When Lust Is the Reason People Reach for the Promise — Carter Conlon

Abraham’s Fear and the Promise in Genesis 12

I want to talk to you this morning about when lust is the reason people reach for the promise. It's a long title, and you'll understand why in a moment. Genesis chapter 12, that's the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

Some people don't know that. They're brand new. We have many new Christians here, brand new Christians, and thank God for that. Now, Father, I thank you with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

You're the only one that can make this word live. Lord, if we live by just our own reasonings alone, it's not sufficient strength. You have to take the word and make it live in us. You have to cause it to burn in our hearts and quicken us so that we can move in line with truth.

And so, Father, I thank you this morning that you will anoint me and those of us who've come to here and give us the strength and the grace, Lord, to acknowledge that your ways are the ways that we should follow.

Thank you, Lord, that you've not left this generation without a testimony, a powerful testimony. And, Lord, we're about to know it, and I pray that you open every heart to it, and I thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Thank you. Genesis chapter 12, when lust is the reason people reach for the promise, and that would be beginning at verse 10. Now, there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai, his wife, indeed I know that you're a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore, it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Please say you're my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you. And so it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.

The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. He treated Abraham well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here's your wife, take her and go your way. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that they had.

Now Genesis chapter 12, the beginning of this chapter starts with an incredible and a supernatural promise that God made to Abraham. I'm going to call him, we know him as Abraham, so I'll call him that from now on.

Now the Lord said to Abraham, get out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now this is the promise that could only be fulfilled in entirety through Jesus Christ.

You and I know that today, and through his church that we're part of. Abraham, the scripture describes him technically as the father of faith. Through him, of course, came a son Isaac, came the patriarchs of Egypt, and ultimately Jesus Christ.

And through Jesus Christ came the church of Jesus Christ, which we are. So technically, we're the fulfillment of this promise that God made to Abraham, that he's going to be a blessing. He's going to have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

And through you and through the blessing that will travel through your lineage, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Thank God for that knowledge today, that you and I are called to be this blessing in the earth.

Now, Galatians chapter 3, verses 8 and 9 says, the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you all the nations shall be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So we have an incredible heritage in Christ. I am called to be a blessing to this world, and so are you. I'm called to be more than just somebody who just muddles through society, looking for a better job and a better life and a better self-image and all the rest of the things that we search for.

But I'm called to allow Christ to be in me that which he promised through Abraham that I would be, that I would be a blessing, that you would be a blessing, that where we travel, the scripture says we would bring this sweet savor of Christ, this sweet fragrance as it is of mercy and grace and power and hope and a future.

Everywhere we travel, this should be traveling with us. This should be our legacy as the people of God. But Abraham made a mistake, and it's very similar to the one that many have made in our generation.

Sarah, his wife, was the human vessel through whom this incredible promise would begin. Abraham could not do this on his own, just as you and I can't be this blessing on our own. But Abraham, even though he knew this, he feared for his own well-being.

And what he did is he redefined the very person through whom the promise was to come. And thus he created a situation where people could take her into their home through lust. Genesis chapter 12, verses 12 and 13 says, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Please say, you're my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake that I may live because of you. Now keep in mind, when Pharaoh saw a beautiful woman, as happened in this situation, he would take that woman into his harem, and it was for no other reason but to satisfy his own lust.

That's fairly obvious. And what Abraham did is when he redefined his wife as his sister and not as his wife, he opened up the way for people to take this vessel, Sarah, through whom the lineage of Christ was going to come.

But he opened the way for people to take Sarah into their home through lust. And in our generation, Paul describes in Galatians chapter 6, verse 12, people in the New Testament who were modifying the message of blessing and grace for the sole purpose of not suffering persecution for the cross of Christ.

Just like Abraham. Many in our generation have done something very, very similar. They've looked and they've seen, they've traveled, and in their heart they've said, if this relationship is clearly identified, then what's going to happen is that I'm going to be persecuted.

I'm going to be ridiculed. I'm going to be mocked. I'm going to be laughed. And so they modify the person of Christ. And it's a tremendous error to modify the person of Christ. It's an error which much of this church age has actually done in our generation.

Redefining Christ to Avoid Persecution

Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3, not to just read it to you, talked about the last days that there would be people who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Just like Abraham, they would suffer from this deep-set unbelief that God is able to perfectly keep us as his purposes through us are being made known.

And Paul goes on to say, from such turn away. These ones creep into households and they take gullible people captive who are still led by unsurrendered sin and unsurrendered internal lusts, always learning but never coming to the full knowledge of the truth.

They resist the truth just as Spiritists resisted one time Moses. But they will go no further and their foolishness will become known just as people previously have come to a place where their foolishness was made known.

How, you say, is this going to happen? Folks, it's not even debatable that in much of the church of Jesus Christ, Christ himself has been redefined as this cosmic Santa Claus who calls nobody to follow him and take up their cross, asks for no sacrifice, does not speak of the denial of self.

It's all about self. Everything's been redefined. Just like Abraham fearing for his own skin, he redefined Sarah as his sister and not as his wife. And when he redefined her, allowed her to be taken into Pharaoh's court because of human lust.

And when we have allowed Christ to be redefined in our generation, we've opened the door to people receiving an alternate Christ, may I call it that, into their house and into their heart, and they're still able to hold on to their lusts.

There's no challenge. It's just, I want this Jesus. I want this Jesus that promises me $100 ,000 for every $1 ,000 I give. I want this Jesus that's going to make me successful in life. I want this Jesus that's attractive to me while I'm still living in my lusts.

I want this Jesus in my house. And when we redefine Jesus. Now, Abraham was paid well for this redefinition, just as many preachers are paid well for their redefinition. Oh, they can have their own airports.

They can have their own jets. They can have huge buildings and tremendous. Oh, society will pay you well when you redefine the promise. And you open the doorway to bringing in this other Christ that requires nothing.

You don't have to go to the mission field. You don't have to sacrifice. You don't have to be rejected. You're the head. You're not the tail. All the rest of this stuff. What a tragic mistake he made. But the scripture says, their folly will become evident in the last days.

Now, Paul's speaking about the last days in 2 Timothy. And he says, their foolishness will become known just as it always has become known. And so the question is, how will it become known? In Genesis chapter 12, again, verse 17, it says, the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house.

In the same way, trouble has been loosed upon this nation and its present handling of the knowledge of God. Just the way Pharaoh was plagued, we are now plagued in America with divorce to the point where a recent news article said, is marriage itself a farce?

Maybe we should just do away with marriage altogether. Why is it even necessary if 50 to 60 of it is ending up in divorce? So why are we even bothering with it? Incredible. Addictions. There's a plague of addictions in America.

Addictions to pornography. Addictions to all kinds of drugs. Even legalizing it. There was a manufacturing place in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago. I don't know if anybody read that in the news. But they moved to another state because their workers were so stoned all the time they weren't getting any productivity out of them.

Addicted to ease. Addicted to entertainment. Addicted to stupidity on television. Addicted. My wife said to me recently, she said, never in the history of the world have people done less and documented it more.

On Facebook. Can you imagine? Just doing nothing. Here's the coffee I had this morning. A picture of it. Here's the flower on my table. Here's the stone stuck in the tire of my car. You know, never, never have people done less and documented it more.

And then not only documented it, but everybody else is documenting they're doing nothing. And everybody is just enthralled with everybody else is doing nothing. Our productivity is dying as a nation. We're falling behind educationally and at an alarming rate.

Our industries are failing. Largely, not totally, but largely. We're living in a season of social and political confusion that's not even deniable anymore. Nobody in their right mind could deny that we're spiraling down so quickly and so deeply.

There's a breakdown of order. And there's a potential of increased lawlessness and violence in our streets. And that's only just naming a few things. And it's all happening because we redefined Christ in America.

There's no other reason. It's inexcusable with churches on every corner in this country that this society is in this shape it's in. And there's nowhere that God lays the blame. Now we want to blame politicians.

We want to blame all kinds of things. But God puts the blame in the pulpits in America. That's where the blame belongs. There's a pretty weak clap on your part for that point. Now in the church of Jesus Christ, our prayers are going to remain ineffective until we realize that the promise of life within us in Christ is for others first and for ourselves second.

The Church’s Calling to Be a Blessing

There's a promise. The promise is that we will be a blessing. But the blessing is for others first. And I always believe that in the measure we give to others, God says I'll give it back to you. I believe that with all my heart.

But it's not our motivation for why we live and move and have our being in him. It's for the sake of others. With all my heart, I say it's time for the church to be the church again. It's time for us to rise up and be the blessing that God has called us to be in the earth.

It's time for you and I again to say like the apostle Paul, Lord, what would you have me to do? It's not how can I use you for my own pleasure. But God, what do you want me to do? What is it that you would like to do through my life that will become a blessing?

God, speak to my heart. Don't let me be afraid. Don't let me live this life to save my own skin. As Abraham once did. Lord Jesus Christ, give me the courage to be the man, to be the woman, the young person, whoever it is that I'm called to be.

Because God, this world is going to perish if somebody doesn't stand up and say this is who the Lord is. And I'm not ashamed to call him my Lord. I'm not ashamed of his cross. I'm not ashamed of his redemption.

This society will perish if somebody doesn't go into the prayer closet again and say, God, consider the threatenings of evil against this generation. And for your holy name's sake, I ask you to shake the place where I am and fill me again with your Holy Spirit.

And let me speak the word of God with boldness by stretching forth your hand through my life, bringing healing to minds, freedom to people addicted, wholeness to homes that are fraying and breaking apart, a sense of direction to young people who are wandering aimlessly in our streets.

Eternity has been taken away from them. The present looks hopeless. They have no future. No wonder they're angry in our streets. Looking for someone, looking for something, someone who will just tell them what the truth is.

God, help us again. That's why James says in chapter four of the book of James, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on yourself. The King James original version, this is the New King James I'm reading from, says you may consume it on your own lusts.

You ask, but it's all about yourself. And because of it, there's a point where God says no more of this. This is not the purpose of my church. The mercy of God will send a famine into the nation. The mercy of God will send a famine into your soul and into mine until finally in desperation, we simply cry out, Lord, God, what are you trying to speak to me?

What are you asking me to do? What do you want from my life? And then James goes on. He's much stronger. He calls it adultery to have this friendship with the world. In other words, to have the same value system as the world has, just adding Jesus to it.

That's why half the churches in this country are empty now because people pass by and say, well, they got the same. I know these guys in my workplace. They're after the same thing I am. They just have added the name of Jesus to it.

I don't really need what they have. That's why he calls it adultery. He said if you have this self-focus in your heart, you become an enemy of God. Now, that's strong language, but I can't apologize for it.

That's what it says in the word of God. And he goes on and says, do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Well, what's the yearning for? God says the Holy Spirit within us is saying, I have created you for more than this.

I've created you for more than, in the case of the prodigal son, just hanging out with unregenerate people, doing what they do, seeking what they seek, eating what they eat, feeding what they feed. I've called you to more than this.

And to get him home, we send a famine into the land. And sometimes to get you and I home, God will send a famine into our soul. Nothing satisfies. The scripture says he'll put you in a place where the bed is too short and the cover doesn't keep you warm any longer.

He won't let you sleep at night. Take away your sense of peace, because it's not true peace. It's a false peace. And bring you and I to the place where I'm sure Abraham, you imagine what he had done. You imagine his wife.

He knows that God's promised that his life is to be a blessing. He knows that promise has to come through Sarah, that it can't be fulfilled without her. And there he is outside the gate of Pharaoh's compound, wringing his hands.

What have I done? Why did I do this? Why did I redefine my wife and put her in this vulnerable position where she was taken into this leader's court because of the lust in his heart? Why did I allow her to be put into this place?

And he's wringing his hands. That's why the scripture says God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. When we finally get to the point of saying, God, my life is intended for more than this.

My life's intended. I'm not destined on the earth. Now, you'll give me a job. I know that. And you'll give me a roof over my head. And you'll give me provision. Those things you yourself said, I'm not to worry about these things you provide for all of these.

But I'm to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness before that provision will come from the hand of God. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist him through humility.

Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humility, Repentance, and Returning to God’s Purpose

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Abraham eventually realized, Oh God, you gave me this promise and I modified it. But Lord, I'm going to trust you for my provision, my protection.

I'm going to trust you for my future. I'm going to trust you Lord that you're going to fulfill this through my life. No matter how I have thought it should be done. If it doesn't come from your hand, it's worthless anyway.

I can see Abraham, I see him in my mind. Outside of Pharaoh's gate. Sick at heart. What have I done with the promise of God? What have I done with my own future? What have I done by modifying the one that you gave me just to save my own skin?

So I wouldn't be left out at work. So I wouldn't run the risk of some personal loss. What have I done? How have I lived this life? What have I done to bring Gloria to see this promise fulfilled? You know when we walk humbly before God.

When we do like Daniel did in the Babylonian captivity. When he opened his window towards Jerusalem and said, Oh God, we have sinned. Confusion of face is ours rightfully because of what we've done. And how we have portrayed you in the earth.

Daniel wasn't necessarily involved in what brought the captivity about. Because he was taken just as a young man into the Babylonian court. But nevertheless, he didn't eliminate himself from the problem.

Neither do I and neither should you. If this nation is spiraling into darkness, then we bear the responsibility for it. And I'm not trying to put a heavy thing on you. Just the reality of it. Before God will lift us up, we've got to humble ourselves now before him.

Say, Lord, the nation's a mess. And it's partly and in great measure because of what your people have done. And how we've portrayed your name in this society. We've run after the same things. And we've redefined you.

And made you palatable so the people could take you into their homes through lust. God, forgive us for what we've done. There's a Christ. There's a cross. There's a cost. There's a blood. There's a Holy Spirit.

There's a purpose. We ought not to back away from that. There's a divine power that comes from God. There's healing. There's words of wisdom. There's words of knowledge. There's a supernatural kingdom.

And we ought not to have shied away from it. Don't expect to be well spoken of by a perishing world. But remember that we're not fighting against these people. We're fighting for every man's soul. Every woman's soul.

And they will never know the difference if you and I don't stand up. And so how did God deliver Abraham? In Genesis 12 verse 18 it tells us. Pharaoh called Abraham and said, What is this that you've done to me?

Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore here's your wife. Take her and go your way. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him.

And they sent him away and his wife and all that he had. And so too in our society, society is now rejecting the testimony that we have placed before them. Thank God. Thank God that they are. Don't mourn this moment in history.

Rejoice. Rejoice that finally this world is saying, We've had enough of you and you're redefined Christ. Take your stuff and get out. We're now at a low point in the testimony of the Christian church in America.

But it's the best thing that could ever have happened to us. Because now the prayer meetings are going to start to be filled again. Now people are going to open their Bibles one more time. They're going to begin to say, I'd like to know the real Jesus, sir, if you don't mind showing me what he really looks like.

They're going to see who Christ really is and say, God, please forgive me for redefining the Jesus that I presented to this society. But by the grace of God, you told me that if I will humble myself, you will lift me up.

And so Lord God, I'm asking you to raise me up. Let the society laugh, let them mock, but let the power of God emanate through my life one more time. And everywhere I travel, everywhere I go, let the miracles of God begin to flow through my life.

Let healing flow through my voice and my eyes and my hands. God Almighty, let young people find hope and direction and a future. Let darkness be turned to light. Let evil be turned to good. Let hell's gates have to open and release their captives.

The Church Coming Home to the Real Christ

Oh God, we're going back to where the power of heaven really is. The power of the cross is really found. Just like the prodigal son, I see something in my heart. We're coming home, folks. The church of Jesus Christ is coming home.

Yes, we've made a mess in this country. We have as the body of Christ. There's no doubt. It's not even arguable anymore. Anybody who argues it is God sitting on the side of the road and their eyesight is gone.

But I'm not downcast by it. I have a rejoicing in my heart because I see so many coming down the road. Yes, we've been in the wrong place and yes, we've been doing the wrong thing and yes, the smell of it is still all over us.

But I see a holy God coming down the road, running towards us. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory, glory to the name of Jesus. I see him coming. I see him running. I see the tears on his cheeks.

I see the garment in his arms. I see the ring in his hand. I see the shoes for our feet. And not in our strength, but in our failure, he's inviting his own church one more time to be his sons and daughters, his representatives in this generation.

Glory to God. Our empty churches will be filled again. The bands are going to strike up their chords and there's going to be singing and dancing again in the house of God. And the joy of the Lord is going to become our strength one more time.

Praise be to God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. I don't even have an altar call. I don't even know where to go from here. I'm just going to get up and go and do exactly what I've been preaching to you this morning.

God has shown me this. In my heart, I'm just rejoicing, saying, Lord, you see, what I've just spoken to you is neither a condemnation of the nation or the church. It's an understanding, once again, of how God will be merciful to a generation that maybe doesn't deserve it.

But he will show his mercy one more time. And first, he will bring his people home. Because if he doesn't bring us home, and if he doesn't bring us back to the right definition of salvation and our Christ, then what will the people coming into the house get if the definition is not right?

And so God, in his mercy, is going to do this. Some people will be offended by it because they love their Jesus they've created. So be it. There's nothing I can do about that. But the Christ of Calvary will be the Christ of his church one more time.

And the beauty of it all is, in the midst of your failure, whatever you've been doing, however you've been living, you can come home. And you're not coming home to an angry God. You're not coming home to somebody who's going to point his finger in your face and yell at you.

You're coming home to the Christ who died for you, coming home to the one who so loved you he gave his only begotten Son. You're coming home to cleansing power and a purpose on the earth, a divine purpose.

Because you and I really can't fully represent the kingdom of God until we understand mercy. And we can't understand mercy until we know we've needed it. I don't know about you, but I need mercy now every day.

Every day. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. This is good news. Pharaoh and his house are about to kick us out. And I love it when he said to her, take her and go your way. And so we're going to take our Savior and go his way.

The way that he would have us go as his people. Everybody's turning against the church. And even in the news they're talking about this unprecedented anti-Christian sentiment. I'm not alarmed by it. I see something.

It's the mercy of God. It's the mercy of God for those who are rejecting the church as well as for the church. And by God's grace, the cry of my heart is, oh God, one more time, may we live to see a massive turning to you.

Numbers so numerous that we can even count them in a way that not even a fool would attempt to touch the glory. Knowing it's you, you have arisen to defend your own name. You have arisen because you're a God of mercy and justice.

Oh, thank God for his mercy. Thank God for this moment in history. You know, there was a church in Revelation. It was the last church in the book of Revelation. And they were a people who had become content with wealth and status and power.

That was their God. They had redefined Christ. And yet he said to these people, he said, anoint your eyes that you may see what you need to. And I pray for you today that God give all of us an eye salve anointing.

The Eyes to See God’s Purpose

That we would start seeing the way heaven declares it to be. That we would start seeing the way Jesus sees. That we would see people as precious as they are to God. That God would give us the eyes to see the potential and even what looks to be the worst off in society.

God would give us his eyes. And we would begin to walk in that realm as they did in the book of Acts when they came out of the upper room and they saw something that was not visible to the natural eye.

Religion couldn't produce it. And the Pharisees' definition of God left them blind to it. But 120 people who knew they needed a savior, who knew there were failures, came out and they were given a vision to see something.

And it was given to them in their strength. It was given in their weakness and in their humility. And that's the cry of my heart now. God, give us the eyes to see our purpose on the earth and what you fully intend to do through your church and through your people.

And don't let me be left out of it. There's no reason anybody here should be left out. He's not limited by your weakness, your struggle, your trial, your education, your lack of education, your culture, your upbringing.

None of that limits God. It's a level playing field when you come to the cross. The hungry heart gets the victory. Thank God for that. Here's what I feel the Holy Spirit speaking to me. It's, Lord, show me the purpose for my life.

Show me. He will. He'll answer that prayer. Now, you might not see it at this altar, but you'll begin to see it. He'll lead you. Just show me the purpose. I have an idea of what my life is supposed to be, but show me your idea for my life.

If you find yourself wringing your hands outside the gate and thinking, God, I've really, I kind of feel like I've blown it. But, Lord, your purpose for my life, you're willing to open that gate, and you're willing to release me into that purpose, but just show me what it is.

Don't let me live according to my own vision any longer, but just show me. What do you want me to do? And quite often, folks, I tell you, it's so out of the box that it has to be God, which makes it all the more beautiful.

It has to be His robe, His ring, and His shoes, because there's no other way it's going to happen. But it makes it an exciting life. It makes it a vibrant life. It makes it a worthwhile life. It makes it a life that has the testimony of His power in it.

That's all this generation is looking for. They're sick of the smoke and mirror show in the house of God. They want to see the real Jesus. And I am convinced that if this generation sees the real Jesus, they will turn.

Many, especially our young people, they'll turn. They're looking for a reason to live. And our three little rhyming word sermons are not going to do it for them. There's got to be people like you and me that have the living reality of God inside of us.

You know, it's ironic, but it's usually the young Christians that win more people to Christ than the older ones. I'll tell you why. Because when you're young, you don't know anything. You only know one thing.

I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. I was bound, but now I'm free. And you go out with that simple story, and people say, I want that, too. I want that, too. Then you get knowledge.

And you start knowing the Hebrew meanings of words. Instead of I was lost, and now I'm free, and you're passing out tracts now. Hey, read this. Instead of just read me. Read God through me. Read what God's doing in my life.

Father, I just thank you, Lord, for, I know I've delivered your heart. And as astumbling as it may be, it's still true. And so I'm asking, God, for every one of us here, that you would just show us what your will is for our lives.

And give us the grace to say yes. Give us the grace to agree with you when you ask us to do something through us that we've not considered. Give us the courage not to be afraid of what people will say or what they will do.

Help us not to try to redefine our salvation. Lord, anoint our eyes to see. In Jesus' name. If that's the cry of your heart today, we're going to worship for a few moments. And just say, God, show me your will for my life.

Just show me. If it's not what I thought it should be, then show me. And if that's the cry of your heart, I'm just going to ask as we stand a moment, just join with me at the front of this auditorium, between the screens in the annex or in North Jersey.