Join The Battle Series

GENESIS 14: 1-24

Last week was missions conference and we sang a song called, "The battle belongs to the Lord." Tonight I want to talk about a battle in the Bible as it relates to a battle in our world. Our source is the continuing stories surrounding the Life of Abram in Genesis chapter 14. In this chapter Abram goes to war to redeem his nephew. We also are called into a battle to redeem those around us. Take a look with me into this chapter. Where we’re going to get Three lessons:...

1. There is a war! (vv 1-12) 2. We are called to battle! (vv 13-17)

3. God is in charge of the Results (vv 17-24)

1. There is a war! (vv 1-12)

Vv1-12 the wars of kings & a fatal mistake, They took Lot. This is really all Background information. It’s needed to set up the events of vv17-24. {Use the Overhead & Maps to tell the Story.} This wasn’t some grand conquest to build a kingdom, this nothing more than armed Robbery. John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

There is a lesson in all this: There is a key difference in being with sinners and being identified with sinners. We are certainly supposed to be around the unsaved, otherwise they’ll never have a chance to BE saved. Nevertheless it’s one thing to be with them, it’s another thing entirely to embrace them.

Jude warns us very solemnly how we ought to be in the world, but not of it, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh." (NIV)

I like the way the New Living Translation renders Jude verse 23: "Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins."

Lot walked right into the middle of Sin city and took up residence. IF it weren’t for the testimony of the Word, we might really wonder about him, but 2 Peter tells us plainly that he was a righteous man and he was deeply bothered by the sin around him. However when the war came he was outnumbered and alone in his righteousness and he was swept away with the ungodly into captivity. It was a warning to Lot, and it remains a warning to us.

WE NEED EACH OTHER! I need you and you need me, and we all need the others in this room to protect us in this hostile world. We are strangers in a strange land. We don’t belong here, and as long as we’re here, we are trapped in a battlefield. So we need to gather together and worship together and encourage one another, or we may fall. "Do not forsake the gathering together as some are in the habit of doing, but rather let us spur one another on towards love and good deeds." (Heb 10:13)

1. There is a war! (vv 1-12) and we are in it! 2. We are called to battle! (vv 13-17)

Vv13-14 Abram is told and gives chase northward, catching them in Dan. {Map on OVERHEAD or projector}

Vv15-17 Abram wins the battle and brings back the cash and the people

Abram did two things in specific that helped assure him of victory.

Number 1: He partnered with people who could help him win. If you take a look at v13 you discover that Mamre, Eshcol and Aner were both allies with Abram. Abram had made strategic partnerships. He also used that strategic partnership, we know that because in verse 24 when the king of Sodom tries to give Abram cash, he refuses but does say it’s OK for Aner, Eshcol and Mamre to have their share; because they went with him. Abram took his 300 men, and who knows how many men the others brought. But together they were a force to be reckoned with.

I believe the lesson here is clear. We need to find ways to establish strategic partnerships in order to win this world for Christ. I can give you two examples. Last year, we partnered with the churches in Moweaqua and also with a group out of Champaign and we brought the good news of Jesus to Moweaqua by purchasing the Jesus video. Incidentally, I’d like for us to take that same video into Assumption by this coming Christmas.