SPEAKER_00: Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find the text printed in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along there.
SPEAKER_00: Also in the Bible under your chair, it's on page nine.
SPEAKER_00: We are in a summer series, Living by Faith, Lessons from the Book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And we are tracking the life of Abram that most of us know by the name Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: His name is going to be changed later in this as we read in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And so where did we leave Abram two weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: We left him in in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And how did he get to Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: There was a famine in the land of Canaan, the promised land that God had promised to give to him and to his descendants.
SPEAKER_00: But there was a famine, and so he went to Egypt with his family, with Sarah, his wife, and his family.
SPEAKER_00: And we pick up Genesis chapter 13, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the Negeb.
SPEAKER_00: Now Abram was very rich in livestock in silver and in gold, and he journeyed from the Negeb 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.
SPEAKER_00: And there Abraham, Abram called upon the name of the Lord, and Lot, who would with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
SPEAKER_00: At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Is not the whole land before you?
SPEAKER_00: Separate yourself from me.
SPEAKER_00: If you take the left hand, I will go to the right, or if I take the right hand, then I will go to the left.
SPEAKER_00: And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was very well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.
SPEAKER_00: This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_00: So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east.
SPEAKER_00: Thus they separated from each other.
SPEAKER_00: Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
SPEAKER_00: Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
SPEAKER_00: I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if no one that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also could be counted.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: 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 Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for the Spirit's work among us and in us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the lessons that you have for us from the life of your servant Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: They are lessons that we also need to learn.
SPEAKER_00: And we will not.
SPEAKER_00: We can hear, but not necessarily learn, unless your spirit works in us.
SPEAKER_00: So, Spirit of God, awaken us.
SPEAKER_00: Awaken us.
SPEAKER_00: Make us hungry for treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Make us hungry for the treasure that is in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in his name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So just a little bit review going back again from two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Josh preached on his time in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he got Abram realized he was going to have a problem when he arrived in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He was going to have a problem, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had a beautiful wife.
SPEAKER_00: His wife Sarah was so gorgeous that he he thought that other men might be interested in her.
SPEAKER_00: And then he started thinking, well, what if those in power in Egypt want to take her for a wife?
SPEAKER_00: They'll kill me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he thought.
SPEAKER_00: So he deceived the people in the land.
SPEAKER_00: He deceived Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, by the way, this is my sister.
SPEAKER_00: Well, she was a half-sister, but it was deception.
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to save his own skin.
SPEAKER_00: For fear that Pharaoh would take care of him to get to Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, as we saw, God protected Abram.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God protect Abram?
SPEAKER_00: Because God had made a promise to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am going to make you into a great nation.
SPEAKER_00: More people than you can count.
SPEAKER_00: Try to count the sand at the seashore.
SPEAKER_00: That's how many children I'm going to give you.
SPEAKER_00: And Abram heard that promise, and no doubt to some extent he believed it, but here he was trying to take control of his own life to preserve his life.
SPEAKER_00: No, he wasn't going to die.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't in danger because God made a promise to him.
SPEAKER_00: Leave your country, he had told Abram years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Leave your country and go to a land I will show you.
SPEAKER_00: I will make you into a great nation.
SPEAKER_00: You see, friends, God makes the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Not our deceptions, not our cleverness, not our schemes, not our strategies.
SPEAKER_00: God makes the difference ultimately in every part of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It was the providence of God who protected Abram, even through his disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: It was the providence of God that God blessed Abram.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 12 of Genesis verse 16 said, Pharaoh treated Abram well for Sarah's sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, servants and camels.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Abram left Egypt much richer than he came.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of his cleverness, not because of his resourcefulness, but because of God's providence.
SPEAKER_00: God alone is able to give you what you most need.
SPEAKER_00: I need to remind myself of that.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: How much time, how much energy can we exert trying to plan our lives step by step to put ourselves in the right position to get what we think we need.
SPEAKER_00: This is a good reminder.
SPEAKER_00: But there was a problem that came with this.
SPEAKER_00: There was a problem of famine that drove them to Egypt, but now it's the problem of prosperity they're going to face.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 2 to 7 that we read, Abraham was very rich in livestock, and silver and gold.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just Abram, Lot had acquired much as well because he was part of Abram's family.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Pharaoh, who was deceived, Pharaoh liked Sarah very much.
SPEAKER_00: And so Pharaoh's thinking, well, how can I pay this dowry, so to speak?
SPEAKER_00: So Pharaoh just opened up the bank.
SPEAKER_00: And that was part of God's providence, too.
SPEAKER_00: You know, nothing's by chance in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Part of God's providence in Abram's life is to send him back to Canaan, far richer than he was when he came to Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do when God blesses you like that?
SPEAKER_00: The text we just read said Abram returned to the place where he had made an altar.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that a couple weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: He made an altar.
SPEAKER_00: He worshipped God.
SPEAKER_00: He returned to that place, to that altar, and it says again, Abram called again upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't want to just skip by that phrase.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Bible for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to explore it more this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Abram knew that God had blessed him richly.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do when you know that God is providing for your every need?
SPEAKER_00: And God is blessing you.
SPEAKER_00: You build altars.
SPEAKER_00: You go back to altars and you call upon the name of the Lord and you say, Lord, I know this is not because of me.
SPEAKER_00: This is all you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to praise you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to worship you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you suppose he had to say?
SPEAKER_00: As he worshiped God with a full heart.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a part of every worship service.
SPEAKER_00: If you come into the sanctuary any week, any week, or me, and you don't thank the Lord from the bottom of your heart, you miss worship.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: You can't really worship God with an unthankful heart.
SPEAKER_00: You can sing the songs, you can listen to the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But if thanksgiving doesn't rise up from our hearts, we're not really worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: So, but there's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: When they get back to Canaan with all these cattle and camels and all the servants that they had accumulated, there wasn't enough land.
SPEAKER_00: Not in the best land.
SPEAKER_00: And so now the herdsmen for Lot and the herdsmen for Abram are starting to bicker.
SPEAKER_00: They're starting to fight over the best water holes.
SPEAKER_00: They're starting to fight over the best green grass land for their animals.
SPEAKER_00: Abram's response?
SPEAKER_00: Verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: Abram says, Let there be no strife between us, between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
SPEAKER_00: You could translate, for we are brothers.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a good, that's a good reminder too.
SPEAKER_00: We are brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Let there not be strife between us, among us, because we're brothers of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so Abram very generously, because he was the patriarch, okay, Abram was the man.
SPEAKER_00: He was the patriarch, not Lot.
SPEAKER_00: And he does something very surprising, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lot, you choose.
SPEAKER_00: You choose the land that you want.
SPEAKER_00: There's three points from the story I draw.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, both men looked.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, both men chose.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, both men believed something or someone.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, both they both looked.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Lot lifted up his eyes and saw well-watered land everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Like the Garden of the Lord, that means the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: Like the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Egypt is very fertile soil.
SPEAKER_00: People grow great agriculture in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Lot saw in the Jordan plain, the Jordan Valley.
SPEAKER_00: He looked at this and he said, who wouldn't want this?
SPEAKER_00: Abram, if you don't mind, I'll take that.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take the prime property.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, wow.
SPEAKER_00: It says a lot about Lot, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: You're going to just grab it because you can.
SPEAKER_00: What did Lot see?
SPEAKER_00: He saw prosperity, security, and comfort.
SPEAKER_00: He had no problem taking the best land for himself.
SPEAKER_00: How gracious Abram was to let him choose.
SPEAKER_00: How secure Abram must have been to allow him to choose.
SPEAKER_00: Jim Boyce in his commentary on this talks about what that must have been like.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about a story one time of a Christian couple.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian man and a woman were talking about a family in the church who had put the world above Christ, at least in their estimation.
SPEAKER_00: The family came to church, but it was seemed to be rather perfunctory.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts seemed to not be in it.
SPEAKER_00: Their interest in money and sophisticated friends seemed to lead them to associate with unbelievers more than with believers.
SPEAKER_00: Much of their income went to maintain their lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: Additional funds went to support their daughters, who they placed in an academically demanding but worldly private school.
SPEAKER_00: Understandably, the daughters rejected Christianity, and this is what the Christian man and woman were talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The man said, Isn't it sad what's happened to those girls?
SPEAKER_00: The wife replied, What do you expect when you pitch your tent near Sodom?
SPEAKER_00: Now that's not just a moralism.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a moral.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It makes a point.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when you pitch your tent near Sodom.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Lot did.
SPEAKER_00: And it had consequences on him.
SPEAKER_00: It had consequences on his family, as we're going to see.
SPEAKER_00: And we just know that that's not what God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not.
SPEAKER_00: Boyce goes on to say about this.
SPEAKER_00: You may think that you're different from Lot, but if you put your job ahead of your family's spiritual life, if you've put your social advancement ahead of a proper association with God's people, if you let your home, if you excuse me, if you let your choice of a home keep you from church nearby enough to go to, if you can grow in faith and worship, if you've moved from the highlands to the plain of Jordan, I know you'll say that you can serve God as well at Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Lot would have said, I'm as eager as my my uncle to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: After all, these people need witnesses too.
SPEAKER_00: That was true, they did.
SPEAKER_00: But Lot's heart was not in witnessing.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't really doing anything good for God.
SPEAKER_00: His heart was set on the things that he wanted more than that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is the first place in the Bible where wealth is mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: And if you just step back and look at what drove Lot's heart and what drove Abram's heart, they were both rich.
SPEAKER_00: They both had all this wealth.
SPEAKER_00: But it's pretty clear that the wealth had Lot.
SPEAKER_00: Lot was under the grip of the wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Abram wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can be rich.
SPEAKER_00: You could have a lot of wealth and it not control you.
SPEAKER_00: But what does the Bible say about that?
SPEAKER_00: There aren't many who can handle that.
SPEAKER_00: There aren't many who can have a lot of wealth and it not steal the fire from their heart, their soul.
SPEAKER_00: It did for a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Not Abram.
SPEAKER_00: So they both looked.
SPEAKER_00: Abram looked, and the Lord said to Abram, verse 14, lift up your eyes and look.
SPEAKER_00: Abram didn't see prime property.
SPEAKER_00: What he saw were the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that just say it all?
SPEAKER_00: What you see, prime property.
SPEAKER_00: And how many times have we all done that?
SPEAKER_00: You know, your blood pressure starts to rise.
SPEAKER_00: Your adrenaline kicks in.
SPEAKER_00: We just get really excited about something.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I want this.
SPEAKER_00: I want that.
SPEAKER_00: What do I have to do to get it?
SPEAKER_00: Abram didn't see that.
SPEAKER_00: No, he saw the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: A land that God had promised to give to him and to his offspring.
SPEAKER_00: What's the lesson?
SPEAKER_00: Our eyes cannot see without our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: We never see with only our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are always informing our eyes to some degree.
SPEAKER_00: John says in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15, do not love the world or the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that an interesting phrase?
SPEAKER_00: The lust of his eyes, which is really the lust of his heart that is revealed through his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: The lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does.
SPEAKER_00: An eye exam will show you what's in your eyes, but it won't show you what's in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So get an eye exam.
SPEAKER_00: It'll show you what's going on in the eye.
SPEAKER_00: But we also need cardiac exams.
SPEAKER_00: We need cardio exams.
SPEAKER_00: We need someone to see what's really going on in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: They're so related.
SPEAKER_00: So that raises the question what are our eyes focused on today?
SPEAKER_00: That bears a moment of reflection.
SPEAKER_00: What are my eyes really focused on?
SPEAKER_00: Is it something?
SPEAKER_00: Is it some problem?
SPEAKER_00: Is it some something that I desperately want to have in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Lot saw Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Abram saw God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: They both looked.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, they both chose.
SPEAKER_00: They both made choices.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, well, wait a minute, Abram kind of gave up.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't Abram forfeit his choice?
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
SPEAKER_00: Abram made a choice to give Lot a choice.
SPEAKER_00: Abram was so generous.
SPEAKER_00: Abram knew that he wasn't living for this kind of security.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't living for this kind of prestige.
SPEAKER_00: Abram didn't need to say, I've got the biggest garden, I've got the biggest herds.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't need that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look first at Lot's choice.
SPEAKER_00: And so Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley.
SPEAKER_00: Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
SPEAKER_00: Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is rather chilling, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that.
SPEAKER_00: At first Lot looked towards Sodom, and then later it says he pitched his tent near Sodom.
SPEAKER_00: Later we find that he's actually dwelling in Sodom.
SPEAKER_00: There's a progression there.
SPEAKER_00: John Calvin said, even as he thought he was living in heaven, he had already sunk almost into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Lot wanted to live near enough Sodom to enjoy all that it had to offer, but not get caught up and trapped by it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a verse in the New Testament in 2 Peter chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this commentary about Lot.
SPEAKER_00: Lot was distressed by the filthy lives of the lawless men living among them day after day.
SPEAKER_00: He was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.
SPEAKER_00: That's a mystery, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We were talking last week about the fight between the old nature and the new nature, between the flesh and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Lot knew that very well.
SPEAKER_00: That war within.
SPEAKER_00: I want God in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: I really want God in my life.
SPEAKER_00: But we all make choices every day.
SPEAKER_00: No, I want God in my life.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: There are some things also that I want in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as Beth read earlier from Psalm 1, listen again, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what's going on there in that Hebrew poetry?
SPEAKER_00: Progression of movement.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the man who doesn't walk, but then he slows down.
SPEAKER_00: He slows down, and now he's standing.
SPEAKER_00: He's no longer walking, he's standing, and then where does the progression go?
SPEAKER_00: He sits.
SPEAKER_00: He settles in.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that we are all settling into some kind of a lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
SPEAKER_00: No exceptions here.
SPEAKER_00: We are all at some time, in some way, as we walk and we look and we see what our heart goes after, and then we stop walking, and then we kind of stand, and then we actually sit down.
SPEAKER_00: We're all doing that.
SPEAKER_00: We're either doing that in the path of life in righteousness, we're doing it in the path of sin and destruction, things that are going to harm us.
SPEAKER_00: Abram made choices.
SPEAKER_00: Again, as we said, first of all, the generosity allowing Lot to choose, because it didn't mean that much to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be that guy.
SPEAKER_00: Where this stuff doesn't matter so much that I have to have it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be that guy because of the soul satisfaction that I find in Christ, my treasure, that I can say, you take it.
SPEAKER_00: You choose.
SPEAKER_00: As much as possible.
SPEAKER_00: And so we wonder, am I, are you like Abram, standing on that little mountain above, questioning your future, thinking about what's in front of you, scared maybe, not knowing what comes, uncertain, unsettled?
SPEAKER_00: And God says, look up, look up.
SPEAKER_00: Make choices based on what you see.
SPEAKER_00: And we all make choices based on what we see.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, what are we actually seeing?
SPEAKER_00: What is our heart fixated on?
SPEAKER_00: No, we all make choices, choices that matter, choices that have consequences, every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the last point.
SPEAKER_00: They both believed something.
SPEAKER_00: They both believed something, someone.
SPEAKER_00: Lot believed that he had to take control.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you go through this world.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you make it in life.
SPEAKER_00: Seize your opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let them pass by.
SPEAKER_00: And do whatever you have to to make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: Lot believed that he had to take control, although he had every reason to trust God.
SPEAKER_00: Because Lot had been right by Abram, step by step by step.
SPEAKER_00: He had been in the land of Ur, in the land of Haran, in the land of Egypt, in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: He had a front row seat to all these things, all these ways that God was blessing his uncle.
SPEAKER_00: He saw it.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't believe it in the same way that Abram did.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see Lot building altars to the Lord, perhaps to himself.
SPEAKER_00: Lot lived like an orphan.
SPEAKER_00: It's all up to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have, I don't have a good, benevolent, heavenly Father who has promised to take care of me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's up to me.
SPEAKER_00: And we can choose to live like orphans too, can't we?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that different people see the same things and yet see them so differently?
SPEAKER_00: Some will make different choices.
SPEAKER_00: Some will wonder, what does this have to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: Some of, even today in this service, perhaps some of us will say, right now, because the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart, and you say, Oh, I'm starting to make connections.
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to make connections.
SPEAKER_00: My life, that's the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Yield to what the Spirit is showing you.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there's it's very possible that some of us will leave this worship today and say, I didn't get any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's relevant to me.
SPEAKER_00: It was nice, it was interesting, but you're not going to be any different.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know what we pray almost every Sunday before the worship service in that room, that room that's now filled with people praying for the worship service.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer once again this morning, Lord, don't let anyone leave the same as they came.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know that, but that's what we're praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying that for the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, don't let anybody leave the same way they came.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bold prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are many things that work in that direction that we don't experience the transforming work of the Spirit, as we saw last week.
SPEAKER_00: Abram believed God.
SPEAKER_00: He believed God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 13, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Just look at that.
SPEAKER_00: If your Bible's open, your pages open.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, God told Abram.
SPEAKER_00: Arise.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot in that little verb.
SPEAKER_00: Arise.
SPEAKER_00: Walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: I will give it to your descendants.
SPEAKER_00: There's something there for you.
SPEAKER_00: Arise.
SPEAKER_00: In your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, preacher, in your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Experience the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Believe and take the promises of God this morning with you.
SPEAKER_00: That will affect the way that you live this week.
SPEAKER_00: We are reminded by these words as he says, look north, God says to Abram, look north, look south, look east, look west.
SPEAKER_00: God's great promises.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, I mean, studying this passage all week, I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta say this, right?
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been here for a while, you won't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what?
SPEAKER_00: What is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you this, friend, that's what you need most.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you need most this week.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, whatever you're facing, whatever you're facing, that's what you, that's what I need most this week.
SPEAKER_00: Why did I think of Ephesians chapter 3, 14 to 17?
SPEAKER_00: God told Abram, look north, look south, look east, look west.
SPEAKER_00: Take in this prayer today, that Jesus Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith, that you may have strength, spiritual strength, to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're going through, even though it's so confusing, disorienting, and it leaves you anxious, whatever you're going through right now in your life that just is a struggle like that, you sink your faith into the promises of Christ's love for you, how much he loves you for all eternity, and you will find a peace that surpasses understanding.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: It's been tested countless times by God's people over the centuries, over millennia.
SPEAKER_00: And it's true for you.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not, is the promise true?
SPEAKER_00: The question is not, does Jesus really come through on his promises?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Where's your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Where are your eyes looking?
SPEAKER_00: What choices are we making?
SPEAKER_00: Are we walking?
SPEAKER_00: Are we standing?
SPEAKER_00: Are we sitting in God's promises?
SPEAKER_00: Or something else?
SPEAKER_00: The something else will make you very anxious eventually, after the adrenaline rush goes.
SPEAKER_00: After you get off the adrenaline rush, the something else will leave you weary.
SPEAKER_00: The something else will leave you frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: But the promise of God and drawing near to look up and to see the love of Christ will water, will water your parched heart and mine.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Climb the mountain of God's promises today.
SPEAKER_00: The higher we climb, the better we see, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you climb those big mountains?
SPEAKER_00: I don't do that anymore with my bad knees.
SPEAKER_00: But I did that as a lot, as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: I climbed a lot of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.
SPEAKER_00: Why did I do that?
SPEAKER_00: For the view.
SPEAKER_00: Looking over this gorgeous park, these mountains, the lakes, the valleys.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the view.
SPEAKER_00: Because the higher you climb, the better the view.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're climbing this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're climbing right now in your soul.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're aware of where the flesh is pushing on you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're aware of where the flesh is saying, you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to take control.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're aware of that.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you're saying no.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're saying no.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put my eyes on the promises of God, the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put my eyes on the finished work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He will not ever desert me.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing will separate me from his love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's build fresh altars this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's build new altars.
SPEAKER_00: To thank God, to praise God, to trust God, to worship God.
SPEAKER_00: Altars of thanksgiving, altars of praise, altars of worship.
SPEAKER_00: After all, we are the fulfillment of God's promise to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Galatians talks about that quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: He has you in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Know then that it is those who are of the faith who are the sons of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you, Abraham, shall all the nations be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You're Abraham's kids.
SPEAKER_00: You're his sons, you're his daughters.
SPEAKER_00: You have access to all of God that he did.
SPEAKER_00: You have access to the promises of God that he did.
SPEAKER_00: Let's choose.
SPEAKER_00: Let's choose today to live by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's easy.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's not.
SPEAKER_00: John Newton, the great pastor, preacher, songwriter, illustrated this in his life many times, many ways.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a song called Help My Unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: I know the Lord is nigh to me and would not and would, but cannot pray.
SPEAKER_00: For Satan meets me when I try and frights my soul away.
SPEAKER_00: Can you relate to that?
SPEAKER_00: I would, but I can't repent, though I endeavor oft.
SPEAKER_00: This stony heart can never relent until Jesus makes it soft.
SPEAKER_00: Help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look to the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a moment to look inward, to see where we are struggling to believe God's promises as the worship team comes up.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a moment to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Father, would you please?
SPEAKER_00: Would you please open our eyes to see what you want us to see, what you created us to see.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we confess that sometimes we're looking at the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: We're believing the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking to the flesh and not to the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: We should know better.
SPEAKER_00: We should choose better.
SPEAKER_00: But the war still rages in us.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we we want you to win our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to take control, Holy Spirit, take control of our hearts this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And the things that we see, the things that we choose, and the promises that we either believe or don't believe.
SPEAKER_00: Help us in our unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Meet us now in our unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.