• In Genesis 12:10-20, Abraham is seen leaving Canaan (The Promised Land) during A TIME OF FAMINE to go to Egypt (a picture of the world).
• In Genesis 13 we see Abraham recognizing his mistake of going to Egypt, and returning back to Canaan land.
It was a big mistake for Abraham to leave Canaan land to go into Egypt.
Have you noticed, our lives are filled with all kinds of mistakes also? Sometimes some have made mistakes in emails that have caused some serious consequences.
Illus: Consider the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.
When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound of her scream, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
"Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow. By the way, it sure is hot down here."
Illus: A lot of mistakes have been made also in other communications.
A husband, while on a business trip sent a telegram to his wife, “I am having a fantastic time, I wish you were here.” But in his haste, he misspelled the word “Here” and the letter he sent her was, “I am having a fantastic time, I wish you were her.”
The moral of the story is, double check every message before you send it.
Illus: Also, some serious mistakes have been made in church bulletins.
• Don't let worry kill you. Let the Church help.
• Thursday night - Potluck Supper. Prayer and medication to follow.
• Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
• Thursday at 5 PM there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All wishing to become Little Mothers, please see the minister in his private study.
• At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be, "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
• The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the church basement Friday.
• Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
• The Senior Choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.
• Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
Many of us have made unintentional mistakes. But when Abraham left Cannan and went to Egypt, this was one of the worst mistakes he had ever made. After he made this mistake, I am sure he deeply regretted it.
Illus: Life seems to be filled with situations where we find ourselves saying, “If I had to do it over again, I WOULD NOT DO IT!”
• I have heard people say, “I use to owned a certain kind of a car. I sold it, but if I had to do it over again, I WOULD NOT HAVE SOLD IT!”
• I have heard people who owned a certain parcel of land say, “If I had it to do over again, I WOULD HAVE NEVER SOLD THAT LAND!”
• I have heard people say, “I used to work at a certain place. I left that job, but if I had it to do over again I would still be there.”
• I have heard people that were married and left their spouse say, “IF I HAD IT TO DO OVER AGAIN WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT!”
• I have heard people that left a good church and later they said, “IF I HAD IT TO DO OVER AGAIN, I WOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT!”
Any time a believer leaves the place where God has placed them, they are on a downward path. This is seen in the actions of Abraham while in Egypt.
• He lied about Sarai, 12:12, 18
• He encouraged her to commit the same sin, 12:12
• He became self-centered, 12:14
• He created the potential for others to fall into sin, 12:14-15
• He left Egypt worse than he found it, 12:17
• He ruined his testimony in the eyes of the Egyptians, 12:19-20
To say the least, Abram's little trip to Egypt was a disaster!
But while life is filled with many things WE NO LONGER HAVE A CHANCE TO GO BACK AND RE-DO, in the Christian life no failure need be permanent in the walk of faith!
As we look at the life of Abraham I want to show you how we can get back to Canaan where God can bless us. There are certain requirements that must be met by the returning saint.
We see -
I. IT INVOLVES REMOVING
Look at Genesis 13:1-2, we read, “And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.”
Notice, Abraham left Egypt.
Illus: Speaking of leaving, did you hear about the man that rushed home from work and exclaimed to his wife, "Pack your bags, I just won the lottery!"
• The wife excitedly asks, "Should I pack clothes for cold or warm weather?"
• He says, "Pack em all, you’re leaving!"
Noticed, Abraham removed Himself from Egypt!
Now he could have done as many Christians do and prayed for God to remove him, but he didn’t. HE REMOVED HIMSELF.
WHY IS THAT SIGNIFICANT? Some Christians are WAITING for GOD to do certain things and GOD is WAITING for THEM to do certain things.
Illus: Speaking of waiting, did you hear about an idiot that was waiting in the downtown L. A. bus station for the bus to Pasadena? He spotted a machine with a sign that read: "YOUR HEIGHT, YOUR WEIGHT, YOUR FORTUNE, $1.00"
• He stepped on the scale and dropped a dollar bill in the slot. Out came a card that said: "You are an idiot, you are 5 feet 10 inches tall. You weigh 160 pounds, and you are waiting for the bus to Pasadena."
• The idiot said, "How did that machine know that? Well, I'll fool it and show that machine I am no idiot." He went downstairs to the men's room, rolled up his coat collar, pulled down the brim of his hat, and put on a fake beard. He tiptoed back up the stairs, sneaked along the wall, spun around and jumped on the scale and quickly placed another dollar in the slot.
• Out came a card that read: "You are still an idiot and you still 5 feet 10 inches tall, you weigh 160 pounds, and while you were messing around with this disguise you missed the bus to Pasadena."
Listen, many people today are messing around waiting for God, and God is waiting for them. While they are waiting for God, they are missing out on the blessings of God.
A lot of parents think they are helping their children by getting them out of situations that they got themselves into. But we can destroy people’s lives sometimes by trying to help them.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was watching the, “Learning Channel” and they were doing a story on those who won the lottery. They showed a man who had won 91 million dollars. This man walked around showing all of his expensive furniture, toys, yacht and houses. Not one time did he say that he used any of that money to help anyone!
That night Dr. Belger thought about this man and he began to think if he had that 91 million how he could help different people.
• He thought of a young girl in Bible College that he would like to help. But he remembered some of the best students when he attended college were students that had to work for an education, and it was not just given to them. He thought in helping her he might be hurting her!
• He thought about families that are struggling financially. He thought that if he paid their bills off it would really help them. But as he thought about it, most of these families are in financial trouble because they have not made wise decisions in finances, and to help them, He would really be hurting them. He realized if he had paid every one of their bills, most likely in a matter of months they would be in that same situation again. So it would not be helping them, it would be hurting them.
The more he thought about trying to help people if he had that kind of money, the more he realized what an awesome responsibility God has in helping people. Why? Because many times what we might think would help someone would only be hurting them.
Did you know that sometimes the best thing we can do as a loving parent when a child gets themselves in a mess, IS TO LET THEM WORK IT OUT ALONE! After they experience the struggle of trying to get themselves out of the mess, they will think twice about doing it again.
“Tough Love” does what is best for people we love in the long run, not just give temporary relief! Tough love is having wisdom enough to withhold expected or demanded help from a friend or family member, not because you fail to love them, but because you do love them. It is to refuse to rob a loved one of the benefits of a lesson learned in the school of hard knocks.
Tough love does a few other things too. It affirms to those who are its recipients:
• That natural law exists
• That actions have consequences
• That through the struggle comes the glory
God often uses TOUGH LOVE because He knows it is the best kind of love at times!
Illus: The first account we have of God's tough love was in his handling of Adam and Eve.
To the two of them, He set down some general rules that gave them a considerable amount of freedom (they could for instance partake of all of the fruits in the garden), but disobedience to one "thou shalt not" would circumvent their comfort and cause spiritual and physical death to enter into the world.
When Adam and Eve chose to transgress – law and order prevailed, and tough love began.
• They were cast out of the garden and from God's presence – which was spiritual death.
• Next, a change occurred in their bodies – which would eventually cause physical death.
• And, finally, they were introduced to a rough existence – which required labor for survival.
(1) Adam was told: "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground"
(2) Eve was told "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children"
Adversity is important. How shortsighted then are we to believe that we must prevent or alleviate all suffering? Tough Love is loving someone enough to do what is best for them even when it hurts to do it. Tough Love is hard to administer.
Abraham finally realized he had made a mistake in going to Egypt, and now he separated himself from Egypt. He placed distance between himself and that place.
Separation is not preached on much these days because we live in a society that wants to believe you can live in EGYPT and CANAAN at the same time.
Illus: A. W. Tozer said, "A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to accept Christ without forsaking the world."
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger and his wife were eating at a nice restaurant with another couple. He noticed two women who sat down at nearby table. They were well dressed, and before they started their meal, they had a lengthy prayer together. This caught Dr. Belger’s attention! But something else also caught his attention. Almost immediately after the prayer, they ordered a large glass of wine to drink with their meal.
Listen, we live in a world today where Christians say they are NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST, but they live their lives the same way as those who are OLD CREATURES! The lost world will never be able to tell God has done a work in our life if we are not willing to leave Egypt.
Illus: A young Christian girl was not living close to the Lord. Her school was going to have a dance. She asked her pastor if he thought it would hurt her testimony if she attended the dance. He told her he thought it would. But she chose to ignore his advice and went anyway. She decided while she was there dancing with the fellows she would witness to them. She asked this young man, “Are you a Christian?” He said, “Of course not, if I was I would not be here!”
Listen, Abraham had no business in Egypt! Being there would ruin his testimony and he needed to LEAVE EGYPT.
But notice that HE REMOVED HIMSELF and HIS POSSESSIONS from Egypt. He did not allow anything he owned to be left at the disposal of that evil system. He took his resources with him when he returned to the place of blessing.
Illus: One of the things that the military does is destroy something before they allow the enemy to take possession of it.
Illus: During the Iraq war, one of our most modern helicopters was shot down. There is no way they could salvage it, so they blew it up so that the enemy could not come in and steal all of our modern technology.
So many times, God will bless a couple with good finances and when they die they leave what God has blessed them with to unsaved children. Those unsaved children will take the resources given to them and undo everything that their godly parents ever did.
Abraham REMOVED HIS POSSESSIONS FROM EGYPT! He was interested in getting back to Canaan.
We see IT INVOLVES REMOVING and -
II. II. IT INVOLVES RETURNING
Look at verses 3-4, we read, “And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.”
When we get OUT OF THE WILL OF GOD, it is important that we GET BACK INTO THE WILL OF GOD.
Illus: When Jonah got out of the will of God and went to Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh, God punished him for his disobedience. But he wasted no time going to Nineveh after he realized his mistake.
Abraham wasted no time once he came to his senses. He immediately made plans to leave Egypt.
The reason that the Apostle Paul was such a success in life, was because he was convinced GOD HAD A PLAN FOR HIM EACH DAY HE LIVED, AND AS SOON AS GOD SHOWED HIM THE PLAN, he wasted NO TIME FOLLOWING IT!
Look at Acts 16:10 "And when he had seen the vision, IMMEDIATELY we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." Paul believed he was at his VERY BEST when he was doing God’s will.
Someone very wisely said, "God has a place where you can be your best for Him!"
The place where God can bless you the most is the place where God puts you! When Abraham recognized he had made the mistake of getting out of God’s will, he wasted no time getting back into the will of God.
How many times have we done the same thing? Instead of trusting God, we just took matters into our own hands. Every time we do this, we soon find out it was a mistake.
We all make mistakes, but let’s be sure that we LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES!
Conclusion:
Abraham WENT DOWN TO EGYPT and he came UP FROM EGYPT! How many would have to admit that they are more "down" than "up" in their walk with the Lord? When we are in that down place spiritually, the Lord cannot bless us and use us as He desires to do.
May we determine in our hearts that Egypt is no place for us to dwell and that we are going back to Canaan, whatever the cost, and stay there!
To get back to Canaan, we see that -
I. IT INVOLVES REMOVING
II. IT INVOLVES RETURNING
