God Wants To Be First. Series

MESSAGE SERIES

“Look to the Stars”- Message III

The Life of Abraham

God keeps His promises; we must remain obedient to Him even when the future isn’t clear.”

INTRODUCTION OF SERIES

We are doing a series on Sunday mornings, titled, “LOOK TO THE STARS” The Life of Abraham.

The whole idea of the series that I want to get across is this, “God keeps His promises, but in order to enjoy those promises we must remain obedient to Him even when the future is not clear.”

LAST SUNDAY

We talked about Abraham leaving Haran and going to Canaan and in spite of God telling him to leave his family which was idol worshipers in the land of Ur, he took Lot and the people that he and his father had acquired while living in the land of Haran.

Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran.

Sometimes it takes us a while to get to the place where God wants us.

We talked last Sunday about Abraham’s desire to serve God and build altars to the Lord and we compared that to his nephew Lot who made decisions based strictly on fleshly desires.

Lot pitched his tent toward a wicked place called Sodom and Gomorrah and you know he eventually lived there and it was Abraham’s intercession that kept him and his family from being destroyed when God poured His wrath out on them because of their wickedness.

The main point of last Sunday’s sermon was this, “Don’t sacrifice your walk with God for money or material possessions.” Be careful where you pitch your tent.

Did you know we better off without stuff, if stuff gets between us and God? It is not what we have that is so important but what has us. Lot was a prime example of improper priorities in his life.

TODAY’S TEXT is in Genesis 14.

Two things happen in this chapter. The first 17 verses I am not preaching on this morning but I want to look at it for a moment.

We find the first recorded war in the Bible, it may have not been the first war but it is the first recorded war. There was a battle of 9 different kings.

The kings of the East capture Sodom and Gomorrah and in taking Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot Abraham’s son was taken prisoner.

A servant escapes and tells Abram that Lot has been taken prisoner and Abram takes 318 trained servants and took all the goods, delivered Lot and well as the women and the people.

QUESTION

I wondered something, I wondered if the well watered plains of Jordan looked as good to Lot now as it did earlier.

Sin is a captivating thing. Three things sin will always do.

WILL YOU SAY THESE WITH ME AS THEY COME UP ON THE SCREEN?

• Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go

• Sin will always keep you longer than you wanted to stay

• Sin will always cost you more than you wanted to pay.

I just wonder now if Lot had any second thoughts about living and casting his tent toward Sodom.

TEXT- Genesis 14:18-24

18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.

19 And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;

20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tithe of all.

Who is Melchizedek? The truth is we really don’t know.

The Bible says he was the king of Salem, that He brought forth bread and wine:

(Which are the elements of the Lord’s Supper) and he was the priest of the most high God.

We don’t know where he came from, he walks out on the pages of Scripture with bread and wine, he blesses Abram, and then he walks off the page of Scripture- that’s it.

J. Vernon McGee says:

We wonder where he came from.

We wonder where he is going.

We wonder what his business is.

I believe that Melchizedek is a marvelous Old Testament picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He comes on the scene

He bears the elements of the Lord’s Supper

He blesses Abraham

He is mentioned only three times in scripture.

This passage

Psalm 110 which is prophecy of Christ.

Hebrews tells us that Jesus was of the order of Melchizedek having no beginning and no end.

Hebrews 7:1-4 (NKJV)

1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace,"