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
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
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
to taste of
death.
He pursued
us all the
way to
death,
to liberate
us,
to set us
free from
our pride,
our presumption,
our greed,
our hatred,
our racism,
our envy,
our sins,
our serving
of idols,
our fear
of demons,
that he
pursues us
and deals
with all
that has to
be dealt
with so
that he
would rescue
us and
give us
the victory,
not because
of something
that we
have earned
or accomplished
or deserved,
but purely
and utterly
out of his
great love
for us.
He goes
to the depths
of where
we are
to find
us and
to rescue
us.
And when
we put
our faith
and trust
in him,
he transfers
us from
the kingdom
of lies
to the
kingdom
of truth,
from the
kingdom
of death
to the
kingdom
of life,
from the
kingdom
of darkness
to the
kingdom
of light,
from the
kingdom
of hatred
to the
kingdom
of love,
from the
kingdom
of vengeance
to the
kingdom
of mercy,
from the kingdom
hatred of beauty
to the kingdom of beauty
he transfers us when we put our faith
and trust in him
what is the problem with not living in the real world
I'm not going to try to prove in this sermon
that the triune God exists
that's a topic of other types of things
but for those of you who are watching
and don't know where you are
with the whole Christian faith
this is at least the Christian story
if there is in fact a God that does exist
to live in the world
as if that God exists
is in fact to be living in the real world
and to live in the world
where the God who's revealed in these scriptures
which is a God of rescue
a God of blessing
a God of grace
a God of mercy
a God of beauty
a God of life
a God of light
a God of truth
whose blessing to us is undeserved
and unwarranted
freely given
and received with open hands
which begins to form us in such a way
that as this story grips us
we begin to become freed
from those things which bind us
and be able to see ourselves as we really are
this is a story to invite us to live
in the real world
to fight our pride
well what about the other way of living
look at verse 21
and the king of Sodom
said to Abram
and it's in a sense
a type of command
give me the persons
but take the goods for yourself
now here's the problem
and this is just as contemporary
as our own lives
the lives of those we know
one moment
Sodom
got his butt kicked
Sodom
the king of Sodom
provoked
a terrible destructive war
out of his pride
he provoked
the war
second thing
he lost
third thing
rather than standing and fighting with his troops
if you go back and you read the earlier part
he fled to the hills
on top of that
he left his city
undefended
so the other army from Mesopotamia
can march right in
and pillage and plunder
his city
he was hiding in the hills in terror
not exercising his power
that he should as a king
to protect his own city
and now
that somebody else has defeated his enemy
he already in his mind
is trying to tell some other story
no no no
I didn't provoke it
it was all their fault
no no
I didn't actually lose the battle
I was actually just being very very smart
no no
I don't
I'm not the
I'm not the lord of somebody
that all my rich people
and powerful people
have been kidnapped
no no no no no
none of those things have gone on
I'm still the king
I'm in charge
and not only is he thinking that in his mind
Abram
as we're going to see in a moment
realizes
that this king
with his demands
and his pride
is not living in the real world
pride leads you to not live
in the real world
and he's already formulating a story
in his own mind
how the fact that Abram
who deserves all of the possessions
that actually
it's just because
King King Sodom
I'm making the kids cry
I'm sorry
that you know
it's really just because of his grace
and mercy that he's allowing
it's all a fantasy world
all of it's a fantasy world
he's a legend in his own mind
and a failure in real life
and he's not dealing with the real world
none of us have bosses
or underlings like this at all
none of us have neighbors or kids
and none of us have ever been like this ourselves
I stand condemned
I say that
I'm not
I'm not saying that
this is a human problem
so he makes this peremptory thing
give me the persons
and take the goods for yourself
well he doesn't get to
he can only come as a supplicant
he should be coming
thank you so much
and by the way Abram
I hope you don't mention
too many people
that I ran away and hid
but Abram said to the king of Sodom
you see grace
and blessing
the grace and blessing
that comes from the true and living God
forms you to live in the real world
and in the real world
you don't take the proud pronouncements
of those in power
as reflecting what's really going on
we need to learn that
when we look at the government
and the media
and the judiciary
they can say it
doesn't mean it's true
they can say it
doesn't mean it's real
they can say it over and over and over again
doesn't make it true
see we need to be so gripped with the gospel
and what Christ has done for us in the cross
so we understand that God is calling us to live
as people of the truth
and not as people of the lie
people of the beauty
and not of the people who hate beauty
people of the good
not people of
the evil
people of love
not the people of hatred
people of light and clarity
not darkness
and confusion
but Abram said to the king of Sodom
I have lifted my hand to the Lord
I have made a vow
a pledge
to God most high
Lord the God most high
possessor of heaven and earth
creator of heaven and earth
that I would not take a thread
or a sandal strap
or anything that is yours
lest you should say
I have made Abram rich
his fantasy world of pride
I will take nothing
but what the young men have eaten
and the share of the men
who have went with me
let Aner and Escol and Mamre
take their share
and so Abram is going to release
the plunder in the people
and take not himself
you see
the blessing
and the grace
that comes from the gospel
make forms us
and prepares us to live in the real world
and be generous
and to care
for our family
and our neighbors
in our world
it should form us
not to try to seek
the good of the city
of Ottawa
or the nation of Canada
as Ottawa and Canada
defines the good
but as the true and living God
defines the good
from that perspective
we should work on Parliament Hill
we should work in Apple
and in Facebook
we should work in small businesses
and we should work
in municipal politics
and we should work
in education
and we should work
in academia
and we should work
in the media
and we should work
in our neighborhood
to be good neighbors
who seek the true good
of our neighborhood
our city
and our nation
and the world
not from the city's perspective
but from God's perspective
the true good
the gospel forms us
to seek
the true good
open-handed
open-hearted
and generous
I invite you to stand
let's bow our heads
in prayer
Father if there are
any here
who have not yet
or watching
or will watch
in the months
or the days
or weeks
or months
or years to come
that are watching
Father
if they have not yet
given their life
to Christ
Father
and if they are feeling
a tug
in their heart
or their spirit
that they should open
themselves to Christ
and ask him
to be their Savior
and Lord
Father I ask
that the Holy Spirit
would move in their lives
and to help them
take that interior step
of committing themselves
of asking Jesus
to be their Savior
and Lord
to be their blessing
and to have his grace
come into their lives
and Father
I ask that the Holy Spirit
would help them
to just stop running
and stop keeping Christ
far away
but to open the door
and turn to him
and we thank you Father
that Jesus will come
into any
who calls to him
to be their Savior
and Lord
and Father
for those of us
here or online
who have given our lives
to Christ
Father
we give you thanks
and praise
that Christ died
for us
that the grace
and blessing
that he offers us
of being connected
to you
in a way
that will see us
spend in eternity
in the new heaven
and the new earth
that that grace
is something
bestowed upon us
which is unmerited
unaccomplished
undeserved
on our part
that is purely
and utterly
an accomplishment
of you
and a work of power
and love
from you
and we ask Father
that you would grip us
with these stories
and with the life
of Christ
the person of Christ
the accomplishment
of Christ
that as he
grips us
and what he has done
for us
grips us
that we can begin
to see the world
as it really is
and see our lives
as it really is
and respond
with gratitude
with thanks
with praise
with repentance
with amendment
of life
with sobriety
with soberness
as your grace
and your goodness
works in our lives
that you form us
Father
for a life
of freedom
in pursuit
of the truth
and of love
and of beauty
of goodness
and mercy
and we ask
all these things
in the name of Jesus
your Son
and our Savior
Amen