Main idea: Trust God and His promises in the tests of abundance.
Introduction
Ecclesiastes 5:10-11
Proverbs 30:8-9
Matthew 6:24
1 Timothy 6:17-19
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morning, everybody. I recently heard this. The highest form of art in music and any other place is to put God's Word, the truths of Scripture, into a beautiful setting, that the ultimate of art is to put scripture in its in its right setting. And we just heard that. Thank you for the orchestra and the choir. If you want to join you, you can. Yeah, we can, we can. It's all right. Like, yes, Brian Eichelberger is like, he's he's the lead guy for the sing team. We were going to church at his church one day with my daughter and and everybody sang like this. And then a few people went like this, and he says, Ah, there's nothing like the sound of scattered applause. I don't know how to do anything else, but that anyway, if you're with us for the first time, I am so glad you're here. I would love to meet you. I'd love to connect with you. So would any of the people down the row from you? We really do want to help you know Jesus Christ and follow Him, and we are going through the book of Genesis. So if you're brand new at a church, you've never opened a Bible. We have been working through the book of Genesis, unpacking it, story by story. And I'd invite you just start with it. Start reading through it. Watch what God is doing in the world. We're going to see. We're going to jump in to a story of a man named Abram, his nephew Lot and what God is doing in his life. The rest of us, that's all of us stand for the reading of God's Word. Abraham has received promises that He is going to be a great he's going to have a great nation, an offspring. That offspring will be Jesus one day. And we're reading very early in the story. Here is Genesis 13. I'm going to read the whole chapter for us. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the Negev. Now, Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold, and he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. Between Bethel and I to the place where he had made an altar at first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord and lot who went 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 Abrams livestock and the herdsmen of lot's livestock. And at the time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land, 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. Is not the whole land before you separate yourself from me, if you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left. Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley. Lot journeyed 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 Lord. 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 that, all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted, Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of memory, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. This is the word of the Lord, God. You keep speaking to us through Your Word, we say thank you because you give us grace through Your Word, thank you for showing how faithful you are. You were faithful to Abram. You are faithful today to your people. You were a forgiving and redeeming God. You are a forgiving and redeeming God. And like Abram, we still live in an. Where all your promises aren't finished and we wait. So now I pray that You would help us wait in hope and trust not in ourselves, but in you, our God. I pray, as we look at this passage, that you would help me understand and explain with clarity. Pray that your spirit would work in all of us to understand and apply, that we would take home a very memorable story, and that we would be a beacon to unbelievers, those yet without Christ in our world as they see how we worship you. I do pray for churches across our city, I pray for the faithfulness of the proclamation of your word, that all your counsel would be covered in due time, that all of the glory of Christ would be proclaimed, that he would have preeminence over all things, just as we sang. We want Christ to be magnified in us, in our churches by lifting high the Word of God. Help us now be attentive, eager, eager to hear, understand and apply Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. It's my favorite season of the year. It's called March Madness.
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Oh, Sting, thanks. Thanks a lot. Go Zags next year, there are huge prizes offered for winners of the NCAA Tournament brackets, of which I am no longer a participant. Since I predicted guns a going to go all the way our family bracket if you win our family bracket. Stakes mailed to you from the herd. They're all excited about it. ESPN is offering $125,000 capital. One is offering $250,000 of course, both of them will give you a lifetime supply of email spam. Draft Kings is offering a million dollars. And the question everybody has fun answering, if I won a million dollars, what would I do with it? The first thing you imagine doing with a great abundance is extraordinarily revealing about your heart. Oh, I just poured cold water on everybody's dreams. Oh, if I say anything but Jesus, it'll be wrong. I in Genesis 13, Abram is described as very rich, very rich in livestock, silver and gold. It's the account of Abram and lot splitting up because of the super abundance that God has given given them. And here are the questions you have to ask about any passage. Let's ask about this one. What is God doing here? How is Abram responding? How is lot responding in the story itself? And then, what is God teaching anybody who's reading? Well, we know this, starting from chapter 12, God is fulfilling His promises to Abram, and we could see here, Abram is growing in his faith. He's got an up and down faith life, like every human on the planet, God drew Abram into a relationship out of idolatry, and he responds well, and then he doesn't respond so well. Look what Ian said last week. We are already like Abram. Ian,
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what is God teaching us as we look at this? Well, God is fulfilling his promise. Abram is growing in his faith, and we are all to worship God in abundance. We're all to worship God in abundance. Mankind has not been content since the Garden of Eden, God gives Adam and Eve everything but one tree to enjoy and eat from, and the everything but one was the deceivers tactic to deceive Adam and Eve, that tactic of saying you'll be fine if you eat the One Tree God forbade you to eat, lured them into sin, imagining God to be stingy instead of gracious, wanting to be God themselves. They were easily deceived. They were discontent, and they. Sinned. God gave a super abundance to Adam and Eve. The Bible is filled with warnings about money. I gave you just a small sample. Ecclesiastes, 510, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money. Jesus says in Matthew 624, you cannot serve God and money. What about those who are rich? First, Timothy, 617, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. This is actually what we see Abram do. This is why this is such a refreshing passage, a passage about faith. Abram leaves Egypt rich and redoubles his commitment to worship. And the first readers of this Israel was to do the same thing when they entered the promised land. Conquered Canaan and God had promised them, I am going to deliver you into I'm going to help you. I'm going to give you a land flowing with milk and honey that is super abundance. But don't forget me, don't don't go worshiping the other gods. Don't imagine that it was by your own work. Israel is reading this after 40 years of failures, about to cross into the promised land with the first example of their father in the faith of what he did after he left Egypt, the history shows they did not. History shows we do not. We are called to repent and trust Christ to be reconciled to God because of what Jesus has done in his humility, His death, His resurrection, those who trust Him have him and eternal life. We're a lot like Abram. We've been given promises, but not all of them, and here we wait. So what are you to do when God gives you abundance? As you wait, we're going to see it in Abram. Abram will pass the test. Abram will pass the test. Big Idea, if I were to summarize this, looking at it from Abram's perspective, from the human perspective trust God and His promises in the tests of abundance, God's doing three things in this passage. He's fulfilling his promise to Abram to bless him from 12, one and two, I will bless you. I'll make your name great. He's doing that, and it's it's going to be prosperous financial second, he's focusing his promise by singling out Abram to be his own nation, away from lot, lot's not going to be the heir. He is furthering his promise of the land and a multitude of people fulfilling, focusing, furthering, and we're in that remarkably similar situation. God's promised to deliver on great blessings. They're not all fulfilled, and we are frequently, like Abraham, encountering strife. We're waiting for the full full installment. What are we doing while we wait? This passage has three ways to do this. How do you trust God while you wait? How do you trust God when you have a super abundance, or even a modest abundance? I know, I know some of you are immediately saying, but I don't have an abundance. Well, I'll just give you a little historical perspective, up until the last 75 years, maybe the last 50 years, if you had running water at a sink, you were rich. If you could flush your toilet, you are rich. So historical perspective, those two things alone set you apart as the richest people who've ever lived, and as Americans, whoever I read the stats from, whoever makes them up, says we're in the top four and a half percent of people who have stuff in the world. I mean, that's that's a pretty good definition of of rich or abundance. What do we do with our abundance? Well, there's three things to do with it. First, we need to trust God, God's faithfulness over our finances and failures. Second, we need to trust God's provision, especially as we deal with strife. That's going to be a main part of the story. And we need to trust God's promises while we worship and wait. We're going to. See Abram do all of these things today, and they're incredibly helpful in this life until Jesus returns. So let's look first, trust God's faithfulness over our finances and our failures. Remember what Abram was given by God. He was given a promise. Come go to the place. I'll show you. I will bless you. I will make your name great. I will give you a place to live. All the nations of the world will be blessed through you. In the middle of chapter 12, Ian covered this last week, Abram went to Canaan, set up a couple of altars. A famine struck, and he was left with really difficult decisions. He journeyed south from the central part of Israel in the high hill country, or from the north to the south in the Negev which is kind of a wilderness. It only gets rain in the spring, almost a desert. And this says there's a great famine. And he has really hard choices. I loved how Ian talked about it. We can look back and we can judge what he did, but here were his choices. If they tried to stay in the Negev Abrams people lot their flocks could just slowly starve to death. That's not a great option. Let's go to Egypt, where there's a river and there's water and there's a place to take care of us. But Abram has a second problem. That second problem is he knows that his 65 year old bride is gorgeous, and she's going to be the object of Pharaoh's desire. The princes are going to see this, this entourage, which is probably 3000 people. We're going to see it. Chapter 14. He has 300 fighting, 318 fighting men, like guys training for battle like this. This is a small town moving into Egypt. He's He's concerned, and he's not wrong. So they strike a deal, because here's the choice for Sarai, your husband could be killed and you could be included in Pharaoh's harem, or you could lie, protect your husband and be included in harrow Pharaoh's harem. Like they're not really great choices. Are they? What's missing in the story. What's missing in the story is an altar and a pleading with God to guide, direct and deliver. It's the only gap that we can safely fill in, and it's a gap that Jacob learns from later on in his life, later on where he is being chased by his brother, or he is going to be greeted by his brother, and he thinks his brother is going to kill him, Jacob prays, pours out His heart. This is something we see wrong here, but Pharaoh gives him a bride price, lots of people, lots of hurt, more animals, silver and gold and Abram walks away rich. What is happening? This doesn't seem right. Three things are happening. Number one, God is fulfilling his promise to Abram by blessing him. Said, I will bless you. And blessing in Genesis had to do with the stuff of life. Second, he was fulfilling the promise to curse anybody who treated God's people lightly. If you look up at two and three, those who treat you lightly, I will curse. Pharaoh was cursed. It's obvious in that text that Pharaoh's men saw her, said she needs to be in Pharaoh's harem, and they took her by force. It's a strong word, taken Abram was not wrong, and God is promising to care for Abram in his affliction,
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Abram did not trust Yahweh by praying and worship, but God still blessed him according to his promise. And there is the scene for every person who's ever trusted the Lord. We have failures, and God blesses anyway. We have our failures, and God blesses anyway. Why does God bless anyway, because he's faithful to his character and his promises. What does What does Abram do? Let's look verse one. Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the Negev, that's the southern desert now. Abram. Was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. God's fulfilling His promises. God has protected him. God is delivering him up out of Egypt. He journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, that's central hill country. Considering his herds and the people, it could have taken a few weeks, even months, to make this journey to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and I, to the place where he had made an altar at the first and there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. He goes back to the start. He has to feel the weight of the failure, how God had to rescue Sarai and him out of the clutches of Pharaoh. And he goes back to where he went at the start. He goes back to worship. You. Yeah, this isn't the first this is the first time we're going to see God's people leave Egypt. It's the first time. But it's not going to be the biggest and it's not going to be the last. Israel has to be reading this on the border of Canaan. Israel will read this on into their future and see how a great deliverance resulted in their riches and were to spur them on to worship. Israel looks back at their father of faith and says, This is how we're supposed to do it. But is this what Israel does? No a few do remnant do, and yet God's faithful to His promise. I mean, here you are today. Do you find yourself here today, failing in sin and yet having an abundance of blessing? Do you find yourself failing in sin and still having an abundance of blessing. What does it prove? It proves that God is faithful to His promises. If this is your first Sunday in a church, you are just like the person in this room who this is their 500th Sunday, you have failures of some kind, sin of some kind, you have an abundance of some kind. What does Abram do? He goes back to the altar, where you sacrifice an animal, you offer a burnt offering, to deal with your sin and to call on God. Abram calls on God today. We can do that differently because of what Christ did, but, but here we see him calling on the name of the Lord. And it always means two things. It can mean more, but it always means two things. Primarily, it's committing to only worship the God of the Bible, only worshiping the God of the Bible. This is what Abram recommits to. I just went away. I was faithless. I did not call on to call out to the Lord. It was real trouble for me. We got out by the skin of our teeth, so to speak. And here we are to call on God. Look, God has blessed us. And the last thing I would say is I was deserving of it. He was an idolater in the east. Now he's called by God. He's been a failure in his faith, and now he is restored to God, and he has an abundance exclusive worship, back to God for all his mercy. Second, it means pleading with him to meet your spiritual and practical needs. Calling on the name of the Lord always has those two. It has to do with worship. It has to do with practical needs. The first sermon in the book of Acts, Peter tells the people that crucified Jesus, Jesus dying for their sins, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And today, if that's you, call on the name of the Lord, Christ has provided greater blessings than Abraham had. He's provided himself, he's provided a future. He's provided eternal life. Take it you. It wasn't because Abraham was so faithful that he got this blessing. It was because God fulfills His promises. Every single one of us needs to redouble our worship and our trust, because God is so merciful and gracious and yes, so first, trust God's faithfulness over our failures and over our abundance. Second, trust God's provision to settle strife. Trust God's provision to settle strife, there's usually an imagination. Question that when I finally get an abundance of something, the worry and the trouble over, it will be over. We all, we all think that when we finally get this abundance of whatever it is, our troubles will be over. The technical phrases, nope, nope, the first example of God making someone rich also comes with the first example of strife over money or possessions. What's the solution? The God, who gives abundantly, can be trusted when strife erupts. Watch this lot, verse five. Lot who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents. Lot was also rich, not very rich, just rich so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. There was strife between the herdsmen of Abrams livestock and the herdsmen of lot's livestock, as some herdsmen, some Shepherd, got up earlier from one of those places got up earlier, and the other one moved the sheep to where there was the grazing land. And somebody who woke up later gets up trying to figure out where to bring their sheep or their goats and their flocks, and the good grazing land is gone. And you can imagine being in charge of those things would be very distressing. And it says strife erupted. It's a pretty strong word, strife here. The only word stronger is violent hostility, like they're ready to come to blows, and it's a problem of blessing. You could see why both of them need both of them need places to take their herds. Many problems here. There's strife, potential of violence. It's pretty obvious they're going to have to split up. They both can't share the same land. The land couldn't sustain them both. It had to be heartbreaking for Abram, because lot is essentially an adopted son. He comes out of Ur of the Chaldees. He's the lot's the son who whose father died in Haran. It's a tough choice. It gets a little more complicated. It says the Canaanites and the parasites were there, according to Genesis, Genesis nine, these were an ungodly people watching all of this play out. So where are they going to go for help? Who are they getting along with better? It appears that lots herdsmen and Abrams. Abrams herdsmen get along better with the Canaanites and the Perizzites, but they're idolaters who are watching this situation unfold, and there is an element of wickedness from Genesis nine, Canaan was always going to be the ungodly provoker of God's people. Verse eight, Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me, between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. We are for we are kinsmen. We're family. Immediately, what becomes clear is that Abram valued peace with family over his possessions. We're kinsmen. We're family when there are when there's strife between Christian husband and Christian wife, like we're married. We love Jesus. This shouldn't be trouble between believers in a church. We're the family of God. This shouldn't be
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What does Abram do? He reminds lot and himself of the great provision that had been promised them is not the whole land before you, but God promised to give us this land. Separate yourself from me, as painful as that might be, if you take the left hand, then I'll go to the right. Or if you take the right, then I will go to the left and looked at all that God has provided. Now think about what your abundance might be in settling strife when you have a super abundance of grace or a suit, certain super abundance of anything that has that is the recipe for contentment, and that is the recipe to. Little strife. I mean, you all hear of of the stories of roommates trying to decide who gets what part of the room in college. I mean, imagine the story of it getting so frustrating because there's a super abundance of dirty laundry all over one roommate finally gets fed up. It's like I'm tired of your dirty laundry on my side. Take the big roll of athletic tape that you got from the athletic department and you put a big stripe down the middle. Keep all your dirty laundry to yourself. I know you have an abundance. I mean, you know what you never hear is, hey, Elijah, would you keep all the 20s and 50s that your parents keep sending? Would you keep them on your side of the room, all those cookies, homemade cookies, that your mom sent you? Would you keep those on your side of the room? You never hear that, but that's actually what's going on here. Like there's such an abundance of God's blessing, they have to figure out how to sort out the conflict. And Abram looks at that abundance and says, there's a solution here.
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Abram, the patriarch and most respected man of the group actually defers he, he would have the right, he would have the right to say, boy, boy, I'm gonna go take this land. It's the best land, and you better be grateful, because if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have any land. He could have said, Boy, here's what I'm doing. But he doesn't do that because of the super abundance of grace and His forgiveness and His restoration and his finances. He takes the role of Peacemaker. He takes the role of the servant. And here we have yet another example of the lead, the leader, playing the role of the servant. Ultimate. The ultimate version of it is going to be Christ. God's promise, God's provision were large enough that both would have plenty. So Abram takes the role of peacemaker, and he can do it because he is content. Here's the key. Abram knows contentment. A couple of guys and I have been reading through Thomas Watson the art of divine contentment. Watson writes this, How excellent is contentment, which strings the heart like a violin for duty. Indeed, contentment does not only make our duties light and agile, but acceptable. It is this that puts beauty and worth into them. For contentment settles the soul. I was thinking of the orchestra and the string players tuned to make beautiful music. This is what contentment does. How do you cultivate contentment? You bring to mind all the grace of God's redeeming favor, all the grace of his current provision, and all the grace of his promises. You thank him, and you count them, and you count them, and you count them, and your soul becomes content. Strife comes to a person with a content soul. The music can play from the content heart and bring peace and
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yes. Abrams content, how does lot respond? Score, lot lifts up his eyes. He sees the Jordan River Valley. It was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord. It's like a metaphor for the Garden of Eden. It was like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zar this. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah Abram let lot have the best pick. And it was a very humble and content choice. What did? What did lot choose? Does it say that he sinned in making the best choice, but it doesn't say he was very wise either. There's three little phrases, words and phrases that are gloomy foreshadowing to what's about to happen. The Canaanites were in the land and. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the men of Sodom were wicked. Verse 13, great sinners against the Lord. Lot's choosing to take the best land nearest the worst people. Verse 11, back up to that Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and lot journeyed east. Number four, in gloomy foreshadowing, whenever somebody goes east, they went out and went east. East is a bad direction in the Bible. Adam and Eve were shut out of the Garden of Eden and had to go east Israel later in their unfaithfulness, was captured and deported or exiled east. There's a little gloomy foreshadowing in the story. Not much is made of it here, but note it 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. This is going to be a wicked people. What is God doing? Well, first, we see that God's faithful to Abram to His promises. Second we see that God is focusing the promise to Abram lot is not going to be part of the solution for the blessed line. He's going to be another nation. It's going to be even harder. Abram did not have to have faith. I've got my nephew. He's going to be the inheritor. Maybe this is how God is going to do this. God says, No, it's not lot. You must wait. The men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners. Moses doesn't tell us directly that the area Lot chose was sinful. Lots. Choice was not necessarily sinful. We don't we don't have a good bearing on that. But Paul does say this to Timothy, and this is an example to look to, for the love of money has a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Doesn't say that lot's choice was sinful, but it doesn't say lot's choice was made with wisdom. The
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abundance of this world can be deceiving all by itself, but you surround it with wickedness, and you put yourself in greater temptation. One of my team said something that really struck me. She She said, our, our kids are in an age when they can see what other families value. You know, when you when you your kids get to, you know, fifth, sixth grade, and they start comparing what your family does with other families. Like kids start to see the values, what do, what do other families do with their money? How do they handle strife? And so the question to parents is, what do your kids see that you value? Abrams, 75 with a young 65 year old bride, parents, grandparents, what do your kids or grandkids see that you value?
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What do the unbelievers in your life see that you value? The Canaanites or in the midst Adam Gomorrah was surrounding them. They see what money means to you. They see what causes strife in your relationships. They see what or who you rely on. They see what you do with your strife.
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If you see God as gracious in your failures, in your unbelief, calling him to your calling you to himself, If you see God as gracious and faithful to supply your needs, you don't claim superiority. You don't have to win the argument. You don't have to win the battle.
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They see humility, contentment, Abram becomes one of the first living examples of what Jesus referred to in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be called the sons of God. Do you want to bear the family resemblance of God the Father? Be a peacemaker? What is essential to be a peacemaker? Can. Contentment, contentment in God and His provision. Trust God's faithfulness over our failures, over our finances. Trust God's provision to settle strife. Three, trust God's promises so that we can worship and wait. Trust God's promises so that we can worship and wait. It's hard to imagine that Abram wasn't discouraged everything, but he's rich. You know, we are all rich in ways and poor in ways. Abram had to be discouraged by his failure of faith in Egypt. He had to be discouraged by the fact that lot and he had to separate out this, this one person who is a likely heir to fulfill the promise is gone,
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but his failures, the strife in all of that God moves to reassure him, I'm going to look here at what God gives to Abram, a repeat, an expansion of the promise. The Lord said to Abram, verse 14 after lot had separated from him. Just want to make it really clear, you're alone, no heir, but you're not alone. You have my promises. Lift up your eyes. Look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward. For all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. You're going to have a family, a great family, and they're going to live here. You are going to live here. They are going to live here. What a word of reassurance Abraham was going to get this land as an inheritance. Yes, lot is gone, but God is going to fulfill his promise. In fact, here's how great it's going to be. Verse 16, he sets out this, this hyperbole, I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth. Ian, we did a little vacuum job last week. We're having some people over little vacuum job. Lynn did the vacuuming in the morning. I did the vacuuming the afternoon. We're trying to get rid of all our cat hair. We love our cats, and I think I get more dust out of the carpets than she does. Yes or no, there's a lot of dust. Just, just open your vacuum. When you open it, just think about this promise, there's a lot of dust in your vacuum. He's saying, Here, God is saying, here, this, this great promise I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that, if one could count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. God is not only going to fulfill a promise, but he is going to fill a fulfill a promise beyond imagination. What an encouragement arise. Walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you like I want you to take a look at it. Take a tour. Go north, go south, go east, go west. I want you to see it all, because it's all going to be yours. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of memory, which are at Hebron. Is 20 miles south of Jerusalem. It's on a high hill from the ancient of times. It had a walled city from the ancient of times. The Canaanites used to take this high hill. They would plant a terebinth tree, and over decades and centuries, it would become a place for an altar to false gods. Abram goes to a great oak, green shade tree, which would have been calm the place to build an altar. He builds an altar, and he tells all of the Canaanites. I worship Yahweh alone. Ian tells the whole world that he is a follower of Yahweh. He built an altar to the LORD Abram. Is given no timeline. He waits and he worships. This is really significant for every one of us. Abram died as a sojourner. He didn't take possession of the land. There is still a resurrection. Jesus told the Sadducees who denied a resurrection. Hey, don't you remember the promise in Exodus? Three. In Exodus six, where Yahweh said to Moses that I've given the land to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. God is not a god of the dead, but of the living. They're going to get the land. Abram Isaac and Jacob are going to get the land and the resurrection, more has been fulfilled. The seed has come. The Head Crusher has come. He has condescended far superior to Abraham's condescension. Took on the wrath of God in our place, crucified, buried, raised, ascended, coming again, and he has called you to that as well, to wait and trust. Abram like us is awaiting that resurrection day. There is a hope. How are we doing in our waiting? The writer of Hebrews wants to make it emphatic to Jews who are being persecuted by fellow Jews. Stick with it. Keep trusting Messiah. Here's an example of somebody who trusted Messiah. Abram Hebrews, 11, nine by faith. He went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise. They were always only sojourners, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. He builds his tents at Hebron. He sets up His tents, and he's waiting for a city. He's got a temporary place. He is waiting for a lasting city. And so are you this promise. You have taken hold of and you have trusted in Christ, rested in Christ, repented and turned to Christ, you have a permanent home coming. And here's a reality for Abram. Here's a reality for us. Abram was rich and poor at exactly the same time. That's how we live in the world. I have a friend who's a tech tycoon. He made just extraordinary amount of money in the early 90s, and the money has been an unending cause of strife among his children, such just the green monster seems to take over everybody, envy, money rich, harmony, poor. That was Abram for a little time here. Abram was money rich, but child poor. He had no heir. How is this promise going to be fulfilled? I want to tell you the worst situation for you is to be money, rich and forgiveness. Poor. To be money, rich and forgiveness, poor is a disaster, because you think you're fine in this life to wake up in the presence of Christ, cast out, judged, eternally separated. What you need to be is forgiveness, Rich. Everything else doesn't matter you if you don't trust Christ, this world is all you have, and if you have Christ, He promises to care for you, he'll give you some abundance, but it is a pittance compared with what's to come. So some of you are here are time rich, but relationship poor. Some of you here are single, wanting that relationship, and you're waiting, and you're waiting and you're waiting. Some of you are childless, wanting that baby, and you're waiting and waiting. Some of you are jobless and you're awaiting What's it time for? It's time to double down on your worship and call on the name of the Lord. Mark rogop has a new book. He's he wrote a book on lament. He's written a book on waiting. He defines waiting this way, waiting on God is living on what I know to be true about God when I don't know what's true about my life. Rather than worshiping our way through uncertainty and experience and experience and experiencing peace, our tendency is to fill the gaps with gaps of life with. Fear, anxiety, frustration or anger. God fills that gap with himself, his plans or his promises. If you are his, you have trusted. This is such a motivation for wholehearted offering of praise and worship, of service, isn't it? Abram comes back after failure, doubles down his worship on God. He comes back successfully. It does not rest in his success. He is not self sufficient. He knows the only place for him to turn is in thanksgiving and prayer to God, trusting in his plans and his promises. Are you overflowing with worship and Thanksgiving that unbelievers around you can see Abram did at the end. He built the he built the altar front of the Canaanites. Do they see such trust that you can handle less respect, less money and less acclaim? You don't have to win all the strife.
51:14
See when you know how big the reward is that is coming, it is easy to let the money go or the prestige go. It is easy to let the wind go. Abram was rich. He didn't stop being rich, but he was humble, and his faith was rekindled after God dealt graciously with his failures. Ian Yeah, what would I do if I suddenly won a million dollars? It's like now when we asked that question for fun, you ruined it? Dan, thank God. Be content. Seek humility, be generous. I mean, it's sort of like being asked the question, Who is your favorite character in the Bible, Jesus? I have to say Jesus, because that is obviously the right answer. But what after Jesus? We ask that question? Well, David, because of this, or this, because of this. Maybe you feel like I'm answering the question like that. You could have fun saying, what would I do with a million dollars? But serious in seriousness, listen to First Timothy 617, through 19. It has to do with some part of your abundance, because it might not be money, but it might be it's going to be something else. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, proud, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Read the story back what was truly life for Abram, it wasn't his money. It might have been his relationships. God took a key one away in lot, Abram is forced to see that Yahweh, our side of it, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is truly life, so that we can take hold of that which is truly life. Let's pray. Father, thank You for the brilliance of your word a situation. On one hand, none of us can relate to, because we have never had this kind of situation. But on the other hand, we can all easily relate to there is some place, sometime, maybe even this very time, where you have given us, given us an abundance. You've carried us through our sins and our failures. You have given love to us through Christ. Help all of the graces that we have received from you be the greatest motivation to give you our lives, trusting in Christ, it's in his praise, in his name, we pray amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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