Return To the Lord

Introduction

Last week we saw Abram’s momentary lack of faith, blunder of a decision, and one that involved a sinful action.

Yet, Hebrews 11 we are told by faith Abraham…among so many others. Hebrews 11:39 says that all these were approved through their faith.

This raises the question, how can Abram who will become Abraham be approved through faith when he broke that faith?

We answered a driving question last week, is there a mistake or lack of faith moment that can disrupt God’s work and plan of redemption? The answer was a resounding no.

This week I want to answer a related, but different question. What do we do when we have a momentarily lapse of faith or blunder in our walk? And what happens when we take the right steps?

Abram shows us what to do as testament of our passage. He will even face another difficult moment that requires a choice and handles it quite differently than before.

Genesis 13

V.1-4

Abram takes his L spiritually and moves forward. But we have to note exactly what Abram does. We are told Abram moves in stages, but goes to Bethel and to the place his tent had formerly been.

Back in chapter 12 Abram landed there after his intial call from the Lord to go. It was there that Abram set up an altar and worshipped the Lord.

Abram is returning to the Lord, I believe.

What do we do when we have fallen similar to Abram in our faith walk?

Return to the Lord in repentance and worship

While we don’t see repentance and worship specifically mentioned, I can think of no reason why the text would mention, “and Abram called on the name of the Lord there.” Not from the past, but in that moment.

I believe Abram realized his mistakes and returned to a significant place of worship for him to seek the Lord. To repent and worship the Lord.

Often in our mistakes and sins, we get stuck and we do not move forward from them. The process to move forward is repentance and worship.

Why?

Repentance is simply the recognition of sin- doing/living in a manner that is opposite of what the Lord desires of us- and then turning from that way to Him and His way.

Repentance is often viewed as something we do one time the moment of salvation in Jesus. This is true. In salvation, there must be a recognition of our sin nature and the life that flows from that nature that is contrary to God and it separates us from Him.

In being drawn by His kindness and love expressed through His Son, Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins, paying the penalty of sin on our behalf; and resurrecting 3 days later, granting to us new life in Him. In this, we believe and stake our claim in the person and work of Jesus and repent.

However, after that initial salvation, we are in a battle with the sin nature. The new nature of God’s Spirit that dwells within us is at war with that old nature. Sometimes that old nature sways us and wins some battles. It brings on choices of sin, drift from the Lord, or imbalanced priorities. In those moments we repent in order to reorient our lives back in line with God.

Not for salvation but in salvatIon.

Repentance is critical to the life of the believer, not just to become a believer.

Why worship? Worship is simply ascribing to God what is due Him. It is recognizing who He is and what He has done. In essence, worship is not about making us feel better (though that can happen) it is about setting Him as priority in our minds, hearts, and lives.

In our sin and lack of faith, we have lost sight of the wonder, majesty, power, might, holiness, righteousness, and greatness of God. Worship returns us back to that.

At a pastor’s prayer retreat I attended back in February, the Friday of, one of the leaders was sharing about how he had operated in ministry of his own power. Things were good, but not necessarily Spirit powered. He was burning out as a result. He also faced some pretty incredibly difficult moments in ministry. In the end he expressed his return to the Lord in prayer, repentance, and worship.

That evening as were were praying together and being led through a time of repentance, I found myself on my knees, crying and pouring my heart out before the Lord in repentance of my own self-powered ministry. I was tired and could feel the cynacism growing in me. In that moment of return, a weight lifted off of me. Even more, my time of worship the next day was fresh, renewed, and led me to greater perspective and depth with the Lord.

Perhaps you are here today and you are walking with a weight that hangs on you. Weight of sin, mistakes, a failure, a lack of faith that just needs to be resolved in a return to the Lord through repentance and worship.

We sing a wonderful hymn that is simple,

“Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, Love lifted me.” Let the love of Christ that comes in renewal lift you who may be weary today.

V.5-9

Post this worship moment, Abram is faced with another challenge. He is faced with the fact that he and Lot have a lot of wealth that is bringing conflict between their people.

It says the land could not sustain them both together.

Abram as the one called out by God has every right to lay claim to whatever he wants. Yet, he provides his nephew the first choice.

Abram doesn’t approach in selfishness, he treats his nephew kindly, and takes whatever will be left to him. Why?

Renewed minds and hearts respond in godly ways and with trust in God.

With Sarai in the last narrative he responded rather selfishly. Here he doesn’t. He also expresses indirectly a trust in God.

I think through the valley Abram faced a renewal at Bethel, Abram is able to respond in a godly and faithful manner.

No matter what Lot chooses, Abram knew the promise was for him, not Lot. I think Abram was granted a restored trust in God to keep His promise and blessing.

As a pastor I have witnessed this so many times. A believer in the church draws away from the church and from the Lord. It can be wrapped up in a busy schedule, a season, or an illness as set it. This can be true, but the majority of the time I have found many are simply living unrenewed in sin and lack of faith. What follows in their life is continue sin and lack of faith.

Their pulling away is due to not wanting to confront what is taking place spiritually and to not be renewed. I have seen some who still attend church, but are statues spiritually. They are cold, hard-hearted and it shows in their worship and life.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans,

Romans 12:2 “2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

This is to believers he writes, not those dirty pagan sinners. We all need renewal from time to time, honestly, everyday.

Abram in this moment presents to us a picture of godliness and faith that comes from renewal in the Lord.

V.10-13

The Scripture gives to us perspective of two men approaching the situation differently. We have already seen Abram’s for the most part, but now the attention turns to Lot for a moment.

What do we note of Lot here?

He saw the finest portion of land and chose it. It looked like it would bring success, riches, and his life’s dream.

Back in the day MTV used to a show called Cribs. It featured going to celebrities homes to see all they had in their extravagance. I remember watching and thinking that would be so cool to have your own basketball court or paintball field, or movie theater, or massive garage with all the coolest cars.

I think Lot is sort of picturing life in the Promised Land like Cribs. Life is going to be so good and easy.

Yet, the Scripture reveals a not so hidden evil in the land- Sodom and Gomorrah. We have to take note of the description of Sodom, where Lot sets up camp. The men were evil, sinning immensely against the Lord.

Scholar Allen Ross helped me understand,

Wicked sinners(evil) is used as if to say that these sinners were a step below the normal sinners. Moreover, their sin was against the Lord. Indeed, all sin is, but this notice goes out of its way to say that God was offended. Finally, the adverb exceedingly (immensely) was added, as if the previous descriptions were not sufficient. Few passages in Genesis describe the wickedness of a people so strongly.

Why would Lot do such a thing? Thus far we have no indication that he has followed the Lord as Abram has. It’s speculative, but his choice here seems to prove a truth to us.

Renewed minds and hearts gain godly perspective

Lot is not viewing this choice from a godly perspective. He is seeing it from a worldly one in fact. The opportunity looks great, but will have great and grave impact on his family.

Too often believers refuse to or remain unrenewed and they lose sight of a godly perspective on life. Drift often causes this. We miss out on being in the presence of God through His Word, prayer, worship, fellowship of believers, etc and the result is living more like the world than who Christ called us to be.

Priorities get imbalanced, spiritual life is not as fulfilling as it could be, then actions and habits take shape that reflect less of Jesus.

When we lose that godly perspective, we set up our lives right next to the world. We think we can manage it. We think we are strong enough. Yet, the world has a sneaky way of influencing us and even binding itself with the faith to make us less like Jesus and more like it.

We need continual renewal of mind and heart to see and live in Christ and in the mind of Christ- that godly perspective that only comes from Him.

V.14-18

Abram is separated from Lot and God invites him to take view of all the land. In this moment, God reminds Abram of the promise that is coming, the hope found in God.

Abram sets up shop and build another altar there for worship.

What I find significant is the reminder of promise by God. Despite Abram’s past choice and despite Lot taking the finest of the land; God reminds Abram of the promise.

Faith endures in the promises of God. Life changes, circumstances come and go, sin happens, but the promises of God never fail.

This teaches us a truth when we are bouncing back like Abram.

Remind yourself of the gospel and promises of God.

The gospel and the promises of God are not old news, they are good news. Sometimes we can hear about the gospel or a common promise of the Lord and treat it like its old news.

“Been there, done that. What’s the newest thing for me to do?”

Who in here likes leftovers? Depending upon what it is, I’m good with leftovers. For Thanksgiving I love taking leftover turkey and putting it on a homemade roll as a sandwich.

Many people don’t like leftovers because they are leftovers. Reheated it doesn’t taste the same or we just had it yesterday.

The gospel is not the leftovers of the faith or Scripture. It is a new meal everyday. The Scripture says His mercies are new every day. It’s not a new truth, but an old one that resonates differently each day.

I appreciate what Trevin Wax says about rediscovering the gospel. His focus is on Christianity in general, but the gospel is the heart of Christianity before anything else.

What’s needed is to rediscover Christianity as a living faith. It is not our job to make Christianity relevant but to demonstrate Christianity’s eternal relevance. It’s not our job to keep Christianity alive, for Christianity is what keeps us alive.

If I could reinterpret what he said for us,

We need to rediscover everyday the gospel leads to a living faith. It is not something that is just done in the past, but is present and future. We must remember the gospel’s eternal relevance to our lives and the lives of others.

We, ourselves, must see it as relevant to every situation. We must remember, it is the gospel of Jesus that keeps us alive. It is our hope in driving despair, in tumultous situations, in the midst of diagnosis, when feelings and thoughts cripple us, when we feel overwhelmed by the crashing waves.

When we return to the Lord is must include that reminder of the gospel of Jesus.

Christ Connection

The Genesis passage gave us a look at two men who chose to look at life differently. They chose to act on life differently.

Our Christ connection is simple from a teaching of Jesus.

Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23

In this life there are two roads we are walking down. Either we are walking the wide road that leads to separation from the Lord or the road that is hard and leads to the narrow gate.

Jesus taught that there is a way to the kingdom of God, to eternal life. He tells us to enter through the narrow gate. That gate is through Christ by faith.

Abram was walking the narrow gate road so to speak. Faith is hard, living in Christ is not easy. We will stumble as the road is not easy to walk. But it comes with a promise of eternity and life with God forever. And even in our stumbling, our good God blesses us along the way.

Lot chose the other road so to speak. It looked great and was easy to navigate…seemingly. However, his road led to destruction as we will see.

There are many who think they are on the narrow gate road, but in fact are not. Jesus ends His portion with those thinking they are on the right road and the Lord tells them He doesn’t even know them.

If you are here today and you have been walking either road, understand you need Jesus. You need Jesus to be on the right path of faith that leads to eternal life.

You need his life, death, and resurrection claimed as yours to cover your sin and separation from God.

But you also need Him to walk the path of faith to the narrow gate. You need His sustaining power and grace over you to endure and finish well.

Conclusion

I am reminded of a favorite hymn of mine with the thoughts of this sermon.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

O for the grace of God that is presented to us all as sinners and as imperfect followers. We are constrained to that grace everyday.

O, how my heart can wander so easily and needs to be bound to Him. Prone to wander we our, but praise the Lord that in His infinite grace and mercy he binds our hearts to Him.

Today, you may need to return the the Lord. Perhaps you just needed some reminding of the gospel. Or you are in need of the saving gospel truth of Jesus in your life.

Wherever you find yourself, know the Lord finds you. As an Abram or a Lot. He finds you and seeks you. Will your respond to Him?