From Fear to Faith
Download MP3Okay. We're gonna read Genesis chapter 12 verse 10 through chapter 13 verse 18. Now there was a famine in the land, so Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you are a woman, beautiful in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.
Speaker 1:Then they would kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of pharaoh saw her, they praised her to pharaoh. And the woman was taken into pharaoh's house.
Speaker 1:And for her sake, he dealt well with Abraham. And he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
Speaker 1:Why did you say, she is my sister, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. And pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Speaker 2:So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the gib. Now, Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. And he journeyed on from there, from the Najib, as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been in the beginning. Between Bethel and Ai. To the place where he had made an altar at the first.
Speaker 2: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 the possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
Speaker 2: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, I will go to the right.
Speaker 2:Or if you take the right hand, I will go to the left. And 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 Zor. This was before the lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east. Thus, they separated from each other.
Speaker 2:Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom, where the men of now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the lord. The lord said to Abraham, 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 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 can also be counted.
Speaker 2: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 Mamre, which are at Hebron. And there he built an altar to the lord.
Speaker 2:This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Lord, what a honor and privilege it is to hear your words spoken. Lord, what a privilege I have to be able to expound that word, to preach that word. It is not a privilege I deserve. Lord, I am sinful. I am broken.
Joel Brooks:If it were not for you, Lord, I would not be here. Lord, my words are death, and your words are life. And god, I ask that you would come and you would speak life to us. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but lord, may your words remain, and may they hit their mark. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. For the last 2 weeks now, we have looked at the life of Abram. How the Lord appeared to Abram, told him to leave his country and his kin and his father's house to go to this place that he will show him. And he was to do this so that he might be a blessing to all of the nations. The world will be blessed through Abram.
Joel Brooks:It's a pretty big promise, and it's one that Abram believed. But we must not go too far and make the mistake of putting Abram on some pedestal, and think that this is the model of perfect faith and we just need to be like Abram because none of the patriarchs are models for us, perfect models. They're mirrors. They, they reflect who we are. And when we read about these imperfect people, we should see ourselves in their place.
Joel Brooks:We should hear the same challenges, the same difficulties, the same struggles and hear the Lord teaching us as the Lord is teaching them. Now early on in Abraham's journey, we actually see his first failure. It's going to be the first of many. He's going to, he's going to fail often, but here is the first of his failures. You know, he starts off so strong and leaving, but then he stumbles.
Joel Brooks:He stumbles early. At first it was faith that was guiding him and now you see it's fear. Fear is the thing that's motivating him and driving him. And so Abram lied. He lied to Pharaoh and said, No, my, my wife is not my wife, she is my sister.
Joel Brooks:Because he was scared what Pharaoh would do to him. Thought Pharaoh would kill him. Now he didn't seek God about this decision. He didn't pray about this decision, he didn't trust God to protect them in this land, he didn't do any of those things. He was purely driven from fear.
Joel Brooks:And he took matters into his own hands and came up with this plan, and his plan worked. I mean Sarai is taken to be part of Pharaoh's harem and Abram is treated very well on account of her. Look at verse 16 of chapter 12. Says, And for her sake, Pharaoh dealt with Abram and he had sheep and oxen, a male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels. All of these things that are being described here are is likely the bridal price that was given.
Joel Brooks:The dowry payment that was given for Sarai to be part of this harem. So Abram is, even though he knows he is lying and he's being deceitful, he is still reaping the benefits of his deceit. Well, God then strikes pharaoh with plagues, reveals to him, hey, hey, that's not his sister, that's his wife. And so, pharaoh is ticked. He's absolutely ticked.
Joel Brooks:He shows far more righteousness than this patriarch. He he's ticked and he he goes to Abraham, he's like, what have you done? Why did you do this? And he starts shouting all these questions and I love it at the end of the Hebrew. He just says 4 really just kind of terse words.
Joel Brooks:He says, her, or he goes, her wife, go now. Or his wife, go now. Get out of here. Just go. And so Abraham leaves, but he doesn't leave empty handed.
Joel Brooks:In verse 20, And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. So all of this that he had accumulated through his deceit, he leaves with. He leaves better off than when he arrived. And this is pretty amazing. I mean, if you think about it, Pharaoh or Abram, when he first came there, he was scared, Pharaoh is going to kill me.
Joel Brooks:Just so he can have my wife. Now Abram takes one of his wives, takes her back, lies to him, and leaves, and there's no consequences. Not only does pharaoh not take Abram's life, Abram says, go. You can go with the blessings that you have. There's no punishment here.
Joel Brooks:There's no punishment by pharaoh. There's no punishment by God. Abram walks away an absolutely blessed man because of his deceit. So you've got to ask the question, you know, what what is going on here? Because I certainly, you know, I didn't learn this in Sunday school, you know, that God rewards those people who lie and those people who deceive and God is going to bless those people.
Joel Brooks:But that's what happens here. And it doesn't just happen here. It happens all throughout Genesis. You're gonna see this over and over and over when people do bad things. When the patriarchs do bad things, they are blessed.
Joel Brooks:You see this just a few chapters later in Genesis 20 when Abram does the exact same thing to King Abimelech. And he says, No, no, this is not my wife. This is my sister. And so Abimelech takes great care of Abram, gives them land to live on. You know, when the king finds out about this, this is what we have in Genesis 20.
Joel Brooks:It says, Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah his wife to him. So once again, Abraham lies and the king just loads him up with wealth and sends him on his way. You're gonna see this later happen with his son, Isaac, to the exact same king. He goes once again to Abimelech. He says, no, no, this isn't my wife, Rebekah, this is my sister.
Joel Brooks:And once again, King Abimelech, he finds out, he's got to be thinking, what is going on with you people? Why do you keep lying to me? You keep telling me I'm supposed to trust you and you're a god, yet you keep lying to me. But He blesses Isaac. The story ends with these words.
Joel Brooks:He gives Isaac a plot of land in which he could stay. And it says, and Isaac sowed that land and reaped in the same year a 100 fold. The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. That's the pattern of the patriarchs. There's actually a commentary series out there called Millionaire Moses or Millionaire Patriarchs, if you want to read it.
Joel Brooks:Just about how, you know, you can follow the lives of other patriots and get extremely wealthy and prosperous and they kind of skip over the deceitful parts here but it's only in the times of deceit that they walk away financially so blessed. The ironic thing is, and we're gonna look at this in a few months, is when you get to Jacob, Jacob is a scoundrel his whole life. He's always lying, he's always cheating, and yet, he has so much possessions. He's so blessed. And when he finally prays, and he prays a wonderful prayer, when he finally prays, the Lord responds by coming to him, wrestling in the night and dislocating his hip, and Jacob walks with a limp for the rest of his life.
Joel Brooks:So every time he lied and he deceived people, he gets blessed. He calls out to the Lord, walks with a limp for the rest of his life. It doesn't really go well in Sunday school when you're teaching these things to kids, but it's there. But you have to ask the question, why is God responding this way? Why is he doing this?
Joel Brooks:Why is he teaching Abram this? That when he lies, he's gonna bless him, and why is he doing this with the rest of the patriarchs? Remember, Abraham's very young in his faith. Doesn't know much about the Lord. And God is teaching him that I am not like any other God, you know.
Joel Brooks:And you will relate to me differently than any other person relates to their gods. I'm a God of grace. Absolute grace. You see, every other religion at that time, and every other religion in our time, says that if you want God to bless you, if you want your life to go well, you want good things to happen to you, then you've got to pay the toll. You got to put money in the bank, you got to, you know, go to church, you got to start giving your money, you start to have to start helping old ladies across the street, you know, Do whatever good things you can do to pay the toll so God will bless you, so God will be good to you.
Joel Brooks:That's religion. But it is not Christianity. That is not how our God relates to us. Do not ever think because you do a number of good things that God now owes you something. That you deserve his blessing.
Joel Brooks:So the Lord is teaching Abram here that we cannot relate to God that way. And we should be thankful for that because if we did, not one of us in this room could stand before him. None of us could earn his favor because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Everyone. We live life as an enemy of God and not his friend, and so he changes us.
Joel Brooks:So the Lord wants Abraham to understand that he's a God of grace. Grace. So every time Abraham does something wrong, God blesses over and over. He's teaching him Psalm 10310, which is in the front of your worship guide. That he is a God who does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Joel Brooks:If God dealt with us according to our sins, not one of you here would be breathing. He doesn't deal with us that way. I mean seriously, do do I really expect that the God who created me, the God who breathed life into me, the God who had me born in the richest nation in the world, who had me born into good parents, who taught me and who educated me, the God who's given me a good job and good finances, a great wife and wonderful children, the God who's given me all of that is somehow going to be impressed when I toss-up a good work. Hey God, I'm tithing. You owe me.
Joel Brooks:Do you think he, he thinks along those lines, You're right. Gosh, what have I done for you lately? I owe you so much, Joel. He owes me nothing. Actually, the only thing that I am owed is the punishment for my sin.
Joel Brooks:A couple of years ago, my, my oldest girl, Caroline, did something really bad and she needed to be punished for it. I can't even remember what it, what it was, but it, it was bad, which isn't like her because she's the first born. She's the rule follower. She's the people pleaser. She does not want anybody to be upset with her.
Joel Brooks:If I look at her the wrong way, her lip starts quivering. She starts crying. She's the one who cleans her room. She's the one who asks if she can clean our bathrooms. She puts her dishes up when she's done.
Joel Brooks:She's like, you know, she does all these things. She's so super polite. But she's also the one who likes to point out how she's doing it all. Hey, did you did you see how I cleaned the bathrooms, dad? Natalie didn't.
Joel Brooks:I did. You wouldn't believe the bad things Natalie and Georgia are doing right now. She she's always pointing out those things because she thinks she can earn my favor. She thinks she can earn it. She could do all these good things and she can earn it.
Joel Brooks:And I want her to know that she can enjoy my favor. She doesn't have to earn it, she can just enjoy my favor. And so, I I did something kind of weird, but when she messed up terribly here, she sinned terribly, I went to the store and I bought her a Barbie doll. And I brought it back to her and we sat down and I gave her this Barbie doll. She goes, why are you giving me a Barbie doll?
Joel Brooks:I said, because you were really, really bad, And it didn't compute. You know, she's, she's, she's trying to think. She goes, but you should spank me. I said, well, you do deserve a spanking. Yes, you do.
Joel Brooks:But I'm not. Instead, I'm giving you a Barbie doll. And she still just looks at me. She, she, there's not a part in her brain where she can process this because she is like every one of you. We're not wired that way.
Joel Brooks:We have this religious wiring in which we have to earn favor. She she she can't get it. And so, I told her, I said, you know, Caroline, the reason that I am giving you this, even though you sin greatly, is because I want to teach you something about God. Something very important about God. God deals graciously with us all of the time.
Joel Brooks:Even when we sin, even when we absolutely blow it, even when we deserve an eternal spanking, God deals graciously with us. And so you cannot earn his love any more than you can earn my love. Now I just want to be quick to point out, I am not recommending that for your child. I am not sure that I would do that with any of my other children, but I needed to with Caroline. And let me tell you, it had a transformative effect on her when I did this.
Joel Brooks:You could, you could just see seeds of grace and understanding being planted in her at that point that I have seen begin to grow and blossom. Now what's the fruit in Abram's life as well? It was a fruit of repentance. God's grace led to repentance. Look at the very first thing Abram does after he blows it.
Joel Brooks:He leaves Egypt and he goes straight to Bethel. And look how Bethel is described in chapter 13 verse 3, 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 Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there, Abram called upon the name of the Lord. He's going back to where he built an altar. He's going back to the place where he called on the Lord and he worshiped the Lord.
Joel Brooks:He's going back to the place where he was last obedient. And he's starting over at that place. He's repenting. What you're seeing played out here is Paul's words in Romans 2 when he says, God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. And that's what we see here in the life of Abram.
Joel Brooks:Grace leads him not to sin all the more, but it transforms him and it leads him to a place where I need to go back to where I messed up. I need to repent. I need to make things right. And we can see this fruit in the way that he deals with Lot immediately after this. So we know how the story goes and how he's having to deal with lots.
Joel Brooks:They, they both are growing very wealthy. At this time, you know, they didn't have banks, you know, they didn't have paper money or anything like that. You're, when you grew wealthy, you just had a lot, a lot of livestock which ate a whole lot and needed a lot of land and they didn't have enough to support all of that and so it was this problem, and it's Abram and Lot's herdsmen are fighting with one another. But this time, Abraham's not gonna come up with his own little solution. He's not gonna let fear drive him, but he's gonna let faith drive him at this point.
Joel Brooks:So we have this conflict, this family conflict going on and look at verse 7 of chapter 13. Says, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. Now the little comment there about, you know, the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelling in the land isn't just like a nice little throw in detail. No.
Joel Brooks:What what the narrator is saying is that the outside pagan world is watching this domestic dispute. They're there watching to see what happens. They're observing. They're they're wondering how's Abraham and Lot gonna settle this because earlier in front of the world, in front of pharaoh, Abram blew it. He blew his witness.
Joel Brooks:What about now? Well, he handles it differently this time. He takes Lot to a place where they can see the whole land in front of them And he says, okay Lot, you choose. You go to the right, I'll go to left, you go to the left, I'm gonna go for the right. You choose.
Joel Brooks:And this is absolutely astounding because that that land had been promised to Abram. It's his land. It's not Lot's land. It's his. And it's a patriarchal society in which the elder is the one who's always in control.
Joel Brooks:He's always the one who gets to choose first. And yet, Abram is deferring that and saying, Lot, you choose. He's dealing graciously with Lot. He's giving Lot an unmerited kindness. Where do you think he learned that?
Joel Brooks:He just witnessed that earlier and that transformed him and now he's he's responding in repentance and he's living a life of faith towards Lot. What we're seeing play out here is very similar to 1 Corinthians 6 when it says, a brother takes a lawsuit against another brother and it says this in front of the world. And Paul says, you know what, why not rather be wronged? Give that other person everything. Be wrong.
Joel Brooks:Just don't blow your witness. Lot lifts up his eyes and he sees the Jordan Valley. Verse 10 describes what he sees. And 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 and the direction of Zor.
Joel Brooks:A man named, Robert Alter really kind of unpacked this verse, opened it up for me. He is probably the top Hebrew narrative scholar in the world. He he's a professor at Berkeley. He has a great translation of Genesis with a commentary, and he says this. He says, what is significant thematically about what's going on in the Hebrew here is that the point of view is not the narrator's, but is entirely lots.
Joel Brooks:And so when you see here that lot lift us up his eyes and he saw that the Jordan valley was well watered and everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. That's Lot's thoughts. He's looking at this and he's saying, this is just like the garden of Eden. This is the garden. I can finally get back to the garden because ever since the fall, that's what man wants.
Joel Brooks:They want to get back to that place of blessed rest. They want to get back to paradise. They wanna get back to, you know, meaningful work, fruitful work, just just get me back into the garden. And Lot, he sees it. He sees before me, it's like it's the garden of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:It's paradise. And for him, paradise is a place where you can grow his portfolio. That's paradise. I could go there and I could get even wealthier. It's the garden of the lord.
Joel Brooks:And the problem is, he doesn't seek the lord for his decision and the lord's not gonna be with him as he goes and so he wants the garden of the lord without the lord. That's what I want. I mean, he's given the chance here to, to share and the blessing that's, that's going to be coming on Canaan. He gets to share in the promise of the Lord, but he turns his back on it. He goes and he chooses a land that sits right at the fringe of Canaan.
Joel Brooks:Half of it sits on the fringe. The other half sits outside of Canaan, which is kind of where Lot's gonna be living his life a lot. Sort of following God, mostly not following God. He chooses a place where there's wicked people living in these cities. It's hard for me, I gotta confess, to be super hard on lot.
Joel Brooks:Perhaps it should be hard for you too, because this might be where or how a lot of you make your decisions is like lot. In which most people, if given the choice between higher paying job, normal job I have, I'm gonna take the higher paying job. More comfortable home versus a home I have. I'm gonna take the more comfortable home. And often that's just logical.
Joel Brooks:I'm not saying that's the wrong thing to do, but we don't seek the Lord in those decisions. Huge life decisions that we're not even seeking the Lord on. We, we, we think, oh man, this chance only comes along once in a lifetime. I've got to grab it. Let me tell you, pastors are not exempt from this.
Joel Brooks:How many pastors do you know of have ever been called to a smaller church with a lesser salary? Do you know many? This is how many of us, this is how we're we're prone to think. Now lot had other options. Let me be clear about this.
Joel Brooks:If you looking at this situation, think, okay, lot has only got 2 options. That's it. He can go to the right or go to the left. If, if you're thinking that you're reading this and like you only had 2 options, then you make decisions just like lot made decisions In which you are ruled by your possessions, ruled by your comfort because there are other options. Let me give you one that's radical.
Joel Brooks:He could have walked away from his wealth. Walked away from it and decided that he would remain with Abram and the people of God. Okay, here's a problem here. We both have too much money. I'll just give away my money.
Joel Brooks:No more problem. So I can remain in this wonderful community. This God centered community. But it is not even on his radar that he could give away his money. And I think for many of us, it's the same.
Joel Brooks:Something like that, well no. Not even, you get a better job, you take it. Get a better home, you take it. You get a better life over here, you take it. Not even an option that we might say no to this.
Joel Brooks:Because God might be calling us to somewhere else. I hope, I hope you see that as an option. I hope. We, Lauren and I, we've had some people, leave our community to other places for better jobs. And I think some are feel called to go there.
Joel Brooks:And I think some just having a thought about it. And I remember having a conversation with somebody, said they were so sad to be leaving. They're like, you know, we'll never find community like this again. You can't put a price on community. And I responded, well, you just did.
Joel Brooks:It was a better paying job. That's all it took. And I think that's how so many of us respond. Oh gosh. You know, God's doing a unique thing here.
Joel Brooks:I really feel like God's leading me in this direction. He's doing this, but I got no choice. I mean, this this door opened up over here. Stop, think, pray. See what God wants for your life.
Joel Brooks:Look at Abram. After God had just taught him about grace. This melts Abram to the point where he just can let go of his possessions. He's already in his mind, has let them go. They are the Lord's already.
Joel Brooks:You know, if he's going to go to a place where, you know, can't take care of his flock, fine. He's gonna go to this place, take care of it, great. But he can freely trust the Lord now. I mean, before him, there are 2 competing realities. 2 competing realities.
Joel Brooks:You have the reality of sight, and you have the reality of God's promise. And so one of them you can see and the other one you cannot see, and these realities are always competing against one another. Don't ever think that there's such thing as faith in a vacuum. That you can somehow just have an intellectual faith that, you know, faith just kind of exist. Faith always exists in life, in real hard decisions.
Joel Brooks:It's faith is something that's always played out. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. There's hard choices to make. You'll have to trust God. And so God rewards Abraham's faith here by once again, renewing his call.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna see this. We're gonna talk about this later, but 12 times, Abram is reminded of his call. It's what drives him. God keeps going and reminding him of his calling and how he's gonna bless him and what he's gonna do. 12 times we're gonna see this.
Joel Brooks:And he rewards him and he says, you know what? Not only am I going to give you land, but your offspring is going to be like the dust of the earth. You can't even count it. And so Abraham's blessed. And before ending this sermon, I've got to ask the question, how is it possible that God can do this?
Joel Brooks:How is it possible that God can bless Abram after he's so blatantly failed? How is it that God can do that? How's it that God could change his heart, reward him, change his heart and bless him? The answer for this comes 2000 years later, actually in a very similar situation, very similar situation to Abram and Lot being taken up to look at all the land before them. Jesus Christ was taken up at one point and he was shown all the kingdoms of the earth, all the land before him.
Joel Brooks:And Satan said to him, he said, all of this can be yours. All the land, all the people, all the kingdoms, all the power that they hold, all of it can be yours. Make your choice. There's just one thing. First, you you have to bow down to me.
Joel Brooks:But if you do this, it's yours. And Jesus, after looking at all that said, be gone Satan. No. Absolutely no. And what, what Satan was offering him was to have all of these kingdoms without the suffering, without the cross.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus said, no, because if I don't suffer and I don't go to cross, then I cannot redeem these people. Now, I'm after their hearts. Not just land, not just power, I'm after their hearts. And if that means the cross, I go to the cross. Begone, Satan.
Joel Brooks:And that's the road that Jesus chooses. That He was going to take on the punishment that I deserve, the punishment that you deserve, the punishment that Abraham deserves. He took on the curse in order that he might give us the blessing. That's the only way this is possible. It's at the cross, that's where we find our faith.
Joel Brooks:That's where we find the blessing of God. He purchased these things for us with his own blood. Let me just tell you, when that reality begins to invade just the core of your being, amazing things happen. First, you go to a place of repentance. You just repent and then you just start finding nothing in this world has a hold on me.
Joel Brooks:Nothing in light of such love and grace. You find yourselves just saying, Lord, I'm absolutely yours wherever you take, wherever you lead, whatever you would have me do, how much ever you have me have in this life, I'm absolutely yours. It's the only response. Pray with me. Our God, our father, you are not like all the other pathetic gods and idols.
Joel Brooks:We cannot relate to you that way. You are the almighty God and you are a God of grace. You owe us nothing, yet you freely have given us all things through the gift of your son. You've held nothing back that we need. We give you thanks.
Joel Brooks:And in light of such great love, I pray now you would send your spirit and he would bring a spirit of repentance to us. Show us the idols in our lives. Show us where we have not sought you in our decisions. Make yourself glorious. Pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
