Living In The Land Of The Familiar

i. First of all Abe is you have the faith to leave everything you can have the faith to trust God for protection. God didn’t call him out of the land of the Familiar to kill him!

ii. This was a horrible mistake, a failure to trust God. Can you imagine knowing another man took your wife as his own?

iii. However we learn some important lessons from this.

1. One even the greatest men in the word of God have fallen.

2. Abe didn’t say well I blew it now; I’m going back to the land of the familiar.

3. The promise of God and the blessing of God still came to pass even though he failed.

e. Be determined you will not turn back

I like the determination of 14 year old Australian swimmer Shane Gould. When asked by a news reporter how she thought she would do in one of her early career swimming meets in the United States several years ago, 14-year-old Australian Shane Gould replied, "I have a feeling there will be a world record today." She went on to set two world records in the one-hundred- and two-hundred-meter freestyle events. When asked how she thought she would fare in the more testing, grueling, four-hundred-meter event, Shane replied with a smile, "I get stronger every race, and besides ... my parents said they’d take me to Disneyland if I win, and we’re leaving tomorrow!" She went to Disneyland with three world records. At 16 she held five world records and became one of the greatest swimmers of all time, winning three gold medals in the 1972 Olympics.

Our determination is not in our own abilities, but in what God can do! We should be even more confident that in the end we will see victory and the promises of God fulfilled.

Closing:

You can stay in the land of the familiar, but God is calling us to the world of faith. You can do what you have, always done and get what you have always got, or you can step out and continue to grow and experience new things that God has in store for you. Has God been calling you out of your comfort zone?