I had planned a message, a
completely different message, inspired by; wow, this is good,
always inspired by God, but inspired by the things that I
see going on in the church world. I wanted to deliver a
message to you, which I think God wants me to wait on, because
He kind of redirected me to bring you a message you've heard
before. Sometimes we need to just bring out some of those
messages we're real familiar with. I don't want to say
necessarily the compass point, but sometimes just to get back
to those places which we absolutely have come to know are
true. Following the path of faith isn't easy. Anybody want
to argue that with me? How many here in this sanctuary, and it's
okay, no one's going to put a camera on you, I'm looking at
you, God's looking down; how many here today have that little
bit of fear about the unknown, uncertainty of tomorrow? And
tragically, I think what would it be if we didn't have the
tools we have. And imagine, we have those tools and we still
get butterflies or that stomach that just tenses up where you
just say, “Oh what is going to happen?” In fact, we all have
perfected the Gideon language: “Oh! How? Why? Huh?” Even though
we know, we've been through it, it seems so many times, walked
where we know God has wanted us to go, and yet still tomorrow
can be scary. And if we're, if we're really realistic with
ourselves, truthful with ourselves, no one can know
exactly what tomorrow's going to bring. Most of us spend much
time fussing about it. The truth of the matter is God already
knows. He's got, as the song we used to sing, “I don't know
about tomorrow, but I know He holds my hand,” He's going to
lead me. He knows about tomorrow. So today I want us to
really focus on something that might calm the nerves, give a
little peace. It's an old message here in this church, but
I want us to see it afresh today, so if you will, turn to
Genesis 12. The old-timers know what I'm doing and you who are
here for the first time or newer, will hear something that
has been preached here over the better part of 35-plus years,
the message on the life of faith by the patriarch Abraham.
Now what I want to be different today
when I really felt that the Lord redirected my feet to
be planted right here, I wanted to make sure that as I kind of
obeyed God, I think kind of, I use that as a qualifier, that I
was sure to emphasize certain things. That we can say, “Oh
yeah, I knows this,” and yet when the moment comes we forget
the most important thing. Following the path of faith,
which is what I've labeled this first part of this message,
really begins with God calling Abram out of Ur of Chaldees.
Now, what is interesting to me is I'd never really focused too
much on the chronology. I always focused on how long it took
for God to make good on the promise He gave
to Abram, becoming Abraham having the child of promise. But
I never really looked at and focused on the timeline before.
And you have to read in the previous chapter to see that
Terah, who is Abram's father, when God says, “Get up out of
your land, leave your kindred,” and so forth, that's from;
you've almost got to read behind the 12th chapter, its logical
order. But more interesting is that we know the names of people
and places are significant. The fact that they, it says in verse
31, that they all “went forth from Ur of Chaldees to go into
the land of Canaan; they came unto Haran,” which means
halting, “and dwelt there. And the days of Terah,” that is
Abram's father “were two hundred and five years: and Terah died
in Haran.” He died in halting, in Haran. And I thought, you
know that could just be a message by itself if I never
went any further, which is a lot of people don't know the
background to Terah who worshiped idols
in his land. In fact, if you read in the apocryphal
writing, which I just happen to have with me, the Book of
Jasher. You know, some people say, “Well that's not, that's
not a canonical book.” Well, it's certainly mentioned both in
Joshua and in Samuel, “Is it not written in the Book of Jasher,”
and I might say parenthetically Jasher is not a person. The name
Jasher in Hebrew means “upright,” or “straight.” People
who get that confused and they think, “Oh, who's Jasher? Who is
Jasher in the Bible?” It means “upright” in Hebrew, Jasher. But
in this book which is apocryphal, which, by the way,
once may have been a part of our Bible at some point and then was
removed because the apocryphal was at one time included in the
Bible and then removed. You read of the story of what is not
included in the book of Genesis, how that Terah, Abraham's
father, worshiped idols, how that Abraham's, or Abram's life
coincides in the timeline with Noah and Shem, the antediluvian
folks that if you read the history of Abraham's birth or
Abram's birth, Nimrod who was that evil person, he sought to
kill Abram. He sought to terminate him, knowing, if you
want to say it's the forces of good and evil always going at
it, but if you read in this Book of Jasher you find that there's
a lot more than just the fact that Terah, Abraham's father who
worshiped idols followed as far as Haran. They left a certain
land and followed as far as Haran, and most people don't
look at the Bible land and they think, “Well, that must be not a
big deal.” That's a couple hundred miles, by the way, from
where they started to where he died, that pilgrimage is a
couple of hundred miles or kilometers whatever you're
calculating in. But Terah died in Haran. And I love the fact
that because names mean something, and I know a lot of
people like this. They start out on a journey, they come to a
place where they halt and that's exactly it, the dying starts at
the place where you halt, if you stay halted God's program and
don't move forward in faith. Now, that could be my message
but it's not. I thought boy that would be a delightful message. I
need to preach on that one day. But all of these, you know, I
never get tired of reading these passages because each time I
read them, they shore up afresh, they give me a fresh footing,
they connect me once more with God's way of doing things. So
chapter 12 opens with, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, unto a land I will shew thee.” And some here
may understand this in part, some may understand who were not
born here, who are not natives of this country, who know what
it is to come out of your land and journey into a land where
you really don't know what it's going to be like and what the
people are going to be like and how you're going to live. Most
of the people that I'm talking to right now will never have to
face that in reality, but we are all that in type. That's the
disconnect. “Well, I'm not an immigrant. I'm not just passing
through. I, I've lived here all my life.” But this is not your
home. As a Christian this is not your home and we are just like
Abram or Abraham, the city that we cannot see, that we will
obtain one day, and there may be a little bit of nerves along the
way not knowing the how to. The roadmap isn't exactly, it
doesn't say, “You are here,” like the map at the mall and to
get to there you've got to go that way. We don't have that.
The best we have is this book that's given to us. That's the
“You are here” and you want to get to there, you've got to go
through this book. And so, I think I relate to this, probably
beyond what most people would to get out of where your comfort
zone is. Now, that's the beginning of the path of faith,
to get out of your comfort zone. People have used this many times
as the license and as the excuse to cut off family and friends
and “Well, I'm following Jesus away from you.” That's not what
the Scripture means. Simply, and we can bring it into the New
Testament, that is if you prefer your family over Christ, that is
not that you must cut off, but if you prefer them over Christ.
That's what Christ's admonition to those who could hear was, to
prefer Him first, that He must have preeminence. So, all of
this first verse rivets me. And I think, some people read this
and they think, “Well, didn't he obey?” The book of Hebrews says
that he set out in that 11th chapter, he set out and he
obeyed. Well, that's the beginning part of his story. And
I think we all want to start off like that. We hear God's word we
get giddy to say, “Yeah!” until we get going, and realize it's
not easy. That's why I wrote that up there: following the
path of faith is not easy. And in fact, the lessons sometimes
that God will teach us are downright miserable. They're
just so hard to receive. This is a great example. God gives this
great promise, “I'll make of thee a great nation, I will
bless thee, make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”
Now, if you just stop there and you only had that portion and
you jump forward to “Thou shalt be a blessing,” and then he
passes his wife off as his sister, I don't know what type
of blessing that was, because the Pharaoh was smart enough to
say, “Are you trying to curse me?” So, I don't think that was
the blessing intended right there. But God says, “I'll bless
them that bless thee, curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed,”
and I've got some words, my roadmap is a little bit scary.
All the words in blue are the words, his action words: “get
thee out& departed& they went forth& they passed through.” I
took all the action words to show that the life of faith for
the most part is; it is like “from faith to faith.” It is a
constant movement, but it must be in God's direction in God's
way. You can have a lot of movement doing a lot of stuff
which is not God's way, put a halo around it and say, “See?
It's good, huh?” Which is what I've said a lot of the activity
in the church world is; just a lot of activity.
So, it says, “Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken
unto him.” There's that great sense of obedience. He departed
as the Lord had said, “and Lot went with him.” Now, as you
know, Lot, you've got to read back there in the genealogies in
the 11th chapter, you read that Lot is relative to Abram. And
when we say that Lot went with him, there's a lot of, there's a
lot of Lot's in the world. There's a lot of people who just
want a free ride on your faith. I'm just now uncovering that. As
a believer, there are a whole lot of people that want to latch
onto me because they say, “Oh, you're so strong in the faith
and you love God so much, let me just latch onto you,” but they
don't want to have to walk by faith, they want to walk by my
tailcoat and pull me down. Any of you know people like that?
They just are free ride; they don't want to have to do any
of the faithing, they don't want to have to do any
work. And they think as long as they're latched on to me
they're safe. Well, you'd better look out, because I'm a little
reckless and I've warned you. “And Lot went with him: Abram
was seventy five years old when he departed out of Haran.” Now,
this is what's remarkable. He died at 175 years of age. He
started off on that journey from Haran, not from Ur, but from
Haran at 75, died at 175, so he spent a hundred years of his
life just wandering here and there and here and there. And
you think you have a problem? You think, you know, this is
what we spent a lot of our time, believe it or not, it is a huge
worry when people say, “I'm concerned because I don't know
where I'm going to live, and I don't know how things are going
to be and I want stability in my life.” Do you read that Abraham
had stability? A hundred years of wandering all over the map.
And that's why I say sometimes we need to get a reality check.
These are the compass points. We need to get a reality check. We
sit in church and we say, “This world is not my home, I'm just a
passing through━oh my God, what am I going to do? I need some
stability in my life.” You see what I'm saying? And what's,
what's horrible is we, we, I'm not talking about some other
church, we sing these songs and we still have the knots and the
butterflies and the oh-my-goodness, and here comes
Gideon again. You know, I should have, I wish I would have named
Newman Gideon, then I could've kept referring to Gideon
all the time. Newman is my little dog.
He's not so little anymore by the way. He likes food now. He's
discovered that food, unlimited food, begging for food; now he's
got a belly: gluttonous dog. He was 75 years old
“when he departed out of Haran. And Abram
took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their
substance they had gathered, and all the souls,” all the people
“they had gotten in Haran.” That means they acquired, produced,
whatever you want to say, “and they went forth to go into the
land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Now,
I know the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 8 says, “He
went out not knowing whither he went.” And that could be a whole
sermon, too, on the way some people see the life of faith.
They have no clue of where they're going. They don't even
have the Bible as the compass point. They really do fit the
bill of not knowing whither they went; they're just going
somewhere. I like the fact that following the directives they
came into the land of Canaan, “And Abram passed through the
land unto the place of Sichem,” or Sichem, “unto the plain of
Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD
appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this
land.” Now that's a good one. You know we tend to read right
over this, “The Canaanite was in the land,” which the land was
not settled, there was a very angry and tumultuous place, but
God says, “This is your consolation prize.” No. He says,
He says, “Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there
builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And
he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of
Beth-el,” which is meaning, “house of God,” Beth, El; two
words in the Hebrew, “and pitched his tent having Beth-el
on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builted an
altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.” Now,
in the many times I listened to this message that Dr. Scott
preached and to the many times that I really took this in, it
never really registered. His emphasis, of course, was on the
fact that everywhere that Abram marked a place he built an altar
and he also pitched a tent. And his famous saying was that most
people spend more time building tents and pitching altars. But
it never dawned on me until just recently as I was reading this
that the fact of the matter is, if you think about it, where we
read in the New Testament Jesus came, He tented Himself in human
flesh, dwelt among us. And we, we reach from that and we
somehow with different eyes remove the understanding that
this tent, this tent signifies just the temporary clothing, the
temporary garments we wear in our pilgrimage, and the
willingness to move from place to place as God wills and
designs and clears the way for us to go. So much of our life is
spent trying to bolt down and make sure we are not moved. Now
I'm not suggesting that we become gypsies and move about
like that, but I am saying that when God is directing your path,
be careful not to get too fixated on the time side of the
equation, because the temporal to be in view requires you see
the tent, you understand what the tent is for. Now tents are
put up and taken down real quickly. And that's the way life
is too, our life here, very delicate. So when that point was
made, it seems significant to me that in the telling of this I
also thought the tentmaker of the New Testament who really
grasped the whole picture referred back to Abraham, and
referred back to the fact that Abraham amened God, that it was
imputed or accounted to him for righteousness. He understood
about the temporary factors that he endured while he was pressing
towards a city, the city of God. Sometimes, I think we get so
focused on building something that is so solid we forget
temporary, and the altars we erect, they are designed for
sacrifice and worship. Now, he didn't build an altar here and
say, “I'm opening up a coffee shop. So, this is like the, this
is the altar here and you can come and have, sip your coffee
while we worship God together.” This was a place marking and
honoring God, a designated place, recognizing God had
appeared to him. Preeminently by the way, a factor that I'm sure
is seen in the big picture, it's the place of death; marked as a
place of God, but it's also the place of death; sacrifice is
made there. So, “Abram journeyed, going on still toward
the south.” Now, we started following the path of faith.
What happens when we forsake? Forsaking the path of faith. God
said, “Go there.” You know, a lot of times, let's bring it to
where we are today, a lot of times; God is not speaking to
us, by the way, like He did, it's very clear; but a lot of
times, people will go to a place, and because they haven't
received the thunderbolt revelation, they go on, they
keep moving. Now, I just said a contradiction, because I said
the tent is temporary, be ready to move, but there are times
when you must also stay and wait for God.
Now, it's very clear right here, the forsaking begins because
there was a famine in the land. God says, “Go to this place,”
and then there's a famine in the land. Now if God is in control,
God knows because He sent the famine. That's the other side
of; I call it our human idiocy. We fail to see that every time
God ordered somebody to go somewhere; you don't think God
didn't know there was a famine going on? Because He's the Lord
of the land. Now here comes the forsaking part, “nd Abram went
down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was
grievous in the land.” Now, circle that word, because I'm
using some, some F-words: following, forsaking; famine is
part of that forsaking. Let's put flesh and blood on this,
because there's some sitting here, you've heard this so many
times, you'll say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” But what about in
your life today? I know of at least probably a half a dozen
families sitting here in the sanctuary who are experiencing
some form of famine; loss of job, diminished income. And you
might say, “Well, this couldn't possibly be God's way.”
Sometimes God wants you to faithe through the famine,
because He's got something infinitely better at the end.
“Well, gosh, you sure don't know what I'm talking about.” Well,
read it right here. God said, “Go there,” and sent Abram to a
place where there was a famine. That's why I said for you people
who come and you seek for the blessing, those great teachings
and teachers who are only going to tell you all about the
blessings and how to obtain them, probably are not preaching
out of God's word to you, the pure word God, because part of
the blessing comes in the trial and tribulation of staying where
God's told you to go. “Abram, go to this land,” and a famine sets
in. “Well gee, this; we'll just, we have to use some ingenuity
here. Let's all go down to Egypt.” Egypt is always in
Scripture referred to as a; call it a type of sin: bondage. “It
came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that
he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art
a fair woman to look upon.” You're; I've always said this
many times, if he was 75 when they left, she was 65. I think
there was a ten year difference between them, at any rate, she
was the hottest old lady in the Old Testament; just keeping it
real. He says, “When the Egyptians shall see thee, that
they shall say, This is his wife: they'll kill me, but
they'll save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my
sister━just say you're my sister.” Now you get familiar
with these things, but I always envision a couple, I can't help
it, they probably had gray hair, white hair. I envision what the
patriarch might have looked like. I envision what she might
have looked like, but I still can't get beyond the fact that
he said, “Say you're my sister”" “Okay.” “Say, I pray thee, thou
art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and
my soul shall live because of thee.” So, we have famine, we
have falsehood. Just keep building. We might get to some
other letters in the alphabet. “It came to pass, that, when
Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that
she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her,
commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into
Pharaoh's house. He entreated Abram well for her sake: he had
sheep, oxen, he asses, menservants, maidservants, she
asses, and camels.” And it's safe to say that here, somewhere
in their journeys that they picked up Hagar the Egyptian
handmaid that would become the mother of the child they were
trying to have by their own works, Ishmael, rather
than waiting on the child of promise
Boy, I navigated that one good. “And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done
unto me?”━Why did; why didn't you tell me she was your wife?
Why'd you say she's my sister?━“so, I might have taken
her unto me to wife.” And that's probably a clean version of what
he was suggesting. “Now therefore behold thy wife, take
her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning
him; and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.”
And if you want to continue down the pathway of famine,
falsehood; here's the failure. And this is what's interesting.
I've tried to say this over many weeks. God knows our frailty, He
knows our shortcomings, He knows we would probably prefer to go
the easy way than the hard way. And yet, with all of this,
here's a man who lied, he didn't trust God. In fact, probably for
most people say, “See, he didn't carry out God's word. He wasn't
obedient.” Hebrews says he obeyed. Oh, he obeyed the call
to leave his place where he lived. At least in part, that's
a good beginning, no?. But his failure here is interesting
because in spite of his failure God is still going to direct his
path. And that's what I think is very significant. You can read
this many, many times, and each time you'll find some new way of
looking at this; what we've read and studied for years. And this
time I'm thinking, you know, in the big picture of things, yeah,
if following the path of faith is tough, forsaking that pathway
is quite easy; especially when things get tough. How many of
you know that by experience, when things get tough it's much
easier to try and solve the problem on your own than it is
to wait on God? And then I; I have been guilty of this many
times. Where there has been a famine in my life; and I'm
speaking of the recent few years; and I decided it's much
easier for me to try and solve the problem than it is to wait
on God, because God couldn't possibly know that there's a
famine in my life. Ooph. If we say we have our being in Him,
it's interesting that how quickly we can deny that we have
our being in Him by saying, “He must not know, or He doesn't
care, because otherwise He wouldn't let this happen.” No,
I've said many times, the famine comes to teach us how to depend
on Him. When we call out His name and we say, “He's the Lord
who provides,” well, how do you know He provides if you've never
had to depend on Him for provision? Would you need faith
if everything was laid out? If the roadmap of your life was;
“You are here,” now, the little GPS voice says, “Now take a
right turn at the next exit,” and the whole thing was laid out
for you, you wouldn't need any faith. Now, driving with me you
need faith, because I have a GPS but I turn the volume down. That
requires some faith, especially when you end up in the other
part of town where you weren't supposed to be. Anybody want to
ride with me? That's what I admire about coming back to
these passages; they humble us. They let us know that even when
we think we know the crystal path of faith, that following it
sometimes is not easy, that when the famine comes, God may be
sending it. Sometimes it's to test us to see if we'll really
lean on Him. Sometimes I think people forget that it's very
easy to; especially in the case of Abram here; he would prefer
his own life over protecting his wife; the falsehoods come. Now,
we in the modern realm, we spend a lot of time probably lying to
ourselves about the condition and the state of affairs rather
than just looking to God and saying, “God help me. I'm in a
famine. I've bleeped up pretty bad, and I need Your help to get
out of here.” Instead we try to figure out how to; how to get
out of the place. Now here, it says; “Abram went up out of
Egypt, he, and his wife, all that he had,” and I like the
addition, “and Lot with him.” See, Lot was with him in Egypt,
and I think that's kind of funny. Lot was with him, Lot was
with him, Lot went with him, Lot, Lot, Lot. “And Abram was
very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. He went on his
journeys from the south even to Beth-el,” house of God, “unto
the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between
Beth-el and Hai.” And interestingly enough, if you
follow his journeying from coming out of Ur and follow that
pathway, and then follow down; that's a mighty bunch of miles
he racked up for a 75-year-old man. I'm not sure exactly the
distance. It's a couple hundred miles to Haran, and it's a
couple hundred miles south, and then back up. And he went back
to the first place. And that's what I like. The instructions
are pretty clear. When you get off of following the path of
faith don't try and start solving the problem yourself.
Get back to the first place where you started. The New
Testament, the book of Revelation, we hear about those
people who have fallen by the wayside, if you will, and God
says, “Repent; you've left your first works. Repent; you've left
your first love,” rather, “Repent and do your first works
over.” The message can't be repeated enough. Will you and
will I ever get it in our head that when we get off track with
God, rather than thinking, “Well, you know, until I can
forgive myself.” By the way, I had a conversation with somebody
over this very thing, “Until I can forgive myself I won't get
back in God's program.” Do you know the minute we say, “I can't
forgive myself,” we have taken our eyes off of Christ and off
of His finished work? When you say, “I can't forgive myself,”
it means you have not only refused God's grace, but you've
taken your eyes completely off Him, because if you were looking
at Him you would say, “Thank You, Lord, for forgiving me,”
instead, the eyes are looking internally and saying, “Me.”
These are important lessons, because there are enough of you
here and enough of you listening to me at home who have done this
and you've said, “But I just can't forgive myself.” And the
minute you utter those words you are saying, “I've taken my eyes
off of Christ. I know He forgives, but I'm looking at me
now. I've got my eyes on me. I don't dare look up.” Well, the
instructions to Abraham eventuall are going
to be to look up, to lift up his eyes. So just as a
footnote for those people that say, “I've been too much of a
failure,” you get back to the first place just like this. Get
back to the house of God. Get back to the place of the
sacrifice, to the altar; you get back to that first place. “Unto
the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and
there Abram called on the name of the Lord.” That's the second
thing. Not enough to just return to the first place and say,
“I'm; Lord, I'm back,” but you begin to talk to Him and call on
His name. You know it's a simple, simple message, but it's
so needful because we all do the same thing. I don't care how
long you've walked with God. I don't care if I'm your pastor or
if you're here for the first time. We've all done this. We
get so familiar that when we get off track we fail to recognize
what we ought to do. You get back to the place where you
started; the house of God. You call upon His name. The New
Testament says all who call upon His name shall be saved. There
isn't a soul who has called upon the name of the Lord, Jesus
Christ that has not been a recipient of His grace, washed
by His blood, and set free from the life of sin and bondage that
they may have been held in. So, here it's the same thing. The
steps are very clear. And here's Lot again, “And Lot also, which
went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land
was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for
their substance was great, so they could not dwell together.
There was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and
the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land. Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.” Now, let me just say
again, I can take lessons and I could probably do, on each
verse, I could do a lesson. This is a very important lesson
considering Lot was a good-for-nothing, barnacle,
hanger-on that went everywhere and held on to his tailcoat. And
he says, “Let's not fight.” Now, I'm not telling you that we're
able to live peaceably with each other in the real world, because
we're not. And if we're at all honest; most of the time we walk
around griping about somebody else's issues they have with us
or that we have with them. But here's a perfect example, by the
way. Going back to the house of God, calling on the name of the
Lord, and then even saying to his brother, “I don't want there
to be strife. Let's not fight.” Now, some of these are not
always the crystal clear picture of our life, but they give the
pathway. You know, I really believe; I preached that message
on forgiveness; I really believe this with all my heart. I've
come to know it so well. This is not a subjective thing. The word
declares it abundantly. If we walk around with bitterness, it
is the root that poisons the soul. You walk around long
enough with lingering things against people who have wronged
you and done malice; I'm telling you something, it will kill you.
It will kill you spiritually. And please don't say I don't
know what you've been through. You're right, and you don't know
what I've been through. And for me to say this out of this
mouth, from this heart, is a very large thing considering the
things that have been done to me. But I'm telling you
something. It'll kill you. And the picture here of Abram
talking to Lot and saying let there be no strife; again,
another New Testament picture that if you have aught against
your brother, if your brother have; if there's any contention
between brethren, and you go directly to that one. I mean, we
could; I could take lessons, pages out of the New Testament
and say, “See, right here.” But the lesson's abundantly clear.
Here is the rest of it, verse 9, “Is not the whole land before
thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take
the left hand, then I'll go to the right; if thou depart to the
right hand, then I'll go to the left. Lot lifted up his eyes,
and beheld the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered
everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,
even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou
comest unto Zoar. And Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; Lot
journeyed east: they separated themselves one from another.”
Let me stop right there because Lot represents most Christians.
I hate to say that. You go, “Oh boy, that's a slap in the face”"
Lot represents most Christians, “I want a little bit of this,
and a little bit of that. I want,” here, the well watered
plains, Sodom and Gomorrah before Sodom and Gomorrah was
destroyed, like the garden of the Lord, likened to the garden
of the Lord, but with all the goodness of the land of Egypt,
“I want, I want to have one foot here and one foot there.” And
I've told you my famous canoe story, but it's worth telling
again. It's the only time as a child I was sent away to a camp.
This is how I know you can't have everything. You can't have
your cake and eat it too. It's a lie; it's a conspiracy. The kids
were telling me, “Come on, get in the canoe.” I couldn't
understand what they were saying, because I had a language
problem. “Get in the canoe” and I didn't understand what they
were saying. So, I saw that they were motioning me. I had one
foot in the canoe, and one foot on the dock, and things started
to separate like that. Not only did I go in the water, but all
the people in the canoe flipped over too. It never works. Don't
try it at home; it never works. All I can tell you is that is
exactly Lot, “Give me this picturesque, like the garden of
God, but with all the good stuff of Egypt. Give me the best of
both worlds. I don't want to have to give up Egypt.” You
notice that Egypt is still in the mix, “like the land of
Egypt.” And of course, I could go down the path of telling you
Lot's choice shows what was truly in Lot's mind and heart,
because if you begin to follow Lot's journey, he first journeys
to the east. And then, if you're reading his whole story, he puts
up his tent and it's a little closer to Sodom and Gomorrah.
And he gets a little bit closer, and he gets a little bit closer,
and soon enough he's sitting right in the gate of that place.
Now, if Lot chose that, what appeared to be that good land,
it says, “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled
in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD
exceedingly.” And if I just stop there you might say, “Well, but
at least Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan.” That's not so
bad, because that's where God told him to go. But if you
understand the lay of the land, where Abram was, if you were to
look at where he stayed, it wasn't that picturesque. It did
not appear as a land yet flowing with milk and honey, or
anything. It did not appear to the eye; in fact, probably
rocky, very, very sandy and dirty. And I say dirty as in
earthy. Not at all like where Lot went. “And the Lord said
unto Abram, after Lot was separated from him,” and only
after, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where
thou art northward, southward, eastward, and westward.” And I'd
have you just put a note there, because I, when I taught on this
the last time my Bible's marked up enough, God says, “Lift up
and look,” both a simple act, but both imperatively that God's
commanding Abram to lift up his eyes and look. And God's still
speaking to us today the same thing. Some of you who are in
the mode, what I call the hangdog mode; you know, I just
spoke of that. You know, the internal, “I can't lift my eyes,
I can't lift my head, I'm so ashamed I can't do anything.
I've been a failure. I've forsaken God. I was on the path,
but I fell away,” just everything that's down. Hear the
message today, “Lift up now thine eyes. Look from the place
where you are.” And in Abram's case, all the place, north,
south, east, and west, “For all the land which thou seest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” And here comes the
reaffirmation of the promise that God said He would. Now, I
know what happens; we get to this and we think, “Yes, and God
said to Abram, 'Lift up now thine eyes and look around,'”
but I, when I taught on this the last time it really dawned on me
that what Abram might have been doing at the time that God said,
“Lift up now thine eyes,” he might have been standing there
on a patch of dirt that didn't look like very much. Abram, not
yet Abraham, Abram on a patch of dirt looking down and thinking,
“Oh my, this is the promise? Wow, I think I got a bad deal.”
Now, I'm not suggesting, by the way, that that's so, but I
really believe when God said, “Lift up now thine eyes, and
look from the place where you are.” And that's what we need to
do today. I think this church has been through enough episodes
of halting and stopping. And some, by the way, in their
halting, I believe, have spiritually died, because they
refuse to go on in God's program. But for us who are; I
began, I go back to the beginning; who are slightly
nervous in the stomach about tomorrow, afraid; by the way,
God's not the author of fear; but worried about the
instability and the inconsistencies in this life of
faith, and how could this all come together? The message
applies to us today. Lift up your eyes. If you've been down
cast like the psalmist said. “Why are you downcast?” Lift up
your eyes. The psalmist also had the wisdom to know that his
countenance was illuminated by looking Godward. Lift up your
eyes today. If you're sitting here in the sanctuary saying, “I
don't know what hit me.” Especially to those of you, and
I read your letters and prayer requests, who say, “I've lost my
job,” or “I've lost my home,” or “My life is falling apart.” Have
you considered; and I'm not suggesting that God is a sadist;
but have you considered the fact that the famine in your life,
whatever it may be, God is saying, “I want you to stay
there and keep trusting and faithing on Me, and I'll bring
you out,” instead of trying to solve the problem. And by the
way, I love the fact that following this path included the
grace of showing how forsaking, included all the things that I
depicted, and yet God still said, “The promise is still good
unto you. The promise is still good unto you, failure. The
promise is still good unto you after you have forsaken Me. The
promise is still good unto you when you can't find your way.”
The promise is still good unto you, to this church and to you
as individuals. I sometimes think we get so comfortable with
these words that we forget they're mine. The famine that
I've experienced; and I won't go into detail, but the famine that
I've experienced I've asked God every single day, “Lord, the
church, I don't care what else happens, the church, the
church.” Oh, I've got big dreams and I'd like to achieve certain
things for the church, but the church, the health of the
church, the wellbeing of the church, “The people who are the
church, Lord.” I feel sometimes like this church has been in
Haran too long, and if we haven't been in Haran, we've
been in famine. And then I think, “Maybe the Lord; oh no,
it has to be that there's some other reason somehow,” I've got
to justify. You know what I'm talking about where you begin to
rationalize instead of saying I'm going to trust. God gave a
promise. I'll give you a little hint about something. The
message I had prepared was about the God who amens His word. And
that is the God we serve. He gives His word, and He doesn't
give His word to just say, “Well, maybe it'll work out.”
But He gives His word to those who will actually run, grab, and
take hold, and appropriate it, and live as if “God said it, I
am grabbing hold. This is my lifeline.” The promise to Abram
was, “You see this land, I'm going to give it to you and your
descendants.” And we keep going and saying the descendants will
be as the sand and the dust. And the apostle Paul in the New
Testament says exactly that. For your father Abraham and you are
the seed indeed. So when I look to this I only think of the
promise made good to Abraham, made good by God, but I also
think for those of us who are in the state today of looking down,
downcast, and we can't figure out, “This, this pilgrimage is
driving me crazy.” You know what I'm saying? I want, I want the;
I want the GPS version of this trip that guides me. I don't
want to have to trust blindly that God
is going to order my steps, but the minute I start to walk I
realize if I had all this laid out I wouldn't need God, and I
wouldn't need faith. And suddenly the reality kicks in,
“Lift up now thine eyes.” Quit looking down. I speak first to
me. Quit looking at the circumstance and thinking,
“This is it?” You know, I look at you
and I see your faces and I think this is, you are all my family,
my spiritual family. I see familiar, most of you, familiar
faces. Don't; please don't be offended when I say this.
Lord, is this it? What I -- wait a minute;
wait a minute. What I mean, Lord, supposedly the
family of God here. And I say supposedly we are that. And I
see the struggles of some. You'll understand now when I
say, you carnal ones that think “Is this it,” like, “Oh, this is
it?” The struggle of some with loss of employment, the struggle
of some with their spouses being so crippled up in pain that they
can barely move, those who are bound in wheelchairs who have
been praying for years to be freed from the chair to walk
again, those with blind eyes. I'm speaking of people in this
sanctuary. I'm not talking to the people I can't see. I'm
talking to those in this sanctuary. Blind eyes that,
Lord; that's why I said, Is this it?” Some of you interpreted it
like I'm saying phtt on you. No, I'm saying, “Lord, is this it
for Your people, or are you going to make good on Your
word?” And then I recognize it starts with me lifting up my
eyes: now. Not an hour from now. Not tomorrow; right now. And
beginning to stand on the promise, whatever your promise
is that you need to stand on and say, “If God sent the famine He
will also send the plenty.” And the famine was sent for a good
reason. I've said there were 13 famines in the Bible that God
sent; 13 of them in Genesis alone. Famine in your life
today? Don't go down to Egypt. Don't go looking for the
solution. Stand firm knowing this temporary housing, the
tent, is only temporary. And the altars that we've placed along
the way, those are markers, by the way, to find our way back
when indeed we forsake and quit doing and quit acting the life
of faith. So if somebody were to say to me today, “Did you
come today with a little bit of a knot in your stomach?”
Of course, and the reason for me is simple. I said
to you it's the church. The church. The church. The church.
I'm looking at the singers here and I think, “the church,” and
I'm looking at the choir pit and I'm thinking, “the church,” and
I'm looking at families who need healing and help: the church.
And then I think, now, for me and for you, “Lift up now thine
eyes.” Not from, “Well, when I get there, when I get to where I
need to go, then I'll look up.” No. Right now, and especially
for those of you that I; I think I've called your number
adequately, the ones that are so downcast in their spirit they
can't even lift their head up. I ask you a question, do you think
Abram, knowing; or maybe not knowing, but that Lot took what
appeared to be the better part. Do you think he stood there
thinking, “Now, this is what I'm left with?” Did he think, “Wow,
this is what I'm left with!” I doubt it. And that's why God
said, “Lift up now thine eyes.” And I'm saying to you today,
lift up now, right now from the place where you're at and
recognize that all the promises of God are yours to claim in
Christ Jesus. That if your issue is anything that I have said,
following the path of faith is tough; forsaking it is even
tougher. And if you've fallen off the path, His grace is
sufficient. Find your way back to the place you started at,
calling on the name of the God that you have come to know as
the God of your salvation and start all over again. But for us
right now today as a church I'm going to ask you afresh, even if
this is the thousandth time you've heard this message and
you say, “I know it all too well.” Will you, from the place
where you're at, even if there's still the unknown in front of
you and you still don't know exactly, “Well, I'm going to
take this road, and this road, and this road,” but rather, “I
can't see, but the Lord will lead me.” Will you just stand
firm on His word and say, “The promise to Abram is also mine,”
now from the place where you're at, in pain, in trouble with
your finances, whatever your issues are; lift up now your
eyes and say, “The promise of God that I claim today,”
whatever it is, and claim it with full faith knowing if God
gave the promise to Abraham, we are sons and daughters as well.
The promises apply to us. They're in Christ. We claim them
together. Stand firm on that. Let fear and let everything else
that contradicts God's word be a lie and say, “I rebuke that. I'm
going to do exactly what I know to do,” which is keep on walking
the life of faith. That's my message. You have been watching me,
Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith
Center. If you would like to attend the service with us,
Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive
your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to
go straight to our website, the address is
www.PastorMelissaScott.com
