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Well, good morning.
If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in Genesis chapter 14.
That's where we're going to be.
If you notice, Berger and I having a little discussion.
He said there is an announcement video.
You're just out of practice.
So that's why I walked back over and you heard that there's a lot of things going on.
And we're excited as unfortunately for all of our kids and teachers, right.
The school year is getting ready to start back up.
It feels like we just blinked and they were out, but now we blinked and they're back in.
I'll be honest with you.
I'm a little bit okay with that, right?
But school year is starting back.
A lot of things are happening around our church.
Want you to be a part of that.
If you are a first time guest, on behalf of all of us that call this wonderful church home, let me tell you thank you so much for worshipping with us today.
We would love to know that you are here in worshiping with us and you can make us aware.
You'll see there's a little card at the end of the row at either side that you're sitting on at some point in time during the service.
Fill that out and you got two options.
You can either drop that in the basket underneath the exit sign right here in the back, or this is what I would personally prefer, because I'd like to meet you, introduce myself to you, let you introduce yourself to me.
I'll be back at this table to my left at the end of the service.
And you can come back there, drop that off.
And then if you have any questions about us as a church, who we are, what we do, I would love to be able to answer any of those questions for you before we get into Genesis 14.
Want to give everybody a quick update.
I heard from a lot of people, how was Black Mountain this week?
How was Black Mountain this week?
So let me share how Black Mountain week went.
This past week we had 60 youth and adults that went and served at Black Mountain's Children's Home.
I had the wonderful pleasure of serving this team along with my wife Aaron and Tim Schultz, in the kitchen.
And we learned a lot of things about this group of adults that went and this group of students that they are really hardworking.
I want to share something about our youth pastor because we're going to add like, lumberjack to his title.
So we're in the kitchen one day and Tim says, oh, Joel's about to cut down a tree.
So I walk out into the porch, and there's this dead oak tree that's kind of hanging, and it can kind of hang toward a cabin.
It can hang toward a truck.
It can hang a fall a lot of different ways.
And I look out there, and if you want to describe the look of Christmas morning on the face of an adult, it's Joel Van Ham.
The smile is like Santa's here.
You know what I mean?
And he's got laid out a row of chainsaws and other tools, and he had an apprentice with him, Cooper Brewer.
And they were over there, and they had this slingshot that you could use to get this rope high up into the tree.
Joel said, I don't need your slingshot.
I got Cooper, which Cooper's like, eight foot four.
So he's halfway up it anyways.
So he grabs I think he chunks it up there.
They wrap the ropes around.
They get it pulled right where it is.
Now, I can't hear Joel, but I can see Joel talking to the director as he sees cabins, trucks, everything.
And Joel points at that tree.
He says, this is what I'm going to do.
I can read his lips.
I'm going to bring it, and it's going to graze that tree right there, and it's going to fall in this gap in between these two trees.
It doesn't look it'll work, but it'll work.
I'll be honest with you, that had my doubts.
Then what I watched, it was like Michelangelo, right?
But Joel's tool is not clay.
It's a chainsaw.
As he worked his way around that tree, got it going, and then all of a sudden began to make that cut.
And as he made that cut, that tree fell exactly where he was lined up, where he'd have it go.
And the look on his face was satisfaction.
Later that night, we were getting ready to eat dinner, and I walked out, and Joel was still messing with that tree.
I said, man, you ready to eat?
He goes, Nah, I need some therapy right now.
I'm just out there just cutting it up, doing even more, but just wonderful time to be able to see that and to experience that.
Here's what I'll tell you about these students and these adults.
They worked hard.
They cleared trails.
They cut down other trees.
They painted, they did landscaping and a lot of other hard jobs.
They came in to lunch, and they came in for snacks at the end of the workday every single day, but equally dirty and smelly, right?
So, you know, they worked really, really hard.
They played hard.
They played crazy games from kids camp.
They played volleyball, they played basketball.
They played nine square.
We went whitewater raft and almost lost Mike C.
But we got him in, right?
We'll tell that story later.
Joanne pushed him out.
And every night some of you like to watch MMA right?
I saw the Willow Ridge version of MMA every night called Spoons, all right?
And watching, like, middle school girls tackle adults in order to get spoons.
They played hard.
They worked hard, but God worked in their lives while they were there, and it was incredible to see.
Each morning.
They started the day off with a quiet time, and every evening, Joel led them in a wonderful lesson.
And what was really cool to see as a pastor but also as a dad, was to see that we had small groups would happen after the evening.
Lesson led by high school students, and that was just really cool.
So, parents, here's my challenge to you before we get the message this morning.
If you had a kid that went, your message is two part, and here's the part.
Number one, they are grumpy.
They are tired, right?
Yeah.
You said now, let me say this to you.
You go do manual labor for about 50 hours a week and sleep on the most uncomfortable bed of all time while you were covered in chigger and tick bites, right?
You'd be grumpy too, all right?
So extend them grace.
They need to sleep.
They need to do nothing.
That's okay.
But, parents, here's what I want to challenge you to do with this.
Number one, ask them what they did and listen to their stories.
Ask them what new skill they learned, what new tool they used, what it was like and the work that they were doing.
Ask them what they did.
They did some incredible things for the Lord.
Ask them why they did them, because most of them know.
Because they understand the Ministry of Black Mountain Children's Home.
Ask them what they did.
Number two, ask them, what did God.
Teach them, and let them process that with you.
So many times, we, as parents, unwillingly kill the spirit of God working in.
The life of kids.
We don't want to process.
We don't want to listen.
We're too busy.
And they had a whole week of the Lord working in their life.
Maybe they need some time to process that's, okay?
What that means for you and I.
Is we need to keep that conversation going, all right?
Ask him what the Lord taught him.
Joel was telling me this morning just random side conversations that he had with kids.
Parents, push into.
Do not let them leave their encounter.
With the Lord away from your home.
And bring it in, okay?
Wonderful, wonderful week, church.
Thank you so much for allowing us to go and to do and to be a part man.
These kids and adults, they ate 60 pounds of linked sausage.
Do that math.
60 people went 60 pounds of linked sausage, right?
40 pounds of bacon, 30 pounds of egg.
One night for dinner, they consumed 30 pounds of ham.
They ate good.
Thank you for letting us spend that money to do it.
All right?
I want to thank Shane for preaching again so that we could be gone, Aaron and I, and to be able to prepare for the group and have night away.
Thank you, brother, for doing that.
I appreciate you so much.
Before we get in Genesis 14 next week, all right, next week we're going to take a four week break from Genesis.
Just four weeks.
We're going to pause for about a month and we're going to start a new series on discipleship.
We typically do that in August as we prepare back for the fall season, but this year it's different.
Okay.
And I really want to encourage you to be here for this.
I know there's this tendency as school is approaching and we're getting back in our routines for just one more time away, one more time to sleep in and really want to encourage you to be here and to join.
US as what we're going to do as we preach and teach about discipleship is we've been evaluating and are evaluating our discipleship process and the strategy that we have and we're excited through this series for me to able to be share with you where we feel like the Lord is leading us as a church to go and do in the area of discipleship.
Right.
That's an important part.
That's why we're here.
God says to go and make disciples.
And so with everything that we're doing, we want to make disciples of Jesus.
And so we want to invite you to be a part of that because what we want you to do is figure out where do you fit in on this, where are you in this?
We've talked a lot over the last several weeks about what does it mean for you to look at where you're at and take that next step of faith in your walk with the Lord, that next step of obedience in your walk with the Lord?
And we want to challenge you to do that, to sit there and to look at that and see like, am I the disciple that God has called for me to be?
Are there areas in my life that I'm willing to grow in?
Right.
We would all admit there are areas of our life that we need to grow in, but are we willing to do that?
Are we willing to take that next step of obedience in that?
And so I'm excited.
For four weeks, we're going to look at this by looking at the Book of Acts and seeing and understanding like the first church that we see in Acts, what is their discipleship process?
And then looking back for us and say, okay, Lord, we want to take that and we want to apply that to our setting, to our culture, to our context, and to see that lived out.
All right, so I'm really excited about it and I want to invite you to join us and be a part of that as well.
So we'll start looking at that starting next week.
All right?
So we're going to be in Genesis, chapter 14.
This morning I told somebody, if you've read ahead, if you've read this, I said, man, reading some of these names and places, I miss the days of the Genealogies.
All right?
So bear with me again.
I'm going to try to say them confidently and quickly.
If you know a different pronunciation, bless you.
All right, we'll just try to go from here.
Three, two, one.
Chapter 14.
Let's start in verse one.
In the days of Amrfel, King of Shinar Ariak King of Elazar K Dor Lemon King of Elam and Title King of Goyheim These kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shanab, king of Admah, shimabur, king of Zeoibim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoyar.
And all of these joined forces in.
The valley of Sidom, that is, in the Salt Sea.
Twelve years they had served K Dorlemur, but in the 13th year they rebelled.
In the 14th year, KDOR Lemor, the kings who were with him came and defeated the Refaim in the Karaim, the Zuzim in Ham, and EMIM in the.
K.
Whoo this one?
Take me a minute.
Shava Keatam and the Horites in their hill country of sear as far as Elperan, on the border of the wilderness, they turned back and came to in Mishpat, that is Kadesh, and defeated all of the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites, who were dwelling in Hazaron Tamar.
Verse eight.
Then the King of Sodom, the king.
Of Gomorrah, the king of ADMA, the.
King of Zeboim, the King of Bala, that is Zoar, went out and they joined battle in the valley of Saddam with Cade Dormar, king of Elam, Tidal of Goiheim, amrafel, king of Shinar, and Ariak, king of Elazar.
Four kings against five.
Now, the valley of Saddam was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell, some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country.
So the enemy took all of the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all of their provisions and went their way.
So let's pause here for just a moment.
So, Genesis 14.
This is some significant stuff in the history of the world.
What we see is of international importance, and we read about the first war that scripture records that we know of in history.
That's what we just saw in this context, in this setting.
This is the original world war that happens and takes place.
Now, I got my undergrad is in history and I wish we had the time to take this historical approach and understand the battles and the war tactics that are used here.
In fact, in college I took two classes.
There were some classes that you're like, oh, I have to take those.
I took a Russian history class one time.
And if you think these names are difficult.
It ain't even close.
All right, so that was one of those you have to take.
But then I got to take two History of Warfare classes way cooler than either one of these.
I got to write a paper on the patriot.
I thought that was pretty neat, right?
So I wish we could take that time, but we don't have the time.
So here's what I want us to just kind of glean from this as we move on to this next part pretty quickly.
Always understand this, that the Bible is both theologically true and historically true.
It is theologically true, and it's historically true.
And sometimes we try to separate those.
It is theologically true.
The Bible teaches proper belief about who God is and what God desires for your life.
And that hasn't changed from Genesis one until today.
It teaches about who God is and what God desires for your life and mine.
So as the times change, as standards change, god does not god's standard does not change.
The Bible is theologically true, and we can hold to that.
That doesn't mean that some things aren't hard, that some things aren't difficult, that.
Some things can even be confusing.
They can be all of those things, but it is still true.
And we cling to this.
The moment we begin to take this and say, well, this is no longer true.
The moment we invalidate all that's here, we don't want to invalidate it.
God has validated it.
It is true, and we cling to that, right?
So it's theologically true.
But I love this.
The Bible is historically true.
So when we read stories in the Bible as crazy and as far fetched as they may seem to be in our mind, the stories in the Bible are true, just like the story in your life is true.
So this is just as true as what happened in your life yesterday.
The people in the Bible are just as real as you and I are.
And so when we look at this, this is not some mythological book where we read this and we glean some lesson off of it, it's true.
These people we read about walked this earth in the time that God had set them onto this Earth.
The events that happened are true, and so we can hold all to it as true.
But sometimes we get to passages like this, and honestly, they're difficult to preach.
They're difficult to teach, they're difficult to have on our quiet times when we study.
But God has given them us for a purpose and for a reason to.
Continually teach us that God's word is.
True and can be trusted fully.
So everything that we go from, we.
Draw in, and we begin to see more and more about who God is.
And trusting within that.
So let's continue on.
This war happens.
This war takes place.
There's probably some places that you've recognized.
They're going to resurface later on when we jump back into Genesis here in the next few weeks.
But then verse twelve, as this war happens, they also took Lot, he's back, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way.
Then one who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eskol, of Anor, these are the allies of Abram.
So this is these last two verses that we see here.
And we were reminded of this dynamic with Abram and Lot all the way back when we originally saw God call Abram to go and to follow him.
God said, you're going to leave your country, you're going to leave your home, you're going to leave your family.
But what did Abram do?
We talked about this.
We saw some of this obedience in Abram and he's growing in that.
But there's this tendency in him to kind of modify what the obedience or what he's called to.
And so he leaves his home, he leaves his country, but he brings Lot with him.
He brings lot with him.
And since then, Lott's kind of been this piece of a little bit of conflict in the story.
In fact, two weeks ago in Genesis 13, we looked at this and we saw where due to land and resource issues, there was tension between Lot and Abram, largely between those that were working for them.
And they chose, they agreed that we're going to go separate ways and they're going the separate ways.
Abram, even though he had the right to say, this is what I'm going to take as the elder, this is what I'm going to take as the one who has the covenant, this is the one that I'm going to take, because Abram's the uncle, Lot is the nephew.
Instead Abram says to Lot, you choose, you choose.
And Lot chose.
And he chose the area near Sodom.
But Abram received then the land that.
The Lord had for him.
And so we see the difference.
Lot takes what he wants, abram receives.
What the Lord has.
That will be Lot, what looks good to him, what seems right to him, what he desires and what he wants is then what he is going to take.
And then Abram, on the flip side of that, will receive what the Lord has for him.
And so here's what we see in.
This passage of scripture and in a lot of things we can kind of.
Journey through as we read at Abram.
And Lot and kind of see God's.
Standard for us in Abram and our rebellion in Lot.
And we can ask ourselves the question, are we set in or are we set apart?
Are we set in or are we set apart?
Look back at verse twelve.
It says they also took Lot who was dwelling in Sodom.
So let's look at Lot's journey, let's look at where lot has lived.
It says that he sees Sodom and.
It appeals to him the land and the things that are around.
He glances over and he sees it.
And it kind of draws him.
Sin ever do that to you?
I see it.
I will feel good, but I love the Lord.
I'm just going to get close.
And so Lot got close.
And what we saw was that he set his tent in 13 towards Sodom.
It's close, he's not there.
Where is he now?
Dwelling in Sodom.
That's how sin works.
That's what begins to happen.
Where we see this and look back.
At what Genesis 1313 said about Sodom.
Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
And so what Lot does is in this is he sets his eye, he begins to see what's there and he moves closer and he moves closer and he moves closer.
And the culture that had permeated that city, what the Bible tells us, that.
Once great city, right?
That's the description that we get, but is now wicked.
That's where he finds himself.
It's what we saw with Lot when.
He was in Egypt, in Genesis chapter twelve, is that when it came time to pick the land that he wanted.
In Genesis 13, that his mind journeyed.
Back to what Egypt was like and.
How good Egypt was.
And he saw the things of Egypt that he liked in Sodom and he becomes set in to the culture.
Paul in Romans chapter twelve, it's a verse, romans twelve one is a verse many of us know.
Paul writes as I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Then verse two do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And when we read verse two, we oftentimes focus on the positive, the positive command what we get in relationship with God.
Be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what the will of God is.
What is good and acceptable is perfect.
But here's what begins to happen that so many times we get so close to the world, that what the world does is the world begins to mold and shape who we are.
It begins to change how we think, it begins to change how we speak and how we feel.
And so now Romans twelve two, where it says do not be conformed.
What happens in our life we can begin to see as Lot moves closer and closer and closer.
Is it's not that I'm not no longer going to not be conformed, but instead I am conformed and how I speak and how I think and how I feel is not based in the standard of God's truth, but it's based in the standard of this world and what the world does so often.
I don't care if we're looking all the way back at the fall with Adam and Eve.
I don't care if we're looking at babel.
I don't care if we're jumping back to the time with Noah and Ham.
I don't care if we're looking at this time with Lot or to today.
What the culture does so many times in our life is it says, hey, you and me, we're number one.
Look out for me, look for what I want to do.
And this is we found with Lot.
He looks and he sees and he determines for himself, this is what I.
Want, this is what I do.
And so this is what I'm going to take.
Let me give you a very passive way how this works in our world, but rings all too often true in my life.
You ever done something good for someone?
You have, right?
You've done some good things, you've done kind things, you've done caring things for.
People, you've sacrificed for others, you've served.
Others, you've submitted to them and you've helped them, and you've poured in and you've invested non ask you a question.
Why did you do it?
Do you know why we do things.
Sometimes the ultimate reason for why we do even kind things like that?
I know I do because it makes me feel good, right?
It makes me feel good.
So I do that because ultimately it makes me feel good.
Well, here's the counter to that then.
I wouldn't have served them if it didn't make me feel good.
The moment they become someone I don't want to serve instead, someone that I want to reject, then serving them no longer feels good.
It feels sacrificial, it feels costly.
So I no longer do that.
You see, that's what the world teaches.
But the Bible teaches that we love others because God has loved us, that we forgive others because God has forgiven you and I, that we serve others because Jesus Christ has served us.
And so all we do now as followers of the Lord, we do because it's for God, regardless of how it makes us feel.
Now, I'm not saying that we don't enjoy that feeling, because we do.
And God gives us that.
It's a beautiful thing.
But if we're not careful, we become so rooted in our own selfishness that we've conformed so much to the world that what happens is I now only do for others based off of the pleasure that it brings my sinful heart.
That's what we begin to see happen.
But look at verse 13.
Then the one who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mammary.
So while Lot is set in, Abram is set apart.
Abram's not involved, he's not connected.
He's not associated with the kings or the kingdoms.
He's simply known as Abram the Hebrew, which means the outsider of all that.
The world had to offer, of all of the kings and the kingdoms.
And what we're going to see is that Abram had some power, abram had some influence.
Abram could have started what Abram wanted to do, but what he's known as is as the outsider, those that are set apart.
Paul in three of his letters, peter, twice in one, peter and even David in the Psalms says this, that we as followers of Christ are foreigners in a foreign land, that this world is not our home, that this is not our land.
As Abram the Hebrew, because we're not defined, we're not set, we're not determined by this place.
We've been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.
The old has passed away, the new has come.
We are not who we used to be, but now we are sons and daughters of the living God.
Being transformed by the spirit of God is what scripture teaches us and this is who we are.
So what does this mean for us?
How do we live as men and women who have this spiritual citizenship in an earth where we have earthly citizenship, which isn't bad.
This isn't going to be a message of a criticism of our country, of our state, of our town.
I love and praise the Lord for the time and the place in which he has set my years on this earth, and I'm grateful for it.
But what does it mean then, that we have a spiritual citizenship that's elsewhere?
So let's look and let's see how Abram responds.
He hears lot has been captured, lot has been taken.
Like, I just feel like for him, there had been that moment with me that would have said these wonderful words, I told you so.
You know what?
He doesn't say that.
When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his.
Trained men born in his house, 318 of them.
So this is that moment.
He's not just an isolated man living out in the country, right?
He's got people, 318 trained men, and went in pursuit as far as Dan, and he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and.
Defeated them and pursued them to Hobi, north of Damascus.
Then he brought back all of the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen, Lot, with his possessions and the women and the people.
Now, after his return from the defeat of Leomer, the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Chavez, that is the king's valley.
And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest of God most High, and he blessed him, saying, bless be Abram by God most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most High, who.
Has delivered your enemies into your hand.
And Abram gave a 10th of everything.
And the King of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
But Abram said to the King of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord God, most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours.
Lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.
I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me.
Let ANR and Escol and Mamri take their share.
So we see.
Abram goes out, leads his men in battle, they divide, they conquer, they defeat the armies who were there.
And now it's figuring out, what do we do with the trophies?
What do we do with what's left?
And we have these two different kings.
That bring forth two different solutions.
So let's go back to our question.
How do we live as men and women who have a spiritual citizenship and an earthly citizenship?
What we see here in the life.
Of Abram is by action and faith.
By action and faith.
Warren Weirsby said this about Abram he was separated, but not isolated.
He was independent, but not indifferent.
Abram engaged in the matters of this world.
While we are foreigners in this foreign land, god has us here not to isolate ourselves away, but to engage strategically that we may be independent, but we are not indifferent.
We may be separated, but we are not isolated.
And what we see is Abram engaged in the matters of this world.
He took action, but with his action did not come compromise.
He sees a problem.
Lot's been captured.
He cares for Lot.
He wants to save him.
So he partners.
He mobilizes 318 men of action to go and to bring peace into this conflict.
And you and I, as missionaries in this world, are not called to live in isolation, but instead to press into this culture while being transformed and not conformed.
We can't ignore with what's around us.
We can't block ourselves away from people we don't agree with, with people we don't like.
We can't avoid all of the things that are around us as we live in a land that is not run by the things of God.
So what do we become then?
We press in.
But there's got to be this litmus test.
How do I do this into my life?
Here's the litmus test.
When I press into culture, who do.
I resemble the most?
If the answer is the world, well, friends, then we are being conformed by the world.
But as I press in more and more and more, if what I see is the same compassion that Jesus had as Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and wept for the sins, then I'm being transformed by God.
It can be our tendency to pull back and isolate.
But folks, we need transformed men and women in politics.
We need transformed men and women in business.
We need transformed men and women in education, in the arts, in athletics, and in every facet of this world.
We need that group of students that went and cut down trees in black.
Mountain, yes, to become pastors and missionaries.
But we need them to become plumbers.
And school teachers and doctors.
We need them to take what is being transformed in their life and to.
Go and carry it as they go.
I read a statistic this past week.
The statistic that I read was based.
Off of inviting lost people to church.
It said that of the lost people in the survey that came to church, 5% came because a pastor invited them.
5% came because they were curious.
90% came to church because their friend invited them.
90%.
Not because they saw on Facebook, not because there was a YouTube video put up.
Not because it said so on a billboard sign.
Not because they were bored one morning and thought, I'm going to go check that out.
But because men and women of faith being transformed by the gospel where they live, they work and they play, said, hey, man, what are you doing on Sunday?
Why don't you come to church with me?
Can I talk to you and tell.
You about who Jesus is?
They took a step of faith, and they did that because they're being transformed.
And so Abram, what we see, was a man of action in this.
He engaged in this.
But he was also a man of faith.
And God gives him a wonderful stage here.
Abram had two choices to make the way of king sodom or the way of the king of Salem.
And what does Abram do?
Well, here's what they had to offer.
The king of sodom offered him all of the spoils.
He said, just give me the people, all the grain, all the fruit, all the food, all the gold, all the precious stones.
He offered it all.
The king of Salem, he offered bread and wine.
Now, which one would you take?
Be honest.
You want a loaf of bread and a bottle of juice?
We're Baptist.
Or you want all the spoils, you want the gold?
You want a lifetime worth of security?
You want the retirement early?
You want to not have to worry about anything again.
But who are you tied to?
Because the king of sodom represented the ungodly.
Not the ways of the world, I mean the ways of the world, but the king of Salem, he represented the Godly, the way God had called him to.
And so what did Abram choose?
He chose the way of faith.
I will not partner myself.
I will not connect myself.
This will not be what defined me.
Because you can say to me what he says to the king of sodom.
He says, if I take this, you get the glory for what God is going to do.
But if I take this, if I take the bread and the wine, if I take the minimal that's there, then only God can receive the glory.
So what did Abram choose?
He chose the Godly.
And I'm sure as people around watched this happen, they thought, you fool, you fool.
Do you know what you could do with that?
Do you know what you could make out of that?
Did you know what we could become out of that?
It's legal, it's earthly, right, it's what culture says.
But Abram says I choose Godly.
Many ways of this world are legal, but that doesn't mean they're Godly.
And all too often we as Christians compromise and be conformed.
Not when we go to Sodom.
But.
When we begin that dangerous journey of looking at it and saying I can handle it, I can do this, I'm strong enough, I've arrived.
And in all that it points back to me.
This week, maybe even today, you're going to have to make a decision and the choice that you make is going to reflect your heart.
Are you going to choose the ways of the King of Sodom and all that it provides and all that it offers?
Or are you going to choose that of the King of Salem, the Godly, the priest, the way of faith?
Abram, yes, yes, a man of action, go and do, go and become, go and be a person of influence.
But the path that you take there, may it be the path of faith, not in yourself, but in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Would you pray with me?
God, thank you so much for this time and this opportunity, Lord, that we had to be here to open your word.
Lord, we thank you for the wonderful offering that you give us to live in this day, in this time that we live in.
Lord, we thank you for all of the provisions that you have given us and given us freely.
Lord, we thank you for this place, for our country, for our home, for our community.
But Lord, may we understand that we are not a people to be influenced by the world around.
But Lord, we've been set apart like Abram the Hebrew, to be an outsider in the land, to be a ray of light in the darkness, to be a person who chooses the way of the Lord and not the way of the world.
So many times when we talk about our faith, we share our faith, we invite our friends to small group, we invite our friends to church.
And they're hesitant, Lord, not because they don't believe what we're saying is true, but because what we say we're a part of is disengaged from how we live.
Lord, may we be people that are not conformed, but may we be people who are transformed.
May we be people of hope, people of joy, people of peace, people of kindness, people of compassion, people of sacrifice, may we truly embody who Jesus was on this earth as he walked and aligned that with our life and said, lord, what would this look like if I took this into my classroom?
What would this look like if I took this into my office?
What would this look like if I took this onto my sports team?
What would this look like if I took this into my neighborhood?
Because I want to be more like Jesus.
In a world that desires for me to become more like it?
God, I just pray for myself.
I pray for our church, Lord, those areas of sin in our life that somehow sinfully, we've made peace with.
We've just accepted that that's who we are, and that's how we're going to be.
Lord.
In the power of your Holy Spirit, lord, would you convict us of that?
Would you point us back to Your word and Your standard?
Lord, as Leslie and Joel led us.
In what You've done.
Jesus, you didn't save us so that you could leave.
Us right where we are at and.
Say, Well, I'll be back to get you one day.
You saved us so that you could transform us and grow us and sanctify us, so that we become stronger in our action, stronger in our faith, stronger.
In men and women of God, not.
So that we can sing our praises, but so that we can sing Yours.
So, Lord, bring us this morning at.
A place of conviction.
Lord, if there's anyone here and they don't know Jesus, they may know about Him, but they don't know him as their Lord and Savior.
Lord, may today may Your spirit draw them to yourself.
Lord, today I pray that they would know that there is nothing that they can do to save themselves.
We cannot clean ourselves up.
We cannot make ourselves right.
We cannot earn Your favor, but that Jesus paid the price for our sins on calvary since past, since present, since future, and in the work of Christ on the cross, our sins are paid for in full.
And through the power of the resurrection, Lord, we walk as saved, redeemed people.
Living in Your grace.
And if that's them today, Lord, pray that in this moment between you and them, they would acknowledge that they're a sinner, that they would believe who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and confess them as Lord and Savior.
It's in his name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.