Why should we follow God? Today we’re going to see the freedom that comes from following God, and the imprisonment of following the world and its ways. Our message today is about real faith, not the kind we say in a prayer when we decide that church isn’t so bad and I think I can be a Christian. But the kind that says, “Lord my life is yours, every decision I make, every situation I’m in, I will submit to you and let your will prevail over mine. Total trust.
I can’t help but think of my wife when I think of faith. We hadn’t seriously talked about me becoming a pastor and leaving my counselling job, but the day I emailed her and asked her what she thought about me quitting my job and selling our house, her response was one of simple faith, OK. Kind of like how Abram answered God.
Then I watched as she worked out her faith even further. At first she said you can take a position in the Lower Mainland within a short distance of her mom, then it was within a few hours, then within a day’s drive, then something released inside of her and she realized that truly following God can’t be conditional, and here we are half way across the country.
And did it work out? Beyond our wildest imagination. God does reward faith folks, but as soon as we complete one step of faith, God doesn’t leave us there, he moves us to the next step. If you never want to grow in your faith, don’t take any risks, but if you do, God will help you along by giving you tests.
I read a quote this week that said: “Your faith ought to get in trouble at times. If everybody thinks you’re nuts, you may be. It’s OK if some think you are. You’re probably in trouble if no one thinks you are.”
What a fascinating chapter we have today, we’re going to see how again even in this passage from Genesis, it leads to the King that was born at Christmas, but first we start with:
I. The War (vv 1-12)
Lots of Kings here. Now these are not Kings of countries but of city states. Basically glorified mayors. But they did have much power and authority, and they did lead fairly large armies.
We see here in Genesis that there were two coalitions, one that was in power that had four Kings from the northeast including the head guy Chedorlaomer, and the other containing five kings from the south including the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The southern kings were tired of being ruled by the northern ones and decided to rebel and try to claim their freedom. Well let’s just say their lifestyle was not conducive to being great warriors and these five kings were soundly defeated by the four northern kings who actually circled the entire Dead Sea Jordan River area wiping out everything in their path.
They were enjoying their victories before coming up the west side of the Jordan which would have included Jerusalem, when Abram got word that they had taking Lot and his possessions.
By this time Abram was a friend of God, but Lot had become a friend of the world and when Sodom lost the war, Lot was condemned with the world. If we identify with the world than we need to expect to suffer what the world suffers.
God reminded Lot that he had no business living in Sodom. God disciplines out of his love for us, and if we don’t listen to him, he has to get our attention some other way that is usually more painful. Just like real life, if we don’t listen to our parents when we’re kids, what could have been a simple grounding, could end up being jail time or getting severely injured.
Then we see that Abram had superiority over these earthly kings who were not supported by God and were basically only interested in power and wealth. So with God on his side Abram becomes:
II. The Winner (vv 13-16)
Now Abram wasn’t a warrior, he wasn’t a king, and neither were his allies the Amorites. But nonetheless, Abram must have known that God had his hand in getting Lot out of Sodom and keeping him alive, so he decided he would faithfully lead a tiny army of mostly untrained men who were all from his household, and attack at night chasing these victorious experienced armies a hundred miles out of Abram’s territory, and bringing Lot with all his people and possessions home.
318 men, remember Gideon defeated 125,000 with only 300 men. This is similar and it’s obvious that God had won this battle, they never could have done it without the Lord’s intervention. Just another confirmation that in God’s plan size truly doesn’t matter.
The most significant thing here is that God saved Lot from his deepening immersion into the Sodomite culture, and becoming totally lost from God. But his salvation included being a prisoner of war for a time, so there was also the reminder that his sin would have consequences, but God showed mercy.
Even though Lot was becoming more and more comfortable in Sodom, God still cared about him and shows him and his family grace. If he wants to, God will pull his people out of the worldly life and back to him, but it may not always be pleasant.
So Abram wins this war and here is when the story starts to get really interesting when we see:
III. The Worship (vv 17-24)
As soon as Abram returns from his victory he’s met by two kings in the King’s valley. Melchizedek, king of Salem who is called priest of God Most High in addition to being a king, and the King of Sodom. One gives and asks for nothing, the other tries to make a deal with Abram.
This is actually where our Christmas story begins this year. Believe it or not Jesus is plastered all over these next few verses. Look at how Abram is tempted immediately after a great victory led by God, as these two kings just sort of show up out of nowhere.
Who is this Melchizedek? His name means “king of righteousness” and Salem means “peace”, so Melchizedek is king of righteousness and peace. Melchizedek clearly knows that God was responsible for what Abram and his army achieved because he is also priest of God Most High. Not a priest of God Most High but the priest according to the King James and other good modern translations.
Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and he blessed Abram by the true God Most High, and he also blesses God. Now remember this is a pagan polytheistic land, that has gods, not a God Most High. Many say that Salem is short for Jerusalem, but even Jerusalem at this time was a pagan city, that would not very likely have a priest of God as its king. Even when Jerusalem was God’s dwelling place, there was never a king who was also a priest, but Melchizedek is both.
After receiving the blessing Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything. He tithes. Melchizedek didn’t ask for this but Abram gave it freely and spontaneously as if directed by God. Next week we’ll explore Melchizedek in much more depth, but for now we see that he is the priest king, who gives bread and wine, and in the middle of this pagan country, blesses Abram in the name of God Most High.
So Abram is on a pretty good high, probably pretty drunk with power, and as soon as the King of Sodom sees Abram give Melchizedek a tenth of everything, he slithers his way in there and tries to make a deal with Abram. Now the King of Sodom means king of evil or burning, and for some reason he is on the scene after getting totally defeated earlier.
After Jesus was baptised he went into the wilderness for forty days and at the end was tempted several times by Satan. What was he tempted with? Food, worldly power, and worldly fortune. And what did Satan want in return? Worship. He wanted people’s hearts and loyalty. He didn’t care about things, he was willing to give everything up to gain people’s souls.
Well here in this passage we see Abram go through a very similar temptation. He had just defeated the most powerful kings who lived in and ruled the land that was promised to him by God. He could have had it all right there and then.
God promised he would be a great nation, that his people would be as numerous as the grains of sand, and that the entire land would be his. But somehow he knew this wasn’t the time.
Let’s look very closely at what the king of Sodom asks for. He says, “take all the goods for yourself, and just give me the people.” He wanted the people, not the stuff. And just like Jesus, Abram said he didn’t even want a shoelace from him that it might give the king of Sodom any glory any claim to Abram’s good fortune. He didn’t stop his allies from taking stuff, but he made sure that he didn’t glorify the defeated king of Sodom at all.
See the parallel between Jesus’ temptation and the one that Abram now goes through? Melchizedek represents God and the king of Sodom represents Satan, and really they both came out of nowhere. Abram passes the test with flying colors choosing to have communion with God and receive his blessing, rather than get a bunch of immediate stuff from Satan at the expense of people’s souls.
Melchizedek comes to give and bless, but the King of Sodom comes to try to deal for people’s souls. If you think this is fascinating now, wait ‘til next week.
Now look at how Abram worshipped after receiving Melchizedek’s blessing, he tithes. He had lots of riches and livestock before he defeated these kings, now he has so much more, and he gives a tenth of it all to Melchizedek whom he doesn’t even really know. Or does he?
I think there was little doubt that Abram knew that Melchizedek represented God and from what we know, outside of his family, very few people followed God.
Real faith is only played out in two places: our choices, and how we deal with temptation. Every time we are tempted, every time we have a choice to make, big or small, it’s an opportunity to show our faith. There’s no other place to demonstrate faith as far as I know, anything else is mere belief.
Faith like love can be both a verb and a noun. If it’s only a noun, we can never be sure it exists. The action of love and the action of faith are the only way to know if they are really there. These are the works James talks about, the visible outworking of our faith, not just good deeds. The Bible says things like: live by faith, walk by faith, ask in faith, show your faith. Verbs.
Jesus was talking about the persistent widow in Luke 18, and he says God will give justice speedily to his elect who cry out to him day and night, but then He asked in verse 8, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth.”
The word "find" is very significant there. Jesus is literally wondering if he will find any faith when comes. If our faith is hidden in our minds and is not outworking in our lives, it is no faith at all. Jesus hopes to see faith when he comes. He knows what’s in our minds, and he knows that if that is the only place our faith is, it’s worthless because it’s unproven and invisible.
I don’t think its coincidence that tithing is mentioned in our text today when talking about worship. Many of our most difficult choices and temptations involve money in some way. Money in our society is one of the most important things in our lives, our survival depends on it, and it’s with money that we have the most opportunities to show our faith.
The greatest test of faith is believing the promise of God that if you give, your father in Heaven will provide for you. Jesus talked about money and possessions more than anything else, because just like today material wealth and security were the most important things in people’s lives. And his usual conclusion is, give it away and store up treasures in heaven, eternal treasures.
He knew that money and possessions and comfort were the biggest obstacles to faith then as they are now. Tithing came about before the Law and it was once said by a deacon in a church that “If the Jew under Law could tithe, how much more ought New Testament Christians under grace.”
Paul talks about giving proportionately to the blessing you receive, but tithing is a good place to start. We must be careful though, not to give as a bribe for God’s blessings and provisions, because it was also said by a well-known Christian philanthropist that “If you tithe because it pays, it won’t pay.”
I know people who when new to church, were lucky if they could give ten bucks, never mind ten percent, they were so in debt and giving to the church had not been built in as a part of their lives. But they wanted to at least tithe and eventually because that was their goal they achieved it, and from that point on have never been better off.
When we got to this church, the church was devoting about 7% of the budget to missions. This year we are giving 12% and everything is still running smoothly.
You know it feels good to give things away, it’s good to know you can give ten or more percent of what you have away and not be worried about it. It’s an expression of gratitude, not an obligation you practice to hopefully get some kind of payoff later.
Give it a try, give away ten percent of everything you get each month to the church, to the poor, to somewhere, and see how it feels. I won’t guarantee it will make your finances better, it might, but I guarantee it will make your heart better, and your faith stronger.
Look at what John the Baptist said as he was preparing the way for Jesus talking about repentance: READ Luke 3:9-14. All three types of repentance here are about money and possessions.
Again in Luke 6 “Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. Love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.” Luke 12: 17-21, 33-34 and 1 John 2:15-17. These are straight from Jesus and his beloved disciple John.
This is such a practical way to show your faith on a regular basis and it leads me to our action plan for today that comes partly from the text and partly from Chuck Swindoll who said:
“Some gifts you can give this Christmas are beyond monetary value: Mend a quarrel, dismiss suspicion, tell someone, “I love you.” Give something away—anonymously. Forgive someone who has treated you wrong. Turn away wrath with a soft answer.
Visit someone in a nursing home. Apologize if you were wrong. Be especially kind to someone with whom you work. Give as God gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement, or reservation, or hypocrisy.”
This week give something away to a stranger and simply say Merry Christmas. Think about something you have that would be of value to someone you don’t know, most likely its money, and just randomly give it to them with no fanfare.
I think its fun to pay for someone’s meal when you leave a restaurant or a drive thru, they come to pay when they’re done and find out that someone has paid their bill. But this week I want to just walk up to someone and give them something and say Merry Christmas. Then they will know what it’s about, and who doesn’t love a free gift.
Could be big, could be small but I suggest you make it enough that the other person would think it’s significant.
This is giving honour to the King whose birth we celebrate in a couple weeks, and who has given us everything we have including life. Honour your King this Christmas and all year, and experience the joy of giving what God has given you. I think that’s what Jesus means when he’s talking about bearing fruit and says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Why does Jesus have such joy. Well, he says in the next verses, “This is my commandment, that you love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for a friend.”
Jesus’ joy comes from loving and giving, including giving his spoken word. Giving us life, giving us love, and giving his life. He wants us to know that there is no greater joy than giving, loving like he did. Giving is also a model of worship as we see with Abram. Why don’t we all give it a try this Christmas season?
