A journey of spiritual growth

Genesis 13. In the service in English we are doing a service each week of the lives of the patriarchs in the Bible beginning with Abraham. We are studying his life and how his life is a journey of faith, it is a literal journey but it is also a journey of spiritual growth.

On the one hand, God called this man to go from one country to another country. I don't know if anyone here has had that experience of going from one country to another country. This in itself is an adventure, right? God called him to do it and it is a journey as we know it, not only a geographical journey but also a spiritual journey because God is teaching him, forging him, changing his life, teaching him to trust Him because God made promises to him.

God told him: if you trust Me to leave everything and go to an unknown place I promise that I will not leave you planted there, I promise that I will go with you but you have to be willing to trust and with trust and faith comes risk, you have to be willing to risk everything, trusting that I am faithful, that I am going to fulfill My promises in your life.

I remember a conversation, I think it was the first conversation I had with Pastor Roberto Miranda twenty years ago, we were in the process of building this building here and it was a small Congregation at that time and they had to invest almost everything and take a big risk to redo this building. And Pastor Roberto told me: I'm like betting, like putting everything on the table, risking everything. If I lose I lose, but if we win the Kingdom of God will grow.

It's almost like, I don't know if some people played games before being in the Christian Kingdom, gambling, right? please don't keep doing it, it's addictive. Some say: "but I am going to pray first", no, we are not going to do it. But in the Spirit we have to learn to bet, is that the word? bet that God is faithful and put things on the table and know you know what? If You are not faithful I am going to lose but if You are faithful, if You keep Your promises I am going to win. The life of faith is such a life, it is a life not of gambling but of risk and God is faithful.

Some learn it once you start developing a whole personal history, you learn that once I took a risk and God was faithful and kept His promise, pulled me out of the hole, was there for me and then you're more confident next time, right? and there is always more and more and more. As it is said in English: the stakes get higher and higher and higher but we have to start somewhere, we have to start somewhere and take that first step of faith and that is what we are studying from the life of Abraham.

So it started with a promise. Abraham: if you are willing to leave your country and your nation I will make you a great nation. If you are willing to leave your name where you are known, where everyone knows you by name and you are willing to become a nobody, a zero to the left I don't know if I'm saying it wrong, are you willing to become? then I will give you a great name.

If you are willing to leave your security, your comfort zone and live a risky life then I am going to fight your battles. All those who bless you I will bless, all those who dishonor you I will curse; I'm going to fight your battles, I'm going to watch your back but you have to be willing to give up everything. If you are willing to give up the dream of your life, perhaps the career, the plan that you had for your life and lose everything and wander in an unknown land then I am going to give you a new plan for your life, a new destiny. In you all the nations of the Earth will be blessed.

You can stay with your small plan and lose everything or let Me fulfill a big plan in your life, but if you don't put it on the table, nothing happens, you have to take the step of faith. Amen.

And thank God Abraham was faithful and he took the risk. He left the next day in the morning and did not wait for time. The Bible says that Abraham left everything and followed Jehovah without knowing where he was going. What things weren't? Some of us want to say: Lord, show me what you want from me and I will follow you and God says: look, follow me and I will show you what I want from you, right? but you have to put on the blindfold and take My hand and trust that I am going to fix it on the way. I'm going to teach you what I want from you but you gotta be willing to follow God even though you don't know where you are going, even when you don't know where you are going and Abraham did.

And when he arrived in Canaan, which would later be the land that he was going to inherit, Israel arrived there and God said: here you are, you are in the land where I am going to bless you and so Abraham says the Word that created God, he built an altar, called on the Name of Jehovah and walked the earth knowing: God is going to give me this land thanks to God. How many have had victories like this? Maybe you decided: I am going to follow Christ and you take your risk and God blesses you.

Many of you were baptized last week and that was a very big step of faith, and you come out of the water or take a ministry risk and God does the work and you are on top of the world, and how many of you know that after being on the mountain many Sometimes we go down to the valley very quickly, right? After victory and glory sometimes we don't stay so victorious; because life is a life of ups and downs and the life of faith is like that.

Do you know what happened to Abraham? After his spiritual victory, after arriving on this earth, after God made these promises to him, a terrible famine began on the earth and he did not have to eat even his wife, his nephew and all his people. He had to travel to Egypt where there was food to live on. Now this man of faith, this brave man, do you know what he did? he said to his wife: my love when we are there can you say that you are my sister? because you are very pretty and they are going to kill me because of you so if you love me my love, you are going to say that I am your brother and well we are half brothers right? we are brothers in Christ right? It's a little lie, it's not a big deal.

Look if you love me you're going to say that, ok. They go to Egypt, hello, Pharaoh, hello Egyptians, I am Abraham here and here I present my sister Sara, she rolling her eyes, my little brother, Pharaoh falls in love with her, and what does he do? he takes her to be part of his harem. Now one waits, now the game is over, ok? now Abraham is going to say that I am not your sister, that guy is going to take her as part of the harem; Goodbye little sister, good luck to you please (laughs) and she likes there. There is a saying in English: Abraham threw her under the bus, right? he left her there.

Do you believe that? this is there in the bible. The Bible does not hide the failures of men of faith, you know? God does not feel obliged to present perfect models for us, He knows that we are flesh and blood and even the Bible highlights the errors of men of faith so that we know: well maybe I have my faults but I have good company, right? if there is hope for him maybe there is hope for me.

So he lied, Pharaoh almost married Sara, it's there right away, then God has to intervene, say: not for Pharaoh she is married, he punishes with plagues; this is before but with certain plagues against Egypt, then Pharaoh says: Abraham, what have you done? is your wife why did you lie to me? and well. Ok well take a lot of money, gold, silver animals and go in peace, please go in peace. So Abraham comes out despite his nonsense, he comes out blessed imagine.

God kept His promise. He promised to bless him and he blessed him, he promised to defend him and he defended him despite his faults. There is a saying that if we and let me see how in the Church: if we are faithful God is still faithful because he cannot deny Himself, if we lack faith God remains faithful because He cannot deny himself, thank God God is faithful and His faithfulness does not depend on my faithfulness, thank God, right? I am in the hollow of His hand and God has me there despite everything.

But, but sins have consequences. We have to learn, we have to improve, we don't want to suffer either, so Abraham learned. I guess he was punished pretty hard by Sara when he came home so the Bible doesn't go into that but we can trust that he paid for his sin. But hey Abraham gets out of that.

And after that terrible failure he returns to the place where he had built his first altar in a place called Bethel, later he becomes very important in the life of his grandson Jacob. But there he had an old altar that he had built a few months before, he goes back to the altar and worships God again as if he were saying: I have to reconcile. I got lost and now I return to the altar and Lord: forgive me for not believing in Your promises, forgive me for fighting my own battle, for taking things into my own hands and trying to solve my problems as I see fit.

Lord: next time I want to trust You, that You are faithful, that You are going to fight for me; I don't want to act out of fear again instead I want to live with faith, with courage. The Lord says: I forgive you and I give you more proof, more proof. Thank my Lord.

But the tests of the Lord are not for us to fail, they are for us to win, right? When God throws you a test it is for you to be victorious, God wants you to pass the test. He doesn't want to embarrass you, he wants you to learn who He is and who you are in Christ, but to learn we have to be tested and go through the test and thus we learn that God is faithful because it is a process of learning to trust Him, right? We begin by saying: Lord, I will give everything for You like Peter, right? and then Christ says: you are going to deny me three times this very night. We have to learn that we are flesh and blood and then trust Him.

Before reading the text, I would like to share something, a testimony of something that happened with my son this week. I have a six-year-old boy named Noah, some know him very well and have taken care of him, served him in Sunday school and everything. He is a very child, he thinks a lot too much sometimes.

After reading his stories that night we were about to put him to bed, I told him: I love you and he sometimes a child doesn't say anything but tonight he said: I love you too daddy and I was: oh ok I like this, I could get used to this that's good, I love you daddy but then he says: but you know what daddy? I love God more because we have taught him that and he says: but I love God more because we are teaching that we have to love God more than all things and then we can love others. I said: how good my son if you love God more than everything then you can love me better.

And after a little while he said: you know what daddy? I don't know if I'm telling the whole truth (laughs). Sometimes I think that I love God more than you and anything else but sometimes I think that maybe this is not true, maybe this is not so much; I want to love him more than all things but I'm not sure if I love him and I was like: oh son this is life, it's a process of learning to love God. Sometimes we feel that I do love him more than anything, the test comes and we are lying about Sara, right?

But I believe there are tests so that we come to love him more, so that we can understand him more and so that we know what is in our own hearts. So God went with Abraham so he gave him two more chances to prove his faith and God sent some tests. Those are rather long stories and I am going to trust you that if I read them you will not fall asleep, right? can I trust you with that? very well and the ushers are going to have the eye.

Do you know that with the Puritans, if someone was sleeping, the ushers were authorized to use weapons to wake people up? (laughter) so I'm going to read starting at Genesis 13. And I understand you're doing the same thing above with the children, okay? Same text, Abraham and Lot, already. Look how God is speaking I didn't know that so God wants us to read this.

So we are going to read about two situations in Abraham's life with his nephew Lot, a family conflict and Abraham is going to be tested. How are you going to resolve this family conflict? After that Lot gets into trouble and Abraham has to decide if he is going to fight and defend his nephew, yet another test, if Abraham has the faith to take a big risk.

So I'm going to read starting in Genesis 13 in verse 1, okay? I'm going to do this for a moment, thank you. "So Abraham went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife" that is, after lying about his wife and everything "with everything he had and Lot with him. And Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver and gold and he returned for his journeys from the Negev towards Bethel to the place where his tent had been before" between Bethel and there "to the place of the altar which he had made there before and there Abraham called upon the Name of Jehovah."

"Also Lot, who was with Abraham, had sheep, herds, and tents, and the land was not enough for them to dwell together, for their possessions were many, and they could not dwell in the same place. Lot and the Canaanite and the Pheriseite then inhabited the land."

"Then Abraham said to Lot: Let there now be no dispute between the two of us, between my herdsmen and yours, for we are brothers. Is not the whole earth before you? I beg you, turn away from me, if you go to the left hand I will go to the right, and if you go to the right, I will go to the left.” And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole Jordan plain, that all of it was irrigated like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Soar before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah."

"Then Lot chose for himself all the fullness of the Jordan. And Lot went toward the east and they separated from each other. Abraham camped in the land of Canaan while Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tents. to Sodom."

"But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinners against the Lord greatly. And the Lord said to Abraham after Abraham had departed from him: Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are to the north and to the south and to the east and the west, for all the land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your descendants will also be numbered. Arise, go across the land along its length and its breadth because I will give it to you."

"Abraham then pitched his tent and came and dwelt in the grove of Mamre which is in Hebron and built there an altar to Jehovah." So let's stop there for a moment and then we'll continue, okay? This is hardcore today, this is spiritual university, ok?

So Abraham and his nephew Lot: a family conflict. I don't know if anyone here has had any family conflict but it can get complicated especially when money and possessions and children are involved. It's all here, you know? There's nothing new under the sun, right? What we live was lived before.

God is the same, He deals with human beings and we will talk again later about how Abraham chose the path of faith to solve this problem. They separated, then Lot went to live in Sodom but then Lot got into trouble. I don't know if anyone has family members who are always getting into trouble, maybe you are a family member who is always getting into trouble. Lot was captured, let's see what happens.

At this time Canaan did not have the country of Israel, there were no superpowers that controlled the entire region like now. The Middle Eastern region was divided into cities like small kingdoms. The king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Salem, the king of various places and each king wanted bigger. They formed alliances with each other and there were wars and all this is proven by archeology, is it called? archeology.

Knows? that the Bible is not a collection of inventions, brother, these are not legends, this is history; this happened, archeology and history prove these things. So there were many wars at this time with certain kings against others and there was a king like a big fish in the sea, there was a more powerful king called Kederlaomer, well he was important at that time now he is forgotten. And he had an association of other kings and he ruled over part of the region and there was a rebellion against him, and he put down the rebellion with force, so much force that other cities were scared.

And there was another war against him with various other kings against him. Once again Kederlaomer crushes them and he wins and in the process he captures and kidnaps Lot and all his family and stuff. So Abraham then hears about it and we're going to see how he has another test, what are you going to do now?

Before when you were in danger you lied about your wife and God blessed you, now you are in danger again; Let's see what you do, okay? So with me in Genesis 14 in verse 12, okay? 14:12: "And they also took Lot the son of Abraham's brother, who dwelt in Sodom, and his possessions, and departed. And one of the escaped men came and told Abraham the Hebrew, who dwelt in the ensinar of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner who were Abraham's allies" Abraham had allies too.

"Abraham heard that his relative was a prisoner and he armed his servants who were born in his house, three hundred and eighteen and followed them to Dan, and he and his servants fell upon them by night and attacked them and followed them to Oba north of Damascus and recovered all the goods and also Lot his relative and his goods and the women and other people" Abraham won thanks to God. "When he returned from the defeat of Kederlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Savé, which is the valley of the king. Then Melchizedek king of Salem and priest of the Most High God brought out bread and wine and gave him he blessed, saying, "Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. He gave Abraham a tithe of everything."

"Then the king of Sodom said to Abraham: give me the people and take the goods for yourself. And Abraham answered the king of Sodom: I have raised my hand to the most high God, creator of heaven and earth, who from a thread to a leash I will take nothing of shoes from all that is yours so that you do not say: I enriched Abraham, except only what the young men ate and the part of the men who went with me to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre who will take their part." Amen, did you follow my story, are you with me? that was a long story but worth talking about.

Proof number one that came with a blessing: despite his sin, Abraham left Egypt blessed, imagine. So many things between him and Lot that there was already a lawsuit between them. How many of us know that along with the blessing comes more trials? Now if the house is full of children and everything, but now there are not too many children and only one bathroom, right? and in the best families there are problems.

Churches that are blessed have problems because we grow; we no longer fit The building can no longer cope, many children, many adults, there are no chairs, you get upset because you have to look for parking for all that. There was conflict. Now between the two of them Abraham had every right to insist that he could go to the most blessed, most beautiful part of the land and that Lot had to make do with what was left over; he had every right to do so. He was the main patriarch, he had the right to claim the best for himself but instead he chose another path this time.

He decides: instead of looking for what is mine, I am going to let God take care of me, I am going to be generous. I am going to let him choose what he wants because there is someone who takes care of me, I don't have to take care of myself, it sums up like this. I'm going to let God be the one to fight my battles, I'm not going to fight with you Lot take what you want. He chose based on logic.

Many times even after being Christians we continue to live with a worldly mentality and sometimes we say it, Mr. Gregory I am a Christian but you have to do what you have to do, business is business; wonderful isn't it? good but: for God is it like that? Changing the mindset takes time sometimes, right?

Lot was still a man of God, sort of but he was still worldly minded. He lived near Sodom, a sinful and dangerous place, but Abraham said: I'm going to let God take care of me, I'm going to let God fight my battles, and do you know what God did? appeared to him. I don't know what the experience was, if it was a vision or a dream, I don't think it was a dream because in the conversation with God God asks you to turn around and look, I think it was something literal I don't know if anyone here has had experiences with God but you know that God is there right? you feel it, you live it, right?

Some sometimes by dreams, sometimes by vision, sometimes you just know that you know that God is right here in whatever place. God told Abraham: now it's your turn, I want you to look everywhere to the south, to the east, to the west, to the north, everything you can look at; I want you to think of a mountain where you can see for long distances and there was a place where he could see and God told him: I am going to give you everything that you see. And then Abraham may have thought: and who is going to live there? Me and my wife have no children and we are already advanced in age and God says: do not worry about your offspring either, you are going to have children like the dust of the earth. It's not that they're going to be dirty, but it's that there are going to be so many of them that if you could count the dust, your children could count.

And then Abraham had to walk the land as if he were claiming it: this belongs to God and he will give it to me. We have to do it by the promises that God has made, you have to walk by the promise; Lord God, I know that I don't see it now, but I live it and I know that one day You will give it to me. I trust in You as if I were here, I grab it by faith and I do not let go of that vision, I do not let go of this faith, I walk the earth and claim it because it is from God and He is going to give it to me.

Abraham passed the test thank God. He built another altar, why not? building the altar is coming, seeking God, lifting the heart to Him. He passed the test.

After Lot went to live near Sodom, we have the situation that I have just recounted, he was captured in the war. Now this Kederlaomar seems to be someone very powerful right? his city had conquered at least twelve other cities, began to dominate the region and Abraham with his three hundred and eighteen men. Now I don't know how many Kederlaomar had but I imagine there were more than three hundred and eighteen, it was a small group. How many do we have here? we are more, we have more here on the first floor than he had in this great war he had to fight.

He used to learn to let God fight his battles that he had to fight but now Abraham has to decide if he trusts God enough to fight God's battles I don't know if I understand myself, the walk of faith is learning to let God fight your battles and you adopt and fight His battles and keep this in order.

I'll say it in english because I'm sure I'm butchering it but challenge is to let God fight your battles and you be willing to fight His even though it's risky, even when you have to take a risk and put everything on the table and trust that God is faithful. He had a handful of men, he went out at night and I don't know why it's not in this translation but in other translations it says that even with a small group he divided them at night and assaulted the enemy and won, a much, much larger group that he.

Why does it say three hundred and eighteen men? I think for us to see that this is real, it's flesh and blood and also you know what's interesting? I was learning that God is my help, that I am not going to help myself, that God is going to help me and that is why I can be daring. It reminds me of another young man, a great-great-grandson of Abraham whose name is, I won't say his name, but a young man who dared to attack a giant with some pebbles. He said: you come to me with a javelin and your size; I come to you in the Name of the God of Hosts, the battle belongs to God.

David did not approach, he ran to the giant with courage. Abraham went boldly at night with a little group of men and won the battle, won the battle. He learned once again: God is faithful, I can fight God's battles and He can fight mine, and I know I'm going to win, amen.

Now comes a third test and we are finishing, a third test. You know that after winning victories what do we do next? sometimes it is very important what are we going to do with success? sometimes when someone is successful they get proud, they let their guard down; This happened with the same great-great-grandson, right? David after his success, being in control let down his guard and fell into sin. Abraham returns from the battle and now he is the powerful one in the region, right? he conquered the conqueror, he was the winner and several kings are already coming to meet him to collaborate with him. There was a valley of kings and there they were.

And there were two in particular, one good and one bad: guess which was the good king and the bad king, the king of Sodom and the king Melchizedek and Abraham has to choose between the two, who am I going to trust, how am I going to fight? Brothers in the life of faith we have to discern who I am going to trust; Don't trust just anyone, but do trust when God sends someone who is sent by Him, right?

So we know about Melchizedek, we learn about him in the Book of Hebrews right? his name and we are going to say it together we did it in the morning: Melquisedec, Melquisedec isn't that cool? you just wanna say that name, Melchizedek. Now you know Hebrew because his name is Hebrew, well almost all the names are Hebrew but he is a man with two parts, Melqui means my king or king, Sedec comes from the word: for justice. He is the king of justice. Impressive name isn't it?

He is also the king of a city called: Salem. We've heard of Salem, haven't we? It's not the Salem here next to Lyn's although he got the name from there. Does anyone know the meaning of Salem? Shalom, peace. He is the king of justice, the king of peace wow. Acknowledge that name, something is there: king of justice, king of peace. He was not only a king but a priest-king of a God he called El-Elion, the most high God. Now at this time there were many little gods, many idols but Abraham knew: look, he has known the same God, Jehovah, mine is the same God, he has to be.

And this man ministers a prophetic Word to Abraham, he says to him: blessed be Abraham of the most high God, creator of heaven and earth, as if he were teaching it: your God is bigger than you think. He is not your little god who is defending you and no one else, He is the God of the whole world, he has created the heavens and the earth but he has chosen you; but He is great.

And then they begin to worship and he says: "And blessed be the Most High God who has delivered your enemies into your hand" and knowing as if he were teaching it: I don't want you to lose the lesson, your God has shown you faithfulness, don't forget it. We forget. God gets us out of a bind, we find ourselves in another and we get restless. God tells you: look I am the same as before I saved you once, I save you again trust me it's going to be ok I know how to perfect what I have started God wants to tell us right?

So Melchizedek ministers to Abraham and I imagine that Abraham had an experience in this moment almost as if his eyes were open and for a moment he could see standing before him not a Canaanite man king of Salem who was to become of Jerusalem but he could see other kings of Jerusalem that were going to come out of his descendants. Perhaps he could see with the eye of faith King David sitting on the throne there in the same place. Perhaps by faith he was able to see Solomon with all his majesty, other righteous kings like Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Hezekiah, Osiah.

Maybe with his eye of faith he could see a whole line of kings and I don't know but maybe at this moment he could understand the promise that in you Abraham all the nations of the Earth will be blessed, that your vision and your life is not to bless something small, it is not to bless you but to bless the whole world through you if you trust in Me. Perhaps standing there before him he saw another King, the King of Justice indeed, the Prince of Peace, the priest who was to mediate the blessing of the Holy Spirit on this earth for all nations.

Know what? Abraham was forgotten in his homeland but God promised him a great land and here we are 4,000 years later talking about him. There was a promise that in it all the nations of the earth will be blessed. How many nations of the Earth are represented here? Blessed, we are blessed by the descendant of Abraham by Jesus Christ the King of kings, the Prince of Justice, an experience.

Abraham knew that God was speaking to him through Melchizedek he knew and so he responded by faith and gave him a tithe of all that he had obtained. Do you know that tithing is not an obligation that you, no, it's adoration, it's how Abraham recognized that my God is God of the whole Earth He takes care of me and that's why he gave him ten percent as a symbol that he owns everything? No? and so it is, something of the will is not forced. It is not something legalistic, it is something joyful.

Abraham at this time was worshiping the Most High God. Yes Lord You have said promises and I say that yes You are going to give me the nations as an inheritance, I believe in You and then the king of Sodom comes and what does Abraham do with him? this king says: ok give me the people and keep the goods. He says: no, thank you very much no; I don't want anything from you so that you can't say: I made Abraham rich. I am not going to have anything to do with the evil one because I have raised my hand to this most high God of whom I have just learned and I trust in Him, I do not need you, King of Sodom, I do not need your things; I have someone who will fight for me. I have learned to let God fight my battles and then I am going to fight His and He is the one who takes care of me.

Brothers: God has made promises to you in your life, you have gone through struggles, you have won some tests and you have failed in others but we are in the process of learning that God is faithful and if I do things His way I will be blessed and God is going to fulfill His mission in my life but it is much more than my life to be blessed. It is also fulfilling my destiny and also knowing that in Christ all nations will be blessed and in Christ here God has a mission to bless the nations, the city around.

There is a big mission here and it is not to fill a new temple, it is much bigger, it is to be a channel of blessing for revival not only for León de Judá but in many churches around the region and the world to promote the advancement of the Kingdom of God. God has made promises and it is up to us to believe and then respond.

I want to end with a Psalm, Psalm 2 and with this I am going to invite a special visitor who is going to do a dance with a song based on this Psalm but I want to read it first in Spanish because the Psalm is unfortunately in English; it speaks of the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of Jesus. Psalm 2 says: "Why do the nations riot and the peoples think vain things? The kings of the earth will rise up and princes will consult together against the Lord and against His anointed saying: let us break His bonds, let us cast His cords from us."

"He who dwells in the heavens will laugh, the Lord will mock them; then he will speak to them in his anger and trouble them in his anger but I have set My King on Zion My Holy Mount" who is that King? amen "I will publish the decree" a conversation between the Father and the Son there in heaven. "The Lord has said to me: You are my son. I begot you today. Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession."

"Thank you Lord: you will break them with an iron rod like a potter's vessel you will crush them, now be prudent kings, admit admonition. Judges of the earth: serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling."

"God says: You are my son, ask me and I will give you the nations as an inheritance." God wants that spirit of faith. Lord I am willing to fight in Your battles, I am willing to be generous and not fight mine in some cases and let You take care of me but I am going to ask for the nations as an inheritance, I know that You are faithful. I believe in Your promises in my life and for this Church.