Good morning. I, is everything calibrated with the speaker system? Wow, it's loud.
It's a voice of God.
You know, it's amazing. The hymns are so precious. And there's so many of them.
So it's hard to get a handle on. The depth of many and and some get missed. But I did not take a hymn for this morning.
And, but they were so fitting. Really fitting. That last, him with no title.
Actually, it was in the last week or 2 that I had to revisit. Matthew, 11.
28 to 30. Just another time I
I just, it almost seems like it's the most special. Set of verses in God's Word.
Because we're all weak. We're all like tired. Carrying things around we shouldn't.
And like going the wrong direction and. Losing our way.
Sorry, resolved to try to like memorize it for another time in my life. And so it's like, come on to me and.
Forgive me, I think it's a little mix. Of King James, which I started my life in and a little bit of N IV.
So come on to me. All of you are weary. And burdened or heavyweight and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke. Upon you and learn of me.
Because I humble and lowly apart and you will find rest for your souls.
And there's a last little bit.
Then you, oh yeah, so, okay. Ask. Yeah, that's the last little part, but how precious it is to, Let's see.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light so that yoke comes in and, and it's just like, It's just really, really precious that Christ and me, it's not I, but Christ through me.
So. I'm yoked with Christ. I mean, it's a word we don't use anymore except When you wake up in the morning and you have too many yolks and talk too many jokes with your wife or whatever but to be yoked, is to be walking in step with.
It's to be traveling together and keeping in line and having the same timing, you know, musical.
And so. This all started, from an invitation from Fred.
Because I was sharing with him like there's so many people in this wonderful group of believers, God's family here locally that have been praying for me and on different.
Wavelengths with regard to where I was. In my job situation. So I wanted to just share.
And, and thank you all. And, and really. Show my gratitude for the support. For the prayer support.
The vigilance, the good communication, and it was just wonderful. It really was. And it's, we have other friends.
My lovely wife. But we other friends in other circles that were also praying. My family.
And so I wanted to share. This morning, an announcement. And an update. And of course that was a month ago and Fred says, well, why don't you Stand in front of everybody on top.
Well, because I don't stand in front of people and talk. I do one on one. And so that's why.
And I tried throwing him in the Moses, you know, excuse. So like, oh, you know, yeah, my tongue and this and that.
But no reality, there is a precious truce. That have been ministered from this podium and As thankful as I am and as refreshed.
And encouraged. As we are listening to people up here. We, we grow and we, grow closer, we share, we're vulnerable, and authenticity grows and So in a very small way.
I'd like to give back with the Lord's help. So just wanna go to the throne one last time.
Our father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your word.
We thank you for the way you. You show us, and direct us and it's through your son that we can live this life.
So just give me the words. Help the message come through to everyone in a different way perhaps that we can learn of you and become closer to your son and your son's name we pray.
So. Yeah.
You know, we all like to travel. And, that, that discussion about the yoke will not apply to.
So much to what I have to talk about here because, We're gonna talk about Abraham.
And in fact, As I was going through my final outline. Which I may or may not have.
It turned into Abraham part one. Now I don't know if that says anything. We'll talk to Fred later.
Because there's so much in this man of faith. That. We'll see how far we get.
But Abraham. Was a man that is truly someone to model. So in traveling and he did plenty of it and he did it on foot and camel.
We like to Get the plane tickets first, get our itineraries and And we have to work the rental car thing and okay, where are we going to stay?
And, the eating thing that kind of happens automatically. So we're planning a trip Easter weekend to visit my son in Phoenix.
So he He's an aerospace engineer, works on helicopters, close to the sun harbor airport.
So we'll be staying in Tempe. So we have the itinerary. It's really excited.
So he graduated a year ago. I haven't. Seen them for 6 months. So we have the travel plans.
And. You know, there's excitement with that. There's looking forward to there's planning.
And And what happens is the closer you get, the more firmed up the trip and your itinerary becomes like, oh, who we're going to visit and I have a second cousin there that's works in the hospital at nighttime so you don't have to talk to people.
But I want to see her because I enjoy talking to him. My cousin Tim from Jersey and And we'll see.
My, my, my mechanic has a very close contact in, Ron, the mechanic in Phoenix, and he'll be one of the only mechanics that works on cars from the Midwest because they're so rusty.
And, they're so hard to just start working on it because you have to get through all this.
Stuff anyway, there's so we have that connection. I might stop by and say hi to him so anyway.
My son, his name is Ted. He came here a book for Christmas and And it pertains to this talk.
So what I want to expose you to my testimony, my job situation over the last year. All of a sudden these parallels come up with Abraham.
And his actual name through the whole morning is going to be Abraham. Because his name's not been changed yet and I think that's Abraham part 2.
So where we're at is he gave me a book for Christmas. And I tried giving him a book.
Like knowing God by JI Packer. And he's like, Dad, I don't read.
I don't know these this new generation. He gave me a book called Heaven. And I was like, a big thick book, hardcover, like, 500 something pages.
Like, wow, how can you write so much about heaven? Randy Elkhorn. Well, I'm about a quarter into it and I realize Wow, there is a trip we're planning.
Or that's been planned for us. And we got the ticket. Anyone who saved the nose Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior.
Has the ticket to heaven. But like what's the plan? Are we kind of just going along our way?
And eventually we just gonna end up there whenever the trumpet sounds or are we looking forward to it?
Are we like planning? Are we looking into it? What what's at the destination? Where are we gonna like what are we gonna do?
We're And you know, we're some a brother shared this morning about what it means to be in glory.
And I thought that was really precious. It is to be with. Our guy is to be with our Lord and Savior, to be in the presence.
And I hope that theme. Reenters are talked this morning because being where God is. Is where we should be.
And if you want to talk about like young people growing up, there's not too many here. But They're all downstairs, but if you want to talk about the will of God and what he wants for you and where he wants you to be.
It's just looking to God. It's just being in his son. And it's experiencing God day to day.
That's glory. And that in heaven will be a continuation of that will be. In his presence and and will be without sin and without the temptations and without the the law of sin in our hearts and in our flesh and all the things that keep us distracted.
But that will be heaven and that will be a wonderful place. And, so I wanted to start just reading Romans 8.
And then Romans 12 just as introduction. And then we'll. We'll see how it goes.
Romans 8 and I gotta say this is probably my second favorite passage in the Bible. It's just so wonderful how it brings everything together.
Romans A. 28. And if you ever come to our house, that's our Wi-Fi password.
Without any punctuation marks and but it's a capital R. And one person once said, what do you get a new house?
Just so you could pick a new Wi-Fi and say, why you use this? Like, no, we want to glorify God.
We wanted like Joseph says, as for me in my house, we want to serve the Lord. And we want to attribute glory and give him credit.
We found a new house during the hottest market ever. No to mankind, it seems. And now we're going to start talking about a man that lives in tents, but, life.
In Romans 8 here and verse 28. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.
And who have been called according to his purpose. For those God for knew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified.
What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, Who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
And it is. Yeah, so I wanted to stop there. So it's wonderful passage.
And people love to just start with. We know all things work together for good.
That's empty. That that doesn't include God at all.
Because it's just it take God out of it all things work together for good. There's a reason and you may know or may not know, but maybe someday you'll know.
But no, it's the full versus we know in all things God's works together for good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.
And then The day to day. That we'll talk a little bit about in Romans 12 just the first 2 verses therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy.
To offer your bodies as living sacrifices wholly unpleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test. And approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
So on that note, we're gonna introduce The main character the morning and his name is Abraham.
I think I'll just say Abraham because it's such a habit. And, and we'll look at Genesis 12.
And I think we'll be able to touch and get some highlights of 4 chapters today. So.
We'll try to go about 8 min per chapter, so. All right, so. When it comes to the job situation and I'm going to be kind of tying in here and there so you don't get bored of my story.
But, I work 28 years at a major health care system. And. You can imagine.
How you get comfortable with that and there's probably some pride that builds up and confidence and Wow, you know, whatever comes in, I can handle it or refer to the right person.
And I'm in family medicine, so you know, it's it's it's always a challenge.
So it was a challenge because you never know what the real issue is. Sometimes it's straightforward. Sometimes there's much deeper issues, which we may scratch a surface.
But in it all. I think I was very comfortable. And being comfortable. Is, not always the best thing.
And I have to admit. I'd have to get shaken out of that once in a while.
I wanna share God with people. I want to share good news. And.
I always envisioned having a nice little rack of like tracks in my office, but in 28 years I never did that.
I don't know. You know, maybe things I totally think I want to change that in my My new place.
You know, you get a chance once in a while, but it's never the. Most important thing it seems, it's always fixing that and maybe we'll have a little time and it's amazing how you don't usually end up with that much more time to share any substance.
Of God's goodness, His grace, His love. And his salvation. So, you know.
I just want to try to tell the story without me in it, but any of you can relate with what you do.
And how you live. For the glory of God and what you do. You know, we're not identified by what you do, but.
You know, 40 HA week is a big chunk of our life. So it's a it's a wonderful thing about balance.
And and being salty. Now being making someone thirsty, making someone ask a good question about God's grace and his plan or purpose.
So. That's, that's sort of the context. And you know, the world changes so fast.
I just heard, this week. Chris was very acceptable and a positive thing in in this country.
For at least 30 years until 1994. Something changed in 90 94. It became more of a neutral thing to be a Christian to speak about God.
To honor guide to live for God.
20 years past and 2,014. Chris is considered something negative. It's actually offensive. Well, should be.
If you're lost. But Christianity and the wonders of the gospel and the miracle of God's incarnate birth.
As Jesus and his death. Procuring salvation. That is all like forbidden. In the public square and it The laws are following it and things are changing.
So, it becomes more of a challenge for sure. And so the context. Of this job situation and my comfort level started changing very quickly.
With all the groups and the lifestyles choices You're never born that way. You know, with, for permissiveness of government, this is allowed, so must be okay with, you know, sanctity of life for the preborn or euthanasia of life for the preborn or euthanasia for the elderly.
You know, when it comes to, you know, and all the other baggage that comes with it with, you know, COVID brought out the best and worse of, I think with.
With a lot of areas, you know, it helped me learn telemedicine and do things virtually and, and remotely and do a lot more, you know, connecting with patients online and, but, but it brought out a very polarized society and, So not too much about that, but.
But if you weren't with the mainstream, you were labeled anti-stablishment and that was hitting the radar screen in my life.
In the workplace many times. And so eventually I was baggage and they terminated me. So after, you know, 27 and a half years, I found myself without a job.
And. I was. You know, I think I tried defending myself to a point, but then I realized what's The point to defending.
And working to keep my job at a place that doesn't want me anymore. That doesn't value what I have to offer.
So it had to have some closure there. And, in. In the background of all this, God was working.
And that's. That's a conclusion to my whole talk. But, I want to just say.
It was a time. Of the unknown for me. It was really difficult to. Like know how to live every day.
And, Thank the Lord for good habits. I start the day with the Lord. I don't know of all the unknowns and the pensions and what are you gonna do next and maybe you should go out of medicine and all the advice you get from people, are you looking for a job?
There was this prevailing piece. And you can't even describe it to people unless they've gone through the same thing.
There's, I wouldn't say it was joy. A settled feeling like God's got this.
And I don't have to stress too much about it, although I did at some points. Along the way.
So, so that's sort of what I came out of now. I won't.
We'll stop there with me and we'll move into. Abraham and, in, Genesis 12 because there's some really impressive things.
That being said. I was reading through the minor profits from January all the way to. Do and it's amazing how many minor profits are referenced here in in even the Lord's Supper.
It's wonderful. Including Ezekiel, but I was thinking, wow, Dan. Daniel was a man who was in that captivity.
And he lived for the Lord so beautifully. And I'm not sure he ever faltered in God's account of him.
By the Holy Spirit. Writing that book. Oh, I think he's a major prophet, so.
And, what, what a voice he was in a Pagan land. And so I was thinking, yeah, I was kind of in captivity myself.
I was in his worldly secular health care system and I started making parallels and I was like, wait a minute, I can't go there.
I cannot compare myself to Daniel. I mean, he was just so pristine and his life for the Lord his public testimony.
He served 3 different kings over, I think, 75 to 90 years and he had words of wisdom.
He deflected all glory to God. And that would have been a 5 min message. So I chose Abraham.
Abraham was called out. And actually the beginning of the story. Happens in Act 7 and in Joshua 24 because he was called out of her of the Caldes.
Way over by Babylon. Way far, far they say east of the river, the big river, the Mesopotamian river.
And they were all idolaters. They were in all idolaters. Abraham was the seventh from Shem, which is a son of Noah.
His seventh generation down and in 7 generations there was rampant Hi, idolatry. And God was going to call Abraham out of that place.
And form him, develop him. And creating him. A new person that was going to be the head.
Of the threefold promise. The head of a new nation. The head of a new people.
And have the blessings. Blessing is attached. So the promise was the seed, his nation, and the promise of a blessing.
So. You know, he was called out. And, You know, there's some snags about how he obeyed.
And, and what I'll read is, first, 5 verses of, tennis's 12.
So the Lord said to Abraham, leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and whoever cursed you, I will curse and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
So Abraham left as a Lord told. Him and lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years when he set out from Heron and he took his wife Sarah's nephew LAT and all the possessions they accumulated and the people they had acquired in her and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there.
So God told him, leave your people. Leave your kindred, leave your family, leave the land you're in.
And so what's he do? He takes his father, he takes his nephew. Well, you have to take your wife.
That's wonderful. And he took a lot of things and he ended up in Heron. And it wasn't until his father died, Terra, who lived 200 years.
That he started his migration to Canaan. Which was the land that God wanted to go to.
So, you know, there's some partial obedience. And that. May have been complacency.
It may have been passivity and see, again, I see parallels to my way of, you know, working for 28 years.
In, you know, not, you know, full full obedience is partial, but. Maybe, maybe better than.
You know, most days I'm doing better than not, but, you know, so God gave him this promise.
And he starts obeying. So we're going to give, you know, credit for that.
He traveled and he ended up at Checkham. On verse 6. And, so now his father's dead.
He's still with lot, but he came to the land with God promised and that was where he first.
He encountered God first in the promised land. So. We're gonna say that.
God appeared to him in telling him to leave the land and leave his people. And so now this would be the second appearance.
And in. Obedience. I think is the only way to God's blessing. And we have a lot of people that want to enhance and embellish.
And, grab a hold of God's blessings nowadays. And he's a God of blessing.
But you can't do it without obedience. You can't do it without drawing near to him and without clinging to what he stands for and what he's doing and what he's doing through me and through others.
And so without obedience, the blessings. Are few or lacking. And so that would be one of the points, today.
In order to procure God's blessings and to receive the goodness of God to experience it, we need to be before him, we need to be obeying him.
And implied in that is we are obeying his word. I believe this is how God speaks to us today through his word.
Which is the most awesome work. Let me say of the Holy Spirit, this whole word here is all inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And any believer? Let's give their heart to the Lord isn't dwelled by the Holy Spirit.
So we have that deep connection now with feeding on God's Word. So Abraham was called.
To separate from my idolatry. And. You know, it begs the question, where am I at?
Where are you at? Where are we living today? Where, where are we going? Like.
Are we coming out? And separating from anything or We're kind of going with the flow. So as a challenge, you know, it's like, Abraham was called out.
And you know, he obeyed and was going the right direction. And, so that, makes me wonder, you know, brought some direction into, my story too is like, as we follow the journey of Abraham.
We'll see that. His obedience did bring blessing and it became magnified and augmented each time I think that he met with God and got closer to knowing God and and being with God and having experiences and interactions with him you know last week our brother ministered about knowing God savoring.
So knowing about the Lord and savoring the Lord. And so I told him, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna dovetail off that a little bit next week.
So, so we have the blessing. We have, Abraham's obedience and and then he gets to the land and he is in Canaan.
He's at Bethel, which will hear that again in the future. With Jacob's ladder, that was in Bethel, the house of God.
And now there's a famine. In verse 10, there's a famine in the land.
So now, you know, it's it's like our lives. We, we have ups and downs. We follow the Lord.
We're We feel closer to Lord and then we kind of start going our own way again and And maybe we're not, you know, deep in his word or we're not, you know, with God's people and things start pulling us this direction in that direction.
Well, and behold, a week or 2 go by and like, wow, what just happened? So now there's, there may have been rumors of a famine.
And so Abraham says, Hey, we're, we're gonna deal with this and we're gonna go down to Egypt.
Now, in Egypt. It's many times that God either saves this people from Egypt or forbid them to go to Egypt as a safe place as a refuge.
But you know in Egypt it's always a picture of the world. And, you know, we live in a world.
So it should be familiar. And in Egypt, Abraham, he developed riches. And he, also.
Got some baggage. And in Egypt, as you read the story and anyone going through the one year Bible, this is like history now for you guys.
That was a long time ago. You read this passage, but There is a problem that Abraham, he had to disown his wife.
Just, he thought he had to protect himself to stay alive and survive. So his wife was such an amazingly beautiful woman that he feared for his own life.
So he did, he disowned his relationship with his wife.
And have a lie about it in order to stay alive. Now, at face value, does it sound like someone who's following Lord and yielding and surrendered and obeying, well.
He's a project just like me. Just like any of us who are. We can burdens, but you know, He came out of Egypt.
He had, he had still have lots of very rich. He got very rich. And he brought home and made servant.
And as maidservant was Hagar. Oh, learn along with the riches and you have a lot more to take care of.
You need a cleaning lady. You need a maid, you need someone to prepare food. You know, and they came back to the promised land, but they had baggage.
And Isn't this like it is with us? We run into a problem. We run to counselors.
We read a book about it. We'll talk to some, you know, trusted people, family or friends or whatever.
Spouse. We don't turn to God. And, what happens is we solve our problem, perhaps only temporarily, and we end up with baggage.
Ramifications or consequences of making our own decision. By digging our way out of our own hole.
And, and that sometimes God allows that to stay with us. And so things that we do, decisions we make.
They can continue to service through our life. And, and if you want to call that God's government or just cause and effect, but you know, we bring on problems and one of the problems was the riches.
And so we end up in Genesis 13 now. And they're back into the Promise Land.
Abraham comes back to, Bethel. And now he's called to separate in a different way, not just to come away from idolatry, but separate and become more holy.
Separate from the world. And you know, as believers. You know buy their fruit you shall you shall know them you know by the tree with good fruit is probably as good roots.
You know, are we looking like unbelievers in the way we do things? Are we different?
Do we stand out? I mean, not to bring any glory to ourselves, but are we, do we have a testimony as people following God?
And his principals. You know, I don't like saying the world, the word worldview.
But, do we aspire to follow God completely and Not a shame to tell people around us.
You know, That is that's very convicting to me. Because You know, you hate the word hypocrite and you know, people say, oh, you go to church.
Oh, but you did this on Friday or did that on one, you know, it's just like.
The inconsistencies, we need to work on that for God's glory and to be thinking of His name and the holiness of his name.
So Abraham and Lot now are in, Genesis thirteenth. And they have too much.
They can't live in the same land. They have to separate. And we had wonderful ministry by Juanz.
Regarding the slow and eventual decline of lot choosing to face and leaning towards Sodom and Gomorrah and eventually end up living there.
And that was a wonderful ministry and a challenge in our spiritual lives. But here, Abraham. Sad luck, you pick a way.
And in doing so, I believe he trusted God. He trusted God that God would take care of him.
In the promised land and a lot had to separate. So there was a decision I think there that supported holiness.
And we have to understand that right next door is the world. And the world has its effect on us.
It has its influence on us. And that's one of the reasons we look forward and long for heaven.
But we're not going to be surrounded with. The, the, you know, corruption and, and stain of sin in this world and such.
So, the world has much to offer it seems, but when it comes to real problems
My brother-in-law has cancer. What does the world have to give to that? You know, my father died, he was 51.
He died also cancer. He went to one to be home with the Lord. He died of cancer. It was 6 months very quick.
I almost left pre-medical and to become a carpenter. I also thought the large was coming in 1988, but, thank you for his patience.
It means salvation for many souls. But I was, helped to stay in the field of medicine and not become a carpenter.
So, but the world has a little to give it rubs off on us, but we have a testimony in the world.
We have a testimony in the world. We can't forget we're here in the world. We can't forget we're here in the world still.
And that Jesus prayed in his high priesty prayer in John, 17, that we wouldn't be taken out of the world, but that we'd be protected from the Satan, basically, from the, the evil one.
So that's something to think about. We're in this world. We're here for a reason.
We're here to be separated onto him. And so Abraham comes back. God accepts him.
He builds another altar. And you know, you're reminded the prodigal son, and he came back to be with his father.
He was accepted. And now Abraham's back where God wanted him. So there again.
He's in glory. He's with God. And communing with God, listening to God.
And. So then we moved it. There's a, I'll sum up a quick story and Genesis, 14.
If you want to read the whole, section. It's it's very action packed, but there's 4 kings versus 5 kings.
One of the One of the. Decide with Sodom and Gomorrah Kings, they ended up in some tar pits and they had to run away.
But then Lotte was brought captive and brought way up towards Damascus and Abraham called Wind to this and he had his 318 hired and soldier men and his family and they went at night and they conquered and they got victory they brought lot back the stolen women and all the possessions.
And you know, it's amazing that Abraham. Was told. By a local in the world.
That hey such and such is happening just thought you'd like to know And this was in verse 13 of Genesis 14.
One escaped and reported this to Abraham the Hebrew. Now, Abraham was living near the great trees of Momrae, the Emery.
So the little town was named after Mom Ray. And this is in Amorite country in Canaan because he was living as a pilgrim and he was a brother of an escal and, so this, You know, his testimony in the world led to being, updated as to his nephew's whereabouts and he went conquered and came back.
Now. In steps, I think. Satan, the one in the world. The Prince of the Power of the Air.
Right now, that'll end. But he has every which way. To receive us. They give us confidence.
To provide false security. To give us, you know, answers and things that don't pertain sometimes.
And, you know, lately I've been reading a little bit about some of the books of CS Lewis and there's something called the screw tape letters and they just blow my mind.
This is CS Lewis acting as if he's local screwtape who is Satan writing to one of his peons on earth who is called Wormwood.
What a crazy flip of, you know, struggle to understand. But Satan is so wily, he's so cunning, he's he can pitch something.
Okay, so Abraham is a victory here. He rescued his, his, his nephew, La, who knows that he'd ever see him again.
And then comes the king of Sodom. Now I'm going to call him Satan in disguise.
The king of Sodom comes in verse 17 of Genesis 14. He came out to him to meet him.
All right, well, this king of Saan was almost dead meat about a week before, but now he wants to pump up Abraham into something that makes him feel good.
You want to make him rich. And what happened was This Uncle Abraham. Who now saved lot, the king of Saddam approached him.
But God stepped in and We had reference to Meltisadec today almost in, Hebrew 7.
But we were reading about the Lord Jesus in the line of Abraham. I'm sorry, in the line of Aaron as high priest.
And but Not one that ever has, will die. So his, his work continues. Melchizedek comes from nowhere.
I mean, it doesn't even fit literally here. The King of Saddam is about to talk to Abraham.
And all of a sudden, no kids of that because King of Salem is right there in the forefront and he brought out bread and wine.
And he was a priest of the Most High God. You know, you think about. Elijah when he was like, I'm the only one left or that might be Elijah.
And God says, no, there's 7,000. That have not bowed the need to, Ahab.
But here is this. Priest of God the most high that's God Elohim. And he brought out bread and wine.
And he blessed Abraham. Bye God, Most High God, He and Creator of heaven and earth and blessed.
Be God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. And so he reset the perspective of what Abraham had to do.
Yeah, this is not about me. I didn't just win this battle. God did it. Glory be to God.
For how he brought this to pass and How precious that there was bread and wine and he's a high priest of the Most High God.
His name means King of Peace. Which is the Salem. His name also means King of Righteousness.
And it's just amazing how
This was like an appearance of of Christ. With the bread and the wine, a fore taste of kind of a prefiguring of.
The emblems that we remember the Lord Jesus and his death. Here is Melchizedek being a high priest bringing these precious 2 things that recur through God's Word.
That we can remember the work of Christ. And. You know, you know, there's There's some connection to be made there and just in interest of time and.
But Abraham, give him the tenth of everything. And so God reset. Abraham's mind in an amazing teaching moment.
That who actually won that victory. And you You know, need to see that. You know, God be praised and and and not this someone in the world that wants to give you some praise.
So now we have the king of Saddam back. And he says, give me the people and keep all the goods for yourself.
You have a prize. You have a reward for this wonderful thing you did. And, but now that Abraham was primed and encouraged and was going to be true to the Lord.
He said, I'll receive nothing. I'm not gonna ever have you say that you made me rich.
And that brings us right into the next chapter where God again appears. In this time in a vision and says, do not be afraid, Abraham, in 15 verse one.
I am your shield. I am your very great reward. So this is true blessing. This is where God wants us.
He wants us acknowledging His goodness, his sufficiency. His being our protector, his our shield and our very great reward.
You know, and rewards come after something is accomplished after a struggle, after our life perhaps. In the form of a crown.
But this is, Just amazing how God stepped in. With a person of Christ, a reminder of who Christ is in Melchizedek.
To show that peace and righteousness is only possible through Jesus Christ. And it might be 2,000 years later, they came to die.
Maybe it's 1,500 years, but it's a long time and it's just so wonderful how gods Wonderful plan and good news of salvation starts right in the first pages of the Bible.
And yeah, from the first verse. And the promise of of a savior in Genesis 3 and and little previews of how it's all going to work and there's one other thing that I just want to share and then and I'll close because it's just really really I'm excited about it and and it's a part You read through the Bible and you you forget that you ever read
this and because God wanted to completely secure this covenant he had with him and he wanted Abraham to know about it.
And we talked about notary publics and going to a bank and depositing money and everything secure and and safe.
But God wanted to make sure that this promise was going to be held and he was going to put his life on the line.
And again, we have a prefiguring of Christ's death. We have. Yeah, 15 verse.
8. Araham says, oh sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?
So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer. Go in a RAM each 3 years old along with a dove and a young pigeon.
Abraham brought these to him, cut them in 2, so he cut them in half and arranged the halves opposite each other.
The birds, however, he did not cut in half. And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses by Abraham drew them away.
So, God is making secure his promise and he is almost like ratifying. You know, we ratify amendments in the Constitution itself, but he is ratifying and making official.
This is my promise. This is what I'm going to do for you, your seed. The nation that will follow and the promises and blessing.
And what happens? Here we have death. Death of the animals. And in, in Jeremiah, there's a reverse in Jeremiah, 34 and it talked about how someone's going to make a contract with another person if it's a land or animal contract.
They cut the animals apart and they walk between it. They both walked between the dead halves of the animals to say basically, we're going to stay true to this covenant and if we don't Basically, you do that to me.
You cut me in half. I am going to be true to my word. And so this was a way of keeping a covenant, a way of notary public back then, or making something official.
So now guys doing this with Abraham, but look what happens as a son. Oh, so the birds?
The precious things of God's Word. Birds are always evil in in the Bible. Well, the blackbirds, the birds of prey, will say.
Not, not the dove and the you know, but they're birds of prey. They come and they land on the kingdom of guys like a tree and the birds land in it.
Well, that's the firemen of the church. I hear the birds were trying to get to the animals and and and Abraham had to shoe them away.
And isn't this what Satan does with the precious things of Christ? We remember the Lord. We have wonderful emblems.
We were empowered and encouraged and and refocused every week we come here but see it does this thing he does that thing he tries it Oh yeah, but his work wasn't enough or you're not good enough to receive that or, you know, throw in all kinds of little darts and fiery darts and and questions and deceptions and and we need to hold on to God's word and push that stuff
away. So the, see these birds, they're trying to devalue the work.
And and take part of it and make it go away. The sun was setting in verse 12, Abraham fell into a deep sleep and thick and dreadful darkness came upon him.
Then the Lord said to him, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and he goes on to talk about the future of 400 years of Israel and And then in the port generation, your your descends will come back into the land of Canaan and this when the sun had set a darkness had fallen.
And a smoking fire pot. With a blazing torch appeared and passed between the 2 pieces. Between the pieces and on that day the Lord made a government with Abraham.
So here we have. The death required for these animals to be split in half. There's a lot of symbolism here.
And we have. We talk about propitiation, we talk about the wrath of God, we talk about how sin is hated by God and has to be judged.
Retributed justice of God. We don't even have that word hardly in our vocabulary, retributive justice.
We don't even have that word hardly in our vocabulary, retributive justice. Sin will be answered for.
It will be paid for either through the blood of for each of our souls or It'll be in hell, help fire.
But the purifying. Effect of Fire. Wasn't necessary seeing. The wrath of God on the Lord.
As he hung on that. Making just completing the symbolism. And then the blazing light, the torch.
That pass through also the light. Look at the darkness, the pure darkness. And you know God saved the children of Israel when they got to the Red Sea.
He used darkness there too. He made us a massive darkness so people couldn't see anything. Well, we were all in darkness until we found the Lord and our eyes were open.
But this light was a light of the world. This place of darkness we live in, Jesus showed the way by and the way the truth in a life.
And no one comes to the father but by me. So. What we see here are precious things about God working.
Through his son, but here in Abraham's life he sees this, this amazing covenant.
Now he is asleep. And he is like paralyzed, he is unconscious. And the beauty of that is It's all of God.
It's a unilateral covenant. There is nothing we bring to the table. So there's not to like, oh yeah, you give me this land, I'll give you the 5 animals.
It's all coming from God. He is going to bless. He is gonna preserve us. He's gonna protect us.
He's gonna be. Our promise and our hope and everything. And we have nothing to offer. And until you realize we have nothing to offer.
We can't be part of the covenant. But when we realize we are helpless.
We're like, like unconscious and paralyzed and And just not offering anything in this covenant.
Except we can just receive it. And so this is the beauty of Christ's work on the cross.
In this very strange little passage. With some application, clearly. Of the fire and the light.
And so, Well, we have. Abraham part one and I'll just say again I thank everyone so much for the support.
I have a new job. Thank you, Lord. He provided. And through some people here.
My wife and and connections this wonderful place it's not a corporate medical health care it's called the doctor's office it's amazing we have no rules there's no handcuffs there's no shackles we can share with people we spend an hour with people you spend a half hour or whatever.
It's just amazing. And I'm very thankful. I, the passion of providing care again for people and having compassion of providing care again for people, and having compassion on people and empathy is, and having compassion on providing care again for people, and having compassion on people in empathy is, really wakened up in me again.
And I just really want to share that and thank you for that. For sharing with me and so along the way we brought in some some abrams.
So thank you. For listening and we'll just let's just close. This meeting.
So thank you. Her loving father. So you're so wonderful how you lead and direct in each of our lives.
Individually, you brought us out from wherever we were, each of us a different place and. You, bring us to a much better place and And we had more time, we'd see.
The wonders of. Hebrews 11 and how only the positive. Of Abraham's life was was noted in Hebrews and it's so wonderful how in Christ and in His righteousness you only see us.
In him. So we know you started to work in us. Each of us, you know, we know you'll continue that work.
And you will bring that work to completion. And until we see you, Lord Jesus, we look forward to looking to that city.
With Hope, that city that has the builder that has foundations. Are of God and the eternal city.
So. Just thank you for this time. We can share this morning. Just ask that it'd be a blessing to these listening in Jesus name.
Amen.
Okay. Oh yeah. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Yeah.
Have a good week everybody.
Bye.
Okay. Okay, Oh, Yeah.