Renewing Your Faith

Happy Sunday crossway. Today you have Ian and Sarah Hales with you, friends

of ours. And when we think of Ian, I think of the word

clarity. That's true. Ian is dedicated to clarity as a pastor and as

a friend. Interacting with Ian is always helpful for me in clarifying anything that

I'm thinking through. And Ian is committed to clarity when it comes to teaching

God's word. I know that you'll appreciate Ian as much as we do.

Please welcome right, well, thank you for that, and I'm really really

thankful to be here. So if you have your Bible with you, why

don't you grab it and open up to Genesis thirteen. And if you don't

have a Bible or a bulletin, the officers at the front here would love

to give you one so you can stick your hand up in the air.

They'll make sure that one gets across to you so that you can follow along

in God's word. This morning is well well, I just again I want

to thank you for having me here, allowing my blood to thin out a

little bit. I need to thaw out a little bit. It's really helpful.

We're gonna be here a week. It's gonna take about that long,

I think. So we're grateful to be here, and I'm really thankful to

you as a church. I love seeing churches that want to care for their

pastor and their pastor's family. So I just want to thank you for how

you have been serving your pastor in his family so well by allowing them to

go on sabbatical. I pray that's going to be so refreshing and encouraging to

their souls and just better prepare them to come back and to continue to serve

you well. You guys are blessed with a really, really faithful pastor,

and I trust you know that. I'm personally thankful for Josh and for Kara.

Josh and I we kind of go way back now, almost ten years,

and I've had the privilege of knowing him and of being blessed by friendship

with him. You through is a godly man. He is a man of

clarity himself and a man of conviction, and I so love that about about

Josh. And in many ways, I just I really I look up to

Josh, not just because he is significantly taller than me, but but in

many ways he resembles the kind of man I want to be. And I'm

really thankful for him. You know, I think we all have people in

our lives that we look up to, and I think rightly so I think

I think God wants it like that. When I was a kid, um,

you know, elementary school and high school, I looked up to Michael

Jordan. Okay, I wanted to be like Mike. And some of you

remember that. Some of you got that, some of you young kids in

here, there's a whole thing, okay, commercials. I want to be

like everybody wanted to be like Mike. Okay, it was just it was

just a reality. And I wanted to be like Mike so bad. I

played basketball every day and practiced. I watched videos of Michael Jordan. I

knew his whole life story. I had poster was on the wall, like

you name it. I was obsessed with Michael Jordan. I want to do

everything like Michael Jordan. It's interesting we went on a trip to the States.

I wanted to Michael Jordan jersey. Okay, that was my goal as

a young kid, you know, grade sixth, grade seven. Just get

me a jersey and I will be Mike. And and yet I couldn't afford

one, and my parents couldn't afford to get me one, and so we

went to the States on a little road trip and we went to the outlets,

and you to come from Canada, and everything at that point was cheaper

in the US conversion. Not so much right now, but it was cheaper.

So we went to this outlet and I'm looking for a Michael Jordan jersey

and they didn't have one. So my parents found a really cheap Phoenix Sons

basketball jersey and they got in and I'm like, I hate Charles Barkley,

I'm not a fan, but but I got that and I wore that and

pretended like I was Michael Jordan. Anyways, you know, one of the

things that I loved about Michael Jordan and his story was that he failed to

make his high school basketball team the first time you try out, And that

was a part of the story that really stuck out to me because instead of

crushing Michael Jordan and destroying his future, he says that that was one of

the most formative events in his entire life. It was his failure that actually

fueled his future success. And we all know, right, he went on

to become the greatest basketball player of all time. Okay, that's that's just

fact. People. Lebron James can't hold a candle to Michael Jordan. Okay,

s right, kids, Amen, alright, some of your kids in

here. You just don't know. It's okay. But I think it's really

helpful to understand that when we look at the heroes in our lives, oftentimes

the reason there are heroes is because they've gone through great failures that have fueled

their success. And when you look at the scriptures, it's interesting the Bible

actually gives to us and Hebrews chapter eleven, a hall of faith is what

many people have called it. Really what it is, it's a it's a

list of heroes of the faith, people who lived lives of faith and are

worthy in many ways of honor and of emulating. But one of the things

you see, if you study through every one of those characters on the Hall

of Faith, you will see very quickly that not one of them exemplifies a

perfect faith. They are all filled, their lives are filled with failures of

falling sin. And I find that so incredibly helpful. Because God doesn't say

perfect people. He saves imperfect people, and God takes people who have broken

lives and imperfect faith, and he strengthens them. He uses their failures to

do great work in their lives. And it's no mistake that at the top

of the list in that hall of faith is the man Abraham. And it's

Abraham that I want to look at today and to see here an example of

a man who renews his faith. He's not a perfect man, and it's

important that we understand this. Listen, because the greatest failure in the Christian

life is not falling into sin. It's failing to renew our faith after we've

fallen into sin. God loves to pick us back up when we've fallen.

And maybe this is so helpful for some of you. Maybe you're here today

and you just found that you're you're just spiraling into sin, or you're stuck

in a particular sin, or you're struggling with faith in general. And God

wants to speak to you today to renew your faith, to strengthen your faith,

to pick you up out of your doubts and fears and place your feet

upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ. And I trust that God will do

that. As we look at God's word together today, I want to show

you three things. First, renewing your faith requires that you return to your

faithful God. I know you typically read through the entire passage in one go,

but I want to do it a little differently. It's a big chunk

chapter thirteen. I want to read it kind of sections at a time,

And in fact, I just want to read the first verse to get us

started. Listen to what it says, verse one of chapter thirteen. So

Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had

and lot with him into the Negev. Now this is so important because it's

giving us the context of our passage. The passage tells us that here Abram

went up from Egypt. And here's what you need to know. Abraham had

previously gone down into Egypt. Now, if you know nothing about this man

Abraham, let me just kind of give you a really quick, kind of

bird's eye view of who he is and why he's so significant in the Bible,

and in particular the Book of Genesis. You see, if you follow

the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, you find that our God

created this world good, but humanity through Adam and Eve quickly stumbled and fell

into sin, plunging all of humanity into sin. In and then the remainder

of chapter thirteen really through chapter eleven are showing us how humanity is just devolving

into sin. It's showing us the pervasive nature of sin. I mean,

it gets so bad right that God has to wipe out all the people on

the earth in judgment through a flood. And then once he establishes a new

people through Noah, all of a sudden, we're kind of speeding through history.

But humanity winds up in chapters ten and eleven at this place called Babble,

and they're building in a united front, this tower, which is resembling

in effect, their antagonism and opposition and rebellion against God. Humanity is hopeless

apart from God. Humanity is broken and in sin and in desperate need of

being rescued. And enter the picture. This man Abram. Right after God

scatters humanity across the globe in chapter eleven chapter twelve were introduced to this man

named Abram. Now Abraham, this is fascinating. Abram was not some kind

of a righteous, godly man that God just decided to grab and use for

his purposes. In fact, Chapter twelve tells us that God called Abram out

of a place called Er of the Chaldeans. The Book of Joshua tells us

that Abram actually is coming from a land of pagan idolatry false worship, and

Abram himself is his pagan idolatr. He's not a God fearing man. And

yet this is the man God picks up and pulls out of darkness into his

marvelous light. He calls him, and Abram responds to the call of God.

He puts his faith in God follows him out of the land of Er.

And in chapter twelve we're told that God gives Abram three kind of promises

or aspects of the same promise. He promises him this that he is going

to give him land offspring, and he's going to make him a blessing to

the nation. And really, what this is doing is extending the promise that

God initially made to Eve in Genesis three fifteen, that God is actually going

to reverse the curse of sin that has fallen upon all of humanity, and

He's going to do so through the birth of a child, someone who will

come and crush the head of the serpent. Reverse the curse and make all

things right again. And God says, Abram, you're the man that I

am going to use to bring about this promise. So he says, I'm

going to lead you into this land. I'm going to give you offspring,

and you will be a blessing to the nations. And then right after that

what we read about in Genesis chapter twelve, God gives him this awesome promise.

Abraham responds in faith. And you want to know what the next thing

Abraham does us He doubts God. He's driven by fear. He fails to

trust the promise of God. And you know what he does. He goes

down after twelve Verse ten tells us that there's this famine in the land.

He goes down into Egypt. It even sounds ominous, doesn't it. He's

not trusting God. And in chapter twelve you can look at it yourself.

But there's this kind of exodus event that takes place in the life of Abraham.

And I just want to kind of pull out one thought for you as

we kind of dive into the Word of God here together. It's amazing how

quickly we can move from faith to failure in the Christian life. And we

can all experience this. Right, we know what this is like. You

can be on the mountaintop of faith, you can be doing so well spiritually,

and then you can forget the words of the apostle Paul, right that

be careful, Be careful. When you think you're standing firm, no temptation,

it sees you accept what is common demand. Well, here's Abraham riding

that mountaintop faith, and all of a sudden, in a moment of weakness,

temptation hits, fear hits, he doesn't trust God's word, and he

takes his family down into Egypt. And here what we see is even more

important. Listen, it's it's more important to recognize this in your life.

It's more important to see how quickly we can move from failure back to renewed

faith. Okay, we know we can move from faith to failure, but

do you realize how important it is to grasp this truth in the Christian life

that you can move today, listen, from failure in your faith, from

disobedience to a place of renewed faith and strength in the Lord. And this

is helpful because so many of us get stuck. We fall into sin,

and we kind of get this hopeless mentality. We feel so much shame and

what we end up doing. We know this, right, I'm not alone

here, right? We spiral in our sin. It grabs ahold of us

and like an anchor, it pulls us deeper and deeper. And if only

we would have just stopped and renewed our faith the moment we sinned, we

could have spared ourselves so much pain and so much destruction. And hear,

what God is showing us is you can renew your faith. Is how do

we do that? I want to show you three ways. First way is

this walk the old path. Let's pick buck out of two and I'm gonna

read through verse seven. Following along with me, says now Abram was very

rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. He was wealthy before

he went into Egypt. But coming out of Egypt he got the spoils of

the Egyptians. And he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel noticed

this language here to the place where he had journey excrutity, to the place

where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai. Again,

notice the repetition to the place where he had made an altar at the first

and there Abram called upon the name of the Lord and Lot, who,

when with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. Lot is Abram's

nephew, by the way, so that the land could not support both of

them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell

together, and there was strife between the herdsman of Abram's livestock and the herdsman

of lots lives stock. At that time, the Canaanites and the Parasites were

dwelling in the land. I just want you to see what's happening in the

text. Here, Abram is literally retracing his steps back to where he once

was in the presence of God. It's fascinating. Twice the narrative states that

his return trip mirrored his earlier travels. It was a well worn path away

from God, and now he's turning and walking that path back to God.

One commentator says that Abram should take That Abram should take such care indicated his

desire to recover his experience with God. This path, he says, of

reflection, reflects Abram's genuine repentance and renewed faith. This is so important to

understand that the idea of returning, that word return, actually in the Hebrew

Bible is the same word for repent. That's a word that in the Christian

life if we're very familiar with. But let me just connect the dots here

for you if you've not thought through this before. But this idea of repenting

really is about returning, you see, repentance. Let me give you a

bit of an imagery here and to use this idea, this metaphor of walking.

Repentance first begins by walking away from the Lord. Right that our sin

means that we turn our back. Here we are with God, this is

where we've been. And then we turn our back from God and we begin

to walk away from God. But repentance begins when we stop that we turn

around and we walk back in the direction from where we came. We walk

back to the God who is faithful to us, even after we've been faithless

and unfaithful to him. And this is the essence of true repentance. It's

walking back in the opposite direction. And I want you to think about Abram

as he walked his path. This is not a short journey for Abram by

the way. This is a long journey for him to get back to where

he once was in the Promise Land. But every step back he had an

opportunity to do two things. Can you imagine passing those kind of mile markers,

those visual signs. He would be reminded on this walk back of how

he was faithless and how he walked away from God. And yet at the

same time, every step back, he would be reminded of the faithfulness of

his God. God is so merciful, God is so loving, God is

so kind, God is so gracious that he would receive me back. I

am walking back not to a God who is angry, but a God who

is loving and faithful and kind. I mean, how often do we need

to be reminded of those words? God doesn't want you to stay in your

sin walking away from him. He wants you right with open arms. He's

beckoning you back to himself. Come back to me. I'm faithful even when

you're faithless. Let me frame it like this for you. I'll put it

on the screen. But returning to God requires a walk of shame as we

remember our sin listen, but it turns into a walk of praise as we

remember His grace, and I just I think if I can use this metaphor

of walking and push it a little bit further, the first step in walking

back to God it's this. It's admit your sin. Admit your sin.

All repentance begins by recognizing that you are a sinner, the seriousness of sin.

I've sinned against God. And sometimes I think, you know, you

ever wonder why I keep repenting the same sins? Or I repent and I

just walk right back into my sin. Do you ever wonder why that's true

of your life? You ever get frustrated by that? I know, I

know I do. I think one of the reasons we don't find victory over

sin it's here. This is going to be controversial, but hear me out.

Okay, it's because we actually run way too fast to God's grace and

we don't linger long enough over our sin. We don't want to actually think

about our sin. We don't think about what it cost us and what it

cost God. We just rush into grace as and we get used to this

grace. But let me say it, like, listen, listen, cheap

sin leads to cheap grace. And I'm not saying, don't listen linger over

your sin a little bit, don't loiter over your sin. Okay, don't

stay there, but let it sink in. Why Why Because you can't appreciate

the magnitude of God's grace until you appreciate the seriousness of your sin and sometimes

just that that weight of sin and the brokenness over our sin that now allows

us to properly rush into the presence of God's grace and be reminded and refreshed

by the truth that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in

Christ Jesus, I am forgiven, I am free, and I hate my

sin. I don't want to walk in my sin anymore. I'm want to

walk and renewed faith in the God who say, secondly, we need to

worship the old way, So we walk the old path, but we need

to worship the old way. I want you to see this too. We're

returning to God, but specifically to the worship of God. Did you notice

when we read there what he's doing. He's going back to the places he

once was, and in those places he had built altars to the Lord.

An altar was a place of worship and we're being reminded, listen. Here's

what's really fascinating that there was a point in time when Abram forgot about the

worship of the Lord. His fears were controlling him, his circumstances were controlling

him. And there is a sense listen in which I love what Da Carson

says. Da Carson, a biblical scholar, says that we worship our way

into sin, we must worship our way out of sin. And that's that's

helpful, isn't it, Because what we then recognize is our sin is actually

a product of idols of our hearts, that there's something in our hearts we

want. We're driven by fear, so maybe we want, you know,

material possessions, maybe we want provisions, and maybe whatever it is we want

that that becomes something we love, something we want more than we want God,

and it ends up driving our lives. We're worshiping it instead of worshiping

God. And the antidote is not just to stop worshiping. It's to revert

to worshiping the God who is worthy. Turning your back on sin is good,

but it's not enough. Turning your face to God in worship is transformative.

So many Christians get stuck here. I've been stuck here myself at different

points in my life. We think the answer to fighting our sin in victory

over sin is just stop sinning. God's like, that's good. I want

you to stop. But you need to renew your mind, and then you

need to renew your worship and you need to put on who you're supposed to

be. There's an active worshiping of God that actually renews our faith. Every

time we're together with the people of God worshiping God, do you realize what

God is wanting to do in your heart. He's wanting to renew your faith.

Every time you open God's Word in the morning and you study God's Word

and you encounter God through his word, you are intended by God to be

moved to a place of worship so that it renews your faith and gives you

all you need for that day. Altars were a place of worship, but

you need to see this. The worship was only possible because they were places

of forgiveness. The second step that we need to take is to ask for

forgiveness. You need to admit your sin, but you need to ask for

forgiveness. Abraham would have went to these altars, and he would have brought

a sacrifice, and in the Old Testament context, it was that sacrifice that

was intended to make atonement for sins. So we would have brought an animal,

a pure animal, and he would have offered it on this altar,

and more than likely it would have been a burnt offering. So that listen,

what's being exemplified. A full burnt offering is exemplified this Lord, I'm

giving everything to you, Take it all, Take all of me. You

see, that's the essence of true worship, isn't it is? God is

worthy of all of us, all of our hearts. But that burnt offering

was a reminder that God was a forgiving God and that God required sacrifice.

Now here's the awesome truth this side of the cross. As New Testament believers,

we don't go to a place for forgiveness. We go to a person

for forgiveness. Amen, And we go to Jesus Christ, who was the

perfect Lamb of God, the spotless One, and he was offered up as

a sacrifice on the altar of the cross. His blood was shed for the

forgiveness of our sins. He gave his life, the only righteous one gave

his life for unrighteous sinners like you and me. He gave his life,

he paid for our sin in full, and he didn't stay in the grave.

He rose victorious sleep over sin and death. And the New Testament says,

listen that because Jesus Christ did that, because he has now exalted to

the right hand of the Father, there's no need ever again to offer a

sacrifice. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of it all. And his sacrifice is

perfect, it's pure, it's unmatched, It overcomes all sin, it overcomes

the grave. So we run back all the time to Jesus the perfect sacrifice.

For some of you today, you don't need renewed faith, you need

actual faith. You need to believe today that Jesus Christ can give you life.

Jesus Christ can save you from your sins, and he can give you

new purpose. He can change your heart. Abraham, not only he sought

forgiveness, he knew God would grant it. This is awesome. The third

step, let me give you them back to back third and fourth steps.

Is this The step three is we need to appreciate the cross. You'd appreciate

everything I just said, But what Jesus has done. Abram believed that God

would forgive him through his sacrifices. We believe that Jesus has done this once

for all by the means of his own blood, securing for us an eternal

redemption. And the step four is that we need to accept his grace.

It's awesome that Abram didn't have to live in his past sin, he didn't

have to live in his failure. He could get back up and walk in

the security of faith, renewed faith because of what Jesus, what God had

done for him. I'm gonna give you one more thought here. We need

to wage the old war. This is how we return to our faithful God.

And what we see now is that there's a bit of strife that erupts

between Abram and his nephew, law between their herdsman. Really, but what

I want you simply to see just quickly in this thought is this that God

will often renew our faith, but that will be followed by new opportunities to

fall. It's amazing that we can again be brought to those meltintops of faith,

only to forget and then to fall again, sometimes almost immediately. God

here puts Abraham in a position to demonstrate that his faith is truly genuine,

that is truly renewed. So he's going to put him listening in the pressure

cooker of circumstances. This is what God does for us. He's going to

make things difficult because he wants to refine us, and he wants to change

us, and ultimately he wants us to take this final step, step five.

He wants us to advance his purposes. You see, renewed faith requires

renewed purposes. And when God renews our faith, one of the things he's

calling us to do is recommit ourselves to Him, to his objectives, to

his glory, to his word, not to our own devices and our own

desires and our own ways. Secondly, renewing your faith require that you resist

your foolish greed. The strife between a herdsman here begins to lead to a

discussion. Let's read about in verse eight. We'll read all the way through.

Verse thirteen says an Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife

between you and me, and between your herdsman and my herdsman, for we're

kinsman. Is not the whole land? Before you separate yourself from me,

If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right,

or if you take the right hand, and 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. That's an allusion to the

Garden of Eden. It was well watered like the Garden of the Lord,

like the land of Egypt. In the direction of Zoar little parenthesis here,

he's making note of something that his original readers would have already knew. He

says, this was before the Lord just royds Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot

chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they

separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot

settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

Now, the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

So this strife produces a little bit of tension in their relationships. There's

essentially this idea, there's not enough room here for both of us. Let's

go our separate ways. And what you need to see that this passage is

setting us up for is this idea of making a decision. It tells us

that the proposals made and Lot he chose to go one way, leaving Abram

to go the other way. And I just think it's helpful to see that

when renewing your faith, you need to expect that God will continue testing your

faith. You ever wonder why God keeps testing you in the same areas?

This here is what's happening with Abraham. By the way, it's a very

similar context for the first time he failed to trust God. It has to

do with circumstances about the land, it has to do with God's provision,

And so here we're kind of being brought back into the same thing. It's

like, okay, let me test you in the same area again. Let's

see if you fare any different, right, Like, this is what gods

do? You ever wonder why why is it the same sin? I keep

struggling with, Why is the same area I keep failing? Why why do

I have to keep going through this one particular battle? And it feels like

I'm never gaining any traction or victory. Who here has taking a driver's test

before? All? Right? Mostly every right, this is you're going to

test your bravery, okay, and your humility. Who here has failed a

driver's test? All right, fair enough. I knew a guy who failed

a driver's test three times in a row. At that point, you should

not be allow to get a license. It's like you're done three strikes,

You're out. But listen, you want to know when you have to stop

taking the driver's test when you pass? Right, when you pass the test,

I think what we find in our lives, just like Abraham, is

that God will keep testing us in the same area. Listen, because that's

the particular area that we're often drawn away from God. That's the one area,

that area of worship or idolatry and behavior that has this way of pulling

us away from God. And God's like, listen, I don't want to

compete with that issue, that idol in your life. So I'm going to

keep hammering away at that one issue because listen, when you pass the test,

you'll be able to draw so much closer to me. And I'm not

suggesting that you'll be able to get permanent victory over every area of sin in

your life. But here's what's so awesome. When you begin to gain victory

over something that has been so destructive in your life. It is evidence listen

that God is strengthening your faith. God is maturing you in the faith,

that God's grace is operative in your life in very visible and tangible ways.

And that is an awesome gift of God to you his child. He wants

that for you. He wants you progressing, he wants you walking in faith.

You can think of it like this. When he comes to this idea

of decision, God will regularly place you in the position to have to choose

this day whom you will serve. In fact, I would argue God,

who wants to do this every single day of your life. It's like Josh

are right where he's standing before the Israelites, and it's like, listen,

you can follow God or not. As for me in my house, we

will serve the Lord. Choose this day whom you will serve, God says.

And every day you wake up, God's putting you in positions where sin

is calling you, serve me, serve me, serve me, and God's

saying, choose this day whom you will serve, and you want. God

wants to remind you today that obedience to Him is better by far, are

than anything that Sin and Satan have to offer you in this life, way

better, and so choose him. Abram wants to preserve harmony here, and

he demonstrates this extraordinary humility here. In the cultural context, Abram is the

elder. He has every right to make the decision about the land he wants

to choose, and instead, in humility, he defers to his nephew Lot.

Lot is depicted here in contrast to Abram. Lot seems to be here,

this prideful, arrogant man who's ruled only by what he can see,

not by what he believes in God. He's ruled by what he sees.

Look, he looks out and by the way this language is supposed to actually

remind you of Adam and Eve in the garden. He looks, he sees,

he takes, and what does he take? What looks pleasing to the

eye, but what is going to be spiritually destructive to his life. Lot

is more content to live listen in a nice looking place with all the things

that you could possibly want in this world. He's more content to dwell in

the tents of the wicked than to dwell in the land with the righteous.

I just want to listen how much this might be true of our own hearts.

We live in a world that is so tempting the allurements of this world,

the allurement of materialism and prosperity and blessing and comfort and ease. I

mean, like, let's be honest, we live in a like freedom is

wonderful in this country A man's memorial that we have the freedom listen to have

so much in this world. But do you realize how oftentimes the luxury and

the comforts of this world can draw you away from enjoying the presence of God.

I think we all wrestle with this, and the irony in verse ten

is so amazing. Lot chooses based on outward appearance. Listen, but what

he chooses will soon one day be cansumed by fire. How many of us

are choosing the world over God, a world that will one day be consumed

by fire. And the text here is presenting to us a choice. You

can choose to be like Lot, who doesn't trust the Lord. He's quarrelsome

he just wants what this world has to offer. He's fixed not only on

what he can see, He's fixed upon the riches of this world. And

he cares nothing about God. He doesn't see the destructive dangers of worldliness.

He only sees what will give him temporary, immediate pleasure. Or you can

be like Abram, who walks by faith and not by sight. But this

requires that we resist our foolish greed for this world. You know. He

requires that we believe what Jesus says, right that what does the prophet a

man if he gains the whole world before fits his soul? Or really,

what Abram is doing here is he's acting in faith. He's embodying the words

of Jesus Christ that Jesus wants us to embody, which is this. Listen,

seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things

will be added unto you like if you go after the best thing first,

go after God. Get more of God, get more of his glory,

spread his glory. May that be the consuming passion of your life. And

guess what, Godda give you everything you need in this life. He'll give

you. He's not gonna he's gonna leave you, gonna leave you and kick

you to the kirk. He give you everything you need, but your heart

will be so much more satisfied because you have the one thing your soul needs.

You have God, the source of all contentment, the source of all

joy, the source of all satisfaction. It can be yours. How often

do we forsake that for lesser pleasures in this world? C. S.

Lewis talks about this, right, we're so busy, right, we're so

easily satisfied. We're splashing around in a little mud puddle when we could be

enjoying a holiday at the sea. We're hanging out in Canada when we could

be in Texas. We're too easily satisfied. We need to be more satisfied.

And God, I just wonder if you would just check your own heart

on this right now. Maybe God is calling you renew your faith today.

Believe that he's better. Believe that he's worth it. Believe he'll provide.

Believe he's not going to leave you or forsake you. Believe he's worth it.

This must be our mindset. The New Testament calls us to be like

Abram, to walk by faith and not by sight. Finding the listen.

Renewing your faith requires that you remember your future guarantee. It's not just about

this life. We're we so often forget that this life that God has given

us is not just about the hearing. Now God reassures Abram of what he

has already guaranteed him. Look at verses fourteen through eighteen. The Lord said

to Abram, after a lad had separated from him, lift up your eyes.

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 also can be counted. 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 memory, which are at

Hebron, And there he built an altar to the Lord. God here is

reaffirming what he's already said to Abram through the promise in Genesis chapter twelve.

He needs expending on it a little bit. I'm gonna give you this land.

I'm gonna give you more offspring than you could possibly fathom. You won't

be able to count them, but it's something that's actually in the future,

Abram. And it's interesting here that the verses continue to give us this awesome

contrast between Lot and Abram. Did you notice here how he frames this Earlier

Lot had been active himself in examining the land and then taking what he wanted.

Now, God calls Abram to look, and he calls him to see

everything in front of him east, south, north, last is this is

awesome pictures almost like listen as far as the eye can see. Don't you

understand I'm going to give this to you in your offspring forever. And this

took a massive amount of faith on the part of Abram. Did do you

realize that when Abram told Lot to choose? Do you want to what Abram

saying he was risking the promised land. Lot could have chosen the Promised land.

But you want to know how this demonstrates a renewed faith Abram believe that

even if Lat chose the promised land, it would not invalidate the promise of

God to give it to him forever. He knew God would be faithful no

matter what. It's kind of like what he does right in Genesis chapter twenty

six, Remember he takes his son Isaac up onto the melontop to sacrifice him,

and he's about to go through with killing his own son. You're like,

well, this is the promise son, How could he do this?

Well, Hebrews tells us how he could do it. Do you want to

know what Abraham believed? Abram believed that even if he was to kill his

own son, God was so faithful he would be faithful to his promise that

even if he killed his own son, God would raise him back to death

to life from the dead. He would do it no matter what. And

here's what you need to see. Abraham's faith had a future orientation. And

this is exactly the way the New Testament describes the faith of the Christian.

We are called to look beyond this world to the next. And here Abram's

faith. You know, for a moment it becomes sight. He's called by

God to go and walk the land. In other words, it's kind of

like God's like, listen, I'm giving you a little taste of what's going

to be yours. You're not gonna get it yet, but walk the land,

survey the land. And it's kind of this declaration by God, don't

you see all of this will one day be yours in your offsprings. But

the crazy part about Abram, as he would never see this come to pass

in his own life. In the distant but more immediate future, Abraham's offspring

would inherit the land. But what you have to see and Hebrews eleven connects

the dots here, Abram was looking beyond this world to the next. He

knew listen that there would be probably an immediate fulfillment in part. But he

actually saw the expansive nature of the promise of God, that what God promised

him was something that could never be fully fulfilled in this world. It was

pointing him to the new heavens and the new Earth. It was telling Abram

listened that him in all his offspring would actually inherit the entire world. So

Paul says in Romans for and listen, Christian, here's why this is so

important. Because God says that that inheritance is given to Abram and his offspring

forever. Let me ask you this question. Do you know who Abraham's offspring

are? Not just physical Jews. Paul and Galatians three tells us this that

all Abraham's offspring are those who have faith in Jesus. That means listen,

listen. If you have faith in Jesus today, spiritually speaking, you are

the offspring of Abraham. You have connected yourself to the true offspring, Jesus

Christ, and you have become offspring who will one day listen like your father,

Abram, the father of faith. Like him, you two will inherit

the earth. This is the promise that God gives to his people, and

this is intended to fuel our faith. So let me conclude by asking you

this question, are you more like Lot today or are you more like Abram?

And if you find yourself more like Lot today, is there a willingness

in your heart today to respond to the spirit of God and say God not

anymore, to walk back to your faithful God, to resist your foolish greed,

and to remember your future guarantee. Will you reach for the world now

and get nothing of God? Or will you cling to God today and inherit

one day all the earth. Peter says this to Christians who are struggling through

life in this world, that we have been caused to be born again to

a living hope. We just sung about that. But he goes on to

say this, that we've been born to a living hope, into an inheritance

that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it's kept in heaven for us.

And in light of that, he calls us to rejoice. I wonder

today if you rejoice in those same truth because the reality is listen, Abraham

is not the ultimate hero of the faith. Is he. Jesus is the

hero of faith. And so we don't need to look to Abraham, not

fully. And finally, we need to do what the author of Hebrews tells

us. We need to look to Jesus, the author and the perfector of

our faith. But like Abraham, you know how we should respond in this

life. He went and he built an altar to worship the Lord. May

our response be joy filled satisfaction in the Lord that leads us listen to passionate

worship of our Great God and our King. Amen.