09-18-2022 - Between Bethel and Ai

OPENING

I believe that God is getting ready to move in a mighty way.

God is getting ready to advance His Kingdom on earth. And I believe that Farm Hill Church is anointed by God to be a part of what God is about to do. Lives are going to be transformed. Addictions are going to be delivered. Broken families are going to be restored. The lost are going to be saved. I believe this move of God is coming and it is coming quickly.

But, as I said recently, we are not just waiting on God to make the move.

We should not be sitting back just waiting on God. I believe that God is waiting on us to make a move. He has already planned and ordained His Kingdom advancement. It has already been written in the word of God and it has already been established. His Kingdom will continue to invade the earth. And His Kingdom will overpower the kingdom of darkness. It is up to the church to recognize our position, our calling, and our anointing that God has already granted to us. And it is up to the church to begin to operate fully in that position, calling, and anointing.

It’s time for us to make our move.

I’m tired of watching people drift in and out of church. I’m tired of people getting delivered only to fall back into bondage. I’m tired of seeing families and relationships destroyed. I’m tired of watching the enemy direct the affairs of our society. I’m tired of seeing churches crippled by complacency and fading into irrelevancy.

It’s time to get out of the rut of mediocrity and it is time to get our souls set on fire for God!

It’s time to fight against the kingdom of darkness like never before. It is time to PUSH; pray until something happens. And I hope and pray that I have a few people in this house today who will agree with me and who will make a commitment with me today to get on the battlefield for Jesus and advance the Kingdom of God!

We’re going to spend a little time this morning looking at the early calling of Abraham.

The title of this message is Between Bethel and Ai. My intent this morning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is to motivate this body of Christ to action. I want to see every single one of us empowered and doing our part to advance the Kingdom of God.

SCRIPTURE

Genesis 13:1–4 NKJV

1 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

MESSAGE

God Called Abraham

I know our Scripture text today comes before God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. But I’m going to refer to him by his covenant name Abraham.

God called Abraham out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham’s father and family were part of a pagan culture. They worshipped pagan gods.

But God called Abraham out from this pagan culture and said (back in Genesis Chapter 12), “I want you to leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s house and I want you to move to a land that I am going to show you. And I’m going to bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse those who curse you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God was calling Abraham to a life of separation. This must have been a difficult thing for Abraham to do, to just up and leave his family and everything that he knew and loved behind. But God had a special plan for Abraham’s life. But it required Abraham coming out from among the pagan culture of his day and of his family and separating himself to God.

How many know today that as believers in Jesus Christ we have been called out by God? And not only have you been called out, but you have been chosen!

Matthew 22:14 NKJV

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Did you know today that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you are...

1 Peter 2:9 NKJV

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

What a blessing to know that we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light! But, after God has called us out of the darkness of sin and idolatry, we are not supposed to go back to it.

2 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV

17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”

Some say we’ve got to be more like the world in order to attract the world to the church. We’ve got to act like the world and look like the world. But let me tell you something church, we have been called out from among the world to be separate and not to touch what is unclean. We cannot try to offer our sins on the altar of evangelism. Some try to justify their sins because they claim they can more effectively reach the world if they become more like the world. Jesus did not call us to be more like the world. Jesus called us to separate ourselves from the ways of the world. We need get the junk and the mess out of our lives, and start living holy lives unto God!

God is not going to share time with other gods in your life. He said, “thou shalt have no other gods before me.” He might be your God on Sunday, but who is your god on Monday? Who is your god on Tuesday and Wednesday? Who is your Thursday god? What about your Friday god? And, oh no, we don’t even want to talk about our Saturday god.

God doesn’t want your leftovers, He wants your very best. He will not play second fiddle in your life. He only plays lead. There is not room at the top of the list of what is most important in your life for God plus. God plus something else will not work. God plus will result in a life minus God.

Building an Altar

When Abraham arrived in Canaan, the land of promise, God showed up and revealed Himself to Abraham again and said, “This is the land I am going to give you.” And the Bible says that Abraham built an altar to the Lord at the spot where the Lord appeared to him.

We’ve got to say a few things about Abraham here. First, Abraham was a man of great faith. Abraham may not have been perfect, because he made some mistakes along the way, but he showed incredible faith in God. In fact Genesis 15:6 tell us:

Genesis 15:6 NKJV

6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

By faith Abraham left his country and his family. By faith Abraham traveled to an unknown land. By faith Abraham built an altar to this new God Yahweh. By faith Abraham would have a son named Isaac. By faith Abraham would demonstrate he was willing to offer up his son Isaac to God. Abraham lived a life of faith to God.

How many know that following Jesus takes faith? Making the decision to follow Jesus is not always the easy choice. Sometimes we are going to have to make some sacrifices. Some of us are going to be persecuted. Some of us are going to lose relationships. Some of us are going to have to make some difficult decisions.

Following Jesus requires obedient faith. Too many times we are trying to walk by sight. God I want to see it. God show it to me. God tell me how this is going to end. God make it all better. God make it all easy.

But sometimes God just wants to make us faithful. You are going to have to trust God through the process. Some of you have had to trust God through some difficult times. You had to trust Him through the bankruptcy. You had to trust Him through the divorce. You had to trust Him when that person took advantage of you. You had to trust Him when friends and family let you down.

But if you’ve been through one of those difficult seasons, God has brought you through it. And even if you are still going through one of those difficult seasons right now, God is with you! Just hold on child of God! Help is on the way! It may be midnight, but help is coming! God is faithful! Just remain faithful to Him!

Second, Abraham was a man that worshiped God. Abraham built an altar. The altar represents a place of worship. The altar represents a place of prayer. The altar represents a place of sacrifice. The altar represents a place of consecration. The altar represents a place to honor God. The altar represents a place of an encounter with God. It is at this location where Abraham had an encounter with God that he built an altar.

How many know today that we need to build an altar! We need to build a place of worship, prayer, and sacrifice to God in our hearts. It might require moving some other things out of the way in order to make room for God in our lives.

This is not an option as a Christian. The Bible says:

Romans 12:1–2 NKJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Bible says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. God doesn’t dwell only in one certain place. He doesn’t just dwell at a physical altar. He doesn’t just dwell in a Temple. He doesn’t just dwell in this building. He is omnipresent. And now, under the New Covenant, sealed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior through faith in His sacrifice at the Cross, are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

And as a result, we must build an altar and offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto God. We are to be holy. That means we are set apart, sanctified, special, and fit for His use. It is our reasonable service. It is entry level worship. It is Christianity 101.

And our responsibility to God is to not allow ourselves to be conformed to the patterns and ways of this world. We are called to be transformed. We are to live transformed lives.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

And we do this by allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our minds. To put this simply, we have to change the way we think. Paul wrote, “when I was a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” In the same way, when we become Christians and begin a life of service to God, we must put away worldly things and allow the Holy Spirit to change the way we think and the patterns and behaviors of our lives.

If someone claims to have had an encounter with Jesus, but their life has not changed, then I have to question whether they had a true encounter. The sign of a true encounter is when someone willingly devotes their life in worship, prayer, and sacrifice to God and lay down our lives at the altar, at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, and allow the Holy Spirit to make a change in us.

Staying in the Middle

After building the altar, Abraham pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai. These were two cities that were close in proximity to each other. In fact, they were close enough that as Abraham pitched his tent, he could probably see both cities from his vantage point.

I don’t think it is just coincidental that Abraham pitched his tent here. Because as we begin to look at and understand the meaning of the names “Bethel” and “Ai” we begin to see that there is some spiritual significance to this location. “Bethel” means “the House of God.” “Ai” means “a heap of ruins.” So literally, Abraham is situated between the House of God, the dwelling place of God, the grace of God, the favor of God, and a heap of ruins.

There are a lot of people today who are between Bethel and Ai. They are trying to live somewhere in the middle. They are somewhere between God’s grace and God’s wrath. They are somewhere between full surrender to Christ and complete abandonment of their faith. They are somewhere between getting in and giving up. They are somewhere between the altar and the door.

How many know today that we can’t stay in the middle? At some point we’ve got to make a decision. Wishy-washy Christianity is not going to cut it. God is drawing the line in the sand. You are going to have to make a decision.

Joshua 24:15 NKJV

15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Medium Rare church members are not going to make it to Heaven. Because the Bible says that only Well Done Christians are going to make it. The line is in the sand today. Are you in or are you out? Are you moving toward Bethel, the dwelling place of God, or are you moving toward Ai, a heap of ruins?

You are not going to be able to stay in the middle after this message this morning. What is is going to be? Which way will you go? Will you stand up as Joshua did and say, “Everyone else can do what they want to do, they can serve false gods, they can drift toward Ai, a heap of ruins, they can abandon their faith, they can go their own way, but as for me and my house…we are going to serve the Lord!

Going Down to Egypt

This is where Abraham made a mistake. There was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abraham decided to go down to Egypt to find food. You need to understand that, in the Bible, Egypt represents sin. It represents a place of bondage.

God never told Abraham to go down to Egypt. Abraham should have stayed in Canaan and trusted God to keep him through the famine. And as soon as Abraham arrived in Egypt he got himself in trouble. He lied to Pharaoh and said that Sarah was his sister. This was a half truth, but how many know that a half truth is still a lie. Sarah was the daughter of Abraham’s father, but they didn’t have the same mother. So they were half brother/sister. Now, we don’t have time to get into all that. That’s a different sermon for a different day. But the point is Abraham lied, withheld the truth, whatever you would like to call it, and got himself in trouble.

God did not call you out of Egypt, out of the kingdom of darkness, just for you to turn around and go back there. When you do, you will get yourself in trouble every time. God did not deliver you from sin for you to turn around and dabble back in it again. If you do, you are playing with fire. And if you play with fire, you will get burned. As a child of God you cannot remain in sin and expect to not suffer the consequences of that sin.

And look what happened to Abraham, one sin led to another. His lack of faith to trust God in Canaan led to the lie in Egypt. As soon as you give into one sin, it becomes easier to fall into the next sin. One sin will lead to another. And before you know it, you’re right back doing the same things, acting the same way, and being the same person that you were before you got saved.

Returning to the Place of an Altar

That’s where we arrive at Chapter 13 and our Scripture text today. After Abraham’s mistake, he returns back to the altar that he built at the beginning. Abraham returned back to the place where he had an encounter with God.

The good news is, no matter how far we’ve gone away from God, no matter what mistakes we’ve made, no matter how bad we’ve messed up, we can always return back to the place of the altar. We can always return back to the Throne of Grace. If we've sinned, we can find forgiveness. If we’ve lost our way, we can get back on the right path. If we’ve fallen, we can get back up again.

All you have to do is be willing to come to God with a contrite spirit. Come back to Him in humility. Lay down your pride. And you’ll find that God has been right there waiting for you to return.

And the Bible says that after Abraham returned to the place of the altar, “And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.”

How many understand today that is the key. Abraham didn’t just recognize his mistake. He didn’t just feel bad about what he did. Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. That is what it is going to take for you as well. If you find yourself in Egypt, you’ve got to get back to Canaan. In other words, if you falter, fail, or fall, you’ve got to get back to the place of an encounter with God. And the place where you are going to have an encounter with God is at the place of an altar. At the place of prayer. At the place of worship. At the place of sacrifice. At the place of calling on the name of the Lord.

CLOSING

Are you somewhere between Bethel and Ai? Are you somewhere between the House of God and a Heap of Ruins? Are you somewhere between the altar and the door? When is the last time you had a encounter with God? When is the last time you let the Holy Spirit invade your soul? Are you moving toward Bethel or Ai? Are you drawing closer to God or are you drifting away from Him?

I sense that the Holy Spirit is calling us back to the place of an altar. Back to a place of faith. Back to a place of worship. Back to a place of sacrifice. Back to a place of full surrender to God. Back to a place of encounter where the Holy Spirit can fill and overflow our lives.

Do you need something from Jesus today? If so, would you come to the altar?

ALTAR CALL