Morning Outline:
Genesis 12:1-13:4
First: The contrast between the Babel-builders and God's promise: Babel was built on the premise of: staying together, making a great name, and reaching heaven; Abram is called to leave and trust God to do the other things...
Second: continued obedience: remain where you are supposed to be
Third: make the right decision in crisis
Fourth: maintain your integrity: if the intent is to deceive, it's a lie: Abram is not doing right by lying in Egypt.
Beginning with obedience:
Abram is commanded to leave his country, his relatives, even his father's household. Put that in your own terms: How do you respond to being pushed away from what you know? This is where Abram is.
Based on what does he obey this calling? Is he given anything "up-front"? No.
He receives a promise of what will come: none of these are delivered in 25 years! Think about this: 25 years before the son is born. It takes the death of his wife for him to own any property.
What guarantees do we seek before we get started? What guarantees do you want? Rain? No rain? The guarantee of a good harvest, a roof over your head, family stability? It's not there..
Evening: Genesis 13:5-13:18
The conflict arises between Abram and Lot.
What about this?
I. It's about stuff. Really, it's all about material possessions.
II. That's silly, of course, to divide a family over stuff.
III. Really, all of the stuff should have been Abram's: the whole of the promise was to Abram, not Lot.
IV. Finally: take a look at verse 7: this conflict isn't happening in a vacuum. The pagans are there. God's people are in the midst of the lost. It's no time to fight about stuff.
V. The solution: let Lot go. Allow him to choose his own way and focus on walking God's path.
Our ideas?
I. Should we really stress about the acquisition of stuff? In our lives, in our churches? We spend a great deal of effort on stuff then that stuff becomes a bone of contention.
II. Is that really a good thing to divide our family over?
III. All the material possessions we own belong to God. Why are we fighting our brothers over it? Can God not restore to us whatever we need or deserve?
IV. More important than our stuff: the world is watching. Churches and Christians fight over stuff and demolish our credibility to spread the Gospel.
V. Let the stuff go. Better to show a testimony of trust and faith in God than a testimony of "mine!"
No comments:
Post a Comment
To deal with SPAM comments, all comments are moderated. I'm typically willing to post contrary views...but I also only check the list once a day, so if you posted within the last 24 hours, I may not be to it yet.