Living in the Real World

Father, we ask that your...

Well, Father, we give you thanks and praise for your common grace

given to human beings,

whereby we, even the worst of us,

manage to more or less live in the real world most of the time.

But, Father, you know how deeply we end up choosing pride

and self-centeredness and vanity

and other types of things that blind us to what we really are like

and who we really are and what the world is really like.

And, Father, you know that we're usually unconscious of this in ourselves,

even as we don't like it in others.

We ask, Father, that in your kindness

that you would pour out the Holy Spirit upon us

with might and power and deep conviction,

that your word would come into our heart,

your gospel would come into our heart,

that you would help us to see who we really are

in light of your existence and in light of the gospel,

and in seeing who we are,

that we would love the person and work of Jesus even more

and that we would, Father, allow your Holy Spirit

to help us live in the real world

where you are the creator and sovereign over all things.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So I changed the introduction to my sermon slightly

because of what I was thinking about while I was driving in.

I think it's the case that five or ten years ago,

so sometimes I think to myself,

what could you say to a Canadian to insult them?

I mean, I managed to insult people without thinking about it far too often,

but if you actually wanted to insult a Canadian,

what were some of the ways that you could consult an average Canadian

and probably an average American?

And I think five or ten years ago,

a comment, if you were to say to a Canadian

that they do not live in the real world,

that they're not living in the real world,

that that would be an insult to them.

But I'm not sure if it would still be an insult to a lot of Canadians,

to tell you the truth.

I was thinking about it while I was driving in.

Now, you know, by the way,

to say that you're not living in the real world,

that doesn't mean, like in the real world,

it doesn't mean that there's not imagination

or whimsy or playfulness or hope.

But today, the idea that what matters is my reality,

what matters is my reality,

that's such a powerful idea

for a large number of people in our culture.

I don't know if it would actually be an insult to them

if you said to them that they're not living in the real world.

They might say, who cares about the real world?

What matters is my reality.

I don't know, you can talk about it over coffee,

whether, in fact, that's a thing,

and whether, in fact, even for people

who would very highly insist on the fact

that what matters isn't whatever reality is,

is my reality was what really, really matters.

The fact of the matter is,

is if I'm right that there are now,

that that wouldn't actually be an insult to a lot of Canadians.

Christianity very clearly comes down to

on one side of that particular issue.

I mean, it might be a surprise.

There was a long op-ed piece

in the National Post a week or so ago,

two Saturdays ago,

sort of perpetuating this idea

that people like Christians are opposed to reason

and science and knowledge

and all of that type of stuff.

It was a remarkably uninformed piece

written by a retired university president.

But it might be a surprise to people

to know that Christianity comes down

very, very firmly and clearly on this side,

that people should want to know

what the real world is

and that we should want to try to live in the real world

and deal with the real world.

And so today we're going to look

at a very, very interesting story.

And the first part of the story

is one of those stories,

I'll just be very honest,

when I'm doing my devotions,

probably when I come to a story like this,

it's the first 10 verses

have the names of nine kings,

all of them unpronounceable names,

all unpronounceable people groups,

all things that you don't have any idea

really who they are other than the odd word.

And I'll just be honest,

if I was reading this in my devotions,

I'd sort of yada, yada, yada, yada, yada.

And by the time I actually got to the stuff

which is sort of just easy to follow,

I'd gotten so accustomed

to not really paying attention,

I might miss it.

But it's a very, very simple story

and very powerful story

that portrays two different ways to live,

living in the real world

and living not in the real world.

Because the fact of the matter is,

is that even for those of us

and those Canadians

who desire to want to live in the real world,

we would acknowledge

that it can sometimes be very hard

to live in the real world

because there are things

which are impediments

to living in the real world.

And so this is a very interesting story

that speaks directly

to this particular issue.

So we're going to look at it.

But now before I tell you

to turn in your Bibles,

well here, actually,

I'll just give you a sample.

This is how Genesis 14 begins.

It's not going to be on the screen.

In the days of Amraphel,

king of Shinar,

Ariarch, king of Elessar,

Chedilo, Omer, king of...

Okay, you're already gone to sleep, right?

You got my...

So here's what's going to go.

If you just put up Claire on the screen,

I paid thousands of dollars for this map,

just the licensing arrangements.

I wrote this myself.

Probably all of you can gather that.

And all of you will be saying,

George, don't quit your day job.

But simply put,

this map sort of helps you to understand

what the first part of Genesis 14 is saying.

And then we're going to turn to Genesis 11

to pick up the story.

And so basically what's talking about

is there's a group of four kings

and they're all from a people group

called Mesopotamia.

And that's at the very top of the map.

And Mesopotamia, in a sense, is off the map.

At the day we would know it as Turkey,

Iraq, Iran,

those countries sort of in that region

of what we now call Iran,

what we now call Iraq,

what we call Turkey,

that would, in the time of this history,

would have been known as Mesopotamia.

And that's a different people group,

a very ancient civilizations there.

And if you sort of look down,

there's a reddish circle with five X's.

Those are five city-states.

And sort of basically,

most of the things you see in the map

are what we would call Canaanites.

But these five kings

are the five kings that are mentioned.

That's sort of the area that they ruled.

And what's going on here

is something as old as the hills

and as modern as the daily news.

The empire, or the kings,

of Mesopotamia,

14 years prior,

have subjugated probably the area

just to the right of that line,

which is supposed to be the Jordan River,

including subjugating that area

with the five X's,

the five Canaanite kings.

They've subjugated it.

And so the people in that area,

in the red circle,

they have to be paying tribute

to the people up in Mesopotamia,

different people group.

And then after they've been doing that

for 12 years,

once again,

this is just like the modern news.

They say,

we're going to stop paying money for that.

You know, they're far away.

We can take them.

We can kick their butt

if they come back down here.

You know, lots of chest thumping

and all of that type of stuff.

And so they stop paying any money.

It takes a year for them to figure it out

because back then they didn't have CNN.

They didn't have Fox News.

They didn't have BBC World Report

or Twitter or Instagram.

So it took them a year to figure that out.

Takes them a while to get their army to come down.

And the guys up in Mesopotamia said,

we're going to recover that area

because we like getting tribute

and we like being in power

and we like being in control,

just like the news today, right?

So what they do is that long orange line.

They don't actually directly attack

the Canaanite kings first.

What they do is go slightly

to the east of them,

which is right for you folks.

And they go and then what you see

in the first part of Genesis 14

is they conquer,

they plunder and pillage

and war and defeat

a whole pile of people groups

and tribal groups

all the way down that orange line,

all the way to the south,

almost to Egypt.

And then they decide

they're going to start heading up

because now they're going to go

after the five guys

that they'd previously conquered

that were now trying to flex their muscles

and say they could just ignore

the people from Mesopotamia.

And hopefully you can see there,

I say battle,

hopefully you can see that.

The five kings,

they move sort of down

to meet the oncoming

Mesopotamian kings.

They fight a big battle,

right?

Where I say battle.

And as we're going to see in a moment,

the five kings,

they get their butts kicked.

They get very,

very clearly defeated.

In fact,

there's even a thing,

they talk about the tar pits being there

and even the natural environment

that I guess the kings had hoped

would work in their advantage

actually works to their disadvantage.

People die in those pits.

The kings flee.

I'm sort of jumping ahead a little bit

for a couple of verses.

What I don't show you here

because I couldn't figure out

how to draw it

is the kings from Mesopotamia,

then they go and they basically sack,

pillage,

and plunder

those five Canaanite cities, states.

But then rather than going

all up on north,

right there,

they sort of loop around

and go back

on the other side,

the left-hand side of that line,

the Jordan River,

and they start heading back

to Mesopotamia.

They'd obviously be moving slow

because they have lots of plunder,

lots of treasure,

lots of slaves.

Either people they're going to keep as slaves

or something that they would have done

back in those days.

If you found a rich person,

you would take them away

and hope that you could

have them,

sell them back for ransom

to their family.

So that's what they're all doing.

They've won the battle.

They're heading back.

You can see the green line

is where Abram lives,

is at the bottom.

And as you're going to see in a moment,

he's going to go back up

and there's going to be a battle

and that's sort of what's going on

in the story

without all the names.

So now let's look at the text.

Sorry, that was a long,

but one of the interesting things about it

is once you sort of get over

the problems with the names

is, as I said,

I mean, this is the Russian Ukraine.

This is China and Taiwan.

This is what's going on in Afghanistan.

It's what's going on

in the failed states

of Northern Africa

and the failed states

of the Middle East.

That's what's going on.

There's people, warlords,

who claim authority over others.

They're willing to go to war

and fight over it

and exercise their power and authority.

So this is a very, very ancient problem

and it's a very, very contemporary problem.

It's always been present.

It was present here

amongst the First Nations people groups

that were here

before those from Europe discovered it.

The First Nations tribes

fought battles against each other,

took plunder, took slaves.

It's a part of common human history.

And so what happens now?

Well, what happens now?

Let's begin reading at verse 11

and we'll sort of recap

some of that there.

Verse 11.

So the enemy,

that is the Mesopotamians,

took all the possessions

of Sodom and Gomorrah

and all their provisions

and went their way.

They also took Lot,

the son of Abram's brother,

who was dwelling in Sodom

and his possessions

and went their way.

So in the last story,

we see that Lot had separated from Abram

and lived near Sodom.

Now we discover that he'd gone

from living near Sodom

to living in Sodom.

And that's going to be important.

There's going to be two whole chapters

taken up later

with the whole issue

of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And for many of you,

whether you're watching this

and you have very little

Christian background,

you've probably heard

of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And we're going to be looking at

in a couple of weeks.

But that's what happened.

So now here's the sort of

the question.

I've given it away a little bit.

But what's Abram going to do

if he finds out about it?

Well, let's look.

Verse 13.

Then one who had escaped

came and told Abram the Hebrew,

who is living by the oaks

of Mamre, the Amorite,

brother of Eschol and Aner.

These were allies of Abram.

So what's Abram now finds out

that his nephew Lot's been captured.

Now what's going to happen here?

Now, here's one of the things

about this story.

If you go back

and you look at chapter 12

in particular,

but also chapter 13,

you'll see that Abram has been promised,

has been blessed by God.

Abram has been promised

that his offspring,

that he will produce

a mighty nation,

not that he will produce

a mighty nation, not Lot.

He, it will come from,

in a sense, him and Sarah

will be the source

of new life

that will create

many, many, many descendants

and that they will eventually

completely and utterly

possess the land.

And that blessing

has been promised

in chapter 12

and in chapter 13.

It's just going to be

his offspring.

And as well as that,

Lot had already

separated from Abram

and taken the best land.

And now he's sort of screwed up

and he's captured by

the forces of Mesopotamia.

So what's Abram going to do?

Now, one of the,

how can I put it?

Not stereotypes.

One of the concerns

that people have,

Canadians have,

when they hear about Christianity,

this idea that

if I give my life to Christ,

if I accept Christ

as my Savior and Lord,

that I'm going to go to heaven,

that, you know,

he's done everything

that has to be done for me

to make me right with God,

there's sort of the idea,

and it's also sort of common

with it,

because there's a very similar

type of idea here.

I just,

Abram hasn't done anything

to deserve this blessing.

He's not particularly special.

God just gives it to him.

And there's a very,

very common idea

that this idea

is going to produce

arrogance and indifference,

and maybe even violence.

I mean,

Abram's been promised by God,

the triune God,

that he's going to have

all these things happen to him,

the land's going to all have him.

Like,

how can that not,

people will think,

how can that not create

within the mind

of the people who hear that

a type of arrogance

and a type of self-centeredness

and an indifference

to those who are outside

of, in a sense,

your tribe.

And,

now,

part of the problem

when people think this

is they sort of forget

for a second

that arrogance

and indifference

is a human problem.

Like,

arrogance and indifference

is a human problem.

It's not as if

just people who understand

the Christian faith

have a problem

with arrogance and indifference

and the rest of the world

is free of it.

No,

the fact of the matter is

is that arrogance and indifference

is a human problem.

It's common

whether you're a Buddhist,

an atheist,

a Hindu,

a Muslim,

believe in some

ancient religion.

That really,

the question is,

does somehow or another

these Christian ideas

which are seen here,

does it make it worse?

Or is,

in fact,

the case that there's

something unique

about this idea

of blessing

that's seen here in Abram

and also seen in the Gospel

that actually works

against arrogance

and indifference

and violence?

So,

what happens?

Well,

if we look here at verse,

we've just heard that

Abram has now heard about it.

How is he going to react?

He remembers the blessing,

he remembers the grace,

he remembers the promise,

he's living at a place

where he has an altar,

and that means

he can regularly go

and worship the God

who's pronounced

these blessings over him.

He can be reminded of it,

he can recommit to it,

he can recommit to this God.

So,

what's Abram's response

to hearing about

the great destruction

that's happened

to these five pagan cities

and the other areas,

and the fact

that his nephew Lot

has been captured?

Well,

we find out

what his response is

in verse 14.

When Abram heard

that his kinsmen

had been taken captive,

he led forth

his trained men

born in his house,

318 of them.

Sort of curious.

It's not 315

or 319,

but 318.

He took the 318 of them

and he went in pursuit

as far as Dan.

And he divided his forces

against them by night,

he and his servants,

and he defeated

the Mesopotamians.

He defeats them.

This same four kings

who rule sort of

a very large empire,

who have defeated

all the people groups

to the east

and all the way

to the south

and then defeated

these five Canaanite kings

and then they've got

enough plunder,

they've made their point

with the Canaanite kings,

they now have more area.

Abram defeats them.

And not only does he defeat them,

he pursues them

to Hobah,

north of Damascus.

Then he brought back

all the possessions

and also brought back

his kinsmen Lot

with his possessions

and the women

and the people.

So once again,

these Mesopotamian kings

who plundered

and looted

all of these people groups,

including Sodom and Gomorrah,

Abram,

with these three other

allies of him,

a far smaller force,

were able to defeat

the Mesopotamians

and now they are taking

a slow journey back

with the animals

that have been captured,

the women and children

and some of the men

who've been captured,

and they're bringing

all of that back

towards where Abram lives

on the way

to these people

being able to be resettled

in their Canaanite

and pagan areas.

And you see,

one of the things,

if you just pause

for a second,

what you see

in this story

a little bit,

we're going to get

to the two different ways

to live

and whether you live

in the real world

or not,

but the point

of the blessing

that you go back,

if you read Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12,

the verses 2 and 3,

and then you read

verse 7,

and you read

how this blessing,

this grace,

is sort of reinforced

and reenacted

and deepened

at the end

of chapter 13,

it's all completely,

it's not something

as a result

of what Abram's

accomplished.

The blessing

has no connection

to his accomplishments,

it's not earned,

it's undeserved.

And the fact

of the matter

is,

is it's the particular

nature of being

blessed by God

in a way

which is unearned,

undeserved,

has nothing to do

with your accomplishment,

that as that

becomes more real

to you,

as that becomes

more real to me,

it undermines

both pride

and religion.

You see,

religion,

all religion,

all spirituality,

is always based

on us

accomplishing something.

If you're a Buddhist,

you're going to accomplish

one set of things,

if you're a Hindu,

you'll accomplish

a different set of things,

if you're a Muslim,

you'll accomplish

a different set of things,

if you have your

bespoke spirituality

here in North America,

you'll have your own

set of things

that you have to

accomplish,

but you accomplish

certain types of things

to make yourself

right with God.

And that will always

coexist with pride.

Because good grief,

you've done it,

haven't you?

And it will often

go against,

it will often

connect with

not only pride,

but image management

and make-believe.

Because in your

heart of hearts,

you know that you

haven't accomplished

as much as you

think you have,

you're not quite as

good as you,

you actually aren't

really as good

as you like people

to think you are

and you want to

have God think you are.

So you become

very concerned,

even with whether

you're conscious

of it or not,

with image management.

And you sort of

might even deceive

yourself that you're

far better than you

actually are.

But when you come

across a blessing

like this and the

blessing of the gospel,

which is very,

very similar,

in a sense,

the blessing of Abraham

is looking forward

forward to this

profound act of

rescue that God

will do in the

person of his son,

which is Jesus'

death upon the

cross.

As the truth of

this blessing comes

home to you,

that I didn't earn

it,

I didn't accomplish

it,

I don't deserve

it,

and yet God has

given this to me

as a gift,

that in fact

begins to not

only undermine

pride,

but it

undermines

religion.

One of the

popular things

that go on in

our culture now

to deal with

our psychological

and other problems

is the practice

of mindfulness.

It's usually a

Western adaptation

of things come

from Buddhism.

It's often tried

to be taught now

in different

therapies,

and at the

heart of

mindfulness,

I mean,

there's different

aspects to it,

but part of

it is that

you,

in a sense,

try to

disconnect

from yourself

and get to

a place where

you can just

observe yourself,

observe the

flow of what's

going on,

and maybe as

you observe

what's going

on,

you'll follow

like some

of Jordan

Peterson's

advice,

not that he's

specifically

talking about

mindfulness,

but of being

friendly towards

yourself,

of wishing the

best for

yourself,

but you try

to go to a

place where

you can just

observe what's

happening in

your life from

a place

within you

to just

observe

yourself,

and watch

the flow of

what's going

through you

and your

thoughts and

your emotions

and stuff like

that.

But the big

problem with it,

I really became

aware of this,

believe it or not,

by reading a

non-Christian

writer by the

name of Peter

Robinson,

who talks about

this several

times in his

book,

where one of

the characters

in his book

is a person

who practices

this,

and Peter

Robinson has

his main

sort of hero

of the stories

talk about the

fact that she

used that

regularly to

give herself a

pass on the

things that she

had done to

hurt people,

to create

excuses.

See,

the problem

with it is

that if

yourself is

still proud

and prone

to self-deception,

then all

you've done

is created,

in a sense,

a place of

pride to

observe your

life,

a place to

sort of

separate the

real you,

the one who's

observing from

the you that

does things,

and it

ends up

actually,

it doesn't

end up really

dealing with

pride or

selfishness or

self-centeredness,

it becomes a

means by which

you can sort of

fool yourself

about what's

going on in

your life,

and your

responsibility for

what you've

done.

You see,

in a sense,

what it's

trying to do

is it's

trying to

create a

substitute for

the biblical

doctrine of

grace.

You see,

what grace

creates for

us,

if we

understand

that this

blessing that's

been promised

in Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12,

that I'm

going to,

you know,

Abram,

you don't

deserve it,

you don't

merit it,

you have an

accomplished

anything,

I'm going

to give

my favor

upon you,

through you

and through

the seed,

so to speak,

the offspring

that come

from you,

there will

be some

offspring that

eventually

develop,

some means

by which all

of the world

will be

blessed,

that people

will bless

themselves for

you,

I'm going

to bless

you so

you're going

to be a

blessing,

it's completely

undeserved,

and that's

looking forward

to this day

down the road

which is now

past for us,

Abram in a

sense is looking

at it in

faith in the

future,

we now remember

it in the

past,

where when

Jesus dies

upon the

cross for

us,

every wrong

thing that I've

ever done has

been dealt

with by him,

and the life

that I wasn't

able to live,

he lives for

me,

and when I put

my hand in

his,

and trust him

as my savior

and lord,

in a sense the

life that I

couldn't live

but should have

lived becomes

mine,

and the

consequences of

my bad

actions,

which if you

add them all

up I can't

possibly pay

for them,

he pays the

price of that,

and I have

this gift of

righteousness and

being right with

God that comes

to me unmerited,

undeserved,

unearned,

and it comes to

me from the

God who knows

every single

thing there is

to know about

me,

he knows every

dream I have

at night that

I don't remember,

he knows every

mask,

every self

deception,

all the

unreality,

every single

thing about me

from the moment

that I can make

moral choices

to the moment

of my death,

all of those

are dealt

with in the

cross,

and it's as

that promise

grasps you,

that you begin

to have a place

where you can

look at your

life,

and you can

observe,

gosh I was

selfish yesterday,

or gosh I was

self-centered,

or gosh I just

don't want to

really,

gosh I'm

prayerless,

or gosh I'm

taking credit

for that,

and I don't

know where it

came from that

idea,

I should really

be giving,

like it provides

a place where

we can actually

look at ourselves

in the security

of God's grace

and blessing,

it can begin

to,

unlike

mindfulness

which can

actually just

create a type

of self-flattering,

grace can

place,

create a

humble place,

a humble

place,

not just a

place,

because you're

not just by

yourself,

you're with

him,

you're with

Christ,

in the power

of the Holy

Spirit to

observe

who you

really are,

and respond

then with

repentance,

or with

gratitude,

or with

praise.

grace.

Now,

this story

takes a

sudden turn,

I have to

watch my

time,

this story

takes a

sudden turn,

but it just

ended here,

I guess what I

was just

telling you,

that would

sort of be

the end of

the sermon,

but it

takes a

very,

very sudden

turn,

and it

shows before

us a

deepening of

what I've

just tried to

communicate to

you,

which is two

different ways

of living in

the world.

A world

where it's

pride-driven

self-deception

and self-centeredness,

or a way of

living which is

in the real

world,

which acknowledges

that God is

the creator and

possessor of all

things,

and that unless

he bestows upon

us grace and

blessing,

we can't really

live.

What do I

mean?

Well,

let's just

look at it.

Look at

verse 17.

So,

Abram has

defeated

these with

his 318

men and

his three

little allies.

They've

defeated the

Mesopotamian

kings that

have defeated

multiple people

groups and

these five

kings of

these city

states.

He's

acted with

the blessing

hasn't made

him indifferent

to Lot,

but made

him sacrificially

concerned to

rescue Lot.

The blessing

hasn't made

him indifferent

to the

pagans,

the Canaanites,

the people

very different

from him

who live in

the region.

The blessing

has made him

have a heart

for them,

to desire to

liberate them,

and to bring

them back to

where they live.

And that is

what has

happened.

And in

verse 17,

after his

return from

the defeat

of

King

C.H.

and the

kings who

were with

him,

the king

of Sodom

went out

to meet

Abram

at the

valley of

Shaveh,

that is the

king's

valley.

Now you

can't really

see this in

English,

but once you

go back in

a few verses

we're going to

read about

what the

king of

Sodom

says.

But in

the original

language,

there's a

way to

communicate

that he

is coming

not with

gratitude,

not with

humility,

not with

thankfulness,

but with

pride.

That's in

the original

language,

it can't be

communicated in

English,

but you're

going to

capture it

again in

a moment

when we

see the

things he

says.

But Abram

isn't just

met by the

king of

Sodom,

he's also

met by this

other mysterious

character that

just sort of

appears out of

nowhere,

disappears.

He'll be

mentioned in

a very,

very important

psalm called

Psalm 110,

which I think

is the most

quoted piece of

the Old Testament

in the New

Testament.

And in

Hebrews chapter

six and

seven,

the writer

will make a

big deal of

what goes on

here.

But in

verse 18,

the other

person who

meets,

comes to

meet,

they don't

travel together,

but he also

ends up meeting

Abram at the

same time.

Verse 18 is

Melchizedek,

king of

Salem.

And Melchizedek

means righteousness

or being right

with God.

And Salem

means peace.

And in

the ancient

world,

you can't

really have

peace unless

you have

peace with

God.

So you

have this

priest king.

Salem is

probably a

short form for

Jerusalem.

This priest

king from

a small

place called

Jerusalem,

who's named

righteousness,

and he's the

king of

peace.

and he

brings out

bread and

wine.

And bread

and wine is

a, sorry,

here's a geek

moment.

It's called a

merism.

It, sorry,

that's a geek

moment.

I put some

of you to

sleep.

It's like if

you say you're

searching high

and low,

high and low

is a merism.

It means that

you're searching

high, low,

and everywhere

in between.

And so when

it says bread

and wine,

it's the

language of a

feast.

In other

words,

everything from

the wine to

the simplest

little thing,

like the

bread to

the most

expensive wine

and everything

in between,

it's a way of

referring to a

banquet.

So this

mysterious king

of Salem,

whose name is

righteousness and

Salem means

peace,

he comes to

meet Abram and

he brings out

a feast.

And we also

discover that he

was priest of

God most high.

And in

verse 19,

this priest

blesses

Abraham.

In other

words,

he's going to

pronounce this

most high God's

name over

Abram.

And this

representative of

the most high

God is going to

explain what has

happened in the

story.

He's going to

reveal to

Abram what's

really happened.

And what we

see has really

happened is that

blessed be

Abram by God

most high,

possessor of

heaven and

earth.

And you'll,

some of your

Bibles,

if you have

your Bibles,

you'll see

there's a

little note.

There's no

single word

that you can

translate the

Hebrew into.

And so it

could either be

translated as

possessor of

heaven and

earth or

creator of

heaven and

earth.

It's the

same idea.

So there's

the God

most high,

who's both

created the

earth and

possesses it

currently,

everything from

the highest

heavens to

the lowest

earth, so

everything in

between, all

that exists,

this most

high God

who's created

all things and

possesses

everything.

He has

blessed

Abram.

And then

verse 20,

and blessed,

and probably

be more

accurate to

say, and

praise be

to God

most high.

Why?

He is the

one who has

delivered your

enemies into

your hand.

God.

Why is it

that you

could take

318 guys

and a

couple of

guys from

your buddies

and you

could defeat

the

Mesopotamian

war machine?

It wasn't

because you're

a brilliant

general.

It wasn't

because you're

a brilliant

strategist.

It wasn't

because you

had better

technology.

In fact,

actually,

archaeologically

speaking,

the Canada

areas were

technologically

behind

Mesopotamia.

That's what

archaeologists

would now

tell you.

It has

nothing to

do with

that.

Your

victory

was a

work of

God.

Your

victory

was a

work of

God.

You're

blessed

because God

used you.

You're

blessed

because you

understood

the blessing

and the

promise

doesn't

make you

prideful

and indifferent

to your

neighbors

or your

kinsmen.

And even

though your

neighbors and

your kinsmen

do not

acknowledge

God

most

high

or the

Lord,

you

understood

that the

blessing

of God

most

high

upon

you

has

motivated

you

to

take a

risk,

to pursue

them,

to defeat

the enemy,

to set

them free

and to

liberate

them.

And so

praise be

God

most

high,

verse 20,

who has

delivered

your enemies

into your

hand.

And Abram

gave him

a tenth

of everything.

it's an

act of

homage.

Homage is

a word

that not

many people

know anymore.

Homage

is an

act of

not only

worship,

but

acknowledgement

that there

is one

who is

superior to

you,

that you

are in a

relationship

with,

who cares

for you,

to whom

in a

sense you

owe

proper

obedience

and love

and affection

to.

And I

just sort

of want

to pause.

That's,

you see,

why.

So once

again,

if you're

here and

you haven't

given Christ,

you haven't

made Christ

your Savior

and your

Lord,

this is a

good reminder

to say,

we don't

want you

to give

us any

money.

We'd

rather give

you money.

We'd

rather bless

you.

But for

those of

us who

are

Christians,

this is

where this

idea of

the tithe

begins to

come into.

That for

a Christian

to give

back 10%

of your

money to

the Lord

God is

an act

of homage.

It's an

act of

acknowledging

that everything

you have

ultimately is

because of

your Lord

and Master,

that your

Lord and

Master loves

you and

cares for

you,

that he's

worthy of

trust and

obedience to,

that he

will see that

your needs

are met,

and the

giving of

money back

to him

and for

the cause

of his

kingdom

is an

act of

homage.

It's an

act of

worship.

It's why

it really

isn't a

wrong thing

to pass

a plate

in the

church.

It's

why it's

not wrong

for those

of us

who call

Jesus

Savior and

Lord to

move towards

a time

when we

can return

10%

of all

that we

have,

and all

that we

have is

due to

his grace

and mercy

and provision,

all things

come of

him and

of his

own have

we given

him,

to move

to the

point that

we would

turn 10%

to him,

or more.

But that's

one way of

living.

So what

this king,

who gives

this feast

and blesses,

this priest

king,

revealing to

Abram that

Abram did

the right

thing in

understanding

how the

blessing is

to cause

him to

have a

concern

for his

neighbors

who don't

share the

same worship

of the

same God,

in a sense

aren't even

covered directly

by that

blessing,

that that

blessing is

one that

should lead

him to

care for

his

neighbors.

And what

we see

here,

by the

way,

you see,

this is

what prepares

us for

the gospel.

When

Christians

read this,

what we're

also hearing

is this,

as we

read this,

if you go

back to

Galatians,

and Galatians

will say that

it's in

this story

that Abram

preaches

the gospel

to us.

And how

he preaches

the gospel

to us

is this,

is that

the great

Abram's

greater

offspring

is the

Lord Jesus

Christ.

And he

pursued you

and me,

even to the

point of

death upon

the cross,

and experiencing

all there is