Faith in God s Provision

Faith in God s Provision Rich Nathan October 8 & 9, 2016 The Journey of Faith Genesis 13 Have you ever been in a situation where you really had to trust in God s provision? Maybe you were out of work and you were not easily able to find another job. Or maybe you are out of work now and because of the industry that you re in or your age or something missing or present on your resume, and you re finding it virtually impossible to discover suitable employment. Maybe you ve had to trust in God s provision of a spouse for you. Or healing for you or a loved one. Maybe you ve even had to trust in God s provision of justice in a criminal action or a civil action. Or as you ve had to battle the untrue claims of an ex-spouse in a divorce or custody action. Have you ever had to really trust in God s provision? Have you ever been in a situation where you knew that you could try to make something happen on your own, but God was telling you Don t do it, trust in me? Today we re going to look at the lives of two men. A man by the name of Abram and his nephew, Lot. Because they represent two radically different approaches regarding how to deal with an experience of need. The approach of Abram involves reliance on God. The approach of Lot involves reliance on himself. Two very different approaches to life. In fact, you could say this is the dividing line not only for all of humanity, but a dividing line regarding our own personal spirituality at any given moment. Am I going to rely on God in this situation or am I going to rely on myself? Am I going to trust in what God can do or take the matter into my own hands? Last week, I started a series that I ve titled, The Journey of Faith. This autumn, we are going to be looking at the life of Abraham, a man who lived 4,000 years ago and who is considered to be the Father of Faith for the majority of our world today. The Father of Faith for Jews, Muslims and for Christians. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament calls Abraham The Man of Faith. My simple point throughout this series is that faith is not just something that you go in for when you decide as an initial matter to trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. That s just the beginning point of faith. As we look at the life of Abraham we re going to find that faith is necessary for every part of life, every season of life and every challenge of life. 1

Today, as we continue in this series, we re going to look at Genesis 13 in a message that I ve titled Faith in God s Provision. Let s pray. Genesis 13:1-4 So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. 3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. As I said, we re going to see two very different approaches to life: the way of Abram and the way of Lot. Trusting in God vs. trusting in ourselves. But it wasn t like Abram had perfect faith, or that he always relied on God in times of crisis. The journey of faith is not a straight line. It s often three steps forward and two steps back. The Way of Abram In our weakness and sinfulness, we often find ourselves trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in God having more confidence in what we can do on our own as compared to what God can do through us. We take the path of least resistance, choosing short term escapes over long term persevering. But Abram s faith is displayed by the way he handles his setbacks and failures. Faith that can handle setbacks Abram went from the promised land to Egypt because of a famine. We read of this in: Genesis 12:10 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. We don t know why there was a famine in that part of the world. There were frequent droughts. There may have been a plague of locusts or a failed harvest. Abram was faced with a major test: am I going to trust in the Lord and his provision by staying in the Promised Land or am I going to do what I ve always done find the easy way out, follow the path of least resistance? God tests us with difficulty. Not because God doesn t know how we ll do on the test. The Lord already knows your character and my character. The Lord tests us to show us to ourselves. He tests us with challenging circumstances to hold a mirror up to us so we might see our own heart. The Lord did not want Abram to go to Egypt. 2

F.B. Meyer, a 19 th Century pastor and devotional writer said: In the figurative language of scripture, Egypt stands for an alliance with the world. [Abram] acted simply on his own judgement. He looked at his difficulties and became paralyzed with fear. He grasped at the first means of deliverance that suggested itself much as a drowning man will grasp at any passing twig Ah, fatal mistake! But how many make it still. They may be true children of God, and yet, in a moment of panic, they will adopt methods of delivering themselves that, to say the least, are questionable, sowing the seeds of sorrow and disaster to save themselves from some [trouble]. So, it s not that Abram always trusted in God s provision. When he was tested, he ran to Egypt. There he met disaster and almost lost his wife. Our choices to not trust in God affect those who are near us. It s not that Abram always trusted in God s provision, but his faith is displayed by how he handled his setbacks and his failures. What you see in Genesis 13:1-4 is that Abram backtracked up from Egypt, through the Negev region, back to Bethel where he had built his last altar. It takes faith to walk back out the entire distance that we ve walked away from God. You know, most of us want instant healing from chronic failure. We neglect our diet for years and then we go to a health food store or we shop online for an instant weight loss product. We neglect our marriage for years and then we want instant marital intimacy and total trust the moment we are ready to fix our marriages. We spend years pounding bad habits into our lives, creating neural connections in our brain, hardwiring ourselves to engage in certain addictive behaviors, but the moment we pray we want instant freedom and instant deliverance. As I ve said to you on dozens of occasions, the Bible describes the Christian life as a walk: left foot, right foot, left foot. It takes faith to backtrack step-by-step over the entire distance that we ve walked away from God or damaged our marriages or pounded a habit into our lives. The first step towards restoration after a setback, after we ve blown it, after we ve not trusted in God and not found our satisfaction in Jesus, but in something else. The first step back is to restore our relationship with God. Here s what we read in Genesis 13. He went to Bethel. Slide Genesis 13:4 And where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD. Abram built an altar to the Lord. He went back to the place where he had gotten it right before and now he worships the Lord again. Before you repair your marriage or get free of a bad habit or sort out your finances after making a series of really bad financial decisions. Before you do anything, start with your relationship with God. Build an altar 3

to the Lord in your home in the corner of your bedroom or study or office or dining room table. Find a place where you can meet with God. Connect with him. Build a secret history with the Lord. Abram shows great faith after a setback because he is willing to retrace his steps to engage in a long obedience in the same direction. I think that great faith is shown by any of you who go to our Celebrate Recovery meetings on Friday night. And any of you who are in one of our Support for Life groups. And any of you who say after marital difficulties, we re going to go to Vineyard s Begin Again program. Because folks who go to Celebrate Recovery or to one of our recovery groups or to Begin Again are saying, Yes, we made mistakes! Yes, we have sinned. Yes, we experienced setbacks, but we re going to believe God for long-term slow healing. Not instant success. But we re going to practice a long obedience in the same direction. Step by step. We re not just going to lie down in the road and die. We re going to pick ourselves up and brush ourselves off and we re going to walk the road of recovery. That s what Abraham did. Abraham not only had faith to handle setbacks, Abram displayed faith that can handle success. Slide Faith that can handle success We read in verse 2 and verses 5-6: Slide Genesis 13:2, 5-6 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. 5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. Abram needed faith to handle his great wealth. You say, Really, I think I could handle great wealth without faith. Bring it on! It reminds me of a scene from Fiddler on the Roof where the poor tailor, Perchik, says: Money is the world s curse. The star of the play, Tevye, responds this way: May the Lord smite me with [great wealth] and may I never recover. A man who has studied the super wealthy for decades is a Boston College Sociologist named Paul Shervish. Most of the people that he surveyed are worth on average at least $78million. And having surveyed hundreds of super wealthy people, Shervish summarized things this way: Money is like fire; it will warm your feet or it will burn your socks off. 4

Thomas Carlyle, the English essayist, said this: Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. I found this to be true. In my nearly 30 years of pastoring, I ve discovered dozens and dozens of people who have shown extraordinary faith and grace in times of suffering. I ve watched people bear up under incredible pressures: cancer treatments, the loss of loved ones, accidents that landed them in a wheelchair for life but continued on in faith. But it s the rare person who continues to have a white hot relationship with God while everything is going unbelievably well. When they are on top of the world. When they experience massive success. When everyone is praising them. When everything they touch turns to gold. It s the rare person who continues to look to God and doesn t buy in to all the press clipping and all the praise. The true test of faith is not just how you handle failure, but how you handle fame. The true test of faith is not just how you handle problems, but how you handle prosperity. That s why I m so impressed when you see a world famous athlete handling their lives and their relationships really well. It is the case, friends, that for every Russell Wilson - He s a devoted Christian, he gives to charity, visits children in the hospital every Tuesday without fail. For every Tim Duncan or Peyton Manning - Who give back to their communities. Every person like that, you can find a dozen other world famous athletes who have gone bankrupt, who have blown tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars on parties and drugs and expensive cars that are now repossessed. It s incredibly difficult to live in the spotlight, to be given all the accolades, to succeed financially beyond most people s wildest dreams and still walk closely to God. Here are some of the things I ve read and heard from wealthy friends and wealthy people here. Some of the questions that wealthy people have. What about our kids? How do we enjoy our lifestyle without spoiling or ruining our children? What are we losing in all of this gaining? I know that money doesn t equal happiness, but I thought I d be a lot happier once I reached a certain level. And I m really not. Every time the pastor preaches on stewardship, I feel like he s got me in his crosshairs. Am I just being paranoid? You probably think I m crazy, but I m actually worried about losing it all someday. I want to trust people, but I m not sure who to trust. Sometimes I wonder if anyone likes me for who I am, or just what I have. Is it possible to reclaim that innocence and freedom my wife and I experienced when we were just starting out and still have what we have? 5

When you ve got it made, it s really hard to rely on God. It s easy to think, What do I need to trust in God for? I ve got so many layers of protection and insurance and back up plans and investments and access to the very best doctors and lawyers and accountants and financial planners. How do I continue to walk near to God? Abram is a model of faith because he was able to handle success. Genesis 13:5-9 5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram s herders and Lot s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. 8 So Abram said to Lot, Let s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let s part company. If you go to the left, I ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I ll go to the left. What we see in Abram here is faith that can handle strife. Faith that can handle strife Abram allowed Lot to choose first. Now, understand that Abram was living in a traditional culture. This is not modern America that values youth, where every advertiser tries to reach the 18-49 year old market. All the movies, all the media, all the clothes everything in society is geared toward a younger demographic. But Abram lived in a traditional society where the old were supremely valued. He could have said, Look, Lot, I m older here s what I want. He didn t do that. He said, Lot, if you want to step in line ahead of me, go ahead. Abram didn t feel like he had to fight for every last scrap. His faith gave him peace. He said, I know that God will provide for me. If I m faithful to God, God will be faithful to me. Let me ask you a few questions. How have you handled conflict in the past? With faith or fear? With grabbing or giving? Have you ever been embroiled in a big fight over money? Maybe it was the division of your parents or your grandparents estate or the division of a business with a former partner or the division of marital assets. Have any of you ever come to the place of saying, You know what? I don t want to live like this. There s more to life than who gets Mom s jewelry or who gets to keep the car. Or who s going to get the last 5% of the business. Have you ever come to the place of saying, This is not worth it. I m losing sleep, I m anxious. It s eating me up. God has something better for me. I m going to believe that letting this other person get in line in 6

front of me will ultimately result in a higher good for me. I m going to trust God in this conflict. I want you to watch this video about the Brownlee brothers. Video of Alistair Brownlee helping his brother across the finish line in Cozumel triathlon Now, this older brother represents the way of Abram. He gave up his rights to first place because he cared about something greater. Something bigger than his personal success. He was living for more than crossing the finish line first. That s a picture of faith, my friend. And that s a picture of Jesus who though he was in the family of God did not county equality with God something to be held onto but emptied himself and took on himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in human likeness he humbled himself to death. That s Jesus carrying us and pushing us across the finish line. On the other hand, Henri Schoeman represents the way of Lot. How foolish he looks, pounding his chest. As he ran by two heroes, he thought he won, but he ended up looking so silly. That s the way of Lot. Let s look at Lot for a moment. The Way of Lot Here s what we read in verses 10-13: Genesis 13:10-13 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. What you see in Lot, first of all, is a failure to internalize faith. Slide A failure to internalize faith F.B. Meyer, who I quoted earlier, commented about Lot and he said: 7

Slide [Lot was] one of those men who take the right steps, not because they are prompted by obedience to God, but because their friends are taking them. In other words, Lot was one of those men who was carried along with the current. As long as Lot was with his uncle Abram, he was fine. It looked like he had faith, but Lot was just an echo. He had never internalized faith in God. His so-called faith was just something that was part of his family, part of the tradition of his home. God wasn t living in Lot s soul. He was the kind of person that never really thought about his faith, he just went along with the crowd. Today, he d be someone who goes to church because that what our family does on Sunday, but they have no personal faith in God that makes a real difference in their lives. You see teens who seem excited about God when they are in their youth group. But then they go off to college and take Philosophy 101 or they take their first Religion class or their first Anthropology class or it s the first time they are listening to a skeptical professor who attacks faith. This teen who was so excited suffers a major collapse of faith. Why? Because their faith was never internalized. It was never theirs, it was just an echo. Christian Smith is one of America s premiere sociologists of religion. A few years ago, he wrote one of the great books about the faith of young people. It s called Souls in Transition. After doing massive surveys of young adults and personally interviewing hundreds of young adults, Christian Smith asked the question, What factors go into teenagers continuing in the faith into their twenties? What are the things that matter? According to Christian Smith, on average what doesn t matter is attending a religious high school or going on a missions trip. Those things work for some kids, but on average, those aren t factors that show up in which kids are going to walk with God in their twenties. What factors do show up? A teenager s frequent personal prayer the greater the frequency of a teen s personal prayers, the more likely that teen is to continue on in their faith Strong parental religion the more committed their parents are during the teen s teenage years, the more often the teen will continue The importance of the teen s faith during the teen years the greater the importance in every day decision making in the teen years, the more the teen will continue Spiritual experience the more often a teen has their own personal experience of a prayer answered, of a miracle, the more often a teen can say they ve had a powerful spiritual experience, the more they ll stay in the faith 8

Having their questions answered the more often a teen has their questions about science or the world or sexuality answered, the more they continue in their faith Frequent scripture reading Many supportive religious adults Being made fun of for religious faith beyond their parents are there other adults the teen can look to for advice and support? When a teen is challenged as a teenager, or made fun of, actually that s not a bad thing. It turns out that will strengthen the teen s faith muscles and will result in that teenager continuing on in the faith. It s so important, parents, that your child or your teenager internalize faith. Not that they re just nice kids or that they re doing well in school and play a sport. They need to make Christian faith their own. They need to develop lifelong habits of personally meeting with God. We ve got a seminar coming up called A Parent s Journey of Faith: Raising your children as Christ s disciples in contemporary culture. We want to support parents as they are raising future leaders in our church and community. Parents will experience encouragement and resources to help their children to stand in redemptive resistance to cultural values in order to be witnesses of God s love, grace and holiness. Parent Seminar: A Parent's Journey of Faith Monday, October 17, 2016, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM We see something else in the way of Lot, and that is: Failure to recognize the power of environment Lot thought that he would do well wherever he was. I could stay in the Promised Land with my uncle Abram and do well or I could go down to Sodom, and I ll still do well! It says in verse 13: Genesis 13:13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. Lot chose to put himself in a really negative environment. As a result, he lost almost everything he valued his possessions, his marriage, his wife ends up dead, his morals, the spiritual virtue of his daughters. Have you ever found yourself in an environment where you made some bad decisions that you would never make if you were back in your own home? People who frequently travel for business will often agree that they live with much heavier moral temptations when they are on the road than when they are back home. Why is that? The environment is different. 9

In the environment of home, there s a support system of family of friends and church. You have a schedule of routines. There s a way of doing things at home which encourages responsible living and puts restraints on irresponsible living. But you change the environment, and suddenly there can be a disaster. Some of us who are older can remember exactly where we were when the space shuttle Challenger lifted into the sky and blew up 73 seconds into its flight. The whole world was shocked as we watched the video over and over again on the news. The blue sky with twisted trails of smoke and large chunks of burning metal falling into the ocean. What was the cause of the Challenger disaster? It turned out that it had something to do with O-rings, the circular rubber seals, that were supposed to fit snugly into the joints of the sections of the booster engines. The function of the O- rings was to prevent gases from leaking at the joints during the launch. The O-rings had performed well on all the flights previous to the day of tragedy. But on the day of the Challenger explosion something was different. What was different? The environment. The temperature had dropped below the freezing mark and under such conditions, the O-rings became brittle and inflexible. Despite engineers warnings about the change in the environment, a group of top managers decided to push ahead anyway. There s nothing to worry about with this change of environment. We can listen to the warning of the Apostle Paul who said, He who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. A person of faith understands that they can t handle any environment I m just not that strong to not give in. By the way, for those of you who frequently travel, one of the things that we re trying to organize here at Vineyard Columbus is some online small groups. I ve had many people who during the week are always on the road. What if those people connected with each other in an online group? So that no matter where you were in a hotel somewhere in Denver or in an office in Mexico City you can click on Go to Meeting or Zoom or some other videoconferencing site to check up on each other, share scripture together, pray for one another and then click off. If you are interested in that sort of thing because you simply cannot go to a small group meeting due to frequent travel or maybe because of health concerns or some other constraints, why not write to our Community Life ministry Slide smallgroups@vineyardcolumbus.org And tell them you d like to find out more about being in an online group. 10

Lot failed to internalize his faith, he failed to recognize the importance of his environment and finally Lot failed to prioritize God. Slide Failure to prioritize God I told you at the beginning of this message that there are two totally different ways of doing life. The way of Lot and the way of Abram. What is the way of Lot? We read it in verse 10: Genesis 13:10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) Genesis 13:11 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Notice that there is nothing about God, nothing about prayer in Lot s choices. Lot is working from an entirely horizontal vantage point. It says that Lot chose for himself. He looked out towards Sodom and said, Mine! He didn t prioritize God or God s thoughts, God s mind, God s plan for him or his family. I see this so often. People move away from town to take a marginally better job. They re doing well here, they are part of a great church, they have Christian friends, they are involved in ministry, and they are growing. But they look out and the grass looks a little greener and they say, Mine! I can make a little more money. But what about your soul? I m sure I ll find a decent church there. I m sure I ll find a supportive community. Friends, again, having pastored this church over 30 years, I have watched so many people follow the way of Lot. They prioritize their salaries over their souls. Their finances over their families. Money over their marriages. Some of you are planning to move in order to get a better job. I m not saying that no one should move. I m just asking you: have you really prayed about it? Have you put first things first? Have you put your soul over your salary? Are you really listening to Jesus words in Matthew 6:33, are you seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness as Jesus tells us? And they he adds the promise, And everything else will be added to you. I ve watched people making decisions for their kids college. Right now they ve got a supportive Christian community, they ve got a supportive family. But you ve got to understand, Rich, this particular college is ranked higher on US News and World Report 11

ranking. This will look good on my son or daughter s resume. But is going there better for your son or daughter s relationship with God? Have you prioritized your child s soul over their future salary? Before we sent off our son to college, I checked out the Christian fellowship groups that were at his school. I personally made calls to the leaders of a couple of those groups and I said, Listen, my son is going to be showing up at your college. What I d like to ask you to do: would you knock on his dormitory door and invite him to the InterVarsity meeting or the Cru meeting. Abram prioritized his relationship with God. Here s what we read: Genesis 13:14-17 14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. Now, notice the difference between Abram s eyes and Lot s eyes. It says in verse 10: Genesis 13:10 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) On the other hand, here s what we read of Abram: Genesis 13:14 (NASB) 14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; Abram waited on God. He didn t just go after what looked good to him. He wasn t just working from an entirely horizontal framework of two dimensions. Abram was working in a 3-dimensional universe. There s a vertical dimension. He was listening to what God had for him. There s a man named Todd Harper who is the president of a Christian organization called Generous Giving. This man loves making money. He was really entrepreneurial. He was making several thousand dollars a week while he was in high school running various businesses. He went to Baylor University and majored in Finance. Todd was also a Christian. He went to a Sunday school class for college students that was taught 12

by an Economics professor from Baylor. One Sunday, the Sunday school teacher said, Write down on a piece of paper what you hope would be the best plan for your life. Who you ll marry, where you ll live, and what kind of work you ll do. Let yourself dream big and create the perfect plan for your life. I want to just pause here and encourage you to do that. Write down on a sheet of paper what would be like the perfect plan for your life. What would you think would be real success in every dimension of your life? Then the Sunday school teacher went on and said this, Now, if you could see God s plan for your life written down on a separate sheet of paper, you d tear up your silly little plan in a heartbeat. Todd Harper went on a retreat with his college fellowship group. He laid down in a field and had a conversation with God. As he thought about his own plan for his life and then what God might want, he said that it was like God was drawing a line in the sand, saying Todd, are you in or are you out? Not in terms of salvation, they d settled that already, but in terms of Jesus being his Lord. Are you going to go with your plan for your life or are you going to surrender all of your plan and allow God to do with you what God wants? Let me close with this question: Do you believe that God will do better for you if you trust him than you could ever do for yourself? If you believe that God could do better for you than you could do for yourself, that s faith. You re walking in the footsteps of your father, Abraham. Let s pray. 13

Faith in God s Provision Rich Nathan October 8 & 9, 2016 The Journey of Faith Genesis 13 I. The way of Abram A. Faith that can handle setbacks B. Faith that can handle success C. Faith that can handle strife II. The way of Lot A. Failure to internalize faith B. Failure to recognize the power of environment C. Failure to prioritize God 14