01.06.2013 Abraham - Allowing God to Transform Your Life

SermonAudio

Lord, thank You for the opportunity to be together in Your presence. Thank You that You have drawn near to us. You long to speak to us as we worship You. We humbly receive Your word and desire to learn from You – may our hearts be soft so You can touch us and we can be led by you. May Your grace fill us. May this be a year when we are more deeply committed to You and willing to give ourselves to You wholly. We have areas where we need You to transform us and we take those to You.
We are going to look at some more stories in the life of Abraham.
God called Abraham to listen to Him. Abraham listened and obeyed. When God speaks, we are to do as He asked us to do.
There is a tendency to be hesitant when we are not sure what the outcome is. We don’t always know where things lead. That is what faith is – stepping out in obedience to God when we are really not sure what it is going to look like. And with that commitment – there is a promised blessing – and God always connects His commands with blessings. When we walk in that calling, we experience that blessing from God. But sometimes it takes a really long time to experience that blessing.
Abraham’s life is a journey – and that journey is symbolic of His faith journey.
From the calling of Abraham, there are a series of events that threaten the promise. The promise is that he would be blessed and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. The sources of the threats are in three places: First, Abraham! Second, the company he keeps (Lot, his nephew) and third comes from Abraham’s enemy.
Genesis 12: 10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 "Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you." 14 And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

This is not good advice if you want to have a good marriage. Understand what is going on here – The king is going to take Abraham’s wife into his harem! But God intervenes and protects the promise. In doing this – he is giving it up – throwing the promise away. Throughout his life – the greatest threat to the promise is from Abraham himself. Through his flaws and sins – he tries to thwart what God is doing! We can often be our own worst enemy. Abraham doesn’t learn from his mistakes – he does this particular blunder twice! The reality is, we often get in our own way – and the thing we struggle with, we tend to go back and struggle again. It is the same for all of us. We have these ingrained character flaws because we are human – and we tend to go back to those flaws – be it anger, lust, jealousy, impatience, - we go back to those things when the pressure comes on.
All of us are that way – we need to recognize that. Those things come after God’s blessing for us – they work against us to prevent us from experiencing the relationship that God wants for us. It is the weaknesses, flaws, and sins inside of us that hinder that.
Do you know what they are? Like last week – allow God to speak into your heart – to address the issue He is most concerned about – how you’ve been caught up and conformed to the world - whatever it is that is keeping you from being all that God wants you to be. Address one – and set forth – acknowledging it – pay attention and focus on it. For some of us, it is obvious. For others, it is hidden. That is why I encourage you to seek progress in making transformation. And we hope that at the end of this year, that progress has been made, that growth has happened – in our career – in our spiritual life… that there would be real growth and progress. And that begins by zeroing in on one area that needs work. Allow God to bring that to mind.
1 Tim. 4: 7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and [also] for the [life] to come.
Paul is telling Timothy to take the approach of a professional/Olympic athlete. Today, those athletes train every day – and if they do not, they won’t be Olympic athletes. It doesn’t happen all at once but by continuous discipline. View your Christian walk, you spiritual life, in this way.
1 Tim. 4:16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
God wants us to pay close attention to our lives. We get so wrapped up in what we have to do that we forget who we are.
He is talking about Timothy’s ministry – setting an example for the church as a young leader. He has all these responsibilities – and for all of the activities to be successful, he has to pay attention to what is going on in his soul. Healthy, growing, on the inside.
He wants him to watch and guard the thoughts and heart. You won’t guard your life without guarding what comes into your thoughts. There is enormous power in the things we tend to dwell on.
Those really shape us. Proverbs says you are what you think – as a person thinks within himself, so he is. And what you dwell on shapes your character and actions.
It starts by watching our hearts. It is the little dreaming – allowing our thoughts to go in the negative direction when we don’t shut it down that our negative thoughts begin to snowball. And then of course, guarding our actions – and guarding our company we keep.
Gen. 12: 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;
The call was to leave his country, relatives, and father’s house. But he took his nephew with him. And we see that Lot is a bad influence and a burden. It gets to the point where they are both very prosperous – and their flocks are fighting for the same land – and they get together and say, we’ve got to separate. This was God’s hand – God needed to remove lot. He was not good company.
Genesis 13: 9 "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me: if [to] the left, then I will go to the right; or if [to] the right, then I will go to the left." 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere-- [this was] before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-- like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. 11 So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.
Whenever someone is moving East in the book of genesis, they are moving AWAY from God. And we see this is true in Lot’s case. Abraham has to raise up an army to rescue him. The company we keep can threaten the promise.
We need to make sure the people who influence our lives are good company. You can choose the company you keep. For Abraham, it was difficult, because it was a relative. Many of us have to go through that experience, where someone in the family is a bad influence.
Good company – people who encourage your faith.
It doesn’t have to be dozens, but you need to be around people who encourage your faith. You can’t live this Christian journey on your own. You should also have someone you share your struggles with – a person or two to whom you can be open with the dark stuff – the stuff you don’t want to tell anyone. We all need someone who knows what is happening inside of us.
Good company are ones who will challenge us – and at times, reprove us. And a lot of times, we don’t want those types of people – but REALLY GOOD COMPANY – Proverbs says – Faithful are the wounds of a friend – someone who can speak into us and say, you know – this is a problem. In doing that – it is a way of guarding the promise – the blessing – guarding us from losing all that God wants to do in us.
We’ve seen so many people – many times, young people – who lose out on what God wants to do and how He wants to work because of the relationships they have.
Some kings come against Sodom and Gomorrah – and they take Lot and his household captive – and Abraham must raise up an army to rescue him. So there are these external enemies who are threatening to take away the promise. And we have that too – an external enemy who wants to steal the promise – every day there is a spiritual battle taking place – the devil and his armies long to bring you down – and they are working to do that. It starts by recognizing that this is really happening – Ephesians 6: 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.] 1
That is where the battle lies. And daily – that battle comes against our personal holiness and witness and our relationships. Attacking – the enemy is smart and clever and knows your weak spots. He is like a coach that studies game film – looking for a way to get in and to get you. And so we need to be aware of that on a daily basis and this year. Those attacks are more concerning. There are all these attacks coming – cliffs and fiscals – but there is a spiritual cliff – and all of us are on the precipice of going over THAT cliff – because it is not just circumstances – but someone is trying to push us. BUT – greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world. We can have victory because we have Christ inside of us. We won’t have victory if we don’t recognize that the battle is taking place. The enemies best strategy is to get us to ignore him.
3 things – first, he comes at us with temptations. Temptations come from the enemy. When you are tempted – you have not sinned. Too often, we think we have blown it at that point – and give in. Have a plan for how to respond to temptation. Memorize a Bible verse that deals with that issue. Something to get you out of the circumstance. Maybe a button to turn off your computer or lock your refrigerator! Acknowledge your temptation and have a plan.
Some are easier than others. If your temptation is despair and discouragement – that could be really hard. Yes, there is medical depression that needs to be dealt with, but there is also spiritual despair that needs to be addressed spiritually.
The enemy will come to try to divide relationships. Sometimes in our marriages, we need to think – maybe the enemy is involved here. Maybe someone doesn’t want our marriage to work – wants to break it up – a lot of times, it is us in our selfishness – but sometimes the enemy can use that.
But in all relationships, the enemy wants to divide and conquer. That is his strategy – and always will be – and you need a plan – to determine that there is a way you will biblically handle conflict.
Personal discouragement.
To this point – there are all these threats – and
Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great." 2 And Abram said, "O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir." 4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." 5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
What happens here – even though Abraham over and over goes astray and returns – though he is faithless at times – God remains faithful. And the promise we have – yes, there are consequences when we go astray – but because we have a relationship with Christ, God will be faithful to us. No matter how badly we blow it – God is there – to give the promise – to be faithful – to bless – to renew the relationship and begin the transformation process all over again – because that is who He is and that is His nature. Let’s pray.