where our Lord was crucified. Do you know they have a gay rights parade down the main drag of Jerusalem? The holy city, the city that's the joy of the whole earth, and the city where our Lord was crucified, Revelation calls it Sodom in the last days.

Revelation chapter 16, let's see. Verse 12, the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates. That's where the U .S. military is right now. And the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they're the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And they gather them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.

Go back to Genesis. In 14 it says that the nations came down and they make war with the rulers of the holy land, only the rulers aren't too holy. Bera, the king of Sodom. Bera means the son of evil. I mean, his names are like Nimrod, they're just open.

Bershah, king of Gomorrah. Bershah means iniquity. These people even name their kids evil names. They're so evil. Shanab, king of Adma. Shambar, king of Zebuam. And the king of Bela, which is Zoar. These were cities that rung around the coast of what's now called the Dead Sea.

At that time it wasn't dead. I wonder what killed it. Maybe brimstone? Used to be a valley there, now it's not. It's a sea that's basically they harvest salt out of it. At the southern end of the Dead Sea.

The water's three feet deep. And then underneath the salt that they just keep on mining out. Be careful that you don't buy salt from Israel. You might put Lot's wife on your macaroni and cheese. All these join together in the Vale of Sidon, which is the Salt Sea.

He's saying that from his perspective. It is now. It wasn't at the time. Twelve years they served Chattelomere and the thirteenth year they rebelled. All these kings in the Holy Land. The king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and all these cities.

They were vassals to Babylon. See, Daniel says the world empires and everything, they're all beasts. It's not like there's good guys and bad guys. They're all beasts. The U .S. itself has become a beast.

What about Serbia, what we did to them? You wonder why they burned down our embassy? We take the heartland of their land and Clinton bombs it on behalf of Al-Qaeda. And now we support fully a new terrorist Muslim state right in the heart of Europe.

What do you think we are? Daniel saw the nations coming out of the sea as ferocious and fierce beasts. And the first battle is one beast against another. Babylon represents the raw power and multifaceted religions of the world united against God.

Sodom and Gomorrah represent the decaying pleasures of the world. And one's a vassal of the other. Only they rebel and they want to throw off Babylon. It wouldn't even matter. It wouldn't even matter at all.

Abram Rescues Lot by Faith

Only when the king of Babylon comes in and executes a military campaign that's outlined in this chapter, he just happens to pick up Lot when he sacked Sodom. Lot and his family. One guy and his family in a sea of evil.

Lot, you wanted business. You wanted Sodom so bad you saw the green grass. You knew the opportunities. Of course you're not gay. But still there's good reasons to go there. I always dice him. I'm moving to such and such town.

Do you know a church there? No. Abram never went anywhere without building an altar first. Lot wants to get on the fast track. Now he's sacked with Sodom. But you know what? God knows who the Lots are and God loves them still.

The only reason this is even in the Bible is because Lot was there. He's captured with all the thousands of others that the king of Babylon was going to make slaves as they routinely did. But when the word got to Abram, out in the dry part, all Abram had was God.

When the word got to him, he assembled his employees, which were 318 people who worked for him. And he also made alliances with some of the other kings in his area. And he got together an army. And he went and smashed the king of Babylon and the king of Persia.

That's what's going to happen in the last days. A small army of 318 men, and they're going to smash the king of Babylon and Persia. We've already seen it happen in our lifetime. Ever since 1956, 1948, 1967.

How many times has a small postage stamp nation, Israel, smashed the combined Arab armies? Oh, you're going to see the ultimate fulfillment of it in the last, in the very end. But first they have to go to the wall.

And Abram comes out in the power of God and smashes the army of Babylon. Then an amazing thing happens. They come back and he comes back with all the spoil and all the prisoners. I mean, he recovered everybody.

Melchizedek Versus the King of Sodom

Then on the road back, there's two people on either side of the road meeting him. One was the king of Sodom. And the other was a figure that comes out of nowhere named Melchizedek. Sometimes in your spiritual life, all the fog clears away and everything just becomes crystal clear.

In fact, I think that's what's going to happen in the last days. The fog will clear. Ultimately, after a while, the fog will clear and the choices will be so clear. I see what's going on. There's a place in the Revelation where it says the Antichrist and the beast, they arraign themselves and they openly make war against the Lamb.

And then it says, and out came the kings of the earth on their side. Oh, it's what they've been doing all along, only it's not so clear as it becomes. At the end, it just becomes clear. A clear choice.

The king of Sodom or Melchizedek. It says in verse 17, the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kenner Lammer. And of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shava, which is the king's dale, Sodom comes out to meet him.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

And he blessed the Most High, which hath delivered thy enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. The king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. See, it's a clear choice.

Melchizedek or the king of Sodom. Let me talk for a minute about what they said. Because what they said is what they both offered. The king of Sodom, the first thing he says is, Give me. But he's going to make a deal.

He's going to give you something too. You give me the souls, is what it literally says, and I'll give you all the goods that you captured in war. The king of righteousness. Because that's what the word Melchizedek means.

Melchi is king and zedak is righteousness. He's the king of righteousness. He was king of a city called Salem. We now know of it as Jerusalem. What's Salem mean? Peace. The king of righteousness and the king of peace.

He doesn't say, Give me. The first thing he says is, Blessed be God who gave you the victory. He doesn't really offer him anything except utter dependence on God. He doesn't offer to make him rich. He gives him bread and wine.

That's what he offers. The other one will make you rich. Like that. He'll make a deal with you. The king of Sodom and the king of righteousness. The thing about the king of Sodom, of course, we read the whole book of Genesis.

Abraham didn't have Genesis 19 yet. It hadn't happened. But Genesis 19 will tell you that Sodom was doomed. The king of Sodom was doomed. And even if he could make you rich, it wouldn't be for very long because Sodom was doomed.

I'm telling you, they reaped salt out of the south end of the Dead Sea where Sodom used to be. And if you ever see a picture of it, there's pillars everywhere. Remember what it says about Lot's wife? She became a pillar of salt.

Seriously, you look at that and you see these little columns of salt. That's where Sodom was. Sodom was doomed. See, what do we see at the end of this chapter? The world can offer you everything, but it itself is temporal and doomed.

Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. The king of Melchizedek comes out of nowhere. As Hebrews says, he had no father or mother. No descent. Doesn't say anything else about him until the Psalms.

He shows up again in Psalms. He comes out of nowhere. He shows up again in the book of Hebrews. Listen, I believe that the king of Melchizedek is Jesus himself. He's the priest of the Most High God. And he doesn't offer to make you rich.

But he offers bread and wine. He offers forgiveness and communion with God. He offers you a blessing from God. And the focus is on God. So what's he really offering you when he offers you a blessing from God?

He's offering you utter dependence on God and all that that involves. The king of Sodom, the temporal king, the doomed king, he can make you rich. His first words are, give me and I'll give you. He can give you the spoil.

But he himself is doomed. And so the choice becomes clear. Verse 22 is very instructive to us. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelace, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.

I don't want anything that you would give me. Nothing. I don't want anything, not even a shoelace from you. That's Abram's answer. I don't want anything that I can't say God didn't give me. Anybody here?

I don't want to win the lottery. I don't. I don't want that. That's from the king of Sodom. That's from the king of this world. Okay? I don't want anything that God didn't give me. I swear by God, he says, save only that which a young man hath eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshkol, Mamre, let them have their portion.

They can take what they want. I don't want it. He already passed the little test with his nephew, Lot, on the land. Lot, you choose. I'm not going to take the best for myself. You choose. You think of the gall of Lot choosing over his uncle.

I'll take the green. In closing, you know, where do choices take you? I guess our whole life is composed of the choices we make, huh? He reaches out and grabs. Man, I'm going to get rich. I'm going to have a business.

Oh, I've got to move closer to Sodom. It just makes good business sense. Oh, is there a church there? I don't know. I can worship God in my backyard. Abram wouldn't go anywhere without building an altar.

In the end, when everything clears away, it's a clear choice between Sodom or Melchizedek. It says that Abram tithed to Melchizedek. That's an act of worship. When you tithe, when you give your gifts and offerings, you're not giving to keep the lights on.

If God doesn't want these lights on, I don't want them on. I wouldn't want you to give so we can stay open. You're not giving to me or the church. You're worshiping God. God doesn't need our money to stay on the air.

Amen? But you know what? We need to worship God. We need to give. Abram tithed to Melchizedek. What is he saying? Jesus, I won this battle because of you. You are the one that owns the heavens and the earth.

I want what you offer, the bread and the wine of communion and forgiveness. I want the eternal life, the unseen things. The lots of this world, they'll go for the scene every time. Give me the green grass.

You can only walk together for a short time. Sooner or later, you have to part. Father, in the name of Jesus, there's so much in this that I'm afraid that I can't do justice to, but I ask the Holy Spirit to.

Breathe your breath and life on the word, Lord. Speak to us, O Lord. Let us be as Abraham, Lord. Let us be as one who believes in you and who chooses the unseen things, Lord. Let us have a clarity, Lord.

Let us see it for what it is, O God. If there's any lots here, Lord, be inwardly seduced. With us, but not with us. Out of Egypt, but not really out of Egypt. Deal with us, O Lord God. I've been many times in my life, O God.

I've chosen for myself the worldly way, Lord. And I get burnt every time, Lord. Deal with all the lots in our midst, O Lord. Purify us of people for yourself that we might give you glory. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, God bless you.