Parting Ways For Peace

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Don Filcek, Beginning with God: A Walk Through the Book of Genesis; Genesis 13:1-18 Parting Ways For Peace

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service
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This is a message from the series beginning with God walking through the book of Genesis by pastor of teaching and vision
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Don Filsack If you'd like to learn more about recast or access our sermon archive, please visit us at recastchurch .com
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Here's Pastor Don This morning. We're gonna be back in the book of Genesis and we're gonna be in Genesis chapter 13
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The storyline of Genesis advances at what at face value like if you just read Genesis 13 like we're about to Without any real, you know without any significant study or dissecting it
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It could just come across like connective material like it just moves along from Abram to one point to another
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Last week we left Abram or I mean Abram left Egypt after a super weird scenario with Pharaoh and Abram's wife
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Sarai and You probably those of you who are here know exactly what I'm talking about there's just that weird weird scenario where Abram ultimately kind of Stopped expressing faith in God and told a lie to Pharaoh saying that his wife was his sister
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And so Pharaoh takes his wife Sarai to be his wife and it just gets all it was all kind of convoluted
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You can go back and listen to those Our former messages are on are on our website and are also podcast through iTunes so if you want to go back and listen to that if you weren't here, it would kind of make sense of what
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I'm Talking about but we know that Abram left last week blessed significantly with material wealth
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He was actually paid a dowry for his own wife. And that's how convoluted that situation got. He was deported from Egypt and Now we know so far throughout the book of Genesis Some things that I think it's beneficial for us to wrap our mind around and as we move forward
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God has created it all the text is established that this is all his world He loves it all but humanity rebelled against him and basically broke the world we went through now in the text the dark history leading up to the flood where Sin was multiplied and became the world became a very wicked place there was the
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Tower of Babel and God spread out people across the the planet spread out the languages and stuff like that and it's in that context of sinful rebellious
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Wicked humanity that God is going to call out a specific man to be his chosen man through whom he would work his plan of restoration
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So we've broken the world and God is putting together a plan to restore the world into a correct relationship with him
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And we know that this plan will involve a couple of different things first It will involve them the creation of a great nation and that was a promise that God gave to Abram And that great nation is
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Israel the giving of a great land the land of Canaan given to the people of Israel and eventually the
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Giving of a great blessing and who is that great blessing? Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is that great blessing and so It really was
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Jesus Christ coming through the nation of Israel protected by the land that they were granted ultimately yielding the
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Final fulfillment of all of the promises in Jesus Christ and all that started with God having a sit -down with a man named
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Abram So that's why he's significant. The book of Genesis is gonna give a large section of Scripture Dedicated to the life of Abram and have any of you ever kind of wondered why so much of Genesis has taken up with Abram's life
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Maybe if you've read if you've read Genesis from beginning to end you would you go? Okay, there's a pretty big chunk and we're gonna be in it We're gonna be talking about Abram quite a bit week in a week out
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But it's because of the significance of this promise that God is doing something new through Abram It's something significant on the global scale
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And so he's gonna let us get to know Abram this this guy who is basically the forefather of our faith
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And in our text this morning we see God refreshing his promise to make Abram a great nation And also the promise to give him a great land
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But we also see here in the text a refreshing of the character of Abram Abram had this little aside from faith in Egypt and now he returns to the place of God's blessing
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And he takes some dramatic steps of faith. Once again, we see Abram's life kind of like a yo -yo
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I think it's great that scripture shares stories like this with us because I think it's very much where we live
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How many of you would recognize that there's ups and downs in your relationship with God? And I mentioned last week how some of those?
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Changes and those shifts can turn on a dime how one day you can just be thoroughly at like the mountaintop experience with God It's like I'm there and he's there and we're talking it's just like there's interaction and there's relationship that's going and it's
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I'm on fire for God and the next minute things can just tank and Then the next minute
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I'm on fire and I'm confessing my sin and I'm repenting and I'm and this is kind of one of those up so so last week was a
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Would you acknowledge if you were here that that was a little bit of a downtick in Abram's life a little bit of a valley
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Last week him going down to Egypt and lying to Pharaoh and all that happened But now this week he re -encounters
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God and he's reinvigorated in his relationship refreshed and restored Because he comes back to the place of the worship of God And he and he's changed enough that he's going to give up any hope in his nephew lot as the heir we're gonna see ultimately in our text a parting of ways of Abram and lot lot being the
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Logical heir of his line and that parting is going to be significant in demonstrating the faith of Abram Abram believes
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Ultimately by the end of this text that he will have an heir even though the odds look pretty slim And we're gonna talk about that So as we come to the reading of this text and then to worship as the band comes to lead us
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Listen for God's gentle reminders of promise and remember that these promises eventually lead to the birth of the
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Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior so open your
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Bibles, please to Genesis chapter 13 You can find that on page 8 if you take that paperback Bible out
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You can find it there easy easy to find if you don't own a copy of the Bible, please take that one with you
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We want everybody to have a copy of the Bible and if you don't have an English Standard version of the Bible you can Take that one as well. It's not a magical version.
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It's not it's not the only one that God uses It just happens to be my my favorite and I think it's easy to read and it's also easy to study and so that's why
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I chose that version, but I Would I would love for everybody to have a copy of the Word of God follow along as I read
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Genesis chapter 13 the very words of God to us this morning So Abram went up from Egypt He and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the
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Negev now Abram was very rich in livestock in silver and in gold and he journeyed on from the
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Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai to the place where he had made an altar at the first and there
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Abram called upon the name of the Lord and Lot who went with him also had flocks and herds and tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together for their
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Possessions were so great that they could not dwell together and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's flock
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Livestock and the herdsmen of lots livestock at that time the Canaanites and Perizzites were dwelling in the land
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Then Abram said to lot let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen
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Is not the whole land before you separate yourself from me if you take the left hand then
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I will go right and if you take The right hand then I will go left and lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the
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Jordan Valley was well watered Everywhere like the Garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zohar This was before the
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Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah spoiler alerts there So lot chose for himself all the
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Jordan Valley and lot journey east thus they separated from each other Abram settled in the land of Canaan while lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom Now the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the
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Lord The Lord said to Abram after lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are
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Northward and southward eastward and westward for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever
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I will make yourself offspring I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if anyone if one can count the dust of the earth your
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Offspring also can be counted Arise walk through the length and the breadth of the land for I will give it to you
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So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre which are at Hebron and there he built an altar to the
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Lord Let's pray Father as we come to this text we see a man whose life is held up as an example for us we see his downfalls and his problems and we also see his acts of faith and his stepping out to make peace with his nephew and father some awesome things that are nuggets of Benefit nuggets of good things that we ought to have in our lives
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But equally more importantly we see that it's not just the model not just the example of Abram in the text
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But ultimately it is you working your plan and your promise father
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I ask that you would open our eyes to the promise that you have given us through Jesus Christ and that as we have an
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Opportunity to sing songs to you and worship you and rejoice in you Father that you would move in our hearts and in our midst to bring honor and glory to your name
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I ask this in Jesus name. Amen Thanks a lot to the band for leading us. I always appreciate
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The work that they put in every week to to lead us in worship I'll make sure you have your Bibles open in front of you to Genesis chapter 13 again
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That's page 8 if you lost your place in the in that Bible And I remember that you can get up at any time get coffee doughnuts juice men's bathroom back there women's restroom up here
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If you need those at any at any point during the message Last week those of you who were here last week
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There's something that's a little bit different and something that seems to be missing from this text that if you were here and you're kind of following the logical flow and you're realizing that these are real events in A real person's life and you were with us last week
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Then you know that what the you know, the reason why Abram went to Egypt last week What was the reason that he went to Egypt does anybody remember a famine?
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Okay. He went there for water Yeah, he he went there for food and water because there was a famine in the land So, you know, you'd see right away in verse 13 an explanation of what happened to the famine, right?
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No, no, you don't it's not it's it's not there There's no mention of the famine and how many of you think that you might kind of wonder what's going on here?
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like he went down to Egypt because there was a famine has this whole fiasco with Pharaoh and his wife and then
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All of a sudden he's back in the land and no mention of a famine and I mean that could cause problems for us
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Unless we understand a couple of things It's quite possible By some of the terminology that we're gonna see here that it's quite possible that Abram has now become wealthy enough to be famine proof
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Okay that that he actually can pay he has means to pay for food in a time of scarcity
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Now, you know what happens to the price of food in a time of famine or drought? Well, the price goes up But it's as if Abram could probably pay double or triple price for a loaf of bread at this point and be fine
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He's he's well to do at this point So that might be part of it Another option is that there's the possibility that we what we had last week was a very abbreviated
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Account of what could have been over the course of a period of time in Egypt There was no time indicators in the text last week
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We don't know how long Sarai and Abram were wandering around in Egypt We don't know how long that took and it's possible that the famine has expired and now things are getting better in that land and we'll see some indications that at least a
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Portion of the land is doing well By the time that we get there here in this text, so it's probably quite likely that things have improved
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But either way we find out in verse 1 the Abrams nephew lot has been with that with them all along now
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Was lot mentioned at all last week? No, he wasn't even mentioned in the text, but now we find out he was there he was present with them
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He wasn't a significant part of the story. So the text didn't mention him in last week's drama
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But he was there with them in Egypt. This shows that Abram has been caring for his brother's son
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Remember that Abram's brother died. This is all the way going back to Genesis chapter 11 at the very end of that chapter
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We found out that Haran the father of lot died way back in Babylon. So they've been caring for their their nephew all of this time taking care of him and I've mentioned before that lot was the logical heir of the extended family of Abram He's the only living male descendant in the family tree on the on the branch below Abram and his brothers
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And so if Abram were to die at the start of Genesis chapter 13, who would get who would be the logical heir of Abram?
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Lot he would get all of his stuff and it would be his duty to carry on the family line He is the one who at this point in the text
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He's the one who all the hope for the future generations is on in this family line Does that make sense to you guys?
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I think because I think that could that kind of plays in here a little bit in the notion of what's going on in this Scenario and the situation in this text between Abram and lot
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I can't help but wonder if Abram kept him along to some degree as plan B for an heir.
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So he's got What's plan a well God promised that he would have an heir But in his flesh in his human understanding
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He's kind of like well I've got lot just to fall back on in case something happens to me and God hasn't provided an heir
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Are you getting that kind of that kind of notion is there he's caring for his nephew Certainly there might be some family obligation in there and just doing what is right by his nephew
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But I'm I'm I can't help but see some of the notion in Abram and the way that he rolls
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Down through the the pages of Genesis that he's he's kind of hedging himself here a little bit as he has a tendency to do
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Now from the terminology of what God promised to Abram as an heir It was very clear that Abram and Sarai Throughout the rest of Scripture understood the promise of God as a biological heir
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It's very clear throughout the remainder of Scripture that they had some notion that what God was saying when he said
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I'm gonna make you A great nation and I'm gonna bless all the people through your offspring that they were indeed going to have offspring
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Yeah, are you getting that promise it's inherent in there And so I would suggest to you that any trust that they placed in lot was ultimately distrust in God Are you getting that connection if they're trusting in him as the heir and God has promised them a biological heir and they're kind of going
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Well, we're kind of hedging our bets and hoping you know, and maybe this will work Maybe this will be and we're gonna see
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Abram do all kinds of silly things in trying to make the promise Transpire all kinds of things that he's gonna do on his part
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But I believe that all that figures in pretty significantly in what we see throughout this passage in this This parting of ways between Abram and Lot and that's the main point of the text is the way that they part ways
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There's gonna be a conflict involved in this and verse 2 sets up the conflict in a strange way We find out that Abram has become severely wealthy.
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I'm gonna translate that directly Verse 2 go ahead and look at it in your text Now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold the word very there
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We've seen that word in Hebrew not too far back If you if you look back at chapter 12 verse 10, we're gonna see the exact same
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Hebrew word translated differently into English But it says now there was a famine in the land So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was what?
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Severe in the land that word is the same exact Hebrew word that's translated very very in our text today
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Can you see how severely and very can be related in English? Severe or very wealthy.
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It's an ironic word. How many of you think think in terms of severe wealth? This is a devastating devastatingly wealthy now you guys we don't tend to think of it in those terms
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But that's kind of the terminology that's used here. He's severely wealthy intensely wealthy that same
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Hebrew word that was emphasizing how bad the famine one was is now demonstrating how How how much wealth how much blessing he's received?
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Is there any doubt that God has blessed Abram when you come to this text that he's he's? Got what he has from the hand of God and even though it's a pretty strange way to do it
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He's very rich in livestock. And now we see even in our text the first mention of silver and gold have
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Nothing has indicated how Abram got silver and gold as a matter of fact. He wasn't even mentioned He did not get his silver and gold from Pharaoh.
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There was a fairly exhaustive list of what Pharaoh gave to Abram and silver and gold was not in the list
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Maybe he sold a couple of those camels that he received last week and got some silver and gold for it I don't know, but he he's an extremely wealthy individual and this seems like a good place for a word about wealth to us this morning
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Abram is severely wealthy and I would dare say that the same could be said for many of us
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And now you can look at me and say severely wealthy done. Come on, like really me like you you're out there
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Really severely wealthy, I mean that's that's lottery winners, right? Those are those are people who you know have their multi -million dollar, you know houses and and stuff like that, right?
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That's severely wealthy Well raise your hand if you have everything that you need. I mean just just think about what a human needs
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Let's let's walk through that list You have clothes you have a shelter to protect you from the cold weather of the storm and you have food to eat now raise
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Your hand and you have what you need Now keep your hand up if you have Most of the things that you want most of the things that you want
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I know raise your hand if you have Some of the things that you want if some of the things on your want list actually make and then that you can put your
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Hands down, but some of us even have everything that we want. We have everything we need we have everything that we want and then we come up with lists of things that we to add to our want list because we're running out of things to want and You know our culture is designed to produce want in us
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Commercials and advertisements and all that stuff Apple is right now developing something that you want. You just don't know you want it yet But they're gonna come out with it in the next few years and everybody in the room is gonna want it
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Okay, all of these, you know, all the technology and all this stuff and it is based on wants
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So when I say that we're severely wealthy if we just stopped at the point where I asked you Do you have what you need?
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That already propels you up into the higher levels of this of the entire planet as far as wealth
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You understand just so you have what you need We're not and then and then most of us raise our hand and say yeah, we got a few things that we want as well right and depending on your contentment some of you might even
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Confess to saying I have everything that I want as well. And that's where we ought to be but um
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That's another issue all together and we're gonna get there as we as we kind of walk through this text and eventually get to the Applications but God has blessed
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Abram with wealth, but wealth is about to cause some conflict for him How many of you know that wealth doesn't solve all of your problems?
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Did you did you know that? Are you aware of that as a matter of fact? I would dare say that wealth has it has the opportunity to accentuate the problems that we already have in our heart
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We're able to express our sin in greater capacity by wealth Would you agree with me on that and that it ultimately is we're gonna talk later
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It actually breeds the desire for more wealth in it and it's kind of contagious in it and it can eat our
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Eat us from the inside out Rather than worshiping God from the inside out. It actually gets in us and we begin to worship it the wealth so We'll return to that at the end but Abram Sarai lot and all their wealth returned to their previous encampment between Bethel and AI and there's a
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Map here. I don't know how helpful this is Hopefully a little bit but you can see Haran up there in the north at the top of the black line there and then coming down they've traveled down to Bethel a few chat a couple chapters ago and then down into Egypt and then
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Down into the Negev down to Egypt and then back to the Negev and back up to Bethel and what what the picture is here
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Is that there's been an out -and -back kind of journey a trip a side note Step out of the way for that famine
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But it's as if in these travels There has been in a sense from Abram for Abram and his family a little bit of a vacation from God Have any of you ever experienced that?
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Like the vacation away from God for just a little period of time and that's that's where we get these Rollercoaster rides right a little dip in the in the pathway you're running and you're chugging along with the relationship with God It's like God.
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I'm just gonna sit out if you could sit out this weekend I'm gonna do my own thing and then we'll get back together at the end of the weekend
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We'll reconnect and get this together You know what? I'm talking about the potential for us to take vacations away from God Of course, we don't formalize that but you know exactly what
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I'm talking about and it's as if what's happened in Abram's life has been to some degree that Putting his trust in himself not as trusting
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God's promises to to preserve him And so here in our text we find that he returns to the first altar
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He made to the Lord look at verses 3 & 4 with me and look at some of the terminology He journeyed on from the
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Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning the beginning of what
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The beginning of his relationship with God the beginning of the promises of God He's gone back to a place of beginnings for himself in a sense going back to the root of his relationship with God going back to the geographical setting where he first encountered
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God where God met with him and promised him the land a Place of significant meeting with God Are you getting what
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I'm saying? And that's where he goes back to to the place in verse 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first The first of what the first altar that he's made the first place where he has ultimately worshiped
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God and there it says at the End of verse 4 and there Abram called upon the name of the
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Lord now We don't know that he did that prior to this point and now he returns to that place of calling upon the name of the
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Lord he returns to a place of worship. Are you getting that? He's taking this he's taking this time away
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But where is he? Where is he going for guidance? Has it has his wealth guided him? Has that told him what to do and where to go?
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No, he's going back to God to figure out what what do I do next? Where am I and he's calling upon the name of the
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Lord and that's where he goes back to Abram has once again found himself in a place of need and he turns to God And I'm curious how many of you have a location and I mean
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I'm talking about Geographical a physical place on this planet that reminds you of meeting with God Do any of you have a place like that?
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Where you where God has met with you and you've met with him and there's been a place of of Interaction between the two of you so some of you may have a routine place
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And so I'm asking in a way that you're thinking. Oh, I got to have some special You know God appeared to me or a voice I'm not talking like that But there
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I'm gonna be maybe you have there's a chair in your house where you routinely meet with God and there's a there's a there's
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A Bible on the on the on the table beside it and you sit there and you read your Bible and you pray and you talk To God about things you should have a place like that.
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I'd encourage you to have a place like that in your home There's a end of one of the couches in my living room where I meet with God on a regular basis
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There's a nice place there for coffee to sit and a Bible there and my you know
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My Bible study material and stuff and I sit there and I pray I I talked to God about you guys
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I talked to God about my family I talked to God about myself and I and I talked to him about his glory and I read his word and I study to know
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Him better and I seek to do that every day I don't I don't succeed in doing that every day, but I seek to do that every day, but um
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You need places like that, but then there's a step beyond that where I would say that here's another illustration
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There's a place at a facility up in Green Lake, Wisconsin It's called Green Lake Conference Center, and there's a workout room in that facility
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It's a it's kind of like a camp area with a lake and all that stuff And there's a workout room where something very significant happened in my life
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I was on the treadmill early one morning before the seminar Lin and I had been sent out there to to basically decide whether we had the right stuff to plan a church and it was an assessment and it felt like we're gonna get
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Voted off the island every night and they're all kind of secret council meetings and stuff and you know Aligning yourself with other people and come to find out they had actually there's a little bit of a side note
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It's not on my notes, but they had actually they did all of our personality profiles We had to do about five different personality profiles before we went out there
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So they would do tricky things like take all the Lions all the type -a personalities put them in a table and have them hash something out just to observe us and kind of like Throwing all the
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Lions into the into the you know in this the arena and having them fight to the death That kind of stuff or although all the weaker people who weren't really, you know
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Weren't go -getters put them at a table or watch them kind of. I don't know. What do you think? I don't know. What are you thinking? So I mean they were doing that kind of they were manipulating us, but So early one morning
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I got up and it's crazy because I remember this I remember this morning just like it was yesterday my My van had a thermometer in it.
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It was 14 below on the thermometer I've never seen that before on a digital readout and Drove over got out and and on a treadmill there
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God God met with me and it was at that place That morning that I said God if you want to plant a church through me,
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I'm willing and That was when recast started it was it was there that I decided yes
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God I believe that you're calling me to this work and I said yes No voice from heaven.
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No promises that it was going to succeed. No Assurances God didn't come down in a white robe and interact with me not an audible voice from heaven
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But I genuinely believe that God met with me there You have places like that where you can point back to or there's a bridge on the north end of sheer lake
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Do any of you know where sheer lake is can't barak hell up north some of you have been there We've been there for men's retreat at that there's a bridge at the north end of that lake where I got down on one knee and asked my wife to marry me and I know
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God must have been present because I can't think of any other reason why she said yes, so so but there are places all this to say that there are places in your life where I Hope that there are places where you have
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Interacted with God in a unique in a special way and there's benefit and there's value and there might come a point in your marriage
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There might come a point in your relationship where it's worth a road trip back Are you getting what I'm saying?
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Where where you might need a refresher on your John your love and your relationship with your spouse and the same goes for Your relationship with God where there might be a place a time
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Maybe it's just as simple as going back closing your eyes and going back to the place where your faith was new and fresh and alive and exciting because you've
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Gone through one of these dips where you're you're recognizing that your faith has grown cold There might be some benefit to an actual geographical get in the car for a road trip and go back to one of these places
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I'm not talking about living in the past by the way I'm not talking about Nostalgia and some of you in the room struggle with that already your your mind is constantly in the past in the good old days
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When God did this or did that or whatever? I'm not talking about that I'm talking about sometimes we need a refresher in order to make those new relationship strides with God, right?
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There's all different kinds of texts in the Bible that talk about Looking back a backwards glance a remembering of what
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God has done more often than not throughout the book of Genesis and Exodus and on into numbers when they're going to Going towards the land and then
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Joshua when they take the land when something when God does something significant in their life What does he ask him to do regularly? It's a weird thing.
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We don't do it anymore He tells him to set up a rock It's a set up a stone set up a monument that when you're walking in the field with your kids
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Holding hands and you look out and they see that rock and they're like dad that rock looks like it's set there intentionally What's going on? You might tell them about the glory of what
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God has done for you That there's a play there. There's room and there's places of remembrance for us another illustration of this is very significant in Romans chapter 6
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Paul talks about your baptism being that for you as a believer to go back to the time of your baptism and recognize that when you were put under the water you died with Christ and You were raised again to new life raised out of those waters as a symbol of what has transpired in your heart
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And and Paul says that that ought to that ought to reform the way that we live That living in light of the past and that there was a point in your life when you stood up and you declared
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I am With Jesus I'm his and I belong to him and he belongs to me and we are together and that there was a point when
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I publicly stated that and there's some value to going back to that for the way that we live Are you are you getting what
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I'm saying? There's room for remembrance. That's valuable to us Abram returns to the place where God appeared to him
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He returns to the altar and there he calls upon the name of the Lord Remembering his
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God who has called him his God who has promised to him But while he's in the area, he's there.
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It's probably routinely calling upon the name of the Lord this wasn't a one -time event, but he's there and he's worshiping God and There in that area the severity of his wealth causes some problems his nephew lot
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Apparently has also been blessed with flocks and herds and tents there in that area And the land in the area of Bethel cannot sustain their flocks.
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There are quarrels and disputes that begin to form between Abram Between Abram shepherds and lots shepherds and they are not the only ones in the land, but also the
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Canaanites That's a generic term for a whole host of peoples But even in particular the
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Parasites not the Paris not the Parasites the Parasites And they are there as well and they lived in that particular area near Bethel a specific
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People group or clan that were in that area And so the impression that we should have is that the land was crowded because of the blessings of God God has blessed both lot.
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God has blessed Abram and there is a lot going on here a lot I Didn't even
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I did not mean that but that worked it worked admit it it was okay so It can't sustain them
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So a so Abram sits down with a lot and they work this out and it's interesting I want to really highlight the way that he works this out
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Abram proves himself to be a peacemaker now How many of you the first thing that you say when you're at war with somebody you're fighting with somebody you're having a disagreement
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With somebody the first thing that you do is you come in right away and you say I just really want to be at peace
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Just really want peace. Can we just be at peace? Is that is that your first level?
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Is that your first first reaction generally speaking? Is that how you roll or is it generally first step defend myself?
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Make sure I'm protected make sure that I get my point across. I want to make sure you hear where I'm coming from I want to make sure you understand where I've been misunderstood and you've misunderstood me and this and that or Just think just think in context of what's actually happening here
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This is nephew and uncle who has the deference here who has the higher Standing in the culture at this time uncle
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Lot lot get your get your shepherds out of my area get You're taking the choicest land.
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You're taking the best land. Get you know, you're this is your shepherds fault They're not being respectful to my shepherds.
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You need do you see how he could come in with guns blazing? Can you picture a scenario where that might happen where someone let's just say hypothetically?
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Someone might come in with guns blazing into a situation Probably not any of you But I mean just you can probably picture that in your mind how that how that could go down and particularly in in family
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Situations many of you witnessed how family situations can get out of hand quickly. Oh, that's heartbreaking to see families at war with one another and it can happen over things like shepherds
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Not enough room for my sheep You get what I'm saying? It can be pretty trivial chintzy things
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There's a way there's a solution for this and Abram shows himself to be a peacemaker I think Abram has encountered
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God and his back on track again. Would you agree with me on this? He's starting to act according to faith once again
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And Abram the first words out of his mouth in verse 8 look at it Then Abram said to Lot let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen
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Family doesn't treat each other this way. That's why he says family ought not to respond this way
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And so he poses a solution in verse 9 That's amazing and shows that this return of return to Bethel has returned him to trust in God and treating others with respect
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He says in 9 is not the whole land before you separate for from separate yourself from me If you take the left hand, then
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I will go right and if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left He proposes that they separate but he gives
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Lot The first choice He said you pick where you want to go and then
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I'll go I'll take whatever's left over Whoa? Does that happen? How many of you are raising children?
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Any of you in the room have kids? You got two pieces of pot You got two pieces of pie or two pieces of cake left, right?
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And your kids are probably always fighting over who gets to pick first right because they always want the other one to pick first That's what happens in my house
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I don't know what's going on at yours, but I mean my kids are always like no he let him pick first No, no, it's always what is it always?
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Let me let me let me I get to and why would they want to pick first because probably because they want the smallest one Is that probably what that's all about is what they really want is no, it's about the biggest one, right?
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And so that's what Abram is Abram and Lot. I mean, do you see how significant what is human nature?
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The biggest one belongs to me right the best one belongs to me Do you see how counter what
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Abram is doing is to human nature What can account for a difference in human nature like this other than faith?
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He's demonstrating faith. He's trusting God and he's he's responding in a God honoring way
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He's demonstrating kindness towards his nephew and Trust ultimately that God is indeed going to give him an heir and land for his people
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Saying I don't need a clamor for this on my own And so just like my kids lot takes the biggest piece of cake
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He judges by the outward appearance sees the fertile plains to the east and heads down into the
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Jordan Valley Now from the vantage point of Bethel They would have had a breathtaking view of the valley to the east and what this demonstrates is that the author of?
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Scripture here had a really fine understanding of the geography if you were to stand at Bethel current modern -day and look east
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Well wouldn't it be kind of valuable to know what you could see from there because if you're standing at Bethel and you're looking east And all you see is you know mountains
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Mountains out there, and it's talking about a fertile valley you can be like this guy didn't know what he was talking about No, you get a breathtaking view of the valley all the way down to the
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Dead Sea And down to the Jordan Valley running to the north there, so it's a it would be a breathtaking view
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But here's the problem is that there's a little bit of a spoiler alert in the text here I mentioned it while I was reading it
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But what really what really happens here is if you were to stand at Bethel looking east Right now this morning what you would see east is
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Desolation the wilderness of Judea you would look down into the valley and you would see salt flats and Basically not much habitation not much green going on down there
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And so what's the difference like you kind of go well wait a minute this says that it's it's it's just this fertile awesome Area like really super good but we're gonna find out that the author tells us that this was before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah something about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah This is this is a
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Texas foreshadowing some of the bad things that are gonna happen in that valley that are gonna result in it becoming less fertile and a less desirable place to live
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But for now when lot looks out to the east It looks like the Garden of the
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Lord according the text well watered like the land of Egypt with ample water supply like the Nile Running through it and so it looks good.
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And so Abram settles in Canaan. He honors what he what he offered it's not like he was a You know a cheap offer or something like that or faults.
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He a lot says I'll take this fertile valley down here So Abram Abram settles kind of near where he is right now in Canaan But lot settles outside of the eastern border of Canaan and he's removed himself from the land promised to Abram He's gone out to the east and he pitched his tent as far as Sodom according the text
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We know eventually that lot will not just pitch his tent near Sodom But he will eventually take up residence within that wicked city next time.
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We see lot. He's going to be living there you see how like I'm gonna you know that you can you can get close to that which is wicked and Think that it's not going to affect you and then eventually you can get drawn into it and eventually we see him without much conscience
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Living in the midst of wickedness and evil, right? We're gonna get there here down the road.
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We'll save that for chapter 19 It's important to note that the city is identified as wicked long before we ever come to chapter 19 though And not only are they declared to be wicked, but they are called great sinners
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Against the Lord which if you think about it, does that sound somewhat redundant to you? To call someone a great sinner at all.
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Does that sound like it's against the Lord? Already, so what's the meaning of this? Why would you why would you add insult to injury or double this up and say?
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Hey, they're great sinners against the Lord What seems redundant to us actually has a point in the Hebrew text
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That their sin is against the Lord indeed, but there's something about Sodom that was not just Generically sinful, but it was rebellious as if they are in knowing opposition to Yahweh God It's as if they know
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God. That's what's implied here is that they are knowingly sinning against God They know him they've they've experienced something of him or they have heard something about him or they know him and they are
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Openly and actively going opposite to him and that's what we're gonna see here So that I kind of wonder if there wasn't something about their idolatrous practices
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If there wasn't something about the way that they worshipped that was intentionally opposing God But now many have been critical of Lot for choosing to dwell so closely to these sinful cities
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Have any ever heard that before? How dare Lot go down into this valley and live among these people have you ever heard that mentioned before or something along those lines?
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Some might think that way but I don't think that's the primary mistake of Lot He had no way of knowing what the people in those cities were like until he got down there and was among them
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Right, he doesn't have any clue, but he sees he's making an agricultural decision He sees the lush valley with all the green and all that stuff and he's going this is this is good
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But he will certainly be found later in a compromising situation having become comfortable in the midst of wickedness as I mentioned
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But I think Lot's sin in the text is something we can all relate to it goes back to that piece of pie issue Because I'm guessing that when you walk through a cafe line
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You're very much like me and when you see when you get down to the desserts You find the biggest piece of cake for yourself, right or the biggest apple or the biggest piece of fruit
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I mean Let's face it. We all know that that was cut for us Right. I mean when you walk through the line
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You're like that bit the biggest one was for me and they they had me in mind When they cut it and they knew that they weren't portioning these things accurately.
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I mean, they're not all measured exactly They wanted that big one for me Can we all relate to that to some degree
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Wanting the best for ourselves I would dare say that very few of us would walk through the cafe line and go you know what?
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I'm gonna pass the biggest one because this guy deserves it more the guy behind me deserves that more than I do
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Is that the way we think? If you do, that's awesome, and I'd love to talk with you afterwards
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But just because we can relate to it doesn't make it right, right? Abram puts me to shame in this passage this man who gave his wife to Pharaoh last week out of fear for his own life
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Now offers the choicest land to his nephew He doesn't put himself above others but shows us what thinking of others as more important than ourselves ought to look like I truly believe that is coming back to Bethel has reaffirmed to him the promises of God and he is trusting in God And after a lot departs east towards what looks like paradise and is going to turn out to be hell
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God once again speaks to Abram and he tells Abram to look to the north Just turn and look north turn and look south
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Turn and look east Turn and look west take it all in It is all
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Going to be yours It all belongs to you and your offspring and not only does he say it all belongs to you
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But he says he promises this to Abrams offspring forever now how many of you maybe have a little bit of an issue with that phraseology that it's gonna belong to Abram forever like Have the
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Jews but let's just talk turkey here for a minute have the Jews always had that land
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Have they always dwelt there? So what is the meaning of this word forever? Like should we deal with that word a little bit?
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Because does it not say in the text that he will give it to them forever. But here's the issue Is there a difference between possessing something and owning it?
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Is it possible to own something but not be in possession of it? Is that possible? I Would dare say that everybody in this room who owns a house still believe you own the house
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Even though you're not in it right now Am I right about that raise your hand if you think you still own your house, even though you're not in it right now
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Okay, so you're not possessing it as we speak, but you do own it Like that's one of the reasons why we don't just allow people to go out and steal unoccupied cars because hey, nobody was in it
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I mean, I didn't know that anybody owned it Because it was empty right. Is there a difference between possession and ownership?
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There is and God is not here put promising perpetual ongoing everlasting possession
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But he is talking about ongoing perpetual Ownership. Do you hear the difference?
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And so that when God actually himself is going to give Israel the boot out of the land for their sinful practice as part of the promise that they they didn't fulfill their end of the
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Bargain, he says you're out and he sends him off to Babylon He still speaks through the prophets in terms of their land
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Their land that they have lost Still theirs. Are you getting what I'm saying now?
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We could get into all kinds of politics here and I'm not gonna go there you can talk with me if you want afterwards and we can talk about politics in the
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Middle East and all that stuff and the Palestinian nation and all that I'd love to talk with you about it, but that's for a different time and I'm not gonna politicize up here
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So some of you have a lot all kinds of all kinds of vested interest in what's going on in the Middle East You study and you research and I'd love to talk with you more, but there's there's there's something about this
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So there's the land component that's going to be better defined later in the text And again, I'm not going to get into all the boundaries and borders
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We kind of talked about that a little bit in the book of Joshua and went through that a couple years ago but now
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There's another issue here. And that is the definition of the word offspring. So who is going to inherit this land?
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The offspring of Abram, okay And who is the offspring of Abram and now we're getting a little bit more into the new heavens and the new earth
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Mindset a little bit more figurative understanding of what's going on here Because what we see in verse 16 is that Abram is promised not just a few offspring
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But more than the dust of the earth. How many of you think that's a large number? More offspring.
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I mean, he's like, yeah Bazillion or something. I don't know If we read that too simplistically
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You know He's promising that Abram's offspring are gonna be more than the dust of the earth if we read it really Simplistically and literally then we ought to see more
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Jews than we do. Do you agree with me on that? The planet ought to just be almost a hundred percent
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Jewish if if we're gonna take that literally So what's going on here that that it can be declared that Abram's offspring is going to be more than the the dust on the earth
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How is this? How is this going to be formed? How is that going to happen? And Paul the Apostle in the
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New Testament is going to clarify that promise for us in a passage in Galatians that we talked about Last summer
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Galatians 3 7 through 9 and this is what it says If you can pull that up there Galatians 3 7 through 9 says this now then
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I know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham who are the sons of Abraham?
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Those of faith those who express faith in God become sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the
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Gentiles by faith if you understand what I just said, I would love to hear you say amen Because he just said in the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the
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Gentiles by faith. Who's it? Who are the Gentiles? You and me if you're not from a
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Jewish descent, then this is talking about you That God would justify you and me
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By faith then he preached the gospel beforehand to Abram saying in you shall all the nations be blessed you and me from among the
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Nations so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith
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Who are the offspring of Abram? us raise your hand if you're an offspring of Abraham and We will be counted in that dust in that that multitude that cannot be counted in the end of time those who
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Have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and I want to tell you I take Great. I mean it gives me chills thinking about what that day will look like I find great hope that we will stand together with on a number of people
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Uncountable worshipping our God in the end. That is our hope Is that a glorious thing?
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Is that an awesome thought and so Abram walks through the land by God's command
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Settles up in the hills of Hebron and pitches his tent near the oaks of Mamre By the way have
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I mentioned that there's an oak tree on our property I think I mentioned that a couple of times now, but I would love you
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How many of you have been out to see the property just curious okay a handful of you have been out there I'd encourage you to go out and see it this oak tree by the way
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We did a little bit of research I walked out there with a couple of experts that Actually have their their degree in horticulture, and we walked it and we measured that tree and stuff that tree
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The estimate a conservative estimate to the age of that tree is 300 years old 300 years old think about Michigan 300 years ago that tree was there
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Okay, six foot diameter. I mean you really have to see this thing to appreciate it, and we're we put a we put a protective barrier of state
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Flags out there hopefully in the process of burning the house and doing all those things We don't do any damage to that tree and so that's one of the things that we're hoping is to be able to preserve
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That thing but there's something here Abram goes down to the this is the stand of oaks and sets up a tent and ends up building an altar there and And I love the notion of what he does there with those oaks and what
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I? Foresee us doing here in this community with that oak a place for returning to call upon the name of the
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Lord a Place where God is going to demonstrate his love to this community a place of life
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Transformation for those who are growing in faith are growing in community are growing in service
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And that's in essence what we're doing Abram comes back to his roots and comes back to a place of remembrance
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This has become that for me Here I hope it has been for you Even just this this storefront area has become a place of returning every week for me to get together with God's people to take communion together and remember and reflect and to come back to that which is most important in my life and I hope that that this this new place becomes that now
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I want to point out We are not seeking to build a structure that will house the
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Lord Okay, we're not building a temple We're not building a tabernacle God will not dwell in this building
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God dwells in you and in me and we take him with us where we go That's fundamental for our understanding
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God forbid that we would think that God dwells in buildings Now is there something unique about those places where he meets with us is there a sense of holy ground?
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Yeah, there's something cool about that There's something cool about a place where the Word of God goes forward and where our worship
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Rises before God We're not building a temple we take him wherever we go But we just frankly need a place to meet after next
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February when our lease is up here So we need a place to pitch our tent. That's what we're talking about So we've covered a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are overwhelmed
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But let me summarize a couple of points I see in this text God might be working in your heart to identify something that you need to do differently or some different Understanding about him that you take from the text
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I'm gonna show you some of the things that that have hit me four different things First is the theme of the severe wealth of Abram Obviously this wealth cost caused logistical problems for Abram and Lot But also
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Abram's wealth gave rise to an opportunity for him to demonstrate his faith in God And as we consider our own wealth, we have a chance to demonstrate our faith in God as well
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You see wealth doesn't cause spiritual problems It's not inherently bad to be wealthy Many people have read scripture and have come off with the wrong notion that wealth in and of itself is evil
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That's not that's not accurate that I mean Abram isn't being declared evil for being severely wealthy here
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But wealth has a tendency to highlight what is already in our hearts Do you agree with me on that has the potential to to demonstrate what's already there for good or for bad?
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Why is God blessed you? Ask yourself that question certainly he desires for us to be generous to those less fortunate than us
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But his blessing also can be a test of our character as well So many who are wealthy are just scrambling for more more security more toys more status symbols
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But what if we were scrambling to invest our wealth into things that really matter beyond us? What if that was the what if we were competing with one another to give to God?
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I don't mean competing like there's a winner or something like that But I mean, what if that was the what if that's what our life was scrambling towards?
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How can I give? How can I how can I help and I? Mean, what if we saw our wealth as a chance to build the kingdom of God not to build a building don't misunderstand me
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That's not where this is going but to build the kingdom of God. I Want to commend you recast for your generosity to your church and to your community
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You've been a very generous people. I stand I stand surprised amazed overwhelmed I'm grateful to God that through that little black box back there
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We take in every month more than we spend. Did you guys know that that's routine here?
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That's become a habit at recast church that over the four years that we've been here I think there are two months maybe exact exactly who hunt runs the finances could correct me on this
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But as far as I can go back and look There have only been two months that we did not take in more than we've spent in four years as a startup church
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That's just that's this is amazing all the way to the point where we paid cash for 12 acres of property here in Matawan Glory to God He has done amazing things just this past week.
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I mean, you'll notice that there's a box out here for for giving Stuffed animals and games to kids at the
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Borges Children's Hospital. You get Bronson. Sorry Bronson Children's Hospital and Just in like five days notice a
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Post was put on the women's network here on Facebook If you're here and you don't know what I'm talking about Then you can talk with my wife and get connected on Facebook through to the women's network that went that went out and within five days we had we had boxes full of stuffed animals and games for those kids who show up there and have to spend the night in the hospital getting treatments and things like that and they
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Games games and they have a stuffed animal placed on every pillow in that ward It's a really cool thing, but they were running low and just just to see your generosity is amazing to me
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But let me say directly that in general I can stand up here and I can commend you as a church But you know your own heart and I want to encourage you to know your own heart and to look inside yourself and say am
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I doing my part because it's quite possible that some in this church I don't I don't know the giving But it's possible that some of you are carrying more than your fair share and others of you are not
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Others of you if you're honest, you're struggling with greed in your heart You want more more and you want protection for yourself and you're not giving to those who are less fortunate than you and you are
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Not sharing in the work of God. And so I leave that up to you I don't I'm never gonna stand up here and tell you what to give
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But I am gonna tell you that it is a spiritual act and that's one of the reasons I stand up here and I say That every week the black box is back there.
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We don't want to pass an offering plate I'm not going to tell you what to give but I am gonna tell you that Dealing with that in regards to your relationship with God is valuable is important asking yourself.
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Why has God blessed me and I would tell you suggest I would say this he has blessed you to be a conduit not to be a
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Receptacle of his blessing but to be a conduit through which his blessing can pass and flow The second thing all that wealth didn't give
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Abram spiritual direction It's not like he got wealthy and all of a sudden his relationship with God He just knew exactly what direction to go.
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So he came back to a place of remembrance and sometimes that is what we need Most maybe that's your application. We need to close our eyes and go back to the place where faith was new
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We need to be refreshed and reminded of the joy and delight of a new relationship with God maybe your relationship with him has grown cold and maybe there's an actual pilgrimage not not a pilgrimage per se but a
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Road trip that you need to take to go back to a place of remembrance of when God has met with you I really see that playing a role in Abram's response to circumstances in this text
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He has returned to Bethel where he met God and his character has been refreshed in this reconnection time
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And so Abram having been refreshed number three models peacemaking skills that it would be wise for us to follow
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Abram's not a Perfect example of everything I could not hold up Abram and say follow everything that he does but in this regard he nails it
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He does a great job with peacemaking skills in this text he goes in with different deference seeking to dispel the strife
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Immediately outright stating that he wants peace how often what kind of situations could we resolve just by?
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Stating that we want peace right from the get -go Now what I really want is to reconcile with you what I really want is peace what
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I really want is freedom from strife What can we do to get there? What if we just stated that up up front in our interactions with others?
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He demonstrated what it means to treat others better than ourselves and my question in this application is do you have someone you need to Take steps to reconcile with is there someone in your life.
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That is a source of ongoing conflict as much as it's up to you I recognize Some of you sitting in this room right now have tried to reconcile with others
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And it's not working as and this is the key as much as it's up to you on your end of the specter
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Have you have you left lines open of communication have you tried to seek peace with others? You can't for how many you know you can't force somebody to have peace with you
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That's not peace, right There has to be there's a there's a great book. I would recommend this to you
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I should have grabbed it out of my office Ken Sandy have any of you ever heard of a guy named Ken Sandy He wrote a book called peacemaker.
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I would love for everybody in this church to read it We would be a better church if everybody read this book. It is a fabulous resource.
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I have a copy I have one copy nobody took me up after first service So it's still sitting in there if anybody wants to borrow it
55:27
Particularly if you know, you've got ongoing conflict it deals with conflict with neighbors family co -workers all different kinds of conflict, but he is just stellar bringing the
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Word of God to bear in Making peace with those around us. You're only gonna only gonna live once and so why not try to be a blessing to others and be instrument of peace instead of war and strife
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And then lastly but never least is the renewal of the promise that has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ God promises to Abram to make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth and If he had just mentioned the dust behind my refrigerator, that would have been significant, right?
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but he does instead mention the the dust of The whole world which includes your refrigerator, too.
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So yeah You've got the same problems that even well, I mean even if your wife is really good at housecleaning
56:20
Do you still have dust behind your refrigerator? So I just wanted to let my wife off the hook She does a great job at that. That's awesome but Anytime that anyone expresses faith, they become an offspring of Abraham because our identity is wrapped up in Jesus Christ Who is the ultimate offspring of Abraham?
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so this last application is to rejoice that God has fulfilled his promise to make for Abraham many sons and daughters and I am one of them and So are you so what should we do?
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Let's just praise the Lord, right? Okay, some of you actually got what I did there.
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You knew you saw where I was going. That's that's right But we are we are and you do the right arm and left arm, but I'm not gonna do that for you this morning
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Maybe Dave should lead that for communion tonight No, no, let's not do that. But here is the thing
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We're gonna we're gonna go to communion if you place your trust in Jesus Christ, you've exercised faith in him For salvation you said
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I recognize your Lord you are Lord and you've asked him to save you Then join with me this morning as we remember the work of God in our lives
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I would love for you to go back in your mind as you hold the juice and the cracker close your eyes
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Take a moment and reflect and go back as much as possible to the place of the starting point of your faith remember the gracious call of God in your life and let that let that wash over you and remember the events and the things that God brought into your life at that time and Then ultimately remember his death for you and take in the cracker and juice to symbolically take in his sacrifice for us
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Let's pray Father, I thank you so much that we have this model in this example of Abram He's so much like us and that we can relate to his ups and downs of life that he's like a rollercoaster ride and even in these first three chapters up down up and It's gonna just be an ongoing rollercoaster ride of faith for him and father
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He nails some stuff that we could do great to follow him and then other things
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He just totally messes up and we would do great to just discard his example But ultimately God your scripture isn't there for an example
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It's not just a model for us to follow or to live by but it's ultimately about you doing your work to save and so this whole sons of sons and daughters of Abraham thing is an awesome thing because it's the way that we're
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Incorporated into your family through faith and trust in Jesus Christ that we can become children of that promise because of Your son and the work that he did for us on the cross and that's what we want to remember as we come to communion
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So I ask that you would fill our minds and our hearts and our thoughts with Correct understanding of you and what you have done for us in Jesus and delight our hearts read just just ignite us with joy
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Because of the opportunity to take part in Remembering what you have done for us and give us strength to walk with you throughout this week because we have encountered you today